I'll get Doctor Strange out of the way first. It's a good film, but I can't fully enjoy it because of my aversion to medical stuff. The first twenty minutes feature Strange in surgery and with scars all over him, especially his hands. I can't deal with stuff like that for whatever reason, so my enjoyment of the film is drastically different to that of a normal person. Ignoring that, the plot is just kinda ok as well. Nothing exceptional with the exception of the final act. And the visuals.
Black Panther I basically hate. They got sooooo close to nailing it on the head and it being great, but they royally screwed up in some major areas. First off, the last act just sucks. Predictable to a point and I was often left confused as to who was fighting who and to why. Wardrobe differences between the major players and their armies would've helped. And here comes Dues Ex M'Baku to save the day. Totally didn't see that coming. Second, Killmonger fell flat for me for one big reason: they never explained why they had to cover up Killmonger's dad's murder. I can think of a dozen different scenarios why that are great, but they never explicitly say it, which is a big problem. Leaving young Killmonger behind is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever seen a movie character do. The film makes a point of telling us that T'Chaka was being dumb by leaving him behind, that's great, but leaving him behind to cover up his dad's death without explanation is inexcusable to me. I understand what they were going for, and what they were going for was great, but they missed the mark. A single sentence from not-Saw Gerrera about "You're father couldn't face his nephew after killing his brother", or "We were afraid he'd been radicalized too", or "We couldn't allow him in because he was born to an American mother" would've been all I needed, but nope! Nothing. Without this, it just seemed like they left him behind to be jerks. Also, Everett Ross was pointless and Shuri was annoying. There, I said it.
The Dark World and Iron Man 3, while not being cinematic masterpieces, are higher up on the list compared to these two for several reasons. In The Dark World we get some great stuff with Loki and Thor interacting with the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. In Iron Man 3, we get a bunch of cool scenes, Tony Stark being Tony Stark, a fantastic twist, and a nice lead-in to where Tony is at in Age of Ultron. Also, both are just fun to watch. Thor and Malekith fighting while being thrown through a bunch of portals? Fun! Iron Man armors littering the sky and swarming all over the place? Fun!
I never had a sense of fun watching Doctor Strange, and my sense of fun in Black Panther was literally shot half-way through. Fun movies with just ok but solid plot lines trump exposition fests with cool visuals and a frustrating story any day.
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