10 MCU Complaints That Make No Damn Sense
9. They're Entirely Predictable (And Formulaic)
The Argument
You can almost set your watch by how predictable the formula for Marvel movies is. There's no bravery, no messing with expectations.
The other side of that is the accusation that unlike DC, they refuse to hire auteur directors and instead take relatively unexperienced directors who will do as they're told. The result is creative homogeneity.
The Rebuttal
First, the most important rule of marketing is that you never EVER mess with the brand. So Marvel are completely entitled to stick to a model that has worked for them. That's why all three Iron Man have villains who are dark inversions of Tony Stark (all weapons dealers, all on the path that Stark himself was once on).
But to say that they don't throw curve-balls is ridiculously reductive, and plainly wrong. They went cosmic with Guardians Of The Galaxy, they did heist-comedy with Ant-Man, they bucked expectations and made Civil War's villain a small scale angel of personal vengeance.
Sure, they avoid lashings of unnecessary darkness, but that's not a formula in itself. Well, outside the DCEU anyway.
And as for the director point: hiring auteurs to combine together for one creative body of work is the epitome of inviting too many cooks to spoil your broth. Individual stamps are fine, quirks are even welcome, but when you're seeking a unified narrative, having people who have wildly different approaches and hallmarks should be considered anathema.