I had a thought the other day, as I popped on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, less than 2 months after it premiered in theatres, and asked myself: “Am I still interested in the MCU?”
Sure enough, 2 entertaining hours later, my question remained unanswered. Perhaps, I was asking the wrong question? I tried framing it differently.
“Maybe, I just do not care about what happens in the MCU anymore?” Well, kind of. I’m not interested in the technicalities anymore, with the sprawling multiversal pinball arena continually expanding outwards. But, for a late-night watch, it succeeds as casual entertainment.
“Maybe I’m just not interested in Doctor Strange?” Maybe. Even with the acclaimed and renowned Sam Raimi, who returned to helm this new MCU instalment since Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013, something clicked for me. And it’s all down to him; from the chaos and the brutality to the literal madness. It’s indeed Sam Raimi-esque.
So, what was it?
“Maybe… the MCU has forgotten how to craft a film?” And that got me thinking. Have they, really?
Pandemic woes
In 2020, production companies all around the world were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. But, how much? In total, the global movie industry lost almost $32 billion in revenue.
That year, we saw many anticipated films move their schedule like Chess pieces, from one calendar month to the next calendar year. Films like “No Time To Die” saw a delay of over a year. And, let’s not forget, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were also flirting with the idea of possibly selling the film in a $600 million deal to streaming services like Apple and Netflix, but eventually halted it due to a few challenges and, largely, financial recoupment.
Do you remember the story of how Tom Cruise unleashed a rant on-set during the filming of the upcoming Mission: Impossible film? That was merely a peek behind-the-curtains on how film productions were facilitated between 2020 to 2021, but most importantly, understanding the sequestering and logistical complications that had to be put in place to ensure production would go on without issues.
You see, in the before-COVID times, there weren’t really a need for masks, setting boundaries, and establishing restrictions to limit cases of the spread. And this didn’t just apply to cast members — every crew member working on the film had to ensure that they were safe and healthy every time they stepped on to set, or they might incur the wrath of billion-dollar corporations and studios that depend on films to make money. Or, you know, incur the wrath of Tom Cruise.
With these new regulations, the creation of sets, it saw an increase in budgeting costs. For instance, Mission: Impossible — Fallout set Paramount back by $190 million. In contrast, the latest Mission: Impossible cost upwards of $290 million. It must be added that the budget did also take into account all of the production halts that happened during filming, of up to 7 different times.
While normalcy has returned and the world has returned to the ways of pre-pandemic life, so have cinema-goers.
“So, how does this affect the MCU, exactly?” Good question, you!
Ain’t no film like a Marvel film
In 2021, Marvel’s slate encompassed 4 films in total.
Firstly, Black Widow, released on 29 June and raked in about $380 million in the global box office.
Then came the martial arts epic, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, released on 16 August to a global box office churn of $432.2 million.
Next, we had the rather dismally received Eternals, released on 5 November to the tune of $402.1 million worldwide.
And, lastly but not certainly not least, Spider-Man: No Way Home, released 17 December to a whopping $1.901 billion. And then came the onslaught of news that No Way Home had supposedly ‘saved cinema’, alongside a ridiculous push for a ‘Best Picture’ nomination at the Academy Awards.
Only Black Widow and Eternals had wrapped film production prior to COVID-19, while Shang-Chi and No Way Home were both filmed under various restrictions to keep the cast and crew safe.
Similarly, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was also filmed with heavy COVID-19 restrictions, and even led to several reshoots as well.
However, there is a slight difference to the three here. While Shang-Chi had actual locations and sets to allow the cast and characters to inhabit the world that they were in, No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness didn’t quite work the same way.
In No Way Home, visual effects supervisor Kelly Port, who also worked on the MCU’s Endgame and Infinity War, shared in an interview with Variety that there were only around 80 shots in the film that didn’t have visual effects. That might not seem all that strange (no pun intended), considering the film’s hefty $200 million budget was probably allocated to polishing, tidying, and in general, making the film look really good.
What does it all mean? It meant that almost all outside shots had to be digitally recreated and spliced in. For instance, that scene where Spidey battles Doc-Ock on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge? Captured all in front of a blue screen.
In fact, that scene itself also required the creation of an entirely new set to facilitate some of the more intricate shots, such as the dangling of the car on the bridge.
In fact, one could get the sense, gleaming from the knowledge of what we now know with No Way Home, that the same happened to the Doctor Strange sequel.
And, in all honesty, you’d be right. Not even counting the multiverse traversal that happens with Strange and America Chavez, the film itself also had to leverage visual effects to craft some of it’s more spectacular set pieces.
While both these films (No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness) have achieved the impossible, stringing production together under COVID-19 restrictions, and still keeping narrative secrets under wraps, there’s no denying that the film lacks a real kinetic breath.
Which leads me to this: the current MCU has a myriad of problems, not least down to how it wants to unravel its plot post-Thanos. But the biggest one, to me, is resolving just how estranged it looks and feels.
And, unironically, the best out of the bunch that have felt genuinely well-crafted, is Chloé Zhao’s Eternals.
Beauty in failure
When the critical assessment for Eternals had came in, the outlook on the film was not positive. However, there was similar thoughts on one thing: how beautiful the film looked.
Perhaps it’s the storytelling aching and the prominence for natural sunlight that exists in all of Zhao’s films thus far helped to ground the aesthetic of the film. Perhaps it’s just the film opting for real-world shots that encompasses the grand scale of its world-weary heroes. In essence, the shots looked great.
Don’t get me wrong, Eternals isn’t perfect by any means. It still has the giddy MCU trademark of humour-meets-action that just doesn’t go “Splat!” and often finds itself failing to take any sort of risk, instead opting for routine wheel-spinning in a garish sense. Though filmmakers like Zhao get their stamp on it ever so often (even for Raimi as well), it’s still usurped by the MCU’s sanguine nature to go big without being better.
But, there’s no denying it: Zhao’s affect on Eternals continues to stun the other MCU films around it. The stark contrast (again, no pun intended) in authenticity is flagrantly apparent when placed in contrast with that of No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness, in which for a majority of both their runtimes, you could feel that the production was filmed in tiny sandboxes, impacted by their limitations of wanting to push for more VFX.
Instead of natural sunlight, we get shady interiors and the blinkered world yelling at us to explore deeper.
Instead of grand locations, we get dull interiors and lifeless structures.
Instead of having a semblance of authenticity, we get sets and production that feel aloof and stilted.
No Way Home’s climax is one such example, bereft of any tangibility, lacking in the tether between what is real and what is unbelievably fake. I’m not watching actors play around anymore. I’m watching a wave of hollow CGI presentations ring out, served with empty messages and a lack of pathos.
While Eternals may have been mocked for its convoluted plot with a slew of too-many-characters-that-I-don’t-care-about, it still showed that if the MCU dared to go deeper, provided a template that was grounded in real sets and environments, it could have been better. No, it would have been better.
Still to come this year are Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and despite having seen neither the trailer or read any details about them, I can safely attest that they’ll probably run into the same issues — again.
There’s no real reason for me to care about the fabric of how these films connect, because underlying every intricate detail, it all feels so inherently forced. I’m watching the multi-billion dollar corporate machine of Disney churn out film after film, with no real reason for me to actually care.
And that’s saying a lot, with its wobbly stack of A-list stars and a few grade A directors (Zhao and Coogler come to mind) as well. There is talent there, but without structure, they all seem like empty promises written on sand, dashed away when the impending tidal wave hits the shore.
So, am I still interested in the MCU? Not really.
Will I watch the upcoming films? The answer is a resounding: “No”.
