Captain Marvel is the final MCU film before the climactic conclusion of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. We gathered all the scores from RT, and we were really surprised on what critics had to say.
Since the recent release of Captain Marvel, and its overwhelming box office take, fan reviews have been pouring in like mad. The question we pose is; do you agree with them, or the critics? Over on our end, the scores are really mixed as we are fans above anything else. Everyone can critique, but the end result is surely going to different depending on whether the critic is a fan or not.
I personally found Captain Marvel to be a bit dull, and far less fun than many of the other MCU films but still better than entries like The Dark World, and Ant-Man & the Wasp (the two I disliked the most). Whether you agree with me or not, that is your call. But this is about whether you agree with credible critics and scores over some of the most financially successful and popular films of all time in the booming superhero genre.
Note: the Critic and Audience scores will fluctuate here and there, so be advised that the recorded scores below are a reflection of what they were on 3/11/2019, and may change in the coming weeks.
Iron Man (2008)
Audience Score: 91%
Iron Man, the first of the MCU films, gets a lot of its brilliance from being the first of its kind. Not first, in that it is the first superhero film, but the first film in a series that is much larger than itself. It also showcased Robert Downey Jr’s acting chops in a role unlike any other, a role he was born to play. This movie put Iron Man into the mouths of nearly every kid and household among where movies are shown. If you go back and rewatch Iron Man, it may not hold the same power that it did back in 2008, simply because we have come so much farther over the last 10+ years. However, if you do go back and rewatch Iron Man, you’ll be reminded why it was worth the 90%+ and 9/10 scores it received among so many media outlets that do reviews of this kind.
My Score: 8.9/10 or 89%
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Audience Score: 70%
The first and only appearance of Edward Norton, before being replaced by Mark Ruffalo, and the first and only appearance of Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, a character we never saw again. TIH deserves a slightly better score than 67%, at least in my opinion, especially after the redesign of the Hulk himself and the epic battle sequence against Abomination. Let us not forget Tim Roth, and how good his performance was. I would give The Incredible Hulk somewhere around a 7.2/10 or so, which amounts to about a 72% on my scale. But this is one movie that sort of came and went, so I can see where the 67% comes from in the eyes of a seasoned critic.
My Score: 6.9/10 or 69%
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Audience Score: 71%
Iron Man 2 had some neat designs that lead to some rather cool merchandise, but other than that, Iron Man 2 is not a great MCU film. The first time we get to see War Machine in action, and the two fighting together against the villain and his arsenal of bots. A fun movie to be sure, and a rather just score, which many of us probably agree with. The villain was sort of boring, but then again, Iron Man doesn’t really have the greatest villains to face, so this gets a pass as well. I would say that a 73% is reasonable score. There certainly was a lot of spectacle and hype around this sequel, after the success of its predecessor.
My Score: 6.9/10 or 69%
Thor (2011)
Audience Score: 76%
Thor is a very different type of superhero, when it comes to the Avengers ensemble. He is the only one, of the core group, that is not from earth. He was not born there, he did not get his powers from there, and he is the only one to have been born with his powers. He is a foreigner on a strange land with strange customs, and he does not fit in at all. The movie’s tone and general theme are different too, in that he is trying to do right by his family in order to become worthy of his role on Asgard and worthy of the respect of its people. Still, Thor was fun. It was silly, even if his own individual stakes for himself were not on par with other save-the-world missions of other heroes. The movie was polished, and fun, and campy, and overall enjoyable. I can agree on an average score of 77%, with other critics and their views on the movie.
My Score: 7.4/10 or 74%
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Audience Score: 74%
Much like Thor before it, Captain America is definitely among the more out-of-place with Phase 1, in that its more of an era piece for WWII than a Marvel film. Maybe I am wrong, but CA: TFA just felt different to me somehow. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Seeing Chris Evans in this role, after being the Human Torch in the Fox franchise, was a delight, despite the reservations I felt knowing that he already played another Marvel character (even though he was the best part about that campy F4 franchise). The audience score does not surprise me here, though. It had action and fun, but it didn’t feel like a superhero film, exactly. Probably because Captain America is the only hero to be the most grounded in real life (just a super strong American hero).
My Score: 7.4/10 or 74%
The Avengers (2012)
Audience Score: 91%
I am glad to see that the audience and critics alike were on the same page with this one. Joss Whedon’s first Avengers film was a smash hit, and a lot of fun. Definitely the most campy of all the MCU films up to this point (and probably up to Captain Marvel, actually). I recently went back and watched Avengers, just because. It was a lot more silly than I remember, but just as much fun as the first time. There was something special about this film, with all the core heroes coming together, which is probably why the scores are as high as they are.
My Score: 9/10 or 90%
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Audience Score: 78%
This is one movie that I disagree with both scores. Critics and audiences alike, are in agreement that the score is around an 8/10 or so, give or take a few points. But to me, this was among the biggest disappointments within the MCU. The Mandarin was butchered, the villain and his powers were silly (in an annoying way), and just the overall tone seemed insulting. Tony Stark gets rid of all his armors, and just the entire direction this film took insulted me. Blame the writing, the directing, or maybe you love this movie and don’t blame either. But to me, ruining the only villain in Iron Man’s world that is worth a damn is frustrating. Sure, there were explosions and fight scenes, but this movie resembled something that Michael Bay would have put together and the MCU is meant to be a cut above those types. I would give Iron Man 3 a solid 6.5/10, without question or debate. And that is being generous.
My Score: 6.5/10 or 65%
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Critics Score: 67%
Audience Score: 76%
The Dark World is a movie that gets a lot of hate. To be frank, I hear this film being described as the worst among the MCU, by many. Strange that the audience score is so favoring when this seems to be the case. Personally, I do not hate this movie. I do not love it either. It came, I saw it, then forgot it. Which is probably why the movie was scored so low by critics. Probably going to have to side with the critics on this one.
My Score: 6.5/10 or 65%
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Audience Score: 92%
TWS was the start of when the movies became significantly more intense, as far as action is concerned. Up until this point in the MCU franchise, after The Winter Soldier was released, there was not a single person you could ask who would tell you that any other film in the MCU was their favorite. CA: TWS was easily the most exciting, fun, and dare I say badass. Captain America shined in a new light, and beat bad guys up in ways that made the character standout over his previous appearances. Plus, the twists and turns this film had, easily made it the most impressive of its type.
My Score: 9.5/10 or 95%
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Audience Score: 92%
The Guardians of the Galaxy were unknown to most, as it was sort of a niche comic book team. Sure, true fans would cry out in pain to suggest their beloved Guardians were not as well-known as they’d prefer, but James Gunn and company saw to it to make sure this changed. Much like Iron Man (2008) before it, a rather unknown group of heroes came together to become a household name. Starlord and Rocket Raccoon cosplays became common at many conventions, and Drax became the center of many memes and other forms of internet humor. The movie stands as the funniest in the MCU, and features a rag-tag team of silly would-be heroes who triumphed over many odds. Up to this point, GotG became one of the must entertaining experiences I had in a theater, among every movie I have seen.
My Score: 9.5/10 or 95%
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Audience Score: 83%
Age of Ultron had its issues. Black Widow turned into a motherly overseer over the other male members of the Avengers, and a love interest of Hulk/Banner. The “age” of Ultron, was more like a 3-day weekend, and the plot to destroy mankind by slamming an asteroid city into the earth was a little out there. The critics were fair, if not generous in their scores and the audience simply liked seeing all of the Avengers come together for a second time. It was fun, but it took itself very seriously, which would have been fine if the plot was not as weak as it was. I personally felt like this film deserved to be much better.
My Score: 7.0/10 or 70%
Ant-Man (2015)
Audience Score: 86%
Another incredible surprise, Ant-Man brought the humor back into the franchise that was left absent with AoU. Paul Rudd and Michael Peña brought with them an ensemble of humorous moments and wisecracks that encouraged the franchise to take a hard left turn. Ant-Man as a film, and the team of filmmakers, recognized the absurdity of this hero and took no chances at poking fun of itself at just the right amount without turning the hero into a dead franchise. Fun, funny, all the while delivering another funny flick with a funny hero that turned out to be just as lovable as all the others in the MCU.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Audience Score: 89%
This is where the audience is wrong. Civil War is tied with my other favorite MCU movie. Even the critics were too harsh with their 91%. Civil War did something that none of us saw as a possibility; divide the Avengers, introduce MORE new heroes, and throw in Peter Parker among the mix. Spider-Man was a problem in Sony’s hands after they handed the franchise reboot over to Marc Webb. Apparently his only qualifications were that his last name resembled what shoots out of Spider-Man’s wrist gadgets, Marc Webb butchered Peter Parker with the Amazing films, and Marvel Studios saw to it to join forces with Sony and share the character. In doing so, they made the fight sequence and inclusion of the most popular Marvel hero to date, among the most successful. The villain in the movie, Baron Zemo, was emotional and motivated by his hate for the Avengers. Not the most exciting bad guy, to be sure, but among the most cunning. He single-handedly defeated the Avengers and brought down the initiative with nothing more than clever planning and a thirst for revenge. Captain America: Civil War shows us just what makes a great superhero film, and how to put two of the most popular heroes in the MCU against each other without meeting on common ground without the revelation that both their mothers share the same first name.
My Score: 9.5/10 or 95%
Doctor Strange (2016)
Audience Score: 86%
This is where my thoughts sort of get clouded on the matter of review. Doctor Strange is a hit or miss for some, but I really enjoyed it. The only issue I had with the movie, was that I would have liked to have seen Strange train for more than what felt like spring break. Maybe he did, and I missed that detail, but it never felt like he was training for that long. Still, the mystic arts were unexplored up to this point, and we finally got to see a different side to what evils lurk in the darkness. The earth is constantly in peril and the Avengers are not the only heroes defending it. The Sorcerer Supreme is an interesting character, but perhaps his greatest intrigue is the ability to view the multiverse. Personally, I believe that this movie teased the idea of just how the introduction of mutants and the X-Men can be done after Endgame wraps up.
My Score: 9.0/10 or 90%
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 (2017)
Audience Score: 87%
The Guardians are a funny bunch, with Drax, Rocket, and Groot stealing the spotlight in every scene. We finally get some backstory on Starlord and get a good long look at what it means to be a celestial. Unfortunately, we lose a great character in the film as well. That being said, The Guardians don’t really seem to have a ton of interesting villains to face. Or maybe they do, and we just have not seen them yet. Either way, I got my joy out of this movie, and laughed a decent amount. It was not as good as the first film, though. Which is likely due to the surprise of the characters coming together so well. A fun movie, but there just seemed to have been something missing. I could just never figure out what that was.
My Score: 7.9/10 or 79%
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Audience Score: 88%
Audience, what is the matter with you? This movie was damn near perfect, and you know it. Tom Holland is the best Peter we have ever seen, and if you disagree, you are just wrong. The story is good, the way they included Spider-Man in Civil War was great, and seeing the wall-crawler swing into his own shared universe was excellent. The only thing silly about this movie is the name, but even that still works. Sure, we don’t know who Ben Parker is, and it would have been nice to have a five-minute flashback or something to see just how the MCU’s Peter Parker dealt with it, but I think we can move beyond that. This movie is among my top 3, and if you have a problem with that, well, may the gods have mercy on your soul.
My Score: 9.5/10 or 95%
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Audience Score: 87%
Okay, audience. I have just about had it up to here with you. There is not one single sub-franchise in the MCU that has taken so much of a drastic change in tone and entertainment as Thor’s. And Ragnarok too, was a near perfect superhero movie. Fun, hilarious, interesting, and emotionally moving. The struggle for family, for finding ones self, and facing off against your friends. Thor and Hulk were the best on-screen duo since Paul Rudd and Michael Pena in Ant-Man, and even then, Michael Pena was doing most of the heavy lifting. Hulk and Thor each carried their own halves equally, and brought the best MCU experience in a theater that I have had. Making it a tie for my favorite films in the franchise to date, but it stands out as being the funniest, bar none. Director Taika Waititi and writer Eric Pearson were the two most capable to turn this franchise around and make it one of the best.
My Score: 10/10 or 100%
Black Panther (2018)
Audience Score: 79%
Probably the biggest gap between scores, Black Panther has… certain circumstances around it that quite frankly, saved it from being torn to shreds by reviewers. Kendrick Lamar’s score did not do this movie any favors and neither did the writing. The tone of the film was very off base, simply because the Black Panther we saw in Civil War was badass, confident, and capable. In his own movie however, he is unsure, careless, and messing things up for himself left and right. The characters did not seem the same, and even the villain’s motivations seemed flimsy at best. It is hard, honestly, to review a movie like this without racial motivations being called into question. I simply did not like this movie because the jokes were dated memes that did not age well, the CGI visuals looked cheap and cheesy at times, and the plot was as weak as its main character. Chadwick was great in the role, as were the cast, so do not get me wrong there. But the greatest part about this film were the cast of female Wakanda warriors. They were cool, fun, tough, and the most believable in their roles. Black Panther, in my opinion, was not a good movie, even if it was financially successful. Whether or not this movie is for me is beside the point and a stupid statement to make. It is a movie, it is for everyone. I just didn’t like the villain and I didn’t like how weak Black Panther seemed after being so tough in Civil War.
My Score: 6.0/10 or 60%
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Audience Score: 91%
This caught me by surprise. I side with the audience here, maybe even with a higher individual score myself, but come on, critics. What is your problem? One critic complained, and I kid you not, an actual quote: “Why must it always be the universe?”. Like, have you not seen the previous films? That is literally the entire plot of the entire franchise. That is like watching a superhero movie and being like “why is it always superheroes?” The other rotten reviews from critics seems to stem from their ability to use big words that mean nothing, just trying to state that the era of superhero movies is over and that the world is fatigued with the genre. Which like, is a really weak argument. That is like saying action films, or romance movies are being fatigued. We get like, three dozen of each per year and maybe only a small handful of MCU movies. Sure, there is DC, but those movies are all pretty much garbage, save for Wonder Woman (predictable, not that great) and Aquaman (the movie sucked, but Jason Momoa was fun). Infinity War is what we have been waiting 10 years for. Why are you complaining about it now? You don’t watch a full season of NFL only to complain that the Super Bowl is boring because it is just more football, do you? I am talking directly to you, Anthony Lane.
My Score: 9.2/10 or 92%
Ant-Man & the Wasp (2018)
Audience Score: 77%
I love Paul Rudd. I love Michael Pena. I loved the first Ant-Man. I did not love Ant-Man & the Wasp. The movie had the weakest villain the MCU has ever seen, and a bunch of weak science mumbo jumbo that we did not need. The plot was weak and the writing was weaker. Evangeline Lily was a great addition as the Wasp, and her badassery was welcome. It was just unfortunate that her breakout performance had to be in such a weak movie. Personally, I think this movie is the one I hated the least. It just felt like the writers did not try. Like they just took a bunch of stick notes with pre-made plot tropes and stuck them on a wall and picked some at random to be the direction of this movie.
My Score: 5/10 or 50%
Captain Marvel (2019)
Audience Score: 59%
The audience was right about this one. Opening weekend, the movie made over $150 million domestically and over $450 million globally. Among those financial grossings, are my money. However, I did not like this movie. The whole focus was on Carol Danvers trying to realize who she is, due to amnesia. Because of this plot decision, the entire origin unfolds little by little in front of you. There were not really any villains in the movie (other than the writers), except boredom. This was the least fun I have had with an MCU film. Brie Larson shines as the title character, but only as much as a flicking light bulb in an alley. Not her fault, though. I blame the writers and directors completely. This movie felt rushed, and pointless, only to show the audience that there is one more big name hero coming to Endgame. The most exciting part was the end of credits scene showcasing this. Other than that, there was not a single quotable line or moment that I could tell you. I was that bored. Flat, uninspired, and weak from the start, there is not much I can really say about the movie other than Stan Lee will be missed greatly. Again, this movie will struggle to let reviewers be honest because it is the first female lead we have had since the beginning of the MCU. This movie proves that it can be done, and done well, if there were different writers and directors putting it together.
My Score: 6.5/10 or 65%
Now that you have a good idea of fan scores vs critic scores, the second question we pose is; do critic scores really matter? As said before, this will always be up to you, the reader, to decide for yourself.
