Feel free to connect with him or check out his work. He’s everywhere — Upwork, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Collider, LinkedIn, Instagram.
Marvel movies are often known for their massive third-act battles. Every Avengers movie has one. Civil War had the airport battle. No Way Home united 3 generations of Spider-Men against their rogues’ gallery. Those finales are what people remember and talk about for years afterward.
But the openings fly under the radar, when in reality, Marvel has delivered some of the greatest openings of all time. They just get overshadowed by the big finale fights. So today, we’re going over the Marvel movies that have some of the greatest opening shots.
7
‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ (2014)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/x-men-nicholas-hoult-beast.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via 20th Century Studios</figure>
The movie opens in a dark, dystopian future where mutants and their human allies are hunted to near extinction by the Sentinels. Years of war have turned every mutant here into a master of their abilities, and it leads to the most inventive power usage in the entire franchise. Blink (Fan Bingbing) is the standout here. She links her portals with other X-Men’s powers to chain attacks together in mind-bending ways, and it’s top-tier X-Men stuff.
It also did a phenomenal job of establishing the Sentinels as truly menacing villains. The scene is a harrowing bloodbath, where fans watch their favorite characters get massacred by giant robots that are using the mutants’ own powers against them. The scene left such a mark on fans that the Russo Brothers had no choice but to bring the Sentinels back for round two in Avengers: Doomsday.
6
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ (2017)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/chris-pratt.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures</figure>
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens in the most James Gunn way it possibly could. A huge battle rages against a multi-dimensional, eight-limbed space monster, set to Electric Light Orchestra‘s “Mr. Blue Sky.” But the camera isn’t on the fight at all. It stays on Baby Groot, panning around him as he dances to the song while the rest of the team fights in the background, just slightly out of focus. The most dangerous thing in the galaxy is trying to eat the team, but the movie couldn’t care less, and neither could the audience. All eyes are on a tiny tree bopping along to the music, having the best time of his life.
Mid-fight, Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) yells, “Groot, get out of the way, you’re going to get hurt!” and he turns around and just waves at her, with absolutely nothing going on in that little head of his except vibes. Then he fixates on a space bug flying around and tries to eat it. Rocket Raccoon rushes over, yells at him, and makes him spit it out in disgust. This entire sequence was pure, unadulterated joy, and did a phenomenal job of reintroducing the family dynamic of this team.
5
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/avengers-infity-wars-opening-jpg.JPG?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via Disney</figure>
Infinity War opens inside the decimated Asgardian refugee ship, which holds whatever was left of the Asgardians. Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) walks among the dead bodies and delivers a speech about salvation. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the strongest Avenger, lies defeated. Thanos (Josh Brolin) asks Loki (Tom Hiddleston) for the Tesseract in exchange for Thor’s life. Loki tries an illusion to stab Thanos in one last heroic act, but Thanos sees right through it and snaps his neck.
Then the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the wildcard we all expected to be the best match for Thanos, bursts out and gets a few hits in. But Thanos easily overpowers him in hand-to-hand combat and beats him so badly that Hulk is scared to come out for the rest of the movie. Then, Thanos takes the Space Stone, kills Heimdall (Idris Elba), and teleports away while the ship gets obliterated. Those first few minutes paid off years of build-up and established Thanos as the strongest villain the MCU had ever seen. And it also set the grim tone for the rest of the movie, where for the first time it felt like anyone could die.
4
‘Iron Man’ (2008)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Tony-Stark-in-Iron-Man.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via Marvel Studios</figure>
Iron Man opens on a desolate desert landscape, followed by a US military Humvee convoy kicking up dust while AC/DC‘s “Back in Black” plays. Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) sits in the back seat with a drink, cracking jokes with the soldiers escorting him. He brags about his lifestyle, takes pictures with them, and is completely unfazed by the war zone around him.
Then the convoy is ambushed. The vehicles around them begin exploding, and their Humvee gets riddled with bullets and taken down. Tony tries to hide behind a rock, only for a Stark Industries missile to land right next to him and detonate. In mere minutes, Iron Man introduces the brash genius billionaire playboy fans knew from the comics and sets up the origin story.
Four people, four completely different ideas of what it means to have
somebody in your corner. Here is who picked up, what they would ask of you, and what you would get
back.
You want the friend who does not leave. Steve is the one who
turns up at the door without being asked, who remembers what you said you were worried
about, and who has never once made you audition for his attention.
- His entire character is built on a single sentence, which is that he will not abandon
somebody just because it has become expensive to keep them. - He is far funnier than people give him credit for, and the joke is almost always at his
own expense rather than yours. - The friendship comes with a cost, since being close to Steve means being dragged into
fights that were never yours and being glad about it later. - You would get a friend who tells you the hard thing to your face and then defends you to
everybody else in the room.
You want the friend who is genuinely exhausting and completely
worth it. Tony will forget your birthday, then build you something at four in the morning
that you did not know you needed, and hand it over as though it were nothing.
- He is bad at saying the warm thing out loud, so he says it in hardware instead, which is
why everybody around him ends up with upgraded everything. - Being his friend means putting up with the disappearing, the deflecting and the jokes
that arrive about ninety seconds too early. - What you get in return is somebody who will spend an unreasonable amount of money and
effort on a problem the moment it becomes yours. - He is the loudest person in the room and the one most likely to be quietly panicking
about all of you.
You want the friend who replies in four seconds and apologises
for it. Peter is earnest in a way that is almost unfashionable, and he will take on far more
than he can carry rather than admit that he is struggling.
- He is the only one on this list who needs looking after as much as he looks after you,
and that balance is exactly what makes it a real friendship. - Nobody in the MCU is better at the small stuff, from remembering the thing you were
nervous about to showing up with food you did not ask for. - Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back where he works best,
which is broke, local and carrying the weight on his own. - You would get a friend who is sincerely, embarrassingly happy for you when something
goes right, with no edge to it at all.
You want the friend who insults your shoes, fixes your phone and
then quietly rearranges your entire life for the better. Shuri does not do soft reassurance,
and that is the reason you would believe her when she says you are fine.
- She is the smartest person in almost any room she walks into and treats that as a reason
to tease you rather than a reason to lecture you. - The teasing is the affection. When Shuri stops making fun of you, something has gone
seriously wrong and you should probably ask her about it. - Her story is the one on this list that goes somewhere genuinely dark, which is what
turned her from a scene stealer into the emotional centre of the films. - You would get a friend who never pities you, never softens the truth, and never once
lets you take yourself too seriously.
3
‘X2: X-Men United’ (2003)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/x2-x-men-united-hugh-jackman.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via 20th Century Studios</figure>
Over two decades later, the opening of X2 remains one of the best action sequences in superhero movies. It starts with a recitation of Abraham Lincoln‘s first inaugural address from 1861: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” From there, we see a mysterious man stalking his way through the halls of the White House, walking past portraits of former Presidents who all survived or fell to assassination attempts. The camera follows him through the POVs of security guards and security cameras.
Then a guard asks what he’s doing, and a forked tail rises from behind the man’s back, and we find out it was Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) all along. He pounces on the guard, Mozart‘s “Requiem in D Minor” kicks in, and we’re off on a wild ride. Nightcrawler teleports through the hallways of the West Wing like a demonic jackrabbit and takes out Secret Service agents one after another. He gets all the way to the President, but gets shot before he can finish the job and is forced to teleport away. He leaves behind a dagger that reads “Mutant Freedom Now.”
2
‘Blade’ (1998)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/blade-wesley-snipes-1998.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via New Line Cinema</figure>
Blade begins with a guy who is led into a secret underground nightclub hidden inside a meatpacking plant. It’s a gothic party vibe, with strobe lights making it hard to see and a heavy techno track blasting in the background. While dancing, he feels a mysterious drop of liquid hit his hand, and it turns out to be blood.
As the techno builds to its peak drop, the ceiling sprinklers go off and start spraying blood everywhere. The crowd erupts in ecstasy, and everyone shows off their fangs, revealing that everyone in the room is a vampire. It was an insane reveal that caught everyone off guard. And right after, Blade (Wesley Snipes) makes the coolest entrance ever, dressed in all black, and starts slicing vampires apart with razor-sharp precision.
1
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/across-the-spider-verse-2.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" />
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing</figure>
Into the Spider-Verse had a phenomenal comic book-style opening that recapped decades of Spidey history, from radioactive spiders to emo dance moves and so-so popsicles. That left Across the Spider-Verse with a tough act to follow, but it not only matched it, some might say it even surpassed it. The film begins with a hyper-stylized, colorful narration from Gwen, made to look like her thoughts while she drums. On visual quality alone, it tops the first movie.
Then the words start landing. Miles was bitten by a radioactive spider, and he’s not the only one. Now he’s on his own, and he’s not the only one. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she did. If you’re watching for the first time, you think she’s talking about the end of Into the Spider-Verse, where they all leave him behind. Only after you’ve seen the full movie do you realize it wasn’t a recap at all. It’s actually from the end of this film, when she recruits her own Spider team, so the movie basically starts at the end. The sequence even shows off major plot points. You see Miguel explaining the Spider-Verse to Miles, Miles and Gwen upside down on the clock tower, and Miles cutting Gwen’s web. You even see the fully powered-up Spot and all of the Captain deaths. All of it is right there in the opening sequence!
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
