15 Marvel Movies Ruined By Terrible Endings
When Marvel adaptations are at their best, they adhere to a tried-and-true formula that aims them in the direction of success. Sadly, though, that exact formula is also what can often hurt them in the end, creating a nasty catch-22.
With Marvel— whether you’re referring back to its strong post-millennium collection, the beginning of the MCU, or the current slate— the endings are often compromised. Running into narrative slumps or putting far too many eggs into a single basket, these flicks are by no means without fault – no matter how much we may want to defend them.
While it’s admittedly difficult to reinvent the wheel, Marvel ought to take a lesson from its more successful and entertaining endings and repeat the process. Replicating perfection shouldn’t be too much of a challenge for the moviemaking giant, right?
Keep reading to check out 15 Marvel Movies Ruined By Terrible Endings.
15. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
However, where the movie ultimately ends up falling short is in the final act. After a mostly original setup in the first three quarters of the movie, GotG ultimately takes a turn for the basic when, after an aerial battle royale, Peter Quill “sacrifices” himself by grabbing hold of the Power Stone. Shortly thereafter, the other Guardians hold each other’s hands so as to share the load, but the result is less touching than it is trite.
14. ANG LEE’S HULK
With that being the case, why then is Ang Lee’s Hulk getting thrown under the bus, despite attempting something relatively original?
Simply put: the finished product is a mess.
Lee attempts to bring some artistic gravitas to the final fight scene (which is arguably the only way to depict a fight scene between Marvel’s Jolly Green Giant and thunderclouds), but crashes harder than the Hulk does in this exact scene.
What could have been an emotionally charged battle between father and son turns into the visual equivalent of a migraine paired with mushrooms.
13. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
In a full expectation turnaround, however, Captain America: The First Avenger became the first entry in a celebrated trilogy, creating a superstar out of Chris Evans, a solid founding father for the MCU, and hope for superhero movies to come. Had it not completely misfired with the ending, this movie could be near-flawless, as far as comic adaptations.
What we ultimately get is a watered down race against the clock to stop [insert villain] from destroying [insert location] with [insert weapon]. Wake us up in 70 years when the formula hopefully gets a facelift…
12. BLADE: TRINITY
Two years later, Blade: Trinity went ahead and stabbed a stake right into this series’ heart.
This was made all the worse by a weak, uninspired ending (and an even worse alternate ending).
Blade destroys Dracula in a paint-by-numbers fight scene (after the movie itself destroys Dracula’s entire legacy), and the hackneyed plot to kill vampires with something called the Daystar virus doesn’t even kill Blade because— as we already knew all too well —he’s not a full-fledged vampire.
11. THOR
By the end of Thor, the final battle is neither intimate nor ambitious.
Thor is still trapped in New Mexico, where the Asgardian Destroyer meets him head-on for an unbalanced weight-class wrestling match. Thor ultimately becomes worthy of Mjölnir, is reequipped with his armor and weapon, and kills Background Villain #1 before returning to Asgard for an equally underwhelming fight with Loki.
10. IRON MAN
The actual last scene of the movie is great, with Tony Stark shattering expectations, announcing to the world that he is, in fact, Iron Man.
The events that led up to the final scene, however? Not so satisfying.
It doesn’t help that Obadiah Stane seems as disinterested in the events of the movie as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski was with most things not related to his living room rug. It also doesn’t help that the villain himself isn’t all that intimidating.
The final fight is a larger-scale Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot boxing match, and it ends as lifelessly as it begins.
9. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
Villainous overlord unleashes his minions? Check. Unleashed minions attack area populated with innocent civilians? Check. Powerful machine with the power to destroy Earth activated, then thwarted? Check.
This ending might have seemed more entertaining if it didn’t feel like such a massive retread of events that went down in the previous installment. Alas, this is the ending we got.
Though the mid-credit scene gives us the classic “I’ll do it myself” line from Thanos, the damage had already been done.
8. IRON MAN 2
Still, Iron Man 2‘s final act offers nothing more than expectation-jarring whiplash.
In the end, one villain goes to jail, while the other commits suicide. Not exactly the sort of “cherry on top” one might expect from a cinematic universe promising epic levels of entertainment. Everything about this ending— from messy CGI to wasted potential— does little more than leave a bitter taste in the collective audience’s mouth.
7. THOR: THE DARK WORLD
It’s not a great formula, Marvel.
In Thor: The Dark World, the theme is disappointingly “same old, same old” especially when the movie reaches its final act.
Admittedly, the unimaginative villain and tired plot don’t really set this movie up for much of a payoff, but even so— it could have been so much better. Director Alan Taylor had some steam coming off of Game of Thrones, but as he proved with future projects (really just Terminator Genisys, to be honest), his creative reach is sorely, and unfortunately, limited.
6. X-MEN: ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
What this movie does to Deadpool is beyond unforgivable.
For that reason alone, regardless of how ever many other misfires this movie manages to pull off, sewing up the “Merc with a Mouth’s” trademark mouth is the nail in this movie’s coffin. Thankfully, both Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman returned to their respective characters and did them justice in Deadpool and Logan, respectively, but solving a problem in the future by no means absolves the past.
Whatever plans Fox might have had with an Origins spinoff series ultimately became dead in the water after audiences agreed how bad this movie was, so if there had to be one positive thing to take away from this movie, it’s that.
5. SPIDER-MAN 3
In terms of setup, this movie really didn’t have much to work with, which, by extension, made a satisfying ending nearly impossible to achieve.
During the finale, Spider-Man isn’t just trying to rescue Mary Jane from the villainous powers that be yet again; he’s fighting two villains at once— neither of whom are especially entertaining.
When it comes to defeating Venom, he does so by banging on metal poles.
Seriously, that’s all he does. Eddie Brock ends up throwing himself into a pumpkin bomb, but Venom’s ultimate downfall was “lack of pleasant musical harmony.”
4. FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is no golden egg in the Marvel compendium, but for fans of pre-Captain America Chris Evans and pre-Dark Knight superhero adaptations maybe there’s some kind of value to potentially latch onto. When it comes back to the fact that a giant cloud is the villain, though, it’s really difficult to keep this thing from drowning in its own pool of face-palming.
How do they manage to save the day? Silver Surfer just flies directly into the Galactus’ mouth.
Sure, it ends up killing him (just kidding, it doesn’t), but next to an entire planet being destroyed, does the loss of a silver extraterrestrial really compare? (Answer: it doesn’t.)
3. IRON MAN 3
This movie tries to break with the formula, stripping Tony Stark of his suit, and forcing him to rely on his above-average brain to save the day. Ultimately, the results are grade-A. Sadly, though, it all leads up to a mind-numbing climax where the movie’s actual villain, Aldrich Killian, turns out to have fire powers.
In a universe where Johnny Storm exists, this shouldn’t seem so unbelievable, but in the context of this story, it’s as jarring as it is poorly executed. And to keep with Iron Man tradition, their final battle leaves much to be desired.
2. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
Tonally, the movie is off. Character-wise, the movie is off. Plot-wise, the movie is off. But where this movie really falls short—which is the understatement of the century— is during its final act.
Not only was the climax of this movie equipped with the internet in-joke, “I’m the Juggernaut, b—h,“ it failed to successfully pay off any character’s battle arcs (Iceman vs. Pyro was a devastating excuse for a fight).
What’s worse is that, despite Jean Grey showing signs of pivoting her arc towards the Dark Phoenix storyline ever since the end of X2, the execution turned out to be a disaster when was all was said and done.
1. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
So much is happening, but at the same time, nothing of any actual significance is happening.
In the final battle sequence between Spider-Man and Electro— and the the Green Goblin, because god forbid a Spider-Man movie only allows itself a single villain— the overall messiness is underlined with the fact that Electro literally turns his weapons into a musical orchestra.
Then, to add an extra layer of ham onto this objectively inadequate movie, the final final battle pits Spider-Man up against the cartoonish Rhino, after fist-bumping the bravest, but dumbest child in New York City.
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Which Marvel ending bothered you the most? Let us know in the comments!
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