They did put effort. Early MCUs are critizied for having weak villains, and phase 3 is where they start making villains more nuanced. Character developments are plenty in these movies.

Arthouse movies. Nowadays it's mostly indie movies and movies made by acclaimed directors. Mainstream movies are considered garbage by people who loves these type of films. Remember the whole Martin Scorsese hates Marvel fiasco? That's basically it. They're fantastic movies, but I'll be lying if there weren't some pretentious bullshit and snobbery stemming from those kind of movies and audiences. Especially the film snobs.

Not sure about a Secret Santa, but I'm definitely interested in a toy exchange or something. I got a lot of extra Toku Toys I'd like to give a new home.

What is high cinema? Is it like high (epic?) fantasy?

High Cinema is when a movie or theater is pushed out of a plane at very high altitudes.

High Cinema is when you take some drugs before you go to the movie theater.

You also gain a similar effect by getting repeatedly bitch slapped till you see stars (or in my case dancing skulls) right before watching a movie.

Anyone who’s a snob about it doesn’t care so much about the art and what it means to them as much as they care about having some reason to sneer down at others. Elitism is antithesis to any art form.

*removed for potentially political/controversal contents*

Ah-fucking-men.

The thing with this discussion is that both sides tend to be fucking morons, MCU movies are basically popcorn movies, you watch them for fun and enjoy the ride, which is perfectly fine, some people prefer movies that want deep messages with truly fancy camera work and whatnot, they're also perfectly fine. There's no right or wrong answer here but people blow this shit out of proportion