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Marvel at the Movies
May. 2nd, 2012 03:03 pmSo I've seen, and enjoyed, Avengers Assemble. I did not squee, per se, but I did laugh, and jump, and smile - and enjoy.
Its clear to me that the 21st century is when the Marvel Universe has cracked Hollywood - and I wonder at the implications. You see, we are about to have The Amazing Spiderman hit our screens. Ten years after Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi gave us a fairly good Hollywood intro to the character, Andrew Garfield is taking us through the origin story in a different way. Its probably a spoiler, but I suspect Uncle Ben isn't going to do so well in this version either. In another ten years, I am not sure I need to see Uncle Ben die again.
So I found myself wondering if ten years later, we are going to see a remake of Avengers Assemble and wondering if the "shared universe" of Marvel Films may actually protect us from this. The reason the film works - heck the reason it even exists - is because it drew together established characters from other films and did not need to go through the origin stories and the same repeated tragedies. Equally, I do not think there will be a demand for recasting Iron Man or Nick Fury in the imminent future - which seems to have been nicely covered by some foresighted contracting.
I think the acid test will come when Mr Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans want out. However, they have recast Dr Banner (and done a good job this time). As long as they maintain the quality, can they recast? If they are tapping into the full depths of the Marvel Universe, do they need to?
Another interesting point is that I hear Iron Man 3 is not drawing off Iron Man's back catalogue of racist stereotyped villains and is doing something "new". I hope this is so. Whilst having a deep history to mine is good, I would be interested to see where they go in terms of using the Big Screen to find new stories and voices for the characters in the 21st century. If anything, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, shows the perils of tick-boxing the available characters/history for the sake of it without actually having stories for them.
Sooner or later, Kevin Feige or whoever is Being Clever at Marvel will lose the plot, or the momentum will falter. Iron Man 2 was a misstep but not a fatal one. Overall, whilst Avengers Assemble was not the Best Film Evar, I am fascinated by what it means for Marvel at the Cinema - and possibly the film industry as a whole. There is no denying that, thus far, it has been a tremendous commercial success.
Its clear to me that the 21st century is when the Marvel Universe has cracked Hollywood - and I wonder at the implications. You see, we are about to have The Amazing Spiderman hit our screens. Ten years after Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi gave us a fairly good Hollywood intro to the character, Andrew Garfield is taking us through the origin story in a different way. Its probably a spoiler, but I suspect Uncle Ben isn't going to do so well in this version either. In another ten years, I am not sure I need to see Uncle Ben die again.
So I found myself wondering if ten years later, we are going to see a remake of Avengers Assemble and wondering if the "shared universe" of Marvel Films may actually protect us from this. The reason the film works - heck the reason it even exists - is because it drew together established characters from other films and did not need to go through the origin stories and the same repeated tragedies. Equally, I do not think there will be a demand for recasting Iron Man or Nick Fury in the imminent future - which seems to have been nicely covered by some foresighted contracting.
I think the acid test will come when Mr Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans want out. However, they have recast Dr Banner (and done a good job this time). As long as they maintain the quality, can they recast? If they are tapping into the full depths of the Marvel Universe, do they need to?
Another interesting point is that I hear Iron Man 3 is not drawing off Iron Man's back catalogue of racist stereotyped villains and is doing something "new". I hope this is so. Whilst having a deep history to mine is good, I would be interested to see where they go in terms of using the Big Screen to find new stories and voices for the characters in the 21st century. If anything, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, shows the perils of tick-boxing the available characters/history for the sake of it without actually having stories for them.
Sooner or later, Kevin Feige or whoever is Being Clever at Marvel will lose the plot, or the momentum will falter. Iron Man 2 was a misstep but not a fatal one. Overall, whilst Avengers Assemble was not the Best Film Evar, I am fascinated by what it means for Marvel at the Cinema - and possibly the film industry as a whole. There is no denying that, thus far, it has been a tremendous commercial success.
