Marvel Cinematic Universe
Shares rank 2 of 6 action films by recommenders
A hugely popular franchise of over twenty films that people say tied its storylines together well. Critics say it became formulaic and oversupplied, and that it stopped being fun.
A hugely popular franchise of over twenty films that people say tied its storylines together well. Critics say it became formulaic and oversupplied, and that it stopped being fun.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 20
- approval share
- 23%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Hugely popular and widely loved
“Say what you want about it but the popularity of that universe dwarfed everything else in the last decade”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Where did all the starships go?” “They made a franchise that spanned 20+ movies and tied it up in a way that was almost universally loved”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Sam Altman May Control Our Future – Can He Be Trusted?” “no one thinks Marvel films are moving film forward, but they are hugely popular”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Resetting Xbox” Coherent storyline across many films
“They made a franchise that spanned 20+ movies and tied it up in a way that was almost universally loved”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Sam Altman May Control Our Future – Can He Be Trusted?” “Phases 1-3, Marvel et al. managed to wrangle a dozen films of varying genres”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis” High score deserved
“for most in this list with a very high score, I think it's deserved”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Sam Altman May Control Our Future – Can He Be Trusted?” “Marvel got things (mostly) right with their MCU”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “Superhero Movies Lost Their Power”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Formulaic, corporate, slop-like output
“The Marvel slop that the human creators have been putting out hasn't inspired much confidence”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora” “MCU is slop that caters to Redditor man-child Funko-Pop people.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)” “The MCU tried to imitate the style and mostly failed.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “New accounts on HN 10x more likely to use EM-dashes” - Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “The 100k Whys of AI”
Oversupply and overexposure of films
“Star Wars and Marvel are getting so overexposed people aren't bothering to show up for them to theaters.”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “'The Odyssey' Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way” “then there is Avengers, MCU, Star Wars and idk how you can balance that”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “America has lost 200k of jobs in media, film and the arts. How much is AI?” “I have personally got fed up with the oversupply of superhero stuff”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “New research highlights a shortage of male mentors for boys and young men” - Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora”
- Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Roger Ebert Reviews "The Shawshank Redemption"”
- Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Rumor: Disney to Remove Star Wars Sequel Trilogy from Timeline”
Lost originality and fun
“The issue with marvel really is that it took another 20+ movies worth of unique ip or stories that could have been told out the window.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Sam Altman May Control Our Future – Can He Be Trusted?” “After a while they started to all just become "Marvel Movies" and that's the point they stopped being nearly as fun imo”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis” “I don't think the MCU and its ilk are satiating enough intellectually”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Nerd culture is murdering intellectuals” Juvenile, empty hero themes
“the heroes in the MCU stories didn't have to outgrow their nerd phase through virtues like courage, responsibility, duty”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Nerd culture is murdering intellectuals” “The entire Marvel Overextended Universe runs on this. They're all Chosen Ones.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Are you stuck in movie logic?”
Other action films people recommend
The four most recommended other action films, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| Marvel Cinematic UniverseThis page | 6 | 20 | 23% | 4 | — | — |
| Mad Max (1979 film) | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| The Dark Knight Blu-ray | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This is an absurd amount of junk.”
“then there is Avengers, MCU, Star Wars and idk how you can balance that”
“the heroes in the MCU stories didn't have to outgrow their nerd phase through virtues like courage, responsibility, duty”
“I don't think the MCU and its ilk are satiating enough intellectually”
“a huge waste of time that only really served to funnel money to George Lucas or Marvel”
“Star Wars and Marvel are getting so overexposed people aren't bothering to show up for them to theaters.”
“MCU is slop that caters to Redditor man-child Funko-Pop people.”
“Marvel got things (mostly) right with their MCU”
“no one thinks Marvel films are moving film forward, but they are hugely popular”
“obviously formulaic manufured corporate slop”
“might as well have been written by ai”
“milking it like Marvel for more and more content”
“The issue with marvel really is that it took another 20+ movies worth of unique ip or stories that could have been told out the window.”
“They made a franchise that spanned 20+ movies and tied it up in a way that was almost universally loved”
“for most in this list with a very high score, I think it's deserved”
“Phases 1-3, Marvel et al. managed to wrangle a dozen films of varying genres”
“After a while they started to all just become "Marvel Movies" and that's the point they stopped being nearly as fun imo”
“Marvel films are commercial tripe”
“The MCU tried to imitate the style and mostly failed.”
“Marvel has no clue, just keeps pumping and pumping.”
“Say what you want about it but the popularity of that universe dwarfed everything else in the last decade”
“recent dilution of their IP (Marvel/Star Wars fatigue)”
“the fading luster to Marvel films overall”
“The Marvel slop that the human creators have been putting out hasn't inspired much confidence”
“I have personally got fed up with the oversupply of superhero stuff”
“Disney has seen a bunch of Marvel flops since they switched the focus to Marvel properties that target women”
“The entire Marvel Overextended Universe runs on this. They're all Chosen Ones.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.