There’s something to be said about criticizing superhero films for their shortcomings versus painting the entire genre as an inherently flawed and classless enterprise. It’s no help that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the undisputed juggernaut of superhero filmmaking for the moment (by all appearances, James Gunn is getting ready to upstage everyone with Superman), continues to double down on those aforementioned shortcomings that masquerade as fan service.
Harrison Ford, the crown prince of the blockbuster, is no stranger to this sort of thing, and as he prepares to make his MCU debut in Captain America: Brave New World, our beloved Indiana Jones has come out in defense of the oft-written-off franchise in a recent interview with GQ.
I mean, this is the Marvel universe and I’m just there on a weekend pass… I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s… It’s the condition our condition is in, and things change and morph and go on. We’re silly if we sit around regretting the change and don’t participate. I’m participating in a new part of the business that, for me at least, I think is really producing some good experiences for an audience.
Note how Ford emphasizes the significance that the MCU represents to audiences. He understands the weight these franchise films can carry, and so it’s no great revelation that Ford insists on honoring that by leading by example.
The problem, of course, has nothing to do with the MCU’s existence and everything to do with how it’s being handled in the present moment. By drawing on the reach and cultural depth of the Marvel comics, the MCU has an opportunity to tell great stories to an audience that indie geniuses could only ever dream of accumulating. That’s the thing; it’s hard enough to make a great movie, but it’s damn near impossible to get people to go see it.
Marvel doesn’t have the latter problem, but more importantly, it doesn’t need to have that first problem, and yet it insists on references, cameos, contrived stakes, and tragically unadventurous storytelling at the behest of merchandise-hunting Disney suits who don’t know the first thing about tension and narrative.
And here’s where Ford’s defense misses the mark. As a vessel for storytelling, the MCU is just as valuable to the filmmaking world as any Oscar-winning scribe and gaffer, and in fact offers a viewership reach that few enterprises can claim to have. The problem is that vessel hasn’t been taken full advantage of for quite a while. Sure, Deadpool & Wolverine made a billion dollars, but what creative and emotional nutrition did it actually hold? If superhero stories insist on narrative mileage that amounts to tongue-in-cheek digs at Fox and Disney, which subsequently feed into this bastardized culture of being partial to cynicism, it’s no wonder they’re getting a bad rap.
All this to say, we hope to hope itself that the remainder of the MCU’s Phase Five can course-correct itself as early as February, when Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on Feb. 14. Indeed, if there’s anything that can inspire such hope in these trying times, it’s that star-spangled shield.