How do you describe yourself – as a leader or a follower? You may be a leader but let me tell you that this world is full of blind followers and badly lacks independent-minded risk-takers. Forgetting the basic tenet that every one may have their own path to success, people blindly start following the success mantras articulated by others. The commercial success of the Avengers series has put grandeur and showmanship in the driving seat while throwing the artistic cinema out of the window.
Cash churners
Marvel broke into the Indian theatres with its superhero franchise ‘Avengers’. The aura and blind craze around Avengers changed everything for Hollywood. It trampled the fact that Hollywood had been regularly showing a preconceived and biassed hatred towards India and Indianness. Soon, the Superhero franchise became a money making machine for Hollywood in India. This made India the third largest market only behind the action hungry US and China.
Since then, ALL of the Hollywood movies that have pulled audiences to the cinema theatres follow the same USP – SUPERHEROISM. Beyond that, they have hardly anything to offer in the name of quality content or on the artistic front.
For all those fans getting jittery, let me ask you something. Is there any Hollywood movie released in the past that is worthy enough to enter the much touted IMDB’s list of top 50 movies? Can any of them match the legacy of ‘The Godfather’, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, ‘Schindler’s list’ or even the franchise like ‘Star Wars’? This comparison can be on any artistic account, be it the mesmerising acting skills of the star cast, the plot line, the Impactful dialogue or enriching the art form.
MCU craze is fast phasing out
It is a given fact that Art is subjective and what may be liked by millions may be completely unwatchable for others. But it becomes a pressing issue to talk about the adulteration of cinema that has been taking place post the mushrooming of Superheroism courtesy of Avengers.
Post ‘Avengers Endgame’, Marvel franchise is fast eroding its fan base. Now, even the ardent Marvel fans have started to feel Superhero fatigue as other players have blindly followed the template and flooded the theatres. With every month, Marvel, Amazon Prime or others drop a new superhero movie or web series killing the craze around them. This is the main reason for the success of ‘The Boys’ where Billy Butcher kills Supes (Superheroes) for fun.
Further, post the passing of Stan Lee, Marvel has gone Woke. Now, Superheroes have become tools of virtue signalling and flag bearers of identity brackets. Ironically, the established Superheroes who can fight extra-terrestrial villains fail to put up a fight on behalf of blacks, Chinese, African-Americans, Asian-American or LGBTQ+ communities.
Also Read: Why is Avatar the worst movie in Hollywood’s history?
Avengers is not Cinema
It is not that earlier Marvel movies could be crowned as champions or masterpiece of Art. Had Marvel deployed better Filmmakers, they could have heralded the Avenger series into the club of artistic masterpieces like Godfather or Star Wars and even the touted IMDB list of Top 50 movies of all time.
But rather, MCU chose directors like Joss Whedon and Alan Taylor who terribly messed up the plots of MCU films. Notably, MCU was forced to repeatedly change its terrible directorial team and had 17 directors to complete 20 films. Just to mint money and get theatrical releases, MCU needlessly showcased half-baked subplots to forcefully parachute new characters.
Avengers can be a roller coaster ride and pleasant experience for some but it can’t be put in the category of art. It heavily relies on VFX, green screen, grandeur of action scenes. They will fall apart if judged from the quality and content of its storylines.
Apart from the fanatic Marvel fans, it becomes hard to distinguish the storyline of each movie as they more or less have the same age-old story. All the stories boil down to the fact that a powerful Superhero is beyond wear and tear or in case he/she gets harmed in the way, there’s a way to undo the damage.
It is a fact that in the rat race for Success, the Superhero genre has started to dominate and side-track real cinema. It has snatched the level playing field from other art forms. The same was echoed by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese who categorically said that Marvel Movies are not Cinema rather they are killing real cinema.
You have to remove the Marvel tinted glass and see the bigger picture that on account of blind following of Superheroes, the canvas for real cinema is fast shrinking. It is high time to stop being blind followers of the trend and lead the way for a better reformed cinema where art gets its due respect and Justice.
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