MovieChat Forums > Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Discussion > MCU Continues its Downward Spiral with R...

MCU Continues its Downward Spiral with Ragnarok


I think the movie looks very disappointing. It continues the trend of the MCU being obsessed with team-ups and crossovers. That only hampers the development of the main character and ESPECIALLY of their supporting casts. The greatest and most likable superheroes, Superman and Spider-Man, have very strong supporting casts, mostly of non-super civilians.

Marvel Team-Up was the old comic book that teamed up Spidey with a different hero in every issue. It was cancelled after 150 issues even while Spidey's two solo titles continued running for years. Eventually he even added on MORE solo titles. Real comic book fans were not attracted to the shallow stories offered in the team-up books. The MCU is now telling us that after each hero gets a solo origin movie, they are unable to conceive of anything but team-up movies. They're getting lazy and it's getting boring. It's very easy to slap two superheroes together and have them trade one-liners with each other. It's harder to create a story centered around developing one character in a relatable and human way.

On top of that, this "going for the comedy" angle only works when your movies are actually funny. Even their Ant-Man movie, the most comedically conceived one of them all, had very few actual laughs in it. Comedy in action-adventure movies works best when it is used sparingly and comes as a surprise in a movie that otherwise feels tense and dramatic. That's why they call it "breaking the tension." Pitching the whole movie at a light, humorous level makes the whole thing seem like a cheap sitcom. It drastically undermines the sense of tension and involvement in the story.

I will say that Marvel is casting its villains much better this year. They're going to the A-list. That's the only thing they're improving on lately.

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Its failing harder than some want to admit.

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You people just make the rest of us comic book movies fans embarrassed to be comic book movie fans. Take your idiotic delusions and stuff them up your collective behinds. There is no plausible universe in which Thor: Ragnarok is anything but a colossal success.

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I respectfully disagree. I can see where you're coming from, but I feel it works. If another big character has enough meat to them that they can feature in another's solo (especially since the Hulk is unlikely to receive another solo outing at this point), then may as well, since they've already spent more time building that character up than they have for secondary characters that we may not even see again.

I thought the movie did a great job of juggling the two tones, comedic on Sakaar, tense on Asgard. And though of course being a comic movie, they glossed over it, I have always liked the aspects of the Hela and Fenrir characters in mythology.

Plus, this movie actually had the guts to destroy Bifrost, Mjolnir, the planet of Asgard, and kill Odin. Not bad, good storytelling to me.

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Plus, this movie actually had the guts to destroy Bifrost, Mjolnir, the planet of Asgard, and kill Odin. Not bad, good storytelling to me.
Good storytelling along with extreme stakes and mayhem.

Yggdrasil, either part of or all of, destroyed connecting the 9 Realms.
Warriors three all dead.
Most if not all of the Valkyries dead.
The Einherjar, Asgard's elite warriors that serve as the main army, are all killed.
The Aesir, the actual people of Asgard, just about wiped out.
Thor losing half his sight.


Yes, there were indeed comedic elements but the seriousness, the stakes and the consequences could never be greater for the MCU which is what so many who watched the MCU wanted. This movie took a huge risk and allowed execution of Ragnarok to literally destroy everything. It is funny how when audiences get what they asked for and apparently wanted it is just ignored.

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Totally agree op..

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I respectfully disagree with your synopsis.

If anything, Marvel Studios has perfected the "team-up" model, starting with their first showing in AVENGERS, to the various team-ups in CAP:WINTER SOLIDER, CAP: CIVIL WAR and now with THOR:RAGNAROK. They use the other team members (Falcon, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Spider-man, Hawkeye.. etc.) in smart supporting roles.
The best example of this is CAP: CIVIL WAR. You have all these characters showing off, yet the movie never veers away from the fact that this is Steve's personal story, his struggle to reconcile what he thinks is right against the tide of change. Just for the record, I think that (in the end) he's shown to have been wrong in his decision.

The point is, the movie pulls of the multiple characters involved, manages to stay on point and render a darn good story. I think Marvel - and the directors they choose to direct their movies - does this better than anyone.

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$800+ million in 4 weeks is sure a downward slide...

Still making more money than Justice League.

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As of today make that:

Domestic: $301,156,066 36.1%
+ Foreign: $532,000,000 63.9%
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= Worldwide: $833,156,064 100.0%

Nicely done Marvel/Disney with a few more million still to make domestically.

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as long as they don't show a character carry a house in one hand, while flying around and while also being more powerful than all the other team members combined, i am fine. ;)

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