Film fans have zero grace when it comes to this franchise.

Lets examine a few things, and talk about why quality dropped off.

Chapek and his blundering accounting decisions from hell

Chapek told Marvel to effectively double their output of productions, without giving them subsequent staff, creatives, and resources to keep their quality control they had (for the most part) maintained over the course of 25 some movies. Ask yourself, how is Kathleen Kennedy (wrong nerd rage target) Kevin Feige and the storytellers at Marvel supposed to maintain quality while having effectively double the work.

You’re all probably adults, and have had more work tossed on your pile than you can handle. How many people here can honestly say they kept the quality of their work up when they have had staff turnovers, more responsibilities, and increased output? I’m guessing none of you, and if you’re saying you kept it you’re a liar.

Marvel was kneecapped from a greedy accountant. Not the creatives fault.

Covid

Here’s also a big one. Any of you guys work in film and television? I do. And I can tell you, we all had to learn, from the ground up, how to shoot movies again while following a bunch of TSA level security theatre charades on set. So from Covid, issue number one. We can’t shoot the way we have shot movies for over 100 years anymore, lets see how this works out. This happened in all films during this pandemic as well, not just with Marvel. But oh just you wait, there’s even more Covid bullshit that fucked Marvel up.

Release orders and shooting orders were all changed around multiple times because of the pandemic.

What’s the one key thing that Marvel has had that no franchise before it had? A concise A-line through all the films weaving together a bunch of movies (and now shows thanks to D+) into a singular cohesive story. This was taken away by shuffling the release order (which is an understandable solution studio side of things, because they need movies to come out even during Covid), but still, a studio decision not a Marvel decision.

Untimely outside events

So another sad part of this is that outside events really hampered the MCU as well. Chadwick was supposed to be a really large part of the next phase and he unfortunately passed, requiring extensive reworks to multiple projects. On top of this, John Majors also had a major controversy which effectively killed off an entire major villain arc (and good for them, did it mess up some films? Sure, but I’d rather them can someone than pull a Spacey and ignore the scandals).

Added thought

For a lot of people, the shows were too much. Totally get it, but what I respect is that they tried numerous formats, styles, run lengths, release schedules, to see what people liked and what people didn’t like. The only one universally disliked was Secret Wars, and there was some actual good ones. too. Again, I get it, but I do respect that they at least had the balls to try different things and see what works and what doesn’t. Looking at Daredevil, I think the future in this part of the franchise is very bright.

Is there some fatigue for Marvel? Sure. But to act like they aren’t popular, or that they’re just ‘bad’ now is just a sophomoric view of the problem, why there’s a problem to begin with, and where the franchise is going as a whole.

Ok I’m going back to my scotch now.

I’ve been asked a lot over the last few weeks whether I was going to go and see Thunderbolts, and every time I’m asked I give the same answer: lol absolutely not.

I’m all for reading a whole piece before casting any judgement on the author or content, but when your opening line comes off as snotty, sarcastic sixteen year old who’s way too cool to watch a comic book film, it’s hard to give them a fair shake.

As a casual Marvel fan, I feel like people need to get over themselves now. And allow Marvel movies to settle into a niche after like 10 years of domination at the cinema. Not everyone has to like everything all the time (on a side rant: this is something that pisses me off about the anti woke crowd too, acting like fucking everything has to revolve around them at all times and like people aren’t allowed individual tastes and options).

Let comic book fans enjoy comic book movies. Good for you if you don’t like them, here’s a trophy for your stunning bravery in displaying that you too have individual tastes that don’t always match with the crowd. You’re half way there to realising that you’re not entitled to everything all the time and that people should be allowed to enjoy things even if you don’t.

I get the marvel fatigue for sure. but damn, getting to the last EP of Loki season 2 and not finishing it is a real disservice to yourself

Only siths deal in absolutes.

You, and everyone who’s ever liked a Marvel movie, should go and watch this one because it’s definitely on the good side of MCU movies. It’s very refreshing in several ways.

I understand that the MCU has been bad to mediocre after Endgame. There are some things here and there that were good. But when it comes to movies… (I don’t count Spider-man nor Deadpool because those are fun meta movies that play a different game) yep, all movies have been cheap cashgrabs… Until we got Thunderbolts.

Do not kill the possibility for you to enjoy a new MCU movie just because.

This opinion is over the top… I find myself to be a casual fan. I don’t really watch the trailers, or lookup theories. I barely read the comics as a kid either, like stated in this article, but i did know enough of most characters because I was a kid and grew up being exposed to them one way or another. I still enjoy them to a degree. There is way more hit or miss these days, but I don’t find myself overwhelmed by it all either. Maybe I’ll look one or 2 things up after the movie if I forgot or ask one of my friends who are way more into comics and pretty much know what’s probably coming.

This one part in the article tells me they spent way to much time thinking about it. “Every hour of the last three years that I would have been stuffing Marvel slop into my brain I’ve instead been doing quite literally anything else, from playing with my kids to helping run a website to watching, gasp, other types of movies.” Like who is not playing with their kids or getting work done because of a hobby? Sounds way more like a bad obsession and probably best that they stepped away. It’s still solid entertainment if you choose not to take it so seriously.

The author starts off a bit immature in their commentary, but I pushed through and they touch on a simple point that I relate to:

All of this stuff feels like homework now and Disney and Marvel have pumped out far too much minor stuff that all intertwines in one way or another. I want to like it and I do make exceptions (Loki), but I’m too casual of a comic reader to bother with the remainder of what we have now. Endgame was the cliff where I drove off and lost interest (and to be fair, that’s a pretty big void to fill).

This movie in particular interests me but mostly because of the cast. I couldn’t tell you much about any of the characters. The reality is that it’s going to be a really hard sell to get surface-level comic enthusiasts and general-superhero-movie-lovers to buy into stories about minor characters they’ve never heard of.

His loss.