SOUNDBITE: Marvel just beats DC on so many levels
The debate over whether Marvel or DC is better has been around for a long time. While both franchises have their great and not so great qualities, I believe Marvel is much better. Now, I am talking purely from a movie standpoint, so I will not be comparing the comics since I have never read them.
With Marvel, I like that the heroes aren’t always perfect. For example, Thor [Chris Hemworth] was very self centered and thought he did no wrong. Tony Stark [Robert Downey, Jr.] in Iron Man is arrogant and selfish. I also like that sometimes the heroes don’t always seem like they will win. In Captain America: Civil War we see two teams of heroes fighting each other. Iron Man falls to Captain America [Chris Evans]. Many of the heroes are jailed, or in the case of the Avengers, split up. In Avengers: Infinity War half of the universe gets dusted or blipped, including many of the Avengers, due to Thanos [Josh Brolin] using the infinity stones. The Collector [Benicio Del Toro] describes these as “six singularities…which were compressed into Stones by cosmic entities…,” space, time, soul, mind, power and reality. This leads us to Avengers: Endgame where Thanos actually gets killed by Thor, but it leaves the audience with a feeling of incompleteness, like they didn’t really win.
In DC we see Superman’s [Henry Cavill] only weaknesses being physical, so I don’t really find interest in heroes who are just so perfect and can’t really make mistakes. The reason is it leaves no room for character development. I love to watch characters grow and learn from their mistakes. Batman [Christain Bale] is driven by vengeance, which makes him unintentionally bad. Bruce Wayne has the resources and the knowledge to change the city, but instead of using his resources to dress up and go out into the night to beat people up, but I guess it works. The fact that Batman is driven by vengeance is also reinforced by the new movie trailer for The Batman where a character asks who he is to which Batman [Robert Pattinson] replies, “I’m vengeance,” so he borders on the line between good and bad.
Talking about the actual movies–I think most of the Marvel movies are amazing, but there are some that just aren’t great. For example, Thor: The Dark World was not amazing. It mostly focused on Jane Foster [Natalie Portman] who I think is a pretty boring character overall. I also hated the fact that Jane and Thor have absolutely no chemistry. Eternals was pretty great, but I have to admit it did get boring and hard to watch at times. Captain Marvel gave us a back story, which I love, but I hate the way that Captain Marvel [Brie Larson] acts like the Avengers were a lost cause before she came. In Avengers: Endgame she says “because before you didn’t have me” in reference to the Avengers losing to Thanos, when the actual problem about them losing was that they were split up, some on earth, some in space. She acts like without her, everyone is doomed. I just feel like she was hyped up so much and had so much potential, and I was just let down. So disappointed.
I also feel the same way about Wonder Woman: 1984. I felt like Wonder Woman (2017) was pretty good, but then I was very let down with the next one. It was very hard to watch because nothing held my attention; nothing made me want to keep watching. My favorite Marvel movies are Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man 1, 2, 3, with Tobey Maguire, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Some other honorable mentions are Shang-Chi, Black Panther, and Black Widow. I really like The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman (2017) from DC.
Ultimately, the cinematography overall was just better in all the Marvel movies. The lighting in DC films is just really dark at times, and you can’t see anything which really frustrates me. Things like this make Marvel movies generally more successful than the DC films. Marvel films keep me entertained and hooked on the movie, while DC films are generally slow, making it hard to actually stay interested. So while DC has some great films, I just think Marvel puts out a better product.
