Things are looking grimmer and grimmer by the day for “The Marvels.” Last week I had reported that, based on internal tracking, I was seeing a $45-$50M opening for the latest MCU installment.
we’re all bored with the same product over and over again.
Obviously with the success of the franchise I am in the minority with this belief, but from a critical standpoint 80% of the MCU films are “okay” and just popcorn flicks. There’s nothing wrong with that, but now that has caught up with the viewers and Disney.
Infinity War was special because the good guys actually lost and that alone shook things up for once. Endgame was special because it was the culmination of 10 years of filmmaking and a downright spectacle. Once you drill in beyond those, there are only a few standouts: Winter Soldier, Civil War, Iron Man 1 and Age of Ultron are all standouts in my opinion due to their themes: “what really defines the good guys?”
There are a few others I enjoyed but they had problems: In Homecoming, Feige really screwed up a lot about what makes Peter Parker likeable. Ragnarok was fun but in retrospect it is dragged down in quality by the major screw ups of its successor and its refusal to take much seriously. The misfits of GotG were fun too but ultimately its success really messed up the tone of the entire franchise. None of those 3 really jump out as memorable long-term, either - just fun. The rest are forgettable and almost cookie cutter copies of each other.