Why Vox's MCU Criticism Feels Empty

[Music] today I'm gonna be covering this video by Vox why the MCU feels empty because if there's anything the Internet needs it's more people doing that and so what I might be a little late to the party on this one but that's nothing new for me the video starts with a normal generic YouTube fluff the Marvel Cinematic Universe is overrated oh my god it looks sounds like a VHS I've not seen that in a million other places it's almost as if they're trying to imitate actual good video essays by replicating the surface elements but without actually bringing anything of substance to the table okay so why is this not just a steaming pile of clickbait no no I'd say you've nailed that description there because what is clickbait it's something designed to really win without delivering on any of the promises made in the title or thumbnail or whatever of the thing and even as far as clickbait goes this is bad clickbait because it doesn't even give the illusion that it's delivering on the promises it's made I'm going to approach my coverage of this video in the logical way by skipping three minutes in and that's because the video could literally start there and you wouldn't have missed anything of substance or actually the video could have started after ended and you enough missed anything of substance but still oh summarize the bits I skipped for you over a minute of today we're gonna be talking about the MCU and how it feels empty followed by an additional two minutes of background information that they don't bring up again at all thanks for that cool so without a third of the way into the video we've got the very important absolutely nothing out of the way so now it's time to get to what is still basically nothing Phil brings up the apparently groundbreaking theory that any show that's crossed over with any other show is in the same universe as that other show meaning that if one show who's crossed over with two separate shows those two separate shows are also in the same universe and that you can continue this until you've got a lot of connected shows Wow I'm so glad you spent literally a whole minute explaining that idea to me we're now almost halfway through the video and the only times you've actually mentioned the MCU you know the thing that this video is supposedly about a time when you've gone and soon I'm gonna start talking about the MCU I promise I'm not to write it for that we then get taken another minute through the video until we actually get to the sentence Fraser in the x-files don't mix even though they do in Tommy West Falls globe but even at Marvel where continuity was planned it became a hassle to maintain halfway through the video and you finally decided to mention the thing you're talking about well okay no it's not the first time you've mentioned it this is the first time you've actually made a point about it everything else you've said about it up until this point has been alluding to the idea that soon you might start making some points it's like this video was written by Steven Moffat well it's taken all of this time to deliver us is essentially a topic sentence the Marvel Universe has had trouble maintaining continuity if this is a well structured video this should answer the question you raised in your title why the MCU feels empty everything you say in the formulas that follow should be justifications of this point well you definitely shouldn't do is wait like another minute and then bring up an even bigger point that would be ridiculous Ironman kicked off the MCU in 2008 the universe exposition dumped more exposition dump I mean I know you're not gonna justify that because I've seen this video before and I'm reading this from a script but have you ever seen an exposition done before do you know what one is because this isn't it the universe exposition dumped didn't happen until after the credits mr. stark you become part of a bigger universe ant-man required a weak excuse right in the middle of the movie I think our first move should be calling The Avengers I spent half my life trying to keep this technology out of the hands of Stark I'm sure as hell not gonna hand-deliver it to one now so this point appears to be that the waters have been moded up with so many different characters that now you need flimsy excuses of why not to bring the other characters in on the solo adventures and while that can happen Marvel seems to have been pretty good at not doing that at least in recent years in Thor Ragnarok other characters didn't get involved because everything was happening on ass guard or on Sekar in black panther other characters didn't get involved because other characters didn't know what was going on in spider-man homecoming of the characters didn't get involved because they didn't consider the threat big enough to be worth their while and also they did or if we look at the one you used ant-man Pym doesn't want to involve the Avengers because he doesn't want the technology he's using to fall into other people's hands which by the way is literally the entire point of the mission on it would be kind of pointless going on a mission to stop this technology from falling into the wrong hands if they invited people along who they considered to be the wrong hands and who were definitely gonna want to use that technology that clip you showed that line isn't an excuse it's a summary of the reason that were presented throughout the film a reason that develops naturally as an integral part of the story these heavy-handed additions are about getting crossover height not about telling a good story these flimsily main points are about getting views not about saying anything that's actually worthwhile or even true but there's a bigger problem than continuity in the MCU and there is a way to do it better oh cool so that's not the main point you're making either the big point is yet to come two-thirds of the way through the rest of this scene is a standard movie fight their universe is only as deep as some merchandise and a few Easter eggs it's cool when Peter Parker's classroom has a picture of Bruce Banner in the corner but it's not a transformed universe you know what yeah I'd agree with that it's not a transformed universe when the only connections you have to the other films are just minor Easter eggs it's a transformed universe when the other [ __ ] characters from that universe show up and also the entire plot only happens because of events from that universe not only limited to the villains motivation who is pissed off by the Avengers but also the heroes motivation who mainly just wants to impress them is the universe connected enough for you now fill but no no no you are right if you ignore all of the parts where the universe is connected then the universe is connected at all flawless what a good good argument so glad i watch this video it's like Quentin Tarantino including the imaginary brand of red Apple cigarettes in multiple movies it's cool it's not a coherent intertwined world yes if only the Marvel standalone movies had more to connect them than just superficial Easter eggs wouldn't that be nice the MCU is like our own except for the crossovers you can test it with the characters add Aquaman to that poster if you didn't know DC owned him would anyone notice the MCU has no rules beyond corporate ownership it's a superhero hodgepodge the same goes for DC if you added Hawkeye here nobody would care and not just because it's Hawkeye the MCU is a world that could fit in a huge variety of different characters you could see characters like James Bond or Darth Sidious fitting in there naturally and it wouldn't feel out of place this is because everything in the MCU is so varied and it would have to be to keep the attention of so many people for so many different films no one's gonna care after the 20th film if all of the films are about characters that are basically the same the fact that any character could fit into this universe isn't a criticism you're just presenting it as one until you actually explain how this detracts from the quality of the world then it doesn't make things any better or any worse it's just the way things are Marvel's own property x-men with a movie universe owned by Fox and likely going to Disney shows a better way this universe is not just crossovers every character human and mutant has taken sides in a generations-long battle with real stakes unlike Marvel's Civil War the suggestion that you seem to be making the Civil War doesn't have real stakes because the battle isn't generations long it's kind of silly because well that's not how stakes work there are plenty of other ways to achieve high stakes and if that's not what you're saying you really really need to justify that jab you've taken it Civil War there I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily I mean I think you are but that's not what I'm saying just that that's not really the kind of thing you can really just leave hanging unless you're talking to people who already agree with what you're saying that leads to creative possibilities like decade jumping and even tonal experimentation with deep integration to the x-men mythology if not the continuity these are no creative possibilities that exist in the MCU decade jumping could be done easily but if only I have some kind of proof of that oh wait Captain Marvel is going to be set in the 90s total experimentation is a possibility as well I wouldn't say the MCU does much of it and it's certainly not done any experimentation as Extreme as the experimentation done in Logan but would be pretty hard pressed to argue that something like guardians of the galaxy wasn't a tonal experiment x-men movies are not all good but they do have a universal logic that is stronger than Tommy West Falls snowglobe yes and so does the MCU we've already covered this it's almost as if you're not listening to me here's another test if you little old you we're in a movie which universe would change you in x-men you'd have to decide where you fell in a decades-long battle do you side with mutants or humans in the MCU you'd be like this kid in agents of shield your big decision would be to buy some merch okay I mean I'd say the universe where there's a 50% chance I'm dead and probably a hundred percent chance that someone I care about is dead would affect me quite a lot but that's besides the point because the x-men universe and the MCU are trying to achieve different things let's take the example you gave again this time it was Civil War the conflict in Civil War arises suddenly when the conflict in the x-men franchise has been going on for a long time this doesn't make it worse or less involved with the rest of the universe however the conflict in Civil War despite the fact that it arose suddenly is still a natural progression of events from its universe and the fact that it's not a continuation of the same conflict we've seen before doesn't mean it doesn't gel as well with the other films additionally I'd bring up the point that the x-men universe doesn't force people to choose a side on this issue there are plenty of real-life political issues that I've not chosen to sidon because I don't know enough about them Marvel has flirted with a richer universe one in which the lives of all people are transformed by a shared history but right now would anybody be surprised if Disney forced a Marvel Star Wars crossover I mean I'm sure at least a few people would probably be surprised by that Marvel and Disney can make the right choice in the late 80s the Marvel comic damage-control toyed with the consequences of superhero life the world at large that made its cameo in spider-man homecoming a thrilling indicator of where the MCU could go it was a world that anybody could imagine themselves in but until that experimentation transforms the movies the MCU is just a business strategy the universe is still in development in what way is spider-man homecoming not transformed by that plotline your strategy to argue it has simply been to ignore all of these occurrences up until this point until you acknowledge them during the time you're actually making your points instead of the time you're just wrapping up so that you can actually explain why they're not good enough instead of just pretending they're not there then your arguments are terrible it doesn't even matter if you're right you've just not argued this well there definitely are MCU movies that aren't integrated well into the rest of the universe and if you were going to make this point well maybe you would have brought a single one of them up instead one of your main points was to say that spider-man homecomings integration was only as deep as so much before waiting til the end of your video to use spider-man homecoming as an example of what you actually want them to do this would be like if in my video responding to your video I didn't bring up any of the actual points you made and then I only acknowledge that you even attempted to make any kind of points at the end of my video where I go oh yeah he also did make some points about Marvel but that's not good enough I would have to explain why so next time I was gonna say try harder but I'll be honest next time I won't be [ __ ] watching [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 342,072

Rating: 4.8716421 out of 5

Keywords: cinemasinssins, film, movie, review, mcu, vox, why the mcu feels empty, why the marvel cinematic universe feels empty, marvel, marvel cinematic universe, sinssins, criticism, sinssins sundays

Id: niT5wCh5v7U

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 28 2018