I've been into the MCU for a long time (over 10 years by now) and I've been a fan of Marvel even longer— basically ever since I was a little kid (I had a Spider-Man coloring book and sippy cup. Come at me). I have a lot of opinions on various things and wanted to put some of them here to discuss them!
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! And if you don't like Marvel, you can either exit out or have fun reading my rant, though it will contain spoilers and probably not make sense. For each thing I mention, I will put the movie/character it's about in bold above it.
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CAPTAIN AMERICA:
CIVIL WAR (1)
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We are going to start off strong here but I wish that this movie wasn't the end of the Captain America trilogy. It didn't feel like a Cap solo film. Instead, it was more like The Avengers 2.5 because pretty much everyone was in it except Thor and Bruce. Plus, they introduced two new major cast members; Chadwick and Tom Holland both made their MCU debuts in the movie.
Steve was sidelined in his own film. I love Tony, but his psychology and feelings were more heavily focused on than Steve's. The whole scene of him introducing BARF and the lady yelling at him for her son's death in Sokovia was longer than Peggy's funeral. All of Tony's movies centered around him and gave him significant character development. Steve should've gotten the same treatment.
I get that they had to set things up for Infinity War and introduce T'Challa and Peter Parker in the MCU, but it caused a packed cast in what is supposed to be, again, STEVE'S movie.
The original idea for Cap 3 sounds really interesting. It was supposed to be called Captain America: Serpent Society and involve Bucky, Arnim Zola, and Zemo, but Feige dropped the Civil War bomb in the writer's room, and everyone was like "Ooh billion-dollar movie idea" and went with that instead.
Now it's predicted that Sam's movie as Captain America will feature the Serpent Society instead, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
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CAPTAIN AMERICA:
CIVIL WAR (2)
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I understand where Tony was coming from but I'm Team Cap all the way. The government gave them the Sokovia Accords late on purpose. There's no way that 117 countries met, agreed on everything, and wrote the Accords in a week.
Why did Ross give them the documents to sign with only 3 days left? It's a tactic called pork barreling. Think what Ursula did in The Little Mermaid with the contract that she had Ariel sign. Someone is given a huge document to read and not enough time to digest the whole thing, think it over, discuss it, etc before a decision has to be made. There's no possible way that each Avenger could have read that giant booklet and have a discussion about it within 3 days. That was totally on purpose.
If they would've signed it and the Accords had gone into effect, it would've been like "Oh sorry, you can't go on that mission because of the fine print on page 187 :/ Sox x better next time!"
The Accords would've been a better idea if they'd gotten a chance to actually sit down and think about it so they knew that they were getting into. Tony had no idea what the protocols would actually be. Who knows, maybe it said on page 301 that he would've had to surrender his lab to the government and receive permission every time he wanted to make a new suit? They probably would not have let him bring Peter to Germany if the Accords had gone into effect.
This post on Tumblr explains it well:
"I keep seeing a lot of posts about how Steve was in the wrong in CACW because while Tony had a plan, Steve didn't offer any alternative to it, he was just like NOPE. The thing is though, something that immediately struck me when I watched the movie was the timing of everything. Ross and Tony bring Steve and the others the Accords THREE DAYS before they are to be signed. Those Accords were not drafted, approved and supported by 117 countries in a week. This was 100% intentional. This is also very, very common in American politics. When politicians want to pass a bill they don't want people to look at closely, they schedule votes at weird times or when a large # of people are away from the Hill (Capital Hill). So you get these 11th hour bills that are hundreds of pages long that no one has had a chance to read, ask questions about, or negotiate on about changes. These bills are stuffed with completely unrelated stuff that gets passed as well because the whole thing has to be signed off on/approved. It's called "pork barreling." Those are the questions Steve tries to bring up to the group. When he's like 'what happens when...?' And Tony brushes aside his concerns like 'oh, I'm sure we'll get to make changes later when everything dies down.' But Steve is like what are we agreeing to NOW though? And practically as soon as they are given the "generous" 3 day warning, Peggy dies. Steve flies off to London and everything goes to hell. What time is there to propose or discuss an alternative plan??
The timing was 100% intentional to make sure the Avengers would be subject to the Accords as written–no matter what was lurking on the bottom of page 440 in fine print. Steve is 100% right to be suspicious. This is one of the dirty tricks of American politics that Steve would be totally aware of. And sure, maybe there's a chance that everything was above board, reasonable, and so on, but you would NEVER sign a thing like that w/o actually checking/reading it. that would be foolish. I mean, did we forget that Project Insight was authorized and approved by The World Council? I guarantee you that Steve hasn't. I absolutely believe that Steve would have been willing to talk everything out, negotiate, listen to everyone's pov, and really consider everything carefully...but there's no time given to do that. It's all last minute, non-negotiable, and shady. Steve is a master tactician, natural leader, and a reasonable, thoughtful person who is a Big Picture thinker. It's weird that people just assume he rejects the Accords because he's being childish or something. That's not Steve Rogers at all."
Someone made this addition as well:
"yes, to all of this. i'm still of the opinion that the relentless pacing of civil war was detrimental to the clarity of the narrative, but it's becoming more and more clear to me that the subtleties behind steve's motivations for refusing to sign the accords were shafted, especially considering that the narrative is presented in a way that makes tony the most emotional and sympathetic character on first watch.
which is weird, for it being steve's movie. and civil war is still steve's movie–every decision that steve makes results in consequences to which the others are forced to react and by which they are dragged along regardless of whether or not they want to be. although he strangely doesn't carry a significant portion of the emotional weight of the film (that goes to bucky, tony, t'challa, and zemo), you would figure that steve's thoughts would be clearer.
unfortunately, they aren't."
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AVENGERS:
AGE OF ULTRON
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I think this is one of my least favorite movies in the MCU. It had fantastic potential, but J*ss Wh*don's absolute buffoonery is too potent for me to enjoy it.
I hated Brutasha. Mostly because they had Bruce faceplant into Nat's chest when they fell because "haha boob, funny" but in reality, that scene is just weird. Then they had Nat call herself a monster because she can't have kids??? Then they had her get locked up in a cell and made Bruce rescue her as the Hulk because Damsel In Distress??? She's Black Widow, dude. She can handle herself as opposed to sitting in a cell like "oh well :( what's a girl to do :("
Not to mention the whitewashing of Wanda and Pietro!!! Not great!!! Not fond of it!!!
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AVENGERS: ENDGAME (1)
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I honestly loved the whole "time-travel to get the stones" bit. I don't care if the science was wishy-washy— it's called a sci-fi movie for a reason and people can freaking fly. Why draw the line at time travel?
Anyways, since I've been in the fandom for so long, it made me so giddy to see the present-day Avengers/Guardians going back in time to other movies. Like how they showed additional scenes from the first Avengers movie, what with Loki poking fun at Steve for saying "On my way down to coordinate search and rescue" and that being the reason he gets that gag over his mouth, "SO MANY STAIRS!", etc, it was just so fun to see!
Also of course, the present-day characters' bits were amazing in those scenes. My favorite highlights:
—"As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass." *Salutes the booty*
—"Oh, you gotta be shittin' me."
—"Is that Axe Body Spray™?"
—"I'm going inside you."
—"That is America's Ass."
—"So he's an idiot?" "...Yeah."
—Bruce being embarrassed by his 2012 self destroying everything
—Bruce then having to pretend to destroy everything but doing it half-heartedly
—Steve and Tony literally not telling Scott what their plan is and just leaving him in 2012 with the scepter
—"Cap... Captain... Steve... Rogers... America..."
Like honestly it was so cool. It made me nostalgic af and was just a really fun part of the movie🥰🥰
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AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2)
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I think the shot of Steve being the only Avenger left standing, with his broken shield, walking up to the battle with Thanos and his army of 2929583 aliens, ready to fight them all BY HIMSELF, knowing he would die if he did but still about to try anyway because THAT'S WHO HE IS, is one of the best shots in the entire MCU. The cinematography of the light on his side vs the darkness on Thanos's is just incredible. Plus the music!!! And don't even get me STARTED on when the music cuts out and you hear, "Cap? Cap, can you hear me? It's Sam. On your left." OH MY GODDDD
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STEVE
AVENGERS: ENDGAME (3)
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I would rather have had Steve die in battle than go back in time and be with Peggy. It makes no sense and throws away his ENTIRE arc from the beginning of the movie about moving on. Not to mention that his death still hasn't been confirmed, so for all we know, he could be chilling, just watching the world burn. Plus everything we know about the TVA from Loki makes it seem like that would make Steve a variant. And it just means he had to sit inside for 50 years until his younger self thawed so the world wouldn't freak out, which means there were 2 Steves this whole time? It's so confusing.
Not to mention this completely disregards Peggy's character development in Agent Carter and how she literally HAS A HUSBAND ALREADY. AND HE KISSED HIS NIECE????????? 🤢
I was prepared for Steve to die and I honestly think they should have just killed him off instead.
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THOR
AVENGERS: ENDGAME (4)
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Thor's characterization and the treatment of his character in relation to his mental illness bothers me so much.
Here's the thing: there is nothing wrong with Thor's reaction to the trauma he endured. Depression can really do a number on someone, and it's completely understandable why he would gain weight, feel hopeless, and not take care of his physical appearance.
I did some research on this and found out that some of this change in Thor was decided by Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth. Chris wanted to show a different side of Thor rather than just a badass god, which he got to do some of in Thor: Ragnarok. Again, there is nothing wrong with the fact that this happened, it's the way it was written that bothers me. Chris did a fantastic job portraying Thor's grief and trauma.
Displays of mental illness in media are very important because it reduces the stigma surrounding it. Tony dealing with anxiety/panic attacks and Thor battling depression shows that even superheroes can suffer from these issues. However, there's a fine line between properly displaying the symptoms/side-effects of the illnesses and making them the brunt of a joke.
In Iron Man 3, Tony's panic attacks and anxiety were taken very seriously. When he was triggered into having an anxiety attack while in a restaurant with Rhodey, the stylistic choices didn't provoke any humor, except maybe when Tony reacts to JARVIS' diagnosis by saying, "...ME?" but that's meant to show that not even Tony thought he was capable of experiencing a trauma response like that.
Here's the clip if you want to see what I mean (you can skip to 1:10 for the actual anxiety attack):
Notice how not even Rhodey's "This isn't a good look" is meant to be humorous— if it had been, he probably would have followed up with something like, "Everybody's staring, It's kinda awkward." He's just a bit confused because Tony is usually so concerned about his image — even to an obsessive point — that it's unusual behavior for him. But then Rhodey understands what's going on and doesn't comment on his symptoms again for the remainder of the movie.
Nobody doubts his abilities because of his anxiety and PTSD. Nobody calls him names or pokes fun at how he acts because of what he's gone through.
Conversely, in Endgame, Thor's weight gain is the subject of several jokes and him constantly drinking alcohol is often timed comedically. Even when Bruce asks Thor if he's okay, Rocket adds that Thor "looks like melted ice cream."
Not to mention that the internet calls him "Fat Thor" in all of these videos??? Like... he's literally just Thor?
Also, the Russos (and the writers of Infinity War and Endgame) basically took all of Taika's work in developing Thor and flushed it down the drain. Despite losing so much and learning that he's more than his physical appearance, Mjolnir, and being the best at everything all the time, the Russos' choices made Thor seem eager to replace everything. He was excited to pop some random eye into his head, brought Mjolnir back even though he already had a giant axe that told him he was worthy, grew out his hair again, etc.
It would have been so much better if Thor's depression hadn't been treated like a joke and was actually taken seriously like Tony's PTSD. In spite of Tony's trauma, remained capable and people took him just as seriously as they did before. In Endgame, however, nobody takes Thor seriously and they see him as more of a nuisance than an actual person/hero. Thor knew about the Infinity Stones longer than anyone (his first glimpse of them was literally in The Dark World, years before any of the other Avengers found out, and he'd experienced its effects with Jane). None of the Avengers took his explanation seriously even though he was probably the most educated about the subject.
Mental illness isn't a joke and neither is gaining weight. I pray that Taika and the writers will do things right in Love & Thunder.
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WANDAVISION
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Personally, this was my favorite of the new Marvel Disney+ shows (I haven't watched Moon Knight yet though, so that may change)! It's odd because I was initially confused by the promos and wasn't too hyped, but I fell in love by episode 3 and was so excited each week to see what madness was going to happen next.
It was so creative and interesting! I loved how we never really knew what was going on until the end. Each episode being a new decade was so cool; the references to older shows from those time periods were amazing! I screamed when I noticed the Malcolm in the Middle style opening credits because that was my SHOW as a kid and kinda started the whole "talking to the camera"-style sitcom genre.
I also feel like this show had the biggest impact on the MCU as a whole. Like a lot of things won't make sense to the people who haven't seen this show for Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home. It truly opened up the multiverse (still convinced that Ralph was Peter Maximoff, especially because the X-Men will be joining the MCU now) and was just so freaking cool to me.
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THE MARVEL DISNEY+
SHOWS AS A WHOLE
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One thing I don't like about the shows is that they don't feel very connected to me, and some aspects kinda pointless.
Like I was the most excited about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and it was fantastic to see Sam and Bucky working together again (and my girl Sharon!) but it seemed... pointless in the long-run. Like I didn't care about the Flag Smashers at all, it was obvious that Karli was going to die, and didn't the rest of the Flag Smashers just like... die in an explosion during the last episode?
I'm so so glad that Bucky is healing and that Sam took on the Captain America mantle, but I felt like the show just kinda fell flat in some areas.
Same with Loki. Like the show had so much promise, especially with Kang the Conquerer, Sylvie killing him, and thus everything going to shit. It seemed like a huge deal in the show but then... it didn't seem to affect Hawkeye or No Way Home? Like I'm so confused as to what that was supposed to do. (I know that the season 1 finale was supposed to be a mid-season finale, so that may be why, but still. It makes the already jacked-up timeline even more confusing.)
I think Hawkeye was the show that took place the longest after Endgame and yet I don't think anything from TFATWS was mentioned there? Nobody was that aware of the Westview ordeal so I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't mention that stuff though.
I've only watched each show once, so I may be wrong, but there just seemed to be a ... lack of continuity in my opinion. Like with the movies, each one builds off of the other and things are mentioned from previous movies. This felt like each character may as well have been in their own universe when it came to each show. Like Clint could've at least mentioned that Sam is Cap now but he didn't.
Okay this is already long enough and it isn't even half of my opinions, but I'm tired of typing LMAO. Let me know what you think of the things I said here!