The history of comic book movies is a messy one, with films like the incredible hulk (2003) and Fan4stic (2015) being box office flops whereas movies like 2008’s Iron Man and 2002’s Spider-Man achieved critical acclaim, leading to many developing the stereotype of movies like the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy being diamonds in the rough amongst the mess of terrible CBMs, that was until 2008 brought along the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its first major film Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. This film was very successful for Marvel, grossing over $558 million and being the 8th highest grossing film of 2008, this kickstarted the ‘avenger’s initiative withing the MCU, with it already being referenced in 2003’s The Incredible Hulk and now in a post credit scene of 2008’s Iron Man, Marvel studios used the film’s success to create 2010’s iron Man 2, further developing the character of RDJ’s Tony Stark and introducing James Rhodes also known as War Machine, played by Don Cheadle. This film, while not as well received as the original Iron Man, was still successful enough to allow Marvel studios to continue their connected universe, resulting 2011’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger which released in the same year. These successes led to 2012’s The Avengers, which became the highest grossing superhero film of all time grossing over 1 billion dollars the only other film of this genre to do so at the time was Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. This led to superhero movies overall becoming more respected and seen as an actual form of cinema, although, quite famously, Martin Scorsese claimed that Marvel films were ‘not cinema’ with many people sharing this opinion. The MCU’s success had also led to rival company DC trying their hand at a connected universe with the DCEU or DC Extended Universe, starting with Man of Steel. While a few of their films were successful, most were seen as flops and/or borderline unwatchable, with plenty of DC fans feeling Marvel had ‘polluted’ the Superhero movie genre. Marvel continued their streak of successes, with 2018’s Black Panther being one of their more notable successes, being the first superhero movie to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars, and although it didn’t receive the award, it did win three other Oscars for costume and product design and best original soundtrack. This further elevated superhero films, legitimising them and proving they were deserving of rewards and recognition. Marvel made another booming success with 2019’s Captain Marvel, another of their films that earned over $1 billion at the box office.
While Marvel was massively succeeding, it did have its fair share of controversies ands debates surrounding it, with one of the most notable being when Disney fully acquired the studio, fans being concerned they would not be able to see darker projects due to the nature of Disney as a brand. Another massive concern was Marvel’s inability to collaborate with other studios, being unable to use Fox’s X-men in any of their films, an issue that would be resolved later with Disney’s acquisition of the studio, although, a much more talked about and still unresolved issue among fans was the lack of Spider-Man in the MCU, the fan favourite character still being owned partly by Sony, a historically shaky deal was struck between the two, allowing fans to see the webslinger on the big screen, the only problem being that when Disney+ launched, there would be no Spider-Man centric shows as the TV rights weren’t something Disney had access to. Although, one of the most important concerns was alleviated, as Disney promised minimal creative influence with Marvel’s products, which led to the MCU’s continued success, although, in recent years, especially with Disney+ bloating the amount of MCU related projects being put out this has slowed down, with many fans feeling burnt out as recent projects require knowledge on many, if not all of Marvel’s previous projects, meaning it’s very difficult to get a casual fan into the films as they won’t know what’s happening within the story. This however, pales in comparison to another controversy Marvel found themselves in regarding their VFX team, with many reports of them being overworked coming out as fans began to notice huge dips in quality concerning CGI and other special effects, a few examples being She-Hulk (2022-23), Thor: Love and Thunder (2023) and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023), the reports claimed the studio was ‘toxic’ and ‘so big they could demand whatever they wanted’ these claims seemed to be validated when Marvel began delaying and pushing projects back alongside a strike that began soon after, this alongside many reports of producer Kevin Feige scrapping entire scripts and firing plenty of staff has led to Marvel’s reputation being significantly damaged alongside its lessening successes, with all of the releases mentioned above being labelled as bad and disappointing considering they followed after Avengers: Endgame, the film many fans believe should’ve concluded the franchise, but of course, Disney wanted to milk their cash cow for all it was worth, which seems to have been the wrong decision in the end, although fans do still hold out hope for the franchise getting back on its feet and returning to the success it had prior, with films like Deadpool 3, set to release at some point in 2024, carrying said hope on their shoulders. Although, not all seems lost for Marvel, as its recent release of the second season of their TV series Loki has received plenty of praise, the same can be said for James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 which released earlier this year, being his final project at Marvel before he moves over to directing their rival DC, building the foundations for their new attempt at a Cinematic Universe, other than that, their haven’t been any recent notable Marvel successes and it seems as though their latest film The Marvels will be yet another flop amongst 2023’s releases.
For a brief summary of the MCU, all you need to know is that Phases 1 through 3 develop the Avengers and their inevitable conflict with Thanos, the overarching villain of the entire series of films up to that point, 2019’s Avengers Endgame being the conclusion to this. Phase 4 is kicked off with Spider-Man: Far From Home which shows the aftereffects of the conflict with Thanos and the death of multiple heroes this seems to be the main theme of phase 4 up until the film mentions the multiverse, the concept that is now at the forefront of the franchise, although many fans and critics see phases 4 and 5 as pointless so far as they’ve barely established the next Thanos level threat, being Kang the Conqueror who’s only real appearance so far was during Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania where he comes off as not threatening at all when he’s defeated rather easily by the end of the film, even though he’s referred to as ‘one of the most dangerous’ variants of Kang, leading to audiences and especially fans being extremely disappointed and seeing Kang as an embarrassment. This, alongside ‘superhero fatigue’ has led to the general consensus being that the MCU has lost what made it special and is no longer worth following as each film seems to get worse and worse alongside the shows that continue to be dumped onto Disney+ which feel like stretched out, poorly paced failures at what could’ve been an interesting concept, the most notable of these being 2023’s Secret Invasion, based off of a comic book event of the same name that was far more popular and successful than the show could ever dream of being, with the ‘spy-thriller’ the show claimed to be ending in a giant poorly done CGI fight, as is part of the ‘MCU formula’ something fans and critics alike are becoming increasingly tired of.
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