Ranking All 31 Marvel Comic Book Movies - From Worst To Best

19. Hulk (2003)

After years in development, everybody's favourite angry green monster finally got the big screen treatment in 2003. Ang Lee is a director that has no trouble switching genres, and his Hulk was a lot more thought-provoking than the usual summer blockbuster. However, the funereal pacing of the story and a couple of pitch-black action sequences result in a movie that is less than the sum of its often impressive parts. Visually, the movie is never less than engaging and often stunning. The use of split-screen is ingenious in creating something akin to a comic book being transposed to screen. Eric Bana gives a soulful performance as Bruce Banner, and the movie itself features deeper characterisation than most big-budget fare. Downsides include a bloated running time, a hammy Nick Nolte performance and occasionally distracting CGI, especially in the final action sequence. The creative team should be applauded for trying something different when it came to Hulk, but the commercial results were disappointing. Audiences expecting to see wall-to-wall action were left confused by the thematic depth and inner turmoil on show, and the $137m budgeted movie only earned $245.4m worldwide, failing to launch what many expected to be a huge franchise.

18. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

The cinematic equivalent of too many cooks spoiling the broth, Sam Raimi's trilogy-closer suffers greatly from failing to balance the multitude of plot threads and characters. There is simply too much going on and although the action sequences are often great, the rest of the movie becomes bogged down by the interminable subplots. Three villains is far too many for any movie; a scarred James Franco wasting valuable screentime to revel in the delights of pie, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman pointlessly retconned to fit in the trilogy's narrative and the inclusion of Venom in particular being completely unnecessary. Then of course there are two love interests, the cringeworthy 'bad Peter Parker' scenes and innumerable tedious dramatic interludes. As you would expect from a movie with a budget of $258m, the CGI is stunning and the action scenes provide the only real thrills during the bloated 140 minute runtime. Although Spider-Man 3 is easily the worst entry in Sam Raimi's trilogy, it proved to be the most financially successful by far. A domestic opening weekend north of $150m set the movie on its way to a mammoth worldwide total of $890.9m despite unenthusiastic responses from audiences. When the director and studio couldn't come to an agreement over Spider-Man 4, Raimi left the project and left the character to be rebooted a mere five years later.

17. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

After Ang Lee's more cerebral take on the character failed to become the blockbuster that studio executives were expecting, Louis Leterrier was handed the reins of the reboot and delivered an action-packed movie full of massive-scale destruction. However, much like the previous version The Incredible Hulk didn't live up to its potential and is now regarded as the unwanted stepchild of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Edward Norton isn't usually found appearing in superhero blockbusters but he gives a good performance as Bruce Banner, a quiet man trying to keep the monster at bay. The supporting cast is full of talented actors, which helps elevate the material as the script is fairly thin and merely serves to propel the story from action scene to action scene. After the more lo-fi set-pieces in Ang Lee's version, Leterrier delivers several hugely entertaining showdowns involving the Hulk, with the climax in particular reducing Harlem to ruins. Despite tying into the MCU, teasing a sequel and featuring a post-credits cameo from Robert Downey Jr, The Incredible Hulk marked the second time the character had failed to start a franchise. Although the movie earned $263.4m worldwide and sold over 3.5m units on DVD the numbers were still disappointing, and Bruce Banner was recast yet again in The Avengers.