Marvel Studios: Assembling A Universe Review

The special does a fine job highlighting what the studio has done right, but skips over the various missteps they’ve had along the way. This does air on ABC (Disney’s TV studio), after all, so there’s no doubt that its bias is heavily skewed. For example, The Incredible Hulk is mentioned a couple of times, but never really gets the same focus as say, Iron Man or Captain America. This makes sense considering the trouble that the studio had with Edward Norton (who doesn’t get a second of screen time here), but it still would have been nice to see them look at their mistakes as well as their successes. Furthermore, the special also only features one quote from Hulk’s director, Louis Leterrier, cementing the fact that The Incredible Hulk is perhaps the studio’s most forgotten film.

Interestingly enough, Iron Man 2 is given a bit of spotlight for setting the stage for future outings, but Iron Man 3 is only mentioned very briefly and then left alone. They manage to talk about the film’s impressive box office haul, but considering how it contributes very little to the overall continuity of the MCU, it didn’t surprise me that they decided not to talk about very much. The same goes for Thor and its sequel, Thor: The Dark World, which are both only mentioned and then brushed aside for more Avengers talk.

Much of the special is devoted to Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and, oddly enough, the Marvel One-Shots. The Winter Soldier in particular gets a nice chunk of screen time and at times the special really just seems like a glorified advertisement for the movie. We do learn that Marvel is very serious about exploring S.H.I.E.L.D. though, one of the franchise’s biggest chess pieces that’s been in play since the beginning.

A highlight here is the interview with Samuel L. Jackson, who shares a couple interesting insights regarding his first time seeing Nick Fury and how he remembers the incredible secrecy surrounding his cameo in Iron Man. Apparently, the studio didn’t even let him walk to the set by himself.