MCU had a terrible 2022. What went wrong?

New Delhi

The Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU is the biggest film franchise of all time. By far. There is no other that can even come close, be it box office returns or the cultural impact. However, it appears the so-called 'Avengers fatigue' prophesised by James Cameron all those years ago is finally coming into effect. When Marvel Studios and its parent company Disney decided to expand the MCU by launching half-dozen (or so) TV shows to support the new streaming service Disney+, fans were overjoyed. They were, after all, going to get a lot more of their favourite Marvel superheroes on the big and small screen. But as it turns out, too much of anything can be bad. 

If you are generous, you could call 2022 for MCU mediocre (MCU = Mediocre Cinematic Universe?). But somebody making an honest assessment would call it, um, awful. There is indeed a crisis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After an average 2021, it was expected and hoped that Marvel Studios will pull its socks up to deliver better movies and TV shows, but nearly everything fell flat. The studio released three movies and three TV shows this year (I am not including the specials 'Werewolf by Night' and 'The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special'), and with the single exception of 'She-Hulk' they all disappointed to varying extents. 

Note that this scribe has ignored both critical reception and commercial performance in favour of his own opinion on MCU shows and movies. Treat everything as such.

Also Read: Six things that make absolutely NO sense in Marvel movies

What projects did Marvel Studios release this year?

Yeah, well, let's go over them one by one, and analyse what went wrong with each of them.

'Moon Knight'

Starring Oscar Isaac in the role of a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Jeremy Slater-created superhero series followed our hero Marc Spector and Steven Grant (two personas within one person and both played by Isaac) as he becomes possessed by an Egyptian god called Khonshu. The show also starred Ethan Hawke as a cult leader called Arthur Harrow who drags Spector/Grant into a conflict involving the Egyptian pantheon. 

So what went wrong?

The series started off with two or three strong episodes with great character, dialogue, and editing. The tone was refreshingly dark, particularly when compared to the rest of the MCU fare. The early episodes also promised a worthwhile overarching mystery. However, the rest of the episodes revealed the mystery — which turned out to be not all that interesting. Also, the pacing somehow worsened as the season went on. It should have been the other way around.

Also Read: Why Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, et al. are right about Marvel movies

'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

None other than Sam Raimi had agreed to direct a 'Doctor Strange' film after the first film's Scott Derrickson opted out. It was exciting. And in hindsight one wishes Raimi had chosen some other project for his MCU debut. 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' was an utter mess. The premise was delicious, and Raimi at the helm augured good things. Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff or Scarlet Witch was involved, and she looked angry in trailers. The movie revealed her as the main villain, and somebody with the ability to even defeat the Master of Mystic Arts himself.

So what went wrong?

The film, despite the trademark Raimi touches, was boring. Just dreadfully dull. It did not do enough to justify 'Multiverse of Madness' in the title. That promise will be fulfilled later by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ on a fraction of a budget. Perhaps the PG-13 rating hurt Raimi's sensibilities? I don't know. He had also made two superb 'Spider-Man' movies. So...

'Ms Marvel'

Iman Vellani-led Marvel TV series 'Ms Marvel' featured — for the first time in MCU — a South Asian superhero. Vellani played the titular Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Khan in this Bisha K. Ali creation, who gets superpowers and becomes Ms Marvel. She is able to harness cosmic energy and use solidified light. The series wa a departure from the superhero's origins in the comics, in which she got powers due to the Inhuman gene in the wake of the Infinity storyline (her arc is worth reading, especially if you liked the series). Like 'Black Panther' and 'Shang-Chi', movies that brought the perspective of African-Americans and Asian-Americans to MCU, 'Ms Marvel' is firmly rooted in South Asian cultures. 

Fans in India and Pakistan and the desi diaspora were tickled by references to Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan, dialogues in Urdu/Hindi, Kamala's forbidding parents that are the reality of nearly every desi kid, and the presence of Hindi filmmaker and actor Farhan Akhtar as Waleed, the leader of the vigilante group, and Pakistani film star Fawad Khan. All of that made 'Ms Marvel' potentially one of the most refreshing MCU properties.

Also Read: 'Ms Marvel' episode 4 goes full desi with Farhan Akhtar, Pasoori and a rickshaw chase

So what went wrong?

Apart from the South Asian diaspora representation, the film did not really have a lot to offer to its audiences. Vellani was sparkling in the role but even she could not save the show from average writing and direction. 

'Thor: Love and Thunder'

2017's 'Thor: Ragnarok' remains one of the best MCU movies ever made. It reinvented Thor from a grumpy, self-righteous bore to somebody actually fun, and could crack jokes at his own expense. 'Love and Thunder' promised to take forward the adventures of Hemsworth's Thor. The film, directed by returning Taika Waititi, also promises two Thors at the price of one: Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, who gains the ability to wield Mjolnir now and becomes Mighty Thor.. The superhero also faced a new enemy in the form of Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale's menacing Gorr the God Butcher, who vowed to kill every god after his pleas to save his family and people went unheeded. 

So what went wrong?

If it can be said, the film was too jokey for its own good. The script, by Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, could not recreate the magic of the first film. The trouble, I felt, is that the film was missing that immaculate cocktail of intelligent, humour-laced writing and carefully crafted set pieces, that made 'Ragnarok' one of the best MCU entries. There were too many random things in the film, thrown into it as though to make sure SOMETHING will work. Despite Waititi being given more control this time (I assume), it felt crafted in the traditional Marvel mould — designed as per the good old formula that Kevin Feige et al have perfected over the last one and a half-decade. In other words, the film watches like your typical MCU movie.

'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law'

This is the one MCU product that I unadulteratedly loved. Which is a stark contrast to popular opinion. The thing is, 'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law' achieved exactly what it had set out to do: create a funny, self-aware superhero origin story with a smart, fourth-wall-breaking heroine and its 'legal comedy drama' aspects. 'She-Hulk' had a couple of uneven episodes and jokes that did not land, but its finale more than made up for its shortcomings. Titled 'Whose Show Is This?' it poked fun at the superhero genre and its timeworn tropes, MCU, and the MCU's architect Kevin Feige himself. 

So what went wrong?

Nothing much, really. The show was really well done, and to reiterate it did what it promised.

'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'

The 30th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a sequel to 2019's 'Black Panther, 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' was the biggest MCU disappointment, for it had the highest expectations for any Marvel project this year.  Directed by returning director Ryan Coogler and written by Coogler himself with Joe Robert Cole, the film assumed a poignance as the main star of the franchise, Chadwick Boseman, died before the filming could begin. He passed away from colon cancer in 2020.  The script, centring around him, had to be rewritten and a new Black Panther had to be there, in order to justify the title. Though, the role of T'Challa, the real name of the superhero and the king of Wakanda, had to be recast. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Dominique Thorne, Florence Kasumba, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett star.

So what went wrong?

'Wakanda Forever' was indeed a beautifully elegiac and emotional homage to Boseman, but it does not quite succeed at being a worthy sequel to the original. The plot was too rambling and incoherent for 'Wakanda Forever' to be anything but average as a film. A majority of the time needlessly bestowed upon supporting characters could easily have been sliced off to make it much leaner. After about halfway through it, I just stopped caring about what was happening. The film completely lost me when the typical MCU spectacle and action engulfed the screen. 

What is the reason new MCU movies and shows are lacking in quality?

Too much expansion, too quickly. That is the prime reason. Earlier, the interconnectedness of MCU movies used to be a fun thing. Now, it's just annoying whenever a character in a project references another movie or show in MCU. It feels artificial and tacky, precisely because we are so used to that. There is little innovation, and despite the promise of projects that we in India would call 'hatke' like 'WandaVision, almost none of them have delivered the goods. Due to the abundance of content, Feige cannot have quality control over everything. And thus, MCU and fans are suffering.