A Convoluted Mess
Thoughts on the current state of Marvel movies.
This is where I am with the Marvel movies.
Some people call it “super hero fatigue”, and maybe that’s true to some extent. But I think it’s more that the movies aren’t fun anymore. There’s too much homework to know what the heck is going on.
To be honest, they started to lose me with all the time travel and multi-verse nonsense.
Then there’s the bad writing.
They really lost me when all of their projects started to feel like the first draft of a fan fiction. I no longer get the impression that they care about storytelling whatsoever.
It’s the same problem that Star Wars seems to be having. Storytelling takes a back seat to some other agenda. Whether you want to go as far as South Park went or somewhere in between, there’s obviously some other priority.
And, look, I’m not opposed to having a message in your stories. It’s been done for as long as stories have been told.
My argument is that they’re bad at it.
What’s a better way to make an argument… tell a great story that shows why you have the perspective that you do… or start with your message and wrap a story around it as an afterthought?
It’s obviously not the latter.
Especially if you do it in a clumsy way that insults anyone that doesn’t already agree with you.
What makes it worse is when you’re called out on your bad stories and instead of taking the criticism to heart - from the very people who want to pay for your stories, by the way - you claim that the only reason people wouldn’t like your story is if they’re a bad person.
It’s just lazy and off-putting.
Let me put it another way. Say I wanted to promote my message that coffee is better than tea (which is obviously true, but I guess there are some people who like tea for some reason). There are a couple ways I could go. I could write an awesome story with great characters who all like coffee, but they don’t really put it in your face. In fact, it’s barely a part of the story. You’d come away with the feeling that you just experienced a really cool story and these awesome characters liked coffee… so maybe I should like coffee too.
A different way you could go would be to focus on the coffee. Make sure there are lots of monologues in the story where the main character lectures other characters about how great coffee is. Then, as the creator, go online and talk about how great your story is and also how great coffee is and probably if you don’t like coffee there’s something wrong with you and you’re a bad person. Also if you don’t like the story it’s only because you’re an anti-coffee troll.
See the difference?
I’d love it if these franchises would go back to the first option.
The X-men always had an underlying message about how we should treat people who are different than us. It didn’t beat us over the head with discrimination and racism, though - at least, back in the 80s and 90s it didn’t… I haven’t read X-men comics in a while. The best stories were always about action and the team and family. The other stuff was just there as a backdrop, or sometimes not at all. A subtle message done in a clever way is a thousand times better than an in-your-face insult that “pisses off the right people”.
But I guess if you’re fine with The Marvels and She-Hulk and The Acolyte, just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be over here watching Seinfeld reruns.
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Have a great week!
-Brad