The Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the biggest film universe in the world today. With new movies and shows releasing several times a year, there’s always content for you MCU lovers. The universe began all the way back in 2008 with the release of Iron Man. At the time superhero movies were… well… not popular. Several attempts at movie adaptations for superheroes had been attempted, most of which having flopped aside from the Xmen movies and the original Spiderman trilogy which showed a glimpse of just how popular this movie genre could become. The universe has grown exponentially from even the first crossover in 2010’s Iron Man 2 where Iron Man and Nick Fury met for the first time putting the MCU in motion. With so much variety and so many watching options there is almost guarantee that the MCU has something for you to watch whether it’s alone or with the entire family. Today I’m counting what I think are five greatest films in the MCU.

My number five spot goes to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is a movie that has only gotten better with age, and that’s because at first glance it might seem boring or uneventful, but there are layers to this movie that I caught upon rewatching. I was 11 years old when I went to see this movie in theatres and because there was no highflying superhero or villain and a lot of talking and interactions I wasn’t able to appreciate this film the way I do today. I mean government conspiracy and espionage? Take my money. The plot of this movie being that Captain America’s childhood best friend Bucky Barnes actually survived his fall to death from the first movie and was captured by German soldiers where he was brainwashed and subjected to the same super soldier serum that was given to Steve Rogers to be a “Hydra” hitman, The Winter Soldier only for him to not remember Steve and be this movies antagonist was brilliant. The entire story unraveling of Hydra having secretly infiltrated SHIELD long ago and working under their noses was captivating. However this is one of the few movies in the universe that won’t be of great interest to kids, instead pandering far more to the older teen and adult demographic. Overall I would give this movie a solid 8/10.

The fourth best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the first Avengers movie that was released in 2012. This was a generational box office release and in many ways the first of its time. With major successes in the first two Iron Man’s, Captain America, and Thor, Marvel finally had the greenlight to bring together everyone’s favourite heroes for the first live action Avengers movie and it did not disappoint. THe movie picked up right where Thor left off with the Tesseract being in possession of SHIELD and Loki having gotten away, the film opens with his attempt to steal back the tesseract where Hawkeye is introduced being one of the guards before Loki brainwashed him to help the god of mischief. The character scripts of this movie are top tier and some of the interactions between Captain America and Iron Man are pure gold having only been amplified with rewatches and seeing how the two have grown over the course of the sequential movies. The post credit scene having Thanos make his first appearance and foreshadow the next seven years of Marvel movies was perfect. There’s little issues with this movie and acts as a phenomenal way to first introduce our heroes to each other moving forward. I would give this movie an 8.5/10.

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Coming in at number three and this might be a shock, but I love Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Up to this point in the MCU we hadn’t gotten much variety in landscape and ambience. Shang Chi’s dark neo city vibe combined with Ninja’s and palaces made for a fun and exciting story that felt new and vastly different from its predecessors. This was also coming off the back of Endgame still and needed to be a stand alone story that wasn’t simply recreating or trying to duplicate the previous era. The movie does a good job of capturing the dark and serious plot of the movie while meshing comedic timing, most prominently with the return of “the mandarin”. Shang Chi’s origin story was captivating and relatable to the same extent that helped elevate other popular movies and heroes like Spiderman. Moreover this crew was casted to perfection with Simu Liu being the perfect actor to portray Shang Chi. It’s again, like most movies on this list, one that continues to get better upon rewatching. This movies deserves a 9/10

At number two is Avengers Endgame. This may be a controversial spot to put it as it’s one of the highest grossing box office hits of all time and is the cumulation of 12 years of storytelling, but hold your judgement until we get number to number one. Endgame is perfect in almost every way imaginable. It has every hero from the universe to this point in it, it has interactions between characters we never thought we’d see. The story is told to sheer perfection, practically down to every minute detail. The only quam I have with this movie is that it can be hard to follow if you haven’t paid attention to the MCU story up to that point. However even that is made up for in the action that’s packed in during the final act of the film. If you’ve followed along to every prior movie this was a love letter to you. The fan service in this movie was abundant and rewarded those who have been die hard fans of the series. This movie gets a 10/10.

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Now it’s time for what you’ve been waiting for. My number one film in the MCU is Spiderman No Way Home. This might seem like a biased pick, but let me explain. Similar to Endgame, I feel this movie was executed to perfection from start to finish. They manage to provide lumps of fan service while not making it the end all be all of the movie. The only potential flaw I see in this movie is the cameos. There is an abundance of cameos, but I don’t deduct points for that as it is still part of the movie and all the cameos that occurred contributed and boosted the story while rewarding longtime marvel watchers with nostalgia. I have this at the top with endgame because I feel the watcher gets a mirrored experience without having to go through all the previous movies. Seeing the past iterations of Spiderman with their villains is honestly on par with endgames while making the nostalgia and reward more accessible to the viewer. This film also receives a 10/10.

There are far more than 5 great MCU movies, but these are my top five and I think that if you were to watch these individually without wanting to watch the entire cinematic universe, these are a great place to start for a one off enjoyable movie experience. The MCU is still always expanding and this time next year you or I could have an entirely different top 5 list. What would be your top 5?