The Marvel Problem

learn see this is what I talk to you buddy you guys are good yeah these are these are great props did you make these yourself hey we are on something of a clock here in one episode of legends of tomorrow a young George Lucas gets caught in the middle of a fight with the Legion of Doom and is so shaken that he leaves film school to become an insurance salesman and never creates Star Wars or Indiana Jones as a result of this disruption to the timestream both the team's resident scientist and historian are rendered powerless well oh you expect me to understand any of that without the inspiration of Lucas's films the team mates never pursued their studies and became heroes you have to make your movies so that we can become what we're supposed to become so we can save you while certainly a nice tribute to the great man the episode rises above mere whimsy by highlighting fictions great capacity to inspire new ideas and industries and if you don't believe me here's Jason Rubin the co-founder of Naughty Dog talking about his inspiration to become a game designer I told this story a lot of time so we'll start I apologize if people heard that word I walked out at Star Wars at 7 years old which would have been 77 yeah when it came out and really wanted to create universes and be like George Lucas that was my dream the larger point to address is that there exists an entire generation of people whose lives were guided by the advent of the blockbuster film in the 70s and 80s a moment which shifted the entertainment industry to the center of Western culture and gave it the incredible power at today wields over society its people and their passions all of this leads to a question eminently applicable to most anyone watching this video where Star Wars inspired a generation of scientists and inventors what will be the legacy of contemporary entertainment today there is of course no larger film franchise than the Marvel Cinematic Universe a project as ubiquitous as it is successful with several of its films ranking amongst the highest grossing of all time while earning itself legions of fans Marvel films often leave me with the impression that I've accidentally rewatched something I'd seen before likely because the films are mostly designed the same way one firm example of this that I can point to is a similarity in plot structure between Iron Man and Man and Doctor Strange hopefully it will be fairly obvious in this comparison [Music] so there is a platelet buildup of ice occurring [Music] [Applause] great idea told us but Isis more advanced than everyone how'd you saw the icing problem right through the problem why won't look into it do not screw with the regulator if that regulator is compromised you would go subatomic what does that mean it means that you would enter a quantum realm what does that mean it means that you would enter a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity I'm gonna have to shrink between the molecules to get in there [Music] [Applause] temporal manipulations can create branches in time unstable dimensional openings spatial paradoxes time loops you want to get stuck reliving the same moment over and over forever or never having existed at all it's too late you thinking stumpy [Music] this recycling of a popular formula is also clearly visible in Marvel's marketing just look at the latest Thor films apparent abandonment of any previous franchised trappings in favor of the style for far more successful guardians of the galaxy but outside these examples broader trends emerge Marvel films share inexplicable affinity for forgettable villains indecisive love interest and magical MacGuffins and yet Marvel never seems to pay a price for such blatant self-plagiarism why is that well so far as I can tell Marvel's immunity to these criticism stems from a very powerful and unique trump card that being the cinematic novelty of a connected universe indeed if plot development is a hidden structure which slowly unveils itself throughout the course of story Marvel's intersexuality is a kind of shorthand whereby the appearance of characters from other films allows the V sidestepping of plot entirely essentially a promise that there is a significant plot in progress just not contained in this film in this way Marvel's broader strategy has been to hand its audience io u--'s for a decade essentially banking on the novelty of seeing characters from other films to carry the individual pitches even film critics are taken by this novelty at times leading Australian film critics Margaret Pomerance and David Stratton once fell into this trap during their review of The Incredible Hulk in 2008 a film they both described as underwhelming though concluded their review by noting the best bit is right at the end it's a lovely foretaste of what might be some interesting films to come indeed what has replaced actual plot development and innovative stories in not only Marvel films but throughout Hollywood is this kind of intertextual abuse which has for a time the novel enough that it made up for any particular film's shortcomings the nerd writer has very clever video about the newfound reliance point in sexuality throughout Hollywood pointing out that more films are tying their central conceit or twist entirely to the audience's for or knowledge and thereby overcoming the need for an original story his video uses star trek into darkness and Specter as examples of films falling back on external ideas to give the story dramatic power I looked up John Harrison until a year ago he didn't accept on Harrison was a fiction smokescreen to conceal my true identity my name is Kai the man you're talking to now a man inside her head was announced a fog well felt cancer named these twists and their accompanying moments of Revelation demanded the audience carry external knowledge in order to even be intelligible as the names Blofeld or con are not meaningful within the context of the individual movie by comparison Marvel has never done anything nearly this bad and for that it deserves some credit however revelations in Marvel films are frequently self-references events which derive their power from having been hidden in a different film entirely as not to walk the streets wearing an infinity stone this is less clever than it seems and certainly easier than writing a compelling plot yet films that use this technique often wildly successful for example The Avengers is structurally a plotless movie a bad guy emerges they capture him he escapes and they defeat him at the end of the film there are no real twists or surprises but the revelations would carry the picture are the cast of quippy attractive and above all else established characters the front this becomes really interesting when you start to consider the response of mass audiences to Marvel's strategy for the most part this movement away from substantial self-contained stories towards a meta plot has been met enthusiastically because of the endless novelty found in assembling the connective tissue between each installment of this fact Marvel seems to be acutely aware as it go ting Lee places these moments in the final or post-credit scenes of their movies like a youtuber hiding a surprise at the end of their video the story terminals at the end of Marvel's films are an invitation to audiences to speculate on the franchise's future but because the films themselves are so formulaic and narrative leave apid this speculation naturally privileges business strategy / story possibility explaining the massive success of the franchise for example can be done with analogy to economics Marvel's plan reflects the time-honored investment strategy of diversification through production of a wide variety of films in a diverse range of genres which here stand in for investment opportunities in different industries and companies the failure of any one film in this system is mitigated by its connection to other more successful ones meaning people will want to watch it even if it reviews bully if only to see references laying elsewhere you must be truly desperate I come to be help but this kind of analysis only serves to demonstrate how focus has moved away from cloth and story these observations relate to the content of the films in only the most superficial respects I am only thinking about the films as they exist as business ventures not works of creativity or imagination Marvel has conditioned its audience wittingly or no to view its films principally for the purposes of speculating on its broader business strategy and this is the effect of changing the discourse surrounding these films readers clearly find this speculation interesting and certainly more interesting than pure analysis of the content of the film's themselves with pop-culture websites which once focused upon the law of the fictional world now shifting their attention to the film studios corporate strategy IGN for example has lauded Marvel's move to include the Hulk in Thor Ragnarok as it effectively serves the market demand for a new Hulk film without having to include Universal Studios which have a stake in any solo production due to past right sellers but the fact that a business decision has informed the creative process is not addressed in the article let alone it's potentially negative consequences and any speculation as to new story possibilities only arise tangentially as a result of the business analysis the problem with the discursive shift aside for a moment the facts of these films and now being written according to corporate convenience is a problem no matter how sensible the decision may seem economically and the problem is an obvious one because Java nodes like Marvel will always save the continuity of business over good stories perhaps the pinnacle of this attitude was the cancellation of spectacular spider-man something I'm still angry about even seven years later and the subsequent miserable ultimate spider-man series which leant heavily on established characters and ideas from the film universe to find its appeal characters like Phil Coulson and the samuel l.jackson version of Nick Fury who are not typical members of this spider-man cast are included once again to mediate the effect of having little or no story and a Peter Parker confronting basically no adversity the impact of Marvel's refocusing at the popular discourse has not been contained to its own films either DC's films are also criticized largely on the basis that they do not convey a clear business direction how many times have you personally heard Batman V Superman's problems analyzed from a business perspective with observations like they are trying to copy Marvel though without laying the proper groundwork the film goer who's seen the Marvel movies and how they're done and who has seen other superhero movies and who who has an idea of what you know DC is trying to do as true as this might be it is telling that it rises to the top of any discussion about the film despite the myriad cynical decisions made in that film's production the lasting popular consensus on Batman V Superman's problems are tied to poor business practice Star Wars by comparison never relied upon intertextuality like this though of course the force awakens is a keen purveyor of the Marvel clay book the original trilogy had its own story with its own incredible plot twists its world was one uniquely imaginative Marvel's films which all tend to be set in the same place represent at best a dystopian corporatized version of Star Wars which disguise a lack of substance behind gorgeous aesthetics as much as I would love to venerate Marvel's efforts to promote comic books beyond the fringes too often its films are a celebration of the worst aspects of the industry pandering to audiences expectations relying on the intervention of other characters to create action and forcing audiences to consume all the times in order for each individual component to make sense what was the desire to turn every franchise into a universe interconnected component parts has relegated plot to a distant secondary concern but the truly troubling thing about the MCU is that its central appeal remains economic rather than fictional and its success means that it will have a dramatic impact upon the thinking of an entire generation of people that is to say if the Star Wars generation were scientists and inventors the Marvel generation will be business executives and marketing professionals and that really sucks okay [Music]

Channel: The Unintentional Fallacy

Views: 147,224

Rating: 3.9424324 out of 5

Keywords: Marvel movies, discussion, analysis, review, Thor, Dark World, Dr Strange, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Star Wars, Intertextuality, Hollywood, Entertainment

Id: oQ-dNk05Gf8

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/MasterK999]

I would agree that many of the MCU individual movies are fairly generic but they are still always well made and entertaining. That is better than any other studio has managed to do and it should not be discounted.

In the action and superhero genres the good films are really rare. There is way more Transformers type crap than there is Iron Man. So for the MCU to maintain steady quality in more than 20 films across 10 years is a feat that should not be discounted. Sure some are better than others but I still liked Ant-Man way more than Batman v Superman so even the MCU's weakest entries are fun movies.

Cinephiles love to crap on these superhero movies but why can't there be room for different kinds of entertainment? The MCU may not be Citizen Caine or Goodfellas but I am never disappointed that I spent my time and money to go see them. I have a great time and honestly that is just fine with me.

As for the opening thesis of the video I can easily see a young person being turned on to science or film-making from watching Iron Man just as I was from watching Star Wars. However this is true of very few movies. I do not think this is a fair or accurate measurement of a films entertainment value.

I stopped watching the video at a bout the 5 min mark. It seemed like it was overly long to garner YouTube ad views rather than having anything else worthwhile to say.

[u/Taserface616]

Except there isn’t a problem... People enjoy them, and they’re making money. There’s literally no problem with that.

[u/MR_TELEVOID]

AKA serialized storytelling.

[u/LasDen]

I think it raised some good points, but generally I feel like it just tries to create a problem. Sure in the MCU they know what tropes they have to use to make a commercially successful movie and that makes it somewhat predictable. But they're doing it well. Most of their movies are enjoyable at least. Even if their rewatch value are pretty low.