Chris Snellgrove | Posted
Time passes much faster than Sam Wilson. More than two years have passed since then. captain america 4 Announced at San Diego Comic Con. The film’s scheduled 2024 release date had already been pushed back to February 14, 2025 due to the writers’ and actors’ strike, but many speculated that the delay had more to do with Disney’s desire to improve the film’s quality after negative test screenings. .
Now we have the following report: captain america 4 Re-filming takes place less than three months before release. This makes one thing clear. Disney no longer has a true creative vision for the MCU.
The miserable situation of Captain America 4
There had previously been a lot of speculation that Disney wanted to postpone it. captain america 4 To remove controversial elements. This included Sabra, an Israeli hero who could have ramifications for the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Speculation was also rampant that previous reshoots were prompted by negative test screenings, and now the latest reshoots are reportedly due to audiences finding the film boring and essential to the larger MCU. This suggests that Disney has lost its creative vision for this superhero franchise and is desperately trying to tailor its content to audience desires rather than simply putting out a great movie and letting critics and audiences judge it on its own merits. This is clear evidence.
At first this may seem like a paradox. Ultimately, Marvel’s reshoots based on negative test reviews mean they is Let the audience be the judge, right? Well, yes and no: It makes good business sense to do a round of edits and reshoots based on feedback from a bad test screening. Reshooting again With less than three months left before the movie’s release, more Negative feedback means Disney is getting conflicting feedback from fans about what they like and what they don’t like. captain america 4 Rather than making a film based on the director’s singular vision, we’re trying to distort ourselves around this feedback.
Why Disney’s Current Approach Is a Bad Idea
The biggest problem with this approach is something I wrote about previously. Marvel as a whole multiverse Most fans have very different ideas about what the MCU should look like.
The irony here is that many of Marvel’s best decisions for its cinematic universe would have been disliked by many audiences if they had been forewarned. For example, disgraced former addict and prisoner Robert Downey Jr. crazy Iron Man’s Casting Choice: Chubby and Stupid parks and recreation Star Chris Pratt was a crazy choice to headline an action movie filled with superhero C-listers.
If it were possible, many Marvel fans would reject that option. watertight Casting Decisions) They would have rejected overtly adult MCU content such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones Ideas like turning Thor into a comedic character on Netflix (a show now considered canonical for Marvel series) or disbanding S.H.I.E.L.D. would have met similar resistance. Fortunately for fans around the world, the directors and producers behind these controversial decisions are focused solely on making high-quality movies, leaving everything else (including fans’ tendency to clutch their pearls at the slightest annoyance) on their own. I let it get sorted out.
Marvel’s Cinematic Universe suffers from a severe reliance on committees.
now, captain america 4‘s reported reshoots in response to negative reviews have shown that the MCU’s Phase 5 (and beyond) is suffering from serious decisions that rely on committees and executives to make decisions. The best example of this is leafIt’s a film that lost several directors, writers and stars based on an idiot-proof concept (a vampire not exposed to cold sunlight kills other vampires) as Disney attempts to create a compelling story for its most delayed Marvel film. At one point, it was announced that the title character would now become the fourth lead in a film that focuses more on female heroes, a decision even more stupid than ice skating uphill.
And of course the most obvious A sign that the film is being made by committee is the decision to bring back Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Disney’s Hail Mary attempts to create a memorable Big Bad after the legal drama surrounding Jonathan Majors, but it also shows how creatively bankrupt the House of Mouse really is. After trying to make Kang the Conqueror happen by shoving the strange story of Kang the Conqueror down our throats, the studio suddenly pivoted and turned Marvel’s most famous character into what would inevitably be yet another empty variant cameo. I spent a small mountain of money to get my face back.
Captain America 4’s reported reshoots may or may not make the movie better, but they’re ultimately a sign of Marvel’s larger failure to allow its creators to set a bold vision rather than attempt to maintain the empty status quo of further audience expectations. Indicates symptoms of failure. Once upon a time, studios seemed to understand that big hits only came from big swings. This is why directors like Jon Favreau and Taika Waititi are given so much creative freedom. Although due to these specific directors, the sequel to their MCU debut was clearly much weaker than the first film. iron man 2 and Thor: Love and Thunder Because it didn’t really matter iron man and Thor: Ragnarok It changed this entire cinematic universe for the better.
Marvel needs to forget this helplessness. Otherwise you will be destroyed
The crux of my plea to Marvel is this: Forget the feeling of helplessness that comes from social media doomscrolling about bad test screenings and disgruntled neckbeard feedback.
Hire a talented director to create the kind of killer comic book content that once made the MCU a blockbuster movie franchise. Otherwise, this cinematic universe will continue to decline, and it won’t be long before fans who miss Marvel’s creative risk-taking will focus their passions on the upcoming DCU and the endless creativity of superstar creator James Gunn. Gunn was previously fired by Marvel due to embarrassed management rather than fan demand.
Marvel has something to learn. They won’t know what it is until the committee delays finding out for about five years or so.
