It's hard to find many faults with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but if the box office juggernaut has any weaknesses, it might be the lack of truly memorable villains (outside of Loki, of course). Red Skull, Ronan the Accuser, Malekith, Whiplash and a whole host of other ne'er-do-wells have left comic book fans wanting a little more at the movie theater. Captain America: Civil War screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus discuss that issue with JoBlo and how they hope to avoid it when tackling Thanos for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1.
"If you think about it, I get the criticism, but the early phases were all origin stories. It tends to create a similar villain. When it is no longer an origin story, I think you might have a little bit more freedom to create different villains. I’m sensitive to the problem. I get it. But it wasn’t the Robert Redford story, it was Captain America: Winter Soldier. It wasn’t the Red Skull’s journey [in The First Avenger], it was the journey of one guy going from ninety pound weakling to American hero and then going into the ice. So in a 120-minute movie it is difficult, and Thanos will possibly change that, but you want time spent. Excuse me for going on a tangent but I love the Marvel Netflix shows because you have so much more time to spend with your villains. It’s literally minutes and hours spent. We have 120-minutes and Jessica Jones had how ever many it had."
Many fans probably agree with McFeely and Markus, the one place the Netflix shows trump the movies is in the villain department. Kingpin, the Hand, Killgrave - they've all been more memorable than 95% of the villains in the MCU. But the issue of runtime is a valid argument. The majority of any MCU film has to be devoted to the journey and evolution of the hero, with a secondary focus on world-building and laying the tracks for the next Avengers film. All too often, not enough time is left for developing the villain in the movie.
Do you have any suggestions on how Marvel should handle its villain issue (that is, if you even believe this is an issue)? Give us your opinion in the comment section below and let us know what you think.
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