Guardians of the Galaxy has finally arrived. After more than a year of annoying friends with the notion of a film about misfits and no names, confidently saying that it is going to be the biggest movie event of the year, I can stop. It's conquering the boxoffice.....and it's a great movie. But what does this mean over at Marvel studios? It means "Directors" are the new keyword.
Favreau nailed Iron Man. He made this all possible. Iron Man 2 was cool but it didn’t up the ante enough. Joe Johnson on Captain America and Branagh on Thor did great jobs expanding on characters with large names but little proven movie fire power to the greater audiences. They didn’t shoot the lights out like Iron Man did.
Avengers would have been a disaster if Joss Whedon hadn’t put his foot down to rewrite the appallingly mediocre handiwork of “nobody seems to have noticed I can’t write” Zak Penn. What assembling the Avengers then did was set the tone for the Universe going forward; Joss gave Marvel a fixed direction, so they hired him to oversee the entire movie universe. Every Marvel film made, Whedon and studio boss Kevin Feige have the say as to how it fits into the universe. A studio making comic book movies the same way that they write comics, that time has finally come. But How do you sustain this direction?
Disney bought Marvel at a value of $4bilion for a reason. “Guardians” is the validation to that reason. A galaxy tripping B-list team, even by honest comic fan standards, that got their own movie because Marvel no longer own the rights to the Fantastic Four – who would have been used to showcase what is happening in outer space. Guardians just had an opening weekend of $94 Million, the largest non-sequel of the year – The Fantastic Four reboot I rate will struggle to do $60 and end up as a studio failure, simply because they are not marketing it off the bat like Marvel Studios did for Guardians. (also are Marvel putting the FF on the comic backburner on purpose?).
James Gunn was hired off the back of indie movie success (and the Scooby Doo’s). Given his first big budget film and told – “No pressure, but this has to work and it needs to go big, go make something amazing. You have our support”. Expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the stars and beyond means every “episode” (Movie under the marvel umbrella) gets to up the ante with new characters and new epic locations, not just using the same characters in the same place whilst adding a new villain – like Sony’s Spider-Man. That doesn’t seem to work anymore – audiences want something different. DC are already copying them with Batman vs Superman leading up to the Justice League movies.
This is all going to culminate with every hero in the Marvel universe fighting Thanos in what will be the largest movie ever (calling it now). You won’t have sequels where similar plot lines are incurred until then. Marvl are far from perfect, Thor - the weakest of the Marvel franchise, needs to focus more on Asgard and the nine realms and leave earth to Cap and Iron Man. There is so much to explore other than Natalie Portman’s pointless love interest. Thor, she’s going to be dead in 50 years, you are a god that is going to still be the same age, don’t be stupid. Hit it, quit it and go towards the Siff.
What James Gunn did was a lot of research and some PR tactical genius. He kept those that knew the Guardian’s source material happy from the first announcement of the venture. Every week there was an update via social media, a tease here, a plot line here and a potential cameo here. The guy threw in Howard the Duck and perennial fan favourite Nathan Fillion – he knows how to make the people that matter happy. Taking the successful space franchises and adventure films from his youth -Indiana Jones, Star Wars even The Goonies. He kept control of this new brand by keeping the end goal in mind; whilst emotionally making the nostalgia palpable. The Awesome Mix Tape is a character itself.
Edgar Wright is no longer on Ant-Man and I “blame” James Gunn. He managed to fit the Marvel mantra into his intended vision. Whereas yes, the Ant Man movie Wright would have made was guaranteed to have been stand-alone awesomeness. His idea to do stand alone doesn’t fly – it’s not Marvels methodology. Peyton Reed will have to deliver what Gunn has just done – fit it into the universe and greater story or we cite creative differences. Also Reed has to be as accessible as the actors who are in the movie are – get a twitter account going and create a personality which exudes audience excitement as Gunn did. The Russo brothers have got Captain America safely locked down. Marvel and Whedon have their filmaking Lieutenants.
An ability to create a believable villain with The Other killer Ronan, easily more powerful than Loki, in one movie is worth the ticket price alone. Having characters establish themselves and their team in two hours is talent. Gunn played the media perfectly, assembling a team of the nicest people in the industry to do it. Chris Pratt, officially A-list, was a Downey Jnr level choice. Bradley Cooper makes Rocket a multi levelled hero you want to see insult the Hulk. Vin Diesel on board to say just 3 words is epic. Zoe Saldana perfectly continues her quest to be at every comic convention in the world for the rest of her life. They even found the only other WWE wrestler that can act, and his execution is brilliant.
Marvel took a risk here, it’s paid off. Ant-Man will be next; in fact every non-sequel from now on will be a risk as Marvel expands the universe to keep us buying tickets. This is a movie studio that revels in filming blockbusters that run as a unit. It means you can have a horror themed movie (Dr Strange), a heist epic (Ant Man), a space adventure (Guardians 2) or Bay level explosions in Avengers Age of Ultron. Storytelling and humour are at the centre of these films, and they have so much more to work with than what the "greater public" knows about. imagine the Inhumans taking centre stage in a Game of Thronesie fantasy story about a lost civilisation with Kings and Queens - aimed at building that towards "War of Kings". They really have endless possibilities.
A brand such as Marvel cannot allow a movie to fail. Seems like a lot of pressure and it surely must be if you have the end goals Marvel do – which is one day to own all the characters they were forced to sell to Fox and Sony. You won’t fail if you keep the right people on board and make good movies. How they handle Ant Man – the first truly fan based negative press they have had, will be the next tipping point. Feige already is on damage control to the indie purists , unfamiliar territory for Marvel to find themselves in. but watch the PR juggernaut take hold and excite people for the film. It's what they do.
Do you think Marvel are as focused as this? Do you think there vision is going to pay off? And is someone thinking about what happens after Avengers 3?