All 13 Multiverse Saga Movies, Ranked

The multiverse has truly been unleashed.

With the release of Thunderbolts*, the Multiverse Saga has entered its final phase. What a mixed bag this era of the MCU has been. A messy plot and overall mediocre movies has caused excitement to dwindle for Marvel movies, but Thunderbolts* seems to have possibly gotten the MCU back on track. We will see. It will be a very interesting few years for the MCU with Fantastic Four and Doomsday. That said, we are not looking forward in this ranking. We are looking backward. Here is my ranking of every movie (thus far) in the Multiverse Saga.

13. Eternals

Eternals is an interesting mess, but a mess nonetheless. I definitely appreciate that the MCU tried something different, but for me, this was a complete swing and a miss. Eternals is overstuffed to the point where the entire story collapses in on itself. The titanic 160-minute runtime isn't enough to introduce us to ten new characters, establish a conflict, and resolve it. Everyone and their mother has said this, but this story would've worked much better as a TV show. I also think there's a very low chance that we ever see these characters again. Maybe they show up in Secret Wars to just make it seem like they're important, but I don't know. The worst part? They had Robb Stark and Jon Snow in this movie, and both are completely wasted. You got the stars of the biggest TV show of the century and did nothing with them? C'mon, Marvel. Do better.

12. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Quantumania is in a close battle for last place with Eternals. I think I dislike Eternals more, but Quantumania is the worse film. It's just really bad, honestly. The entire premise is a bit loose, because it relies on Janet van Dyne not warning anyone about Kang for multiple years. Even if you ignore that, the movie has a litany of problems. Not only is it visually hideous, but the story feels so inconsequential and insignificant. At the time, Kang was supposed to the be the next Thanos, and he was easily defeated by Ant-Man. There are also some ridiculous misfires in here, whether you're talking about the atrocious iteration of M.O.D.O.K. or Cassie Lang's newly found dislikability. Most of this movie is mediocre, generic Marvel, but when you throw in the messy story, horrible visuals, and flimsy logic, you just get one of the biggest MCU disappointments of all time.

11. The Marvels

The Marvels was honestly the low point in the Multiverse Saga. After the brutality that was Quantumania and Secret Invasion, I skipped out on this one in theaters. I hadn't missed a Marvel movie in theaters in seven years, and I was so disinterested in The Marvels that I just didn't go see it when it came out. I wasn't really missing out, either. I actually enjoy this film a bit more than most, but it's not that good. Ms. Marvel is tons of fun and I like the group dynamic, but this story is just bad. The main villain here could make a case for the worst antagonist in the entire MCU. She's like a worse version of Ronan, which sucks, because Ronan is already a pretty weak villain. This is a superficially entertaining movie that has absolutely no substance when you dig deeper into it, so I just can't say it's good.

10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

This is probably my hottest MCU take, but I am not a Shang-Chi fan. I do think the character is really good. I enjoy Simu Liu. The Mandarin is probably my favorite post-Endgame villain. But this film suffers from one of the worst third acts in the entire franchise. The gigantic CGI noise-fest that is this final battle is so terrible that it just sours me on a lot of the movie. It feels like it was building to a character-centric conclusion, but instead, it becomes the worst type of MCU movie. Maybe I will like this movie more upon rewatch, but as of right now, I am just not a huge fan of it.

9. Captain America: Brave New World

Brave New World actually has a lot of things about it that I like. Does the movie work as a whole? Eh. It's a pretty mixed bag. On the one hand, I love Sam Wilson as Captain America. Anthony Mackie is great, and the character just works as a nice foil to what Steve Rogers was. What would it be like if the world didn't accept you as Captain America? That's what Sam's internal struggle is, and it's interesting. Likewise, this movie starts to actually build momentum towards Avengers: Doomsday. The universe begins to gel together and feel cohesive again. That said, this is still a pretty problematic film. The Leader is as generic as villains come. The visuals are muddled and you can feel the excessive reshoots and studio meddling that was reported before the film's release. It doesn't feel like an entirely coherent story, and that's obviously a big problem. It's a fun film, but it's definitely another one of these underwhelming Multiverse Saga movies.

8. Black Widow

Black Widow is so weird. Why was the first movie of the Multiverse Saga a years-late prequel about a character who had died by the time of its release? I don't know, but I will say that Thunderbolts* has improved my feelings about this film. Yelena and Red Guardian are two of the most fun characters we've met since Endgame, and this is the film that introduced them. For that, it gets tons of credit. On top of that, most of this movie is a pretty fun spy thriller. Much like Shang-Chi, though, this third act is just terrible. It's a live-action cartoon, and I mean that in the worst way possible. Also, what they did to Taskmaster was absolutely unforgivable. He is one of the coolest villains in the comics, and they completely botched his (her) character in this movie. I would classify this as a decent movie. It's not great. It's barely good. But I'd probably still give it a thumbs up.

7. Thor: Love and Thunder

I have to be honest: up to this point, I've only seen all of these movies once. Every single movie listed up to this point I saw in theaters (with the exception of The Marvels) and have not watched since. Love and Thunder is included in that, and I think it is very possible that it would drop upon rewatch. However, as it stands, I think this movie has more to like than most people realize. Chris Hemsworth is fun to watch as the God of Thunder no matter the setting, and I think there are a lot of good ideas in the story. I find Jane Foster's arc to be incredibly compelling. I think Natalie Portman gives her best MCU performance here...by far. Christian Bale's Gorr has some very intriguing and cool ideas. But, of course, all of the cool things in this movie are ruined by Taika Waititi's excessive, ridiculous humor. A more serious version of Love and Thunder genuinely could've rivaled Ragnarok, but Taika went way too far with the comedy and just made this entire movie feel unserious. The tone is so imbalanced and so off. I really wish this movie just toned back the comedy, because I think there are makings of a great Thor movie here. As it stands, we've got a pretty mediocre one that I personally was slightly let down by.

6. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Oh, boy. Multiverse of Madness was probably the biggest disappointment of the entire Multiverse Saga. Obviously, I do think it's a good movie, otherwise it would not be this high. But after the high of No Way Home, I was ready for something incredible. And what we got was a movie with a lot of potential and a lot of missed opportunities. I think Marvel should've leaned into the full horror here. A Doctor Strange horror movie sounds awesome, and you could get all kinds of wacky and weird with the multiverse. Sam Raimi is even the perfect director to do all of that. But Marvel is soft, so they decided to play it safe and have the stupid cameos and basically zero multiverse chaos whatsoever. There are so many things I like about this movie, but as a whole, I just find it to be a colossal "what could've been" disappointment.

5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

There is a huge leap in quality from Multiverse of Madness to Wakanda Forever. If this were a full MCU ranking, I expect there would be, like, ten entries between these two films. I think Wakanda Forever is a beautiful, heart-breaking, and respectful sendoff to Chadwick Boseman, and that is the most important thing. This is a different type of Marvel movie, because it isn't meant to be a super entertaining blockbuster. This movie is about honoring a legend, and it achieves that. Beyond that, it's a great exploration of grief and sadness with some of the best performances in the entire MCU. I think they were dealt a really bad hand with Boseman's death, and they patched together a very solid movie despite all of the challenges they faced.

4. Deadpool & Wolverine

On the complete flip side of Wakanda Forever, Deadpool & Wolverine is entirely designed to be fun. This is not a great movie. There isn't really a logical story or some deep thematic exploration of heroism. This movie is just meant to entertain Marvel fans for two hours, and it does so beautifully. Teaming up Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman is just as awesome as you'd expect, and it just makes for a complete blast of a film. It's funny, exciting, and even emotional at times. Jackman turns in a really good performance as this broken version of Wolverine that takes out a lot of his anger at Deadpool, the obvious target. Their bromance is the selling point of the film, and it is just one of the most fun theatrical experiences I have had since Endgame.

3. Thunderbolts*

I would say there's another leap in quality from Deadpool & Wolverine to Thunderbolts*. These next three movies could compete to by in my top ten MCU films in a full list. The newest MCU movie feels like an old MCU movie in the best way possible. There's an actual story with actual characters and we actually push forward the narrative of the Multiverse Saga. This movie deals with deep, touching themes like depression and mental illness while also building out a group of very compelling characters. Yelena Belova cements herself as the best new Multiverse Saga character, and I cannot wait to see her in Doomsday. On top of that, we actually start to reach plots that will be explored in the next Avengers movies. This movie made me feel excited about the MCU again, and for that, it gets all the credit in the world.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

This top three was really tough, because all of these movies are so great for such different reasons. Guardians 3 is the perfect sendoff to our favorite band of misfits. This movie is so emotional and so moving in a way that I would never expect. James Gunn had teased Rocket's origin since the first film, but I never would've predicted it to be as heart-breaking as it was. Alongside that, this movie really nails the ending for all of our Guardians. Star-Lord returns to Earth. Drax resumes his role as the father figure. Rocket and Groot lead their new Guardians. Even Nebula gets a happy ending. I feel like this movie is separate of the Multiverse Saga because it's just aiming to wrap up the Guardians of the Galaxy, and it does so perfectly.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

I know, I know. Maybe No Way Home isn't the best "quality-wise" on this list, but this movie was an unforgettable experience that I will cherish forever. The months leading up to this and the speculation about whether or not we were getting Tobey and Andrew were so much fun. The anticipation of walking into that theater on opening night paired with seeing all of these classic Spider-Man characters on the big screen again was just so special. This was an absolute treat for Spider-Man fans and also works as a great continuation of Tom Holland's Peter Parker. His arc of "with great power comes great responsibility" was completed over this entire trilogy, not just in one movie, and that's awesome. Of course, seeing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield again was a once-in-a-lifetime thing that will be impossible to replicate in any other movie. This is probably my favorite Spider-Man movie because it does such a good job of understanding the character and giving us an exciting, emotional, and truly satisfying multiversal story with Marvel's most iconic hero. Sure, it's not perfect. The story has some problems. The setup is weak. But who cares? This movie is awesome. I had sky high expectations going in, and it met those expectations gracefully. For that, it is my favorite film of the Multiverse Saga.