Every Marvel Comic Book Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

18. Thor

It's a testament to the quality of the top end of Marvel's movie ladder that a film as bold and creative as Kenneth Branagh's Thor barely breaks the top 20. But Thor was still a tentative early step for the MCU and it isn't quite as assured or as entertaining as the films that followed it.

It's still a perfect testimony of why Branagh was chosen to make it: his eye for the theatrical is stamped all over the more supernatural sequences, and his ability to paint real, human characters adds the necessary depth to Thor's character when he ends up trapped on Earth. That complexity gives what develops into a fish out of water comic drama added credibility and Branagh's style lends itself to a beautiful film.

Obviously the introduction of Loki is a major boon, but he's only one strand of an excellent cast - and he's not quite as compelling as he would become in The Avengers. And that cast is enough to distract when the film sags under the weight of its necessary exposition or when the Frost Giants lack the punch of better villains in the franchise.