By Pierson Luscy | LTVN Reporter
The Marvel Cinematic Universe falls under the category of the greatest cinematic storytelling ever made, but ever since “Avengers: Endgame,” Disney’s MCU seems to have lost its magic trying to top their greatest hits.
“Avengers: Endgame” capped off 11 years of Marvel’s favorite characters’ journeys into a near-perfect three hour film, delivering what nearly every movie lover and comic book fan was looking for.
The problem is that it is so incredibly hard to top a movie that at one point was the highest-grossing film in the history of box office earnings.
What led to “Avengers: Endgame” was an intricate plot in the previous phases of the timeline. Phase One of the MCU ended with the first “Avengers” film and Phase Two was highlighted by “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
The first three phases of the MCU brought out the best in all of these characters introduced, but since the beginning of Phase Four, there is just film after film of new characters introduced without any support to help build continuity.
Part of the problem with the new phases of the MCU is the lack of simple “Avengers” films.
There were four “Avengers” movies in the first three phases, but after already starting Phase Five and the rest of this series of MCU films being announced, there are only plans for two Avengers movies in the back half of Phase Six.
Almost all of the movies that have come out are good pieces of work. They get good reviews and are a good topic of conversation for many people, but that is the problem. They are just good movies, nothing more.
The new generation of Marvel films has consisted of plenty of pretty good stand-alone movies, but none of them align to form one massive cinematic universe.
There has also been an issue with the overwhelming amount of content that has been made in the “new look” MCU. Most of that is due to the introduction of shows to the MCU canon on Disney+.
In Phase Four alone, there were five television shows, each with multiple episodes. Most seasons accumulate to more than a movie’s worth of watch time, creating almost too many things to watch.
Marvel did release one very well-received movie since “Avengers: Endgame,” that being “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Other than that, there is not much else that stands out.
The MCU just added “Ant-Man: Quantumania,” and it is a good movie to go see, but like many other Marvel movies of late, it is not a must-see.
Whatever Marvel movie you chose to watch in the movie theaters or stream in the comfort of your own home, there are good things to choose from, just do not expect the greatness that you grew up with.
