Top 5 Most Disappointing MCU Movies
The MCU is having a great run in 2026 with Spider-Man: Brand New Day destroying the box office and the pre-ticket sales for Avengers: Doomsday being fantastic! But the MCU has not always been the top dogs, as they have had several massive disappointments over the years. So here are my picks for the five most disappointing MCU movies. Here we go!
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: For a while, I would say that this the biggest disappointment of the MCU. But since this movie is only #5 on the list there is four other movies that I view as bigger disappointments. In the case of this movie, I don’t think Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a bad movie, but it is one of James Gunn’s weaker films overall, and it’s always been the weakest film of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, and I don’t really see that changing. Of course, the soundtrack here is fantastic, there is so many great songs and needle drop here. I just enjoy Gunn’s style and comedy so getting that in an MCU movie with an ensemble of characters I enjoy. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is an entirely watchable movie; I am never bored watching it. But at the same time, it is a film that I can always imagine a better movie. I think the big example of the disappointment of this movie comes from the structure. Each act of the movie has a different villain, with the Sovereign, Taserface, and leading into the third we get the twist that Ego is the villain. The movie lacks a sense of forward momentum and urgency because the conflict keeps changing. It is fun to have Kurt Russell as the villain in an MCU movie, but I feel like they wasted the character by making the plot twist so predictable. Instead, the movie should have introduced Ego as the villain and have the twist be that Ego is his dad. Like I said, this is not a bad movie. There is a lot in here that does make for an enjoyable film, but it is not as good as I feel like it could have been.
4. Spider-Man: Far From Home: Overall, I think that Tom Holland’s run as Spider-Man has been great. Three of his four movies I think range from great to movies that I love, and the only one that was a bit of a misstep was Far From Home. Once again, I do not think this is a bad movie, but every time I watch this movie, I can always imagine a better movie, and I think this movie releasing after Endgame set extra expectations for this movie. A lot of what I said about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 I think can apply to this movie. It is an entertaining movie that I find watchable. It is just over two hours long, so it is a breezy adventure. Holland and the rest of the cast are so fun and charming. The Mysterio dream sequences are visually maybe the coolest sequences we have gotten in a Spider-Man movie. This movie gets knocked down a good bit because Mysteiro’s motivation is so cheesy and his plan makes absolutely no sense. Mysterio’s plan wants to become the world’s greatest superhero by being a fake and using drones, but he does not stop to think what would happen if an Avengers level threat would show up. There is no way that a random guy with no powers using drones can defeat a big threat like Ultron or Thanos. Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance feels both flat and overly cartoonish. His pub speech revealing his master plan is so over the top and stupid, and it is one of the MCU’s cringiest scenes. Plus, the reveal of Mysterio being the villain is so predictable, I do not know why it is a twist. Overall, there’s solid elements in this movie but on a plot and threat level, this movie does not really work.
3. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: This is a movie that I have always had complicated feelings about, but with time and rewatching the film the film has grown on me. I still do not think it is a great movie; I think it could have been better. In the case of this movie, I think audience expectations worked against this movie. It was following up Spider-Man: No Way Home which was a great multiverse event, and I think several of us expected another event on that level. They even marketed it as a multiverse film with cameos with putting Professor X and Captain Carter in the trailers. I think had this movie been released without No Way Home or before the movie, I do not think there would have been that same level of disappointment. Infamously, this movie also went through massive reworking in terms of reshoots and rewrites. Elizabeth Olsen has commented on this many times during interviews about how there were 33 rewrites of the script. Watching the movie, I think you can tell that two different movies were made with one being a Sam Raimi horror movie while the other movie is a generic MCU film directed by a committee without a singular vision. Between the disappointing multiverse fun and the constant reworking of the film is what makes this movie disappointing and so frustrating. As I have said with so many of these movies, it is frustrating because there are a lot of good elements in this movie. Olsen continues to show her acting chops and delivers another fantastic performance as Wanda, and with Wanda becoming this very broken character with a troubled past it allows a great actress like Olsen to just shine. I like how they use the multiverse to give Doctor Strange a character arc. They explore the arrogance of Doctor Strange through the multiverse and there is something interesting in that idea. When it does lean into the horror side of things, it is awesome and Sam Raimi delivers some awesome stuff. This is the MCU that has the biggest identity crisis which is frustrating.
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: If Multiverse of Madness is a film that has grown on me over time, Quantumania is the opposite of that. I was positive about the film initially but with time my thoughts and feelings on the film have gone down. This movie was hyped up so much, considering it is an Ant-Man. They really promoted this film as being a pivotal piece in the future of the MCU, with Kang being introduced and it kicked off phase 5. They were treating an Ant-Man movie like an event which is interesting considering the previous Ant-Man movies were smaller scale films, the 2015 original being the MCU’s heist film. I loved the trailers for the movie, the usage of Elton John’s “Yellow Brick Road” was fantastic, and it teased this darker film that was different from the previous films. Unfortunately, Quantumania is another victim of so many recent MCU movies being reworked and changed. They reshot the ending of the film just a month before the movie came out and you can tell as you’re watching it as they couldn’t decide if they wanted the film to end on a darker note or end on a more lighthearted note. That is another big problem with this movie, it felt so lightweight and it did not have any bite to it. They hinted at them killing off Ant-Man which would have added stakes to the film and left more of an impact. But instead, they add Kang being killed by Ant-Man. They teased that Kang was going to be the next big bad for the MCU and in his first appearance he gets killed off by Ant-Man, that is stupid. Also, with the firing of Jonathan Majors and the MCU pivoting away from Kang the reputation of the movie has gone down as in terms of the MCU it does not mean anything. I know that’s not this movie’s fault, but I think had this movie handled Kang better they would’ve recast Kang instead of completely pivoting away from Kang. I really do enjoy the first two Ant-Man movies, and I hoped this movie would have been another solid Ant-Man adventure but it was not. This is the only MCU trilogy that I think gets worse with every film.
1. Thor: Love and Thunder: This isn’t just the most disappointing MCU movie, but Love and Thunder is also the worst MCU movie out there, and when that’s the case it shouldn’t be too surprising that it’s one this list, yet alone at #1. The fact that this movie is the worst MCU is so sad, the fact that the follow-up to Ragnarok is not a good movie is so frustrating because Ragnarok is one of the most fun and entertaining MCU movies out there. I felt like with this movie, Taika Waititi took things too far and made it too silly. I think the reason for that is because Taika wrote Love and Thunder but not Ragnarok. I think him writing this movie was a mistake because he got more creative control and he also won the Oscar for writing JoJo Rabbit and that boosted his ego and made him think he could do no wrong. Well, that was wrong because he did a lot wrong with this movie, that makes it the worst movie in the MCU. This movie had so much wasted potential where they wanted to explore the idea of if gods are all powerful then why is there still darkness and evil in the world. That being the central theme and idea in a Thor movie is interesting, there is a great narrative to do with Thor in this movie. Gorr the God Butcher and his motivation perfectly ties into this idea, so they had the pieces to make a good fourth Thor movie. The problem with this movie is that it’s way too goofy so the central ideas here get undermined because the film is focused on either screaming goats, Thor doing Jean-Claude Van Damme split kicks, and a love triangle with Thor, Mijnoir, and Stormbreaker. They wasted all the film’s good ideas just so they can get the next joke and that is not good. Beyond that, what is so frustrating is they wasted comic book movie royalty with Christian Bale. Bale’s name in the comic book movie genre carries a lot of weight to it, he starred in the most celebrated comic book movie trilogy of all time. If you do not know, The Dark Knight is my favorite movie of all time. They got the star of my favorite movie of all time, to be the villain in a Thor movie. The movie completely wastes him and does not give anything meaningful or impactful to do. They created a darker and creepy villain that is tormenting children, but they put him in the goofiest movie. Love and Thunder are the true definition of wasted potential, everything about the film feels like wasted potential.
Comments