The Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania film is out tomorrow. If you have paid attention to reviews, you would know it is one of Marvel’s lowest-rated projects, their second in recent history behind Eternals and we think it is proof the series is in decline.
Of course, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of think pieces through the years written online and in print about why the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to fail, only for it to continue as it always has. There were assertions Guardians of the Galaxy would be the last straw for moviegoers, franchise player Elizabeth Olsen did not have faith in Avengers: Endgame, and, while both of these scenarios ultimately did not bear fruit, there are multiple flaws in the series and general cinematic industry today to suggest a serious course correction is needed and they cut across many aspects of the world comics fans have loved quite a lot.
To begin with, films made by Marvel and Disney are forgetting their average audience is aging, and, if you want to be remembered fondly by fans in the future, you have to evolve stories to suit their experiences. The Harry Potter series did this and when recent surveys show most Marvel watchers are in the millennial age or older, you cannot always go cutesy or quippy and expect things to be the same as they have always been. Yes, Disney is normally family-friendly, but, you cannot be afraid to challenge families, too.
As well, when it comes to the dialogue in Marvel’s projects for the mouse monopoly, one needs to remember it borrows heavily from prior work by Joss Whedon. While the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator was beloved at the time he was chosen to direct The Avengers and its initial sequel in 2012 and 15, respectively, he has since fallen out of favor with popular culture due to numerous allegations of harassment and claims of improper behavior and the way he has his characters speak has become grating to many. There are memes about how it would ruin other films, and a recent game was criticized for sounding like him so much he began to trend on Twitter despite having no involvement in it. A joke does not need to be cracked every five minutes and serious parts of a long-running series which would be akin to a genocide do not need to be played up for laughs as a background comedy moment.
This needs to be tossed ASAP and, while many Marvel works are a success, they need to re-learn quality over quantity.
Think back if you will to the initial stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time, work with characters like She-Hulk and Moon Knight were just twinkles in Kevin Feige’s eye. The company did not also have access to popular heroes like Spider-Man, so they worked with what they had and over just six films managed to completely disrupt Hollywood as it had functioned.
The second phase had a similar number of films while the third featured 11, and, in the current one, there have been seven along with 10 television projects which include two one-off specials. This is too much for anyone to follow and, when the adage is true no one bats 100, Marvel risks diluting or besmirching their popular characters in things which do not quite gel particularly well. To Feige’s credit, he has appeared to indicate this will change in recent interviews, but, with Disney needing things to fuel investor satisfaction, this could always change and then we may end up with more over-worked effects artists and lousy final productions which make their way to Disney Plus in a fast timeframe and are not fondly remembered when the final credits roll along on them.
Paul Rudd is a great guy, the folks who made Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder are likely as lovely, too. But, they deserve to be in better things than what Marvel Studios is putting out and those behind the scenes need to realize their audiences have changed. To paraphrase someone else, doing the same thing which is starting to not work and expecting it will is just insane.
