50 votes

I used to love Marvel. Now it feels like homework

32 comments

  1. [4]
    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link
    There's some truth to the MCU being more of a slog now, but I don't know about some specific points. Maybe it's because I'm used to books where series entries requiring each other is by far the...

    There's some truth to the MCU being more of a slog now, but I don't know about some specific points.

    I shouldn't need to know exactly who did what and when in the first season of Loki to understand the upcoming second season. The MCU is just too much now.

    Maybe it's because I'm used to books where series entries requiring each other is by far the norm, but why is "you should watch Season 1 to understand Season 2" an example of being "too much"? The later WandaVision example works better.

    The movies of summer 2023 weren’t Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or The Flash, but Barbie—a fun feminist romp, even if it was based on a brand—and Oppenheimer, a three-hour biopic about a scientist.

    Barbenheimer is the meme of the summer for certain, but it's not exactly like Guardians 3 was unsuccessful, and Across the Spider-Verse (although not MCU) hit rather high both on the financial scale and the meme scale. Sure, it's not the heights of Endgame, but the genre's far from dead.

    While I of course can't speak as to what this writer individually is tired of, when it comes to the general trend I don't think "superhero fatigue" is the problem. If the reason Black Widow and *shudders* Eternals were met with tepid reactions is because people are tired of superheroes, how did No Way Home—a multiversal superhero movie relying on at least eight other films for the full experience—become the highest-grossing Marvel film behind Endgame itself, and why did Shang-Chi get a warm welcome? All four released in the span of six months, but they were received entirely differently.

    People aren't tired of superheroes, multiverses, or shared worlds, they're tired of mediocre movies.

    38 votes
    1. Grasso
      Link Parent
      To your first point, I think the author was trying to say that you needed to have watched all the multiverse content released up to now to get the most out of Loki S2, including Spiderman No Way...

      To your first point, I think the author was trying to say that you needed to have watched all the multiverse content released up to now to get the most out of Loki S2, including Spiderman No Way Home, Ant Man Quantamania, the other Disney+ series, etc - not just Loki S1. I can definitely agree that it’s absolutely fatigue inducing to know that you have to watch series and movies with characters you might not care about and were trashed by critics to boot, to get the most out of series about a character you do care about.

      23 votes
    2. rosco
      Link Parent
      I think the author could have made a better point using Guardians of the Galaxy 3 to back up their point about needing to consume all Marvel material for a plot to make sense. The end of Guardians...

      I think the author could have made a better point using Guardians of the Galaxy 3 to back up their point about needing to consume all Marvel material for a plot to make sense. The end of Guardians 2 set up a whole but of plot points and then in 3 they have all radically changed. I wasn't aware that you need to watch the avengers movies to understand the set up for number 3. We literally watched all the Guardians back to back to back as a refresher and I still felt dropped into a completely different story.

      12 votes
    3. Dr_Amazing
      Link Parent
      Yeah that stood out to me too. Of course you should watch the first season of a show before watching the 2nd. That's true for pretty much any show with even a bit of continuity.

      Yeah that stood out to me too. Of course you should watch the first season of a show before watching the 2nd. That's true for pretty much any show with even a bit of continuity.

      4 votes
  2. [4]
    Black_Gulaman
    Link
    I got tired of watching after every marvel movies emulated the humor of waititi's Thor. I want serious stories, not stories that have serious themes but is being treated as a minor annoyance by...

    I got tired of watching after every marvel movies emulated the humor of waititi's Thor.

    I want serious stories, not stories that have serious themes but is being treated as a minor annoyance by the hero, obviously over using his /her plot armor and no effort to hide it. The seriousness of their predicament gone, the weight of their actions and decisions gone, it's just joke after joke until the conclusion of the story.

    It's tiring, and there's always a feeling that I should've dedicated that time to doing better things.

    30 votes
    1. umop_dn
      Link Parent
      This! I feel like the scripts now read like episodes of 2 Broke Girls, where every damn bit of dialogue has a punchline. They might as well start putting a laugh track on these things. I guess...

      This! I feel like the scripts now read like episodes of 2 Broke Girls, where every damn bit of dialogue has a punchline. They might as well start putting a laugh track on these things. I guess they did that on wandavision... ffs. Didn't they? That's another thing, I think. They're all so easily forgettable now. They're so busy, like walking around a Vegas casino, you immediately forget what you just saw. Only that it was loud and flashy and kind of irritating.

      15 votes
    2. DumpsterGrackle
      Link Parent
      That shift put me off, too, when it persisted. It's like the tone of everything started to blend together. I get that they were merging all the storylines, but part of the fun of that is seeing...

      That shift put me off, too, when it persisted. It's like the tone of everything started to blend together. I get that they were merging all the storylines, but part of the fun of that is seeing the interactions between serious and light-hearted characters. Those moments can have great humor and chemistry precisely because of the clash, but now that everyone feels like they're more or less in line with the tone of Guardians, it's not as interesting. It's frustrating that the more serious characters seem to have lost their gravitas, even in their own movies. The balance of humor is off.

      It's great to have a lot of content to choose from, and the series still have different styles. It just feels like the characters are falling flat, or doing too many little forced, uncharacteristic things.

      6 votes
    3. tomorrow-never-knows
      Link Parent
      I think there is a distinction to be made between seriousness - where thematic and character elements are treated with all due gravitas and necessary complexity - and a sense of self-seriousness,...

      I think there is a distinction to be made between seriousness - where thematic and character elements are treated with all due gravitas and necessary complexity - and a sense of self-seriousness, which adopts the tone of the latter but at a rather superficial level that lacks any real nuance. I've always felt the MCU movies to be most often guilty of the latter, so, for me, Guardians and Ragnarok were a much-needed breath of fresh air with their emphasis on the camp and comedic. Sure, Love and Thunder may have gone a bit far in that direction, but the recent Guardians Vol 3 proved it's possible to balance both the serious and the humorous without one undercutting the other.

      3 votes
  3. [2]
    myrrh
    (edited )
    Link
    ...marvel studios' self-produced iron man was a revelation upon release: finally a comic book properly adapted to suit the film medium, one which played itself straight, foregoing hollywood...

    ...marvel studios' self-produced iron man was a revelation upon release: finally a comic book properly adapted to suit the film medium, one which played itself straight, foregoing hollywood productions' nudge-wink comic-medium satire and overbearingly formulatic tropes, and which successfully captured the world-outside-your-window charm which had driven marvel comics' success decades earlier...

    ...i was all-in for the MCU ride, loving both its potential and its actuality, but somewhere around the second season of luke cage that momentum stalled out - partially due to the massive backlog of material, partially due to marvel studios' productions becoming victims of their own success - and i haven't watched much of anything since...

    ...ten years was a good run, but i think it will take a significant sea change to reinvigorate the franchise in the same way again: infinity war was a high-water mark but most of what's come since i just can't be bothered to care about...

    26 votes
    1. Pioneer
      Link Parent
      I enjoyed the first couple of Iron Man movies. Then they started adding a lot of other movies to their repitoire that I just didn't see, then they all joined up and had inter-woven stories so I...

      I enjoyed the first couple of Iron Man movies. Then they started adding a lot of other movies to their repitoire that I just didn't see, then they all joined up and had inter-woven stories so I just gave them all a miss.

      It went from 'nudge nudge, wink wink' is bad, to "HEY, STAY AFTER THE CREDITS FOR A SPECIAL ULTRA-SECRET THING ONLY YOU WILL KNOW!" and it got really exhausting to engage with anyone who bought into it.

      I know there's some great films out there. I just don't care for the joined up universe. It's boring! If we had actual superheroes in the world who want to do THAT MUCH good, could you imagine them proping up the nonsense we've got running now?

      10 votes
  4. [2]
    papasquat
    Link
    They had their (very long) moment in the sun. I think every single person except execs at Disney saw the writing on the wall after endgame through. You created a decade long cinematic phenomenon...

    They had their (very long) moment in the sun. I think every single person except execs at Disney saw the writing on the wall after endgame through. You created a decade long cinematic phenomenon and got filthy rich doing it. To even try to replicate that again is naive, and just straight up assuming you can do it again is pure hubris.

    19 votes
    1. kinobe
      Link Parent
      Yeah I agree I think they went all out with Phase whatever, ending with End Game. I just don't think you can top that. I think perhaps they don't have an idea how they WILL top that (except to...

      Yeah I agree I think they went all out with Phase whatever, ending with End Game. I just don't think you can top that. I think perhaps they don't have an idea how they WILL top that (except to include more diversity etc)... but nothing's gonna be as epic.

      2 votes
  5. [3]
    patience_limited
    Link
    There's a real problem with making movies, which used to contain a complete story in the space of 2 - 3 hours, into episodic stories. The original model for cinematic storytelling was theatrical...

    There's a real problem with making movies, which used to contain a complete story in the space of 2 - 3 hours, into episodic stories.

    The original model for cinematic storytelling was theatrical plays, and I can't recall any history of theater being used for "...to be continued". That came along with radio (which derived its episodic storytelling from periodical print publications, including comic books, and leveraged it to include commercial breaks), then television.

    Television (and ultimately, comic books) expanded the scope and breadth of episodic storytelling through soap operas and dramas that could maintain emotional involvement with characters. Dramatic genres didn't depend on special effects or grand action sequences - they thrived in the cosy intimacy of living rooms, where people could feel personally involved in the characters' lives.

    Marvel movies have been consistently failing to create characters that people can project their lives into, in any way other than as adolescent power fantasies about saving the universe. WandaVision had its moments, but you still needed to know too much of the preexisting Marvel canon to engage fully.

    It's no wonder that people are tired of sitting still for 2 - 3 hours at considerable expense, to get a "To be continued..." which resolves nothing, always ends with cardboard cutout popular heroes living to fight another day, and the villains never decisively defeated.

    12 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. patience_limited
        Link Parent
        You're absolutely right, and I'd forgotten that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (with respect to the "Raiders" films) at one point specifically said they were influenced by old serial movies....

        You're absolutely right, and I'd forgotten that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (with respect to the "Raiders" films) at one point specifically said they were influenced by old serial movies. Hence the "Episode IV - A New Hope" titling on the original film.

        And that's what happens when I don't do my homework before I post. TBH, the Marvel franchise is such a blur of interrelated content these days that I'm lucky if I can remember the plot of a single title, let alone keep the storylines straight. And that's not a problem I've had with the first Star Wars trilogy, or Andor, or The Expanse, or streaming dramas like Peaky Blinders...

        7 votes
    2. feanne
      Link Parent
      Ahh this is my pet peeve too, honestly! I don't mind more stories happening within the same world, but I'm tired of the endless cliffhangers / unresolved endings. P.S. Your username is perfect for...

      It's no wonder that people are tired of sitting still for 2 - 3 hours at considerable expense, to get a "To be continued..." which resolves nothing, always ends with cardboard cutout popular heroes living to fight another day, and the villains never decisively defeated.

      Ahh this is my pet peeve too, honestly! I don't mind more stories happening within the same world, but I'm tired of the endless cliffhangers / unresolved endings.

      P.S. Your username is perfect for your comment too 😂 it's exactly how I feel about this: my patience is limited!

      2 votes
  6. [9]
    crialpaca
    Link
    Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 was the nail in the coffin for me. It was so emotionally manipulative and the use of visceral imagery was so overdone that by the end of the movie, I felt betrayed...

    Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 was the nail in the coffin for me. It was so emotionally manipulative and the use of visceral imagery was so overdone that by the end of the movie, I felt betrayed as a viewer. Some of the lines still pop into my head when I hear the words "floor" or "teefs" and I hate it. I wish I had never seen it. I think they forgot where to draw the line.

    10 votes
    1. [8]
      PossiblyBipedal
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Wow. Most of the people I know say it's a great movie. But I really disliked the second movie so much, I couldn't get myself to watch the third. I've been reconsidering it. But your comment made...

      Wow. Most of the people I know say it's a great movie. But I really disliked the second movie so much, I couldn't get myself to watch the third.

      I've been reconsidering it. But your comment made me think that maybe I should just stick to not watching it.

      4 votes
      1. [7]
        smiles134
        Link Parent
        I think the person you're replying to is being a little dramatic. I thought it was a good movie and really didn't see it as emotionally manipulative at all. Not sure what the basis for that claim is.

        I think the person you're replying to is being a little dramatic. I thought it was a good movie and really didn't see it as emotionally manipulative at all. Not sure what the basis for that claim is.

        15 votes
        1. [2]
          crialpaca
          Link Parent
          You don't think they went a little hard on the vivisection of baby animals to play on the viewers' emotions while taking cheap shots with the rest of the writing? This NPR review agrees with me.

          You don't think they went a little hard on the vivisection of baby animals to play on the viewers' emotions while taking cheap shots with the rest of the writing? This NPR review agrees with me.

          7 votes
          1. smiles134
            Link Parent
            No, truthfully I didn't

            No, truthfully I didn't

            7 votes
        2. [4]
          PossiblyBipedal
          Link Parent
          Oh no. I'm easily swayed. Now I'm back to considering the movie again. Did you like the second movie?

          Oh no. I'm easily swayed. Now I'm back to considering the movie again.

          Did you like the second movie?

          2 votes
          1. [2]
            dhcrazy333
            Link Parent
            I mean I thought it was pretty forgettable. It really didn't feel inspired. Felt like just a shoehorned plot that they tried to get you to be emotionally invested in with animal feels.

            I mean I thought it was pretty forgettable. It really didn't feel inspired. Felt like just a shoehorned plot that they tried to get you to be emotionally invested in with animal feels.

            4 votes
            1. PossiblyBipedal
              Link Parent
              Yeah. I just read the NPR review posted in another comment. I'm not in the mood for animals in despair at the moment. So probably won't be watching it anytime soon.

              Yeah. I just read the NPR review posted in another comment. I'm not in the mood for animals in despair at the moment.

              So probably won't be watching it anytime soon.

              4 votes
  7. devilized
    Link
    I think they need to take a break. I'm not a weekly or monthly movie goer, and I just couldn't keep up anymore. They were pumping those movies out like water and they lose their appeal. It simply...

    I think they need to take a break. I'm not a weekly or monthly movie goer, and I just couldn't keep up anymore. They were pumping those movies out like water and they lose their appeal. It simply got old.

    6 votes
  8. bioemerl
    Link
    The people who designed the marvel movies looked to the success of the comic books and said "yes, I want to emulate that!".

    The people who designed the marvel movies looked to the success of the comic books and said "yes, I want to emulate that!".

    4 votes
  9. [2]
    Protected
    Link
    We all have different saturation points. Some people have had enough of the MCU by now; I've had enough of it for a very long time.

    We all have different saturation points. Some people have had enough of the MCU by now; I've had enough of it for a very long time.

    4 votes
    1. g33kphr33k
      Link Parent
      After the last Avengers movie I basically quit out of MCU. It got too much, too quick. Deadpool was refreshing. Logan, a great movie. As soon as they franchise them to death they kill all the...

      After the last Avengers movie I basically quit out of MCU. It got too much, too quick.

      Deadpool was refreshing. Logan, a great movie. As soon as they franchise them to death they kill all the movies, because I won't go back and rewatch them.

      1 vote
  10. [2]
    Earthboom
    Link
    Everyone agrees Iron Man was the trendsetter. The genius of Marvel was they then bottled the magic and replicated it. The entire first phase and second phase, anything with origin stories, was...

    Everyone agrees Iron Man was the trendsetter. The genius of Marvel was they then bottled the magic and replicated it. The entire first phase and second phase, anything with origin stories, was just iron man over and over and over. We watched Iron Man so many times we lost track. The second magic trick they pulled was capitalizing on comic book hype and of seeing comic book characters on the screen for the first time: cameos.

    We wanted to see iron man on the screen with other heroes. That sums up the MCU. The formula was boxed and cloned over and over without soul until the present day.

    Really, as much as I hate what the MCU has become, I can't deny the money making machine we saw spawn overnight and continue for a lifetime in Hollywood years. How many people got rich from this enterprise? Lost count. The fact it's still hobbling along says a lot. Now it's in the hands of a company all too familiar with burnout and fatigue and experts at necromancy to revitalize and revive franchises for repacking and reselling.

    It's perfect. We will see Marvel movies 1/2, the timone take well after Marvel is dead to the comic book fan. It's now Paw Patrol and the Star Wars franchise. Literally just there to print money. They told me money doesn't grow on trees but my TV tells me otherwise.

    As an aside, RIP to my boys DC. WB failed you and Marvel ran circles around you. I may never see my comic book heroes on the screen for another few decades yet. They're a casualty that doesn't get mentioned enough.

    Another aside, the TV universe for marvel was awesome for a hot minute there, until it wasn't. Daredevil was so awesome but they tried to bottle that up too and it degraded faster than the MCU.

    Also RIP to Spiderman. One of my favorite heroes but I don't know what they're doing to him.

    2 votes
    1. Dr_Amazing
      Link Parent
      Daredevil was great first season. I was so excited for Defenders but it was downright terrible. They were trying to show some early friction in the team but they just ended up looking like a bunch...

      Daredevil was great first season. I was so excited for Defenders but it was downright terrible. They were trying to show some early friction in the team but they just ended up looking like a bunch of assholes.

      There was also the problem of them being a super hero team that was basically 4 people with slightly different levels of increased durability who were good at punching things, which wasn't the most interesting recipe for a teamup.

      2 votes
  11. RoundSparrow
    Link
    The Marvel storytelling on TV and film has gotten so huge... of course it is difficult to keep up. I'm sure someone out there has an up to date number of just how many hours it would take to watch...

    The Marvel storytelling on TV and film has gotten so huge... of course it is difficult to keep up. I'm sure someone out there has an up to date number of just how many hours it would take to watch it all, let alone analyze and review it.

    1 vote
  12. crud_lover
    Link
    It's Morbin Time

    It's Morbin Time

    2 votes