Captain America, Thor and Iron Man The last time that Marvel President Kevin Feige discussed Marvel's upcoming movie projects, there was a lot of patting himself and his company on the back for all of their success. Yes, Mr. Feige, you managed to produce some very successful motion pictures based on Marvel comics properties, but only one of them was really very good, and that was one you and your company produced internally. Don't know which movie I am talking about? Iron Man, of course. See what happens when you don't exploit your characters by selling their properties left and right to 20th Century Fox (i.e. Fantastic Four and the X-Men). Am I being a bit harsh? I don't think so, considering Feige had voiced a very similar opinion back in December.
The mid-decade also brought the "Fantastic Four," "Punisher" and "Elektra" films. This got studios wanting to move forward with a lot of the characters faster. Things got a little out of our hands then. That's when we started thinking above making the movies internally. When the day finally came that we had our own studio, that's when everything changed.
Fantastic Four film poster Now that Marvel has been bought out by Disney, they might just have the proper funds to create some GREAT movies. Not just "Ok," not "good," but GREAT. Iron Man, great. The characters in the Marvel universe deserve an accurate and fantastic portrayal on the big screen; not just some haphazard, sloppy character portrayal. I am not some mindless drone, Mr. Feige. I demand a decent depiction of these complex characters. You will not win me over by shooting explosions in my face and throw in some high-end, overpriced special effects. Michael Bay already tried that with TRANSFORMERS. He did not fare very well.
THOR Recently, Feige sat down with British magazine SFX to discuss Marvel's upcoming film projects and where he plans to draw inspiration for these properties. In the past, Feige has kept relatively tight-lipped with details regarding any of the projects, but he seems to have let loose a bit in the recent interview, disclosing a lot of information, including the line-up for the 2012 AVENGERS film, incorporating S.H.I.E.L.D. into Iron Man 2, and how Marvel Studios plans to bridge the gap between the mysticism of THOR and the modern AVENGERS in the upcoming THOR movie.
"My only concern is that when we launch a franchise–whichever character's franchise that may be–it should stand on its own two feet… So by the time THE AVENGERS comes in 2012, it's not just a team superhero movie with a bunch of characters with powers. It's three people- four including the Hulk; five including Nick Fury- who you've seen before in other movies, coming together for the first time."
"It's fun now, and we're introducing some new characters in ['Iron Man 2']. But it's not about just cramming in lots of new people; that's sort of the cardinal sin of the sequel - adding in too many characters. This is totally Tony Stark's story. And that's gonna weave into Thor's story, and Steve Rogers' story, and it's already ingrained with Nick Fury's story and and organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D."
Downey Jr. as Tony Stark Fans will not only be getting a sequel to IRON MAN in IRON MAN II, they are going to get an introduction to the AVENGERS characters and will be set up for the next film. At least that's what it seems like. Sequels are hard enough to make and to pass off as good movies, and historically, the quality of the sequel is less than the first film. No doubt Feige and the folks behind these films will have a lot of content to integrate into the story to set up for offshoots and sequels in the future. The question that still has me is how they will mesh THOR's low-tech mystical roots with Tony Stark's tech-savviness and still maintain a certain level of believability.
"…we're doing the Jack Kirby/StanLee/Walt Simonson/J. Michael Straczynski 'Thor.' We're not doing the blow-the-dust-off-the-old-Norse-book-in-your-library 'Thor.' And in the 'Thor' of the Marvel Universe, there's a race called the Asgardians. And we're linked through this Tree of Life that we're unaware of. It's real science, but we don't know about it yet. The 'Thor' movie is about teaching people that."
Well, the good news is that we know a little bit more about the upcoming films and that Feige does indeed plan on bringing the HULK on as a possible AVENGER. I'm just not so sure about this "Tree of Life" business. What do you guys think?
