The MCU's biggest mistakes

[Gamma Ra]

3) Creating the MCU without making changes to The Incredible Hulk.
As plans to create an interconnected cinematic universe became more clear, The Incredible Hulk should have been rewritten and delayed by at least one year, with the studio insisting on Ruffalo as their choice for Banner rather than giving into Universal's demands. The new context could have provided a clear direction for the film and, for example, allowed a far more natural introduction of SHIELD than what occurred in Iron Man 2.

More came to mind as I wrote this out, but I am getting sleepy and so I hand it over to you all!

I agree with all your points but this is what bothers me the most being a Hulk fan. As for the script, I'm not sure why Marvel and Universal did not realize that they should have done a complete 180 degree turn with the characterization of Hulk and Banner. They should have used the comic book origin with the gamma bomb to separate the new MCU version of Hulk from both the television show and previous movie.

As far as their choice for Mark Ruffalo, hindsight is 20/20 and I wish he was Banner from the start. Even before Ed Norton was chosen to play Bruce Banner, he was my number one choice. While I love The Incredible Hulk movie, you can see in the editing the disputes that were going on between Norton, Letterier and the studios.

 

[First Avenger]

Making The Incredible Hulk too soon

Choosing Alan Taylor for The Dark World

Wasting villains like Malekith and Ronan

Not getting The Fantastic Four(yet)

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Casting ScarJo as Black Widow, Evangeline Lilly as Wasp, and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch. IMO, so far, all three have turned in really bland performances, or they don't really embody what makes those characters appealing.

Not giving us more memorable musical themes for each character.

 

[Gamma Ra]

Marvel Studios needs to keep in mind that they are their own "Universe", and realize that their earth has natural geniuses that can create powerful and incredible tech that doesn't have to be based on alien technology.

 

[2kt09]

I agree with all your points but this is what bothers me the most being a Hulk fan. As for the script, I'm not sure why Marvel and Universal did not realize that they should have done a complete 180 degree turn with the characterization of Hulk and Banner. They should have used the comic book origin with the gamma bomb to separate the new MCU version of Hulk from both the television show and previous movie.

I assumed because they wanted to make it feel like a quasi sequel than the reboot it was. And then in The Avengers he's back in some other 3rd world country in case people didn't watch TiH.

 

[Gamma Ra]

I assumed because they wanted to make it feel like a quasi sequel than the reboot it was. And then in The Avengers he's back in some other 3rd world country in case people didn't watch TiH.

Exactly. The opening origin sequence of The Incredible Hulk film was an after thought, and without it would have really confused many. Ang Lee's Hulk film ended with Hulk in South America and the new Incredible Hulk opens with Bruce in South America?!?! Go figure.

 

[Chance Jackson]

More of a missed opportunity. Yeah...people thought it was pretty cool.

BUT

Imagine that Infinity War was mostly over...Thanos is wiping the floor with our heroes...Cap struggles to his feet and in a last ditch desperate move, grabs Mjolner...and lifts it. The roof would be blown off of every theater in the country. But now, if it happens, Cap wont have even been the first one to do it...because of a cheap laugh moment.

I still love what they did with that moment

Without some kind of setup for why lifting mjolnir is a big deal(the cheap laugh sequence as you put it) it would have been lost on the audience, the importance of Cap being able to lift Mjolnir against Ultron or Thanos unlike the comics, MCU Mjolnir hasn't been around for decades. I can only think of 1 times someone even tried to grab it prior to AoU the sequence where everyone fails to lift it set up vision lifting it and it worked

 

[NealKenneth]

I respect your opinions but I personally loved what they did with Vision and the hammer. I don't really feel they played it for laughs either.

 

[MbJ]

1. Hawkeye's family. I don't care about shipping nonsense and I don't actively dislike any of them, but they basically ruined any possibility of being able to spin him off into an interesting solo character. A Hawkeye work of some kind (be it a mini-series or what have you) inspired by the Matt Fraction run would've been perfect.

2. Taking way too long to bring in a more diverse selection of heroes. They're obviously making an effort with Phase 3 but it should've happened sooner.

3. Trying to do Inhumans on a TV budget. That's pretty self-explanatory.

 

[TheVileOne]

1. Old Man Hank Pym

2. Hope Van Dyne is the Wasp

3. Not bringing back Alan Silvestri for Age of Ultron

4. "Language"

5. Killing off Quicksilver in his first actual movie appearance

6. Making Tony Stark Ultron's creator

 

[Gamma Ra]

1. Old Man Hank Pym

6. Making Tony Stark Ultron's creator

These two do bother me.as well.

 

[Abudefduf]

There are plenty of things that bother me about the MCU movies (some are story-related, some are aesthetical choices), but as long as the characters are treated with respect I'm willing to overlook all of them.

That's why their treatment of Hawkeye and the true Wasp pisses me off so much. What a waste of two great heroes. I mean, there are other characters whose MCU versions are but a shadow of their comic book counterparts, but those two are the ones that disappointed me the most.

EDIT: Oh... and I'd definitely count waiting 20 MOVIES before making a female-led one as a mistake.

 

[Boom]

1) Their "universe first" mentality is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it has allowed them to delivery a cohesive, consistently-entertaining, and quality franchise. On the other hand, this approach has put them at odds with talent such as Terrence Howard, Edward Norton, Jon Favreau, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Wright, Patty Jenkins. Not to say those individuals were entirely blameless, but there was a time where the MCU didn't really give these filmmakers much wiggle room in terms of making a movie their own. It was all rather homogeneous. However, they seem to be taking a step in the right direction in that regard, as of late.

2) I appreciate that they want to keep the focus on their heroes, but they have yet to strike that perfect balance that results in a genuinely great villain. Most of the MCU villains are under-baked at best and downright awful at worst, with a couple of exceptions. I don't want to say they don't value villains, but I do wonder how much they appreciate a villain's role in shaping the hero's arc. You never get a real sense of the hero's worth until you've pushed them to their limits. Again, with very few exceptions, I don't think the MCU has accomplished that very much.

 

[honestbharani]

I am typically ok with an underdeveloped villain in an origin movie. But by the time we get to the sequels there must be enough time put in to develop the villains. But then again, with the Iron Man franchise it was obvious that the more you had Downey on screen, the better prospects the movie had at the BO. As far as I am concerned, while they are have been many mistakes and I will even say missteps, none have ever been big enough for me to let it come in the way of the actual enjoyment all their movies have provided to me as a viewer. They nail the main characters almost all the time and usually that's good enough.

 

[NealKenneth]

I am glad someone brought this up because, on average, I would call most Marvel villains "sufficient." They are rarely bad (looking at you Ultron and Killian) but they are just as rarely great (like Loki and Vulture.)

Marvel should have treated the villains with as much care as the heroes when it comes to character. For example, they originally planned to have Obidiah Stane survive the first Iron Man and I can't understand why they changed the plan. Would be nice to have more villains as recurring characters.

 

[Romannen]

I only have one complaint. Them not making Black Widow and Steve Rogers a couple following CA:TWS and going with Widow/Banner instead. That really bugged me.

 

[LaughterLives]

hahahaha! As Much as I hate the Hulk Widow relationship, I'd hate Cap and Widow together even more.
Cap wouldn't know what to do with that. At Least Banner actually has experience haha!

 

[Zant]

Waiting too long to make Captain Marvel and letting DC steal their thunder. Same thing with Aquaman-Namor thing. The Inhumans debacle.

 

[NotNickFury]

I mean, is anyone really stealing anyone else's thunder when Marvel Studios kickstarted the whole universe thing to begin with? The same could go for why there's been no Black Widow film by now- probably not near the top of the studio's list of priorities. And given where the MCU is headed, bringing in the Skrulls and such, it'd make sense to do Captain Marvel now versus earlier when the more intergalactic side of the MCU didn't really go far until Guardians.

 

[NealKenneth]

Yeah, it was just smart business to hold off on Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman coming first only steals the thunder for people who promote sexism. Luckily that segment of the population is shrinking

 

[Draft]

More of a missed opportunity. Yeah...people thought it was pretty cool.

BUT

Imagine that Infinity War was mostly over...Thanos is wiping the floor with our heroes...Cap struggles to his feet and in a last ditch desperate move, grabs Mjolner...and lifts it. The roof would be blown off of every theater in the country. But now, if it happens, Cap wont have even been the first one to do it...because of a cheap laugh moment.

I'll add that it was an INSULT to end Age of Ultron by teasing the "Avengers Assemble" line. It angered me that they KNEW we wanted to hear it but decided that we just didn't deserve to hear it. In Infinity War, we NEED an "Avengers Assemble"...and the reaction will be amazing if it happens...but for ME...I will roll my eyes a bit over it because of that earlier tease. They should have not even teased it.

I'll even add that I would have loved to have heard Thor utter the "Ultron, we would have words with thee" line...which would have required a rewrite of the setup to the final action scene (which I'd have been fine with).

My point is, I don't like Age of Ultron lol.

Another thing, didn't Whedon said Vision would cry in a scene like in the comics? That never happened at all.

 

[Draft]

Can we have spoilers for Ragnarok?

Anyway, some I can think now:

1 - Not making the 2003 Hulk movie part of the MCU. It would give much more depth for Bruce, Betty, and General Ross, as well as the nature of the Hulk itself.

2 - Doing All Hail the King and not sticking to the idea that Killian was the Mandarin and the Mandarin being a proxy of terrorism so the real threats could hide behind it. That was one of the smartest and boldest Marvel ideas but they listened to a vast minority of fans who wanted "muh Mandarin" that they didn't even care about in the first place.

3 - Hiring Alan Taylor for The Dark World and not Patty Jenkins

4 - Having the Dark Elves not speaking English

5 - Devoting too much time for Darcy in both Thor movies she's in. I like Selvig, and I can even get behind Jane. But Darcy is just plain irritating, which gets worse with Ian.

6 - Probably gonna get a lot of flack for this: I love Guardians of the Galaxy, but Gunn make a lot of choices I really dislike. So far, his movies are very, very distant from other MCU movies, even Thor and Asgard who are all aliens. He tries to make stuff too cartoony, and he doesn't use characters he dislike simply because of it.

7 - Making the Novas regular space police officers instead of superpowered warriors like in the comics.

8 - Hawkeye's family.

9 - Killing Strucker right after his introduction (I know he popped up in TWS).

10 - Not including the concept art Marauders in Thor: The Dark World (which had Shadow People, Sakaaran Imperials, Durok, Mangog, Frost Giants, and even Korbinites!)

11 - Not giving Jon Favreau enough freedom with Iron Man 2.

12 - Having Ultron tear Klaue's army off instead of Black Panther.

13 - Never explaining what happened with Red Skull.

14 - Not even bothering to be ItsAllConnected.

15 - Have the Defenders and others be TV shows when they never plan on adding them in the movies.

16 - Giving Gunn too much say on what happens in the MCU in relation to space; I really don't like most of his visions because it seems he thinks his ideas are too good.

17 - Having Ragnarok be too humorous. I'm not against Ragnarok, and Ragnarok is very, very good. But sometimes it overkilled.

 

[NotNickFury]

14 - Not even bothering to be ItsAllConnected.

I would blame Jeph Loeb for that more than anything else. He's dialed it back, yes, but for the longest time, he was the only one spouting that line. At this point, I imagine the folks working on the shows have thrown their hands in the air and realized that the events in the shows will have no impact in the films. And they shouldn't.

 

[wampa1]

I feel like Doctor Strange's training should have spanned years, maybe even with shout-outs to events happening in other films. He seemed to go from surgeon to (not-quite) Sorcerer Supreme in the span of a few months. Didactic memory or not, that's a bit of a stretch.

 

[Venom 1988]

3 - Hiring Alan Taylor for The Dark World and not Patty Jenkins

4 - Having the Dark Elves not speaking English

3 - We wouldn't have gotten Wonder Woman and the movie would have probably still been hindered by Ike, so I'm fine with this.

4 - I'm curious as to why you think this is a mistake. I don't care one way or another, but it seems like such minor thing to bring up.

I feel like Doctor Strange's training should have spanned years, maybe even with shout-outs to events happening in other films. He seemed to go from surgeon to (not-quite) Sorcerer Supreme in the span of a few months. Didactic memory or not, that's a bit of a stretch.

To be fair, we don't the exact time frame of the movie or how long his training was. As Feige said recently when talking about the timeline, people assume that the movies takes place in the year it comes out.