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The Insane MCU Movie Rankings and Witchcraft Thread

VivixenneVivixenne Remember your training, and we'll get through this just fine.Registered User regular
edited August 2015 in Graphic Violence
Back when Age of Ultron came out earlier this year, I came up with the brilliant super nerdy idea of collating a bunch of people's rankings of the MCU movies. I then gathered the data and came up with some cool totally useless but weirdly interesting "conclusions" and "observations" of what those lists told us.

For instance, based on the previous data collected after AoU came out:
Vivixenne wrote:
Number of times Guardians and Winter Soldier hold top 2 spots: 28
Movies with no #1 rankings: Iron Man 2, Thor, Thor 2
Movies with no #11 rankings: Avengers, Iron Man

Of the 4 people who ranked Guardians at #10/#11:
1 person ranked Iron Man 3 (avg rank #5) at #1
1 person ranked Winter Soldier (avg rank#1) at #1
1 person ranked Captain America (avg rank#7) at #1
1 person ranked Ultron at #1 (avg rank#4)

Of the 64 people who ranked Guardians or Winter Soldier as #1:
58 (91%) people ranked Incredible Hulk at #9 or worse
51 (80%) people ranked Iron Man 2 at #9 or worse

Of the 47 people who ranked Winter Soldier as #1:
all but 6 (87%) people ranked Hulk at #9 or worse
33 (70%) people ranked Captain America between #6-#8

Of the 45 people who ranked Incredible Hulk at #11:
24 people ranked Iron Man 2 at #10
only 1 person ranked Thor 2 better than #7
only 2 people ranked Iron Man 2 better than #7
everyone ranked Ultron #6 or higher
everyone ranked Winter Soldier at #6 or higher

Number of people who ranked Iron Man better than Iron Man 2: 86 (90%)
Number of people who ranked Iron Man 2 better than Iron Man 3: 9 (9%)
Number of people who ranked Iron Man better than Iron Man 3: 47(49%)

Of the 9 people who ranked Iron Man 2 better than Iron Man 3:
4 people also ranked Iron Man 2 better than Iron Man
everyone ranked Captain America between #5-#8
no one ranked Winter Soldier between #4-#10
6 people ranked Guardians as #1/#2
on averages, Iron Man 3 was ranked #11

Of the 10 people who ranked Iron Man 2 better than Iron Man:
Thor/Thor 2 were ranked #10/#11 based on averages
on averages, Iron Man ranked the lowest of the Iron Man movies
on averages, Iron Man 3 ranked the highest of the Iron Man movies
Winter Soldier received the most #1 rankings

POINTS-BASED SYSTEM WHERE #1 GETS 10 PTS AND #11 GETS 0 PTS
The biggest gap between 2 consecutive rankings (by total points): 142 (Captain America minus Thor)
Smallest gap between 2 consecutive rankings (by total points): 8 (Guardians minus Avengers)
The gap between Winter Soldier (#1) and Guardians (#2): 125
Points separating the 3 lowest scoring movies: 103 (Thor 2 #9, Iron Man 2 #10, Hulk #11)

Now that Ant-man has come out, won't you all please enable this weird fascination of mine a bit more, so that we may now glean additional insights into this totally pointless but nerdy exercise? My only request is that you have actually seen all 12 movies prior to filling out the survey (looking at YOU, @Raijin Quickfoot) in the interests of statistical purity.

I also invite anyone else with a similar fascination to go ahead and play with the stats as well if you feel so inclined!

If you made an error and want to make changes, please let me know either here in this thread by tagging my username or via PM.

- LINK TO SURVEY
- LINK TO RESULTS

LET THE GAMES BEGIN.

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Vivixenne on

Posts

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Stop stealing my answers, Viv.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    I plead the fifth

  • ShenShen Registered User regular
    Rewatching Iron Man 1 recently I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed Tony in that, considering how tiresome I've found him since. I liked his deliberate self-destruction in IM2 to encourage Rhodey to take the suit and the brief PTSD scenes in IM3 but it's like he just keeps going through the same character arc over and over.

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  • VivixenneVivixenne Remember your training, and we'll get through this just fine. Registered User regular
    I think part of that is because in the Avengers movies, he DOES "reset" a bit. There is no reflection in AoU of the personal growth demonstrated in Iron Man 3, for example, and while I get that that's because they have a lot to cover already, it does seem like he's exactly where he was at the beginning of Iron Man 3.

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  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Yeah I think the biggest criticism of AoU is Tony. I think they were trying to do the whole "Tony as bad guy but not really" thing they tried in the comics, and I'm starting to think it just doesn't work.

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  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    so far I'm the only one with Ant-man as number one

    That movie just charmed the pants off me.

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    I won't lie, my opinions are definitely influenced by my fiancee, who hands down loves any movie with Iron Man in it more than any movie without him.

    Even Iron Man 2.

    Her absolutely favorite is Dark Knight, and she's turning into quite the DC fan, but Iron Man is her absolutely favorite MCU movie period.

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  • ShenShen Registered User regular
    Despite knowing a guy who worked on GotG (and BvS and Apocalypse since, you get some real ups and downs as a concept artist) and watching an advance screening, it's slipped to fourth after Ant-Man, which is just rock solid good times. I think I'd probably slot Daredevil above it too, if we're counting that.

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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Apples and oranges, man. You can't compare a miniseries with a movie, even if the series is better than half the movies.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    I put together my list and discovered Iron Man 3 was down at number 7 and I really liked Iron Man 3! There's officially too many damn movies now.

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Yeah it's gotten to the point where it's more like most to least liked/good. There is no "bad" one. Just one that is the least good.

    Although, you know, Hulk.

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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    I think of them as tiers. Top tier, mid tier, and low tier.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    I really need to go back and watch the Cap movies. The character isn't the most interesting to me, but hearing how good Winter Soldier was makes me realize I need to see them. I'm still not sure if I want to go back and watch the Thor flicks though.

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    The first cap movie is basically a 2 hour advert for The Avengers.

    Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies around.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Looking at Viv's spreadsheet with our answers is the first time I've really contemplated how my ratings of the movies keeps shifting over time. Just looking back for the first 5 movies, Iron Man would've been my favorite, followed by Cap and Thor for top three. Then Avengers comes along and bumps those all down a notch, which then happens again with every new release until Iron Man and the rest of Phase 1 are sitting in the bottom five slots.

    Right now my list chronologically sits at: 8 -> 11 -> 12 -> 9 -> 10 -> 4 -> 7 -> 6 -> 1 -> 2 -> 5 -> 3

    Avengers is holding a top five spot purely on the impressive amount of gumption it took to make that movie work, otherwise Phase 2 pretty consistently gets better and better as you go along in my mind.

    Of course, I've only seen Ant-Man twice, while I've seen the rest of the top 5 at least 4 times each (in theaters!). This leaves me with the nagging feeling that I haven't really vetted Ant-Man's place in the list as well as the others.

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  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    My answers remain pretty consistent at the upper (from Cap 2 at 1, then Avengers, then Iron Man) and lower (from AoU at 9, then Incredible Hulk, then Guardians) but the middle half dozen do shift around a bit.

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Solar, you honestly hate GotG so much that you would put it below Hulk?

    And AoU holds a special place in my heart for being the antithesis to the DCU, with the focus ENTIRELY on saving lives and stopping collateral damage, and the movie stays hopeful and uplifting.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited August 2015
    Hulk is a movie which drifts between acceptable and boring, with a few exceptions (like when Blonksy first fights the Hulk, that's great). It's not a bad movie, it's pretty okay in fact. Whether it goes in front of or behind AoU is really based on which one I found more exciting to watch and AoU has that, even though it's also more flawed than Hulk. It's pacing is awful, absolutely awful, but it also has the Vision and better action mostly. Hulk is better paced, but less exciting.

    Up to and including #11 it's a case of the movies all being enjoyable overall, and just a case of how enjoyable (from extremely to vaguely). #12 is the only one on the list I would say I actively disliked. So yeah Hulk definitely goes before GotG, which is unquestionably last place IMO.

    Solar on
  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Hulk for me just ended up being unforgivably boring.

    Like, there were definitely parts I enjoyed, but overall it was just too boring and I couldn't forgive that.

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  • M-TeeM-Tee Registered User regular
    I disliked everything from Phase 1 except Iron Man 1 so much that I went into Avengers assuming it wold be the final nail in my MCU viewing.

    But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and unless something else is slipping my mind, Thor 2 is the only movie I hated out of Phase 2.

    I doubt I will ever rewatch Age of Ultron, but I did enjoy my time in the theater with it.

    Still haven't seen Ant Man. For some reason, its international release is lagging far behind (when normally I get Marvel movies between 1-3 weeks ahead of the US.

  • Rorshach KringleRorshach Kringle that crustache life Registered User regular
    avengers 2 was a movie that i liked for about five minutes

    then i thought about things

    then i talked about it with other people

    and it just unraveled more and more and more for me

    and, right now, if it wasn't for thor 2, i'd have ranked it dead last

    6vjsgrerts6r.png

  • M-TeeM-Tee Registered User regular
    It's the epitome of an assortment of rad scenes barely stitched together.

    I loved so much of the movie, but as a whole, it is far weaker than the sum of its parts.

  • ThisThis Registered User regular
    I filled out my rankings, but in my mind they're not really so discrete. I'd probably have about four or five ranked tiers with some tiers containing multiple movies that I consider roughly equal.

  • TransporterTransporter Registered User regular
    I still feel like Avengers 2 was an astonishing accomplishment on Whedon's part.

    He was essentially tasked with setting up ALL OF MARVEL PHASE 3(oh, and maybe fit a movie in there somewhere).

    It's a miracle it's coherent at all.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited August 2015
    It's... barely coherent though

    I mean here's the thing about Avengers 2; Whedon said he cut it down to the same size as Avengers, and was really proud of that

    Well, he shouldn't be. He should have let it be twenty minutes, half hour longer, because the cut makes the pacing and cohesion of the movie fall apart massively. It really meanders along in places, then breakneck hurls forward, then meanders...

    like, Avengers 2 has a lot of cool stuff going on, but it really does feel like it was a mess that was hacked together from a longer, more carefully made and pieces together movie

    Solar on
  • VivixenneVivixenne Remember your training, and we'll get through this just fine. Registered User regular
    I don't think he was given much of a choice around the length of the movie. He has pointed out that Marvel had a lot of control in the making of AoU.

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  • McFodderMcFodder Registered User regular
    Either way, I think he's left pretty big shoes to fill for both Civil War and Avengers 3 - I would not like to be following on from what was almost considered a miracle in the first Avengers.

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  • BionicPenguinBionicPenguin Registered User regular
    Given how Winter Soldier turned out, I think those movies are in good hands.

  • McFodderMcFodder Registered User regular
    True - I didn't mean to imply the Russo brothers won't be able to do it, but there has to be a bit of pressure there.

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  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Vivixenne wrote: »
    I don't think he was given much of a choice around the length of the movie. He has pointed out that Marvel had a lot of control in the making of AoU.

    Quite possibly, in which case the blame is shared, but I think it's still the case. And I think there's stuff in the movie that should have been cut instead.

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