After 'Thor Love and Thunder', has the 'Avengers fatigue' finally set in?

All signs suggest that Chris Hemsworth's fourth movie in the 'Thor' franchise, titled 'Thor: Love and Thunder', will likely be a huge commercial success, perhaps managing to cross the $1 billion mark, or at least will its box office journey at around $800 million, a respectable amount during the Covid-19 affected times. But the reviews of the 29th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are mixed, a rarity in MCU. It has scored only 67 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is touching the much-derided second entry in the franchise, 'Thor: Dark World'. The score will likely go lower, and may even touch the dreaded 'rotten' mark.

There was great anticipation for 'Thor Love and Thunder'

Directed by Taika Waititi, there were a lot of hopes from this film for multiple reasons. First, it was directed by Waititi, who had delivered a gem in the form of 'Ragnarok', the last movie in the series. Second, the film had two Thors for the price of one. Natalie Portman made a comeback as not just Jane Foster, but also assumed the mantle of Mighty Thor. Third, the film marked the MCU debut of Oscar-winner Christian Bale as the supervillain of the movie, Gorr the God Butcher. 'Love and Thunder' has not been able to recreate that response that marked 'Ragnarok'.

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Also Read:'Thor Love and Thunder' review: Chris Hemsworth's film disappoints, proves 'superhero fatigue' exists

MCU, in general, is struggling

In 2018, James Cameron hoped that the world will finally get 'Avengers Fartigue. In an interview with IndieWire, he said, "Not that I don't love the movies. It's just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It's like, oy!"

He has been proven true just in time for 'Avatar' sequel, 'Avatar: The Way of Water', slated to be released later this year.

It is not just 'Love and Thunder'. MCU, in general, has been struggling to maintain momentum after the big finale of 'Avengers: Endgame'. The 2019 film ended the so-called Infinity Saga of MCU and Thanos' threat. We were told the MCU will get bigger, and in a way it is. There are several new superheroes belonging to more diverse backgrounds instead of white males from New York.

Despite opening avenues fornewer kinds of heroes and fresher approaches to storytelling, the appeal of MCU is slowly but steadily waning. Marvel Studios' experience with TV format has been mixed to bad. 'WandaVision' looked interesting and then squandered all that setup in favour of a terrible finale. Both 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' and 'Hawkeye' were bad from the beginning and got worse. Loki was overall good, but its finale was deeply disappointing in the sense that it was less an ending than a setup for the second season.

Movies have not fared any better

In movies, the much-delayed 'Black Widow' released finally last year, and most fans wished it had better not. Poor Scarlett Johansson had to face not just the Dreykov and his lieutenant Taskmaster, but also leaps of logic. She was great, and so was Florence Pugh. But the movie suffered for being an MCU product. A more grounded take, in which Natasha Romanoff did not die after falling from multiple stories and her did not explode after being smashed on blacktop road, would have been more appealing.

'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' had another MCU superhero with daddy issues. There was the same old exoticisation of Chinese culture in the film, and the makers had the gall to call it a step forward in terms of representation.

Apart from some stunning imagery Chloe Zhao's 'Eternals' was a mess that suffered from uneven editing, pacing, and thinly sketched characters.

'Spider-Man: No Way Home', which received a response nearly as much as 'Endgame' relied on its two cameos to sell it. Still, it was better than MCU had been for a couple of years. It had a heart and a classic Spider-Man in Tom Holland (with bonus additions of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield).

And then 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' released. Despite a Sam Raimi directorial, the film had only vague nods to his style and sensibilities, but was in fact a traditional MCU product and did not have any meaningful identity of its own.

Does the Marvel formula need reworking?

The trouble is the now-famous Marvel formula, which has now begun to feel outdated. A person gets superpowers, overcomes personal and familiar conflicts, and defeats the villain (who mayalso be a family member, mind you) in a messy CGI finale. Along the way, the hero and supporting characters ridiculously crack jokes and mouth one-liners, in the middle of fighting bad guys sometimes -- as you do. Even in the MCU movies that call themselves different, such motifs are very much present. Add to that, there are alternateand successful takes on the superhero myth like 'Peacemaker' and 'The Boys' that are much inward-looking and more nuanced, not to mention far grittier and adult-friendly. MCU is exclusively PG-13, probably because Disney wants it to remain so.

Marvel Studios will have to do something radical to garner the interest that MCU enjoyed around the release of 'Endgame'. The entry of X-Men, particularly Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool(which we are told will be R-Rated) may freshen it up a bit.