Is it our extreme need for continuation? Or our need for supreme visual effects? Either way, the past decade has seen a number of CBM's made, released, and enjoyed (or hated). However, while many of us will argue that there was an enormous gulf in the class of the movies, I'm going to (attempt) to argue that minor improvements and maybe more time devoted to the films plot/execution of the plot instead of what I call visual "epicness" are all that separate this past decade's Iron Mans from the X-Men Last Stands.
Let's start with the two mentioned films.
Iron Man: The first of what was (and hopefully will be) Marvel's golden generation of movies is probably the best example of the perfect balance between visual and plot balance. The plot was simple and many of us recognized it as an updated version of the original Iron-Man origin story. There was only one arc, and that was to show a spoiled, ignorant billionare make the transition from a merchant of death to ultimately fight what he would have become, a war monger (Incidently, I beleive IMDB had Bridges character in the suit named 'Iron Monger'). Simple, and well executed by a rejuvenated Robert Downey. The visual effects were amazing, and I loved how there was a progression of suits that made the story progress visually as well as mentally.
Now lets take a look at X-Men 3: The Last Stand: After the first two movies, things were looking great (My personal favorite part was towards the end of X2 when we saw the lead-ins to two origins (Pheonix and the Brotherhood). Come Last Stand, we saw the additions of beast, arclight, juggs, angel, yada-ya...maybe some promise - right? Here is a perfect example of directors and writers trying to make things super elaborate. In my opinion, everything went downhill with the opening scene. I don't think script-writers should try to re-write the previously engaged stories and that is exactly what happened. In fact, I think the script writers were so psyched about the possibility of how epic they could have made a "Pheonix Saga" that they forgot how complex that kind of thing would be. The Pheonix thing should have been its own movie entirely. X3 might have been a great movie if they had just focused on the "Mutant Cure" plot. It would have been the perfect way to progress the story which was progressing since the first movie (XMen v Brotherhood) and it would have been great to see a much larger brotherhood take on a more mature XMen squad (Pyro v Iceman, Cyclops v. Multipleman - perhaps, Colossus v. Juggs, etc.). They could have even had Rogue defer and come to blows with Shadowcat. Big upgrade from the first XMen v. Brotherhood fight in X1. Either way, we would still have Cyclops, Prof. X, and Jean for the next movie. Wouldn't we all love to see an XMen 4 with maybe the Jean and Cyclops Sinister Saga or maybe even a Pheonix/Hellfire Club Saga thing? It would have definately saved us from Wolvie's Origins and a potential stinker in First Class...Instead, we got a ridiculous visual spectacle with Pheonix desinigrating everyone and a massive brawl with a mass cluster of weird mutants who we will never relate with.
The thing is, if you keep the plot simple and execute it well, then you will most likely have a chance to make another movie. I know that the reboot is a popular thing these days, but how many of us are tired of rotating actors and starting from scratch less that a few years removed from the originals. I wish I could blame movies like X3, Spidey 3, Transformers 2, etc. on the 3d craze but most of those came out before Avatar.
I'm not saying that we need to sacrifice the visual aspect of movies. I love a great spectacle myself being in the media industry, but I think directors and writers shouldn't skimp on plot just to fit all these characters, visual effects, etc. in. On the reverse, a good plot needs to have stimulating visual aspects that keeps peoples imaginations in awe. Iron Man two...a lot of story, only a few crazy action scenes (A lot of posters to this site complained about the lack of Stark in the Iron Man suit for example). There needs to be a balance. If the movie is a success, it'll help the franchise expand and you'll be asked back to make the next installment.
I'm looking forward to Thor, GL, Cap and especially Avengers.
I like that each Avenger character has their own separate movies with their own separate plots, so that when the Avengers Movie comes out, the back story won't need to be included (simplifying plot execution). I'm sure it will be a visual spectacle, but if they balance it with a well thought out story, it WILL be what X3 could have been and more.
Does anyone agree? Disagree?
This is my first editorial, but I've been visiting this for a while now. Sorry if this article is a bit long, I'm an old english major.