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The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become one of the biggest names in pop culture thanks to some of the highest-grossing films ever made. Legions of fans look forward to each new installment, and merch is nearly everywhere. The MCU has set a new standard for superhero movies, forcing everyone else to step up their game to compete.
People love the films of the MCU so much that they’ll often overlook the many basic mistakes the movies make. In fact, looking back reveals that a large portion of the MCU hasn’t aged nearly as well as anyone imagined.
Updated on January 31, 2022 by Scoot Allan: The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been around for all that long yet, as the Infinity Saga lasted around a decade plus the last couple of years of the MCU’s Phase Four. However, there have been more than enough movies released over the numerous hit franchises to make some of the older films feel dated or even out of synch with the rest of the MCU.
15 Captain America: The First Avenger Feels Alone In The Trilogy
While the origins of Captain America in the MCU obviously had to occur during World War II to best suit the character, the past setting of Captain America: The First Avenger doesn’t help it feel current with the rest of the MCU.
Captain America: The First Avenger‘s tone also doesn’t quite fit with the other movies in his series, making it feel like it stands alone alongside movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.
14 Black Widow Was Released Too Late To Be Relevant
Fans were hoping to see a solo film starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, the MCU’s deadliest spy and Avenger, for years. Unfortunately, Black Widow didn’t actually come out until 2021, 2 years after the character’s death in Avengers: Endgame.
The movie was set shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War and successfully introduced a few new characters like the Red Guardian and Yelena Belova/White Widow, but some fans felt that it was released too late to really be relevant to the overall Infinity Saga.
13 Chadwick Boseman’s Death Makes Black Panther Hard To Watch
The tragic loss of actor Chadwick Boseman hit the MCU hard, as he had perfectly portrayed T’Challa in movies like Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame, and of course, 2018’s Black Panther.
While the movie still holds an important place in the MCU’s history that teased a larger future, Boseman’s death makes it difficult to rewatch the solo movie that introduced Wakanda to the audience. The issues on set of the sequel and Marvel Studio’s subsequent decision not to recast the character have also caused some concerns with fans that have caused the movie to age poorly.
12 Captain Marvel’s 90s Setting Dates The Movie More Than Intended
While it was definitely an interesting choice to set 2019’s Captain Marvel in the 90s to further explore the timeline of the MCU and explain the absence of one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU’s biggest events, it can make the film feel dated at times as well.
The characters don’t quite match up to their later selves and Captain Marvel’s later appearances in the MCU have made her origin story feel like it happened even longer ago. The focus on the adult Monica Rambeau from WandaVision as she transforms into Spectrum has also made her youthful appearance in Captain Marvel feel out of place.
11 Doctor Strange’s Magic Doesn’t Have The Same Surprising Energy
While the first appearance of Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme in 2016’s Doctor Strange wowed audiences with the introduction of magic to the MCU, the character’s appearances outside of the movie have made the original lose some of its flash.
The levels of magic that fans have seen from Doctor Strange in movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home make the shields and weapons shown in the original Doctor Strange pale in comparison.
10 Thor: The Dark World Is Low Hanging Fruit At This Point
It’s kind of a cheat to say Thor: The Dark World hasn’t aged well because it wasn’t exactly beloved at the time of its release, either. However, it’s an even worse movie now, which is saying something. The movie was bland and forgettable, to begin with, but with the way the MCU has grown and changed, it looks worse than ever.
Thor has been a notoriously hard character for the MCU to get right and this movie definitely didn’t do the character any favors. Between forgettable villains, weird tonal shifts, and just an overall lackluster plot, Thor: The Dark World will never be well regarded.
9 Iron Man 2 Dropped The Ball & Has Only Gotten Worse
Iron Man introduced the world to the MCU and still holds up as one of the best MCU movies. Its direct sequel, Iron Man 2, wasn’t nearly as well-received and even all these years later still hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, beyond introducing Black Widow and giving War Machine his own armor, this movie is still eminently forgettable.
Bland villains, a forgettable plot, and a long run time all conspire to make this one of the least well-regarded MCU films. Watching it today can be a bit of a slog. It’s the kind of movie one puts on in the background and looks at every now again because a cool visual catches the eye.
8 Avengers: Age Of Ultron Just Gets Worse With Every Re-Watch
Avengers: Age Of Ultron made a ton of mistakes and they get worse in retrospect. For example, Ultron’s potential was completely wasted —instead of being the frightening inhuman monster of the comics, he was a strangely charming, quippy villain. Whedon tried to stuff in all kinds of foreshadowing, all of which would be ignored by future installments.
While some of the movie’s events played heavily into future MCU movies, Avengers: Age Of Ultron isn’t an essential viewing because all of it gets explained in other places. While it does some interesting things with the Avengers without solo movies, it’s aged like milk.
7 Guardians Of The Galaxy Doesn’t Work As Well Anymore
Guardians of the Galaxy was a very surprising movie. From the soundtrack to the comedy to the performances, fans got way more than they expected. Honestly, the shock of just how different the movie was, played a massive role in its charm. However, every subsequent watch of the movie shows off the cracks in the film.
The more one watches it, the more one notices how shallow the plot is. The jokes and the soundtrack can only buoy what is a lackluster McGuffin fetch quest with bland villains for so long.
6 Thor’s Entire Premise Is Destroyed By The Lack Of Character Development
Thor is a middle-of-the-road MCU film but it hasn’t held up very well at all for a lot of reasons. Sure, it introduces Loki but he’s not a Loki that current fans would recognize, which isn’t a bad thing. The plot is merely okay but one of the problems with it is that subsequent movies kind of mess up the whole thing.
Odin takes Thor’s power away because he’s impulsive and arrogant. By the end of the movie, he’s supposedly cured of that but every subsequent Thor appearance shows him to still be impulsive and arrogant. One can argue that he’s changed because he’s fighting for others but he always did that, even on Asgard. Thor’s complete lack of any kind of growth in the MCU sabotaged this movie’s entire premise.
5 The Incredible Hulk Has Been Completely Forgotten & It’s For The Best
The Incredible Hulk was not a bad movie but it gets less and less watchable every year that goes by. To begin with, Mark Ruffalo’s Banner is just way more fun than Edward Norton’s. The movie’s plot is simple and barely connects to anything else in the MCU. The movie has no charm to it like future MCU films and just feels weird in comparison to the other movies.
4 Iron Man 3 Falls Apart Even More Nowadays
Opinion on Iron Man 3 has always been divided. From its bait and switch with the Mandarin to it basically recycling the trope of someone Tony Stark wronged in business taking revenge on him from the last movie, the only interesting part of the movie is Iron Man’s PTSD storyline but that’s not enough to save the movie.
Watching it again reveals just how lackluster everything beyond the PTSD plot is. The Mandarin twist is even more infuriating, Killian is an even worse villain, and the whole thing just feels like it doesn’t at all matter.
3 Ant-Man Was Never As Good As It Seemed
Ant-Man has always been worse than most people realized and time has only made this more apparent. In the past, Paul Rudd’s performance as Ant-Man and Michael Peña’s as Luis kept a lot of people from noticing just how mediocre the movie was. The movie leans into the MCU origin movie tropes so hard it’s not funny and divorced from the charm of Ant-Man and Luis, the movie is a failure.
Even the fight between Ant-Man and Falcon, one of the highlights of the movie, hasn’t aged well at all. It’s all so mediocre and the MCU has done so much better. It’s not at all worth watching anymore and is easily one of the worst MCU origin films.
2 Avengers Would Never Work Today
Avengers was a revolution, the culmination of the first MCU films. Fans loved it but looking at it now, there are huge problems with it. For example, the beginning of the movie is much too slow and leans into the “heroes fighting because of manipulation and misunderstanding” trope way too hard. The characterization is all over the place and it’s just weird tonally.
It worked like gangbusters back in the day but now, the MCU has a much more refined approach than it did before. The weird pacing and plot issues make the movie hard to enjoy nowadays. While it has some cool scenes, the movie has been overshadowed.
1 Captain America: Civil War Rendered Itself Meaningless
Captain America: Civil War has a lot of fans but beyond it having some great action scenes, it’s kind of mystifying as to why. The script completely misunderstood its source material and the end of the movie —with Cap’s letter telling Iron Man he’d always be there to help— defanged the entire concept of the movie.
The movie hasn’t gotten any better with time. Zemo is still superfluous to the plot, brought in so Iron Man wouldn’t look as bad as he did in the comics, Cap is basically the villain of his own movie, as he defends a mass murderer instead of bringing him in and trying to clear his name, and the Avengers’ “terrible” rift doesn’t matter because the audience knows just how easily the team will come back together.
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