These MCU Moments Were Too Good For The Movies & Shows They Were In

It doesn't matter what you think about superhero movies; there's no denying that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an incredible feat of storytelling and filmmaking prowess. The film franchise has produced some of the greatest action films of the past few years, including "Iron Man," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," and "Black Panther," though it's not uncommon to hear criticism of the MCU movies after "Avengers: Endgame," given the series' overarching struggle to recapture the magic of the Infinity Saga. 

The MCU has, thus far, consisted of nearly 40 films (including 2025's "Thunderbolts*" and "The Fantastic Four: First Steps") and over 25 television series, so it's no surprise there's been a fair share of projects that haven't exactly resonated with audiences. While some of these films deserve more praise in the public eye, there are still good scenes, even those found amid the more unpopular moments in the MCU franchise.

Though this list is far from comprehensive, these 12 scenes may have appeared in projects that were less-than-well-received, but they're nevertheless the best moments in their respective films. 

Despite being Marvel's forgotten monster movie, "The Incredible Hulk" is still a key component of the MCU, introducing the franchise to the complex and troubled Bruce Banner, a scientist who is inadvertently poisoned by gamma radiation, turning him into an uncontrollable green giant hunted by government operatives. 

It's also the only lead role in the MCU for Banner, played here by Edward Norton before he was recast for 2012's "The Avengers" with Mark Ruffalo (who has gone on to redefine the character). "The Incredible Hulk" is far from the greatest Norton movie, suffering criticism for its outdated CGI and a failure to delve into the real ethos of the character from the comics. However, there's one scene that comes close. 

In the scene, the Hulk has escaped from a government attack (led by future Abomination Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth) and rescued Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), retreating to a remote cave as it thunderstorms. It's a surprisingly tender moment between the Hulk and his onetime love interest, portraying the Hulk as not an uncontrollable beast full of rage but a conflicted human struggling to embrace love. This is the type of Hulk scene the MCU deserved more of.

Chris Hemsworth has always done a great job portraying the God of Thunder in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the evolution of Thor from serious warrior to silly superhero has done wonders (at times) for his movies. 2011's "Thor," conceptually, should work; Kenneth Branagh directing a Shakespearean-esque Asgardian playing fish out of water among Earth scientists sadly didn't connect with audiences the way, say, Robert Downey Jr. did in "Iron Man." 

However, that doesn't mean there isn't some serious acting chops on display here, best exemplified by the film's turning point, when a reckless and arrogant Thor is banished from Asgard by his own father, Odin, stripped of his worthiness to wield Mjolnir, his signature weapon. Anthony Hopkins does a tremendous job as the king of Asgard, and Hemsworth established himself as an A-list action star with his performance here too. Also, credit to Tom Hiddleston for laying the foundation for the MCU's future hero and prince of darkness, Loki. 

The only sad part about this scene is that the rest of the film struggles to live up to it. Natalie Portman does a great job as Thor's love interest, Jane Foster, but most of the Earthly action feels too comedic compared to the strong dramatic potential promised by this banishment scene. At least it has one good moment worth mentioning, compared to "Thor: The Dark World," which has ... none that we can even recall, at least. 

Skipping ahead a whole decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe obviously had its ups and downs pre-"Avengers: Endgame," but "Black Widow" was the first real misstep for many fans. After making her MCU debut in "Iron Man 2," Scarlett Johansson's long awaited solo adventure for Natasha Romanoff was a big disappointment, but its one strength is its ensemble of heroes, including Florence Pugh as Natasha's sister, Yelena, David Harbour as her surrogate father, Alexei (a copycat Russian Captain America), and Rachel Weisz as her mother, Melina. 

After helping break Alexei out of prison, Natasha and Yelena reunite their parents and have a surprisingly sweet, albeit incredibly tense and awkward, family dinner for the first time since their adoptive family was broken apart. The strong character dynamics are on full display: there's still a spark between Alexei and Melina, whilst Yelena has trauma from losing her family despite Natasha's cynical belief that it was never real. 

It's a great moment in the film that sets up Natasha's family for a third act of coming together and becoming happy again, but first, there are some real crises in Melina betraying them all by alerting Russian operatives of their presence in her home. It also does a good job of setting up Yelena and Alexei's relationship before it becomes a major emotional throughline of "Thunderbolts*," serving as an emotional gut punch for MCU fans.

"Eternals" was always going to be an uphill battle for the MCU. Despite hiring an Oscar-winning director like Chloé Zhao to helm the project, introducing 10 god-like superheroes in one team with no other connections to the Marvel universe risked alienating a lot of casual fans, resulting in a really complicated cosmic family dispute that many ignored when it was released in 2021. Nevertheless, Zhao did a great job bringing this Jack Kirby comic franchise to life, with the film's opening perfectly setting the stage for the epic to come.

The beginning of "Eternals" takes place in 5000 BC, thousands and thousands of years before even the events of "Captain America: The First Avenger" take place. As a rustic human civilization is attacked by the mysterious creatures known as Deviants, the 10 Eternals arrive to save the day: leader Ajax (Salma Hayek), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Riddloff), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), and Druig (Barry Keoghan). 

Showcasing all their abilities and making good use of the film's unique visual language whilst containing little spoken dialogue, "Eternals" promises casual fans a much different Marvel Cinematic Universe experience than they might be accustomed to. That being said, it's also the first five or so minutes of a two-and-a-half-hour-long movie, so it's no surprise that the momentum from this first scene was lost on a lot of audiences. 

After a charming departure from formula in Disney+'s "WandaVision," the decision to make Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff the villain of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" didn't seem too popular. Despite a lot of visual panache and creativity, the anticlimactic follow-up to arguably the MCU's best TV project was just half of what one expects in a fun Sam Raimi movie, drawing criticism for obvious fan-service (see: the Illuminati sequence) and disappointing multiversal exploration. Most of all, the film upset many fans of the Scarlet Witch.

That being said, Olsen really gets to make a meal out of her scenes in this film, the most obvious being her heel turn (just the way she wickedly smiles at Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange when she says "That doesn't seem fair," chef's kiss) and her subsequent one-woman attack on Kamar-Taj. Obviously, we all knew just how powerful Wanda was, but the fact that she basically wipes the floor with the entire army of masters of the mystic arts by simply uttering "run" is bone-chilling.

If that epic outdoor sequence wasn't enough, Wanda also chases Strange, Wong (Benedict Wong), and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) through the insides of Kamar-Taj. Strange tries to distract her via Mirror Dimension, only to result in some of the scariest MCU action to date. Even though the film disappoints in its portrayal of Wanda as a mad woman, Raimi completely nails this scene. 

Taika Waititi could seemingly do no wrong after "Thor: Ragnarok." That is, until "Thor: Love & Thunder" came out and got mostly lukewarm reviews. At worst, it's a complete mess of a film from the screenplay to the performances to its notoriously hideous CGI. 

We all have our own opinions on the best and worst moments of "Thor: Love & Thunder," but among the best is an action sequence toward the end of the film's second act, when Thor, Jane Foster, and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) confront Gorr the God-Butcher (Christian Bale) in his own domain: the Shadow Realm. Stripped of all the color that defines "Ragnarok" and "Love & Thunder," it's an impressively choreographed sequence as Gorr whoops their butts. 

It's a total waste of cool visuals, though, considering that the Shadow Realm fight doesn't even serve as the climax of the film. No, that comes later when Thor and Jane team up again to stop Gorr from entering Eternity. All the dialogue-free cool-ness of the Shadow Realm fight is out the window for Thor literally saying, "He's right behind me, isn't he?"

There are a lot of people online who review-bombed "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" for the wrong reasons, but unfortunately, the show itself doesn't do much to deter critics. The Disney+ series premiered in 2022, following the misadventures of Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), whose blood is contaminated after an accident, resulting in her gaining Hulk powers of her own, which she tries to ignore as she pursues a career in law. Naturally, this leads to the show's best episode, in which Jen comes face-to-face with another notable Marvel attorney: Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox). 

Although most of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" is a messy, meta legal sitcom with humor that mostly misses the mark, Jen's team-up with Murdock in episode 8, "Ribbit and Rip It," showcases the character's charm and potential for crossovers that made her comic books so popular. It also helps that Maslany and Cox have great chemistry together as the flirtatious serial daters of the Marvel universe, resulting in dialogue scenes that feel just as compelling to watch as the action, which harkens back to Cox's "Daredevil" Netflix series.

Who knows if Maslany will ever make an MCU appearance again, but despite our love for Matt Murdock and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), we're still kind of rooting for Matt and Jen to be endgame after this episode. 

Remember when it felt like Marvel's next Thanos was on the horizon? Sadly, all that hype went out the door with "Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania," a funny but underdeveloped adventure that featured Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. In the film, Kang kidnaps Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), to force Lang into retrieving a much-needed power source for his multiverse-jumping Time Chair. 

The movie takes over an hour to ramp up to the introduction of Kang, but the scene that follows is quite a visual spectacle. As Lang shrinks down to retrieve Kang's power core, he encounters a probability storm, in which infinite copies of himself spawn with every decision he makes. After corralling hundreds of confused and uncooperative clones (including one in a Baskin-Robbins uniform, for some reason), Prime Lang climbs a mountain of himself with the help of Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) to complete the mission. 

Visually impressive scene aside, it's an exciting side adventure in a film that's maybe too chock-full of fun and games. Nevertheless, "Quantumania" suggested that the MCU may have lost touch with the real world, with most of the film feeling too absurd to be believable to most audiences. At the very least, that absurdity gets us some pretty fun moments like this one. 

For the unaware, Marvel's "Secret Invasion" is one of the most iconic comic book storylines of all time, where many iconic heroes, like Spider-Woman and Hawkeye, have been replaced by shape-shifting aliens known as Skrulls. It's a story that's ripe to be a full-on "Avengers" movie, but for the MCU, they decided to give Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury his first lead role in a Disney+ series, where he must broker peace between humans and a renegade Skrull militia. 

Even though "Secret Invasion" got solid initial reviews, it turned out to be Marvel's most underwhelming series on Disney+, killing off beloved characters like Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). However, one scene in the show's second episode might've been worth all the trouble. Following the death of Hill at the hands of Skrull terrorist Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Fury and Talos ride a train together, where Fury reminisces about riding with his mom in the "colored" section of trains as a child, playing a game called "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" to pass the time.

In perhaps Jackson's strongest performance as Fury, he coaxes Talos into playing a round of "Tell Me Something I Don't Know," and Talos reluctantly reveals that the entire remaining population of Skrulls (an estimated 1 million) is hiding on Earth. If only the rest of "Secret Invasion" was as introspective and patient as this dialogue is.

"The Marvels" is a mixed bag with similarly mixed reviews. While Iman Vellani's role as Kamala Khan was a strong point, the movie didn't do enough to redeem Brie Larson's Carol Danvers from criticism of her character having a bland personality. However, if you were to tell us that one of the best scenes in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie post-"Avengers: Endgame" was set to a song from "Cats," we'd respectfully assume you were kidding.

The scene in question comes towards the end of the film, when Danvers and the other Marvels are trying to evacuate the crewmembers of S.A.B.E.R. before Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) attacks. Luckily, Danvers' pet Flerken, Goose, has just given birth to kittens, which make for the perfect hiding spot as they can fully swallow people for safe-keeping. As Barbra Streisand's cover of "Memory" plays, a montage depicts S.A.B.E.R. crewmembers being hunted by Flerkens aboard the ship like in a horror movie, making for the movie's funniest, albeit darkest moment.

Not only have some critics deemed the "Memory" moment as the single best needle drop in "The Marvels" (which is high praise when James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy exists), but it's probably the best movie rendition of "Cats" by default, given that its only competitor is the infamous 2019 film version.

After a memorable debut in the 2021 "Hawkeye" series, "Echo" is the first (and last) "Marvel Spotlight" series on Disney+, following the journey of Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez after enacting revenge on her uncle Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) and returning to her hometown in Oklahoma on the run from the Kingpin's Tracksuit Mafia. It's an action-packed showcase for Cox and the Choctaw Nation, though there are only a few standout moments, including one in the very first episode.

As teased by the promo for "Echo," Charlie Cox once again reprises his role as Daredevil in a brief flashback scene to Maya's days in the Tracksuit Mafia. After being taken under Fisk's wing, Maya surprisingly holds her own against the notorious red-suited vigilante during an ambush, ending in a draw as Matt Murdock retreats. Fisk is impressed, explaining why he was so trusting of Maya to run his criminal organization. 

Although it's an appearance from the Man without Fear that's just enough to make fans of the Netflix series eager for the premiere of "Daredevil: Born Again" a year later, the real impressive feat of this scene is it's all in one-take (or, at least, edited to appear so). The two Coxes do an excellent job bringing the brutal fight scene choreography to life, making it easily the show's most iconic moment and a good teaser for what was still to come for Daredevil fans. 

After Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson accepted the Captain America mantle in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," the long-awaited "Captain America: Brave New World" is Wilson's first solo movie, but a safe, forgettable rehash of previous films like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Civil War." Following an attack on President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), Wilson investigates a vast government conspiracy that ties together many corners of the MCU, including the vengeful scientist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a terrorist mercenary named Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), and a global race to mine adamantium from Celestial Island.

However, trailers didn't tease an intricate and poorly-woven-together spy thriller. No, the main focus of the promotion was flaunting Indiana Jones himself as the new Thunderbolt Ross, whose transformation into the Red Hulk promised to be a huge moment. To the surprise of audience members, you had to wait basically the entire movie to see Red Hulk finally appear as the very last action sequence, though at the very least, they make it worth your while.

Sam's fight with Red Hulk has lots of cool moves, and is shot pretty spectacularly to make it appear as if their battle is taking place at golden hour in the cherry blossom garden in Washington, D.C. As per usual, Sam is able to take advantage of the location to remind Ross of his fond memories with his daughter Betty, calming him down enough to avert any more destruction. That's our Captain America!