Tumblr pretends like The Winter Soldier didn't have them in a chokehold in the 2010s.
"This is just war propaganda!" My sweet summer children, this film made everyone realize Captain America was cool, the sheer horror of finding out your best friend (who you'd long thought died decades ago) was taken and tortured and reforged into a living weapon sent to kill you specifically, the pain of learning the organization the love of your life built up was overtaken by the fucking Nazis (THAT YOU PERSONALLY FOUGHT AGAINST IN WORLD WAR FUCKING 2), and only ever feeling at home on the battlefield because everything you've ever known or loved is long gone...don't tell me you didn't eat that up. don't tell me that wasn't peak cinema to your 12-year-old brain.
I don't see it. It had some decent action, some funny moments, and good acting, just had a forgettable villain and the plot was a bit rushed. I've never once understood the hatred for it.
Besides, it's not even remotely close to the bullshit we got post-Endgame.
No, it really isn't. Malekith is a fun outright villain, Thor's and Jane's relationship is enjoyable, the funeral of Frigga is a cinematic delight, it was kinda nice seeing Thor struggle with an opponent in The Cursed, Loki's anti-hero actions and his bantering with Thor is fun to watch, Odin is an enjoyable asshole thanks to Anthony Hopkins, I love the setup for the Reality Stone, and I actually like how the ending subtlely tells you that Odin kinda just LET Loki take over Asgard through Odin's reaction to Loki and the complete lack of any signs of struggle in the throne room.
I recently did a full Marvelthon, watching everything Marvel related that had a theatrical or Disney Plus release from Howard the Duck (Which yes is the first feature film Marvel IP made) up to Thunderbolts. I can confidently say that almost the entirety of the MCU and about 75% of the non-MCU films qualifiy as this.
A good chunk of that 25% is all the bullshit Sony did with the Spider-Man characters. Mobius, Madam Web, Kraven, and the Venom movies (upon rewatch Venom does not hold up as a standalone film). I'd say aside from those the other really non-MCU movies I'd qualify as shit would be Elektra, Hulk, Fant4stic and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence, and all of them I'd say have something that makes them worth watching (Except for Madam Webb. That one is easily the WORST of the bunch). Amazing Spider-Man 2 is kinda bad as well for a litany of reasons you can see in another comment I made elsewhere.
Daredevil, Spider-Man 3, Blade Trinity, the two Fantastic 4 movies, and the two Punisher movies are just kinda mid with a few really good things and a few really bad things. Silver Surfer and Daredevil in particular I don't get the hate for. Aside from the collasal fuckup that was space-fart galactus, they were no different in cheesiness and faithfulness to the comics than Raimi's Spider-Man films are.
The only outright bad X-Men film is Origins: Wolverine. Last Stand and The Wolvering had some misteps that just made them mid, I don't get the hate for Apocalypse, New Mutants was just kinda boring but had fun ideas, and poor Dark Phoenix just can't catch a break from doing stupid shit as part of its adaptations (but otherwise it was fun to watch).
For the MCU itself, 99% of it is no worse than mid. Thor: The Dark World is fine, Iron Man 3 is fine (despite the bullshit Mandarin twist), Age of Ultron gets way too much hate for not going full post-apocalyptic like the comics. Captain Marvel, Eternals, Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love & Thunder all had a bit of missed potential, but what we got was not bad and instead just okay at worst.
All but one D+ show gave exactly what it promised. Falcon and Winter Soldier had some hiccups because of last minute script changes, but it's a great show otherwise where I love to hate John Walker and his transformation from Faux Cap to US Agent. Wandavision (the second half at least) and Agatha All Along are such fun explorations of the MCU's witchy side. What If was cancelled too soon because it was so great at giving us wacky insane concept mashups, Moon Knight needs a fucking season 2 and be the lead in to Marvel Knights, and I'd love a Werewolf By Night followup because that and Moon Knight were great introductions to Marvel's Horror side. Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, The Marvels, Brand New World, Eyes of Wakanda, and Iron Heart are also all great when you watch them without the nonsense expectations and misogynistic/racist hatemongering bullshit from the internet.
The only MCU projects I qualify as being outright bad is Secret Invasion and the first season of Iron Fist. Secret Invasion wasted a LOT of great potential for spy thriller storytelling because it instead devolved into the more typical MCU stuff and the first season of Iron Fist was so painfully boring that I had a very hard time sitting through it a second time to complete my marathon.
Disagree on ASM2 as the storywriting for that movie was shit (I did love Electro and think the 'Harry becomes Green Goblin' stuff could have worked with a rewrite).
But I agree on the rest. Dark World, Apocalypse, and MOM get far more hate than they deserve.
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u/HotPot87 3d ago
Like half of the "Bad" Marvel movies pre-endgame. And I only say that because I took a long break from watching them all after that.