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How Spider-Man solved The MCU’s Villain Problem in “No Way Home”
WARNING: Heavy Spoilers for “Spider-Man: No Way Home”
While I (as well as many average filmgoers) enjoy a lot of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to offer, it is certainly not without its issues. I pointed out in my reviews for both “Shang Chi” and “Eternals” that Marvel needs to get better with their third acts as opposed to the same ‘ol formulaic CGI free for all. Sometimes their reliance on humor can mess with the tones of their films. Other times, the main character becomes the least interesting character in their solo film (i.e. “Captain Marvel”) and ends up being effortlessly overshadowed by a supporting character. The MCU, while entertaining and overall well-done, is not perfect. While I respectfully disagree with “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve's criticism of the MCU, he’s not entirely wrong when he referred to them as “Copy and Paste jobs”.
Still, There’s been one MCU-related issue that the Tom Holland-led “Spider-Man” Trilogy has consistently corrected: The MCU’s lack of compelling villains. For a while (especially in Phase One), Marvel’s villains have been uninspired and one-dimensional with the sole stand out being Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Most of the villains would be evil versions of their good guy counterparts: Yellow Jacket in 2015’s “Ant-Man”…
