A Decade of Greatness: Ranking the Top 10 MCU Films

No. 5:

Iron Man (2008)

This is the film that pioneered the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in grand fashion. This movie, directed by Happy Hogan himself, Jon Favreau, brought us arguably the most accurate character representation in all of comic book films with Robert Downey Jr. taking on the role of “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”, Tony Stark. Everything about this film (directing, acting, character development, etc.) set the standard for the MCU for years to come, and because of this, Iron Man is considered by many fans to be the best film in the MCU.

This was also a risky move by Marvel to cast a, for lack of a better term, “troubled”, actor to lead an entire film franchise, hire a relatively unknown director to both direct and play a major role in the film, and to start a film franchise with a character like Iron Man, instead of a universally loved and well-known character such as Captain America. Regardless of the perceived risk that Marvel faced, they still made stellar decisions across the board and in the process made one of the best films to kick off one of the best film franchises we will most likely ever see.

Credit: Marvel Studios