Support NeoGAF

[Toa TAK]

In terms of comfort, I agree completely that their Netflix output deals with a lot more interesting themes and ideas, even if the execution isn't 100%. Same with Winter Solider, the idea is there (surveillance), but it becomes a joke by the time they're talking to a green-accented monitor.

Ultimately, on the idea of playing it safe, my expectations are going to be leaning more into the TV side of things. But the thought that they're too big to fail certainly comes to effect, I think, when green lighting Black Panther and Captain Marvel. Those two should've been out there a lot sooner, before Guardians, even.

 

[richiek]

lol @ people patting them on the back for taking a risk with Black Panther. They waited a dozen movies into the franchise before getting diverse in any real way. Even then they still pull shit like whitewashing in Dr. Strange. Basically any modern TV show is more diverse than the first 2 phases of MCU. MCU is like that high school in the south that had its first integrated prom a few years ago. Good job, you finally did it!

You can thank racist Ike Perlmutter for Marvel Studios dragging their feet on BP. Doctor Strange was the last film made under the old regime. Now Kevin Feige has full creative control.

 

[Zissou]

People have lost all perspective on how Marvel got all this going. The entire concept was a risk. If Iron Man had failed, the entire studio would have been sunk. Hell, just starting with Iron Man as a character was a risk. Hiring RDJ to play Stark was a risk.

Here is a quote from me right after the Avengers movie started shooting. It helps remind me of that moment in time. It was a big fucking deal full of risks and pratfalls from beginning to end.

I think this hits the nail on the head. Going for and pulling off the creation of a shared cinematic universe that spans as many movies and years as the MCU has, all while maintaining quality and consistency (for the most part) is pretty god damn amazing. I think this more than anything else is what makes watching movies in the MCU feel like reading marvel comics as a kid- the idea that each bit you take in is giving you a glimpse into a sprawling living world.

 

[LosDaddie]

People have lost all perspective on how Marvel got all this going. The entire concept was a risk. If Iron Man had failed, the entire studio would have been sunk. Hell, just starting with Iron Man as a character was a risk. Hiring RDJ to play Stark was a risk.

Here is a quote from me right after the Avengers movie started shooting. It helps remind me of that moment in time. It was a big fucking deal full of risks and pratfalls from beginning to end.

This is all true.

People have lost all perspective when it comes to the MCU. None of this shared universe concept was safe, nor is maintaining he success at all easy.

If it was all so easy and safe to do, then WB wouldn't be struggling with the DCEU.

 

[y2dvd]

Has anyone heard if the GotG before the movie came out? Gaf excluded because yall a bunch of comic nerds!

 

[NHarmonic.]

Now can they risk it by having a LGBTQ+ principal character? Or that's going too far?

 

[thepotatoman]

People have lost all perspective on how Marvel got all this going. The entire concept was a risk. If Iron Man had failed, the entire studio would have been sunk. Hell, just starting with Iron Man as a character was a risk. Hiring RDJ to play Stark was a risk.

Here is a quote from me right after the Avengers movie started shooting. It helps remind me of that moment in time. It was a big fucking deal full of risks and pratfalls from beginning to end.

And then they went and got the incredibly niche property of Guardians of the Galaxy, which everyone thought would be their first major miss given how niche it is, and it ended up being their biggest success while still being incredibly faithful to the source material.

 

[Kickz]

Dr Strange definitely hit this formula with the Comedy-Drama-Action, and it is all starting to feel formulaic. I wish we did get some other styles like the Dark Knight or Fury Road.

 

[Veelk]

I love Veelk posts, because they are always well thought-out, well written, well argued, and tend to spark at least 15 different discussions.

But yeah, the "tree and raccoon was risky" narrative never really held all that much weight. It became a meme due to superficial outlandishness more than anything.

Luckily, that's only about 1/45th of the man's argument.

Thanks for the kind words.

As far as the racoon and tree, eh, it's not a hill I want to die on and I agree that it's not that outrageous in terms of basic space opera genre practices, but I still think it was somewhat risky given that the established tone of the MCU wasn't this outlandish and GotG changed that. Anecdotally, I know many people who had reservations about it specifically because they thought that Marvel was starting to become too silly once they saw the GotG trailers. I can agree that perhaps it's overblown, sure, but it's not nothing.

I still don't see how that's a risk. The MCU had established itself by that time (remember this is after movies like Iron Man 2, Thor, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Thor: The Dark World) as moving towards a heavier focus on humor. Some would argue that focus was always there. Guardians of the Galaxy just seemed like a natural evolution of that formula. The Captain America movies were really the only ones taking themselves somewhat seriously due to handling more serious themes. They're the outlier in the Marvel formula.

Well, I disagree with your assessment that marvel started leaning heavier on humor. I personally didn't see a greater trajectory to humor for any of those movies. In fact, going by those same examples, I could easily make the argument that the MCU was getting darker and more serious. Iron Man 2 had Tony struggling with his incoming death, Avengers had them face the biggest threat they had yet, Iron Man 3 was straight up about PTSD, Thor: The Dark World escalated Thor's romance with Jane from a lighthearted grounded connection to epic starcrossed love drama where she was in danger of dying.

Marvel makes their movies around the Comedy-Drama-Action triad and they're all reasonably balanced against each other in most of their movies. Sure, they're always funny, but as Terry Pratchett once said, funny is NOT the opposite of serious.

Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a slight exception leaning more heavily on humor than the others, the same way the Captain America movies are the exceptions by leaning more heavily on the drama aspect.