Marvel has been one of the most widely acclaimed and well-known comic book publishers of all time, only growing in notoriety following the wide variety of exceptional film adaptations of their most iconic characters. From critically acclaimed early works like the original Spider-Man and X-Men films to the highest highs of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has left an undeniable mark on the landscape of action filmmaking, with a multitude of highly acclaimed films to their name.
However, especially for a titan of culture like Marvel that has been releasing adaptations for decades upon decades, not every adaptation was going to be as graciously well received as a critical darling. Several Marvel films have in fact managed to be such major disappointments that they are often considered to be some of the worst blockbusters out there, as well as some of the most infamous releases of their respective eras. Between modern-day misfires that fail to live up to the hype and old, low-budget flops before they got their footing on film adaptations, Marvel has a vast and varied history of terrible films.
20
‘The Marvels’ (2023)
Directed by Nia DaCosta
Before jumping into this, it’s really important to acknowledge genuinely toxic discourse surrounding The Marvels, and, as should always be the case regarding toxic discourse, turn away from it, even condemn it. The reality of the situation here is that The Marvels assembled a great deal of lauded talent behind and in front of the camera, and for reasons that are layered and intricate, reasons that should be picked apart rather than screamed about, almost nothing about the movie works. Surely its shockingly paltry box-office haul of $206.1 million worldwide, less than half of its break-even point, reflects that.
Starring Oscar winner Brie Larson alongside Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani, the MCU’s 33rd movie pits the entangled, superpowered trio in the title against an intergalactic foe played by franchise newcomer Zawe Ashton. There are way too many plot threads for 105 minutes here, none of them are particularly gripping, and tonally, The Marvels is an unmitigated disaster. There is something about The Marvels that works really well: Vellani as Kamala Khan. This is perhaps the most anemic entry in the most lucrative franchise ever, a wan film with little to no re-watch value, but Vellani brings so much heart and effortlessness to any icy movie that’s trying way too hard it’s easy to want to see her reprise the role. —Samuel R. Murrian
The Marvels
- Release Date
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November 10, 2023
- Runtime
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105 minutes
19
‘Daredevil’ (2003)
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson
One of many forgotten Marvel films from the pre-MCU era of Marvel’s feature films, Daredevil is comically inept when it comes to adapting the nuance and maturity of the fan-favorite character. The film sees Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, a man who, after being blinded in a childhood accident, utilizes his increased other senses in order to take down criminals as a high-profile lawyer. However, when the law isn’t enough to stop a vicious evildoer, Matt takes things into his own hands as he fights crime as the powerful Daredevil.
Daredevil was already a largely disliked film when it was first released, but it has only grown to be worse with time following the exceptionally well-crafted Daredevil shows of the modern era starring Charlie Cox. By comparison, Daredevil completely wastes its top-notch cast for a muddled story filled with underwhelming action, uninteresting stakes, and a story that is far too goofy to take seriously. It takes an especially bad film to make such inspired casting choices as Affleck as Murdock, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, and Colin Farrell as Bullseye not work as well as they should.
Daredevil
- Release Date
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February 14, 2003
- Runtime
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103 minutes
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Jennifer Garner
Elektra Natchios / Elektra
18
‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ (2019)
Directed by Simon Kinberg
The X-Men’s decades-spanning run on the big screen is one of remarkable highs and lows. The original 2000 X-Men birthed the modern superhero era (and was followed by a superior sequel in 2003) before Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man really took things into high gear. The X-movies that followed were occasionally awful (X-Men: The Last Stand!), sometimes brilliant (X-Men: Days of Future Past!). Before heading into a new era, post-corporate merger, X-Men: Dark Phoenix brought fans of the iconic mutants no joy at all; in fact, this is the blandest X-Men movie ever by some distance.
Sophie Turner is front-and-center of an ensemble cast including Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender, as Dark Phoenix attempts to bring the iconic comics saga of the extraordinarily powerful Jean Grey to life for the second time, failing harder than the first ill-received go-round. Jennifer Lawrence emerges pretty much unscathed, opting to die rather brutally (spoiler!) in act one. There’s always been a dark, offbeat edge to the X-Men; it’s part of the appeal, but Dark Phoenix fumbles royally into territory that’s just damn depressing. —Samuel R. Murrian
17
‘Venom: The Last Dance’ (2024)
Directed by Kelly Marcel
While far from the best superhero movies out there, the Venom films provided a sense of brainless, dumb fun that gave them a dedicated fanbase among modern superhero films. However, Venom: The Last Dance is not only the dumbest and overall worst of the trilogy, but seems to regress from the progress previously made in the series and repeat the series’ worst attributes. The film sees Eddie and Venom on the run, being hunted by alien forces sent by a deadly villain known as Knull, forcing the duo into their most dangerous adventure yet.
While the film occasionally delves into the goofy fun of previous films with individual scenes like Venom taking over a horse or gambling at a casino, the vast majority of the film is dull, repetitive, and outright boring to sit through. Every other character that isn’t Eddie or Venom is a complete pain to watch on-screen, given little to no interesting characteristics, yet taking up a surprisingly high amount of runtime. Especially after a previous film that found a great tonal balance, The Last Dance takes itself so seriously as a final chapter that, ironically, it’s impossible to take any of it seriously.
16
‘Eternals’ (2021)
Directed by Chloé Zhao
A few years after directing the heart-tugging Western family drama masterpiece The Rider, and in the immediate wake of winning an Academy Award for directing Nomadland, Chloé Zhao helmed an ambitious, lengthy, now rather infamous MCU Phase Four installment. A cast of brilliant actors and movie stars, headlined by Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, and Kumail Nanjiani, are all dressed up with nowhere to go in a tedious fantasy about a brewing war between good and evil ancients.
And what a waste. Zhao had previously alchemized cinematic fireworks from next to nothing, in much smaller films; it’s hard to say if she wasn’t a match for a superhero picture, or if perhaps no one could have made this plodding, uninvolving soap opera with some uninspired action set pieces. Nearly every actor here had previously proven they could be truly great, and those actors will all do great work again; this nearly 300 million-dollar screensaver was a waste of everyone’s time. —Samuel R. Murrian
Eternals
- Release Date
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November 5, 2021
- Runtime
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156 minutes
15
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ (2023)
Directed by Peyton Reed
One of many notable misfires from the post-Avengers: Endgame era of the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania largely faltered from attempting to tell a major chapter for the next stage of the MCU out of the comedic side-character of the franchise. The film sees Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and friends traveling into the depths of the Quantum Realm, finding a thriving microscopic society that lives under the iron fist rule of the vicious Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). At the same time, Scott has to imbue lessons and the importance of being a hero to his young daughter, Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton).
With an array of underwhelming visuals and a dated style of comedy that fails to create laughs, Quantumania has proven to be one of the most critically maligned entries in the MCU’s history. While audiences and critics were more receptive to Ant-Man’s adventures when they were smaller-scale heist films, bringing the characters to a universal threat was a recipe for disaster, as the series’ brand of comedy doesn’t work with these gargantuan stakes. Considering how the Kang storyline has been completely abandoned, there is even less of a reason to ever rewatch this film again.
14
‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)
Directed by Alan Taylor
While it’s rare for the MCU to release a truly terrible film on the same level as the worst that Marvel has to offer, the clear exception to this was Thor: The Dark World, one of the most bland and forgettable blockbusters of all time. A sequel to Kenneth Branagh‘s original Thor film from 2011, Thor: The Dark World sees Thor fighting off against a vicious enemy from Asgard’s past, a deadly race of dark elves led by the vengeful Malekith. Thor soon sees himself reuniting with Jane Foster and facing his most dangerous mission yet to save not just Earth, but Asgard as well.
While Thor: The Dark World attempts to tap into the same mythical ethos and fantasy worldbuilding that made the original Thor work so well, without Branagh’s signature touch, the result is just a dull, monotonous slog to get through. The stakes are simply nonexistent, none of the characters or action sequences work well on screen, and the entire film is shrouded in an aura of boredom, acting as the most forgettable chapter of the MCU to date. While Thor as a character would eventually find refuge and success with Thor: Ragnarök and his appearances in other films, The Dark World was a dark chapter for the character as a whole.
13
‘The New Mutants’ (2020)
Directed by Josh Boone
The act of actually making a film is a deeply difficult and strenuous task, as audiences rarely get to understand the full scope, struggles, and sometimes development hell that happens behind the scenes of a production. One of the most egregious and notable cases of development issues for a Marvel film was The New Mutants, which faced constant rewrites, reshoots, and delays before being unceremoniously dropped during the COVID pandemic. The film follows a group of young mutants who, just after discovering their abilities, find themselves being held in a secret facility against their will, forced to fight the terrors in order to escape.
While The New Mutants certainly had potential in its story and characters, the complete disarray and chaos behind the scenes all but guaranteed that the film was going to be a muddled failure of its original vision. It certainly didn’t help things that in the middle of its production, both COVID-19 and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox threw major wrenches into the film’s development even further, making it one of the most often forgotten Marvel movies of the modern era. The final result is a film that is constantly fighting for its own identity, with moments of potential shining through a disastrous, sometimes incomprehensible execution.
12
‘Blade: Trinity’ (2004)
Directed by David S. Goyer
The first two Blade films are some of the most distinct yet creative films in Marvel’s entire cinematic history, with a sleek and stylish visual flair and some of the most electrifying action sequences of the era. However, the infamous third film in the trilogy, Blade: Trinity, retains none of the inherent strengths of the previous entries, taking the focus away from Blade himself and giving it to unfunny side characters. The film follows Blade having to team up with a clan of vampire hunters known as the Nightstalkers to take down the original vampire himself, Dracula.
While the previous Blade films had their occasional moments of campy humor, Trinity‘s approach to raunchy, R-rated comedy falls flat at nearly every opportunity, souring the entire experience of the film as a whole. It doesn’t help that the top-notch action that defined the series has also taken a major downgrade in the film, being brushed off to the wayside and being often uninteresting and anticlimactic when it finally does occur. The film managed to be such a trainwreck that Blade wouldn’t get another true on-screen appearance until Deadpool & Wolverine.
11
‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ (2009)
Directed by Gavin Hood
Fox’s run of X-Men movies, while for the most part celebrated and looked back on with fond memories nowadays, are a largely mixed bag quality-wise ranging from great films like X2 and Days of Future Past to major disappointments like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse. The crowning achievement of mockery and low quality of the X-Men franchise, however, is easily X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film that completely botched its premise as an origin story for one of the most iconic and memorable members of the X-Men team.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a half-decent story to tell when it comes to the emotion and evolution of Logan as a character, but the film’s poor execution completely wipes away all the goodwill of the original story. The film is filled with egregious changes to the source material that only served to make die-hard fans more annoyed than anything, none more infamous than its portrayal of Deadpool which got rid of all the character’s wit and comedy. It’s one of the few films in Marvel’s repertoire that, all this time later, is treated more like a punchline of low quality than an actual film worth watching.
