By their very nature, the scripts for superhero blockbusters are inherently ridiculous. You’ve got a bunch of characters with outlandish abilities either teaming up or facing off, leading to a combination of exposition, pseudo-scientific nonsense and plenty of one-liners; at least in the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of course, people don’t go into these movies expecting verbose Shakespearean soliloquies when it’s all about delivering spectacle on the grandest possible scale, but that hasn’t stopped fans from debating the worst line of dialogue in MCU history on Reddit. Looking at some of the contenders, you can’t argue that the franchise has seen its fair share of clunkers over the last thirteen years.
Bruce Banner, one of the most intelligent people on the planet with multiple PhDs struggling to pronounce Wakanda is definitely up there. In fact, the mild-mannered scientist’s name comes up quite a lot, in particular his exchange with Shuri in Avengers: Infinity War where she effectively calls him stupid for not knowing how the Mind Stone works. Turns out that the Hulk and the technologically advanced African nation simply don’t mix.
It can’t be easy writing a screenplay for an MCU epic, which often has to strike a balance between exploring returning favorites in greater detail, introducing new characters and tying everything into the overarching mythology, all while hitting the expected ratio of action-to-quips in order to fit Marvel Studios’ in-house formula.
So far, dozens and dozens of scribes have been credited on the saga’s feature film output, but the only one of them to have ever won an Academy Award for their writing prowess prior to tackling an MCU movie is Thor: Love and Thunder‘s Taika Waititi.
