Responsible for creating the largest shared universe in cinema, Marvel already had its golden age when maddened crowds left movie theaters completely catatonic after experiencing fights between their favorite heroes and the conclusion of acclaimed sagas in comics. Today, the air of disappointment is normal with every new release.
It’s no secret: audiences are saturated with superhero movies. Hollywood seems to lack creativity for new productions, but whenever an ounce of imagination begins to be fanned, and gives hope that we will finally have a breather, this feeling is trampled by wrong expectations of fans.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened in recent weeks and made a point of pointing out that something is wrong, and audiences certainly feel it.
New Stages, Same Problems
With the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019, Marvel knew that replicating the immeasurable success of an event film like this would require an absurd effort, bordering on the impossible. After all, it took more than 10 years to cook the public for the imminent threat of Thanos, the search for the Infinity Stones, and the end of acclaimed characters and actors, such as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. ).
Starting Phase 4 became even worse with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which took a massive hit to cinema. But with time and the return to normality, these excuses became a thing of the past, and the public wanted to know: How the Marvel Universe Survives After Endgame? Well, apparently the Mad Titan’s snap ended the House of Ideas’ creativity.
Phase 4 got off to an exciting start. WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki had good receptions, mainly the production focused on the God of Lies, which kicked off the beginning of the Multiverse Saga.
No need to spend precious time describing all of Marvel’s movies and categorizing them simply as good, bad, or useless — hello, Black Widow. The problem is, audiences have seen virtually all of these movies in the past, and they continue to watch them. repackaged and tired adaptationswhich cling to a formula enshrined in 2015.
Black Widow brings a stupidly dead character in Ultimatum just to introduce Yelena Belova, and falls into the sameness of any long action related to the past of the USSR. Archer hawk it’s the classic passing of the mantle to a new generation, but without the charm; Thor: Love and Thunder it’s a waste of villain for timeless jokes every 30 seconds.
- Avengers: Endgame Director Jokes Off Black Widow Complaints
Marvel no longer has Captain America and Iron Man to latch onto and move audiences. Introducing new characters is very important; telling new stories to expand the universe is essential. But making three to four films, and at least two or three series a year, ends up being extremely tiring.
Not just tiring, but tedious, when these stories seem to go nowhere. What’s the use of a fourth Thor movie if the character falls once again into the same story of overcoming, loss of loved ones, an obscure villain and completely underused?
Marvel Studios/disclosureThe series even try to do something a little different, as in moon knight. However, productions always end falling into the same formula of jokes and a redemption arc. Marvel’s Phase 4 isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s flat. It’s uncreative. And it fails to try to create a gigantic threat for years to come with Kang, because there simply isn’t time to develop that enemy like Thanos has done over the course of nearly a decade.
- Is Kang stronger than Thanos? Meet Ant-Man 3’s villain
The problem that Phase 4 had, and the problem that early Phase 5 productions will have, is always trying to create an event-film full of fan-service and special appearances to get audiences interested in that feature, and disguise how poor its narrative is — yes, I’m talking about Spider-Man: Never Go Home.
It’s irritating to see that the vast majority of these films have the exact same structure. The renegade hero discovers unimaginable powers, undergoes training until he proves himself worthy and faces his antagonist. The team you don’t like, formed by the heartthrob, the stranger, the tank and the dumb character. The villain who wants to dominate and conquer worlds no matter what.
the puppets
Jeff Loveness wrote the screenplay for Quantumania and is currently working on Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Michael Waldron signed the first season of Loki and wrote Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness. Two good screenwriters, who both in Quantumania and in Doctor Strange, show the basis of a good project to be wasted with crude ideas.
What happened to take Waldron from the MCU’s best series yet to the mess of Multiverse of Madness? The answer lies with Marvel itself — and studio head Kevin Feige knows it. Marvel doesn’t necessarily have bad writers, but a collection of ideas designed to satisfy fans with surprise appearanceswhen it should be focusing on giving projects quality by showing solid stories.
Marvel Studios/disclosure Multiverse of Madness brought Sam Raimiacclaimed director of evil dead and of course, the trilogy of Spider man from the 2000s. How could a name with such a striking signature have made such a mediocre film? Raimi was stuck with a stupid script, which tries to please fans by inserting certain characters and wasting them minutes later to give a sense of power to the villain. And, in the end, this is for nothing, since this same script recreates a redemption arc with catchphrases from 20 years ago and a bad ending.
What’s the use of bringing in good directors, like Sam Raimi, if these filmmakers are stuck with bad scripts? Also, let’s not forget “uninspired directors” – to say the least – like Peyton Reed and Jon Watts. Reed made Ant-Man movies so forgettable that there just doesn’t seem to be a director behind the camera. Watts helmed Tom Holland’s three Spider-Man films, and apart from that cameo in No Coming Home, all three feature films are completely forgettable, with one hit or another, and only serve to do cheap fan-service.
- Spider-Man Noir is getting a live-action series on Amazon
Inspiration is needed, not just reproduce a mere copy of a ready-made cake recipe doomed to failure. Taika Waititi brought absurd refreshment to Thor in Ragnarok, even as he stumbled in Love and Thunder. Ryan Coogler has done wonders bringing the Black Panther character to theaters.
The fan needs to end
And even with these examples, even though Marvel has already tried to invest in different and more creative works, the fan will always be a thorn in the side. Chloé Zhao, Oscar winner for Nomadland, was criticized with the release of Eternals on account of the film being “too boring”. She-Hulk suffered free internet hate for simply being a comedy series that never takes itself seriously, and still jokes with Red Pills fans.
Marvel Studios/disclosure Even Ms. Marvel, which introduced the long-awaited Kamala Khan, is considered by many to be a failure, when in fact, the series was born as a teen adventure, and that’s fine. The diversity of products for different audiences needs to exist.
Everyone is entitled to have a positive or negative opinion about entertainment. This text, for example, is entirely based on the author’s convictions and experiences. The problem is when a studio visibly tries to do something minimally different – yes, different, not innovative – and receives free hate. Interestingly, this hate is almost always aimed at very specific productions, made by specific people and specific characters.
Expectation and reality is a topic that needs to be put on the table. Nobody ever said that Ms. Marvel would be a gigantic production. It was never confirmed that Mephisto would appear in WandaVision or the Multiverse of Madness. These are all just baseless theories, and that’s okay, it’s great to theorize. But focusing your expectations on something that was never even promised, and being frustrated by it is totally your fault.
changes on the way
During the 2023 Oscar nominees meeting, Steven Spielberg met Tom Cruise and thanked the actor for “Save Hollywood Ass” thanks to the release of Top Gun: Maverick. Who knew that a movie about jets would shake the industry in 2022. And indeed, Maverick showed studios that the market for well-made blockbusters is not dead.resulting in a billion-dollar box office, and critical and public acclaim.
- Top Gun: Maverick breaks box office record; see numbers!
The shakeup was so great that even before Quantumania’s mixed reception, Kevin Feige and Disney were reviewing their distribution strategy so that future releases are of higher quality, and come out in smaller quantities. Recently, Feige said, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, that Marvel will release fewer series per year so that these materials can “stand out better”. In 2023, only Secret Invasion and the second season of Loki are expected to debut on Disney+.
It is not possible to predict what Phases 5 and 6 will be like, but Quantumania lit the maximum red alert, and Casa das Ideias is already aware of this. Fewer film releases per year, more spaced series, more time for screenwriters to work, and less pressure in the production of special effects are some guidelines that must be followed.
Avengers: Kang Dynasty will introduce the new lineup of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, while Avengers: Secret Wars should do Multiverse fan service and bring all the heroes of all universes to battle once again, and be an obvious box office success — at least that’s what Marvel, and fans, hope. The future isn’t very exciting, but there’s still time to fix the MCU.
