Avengers! Ass... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at moments where it felt like Thanos snapped the MCU’s credibility into dust.
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00:00I never thought people had been hurt, they lied to me.
00:04This is the Mandarin?
00:05I know, it's embarrassing.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at moments where it felt like Thanos snapped
00:13the MCU's credibility into dust. We're well aware that the MCU is far from dead,
00:18but as Deadpool would put it, there are some notable low points. A few spoilers.
00:24Gross?
00:29How long have you been in here?
00:31Number 10. Ross and Valentina's entire subplot. Black Panther, Wakanda Forever.
00:37With tragedy looming over the production, Ryan Coogler delivered a worthy follow-up
00:42to his Oscar-winning Game Changer. That is, whenever the focus was kept on Wakanda.
00:47Director de Fontaine.
00:49Really?
00:49Well.
00:50The film comes to a screeching halt whenever it cuts to Everett K. Ross and Valentina
00:55Allegra de Fontaine, who used to be married, by the way. What do they have to do with the
01:00conflict between Shuri and Namor? Nothing crucial. And from the second their subplot surfaces,
01:06the film's momentum slows down.
01:08We like Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in these roles,
01:12but this should have been designated to a Disney Plus series or post-credits scene.
01:16But these guys and ties, you know, they got a whole thing to protect.
01:22As a subplot in the highly anticipated Black Panther sequel,
01:27it enables one of Marvel's worst habits. Shoehorning in previews for future projects.
01:32Ever thought what we would be doing if the U.S. was the only country in the world with vibranium?
01:38I actually dream about that.
01:41Number 9. Superhero names, The Marvels.
01:44Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan have codenames,
01:47although Monica Rambeau is comfortable just being Monica Rambeau.
01:51This doesn't sit well with Kamala, who insists on workshopping potential aliases.
01:55What's your, what's your codename?
01:57Oh, I don't have a codename.
01:59We'll workshop it.
02:00No, thank you.
02:01The Marvels isn't the first superhero movie to do this joke, and that's precisely the problem.
02:06It feels like every superhero movie nowadays
02:10has an awkward scene where a main character brainstorms names.
02:13Because we're a team now, and there's four of us, so we should come up with a name for it.
02:20Like the Human Torch and the Torchettes.
02:24No.
02:24This might have been a little funny at first,
02:27but it's become one of the genre's most redundant tropes.
02:30The Marvels arguably drove it into the ground.
02:33As Kamala tries to make Professor Marvel happen, it's not going to happen.
02:38Firefly.
02:39Nightlight.
02:40Countess Marvel.
02:41Mistress Marvel.
02:42Doctor Marvel.
02:43Doctor Bright.
02:45Professor Marvel.
02:46This running gag reflects the film's larger problem.
02:49It has nothing new to offer, which may be why this was a rare Marvel bomb.
02:55Number eight, the ice cream song.
02:57Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
03:00OK, so, well, listen to this.
03:03I'm gonna start it.
03:04No, I wanna start it.
03:05I wanna start it.
03:06Multiverse of Madness is a solid addition to phase four,
03:09as long as you don't think too hard about the plot.
03:12That said, why is Wanda drawn to this particular reality?
03:16There are infinite others she could slip into, preferably one with vision,
03:20yet she solely focuses on this one.
03:23Why?
03:24Because Billy and Tommy sang her a cringy song about ice cream.
03:28Yeah, let's talk about that.
03:29We like ice cream like every child should.
03:36We sensed the filmmakers were going for innocence,
03:39but how many kids sing when they want ice cream?
03:43It comes across as disingenuous and pandering.
03:46What's worse, the song is a lyrical train wreck,
03:49and the kid actors, despite trying their best to sell it, just seem embarrassed.
03:54This is when Wanda should have started looking for another reality.
03:58Stop it!
04:01Number seven, Ralph Boner.
04:03WandaVision.
04:04WandaVision remains one of the MCU's best post-Endgame projects.
04:08On the hills of arguably its most buzzworthy moment, though,
04:12the series pulled an unfortunate boner.
04:20Long lost bro get to squeeze his stinking sister to death or what?
04:23Episode five ends with the bombshell that Wanda recasts Pietro with Evan Peters,
04:29suggesting that the X-Men have finally arrived in the MCU.
04:33You never told me much about your brother.
04:35I had no idea he'd be so...
04:36Go!
04:39Great with kids.
04:42The finale trolled us big time,
04:44revealing that this isn't Quicksilver from another universe.
04:47He's just a random neighbor that Wanda cast as her brother to keep up the ruse.
04:52To add insult to injury, they named the character Ralph Boner,
04:57emphasizing just how useless this subplot was.
05:00You're Ralph Boner?
05:05Boner.
05:06Haha.
05:07We wouldn't be so upset if Peter's debut hadn't built up such promise.
05:12The twist stopped the hype train dead in its tracks.
05:15Number six.
05:16Pip the Troll.
05:17Eternals.
05:18Oh, my ears.
05:20My eyes are numb.
05:21No more drunk teleporting for you.
05:24The plot wasn't especially engaging,
05:26and we still can't remember most of the characters' names,
05:29but at least Eternals had some lovely visuals.
05:32Then we got to the post-credits scene.
05:36We feel like Marvel thought Harry Styles' Star Fox would be the key takeaway.
05:43Audiences were far more distracted by his abominable CGI companion, Pip the Troll.
05:49It's always great hearing Patton Oswalt's voice.
05:52Ironically, though, it probably would have been funnier
05:55and less costly if Oswalt showed up wearing pointy ears.
05:59Alas, Marvel went the digital route,
06:01reportedly not giving the effects team much time to perfect Pip's appearance.
06:05Marvel rushing overworked VFX artists?
06:09You don't say.
06:10While Pip might have been the mascot for Marvel's CGI woes for a period,
06:14the worst had yet to come.
06:17Number five.
06:18Rhodea's a Scroll.
06:19Secret Invasion.
06:20Please tell me this isn't true.
06:22Are you listening to this insanity of a story?
06:25Please tell me this isn't true.
06:27Are you listening to this insanity?
06:28Of course it isn't true.
06:29Between Maria Hill's unceremonious death
06:32and the AI scandal surrounding the opening titles,
06:35Secret Invasion left numerous viewers saying,
06:38you know, we don't have to watch everything MCU related,
06:42even if you gave up after one episode.
06:45It was hard to escape the online backlash concerning Rhodea.
06:48In episode four, we learned that a scroll named Rava has been posing as him.
06:54The real Rhodea is rescued in the finale,
06:56but exactly how long has he been incapacitated?
06:59You've been held hostage for a long time.
07:05Director Ali Saleem suggested it might have been around his accident in Civil War,
07:10meaning the Rhodea from Infinity War onward may have been a scroll.
07:14Time will only tell if that's the case,
07:16but this twist left many fans worried that Rhodea's character arc was ruined.
07:24Number four, the Mandarin twist, Iron Man 3.
07:27Before phase four, fans would defend the MCU with a vengeance
07:31whenever somebody criticized it.
07:34Even the most apologetic diehards took issue with the Mandarin reveal, however.
07:38Ben Kingsley establishes a menacing presence as Tony Stark's archenemy,
07:43only to later be exposed as an actor named Trevor Slattery.
07:47They gave me things.
07:48They gave me this palace.
07:49They gave me plastic surgery.
07:51They gave me things.
07:54Did you just nod off?
07:56Hey.
07:57No, the lovely speedboat.
07:59Instead, we're stuck with Guy Pearce as another villain whose name we can't remember.
08:04Don't tell us in the comments.
08:06Anonymity, Tony.
08:09Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since, right?
08:12You simply rule from behind the scenes.
08:14At the time, this was easily the MCU's most infamous moment.
08:19Shang-Chi made up for it almost a decade later,
08:22introducing the real Mandarin and even bringing back Kingsley in a humorous callback.
08:27Oh, hello, loves.
08:30What year is it?
08:31While this softened the blow,
08:33it's disappointing that we'll never get to see Iron Man
08:36go up against the true Mandarin in this continuity.
08:39Number three, Megan Thee Stallion, She-Hulk attorney at law.
08:42Few MCU projects have divided people like She-Hulk.
08:45I possess the most advanced entertainment algorithm in the world,
08:49and it produces near-perfect products.
08:51Near-perfect?
08:53Some are better than others.
08:54Where some think it's a fun meta-commentary,
08:57the haters say it's an insult to the MCU,
09:00pointing to the Megan Thee Stallion meme as Exhibit A.
09:03That's right, there's only one Megan Thee Stallion.
09:08Fans have argued that there's a double standard claiming that
09:11if Deadpool twerked with the rapper, there wouldn't be such discourse.
09:15To an extent, we agree.
09:16But there's a key difference, consistency.
09:19Even when emotionally invested, Deadpool never takes anything that seriously.
09:24You're a beautiful, hairless, twister-legged baby boy.
09:30Christ is disturbing.
09:32Jennifer Walters wants to be taken seriously as a lawyer,
09:35but she occasionally acts like a college freshman.
09:38So when you have her twerking with the body singer, it can feel unbalanced.
09:43Regardless, Tatiana Maslany said shooting the scene
09:46was the greatest day and moment of her life.
09:50Oh, you are way more fun than my last lawyer.
09:53I will kill for you, Megan Thee Stallion.
09:55Solid back.
09:56Number two, Axl's head.
09:58Thor, Love and Thunder.
09:59Astrid, your father gave you a very tough Viking name, and I intend to honor his witches.
10:03Axl.
10:04Astrid.
10:04I said Axl.
10:05Astrid.
10:06Axl!
10:06Asshole, now listen to him!
10:08With Thor Ragnarok, the MCU and director Taika Waititi were at their apex.
10:13When they intersected again, both were going through creative rough patches.
10:17If you thought Thor, Love and Thunder would be the shot-in-the-arm Marvel and YTD needed,
10:22we refer you to The Screaming Goats.
10:24Giant goats!
10:25Oh, look at those!
10:27They are wonderful!
10:28Oh, look at that!
10:29Those things are beautiful!
10:31If that's not enough to make our point, lo and behold, this lackluster effect.
10:35For a film that otherwise has some astounding visuals,
10:39this looks like something out of SpongeBob SquarePants.
10:42I am a simple tumbleweed.
10:44Call me Sage.
10:46Sage.
10:47Hey, Sage!
10:47The effects aside, the interplay between Thor and Astrid, we mean Axl, just isn't funny.
10:53The filmmakers seemingly thought otherwise, as the bit goes on forever.
10:58Hey, how's it going, kids?
11:00How's it going?
11:00Look where we are.
11:01We're in a cage made of spikes.
11:04Yeah, that's right.
11:05Not good.
11:05We appreciate that Marvel has a sense of humor, but not every scene needs to force banter.
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11:27Number 1.
11:29M.O.D.O.K.
11:30Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania
11:32Darren is dead!
11:34There is only M.O.D.O.K.
11:37For a film about Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania focused more on teasing Kang and his variants.
11:44We all know how that turned out.
11:46While Jonathan Major's controversy didn't help, Kang isn't the biggest problem in
11:50Quantumania.
11:51That would be M.O.D.O.K.
11:52And here we are again, face to face.
12:00That's a face.
12:01It's a big face.
12:04Okay, let's be fair.
12:05This character's design in the comics is already pretty silly.
12:09Translating it into a photorealistic environment was always going to be a challenge.
12:14That said, his stretched out face isn't just laughably bad for a multi-million dollar film.
12:19The character is downright unpleasant to look at, making us wish he kept his mask on.
12:25What the hell happened?
12:27Yeah, no, it's a whole thing.
12:29I'll tell you later.
12:30Even if he had anything funny to say, we're too busy wondering how an MCU movie has less
12:36appealing effects than Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
12:39What moment ruined the MCU for you?
12:41And which moments restored your faith in it?
12:44Let us know in the comments down below.
12:46This was fun!
12:48No!
13:00No!