MCU movies need to diversify their genre and storytelling

I’m sure this is not an original or new criticism of the MCU or really any superhero franchise but I think the most successful MCU stand-alone films have been movies that don’t let the superhero aspect fully define their genre. At least for me, these have been the most enjoyable and timeless movies. What I mean is that I love when MCU movies are regular movies set in a world of superheroes. They’re movies WITH superheroes, not SUPERHERO movies.

Some examples of what I mean. Captain American Winter Soldier: spy thriller featuring Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, and Bucky.

Ant-man: heist movie featuring Ant-man and pym tech schenanigans.

Spider-man homecoming: coming of age high-school drama exploring Peter navigating different relationships

This type of story telling is something that I think has fallen off in recent years and now Marvel/Disney Execs (whoever you want to blame) seem to be pushing bigger and bigger claustrophobic cgi heroes save universe style movies post Infinity War and Endgame in order to recreate that success but those movies were only that good because they were the cumulation of decades of story threads, but that’s a topic for another post. It feels like a lot of these movies try to do that, try to be their own films but theh have this requirement that looms over them forcing them to do save the world esques stakes at the end and a big cgi fight. I loved Shang-Chi and it was genuinely looking to be a John Wick esque film but they had the magical dragon fights at the end which was cool but imo not necessary for it ti be a good film.

I want to go back to smaller stakes, movies focused on rewarding character developments not just being the next generation Endgame. I hope rhe reboot can give us this.

thoughts?

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Commentaires

16tdean2025-12-12 21:34

That's interesting, because if anything I think the problem with post endgame MCU has been diversifying too much.

There have been a lot of shows and movies they've released that really didn't interest me. Because they are so far away from what I expect and want from the MCU

I'm not sure Disney have pushed bigger "Claustrophobic CGI heroes save the universe style movies" because what movies have been that post endgame? Maybe no way home?

Jet-Let46062025-12-12 21:36

They released too much at once and there was no consistent quality.

CommunityDragon1842025-12-12 23:37

There was until Covid.

krlozdac2025-12-12 21:38

I don’t disagree with you but there is to me a marked difference between shifts in genre and lack of narrative interconnectivity. I think the problem of the things you’re mentioning is the latter. Is the fact that a lot of those stories feel like islands, not because they’re tonally different but because they don’t further the macro narrative of the MCU. In an ideal world I think you can have both.

16tdean2025-12-12 21:45

I mean I didn't get to the narrative interconnectivity or consistent quality issues because the premise of the stuff was so different to what I expected I just didn't even bother watching.

Its only now that I'm excited for Doomsday that I'm going back and watching a lot of it.

Cultural_Comfort58942025-12-12 22:19

That’s intentional. Everything isn’t meant for everyone. Thank goodness. That’s when this type of thing doesn’t work. Trying to one up whatever was done before but it’s essentially just the same thing.

I think you’re the first post that I’ve ever seen where the person “gets it”.

Not complaining. Just the obvious, it’s not for me.

Otherwise-Nobody-1272025-12-12 21:35

Well they tried to change the genre but everbody cried it wasnt the same.

I only red the title im drunk.

Gilded-Mongoose2025-12-12 21:45

![gif](giphy|yf9T23zeArZh6)

TelenorTheGNP2025-12-12 21:59

Yeah, framing this post for Wonder Man's inevitable hate posts.

TheMemetasticDonny2025-12-12 21:39

I think the series have been their best content, Loki, Daredevil, Agents of SHIELD, low/mid budget series with a focus on writing and storytelling, I think, are the future of the superhero genre.

Kalelisagod2025-12-13 01:54

Everyone one of the Netflix MCU shows was true to the comics and tone of the writing. JJ was so well done for how she was in the comics. Cage and IF while struggling with the story as a whole did so good at making you care about the characters.

Twindo2025-12-17 17:11

Daredevil Born Again was mid garbage and basically showed the same character arcs both Matt and Fisk went through already in the previous Netflix show, it also tried to imitate sequences that made the show great like the one-shot fight scenes but you could tell it was lower quality. Nothing really happened for most of the show and the fight between DD and Muse was lackluster.

TheMemetasticDonny2025-12-18 03:05

Yeah, I kinda agree, but to take Daredevil Born Again as an example once again, even as a badly writted series, it still was WAAAY better for me than any of the recent movies, Because of the nature of series as opposed to movies, even badly done, they still have to at least make an attempt at fleshing out the characters, which is better than bad movies, where they simply put millions of dollar on fancy CGI and expect you to love it.

BenFranklinsCat2025-12-12 21:42

Literally ever time they've tried something else all the capeshit Internet trolls have review bombed it into oblivion.

aTreeThenMe2025-12-12 22:05

came here to express this opinion exactly. Literally, anything that doesnt look and feel like phase 1-4 gets absolutely shit on and murdered by these types, so theyre like fuck it, avengers doomsday. Heres RDJ back. Heres the action sequences, and that color scheme. Please watch our movies again.

DJfunkyPuddle2025-12-12 23:40

*Insert people flipping their shit over a 2-minute musical number in The Marvels.*

Popular_Material_4092025-12-12 23:44

Call me crazy but that singing planet was one of the best parts of that movie because they were doing something different for once

DJfunkyPuddle2025-12-12 23:49

Oh for sure, it actually felt like something out of a comic book. I will say though I was hoping it was going to be an Eternals tie-in, like a Kingo Bollywood kind of thing.

OrtizDupri2025-12-12 23:54

That and all the flerkens running around to a song from Cats was so fun

chameleonmessiah2025-12-13 01:51

I especially love Kamala during those scenes just embracing it & living her best life on a planet whose very way of life was perfectly in step with a large part of her culture.

New_Success27822025-12-19 21:10

I wholeheartedly agree. The scene also did a great job of emphasizing character traits for our heroines. Kamala was having fun, Carol was being courteous while also focusing on her mission, and Monica, while confused, was also amused at the whole situation. No notes, 10/10.

ZieGerman2025-12-12 23:45

I loved The Marvels, but that was easily the worst part of the movie by a mile.

Guivond2025-12-13 00:12

I liked that they were willing to get silly in a major MCU film. The tone of every movie doesn't need to be so dark and brooding.

DJfunkyPuddle2025-12-13 00:31

Part of what The Marvels did so well was balancing the serious and silly moments; each had its time and there weren't really any "stepping on toes" moments like a lot of the other movies did.

Twindo2025-12-14 01:59

I actually loved that scene and really enjoyed The Marvels because it felt fresh and new and different and was character driven more than it was plot driven. Not to mention the beast cameo at the end which was miles better than the Illuminati reveal imho

BobTheFettt2025-12-12 22:08

The Eternals deserved so much better

Thehusseler2025-12-12 23:32

It till blows my mind that people think Eternals is bad. It's easily one of my favorites

DJfunkyPuddle2025-12-12 23:40

Same, I loved it

Guivond2025-12-13 00:09

I felt the film had VERY bad pacing.

I could only handle the "getting the gang back together" scenes for so long before I mentally checked out of the movie and couldn't get back into it.

I liked that they tried to change up the formula and I even liked Icarus' motivation, but I just couldn't get into it due to the pacing.

Twindo2025-12-14 01:55

The pacing was bad because it was a movie. It tried to have two many story threads and couldn’t pay it all off in a meaningful way due to the runtime constraint. It would have been way better as a Disney+ show than a movie.

ShawshankException2025-12-13 00:43

It's crazy to me that the major complaint is basically "how dare this move that introduces 10 brand new characters have a lot of exposition"

bluediamond123452025-12-13 06:00

Yeah, but they really didn’t expand in all of them as much as they have done with other characters. I just didn’t know enough about them to care what happened to them.

TheJack0fDiamonds2025-12-14 02:11

Notice how the only time the entire fandom turns into some sorta film studies thesis class full of film study professors is when it comes to Eternals.

clashrendar2025-12-13 06:12

'If Justice League was made by a real filmmaker.'

____mynameis____2025-12-13 10:23

That movie cannot be enjoyed by a casual. The main characters are bland af, the pacing is all over the place since they had to cram multiple millennia worth of storyline into a 2 hr movie. The technical aspects for the movie was top tier, the set, the CGI, the score and scale... But it immensely lacked in emotional aspect which is a huge selling point for MCU movies, look at all our recent releases

So average audience would find it boring

And casuals make or break MCU movie's success.

Ranos1312025-12-13 18:48

It’s bad because they throw a bunch of characters at us, want us to care about them while not giving us any time to care about them and then feel some sort of way when they fight each other.

The idea that they just sat around when Thanos wiped out half of the planet is absurd. The whole thing was just boring. The visuals are the only good thing about the movie.

Flashy-Telephone32012025-12-12 23:34

I always thought it was decent. I rank movies by how many times ive watched them. I watched eternals twice, there are a lot of post end game movies ill only watch once.

UnbindA112025-12-12 22:15

“Internet trolls review bombing into oblivion” is a bit of an oversimplification of the issue (though not inaccurate), but you are right that the MCU still isn’t giving up on experimenting with genres other than basic action.

Ms. Marvel leans hard into that coming-of-age angle that Homecoming does, but with a closer focus on family and heritage.

Eternals is an international epic about godlike beings with lore that spans over several millennia.

Werewolf by Night, Marvel Zombies, and Multiverse of Madness all clearly have their roots in horror.

She-Hulk pushes that it’s an episodic courtroom comedy so hard that Jen *literally hijacks the finale just to avoid ending her series with some dime-a-dozen superhero action climax.*

Yongbar2025-12-14 03:30

Fucking thank you, I'll never understand the hate She hulk and *especially* it's ending get

New_Success27822025-12-19 21:07

"She-Hulk pushes that it's an episode courtroom comedy so hard that Jen *literally hijacks the finals just to avoid ending her series with some dime-a-dozen superhero action climax.*

And that is why I LOVED She-Hulk! The show poked fun at superhero tropes while also being a courtroom comedy and it was an absolute blast. I'm still annoyed at how fans literally missed the point of that sequence. Also, Tatiana Maslany is a gem and I have no choice but to stan.

So-_-It-_-Goes2025-12-13 23:20

And those of us that appreciate them trying new things, even if it is a bit flawed, remain silent to their trolling

Caracallademise2025-12-16 04:13

Thats why you can never read reviews for anything related to marvel cuz everyone will swear up and down its bad, then you watch it yourself and think your crazy for liking it.

abysmallybored2025-12-12 21:45

What they need is to let the characters have individual traits and personalities, everyone is goofy and quippy now, not everyone needs to be a teenage Peter Parker.

Yeshavesome4202025-12-12 23:11

Every character is written in the same voice. It's a huge problem for young screenwriters, something you learn to avoid while you hone your craft. Awfully hard to do that when the characters are written by a variety of writers and the character bible is being compiled by an executive whose only understanding of film is balance sheets, box office numbers, and cherry-picked focus groups.

Correct-Chemistry6182025-12-13 10:19

This was a really cool thing in the early MCU: Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Cap, Black Widow, and Hawkeye all had different personalities, and watching them clash in Avengers was a lot of fun.

And it's something I'm really appreciating about the DCU: The Bride, Pacemaker, and Superman are our protagonists, but they have completely different levels of morality and personal views. And they're all written by the same writer!

JustDoitGogogo2025-12-13 01:38

This is why I want a show with Kate and Yelena as a duo in an old fashion cop style

abysmallybored2025-12-13 03:07

They're literally goofy and quippy too, that's my point, they turn everyone into this eternal moody teenager with repressed emotions and humor-based coping mechanism.

![gif](giphy|l4pTsh45Dg7jnDM6Q)

bigbrainnowisdom2025-12-13 09:19

Yeah. That's my problem with thunderbolts. As much as I like it... Yelena, david harbour, us agent, heck even ghost are all goofy & talkaltive (well not ghost)

Also why I love Fantastic four.

Moon_Beans12025-12-13 09:09

They also need to allow the leads of different franchises to actually have different moral stances and beliefs.

For instance I'm sure a lot of people are excited by the prospect of two rival Avengers teams ( Sam's Avengers and the Thunderbolts/New Avengers) but the rivalry is practically dead on arrival because there isn't actually any point of contention between the two teams. I'm sure just like with the Avengers and GOTG in Infinity War there will probably be a brief fracas but almost immediately they will team up to beat Doom because there's no strong reason for them not to.

Part of the excitement of having different super teams is that they won't see eye to eye and may clash over their differing perspectives and beliefs. As a nineties x-fan I was always up for a needless x-team brawl where both teams were being dumb and needlessly confrontational but you could also appreciate from their own back issues why each team believed the other deserved a punch in the throat.

That kind of thing is missing from the MCU movies, not only does everyone quip and banter the same way but they also have completely indistinguishable morality and ethics. If I was challenged to come up with a list of clear differences between the MCU teams that weren't just superficial details I'd struggle to come up with any. If you took the GOTG out of a script and dropped the Avengers or Thunderbolts or FF in instead then you'd barely seen any change to the overall plot or outcome.

SinestroUK2025-12-13 12:35

Yeah, the only thing the New Avengers and OG Avengers are likely to do is sue each other! Now that could work (That being a core part of the first X-Force/X-Statix comic run was funny), but it's never going to happen here. (Why the Maria Stark Foundation isn't funding/supporting an Avengers team in the MCU is beyond me. Does Pepper just not care?).

thrownawaynodoxx2025-12-13 21:46

I think you'd like Iron Heart. I'm not sure she'd qualify as morally gray exactly but she's not exactly sparkly clean either.

Frozen_Pinkk2025-12-23 06:29

I think part of the issue there, is often times when you get Hero Team vs Hero Team, the heroes aren't acting like themselves.

Just look at AvX comics.

Even the MCU's Civil War should've had some on Tony's side going "You know Tony..." thing is, then T'Challa would've had a smaller team backing him.

Adama19412025-12-15 01:47

Agree, we need more character development and stories that build up and start to intertwine, that’s how you repeat EG success

PhotoBonjour_bombs192025-12-15 17:18

But then you would get Thor who was not liked by many because he was boring to watch and hear even though it’s true to his character

Ranos1312025-12-12 21:50

I think the MCU being about heroes, it should focus more on the superhero aspect. I think it has done a good job of this while also adding diversity of genre into it.
- Ironman 2 dealt with alcoholism and a bit of trauma.
- Ironman 3 dealt with mental health.
- Thor 2 dealt with loss.

And so on and so forth. Yes, some of the better ones were more of a different genre featuring superheroes but at least half of the actual superhero movies have added in other aspects as well helping to prevent them from just being run of the mill.

tideshark2025-12-13 17:40

GotG3 and Thunderbolts are two other outstanding movies for mental health in the MCU

therespectablejc2025-12-12 21:52

The problem, like so many things, is money. It's a huge franchise and they only see dollar signs. Avengers Endgame did great numbers, huge budget, so let's recreate that! They fail to realize that it was only so big because people cared so much about the characters first. The entertainment mexa-plex isn't good at building. They're good at taking a successful idea and making photocopies of increasingly diminishing quality until the idea is run into the ground, dead and bleeding.

adrian-alex852025-12-12 22:01

I’m going to disagree with the notion of needing smaller stakes or going in a direction that’s opposed to making Superhero Movies. I think the MCU’s ability to lean into the superhero elements of their movies was their claim to fame for a long time. And rather than smaller stakes what I want are stakes that feel appropriate to the movie (Thunderbolts did a great job of that to me).

Where I do agree, however, is that I do think the MCU would benefit from more genre diversity within their superhero movies. There’s no reason why we can’t have slick horror films, hard sci-fi films, noir detective films and even sweeping historical dramas (with some cool action) all set in the shared world that the films have created. This is what I suspect DC is embarking on.

What they need to make that work is to pair the right characters with the right genre and selecting the right writers/directors to create those stories. And then to be less wed to the formula they’ve become a little too over-reliant on.

I don’t want to get to a point where I feel like the events in some MCU films don’t matter or don’t exist in other MCU films. That’s the thing that makes this whole project work for me. The attack on New York carrying echoes throughout the rest of the films is what’s made this special to me from day one. Nick waiting for Tony and talking about the avenger’s initiative at the end of Iron Man was the beginning of something I never excepted to see in movies before that. However, I also believe each project has to stand alone. That’s hard, and it takes real work, but when they get it right (phases 1-3) it’s what creates the magic of Endgame and the feeling that you’re watching the culmination of years' worth of arcs.

Endless_Chambers2025-12-12 22:02

Agreed. I was excited with MoM and probably accept more than others because of the horror element it has. Like you mentioned, the characters suit different genres so I wish Marvel would lean into them more.

Cultural_Comfort58942025-12-12 22:12

They’ve done horror. Kung Fu. Absurd comedy. Mental Health. Christmas. Action adventure. Sci fi. Period pieces. Alien worlds. Young adult. Kids. Spy. Political.

That’s just off the top.

I think they got it covered. 🤔

Joshawott272025-12-12 22:24

I loved projects like *Werewolf by Night*, and most of *WandaVision* before it got all superhero-y at the end. However, I think that as much as it would be creatively interesting for Marvel Studios to diversify their tones and genres, audience expectations of what a Marvel movie is have long been set at this point. That could create backlash when they try to deviate too far, with films like *Eternals* ending up box office bombs (unfairly; it was a beautiful movie). To be honest, projects like *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* were also still very much superhero films, but with a bit of spy thriller flavour.

Hopefully, James Gunn can set expectations for the DCU early on with projects like *Clayface*, so at least they don’t fall into the same trap.

Patsx5sb2025-12-12 22:36

What they need is to stop making movies with their D List Charaters

Linnus422025-12-12 22:40

I mean they tried diversifying their Genres and Storytelling in Phases 4 and 5...it for the most part didn't work out.

The fundamental issue is that not every character can be Elevated to a Star. And that is mostly what Phase 4 and 5 have been about trying to elevate characters with lower floors then the MCU OGs to a high enough status to make these roughly 200 mil budgets worth it.

I think Budgets have to come down but the MCU needs to stop with Legacies and go back to the big names after Secret Wars. Still a new non Kevin Feige creative vision might not hurt.

AAC08132025-12-12 23:01

Did you watch Iron Heart? Did you watch SheHulk?

Kalelisagod2025-12-13 01:52

I have those as two of the three worst MCU shows by far. Didn’t understand the source material for either and just wanted to be as non offensive as possible while treating both characters as a look at us we are super welcoming to women and minorities. Ruined two of the best well written comics in the last 10 years. So yeah fuck those shows. As a comic book reader I just can’t tell you how much I hate those shows. The other was Secret Invasion. It’s like they saw the comic and went nah let’s do something else. I will add Inhumans, Legion and Cloak and Dagger as runner up to the we don’t care about the comics group. C&D was the first comic I ever read in the 80s. Broke my damn heart watching that trash

hmmberto2025-12-13 13:46

She-Hulk is the most source material accurate show that’s been made in the MCU.

DJfunkyPuddle2025-12-12 23:34

History tells us that no one actually wants this

Thisisgotham2025-12-12 23:41

When they went for comedy with Thor people lost their fucking minds.

BackgroundEngineer112025-12-12 23:47

They have tried to diversify. People didn't go and see the movies or series.

Yeah, there have been dips in quality. That can be attributed to trying to populate a new streaming service and letting the directors have more creative control.

Obskuro2025-12-13 01:16

Let them be superheroes first and foremost. Can't they just stop super crimes for a change?! Rescue people? That's so rare these days.

AsterArtworks2025-12-13 01:25

I’d say they already have been doing this. Agatha All Along is the wizard or Oz, Daredevil is a crime drama, Thor Love and Thunder was a rom-com, I can go on and on.

RustyPriske2025-12-13 01:30

I agree, but whenever they try that, people just complain.

Wonder Man, She-Hulk, Werewolf-by-Night...

GrandArchSage2025-12-13 02:20

This is one reason why I hate Ragnarok. The first two Thor films were basically high fantasy meets marvel universe and then Ragnarok is just Guardians of the Galaxy. For people who liked GotG, it's great, but for those of us who liked the first two Thors it was really disappointing.

>I loved Shang-Chi and it was genuinely looking to be a John Wick esque film but they had the magical dragon fights at the end which was cool but imo not necessary for it ti be a good film.

Shang-Chi has the highest approval rating of any Marvel movie, and it was nice that it featured fantasy themes *instead* of sci-fi, something we don't really get in the MCU outside of Dr. Strange, Thor, and Wanda/Agatha. So, I reject the idea that Shang-Chi is part of the problem.

Antrikshy2025-12-13 02:34

They still do this all the time. Agatha, Ironheart, Thunderbolts are all such different projects.

SpankyDomingo2025-12-13 04:25

What they need is writers and directors who like the characters, the source material, and can write and direct.

SinestroUK2025-12-13 12:42

Exactly! Get us excited about the character and what makes them unique.

Outrageous-Farmer-422025-12-13 05:19

*Homecoming* & *Ant-Man* don't feel like superhero movies, but *Shang-Chi* does?

SC felt like a fantasy film about martial artists, magic snd mythical beasts. HC felt more like a generic flick with costumed supers, secret identities and stage names.

Also, how does *Thunderbolts*, the extremely recent movie where the villain cannot be fought and has to be subdued by a group hug, not get a mention? Or do you call that a generic superhero film because the villain is a world-ending threat?

Buhos_En_Pantelones2025-12-13 05:41

My unpopular opinion: they're all popcorn enjoyable spectacles.

Winter Soldier is not a fucking 'political thriller' haha

Watch more movies if you want real genre films. Look, I love them too! I wouldn't be here if I didn't, but let's be real. C'mon, let's be real.

CheerfulLonewolf552025-12-13 11:21

How else would you describe the premise of Winter Soldier though? It was political and it was a thriller.

clashrendar2025-12-13 06:10

They were doing that and people got mad.

Grayx_28872025-12-13 06:55

Oh, they do, do they?!

flashcannonize72025-12-13 07:34

Genre is not the problem, it's the dialogue and storytelling. They are not shy in experimenting and trying new genres.

Correct-Chemistry6182025-12-13 10:09

I'd like to make two counterpoints:

- One of my problems is the opposite: we've almost never seen superhero stories (i.e., masked champions of justice who save the citizens of their city on a daily basis), but only action stories with protagonists equipped with powers and costumes. Spider-Man played the superhero for a bit in a montage of Homecoming and a bit in the other films, Kamala did when she saved that child (before her plot derailed with the djinns), but aside from Daredevil and the Fourth of July, I can think of few examples of actual superheroes in the classic sense, and as much as I'm also in favor of genre variety, it's a bit tiring (this is also one of the reasons why I maintain that people aren't tired of superheroes, but rather of bland action movies featuring superheroes);

-The problem is that, with a couple of exceptions (Winter Soldier is a spy film and Guardians is a space epic), none of the "different" films are truly different: they're the same old formulaic films that the marketing people cleverly try to slap a different genre on top of with a superficial veneer. Eternals had the potential to be a sci-fi blockbuster à la Ridley Scott or Villeneuve (also given its brilliant premise: gods who live the entirety of human history only to discover they must destroy it), but aside from a couple of cute shots, it's just the same old MCU film with the same old jokes. Werewolf by Night tries to draw inspiration from old horror films, but only gets a black-and-white filter, given that the atmosphere, tone, and dialogue are the usual MCU fare. Mrs. Marvel could have been a cute teen drama series (not ironically, they could have been inspired by the Disney Channel ones), and instead here comes the Djinns. And do I have to start with the She-Hulk writers, who couldn't do legal drama? Thunderbolts itself, billed as an A24 film, is a mediocre action film with an interesting ending.

They need to change their formula, which is now stale and old.

____mynameis____2025-12-13 10:46

I don't think so. Feige falling for film bro criticism and trying to please them is part of the gazillion reasons why we are in the shit we r right now.

Like Feige listened to every single one of those criticism and it alll backfired. All of them. Post EG MCU proved why movies should not have been unconnected, directors should not have been given free reign, that maybe making people feel like their missing out does work. Hell, post EG MCU retroactively made Feige's decision to not connect movies to the shows a curse turned into boon to both the shows and movies.

Its high time we understand that MCU can't be treated like other franchises are cuz its a unique and different way of working.

Imho, post EG MCUs biggest flaw is the standalone nature of the movies. No interconnectedness.

By connection, I do not mean the stones or Thanos but narrative connection.

Like how phase one had shield and fury connecting all the movies setting up an idea of a team up.

And in a movie (first Avenger) where they could not connect using SHIELD plotwise due the movie being set before SHIELD was formed, they used the dad of the most popular MCU character to make it connected to the narrative.

I can write an whole article explaining such connections but in short, These small but relevant connections is what made MCU feel like a universe and made people feel like they shouldn't miss out any of these movies.

And post EG MCU severely lacks it.

I knew MCU was fucked when I realised they are gonna brush off the Blip like it was some random Tuesday when conflicts of much smaller scale had more multiple movie worth of consequences

darthbiscuit2025-12-13 10:51

It’s a lesson Marvel isn’t gonna learn. Why? Fantastic 4 was about family existing together in a, well, fantastical situation and making the best of it. Well written and well paced and, most importantly, well acted. Thunderbolts* was, conversely, about a group of very different people with terrible pasts who have to come together to save the world. It deals with depression, abuse, and trauma better than 90% of fiction out there. Both of these movies made considerably less domestically than Thor: Love and Thunder. So why would Marvel risk money on great writing that covers real issues when screaming goats and nekkid Hemsworths make more?

MHullRealtr772025-12-13 13:00

WandaVision was a mystery with sitcom styles thrown in

Sylar_Lives2025-12-13 13:21

The MCU has always been doing this, it’s just not always appreciated.

TheJack0fDiamonds2025-12-14 02:18

They gave us Eternals, which broke the damn mould itself and people went around about how they should’ve adhered to the mould from top to bottom instead. How it should’ve been done this way or that way instead of seeing the conscious decisions made.

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. I hope Marvel NEVER deviates or diversify in any way and stick to the same formula because why bother? If it aint broke dont fix it, right?

Twindo2025-12-14 02:23

You’re right Eternals was different but it was also badly paced and quite frankly boring. Would I have enjoyed the long exposition and slow burn if it was a tv show? Absolutely! But it wasn’t. It was a movie.

poppythepupstar2025-12-14 04:25

this is why i was so excited for a non superhero spy thriller and what i thought secret invasion was going to be like they advertised and then instead of leaning into the human world of the mcu and how the humans will deal with a crisis they.. well... that shall not be discussed happened...

Twindo2025-12-14 04:50

Secret invasion actually left me speechless with how awful it was

EveryAccount77292025-12-14 14:24

yeah i can't comprehend how we don't just have one single spiderman movie that is basically a "nyc high school movie" w/ the fact he is spiderman just ... incidental. like really actually build the characters have the MAIN problem in the movie be a personal one , and have it be a comedy.

paperkutchy2025-12-14 15:44

What the MCU needs is proper writing

chiefbrody622025-12-14 23:23

They did this in phase 4 and 5 and people constantly complained. There's no winning lol

TheBlackdragonSix2025-12-15 06:30

Been saying this since at least phase 3.

PotentialAnt96702025-12-15 19:06

They can't. Diversity is illegal now.

FromDathomir2025-12-16 16:41

I feel like they are almost all doing this, with varying levels of success. And you right away point out, in my mind, proof that it doesn't always work, because I personally think Ant-Man is bland as hell.

Different-Drum-26012025-12-17 03:21

I still can’t get myself to sit through a rewatch of Fantastic Four on D+ because it’s just such a generic superhero movie

Twindo2025-12-17 17:04

I agree. The fact that just before F4 we got that end credit scene in Thunderbolts of the F4 ship entering Earth-616 atmosphere + Galactus being the villain of the movie + the F4 Earth being suspiciously perfect + DOOM all pointed to a movie with a hero loss at the end. Instead we got whatever we got. It doesn’t help that we finally had a perfect Thing design and they covered him in a Rock beard for half the movie, but that’s just me getting nitpicky.

Definitely felt like a lot of scenes were cut and the direction of the movie was changed last minute, same thing that happened to Brave New World

Hotpotlord2025-12-19 20:21

No, the funny thing is that they lost their audience by trying to be too cute with no plan and no central direction .

umbium2025-12-23 23:24

I agree.

Also they should stop cinema wanting to be comic. Actors age. Make that a trait of the MCU, where heroes really die or pass the mantle.

Also as they say here, just make heroes have unique personalities and styles.

They should stop wanting everyone to watch everything. They should make Avenger movies or big crossover event movies to be for everyone, but the supeheroes trilogies or franchises to be just for a specific target.