T’Challa vs. Killmonger in Black Panther. The bus ride from hell in Shang-Chi. That elevator brawl in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And, of course, the final battle in Avengers: Endgame, as our heroes take down Thanos. We have seen several brilliant action scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) over the years as our favorite heroes have taken out those menacing villains in style. Of course, we have also seen these champions turn on each other too in spectacular fashion. Who could forget the intense clash between Captain America and Iron Man in Civil War, a powerful final confrontation the whole film had been building up to?!
However, whilst these fight scenes are all awesome, it must be remembered that these are only a handful of moments across over 50 MCU titles. It’s also worth noting that given this is a superhero franchise we are talking about too, action scenes feature heavily in every installment, with these being stand-outs. In fact, on the whole, fight sequences in the MCU aren’t anything to write home about, mainly due to bland choreography and an overreliance on CGI. Just look at that final battle scene in Shang-Chi – what could have been something really special given the focus on martial arts was ruined by messy visual effects, with our hero fighting against a poorly designed dragon. Meanwhile WandaVision ended with the Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness throwing generic glowing balls at each other, a lackluster, boring finale to what was an imaginative show.
