The Marvel Universe is by far one of the most creative aspects about entertainment the world has seen since the early 1960’s. Throughout the decades Marvel has given us new comic books, television shows, and movies that have captured our attention again and again. For about forty years, Marvel mainly presented their stories through comic books and television shows. There are many facets to the Marvel Universe, but the most popular rose in the early 2000’s. The Marvel Cinematic Universe gained major popularity when Marvel Studios distributed Iron Man in 2008. Iron Man began the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; there have since been two more phases. The MCU is currently in its third phase with its most recent movie being Ant-Man and the Wasp which was released in 2018.
One of the most recent movies the MCU has rocked the world with is Avengers: Infinity War. Warning: there will be slight spoilers of the movie to follow in this blog post. Let us begin by stating that the movie is a creative masterpiece. This may be a biased opinion but there is a strong argument to follow. The plot of the movie took years to develop based on the Marvel comic books and different aspects of the Marvel Cinema Universe that had been in place due to previous movies. The different facets of the Marvel multiverse were also taken into consideration. What impressed viewers the most with this movie was how Marvel was able to fuse each of the different movies and their individual styles into one movie. The Marvel movie with a notable style difference is Guardians of the Galaxy. In these movies, the majority of the scenes are changed by large white letters announcing the location across the screen. In Avengers: Infinity War Marvel incorporated this style as well, even though it is not seen in the various other movies.
Continuing on the topic of the blending, the creativity that was put into blending the different characters personalities is also notable. At this point in the MCU, the majority of the characters have their own movies in the franchise. Therefore, their personalities and relationship dynamics are familiar to the audiences. There was a lot of creativity put into developing relationships between characters that have never been together before. Some examples of this would be Stark/Doctor Strange and the Avengers/people of Wakanda. Stark and Doctor Strange are similar with their alpha personalities. Instead of having the two team up and lead together, the MCU chose to create a love/hate relationship and pit their egos against each other. This provided audiences with comic relief and also furthered the plot. The second example, the Avengers and the people of Wakanda, shed light onto the intelligence of both parties. Since Wakanda just recently started allowing outsiders in, audiences were allowed a different view into their hidden country. Also, the Avengers were surprised at how advanced the Wakandan technology was which gave a glimpse at how the comic books came into play.
Finally, the emotional and surprise aspect to this movie make it one of the most creative movies put out in 2018. Regarding the emotional aspect of this movie, it can be argued that the majority of the plot was run heavily by love. For a superhero movie, this can be considered going against the norm. The majority of the superhero movies seen today are motivated by revenge, crime, or war. The fact that the majority of this plot was motivated by love and deep passion, seen in Thanos, makes it creative. The surprise ending to this movie is what I consider the major creative aspect in this movie by Marvel. When was the last time a movie contained all of the “good guys” and they still lost?? With a large franchise like Marvel, they had to consider all implications of ending their movie this way. One can claim that they were just doing it to make a part two of the movie and gain more money, but I believe it is because of their creative mentality. In class, we had reading regarding motivation. Irving and Baer both commented about the different reasons people are motivated. The expectations of this movie and the weight it held to continue the MCU legacy definitely motivated them to try and be as successful as possible and pushed their creativity to flow. I remember walking out of the theater in literal shock. Their creativity shined through.
References:
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/04/there-will-be-no-new-marvel-studios-content-in-november-ending-a-16-month-streak-8103548/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War
I have always loved comic books and the Avengers have always held a place in my heart. I loved when they first introduced Thanos into the MCU and I feel as though the creativity in this movie really came from all of the past Avengers movies. Its exciting to see what they have in store for the next movie - hopefully it'll have the Thanos Helicopter.
ReplyDeleteI have never been into comics, so I'm glad that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was created so that people like me who don't read comics could be introduced to the Marvel characters. I never really thought about it, but I agree that the Marvel movies are extremely creative. I really liked Guardians of the Galaxy and how the music guided the movie. When it comes to Infinity War, I am amazed by how the creators connected so many different characters and narratives. It truly takes some great minds to do that. I love how your blog post really highlights the genius of the MCU.
ReplyDeleteWhile the comics were all written before the Marvel cinematic universe came to life, creating a movie even based on someone prewritten takes a lot of creativity. I think by having the enemy win at the end of Avengers: Infinity Wars, while it does create a second movie, it provides a plot that is not normal. They end the movie in a way that also makes the audience feel something deep, where there is no hope, rather than the audience just thinking "oh well next movie we will for sure win." I agree with the above statements though that Marvel did a really good job combining the different types of Marvel universes and characters into one plot where it didn't feel patchy and random.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved Marvel movies, and this blog post really opened my eyes to just how creative the writers, directors, producers, etc. are. I really liked how you talked about the love and passion that played a role in Infinity War. I hadn't thought of it that way before and just how different it was from previous MCU movies. It's interesting to consider why they decided to shift motivation from things like revenge to love. I remember walking out of the movie theatre last May in complete and utter shock after seeing Infinity War. I can honestly say that I have never been more shocked by a movie's ending than I was to Infinity War. Marvel has a history of ending on a positive, defeating evil kind of note. So, to see the ending of Infinity War was a huge surprise, to say the last. I can't wait to see what's next in store in the MCU like Captain Marvel and the next Avengers movie!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about the future of Marvel now that Stan Lee has passed? He was the creator of the universe, almost the God of it! Do you think it will still be perpetuated through the years? Im reminded of how my favorite book series was continued, after the author died, by someone else. Do you think new characters and stories will be created?
ReplyDeleteEven though I have not read any of the comics nor have I watched every single marvel movie, Stan Lee and the the people who brought them to big screen have really done an amazing job at creating something for everyone. I love how even though they are all "action" movies, they do a really good job of having the audience fall in love with the characters and their personal stories.
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