Blogocentric Formulations

Marvel Cinematic Universe

"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 8): Movie franchises are movie series that are connected by a common character, setting, or other overarching piece of material. They can be open-ended (James Bond, Fast and Furious) or finite (Harry Potter, Hunger Games), centered around a shared universe of content (Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe), or continuations/re-packaging of a popular initial film (Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission: Impossible, Toy Story, Transformers). For today's prompt, tell us what your favorite movie franchise is, as well as your favorite and least favorite movies in that franchise.

This one's a no-brainer for me, and not just because I happen to work for the company that makes the movies. While there are plenty of other franchises that I am incredibly excited about (I've never missed seeing a Mission: Impossible or Star Wars film in the theater, for example), the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most amazing franchises and flat-out remarkable accomplishments in the history of the medium. Eighteen movies to date, all opening at #1, grossing a combined total of nearly $15,000,000,000 (that's billion with a "b") at the worldwide box office to date. For context, in actual dollars (not adjusted for inflation), that's more revenue than the feature films of the Star Wars universe and all 25 films in the James Bond franchise COMBINED.

But for me, it's not just about the money.

It's amazing to see my childhood super hero fantasies come to life; in the 80s and 90s, who could have imagined that just a few decades later we'd be seeing photorealistic effects that would make Doctor Strange's magic, or the interstellar space battles of the Guardians of the Galaxy, or the movements of all-CGI nonhuman characters like Thanos or Rocket and Groot seem plausible? The fact that technology is finally catching up to our imaginations and allowing us to make a motion picture out of the panels of the original comics makes it an exciting time to be exploring these movies.

Additionally, the whole shared universe thing is really mind-blowing. We've seen shared universes in television. We've seen tangentially shared universes either over a very limited number of films (Alien, The Matrix, the Star Wars trilogies, etc.), or where the narrative isn't necessarily interwoven (Mission: Impossible, James Bond). This much interconnectedness has never been done with high budget studio features to the tune of eighteen consecutive films and counting.

Finally, and what I love perhaps most about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is that we're not afraid to make different kinds of movies. While they have certain commonalities (the tone, visual style, etc.), the team isn't afraid to take risks with different types of stories. Captain America: Winter Soldier is a political thriller. Ant-Man is a heist comedy at heart. Guardians of the Galaxy is a classic sci-fi space opera. Thor: Ragnarok is a buddy comedy. With over 8,000 characters in their repertoire and a team that isn't afraid to take risks, I think there will always be interesting stories entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even as articles continue to be written about the assumed or impending demise of the super hero film genre.

For years, my two favorite Marvel Studios films were Captain America: Winter Soldier (political thrillers are my jam, and then add super heroes to the mix? Aww yeah...) and The Avengers (seeing all of these characters assemble on screen for the first time was a dream come true). But I truly think that Black Panther is giving both of those films a run for their money. I think it's one of the most poignant, important movies we've made to date... and it happens to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch too. It's a remarkable film that deserves every bit of its record-setting accolades and recognition, in my opinion.

The least favorite films are a little tougher. Until Thor: Ragnarok, the Thor franchise was probably my least favorite character as a whole, and Thor: The Dark World is probably one of my least favorite Marvel Studios films. And even though it pains me to say it because I love Shane Black's other films, I think Iron Man 3 was interesting, but a pretty big miss. I mean, it's an Iron Man movie where he spends the vast majority of the film outside of his armor! But this is all mostly nit-picking because, as a whole, I think the entire MCU is pretty great even when we're talking about their less stellar offerings.