Casey LaMarca
I would like to take us back to a peaceful time of summer blockbusters. The date is May 3, 2002. The original Spider-Man film was released by Sony Pictures to the highest opening weekend in box office history at $114 million. It was a huge hit and a great escape to the movies. What made this Sam Raimi film refreshing was that it was the only true major comic book movie released that year (I’m not counting Blade II, please). Flash forward to 2018, Spider-Man is now a side character in a comic book universe owned by Marvel Studios. Since 2008’s Iron Man, there have been nineteen films leading up to this week’s release of Avengers: Infinity War.
NINETEEN. So, let’s not kid ourselves, we are now about to watch Marvel 19: Everybody Is In It.
Seriously, have you seen this cast list? It’s insane. It’s the A-list of A-listers. But how much time can you give to one character in a 160-minute movie with so many plot lines coming together? Can anyone tell me what this story is about besides the usual: “the Avengers must come together to stop an even bigger bad guy than last time in order to save the universe from extinction.”
And hey, look, I get it. It’s a movie after all and we should all just shut our brains off and enjoy the extravaganza. There’s no denying that Marvel studio head Kevin Feige is doing something right. It’s the most financially successful run of films in human history. Maybe I’m just sour that we lost cool Robert Downey Jr. a decade ago. Remember that guy, the one that was in Zodiac right before Iron Man and Tropic Thunder right after? Can’t blame a guy for being successful and the studio shouldn’t apologize, but we need to take a step back here and see through the PR goop that Marvel is trying to sell us.
In the trailer for Infinity War, someone has the wherewithal to actually say the lines “the end is near,” when we all know that Marvel is in the process of releasing phase 3 of their film slates. Phase 4 is coming soon too. Then Phase 5, then Phase 6, then before you know it, we’re all opening-the-pod-bay-doors-Hal in a thousand years for something that resembles the end credits of 22 Jump Street. The fact that a main character might die in this movie is a testament to the patience filmgoers must be starting to run out of now. Just how many times can we expect the world to almost end and then never actually end? How does Manhattan keep getting rebuilt so quickly? Should I just shut-up and go back and watch Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game again? Probably.
Just know that I’m the guy who spent a decade on the radio and writing reviews telling people how important the movie theater experience is. How important large blockbuster films are to the zeitgeist. Hell, I’m the guy who wanted Avatar for best picture in 2009 because it was a game changer and defined the year it was released in. Black Panther was a good movie. Ryan Coogler is a tremendous talent and I’m the biggest Michael B. Jordan fan out there. I just hope that these talented filmmakers and artists are able to balance their talents with other projects than to just be tied into a franchise that doesn’t seem like it will end in my lifetime.
I’m 29 years old.
When The Return of the King came out in 2003, it was criticized for having too many endings. Wouldn’t you just kill to go back to a time when we were actually given the satisfaction of an ending? Isn’t that the best part of a movie or any story?
In the words of Bonesaw Mcgraw from 2002’s Spider-Man, Marvel, “you’re going noooowhereeee.”
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