Monday Morning Quarterback Part III
By BOP Staff
April 10, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Edwin Davies: Commercially, they've done an amazing job. The Avengers gave each member a bump, and while that bump has varied in size from from character to character, it's safe to say that each of them is now a much bigger draw than any one of them was prior to May 2012. They've managed to keep the Avengers audience engaged with each release, and excitement for Avengers 2 has only grown, not diminished, as a result.
In terms of quality, I think that Phase Two has been about on a par with Phase One. I thought that Iron Man 3 was a huge step up from Iron Man 2, and may have enjoyed it more than Iron Man 1; Thor 2 was a slightly worse film than the first, though it was by no means a disaster; and The Winter Soldier is an improvement on the first (which I thought was pretty good to begin with anyway); the only blip is Agents of S.H.I.E..L.D., but I think we can safely ignore that for the purposes of this discussion, and all discussions, even those about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There are fewer films to judge (three [and one unseen] in Phase Two versus five in Phase One) so it's not a direct comparison, but they've not let the quality dip by any significant degree. If Guardians of the Galaxy is good - and at the very least it looks promising, not to mention nuts - that might put Phase Two over the top, for me.
Bruce Hall: Yes, commercially they couldn't be doing better. That's impossible to argue. Creatively I find them somewhat lacking, for the most part. I get tired of seeing the same themes presented over and over and over again, but I am clearly in the minority. And of course despite this, nothing will stop me from gladly handing over my hard earned money to see every superhero movie ever.
And at the end of the day this IS all about the money, and as I said in the first topic- Marvel/Disney have found that sweet spot somewhere between Lowest Common Denominator and Best Amusement Park Ride Ever that guarantees almost everyone in the world will love your movie the first week it comes out, regardless of how they may come to feel about it later.
Some of the Marvel films I can easily re-watch. Many of the other others I still consider harmless fun, but considerably less enjoyable now that I've had time to reflect. But despite my nitpicky creative misgivings I will freely admit that by and large these ARE entertaining movies that do the characters, and their audience ample justice. And after snickering as much as anyone at all that pompous sounding "Phase One, Phase Two" crap, I'm ready to quote just about every Marvel villain ever and say:
"EVERYTHING IS PROCEEDING ACCORDING TO PLAN. COMMENCE PHASE THREE. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Felix Quinonez: Commercially they are on fire and the gravy train shows no sign of slowing down. As far as quality, I was a bit worried about the way Phase 2 started. I thought Iron Man 3 was very disappointing, and it felt like they were just depending on Robert Downey Jr. to carry the movie. But Thor 2 regained my confidence and The Winter Soldier knocked it out of the Park. I thought The Winter Soldier was so good that maybe Marvel should have started Phase 2 with that instead of Iron Man 3.
And as far as Guardians of the Galaxy, I think it's a very promising sign that Marvel is willing to embrace such a weird project. It seems that they are trying to make their cinematic universe as diverse as their comic book universe. And if it's as good as it looks, it could help prevent things from getting stagnant.
Reagen Sulewski: It's difficult to think of a misstep that Disney/Marvel has made yet (I mean, wait for it, but...), and it's just been a masterful display of how to build a universe. The whole thing sounds easy in retrospect, but look at how much trouble DC has had in getting things going. It sure seems that someone went to the comic people and actually listened to them about how they build their readership, in terms of creating these interconnecting stories and bringing them to the public in a cohesive way. Different mediums are different mediums of course, but the basic principle seems to have held. And of course, it all falls down if Iron Man isn't pulled off successfully.
David Mumpower: My opinion is that the financial tallies are the end-all/be-all of the conversation. As such, Phase 2.0 has been a spectacular triumph with the inevitable coronation of The Avengers 2 the coup de grâce. Personally, I liked Iron Man 2 a great deal more than Iron Man 3. While the most recent film is a lot of fun, it is also a glorious mess of storytelling, wholly lacking the structure of Jon Favreau's pieces. And I say that as someone who adores Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the prior project that combined the talents of Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black. For me, Iron Man 3 felt dumbed down to appeal to the masses more than the prior two movies. That tactic clearly worked but speaking as someone who voted Iron Man as the best movie of 2008 (over The Dark Knight, I might add), I feel like the product has suffered from the popularity of the character.
The more important projects in terms of evaluating Marvel as a brand are Thor and Captain America, the less popular superheroes. As I mentioned yesterday, Thor: The Dark World is wholly forgettable yet its revenue boost is still tremendous. The Winter Soldier is poised to become one of the five or six most popular projects of 2014, and it has the quality to match its reputation. Because of that, I consider it the real winner of the three in terms of overall success although Iron Man 3's box office is truly mythic.
While we all agree that Marvel's Agents of Shield is a huge disappointment thus far in terms of viewership, I also feel that we should not dismiss it just yet. Those who have watched The Winter Soldier and the most recent episode of the television series realize that the producers have been limited in what they could do during the first portion of season one. They knew what would happen in the Captain America sequel as well as how it would impact the SHIELD series. Unfortunately for them, they could not address it until now. The final third of this season should be a much more engaging product. My question is whether the people who quit on the show after a handful of episodes are willing to give it another chance now. If that doesn't happen, the series becomes the misstep of Phase 2.