Does Anyone Else Think Marvel Should Take More Risks?

avengers

I’ve watched every Marvel film that has been released and had an enjoyable viewing experience throughout most of them. There is action, romance, some laughs, more often than not a betrayal of someone trusted by the hero, but the hero still manages to save the day. They all follow this standard format and that wouldn’t really be a problem if Marvel weren’t releasing two films a year. I used to watch the releases opening night but now I wait months with ease, sometimes I don’t even realize I haven’t watched it. I only recently watched Guardians of the Galaxy and it was a good film but I didn’t feel like I missed out on much by not having watched it earlier because it followed a storyline I was expecting.  Frankly it was the same as all other Marvel films.

Marvel is making bank so clearly the format is working for them right now but if they are hoping to release multiple pictures a year until the end of time then maybe they should change it up a little bit?  When watching a film I like to be on the edge of my seat, I want real shocks and by that I don’t mean the scenes they have after the credits, it’s been a while since they were a surprise. They should take risks with their films and actually stick by them, in my opinion some of the highlights of the films have been the supposed deaths of Agent Coulson, Loki and Nick Fury, watching their demises made me sit in awe for a bit. But then they were swiftly resurrected. The characters are fan favorites, and killing them off would probably annoy a truck load of people but it would also show that Marvel have balls, no one is safe in their Universe and could you imagine the repercussions of their deaths? We see it to some extent in The Avengers with Coulson, Captain America: The Winter Soldier with Fury and Thor: The Dark World with Loki but before we know it they are alive again, I wish the franchise would ride it out and see where the grief takes the other characters. Granted, Thor still thinks Loki is dead so that could possibly go somewhere.

The formulaic storytelling wouldn’t bother me so much if Marvel were willing to evolve in any other way, like stylistically, but the situation with Edgar Wrights Ant-Man shows that they are clearly not. Edgar Wright isn’t just a director for hire he is more of an auteur and does things his own way which lead to his films being ‘Edgar Wright films’, but Marvel wasn’t willing to let that happen, they weren’t willing to experiment when they already have a format that was successful. Maybe now that we are coming up to the end of original franchise actors’ contracts and we’re entering Phase 3 there’ll be a change, perhaps they’ll actual decide to kill off characters rather than retire them. Then again looking at how they renegotiated Robert Downey Jr.’s contract so he’d stay with them longer it looks quite doubtful. Like I said I do enjoy watching the films but I’m finding myself more of a passive viewer rather than a fan, I worry that one day I’ll just decide to give up on watching them all together. Anyone else agree or am I alone in this?

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4 Comments

  1. I think you are by yourself on this one chief.

    It is unheard of for a film company to PUBLICLY set out its plan for the next five years. That is brass balls. That is super-risky.

    As for you expectation of a art-house stylized film, I think you are barking up the wrong tree; consider the source material.

    “There is action, romance, some laughs, more often than not a betrayal of someone trusted by the hero, but the hero still manages to save the day. They all follow this standard format…” I am not really clear as to the standard format you are conjuring here. I am going to run it through a test, but lets just agree all of the films will have action and laughs:

    Iron Man: Romance-kinda, betrayal-yes
    Iron Man 2: Romance-yes, betrayal-no
    Iron Man 3: Romance-kinda, betrayal-no

    Captain America: Romance-yes, betrayal-no
    Captain America 2: Romance-no, betrayal-brainwashed induced

    Thor: Romance-yes, betrayal-yes
    Thor 2: Romance-yes, betrayal-no

    Avengers: Romance-no, betrayal-brainwashed induced

    Guardians: Romance-no, betrayal-no

    I will agree that they have used brainwashed induced betrayal too much. 🙂

  2. Marvel’s achieved that mid-2000s Pixar level of audience trust. They deliver reliable superhero smash-em ups, we watch the smash-em ups. And, yes, usually the first weekend. My wife and I have caught a first weekend Sat afternoon showing for the last six or seven Marvel flicks.

  3. I agree. For some reason there have decided that all superhero movies must be action or action/comedy movies with the premade recipe that comes with that.

    Noone even questions it. I have seen people blame the Spiderman-character (Sony, not Marvel I know) itself for the failures of the films, because internal struggle doesn’t work well with an action movie. So why not use another genre? So many characters would work a lot better if they had a bit more variation in the films. It’s not like it can’t be done any other way either. Horns is great movie, and it is a superhero origin story/murder mystery.

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