Post by DC-Fan on Jun 5, 2017 6:07:50 GMT
1. MCU's overuse of humor makes MCU movies crappy.
MCU's overuse of humor reduces the impact of scenes. It's OK to have humor in a superhero movie, but there's a proper time and place for it and after 15 movies MCU still hasn't found the proper time and place. In The Avengers, aliens are invading Manhattan and all the Avengers are doing is standing around cracking 1-liners. In Age of Ultron, Ultron is killing people and all the Avengers are doing is standing around cracking 1-liners.
2. MCU movies have low stakes because MCU characters can't "die".
In addition to overuse of humor reducing the impact of scenes, MCU movies have low stakes because MCU characters can't "die". Bucky dies, only to be resurrected later. Agent Coulson dies, only to be resurrected later. Nick Fury apparently dies, but then they said he didn't really die. By contrast, Thomas and Martha Wayne,
When characters that die are routinely resurrected over and over again, deaths become meaningless because you expect that any character that dies can and will be resurrected later on so the stakes are low because characters can't die. It's only when characters die and aren't routinely resurrected (e.g. Thomas and Martha Wayne,
3. MCU heroes don't inspire ordinary people to be heroic.
Remember the scene in Superman II when Ursa and Non picked up a bus full of passengers and threw the bus at Superman? Superman tried to stop the bus but the momentum of the bus pushed Superman backwards and pinned Superman against a truck. The crowd on the street watching the battle thought that Ursa and Non had killed Superman so they decided to go after Zod, Ursa, and Non. Even though they didn't have any superpowers, the crowd was willing to risk their lives to go after Zod, Ursa, and Non because they were inspired by the heroics that Superman had done for years.
The DCEU superheroes also inspire ordinary people to be heroic. In MoS, Perry White and Steve Lombard are on the street trying to get away from the path of destruction caused by the Black Zero when a building collapses and Jenny is trapped underneath the rubble. Instead of running away, Perry and Steve risk their lives attempting to move the rubble and free Jenny while the path of destruction approaches them. Perry and Steve are just ordinary people who were inspired to be heroic because of Superman.
4. MCU heroes don't respect the authority of the people.
Superman is the most powerful person on the planet. But with all his superpowers, Superman still respects the authority of the people and doesn't want to be a tyrant or ruler over the people. In MoS, Superman willingly surrenders himself to the US military because he respects the authority of the people. And in BvS, Superman appears before a Congressional committee when requested even though they had no power to force him to appear because he respects the authority of the people.
By contrast, the Avengers don't respect the authority of the people and believe that their powers allow them to be tyrants who can do whatever they want whenever they want. In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark is requested in a Congressional committee to turn over the Iron Man suit to the US government in the interests of national security.
That was a perfectly valid and reasonable request given the fact that previously weapons of mass destruction built by Stark Industries had fallen into the hands of terrorists (meaning that Stark clearly has a security problem and is unable to keep his weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists) and given the fact that the Iron Man suit had more destructive capability than the 2 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and thus the US government was concerned about the possibility that the Iron Man suit could fall into the hands of terrorists (especially after previous weapons of mass destruction built by Stark Industries had fallen into the hands of terrorists). But Stark refused that perfectly valid and reasonable request by the US government.
In The Winter Soldier, Black Widow basically tells a Congressional committee that they can't arrest her because she's an Avenger and the Avengers are more powerful than Congress so the Avengers can do whatever they want whenever they want and can't be arrested for anything.
In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark unilaterally decides to build Ultron without discussion with or authorization from any government leaders. And after Iron Man and Hulk destroy a city in Africa, instead of turning themselves into the authorities to answer for the destruction that they caused, they flee from the city like fugitives and hide out at Hawkeye's house like common criminals.
And of course in Civil War, Captain America gave a bullshit argument against the Sokovia Accords claiming that "The safest hands are our own", which completely ignored the fact that Scarlett Witch had just set off a bomb that blew out the side of a building and killed many people who wouldn't have been killed if not for the Avengers, and therefore the safest hands aren't their own because they weren't able to police themselves and clearly need some kind of oversight.
The real reason that Captain America didn't want UN oversight of the Avengers was simply because he didn't respect the authority of the people and didn't think that the Avengers (who are more powerful than the people) should have to answer to the people (or the elected representatives of the people). Instead, Captain America wanted to be a tyrant who unilaterally decided what's best for the people (just like Hitler and Stalin unilaterally decided what was best for their people).
5. MCU portrays US soldiers as corrupt and/or incompetent in order to make MCU heroes look more heroic.
In addition to MCU heroes not respecting the authority of the people, MCU portrays US soldiers as corrupt and/or incompetent. In The Incredible Hulk, General Ross and his men are portrayed as corrupt soldiers who want to use the Hulk as a weapon. In The First Avenger, the soldiers are so incompetent that none of them could get the flag down from the flagpole but Steve Rogers can do it.
And in The Avengers, the military is so incompetent that it takes them more than 1 hour to scramble fighter jets to fly over New York City, the most populous city in the country and the site of previous terrorist attacks. That's all done for the sole purpose of making Steve Rogers (in The First Avenger) and the Avengers in The Avengers) look more heroic.
By contrast, DCEU portrays US soldiers as brave. In MoS, the soldiers fight bravely against Zod and his army even though the soldiers are no match for the superpowered Kryptonians. Colonel Hardy makes the ultimate sacrifice to help destroy the Black Zero.
6. MCU villains present little or no challenge.
A hero isn't great unless the hero has a formidable villain who challenges the hero and pushes the hero to the limit. Without Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker is just a farmboy and not a Jedi Knight who destroys the Death Star and helps defeat the Galactic Empire.
In MoS, Superman battles a Kryptonian army that is as powerful as he is. In BvS, the Trinity battle Doomsday, who gets hit with a nuclear missile and still can't be stopped.
In The Avengers, the Avengers battle a bunch of aliens who have no superpowers and who get defeated by just a single nuclear missile launched by the military. In GotG, the main villain (Ronan the Big Bad Destroyer of Planets) is defeated by something as silly as a Dance-Off. MCU villains present little or no challenge and it doesn't take much effort to defeat them.
7. MCU movies only have Caucasian males as lead characters.
Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok will be MCU's 16th and 17th movies respectively. The lead character in all 17 MCU movies has been or will be a Caucasian male. MCU is in its 9th year and still hasn't made a female-led superhero movie while the DCEU is only in its 4th year and has already made the greatest female-led superhero movie ever.
MCU only allows female characters to have supporting roles in movies or lead roles on TV shows, but doesn't allow female characters to have lead roles in movies, where they can instantly become big stars. Hayley Atwell has had a supporting role in The First Avenger and a lead role on Agent Carter for 2 seasons. But Gal Gadot (who was unknown by most of the general public just a couple years ago) is now more well-known by the general public than Hayley Atwell, all because Gal Gadot had the lead role in the Wonder Woman.
With a Batgirl and Gotham City Sirens movies as well as a sequel to Wonder Woman coming in the near future, the DCEU has shown that they're willing to have female characters in lead roles and give them an opportunity to instantly become big stars. Joss Whedon plans to cast a relatively unknown actress as Batgirl so there's currently a relatively unknown actress out there who will have an opportunity to instantly become a big star like Gal Gadot has done. But in MCU, it's only Caucasian males (e.g. Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth) who go from being relative unknowns to recognizable stars by the general public due to having lead roles in MCU movies.
8. MCU is afraid to embrace mythology.
As a child, I loved watching movies about Greek mythology, like Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans (1981 version starring Harry Hamlin). So I'm glad that the DCEU embraces mythology in their movies.
By contrast, MCU is afraid to embrace mythology in their movies. MCU Thor isn't a god but just an advanced alien from another dimension.
9. MCU movies are full of bad, illogical writing.
In The Avengers, the Chitauri had flying segways while Black Widow, Captain America, and Hawkeye were grounded and couldn't fly. So the Chitauri had a huge tactical advantage because they could just stay high in the air above the buildings, where they would not only have a clear unobstructed view of everything on the ground but also have a clear shot at civilians below and there was nothing that Black Widow, Captain America, or Hawkeye could do about it. But instead of staying high in the air above the buildings, the Chitauri fly below the height of the buildings, not only obstructing their view but also allowing Black Widow to jump onto 1 of their flying segways and hijack it. That was bad, illogical writing. But they included that bad, illogical writing only because they needed to give Black Widow something more to do during the battle than just stand there and crack 1-liners.
Moreover, they said that the Chitauri didn't cause much damage because the Chitauri stayed within a 5-city-block area. That's bullshit! The Chitauri had flying segways while Black Widow, Captain America, and Hawkeye were grounded and couldn't fly. Thor was busy fighting Loki. So that left only Hulk (who couldn't fly) and Iron Man against all those Chitauri. There's no way that 2 Avengers (1 of whom can't even fly) could keep hundreds of flying Chitauri inside a 5-city-block area. The Chitauri have probably invaded other planets before so they must be an experienced invasion force. The last thing that an experienced invasion force (especially an invasion force that outnumbered their opponent by a lot) would do is bunch all of their invaders together into 1 small area, where the opponent can just concentrate their entire attack on that 1 small area. An experienced invasion force would spread out so that their opponent couldn't concentrate on 1 small area only. Again, that was bad, illogical writing.
And the scene of Nick Fury arguing with the Council over the use of nuclear weapons was illogical. Only the POTUS can authorize the use of nuclear weapons so it made no sense at all for Nick Fury and the Council to argue over something that neither had the authority to make the final decision on.
In Age of Ultron, Iron Man and Captain America fight because Steve somehow knew that Bucky murdered Tony's parents (even though Steve was frozen in ice when the murders occurred) and didn't tell Tony, but how does Tony (who somehow knew that a random high school kid in a city of 8 million people was the Amazing Spider-Kid) not know that his parents were murdered when the coroner's report would've noted that Maria Stark had palm prints around her neck and a crushed larynx and the death certificate would've listed Maria Stark's cause of death as "asphyxiation due to strangulation"? How the hell does dumb-ass Tony Stark think that "asphyxiation due to strangulation" means accidental death in a road accident and not murder? Again, that was bad, illogical writing.
Also, Iron Man knew that Captain America and Bucky were going to be at the airport to hijack the quinjet. Yet, Iron Man (who supposedly always has a plan) had no plan to set up a trap for them and never thought of disabling the quinjet by removing the engine or draining the fuel tank so they couldn't hijack the quinjet.
And Scott Lang said in Ant-Man that he became Ant-Man so that his young daughter could be proud of her ex-con dad. But then in Civil War, he goes and fights on the side of a wanted terrorist and murderer. Way to make the daughter proud - by aiding and abetting a wanted terrorist and murderer to escape from the authorities!
MCU's overuse of humor reduces the impact of scenes. It's OK to have humor in a superhero movie, but there's a proper time and place for it and after 15 movies MCU still hasn't found the proper time and place. In The Avengers, aliens are invading Manhattan and all the Avengers are doing is standing around cracking 1-liners. In Age of Ultron, Ultron is killing people and all the Avengers are doing is standing around cracking 1-liners.
In Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins demonstrated the correct way to use humor in a superhero movie. Sure, Sameer, Charlie, and the Chief are constantly cracking jokes, but not when they were charging across No Man's Land with Diana and then helping Diana liberate the town from the German soldiers. Diana had plenty of light-hearted banter with Steve and even with Charlie (when she said if Charlie leaves, who will sing for us), but when Diana was traveling to the battlefront and saw the horrors of the war (e.g. the injured and wounded (some with amputated limbs) and the town burned down and reduced to rubble and women and children lying dead from the poisonous gas), there was no banter or jokes or 1-liners. If it were a MCU movie, MCU characters would be cracking jokes and 1-liners during those scenes of horror, reducing the impact of those scenes.
2. MCU movies have low stakes because MCU characters can't "die".
In addition to overuse of humor reducing the impact of scenes, MCU movies have low stakes because MCU characters can't "die". Bucky dies, only to be resurrected later. Agent Coulson dies, only to be resurrected later. Nick Fury apparently dies, but then they said he didn't really die. By contrast, Thomas and Martha Wayne,
General Antiope, and Captain Steve Trevor
all die and none of them are going to be resurrected.When characters that die are routinely resurrected over and over again, deaths become meaningless because you expect that any character that dies can and will be resurrected later on so the stakes are low because characters can't die. It's only when characters die and aren't routinely resurrected (e.g. Thomas and Martha Wayne,
General Antiope, and Captain Steve Trevor
) that the stakes become much higher because the characters might really be gone for good.3. MCU heroes don't inspire ordinary people to be heroic.
Remember the scene in Superman II when Ursa and Non picked up a bus full of passengers and threw the bus at Superman? Superman tried to stop the bus but the momentum of the bus pushed Superman backwards and pinned Superman against a truck. The crowd on the street watching the battle thought that Ursa and Non had killed Superman so they decided to go after Zod, Ursa, and Non. Even though they didn't have any superpowers, the crowd was willing to risk their lives to go after Zod, Ursa, and Non because they were inspired by the heroics that Superman had done for years.
The DCEU superheroes also inspire ordinary people to be heroic. In MoS, Perry White and Steve Lombard are on the street trying to get away from the path of destruction caused by the Black Zero when a building collapses and Jenny is trapped underneath the rubble. Instead of running away, Perry and Steve risk their lives attempting to move the rubble and free Jenny while the path of destruction approaches them. Perry and Steve are just ordinary people who were inspired to be heroic because of Superman.
In Wonder Woman, when Diana climbs up out of the trench and charges across No Man's Land and draws fire from the German soldiers, that inspires Steve Trevor, Sameer, Charlie, and the Chief to also charge across No Man's Land and help Diana liberate the village from the German soldiers. Then when Steve tells Sameer, Charlie, and the Chief that he has no more money to pay them and they're free to leave, they all decide to stay and continue with the mission because they were inspired by the heroics of Diana in liberating the village from the German soldiers. And of course, Steve Trevor makes the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the poisonous gas because he was inspired by the heroics of Diana.
We never see any MCU heroes inspiring ordinary people to be heroic.4. MCU heroes don't respect the authority of the people.
Superman is the most powerful person on the planet. But with all his superpowers, Superman still respects the authority of the people and doesn't want to be a tyrant or ruler over the people. In MoS, Superman willingly surrenders himself to the US military because he respects the authority of the people. And in BvS, Superman appears before a Congressional committee when requested even though they had no power to force him to appear because he respects the authority of the people.
By contrast, the Avengers don't respect the authority of the people and believe that their powers allow them to be tyrants who can do whatever they want whenever they want. In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark is requested in a Congressional committee to turn over the Iron Man suit to the US government in the interests of national security.
That was a perfectly valid and reasonable request given the fact that previously weapons of mass destruction built by Stark Industries had fallen into the hands of terrorists (meaning that Stark clearly has a security problem and is unable to keep his weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists) and given the fact that the Iron Man suit had more destructive capability than the 2 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and thus the US government was concerned about the possibility that the Iron Man suit could fall into the hands of terrorists (especially after previous weapons of mass destruction built by Stark Industries had fallen into the hands of terrorists). But Stark refused that perfectly valid and reasonable request by the US government.
In The Winter Soldier, Black Widow basically tells a Congressional committee that they can't arrest her because she's an Avenger and the Avengers are more powerful than Congress so the Avengers can do whatever they want whenever they want and can't be arrested for anything.
In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark unilaterally decides to build Ultron without discussion with or authorization from any government leaders. And after Iron Man and Hulk destroy a city in Africa, instead of turning themselves into the authorities to answer for the destruction that they caused, they flee from the city like fugitives and hide out at Hawkeye's house like common criminals.
And of course in Civil War, Captain America gave a bullshit argument against the Sokovia Accords claiming that "The safest hands are our own", which completely ignored the fact that Scarlett Witch had just set off a bomb that blew out the side of a building and killed many people who wouldn't have been killed if not for the Avengers, and therefore the safest hands aren't their own because they weren't able to police themselves and clearly need some kind of oversight.
The real reason that Captain America didn't want UN oversight of the Avengers was simply because he didn't respect the authority of the people and didn't think that the Avengers (who are more powerful than the people) should have to answer to the people (or the elected representatives of the people). Instead, Captain America wanted to be a tyrant who unilaterally decided what's best for the people (just like Hitler and Stalin unilaterally decided what was best for their people).
5. MCU portrays US soldiers as corrupt and/or incompetent in order to make MCU heroes look more heroic.
In addition to MCU heroes not respecting the authority of the people, MCU portrays US soldiers as corrupt and/or incompetent. In The Incredible Hulk, General Ross and his men are portrayed as corrupt soldiers who want to use the Hulk as a weapon. In The First Avenger, the soldiers are so incompetent that none of them could get the flag down from the flagpole but Steve Rogers can do it.
And in The Avengers, the military is so incompetent that it takes them more than 1 hour to scramble fighter jets to fly over New York City, the most populous city in the country and the site of previous terrorist attacks. That's all done for the sole purpose of making Steve Rogers (in The First Avenger) and the Avengers in The Avengers) look more heroic.
By contrast, DCEU portrays US soldiers as brave. In MoS, the soldiers fight bravely against Zod and his army even though the soldiers are no match for the superpowered Kryptonians. Colonel Hardy makes the ultimate sacrifice to help destroy the Black Zero.
And in Wonder Woman, Captain Steve Trevor makes the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the poisonous gas.
We've never seen any such heroics from US soldiers in MCU movies because MCU's philosophy is that US soldiers must not look heroic so that the Avengers can look more heroic.6. MCU villains present little or no challenge.
A hero isn't great unless the hero has a formidable villain who challenges the hero and pushes the hero to the limit. Without Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker is just a farmboy and not a Jedi Knight who destroys the Death Star and helps defeat the Galactic Empire.
In MoS, Superman battles a Kryptonian army that is as powerful as he is. In BvS, the Trinity battle Doomsday, who gets hit with a nuclear missile and still can't be stopped.
In Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman battles an Olympian god who is as powerful as she is.
In The Avengers, the Avengers battle a bunch of aliens who have no superpowers and who get defeated by just a single nuclear missile launched by the military. In GotG, the main villain (Ronan the Big Bad Destroyer of Planets) is defeated by something as silly as a Dance-Off. MCU villains present little or no challenge and it doesn't take much effort to defeat them.
7. MCU movies only have Caucasian males as lead characters.
Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok will be MCU's 16th and 17th movies respectively. The lead character in all 17 MCU movies has been or will be a Caucasian male. MCU is in its 9th year and still hasn't made a female-led superhero movie while the DCEU is only in its 4th year and has already made the greatest female-led superhero movie ever.
MCU only allows female characters to have supporting roles in movies or lead roles on TV shows, but doesn't allow female characters to have lead roles in movies, where they can instantly become big stars. Hayley Atwell has had a supporting role in The First Avenger and a lead role on Agent Carter for 2 seasons. But Gal Gadot (who was unknown by most of the general public just a couple years ago) is now more well-known by the general public than Hayley Atwell, all because Gal Gadot had the lead role in the Wonder Woman.
With a Batgirl and Gotham City Sirens movies as well as a sequel to Wonder Woman coming in the near future, the DCEU has shown that they're willing to have female characters in lead roles and give them an opportunity to instantly become big stars. Joss Whedon plans to cast a relatively unknown actress as Batgirl so there's currently a relatively unknown actress out there who will have an opportunity to instantly become a big star like Gal Gadot has done. But in MCU, it's only Caucasian males (e.g. Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth) who go from being relative unknowns to recognizable stars by the general public due to having lead roles in MCU movies.
8. MCU is afraid to embrace mythology.
As a child, I loved watching movies about Greek mythology, like Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans (1981 version starring Harry Hamlin). So I'm glad that the DCEU embraces mythology in their movies.
Zeus is the Creator of Mankind. Zeus also created the Amazons to save Mankind from Ares, and Diana is the daughter of Zeus.
And in Justice League, we're going to find out about an ancient war in which the mythical Amazons and the mythical Atlanteans joined forces with normal humans to battle the forces of Darkseid. By contrast, MCU is afraid to embrace mythology in their movies. MCU Thor isn't a god but just an advanced alien from another dimension.
9. MCU movies are full of bad, illogical writing.
In The Avengers, the Chitauri had flying segways while Black Widow, Captain America, and Hawkeye were grounded and couldn't fly. So the Chitauri had a huge tactical advantage because they could just stay high in the air above the buildings, where they would not only have a clear unobstructed view of everything on the ground but also have a clear shot at civilians below and there was nothing that Black Widow, Captain America, or Hawkeye could do about it. But instead of staying high in the air above the buildings, the Chitauri fly below the height of the buildings, not only obstructing their view but also allowing Black Widow to jump onto 1 of their flying segways and hijack it. That was bad, illogical writing. But they included that bad, illogical writing only because they needed to give Black Widow something more to do during the battle than just stand there and crack 1-liners.
Moreover, they said that the Chitauri didn't cause much damage because the Chitauri stayed within a 5-city-block area. That's bullshit! The Chitauri had flying segways while Black Widow, Captain America, and Hawkeye were grounded and couldn't fly. Thor was busy fighting Loki. So that left only Hulk (who couldn't fly) and Iron Man against all those Chitauri. There's no way that 2 Avengers (1 of whom can't even fly) could keep hundreds of flying Chitauri inside a 5-city-block area. The Chitauri have probably invaded other planets before so they must be an experienced invasion force. The last thing that an experienced invasion force (especially an invasion force that outnumbered their opponent by a lot) would do is bunch all of their invaders together into 1 small area, where the opponent can just concentrate their entire attack on that 1 small area. An experienced invasion force would spread out so that their opponent couldn't concentrate on 1 small area only. Again, that was bad, illogical writing.
And the scene of Nick Fury arguing with the Council over the use of nuclear weapons was illogical. Only the POTUS can authorize the use of nuclear weapons so it made no sense at all for Nick Fury and the Council to argue over something that neither had the authority to make the final decision on.
In Age of Ultron, Iron Man and Captain America fight because Steve somehow knew that Bucky murdered Tony's parents (even though Steve was frozen in ice when the murders occurred) and didn't tell Tony, but how does Tony (who somehow knew that a random high school kid in a city of 8 million people was the Amazing Spider-Kid) not know that his parents were murdered when the coroner's report would've noted that Maria Stark had palm prints around her neck and a crushed larynx and the death certificate would've listed Maria Stark's cause of death as "asphyxiation due to strangulation"? How the hell does dumb-ass Tony Stark think that "asphyxiation due to strangulation" means accidental death in a road accident and not murder? Again, that was bad, illogical writing.
Also, Iron Man knew that Captain America and Bucky were going to be at the airport to hijack the quinjet. Yet, Iron Man (who supposedly always has a plan) had no plan to set up a trap for them and never thought of disabling the quinjet by removing the engine or draining the fuel tank so they couldn't hijack the quinjet.
And Scott Lang said in Ant-Man that he became Ant-Man so that his young daughter could be proud of her ex-con dad. But then in Civil War, he goes and fights on the side of a wanted terrorist and murderer. Way to make the daughter proud - by aiding and abetting a wanted terrorist and murderer to escape from the authorities!
To win the guess the former AH_Fan's new user name I say...drumroll...Dallas Cowboys.