MCU Final Battles Ranked

MCU Final Battles Ranked

We got a new MCU movie this past week with The Fantastic Four: First Steps That means there’s another final battle to talk about. How does The Fantastic Four: First Steps finale compare to the other finales in the MCU. Let’s talk about it!

37. Thor: The Dark World: Shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the one of the worst MCU movies has the worst third act. This is a victim of the movie as a whole being so bland and forgettable. The movie didn’t do a great job of establishing Malekith as a villain, there’s nothing memorable or unique about him so you don’t care about his threat. You don’t even really know what his motivation is in all of this, he wants to spread darkness which isn’t a super compelling motivation for a villain. The rivalry between Thor and Malekith isn’t there, it’s not as compelling as it should have been. There’s some fun moments when they do planet hopping, but besides that I don’t remember much about this third act. 

36. Captain Marvel: I tend to be a defender towards this movie, I think it’s a good movie that’s flawed. However, I don’t think the third act is really good and overall it’s a pretty big disappointment. I think the big problem here is they made Captain Marvel herself so powerful but the villain isn’t powerful enough to equally fight her. There’s ideas in Jude Law’s villain that are rather interesting. But he’s not a physical threat towards her. The final fight is literally just her blasting him and him flying backwards. Beyond that, when they do the space battle stuff it feels more like visual noise then anything super compelling. I do like this movie but I don’t think the third act is one of the strong points.  

35. Thor: Love and Thunder: A finale that’s better than the movie as a whole, but not by much and I just don’t think this is a great finale. What puts this above the bottom 2 is I find there to be some emotional weight with Jane’s death and how Gorr is used and completing his character arc. Beyond that, everything else here doesn’t work and I think it falls flat. Where this finale is most flawed is Thor giving kids his powers. I don’t get what they were going for and why Thor didn’t do that in any of the The Avengers movies that probably would have been very helpful. It feels like an idea that Taika Waititi had but clearly is a very stupid idea and nobody told him no. For the movie as a whole, I think Waititi needs to be told NO more. 

34. The Marvels: Of the finales I’ve talked about so far, this is the most fun. Our team has found a way to balance their powers and use them in a way to defeat our villain. Some of the visuals are pretty cool as we’re seeing the heroes use different powers. They found a more powerful villain for Captain Marvel so the fight itself is more interesting. But as is the problem with most of these weaker final battles, it doesn’t have a great villain. This is one of the few MCU villains in which I don’t remember their name. I don’t remember what her motivation is. Monica’s sacrifice feels totally out of place and not properly set up. They tried to force emotional weight where it didn’t make sense. Some fun moments but a pretty underwhelming final battle. 

33. Eternals: Another movie that I’m a bit of a defender of but can acknowledge its flaws. I think the finale is a big victim of the characters being underdeveloped, had they been developed better then I think the finale would work better. The motivations of our characters and why they’re doing what they’re doing would be more clear. Especially with the Sprite character I don’t think they did enough with her to set up her choices in the third act. I think this finale has some of the best visuals in the MCU. Seeing the speed and flight of our different characters looks very cool. Seeing a bunch of super powerful heroes fight it out provides some exciting action scenes. Cool moments, underwhelming as a whole. 

32. Black Widow: What’s frustrating about this finale is it feels like it belongs in a totally different film. For the most part, Black Widow is a pretty grounded finale and had the finale matched the movie’s tone it probably would be much higher up on the list. When it turns into a CGI spectacle I don’t think it works as well, it has a certain cartoonish feel to it that wasn’t in the film. There’s still some cool fight choreography going on. All of our heroes get a fun moment or cool action scene that stands out. I love the payoff with Yelena about Natasha’s pose. Red Guardian gets some solid laughs. 

31. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: This is the biggest finale of the trilogy. Going bigger with the finale didn’t help the movie as a whole. I don’t think there’s a lot of stakes in this movie because of how they handled Kang. He’s set up to be the MCU’s next big bad but he’s defeated by Ant-Ma. It makes the finale feel that all of the tension feels drained from this film. The jokes with MODOK in the finale are some of the worst jokes of the film that feel out of place in this finale. There’s some cool spectacle in here and having this rebellion in the third act has a clear goal and motivation for the finale but overall a pretty disappointing finale.  

30. Captain America: Brave New World: Another finale that has fun moments but is disappointing. It’s fun to see Red Hulk, we haven’t gotten a rage Hulk in the MCU in a while. Getting a big finale with Red Hulk is fun. Seeing Red Hulk destroy monuments and the environment does put a smile on your face. The reshoots for the finale are very obvious, certain shots are clear that Anthony Mackie was on a green screen. There’s a shot where Mackie’s hair just disappears. The CGI for Red Hulk is pretty cool but the CGI in general isn’t great here. There’s not as much tension as maybe there should be considering the threat of Red Hulk and having the president turn into a big monster. 

29. Thor: This is one of the smaller scale third acts on this list and that’s part of the charm of it. It’s not this big third act spectacle with world or universe ending stakes. For the most part, the finale is just Thor and Loki fighting in Asgard on the rainbow bridge. That’s sort of the problem, that’s all that it is. There’s not another element to the third act with Jane trying to do something on Earth or something like that. It’s fun to see two siblings duke it out, both of them get an upper hand at one point but also can get hits against them. The movie wasn’t really focused on Thor and Loki’s rivalry so it doesn’t mean much to see them fight each other. It’s one of the finales on this list that is just there for me. 

28. Iron Man 2: A pretty entertaining finale all around, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this finale. It’s our first time really seeing War Machine in action. So seeing IronMan and War Machine fight robots is a cool visual. War Machine has more guns so what he can provide is different from Iron Man. This finale has the same problem as Thor as being very short. When it’s fighting robots, it’s a pretty fun sequence. But as soon as Whiplash shows up in his suit, the fight ends so quickly that it’s not as exciting as it should have been. Whiplash wasn’t developed to be a great villain. But the Black Widow hallway fight is pretty cool. 

27. Black Panther: This is a frustrating one because on a thematic level, I think this finale works really well. The ways in which they use Killmonger to change T’Challa’s perspective on the world is very interesting. There’s a lot of emotional weight in the fight between Black Panther and Killmonger because of Killmonger’s actions in the film and what he’s done. But in terms of the action and CGI, this finale doesn’t really work. It’s clear that Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan was on green screens in the mines, it pulls you out of the moment. What the characters are saying is more interesting than the action taking place. I don’t mind the rhinos in the third act; it feels a bit out of place and I wouldn’t have put it in there. 

26. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: On a character level there’s a lot of great stuff here, on an action level I don’t think it works as well. Yondu’s sacrifice is very well done, it fulfills his character arc and provides an emotional punch. Yondu’s arc is one of the strong points of the film and we see Gunn’s ability to turn weird characters into solid characters. Some of the dialogue between Rocket and Baby Groot is very funny and puts a smile on your face. In general, I think the action of what’s taking place isn’t as interesting. It comes across as visual noise with spaceships flying around. It’s also very unclear why some people are there, it feels convoluted and Gunn is trying to make a bigger finale when I don’t think it was necessary. 

25. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Yet again another finale that has fun moments and solid character stuff but as a whole feels like visual noise. Similar to Black Widow, with the finale being more grounded had the martial arts choreography that made this film’s fight scenes stand out it probably would have been very cool. When it’s focused on the fight between Shang-Chi and his dad, it works really well on an emotional level. They mirror the fight choreography between Shang-Chi’s parents at the beginning of the movie. I don’t think the big fight between the armies is all that exciting or interesting. When it moves to big CGI with the dragons it loses what could have made this finale really good and special. 

24. Spider-Man: Homecoming: Overall, I actually really dig this movie and think it’s one of the best Spider-Man movies out there. However, I don’t think the third act is quite as good as maybe it should have been. It’s a fairly short finale and there’s not much of a fight between Spider-Man and Vulture. With both of them having the ability to go into the sky, I feel there was a cool aerial fight they could have done that they didn’t. It’s especially weird when you have aerial characters but most of the finale takes place in a plane. I don’t think it’s a bad finale, some of the dynamics between Spider-Man and Vulture do work but overall, it’s not as exciting as it should have been. 

23. The Fantastic Four: First Steps: A big gigantic final battle where our Fantastic Four battles Galactus in New York City. There’s just some fun images of seeing our heroes battle this planet size threat. All of them get to use their powers in a fun and creative way. This is one of the few sequences in the film where they fully get to use their powers for a long period of time. Sue Storm gets some great moments here, it’s probably the best usage of her powers that we’ve seen in cinematic history. I don’t really have any big issues with this final battle. I think it’s a good final battle but it’s not one that I have many positives or negatives to talk about. 

22. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Another very small scale finale and that’s sort of what I like about it. It’s not focused on being this big and epic finale with San Francisco in trouble. No, it fits the tone of the film nicely. The whole movie is a macguffin story about different fractions trying to get this one object. The finale puts all of those fractions together for one final chase. The finale is able to keep the humor of the film and everybody gets a funny moment. They use the shrinking technology in some fun and creative ways. There’s not much positives or negatives I have about this finale, for what it offers I think it does a solid job at it. 

21. Spider-Man: Far From Home: I’m not crazy about this movie as a whole but I do like the finale and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. You get more of the cool Mysterio visuals that you got earlier in the film. It provides a pretty fresh and unique experience when you have these dream-like scenarios taking place. I love how they use Happy and Peter’s friends in the finale. Having Happy step into a heroic role is great and it’s fun seeing him trying to be the hero but clearly not being the best at it. The romantic moments between Peter and MJ do work and capture the right emotions. What holds this back is I feel the Mysterio visuals were cooler earlier in the film. The stuff here is still cool but it lacks in comparison to what came before. 

20. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: This is where Sam Raimi’s horror roots are displayed. He got creative control over this finale and it shows. It gets crazy with having Zombie Strange. It’s creepy and feels different inside of the MCU. The character moments with Wanda fulfilling her character arc was very well done. I like how they defeat her by giving her what she wants and not in this magical battle of Strange vs Wanda. However, I do wish there was more in this finale to offer as far as cool and trippy stuff. It felt a bit like wasted potential when you have two magic users in here and you don’t have a cool or exciting fight. It’s also a pretty short finale that I wish was 5-10 minutes longer. 

19. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: A much better finale then the original but I feel this one is still flawed. The scope and stakes of the finale are massive, we know what Namor’s threat is and what he’s capable of. You have Wakandans battling Namor’s army. On the character level there’s nice work happening as Shuri’s arc is completed and she’s learning balance. She’s been a very angry character for most of the film, but here we see her become a true hero that’s not ruthless as we thought maybe she would be. But, I feel how big the finale is trying to be. It takes place on this boat, it’s very limited with what they can do and it’s not as exciting as it should have been. Overall, still a good finale but not a great finale. 

18. Doctor Strange: This one embraces the cool visuals of the film very well. As part of Strange’s character arc, he decides to sacrifice himself into The Dark Dimension which leads to Dormammu’s introduction. The way the whole thing is visualized is very cool and fits the film’s visuals nicely. It’s just a fun bit to have “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain” as this repeated joke with Strange dying over and over again. That’s more interesting to me than the fight with Kaecilis in the real world. That fight isn’t bad, but it’s not super interesting and it’s overshadowed by the Dormammu stuff. It’s right there in the middle for me. 

17. Iron Man: The very first third act in the MCU is one of the smaller scale ones. It’s not this big exciting fight with world ending stakes. No, the third act apparently fits the tone and vibe of the film. It’s a simple fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger in the streets. It’s fun to see two guys in robot suits battling it out. There is some emotional weight with Tony’s character concluding and giving the heroic sacrifice to help others more than himself. As a final battle, this isn’t one of the most memorable. It’s good enough and entertaining but it’s not a final battle that I find myself drawn back to. Despite being in a top tier MCU film, it’s a mid-tier final battle. 

16. The Incredible Hulk: Now this is a bottom tier MCU film with a great final battle. Like several phase one final battles, it’s very simplistic but that’s almost what works about it. I get a lot of entertainment with two monsters, Hulk and Abomination battling it out. They’re causing damage to themselves and the town. At one point, Hulk uses cars as boxing gloves, it might be silly but it’s enjoyable. This isn’t one of the most emotionally complex final battles on this list. In a lot of ways, the negatives I said about Iron Man can apply here but overall this is just one that I enjoy more. 

 

15. Deadpool & Wolverine: I’m a big fan of Deadpool & Wolverine, it was one of my favorite films of last year. All three times I’ve watched it, I feel the third act loses me. There is some emotional weight in the film with Deadpool and Wolverine’s sacrifice to save the multiverse. The way they use the flashbacks with “Like a Prayer” is very well done. The two of them fighting a bunch of Deadpool variants is a fun image but that’s really all that it is. It feels like it should be a payoff to a joke earlier on, but it’s really not. There’s humor, emotion, and the one take scene is a cool visual technique but overall this isn’t as good of a finale as I’d hoped it would be. 

14. Iron Man 3: For me, this is easily the best third act of the Iron Man trilogy. This was the conclusion to the Iron Man trilogy and at one point was considered to be Robert Downey Jr’s final MCU film. They want all out with this finale and created something exciting and fun. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had with having a bunch of Iron Man suits showing up to help Tony. There’s some fun banter between Tony and Rhodey, Rhodey gets some fun action in the third act. Pepper even gets to join at a few points. I don’t think this has much emotional weight, but not every third act needs that to work. 

13. Ant-Man: One of the most clever and unique third acts on this list. They use Ant-Man’s abilities in some very clever ways. They have him and Yellowjacket shrink down and have the main fight happen on a Thomas the Tank Engine toy set. That’s a fun image that puts a smile on my face. The sequence is cutting back and forth between the fight and Cassie’s point of view. The humor in the film doesn’t let up, so it’s still really funny. The joke with Luis backing up the van never fails to make me laugh. It does a nice job of concluding Scott’s character arc in the film. 

12. Thor Ragnarok: This is just another very fun and exciting third act that from beginning to end delivers action, emotion, and humor. It’s a final battle with multiple moving action scenes taking place. Thor fights Hela and realizes what the journey he’s been on is. The moment of Thor realizing his true power and potential is awesome. The use of “The Immigrant Song” is great. Hulk battles a giant wolf which is a very cool image to see. It also keeps up the humor that Thor Ragnarok did such a great job of delivering. Once again, just a very solid third act that delivers a lot of fun moments in an already fun movie. 

11. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: This is one of the more emotional and gut wrenching third acts in the MCU. This film in general pulls at the heart strings with animal abuse and makes these characters feel like a family. The third is the resolution to all of that. It completes Rocket’s character arc with him realizing and accepting who he is, he’s a raccoon. The film did a great job with making The High Evolutionary this despicable villain that you want to see taken out. When the Guardians get their moment to defeat him and tear him to shreds is so satisfying. The one take hallway scene is the best action sequence in the MCU. 

10. Thunderbolts*: This is another super creative final battle that has a very different feel to it. Most of these third acts are these big action set pieces with world ending stakes. While The Void is causing a lot of damage to New York City, it’s not a big action film. The way they go about defeating him is talking to him and having Bob fight his inner demons. There’s something so unique and cool about that, that makes this film and third act stand out. There’s some great laughs in here with Bucky and Red Guardian that make me laugh. Some of the dream-like visuals remind of A Nightmare on Elm Street. It ranks high on the list because it’s so creative and visually striking. 

9. Captain America: The First Avenger: This is a very well done final battle that has one of the best scenes in the Captain America franchise. The scene I’m referring to is Steve’s goodbye to Peggy. When you first see it, the scene means one thing and is emotional. With Endgame and more MCU installments, you view that moment very differently. It’s so emotional and so well done and makes you realize that Steve and Peggy are the MCU’s best couple. Also, the images of Captain America fighting and taking out Nazi’s puts a smile on your face. Red Skull is a fun villain for Captain America to fight as well. 

8. Guardians of the Galaxy: James Gunn does a great job with this Guardians of the Galaxy third act having at least one emotional moment that works and hits hard. For this film, it’s the “We are Groot” moment that shows you that these characters are a family and they care about each other. It’s a moment that on paper shouldn’t work, but it works so well in context and how Gunn crafted these characters. Even the moments of Star-Lord defeating Ronan with the power of music is kind of cheesy but in the context of the film I think it works and is something that you could only do with this franchise with these characters. On an action level, it’s not super memorable. On a character and enjoyment level, this is a great third act. 

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron: This is easily the weakest film in the Avengers franchise, but the third act is pretty great and delivers everything you want. Each of our heroes get their moment to shine and be awesome. I love the dialogue and banter between Hawkeye and Wanda here. Hawkeye is acting as this mentor towards her which leads to Wanda finding confidence in herself and destroying a lot of Ultron bots. You get a very cool slow-motion 360 shot that shows all of our Avengers being awesome. There are stakes in the film, there’s a moment where you think Hawkeye is going to die and sacrifice himself. The Quicksilver death doesn’t hit as hard as I think it should, but overall it’s great. 

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: This final is actually a lot more emotional than sometimes people remember. At the center of it, is the fight between Steve and Bucky. We know how much Bucky means to Steve so you have this conflict between them as Steve doesn’t want to hurt Bucky but he has to for the sake of the mission. You also get great stuff in here with Black Widow and Nick Fury outsmarting Alexander Pierce. We get our first time seeing Sam Wilson in action as Falcon. That's fun and exciting. It’s a third act that really turned things on its head and changed the trajectory for the MCU moving forward. I hate to only put this one at #6, I wish I could rank it higher but the MCU has a lot of great third acts. 

5. Captain America: Civil War: Given the scope of the entire film, it’s easy to forget that the third act of the film is actually much smaller. It’s one of the more personal third acts that we’ve gotten. Once again, so much of the conflict involves Steve and Bucky. In The Winter Soldier, Steve had to stop Bucky, here Steve has to save Bucky. It’s emotional that in order for Steve to save Bucky, Steve has to defeat Tony. It’s emotional because we care deeply about Steve and Tony and don’t want them to fight. Once again, it’s a third act that’s important for the MCU as a whole, specifically with Infinity War officially breaking The Avengers apart. 

4. Avengers: Infinity War: You know this is a tough ranking when Infinity War’s third act is only ranked at #4. There’s so much in this third act that I love and creates one of the thrilling and exciting third acts on this list. You get two different battles going on. One on Titan with Thanos and the other with Thanos’ army in Wakanda. Both of them are large and scale and give each of our heroes their time to shine. There’s stakes for what’s going on, we know the consequences for what’ll happen if Thanos wins. Thor’s entry in Wakanda is one of the best moments in the MCU. When I saw this film opening night, my audience went nuts for it. All leading up to one of the best movie endings of all time, our heroes losing. 

3. The Avengers: This isn’t one of the more complex final battles on the list, but it’s one of the most fun and exciting third acts. The entire final battle is basically just our Avengers fighting an army of aliens. We don’t care about the army of aliens, it’s just a random army of aliens to make our Avengers look awesome and heroic. Throughout the final battle, each of our Avengers gets awesome moments. Hulk probably gets the most with him punching the big alien, punching Thor, and then throwing Loki around. The 360 shot is iconic and awesome and I was actually very close to the shooting location for that scene in New York City. So I’m basically in the MCU because of that. I’ll be taking autographs. 

2. Spider-Man: No Way Home: This is another joy inducing third act that puts a smile on your face. This third act is greatly elevated by the inclusions of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Seeing our three Spider-Man on screen together is so much fun. They have great chemistry with one another and we get to see how awkward they are all. I love the stuff with Andrew having them recreating Gwen’s death from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 except actually getting to save Zendaya. The fight between Tom Holland and Willem Dafoe is really well done and one of the most brutal fights we’ve gotten in the MCU. Seeing this entire film on the big screen with a packed crowd was such a joy. 

1. Avengers Endgame: Before you even starting reading this list, you probably could’ve guessed this was going to be #1. The only way this final battle works is because of the build up to this film. The MCU’s 11 year long Infinity Saga ended with this film in such a slam bang and awesome way. You get some of the best fan service in cinematic history with Captain America picking up Mijnoir or the portal sequence that puts a smile on my face every time I watch the film (or even just the third act). But you also get a great sacrifice death for Iron Man that’s so satisfying for his character arc and such an emotional death. This final battle made me feel very emotion possible, so it’s #1 on the list.