Welcome back to the Randomizer!
Only a week gone, and I’m already uploading another one.
Aren’t I fast? Actually this is due to having a particular event coming up at
the end of August: My brother’s wedding. So I thought it might be a lot easier
doing this now, then having to worry about not having a chance to upload or
finish when that time came. Especially with having to sort out a lot of things
in the week of the wedding I assume. So yes, that’s pretty much it in a
nutshell…..and I’ll be wearing a suit. While also being the ring-bearer. Not
the best move there, especially with a fan of the Lord of the Rings films.
Anyway, there’s something that has been bugging me for a
little while: the Marvel Cinematic Universe Franchise.
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| We are the Masters of the Universe |
This is the absolute juggernaut of films franchises at the
moment, and no-one can deny it, or for lack of a better word WILL deny it. Since
the release of Iron Man in 2008, few could have seen that the MCU would gross
close to 9 Billion at the box office only 7 years later, and continue to have a
stew of popular films and bad under its belt. I have heard that this is the
Golden Age of Comic Book films, and while I’m inclined to agree with that
remark, I’d be more willing to say this is the ‘Age of Marvel’. Apologies for
the pun, but it’s more or less true. Marvel is the Emperor at the moment. It
might take a lot of lightsabers and good use of ‘The Force’ to bring it down.
Like any other films though, the MCU films are always
subject to criticism, which is what I’m going to look at today. They can be
huge glaring things, like writing and studio issues to the final definitive
version of the film/s, to little things that include not seeing full-on
crossovers between character’s films, which some fans have been pretty annoyed
about. I would be lying if I said I didn’t see those problems, because they are
justifiable issues with the films and I sometimes have felt that I have wasted
time seeing these films, despite the point that I do like a good number of
them. It’s going to be worth considering in future, about 20 years from now or
longer, how we view these films? Are they still going to be stupidly fun and
entertaining as they are now? Or NOT as stupidly fun and entertaining?
Let’s get started into seeing the justifiable problems with
the MCU. I’ll try to keep this one shorter then my ‘Marvel vs DC’ article from
last year. To be honest, it wasn’t just the length of it that might have been a
problem, but also it felt so obvious that everyone who had seen those TV shows
and films, that I think it kind of fell flat on its face. I digress, but also I
don’t want to bore you all!
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Here are three of the main points I will go over:
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Villains of…meh
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Phase 2: Stand-Alone Complex?
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No crossovers
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Villains of….meh
One of the bigger contention points in the Marvel Films
generally is the villains. Many fans have ridiculed the films for having not
very engaging and, forgiving another pun here, comically bad, myself included.
It’s been a big gripe against the franchise since it started, and it has really
continued to this day.
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| What they get up to in their spare time |
I had first properly noticed this in the first Iron Man, the
villain in question being Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges). Despite the
part being well-acted and coming across as gleefully political in one way,
there wasn’t a properly explained coherent reason of motivation. In fact, I’m
going to use that quite often: Reason of Motivation. ROM. Yes, Stane was an
interesting villain, but there’s not enough to make him so memorable, or not
shown on film so that we have an understanding as to why he is the way he is.
This is a trend that had continued in the Iron Man sequels,
with the villains Ivan Vanko (probably the worst villain in the series overall)
aka Iron Monger Version 2 and Aldrich Killian aka totally The Mandarin who were
interesting to a point, but not enough to particularly make them seem very
threatening, more so with Vanko who got pretty much owned twice in the same
film. Killian was pretty interesting and a bit clever, but still not enough to
warrant interesting, and no I’m not going into the Mandarin debacle as many
people will most likely see it.
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| What Mandarin debacle? It was just filming Ben Kingsley inside his house |
In great fairness, there hasn’t really been a great powerful
threat to any of the Marvel Superheroes in any way shape or form, one that
demands our attention and gives us the ROM to think ‘oh crap, this is someone
we need to look out for’. Example: Thanos. He is going to be the main threat in
Avengers: Infinity Wars double when they come in 2018/19, yet on reflection he
is a boring villain. Really think about it, he was introduced as someone to be
wary of in Avengers Assemble, courting chaos in his wake as he collects the
Infinity Stones…yet he’s not that much of an interesting person. He’s been
shown three times in small cameos since, and what do we really know of him?
Bugger all, yet he’s the overriding villain of the whole Marvel series. Give us
some idea of what he’s capable of, please?
The only real interesting villain in the entire series is
Loki, played to great perfection by Tom Hiddleston. He’s a complex character,
more so in the first Thor film because of his determination to prove himself
worthy to Odin, even after finding out that he isn’t really his son to begin
with, and be on equal terms with Thor. Becoming more of a straight villain in
The Avengers and back to being complex in Thor: The Dark World, he is certainly
one to keep an eye on, even if his motivations might be a little skewered. In
fact, I would be damn more satisfied if Loki was the one with the Infinity
Stones and gauntlet in the end, instead of Thanos. It would make sense in the
long run of things.
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| A man can dream... |
So I do have to admit, the villains are pretty poor and not
as well developed as some of the heroes are. They’re evil for the sake of evil,
just a wall obstacle that the hero can break down easily without as much
breaking a sweat. The problem here is while the films are entertaining, they
can lack a deal of substance, especially with the villains. If the villain
isn’t challenging enough to our comic book heroes, the films will feel less fun
and more bland. Speaking of bland…
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Phase 2 of MCU
Now for the record, I do like some of the Phase 2 films
Marvel has released. I saw Ant-Man at the cinema just last week and absolutely
loved it. Saw Guardians of the Galaxy twice, thought it was awesome despite Ronan
the Accuser being a fan of the song I’m Blue (Da Ba Dee) for no reason, and
enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier as one of the best sequels to a
Marvel, at least until probably Guardians 2 comes out in a couple years. BUT…I
do kind of feel that the films aren’t as very well connected as they could have
been, for plenty of reasons.
First, there’s not really much of over-riding story-arc in
the phrase, considering most of the films are pretty much stand-alone for each
of the main Avenger characters. I’d be lying too if I said I didn’t understand
why each Avenger needs their films. It’s perfectly fine to explore each
character going through different problems in their own lives, and have them
grow in their own unique ways before coming together in the next Avengers film.
But the way they’re written in the films is not great. Thor, Captain America
and Tony Stark just don’t really develop that much, they pretty much stay the
same all throughout their films and don’t grow. Only Guardians has any kind of
good development, despite how little it may be. What did each of the characters
learn from their experience? Tony’s house blew up, Thor gets Jane Foster
(barring not much chemistry the two have to start with), and Captain America is
still a goody two-shoes. Yay?
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| That's what happens when you make Iron Man 2 |
Another example in the connection is the irrelevancy of each
film. I had first thought about that when watching Avengers: Age of Ultron, and
being quite bemused at how Ultron was played, and how interesting, but boring
he was at the same time. The feeling that he was just another villain just
going to be killed off at the end felt like many of the Phase 2 films, that
nothing the villains did really mattered to the heroes. If you really think
about it, how much tension did you really get from the films? I’ll admit I
definitely had some in my head when watching the films, but not enough to feel,
‘what the f***?’.
Let me compare this to Phase 1 for a moment. It made sense
for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Hulk to have their own respective
films to introduce them, so that you see their stories first and understand
what they’re going through before bringing them together, to fight Loki who
appears in the first ‘Thor’ and gains some power to take over the Earth,
prompting Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America working under the agency SHEILD
to come together. That all makes sense. It does not in Phase 2, because the way
they’re connected is just lacking, badly.
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| Not enough Loki, that's why. |
Each film, while being somewhat entertaining in their own
right, felt irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. They didn’t serve much of
a purpose to build up what resulted in a waste of a team-up, Age of Ultron, fun
and enjoyable as that was. Perhaps if the idea of Ultron was introduced in Iron
Man 3, or the idea of the Aether in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ was an Infinity
Stone, it might have made for a stronger story arc, and even give off some
interesting satire at that, as well as introducing the grander scheme of the
Infinity Stones would have been good if written in properly. As it is, it’s ok,
but could have been much more than that. Speaking of Phase 2…
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Crossovers
I’m sure that it’s escaped no one’s notice that with the
amount of characters available in the MCU, surely there will be some kind of
crossover in the films involving many characters that ISN’T the Avengers. Well
Marvel’s line on that appears to be: “Yeaaaaaaa, not gonna happen. Lol”. That’s
probably their line to anything that people would disagree with. Not Alice
Beadle, never. Love you Alice!
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| I don't usually make crossovers into Marvel articles...but when I do, it's because Alice asks to sort you out. |
Anyway, I can take a guess at why these crossovers with all
the different characters don’t happen, it goes back to the Phase 2 films being
stand-alone for each character, and seeing their story unfold (albeit not well).
If that’s the case, fine. There really is no problem with that, but wouldn’t it
make more sense to have different characters appearing to help everyone out in
some way?
It would make for some interesting banter between whoever
comes to help and the main character, and make for developing teamwork to show
off various new equipment and abilities, regardless of budget in production and
more writing to do. They had three films evolving around on Earth (Guardians
not really counting) before Age of Ultron, wouldn’t it have helped to create an
interesting dynamic among these characters at least?
Let’s use Iron Man 3 as an example. The ending involves Tony
Stark, Rhodie and the various Iron Man armours against Aldrich Killian and his
‘Extremis’ soldiers. If Captain America or many SHEILD agents were to be involved
in the final battle, wouldn’t that have helped to not just show that these
people can help each other, but create some tension as well among characters?
In fact, that could have been a starting point for what happens in Age of
Ultron, carrying on through to Thor: The Dark World when London’s attacked and
in The Winter Soldier to help Nick Fury take down SHEILD from the inside. Come
on Marvel, you might be ahead of the game in comic book movies, but a bit more
thought in the films might make them more credible.
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| If arguing over Jon Snow's death doesn't make for compelling drama, I don't know what will |
So really, in the long run of things, crossovers would help
to serve a purpose in the Marvel Universe. It would create better character
development amongst the heroes, give some more insight into how they can relate
to one another, and give a better arc to work with, especially in Phase 2. It’s
sad to think this just won’t happen in the MCU, not even in Phase 3…much, I
think Captain America: Civil War will be the exception, but it is long overdue.
Whether any of the others will get the same treatment before Avengers: Infinity
Wars double, I don’t know, and don’t think it will happen.
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That’s my three main criticisms for the series overall for
the moment. There are definitely some missed opportunities in the MCU regarding
a few problems with the villains, crossovers and the films themselves,
especially with Phase 2. I won’t go into detail about plot holes or otherwise,
because there’s a lot of them to get through, and I do feel it would be a load
to get through and overblowing the point of this article. But I do feel that if
Marvel Studios have the time to develop characters and cross-overs properly,
these films may just be better well-received and actually may have some underlining
commentary.
As they are now, I will illiterate my point that I don’t
hate these films, far from it. Apart from Iron Man 2. Urgh. I think they’re a
fun entertaining series of films to watch, with some of the issues being quite
glaring at times. These are films that aren’t really supposed to be taken SO seriously,
even though one has written an article complaining about them as such. Logic!
But to a point, wouldn’t it help at have at least a modicum of intelligence in
these movies? They are comic book movies, but having a degree of intelligence
might help in the long run, and make them more memorable.
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| Or throw Deadpool into the next Avengers film. Either way would be sweet. (See the trailer it's good!) |
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That’s it for August, in quick time. I will return back to the
back-end of September, so until then…Randomizer out!
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