Benedict Wong Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Benedict Wong-whose latest project "Weapons" opens in theaters tomorrow. 

Benedict Wong's Filmography Ranked:

17.Raya and the Last Dragon (D+)

16.Sunshine (D+)

15.Hummingbird (aka Redemption) (C+)

14.Johnny English Reborn (B-)

13.Prometheus (B)

12.Gemini Man (B)

11.Kick-Ass 2 (B)

10.Nine Days (B+)

9.Spider-Man: No Way Home (B)

8.Moon (B+)

7.Doctor Strange (B+)

6.Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (B+)

5.The Martian (B+)

4.Annihilation (B+)

3.Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (A-)

2.Avengers: Endgame (A-)

1.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

Top Dog: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

There are so many damn people in this movie that I feel like I'm writing about it in this column every few months or so. Alas, the doom-filled atmosphere, epic narrative and deep entertainment value of Avengers: Infinity War will probably be enough to keep it in my personal MCU Hall of Fame forever.  

Bottom Feeder: Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

The further we get into this decade, the more likely I think it is that Raya and the Last Dragon will go down as the worst animated movie I bothered to watch. After a promising into detailing how a formerly unified nation became divided into five kingdoms courtesy of power struggle birthed by the creation of a magical gem, the film becomes a complete snoozefest that would rather focus on the contrived friendship that develops between young warrior princess Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) and Sisu (Awkwafina)-who is the dragon that created this gem centuries earlier-instead of diving into the vast, conflicted world that's teased in the opening scene. It also needs to be said that Awkwafina-who I typically like on screen and in voiceover roles-was completely miscast as Sisu. Her signature goofy schtick is completely out of place in a movie that otherwise maintains a pretty serious tone.     

Most Underrated: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

There were a couple of reasons that I refused to back the "Marvel has lost their way post-Endgame"! narrative that emerged a few years ago and lasted until about a week ago when The Fantastic Four: First Steps marked the third time in the last calendar year that audiences walked away happy with one of their products. 1: I've felt the quality of Marvel's movies has been inconsistent from the jump. 2.Some of their recent efforts fucking rip. One of the films from the current wave of the MCU that I'm quite fond of happens to be the one that is arguably their most polarizing since Iron Man 3: Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While the movie does suffer from spotty pacing at times as a result of having its narrative reworked on the fly following a mid-production release date swap with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Raimi is cooking so hard with his directorial choices here that it doesn't really matter. By establishing a campy, pseudo-horror vibe inspired by some of Raimi's signature works (Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell) and being unafraid to utilize the multiverse as a vehicle to deliver several radically different versions of iconic characters than we've seen in the past, Multiverse of Madness goes down as an utterly delightful piece of macabre entertainment that feels shockingly experimental for the typically strictly homogenized MCU.          

Most Overrated: Sunshine (2007)

After thoroughly enjoying their hotly anticipated surprise reunion on 28 Years Later, Sunshine remains the only Danny Boyle and Alex Garland collaboration that I dislike. To be honest, Sunshine doesn't just represent an outlier among their collaborations, but both Boyle and Garland's filmographies on the whole. While neither of them has a spotless track record in my eyes, they've never been involved with another project that's as convoluted, boring and nonsensical as this ensemble sci-fi thriller.