While I agree about Black Panther, I feel the opposite about Guardians of the Galaxy. To me it was some of the funniest, cleverest, well-written, visually-stunning of the Marvel series. Love Groot, love the Trash Panda, love Drax.... and the villain was outstanding, Ronan the Accuser was well-acted. GotG-2 was as good, if not a little better. Cannot wait for GotG-3.
Agree totally on Guardians.
On Black Panther, it was sort of like a Bond film. For those offended by the fantasy version of Africa, it was so over the top as to be a bit of a parody of African stereotypes. If the movie had been made by conservatives it would have been called racist.
Wife and I think the villain would have made a better black panther. But anyway, let black kids have a Marvel franchise with characters they can look up to. It certainly promotes education and other virtues. Just imho.
I'm with you on the first Guardians. The main characters were a hoot, and were usually the first to be laughing at themselves. Part of the appeal, unless you are a real Marvel nerd, is that these "superheroes" were so non-heroic. I had no idea who they were, didn't even realize until the movie started that they were part of the MCU. The second one wasn't quite as good, in my opinion, maybe because I knew what to expect with the main gang, and the whole Kurt Russell thing seemed too contrived.
Black Panther was political correctness on steroids, even more so than the last two Star Wars disasters put together. The less said about those three wastes of money, the better.
Laz, Guardians and Thor Ragnorak are my favorites. Funny, clever, with bright colors.