Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (PHASE 1)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Getting ready to post the ranking. Just because of how I will inevitably need to post multiple times to get everything in, please refrain from posting until the entire list is complete (you'll know because I'll have posted the outlier scores.)

---

23. The Incredible Hulk
Total Score: 669

Eddv 3
BetrayedTangy 16
GavsEvans123 - 16
Johnbobb 18
Raka Putra - 19
Maniac64 20
Mr Crispy - 20
Anagram 21
CoolCly - 21
HanOfTheNekos - 21
Jesse Custer 21
Mega Mana - 21
Corrik7 22
Illuminatusbubu 22
Lopen - 22
MetalDK 22
Paratroopa1 22
Red13n - 22
Snake5555555555 - 22
ZenOfThunder 22
Cybat - 23
Inviso 23
MetalmindStats 23
NBIceman - 23
PrinceKaro - 23
ScepterOfLove 23
Sheep007 - 23
StifledSilence 23
TomNook 23
VengefulKaelee - 23
Whiskey Nick 23
XIII Rocks 23

---

Eddv
Edward Norton's very strange and moody take on The Incredible Hulk feels like something out of the previous era of superhero movies - more in line with Superman Returns or Batman Begins than with Iron Man or Captain America. And I actually really liked it! Even the sort of left turn to make this into a Grey Hulk movie like - at least the Grey Hulk is visually interesting and driven by something human, jealousy of the power Banner wields, and the confrontation suitably epic for a super hero movie as opposed to many of the movies on this list that feel more like GM busted out a Monster Manual and picked something at random so there would be a fight.

BetrayedTangy
So I have a soft spot for this one. It was my first MCU movie and I watched it a lot, it had some really awesome action scenes for the time and was the first live action Hulk that actually looked right. Also William Hurt looks just like Thunderbolt Ross so thats pretty cool. Other than that its a mostly forgettable superhero flick from the 2000s

GavsEvans123
Here we have the red-headed stepchild of the MCU. With this one, you get the feeling that the series was still experimenting with what it wanted to be, so it feels different tonally, and feels darker and more serious than many of the other films. More than any of the other early films, this is the one that wouldnt be made in the modern MCU, and not just due to the legal issues surrounding the film rights. Having said that, there is still the odd moment of levity (Betty losing her temper at the taxi driver got a pretty big laugh out of me for how unexpected it was.)

I didnt like the 2003 Hulk film very much because I thought it took itself far too seriously (I vividly remember it being the first film I saw at the cinema that I was disappointed by, at the age of 11, and a rewatch once I was older sadly didnt make it grow on me.) The 2003 film was recent enough at the time that this one quickly recaps the origin during the opening credits and jumps straight into the new story, which is much appreciated.

This film is still pretty serious, though not oppressively so. There is plenty more Hulk smashing things this time, and his opponents actually put up a decent fight too. Balanced with that, we also get the scenes of Bruce Banners trauma from his transformations. Theyre better integrated this time round, and their relevance is clearer. The PTSD scene in the shower is the most effective in this respect.

Despite its status as the forgotten MCU movie, to the point that youd be forgiven for thinking it was non-canon until the unexpected return of General Ross in Civil War, (surely Betty should have been at least mentioned in passing in Age of Ultron?) I was pleasantly surprised by this one, maybe because it deviates from the Marvel formula as we know it today.

Side note, poor Tim Blake Nelson just cannot catch a break. First he was meant to be Leader, but he never appears again, then he was meant to be Mole Man in Fant4stic, but that didnt get a sequel either. There was a tie-in comic for The Avengers that had the Leader in it, and Black Widow shoots him in the kneecaps. Since I havent read said comic, I like to imagine that the kneecap shooting is prompted by Leader crashing Nick Fury and Black Widows afternoon tea party and being all like Look at me, Im the guy with the face, woogedy woogedy woo!

Johnbobb
I'm honestly just a little bit pissed that this is the only Hulk solo movie we got. I mean, I get it. Hulk is expensive as a character, and not quite as popular as some of the other lead characters, but goddamnit I've always loved Hulk. But after two underperforming attempts at starting a Hulk franchise, it was clearly just never going to be a thing, which is a shame because while this movie is definitely flawed (way too much of the "dudes in suits talking while walking down hallways" stuff), it's not all that bad. The big end fight was a lot of fun, Thunderbolt Ross is great, and it set up for Red Hulk only for that to never happen.

---

Raka Putra
I watched this for the very first time for this project and I must say, I'm quite pleased. It was an enjoyable enough movie. And I actually liked the lead actor here better than Mark Ruffalo. The setting and origin story were pretty fun. Too bad they basically threw everything out of the window.

Maniac64
Its to bad everything went bad with NOrton which basically made this movie forgotten for a long time. Though I do prefer Ruffalo as Bruce, as Norton's banner sometimes comes off more like an action hero than a dorky scientist. Still this movie gets more grief than it should imo, is it great? No. Was it a worthy follow-up to Iron Man? Definitely not. But was it entertaining to watch Hulk smash in the final fight? Yes, yes it was. And thats the main thing with a hulk movie imo.

Mr Crispy
Probably the most forgettable and skippable movie in the MCU. Nothing that happens in this movie gets brought up in any meaningful way in later movies. The whole plot of Bruce trying to find a cure? Nope. Abomination, or the guy they set up to be the villain in the next movie? Nope. Betty? Marvel would rather inflict pain on the audience with Bruce and Natasha instead. General Ross? Sure he comes back later, but he doesn't interact with Bruce or seem to have any goals related to the super soldier serum and didn't mention anything else from the Incredible Hulk so it might as well have been a new character. The tag with Ross and Tony where Marvel clearly didn't have any idea what they were doing when filming it? Well, I guess they put in a minimum amount of effort to try to retcon it away. I genuinely had no idea that this was actually considered to be in continuity with the rest of the MCU (instead of being a stand alone film), and thus didn't even bother watching it until after Infinity War came out.

The whole concept of the Hulk probably works better on the side of an ensemble movie like Avengers smashing things than as a standalone movie - at least when you're talking about a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. It's hard to sustain an entire action movie on Hulk Smashing. Which isn't to say that you couldn't do something interesting with Bruce being a fugitive or his psychology, it's just an approach that would be more slow burning with more build up before the explosion and would probably work better in a more serialized format. The Incredible Hulk tries to do both approaches, in the most middle of the road way possible for what you'd expect from a typical pre-MCU '00s superhero movie.

I originally intended to have the Incredible Hulk on the bottom of the list due to being the least relevant, but it ended up bubbling up a few places with the logic that it was probably worse to have something terrible about it or fail at what it was trying to do than being 'only' mediocre and forgettable.

Anagram
Its almost impossible to believe that this movie even exists. The Ang Lee movie is also bad, but it at least is attempting to have like artistic ideas by cutting the frames like comic book panels? This movie has nothing. In fact, Ill go ahead and say its the least creative, least interesting movie in the franchise. Its not the worst, but there is nothing in this movie to care about or connect with. Hell, they never even wrapped up that whole the Leader plotline. About the only thing in this movie I remember clearly is Bruce Banner being like I dont want to give the government my magic blood because theyll use it for bad things and then just giving them the Abomination, who has the same magic blood.

---

CoolCly
I actually kinda like this movie. I think Nortons performance is pretty good. He really feels like an exceptionally brilliant man on the run. I like Ruffalo but honestly I might have liked Norton better. I liked Blonsky a lot. His general attitude as a soldier who feels like hes reached peak performance and wants to push himself beyond to fight the Hulk is pretty cool. I like his slightly enhanced action at the campus, but. It ends really stupidly. In general, the military action really sucks. Hulk is impervious to everything they do, and they dont establish *any* tension to be concerned about during the scenes to care about the action. Maybe have the Hulk protect people or something? Theres a brief moment of this with Liv Tyler but that really just did more to make Ross seem like a bad dad.
The action with the military sucks because the Hulk is impervious to everything they do, but somehow the fight with the Abomination is even worse Maybe this is a problem with the effects, but it seems like they cant actually hurt eachother. They just push eachother around like its Man of Steel and throw eachother into things. Maybe a rematch some day will be better.
Mediocre movie!

HanOfTheNekos
It was not as terrible as people make it out to be. That said, it wasn't a good movie.

I think the general word is that it meandered. I didn't really care too much about what was going on. There was a little too much "show, don't tell", to where I was just waiting to actually be pulled in to the movie. It was pretty clear from the beginning - Ed Norton turned into Hulk. Hulk attacked his girlfriend. Hulk ran away. Ed Norton wants to not turn into Hulk. Ed Norton finds a way to stop turning into Hulk. Ed Norton banks on that not working as he plummets to death. He turns back into Hulk. Ed Norton then turns into Mark Ruffalo.

To me, its the worst of the whatever MCU films, as it came before RDJ set the tone for the whole franchise.

Jesse Custer
Well, it was a lot better than Ang Lees Hulk, but thats not saying much. Some of the action scenes were decent, particularly the final battle between Hulk and Abomination. But the character development and story were weak, and Bruce Banner doesnt feel like he has any personality beyond some dude who turns into a big green monster. It doesnt even feel like a movie set in the MCU, or anything beyond some forgettable comic book flick along the lines of Ghost Rider or any of the Fantastic Four movies. Its actually surprising the MCU hasnt taken another crack at a Hulk movie in all this time.

Mega Mana
First Moment That Comes to Mind: College campus sonic attacks

It's hard to imagine Edward Norton in the Avengers. Mark Ruffalo is just so freaking good as Bruce Banner. Edward Norton always comes off as possibly insane in nearly every movie he's in that his Bruce Banner is kind of like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. There's an ever-present unhinged element from the get-go that it never feels like Bruce and the Hulk are two separate and opposite characters sharing one body.

As far as the movie goes, eh. The cast is solid. Liv Tyler is a great Betty, Tim Roth is a fantastic mercenary, Tim Blake Nelson probably would have already come back as the Leader at some point if another superhero movie starring another green CGI hero didn't bomb fighting a different giant-headed super-smart guy. And there's a reason they've kept bringing back William Hurt's Thunderbolt Ross. It's a good enough movie, but doesn't really amount to much more than that, and has another terrible superhero third act with the horrid Abomination. I kind of want to make two separate lists where I'm ranking just the first two-thirds of MCU movies and the last third and seeing how differently those would stack up. On both lists, however, Incredible Hulk would be near the bottom. Also, I forgot Michael K. Williams was in this! Omar!

Corrik7
The end fight with Abomination is fun. The movie is okay in parts. But, to be honest, Norton doesn't seem to fit this role. I don't like to use the word miscast a lot, but he does seem to be here. Movie just doesn't fit well to this point and seems to not have much of a connection beyond easter eggs. Which is probably purposeful but still.

---

Illuminatusbubu
I honestly cannot remember a thing about this movie until I did a rewatch for this project. Then after the rewatch, Im still blank about it. I think Disney also tries to forget about its existence or distances itself from this film when they cast Ruffalo as the Hulk instead of Norton.

Lopen
I'm honestly not sure you can make a movie about The Hulk compelling. Too much of what makes the character work is all about what's going on in his head, which I'm skeptical really translates to film very well even if it can in comics. That's not to say he can't work with some other characters to play off-- The Avengers and Thor Ragnarok both use him really well. But I think even if we had the better guy from the later films playing Bruce Banner (though the guy here wasn't awful) this movie was doomed for mediocrity and irrelevance, no matter what the plot was, if you're constrained by "the only hero dude in it is The Hulk" as your premise it's just not gonna work on film. Prove me wrong. But at least it's better than Hulk 2003. What a trainwreck that one was. That may be too generous-- I probably wouldn't fall asleep on a trainwreck.

MetalDK
Movie might be a tier above if it actually felt like an MCU film. Norton wasn't bad in this, and it wasn't until Civil War where another character reappeared in Ross.

Paratroopa1
A rather awkward movie, given the whole casting switch from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo (a good change) makes this film feel not particularly connected to the rest of the MCU - it feels outdated and weird, from a different era of films. It's not all that bad though - it's watchable. I like that they didn't do a Hulk origin story here (presumably the 2003 film already had that covered) and I like how they use Hulk as both a horror movie monster and also a superhero. I think the bottling factory was a cool place to set an action sequence. I like when the villain whose name I don't remember is just casually like 'yeah gimme that Hulk juice." Uh, that's about it, I didn't rewatch this one because it's not on Disney+ and I couldn't be assed. I expect this to be one of the bottom two films, along with Thor: The Dark World.

Red13n
I always forget the post credits scene gives this movie more MCU tie-along than I mentally give it credit for, but I'm always going to consider this to be more MCU-adjacent than a direct MCU film. While this movie mostly spares us the comic book movie trope of an origin, the plot tends to jump from point to point with little room to breathe and take much of it in. The characters inevitably all run from place to place, the plot continually takes a backseat, and stuff gets smashed. The MCU is ultimately better for recognizing that there is a Hulk while pretending this movie doesn't exist.

Snake5555555555
A weirdly disconnected and disjointed film that stands apart from the rest of the MCU. Its biggest problem in the context of MCU of how little it connects to the overall bigger picture. The thing is, I think I like Ed Norton Hulk better than Ruffalo, but this unfortunate mess of casting and ambiguity as to where it stands as a sequel does little to help a film that plays it safe just as Iron Man was proving what the next generation of superhero films were going to be like. Hulk feels like a remnant of the past, dated upon release, more akin to Spider-Man 3 and complete misses like Daredevil, failing to capture what can make the Hulk a compelling character. It is inessential and almost non-canon by this point, and it just does not stand-up to future entries.

ZenOfThunder
I barely even consider this canon, it kinda sucks. Edward Norton should stick to Wes Anderson movies.

Cybat
I will freely admit that I am a big fan of the MCU, and of Marvel (and comic book movies) in general. I do genuinely like all of the movies on this list. That said, something still has to be last, and it wasnt exactly hard to nail that decision down. This movie admittedly suffered a lot when it was released from being so close to Ang Lees earlier attempt, but even so it doesnt have a whole lot going for it other than Tim Roth having a good time. (Although it was nice to see an actual smash-filled climactic fight after whatever the hell it was that we got from Lee.) I do feel a little bad for Tim Blake Nelson who never got to come back and be the Leader, but I guess you never know with all the Disney+ stuff theyre working on.

---

Inviso
Having never seen this film before watching it for the list, I now understand why its the black sheep of the MCU, and perhaps why Hulk has never gotten another standalone film. For starters, this feels like the second movie in an individual franchise, which is probably because it is. But for some reason Hulk (2003) is not part of the canon, features a different set of actors, and gives us all of the background that tends to fall into a film from the FIRST movie in a franchise. Instead, we get ALL the origin backstory in flashbacks, and it leads to the movie feeling slow and boring for the first quarter of its running time. It honestly doesnt get much better once Bruce is back in the U.S. either. The movie just takes itself SO seriously. Hulk is not comedic in this film, and no one else is being comedic either, so its just a very stoic plot all the way through, and it just drags until the eventual Hulk, but bigger and badder boss fight at the end.

MetalmindStats
Its not that I dont remember anything at all about The Incredible Hulk; all these years later, the sequence with Bruce Banner in some Brazilian factory as well as the DC-set climax come to mind. What I dont recall is any sort of reason why I should care.

NBIceman
This movie feels so different from every other MCU offering that its weird to even think about it as part of the franchise. Its not bad, necessarily. It just feels more like a pre-Iron Man movie than what we think of as a Marvel movie nowadays. Part of that is the cast - Norton didnt fit Banner at all and everyone else except for maybe Ross was just as miscast or more so - but the script is poor, the effects are bad, and the whole tone is kind of just off as well. Black sheep of the series for a reason.

PrinceKaro
This is a movie that gets a lot of hate, and well, it is absolutely warranted. How soon do things go south? Pretty much almost immediately.
Right off the bat we get the scenes of how the Hulk was created just presented as like the opening of a bad CBS procedural drama and I'm sorry but this is an origin movie and how Banner became the unjolly green giant is KIND OF FUCKING IMPORTANT and we need to see more than a dragon ball z recap.
The big guy takes forever to actually show up outside of shaky/blurry cam work, like a horror movie monster who the director tries to hide the appearance of for the benefit of the three people watching who don't know what the fucking Hulk looks like.
The whole thing feels cheap and phoned in and it is difficult to care about anything or anyone and there is nothing incredible about this except maybe incredibly boring.
This is unquestionably the giant turd sandwich of the MCU, and when the turds are green, radioactive, and larger than most toilets it is time to run for the hills.

ScepterOfLove
(No write-up.)

Sheep007
I have actually never seen this film before, and I dont think I was missing out. It adds nothing that isnt done better by later Marvel movies, doesnt spend enough time focusing on Banner for a movie with no other interesting characters, and has too many action sequences. Theres only so much you can do with Hulk action sequences theres not a ton of fun visuals or quirks to his powers, and so you should focus on the character more, which they just dont do. Betty is a forgettable love interest and not accompanied by being particularly likeable, while the CGI doesnt hold up well and most of the scenes are ugly or bland (not unusual for the less recent Marvel movies, but still a frustrating point for me). Anyone watching or rewatching the MCU can just skip this, because I dont think it adds anything you all know who the Hulk is, and if you dont youll figure it out, just like all the people who didnt watch this movie managed to do. This felt like a waste of time and I didnt have much fun watching it.

StifledSilence
This movie is trash. I like the destruction, but thats about it. I dont like Norton as Bruce. The love interest is boring. The villain is not compelling. Likecan we make a Hulk movie with Ruffalo and retcon this? Or better yet, just make a good Hulk movie? He pairs well with Thor. Hell, he could do a movie with Natalie Thorman if they go that route. Just do something please. A big green man smashing shit CAN be fun, as weve seen. They just need to make it fun as its own movie.

---

TomNook
The dullest movie on the list. I'm not really a fan of the Hulk as a character, so a movie that centers around him is unlikely to be one that appeals to me (the same goes for that Ang Lee version). As much as I like Edward Norton as an actor, there wasn't much to salvage here. Just dull.

VengefulKaelee
If this doesn't come in last place overall, I'll be amazed. 2008's The Incredible Hulk is a failure on nearly every level. After a decent opening ten minutes that partially serves to cover the origin story that had already been adapted in Ang Lee's Hulk (a better, but still highly flawed film), this takes a complete nose dive and never recovers. Probably the worst part is the way this movie treats Liv Tyler's character her character literally only exists to fawn over Bruce and never displays any agency or personality of her own. It's probably the single most misogynistic portrayal of a female character I've ever seen in a comic book movie. Not to mention I felt really bad for her poor fianc, Ty Burrell, who seemed like a perfectly nice guy in this movie and totally didn't deserve to get completely dropped as soon as Betty laid eyes on Bruce again. As far as the villains go, Tim Roth's Abomination is pretty forgettable, and William Hurt is just kind of painful as Thunderbolt Ross. Recasting Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk was one of the smartest early behind-the-scenes decisions the MCU creatives made though, admittedly, Ed Norton is slightly more suited for the part of Hulk than Eric Bana, I'll give this movie that.

Whiskey Nick
(No write-up.)

XIII Rocks
Of all of them this is the one I have very little affection for and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There's the seeds of the wider MCU here and some good Hulk-smashing action, but it's not really that good. I like Ed Norton a lot and think he did fine. For as much as I like Ruffalo, recasting Hulk really cemented this as the black sheep of the MCU and made it seem more "separate", so it becomes completely inessential - as well as being just not that good of a movie. So I don't really have much affection for it as a result.

---

OUTLIERS:

Eddv - 20
BetrayedTangy - 7
GavsEvans123 - 7
Johnbobb - 5
Raka Putra - 4
Maniac64 - 3
Mr Crispy - 3
Anagram - 2
CoolCly - 2
HanOfTheNekos - 2
Jesse Custer - 2
Mega Mana - 2
Corrik7 - 1
Illuminatusbubu - 1
Lopen - 1
MetalDK - 1
Paratroopa1 - 1
Red13n - 1
Snake5555555555 - 1
ZenOfThunder - 1
Cybat - 0
Inviso - 0
MetalmindStats - 0
NBIceman - 0
PrinceKaro - 0
ScepterOfLove - 0
Sheep007 - 0
StifledSilence - 0
TomNook - 0
VengefulKaelee - 0
Whiskey Nick - 0
XIII Rocks - 0

Over half the entrants put Hulk down in the bottom two spots, with twelve nailing a spot-on ranking. Really, the range of scores for this movie aren't all that surprising...until you reach our current outlier leader, Eddv, who manages an impressive 20-point score on the first movie of the list.

Spoiler for Number 22: My previous hint sucks in retrospect, because EVERY film has at least one top ten placement...EXCEPT this one.

---

Guessing Iron Man 2 is next, then!

---

Nailed it. Though I didn't expect Eddv would be actually positive on the movie-- just expected "not overly negative"


---

I'm expecting the next to be Thor 1. Thor 2 at least dives into more of the lore that I could see someone appreciating enough to have in their Top 10.

---

Lopen knows me so well.

---

That'll be Thor 2, then.


---

Thor 2 has Loki beasting it, but I could see someone putting Thor 1 in top 10 over Thor 2.

---

Hbthebattle posted...

Guessing Iron Man 2 is next, then!

Iron Man 2 seems like a decent pick to me. Could actually (again) see Eddv putting Thor 1 in the top 10 and I think we may have enough Loki freaks that it'll have a healthy selection of 16-20s for Thor 2.

Captain Marvel is a sneaky pick though if you wanna overthink the hint. Not sure who is thinking that one is top 10 good.

---

Lopen makes me sound like an agent of chaos.

---

Eddv posted...

Lopen makes me sound like an agent of chaos.

I mean...we've seen your Star Trek crew rankings. :P

---

Well with this topic at least you are. I think you like maybe 1/4 the field at best. That's gonna cause some weird rankings particularly down low.

---

Well...that's actually accurate!

---

lmao nice eddv

Ill guess the next one is Thor 1 or 2. I can picture Ultron getting a top ten.
---

Ed, we all know you're an agent of chaos. And we love you for it!

I'm jumping on the Iron Man 2 train for the next drop. Every other guess seems perfectly reasonable too, but I can at least imagine a perspective that would get them into somebody's top 10. IM2 doesn't have that unless a B8 member is secretly the biggest Sam Rockwell fan ever, and even then...

---

Still haven't gotten around to watching Hulk, so I have nothing really to say about that one.

I dunno how everyone else feels about this, but Phase 3 is really where Marvel gets its footing down. The bad movies tend to veer more towards above-average than mediocre or bad. Meanwhile, Phase 1 and Phase 2...you can literally count the great movies on one hand. That's mainly what deterred me from doing this and I'm curious if B8 feels the same way.

Definitely Iron Man 2 next. That movie really has nothing except the humor and its humor is easily eclipsed by a lot of other Marvel movies. I remember seeing the climax of the movie and was like "That....that can't be it, right?"

---

this has now become the eddv show and i love it, looking forward to seeing his final list

---

It's going to be a full reverse order. his outlier score will be off the charts

---

I would take Iron Man 2 next, gladly.

---

Nah. I know eddv likes a few of the well liked MCU movies

I won't spoil the list but it's not gonna be full reverse mode. I do expect to see a good amount of insanity though.

---

Yeah I put that preamble at the beginning of my Hulk writeup because I was pretty confident it would be last. After this though I'm much less confident in my ability to predict; can't wait!

---

Guessing Thor 2.

So the rest of us are competing dor 2nd on the outlier I guess?

---

i slammed thor 2 pretty hard, i was hoping it would be in last

at least it feels like a canon marvel film tho (especially after endgame)

---

I'm gonna guess Thor 2, I see no particular reason why it would score a top 10 over Iron Man 2

maybe someone really really likes kat dennings

---

I may or may not have mentioned Kat Dennings as a positive in my write-up <_< >_>

---

For those wondering why they don't make another pure Hulk movie it's because Disney still does not completely own the character as Universal still partially owns distribution rights.

---

Thor Ragnarok was better than any Hulk standalone movie we'll get anyway

ZenOfThunder posted...

maybe someone really really likes kat dennings

I can think of only two reasons to like Kat Dennings and they're not exactly on display in either Thor movie.

---

i am in the camp of "hulk cannot work on his own," yes even with mark ruffalo. especially with mark ruffalo. he is the ultimate supporting character.

although honestly Immortal Hulk is so fucking good that a good adaptation of it from a competent horror director could absolutely change my mind

---

Immortal Hulk with Brandon Cronenberg would be perfect.

---

Snake5555555555 posted...

For those wondering why they don't make another pure Hulk movie it's because Disney still does not completely own the character as Universal still partially owns distribution rights.

Id heard they actually got the rights back last year? Did that not happen?

Hmm, having only 1 movie with no Top 10...now that is a clue to analyze.

Iron Man 2 and Thor 2 seem like the obvious ones. It mostly comes down to how much someone might like Tony Stark or Thor to override the rest of the movie and put it in their top 10. I could see it going either way. They are probably the next 2 out anyway?

Ant-Man 2...I feel like nobody would rank it low enough for it to be next, but it also doesn't seem like something that would really make top 10s? I bet it borders close enough to sneak in to a couple.

Captain Marvel has Brie Larson, so you know someone will put it in their Top 10 for that reason.

Age of Ultron is kind of the black sheep of the "Avengers" movies it seems, but I feel like an "Avengers" movie wouldn't go out this soon. Does someone have this in a Top 10?

Inviso posted...

Mega Mana
First Moment That Comes to Mind: College campus sonic attacks

I remember the first time I saw LRADs mounted on police hummers at riots, I was like "hey, it's just like the sonic cannons from Incredible Hulk!"

---

swordz9 posted...

Id heard they actually got the rights back last year? Did that not happen?

I think it was only a rumor, hard to get a straight answer.

---

I don't like phrases like "you can't make a standalone Hulk movie", I see people throw that around a lot. People will say this about Star Wars of all things. There might be obstacles and issues that you need to figure out but the right creatives could absolutely find the right way to make it work. You just can't do it well unless you solve those problems.

I think there's lots of ways a standalone Hulk movie could be great. The Hulk hulking out and being chased by the military just isn't enough by itself.

---

I gotta say, Im sad I missed this, it would have been fun.

Well I 100% agree with the list so far! The good thing about The Incredible Hulk is that it sets a solid baseline, and frankly coming from the Ang Lee Hulk movie, I was happy to take something unremarkable but sufficient.

---

I think the "issue" with Hulk is hes a very DC style character. Larger than life and more of symbolic of the raw character flaws he embodies than anything else.

He isnt a character you can do the whole quips and flirty romance thing with - and when Whedon tried it fucking sucked.

Ruffalo Hulk is like a cheap bastardization of a good character so Ive always resented him.

Nortons "on the precipice of a psychotic break at a given moment" was far more interesting to me.

Though I think Planet Hulk would be a really strong MCU movie, you cant do it with Mark Ruffalo. He would be horrible.

---

Eddv posted...

He isnt a character you can do the whole quips and flirty romance thing with - and when Whedon tried it fucking sucked.

Ruffalo Hulk is like a cheap bastardization of a good character so Ive always resented him.

Nortons "on the precipice of a psychotic break at a given moment" was far more interesting to me.

I think the problem with a character like this, whether Norton or Ruffalo, is that when making it for an audience that is coming to see superhero films, you really aren't going quite capture the kind of internal struggle that things like Taxi Driver and other similar films do. Even something like Joker doesn't nail it down as much as a fully dedicated drama, because it knows that the people coming to see it are coming for superhero stuff.

---

The rankings have begun! I'm glad that nobody else has done this yet, so I can do it despite being late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN_e5-fcGU4

On topic, I'm already an outlier! I'm not sure yet whether it would be better or worse for me to stay that way. There are a couple others I can think of on my list that I expect to be an outlier on, and one in particular I'm dreading it dropping.

She-Hulk is probably a Disney+ series as a legal loophole so that Disney don't have to pay Universal.

Leader would have been good because the MCU has lots of villains who are bigger, stronger versions of the hero, but not as many opposites. Hulk is a big strong dumb guy, whereas Leader is a little weak clever guy. His kneecaps must have recovered from being shot by now, at least enough for him to walk on crutches. Not that it matters at this point, he's too busy with the Movementarians anyway.

I think Ruffalo in Avengers is phenomenal, he still carries a lot of the darkness Norton had while still nailing the awkward scientist side of the character.

It's in every movie after that he starts to become really annoying. By IW and Endgame he's trying so hard to be funny that it just turns into cringe.

I think a great Hulk movie is possible, but certainly not in the current state of the MCU.

---

Oh, well, Hulk in dead last is not too surprising, but I'm quite surprised by how much of a consensus it is.
...I admit, I might have recency bias for it.

---

They could have absolutely made a great Planet Hulk movie.

---