Is the over reliance on humour a problem in the MCU

[Finarfiniel]

It's like the scene in Guardians where Star Lord distracts the villain (forget his name) with a Michael Jackson dance. Thought that was a step too far.

It really wasn't, there was nothing about that scene that didn't jive perfectly with the tone of the rest of the film. I thought it was hilarious, mostly because of Ronan's completely uber-serious reaction (What are you doing?? ) The high point of GoTG for me was how seamlessly it flowed between moments of ridiculous comedy (the dance off) to moments of high drama (the Guardians controlling the power stone) to moments of pathos (Quill seeing his mother) and then back to comedy again ("We're the Guardians of the Galaxy, *****.").

The whole 'comedy is out of place during serious events' thing is so off the mark to me because it completely ignores human nature itself. It's perfectly human to try and diffuse a horrible situation using humour. Some of the best serious and epic films ever made have moments of comedic relief in them, the LOTR trilogy being a prime example. It's ultimately all about balance, and I do agree that sometimes Marvel has steered a little too close to being OTT (moments in Thor: TDW and Age of Ultron spring to mind) but on the whole they balance the comedy, drama and pathos extremely well.

Personally I'm much more interested in watching CBMs that have a good balanced tone and can incorporate both moments of drama and pathos with moments of humour and lightheartedness than entirely self-serious, joyless, dour films that depress the hell out of me.

 

[Patchwork Man]

Now obviously the MCU is very successful and most of the films are a lot of fun. But I know myself and others have a problem with the over abundance of humour sometimes. I think mostly it was bad in AOU when it seemed like the characters were fighting one another with one liners, almost like they were trying to one up each other.

At times, the humor does feel "planted." It should be kept intrinsic to certain characters who are known in the comics for being wise-cracking sarcasm wielders, e.g. Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Deadpool. Tony Stark was always a much more serious character in the comics before 2008, more or less at Bruce Wayne's level. I'm glad Black Panther was not scripted with a surplus of disposable one-liners and comebacks.

One of the best instances of comics-faithful humor is the cut to Spidey wearing a fireman's helmet in ASM2. One of the worst is Stark's mantra "Go to sleep!" in AoU.

I think it was at one of its worst in Iron Man 3 aswell when Tony Stark is cracking jokes even though he thinks Pepper is dead.

I look at Iron Man 3 as a failed experiment.

I think the film that balanced it best was Ant Man, the humour never felt out of place and when it was serious it was serious.

Ant-Man definitely has one of the worst instances of unnecessary humor, in the scene with Scott, Jan and Hank in the living room. But I wasn't one bit surprised by it.

 

[Patchwork Man]

It's perfectly human to try and diffuse a horrible situation using humour.

It may be, but not every human would genuinely use it as a first nor last resort.

 

[SuperAl]

Totally. Trevor Slattery is one of the best things in ever in the MCU.

easily one of the worst moments in the MCU. i literally said WTF out loud in the theater.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

My theater was in fits.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

To answer the topic question, nope. Not at all.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Why is GOTG even being mentioned in this thread? It is a comedy. Of course it is supposed to be funny! It is like complaining about Peter Venkman cracking jokes when they are trying to save the world from Gozer in Ghostbusters.

 

[Web-Head]

I've never had a problem with it. I think it's part of the reason the movies are so popular.

 

[Abudefduf]

Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. Depends on the situation, really. I could definitely do without the desperate "laugh-at-me-please!" characters such as Luis and Darcy.

 

[Finarfiniel]

It may be, but not every human would genuinely use it as a first nor last resort.

I didn't mention anything about it being a first or last resort, and I also didn't say that everyone does it. But it remains that it's a facet of human nature that humour can be used to try and make bad situations bearable. It's like the saying, 'you can either laugh or cry', it's about not losing yourself to despair when the poop is really hitting the fan.

 

[Zant]

Avengers 2,Guardians and Iron Man3 are pretty much full on action comedies like Deadpool and Kickass. They are fun films not to be taken too seriously.

 

[BlZARRO]

Marvel flicks are supposed to be family friendly. Tragedy shouldn't feel like tragedy and a good way to make sure it doesn't is by cracking jokes.

 

[TeeKay]

Imo only IM3 and TDW went a bit over board with humour but didn't do anything to harm the story. I've laughed at all the humour in the MCU films. Yes even the "mew mew" joke in TDW.

My favourite was obviously the language gag in AoU. The Spiderman and Ant-Man were hilarious in CW. and to answer the thread question. No.

 

[John Locke]

They haven't made another film like The Dark World or the third act of Ultron so no.

 

[MbJ]

As long as it fits the tone, I'm fine with it. Certain people complain about the dance off in Guardians but guess what? That's entirely consistent with the tone of the film. It is very much an action-comedy in the vein of something like Galaxy Quest. It's not a gritty, grounded superhero movie that just spontaneously turns into a comedy during the final battle.

Conversely, part of the problem I had with Age of Ultron was that they expected me to both take Ultron seriously as a major threat and have him ham it up with goofy shtick. Loki makes jokes in the first Avengers but it's never to the point where I couldn't take him seriously as a villain.

For another example, Civil War handled the humor perfectly. The quips and one liners during the airport fight worked because this was friends fighting and not actually trying to kill one another. Then during the actual final battle, where Iron Man is trying to kill Bucky, the jokes go right out the window. There's a very real sense of tension there.

 

[Xrated48]

As long as it fits the tone, I'm fine with it. Certain people complain about the dance off in Guardians but guess what? That's entirely consistent with the tone of the film. It is very much an action-comedy in the vein of something like Galaxy Quest. It's not a gritty, grounded superhero movie that just spontaneously turns into a comedy during the final battle.

Conversely, part of the problem I had with Age of Ultron was that they expected me to both take Ultron seriously as a major threat and have him ham it up with goofy shtick. Loki makes jokes in the first Avengers but it's never to the point where I couldn't take him seriously as a villain.

For another example, Civil War handled the humor perfectly. The quips and one liners during the airport fight worked because this was friends fighting and not actually trying to kill one another. Then during the actual final battle, where Iron Man is trying to kill Bucky, the jokes go right out the window. There's a very real sense of tension there.

this sums it up pretty good

 

[BarryAllen]

For the most part, I enjoy the humor in the MCU movies, especially when it's done right. Civil War did a great job of balancing the gravitas of the situation and the humor, and the humor in the first Avengers knocked it out of the park, which was part of it being the event film it was, as it was so fun to sit in the theater with a crowd of people and have a good time.

I think Age of Ultron is the only one I really hated. The one-liners and quips were awful and made the movie almost like a chore to get through. The handling of Ultron (and especially his banter) was awful and just took me out of the movie.

 

[First Avenger]

No. The only movie where I wish they toned it down was The Dark World during act 3. I really had no problems with Iron Man 3 or Age of Ultron like many did.

 

[BH/HHH]

Why is GOTG even being mentioned in this thread? It is a comedy. Of course it is supposed to be funny! It is like complaining about Peter Venkman cracking jokes when they are trying to save the world from Gozer in Ghostbusters.

Its not like every moment of a comedy works though. Are we saying we can't say anything about misplaced or jokes that didn't work cause it was a comedy? Come on

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

GotG and Ant-Man should really be the only "comedy" movies of the franchise so far (imo).

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Its not like every moment of a comedy works though. Are we saying we can't say anything about misplaced or jokes that didn't work cause it was a comedy? Come on

This reminded me of

 

[harryoscop]

Age of Ultron is the only one I feel went overboard with the jokes. Plus the trailers showcased the movie's tone & Ultron himself in a more serious, almost haunting light. Ah, well.

I feel like all the other movies, the humor is balanced really well.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Age of Ultron is the only one I feel went overboard with the jokes. Plus the trailers showcased the movie's tone & Ultron himself in a more serious, almost haunting light. Ah, well.

I feel like all the other movies, the humor is balanced really well.

I'd put Iron Man 3 in that category as well.

Not that the Mandarin twist was necessarily "going overboard" but they certainly showcased the villain in a different light. What we got was much different. Some would say disappointingly so.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I'd say only Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron went overboard with jokes (for stories they were telling). In case of Civil War I began hearing stuff like:
-why is it so serious?
-didn't like it much, not enough humor;
-boring, not enough jokes.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

Marvel makes entertaining, well-balanced films that juggle a number of elements. I generally enjoy them and they are phenomenally successful.

We could pick apart any film and say: "I didn't like this" or "I didn't like that.", but it's extremely difficult to put together a great film and extremely easy to criticize isolated moments that weren't perfect.