10 Things I Hate About The Marvel Cinematic Universe

A series of overproduced, micro-managed high budget Event Movies with massive merchandising tie ins featuring an overreliance on humour and established stars, non-threatening identikit villains and low stakes action, focusing almost exclusively on male protagonists?

There are no blockbusters being made today that are as safe as Marvel Studios’ output. That tends to mean that, while a Marvel movie has yet to plumb the horrifying depths of a Catwoman, Batman And Robin or Green Lantern, there are none which you could cite as game-changing as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or Richard Donner’s Superman back in the day.

This is a franchise which has walked the middle of the road from the very beginning. There are no surprises in these films: they’re made by committee to be more or less the same movie over and over. The pieces are beautifully crafted, slotted together with professional precision… but when the puzzle is complete, the picture rarely looks any different to the last one.

Let’s not forget the creative differences behind the scenes when genuine auteurs have been involved. Joss Whedon has publically said he’s done making MCU movies, in part because of the level of interference he suffered during the making of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Edgar Wright and Patti Jenkins both left the production of Ant-Man and Thor 2, respectively, while Ava DuVernay passed on Black Panther. All three cited creative differences with Marvel Studios.

The current team of writers and directors very much appear to work to a corporate brief: they’re salaried artists who’ve proven themselves capable of fitting in with the executive edict.

I’m not the biggest fan of the current batch of DC Expanded Universe movies, but say what you like about the patchy, incoherent and poorly conceived Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, it had some lofty ambitions.

That’s not a word many film fans would use to describe the movies in the MCU’s line-up to date. They may not be as worryingly divisive as Warner’s hodge-podge bleakfest so far, but they’re also not trying very hard to do anything different, or even impressive.

Don’t get me wrong: these are still entertaining flicks, with great performances and dynamic set pieces galore. They’re just very forgettable, the dictionary definition of popcorn movies… and it’s possible that ‘uninspired’ may be one of the worst things you can say about a superhero movie.

Agree with this list? What do you think of the MCU? Let us know in the comments.