Folks, we’re finally back (sorry) and we have some exciting news.
Thanks to all of your interest in our show, we’ve signed a production deal with Kaleidoscope! If you’ll allow me to crib from their website, K-Scope is a “passport to adventure; thrilling true stories about science and technology, filled with heart.” They are also managed by some truly great people who we’ve gotten to know well over the past few months.
We’re stoked to be working with them on making NO SUCH THING even better. I even made some new outro music to accompany the theme song. And if you’d like to see some photos from our launch party, head over to our Instagram and give us a follow while you’re there.
The only change you need to know about on your end is that our show now publishes on WEDNESDAYS.
Now for today’s episode…we’re tapping back into our complaining bag.
Franchise films. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. When I scroll through the Regal Cinemas app, the sheer number of films out right now that are also a part of a franchise or cinematic universe is mind-numbing. But, there’s some decent evidence that we are all getting tired of them. The Marvel Cinematic Universe in particular is seeing a decline of sorts, not just in quality but also at the box office.
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As a kid, I grew up reading all of the great comic book stories that these movies are based on, and early on in the MCU, I felt like the movies were good-faith attempts at making interesting films, even if they were, ultimately, big and dumb summer blockbuster exhibitions. Today, we’re seeing what the youths are calling “slop” — soulless, bad movies that don’t need to try because the filmmakers know that we’re going to buy the movie ticket anyways, and because they have some toys to sell.
These movies still make a ton of money, but they are making less money than they used to. To find out why, we’ve tapped Walt Hickey, author of You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything (also the author of the great Numlock News). In this episode, Walt walks us through the history of the franchise film, and gets into the weeds of why things feel like they’re on the decline.
Enjoy the episode, and as always, please leave us a 5 star review wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a question you’d like us to tackle, leave a comment below, shoot us an email, or hit our voicemail: (860) 325-0286.
Last MCU movie I watched was Spiderman 2. Yeah, the one with Toby McGuire.
Not a bad ep! But the idea that Marvel is running low on good material to make into films in Marvel is a little crazy. Those books have been running a very, very long time. There's a lot of stuff still to do.
The trouble is they kind of started with the continuity of the last 20 years or so and so it's kind of tricky going backwards.
Marvel seems to insist on only doing movies about gigantic stories, where the whole world or even the whole universe is at stake. I maintain that these are worse stories because they are hard to identify with.
Take Wolverine. Wolverine has this whole side universe in the comics set in this fictional island called Madripoor. Wolverine in Madripoor would be great stuff.
The Hulk's Mr. Fixit, Grey, kinda smart era would be super cool on film. Back when he was a bouncer in a big casino.
With Thor, you've got that whole era when he was stuck in the body of a human doctor and they had to switch back and forth. That could be gloriously weird in the hands of a good writer.
There's a lot of good content still on the table, but they are much more human level stories.
KittyPryde and Wolverine the movie is long, long overdue.
A young superheroine's dad gets kidnapped by the mob and she has to face off with a demon-ninja to save him while her mentor looks out for her? Can't get any better movie magic than that.
And when early, dark Power Pack, man? The time is right. The merchandising would be glorious.