Two Tickets For... Ranks All Ten of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Films!

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Last fall Sarah and I posted our personal rankings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that had been released up to that point, save for The Avengers, because we knew it would top the rankings. Since that post, Marvel Studios has released three films - Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and last week's Guardians of the Galaxy - bringing the grant total of MCU films to a nice, round ten films.

With that in mind, we decided it was perfect time to revisit those rankings to include the three aforementioned films, plus we're including The Avengers this time. As a reminder, when we say the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" we're talking about the films that Marvel Studios themselves, the ones they actually have the rights to make films of; so no Spider-Man films (Sony), no X-Men or Fantastic Four films (20th Century Fox), etc.

Check out our lists below, starting with Sarah's personal rankings!

SARAH’S RANKINGS

10.) The Incredible Hulk 

I’m not going to lie, I actually thought that this movie wasn’t even connected to the rest of the Marvel movies. That’s how much this movie is forgettable. It’s sad really, because the only thing that connects this movie to any of the others in the Tony Stark cameo during the credits. And since they’ve replaced Ed Norton with Mark Ruffalo it’s even more of a throw away film.

9.) Iron Man 2 

The more I look back on this movie the more I realize that it just wasn’t as good as it should have been. This movie was just lacking in pretty much everything from good action to a strong bad guy. I recently caught part of the beginning of this movie again and the comedy was so cheesy that it fell flat. Such a shame.

8. Iron Man 3 

I’m going to defer to my original thoughts of this movie: I still don't quite understand why I didn't like this one. Until we watch it again, I'm going to stick with I think I was just in Iron Man overload and was little tired of the kitsch.

Cap is Back and Better Than Ever in Maybe the Best Marvel Movie Yet: Our Review of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014)

Directed By: Anthony & Joe Russo (Community, Arrested Development) 

Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout

Run Time: 2 hours, 16 minutes

Synopsis: 2 years after the Battle of New York, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans) is working for Nick Fury (Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. as he continues his adjustment to the modern world. After a particular mission disturbs Rogers all hell breaks loose when a mysterious assassin called The Winter Soldier sets his sights on Nick Fury, resulting in Captain Rogers and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow going on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D.

REVIEW 

FAIR WARNING: Some possible spoilers will be discussed in this review. If you're not familiar with the Winter Soldier storyline or haven't seen this film yet, maybe best to wait to read this until you do.

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Last night we were able to catch an early showing of the latest installment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Picking up a couple years after the events of The Avengers this new film is also obviously a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger. Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers/Captain America and Captain Rogers is still trying to acclimate to today’s world. 

Cap is now working for S.H.I.E.LD. alongside Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. The Black Widow, under the leadership of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). There are some new additions to the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, too: Robert Redford plays Alexander Pierce a senior executive of S.H.I.E.L.D, almost the chairman if you will. And Anthony Mackie joins the MCU as Sam Wilson who later to becomes The Falcon.

Sarah: Cobie Smulders comes back as Maria Hill, too.

A: Yep! So some old faces and some new faces. But the big deal about this one is that this movie is really more of an conspiracy thriller of sorts as well as a political/military movie. It's completely different from any of the other Marvel movies that have come out so far. 

So, Sarah, I know I was looking forward to this, and I would assume you were looking forward to this as well because you had Captain America: The First Avenger as your favorite of the non-Avengers Marvel movies so far.