All of this is so ridiculous. The guy is like 80 years old. I tried to get my dad to watch Fast and Furious and Mission Impossible 2 when he was 50, and after they finished, he told me never to put him through that hell again. He loved Spy Games which came out around the same time. When you get to a certain age, you are not going to enjoy or want to watch movies made for kids.
I am not going to blame Marvel for wanting to adapt these comic books true to the comics. They have done a fantastic job telling a story that took 20 movies to tell. They ended it brilliantly. But after watching the Joker its obvious how different End Game feels compared to a real movie. And thats not an insult to End Game or Batman Vs Superman or X-Men, it's simply not what they set out to do. Logan is another similar movie. It felt raw and powerful.
James Gunn is held to this insanely high standard on this board, but i thought Guardians was the most shallow Marvel movie by far. The characters are all one dimensional. they have personality but no substance. the writer goes out of its way to make jokes instead of explore the characters. Rocket Raccoon has a fantastic little monologue in the first movie that ultimately goes nowhere. and thats the problem with their movies, they do have good ideas, but they just dont do anything with them. Black Panther tries to tackle some very sensitive themes but it discards them midway through the story and turns into a fantasy action flick. The Winter Soldier has a great scene where Cap tells Fury that spying on americans isnt patriotic its fear. perfect timing to tackle that subject since it was during the whole Snowden leak but they do nothing with it. it goes from Cap discussing this moral grey area to a simple story about hydra taking over shield and just like that any moral ambiguity gets thrown out the window. Civil war goes from opposing ideas to your bff killed my mom. its all so fucking basic. no different than you and mom have the same name! lets team up and take down that alien monster.
And tbh, i am fine with all of that. i loved all the stupid jokes in Guardians. I loved the airport fight in civil war. i loved thanos being the protagnist in infinity war and loved the portal scene in end game. i ate that shit up. but im in my 30s and this is the first time im watching these superheros i grew up with. when my teenage son comes to me and tells me to watch Avengers 7 in 20 years, i will tell him what my dad told me... 'im too old for this shit... have you seen the dark knight?'