2021 Superhero Movies Ranked
After taking a year off in 2020, the superhero movie genre has returned. In 2021 we got 7 theatrical released superhero movies, 2 being DC and 5 being Marvel. So in today’s blog post I’m going to be ranking the 7 theatrical release superhero movies. Let’s get started!
NOTE: As a point of reference, I gave all 7 of these movies a positive review. So even the movie in last place I still would recommended and I liked it.
7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage: To be clear, while this one is in last place I still thoroughly enjoyed this movie. And found it to be a fun follow-up to the original movie, and I thought I improved upon it. Now this is a movie that doubles down on what made the original movie so much fun. Once again, the romance between Eddie and Venom is great and since they are already together at the start of the movie, for a large portion of the movie you get their relationship and it’s a lot of fun to see on screen. Woody Harrelson is great as Cletus Kassdy, Harrelson is great at playing weird serial killer type characters and he brings a lot of crazy and creepiness to the role. And the movie just embraces the campiness that was present in the original movie, once again it doubles down that. If you liked that about the original movie, you will like this movie because it is a really fun and solid edition to the Marvel canon, and 2021 movie. Where this one gets held back is the runtime, the movie is only 97 minutes long and it moves quickly. But that’s kind of the problem, it’s moving so quickly so much that it doesn’t explain what certain things are. Things keep on being presented to the audience, but very little of it is actually explored. So if the movie hadd 5-10 minutes to it’s runtime it could have fleshed some of it out.
6. Eternals: This is an intersting one because this seems to be a movie that people are all over the place on. Some people are loving this movie, and think it is top tier Marvel. Others are hating this movie and thinkin it’s the worst thing that the MCU has done. As for me, I liked this movie. I thought this was a good sold edition to the MCU. Right off the bat, I appreciate how ambitious and risky this movie is. This is something so new and different for the MCU, and I like that. It’s also safe to say that this is the best looking movie inside of the MCU, the visuals and cinematography are top notch in this movie. BUT this is a movie that does have some significant story issues. First up, their are way to many main characters in this movie. And that’s an issue because none of them feel developed fleshed out as well as they should be. It would have been fine if Sersi and Ikaris were the main characters, and everybody else was a side character. But that is not the case here in one scene Sersi is the main character, in the next Ikaris is, then it’s Kingo. I think this movie would have worked better if it was an 8 episode long show on Disney+. Because if that was the case, then I think it would have been better. So I haven’t rewatched this movie since I saw it opening night. Maybe once I do, my opinions on it could change. But as is, this is a frustrating but good MCU movie.
5. Black Widow: The first MCU movie to come out in over 2 years, I thought was a very good edition to the MCU. Now, I think the biggest issue with this movie is when it came out, which isn’t necessarily an issue with the movie. But phase 4 has teased that “multiverse” is coming, and the first movie inside of phase 4 is a prequel that should have come out in 2016. Also, Taskmaster was an underwhelming and boring villain. He should have been a top tier villain, but he wasn’t. On the positive, I think the cast of the movie is really quite good. Florence Pugh being the best character of the movie, where she can be fun, emotional, and is great in the action. David Harbour also gets some really funny moments as this one-note Russian version of Captain America. I think another big positive of the movie is that it’s a more personal and grounded movie. The movie’s villains aren't trying to blow up a city or kill half of the universe. Now the story revolves around Natasha Romanoff and her trying to destroy the organization that turned her into the person that she is. Overall, this is a very good MCU movie. But a couple things hold it back from being a great MCU movie.
4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: I was pretty surprised by this movie, because I was more so excited about it being a MCU movie. But the trailers for the movie didn’t really win me over all that much, but I really dug this movie. I found it to be a fun edition to the MCU that did a number of things really well. The best thing about this movie is that it’s a great genre blender, it mixes it being a martial arts movie with fantasy really well, and because of that it tells a different type of MCU movie. If you want a martial arts movie, you get a martial arts movie and if you want a fantasy movie you get a fantasy movie. I also really enjoyed the cast for the movie. Simu Liu and Awkwafina have great chemistry with one another. You buy their relationship. And they just feel like real people that you might know. One final positive, the action for this movie is very well done, the choreography for it all is really cool, the bus fight being the big stand-out of the movie. Now, I don’t think all of the humor worked for the movie. This is one of the MCU where it felt like the humor was way too forced, it didn’t come organically. That was really the big issue with the movie, and the movie’s final battle had a lot of fantasy moments inside of it but I thought it failed to tell a great story in it’s third act. But in general, this is a very good and entertaining addition to the MCU.
3. Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Another superhero movie that I was totally surprised by. Because prior to this movie, I thought that Man of Steel was a great movie, one of the better DCEU movies. And Batman v Superman was the worst movie inside of the DCEU for me. Going into this movie, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. But if you saw my review or my DCEU ranking of The Suicide Squad, I though that this was a great edition to the DCEU. And this movie deserves to be called epic, because the scope, scale, and size of things is massive. It’s a 4-hour long Justice League epic that worked for me. It’s a movie that lets you spend time with these characters, the theatrical cut for the movie didn’t spend time with the characters because of its short run time. You get to spend time with Cyborg, who is the heart and soul of this movie. In the theatrical cut he was just a man that had connections to the mother boces. And you just care about everything going on, all of the decisions that characters make you feel and care about it. So much so that when the action happens, you don’t want our heroes to die. It’s also great seeing Superman in the black suit. When I reviewed the movie back in March, I gave it an A. I think I’ll knock it back to an A-, but still this is a great movie.
2. The Suicide Squad: For me this is the most well rounded of the 2021 superhero movies. Where it is entertaining and also has a lot of heart. In my opinion, this is one of the most entertaining superhero movies of all time. I was never bored while watching this movie. And I also think that James Gunn was a great pick to direct a Suicide Squad movie, he makes bloody movies with dark humor and this movie delivers on that. The beach scene just has so many dead bodies with blood, guts, and body parts going everywhere. But all of the action in the movie is bloody and awesome. But it’s also shot very well, you can see everything that is happening. Harley Quinn gets a great action sequence with her prison escape scene. And the characters are just a lot of fun, and they have great chemistry with one another. The rivalry between Bloodsport and Peacemaker is so fun, this is most shown in that scene where they are trying to rescue Rick Flag. But like I said, the movie also has a lot of heart to it, more so than I was expecting. Especially with the arc that they take Bloodsport on is filled with heart, Ratcatcher II is another character that has a lot of heart to it. Put all of it together it’s entertaining, funny, has great action, fun characters, and a lot of heart. So this is one of my my favorite superhero movie of the year, and one of my favorite 2021 movie.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home: This was the last comic book movie of the year, and the first event movie in about 2 years. And this movie had some much hype and anticipation surrounding it, and I was one of these nerds that was so pumped to see this movie. And this movie absolutely lived to my hype and in a lot of ways exceeded them. This is a ture superhero epic with sky high ambitious, action, and plot and you feel this epic scope of everything taking place. While it is so ambitious and epic it’s also a super heartfelt and emotional movie. And they give Peter Parker in this movie such this emotional arc that leads to such a satisfying ending in the final 5-10 minutes of the movie. And the second half of the movie delivers so much fan service it’s insane, and my audience broke out into applause about 10 times in the second half of the movie. And the cast here is just great, Tom Holland I think gives his best performance as Spider-Man and Peter Parker in the MCU. And it’s great to see the return the legendary Willem DeFoe as Green Goblin who is even better, even crazier then in Spider-Man. And so put all of it together you get a fantastic Spider-Man movie, a fantastic comic book movie, and a fantastic movie in general.
There you have it, my ranking of the 7 superhero movies released in 2021. What is your favorite 2021 superhero movie? Thanks for reading!
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