We only know Whedon was forced to use Loki as the villain and Black Widow needed to be a member. I can't recall anything else they mandated to Whedon. But, he made all that work. I won't disagree on the above projects you named, but I will argue in the cases of TIH and IM2, both projects were very early in the MCU establishment. Marvel was still finding its identity. Also, in the case of TIH, it was following a Hulk film most people hated. I think those 2 had more circumstances that can be explained for why Marvel was a bit more involved. Heck, for all the hating IM3 gets, it is clear they let Shane Black run with the project fairly freely.
Whedon made it work I agree, I loved the movie, but you can tell he was reined in more than in, say, Serenity, were he had total freedom. I can accept that for TA as it was the 1st movie of those characters as a team, but if AOU is in the same vein I think we will know why.
TIH was just stupid to me, and it didnt even help them in the end anyway, they have pretty much forgot about the movie being part of the MCU, just watch the latest GOTG trailer for that.
With IM2, the 1st movie was a raging success because they pretty much left Fav's alone, yet they decide to mess with that formula for the sequel? Doesnt make sense, I agree they were both early for the studio, and I had hoped they had learned their lesson from them, then TDW and now Ant-Man have happened.
As for IM3, it just feels like any other MCU to me apart from a couple of Shane Blackisms like the twist.
Agreed, and I don't think we should make it a poster vs poster type thing. We should always keep it content only. That said, I just don't see good reason to assume negativity on projects like Dr. Strange before we have anything outside of a director right now. Ant-Man, I can see why people are skeptical on the project, and I don't really blame anyone for it. I just don't see what about, say Cap 3 or Dr. Strange or really any of phase 3 at this point, would be able to be seen as truly negative or signs of meddling. It is simply too early in the process to tell. Sure, Ant-Man has been troubled. Taylor was reigned in, but the 3 projects after TDW all had little to no meddling or negativity. Hence why I don't understand the assumptions on Dr. Strange.
Cap 3 I havent commented on, not since I saw Cap 2 way back in April anyhow, and then it was only speculation on what I would like to see.
With Doc Strange, as with any project, the director is the 1st point of excitement in any movie, this one didnt get me excited, and just seemed like a choice they could easily control. That was all I said in the Doc Strange thread (never mentioned anything else about the movie, just talked about the director) and would have been happy to leave it at that, but then I got called a troll which I obviously wanted to defend myself against.