by Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Time flies faster than Sam Wilson. It's been more than two years since then Captain America 4 It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con. The film's scheduled 2024 release date has already been pushed back to February 14, 2025, ostensibly due to writer and cast strikes, though many have speculated that the delay has something to do with Disney wanting to improve the quality of the film following negative test screenings. .
Now there are reports about Captain America 4 Reshoots take place less than three months before its release. This makes one thing frustratingly clear: Disney no longer has any real creative vision when it comes to the MCU.
The Disastrous Case of Captain America 4
Previously, there was a lot of speculation that Disney wanted to postpone Captain America 4 To cut out potentially controversial items. Among them is Israeli hero Sabra, who may cause a stir in the wake of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
There has also been widespread speculation that previous reshoots were driven by negative test screenings, and now, the latest round of reshoots is said to be due to audiences finding the film boring and unnecessary for the larger audience. MCU. This is clear evidence that Disney has lost its creative vision regarding the superhero franchise and is desperately trying to tweak the content according to the audience's desires instead of just putting out a great movie and letting the critics and audience judge the movie on its own merits.
At first, this may seem like a paradox. After all, marvel Doing re-imaging based on negative test scans means they We are Let the audience decide, right? Well, yes and no: you see, it makes good business sense to do one round of edits and reshoots based on feedback from allegedly bad test screenings. Do a re-shoot once again Less than three months before the film's premiere based on more Negative reviews indicate that Disney receives mixed comments from fans about what they do and don't like Captain America 4 She tries to circumvent these comments instead of directing a film based on the director's unique vision.
Why is Disney's current approach a bad idea?
The biggest problem with this approach is something I've written about before. Marvel has it full The multiverse fans, most of whom have very different ideas about what the MCU should look like.
The irony here is that most of Marvel's best decisions regarding its cinematic universe are things that many fans would hate the idea of happening if they had been forewarned. For example, it was disgraced former addict and prisoner Robert Downey Jr crazy Choosing to choose Iron Man, just like Chubby and Shelby Parks and recreation Star Chris Pratt was a crazy choice for the title of an action movie filled with superheroes.
If they could have, many Marvel fans would have objected to these choices (which they ended up being). excellent Casting decisions ) because they would have vetoed the existence of overtly adult MCU content e.g reckless and Jessica Jones on Netflix (shows that are now considered the gold standard for Marvel series). Ideas like turning Thor into a comedic character or dissolving SHIELD would have met similar resistance. Fortunately for fans everywhere, the directors and creatives behind these controversial decisions simply focused on creating a quality film and let everything else (including fans' tendency to clutch their pearls no matter what the slightest annoyance they might have) resolve itself.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe suffers from a crippling reliance on panels
now, Captain America 4Reported reshoots on negative shows have revealed that Phase 5 (and possibly beyond) of the MCU suffers from a crippling resolution of relying on committees and executives to make decisions. The best example of this is codea movie with a goofy concept (a gorgeous, sun-resistant vampire killing other vampires) has lost several directors, writers, and stars as Disney tries to create a compelling story for Marvel's most delayed movie. At one point, the main character was supposed to be the fourth lead in a movie that now focuses more on female leads, which is a much dumber decision than trying to snowboard uphill.
And of course most Intuitive A sign of filmmaking by the committee is the decision to bring Robert Downey Jr. back into his new role Dr. Doom. It's Disney's Hail Mary attempt to create a memorable Big Bad movie after the legal drama surrounding Jonathan Majors, but it also reveals just how bankrupt the House of Mouse really is. After trying to do Kang the Conqueror It happens that by shoving its outlandish stories down our throats, the studio suddenly pivoted, spending a small mountain of money to bring back Marvel's most famous face in what would inevitably lead to another empty variant cameo.
The reported reshoots for Captain America 4 may or may not make the movie better, but they're ultimately a symptom of Marvel's larger failure to allow creators to establish a bold vision rather than trying to adhere to the empty status quo of empty audience expectations. Once upon a time, the studio seemed to understand that big hits only come from big flops. That's why directors love it Jon Favreau And Taika Waititi was given a lot of creative freedom. With these directors in particular, it was clear that the sequel to their MCU debut was much weaker than the first film, but the relative mediocrity of the film Iron Man 2 and Thor: Love and Thunder It doesn't matter much because Iron man and Thor: Ragnarok This has transformed the entire cinematic universe for the better.
Marvel must get rid of this inability or else it is doomed to failure
The TL;DR my plea to Marvel is this: ditch the helplessness that comes from bad test screenings and scrolling on social media for disgruntled comments on the beard.
Hire talented directors and let them create the kind of killer comic content that once made the MCU a blockbuster film franchise. Otherwise, this cinematic universe will continue to deteriorate, and it won't be long before fans who miss Marvel's creative risk-taking will focus their passion on the upcoming DCU and the endless creativity of star creator James Gunn. Gunn is someone who, by the way, was previously fired from Marvel due to the consternation of executives rather than fan demand.
Marvel has a lesson to learn. They won't know what it is until the committee delays discovering it for half a decade or so.
