Thanos was the big villain we all were waiting for, and he came in establishing why he will always be the biggest villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the only one who actually cares about the imbalance of the Universe and he became the first big bad to be successful in his mission and take down the Avengers. His motivations were totally justified but in the screen time that the movie gave him, were they really? Was he the perfect villain Marvel was building up to for 10 whole years? Even though he was the most impactful villain, he still wasn’t perfect and here’s everything incorrect with MCU’s Thanos:
1. His look keeps changing after every movie
By now, you’d think that Thanos actually uses a beauty cream as with every movie as his complexion keeps getting fairer on a scale of dark purple to light purple. The first Avengers movie showed him to be more like a Black Man of his race, and then he started using the fairness cream. We saw the results of the cream by the time he reached Infinity War as his skin tone turned to the lightest shade of Purple. Now, that was surely an error made in order to make him look better, but still, it was an error.
2. He loves Bubbles
For one who says that Thanos lacks a sense of humour, he cannot be more wrong as in the very moments of seriousness, Thanos used bubbles not once but twice in the movie. While many of us found that to be really funny, some people are actually pissed that why would Marvel try to do something like this. The Russos actually signified an Easter Egg which only hardcore video gamers, or the fans of Marvel vs. Capcom would understand.
For those of you who know about the video game Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you might have gotten this reference. In this video game, when Thanos actually hits someone, they were surrounded by a big bubble, and little bubbles would fly off every time the opponent takes a punch from Thanos! But still, it is very understandable for fans to get pissed off seeing bubbles in these serious moments.
3. Thanos still signifies Marvel’s villain problem
Throughout the first 2 Phases, Marvel has faced with a villain problem with the Villains lacking proper motivations or not having a good appeal amongst the audiences. There were many examples of this until Phase 3 gave us 5 good villains on the trot. Thanos is surely considered among the top 2 villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe if not the best, but his character arc lacked a whole backstory which would have made him the perfect villain. Perhaps the 30 minutes of his backstory which was edited from the film due to its run-time already going past 2 Hours and 30 Minutes might have fixed the character.
4. His strength kept on deteriorating!
Thor missed the head!
Thanos is the big villain who should be really formidable to take down, but as it turned out, the Avengers did come close to beating him on several occasions. We surely got to see his wrath throughout the film, but it is safe to say that his strength kept on deteriorating. He gave Hulk the beating of his life but as the plot kept on unraveling, the Avengers found so many ways to actually hurt him.
By the end, Thor caused him a severe injury and he might have died if Thor would have gone for the head. The Russos made him more human for the plot of the film, and even if it did work well for the movie, it was still wrong to make an unbeatable character vulnerable.
5. His plans for previous movies did not make a lot of sense
There are theories that suggest that Thanos did not begin his quest before Infinity War because the likes of the Ancient One, Odin, and Ego were protecting the Universe, so he used Loki and others to slowly begin his regime. But was that a good plan to start with?
Thanos’ target was to collect all the Infinity Stone, but why give one to an individual if you already have it. It is clear that Thanos handed over the Mind Stone to Loki so he could get the Space Stone, but why actually do that, so you could sit in your chair and wait for everyone to fail? Why allow the likes of Loki and Ronan get the stones and fail if you could clearly do that on your own.
6. He never needed the Black Order
The Black Order was no better when it comes to having success in retrieving the Infinity Stones as they failed just like Loki and Ronan did. In the comics, each member of the Black Order is really strong and tough to beat while the Black Order in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was not even half of their comic counterparts. They were basically like the movies of the Worlds of DC which seem promising at first but end up disappointing thoroughly. In the end, Thanos achieved his goals on his own while the Black Order only provided some distractions for the heroes at best.
7. He cares about Universal Overpopulation
Including the 30 minutes of his backstory which was edited from the final cut of the film would have been more advantageous for the film as it would have explained why he really cared about imbalance due to Universal Overpopulation. From what we saw in the movie, we understood why he was motivated to bring balance, but it was never truly explained that why did he actually care about the overpopulation of the entire Universe!
8. His Backstory was not as strong
People loved Thanos, but he could have connected much better with the audiences if they would have gotten a better opportunity at spending more time with him. Again, the 30 minutes of extra Thanos would have helped as it would have solved the villain problem completely, and it would have given us a better look at his motivations.
9. He is not a Nihilist
Thanos does not care much about the deaths of people as his goal is to save civilizations by paying the price of half the population. But in the comics, Thanos is the Mad Titan! He does not give any thought before taking a life (leaving very few exceptions), and in the movie, he thought more like a human which was a great addition to the character by the directors, but still incorrect. He did not really enjoy killing, and most of all, he let the heroes live! That may have made his character better, but it was still wrong as it made his character entirely different from the comics.
10. He lets the heroes live
The heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe came face to face with Thanos and some even got a one on one duel against him. He obviously managed to beat all of them, but he actually lets them live once he gets what he needs. We saw him spare Doctor Strange, Tony, Thor, Captain America and even Hulk which again proves the point that he is not a nihilist like he is in the comics.
11. He does not think big
Well, he did think big when it comes to saving the Universe but having acquired certain stones, he could have acquired a lot more with each one of them. As it turned out, his creative thinking in using the stones only ranged from creating bubbles to making slingies, while he could have used the reality stone, the Time Stone or perhaps any other stone to do so much more. He wanted to disintegrate half the population so that the other half could live off better, but he could have surely doubled the resources strategically. But as the Russos explained, he strictly stuck to his plan having seen what happened to his own planet, but he could have done so much more!
12. He is not in love with Lady Death
In the comics, Lady Death is the one who motivates Thanos to go on a killing spree, and Thanos takes on the entire Universe as he is madly in love with Death. But here, his motivations were totally different and more relatable. But still, it was wrong on the character’s part if you were considering the comic book version of Thanos.
13. He did love Gamora, but not as much as shown!
The movie showed that Thanos was deeply in love with his daughter, but if he actually did, he would never have sacrificed her. So, the statement that Gamora is the one person he loves the most is not entirely correct. He gave more value to his mission, so by all rights his sacrifice was nothing but a vague story arc.
14. He is not very Complex
Thanos in the comics is a very complex and probably the best villain. Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe lets us believe that he is a complex personality, but at the end of the day, his motivations were easily understandable, but again, his complexity could have been explained better with the backstory which was cut from the film.
15. The Big Snap was his final plan!
Thanos became the one villain who managed to beat the Avengers, but if you notice, the end of Infinity War was what Thanos wanted to achieve, and he did not want to go any further than that. But now when we move to Avengers 4, we will see the Avengers outplay him actually reversing what he did whilst beating down a worn off and weak Thanos. So he did achieve his plan, but the big flaw in that was that he did not secure it as it would be reversed in the very next movie!
