EDITORIAL: Is Universal’s Monster Cinematic Universe Doomed?

EDITORIAL: Is Universal’s Monster Cinematic Universe Doomed?

Every major studio is attempting to build a cinematic universe. Universal, who does not have the rights to any major superheroes, is attempting to build a universe based around their classic monsters. But is this universe doomed before it has even begun?

Editorial Opinion
By TheSuperguy - Dec 31, 2014 04:12 PM EST
Filed Under: Horror

Marvel Studios has done something unprecedented with the MCU. Besides the occasional Alien vs Predator or Freddy vs Jason, something this ambitious had never really been attempted. And it payed off, big time. Marvel Studios’ success has led to other studios utilizing their superhero franchises. Warner Brothers is building a DC Cinematic Universe, Fox is expanding their X-Franchise and rebooting the Fantastic Four, and Sony is (poorly) attempting to create a universe set around Spider-Man’s supporting characters. 

 

Meanwhile, Universal is trying something a little different. Last year, it was announced that Universal will begin building a Monster Cinematic Universal, featuring their classic monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man. This seemed to be a smart move. Virtually everyone recognizes the classic Universal monsters, and they have proved to have box office power in the past. 

 

In October of 2014, the first entry in this universe was released. Dracula Untold starred Luke Evans, and told the story of how Dracula became a vampire. The film received mixed reviews and was not a very big hit. Since it’s release there has been virtually no news on the rumored sequel. The film is intended to be followed by a Mummy reboot and a Wolf Man remake. While the Wolf Man remake is being written by the Prisoners screen writer, The Mummy is rumored to tell the story of a group of Navy SEALS battling mummies, to be directed by Alex Kurtzman. Recognize his name? That’s right, along with Roberto Orci, Kurtzman was responsible for the horrible Amazing Spider-Man 2. Needless to say, my hopes are not too high for this Mummy reboot. 

 

Recently, it was said that the Monster Universe would be more action oriented, and would stray from the horror roots that these characters were born in. Fans, including myself, were not too happy with this news. Why would you take characters that were born in the horror genre, and put them into a genre were they don’t belong? The reason the Marvel Cinematic Universe works so well is because, even though they try new things with the characters, they always stay true to the comics and to the characters themselves. 

 

So is there any hope for Universal’s Monster Universe? Well, the good news is, it’s still early enough in the game to change the entire direction of the series. There’s still time to change the tone of the Mummy reboot, and there’s certainly more than enough time to perfect the Wolf Man script. 

 

From a business standpoint, Universal needs to take advantage of Comic Con 2015. Recently, Warner Brothers released their film slate up to the year 2020. Granted, it wasn't at Comic Con, but it was still a smart move and gave doubters more faith in their plans. If Universal wants to get people interested, they need to announce something at Comic Con. Personally, I think they should announce their plans for building the Monster Cinematic Universe. Announce release dates, stars, goals, etc. 

 

One more point. A major, major flaw that I see in this whole franchise is that Universal seems to have no enthusiasm for the idea. They just sort of decided that it was happening, and have made no efforts to drum up any enthusiasm or excitement about it. You can’t just expect the public to get excited for something, you have to make them excited. It would be nice to see Universal make a bigger deal out of this new cinematic universe. It is an exciting idea, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

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PAF
PAF - 12/31/2014, 4:44 PM
Up the font tho.
Abary
Abary - 12/31/2014, 4:50 PM
Short answer: yes.
huckfinnisher
huckfinnisher - 12/31/2014, 4:58 PM
The idea that these characters could still be scary is far more stupid than making the movie action oriented. It doesn't make sense to try to go back and remake the perfectly viable gary oldman Dracula. Vampires as a whole are no longer feared by society unless they are perverted into zombie like monsters as in 30 days of night. Being angry that the new Dracula is not a straightforward horror is ridiculous. There have been 500 Dracula horror films, many in the last few years and nine were successful. Why? Because Dracula isn't scary anymore. Get over it. Nobody complained about this during the newer mummy franchise, and truth be told, the original mummy was more of an action flick than most horror. Werewolves arent scary, Frankenstein is not scary. Monsters are scary because they represent the unknown. The general audience knows these characters too well. Plus how would a mega movie crossover between all those monsters exist and still be a horror movie? It would have to be an action movie at least somewhat, people want to see these monsters fight, not do the same shite they have been doing for decades. It's like people don't even think before they complain about things.
Odin
Odin - 12/31/2014, 5:14 PM
@huckfinnisher
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 12/31/2014, 5:15 PM
"Marvel Studios has done something unprecedented with the MCU. Besides the occasional Alien vs Predator or Freddy vs Jason, something this ambitious had never really been attempted."

That's really the only thing I disagree with, because as a fan of the original films, Universal Monsters was already a full fledged cinematic universe in the 1930s and 40s.

I completely agree that Universal needs to change their direction while they still can. You can't take HORROR characters and turn them into action stars. That's what these characters are: HORROR characters.

Some people have tried to defend the announcement by saying that there is nothing scary you can do with these characters as they have been around too long. But, really? First off, if they can't find anything scary to do with these characters then don't do anything with them! It doesn't excuse making them action characters.

Second of all, why can't they be scary? Let's look at these film's for a second:

* Frankenstein is about a mad doctor who creates an abominable monster. In a modern world that has experienced the Cold War and Josef Mengele, and that has constantly evolving technology and fear of what could come next, the studio can't do anything scary or, at the very least, intriguing with a proper Frankenstein reboot? Seriously?!

* Dracula is about the lord of vampires. Do I even need to continue?

* Invisible Man is about a man who becomes invisible via chemicals. Again, in a modern scientific world, you can't make a good scientific thriller out of that?

I'll live the rest to the imagination (I think I made my point), but keep in mind that their library include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy and many others.
TheSuperguy
TheSuperguy - 12/31/2014, 5:18 PM
@darkknight

I was talking about in more recent years, studios hadn't really attempted to cross over too many franchises. But yeah, I totally agree. It'd be like taking Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger and turning them into action films.
MrCBM56
MrCBM56 - 12/31/2014, 5:48 PM

Yes.
huckfinnisher
huckfinnisher - 12/31/2014, 6:45 PM
@darkknight2149, the issue is not that the concept of the characters are not scary. The characters themselves have become a recognized part of American pop culture and have been thus pacified. If you have ever really investigated monsters as a whole, it is the mystery and unknowable factor of a creature that makes it a monster. If you know everything about a creature it is no longer a monster because it is classifiable. People who first saw apes and elephants probably thought they were monsters, until they were studied and then they became a known quantity with an origin. Dracula has been fully fleshed out and explained, we know he was vlad we know all the things about his origin due to past movies and that illuminates dracula and makes him no longer a monster. The fact that the story in theory sounds like it could be something that was scary is rendered moot by the fact that we have heard that story a thousand times a thousand ways, with a exceptional nod toward Gary Oldman Dracula. There is no way to tell that story again and surprise people. And fear is not something that is eternal, watch the same horror movie over and over and eventually it will cease to scare you, the same is true for a specific monster. At this point if you decided to do as you suggest and remake the Gary Oldman Dracula the only people you could scare or surprise are the people young enough or don't enjoy movies enough to have watched the original. There is no audience for the same old story.
That being said I Frankenstein with two face was tragically terrible, a clear example of what not to do. I think that the new Dracula actually showed the terrible side of being a vampire, while introducing us to a drastically more powerful version of Dracula. These are both good things. The haters are just hating on a flawed premise that the character can only be shown in a horror film. There are two parts to every story, for any of the soldiers dracula killed in the film it was a horror surely.
There is no where a horror Dracula succeeds in being scary let alone storm the box office, the same with a werewolf remake, no matter how brilliant benicio del toro and anthony hopkins are. It just doesnt work anymore.
SlowHands
SlowHands - 1/1/2015, 12:20 AM
Yeah, with a brilliant, brilliant mind at its helm, a shared Universal universe could be great. Unfortunately, Dracula Untold was supposed to be their Ironman and I'd pay someone to drop a toaster in my bathtub before I would pay to watch a sequel to that abortion
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 1/2/2015, 5:48 AM
I think it's bizarre as to why a shared cinematic monster universe has to be so heavily action orientated rather than stay true to it's horror theme.

In my opinion i think it's an interesting idea as long as you have good writers and good directors assigned to each movie and if these movies can stick to a horror theme rather than an action theme. and someone who can over watch these movies in development eg. Fiege of Marvel.
OptionFour
OptionFour - 1/2/2015, 11:53 AM
Something probably could be done with more horror-like overtones at least, but I'm not sure there would be any benefit to it. The problem is that we're not talking about an Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, or even Batman situation. Each of those characters has a small handful (slightly larger handful in Batman's case) of films, but their history was/is largely untapped.

We have a whole slew of Dracula movies that run the gamut from action to horror, to comedy, to romance, to teenie-bopper angst, to porn. You can already get Dracula in any flavour of the rainbow.
Thus there's no real merit in choosing one type of Dracula over another, except to say 'this is the type of story we want to tell'. As a culture we've seen Dracula before - we know the story inside and out. We've been so effective in taking the frightening elements out of the story, that you can go to the grocery store and buy a box of kids cereal that has a Dracula knock-off on the front.

The real problem here, at least to me, isn't the premise of an action-oriented Dracula. The problem is that we have no proof that anyone can do anything fresh with this character anymore. Ironically, they might do better by using the DC model at this point. Start with the cross-overs. The interesting part of a Universal Monster universe is how Dracula interacts with the Wolf Man, or Frankenstein, or the Mummy. And if there was ever an origin story that we didn't need to hear again? Its Dracula, Frankenstein, and their ilk.
SageMode
SageMode - 1/4/2015, 2:53 AM
Again, there's a difference between a shared cinematic universe and a crossover.
superbatspiderman
superbatspiderman - 1/4/2015, 11:10 AM
If Dracula Untold is supposed to be the first movie of this cinematic universe then yes, this universe is doomed.
MJPETTY7
MJPETTY7 - 1/18/2015, 9:54 AM
Here's he thing though, the Universal Monsters are really the first shared universe in the first place... Meaning, back in the golden age of film, they crossed over with each other and at the same time had their own films. I mean, go back and watch House of Frankenstein or House of Dracula, they're like The Avengers films of the Classic Monsters franchise. That being said, I LOVE the idea of the Monsters making a come back. I truly enjoyed Dracula Untold, I thought it was different from every other version while staying true to the basics and giving it historical significance. That worked really well for me. Not to mention Luke Evans was pretty good as the character. I'm really excited to see The Mummy, Wolf Man, and Van Helsing reboots because ultimately it'll lead up to something big while paying homage to the past. That's what I loved about the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing film was that it really payed tribute to the original Universal Monster Movies while still creating a new story AND making it action oriented with bits of horror. If they do that, I'm okay with the action/adventure style as long as he horror element is still there. I'm really pumped for this franchise to make a comeback!
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