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Is MARVEL Killing Cinema | How the MCU is Killing Cinema

In today’s video, we will talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how its increasing scope and domination of movie theaters have squandered the amount and quality of original films being made every year.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe- or, MCU- has brought us many great moments. They popularized the cinematic universe concept and reengineered the very notion of what a “sequel” or “spinoff” can be. It’s honestly impressive that one movie series was introduced to us with the grounded and relatively realistic Iron Man, and only grew our interest through aliens, a shrinking man, a wizard, a Norse god, and an octopus cat. There’s no doubt the MCU is one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and definitely deserves recognition. However, that being said, the MCU has done more harm than good to the art of filmmaking.

Even if they don’t like the MCU, most people will at least give it credit for creating the concept of a shared cinematic universe. Even if the movies themselves are big and dumb with little actual merit, at least the MCU broke new ground by taking a bunch of independent franchises and weaving them together to tell one cohesive story. After all, who didn’t go watch The Avengers when it first came out and have their mind blown seeing Thor fight Iron Man?

But Marvel wasn’t the first to do that. Not even close. Universal made the first cinematic universe 80 years before Iron Man came out. Universal’s classic monster movies- Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Phantom of the Opera- are all considered part of the first actual cinematic universe.

MCU is the biggest cinematic universe out there. It’s true. They have almost 30 movies and half a dozen TV shows. And Spiderman: No Way Home kind of makes it a cinematic multiverse, not just a universe, and that would definitely be a first. But the MCU isn’t the first or even the most culturally relevant cinematic universe to exist. It isn’t even the first cinematic universe owned by Disney.

Obviously, the MCU is the most explicit cinematic universe owned by Disney, but ever since the 90s, Disney movies have featured characters from other franchises. For example, in Aladdin, Genie turns into Pinocchio when he’s making fun of Aladdin for lying to Jasmine. In Hercules, a rug made out of the Scar from the Lion King’s hide can be seen. Belle from Beauty and the Beast appears in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and there are even rumors that Tarzan is Anna and Elsa’s long-lost little brother.

Marvel’s Success Changes the Game

4 of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time are MCU films. That might not sound like much but remember that that’s coming from one movie series. All the MCU is, is the Iron Man series and all of its spin-offs, and it’s 4 of the top 10 highest-grossing movies, and 10 of the highest 30 grossing movies. That’s huge. And it’s impacted how the rest of the filmmakers are making their movies.

What was the last movie based on an original story that everybody flocked to on opening night? It’s all action movies. Superhero movies. Even movies that didn’t start out as superhero movies became superhero movies as Marvel dominated theaters over time. People make fun of the Fast and the Furious franchise for turning from semi-realistic crime and racing movies into superhero movies that include cyborgs, planet-ending weapons, and invincible characters.

Since 2008, the average number of movies being made by major studios has been cut almost in half every year. In other words, Marvel movies are so massive and successful that they’re destroying the competition, meaning that if you want to have a night out at the theaters, your choices are slowly becoming only Marvel, or at least only superhero movies.

Non-Marvel Movies are Getting worse

Martin Scorsese famously criticized the MCU by calling Marvel movies “roller coaster rides” and “not cinema”. That’s largely true. Scorsese claims that not only are MCU movies predictable and bad from a film studies standpoint, but he specified that the reason for this is that investors are so profit-oriented that they’ve perfected how to make money off of movies, and the way they do that is by making sure movies are littered with Easter eggs and inside jokes that make the audience feel like they’re being spoken directly to by the movie, instead of actually trying to break new artistic ground.

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