We Need To Talk About The MCU's Third Act Problem

We love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There has never been anything like it in cinema. The depths of characters, humor, heart, action--these movies transcend their genres. But then why do they keep ruining their movies with lousy third acts? The MCU has a bad habit of spoiling small, personal climaxes with large-scale CGI confusion. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a family drama that ends with two blurry dragons bashing into each other.

Black Widow was a family drama that ended with a big, loud explosion. It's like every movie is trying to be bigger than the last one, which is desensitizing audiences to the spectacle. In this video, we talk about why Marvel Studios keeps doing this, and how we think it could be better.

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Shang-Chi is very good, it has outstanding action, interesting characters, and a solid story. But then I got to the big battle in the end, and suddenly the big CGI demon-dragon showed up, completely ruining what was shaping up to be a fantastic and emotional culmination. And then it hit me, this is sort of a problem, isn’t it? And not just with Shang-Chi. This is an issue that plagues so many MCU movies.

The big battle, in the end, has always been a hit and miss. At times it’s the perfect climax, a great mixture of style and substance. But there are way too many MCU movies that end with an overblown, loud and messy cgi third act. It is as if there’s some mandatory requirement for the third act to be this bombastic main event, a spectacle for the sake of being big. Many times, these climaxes completely ignore the characters' arcs or the emotional culmination of their stories.

It’s a strange habit, one that has become the MCU’s biggest Achilles' heel. OIt’s a problem with most of Marvel’s 2021 movies, and even their shows. And it’s so baffling that it keeps happening, because the MCU always improves and gets better on so many other aspects, but the third act problems keep coming up, time and time again, hindering some of the best movies in the franchise.

To make it clear, my issue here isn’t with big battles and spectacle. There’s nothing wrong with spectacle, it’s only natural that superhero movies will have a lot of spectacle and action, especially in the third act. Some of the best superhero movies end with a big battle. The problem here is the execution of these big battles, and their connection between the hero’s story and the movie. The perception has become that bigger means better.

Another issue is how mandatory these big climaxes have become, as if a superhero movie isn’t complete without a big climactic main event.

But every story needs its own distinctive culmination, and that’s where the issue lies, too many of the MCU’s movies tend to ignore that, giving us big climaxes regardless of what the story needs.
This is why I chose to use Shang-Chi as an example. Not because it’s a bad movie, because it’s not. But it does illustrate this problem very well.

Shang-Chi is a story about a family conflict. The fractured relationship between Shang, Xu Xialing and Wenwu creates an emotional family drama, and that’s a recipe for a great story.

The movie masterfully crafts the complicated relationship between Shang and his father, revealing their past through flashbacks, and this builds a powerful conflict, leading to an emotional culmination.

At the end of act 2, Shang decides that in order to stop his father, he must kill him. This is a crucial moment in Shang’s arc, it’s a strong conflict leading to the final battle – will Shang kill his father or find another way?

When Shang faces his father, it’s visceral and intimate, as both father and son are trading blows while trading blame for Ying Li. It’s done really well.

And the fight itself is fantastic, the choreography and the martial arts are spectacular, and I love the clever usage of the rings.

So up until that point, the fight is emotional and powerful … and then the big giant demon-dragon shows up, ruining what was shaping up to be an incredible climax.

The fight between Shang and Wenwu is everything we needed, an epic climactic duel between two incredible martial artists. An emotional father and son conflict. This is a movie about martial arts, and this final battle was meant to parallel the beautiful fight between Wenwu and Ying Li at the start of the movie.

This is basically the same as Luke clashing with Vader in Return of the Jedi. And could you imagine if that duel would have ended with the emperor turning into a giant monster? No, it would have been horrible.

[ChristopherYeeMon]

Small counter point in Shang Chi's case. The moment when Wenwu is proud of his son and realizes he is right and he opens his palms and let's go of the rings as the dweller in darkness devours him is a small emotional beat and destroyed me. Your point still stands but I loved that moment

[masonwheeler]

This is a symptom of a larger problem in modern writing: the "let the bad guy get one step away from victory before suddenly losing" cliché. Think about it. When was the last time you saw a movie or read a story where they did the equivalent of "Wenwu gets to the seal but Shang manages to stop him _before_ he can break it and let the Big Bad out"? They always take the bad guy right up to the very edge of total victory before the hero manages to abruptly defeat him right out of nowhere, purely for the sake of cheap drama. And it's getting really old.

[KingOfMadCows]

The weird thing with Shang Chi is that Wenwu kept hearing the voice of his wife, which means the Soul Eater was an intelligent being capable of planning and manipulation, but then it just turned out to be a kaiju. I think it would have been more interesting if the Soul Eater was some kind of malevolent spirit that could possess people and use trickery and scheme for domination.

[kbgila]

Civil War changed this up by having the big CGI fight before the end and having the ending be about the characters instead. - This is also just a blockbuster issue in general and not really an MCU problem. Wonder Woman has the exact same problem as this with it maybe being the most infamous example of how a big CGI ending ruins a movie. The recent Batman movie did this too, obviously it was much better handled, but I still think the big fight at the end with random thugs, and the flood etc... wasn't as interesting as Batman chasing Catwoman chasing Falcone.

I have to say, I completely agree with this. I was left a bit baffled after seeing Shang-Chi, Eternals and WandaVision - and even disappointed with Black Widow. I was trying to wonder why, but this puts it perfectly into words: the third acts don't match the style and story of the film/series. The third act should serve the purpose of the story, not the other way around. Thank you for bringing this up!

[RicardoPetinga]

I mostly agree with the Shang-Chi and Black Widow examples, and with the 3rd act problem in general, but not so much with Eternals in particular. The Eternals' final battles were quite amazing and didn't, imo, detract from the emotional weight of their betrayal by Ikaris and Sprite. The one thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how they got rid of Kro as, like you said, pretty much just an afterthought, especially after revealing him to be a much more complex character than he seemed at first, and I would have preferred if he had survived so he could be further developed in the future. As for Shang-Chi, I wouldn't say the whole Dweller in Darkness part ruined the rest, but I do think it was a bit too over the top. Besides the often distracting CGI and it being over used, I think the main problem with MCU's (and superhero movies in general) 3rd acts is that characterstoo often end up facing adversarial versions of themselves with the exact same powers and abilities or almost identical. That's why I like the final confrontation of Eternals so much (superspeed done right!), and of the first GotG (dance off!), Thor: Ragnarok (literally Ragnarok), and the Spider-Man movies.

[qoirks]

Totally agree! Loki actually nailed this. The series didn't end with a massive flight. It was just a struggle between Loki and Sylvie, and ends with Sylvie stabbing The One Who Remains. The implications and tone you could feel from just that scene was way better than any massive battle we've seen. I was almost the same feeling as the end of Infinity War but without the chaos.

[brandonulloa]

I didn’t agree at first but you’re argumentation and evidence was so well put together. Great video & I completely agree and feel exactly what you’ve described. Loved this

[MegaGohl]

I think this is a "problem" that is because of their own success. They put togehter a 10+ year saga with the Infinity storyline and now every time they introduce a new character they have to or at least they feel like they have to make them feel worthy to be an Avenger right away.

For example Captain America had multiple movies to make him feel like he is a really big deal but now they want to (have to) make Shang-Chi be on the same level in just one movie or risk being critizcised by the masses that they can't create new convicing superheroes.

[bsully]

There is one valid reason for the big battle at the end. Shang-Chi didn't have to kill his father. Anti-heroes are all the rage now. But Shang-Chi isn't one of them. Remember, he ran away when he couldn't kill the man who killed his own mother. It's not his nature. I would have preferred another way to resolve the conflict without the Dweller-in-Darkness. But I'm not sure that would've been possible without making changes to the characters which could have ruined the rest of the movie or been worse that the final battle.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen father and son fight the Dweller-in-Darkness together and Shang-Chi could end up with half the rings. Then in the immediate aftermath of the battle Xu Wenwu escapes with the other half of the rings. That could set up a chance to see Shang-Chi cross over in another Marvel movie with less power as he's learning to be a superhero. That would be similar to what happened with Scarlet Witch. She hadn't tapped into all of her power during Age of Ultron as she was becoming a hero. And then we could get another Shang-Chi movie with father and son fighting evenly and Shang-Chi eventually getting all of the rings. And that would signal a coming of age for Shang-Chi and he could become one of the more powerful heroes in the current phase.

[anandhushaji]

I was a bit disappointed that they killed Wen-Wu off like that. Tony Leung is such a good actor. I loved his work in movies like Hard Boiled.

[Chriswsm]

I've been saying for years that the end of most Marvel movies shows a different hero or a different villain than the rest of the film. Captain Marvel was the best example. Superb cop buddy movie then all of a sudden we have an overpowered hero that can destroy all the enemies with no consequences whatsoever. It's as if the writing team got bored and they all wanted to go to the pub.
As you've shown Shang Chi is another excellent example. Battle against the evil family hierarchy then all of a sudden a big monster appears and everyone teams up to fight it.
That sounds like a 7-year old telling a story in class and suddenly realises he doesn't have an Ending yet

[ellelusina]

This articulates a problem that is real, but has usually been explained as a vague "Marvel movies suck" rant

[eddiebanks]

Someone told me they didn’t like Vision vs vision in the finale of Wandavision but considering it’s Vision I thought the philosophical debate was way more in character. You couldn’t really get that from any other character which makes it way more unique

[BOABModels]

The climax in Shang Chi really stood out as so much of the film had awesome fight choreography using martial arts but the final fight was not that at all - bit like a video game where the final boss had never been in the game until the last moment.

[dewraimist]

Well put. Especially in Black Widow and Shang Chi's case. Though I liked the 3rd act of Eternals. An epic showdown was fitting for them. Krone's was out of place, but it gave Thena's arc some closure. Maybe his return could've happened earlier. But Ikaris vs the other Eternals was my fav part. Especially Makkari's involvement.

[Obironnkenobi]

I had a Filmography teacher that referred to it as " unnecessary movement" or "Michael Bay-ing". He explained "You need to realize what the story needs. Say the good guy is beaten down on one knee struggling to get back up. The bad guy isn't going to run on a wall, do three flips and stop in front of the hero. It's not building or adding anything of substance. He would walk purposely. Build suspense. Let the scene breathe" no reason explosions come off more like a smokescreen to hide weaker parts in the scene or plot. Hence the term "Michael Bay-ing"

[juicestains]

This is why I think NWH’s final battle works a lot better than most mcu final battle. Yes there was a big cgi fight at the end of that movie but it wasn’t the climax. The climax was a simple fight between goblin and Peter against a sunrise. It was more personal and character-driven rather than spectacle-driven.

[dominiqueodom]

I said this when I first watched Shang Chi.
Remove the CGI dragons and keep the final fight between Wenwu and Shang-Chi, Similar to Classic Martial arts Films that always ended in a 1v1 in a beautiful arena.
The emotional weight wouldve stayed in between the rivalry between Father and Son as it had the entire movie.
With Black Panther they should've had all of Wakanda honor the Challenge between Tchalla and Killmonger and see them settle thier dispute in a 1v1 in front of all of Wakanda.

[andrewgriggs]

Thank you for the detailed explanation of reminding people that a graphic novel's disconnect will always be a problem with live-action performances due to the belief that the action displayed should always be larger than live depictions.