Before we begin, I'd like to make it clear and known that I am not an expert of any sort, I'm just a girl who is really passionate about her interests and likes movies and Marvel! These are all MY OPINIONS, and if you think differently about any one of them over the duration of this rant that's perfectly okay! There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, this is just how I personally feel about these issues and I wanted to comment on them to show people who DO agree with me that they aren't alone!

This will also be separated across multiple chapters because some issues I have deserve their own attention and full personal analysis.

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I wanted to start this off with the most recent and prevalent issue with Marvel, that being the fact that their movies/projects are no longer as good and interesting as they used to be.

Please keep in mind that these ARE NOT facts, they're opinions that I'm simply presenting as facts because it is easier for me to get my point across that way.

Ever since Endgame, and even before that in my opinion but we'll go more into that later, Marvel projects have simply not been of the same caliber that they were before. This can be because of a ton of different reasons but I'm only going to list the ones that I think are the most prevalent.

1. Comedy

Since the debut of WandaVison(a show I personally thought was boring), I've noticed that Marvel is going in heavy on their comedy. At first, it wasn't as big of an issue because there was still a lot of seriousness and severity to the tone of the shows/movies, but as time went on, the issue kept getting progressively worse.

This is most notable in Ant-Man: Quantumania.

The movie itself had a very strong overall concept but was just,, not executed to its fullest potential(as most recent projects are).

The problem comes in when Scott and Hope are facing Kang, the BIG BAD of the movie(and who was supposed to be the big bad of the whole multiverse saga but okay). They come face to face with one of the most powerful beings in the universe and are just incapable of being serious??

It just takes away from the seriousness and gravity of the situation in my opinion, especially from Hope who has never been portrayed to be a silly and funny character like Scott has. She was and has always been the serious one. So to have her making jokes in a very serious situation just reminds you that this is very much a movie.

Now before I go into even more of a rant about Ant-Man, let me get back to the point I was trying to make: Marvel doesn't allow their characters to be serious anymore.

When the MCU was first starting out before they gained the popularity and notoriety that they have now, a large part of fan responses were about how great the comedy was. Eventually, besides the superheroes and stories, their comedy became what they were known for.

But now that they've killed off their bigger characters, in the sense that they were the most well-known to the public, I feel as though they're trying to double down on their comedy to compensate for that but it's just not landing the way they want it to. They're scrambling to stay relevant and that's going to become their downfall.

In trying to focus on the aspect of their movies that the public loved, they completely missed the reason why we loved them so much.

We didn't only love the comedy, we loved the comedy because we loved the movie.

Their movies used to be well thought out with a few jokes sprinkled in throughout. Now though, they're comedic fluff pieces with small bits of plot sprinkled in throughout. It's an almost complete reversal of what they used to do.

A great example of this being Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies.

Tony Stark is a character most well-known within the MCU for his witty comments and sarcastic humor.

As can be seen throughout his own trilogy, the Avengers movies, and CA: CW.

But what made him so funny to the general public was that he wasn't the 'class clown' who could never take anything seriously. We see multiple times throughout the MCU that Tony can be serious and, for the most part, is.

He used his comedy sporadically and most times as a coping mechanism or deflection tactic(more on that in a later chapter).

In The Avengers, Tony makes a few jokes while facing down the alien invasion from the Chitauri, but he could very visibly be seen to be focused on his task and doing everything in his power to stop the invasion from happening.

However when the movie hit its climax, and Tony makes the decision to take the nuke through the portal for the good of the city, he's somber and quiet. He's not making witty quips that take you out of the moment.

He's quiet, resigned, and determined.

His last act on Earth, before what he thought would be his inevitable death, was to speak to the person he loved. And when she didn't answer, he was resigned to living out the last few moments of his life alone.

The severity of the situation is never downplayed to be anything else.

And that's what made it work. By allowing the movie to keep and maintain its serious tone, the jokes and comedic relief scenes were more unexpected and added to the hilarity of the joke.

2. Filming

I feel like if you've kept up with Marvel actors' interviews, you already know what this section is going to be about.

If you haven't, great! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about it!

Have any of you ever wondered why Marvel movies suddenly feel so different from how they used to before? And not just because of the writing, but also something about the cinematography and just the overall vibe felt different?

That's because it is!

Over the years as Marvel continued to grow and reach new heights, so did their need to keep everything under wraps. And this was fine, great even, until it got to the point where not even their actors knew what they were filming for.

It has been stated on multiple occasions by several different actors that they don't remember being in/cameoing in specific Marvel projects until being asked about them directly.

And when they are asked, they react with shock and surprise.

Most notably Gwenyth Paltrow and Anthony Mackie. Gwethyn might have forgotten because of some other health issues(she's just...yikes) but Anthony??? The man had genuinely forgotten that he had cameoed in Ant-Man.

Do you know why that is?

Because Marvel no longer tells its actors what they are filming for. They call them, tell them they're needed, fly them out to Atlanta, and have them film scenes with no context whatsoever. So if you notice that some scenes feel a little stale and emotionless, it's probably not the actors' fault.

It's because they legitimately do not know the context of whatever they are filming and therefore cannot produce the appropriate emotional response to a scene.

Marvel movies feel cold and soulless because nobody cares about the characters or storylines they're filming for anymore, so long as it gets done.

When Thor(the movie) was first in the process of being made, Tom Hiddleston was brought into the writer's room and costume design apartment to help bring Loki to life. He didn't have to do that!!!

But he did because he, and the writers at the time, actually cared for the character they were portraying. That's why Loki, for all their flaws, has become a character that is so universally beloved by the fans.

3. CGI

This one is um...well it's pretty self-explanatory.

Marvel uses so much CGI these days that it's insane. Whatever happened to good old practical effects?

I have so much rage toward this particular aspect because it comes at the expense of their employees. Multiple Marvel artists/animators have come forward since 2020 in protest of their treatment.

They're overworked and underpaid.

In Marvel's pursuit to come out with more and more projects every single year, they're lowering the timeframe that these animators have to work on said project therefore because it's so rushed, it's obviously going to look bad.

This goes hand in hand with the other issue with why Marvel movies are failing, they're just not the event they used to be.

Back when the Infinity saga was on the rise, we used to get one to two movies a year. Great! That was amazing. They were the event of the year, everyone would be talking about them until the day of the release and even more so after. They got the publicity.

Now though, because they are so common, they don't have the same impact they did before. These days it's "Oh new Marvel project, cool," and then you move on with your life because you know another 2-3 are already on their way for the year.

There is no anticipation anymore, because the Marvel executives think that the more they put out, the more they'll make, no matter the quality, but that's simply not true.

All of their new projects are not even reaching anywhere CLOSE to the box office sales that it used to because no matter how many they put out, they're just not good anymore.

WE VALUE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY MARVEL!!!

And don't even get me started on this "six episode" show bull that they've been doing since WandaVision. It irks me so badly. What happened to filler episodes Marvel??? Those weren't just there for shits and giggles!

They were there to help develop characters' personalities beyond simply the plot. Not EVERYTHING has to be exposition and plot! STOP IT!

#BringBackFiller !!!

Anyways, I think that covers the three main reasons that Marvel is flopping the way it is? In my opinion if they keep this up, they'll be going out of business sooner rather than later, if not they'll have to resort back to comics as their main source of income because slowly but surely the fans are getting progressively more upset with the quality of projects.

It's becoming increasingly obvious. Fans are no longer willing to stay quiet about their disappointment in newer projects and if they keep flopping, bye bye Marvel!

<3