I was thinking about this question today and decided to put it forward to the whole site. I don't think this has been done before, at least I didn't see it done in my thread search, but if it has please let me know and I'll delete the thread. My vote has to be Batman Begins, personally. My rankings of the choices: Batman Begins > Iron Man > Wonder Woman > X-Men: First Class > Doctor Strange > Deadpool > Captain America: The First Avenger > Spider-Man > Man of Steel > X-Men Origins: Wolverine
I know I’m super alone in this but I fucking love the first Captain America film, and that’s my pick. I love Joe Johnston’s style.
Black Panther deserves to be among these choices, if that counts as an origin film. Or at least, it's a first entry
No just films that show the literal origins of the character. T’Challa was the Black Panther before the movie.
Gotta go with iron man. That's the movie that reallt established and or set the standard for marvel movies for decades to come. Batman begins a close 2nd
Went with Iron Man, but was torn between it and Wonder Woman. Could've gone either way. My real answer, of course, is Amazing Spider-Man, but that somehow wasn't included. And yet the first Spider-Man movie is one, even though that's the least watchable Spidey film as far as I'm concerned. I also personally can't understand how Doctor Strange, Man of Steel, and X-Men: First Class are options, but Superman and Guardians of the Galaxy aren't. Shout out to Captain America: The First Avenger for being an underappreciated gem, probably my personal #3 choice out of included options.
I personally think The Amazing Spider-Man is one of the most aggressively mediocre blockbusters maybe ever. I didn't include it because I figured nobody would ever vote for it over even the original Spider-Man, let alone over any of the other choices. Wanted to include at least some DC movies to avoid being accused of Marvel bias, which is why Man of Steel is in there. Forgot about Superman: The Movie, honestly. Then I didn't know whether Guardians of the Galaxy really counted because, while it's the story of how the group comes together, it isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when I personally think of "origin stories." It's more inventive and doesn't trace the origins of the heroes as painstakingly as something like Batman Begins or Iron Man does. Thought about putting it on but decided against it, also because there were already enough choices.
I feel like, if X-Men: First Class counts, then Guardians of the Galaxy counts. *shrug* I tend to view "putting the team together" movies in a different category than traditional "origin story" movies. But, if any team is gonna be included, Guardians is honestly the first that comes to mind for me personally. But, yeah, the semantics of it are somewhat up to interpretation. I shouldn't even acknowledge your Spidey slander, lol. I think it's just flat out a better movie than at least half of these, even after taking its shortcomings into consideration. But, I'll be arguing about Spidey films 'til the day I die, so whatever.
The difference between First Class and Guardians for me is that in First Class much of the first half of the movie is focused mainly on Magneto, Xavier, and Mystique's origins as characters, with the team stuff coming towards the end, whereas with Guardians you get Star-Lord's backstory at the beginning before they skip ahead, and then brief nods towards the backstories of the other characters, but the focus of that movie is more on the circumstances that organically draw them together, as opposed to the specific origin stories of any of the characters. If that makes any sense. Also I mean I'm not slandering Amazing Spider-Man, just giving my own personal opinion and explaining why I didn't include it.
I get what you're saying. First Class did use leftover pieces from an abandoned Magneto origin movie (which would've been a way better movie), so it certainly has some of that. I may just be biased because I find all the non-Magneto scenes in First Class aggressively mediocre, lol. I still wish DOFP had been a farewell to all prior films, leading to a reboot that could finally utilize the X-Men right. Oh well. I'm also waiting for the first great Spider-Man film (which'll probably be Enter the Spider-Verse), but in the meantime, I'll keep barraging everyone with my unwavering loyalty to the Amazing Spider-Man franchise.