With only three major superhero movies and a single adaptation of a major comic book property, 2015 wasn't exactly the most exciting year for fans. Still, it looked pretty good on paper this time last year; after all, there was the highly anticipated sequel to The Avengers, the big screen debut of tiny superhero Ant-Man, the return of the Fantastic Four, and the R-Rated Kingsman: The Secret Service. In terms of critical and box office success it was a mixed bag, but one thing that united them all was the inclusion of some truly, truly cringeworthy scenes. From shoe-horned references to some of the worst dialogue committed on film, just how cringey did 2015 get for comic book movie lovers?
8. Bruce And Natasha's Romance - Avengers: Age Of Ultron
While there was some controversy surrounding comments made by Black Widow which alluded to her being a monster because she was unable to have children, that was really far from the biggest problem this randomly inserted romantic subplot between her and Bruce Banner in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why Joss Whedon chose to throw this into the already busy sequel is a hard one to figure out. On the one hand, you can appreciate that the director wanted to use Natasha as a way of calming down The Hulk, but was the romance on top of that necessary? While their conversation in the farmhouse is hard enough to get through, perhaps the most cringeworthy moment comes when they're flirting in Avengers Tower in a scene clearly meant to be awkward, but also legitimately awkward for all the wrong reasons. For starters, Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson share very little in the way of chemistry, and considering that dialogue is normally one of Whedon's strong points, their flirty banter here is hard to stomach (at least there was some emotional context to their later conversation). Ultimately, the decision to try and pair these two up was a huge mistake and stands out as one of the sequel's biggest misfires.
