Like an obedient dog, I find myself sitting in theaters on opening weekend for most new Marvel films. Hoping to find some modicum of the zeitgeist capturing Marvel of old. Alas, it rarely comes, and I leave the films wishing I had just stayed home to revisit the old titles for that hit of popcorn fare escapism. I know I’m not alone, as for the past few years, Marvel’s new entries come and go without much (if any) cultural impact. Not to mention that they aren’t the moneymakers they used to be. After watching the mediocre and inoffensive Captain America: Brave New World, I wondered how a franchise that used to be a pillar of monoculture has become so…forgettable. It’s because our world (and audiences) have changed, and Marvel hasn’t.
This isn’t some argument that Marvel used to be producing cinematic masterpieces; the films have always been serviceable and skin-deep, but there was something fun about them. They produced the right amount of dopamine hits. There was enough humor, heart, action, and visual effects to let us disengage with reality for a little bit. The films also provided a sense of community. Each entry sometimes felt like long episodes of a giant television series we were all watching, and we got to have those “water cooler” discussions between films. Something that has been largely missing since the rise of streaming. After Avengers: Endgame, it felt like Marvel was poised to do a victory lap, rest up for a bit, come back with new stories, and go for round two. Instead, the pandemic messed with release schedules, Disney+ shows bloated the overarching narrative, and after five years, storylines failed to coalesce into anything meaningful. All of this leaves audiences confused, underwhelmed, and cooling on a franchise that used to dominate pop culture. Marvel is no longer essential viewing.
With the back-to-basics Brave New World, there was hope that Marvel had found a way to push forward and capture audiences again, but lukewarm word of mouth and poor reviews seem to suggest that this is not the case. Brave New World has some pacing issues, some narrative holes, and some iffy effects, but to me, it was not any worse than Thor: The Dark World, The Incredible Hulk, or Spider-Man: Far From Home. So why isn’t it connecting with audiences? Why does the online discourse about the new film seem so hostile and unwelcoming? Marvel refuses to change. They keep feeding us the same thing over and over again, and audiences are craving something more. Back in 2008, when Iron Man first took flight, it was revolutionary. A direct response to the War on Terror and our collective fears, Iron Man represented the best of humanity, doing what it took to end the violence. It allowed us to take these real-world fears and filter them through a superhero lens. Feeling like we had control over the world around us, for at least two hours and change.
Modern escapism is not turning your brain off and disengaging. It is actively engaging with the world around you through a safe space. Captain America: The Winter Solider took us into Obama’s opaque America and let us explore government paranoia, and it was the perfect film of the time. That was 11 years ago, and the world, and especially the political landscape, has changed. Now we have a new Captain America, but he lives in a world so divorced from our own that it becomes a complete fantasy. This is not a problem on its own, but Marvel wants this film to be a political thriller in the Trump era. They want to tap into that same energy that made Winter Soldier a hit without updating their films for modern times, which makes this new film feel already dated.
Marvel refuses to update to our current era and refuses to change their storytelling. They have the illusion of change with new characters, new TV shows, and overly complicated multiversal shenanigans. When you peel back all the layers and distractions it is all just the same superhero story being told over and over. Characters rarely change, there are very few actual consequences from the story being told to the larger universe, and the third acts are just mindless CG fights. The novelty of a shared universe is gone, we don’t get the thrill out of seeing characters meet or new characters be introduced. We’ve been there, done that but Marvel doesn’t want to do anything new. There is no attempt to subvert our exceptions or take any sort of storytelling risk. They continue to churn out the same type of films year after year. Sure some films like Deadpool and Wolverine feel different because it’s rated R but at its core, they suffer from the same issues as the other films. If you need further proof that Marvel refuses to grow with the times just look at their upcoming Avengers films directed by the Russo Brothers and starring Robert Downey, Jr. These are not films meant to push forward, these films will be looking back and hoping audiences remember the fun of the Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War. We’re stuck in a loop.
How does Marvel move forward? Don’t be afraid to take some narrative risks, make the stakes more personal, and get us to fall in love with the characters again. Create that essential viewing experience again. We are living in a strange time and Marvel has the opportunity to become the purest form of escapism and recapture their audience, but to do that they need to have some serious reflection. It’s time to move forward and start thinking like the studio that bet big on Iron Man. If every single movie had world-ending stakes, we become numb to them and even the characters that inhabit those worlds are numb to it. If the world is always ending and in need of saving, it’s not do-or-die time or a time to put everything on the line, it’s just another Tuesday.