As something grows from being popular to being inescapably overwhelming, the expectations of its audience will only grow slowly out of control. So when something makes all the money in the world and influences the entire entertainment landscape with every new entry, anything that decreases in quality will stick out.
The Marvel Cinematic Universehas made well over $25 billion in its almost 14-year run. Almost every film or TV project contained within the monstrous entertainment empire has reaped a substantial financial return. Beyond that, most of it is also extremely popular and beloved. Marvel films enjoy the harshest criticism and the most ardent defense force in modern cinema. With both financial success and public approval, why do these films all look the same?
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The term digital backlot is extremely common in modern filmmaking and is almost exclusively brought up to criticize its look. The term originated in the early 2000s and refers most often to films shot entirely on a stage with a chroma key background. The setting and background details are added later, sometimes to incredible effect. Early breakthroughs in the technique were helmed by comic book and mixed media artists. Kazuaki Kiriya’sCasshern,Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman’sMirrorMask, Zack Snyder’s300, and many more films were made with extremely limited physical set pieces, to mixed results. The event which introduced many to the phenomenon was 2009sAvatar, which famously featured only two physical sets. The modern blockbuster is a mixture of fully computer-generated landscapes and real sets, but often, leaning too heavily on the former.
CGI is a hugely important part of any modern film or TV project, no matter how bad of a reputation it often has. CGI and the surrounding compositing and lighting are likely only praised when it isn’t noticeable. There are a ton of subtle CGI effects that look excellent, from craftedsuits to full characters. The problem is not the quality of the effects on display, they’re top of the line. VFX professionals, 2nd unit teams, and visual artists of all stripes work incredibly hard to create multiple blockbusters every year. The franchise isn’t suffering from a lack of financial investment or technical know-how, it’s dealing with a lack of large-scale creativity.
There are shots inSpider-Man: No Way Homethat look remarkably worse than comparable takes in the previous Spider-Man films. There are shots inAvengers: Endgamethat lack the pop or engagement of the 2012 original. Part of what was so impressive aboutThe Avengerswas the idea of bringing together disparate film worlds into a single cohesive team. This goes beyond seeing beloved characters interact for the first time. Early crossovers featured a visual and stylistic blending of styles. TheCaptain Americafilms had a distinct and different look from theIron Manfilms, which stood outfrom theThorfilms, and the clash of those looks made the mix-ups interesting. The later crossovers did not stand out to nearly the same degree, because the works are all so blended that nothing can stand out.
It can be hard to recall now, but the idea of the comic-book style shared universe experiment was not a sure thing back in 2012. There was a very realchance thatThe Avengerswouldn’t work, and the company would have to sweep the crossover under the rug along with the other failed projects. There’s no mystery anymore, everyone knows that every moving piece in the MCU will eventually be incorporated into the larger team-up vehicles. The audience knows that, but more importantly, the studio makes sure that the creative team knows that too.
Disney’s modern incarnation of the MCU ensures that the overwhelming majority of film projects need to share significant visual design elements. The franchise has reacheda point of crossoverthat has negatively affected the look of the films. Nitpicking bad shots, whether the problem is CGI, compositing, lighting, or even misguided directorial intent, only reveals a part of the problem
Ultimately, no, the MCU has not been on a downward trend visually. Anyone could nitpick good and bad shots to pretend that things have gotten better or worse. Some things look better now, some looked better a decade ago, and personal taste is unquestionably a factor. Despite this, the modern MCU is often less distinct and interesting from one film to another and this hurts the individual movies.
Conversely, the Disney+ MCU shows have some of themost interesting visuals inthe franchise so far. The problem is one of scale, but it’s also a symptom of Disney and Marvel’s biggest issue; risk aversion. As more interesting and weird projects come to screen from Marvel’s endless catalog, Disney needs to have the courage to let them stand out and have their own identity. The crossovers can’t work if viewers already can’t tell the solo films apart.
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