The MCU’s 2022 movie slate was built on big returns not just for certain characters, but for their directors. Yet after Sam Raimi was either helpless or just another enabler to Kevin Feige’s most outdated plot and character arcs for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and after Taika Watiti crafted a merely disappointing reunion with Thor for Thor: Love and Thunder, it was left to Ryan Coogler to salvage something from this trilogy of sequels – four years…

When it comes to the original Avengers, Thor has turned out to be the elder statesman, or at least the last man/god standing in movie theaters. With Iron Man and the original Captain America and Black Widow dead, and with Hawkeye and Hulk overseeing their replacements on Disney+, Thor has snuck up as the first MCU character to get a fourth solo movie – which few would have foreseen after his first two.

Taika Waititi got most of the credit…

Warning: May be too spoilery for some, but few specific spoilers lay within

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness sells the promise of a creative, different and edgy trip through the multiverse, with original Spider-Man director Sam Raimi at the helm and with more intense action than usual. But that promise is built on an ugly lie.

There is truthfully nothing resembling genuine creativity, nothing that could be called truly different or edgy, and pretty much nothing in this…