Oscars success for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ could spell trouble for Marvel’s multiverse

The Oscars have kicked off a multiversal war everyone saw coming. 

In the red corner is Everything Everywhere All at Once, the undisputed winner at the 95th Academy Awards. It dazzled voters with its direction, writing, acting, and clever sci-fi spin on parallel realities and has seven statuettes to prove it.

Over in the blue corner is Ant-Man’s latest outing, in which the diminutive Avenger plunged into a separate universe and gave Hollywood’s biggest franchise its first feature glimpse of the threat at the heart of the Multiverse Saga.

It sounds like a battle of the multiverse, but until recently, it was one-sided. It wasn’t much of a standoff between a cult A24 movie and a Marvel blockbuster, was it? Well, while Everything Everywhere All at Once’s haul has helped flip things around, it’s not everywhere, all at once.

One comment on the r/movie subreddit in the run-up to the awards ceremony accidentally predicted the inevitable backlash that followed the movie’s win. It also suggested some of the challenges Marvel’s multiversal adventures are heading into. 

It’s a controversial opinion if the voting is any indication. While it has a 53 percent on upvotes at the time of writing, the net calc that deducts downvotes from upvotes leaves it at 22.

A multiversal civil war is always likely in a post that tries to have its cake and eat it. If we weren’t in a multiverse, the position that Everything Everywhere is a decent movie and its Best Picture win isn’t a bad thing, although it’s not as good as a much-derided Marvel movie, let alone a “masterpiece,” could be difficult to defend.

However, it’s earned a fair amount of support. There was some immediate agreement on the movie’s comedy, particularly the hot dog fingers that keep appearing, including on the hands of Troy Kortsur at the BAFTAs and David Byrne at the Oscars. 

Things are going to get mean when bladders come into it. 

Even for those who see it as a great ambassador for art movies, sci-fi, and the Chinese-American community, its Oscar haul is over the top.

Comedy seems to be a weak link in a movie that navigates emotions and new lore on inter-multiversal travel. 

The question, though, is about the hype — which may not necessarily have been the significant factor in its claiming statuettes. As another user said, it “resonated with a lot of people.”

There’s a definite split over whether the film is innovative or derivative.

The post gave critics of the film free rein to answer what’s not so special about the movie. Some were pithier than others.

The targeted use of a Marvel movie was weapon-grade. It’s not like Marvel movies like Quantumania come with no hype.

While the downvotes don’t seem reflected in the comments, there’s a lot of wriggle room in the “liked it, but” replies. As it looked like the movie might immediately seal its place at the top of Worst Best Picture lists, there was plenty of appreciation, too — even full-blown love.

It says it all when a reply like this hits minus votes and a wall of cynicism straightaway.

Despite the mention in the original post, that’s one of the few replies that mention Quantumania — the “hate” mentioned in the post is taken as fact. It’s likely that Everything Everywhere’s unanticipated success will fuel interest in similarly treated sci-fi fused with family and community.

In another reality, mainstream knowledge and interest in a multiverse could be good news for Marvel after its multiversal epic got off to a flagging start. The reality is that beyond the Quantum Realm, the MCU’s latest saga will be measured against the benchmark set by A24’s Everything Everywhere.