The Single Biggest Mistake Each MCU Film And TV Show Has Made

40. Iron Man - The Bland Final Battle

Every single MCU joint, even the very best ones, has made at least one huge mistake, and Iron Man, the very first film in the series, very much started that trend.

Iron Man is an absolutely excellent superhero origin story that, despite the MCU's reputation for big brash spectacle, plays more like a character study that just happens to be about a superhero. Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr, who's just perfect in this role) journey from villain to superhero is a smart, exciting and deeply moving affair that kicked off this franchise in great style, but alas, it does definitely drop the ball in the final act.

More specifically, the climax is fairly lacklustre and takes the form of a boring final battle between Iron Man and the film's awful lead villain (a criminally wasted Jeff Bridges), which also established a few unfortunate MCU trends. Namely, hit-or-miss villains, the bad guy suddenly going insane in the final act and the hero fighting a bad guy boating a more advanced version of their suit and/or powers; a narrative trope that feels lazy at the best of times.

Iron Man returns to its previous heights with a strong final scene, but nonetheless, this weak climax prevents it from necessarily being one of the top ten MCU films in retrospect.