After being a no-show in 2020, Marvel has had a mediocre year so far. Ahead of Spider-Man No Way Home, it is no longer a certainty that you will get your money's worth if you take the trouble to watch an MCU movie or a show.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has ruled Hollywood for more than a decade. That's not likely to change anytime soon, but it looks like the building is showing cracks. After a no-show in 2020, it's been an average (if you're being generous) year so far.
For me, at least, it's not certain now that you'll get your money if you go to a nearby theater to watch an MCU movie or show or log into your Disney+ Hotstar account.
Before that, even the worst MCU products — The Incredible Hulk and Thor: Dark World come to mind — had moments of fun, despite the messy plot and horrifyingly dull villains.
But this year, most of the MCU releases went through, and that's something not generally said about this brand. In 2021, Marvel Studios, the company behind the MCU, also entered television, with really bad mixed results.
Let's talk about it first.
Marvel Studios has a certain formula for its films. It goes something like this: the protagonist gains powers, goes through conflicts that are usually personal or family in nature, conquers them, and it all ends with a CGI, and finally a Special effects-powered whirlwind of battle - typical superhero stuff. Of course, there are significant departures like Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok and, most recently, Eternals. But even in them, the usual MCU tropes — funny one-liners that often seem out of place, for example — are pretty much present.
But studios don't have a formula for their television shows, and perhaps for good reason. The medium is defined by its writers (as opposed to directors in films). I wouldn't usually bat for the studio's interference, but in its TV show, Kevin Feige's greater supervision may have saved him.
WandaVision and Loki were the most interesting and they got off to a really good start. Both had some interesting ideas. But he ruined all that great buildup to provide atrocious (in the case of WandaVision) and unsatisfactory (in Loki's case) conclusions.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier started off with a great, slick action scene that wouldn't look out of place in a Mission: Impossible movie. And it all went downhill afterwards. Hockey was stupid from the beginning and still is. Perhaps this character was not very interesting initially. Hailee Steinfeld is good as Kate Bishop though.
What am I giving up if…? From the conversation because as far as we know, the alternate scenarios presented by it will have no effect in the main MCU timeline. So far, Marvel Studios' experimentation with television has been mediocre.
Now coming to the movies.
The Scarlett Johansson-starrer Black Widow was originally scheduled to release in the summer of 2020, but of course the Covid-19 pandemic spoiled those plans. It was more grounded than most MCU movies, but the MCU was, well, immersed in everything that makes up the MCU anyway. Natasha Romanoff, who we are told is just a human being, didn't get hurt, even though she fell from many stories, was thrown into a wall, fell from a car, and so on. Beyond that, the plot was, to put it politely, standard superhero fare.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a worthy attempt at representation, but again swayed by the fact that it's in the MCU. Another superhero with daddy issues? Simu Liu was great in the titular role, and so was Awkwafina. The action sequences were great, except for the mess that was the final act in which one CGI monster fights another. or something else. But the film needed more Tony Leung and a little less foreignization of Chinese culture. The film clearly suffered because it was an MCU film, and it had to follow a set of unwritten rules.
Ah, eternal. The only MCU film to receive a "Rotten" Rotten Tomatoes score, this Chloe Zhao directorial promised a new experience that was unlike anything we'd seen before. And really, it has a leisurely pace, naturally lit cinematography, lots of dialogue. And the premise was certainly interesting - that a group of immortals have been secretly living on Earth for millennia and living a double life. A competent director comfortable with popcorn cinema could have been a better choice. Sadly, Zhao wasted all his ability.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, the last MCU movie from this year, may be bringing back that lost goodwill. The film has all the necessary ingredients. It has a massive, Avengers-level scale for the introduction of the multiverse, with crossing over many characters from other MCU films and even previous Spider-Man film series. It also has a sense of finality similar to that of Endgame, as Marvel and Sony's contract to share the character with the film has expired.
And a lot of evidence, but not official promos, suggest that we'll see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising Spidey as well. Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden Church, and Rhys Ifans will return as Green Goblin, Doctor Otto Octavius, Electro, Sandman, and Lizard, respectively. Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange replaces Tony Stark as Peter Parker's mentor.