Some non-original thoughts on what ails the MCU post Infinite Saga
1. There is no (apparent) overarching thread. Phase 1 was leading up to the Avengers, and everything after Avengers was leading up to Thanos. The Multiverse Saga feels like it lacks direction, other than trying to make money by eventually force fitting the X-Men and others into the MCU despite that ship sailing organically a long time ago.
2. Characters. The Infinite Saga lasted from 2008 to 2019, audiences had a decade to grow to love these versions of these characters and get invested into their story. A lot of these characters are gone, and their place is taken by new character many more casual fans never heard of, or previously secondary characters. It’s hard for much of the audience to stay as hyped.
3. It’s too much. With the Disney plus shows (some of which are excellent), there has been a flood of content that hard to keep up with and is intimidating to get into if you fall behind.
4. More minor and specific one, the series has learned some of the wrong lessons. For example, humor. Fans loved Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor: Ragnarok was well received, so films like Thor: Love and Thunder overplayed humor and it at times undermine the more serious and emotional moments.
This is hate, I am still a big MCU fan and some of the new stuff has been great, like WandaVision, Hawkeye, Thunderbolts, etc. This is just my observations of the causes of “superhero fatigue”
2. Characters. The Infinite Saga lasted from 2008 to 2019, audiences had a decade to grow to love these versions of these characters and get invested into their story. A lot of these characters are gone, and their place is taken by new character many more casual fans never heard of, or previously secondary characters. It’s hard for much of the audience to stay as hyped.
3. It’s too much. With the Disney plus shows (some of which are excellent), there has been a flood of content that hard to keep up with and is intimidating to get into if you fall behind.
4. More minor and specific one, the series has learned some of the wrong lessons. For example, humor. Fans loved Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor: Ragnarok was well received, so films like Thor: Love and Thunder overplayed humor and it at times undermine the more serious and emotional moments.
This is hate, I am still a big MCU fan and some of the new stuff has been great, like WandaVision, Hawkeye, Thunderbolts, etc. This is just my observations of the causes of “superhero fatigue”
Commentaires
I think Kang could have been great after a bit more development
And appearently it was Kevin Feige’s idea to not do Avengers 5 in Phase 4. That sudden deviation was off-putting to some. I get that the idea was to start telling individual stories but that formula doesn’t work in a series with a strong continuity.
If they'd done an Avengers and it flopped or bombed, that would've pretty much destroyed the brand overnight and the MCU would've immediately halted.
We know now that people weren't willing to pay to see most of these characters, so it's safe to say they weren't going to be willing to pay to see most of those characters in an Avengers movie.
They only lost two major characters. Most are still around; some of which have been here longer than the ones who left.
They should have spent this time actively building up characters and making them cross over and interact. Instead phases 4 and 5 are a bunch of islands with barely any connective tissue.
What I would say is hurting this saga is some pretty mediocre and forgettable dialogue when compared to the plethora of great lines and jokes from the Infinity saga.
Also the Disney plus shows were a huge mistake. Should have just kept it to the movies. Covid didn’t help, and the cost of films also doesn’t help.
I still think if movies were cheap, 90 mins long, and served cheap popcorn people would be attending all the time. They ruined cinema with greed.
That's actually largely social media mythology. The only character Feige marked as a centerpiece of the post-Endgame MCU was Captain Marvel, even though he had many chances to do so.
I agree that Black Panther would've been a major character, but social media convinced itself he was a cornerstone and there isn't any evidence of that. Feige could've announced Captain Marvel *and* Black Panther as "the new face of the MCU", he did not, which strongly indicates that Black Panther was not intended to be a cornerstone.
A lot of people, and I include myself, thought MoM would be a team-up between the most powerful magic wielders in the MCU. What we got was a darker version of WandaVision and the narrative was "look how powerful Wanda is."
Love and Thunder made me hate Thor at the end. He claims to love Jane, yet he is still loosey goosey after she dies. He could care less. I would think he would be a little more grounded and serious.