Benedict Cumberbatch has proven himself one of the most versatile actors working, but how do his films rank from worst to best? This Academy Award-nominated actor may have hit some snags in his career, but overall, he boasts a filmography as varied and versatile as his talents. Benedict began his career on the British stage before transitioning into television, breaking out in a big way with 2010's Sherlock, a show for which he's been nominated for four Emmy Awards, finally winning one in 2014. That show's popularity gave rise to a Cumberbatch fandom, and soon the actor found himself a fixture in multiple franchises, eventually donning the cloak of Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cumberbatch seems to have had little trouble transitioning from franchise fare to serial television to prestige cinema. Whether playing Star Trek's wrathful Khan or The Hobbit's dragon Smaug, he's an actor who radiates both intelligence and warmth, communicating a charming arrogance that can also give way to remarkable pathos. Here are his most major films, ranked from worst to best. Not included in this ranking are movies where Cumberbatch plays a small, unnamed role such as To Kill a King, made-for-TV movies like Starter for 10, and very small independent releases like Burlesque Fairtytales and Four Lions.

34 Zoolander No. 2 (2016)

This much-anticipated sequel to the 2001 cult comedy about dim-witted male model Derek Zoolander made its biggest mistake by releasing 15 years after the original and refusing to evolve with the times. Nowhere is that more evident than in Benedict Cumberbatch's cameo as non-binary supermodel All, which was correctly slammed for being transphobic. Co-writer Justin Theroux pushed back, calling the character "satire," but where the incisive commentary resides in a scene that has Owen Wilson asking if All has "a hot dog or a bun" remains to be seen. The original Zoolander feature cameos that elevated the movie while Cumberbatch's role in the sequel is best forgotten.

33 The Fifth Estate (2013)

Director Bill Condon nabbed Cumberbatch to play Julian Assange in this ripped-from-the-headlines WikiLeaks film, and prior to its release it seemed primed to be a major Oscar contender. Alas, the resulting film was a critical and commercial dud and for good reason: its intriguing and controversial subject is squandered in a rote, plodding film that's barely even worth watching for Cumberbatch's fairly compelling central performance.

32 Creation (2009)

In 2009, Benedict Cumberbatch appeared in Creation, a biopic starring fellow MCU actor Paul Bettany as legendary scientist Charles Darwin. Creation was generally regarded as a middling effort by both critics and audiences, although the performances of the cast received praise, especially Bettany. Cumberbatch played the ing role of John Dalton Hooker, a close friend of Darwin's and a fellow scientist.

31 The Other Boleyn Girl (2003)

Cumberbatch was right on the verge of breaking out in Sherlock when he played a small role here as the husband of King Henry VIII's mistress, Mary Boleyn. He's in good company, surrounded by a cast including Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Mark Rylance. However, Justin Chadwick's costume drama plays more like a highly-produced CW episode edited within an inch of its life, all flash and little substance.

30 Third Star (2010)

This heartwrenching tale about a dying young man taking one last trip with his friends to the beautiful Barafundle Bay has a sentimental streak only partially undercut by Cumberbatch's bitter and brittle lead performance. It's a film that revels in the melodramatic and the morbid, but its ending still manages to be palpably emotional.

29 Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle (2018)

Not to be confused with Jon Favreau's 2016 Disney remake, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is Andy Serkis' darker and considerably bloodier take on the Rudyard Kipling Mowgli stories. Benedict Cumberbatch s an all-star cast voicing the villainous tiger Shere Khan, but the film too often struggles to find its footing. Despite cutting-edge technology, the visual effects still unfortunately pale in comparison to those of the recent Disney version, and its brutish violence makes it decidedly not kiddie fare, while simultaneously lacking in the complexity that would appeal to adults.

28 Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018)

This fairly pointless animated take on the classic Christmas story from Illumination Studios seems to only exist to introduce the tale to a new generation. Simultaneously, The Grinch makes many of the same mistakes as the infinitely-polarizing 2000 live-action Grinch, chief among them shoehorning in random contemporary flair to a story that should feel, above all else, timeless. The result is a film that attempts to straddle the line between that version and the 1966 television special, all the while lacking the nonsensical bravura of Jim Carrey's turn in the former and the instant classic status of the latter.

27 The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014)

Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug is dispensed with fairly quickly in a Bond-esque cold open, ceding the rest of the running time to a bloated CGI-fest that takes the common Hobbit film criticism (that it's needlessly drawn-out from a simple children's story) and puts it on steroids. Peter Jackson certainly has his fun staging a film-long battle, particularly in the Extended Edition, but this whole thing feels like an overblown coda to a tale that should've wrapped up hours ago and a painful reminder that Guillermo del Toro probably would've done Hobbit better.

26 The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain (2021)

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain was released in 2021 on Amazon Prime Video, and functions as a dramatized biopic of the titular man (played by Cumberbatch), a late-19th-century artist that became famous for his strange paintings featuring cats. Both critics and audiences received the interestingly named Electrical Life of Louis Wain pretty well, although it's not quite in the upper echelon of movies starring Cumberbatch. Still, Louis Wain departs a bit from the usual dramatic tropes of a biopic by getting a bit whimsical at times, which did actually seem to work in the movie's favor. Cumberbatch is his usual reliable self in the lead.

25 The Current War (2017)

Originally intended to be distributed in 2017 by The Weinstein Company, this Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse biopic was shelved after the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations. While it was finally released in 2019, with some reshot footage and ten minutes shaved off, The Current War still plays like the death-rattle of Weinstein era awards-bait, a middlingly respectable period film with unfortunately low-wattage.