It is a really challenging time to be a Marvel fan. There have been more misses than hits in the MCU in recent times. While I continue to defend some underperforming films like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, I just can’t justify some other films from the $30 billion+ franchise.
From one of the most recent releases to a film that lost the studio over $100 million, this list contains some bad movies in the MCU. You may find some of your favorites in here, but please know that every pick in here is a personal preference.
10. Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
- Box Office: $415,101,577
- RT Score: 47%
- Audience Score: 77%
I must admit that it was hard to get myself convinced that Sam Wilson is Captain America on Earth-616. So, I was biased even before watching Captain America: Brave New World. While the movie itself wasn’t that bad, it didn’t live up to the MCU standard. Since Marvel fans now view everything with a skeptical eye, the film’s mixed performance was reflected in its box office too.
Anthony Mackie went into the movie with many odds stacked against him. The best Marvel could’ve done was to give him a good script and a decently edited film. However, the studio failed in both these aspects in Brave New World. The film’s biggest disappointment was the dialogue, which included many cringeworthy interactions and unfunny bits.
Mackie had to do a lot of heavy lifting beyond his capability due to the weak script and dialogue. While he delivered a commendable performance with whatever he had, he still had to be part of some of the ridiculous conversations in the film. Danny Ramirez, playing the new Falcon, was expected to be the funny one, but the writing did him dirty, too.
The editing and pacing were absolutely terrible, as some of the scenes felt very rushed. There wasn’t enough time for viewers to completely process the politics and messaging in the film. However, I felt Harrison Ford was exceptional, and Giancarlo Esposito did a good job as Sidewinder.
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Box Office: $622,674,139
- RT Score: 87%
- Audience Score: 79%
Ant-Man and the Wasp is not necessarily the “bad” bad movie in this list. I personally consider this a filler movie. MCU could’ve simply gone on without making this movie. But the studio needed another Ant-Man film after the first one, and they put together some of the most uninteresting plotlines for the sequel.
The stakes didn’t feel high enough for me, and the humor was pretty lame at places. Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost was a forgotten villain until Thunderbolts* decided to jog our memory. And boy, did they waste Walton Goggins in such a lazily written villain role.
Evangeline Lilly’s acting was pretty mediocre for me, but her action sequences were really good. She told The Sun that her action scenes were initially designed with a traditional male hero in mind, “disrespecting her femininity”. However, she insisted on changing it. The fight choreography for Wasp, especially the kitchen sequence, was fantastic.
My biggest issue was that the film didn’t explore more of the Quantum World while rescuing Janet. However, after watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I don’t think the film could’ve done much on that front.
8. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Box Office: $1,402,805,868
- RT Score: 76%
- Audience Score: 82%
Avengers: Age of Ultron shows everything that went wrong with Marvel after its Phase 3. After The Avengers, Joss Whedon wanted a smaller, more personal story for the next film. Instead, he fell into Marvel’s trap of making a much grander follow-up. The budget of the film exceeded $300 million, and it turned out to be a dark, weird, and horrible experience for Whedon (via BuzzFeed).
Marvel put out a mediocre film with many easter eggs and references to the upcoming films. It resulted in a FOMO among viewers, who flocked in to watch this film. It didn’t satisfy fans at all. It was one of those outsized blockbusters that took advantage of Marvel’s cultural relevance.
Did you know that James Spader was actually skeptical about playing the motion capture and voice for Ultron in the second Avengers movie? He told EW that he had one thought in mind before accepting the role: “Once I play this, I burned any opportunity to play anything else.”
However, Kevin Feige convinced him, saying, “It can’t get any better than playing Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron!” We don’t agree with Feige at all. Spader could’ve taken on many great roles in the Marvel Universe instead of a half-developed sentient robot villain.
7. Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Box Office: $1,214,811,252
- RT Score: 79%
- Audience Score: 78%
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man trilogy is largely beloved by Marvel fans, yet the third film, Iron Man 3, was a step down from its predecessors. I hated the big Mandarin twist in the film. Ben Kingsley was heavily underused in the film. It wasn’t deserving of the blockbuster success and mainly rode on the success of The Avengers.
Marvel didn’t know if Downey Jr. would return to the role and set up the ending of the film as a conclusive end to Iron Man. He blew up all the suits, making the plotline a bit weaker. Retrospectively, it looks silly since he was back in the suit with an army of suits in Age of Ultron.
Interestingly, Rebecca Hall’s Maya Hansen was intended to be the primary antagonist of the story. However, Isaac Perlmutter, the then-head of Marvel Entertainment, believed that female characters don’t sell merch and wanted a male villain instead. Shane Black had to accommodate Perlmutter’s demand in the script, which explains a lot about why the script was a mess.
Guy Pearce‘s Aldrich Killian was added to Iron Man 3 as an afterthought. Killian’s motivation to turn rogue was totally off, and it was something that the movie invented. Pearce is an exceptional actor, and putting him in the middle of this mess, that too in a forgettable villain role, was the worst thing Marvel could’ve done to him.
6. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Box Office: $264,770,996
- RT Score: 68%
- Audience Score: 69%
Looking back at it, The Incredible Hulk was a big mistake. But an understandable one! MCU was still in its nascent stage and opted to do the film in collaboration with Universal. And they chose Edward Norton in the lead role. While Norton is a great actor, he wasn’t the easiest to work with.
The film was marred by its behind-the-scenes drama. The primary issue revolved around creative differences between Kevin Feige, director Louis Letterier, and Norton. Eventually, the difference in opinion made an otherwise good script into a mediocre one.
Tim Roth’s Abomination and William Hurt’s General Ross did not make for memorable antagonists in the film. Moreover, Eric Bana’s Hulk was just five years ago, which made viewers more skeptical toward this film. With the rights of the character tied to another studio, Marvel wasn’t able to develop the character further in a solo movie.
The change from Norton to Mark Ruffalo in later movies meant that fans hardly consider the film part of the franchise. Interestingly, Marvel has been making attempts recently to make the events of the film canon.
5. Eternals (2021)
- Box Office: $402,064,899
- RT Score: 47%
- Audience Score: 77%
Chloé Zhao’s Eternals was marketed as one of the biggest names in the list of MCU phase 4 films, with stars like Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie joining the Marvel Universe. While it had huge potential, I just saw a film that struggled to find its place in the MCU’s Earth-616. Eternals went on to collect $402 million worldwide, becoming one of the lowest-grossing MCU films.
While the director brought her signature style to the film, filling it with great themes and visuals, not all of Zhao’s filmmaking style worked for the film. The film faced criticism for its screenplay and sluggish pacing. I found the film to be boring at times, despite the immersive visuals.
After the release of the film in 2021, even the MCU seemed to have forgotten about it until recently. The giant remains of Tiamut sticking out of the ocean in the climax of the film should’ve gained a lot more attention. However, the studio chose to completely ignore this development until Brave New World. Given that Mackie’s film also features in this list, I highly doubt that the Eternals plot point was an exciting one.
The film and its characters still feel very much alienated from the main universe. The biggest problem with the film was that it should’ve arrived much earlier in the roster.
4. The Marvels (2023)
- Box Office: $206,136,825
- RT Score: 62%
- Audience Score: 79%
Marvel did a very mediocre job when it came to creating as well as promoting this female-led ensemble film. I was totally unimpressed by The Marvels, even though I personally rooted for Brie Larson to prove her haters wrong. The film saw an abysmal performance at the theaters, with a low RT score suggesting that critics weren’t happy either.
The Marvels ended its theatrical run with $206 million at the box office. It is a decent enough number for any other film, not to mention that it’s the highest-grossing movie in director Nia DaCosta’s filmography. However, the budget of the film was enormously high, making it a huge box office bomb.
According to Forbes, Disney made the film on a gross budget of $374 million. The movie was set for a disaster after poor marketing, negative word-of-mouth, and disastrous opening numbers at $46.1 million (via Variety). The weak plot of the film and a laughable villain did not make things easier for the film.
I don’t know what lies ahead for Larson in the Marvel Universe, but I would definitely love to see Iman Vellani get another chance. Neither the Ms. Marvel show nor the film did any justice to the enthusiastic actress. One sad outcome of this disastrous film is that Marvel will think twice before putting out another female-led movie in the theaters.
3. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
- Box Office: $760,928,081
- RT Score: 63%
- Audience Score: 76%
Taika Waititi brought a significant shift in tone to the Thor franchise in Thor: Ragnarok. The change in tone was welcomed largely, and the film became the highest-grossing Thor film in the franchise. However, when Waititi came up with the fourth film, he had lost the magic that he created in Thor: Ragnarok.
Despite the comedic tone, I believe that Ragnarok managed to maintain its emotional moments. Love and Thunder‘s biggest weakness was the lack of emotional elements in the story. Another most disappointing aspect of Thor: Love and Thunder was the wasted potential of a talented actor like Christian Bale.
Bale played Gorr the God Butcher, who looked nothing like his comic-book counterpart and was nothing short of an abomination in the film. Unlike Marvel villains like Thanos and Killmonger, Gorr didn’t have a compelling narrative. He was hyped to be this God-killing villain, but most of his butchery happened off-screen, which did not help in looking past his appearance.
Thor 4 also saw some major issues in the VFX department. There were complaints of VFX artists forced to work in a stressful environment, which reflected in their work. One of the scenes where Heimdall’s son Axl contacts Thor through his vision was poorly executed in the film. The scene saw the character’s head being weirdly suspended in the air, and the spotty CGI was clearly visible.
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- Box Office: $476,071,180
- RT Score: 46%
- Audience Score: 81%
The mediocre performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania really hurt Marvel, as it was the film that kickstarted MCU Phase 5. Moreover, it was also a significant step into the Kang storyline, who was earlier considered to be a Thanos-level threat to the universe. A poorly executed plot and the overall silly tone did not help set up the dangerous villain.
While Paul Rudd was less annoying and more on-point with his humor than in Ant-Man 2, not all the casting choices impressed us. I have to mention Kathryn Newton’s performance as Cassie Lang here. While Newton is an otherwise great performer, her performance in this film fell short of expectations. And I believe she had to work with subpar material here.
For a VFX-heavy film, the studio took no interest in making sure that those effects were done well. A shoddy work in that department (not blaming the overworked VFX team here) led to an underwhelming watching experience. I can’t even forgive the film for how Ant-Man and his team/family easily defeated Kang the Conqueror with the help of an army of ants. Seriously?!!
Interestingly, Marvel execs believed that they had done everything right with Quantamania and expected it to break some records at the theater. Joanna Robinson, the author of MCU: The Reign of Marvel, told The Watch podcast that the studio was shocked at the outcome. She recalled that the studio was like, “Oh no, our internal barometer is not attuned to what people want anymore.”
1. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Box Office: $644,783,140
- RT Score: 67%
- Audience Score: 75%
Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World is considered one of the worst movies in Chris Hemsworth‘s Marvel filmography. It is overall a bland movie, with no interesting aspect to any of its plotlines that the film attempted. The film was so uninteresting that it pushed Natalie Portman out of the MCU for a decade.
The film was a tonal shift from other Marvel films, tapping into the Asgardian myths and fantasies. However, it was just a dull film all along. After watching the film, I got a newfound respect for Kenneth Branagh’s first film despite its flaws. The film notably had one of the most underdeveloped villains in the MCU.
Christopher Eccleston‘s Malekith had no depth to him, with no substantial backstory. Eccleston went through 6 hours of makeup for the role, and had an interesting comment on the film that sums up how bad it was. He told The Guardian, “Thor? Just a gun in your mouth.”
Even Kat Dennings’ Darcy and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki couldn’t save the film with their grace. The infamous film remained Marvel’s worst-rated film for a long time.
All these films are now available for streaming on Disney+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
