That's about the same thing I'm saying though. Most of the recent films have been absolute dreck. Still made a shit load of money.
Look at the last few years: Eternals, The Marvels, Black Widow, Quantumania, were all objectively bad movies. Only The Marvels was considered a failure though, not because it lost a lot of money, but because it only broke about even. The rest of these movies made a lot of money.
If we're talking purely financial gain, then sure - Marvel will continue to dominate because it has name recognition. Lowest common denominator type stuff that everyone and their Mom will go and see because it's "Fun" regardless of whether it's a decent film or not. And I'm in full agreement there. What was my point? Oh yeh. I said "Perform Worst" so, maybe it was my choice of words - They all make dollar. But I was thinking more... About the ratings from fans. And it's there that we see the less generic ones hitting home most.
Winter Soldier - Spy Thriller
Antman 1/2 - Hiest Movies
Thor: Ragnarok - Full Comedy/Space Operra
Spider-Man Homecoming - Low Scale Coming of Age
Etc etc.
And I'm in full agreement that most of the Phase 4 stuff has been middling at best, with a few exceptions. But I think that's BECAUSE they're leaning on their formula. And, considering what Feige has come out and said recently, it seems like they're pulling back on that and going back to what made the previous films sucessful.
I also think COVID didn't help at all. Marvel was already making too many films, oversaturating their own market, and stretching themselves too thin... But COVID comes along, ruins their shooting schedule, their writing schedule, etc etc. And I think that can be really felt in the films. LIke, I don't think you can sit there watching it and go "Oh this is COVID happening" but I think you can feel an unease, or something not gelling correctly, and that is because of the knock on.
Such as... Spider-Man: No Way Home, is arrguably one of the best films they've made Post-End Game. I think everyone will agree with that. And even that feels shakey in places and, then we learn, that Dr Strange: Multiverse of Madness was meant to take place before Spider-Man, and both films had to be rewritten in places due to COVID fucking up their schedules. And, suddenly, it makes sense why both films lack cohesion.
Then there's something like Love and Thunder, where Marvel was lazy and just said "Taika did well, he'll do well again" - and I love his films, but clearly here he just phoned it in and didn't care what he was doing as much. I think it's a case of a Director being given TOO much freedom. But, again, Marvel resting on their laurels.
So, the point I guess I'm making, is it feels like Marvel understand their mistakes and they're taking a few steps back now. I think they went above 100%, which meant they lost efficiency. Their studios were overworked back when making Black Panther, I hate to think what the state of their studios was during the major Endgame ramp up and then a global pandemic.
I don't really watch TV or stream much, so I haven't seen She Hulk or Loki or WandaVision
That's a good point, the other Marvel offerings compared to Justice League or Black Adam are heads above DC movies. (WW1984 blech)
I'm a Marvel fan, too. Maybe not a fanboy, but I like to watch the movies.
I'd definitely recommend watching Loki.
Loki, Moonknight, WandaVision.
Whatever you do - Don't watch Secret Invasion. It's absolutely terrible and it'll only prove your point and worsen mine! Haha.
I liked Marvel's movies, but the laters ones I found rather meh. I think the last ones I liked were Guardians 3 and Spider-man 3. I really wish Marvel would make different genres of movies set in the same universe, like one focused on comedy, one on drama, one psychological horror and such, but despite different themes they all usually follow a similar formula.
That said, they're still way ahead of DC. From them I only liked the last Suicide Squad, which is probably because Gunn made it DC's Guardians of Galaxy movie. Hahaha
I quoted your post because I was going to reply too... But, at this point, I'm just repeating what I said above. They DID make different Genres, and in doing so their films felt good and fresh, but they've fallen to making the formulaic and it shows.
But, that said, we had Shang Chi - which was much more a martial arts film. Eternals, which might have not been great, but was trying to be a more artistic affair (and I think succeeded until the last third).
In terms of Horror, maybe not Psychological and maybe not even true horror, but we had Werewolf By Night for that B-Movie Schlock feel. Moonkight is fairly Psychological in places.
But yeh. Marvel lost it's way a little, and I think it's from what I said above - I think they hit the ground too hard after Endgame, trying not to lose momentum, but instead doing too much - then being hit by a global pandemic - made everything feel a bit half-assed and sloppy. BUT, I feel like they're starting to understand what they're doing a bit more now....
But they did announce RDJ as Doctor Doom, but I'm ignoring that announcement, because it reeks of absolute desperation and I'm hoping, HOPING, they do something clever with it.
