Im more than happy to exist in a critical void but you were having a go at me for, erm, criticising the movie….
So you want the movie to exist in an uncritical void but random internet comments must be scrutinised to death!
I've criticized the movie myself. I don't believe it's a perfect movie (I don't believe a perfect movie even exists) and I have no desire whatsoever for it to exist in an uncritical void. The issue still, as from the beginning, is that your criticisms are pure nonsense in my opinion. Tell me what jokes didn't land for you, tell me what performances didn't work for you, what scenes felt boring, what you didn't like about the concepts in general, etc, I probably wouldn't push back much if even at all. Tell me that Shang-Chi doesn't make sense because he should have been recruited to fight Thanos? No. That's utterly ridiculous and completely ignores the actual content of the movie.
Minuscule in numbers but not in their influence.
It was already challenging in the first phases when other heroes didn’t turn up each time the world or universe was threatened (I get for the whole thing we need to suspend our disbelief but the issue is immersion).
That becomes more of an issue each time a new hero or baddy is introduced.
For example the whole back story in Shang-Chi about the Ten Rings changing history sort of loses its gravitas when the same backstory was given for Hydra and Black Widow and whoever else is supposed to have overthrown governments.
These issues can be resolved using the multiverse. I’ve just rewatched Dr Strange and it deals with this so well. I think it’s my favourite movie in this phase.
Case in point. You think it is somehow immersion breaking that two different organizations can attempt to alter the course of history at the same time (despite the fact that we live in a world where lots of organizations are constantly engaged in trying to do that). Yet you also base your argument on the concept of 'undermined gravitas' which implies that the issue isn't really or at least isn't only believability but is also simple originality. Ie, it's already been done so it's boring to do it again. Yet you also somehow think that a multiverse solution will fix that undermined gravitas. Drawing up a fictional firewall of 'oh, this is a different world now' doesn't make it any more original or surprising. And having only one organization of wannabe world-shapers per universe would actually be less realistic.
Likewise, with the issue of heroes 'not showing up' you embrace the cliche and very bad argument that heroes should *always* be expected to show up as if none of them are ever asleep, unreachable, too far away, or just simply don't know about what's happening, etc. And again your multiverse 'solution' completely ignores the fact that this same problem will assuredly pop up in every universe which is given more than the bare minimum of screentime. Especially if these characters (and by extension their worlds) are allowed to have the growth you claim you want for them, because growth in this genre by definition includes the addition of further characters (supporting characters, villains, colleagues, rivals etc.).
Agreed.
But like I said above, it’s also the context that their story exists in.
Like when X-Men do eventually show up we will really need to ask the question where was Professor X for Thanos.
The Eternals terrible excuse definitely won’t wash.
X-men will either need to come into existence in the main universe after some date or exist in a parallel universe as Dr Strange 2 has strongly hinted at.
I’d certainly prefer the latter.
I'd absolutely hate the latter. I don't want to see the X-men and the Avengers in different universes where every crossover has to involve portals and I don't want to see universes smashed together like playthings where the audience is supposed to clap and be happy at the deaths of uncountable universes because that means we can now have X-men/Avenger movies. And having the X-Men ported into the 616 universe like refugees would completely undermine their most basic themes as a franchise.
There's plenty of story space available for the X-Men to just evolve naturally in the 616 universe. And if we never find out what Professor X did about Thanos (assuming he wasn't just off in the Shi-Ar galaxy for a decade), then it's ok for it to remain a mystery. For all we know, Professor X won't even be a major character for the MCU X-Men. He could already be dead or out of the picture in some other way before the first X-Men story starts.