By
Phantom Troublemaker
Since I started the Needless
Things Podcast the frequency of my commentary and speculation pieces
has been dwindling. I enjoy talking a lot more than I enjoy writing and I enjoy
conversation more than I enjoy tossing lengthy essays out into an unresponsive
void.
Plus, now that I have paying supporters on SupportPhantom.com
(few though they may be) I feel a little more obligated to post stuff there
when I am taken with the desire to write.
But every once in a while I still get the itch to post
something here that’s a little broader and more interesting than a toy review.
Which is why I’m here today.
I’ll start with the movies because those are the biggest
and most consistently good things Marvel has going right now. This is being
written on November 3rd, so I haven’t seen Doctor Strange yet. I’ll be seeing it with the family tomorrow. But
I think it’s relatively safe to assume that it turned out great and everybody
loves it. I’m sure we’ll discuss it on Friday’s episode of the podcast. If you're so inclined, you can
read my review here.
It’s weird – Civil
War feels like it came out so long
ago. The Marvel Cinematic Universe exists as this weird ongoing story that
feels like it is taking forever to play out, and yet is moving along at an
unbelievable pace compared to other movie franchises. Eight years in and we’ve
got fourteen films. Starting next
year and presumably every year after that Disney is releasing three MCU movies
annually.
I am not worried about burnout. I love the movies and
feel that there’s more than enough diversity in style, tone, and characters to
keep things interesting.
Let’s face it – the rest of Hollywood isn’t exactly doing a bang-up job of putting compelling entertainment in theaters. It’s good to know that there’s a reliable source of ongoing entertainment. The MCU hasn’t stumbled yet and in my personal opinion there’s no reason to believe they will.
And yeah – I am well aware that there are people who
don’t like Iron Man 2 or 3 or maybe The Incredible Hulk or even the Thor movies. But I don’t agree with
those people and neither do the box office numbers.
Man, I especially don’t get the people that say the Thor
movies aren’t good. I love those.
Granted, to some extent I love all of the MCU movies, but Thor and The Dark World
are, to me, the truest examples of how superhero movies can be so much more
than guys in tights punching things. These are epic fantasy films! I think
people have a tendency to focus in on the time Thor spent on Earth in the first
movie, but remember – we saw Asgard and Jotunheim and they were magnificent. The Warriors Three were
realized on the big screen and they were perfect! And The Dark World doubled down on that fantasy and delivered even more
mythology and epic action.
I think one of the challenges of adapting Marvel’s
characters is that there is so much history and so many stories that no matter
what you do you’re going to omit or change somebody’s favorite thing. It simply
isn’t possible to translate every aspect perfectly and it definitely isn’t
feasible to tell every story in the same way. Especially in the shared universe
that Disney is creating. Comic books allow for a lot more hand-waving and
dismissing of decades-old continuity contradictions than the current ongoing
films do.
All in all I am thrilled with the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. I own every movie except for Age
of Ultron and me and my son have watched all of them multiple times. I will
admit that some are better than others, but I would never call any of them bad.
Side Note: I don’t own Age of Ultron because when it came out I was planning to buy the
Amazon Exclusive Phase II box set. But then I read reviews of the set and
decided it wasn’t for me. Since then I’ve looked for it from time to time and
have yet to find it for a reasonable price. I’m not paying twenty-five bucks
for such a huge blockbuster movie and I have to say that I’m a little surprised
it never leveled out below that.
I don’t want to get too deeply into the future of the
MCU, but here are a few thoughts:
T’Challa could be the new central character in the way
Tony Stark has been since 2008. Chadwick Boseman was phenomenal in the short
time that we got to see him in Civil War
and I think that the way the Black Panther story has been set up allows for an
amazing number of storytelling possibilities. My dream event is a massive war
between Wakanda and Latveria.
Yeah, I know that a lot has to happen before that story
could occur, but I think introducing Doom as a nemesis for T’Challa and then introducing the Fantastic Four could really
work in the context of the MCU. Maybe I’ll write more on that someday.
I don’t want Steve Rogers/Chris Evans to leave the MCU,
but I absolutely want a story where Anthony Mackie has to deal with taking on
the mantle of Captain America. There are plenty of ways to keep Rogers in the
mix while this occurs. Given the pairs’ current outlaw status it would take
some doing to get there, but I hope to see it happen.
Bucky as Cap is something I am less interested in and
think it would take a lot longer to get there. That guy needs a lot of
redemption and good press before I can see that happening.
Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is coming and I feel very strongly that
James Gunn should be allowed to do whatever James Gunn wants to do. The first
movie stands as a pop culture milestone even beyond its status as a massive
expansion of what the MCU can be.
Everyone except the most curmudgeonly of
louts loves it and I think it’s a shining example of what kind of magic movies
can achieve when the right creative vision is allowed to flourish. I was hoping
its success would spawn a slew of awesome outer space adventure movies (and
maybe even inspire the long-awaited Masters of the Universe live action film),
but unfortunately Hollywood opted for a number of unbelievably lame movies like
Jupiter Ascending and killed the
concept.
Side Note: If you liked Jupiter Ascending that’s okay. But I
couldn’t watch more than twenty minutes of it and it didn’t make any money, so
I feel comfortable referring to it as lame.
Tom Holland was awesome as Peter Parker. Spidey is one of
my guys much more so than any other MCU character, so I have a lot invested in Homecoming. I have to admit to also
being a little bummed that he won’t get more focus. That’s one of the problems
with this big, shared universe – there are so many characters that many of them
don’t receive the focus we’d like them to have. Spider-Man deserves the kind of
franchise that Sony wanted to build around him (but simply weren’t capable of),
but now he’s attached to everything else in the MCU and has to build around all
of that. I’d love to have a Spidey movie every three years, but how can that
happen with everything else on Disney’s plate?
I am as excited for Thor:
Ragnarok as I am any other movie that’s coming out. I love Asgard, I love
the characters, and I love the idea of a Thor adventure that doesn’t take place
on Earth at all. I never read Planet Hulk
because I haven’t read a Hulk comic since Peter David was writing them, but
more movie Hulk is a nothing but good. I liked Edward Norton as Banner more
than Mark Ruffalo, but that’s like saying I like cheeseburgers more than pizza.
I can’t even speculate on Infinity War. It’s too big and too involved for me to put too much
thought into. How can it deliver? How can it be more epic than what we’ve seen,
including by that point two Guardians
movies and Ragnarok? How can so many
beloved characters be done justice? Civil
War managed to use a huge number of characters very well, but Infinity War not only has more
characters but a much larger universe to deal with. I have no doubt it will be
awesome, but my brain can’t wrap itself around how.
Do I want the Guardians to show up in it? Of course. But
I don’t want them coming back to Earth and joining the Avengers or anything
like that.
Speaking of coming back to Earth and joining the
Avengers, is it weird that Marvel has chosen to make the comic book version of
Captain Marvel a giant douchebag while her film is in development and receiving
so much attention? Additionally, why a Captain Marvel movie before a Black
Widow movie? Sure, Scarlett Johansson hasn’t had the best box office success
headlining movies, but you’d think the name recognition of Black Widow and the
guiding hand of Kevin Feige would be enough to make that happen.
More on the Captain Marvel situation when I get around to
the comics post.
Then there’s Ant-Man
and the Wasp.
While Guardians of the Galaxy stands as the example of how epic and fantastic the MCU can be, Ant-Man showed us that it can still provide smaller scale, intimate stories that take place in just a corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved seeing Paul Rudd interact with the Avengers in Civil War and I look forward to whatever these characters do in Infinity War, but I’m hoping that Ant-Man and the Wasp stays grounded like the first movie.
While Guardians of the Galaxy stands as the example of how epic and fantastic the MCU can be, Ant-Man showed us that it can still provide smaller scale, intimate stories that take place in just a corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved seeing Paul Rudd interact with the Avengers in Civil War and I look forward to whatever these characters do in Infinity War, but I’m hoping that Ant-Man and the Wasp stays grounded like the first movie.
Finally, I don’t ever want the X-Men in the MCU. I just
want FOX to do better with them. But if Deadpool somehow showed up for a few
minutes to annoy Tony Stark, I think that would be okay.
Check back next week for my thoughts on Marvel’s comics,
and then the following week for a look at Marvel television!
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