I'll throw in my thoughts on the Phase 4 Films so far...
Black Widow: A fairly entertaining action spectacle, but beyond the stunts and explosions, the plot is a bit thin. The film is mostly saved by Yelena Belova and a bit by Red Guardian, but everything and everyone else is simply "meh" for me. In my current MCU ranking, it sits at 24th place between Thor 1 and The Incredible Hulk. Like others have said, it's a bit "too little, too late" for me, though if you view it as an origin story for Yelena and possibly taking up the mantle of the MCU's (main) Black Widow, then it gets a bit better. Definitely the worst comic-to-film villain adaptation of the MCU so far, even including all of Iron Man's villains.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Loved it. Loved seeing Asian-American rep in the MCU more, loved the bits of connective tissues within the MCU, calling back the Ten Rings from previous films, Trevor Slattery, Wong, Abomination, and also introducing us to a new corner of the MCU with new characters and destinations, though the third act falls a bit into the typical CGI-fest big battle that MCU films are known for at the end of their films, but the story of Wenwu and his family are at the core of the film, and Tony Leung really steals the film for me. Shang-Chi is currently 9th in my MCU ranking right now, just below The First Avengers and above Black Panther, two other really good origin story films.
Eternals: I had some high hopes going into this one, and for the most part, they were reached, but with such a large cast, I knew the film wasn't going to give us what we wanted as far as proper character development. The film would have had to have been at LEAST three hours to really do the characters justice, but I enjoyed what we got of all of them. It's such a shame that Dane, Ajak, Phastos, and Makkari were fairly overlooked as I wanted to really know more about all of them. I'm hoping a sequel film (or Disney+ series) will expand upon these characters, but its not the worst MCu film for me. Eternals sits at 18th place for me, just below Ant-Man and just above Iron Man 2. I enjoyed the very artful direction and production, and the song used at the opening credits really put a smile on my face. Sitting at 18th means I liked it more than 8 other films in the MCU.
Looking forward, we've got Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is honestly my most anticipated film of 2021. I know a lot has been leaked and rumored about it and some folks' expectations may not be met, but I am anxiously awaiting to see it either way.
Then we have a LONG wait of 4.5 month til May 6th and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which promises to introduce some exciting elements and characters, as well as revisiting Wanda Maximoff for the first time since earlier this year, so it'll be interesting to see where she's been and what she's been doing since the end of her series. I am sure this one will blow folks away, especially with Sam Raimi at the helm.
Then in July 2022 is Thor: Love And Thunder, and as a HUGE fan of Ragnarok and the Guardians films, I am eager to see what Waititi will do with these characters, though depending on how folks feel about Natalie Portman/Jane Foster, they may or may not enjoy this one. I am curious about how Christian Bale will play Gor the God Butcher, and just how comic accurate he'll be in the film. They did a good job with Hela, so I'm hoping this next villain will be just as menacing.
And the last film of 2022 will be Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and this is the one of the three films in 2022 that I am the most worried for, not just because T'Challa won't be in it, but I'm just wondering what they'll do with the film and the characters. Losing Chadwick was devastating, though I'm sure they will honor him appropriately. Then of course, there's all of the stuff going on surrounding Letitia Wright, though I won't bring that up here. Hopefully this one will surprise us all and be just as big of a hit as Black Panther was in 2018.
Looking past 2022, 2023 has four films coming - The Marvels on Feb. 17th, GOTG Vol. 3 on May 5th, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania on July 28th, and an unknown fourth film on November 3rd - and 2024 also has four films (Feb. 16, May 3, July 26, and Nov 8). Of those five un-announced dates, we still have titles without release dates yet including Blade, Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, Captain America 4, and a film about Mutants, which all sound VERY excited to me. But I'm noticing that, other than Shang-Chi and Eternals, we're not getting anything brand new to the silver screen. Everything known/announced so far is either a sequel or a reboot of another character/franchise that was previously done by another studio.
It seems like all of the new IPs are landing on Disney+, like Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Iron Heart, and I don't blame them. They're able to flesh these new characters out more with 5-6 hours of content, and then if they land well with audiences, there's always the chance they could jump to the big screen. Like imagine Moon Knight appearing in Blade, or She-Hulk showing up in Captain America 4. We already known Ms. Marvel and Photon/Monica Rambeau are showing up in The Marvels with Carol Danvers, so it's definitely possible that other Disney+ characters will move into the films, which I think was always the idea with these characters, since it didn't really happen before with other Marvel shows that were tentatively connected to the MCU (like Agents Of SHIELD and the Netflix shows).
The next three years are definitely packed tight with tons of new content, but I can definitely understand if some fans are beginning to feel fatigue at this point. With 3-5 shows and 3-4 films per year, it's a LOT to take in, and unless Marvel Studios/Disney can keep things fresh and interesting, fans may start to find other things to get into.
-Marc.