I Miss the Old Marvel Cinematic Universe

I’ve finally figured out why I’m tired of the MCU.

I wasn’t sure if it’s because I’ve simply seen too much of the same thing, or because the movies have actually gotten worse. Turns out it’s a little bit of column A and column B.

I remember when the Avengers were first coming together and how exciting each movie felt. Nobody had figured out this cinematic universe thing, but Kevin Feige was executing on his vision.

Iron Man, Thor and Captain America were getting their own adventure, and eventually they were going to be in the same big movie.

What was more impressive is that Marvel was doing this with their second-tier characters. They didn’t have Spider-Man, X-Men, or The Fantastic Four back then… watching Marvel turn Iron Man, Cap and Thor into movie stars felt like rooting for the underdogs.

Half the fun during those first few years came from simply wondering whether Marvel could figure out this “cinematic universe”. The comics gave them a rough blueprint to follow, but that’s different… Putting Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye on the same page is easier than negotiating contracts, screen-time, and schedules with so many movie stars.

We had never seen Hollywood attempt something of this scale.

Could they really make all of these characters work together? Could the individual movies actually feel like their own thing while also building toward something bigger? Will the actual team-up movie be any good?

Not only did they pull it off, but they made it look easy.

That’s what gets lost when we look back at the Infinity Saga. Regardless of how you feel about superhero movies in general, those first ten years of the MCU might be the most successful example of a long-term creative vision in blockbuster history.

There were bumps along the way, but the consistency of the overall plan was absurd. They kept introducing characters, expanding the world, crossing different franchises over, changing directors, and somehow keeping the whole thing moving in the same direction.

And just to flex, every few years, they would take a series that seemed like it shouldn’t work and successfully turn it into and a hit (see: Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man).

Marvel Studios during that time reminds me a lot of Pixar’s first fifteen years... the studio had built up this ridiculous level of trust, you could blindly buy a ticket for one of their movies and be guaranteed to have a good time.

This was a golden era. Marvel could do no wrong, and they deserved all the love from critics and audiences.

Seeing the superheroes coming to life felt like my childhood coming to life again… the world kept on getting bigger, and with every movie, more of your friends were getting into it. It was cool seeing something that once felt like niche nerd culture become actual pop culture.

But the MCU eventually started feeling like the default setting for Hollywood.

Like many of you, I noticed the MCU formula before Endgame, but at first I wasn’t bothered by it. I knew the trick, but we were building up to an ending. And right when we thought we knew the playbook, Infinity War and that great cliffhanger fucked up all our expectations… ten years in and they somehow managed to surprise us.

We figured the heroes were coming back, but we didn’t know how! And for the real nerds, the way in which they eventually solved things in Endgame was refreshing because it did not match the story from the comics.

Endgame felt like the ultimate ending. Ten years of stories had built toward that moment, but we were given no time to let it digest… as soon as we cut to credits we knew the slate of movies and TV shows that were around the corner.

Right after Endgame would have been the perfect time to take a break and completely reinvent the MCU.

They had successfully finished one of the biggest experiments in blockbuster filmmaking. They had retired some of their biggest characters and effectively given themselves a clean slate.

Instead, we just got the same formula as before but with MULTI-VERSE thrown in the mix.

Introduce new character. Origin story. Add MULTI-VERSE elements. Forgettable villain. CGI third act. Post-credit scene (with another hint at the MULTI-VERSE). Next movie!

After 10 years… you can recognize the pattern.

The Infinity War saga was one of the greatest magic tricks of all time… and Marvel follows it up by doing the same act? And you think I’m going to be excited?

Shock me, surprise me, scare me… sorry for just repeating the same thing as my write-up on why I love the The Last Jedi:

Instead we’re doing the character crossover thing? But now it’s different universes?

IT’S THE SAME MAGIC TRICK!

At least the Infinity Saga took its time with its story… We spent multiple movies with the characters before they ever became a team. We watched Tony become Iron Man, we watched the Guardians become a family. We had favorites! We were invested!

But also, the Infinity War saga was the first time we were seeing a cinematic universe come together.

We had spent years wondering if they could actually pull this off. Could these movies connect? Could these characters coexist? Could all these separate franchises eventually become one giant story?

And then suddenly we see Thor hanging out with the Guardians, and it was like, holy shit, they actually did it.

But that feeling was unique to the Infinity Saga. Stop trying to chase it… Tom Holland’s Spidey brings back Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and their enemies, Deadpool brings back half a century of forgotten characters…

‘Look at how many characters we can get together’ is NOT a story!

That’s why I’m concerned about Avengers: Doomsday, the marketing hook so far is mostly pitching the big reunion…

And don’t get me started on how these next two Avengers movie are more than likely going to run the same story structure as Infinity War and Endgame.

Doomsday will establish Doom as a threat, give him a big victory, and leave the heroes broken or scattered.

And then Secret Wars will be the big comeback. They heroes will team up and take Doom down… but not before ONE sacrifice from a beloved character and ONE emotional goodbye!

We all knew Cap was going to come back… but personally, I never thought they would hit the panic button so quickly. It’s only been seven years! Give us a chance to miss these characters.

Even though I’m surprised Marvel didn’t wait longer to play their ace, it ultimately makes sense… Disney is desperate for another multi-billion dollar hit, and outside of our little bubble where we talk about movies with strangers on the internet, most people are excited for this film. People will show up for it.

But if your going to give me the same thing over and over, then at least keep up with the same standards in craftsmanship… ILM figured out how to make a guy in a metal suit feel like he was real back in 2008. Now look at some of the beautiful slop we’ve gotten since 2019:

We’ve all seen what Nolan cooks up on the regular with LESS money? How is it possible for these movies with sky-high budgets to look like SHIT?

Somewhere along the way, they stopped trying to impress us and took our attention for granted.

The Marvel of fifteen years ago had something to prove… they were literally betting on themselves before Disney acquired them, they had to convince us that the investment in this universe was worth it.

But now they know we’re going to show up regardless of the quality.

So why spend another three months polishing the CGI? Why build a practical suit when you can add it in post? Why pay more for a good director?

I don’t need every Marvel movie to be a grand experiment... I just want something different. For all MCU movies, the dominating thought has become ’What is this setting up?’ and ‘Who will be showing up this time?’.

The Fantastic Four didn’t have time to become a family and only got one movie before getting RUSH EXPEDITED to the multi-verse. Even Spidey got stuck setting up the X-Men.

If I look at the post-Endgame slate, it was Deadpool & Wolverine that broke the camel’s back.

That movie was nerd culture eating itself from the inside… back in 2008, someone who knew absolutely nothing about Iron Man could watch that first movie and still follow along. Deadpool & Wolverine on the other hand is more concerned with getting audiences to clap and cheer for obscure cameos (one of our greatest filmmakers called these movies theme park ride and he wasn’t far off!).

It’s ok to love the cameos, but we use to get good stories to go along with them.

What’s ironic about my distaste for all of this is that I’m the audience for it. Instead I’m one of the few defenders of The Eternals, because that movie felt different.

I’m exhausted by the formula but I keep showing up on opening weekend.

I don’t know if I’m chasing the high from the Infinity War saga or if I’m enjoying the humbling downfall… sometimes, the series you love needs to be broken into irrelevance so that the studio heads can happily take a risk by giving it to a new voice (look at how Dan Trachtenberg has reinvented the Predator franchise).

With that said… I’m still curious to see what they do with the X-Men movie.

I hope that first trailer surprises me. Give me a new art style. These are comic book movies after all! Make it colorful. And please let’s take a break on the character cross-overs.

Let these movies be their own movie.

I want to forget about the cinematic universe and get lost in the story again. I want a movie that ends instead of one that hands me homework afterwards. I want an identity that belongs to the filmmaker instead of the corporate overlords.

Take risks! Trust us Marvel, we’re not that shallow, look at how the youth turned up for Backrooms, we can handle different!

It’s ironic really… the MCU became the biggest franchise in the world because Marvel was willing to bet on characters nobody thought could carry a movie.

Now that they have EVERY CHARACTER available, but they are TERRIFIED of doing something new. And that tells you why they’re creatively stuck.

I don’t hate the MCU. I just miss it.

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