After the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, which ran for 11 years, many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans were quick to wonder what would come next for the legendary franchise. Phases One, Two, and Three were all building to a climactic showdown between The Avengers and Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, but with the day saved, and billions upon billions of dollars made at the box office, how do you simply continue with the franchise as if it were business as usual?
The answer to that is… not well. Phase Four of the MCU was filled with plenty of problems, some of Marvel’s making and others not so much. Phase Four was set to begin “The Multiverse Saga” in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all of Marvel’s films were delayed, stopping all forward momentum for the series. However, unlike the Infinity Saga, TV shows became required viewing to understand what was going on, as Marvel released a staggering eight TV shows from 2021-2022, all of which were a part of the Multiverse Saga.
It was a lot, and unsurprisingly, the quality of MCU movies dropped sharply during Phase Four. That’s not to say that every movie released during this time was bad or even a commercial failure, but viewers could clearly tell that Marvel was struggling to find a direction for the series in a post-Thanos world. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, let’s rank each of the MCU Phase Four movies from worst to best.
7. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Hiring Taika Waititi to create a follow-up to his critically and commercially successful Thor: Ragnarok makes a lot of sense, but it quickly became apparent that Thor: Love and Thunder had no idea what to do with Chris Hemsworth’s character in a post-Endgame world. Comedy is the name of the game in Thor: Love and Thunder, to the point where interesting characters like Christian Bale’s Gorr and Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster are completely mishandled in favor of humor that borders on parody. Add in some of the most obvious and laughable CGI in any Marvel movie, and you have a contender not only for the worst Phase Four MCU film, but the worst MCU movie in general.
6. Eternals (2021)
Chloé Zhao is an excellent director, but hiring her to direct Eternals wasn’t the right call. Her quiet and contemplative storytelling may be good for personal dramas, but when fashioned to make a cosmic story featuring a large cast of characters MCU fans have never seen before, it turns the movie into an absolute slog. The film spends so much of its time layering on exposition dumps to explain to the audience what’s happening, but because everything feels so far removed from anything in the MCU, it’s hard to invest in any of the characters, especially when you get the sinking feeling that nothing in this movie is going to play into the larger events of the Multiverse Saga. Pretty visuals, though!
5. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a movie that has a lot of potential, but whether it lives up to that potential is dependent on who you ask. Getting Sam Raimi to direct the film helps inject some variety into the proceedings, with elements of horror and comic book weirdness present in nearly every scene. But Raimi’s individuality is diluted due to the ugly CGI that dominates most of the action scenes, and how our glimpses of the Marvel multiverse feel limited at best and perfunctory at worst. At the very least, Elizabeth Olsen really gets to shine, though the power of her performance is diluted if you haven’t seen WandaVision. Still, a film that swings for the fences and only partially succeeds is still worth a watch.
4. Black Widow (2021)
If a Black Widow movie had been announced and released in the 2010s, it would have almost certainly been a hit, given how popular Scarlet Johansson’s character was and how she always popped up in other movies but never had the chance to star in one herself. Making and releasing the film after Avengers: Endgame, though, is just plain puzzling. Fate simply wasn’t kind to Black Widow, given that it was delayed over a year due to the pandemic. Not to mention that all the excitement for it was washed down the drain after seeing trailers for it for over a year that all but spoiled the entire plot. When it finally did release, it was actually a pretty solid action movie that felt more like a spy-thriller than a superhero movie, provided you just ignore the disappointing third act. Black Widow is good enough, but Scarlet Johansson’s character deserves way more than just “good enough.”
3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
While the majority of Phase Four films in the MCU were sequels, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the first original film in Phase Four and brought with it a unique energy all to itself. While there’s a lot of CGI in the later fight scenes, most of the fight scenes were done practically and focus on martial arts, leading to some of the best fight scenes in all of the MCU. Plus, in a rare feat for Marvel, the star of the show isn’t actually Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, although he does a great job portraying him, but rather the villain, Tony Leung’s Xu Wenwu, who exudes unparalleled charm and adds an extra dimension to a character that, in lesser hands, could be one-note. It’s all around a surprisingly good movie, and one that will probably be regarded as the most underrated film in the MCU.
2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever should not be as good as it is. Following the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, Ryan Coogler and the cast of Black Panther had to make several difficult decisions about how to proceed with the film, and the result is a movie that is actively mourning the loss of Chadwick Boseman. It’s the most honest a Marvel movie has been, going beyond simple superhero theatrics to create a story that is one of the most emotionally resonant superhero movies of its time, with Angela Bassett’s performance, in particular, earning an Oscar nomination. Sadly, when Wakanda Forever remembers that it’s a Marvel film and throws in the obligatory superheroics, it loses some of its luster, but it still manages to deliver a film about loss, how we learn from it, and how to accept it.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The one film that was able to avoid the directionless pitfalls that many other MCU sequels in Phase Four fell into was Spider-Man: No Way Home, though that had less to do with Marvel trying to chart a new direction for the character in a post-Endgame world and more with ending the trilogy of films starring Spider-Man that started in Phase Three.
Like Multiverse of Madness, No Way Home is an ambitious movie, trying to tie together nearly two decades of Spider-Man films from three different cinematic universes, but it’s able to pull it off. It’s mostly thanks to the core trio of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, Zendaya’s MJ, and Jacob Batalon’s Ned, who really do feel like a close group of friends and help ground all of the multiversal shenanigans they wind up in. Then you have the returning antagonists from earlier Spider-Man films, all of whom are relishing the chance to reprise their roles and give their characters the send-offs they deserve. It’s a crowd-pleasing movie to be sure, but just as fulfilling for people who had never seen any of the earlier Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield. It’s just an all-around excellent action blockbuster, and easily the best Marvel movie of Phase Four.
Where To Watch All Marvel Phase Four Movies Online
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