Iron Man 2 (2010)
[5] A so-so sequel with a few decent action set pieces to offer, but Robert Downey Jr is the real set piece here. Without his snarky persona, the franchise wouldn't have much to hang their hat on. The biggest weakness…
Thor (2011)
[4] Thor features solid direction from Kenneth Branagh, a rousing score from Patrick Doyle, and always stunning set design from Bo Welch. Tom Hiddleston gives the best performance in the film, as Thor's jealous brother, Loki. No one else, including…
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
[5] Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice feels like a movie with an identity crisis, tasked with performing two disparate, thankless tasks. The first is to set up a big fight between two iconic superheroes. You know, the kind of…
Deadpool (2016)
[7] Ryan Reynolds was born to play a wise-cracking vigilante, and indeed Deadpool comes off a bit like a higher-stakes Van Wilder. The story centers around the origin of the character, how he discovers he has terminal cancer and takes…
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
[6] My favorite part of this Avengers sequel is when the bad guy, a robot voiced by James Spader, first pulls himself together and wobbles confidently in front of the superheroes at the end of a house party. It's a…
Green Lantern (2011)
[4] Green Lantern is probably the single-most generic superhero movie I've ever seen. It's not terrible so much as it is wholly unremarkable. It's mired in a scatter-shot script that dwells on plot points and secondary characters I couldn't give…
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
[8] James Gunn (Slither) co-writes and directs one of the best Marvel movies ever. The plot is simple, nothing new or groundbreaking. Good guys gotta stop bad guys from literally destroying the world. Been there, done that, right? And like…
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
[8] X-Men: Days of Future Past brings back most of the cast from the Bryan Singer films (X-Men and X2) and merges them with the cast of Matthew Vaughn's First Class for a storyline involving time-travel and the mutants' desperate…
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
[7] The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was better than I was expecting. Unlike nearly all the Batman movies, the Spider-Man movies -- both the Sam Raimi ones and these new ones from Marc Webb -- succeed in keeping the hero upfront…
X-Men: First Class (2011)
[8] I'm honestly pretty sick of superhero movies, but I still have a soft spot for the X-Men. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) reinvigorates things with First Class after a couple of less-than-stellar entries in franchise. The plot moves…