Recently, we’ve been getting a surge of trilogies, anthologies, multiverses, cinematic universes, and other long strings of movies that are connected, and won’t make any sense unless you watch all of them in the right order. So what’s the point? Franchises are just glorified series that are extra long and throw nostalgia and uninspired remakes at you. If you want to watch a complete movie, self-contained, with closure, and a complete plot, you’ll have to do dig through a couple reviews.
The Marvel Problem
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is regarded as the most successful of its kind: a collection of films with intertwined stories and characters. Avengers: Infinity War and End Game will forever stand as one of the greatest endings to a story arc. The franchise started strong with Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers, but it feels like the solo-to-team movies became normalized. Almost every movie now feels half-baked, just a stepping stone to the next one, and no longer able to stand alone. Seeing our favorite characters team up and cameo in is exciting, but rids us of closure standalone movies provide. Instead of getting fleshed-out characters, we get superhero A to go on adventure B and meet superhero C. Rinse and repeat, then we get superheroes A, B, and C altogether.
Who Are You Anyway?
Aside from the team-building sequels, two more major offenders are the character backstory prequel, and the ‘what-happened-to-this-character’ sequel. We loved X character who fought with their team, but who are they, and where are they now? If your movie can’t answer those basic questions about your characters, and you need an entire OTHER movie to set things straight, you’re doing something wrong in the world of movies (but something very right in the world of money). A movie should be freestanding, and while it’s difficult to cram all that information in a couple of hours, that’s where the beauty of filmmaking lies. The creativity of weaving in a character’s backstory throughout the movie is a beautiful thing to see, and much less frustrating than waiting another year or so to see who this person is in their spinoff movie.
Once More, With Feeling
Being unique is difficult, especially with so many creative minds making various forms of art. Which makes movies that leave an impact because of their world-building, characters, and plots, all the more special. Most sequels can lose this magic. Fleshing out the world is a dangerous task as the flare can become lost and diluted. Imagination and speculation are two great strengths of a good film, giving the power of interpretation to the audience. Having a sequel can feel repetitive if, taking us through the same world with the same, or maybe a few, new characters. It can get tiring, and can ruin the experience for the audience.
United We Stand
Despite the slog of sub-par spinoffs, there still exist the greats. With stories woven tightly with compelling characters, standalone and overarching plots, and just enough mystery to keep our imagination going. These are movies best enjoyed together, and yet also provide entertaining arcs on their own. Finding these kinds of franchises is a treat, and keeps us watching more movies.
We love movies of every genre! Though nothing beats a good scare. We haven’t had one in awhile though, and if you’re curious why, check this out
