I am trying, true believers. I am really trying. I really want to be excited about Ant-Man opening this weekend, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t get there. I don’t know why. This isn’t like when Guardians of the Galaxy came out, where I initially thought I would have zero interest in the film, and then I saw the trailers, and my whole mindset changed, and I loved the movie. Somehow, Ant-Man just doesn’t excite, no matter how many times I watch the multiple trailers. I never cared much about the character in the comics, in any of the incarnations. That, at least is similar to Guardians. The big difference is that I saw something in the hype leading up to GOTG that made me want to see it. So far, all I’ve seen from Ant-Man is a toy train crash scene. I am just not sold. I don’t think I am the only one, either. For the first time, I am hearing mixed feelings about a Marvel film. For the first time, I am hearing from casual fans that they really don’t want to see this film. I may have even heard it from some not so casual fans. I have always thought Ant-Man the character does better as part of a team, than as the main character in a solo series or film. Plus, this isn’t even the real, original Ant-Man. To be brutally honest, though, I think my lack of excitement for the Ant-Man film may be a symptom of a bigger issue. I know this might sound crazy, and may even lead to some mean comments or letters, and that’s ok. Just know, that right now I am phrasing this as a question, not as a fact. I am simply wondering: Is Marvel losing steam?
Before you get all upset, let’s just take a look at what’s happening with Marvel right now. Let’s start with Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now, I know that someone out there is going to shut me out at this point because they feel like AOU was the greatest movie ever made. I get it. I was pretty pumped about the film after I saw it when it first came out. Looking back, after having some time to think about it, it may not have been as good as I originally thought. I think I may have fell victim to all the hype that came before the film, and I wanted it to be good. The point, though, isn’t whether the film was awesome or not. The point is what happened at the box office. When Avengers came out in 2012, it was a huge success, almost like an unstoppable juggernaut, destroying all sorts of box office records. Plus, it was good. Really good. The Disney/Marvel machine immediately went into action promoting the sequel. It seemed like 2015 would never get here. There were so many promotions leading up to the film release. I mean, go to any local grocery store and you can find Avengers fruit snacks, cereal and even Dr. Pepper. There was no way the public was going to forget about this film. It looked poised to crush all the records the original film set. And then it didn’t. To date, it has pulled in $455 million at the box office. That is not a bad number, until you compare it to Jurassic World, which is sitting at $590 million, and it was the film that broke Avengers’ opening weekend box office record. Or compare it to the original Avengers, which brought in $623 million. By all accounts, I think it is fair to say that it was at the very least a small disappointment.
Why? I don’t know exactly, but I am beginning to wonder if audiences are starting to want more than the formulaic films that marvel has produced up to this point. Avengers was special because it had never been done before, and it was really good. AOU wasn’t. It had been done before. Even the story felt stale, looking back on it. Wasn’t it really just the same story as Avengers, repackaged with a new villain and updated costumes? What was really new and innovative and different about AOU? “But, Jake,” you might be saying,”Ant-Man is new and different.” My response would be: “Is it? Is it really different?” Guy with a not so great past gets super powers through new tech, and then through the course of the story decides to turn his life completely around and become a hero. Like Tony Stark. The only difference is that Hank Pym is the inventor of the tech, while Scott Lang is the titular character. Tony Stark was both. That’s a small detail, but the bones of the story seem to be the same. I mean, it seems like the turning point for Ant-Man is facing Yellow Jacket who has stolen Pym’s technology to use it to do bad stuff. What was Tony Stark’s turning point? Are you beginning to see? This is basically a not as good version of Iron Man. We have seen it before. I would not be surprised if this film does not do well. I think Marvel is banking on it. I think after Edgar Wright left, they just pushed this one through and just want to walk away with marginal profits and begin focusing on Cap 3, hoping the Civil War storyline and Spider-Man will right the ship. They didn’t even show up at SDCC to promote Ant-Man, a week before the film hits theaters.
Maybe this isn’t the beginning of a permanent disinterest in Marvel. Maybe Civil War will get it all back on track. All I know is that marvel was not at SDCC, more and more people are less and less interested in Ant-Man and the extended Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice looked pretty awesome. Maybe this little slow down from Marvel is exactly what DC needed to get back in the game. Honestly, did you see the new Dawn of Justice trailer? It looked amazing. Here, check it out:
I don’t know what will happen. I have a feeling that Marvel still has quite a few monster hits coming, but I think we are going to begin to see a mix between their massive hits and some mediocre box office returns. Ant-Man could just be the beginning. Of course, I could be sitting here after this weekend and be eating my words.
What do you think? Is the big Marvel machine finally slowing down? Or is this just a hiccup and they’ll continue to dominate indefinitely? Let me know in the comments. Or you can email me directly at [email protected]. I love hearing from you.
It all depends on how the MCU team is able to react and respond to the feedback of their mistakes.
I agree. I think they will recover just fine with Civil War and having Spidey available will help and people are interested in seeing him in the MCU. It will be interesting to see if this opens the door just enough for DC to gain some footing with Batman v Superman.
To be fair, just because stories share the same “bare bones plot” that Doesn’t mean that they will be the same movie or even story in the end. I mean, just compare the star wars movies to the eragon books (we won’t talk about the movie)
A young farm boy lives in a place that is ruled by an unjust tyrant, but his life is fairly dull. He eventually talks to the mysterious old man that lives near him, but unfortunately the boy’s home is destroyed by soldiers of the unjust ruler. The old man is revealed to be a member of an elite order that was wiped out by the unjust ruler, and the old man gives the boy an unbreakable weapon that was used by the ancient order. They go on a journey to fight the unjust ruler, and the old man teaches the boy to fight and to use a mystical ability that was used by the ancient order. In their journeys they meet and team up with a princess and a roguish young man. Later on, the boy’s mentor is killed.
There are more similarities, but this comment is long enough already. The point is, stories will often share a lot of similarities if you break it down too far. The true enjoyment from a story comes from the details. We’ll see if ant man manages to differentiate himself enough from iron-man to be good in his own right.
Star Wars is a classic example of the Hero’s Journey, so it shares a lot of similarities with a lot stories that came before and came after because the Hero’s Journey is a classic story that is retold over and over. However, not being totally familiar with Eragon, I didn’t realize how much it shared with Star Wars. The details do make a big difference, it’s true. We will see how Ant-Man is. Let’s just say I am cautiously pessimistic.
The Greeks mapped out and named all the possible plot twists and devices almost 3000 years ago, yet there are still interesting stories being told, as you say it is in the details and I would add it is also in the presentation.
And here in 2016 we see that BvS is such a huge disappointment compared to Ant-Man and the failure to even hit 1 billion when it have 3 of the most prominent superheroes in a film.