I don’t really talk to my mates about the Marvel films so have been in a bubble and thought I might be on my own in my love for Winter Soldier. Far from it apparently.
I actually have pretty much the same list as there is up there right now, GotG films as my next set. I did fins Dr Strange to be pretty damn good as well though, but only watched it the once. Maybe it doesn’t hold up.
My favourite is Logan and I don’t care that it’s not part of the MCU. Wonderfully cast and A-grade performances all round. The violence is turned up to 11, but I think it’s justified by the tone and themes of the movie. I love this film.
See, I’m pretty close to your hypothetical because I’ve barely seen the X-Men films. I caught the one set in Egypt with the purple spandex samurai lady, and the good Eurythmics bit, and I half remember First Class from a plane ride. Disliked the former on the whole, can remember spending more time thinking about geopolitics during the latter.
I recognize the Winter Soldier is probably a superior movie and I love it a whole lot, but for what I want out of a comic movie I think Guardians really takes the cake. Winter Soldier is nipping at its heels, though. Both are incredible movies and I was shocked to get both of them in the same year.
Guardians is the best because, not coincidentally, it was the one most allowed to go off-template. Winter Soldier also, like, the end of the movie is basically Captain America recreating 9/11 but crashing his plane into the MCU version of the NSA’s headquarters. And there are very very few big budget Hollywood movies where the hero says outright that an arm of the US government is dogshit and literally Nazis instead of the typical "if we just got rid of these few bad apples… " Of course it’s the MCU so it’s not like there were any long term repercussions from that but still, pretty bold for an MCU movie.
It’s cool to see so many people who think Guardians and Winter Soldier are the best, they’re my favorites too.
Many of them are pretty close in quality, so if I were to rank them I’d provably do it like fighting game tiers.
S-
Guardians
Winter Soldier
A-
First Avenger
Civil War
B-
Iron Man 3
Thor
Ant-Man
C-
Iron Man
The Dark World
Avengers
Dr. Strange
Incredible Hulk
Almost attempted to get a ticket refunded-
Age of Ultron
Iron Man 2
Winter Soldier is All the President’s Men with superheroes. I just don’t see how another MCU movie could top its blend political intrigue and action. Black Panther has the best shot to pull it off, but I’d bet that Winter Soldier will still be my favorite after 2018.
I prefer a supnatural fish-out-of-watar romantic comedy with action side dish to a supernatural political thriller action hybrid. To each their own 
Seeing many posts for Winter Solider being the best movie, and I agree with that.
But my favorite is Avengers 1.
Guardians vol 1 was my favorite. It’s just so unique and colorful and it’s sci-fi as shit.
But then Guardian vol 2 came out and it’s better than the first in pretty much every way, so now that’s my favorite. For basically the same reasons.
Winter Solider best captures the “[insert other genre] as a superhero movie” approach that the MCU has shifted toward, so that’s why I voted it for best.
Surprised Iron Man 3 isn’t higher, though! It might be my favorite in terms of character work and interesting set pieces. It’s a rare case of Marvel actually shrinking the scope of the film in a sequel, which I think is commendable.
Definitely Winter Soldier for me, which definitely isn’t a lonely opinion here! I don’t really follow superhero movies much, but I could enjoy it as a political thriller with relatively underpowered super heroes… although that emphasis is there for a reason.
to a certain extent it is just “whatever the last one I saw was” but I think Doctor Strange is right up there regardless.
So this is a Marvel thread. Black Panther is a Marvel movie. Black Panther just dropped a teaser trailer. Y’all wanna see it?
I will see this for the soundtrack alone.
I think Spider-man is the only one I’ve seen, so that one.
My favorite Marvel movie is Black Panther.
The fact that a Doctor Strange movie even got made blows my mind he always been my car marvel hero I never thought he get a movie
my immediate first thought when i saw this topic was Blade.That and Blade 2 were pretty bomb.
personally i’m waiting for them to give up on making Fantastic Four movies and just do a Farscape or Outer Limits style pulp sci-fi show already, since that’s already the format the comics always existed in. I want to see the Thing get in a boxing match with an interstellar creature. It can be just like Rocky.
I still feel like if we give it a decade or two, we’ll look back and say that the clear early standout was The Winter Soldier. I hope (wish) that Black Panther also reaches the heights of TWS (I imagine it will in box office numbers, but that’s sort of a sidepoint).
I think other notables are Ant-Man and GotG Vol 1 for being pointed divergences from the ‘marvel formula’, but I’m not sure how well they’ll age. I constantly wish that Ant-Man would have gone farther from the formula, into more of a heist film without the hero angle, but oh well. The Black Panther looks poised to do… something, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The Black Widow movie oh wait right-
But for real, it’s Winter Soldier.
