But I appreciate it all comes down to selling and numbers - and clearly these were peg warming and so our time to shine was somewhat short lived. Not all gloom and doom though cause the MCU MLs we get these days are AMAZING, just not filling all the roster holes.
And I'm always the "I don't really care about their profit, I want my figures" idiot, but I also don't believe in money. But I get that's how the world is set up.
I agree that the movies need a smaller budget and feel to them. Not that I don't love huge bombastic action, but I think the huge epic battles should be left more to the team-up movies than them just trying to one-up themselves every time.
That's the thing for me too... I guess some franchises benefit from going bigger with each installment, but I really don't see it as necessary and most times it can be detrimental. I like seeing the character(s) just going on another adventure. Like what was it, Die Hard 4 where the guy who was a barefoot and bleeding average cop is now flinging motorcycles at helicopters and such? That isn't why I watch John McClane, and even if it was... It's gonna make the original boring by comparison. But stripping the character of what made him special had the opposite effect and just made it ridiculous and boring.
Quantumania I guess is an example since they technically went bigger but there were other issues there so I'm not even sure what the main one was.
That's another thing that was so refreshing about Thunderbolts- not that there wasn't a final battle, per se, but it felt smaller and more intimate.
Yes! And I loved that so much. I FELT that so much. I wanted to be IN that group hug. I always bring up the first Doctor Strange which DID have a bunch of CG and such but he didn't defeat the villain by beating him up or blowing him up or what have you. I appreciate that kinda thing so much.
Same with Agatha, to an extent. It was flashy, sure, but relatively small and intimate. I think more things like that- you know, that don't cost $180 million or more- is what they should aim for. Oftentimes, the smaller the budget, the more clever and creative they have to get with things.
Definitely. I also wonder if that's why the Netflix Daredevil was as good as it was. They couldn't learn on effects so it was all about character, relationships, intrigue, and stunts. And that worked!
Eternals made a decent amount of money, but it's the fact that its budget was coocoo bananas that it failed.
Exactly. All these movies HAVE to make almost a billion or they're a bomb. It's time to rethink this stuff. Build back up to that. Pretend it's 2008 again.
Though... Even as someone who isn't hot for big action sequences, I really enjoyed when they were first combatting the deviants, but I also see those as character moments. I thought that movie did so much character building for a two hour movie (or whatever it was) even with so many characters.
I agree with the critique of Black Widow's 3rd act- I like the movie, but it didn't really need to have a giant flying fortress. Have a secret underground lair, or, as even more of a real-life metaphor, just have it in plain sight with no hiding, as someone so evil and powerful can just pay off whoever he wants and not have to worry about hiding.
Yeah, that could have really been amazing. And cheap! Look at Andor using crazy and unique buildings rather than putting a set together or using a bunch of CG. Or in this case, a really bland building with neat interiors or something. Taskmaster was enough of a ticking clock, as was Ross. And again I'm gonna express confusion over that subplot. Oh God he's coming!!!! Nevermind.
Hopefully with this supposedly new approach they're taking to the MCU movies, that'll include more of a working relationship with merch makers like Hasbro.
I would like that of course. I get the need for secrecy but then they hinge the marketing on Red Hulk.
And yeah the serpent society thing is such a shame. That could have been really neat AND cheaper
AND better than Red Hulk.
I’m perhaps an outlier, but other than stories that absolutely *demand* a big huge action spectacle/battle, I don’t even like or want them. I remember being 16 and walking out of Independence Day totally bored and disappointed, that film was the turning point for me in realizing I just didn’t care about that stuff.
That's funny, I was also unimpressed. I enjoyed some aspects of that VERY much but the plane battle at the end got to be too much. I told my best friend at the time I felt they were trying to copy the space battle at the end of ROTJ, but it was boring.
Like Lord of the Rings? OK, sure, and also because it’s so well-done and because it is *demanded* by the story.
Right, always exceptions. And to be clear, I agree.
But, like, the Black Widow example or even (sacrilege, I know) the Battle of Wakanda in Infinity War, beyond the isolated character moments it’s all just noisy sturm und drang to me.
I won't say you're wrong, but I was okay with it. When I think of that sequence, it's always the character moments and that makes me happy. It's better to me the JUST the storm und drang, thank you for making me learn something also.
I feel like smaller budgets would force more creativity in storytelling, especially at the climax, than just “BIG DIGITAL ACTION!!!1!1!1!!!”
I completely agree. Completely. I get some of these characters need effects because of their powers, such as the entire FF, but I have always said since the MCU started that the characters and the story NEED to be paramount, and I feel like some of their movies lost sight of that.
I can’t think of a single film where the hero/villain final face-off would be be significantly improved if it was more intimate and impactful, thinking about the Ares/Wonder Woman fight or the Killmonger/T’Challa “final boss” fights especially here: both excellent films that burn coming out of the oven due to being over baked.
I definitely agree. I love the first 3/4 of Wonder Woman!
Aaaanyway, yeah: I hope the MCU backs away from whiz-bang and tightens up around (actually likable and largely aspirational) characters. The DCU as well.
Yes, let's try it!
