It all
started with a little film called Iron Man in 2008, a film that introduced us
to a new and revamped Robert Downey Jr as he stole our hearts with his roguish
bravado and hilarious one liners. We continued on through Phase One being
introduced to Hulk, Thor and Captain America as well as a LOT of great
supporting cast such as Black Widdow and Nick Fury. Marvel were playing a long
game that none of us had ever seen before, instead of going straight to an
Avengers movie, they patiently built up a cinematic universe that helped give
wide exposure to their lesser known characters.
I remember
believing that The Avengers wasn’t going to work, I mean, how could it? How
could you find the right script that could give all these fantastic characters
their due? I thought that it was going to descend into an ‘Iron Man and
Friends’ movie with Marvel falling back on their most popular character for
support. Imagine my surprise when Avengers became one of my favourite films of
all time and the gold standard I hold comic book movies to, even to this day.
Marvel’s
patient approach had worked; The Avengers was both a critical and commercial
success, raking in over $1 Billion at box office. And as we near the end of
Phase 2 and await Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel show no signs of fatigue as
they rolled out sequels to Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. Not only are
they giving us worthy sequels, Winter Soldier was phenomenal, but Marvel are
also taking risks with Guardians of the Galaxy – a film that brought back the
memories of all the fun I had with Avengers.
Marvel can
do no wrong at the moment, I mean, when you release a film with a talking tree
and it becomes the biggest movie of the summer, you know what you are doing.
The question is, can they keep it up? Age of Ultron looks amazing, and I don’t
expect anything less from Joss Whedon but what about Phase 3? We are being
introduced to a lot of new, lesser-known characters such as Ant Man, Doctor
Strange and the Inhumans.
Under the
guidance of any other production company, I would worry about the fate of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe as it juggled so many vastly unique characters. But here’s
the thing, I trust Kevin Feige. That guy could be the smartest guy in
Hollywood, the way he is overseeing Marvel as it churns out successful movie
after successful movie. I seriously believe that as long as Mr. Feige is in
charge, Marvel Cinematic Universe will grow to become the greatest and most
ambitious movie franchise that the business has seen as it defines a
generations of movie goers to come.
Alex A.
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