It’s time to look back to see how these films fared, not by box office results, but according to whether they had substantial plots and were good enough to see as stand-alone films.

Check out the five that did not make the cut for us.

Iron Man 3

Iron Man 2 is one of the films in the franchise that audiences love to hate, but we feel that the third instalment was more problematic than the second one.

The Mandarin is Iron Man’s greatest nemesis and, while the switch in actors from Ben Kingsley to Guy Pearce was a cool way to reinvent the character while avoiding its racist origins, the Mandarin died straight after admitting who he was – leaving most of the audience hanging.

Also, we got a glimpse of all the versions of Iron Man suits that Downey Jr’s character, Tony Stark, had made – only for him to destroy all of them after the fight … why?

Captain America: Civil War

Yes, yes, we know about the airport scene – which was the closest to an Avengers bowl as it can get, but take that away and what are you left with? A too-convoluted conspiracy that had so many twists and turns there was no way that (what’s-his-name again?), the two-dimensional villain, could possibly expect to pull it off.

And even though they keep saying that the Avengers broke up after this instalment – like it’s the source of real contention – the result was that a few of them couldn’t live on the compound any more.

This break up did not prevent the superheroes from banding together to save the Earth. So at the end of the day, it was no big deal.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2

While the first instalment of this previously little-known comic did a successful job in introducing the group of intergalactic misfits and making us fall in love with them, the plot for the sequel was so left field that we’re still having trouble remembering it.

An intergalactic Casanova played by Kurt Russell, who is also a planet with godlike powers, goes around impregnating different species in the hopes of producing an heir that is powerful enough to do what?

Why did he have to kill Quill’s mum? How did Yondu Udonta go from being the big bad villain in the first instalment to a father figure willing to sacrifice himself for Quill without much character development? So many questions.

Captain Marvel

Only introduced so that she could be the deus ex machina for Avengers: Endgame, we found this all-powerful and mighty protector of the galaxy extremely bland.

We agree that a strong female character shouldn’t need a male lead to make a story interesting, but a superhero movie needs a good antagonist to fight.

Yes, the journey of self-discovery is an essential element in an origins film, but when the fight is against prejudice and propaganda, there is little for the audience to root against.

Thor: The Dark World

It wasn’t just the setting: all the angles of the shots had been lifted straight from it. In this age of streaming and digital downloading, it is actually an insult to the audience’s intelligence to think you can get away with something like that.

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