Superhero movies have been hitting the big screen for about 45 years now, and inevitably, the quality has been something of a spectrum. For every fantastic MCU release, there’s a Fant4stic, for every Dark Knight there’s a Morbius, and for every Joker there’s a Joker: Folie á Deux. And of course, intriguingly, there’s a whole group of superhero movies that are, confusingly, not as great as their critical reception, box office sales, or fan love might indicate.
You’re likely to disagree with some of the choices here, but film taste is subjective, and that’s the beauty of it. And the following films still didn’t quite deserve as many accolades or cash (or a combination of the two) that they received.
1) Thor
Kenneth Branagh’s Thor isn’t anyone’s absolute favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. And, for the most part, it works just fine. But that’s it, it just works fine. It’s primarily unexciting, and a little over-directed by Branagh (so many boisterous line readings and top-down camera angles in this thing).
Some might question why Thor is this on this list, as it typically places towards the middle of people’s ranking of the MCU. But it’s applicable, considering it was well-reviewed by critics and made a profit, even if it didn’t set the box office on fire. And, in that regard, the fact remains that as time has gone on, this fish out of water story has become less and less interesting. It’s pretty light on action, the character of Jane Foster was a waste of Natalie Portman’s talent, and the antagonistic Loki would be put to better use in the rest of his MCU appearances.
2) Iron Man 3
Was Iron Man 3 deserving of the controversy it was met with back in 2013? To this day it depends on who you ask. For all of Iron Man 2‘s faults, at least it felt like a sequel to the 2008 MCU kickstarter. Iron Man 3 doesn’t quite even clear that bar. And, when it comes to closing out a trilogy, it really is a letdown.
The stakes are supposed to be incredibly high in a trilogy-capper. But, here, we have a man built up to be a terrorist who is actually a goofy actor and a true big bad who spews fire out of his mouth. As for addressing Tony Stark’s PTSD after the events of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 makes this a joke as well, which is disappointing. Then there’s Tony being kind of an ass to a little kid, which feels out of character even for a man so far from perfection. And for those who wanted to see Stark in his Iron Man suit, you barely get any of it in Shane Black’s film. Have there been MCU films released in more recent years that are worse than Iron Man 3? Absolutely. Iron Man 3 at least has a personality, which can’t be said of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s just not a personality that’s particularly fun being around.
3) X-Men: Days of Future Past
Adapting the “Days of Future Past” storyline was a massive gamble. And, in truth, X-Men: Days of Future Past does a relatively fine job of doing so. But it’s also a little over-stuffed.
It also faces a bit of an identity crisis. It was exciting at the time to see many of the cast members of the X-Men trilogy brought back into the fold, but this came at the cost of delivering a true sequel to the sublime X-Men: First Class. Plenty of people love Days of Future Past, and fair enough to that, but it’s a little puzzling when people say it’s the absolute best X-Men movie.
4) Guardians of the Galaxy
No shade to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as it was a hugely important entry in the MCU canon. Thor showed that the franchise could work when it told narratives not bound to Earth’s terrain, but in that regard, it still played things safe by having the title character be a fish out of water on Earth. Guardians of the Galaxy, however, is entirely removed from Earth (save for the opening scene), features a roster of then unknown characters (including a talking tree), and a distinctively quirky sense of humor, and still became the third-highest grossing film of 2014 after The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and American Sniper (the latter of which opened wide in 2015). It beat Captain America: The Winter‘s domestic haul by over $73 million and beat Thor‘s domestic total by $152 million.
All of that was deserved, but at the end of the day the first chapter of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy is the worst chapter. Narratively, it’s essentially the Guardians and one of the MCU’s blander villains vying for the same shiny thing until the bland villain loses out. To be fair to Gunn and the film, Guardians of the Galaxy had the unenviable task of establishing all these characters, known only to hardcore comics fans, and making them A-list members of an established roster that includes Hulk, Captain America, and the like. Clearly it accomplished that mission, but the fact remains Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are the deeper films. They’re equally enjoyable, as well. In other words, the sequels check more boxes, yet if most MCU fans were asked, they would say the first movie is not only their favorite of the trilogy, but quite possibly their favorite MCU film of them all.
5) Deadpool
On one hand, Deadpool represented cinematic wish fulfillment, both for the fans and Ryan Reynolds. Without a doubt, he’s perfect for the title character. However, in all three installments, the humor is pretty hit-or-miss and the stories aren’t particularly engrossing.
It makes sense why each of the three movies ended up being box office smashes. They’re fun (though the second film is a bit dark) and, as mentioned, funny, but they’re not even the high point of 20th Century Studios’ X-Men movies. That would be X2, X-Men: First Class, and Logan. Even still, the original Deadpool did say something. It said that, yes, there is a market for R-rated content from Marvel which, up to that point, was firmly planted in PG-13 territory (outside the Blade trilogy).
6) Venom
Venom is a case of the superhero movie being overrated on the audience side of the coin, not the critical side of the coin. Critics didn’t like it at all, to the point it was the lowest rated of the trilogy, and deservedly so (the first film has a 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to Let There Be Carnage‘s 58% and The Last Dance‘s 40%, which is pretty spot on).
But its audience score is very high. Venom has an 80% on the Popcornmeter, which is the score held by The Last Dance while Let There Be Carnage has an 83%. They’re breezy films, sure, but they’re also incredibly forgettable. Even Let There Be Carnage, the best installment of the trilogy, is too quickly paced for anything to really stick in the memory. There are plenty of blockbusters out there that are both crowd-pleasing and well-written and memorable. None of the Venom movies are particularly well-written or memorable. They’re just Tom Hardy talking to himself before his gooey CGI monster fights another gooey CGI monster that looks very much like him with a different paint job.
7) Shazam!
David F. Sandberg is mostly known for directing horror films (e.g. Until Dawn), but he also dipped his toes in big budget territory with the two Shazam! movies. Shazam! Fury of the Gods deserved every ounce of the critical trouncing it took, not to mention its massive failure at the box office.
But, frankly, the first Shazam! isn’t that much better than the sequel. It’s better, sure, considering Zachary Levi’s performance had yet to become obnoxious and Mark Strong’s villain Dr. Sivana is infinitely more compelling than Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu’s Daughters of Atlas, but it’s not 90% on Rotten Tomatoes better. It’s more of a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cute and charming, but that’s about it.
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