I know what most of you think it elevated the genre, because we are now getting 7 movies per year and they are all better than what the 90s had to offer in terms of Marvel movies, scripts, visuals and overall quality.
Now there is no right answer here, in some aspects it did elevate comic book movies by introducing a new approach, sharing characters between franchises – this is definitely in the positive section as far as contribution goes.
People however are so busy admiring Marvel that they are ignoring the fact that in the next 10-15 or maybe even more years, we might never get another huge comic book movie on its own, a non shared universe one. Its not the worst thing ever, but we cant focus on one character alone and just stick to his story anymore.
You are going to ask, how is that a problem dude?
Well in most cases only bigger names on both camps like DC and Marvel get solo movies, it has to do with their origin story, if the characters roots are connected to another character and you can’t do a solo movie for some of them, if the story was replaced for the sake of rushed introduction for a plot point (Scarlet Witch and QuickSilver come to mind), potential for solo success based on popularity, so many angles here to consider when you choose the next big Avenger.
The thing that bothers me the most is that due to the success
Marvel is having and the reaction from critics, all companies are now going pretty much in the same direction, DC was going darker, Fox were doing their period pieces with pretty much a steady concept, until
X Men Apocalypse made less than
Deadpool and scared
FOX away from
Gambit and other possible spin-off's.
What people need to realize is that
Marvel is successful because when they started they had the rights to the lesser known characters and they had to think a lot harder on the set up than Warner’s and Fox. How do we do this and include the Avengers in there too? Cameos was the answer.
What does that mean, it means that if you know the game pretty well in terms of movies and how they perform in the box office, you will see pre MCU days that characters with powers always have a slight disadvantage, in the 80s, 90s it was pretty hard to portray their true powers and look serious on the big screen without crossing into Fantastic Four territory. The Thing will never be a success, neither is Mr. Fantastic. I mean people bash the new movie, but the old ones were just as horrible and werent perceived very well too.
You have Superman in
DC who is basically a GOD, which to the main audience isn’t interesting as much as let’s say a vigilante character they can identify with.
Now for most of the characters they owned the rights to the movie or had an arrangement with the other studio involved, they knew they do not have a lot of potential for solo trilogies. I mean Hulk is great character to have in a cross over movie, in a battle, playing off another character, being a comic relief, but as separated trilogy that isn’t a part of the MCU, I don’t see a potential beyond one movie that makes between 250 -400 Million tops, I just don’t and you are free to convince me otherwise.
Iron Man could have worked on his own in a trilogy and made the same money with RDJR in it – me personally besides Iron Man (2008) (which I find that the third act is way below the quality of the first two acts), I can’t say I have been much impressed with the solo movies Marvel has given us so far. But why is that, am I a hater or is there something specific about them.
First off, I feel that the shared universe, which is tied to multiple pictures featuring specific main characters, is getting in the way of consequences and storytelling. We have seen this many times in the
MCU, someone dies for dramatic effect and then he is back in 2 weeks as the main character in his own TV show, or he never really died or he was a clone – you get the picture. They went to the edge with QuickSilver, but we never got to know him at all before he died, and we were expecting it due to the fact they had to share him with Fox, which made him the star of
Days of Future past with one scene only.
The only thing that they have me on a leash with, is waiting for the post credit scene and checking out a new character at the end , a brand new one is always the best, rarely happens nowadays. I pretty much kind of know what is going to happen in those movie before I have seen them. I am starting to understand how the brain behind
Marvel works and see what is coming a mile away. Since Iron Man has been one of their most important characters and most profitable ones, he is being showed down people’s throats in every movie now, he was the star of 3 solo movies, he was the main force in two Avengers movies, he was as important in Civil War as the main character, he is Spiderman now, probably will be back in Infinity War as well. Back in Phase 2 I had a theory that they will put him basically anywhere they can story wise and then kill him in Avengers Infinity War and let another strong character take over – probably Spiderman. Now I am not so sure anymore. I mean Spiderman used to be huge as a franchise on its own, now he is a kid, whose story is tied to Stark, his new suit comes from Stark, how is he supposed to be the new face of the Avengers if Stark is alive?
The two characters that have completed a solo trilogy right now are Iron Man and Captain America, Thor is going that route as well – so by logic they are the ones that can be possibly die in future Avengers or other MCU movies. Now let’s be honest, if you were Kevin Feige, who would you kill based simply on performance -Iron Man, Thor or Captain America , me I am killing Thor right away.
Maybe once he is re-booted in the future they get an actor that can act and portray him as the GOD he is.
At this point
RDJR has become something like
Hugh Jackman for FOX, they just do not want to replace him and frankly I do not see it right now as an option. In the upcoming line up, besides Spiderman Homecoming, I just do not see Iron Man in Black Panther, Dr. Strange,
Captain Marvel - only Infinity War and the follow up to it currently untitled Avengers 4 makes sense. That is 3 movies at most, and after that they either need to kill him or use some sort of re-boot plot to recast, the best choice is to let the universe continue without Iron Man until they conclude the
Thanos plot and if they re-boot, they need to re-boot all, not just replace one actor because of a contract.
This however will not be soon as they have a brand new Spiderman franchise, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel. Which one of the mentioned here do you think can be the franchise replacement for Iron Man? I just do not see them as the new leads instead.
Ant-Man and the Wasp will have another funny man comeback with a solo type of movie, but can it be the next Iron Man for them? I would personally rely on Chris Pratt as the hero/funny man/one man show/audience favourite. That would mean they need to clearly put them in the same direct space in terms of plot and not just hints of the same universe.
See, as much as I want those crazy ass ideas being thrown in the MCU, I will miss the fact that I will never ever see a solo Iron Man trilogy with the real Mandarin as the villain, or a new Batman trilogy that exist in Gotham world only without superheroes there.
Another thing that
Marvel are doing unintentionally is pleasing a more PG13 audience and other studios are running away from a darker tone because of how financially this is hurting them with general audience, should we only stay faithful to darkness on Netflix? To me, Batman will never look good on screen with
Doomsday and other
CGI characters.
Am I against a
JLA movie?
Nope, as fan of the character I have had one of the best ever animated series, two great Burton movie, and one of the best trilogies of all time with Nolan, amazing video games, great animated movies, TV shows based on the characters, great comics and now a shared universe type of movies – overall I can’t complain. I would love to see all possible interpretations, but having him in a shared universe doesn’t always work for the character on his own in the best way. Exampe would be Batman v Superman DOJ, this villain just didn't cut it for me as a Batman fan, as a Superman fan sure - use him.
I hope
DC aren’t afraid to kill off main characters, I hope when they do a solo trilogy they focus on the
MAIN character instead of what is hot right now with genral movie audience, I hope not all their movies are funny, I hope their villains get equal screen time and are developed (hell they can do one season TV shows (HBO or Netflix) about the villains before the actual movies goes out - so the character is already developed, I hope they aren’t afraid to make solo movies for all their characters popular or not.
I wish to see a Aquaman trilogy, Flash trilogy, Wonder Woman trilogy, Cyborg trilogy, Batman trilogy, Suicide Squad trilogy etc,.
I don’t care much for Justice League movies, I am fine with them, but I am all for the solo movies. Bring them on!
But people need to get their heads out of their asses and realize that this shared movie universe might cause the death of the superhero movie in some years ahead and that is just sad, we are flooding the market with them, I already see it with non-fans getting sick of having nothing different on the big screen, no original movies coming out with big budgets, no diversity. Box Office is getting lower with each new one.
DC needs to step up their game sure i agree, and I think the next two movies will do that, but Marvel needs to step up too and brake their current mold, formula and make some bolder choices, having to wait for 16-17 movies for a female led movie is lot, having RDJR in everything is too much, jokes in most movies/same type of humor is getting a bit old now, do a big screen Daredevil movie, dark, gritty and bloody, or a new Blade movie.
Sure Dr. Strange looks darker, but on the other hand I can sense the Wi Fi humor coming along as well, I do not need it. Where is the serious Black Widow solo movie? Where is the Hawkeye origin story, how did he join S.H.I.E.L.D, what does War Machine do in between his Iron Man cameos, does he help with anything when not around Tony? What does Nick Furry do all day? I want to see Inhumans as well , so much stuff that can be done, and I do not think we will be getting a lot more different movies in the next 6 years.
What do you think, tell me I am stupid in the comments below.