15. Avenges: Infinity War
That’s no moon, that’s a…uh, wait, yeah, that’s a moon. Oh crap, that’s a moon! What’s awesome about this sequence is how it illustrates the potency of two Infinity Gems: Power and Space, one to crush and one to project the crushed bits. At this point in Avengers: Infinity War, both the audience and the heroes, have hope. Thanos is ferocious but stoppable. They merely need to get that gauntlet off his hand. Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy swarm on the purple madman, and he repays their efforts by smashing and propelling Titan’s celestial neighbor upon them. He pulls a similar “raining hellfire” trick on Wanda Maximoff in the next movie. He’s not afraid to take on personal damage if it means killing an enemy.
14. Ant–Man
The Yellow Jacket/Ant-Man brawl in Cassie’s room effectively demonstrates why Marvel Studios needed Peyton Reed. The director accentuates the comedy and absurdity of the sequences by devilishly leaning into the battle when the perspective is anchored on the versus match. The score swells dramatically, Yellow Jacket screams and cackles, but the instant we cut away to Cassie’s perspective, we see their war play out with all the impact of tiddlywinks. Transforming Thomas the Tank Engine into a legitimate threat seals the deal. The Ant–Man final fight may not have the gravitas of a Civil War or Endgame, but it sure as hell doesn’t know that. This mischievous juxtaposition is what pushes this MCU action up the list.
13. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Most of the action in Captain America: Civil War is exceptional. Do I wish they held shots longer and pulled the camera back a bit? Yes, yes I do. My initial impulse was to highlight the elevator gang-up, where Steve Rogers holds his own against a dozen beefy Hydra agents. If I were ranking individual action scenes, you can bet that would be here high on the list, but personally, the gnarliest and most engaging rumble in The Winter Soldier belongs to Nick Fury. His confrontation with Hydra posing as Washington D.C. police is cut from a more traditional action movie. This scene could be found within any number of flicks starring Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford. There’s something very Clear and Present Danger about how the camera swoops up to meet the explosive automobiles. It’s classic and nostalgic but also exhilaratingly fresh given the MCU context.
12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Baby Groot is living his own action movie. While his parental guardians war it out with an interdimensional space squid, Groot gets his groove back by jamming to Peter’s tunes. The action happening behind Groot appears exciting, and Gunn keeping it to the background causes your neck to swivel and your eyes to attempt an impossible peek around the corner of the frame. But the best MCU action is happening within Groot’s cheery strut. The little monster is achingly adorable, maybe too sweet, maybe cavity-inducing, but as hard as you try to resist, you want to gobble the goober down or pinch his cheeks until he bursts, or enact whatever other horrifying metaphor often associated with cute critters and human babies.
11. WandaVision
If I had a complaint about WandaVision‘s series finale, it’s probably that there is too much action. It’s mostly magenta fireballs and red wiggly woos. Fun enough, but not the material that made this show so dang exceptional. WandaVision‘s best action sequence is a non-action sequence. After a mini-tussle in the clouds and a rampage through the library, Wanda’s Vision-construct and the original Vision float around each other. The construct asks his OG counterpart if he’s familiar with “The Ship of Theseus” thought experiment. Of course, the freshly resurrected ‘droid has the data! He takes a beat to process the concept, gives the construct a nod, and lets him go back to the business of rescuing his family. Before the construct departs, he unlocks the original Vision’s memory. The white ghost has been reset, and as such, his mission of self-discovery continues. Is he changed? Or just rebooted?
Related Topics: Action, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios
