An Embarrassment of Riches

In my post-Blue State Ball, Daylight Savings Time shortened Sunday, I went and finally caught Black Panther.  Go see it.  It follows the Marvel comics origin game plan, but is more successful than Doctor Strange or Ant Man, both of whom offered a level of whimsy and light heartedness to their respective outings.  Not saying Black Panther is a serious drama, more that the origin story for the Black Panther character is just better, more gripping when transferred from the comic book to the movie theater.

I don't think enough is being said about Michael B. Jordan's take on Erik Killmonger, one of the villain's of this movie.  In what could have easily been a stereotype heavy, b-role villain, Jordan offers the perfect combination of comic book maniac juxtaposed against a layered, textured, broken man on a life mission.  He's one of many fantastic performances in the film.

This film also signifies a cultural shift; the caucasian public is changing, albeit slowly, in regards to their acceptance of minority character driven movies.  This is a fantastic movie, period, one unapologetically African American.  And the world loves it!

Let me marvel(!) at what Marvel keeps doing.  There have been 18 films in what's being called the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe,' the movies from when Iron Man opened in 2008 and beyond.  Iron Man, and the soon afterwards released The Incredible Hulk, were tied together with feelers, exploring if there was enough public interest in Marvel going ahead with an attempt to make an Avengers movie.  We all know the answer.

Marvel Comics doesn't have the most recognizable lineup of characters.  That'd be DC with their Batman and Superman.  Some might even call characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange extremely fringe.  The background stories of these characters are thick and layered, with movie studios insisting for years they weren't transferable to film.  And to keep pulling this off, they have to keep delivering films which have to be unique, but yet connect to the larger Marvel world, embracing locales ranging from outer space, to magical universes, to mystic realms, to fictional African nations to real world locations, all fitting into the same timeline.  This should not be working, but I'll be damned if it's not THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MOVIE FRANCHISE OF ALL TIME!

Looking at the 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (in order: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther) most critics, and a consensus of the people I quickly surveyed, agree The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor: The Dark World are the weakest entrants into the 'universe.'  Still, all three of those films are very watchable and entertaining.  The Rotten Tomatoes' score (a cumulative average of all the reviews for films) for those three films are 67, 73 and 66, respectfully, meaning their worst films are still better than most films in other franchises.

James Bond had The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, and The World is Not Enough.  Star Wars has Episodes I and II (yuck).  Lord of the Rings first three were fantastic, but the Hobbit trilogy was WAY too long.  Even Harry Potter, which is a wonderful series, has the long camping expedition known as Deathly Hollows Part I, AND it was only 8 films, not 18!

Compare this to DC's comic book characters, and it gets even more strange.  DC has characters who are wildly popular outside of comic book circles, and have stories which were written like they were thinking about film franchises the entire time.  Outside of a handful of exceptions (Christopher Reeve's first 2 Superman films, Michael Keaton's two Batman films, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, and Wonder Woman) they just can't seem to get it right.  When I was a kid, if you were to ask me what movie had a better chance of becoming an all time, top 10, worldwide blockbuster, Superman or Black Panther, I would've laughed at the question.  Today, I'm counting down the days to a movie about Ant-Man and the Wasp, while I am wondering if DC will scrap everything but Wonder Woman; screaming a Hollywood 'Uncle!'

Marvel can't make a bad movie, even when they troll the extremely obscure vaults of their history (Ragnarok???).  DC, with the movie ready comic book vaults can't seem to get out of their own way.  Both are experiencing their own versions of an embarrassment of riches.

I so can't wait for Infinity Gauntlet!