Twas many years ago (Around 2007) was when we first learned of Marvel's plan for launching their cinematic universe with the hit film
Iron Man, and it's hard to believe we're now entering Phase 2. When
Iron Man was first released it was the first of it's kind, a movie unlike any other produced before from Marvel. A movie that seemed to spark millions of fans around the globe, yet Marvel didn't stop there, they decided to add a little bit of a treat for fans by having veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson play the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury in a post credits scene. From then on we watched the countless number of Marvel films in order to watch them all lead up to Marvel's
The Avengers, and now we soon await this year's
Iron Man 3,
Thor: The Dark World, and many other successors, and eventually the conclusion to it all?
What is beginning to scare me as a fan is that the Marvel story telling aspect is becoming somewhat repetitive and predictable. Each hero in a sense has a damsel, every damsel is in danger at one point or another, an enemy with a whole lot of power that manages to lose even though they may have a whole army behind them, or their a power house themselves, and that one point in the movie where the hero seems to have "lost hope" or must overcome a "struggle" that pushes them to their limit. And while I haven't seen
Iron Man 3 yet, judging from the clips and trailers we've seen so far, it seems
IM3 is following this exact formula.
For example, that moment when Tony Stark has his reactor pulled from his chest, the moment when Dr. Bruce Banner had the
Hulk "removed", when
Thor couldn't lift the hammer, the list goes on and on. So why do the films looks so awesome and then when you look back they don't seem that exciting? Simply because of timeliness. In each Marvel movie we get that one event that makes us go
"OH SNAP, ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN!" or
"THAT LOOKS FRICKIN' AWESOME!" yet in the film that moment lasts only 2-3 seconds and the thing that made you go wow, now makes you go
"...That's it?"
I am indeed a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but what else can it do to make me astonished other than the same old cinematic schemes. It is not as bad as the Michael Bay
Transformer trilogy which ends up being a game of look for the big old alien technology to save the world gig over and over, yet it will eventually become played out. What if Marvel were to stop giving us quantity and give us a higher quality. What if the Universe were done more carefully in order to get almost a flawless type execution. There were parts of
The Avengers everyone loved, and other parts that when you look back on simply don't make sense. One thing that really is starting to confuse people is the fact that Agent Coulson is not dead and will be returning for the upcoming
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, which was the main reason
The Avengers teamed up in the first place.
Where can the MCU take us from here? There are a limitless amount of possibilities, yet in my opinion when we get the MCU movies back to back we tend to loose some of the quality that can make these films remarkable and fine tuned in a sense. For example
Iron Man 2, it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a film that was striking in the sense that it could fit well with the rest of the MCU films. The movies overall point was to introduce Black Widow and a new War Machine but other than that
Iron Man 2 lacked any main purpose. Whiplash was not a truly threatening villain, just some guy who wants copyrights for his father's invention, and other than that drones going after
Iron Man is all in a days work.
Marvel needs to give fans the SHOCKER. By the shocker I mean something that will make audience's jaws drop and leave them speechless. When rumors of Pepper Potts being killed off in
Iron Man 3 arose, this gained many fans attention, but as time progressed we soon learn there is a possibility of her survival and its just another walk in the park. What if marvel were to give us the death of
Captain America or Tony Stark? Marvel fans would be angry yet it would make for a good movie. Good movies either mess with our emotions, our childhood, our religion, or our perception of the world. By killing a main character they mess with our childhood and drive us to watch more MCU movies to see if that character will return or be replaced with an even more memorable and iconic character. On example is Bucky Barnes taking over for Steve Rogers as
Captain America after his death in the comics, which is something we could see happen after
Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits theaters.
To conclude, Marvel has a long way to go in terms of films and it will be interesting to see how they handle the whole post
Avengers incident. Our review of
Iron Man 3 will
determine a future post on Marvel's first punch into the MCU's next phase. Let's see if
Iron Man 3 surprises us with a very different approach then the other Marvel films.
So do you think Marvel should change or keep their formula for their films?
