The recent release of Black Panther has shown that the hunger for superhero movies has not declined. The wallets of every Disney executive remain happy and so do the viewers. The stories in each of the new Marvel movies are just getting better and better, but there is still something missing.

Marvel won’t be winning an Academy Award anytime soon. It’s not as though their movies are bad, quite the contrary, but the main reason for their quality comes from the story and the characters. Like other superhero movies have shown us in the years past, we can relate to superheroes surprisingly well. The plight of the hero and the decision he/she faces are things everyone can relate to, despite the fact that the scale of the situation is usually much larger in these films. I talked about the intricacies of the hero story in another article, and that story arc holds for many superhero movies as well.

So we come back to the Academy Awards. Why won’t Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, be receiving an Academy Award for best picture, or best directing at next year’s ceremonies? Why won’t the film be recognized for its editing or its score? The answer is simple: Marvel movies could be presented in any other way.

Presented as a movie, superhero stories are interesting and easy to follow. But the same story that is told in every Marvel movie could be just as easily told in the format of a book, or a play, or a comic book. Although the audience wouldn’t be the same, the same story could be told with a comparable depth of emotion.

The thing that sets movies apart as a medium for art is the fact that it is literally a moving picture. The movement of the camera, the framing of each shot, the transitions between scenes. This all adds up to make a movie great, rather than just good. Sounds produce the same effect. A movie with good sound design and a good score will having an impact that lasts much longer than a film with a forgettable soundtrack.

To look for a superhero movie that has these qualities, we only need to look back a few years to the Dark Knight trilogy, directed by Christopher Nolan. These films had all the qualities of a properly good film and it was rewarded for such efforts.

Again, all of this isn’t to say that Marvel movies are bad, they could just be better. Any company like Disney has all the resources it would need to carefully plan out each shot, and concentrate on the sound design and the score. The use of generic cinematography and a forgettable score detract from what is otherwise a fantastic film.