This month’s release of Guardians of the Galaxy marks the penultimate film in Phase Two of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Age of Ultron will hit theaters next spring, and with it comes the end of this chapter of the interconnected franchise.
In my humble opinion, Phase Two has been a mixed bag to say the least, with the quality of the films ranging from mediocre and tedious (Thor: The Dark World) to fresh and exciting (Guardians of The Galaxy). There are, however, some recurring problems that many fans and critics have pointed out and that Marvel should look to fix for Phase Three.
Spoilers ahead.
1. Mysterious and All-Powerful Objects as Key Plot Points
One major recurring element in almost every MCU film is the mysterious artifact that both heroes and villains are chasing after. Whether it’s the Tesseract in The Avengers or the Aether in Thor: The Dark World, Marvel films have often used these too complicated-to-properly-explain mega weapons as pivotal plot points in order to keep the action moving. While this worked the first time around, as the films progressed these objects soon become completely interchangeable and often lead to awkwardly executed exposition scenes were a character has to try and explain the object’s origin and purpose. Yet even with all this explanation, it pretty much always boils down to “This thing’s going to kill millions of people if the bad guy gets it. So get it first.” I know the aim of these objects is to eventually introduce the Infinity Gauntlet story, but they can stand to be a little more creative about the way they are used.
2. Poor Villains
Before millions of Loki fans come at me with pitchforks, yes Loki is a great villain. Unfortunately, he’s pretty much the only one in the whole franchise. This explains why he’s the only villain to make an appearance in three different films. However, with Tom Hiddleston being so charismatic and intriguing as the trickster god, all the other villains look even worse by comparison.
First things first, Marvel, stop wasting the talent of Doctor Who alumni. Both Christopher Eccleston and Karen Gillan are great actors, but you would never know that based on their roles in their respective Marvel films. It’s not their fault, they just aren’t given anything to do. Eccleston didn’t even speak one word of English in his role as Malekith The Accursed. All he does is speak a language we don’t understand while glaring menacingly at the camera. And his motivations for destroying all life pretty much amounts to “He’s just evil.”
Karen Gillan was not treated much better, devoid of her red hair and Scottish accent, her portrayal of Nebula reduced her to skulking in the corner of a dark room while Lee Pace’s Ronan The Accuser yells at people. Add to that the completely interchangeable and unthreatening tech entrepreneurs from Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3, as well as the unnecessarily cartoonish Red Skull, and you’ve got yourself a below average batch of baddies.
3. High in the Sky light show climaxes
At this point Marvel has created a recipe on how to do a big final battle. Get somewhere really really high up, make sure you have plenty of disposable enemies that pose no actual threat to the hero, and cue the explosion filled light show that will most likely end with everyone falling to earth while the bad guy loses his source of power. I like a good epic battle as much as the next guy, but sometimes it just feels unnecessary and at times even repetitive. Winter Soldier was a moderately realistic espionage thriller until that giant video game-esque explodothon at the end.
4. Lack of Consequence
Let’s face it, when Tony Stark bravely flew into the wormhole to save earth from the invading Chitauri, did anyone really think he was going to die? Of course not, but it was still an effectively thrilling moment. However, it’s when characters are shown to be dead, only to come back to life later on that I have problems with. The only major death in The Avengers, that of Agent Coulson, lost all of its power and weight when he was miraculously revived in ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Not to mention other cases of characters returning from beyond or only appearing dead such as Loki, Bucky, and Nick Fury.
It would appear that death means very little in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which is odd considering it is being helmed by Joss Whedon, a man who made sure death meant something in his various TV shows. I know this sort of thing happens in the comics all the time, but Marvel has already shown that they are not afraid to deviate from their source material in their movie universe. The most important character that I can think of that is definitely dead is Thor’s mom, and she may pop up again too.
5. Marvel’s Boys Club
There really is no getting around this one. I understand that in order to jumpstart the franchise, Marvel needed to use their A-List heroes, who all turn out to be white males. But with the runaway success of the virtually unknown Guardians of The Galaxy, it stands to reason that Marvel could pretty much use any of their obscure characters as long as their name brand is on it. So, now would be a great time to bust out some of their female characters like Ms. Marvel. Hell, just give Black Widow her own movie and you’ve basically got yourself a license to print money. It would also be in Marvel’s interest to include a female touch behind the camera as well.
That’s my wish list for Phase Three, leave a comment below if you agree, disagree or think I’m being a nitpicker.
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