For the longest time, the MCU has been handing out DC their asses in the box office. They have created an entire universe, even something bigger, that has resulted in box office success, critical acclaim, and audience affections. While the DCEU has been suffering to keep up ever since Nolan's trilogy. So after 23 movies, the MCU has so far under its belt, what, at least to me, makes all those movies take a back seat to Snyder's cut?

First, a background story

Ever since the first Avengers movie came out and I have been having a disconnect from engaging in the MCU movies. I never actually felt a real threat was being posed. Maybe it was the result of watching heroes saving the day eventually n each movie. There always has been a very little price paid as each day went by. You would think that Thanos' snap would have changed that feeling but no, even that wasn't a real threat. Then it hit me, the real reason I never felt the threat is because the movie itself was preventing me from feeling so.

Explanation

When I watched the first Deadpool movie, I had fun watching it, I laughed a lot. It was a nice popcorn movie to watch with your friends. The movie had a lot of quasi-breaking the fourth wall moments that were hilarious, whether it is Wade Wilson requesting the suit to not be green or animated mocking Ryan Reynolds' stint as Green Lantern or Deadpool mocking the superhero landing. But, after I watched the movie for the second time, the cheap punch lines weren't as funny and the movie had little substance beyond that. I knew it is a movie I won't be watching again, and if I would watch future installments, it won't be more than once. And that to me encapsulates the issues with the MCU movies.

The MCU doesn't take itself too seriously, which is fine when you watch a comedy or a satire, but not when you want to get invested in your movies. It reminded me a lot of a stand-up comedian who keeps mocking his set up of the story as he tells it, while it does work for laughter, it makes the story itself seem irrelevant. The goal isn't to give you a memorable time, but just enough to keep going.

Self-referential humor can do wonders when done right, think of Abed in Community, but they also serve as a reminder that you are watching a movie, and if you do that as constantly as the MCEU movies do, that thought stays in my mind; it's just a movie. The stakes mean nothing.

In Marvel's Age of Ultron, Hawkeye shares a line

The city is flying and we're fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. Nothing makes sense.

Thank you for that, that line was really needed as planet earth was facing an existential threat. There's nothing more reflective of the fact that I shouldn't take that threat seriously than the fact that one of your most vulnerable heroes doesn't either.

Many endings in the MCEU didn't hold value the next. Thor mourns the fact that he won't get to visit earth again in his standalone movie, but then he is in the next avenger and it was practically an easy ride to earth and back since. Take that all the way to Thanos' wiping the planet one movie, only for everyone to be brought back the next. That without mentioning the illogical loopholes created in the process, starting from Captain America's death, all the way to Thanos' finding out about the Avengers' plan. But that's a story for another time

Simply put: Justice League owned its elements

Nothing represents the difference between the two more than Joss Whedon's cut of the Justice League. Misplaced humor, light shots that don't reflect the threat looming, and a tone that's rather nonchalant about earth meeting its end.

Remember this scene?

Yeah, that's definitely something Batman would say as he sees their only hope actually be against them: Something's definitely bleeding.

Starting from Batman Vs Superman, the DCEU owned up to a dark thought that Marvel avoided for all of their movies; innocent people died. Godlike powers colliding leave thousands dead, Bruce Wayne had friends who died. In the MCU, apparently, no one besides few main characters did, and when they actually did, they were brought back to life. That's the difference.

In Conclusion

The difference between both franchises can be summed up as the difference between spicy food and plain cheese pizza. One that isn't for everyone but leaves a taste behind while the other is liked by mostly everyone, with a safe taste that you wouldn't mind, but will never have a memorable taste past the adrenaline rush.