Marvel Studios 2021 Review: Every Project Ranked
*Disclaimer*- this article contains NO spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home or Hawkeye. These are the latest two projects to release, so I’m aware not everyone will have had time to see them yet.
After a long hiatus in 2020, Marvel Studios made their return last year and I think we can all agree they brought a lot to the party. It seems they’ve graduated from two or three film releases per year to unleashing four films and an army of TV shows on Disney Plus. Now that the final episode of Hawkeye has been released and Spider-Man: No Way Home is in cinemas, we’ve officially reached the end of Marvel’s busiest year to date.
It is worth noting, while last year was busy it doesn’t necessarily mean it was all plain sailing through good times. Many people are feeling some form of Marvel fatigue setting in due to the sheer number of projects to keep up with, and many have managed to peak past the rose coloured glasses to realise it had been a rather mixed year. Which is absolutely fine. Fluctuations are to be expected in a franchise this big, let alone when they’re going through a period of aggressive expansion. I’m glad they offer such a wide variety of content, mainly because it gives the fans more scope for debate. With this in mind, I wanted to do a run through of the films and TV shows released by Marvel Studios in 2021, and to see where they fit into the bigger picture.
Rather than rank the projects in numerical order, I’ve gone back to the system I used previously when I ranked the whole MCU to date. Each project will be organised into the following tier system:
Top tier = The best of the best. Captures the right blend of style and substance. Projects which would absolutely be included on a top 10 or even top 5 list.
High tier = Pretty darn good, but not quite enough to make the top list. A solid honourable mention.
Mid tier = It’s fine. Not aggressively bad, but also nothing to rave about. Well suited if you’re in the mood to switch off and enjoy.
Low tier = Really not the same standard as the others. There’s still enough to like, none of them are irredeemable, but you’d be lying if you said you totally enjoyed them.
Please remember these are all just my opinions (with the odd fact thrown in for good measure). If your thoughts are different then please reach out, I’d love to hear what you have to say.
So, without further ado, we’ll start at the low tier to get it over with and move on to the good times.
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Low Tier
Loki (June to July) - Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but this series really didn’t work for me. I wanted to like it more, but it ultimately was more endurance than enjoyment. It’s a show which feels like a jumbled mess. This is a cake which is horrifically burnt, and the showrunners were hoping some pretty icing would distract you from all of the evident problems found at surface level. There’s some strange wooden acting from Mr Hiddleston which was hugely distracting and repeatedly took me out of the moment, and the plot felt like something I’ve seen ten times before. Plot points and twists were very predictable, so the sense of tension was diffused whenever something big was supposed to land. Episode 4 was a particularly dull spot because it lazily “borrowed” plot points and seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to a much better episode of Doctor Who starring Christopher Eccelston. More than anything the series felt forced. Emotional beats were heavy handed but still fairly hollow, and there are times when the story wants to be bigger than it is. I was disappointed because I genuinely liked the first two episodes and felt they were building to something, but after that it was a slow downhill tumble. It felt like a desperate reach for originality, and yet ended up relying on fan appreciation of Loki as a character, general hype for the MCU, and tropes better utilised elsewhere in pop culture.
There were good elements, but not enough. Most of the strengths were wider members of the cast. Owen Wilson is terrific as Mobius, I liked Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie but wanted to see more, and I’m beyond happy to finally see Kang The Conqueror on screen, played brilliantly by Jonathan Majors. Ultimately, Loki was often the least interesting part of his own show, which is a sentence I didn’t want to say.
What If? (August to October) - After writing a review for every episode and finding that most scored very poorly out of ten, I feel I don’t need to say much more about the show. This series was incredibly close to being a total bin fire, had it not been for a small amount of redeeming episodes. If you want to know more of my thoughts please feel free to read my reviews for each of the nine episodes, but I honestly wouldn’t advise watching anything other than episodes 2, 4 and 7. I’d sooner recommend trapping your hand in a car door before I’d recommend watching this series.
In fact to put things into perspective, I’ll settle on an anecdote. At the tail end of 2021, I was involved in a cooking accident where I burned my arm. I was in a lot of pain days later because it transpires the wound became infected, which resulted in an unwanted trip to the hospital. As horrible as the experience was, I still preferred it over watching What If?, and I promise I’m not exaggerating for comedic effect.
Mid Tier
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (March to April) - I really enjoyed this series, but it was a bit basic. I liked seeing more from Bucky and the exploration of his history and struggles, and I’m glad they took time flesh out Sam and build up to him taking the mantel, I just found the series as a whole was restrained at times. It might be because this was the next project directly after WandaVision and it wasn’t offering the same thing, but I found myself less excited. After the trippy weirdness of WandaVision this was more of an exercise in crowd pleasing, focusing on action and excitement. Among other things, the introduction of John Walker to the MCU was handled really well. The way the character starts as an arrogant crowd pleaser then slowly falls apart into a total maniac was really impactful. I can’t remember the last time I hated a villain so much, and it’s a testament to how great Wyatt Russell’s performance is. Overall the series was perhaps low hanging fruit, but it was tasty low hanging fruit.
Black Widow (May) - It’s a sad feeling to be placing this in the mid tier, because I wanted to like it more than I did. Unfortunately some good moments scattered throughout weren’t enough to elevate this film. A laughably terrible primary villain, a strange secondary villain, action you’d find elsewhere in the MCU and to a higher standard, and crucially it asked interesting questions about the main themes, but only skimmed the surface. Much like with other films in the MCU it feels like it isn’t quite making the right noise or going as far as it needs to. We’ve got a great female character we’ve wanted to see in the spotlight for years, the incredibly talented director Cate Shortland, some compelling themes and poignant questions, and yet it feels underwhelming. This was a chance to give us an Olympic world record of a race, but instead they gave us a messy ‘egg and spoon’ race at a primary school. That’s not to say there aren’t good things happening, because there is still a lot to like, but just not enough. The film was at its best any time the characters took time to slow down and talk. It was mainly the set pieces and “stuff” which missed the mark, and the story falls apart like a paper bag tasked with carrying a piano. In short, they played it safe, and they shouldn’t have. This was Black Widow’s time, a time for thunderous applause as they tore the house down, but instead what we witnessed is the awkward moment where an audience doesn’t commit to a round of applause, so after a couple of sporadic claps everyone returns to awkward silence.
Credit where its due, Florence Pugh is terrific as Yelena Belova. She absolutely steals the show and I cannot wait to see what happens with this character moving forwards.
Eternals (November) - I had a good time watching this film, I think it offers a lot in terms of visuals and spectacle, but it didn’t fully land. It was big and ambitious, but often felt rushed and poorly structured. I like that they introduced new characters and there was a diverse range, I just didn’t feel totally convinced. Eternals was a real oxymoron. It’s simultaneously a progressive and diverse film, but also a good old fashioned big budget studio film which feels like it came off an assembly line we all know and recognise. A lot of the characters are underdeveloped, to the point where even by the end of the film we still don’t know who half of them are, which starts to feel like a hollow gesture when you match it with their attempts to be so inclusive. This would have been better suited as a two part film event, or even as a series on Disney Plus so they could spend more time developing the characters. The end product we saw sadly had big intentions but small scale impacts.
Again, I did enjoy it, but the writing wasn’t terrific. The story is a little odd at times. They’ve changed the origin to make it easier for wider audiences to understand, but it has the opposite effect because the origin makes less sense. The iconic Jack Kirby origin from early issues of ‘The Eternals’ in 1976 still reads clear today, and explains the relationship between Eternals, deviants and humans in a matter of panels, so such a drastic departure wasn’t necessary. The filmmakers inevitably run into issues they’ve caused for themselves by changing the origin, and there are times when they’re struggling to justify exactly where these characters fit into the MCU. In the interest of fairness I will say I did like the turn they took with Ikaris because it was unexpected, and the characters we spend the most time with are genuinely complicated and layered, but the film overall felt like a synthetic experience rather than an organic experience.
High Tier
Hawkeye (November to December) - It feels really strange to be placing this in the high tier, because I wasn’t particularly bothered when it first started. However, as this series progressed I found so much to love. It’s a fun, festive caper and it showcases a range of awesome new characters. Echo and [SPOILER] were great additions to the MCU and I’m excited to know this is only the beginning for them. However, the show stealer is definitely Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop. Her performance is absolutely fantastic, very energetic and charming, and it showcases so much range. I loved this version of Kate Bishop, and it’s easily one of my favourite things Marvel did in 2021.
I have written about Hawkeye in more detail recently if you wanted to see some more in depth analysis, but suffice to say I had a great time with this show. It was simple, and they took their time to flesh out the characters and build the story, whilst providing some fresh action sequences. It’s not perfect, but it is damn good.
Top Tier
WandaVision (January to March) - This is still my favourite MCU project of 2021, without a doubt. I absolutely loved this series, and I love the vision they crafted for how to tell Wanda’s story post Avengers: Endgame. It was another deep dive into Marvel’s mystical characters, which is something a lot of us have wanted since Doctor Strange was released five years prior. This was a totally different flavour for a taste palette which can feel stagnant and samey at times depending on what Marvel are doing. This show felt like a band who have released a few albums, wanted to take an experimental turn for their new album and they fully committed to it. This benefits the audience in such a big way because it feels genuine. The showrunners didn’t simply dip their toes into the weird trippy mystical waters, they jumped in head first and assured the audience they know what they’re doing.
WandaVision a great example of a show where every element is polished to perfection. The performances are some of the best we’ve seen in the MCU, most notably Elizabeth Olsen, and the story is crafted like a breadcrumb trail leading to an intricate puzzle box. The emotional depth is always there, to the point where the series made me cry at multiple points, and what it sets up for the MCU’s mysticism and multiverse moving forwards is genuinely fascinating. On top of this, the actual craft that went into making this show and the design is absolutely phenomenal. Mirroring sitcoms from across the decades and still being very much an MCU project, with some trippy Tom King inspiration thrown in, it is nothing short of a miracle that this all came together so well. It’s stylish, it’s utterly captivating, and it trusts the audience to think for themselves.
I’m at the point where I won’t entertain discussions centered around “well you only liked WandaVision because it was the first Marvel project in over a year", because that simply isn’t true. In fact I watched the entire series again over six months after it finished, and if anything it was even better. The story is well crafted, Wanda’s emotional arc is tragic yet beautiful, the performances hold up, and there are so many details to pick up on the second time around. It’s worth watching a second time for the sole purpose of keeping your eye on Agnes and tracking her movements from start to end. There is no other MCU project like this, and when they can still surprise us and keep us on our toes over ten years into the franchise, that is nothing short of impressive. It was a big risk for Marvel, but it absolutely pays off. I don’t use this term lightly, but WandaVision is a masterpiece.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September) - I had an absolute blast with this film, I thought it was exceptional. I was excited to see a brand new character and a new pocket of the universe open up, but they still managed to take me by surprise and blow me away. The story is layered and dives into powerful emotional territory, and the film knows when to be heavy and sincere but also when to be light and adventurous. This was an origin story but it felt like so much more. Some Marvel origin stories have felt bland and one note and often feel as though they have been made out of obligation (e.g. Thor and Captain Marvel). With Shang-Chi there is a strong narrative, an ensemble of great characters, and a sense of creative vision which is missing from many big budget blockbusters. I think this is a great example of when a filmmaker takes the audience by the hand and says “don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
Visually this is one of the most impressive films we’ve had in the MCU. I kept having this recurring feeling of “wow, someone spent a lot of time and money to make this look so good.” The action was bold and incredibly well choreographed, and the composition of the scenery and landscapes has such a vibrant colour palette, the film looks stunning. Aside from the occasional in-universe reference, you’d be forgiven for not realising this is a Marvel film because it looks and feels different, and very much has its own voice. There were times when I sat back in my seat in absolute amazement, with the biggest smile on my face, because they were reaching visual achievements on an entirely new level.
While I have mentioned many of the elements which make this film so phenomenal, I haven’t mentioned the glue keeping the whole thing together, which is the outstanding central performance from Simu Liu. Charming, likable, imperfect, complicated, and Simu Liu absolutely sells the character. What’s especially great is how well rounded this performance is, because every aspect is convincing. When we see Shang-Chi as “Shaun” stumbling through life and figuring things out as he goes, it’s convincing. When we see Shang-Chi interact with his father and convey a complex blend of love and internal torment, it’s convincing. When we see Shang-Chi kick some serious butt and perform incredible martial arts moves which Simu Liu is actually doing, you sure as hell get lost in the moment and forget you’re even watching a performance. I really liked this character, and I can’t wait to see more from them. I’ve seen news recently that the director of Shang-Chi, Destin Daniel Cretton, has signed a multi project deal with Marvel including a sequel, which makes our world feel like a sweeter place to live in. This is like finding out the Russo Brothers have signed on to make Civil War after handing in The Winter Soldier. Genius.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (December) - An incredibly late entry, but it’s in the top tier for good reasons. This film is wonderful, and I had a really good time with it. I’m happy to look past some of the issues with the story, because I’m so happy they managed to pull of some of the things they did. The exploration of the multiverse sets the stage for bigger things to come, but it also services this film perfectly. The action is on top form, balancing webslinging antics and bold mystical setpieces which look incredible. There is a sense of passion in this project which shines through from not only the director but the actors. Passion for the MCU, passion for the characters, and overwhelming passion for the legacy of Spider-Man films. Every single actor they’ve managed to bring onboard brought their A game, and it’s easily one of the best ensemble casts we’ve seen in a Marvel film. The stand out performances for me are easily Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe. The way they brought their characters to life again after nearly twenty years, and took them in a new direction was an absolute delight to watch. I want to say more but it would risk spoilers, so all I’ll say is please watch this film if you haven’t already. Watch it on the biggest screen you can, and then watch it again.
More than anything I loved this film because Tom Holland is a great actor and is by far the best Spider-Man we’ve had, and despite the multiverse shenanigans happening this is still absolutely his film. Spider-Man isn’t overshadowed by anything else, it is still 100% Peter Parker’s story. As if I didn’t already love Tom Holland as Spider-Man, this film is somehow the best we’ve seen from him. He keeps pushing further and giving the audience so much more with each new instalment. Honestly, if there wasn’t a strange bias in the industry, Tom Holland’s performance would be getting serious attention in the upcoming awards season.
Also this film made me incredibly happy with a cameo in the first few minutes of the film, and I’m sure everyone who has seen the film will know exactly who I’m talking about. Even on the second time seeing this film, I had goosebumps and I wanted to scream. The film could have done anything after that moment, I was already at a new level of satisfied.
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So there you have it, Marvel’s busiest year to date summarised and organised. Even though it wasn’t all top tier content, I still had a great time in 2021. The year really covered both bases. One on hand I was able to attend cinema screenings again and know that I was back watching Marvel movies in the best place, but it was also great to be in the comfort of my own home seeing how they used the new TV show format on Disney Plus. We’re getting more hours worth of content than Marvel have ever given us, and while this is overwhelming to a degree, I would be lying if I said I was unhappy. Even if it’s a mixed bag, what’s the harm? That’s how life is. For every Loki, there’s a WandaVision. For every What If? there’s a Shang-Chi. And sometimes, there’s just a whole load of Eternals in between. As I always say, we’re the fans, we’re not here to determine the path the story takes we’re just here to follow the creators wherever they choose to take us.
Hopefully we’re not all feeling full up on Marvel content because 2022 looks to be another fairly big year for Marvel, although not quite as big as 2021. As of yet the following projects are confirmed for release this year:
Films - Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (May), Thor: Love and Thunder (July), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November)
TV - Ms Marvel (summer), She Hulk (TBC), Moon Knight (TBC)
This still looks to be more than what we were used to from 2008 to 2019, but I’m glad their expansive plans for Phase Four include developing existing characters and introducing some new faces. Every single one of those projects excites me, so I couldn’t possibly pick which one I’m most excited about. For now it seems like we’ve got a bit of a breather, unless something is suddenly released as a surprise, so I hope everyone has had a fantastic start to the year, and we’re all staying happy and healthy. Fingers crossed 2022 will bring us some good news, good fortune, and more good content from Marvel.
