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[RCU005]

I used to enjoy Marvel humor even silly jokes that they made here and there, but they are abusing them too much now.

Let’s go back to the movie that started it all: Iron Man. The movie took itself seriously! It had their comic relief, but it was organic, and the movie worked out well.

Then, I believe the movie that made the MCU really stand out was Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I think it’s one of the most serious movies of the MCU.

I think the first time they went overboard with the silliness was in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, where they completely butchered Drax, by changing his literal comprehension, to just being stupid and laughing.

Their humor has devolved from being comic relief to SNL-type humor. To me, the first really out-of-place humor was when Asgard gets destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, and they put Korg saying a stupid line instead of making it a serious scene as it should’ve been.

Of course, the worst offender so far has been Thor: Love and Thunder. They really destroyed the movie with jokes. Jane having 4 stage Cancer? Make a joke! It’s even painful and cringy to watch! They could’ve made it inspiring how Jane having cancer still fought for her life and got a second chance with the hammer. Even how she became worthy was a joke! Everything and every character was an out-of-place joke.

Quantummania at least respected the bad guy and didn’t have jokes out of place and the humor was a little bit like older movies.

How do we tell Marvel to shut up with the jokes?! How do they still think that shit is funny? Their most successful movie of all time has to be Infinity War and it was the most serious one! Then Black Panther, and it was also respectful of the characters and the audience.

Why do Marvel think their entire audience are 5-7 years old? Which some jokes are even an insult to them!

One of the things that I thought made the MCU successful was that they put superheroes in different movie genres instead of making a superhero-cliche genre. We had comedy, thrillers, action, etc.
Ironically, most of the 4th phase was more like an MCU-genre, which sadly means stupid out-of-place humor with bad jokes.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

I remember the moment I gave up on Marvel "humor". In one of the previous Thor movies, I forget which, someone was talking about an alien genocide and Thor turns it into a flippant joke and I'm like "this isn't the Thor of my childhood comic books".
Ditched MCU then and there.

 

[kunonabi]

My problem is so much the amount of jokes, although it is an issue sometimes, but the problem is so much of the humor is at the expense of the world and the characters. Yes, comic books can be silly but that doesn't mean you need to be constantly taking digs at everything to the point that it's hard to take any of the stakes or drama seriously. The writers are quite obviously just having a laugh to entertain themselves instead of trying to tell stories that actually serve the characters instead of themselves.

Which isn't to say you can't undercut the tension here and there or have a few funny in-jokes but it's just so extreme now.

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

And this form of “humour” has bled into Star Wars as well.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Of course, the worst offender so far has been Thor: Love and Thunder. They really destroyed the movie with jokes. Jane having 4 stage Cancer? Make a joke! It’s even painful and cringy to watch! They could’ve made it inspiring how Jane having cancer still fought for her life and got a second chance with the hammer. Even how she became worthy was a joke! Everything and every character was an out-of-place joke.

Wasn't the whole setup for Love and Thunder that's it's a slapstick of 1980s neon / high culture?

 

[Umbasaborne]

Joss whedon really butchered pop culture

 

[Umbasaborne]

My problem is so much the amount of jokes, although it is an issue sometimes, but the problem is so much of the humor is at the expense of the world and the characters. Yes, comic books can be silly but that doesn't mean you need to be constantly taking digs at everything to the point that it's hard to take any of the stakes or drama seriously. The writers are quite obviously just having a laugh to entertain themselves instead of trying to tell stories that actually serve the characters instead of themselves.

Which isn't to say you can't undercut the tension here and there or have a few funny in-jokes but it's just so extreme now.

Its the same thing that game forspoken does. It treats its characters and the audience like they are too cool for the world they built. Like yeah this universe has a ton of deep lore and backstory, but thats nerd shit so our main character will make fun of it.

 

[Husky]

My problem is so much the amount of jokes, although it is an issue sometimes, but the problem is so much of the humor is at the expense of the world and the characters. Yes, comic books can be silly but that doesn't mean you need to be constantly taking digs at everything to the point that it's hard to take any of the stakes or drama seriously. The writers are quite obviously just having a laugh to entertain themselves instead of trying to tell stories that actually serve the characters instead of themselves.

Which isn't to say you can't undercut the tension here and there or have a few funny in-jokes but it's just so extreme now.

It's like the movies, shows, and main characters can't suspend their disbelief that their own stories are actually happening. It ruined the new Willow series too.

Tony Stark had this avoidant personality, he used humor to deflect from connecting with others, and the MCU's writers probably failed to understand that this was a relatable character flaw, not a model to structure their films around.

 

[Alebrije]

The problem with Marvel movies is that they look more like Sherk, Minions movies instead of super heroes ones. We are talking about villians that can destroy entire cities easily but instead they act like childrens .

Just look at Thor Love and Thunder...is basically a cartoon network /disney..show.

 

[diffusionx]

I think there is a backlash on the snippy/quirky/snarky humor, I wonder when Marvel will realize it and pull the Taika Waititi types off the films. I read an interesting article about this a little while ago, on Substack I think. I can’t find it but IIRC the basic premise was that the problem is that in these movies with all this goofy unrealistic shit happening, having characters act supremely unserious makes the audience realize it’s all a big joke and if the characters don’t take it seriously why should I? You need characters in an unserious movie to take the events they are in seriously. Now obviously comics have always played with this, see Spidey cracking jokes while he webs up bad guys, but the fundamental premise makes sense. Still, the characters in the Raimi Spiderman movies acted with far more gravitas than any Marvel capeshit of the past 5+ years.

The other problem here is that EVERY character, in EVERY movie, now acts this way (Marvel or non-Marvel) so it just gets supremely boring.

 

[funkygunther]

it's because there is a floor on how much they can poke fun at the characters and the situations the characters find themselves in, the corporate line can't be crossed with these movies and that's always a hindrance to any comedy

 

[RAÏSanÏa]

The acausal take on formula humour in WandaVision as a veneer was enjoyable for thinking about this and things like that. Intellectual dark humour. It seemed for awhile that the shows then movies were going to follow this to some degree. MoM went from one extreme to the other in light to dark hearted and is great as a Disney horror film, and the humour was more often around meaning. Falcon and Winter was more serious and the humour used meaning well. Ms Marvel humour seemed about right for the age demo and level of seriousness. Same with Spiderman. MoonKnight got pretty serious, but did seem to have that heavy use of causal humour dragging it down for an adult oriented show around psychology/mythology, like Love and Thunder. Black Panther 2 was excellent with its use of humour around meaning, the tickle making the brain work and organic in the scenes, giving characters and setting depth.

 

[AV]

I felt like a real outsider when Thor 3 came out because I just didn't understand why everyone loved it so much.

4 comes out and everyone criticises it for the exact problems 3 had and I'm like, were we watching different movies in 2017?

 

[SlimySnake]

Joss whedon really butchered pop culture

The two Whedon movies are like Schindler's list compared to trash Taika Waititi and James Gunn put out nowadays. He didnt treat his characters as an opportunity for a punchline and even the jokes were few and far between.

 

[bitbydeath]

Joss whedon really butchered pop culture

 

[Grildon Tundy]

The two Whedon movies are like Schindler's list compared to trash Taika Waititi and James Gunn put out nowadays. He didnt treat his characters as an opportunity for a punchline and even the jokes were few and far between.

Makes me think of the scene when the Avengers are sat around chilling, and Mjolnir is sitting on a table in the middle. They take turns trying to lift it, and Captain America comes close. You see Thor trying to hide his "oh crap" reaction. This is an example of a great "joke" imo. It sets up the payoff with Cap and Mjolnir later, the characters are in-character (no winking at the camera), and it's actually funny. Undercutting any and all tension with a flippant joke has gotten old

 

[AV]

It's gonna be hilarious when DC tries to go after this model with James Gunn and it falls completely flat because everyone's so sick of it after all this time. They're just three steps behind at all times.

 

[Harold Lloyd]

Dramatic opening. Quip. Quip. Quip. Punch. Punch. Quip. Unearned dramatic moment. Quip. Quip. Blue lasers! Punch. Punch. Kick. Kick. Punch. Punch. Quip. Quip. Unearned dramatic moment. Quip. Quip. End credit tease. Quip.

Select all. Copy. Paste.

 

[Umbasaborne]

I mean, sure, lap up the quippy too cool for school bullshit all you want. But its fucken old at this point. What i would give for some mainstream media that is actually sincere these days

 

[EverydayBeast]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

To me, I expect comic book movies to be cheesy. Most comics are.

The biggest issue for me is the divide between the awesome, gritty, epic tv trailers vs. the actual movie. Almost none of the trailers show cheesy jokes and witty comebacks. But the movie might be full of it. Star Wars is the same.

So for me, I dont bother watching lots of superhero movies because I like mine more dark and gritty like Batman or Blade.

But then some of you on GAF (this thread and others) have said a movie like CA Winter Soldier is a gritty one. Well, how am I supposed to know that when I've already based my assumption Marvel movies are family fun romps every time? How would I know Winter Soldier isn't one of those types of movies?

 

[deathsaber]

There is a balance. I think humor is very important to the MCU and part of the appeal. Ragnarok, and Guardians, also Antman were the two intentionally funny films that I think nailed it, but other films like Iron Man, and Tom Hollands Spiderman films had a lot of humor but found good balance.

Love and Thunder was simply WAY too goofy that it killed the film. After that one, Thor just seems like a big clown now.

And just saw Ant Man last night and honestly that was pretty much a miss for humor. It seemed intentionally more serious, but when it tried to have a few humorous things, it actually fell flat in those moments, which was disappointing because the first two Ant Man films relied on that humor to a large degree, and it just wasn't there in the third. So there definitely is a delicate balance.

 

[poppabk]

It started getting into outright comedy in Thor:Ragnarok, but that worked and gave us a new style of Marvel movie. Still haven't watched Love and Thunder but it sounds like they went overboard with it.

 

[CYRU5_DA_GR34T]

I used to enjoy Marvel humor even silly jokes that they made here and there, but they are abusing them too much now.

Let’s go back to the movie that started it all: Iron Man. The movie took itself seriously! It had their comic relief, but it was organic, and the movie worked out well.

Then, I believe the movie that made the MCU really stand out was Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I think it’s one of the most serious movies of the MCU.

I think the first time they went overboard with the silliness was in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, where they completely butchered Drax, by changing his literal comprehension, to just being stupid and laughing.

Their humor has devolved from being comic relief to SNL-type humor. To me, the first really out-of-place humor was when Asgard gets destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, and they put Korg saying a stupid line instead of making it a serious scene as it should’ve been.

Of course, the worst offender so far has been Thor: Love and Thunder. They really destroyed the movie with jokes. Jane having 4 stage Cancer? Make a joke! It’s even painful and cringy to watch! They could’ve made it inspiring how Jane having cancer still fought for her life and got a second chance with the hammer. Even how she became worthy was a joke! Everything and every character was an out-of-place joke.

Quantummania at least respected the bad guy and didn’t have jokes out of place and the humor was a little bit like older movies.

How do we tell Marvel to shut up with the jokes?! How do they still think that shit is funny? Their most successful movie of all time has to be Infinity War and it was the most serious one! Then Black Panther, and it was also respectful of the characters and the audience.

Why do Marvel think their entire audience are 5-7 years old? Which some jokes are even an insult to them!

One of the things that I thought made the MCU successful was that they put superheroes in different movie genres instead of making a superhero-cliche genre. We had comedy, thrillers, action, etc.
Ironically, most of the 4th phase was more like an MCU-genre, which sadly means stupid out-of-place humor with bad jokes.

You're realising this now?!
Sorry man but Marvel is basically the Titanic at this point (not the successful movie, rather the unsuccessful boat).
I was a fan too, when I thought the mission was to do right by the source material and the fans, but it's really become clear that Disney thinks they can't fail, and to some degree theyre right coz brand loyalty is powerful.
But at the same time they are using that, to be lazy, and the cracks are starting to show with the lower numbers at the box office.
This could just be a slump that blows over next year or something, but it could also be a sign that it's all going to shit.

 

[CYRU5_DA_GR34T]

To me, I expect comic book movies to be cheesy. Most comics are.

The biggest issue for me is the divide between the awesome, gritty, epic tv trailers vs. the actual movie. Almost none of the trailers show cheesy jokes and witty comebacks. But the movie might be full of it. Star Wars is the same.

So for me, I dont bother watching lots of superhero movies because I like mine more dark and gritty like Batman or Blade.

But then some of you on GAF (this thread and others) have said a movie like CA Winter Soldier is a gritty one. Well, how am I supposed to know that when I've already based my assumption Marvel movies are family fun romps every time? How would I know Winter Soldier isn't one of those types of movies?

Just watch it LOL, the opinion you have is on newer films after Disney had a "formula".
Winter Soldier is from a different era when things were more experimental and they were not confident in what they had.

 

[GloveSlap]

I agree the balance is bad now, but the bigger problem is that the humor just isn't funny. Modern Hollywood is absolutely terrible at comedy in general now.

 

[Jaybe]

Ant-Man Quantumania is written by Jeff Loveness, whose only real writing credits are Jimmy Kimmel and Rick & Morty. He’s also the only writer currently for the next Avengers. Another writer for upcoming films is also Rich & Morty alum. Feige obviously wants even more humour like this since that’s the writing ‘talent’ they went out and got.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Thought this was interesting:

Every Marvel Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

(Updated November 2022) We rank every Marvel film from worst to best by Metascore.

www.metacritic.com

I'd like to see the correlation between Marvel Metacritic score and box office, if only to see there is or isnt one.

 

[Trogdor1123]

It’s pretty clear they need silver surfer to save the industry.

Is there anything a dude all coated in silver that flys around in space on a cosmic surfer board that has nearly unlimited power (until the plot needs him not to), is overly righteous, and is pining away for his sometimes dead girl, can’t fix?

That’s what I thought. He is the surfer hero we need.

 

[OZ9000]

Marvel's obsession with treating it's audience like 13 year olds is the problem.

Thor Love and Thunder was horrendous - just like Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness.

I would much prefer more 'serious' Marvel movies like Age Of Ultron, Infinity War, Winter Soldier, Civil War etc. Doctor Strange was also an excellent movie.

 

[eye__writ]

I agree the balance is bad now, but the bigger problem is that the humor just isn't funny. Modern Hollywood is absolutely terrible at comedy in general now.

I haven't seen a funny Hollywood film since Booksmart came out in 2019.

Oh, and I guess there was Midsommar the same year.

 

[Ionian]

You're realising this now?!
Sorry man but Marvel is basically the Titanic at this point (not the successful movie, rather the unsuccessful boat).
I was a fan too, when I thought the mission was to do right by the source material and the fans, but it's really become clear that Disney thinks they can't fail, and to some degree theyre right coz brand loyalty is powerful.
But at the same time they are using that, to be lazy, and the cracks are starting to show with the lower numbers at the box office.
This could just be a slump that blows over next year or something, but it could also be a sign that it's all going to shit.

Perfect, the last films were boring.

Old people complaining about comics?

Check your age.

 

[Billbofet]

I am tired of the humor for sure, but I guess I would take that over the absolute misery and self-serious fellating of Wakanda Forever. Cut out the slow motion, crying while looking upward and off camera, and that three hour slough would have been 90 minutes.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Ant-Man Quantumania is written by Jeff Loveness, whose only real writing credits are Jimmy Kimmel and Rick & Morty. He’s also the only writer currently for the next Avengers. Another writer for upcoming films is also Rich & Morty alum. Feige obviously wants even more humour like this since that’s the writing ‘talent’ they went out and got.

He didn't even write good episodes though, his first episode was the gay soul bond dragon episode in S4 and that shit was TRASH.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Joss whedon really butchered pop culture

This right here!

Every two-bit writer in Hollywood (and in gaming!) thinks they can write the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Firefly, but they almost always miss the mark.

Joss writes likable assholes not mean-spirited ones. Writing good snark and banter is hard.

 

[RavageX]

It's gotten pretty bad over the years, and it continues to increase. Kinda glad to see I'm not the only one. I have been a fan of comics, superheroes, cartoons, videogames, sci-fi...since I was 4. I never thought I would see a time where I would NOT want to see comic book movies/TV shows with some of my favorite superheroes, but damnit they have done it.

Not everything needs to have humor, especially when its inappropriate. Batman doesn't need to have wisecracks. Keep it character appropriate, Spiderman who does it to throw off his villains...sure. HULK does not need to make jokes, and the whole Thor whatever movie put me off cause it seemed like one big joke.

Why has this happened to all my favorite things?

Some of the early Marvel shows did it right, like the Netflix series. First two seasons of Daredevil especially. First season of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage. Loved them.

 

[Nobody_Important]

It's gotten goofier for sure, but I would rather have this extra goofiness with the characters than the more serious faced attempts at the start. Remember how anal and annoying Cap was in the first avengers film? Or how Thor was in his first movie? It was pretty rough.


People forget that these characters come from a series of comic that have literal eye roll level humor pretty consistently at times and the movies are mainly directed at kids and fans. It's not meant for a serious movie going audience.

 

[Hugare]

It's gonna be hilarious when DC tries to go after this model with James Gunn and it falls completely flat because everyone's so sick of it after all this time. They're just three steps behind at all times.

Reviewers fault

When DC started copying Marvel humour, reviewers started giving them better grades (Suicide Squad, Shazam, Aquaman, Peacemaker), so you can bet that James Gunn will double down on the humour.

I miss those standalone DC movies.

Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Nolan Batman, Constantine, Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, Joker ...

The best from Marvel cant touch not even one of these

 

[ReBurn]

I agree. Comic books are serious.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

People forget that these characters come from a series of comic that have literal eye roll level humor pretty consistently at times and the movies are mainly directed at kids and fans. It's not meant for a serious movie going audience.

Thats true. Superhero comics are typically one part action, one part witty dialogue and one part characters in speedos.

But for PR, why is almost always shown in trailers as serious epic action movies? There's hardly any cheese in trailers. The same goes for Star Wars movies.

At least some like Deadpool can be promoted as fun and comedic. But most arent, even though they are more like action-comedy movies.

 

[AV]

Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Nolan Batman, Constantine, Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, Joker ...

The best from Marvel cant touch not even one of these

Wow, today I learned Road to Perdition was based on a graphic novel.