Marvel has really done something quite visionary and tremendous in its cinematic universe. The ability to incorporate so many childhood heroes and legendary comic book characters onto the big screen, all intertwined seamlessly in a universe, is remarkable. Especially since the films of the universe have been both wildly entertaining and smart in their action, relatability, dialogue and the amazing special effects that coincide with every film.
However, what the cinematic universe has most impressively done is popularize the superhero and allow moviegoers who are not comic book readers to be obsessed just like the comic book fans are. Marvel has been able to break down any negative barriers put up by conventional moviegoers about superhero movies and continue to reap the rewards because of it. Unfortunately, the cinematic universe comes with its own flaws and can make someone loathe the cinematic universe.
I went to the opening night premiere of “Captain America: Civil War” this past Thursday with a few of my friends. One of my friends wanted to go but really couldn’t because he had not seen all the movies in the universe. Of course not all of them mattered to understand just what is happening, but the two previous “Captain America” movies, both “The Avengers” and “Ant Man,” and that’s kind of a lot.
Especially since someone will have to end up watching all the other movies in the cinematic universe to understand the context of the two Avengers movies. Which kind of sucks for my friend because he had to miss out on one of the most talked about movies of the year leading up to its release.
Not only that but he had to miss out on one of the best comic book movies of all time ("The Dark Knight" is still in a league of its own). It forces someone to watch all of the movies to have a firm grasp of what is really happening but for the average person who watches a movie occasionally, they’re basically screwed. And they will end up going to see it just to be apart of the conversation and not feel left out in the world that Marvel is now a staple of.
Which leads to another reason people may hate the cinematic universe: It’s a moneymaking machine that wants to fill the seats in the theaters.
Marvel may being doing justice to these amazing characters by giving them a new medium to popularize them and give fans of the hero the satisfaction of having the hero brought to life, but it really just cares about profits.
Marvel basically forces people to have to watch all its movies in order to see the newest release and once they hook someone in they don’t let them free. It’s not necessarily a bad thing since the movies are all very entertaining, but they know when leaving loose ends at the end of a movie that the majority, if not the same amount of people, will see the movie that follows chronologically.
That’s why the somewhat unheard of comic book characters (to the general public) garner so much attention and make so much money for Marvel. The obscure characters become extremely popular and new comics, TV shows and merchandise become available and are read, viewed and bought at such a high demand. Not to mention the character's appearance in other films will create more hype for the film, making Marvel more dough.
This is smart on Marvel’s part, knowing its audience and how to manipulate them in a way so they would watch more of its movies. However, it seems Marvel has gone a bit too far in its money-grubbing ways. In the upcoming “Dr. Strange” movie, there is a character named the Ancient One who teaches Dr. Strange how to unlock his powers and abilities.
Dr. Strange is rooted in Asian culture and many of the characters in Dr. Strange’s origin story are of Asian descent, especially and most importantly, the Ancient One. However, in order to make the movie more appealing to majority white audiences, Marvel cast Tilda Swinton, a white woman, to play the character. There’s no other way to put it, Marvel made the character white in order to reel in more revenue and disregard its offensiveness because it doesn’t matter to Marvel, as long as it makes more and more money.
