The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has finally returned to the mainland big screen.
No more excitement?
Indeed, Marvel's absence from the mainland market for three years allowed domestic fans to miss the fourth phase of the MCU. With a larger and larger world view and missed plots, many non-die-hard fans of the audience slowly can't keep up with Marvel's plot, and even expressed their "polite refusal" of new stories.
The blockage of information has also caused a lot of noise around Marvel in the market.
Marvel became unrelated to the movie.
Wrapped in strife and rumors in the center of the fog.
Now under the premise of "Marvel's return", we don't have to look at flowers in the fog.
So.
Sir felt that it was necessary to review it from the perspective of pure works.
This spans 15 years, the world's largest commercial film IP.
What has Marvel ever done?
What is Marvel doing?
And, what else does Marvel want to do in the future?
01 New Heroes
Looking back at Marvel movies, it is inevitable to return to the original point "Iron Man".
If you had to pick one of the most memorable shots from the entire series, Sir would always think of him:
Years later, the Dutch brother himself admitted that this little boy was the young Spider-Man.
Now that I think about it, it's quite.
But Sir remembered this shot and didn't want to say how deep Marvel Easter eggs were buried and how detailed the worldview design was.
It carries precisely a certain rough "impulse" in the early days of Marvel movies.
In this scene, a young boy puts on a mask and thinks he is Iron Man, and he has indeed become "Iron Man" after years of twists and turns.
This is the wish that Marvel originally wanted to pass on to the audience.
But the way to shape it is the opposite:
Marvel is constantly tearing off the "mask" of heroes.
Like the line in "Iron Man" that could change the history of superhero movies:
I'm Iron Man
What did Stark do before saying this?
Let the assistant buy a few cheeseburgers, entertain the reporter friends to sit down, and review the experience of the rest of his life.
All of the above comes from Downey Jr.'s improvisation, and the screenwriter didn't want him to blow himself up in the first act.
From the world's number one arms dealer to the hero of maintaining world peace.
He first showed weakness (desire) as a human being.
Secondly, it shows the weakness (identity) of being a hero.
This was something that most superhero movies at that time did not think about.
In the pre-Marvel era, superheroes were more of a novel symbol, embedded in different issues - grandiose, such as Ang Lee and Nolan, using superheroes to reflect on the nuclear crisis during the Cold War, the order and morality of modern society; Exquisite, like the original Spider-Man, applies the classic family ethics and love model.
Simply put.
Others talk more about "times make heroes."
Marvel is about an ordinary person's heroic dream.
Who is Iron Man?
His life history stems from the gossip secrets of the world's richest man;
His experience coincides with that of the starring Downey Jr. - his career was hit hard by a scandal, and he revived after the rebellion of his relatives;
His subversion was the last resort of Marvel, a small company on the verge of bankruptcy, facing a desperate situation, just like Marvel's father Stan Lee once said: "I want to make Iron Man a bastard and make the whole world fall in love with him." ”
It's easy to say, how to do it?
Dig out the "man" behind the mask.
Once, he hid in a playboy's sleeve.
People say that he is very careful, but when he wants to hook up with his little sister, he has to rely on Harpy's eyes and reports to talk to each other.
However, when he woke up, it turned out that not only sex in his life was disposable, but even the morning sun was simulated.
Extreme lack of love, to abuse love, and then escape from all love.
Playboy is just another piece of his "armor".
Later, he hid in the illusion of "world peace".
He is a technology maniac, even thinking that he can promote world peace with his ingenuity, immersed in a grand sense of justice.
But when he is hijacked by terrorists and uncovers the trademark, he discovers that it is his Stark Industries that threw innocent people into the fire.
The last "mask".
It was Dr. Ethan who met in the cave.
In this Robinson crusoe-style self-redemption, Stark slowly realizes his limitations, numbness, and insignificance.
And when Dr. Ethan, who has always protected himself, dies, he truly feels the weight of life and why he must become a "hero".
Thank you for saving my life
Then cherish it and don't waste your life
So you can see:
Iron Man's first "steel suit" was so rough, so loose, and finally shattered in the desert.
Leave a "mask" in vain.
It was Stark's post-redemption wake-up call:
It is because he realizes the fragility of his flesh that he locks himself in the laboratory like crazy, constantly upgrading his armor, inventing programs, and building protective armor for himself and his loved ones (Pepper, Spider-Man) in advance.
It's not that he thinks iron armor can make heroes.
And it is precisely the "weaknesses" of people - emotions, pity, empathy, etc. - that stimulate the urge to protect each other.
Just like that defenseless child, who saw the alien invasion, saw the collapse of tall buildings and the dying of life, he dared to raise his thin hand.
Sir still remembers the deepest-hidden Easter egg in Avengers 4.
At the end of the movie progress bar, an "Easter egg" that can only be heard.
Boom, boom, boom...
That was the sound of 11 years ago, when all the stories began.
Tony Stark is kidnapped, and he is in a cave, using a hammer to knock out the first steel armor.
It is from the moment you pick up the hammer with your bare hands.
That arrogant Stark.
It has the magic power to make all "little boys" dare to raise that hand.
02 New universe
Talking about Marvel can't get around another sentence:
Martin Scorsese's "theme park" theory.
Lao Ma's criticism did point out the imbalance in the development of the film market, and many Marvel creators responded at that time.
But many people overlook a premise when quoting this passage:
He was criticizing Marvel.
It is also the trend of "only Marvel", and the serious imbalance of "Marvel-style movie entertainment" encroaching on "cinema".
Yes.
Before the advent of Marvel, comic books were just a giant pit that everyone hated.
Bad movies are dense, and occasionally there are masterpieces like "The Dark Knight", which rely more on the power of gods and people.
Marvel was like an angry "old Martin" in that era.
Before Iron Man became Iron Man, he was just Nobody.
In 1990, Universal bought the film adaptation rights of Iron Man and wanted to take the B-grade film route.
Plans have been stranded.
Until the copyright returned to Marvel in 2005, during which the adaptation rights were transferred to Fox and New Line Pictures (the masterpiece "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), Quentin thought about being a director, and Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were close to starring in Iron Man.
But no one can figure it out.
The same situation occurred after the explosion of "Iron Man 1".
According to the autobiography of former Disney CEO Robert Iger "A Journey of a Lifetime", as early as the previous CEO Michael Eisner, there was an idea to acquire Marvel.
"It's a sleeping mountain of gold with thousands of IPs."
At that time, the market was generally pessimistic, even independent director Steve Jobs was not optimistic, and Marvel (anime) content was not lacking in dark colors, which conflicted with Disney's family temperament.
△ In Marvel Comics: Spider-Man eats his family
But Robert Iger, who just bought Pixar, believes strongly in the power of IP.
- He brought a book with a full introduction to Marvel characters to explain this new world view to Jobs. Mr. Qiao only read it for ten seconds before pushing the book, "Is this important to you?" Do you really want it? Will it be the second Pixar? ”
Success depends on experience, and epoch-making success depends on intuition.
We all know the story that followed.
The acquisition of Marvel became the best deal Disney has ever made.
There is an important reason for this seemingly unexpected success:
This wave of coveted Marvel filmmakers knows little about it, let alone loves it.
And Disney has not failed a number of Marvel diehard loyalists.
It profoundly changed the thinking of Hollywood comic book adaptations, making subsequent Marvel works become standard, unified style products.
They just want to be theme parks.
And it is a high-quality, high-standard theme park that allows all ages to linger, rather than a "township park" that coaxes people to buy tickets.
That is, to create the Marvel Universe.
Before Marvel, the development of a movie IP was generally to shoot a sequel - either a prequel or a follow-up.
Marvel is different, he allows different heroes to "visit the door" between various movies, giving the audience the fun and surprise of discovering Easter eggs, faithfully practicing entertainment first.
Is it just Easter egg culture?
Many people forget that at the same time as "Iron Man", there is also a superhero film called "The Incredible Hulk".
Watching "Iron Man" today is a big win commercially, but at that time, as a mature IP, the expectations of the latter were almost crushed.
The reason is a long story.
Sir just one detail.
The climactic scene at the end of the film, Dr. Banner fell from a height and transformed into a process, "The Invincible Hulk" is handled with a tragic drama.
Before jumping, Hulk kisses his girlfriend affectionately goodbye.
Coincidentally, "Thor 3" has a similar bridge.
Asgard, Dr. Banner jumped off again.
No one kissed this time.
Falling position or sauce purple:
What does this detail say?
Emotion.
The former is a thick rendering of emotions, the latter is a comical dissolution of emotions.
Don't get me wrong, Sir isn't saying that Marvel's entertainment doesn't have feelings.
On the contrary, it can be dissolved in an entertaining way, which is precisely a strong confidence.
This confidence comes from the cinematic universe shaped by Marvel, which is enough for screenwriters to accumulate emotions with the volume of three, five, or even ten movies.
And when it really fully unleashed?
You know:
After 15 years, fans will get an echo of the past time almost every time they watch a Marvel.
Team America's "I can do this all day";
Black Widow and Thor's "Sun's getting real low" to the Hulk;
First "Avengers 1" Iron Man said to Loki, and then "Avengers 3" Loki said to Thanos "We have a Hulk".
And, Iron Man's phrase "I am Iron Man"...
How many people burst into tears in the theater.
It all converges into the finale of "Avengers 4".
Marvel could have paved the way for the next stage at the point where the popularity was highest, as speculated by the outside world, and let profits continue to roll.
But Sir still remembers that in the interview that year, Marvel CEO Kevin Feige firmly denied this approach:
This movie ("Avengers IV") is strictly about only one ending. Only when we announce future movie plans may you find some clues in the movie.
But if you look at it for the first time, you won't notice it.
The result is as he puts it:
There are almost no new heroes, new villains, new universes.
Some are just solemn, tragic collective farewells.
Places the heroes mercilessly in a "natural disaster" that has nothing to do with camps, not even good or evil.
Let them unload their glory again.
Like ordinary people, they cannot shout any lofty slogans, leaving behind a humiliating and irrefutable silence.
This is another wayward way for Marvel creators to be avid fans.
Meantime.
It also pushes Marvel's top 20 movies to a peak that Marvel itself is insurmountable.
03 New adventures
These are Marvel's most difficult times.
The first three phases of Marvel can be described as soaring.
In the first stage, six films with a global box office of $3.813 billion; in the second stage, six films with a global box office of $5.269 billion; and in the third stage, eleven films with a global box office of $13.5 billion.
The just-concluded fourth phase is in a state of fatigue:
Seven films with a global box office of $5.695 billion.
△ The finale of the fourth phase "Black Panther 2" has a global box office of 857 million US dollars. Source: Maoyan Movie Pro
There are many factors involved.
The impact of the epidemic, cultural differences, aesthetic fatigue, etc., have slowed down the momentum of Marvel movies.
In addition, the cinematic universe is a tightly biting chain that cannot be chaotic, and the result of one project being delayed is that all projects are affected.
Many attempts have not met expectations.
Even the development of temperament such as "Eternals" and "Shang Qi", which are different from the previous temperament, under the premise of imperfect quality, has completely eliminated disputes outside the film because of the drastic changes in the public opinion environment.
There are, of course, exceptions.
Especially the small screen - the anti-comedy sitcom of "WandaVision"; "Loki" attempts to change the absurd crossing of fate; Moonlight Knight's dark and terrifying adventure; And "What if...?" " completely unleashes the crazy conjecture of parallel universes.
△ "WandaVision", "Loki", "Moonlight Knight", "What if...? 》
But that's all gone.
An episode.
After a tumultuous experience over the past few years, Disney re-invited Robert Iger back to the CEO position in 2022.
After Iger returned, there was this sentence in the internal letter to the employees:
I fully believe that stories are still the fuel that drives this company.
This can be a signal.
Disney and Marvel must once again break some of the experience dependence and get back on the road.
This also leads to the real concerns of movie fans after the opening of the mainland market:
The fifth stage, how to do it?
The specific plans and blueprints, Sir is too ethereal today.
Let's talk about the last two films we can watch.
"Black Panther 2" was supposed to be the big show.
"Black Panther" is the first black superhero to have a personal movie, and indeed invested a lot of sincerity in the previous work to restore the tribal culture, beliefs, and rituals of black people.
The sequel was supposed to deepen in this direction while polishing the story.
Until the bad news came.
The project was almost torn down and rebuilt, and the film itself became a big farewell.
This is understandable for Marvel fans - Chadwick Boseman was diagnosed with cancer while filming "Black Panther", but in order to ensure that his figure meets the standards of Black Panther, he insisted on training 4 hours a day, and finally became the real king of Wakanda on the screen.
The film did not hesitate to rewrite the script 6 times, just to commemorate such a filmmaker.
There is a detail that die-hard fans only know.
The license plate escorting Everett Ross's transporter, CB112976, is Chadwick Boseman's birthday, and on November 29, 1976, "CB" is also the abbreviation of Chadwick Boseman's name.
As a Chinese audience, Sir prefers "Ant-Man 3".
If you want to choose a key character in "Avengers 4" who can best "carry on the top and bottom", it is undoubtedly the Ant-Man who masters the core technology.
Or rather, Professor Pym, who focuses on the quantum field.
And Marvel chose the second generation of Ant-Man as the protagonist of the series - Scott Lang.
Who is this?
In the original work, it is simply a dick version of "Iron Man".
Not a good gentleman, in prison, divorced; He also had a suit, but it was stolen from Dr. Pym.
The most untalented "little people" in the Marvel Universe.
But because of this, Marvel spawned a new variation on him:
Civilianization of narratives.
Different from the family relationship that only joined in the late stage of the original Avengers, Ant-Man appears as the first single father, the first daughter slave, and the first "love brain" in the Marvel Universe.
Visual microcosmization.
Sir can say without exaggeration.
"Ant-Man" is a new platform for Marvel's imagination.
After blowing up New York and bombing the earth, after blowing up the world, after blowing up the universe, then what to blow up?
Go the other way and turn your head into the microscopic world.
As conveyed in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy (Ant-Man 3): The truly beautiful scenery of the world, hidden beneath our world.
In "Ant-Man 1" and "Ant-Man 2", Marvel first narrowed the perspective to the size of an ant.
Many people remember the fight in the toy room in "Ant-Man 1". Ant-Man looks at toy trains as oppressive as real trains.
But when their battle is over, the director cuts back to the normal perspective:
Yes?
That's it?
"Ant-Man 3" goes a step further, directly showing the visual wonders of the quantum realm in all directions.
Not much else spoilers.
To put it simply, Sir received a visual shock at the premiere that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not seen on the big screen so far, and this shock is not all based on technology - more in the development of visual mode.
When the quantum realm is embodied on the screen, it is an unprecedented experience, an organic combination of chaos and order.
At the same time, "Ant-Man 3", as the beginning of the fifth phase of Marvel, is also a key battle for "The Multiverse Saga".
Marvel's ultimate villain in the future stage, "Kang the Conqueror", also appeared in the movie for the first time.
He is a villain who ignores time and space and has countless personalities.
In "Ant-Man 3", he has already shown his almost unrivaled combat power - when one Kang falls and thousands more Kang stand up, it's hard to imagine how the screenwriters will end this battle.
Kang the Conqueror will be the biggest threat to the Avengers in the future, and our biggest expectation of the future direction of the story.
Therefore, "Ant-Man 3" is not a one-sided visual show-off.
Sir would like to compare it to a "war" on the level of consciousness.
How effective it is remains to be verified by the market.
For those who are interested in poisoned rice, Sir strongly recommends that you go to the big screen to experience it in person, and it is recommended that you find friends who chatted with Marvel to experience it together.
After all, the meaning of theme parks is not only cool, hi, exciting...
In the post-pandemic era, it means coming together.
These years.
We seem to be more accustomed to the dissolution of mainstream values, adapt to tearing and falling, and therefore more inseparable from the sense of security in the cocoon.
But.
In retrospect, Sir is still thankful.
Late that night, I put aside the manuscript and hot spots, and unloaded the weight of life and the exhaustion of going to work the next day.
Like a little boy.
Tiptoe into that dream-making space, feel the flow of light and shadow on the big screen, and change a lot.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Doraemon