4 ms·

> But then came Pixar and suddenly a studio proved you didn't have to have flops, every film they made in their first decade was a resounding success. They blew

> But then came Pixar and suddenly a studio proved you didn't have to have flops, every film they made in their first decade was a resounding success. They blew the conventional logic of Hollywood economics out of the window. I think this is the key point that a lot of people nowadays are forgetting. Part of why Star Wars was such a phenomenon is that there were three films in a row that were all good. This was so rare (even into the early 90s) that there was even the "movie trilogies as bar charts meme" [0]. Then Pixar came along and it was hit after hit after hit. Even for movies that WEREN'T sequels and it kind of blew everyone's minds. I would argue Marvel went one better and put out 10+ movies in a row that were also, at a minimum, fun and good movies. I remember saying to someone in the early 2010s "what a cool time for movie making that there are just strings of great movies". What's even more amazing to me is that Kevin Feige took over Marvel studios when he was 34! Which in turn leads me to believe that maybe the "small studio, dedicated people, mostly young but fanatical about the material" is how you kick off the series and then try as hard as you can to keep the big corporate interests run by older folks away. 0 - https://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/7y90h/movie_trilogies_rated_as_bar_charts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/7y90h/movie_...

nwienert 3y ago
Was nodding along until you brought up Marvel, I’ll never understand how so many people like them. I can’t get past how incredibly cheesy and overly dramatic they are.
- me_me_me 3y ago
  The first few are quite enjoyable flicks. I watched few randomly but it quickly became boring. They quickly became copy and paste with bit of a different paint movies. I would suggest to watch Logan, its excellent.
  - gspencley 3y ago
    Was Logan Marvel Studios, though, or Fox? (I know I could easily look this up, I'm just making conversation). In the 00s I really liked the Marvel movies. Then came Marvel Studios to ruin everything. But even in the beginning, the first couple of films were really good: Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. But once they started to expand the "MCU" I quickly lost interest in the films. I like character driven stories that focus on the person behind the power. Batman is interesting because of Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is interesting because of Peter Parker etc. When you start doing these big mash-ups and team stories, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers, you lose focus on the individuals and it becomes lots of long, drawn-out & boring action sequences. But if I remember correctly, Fox held the film rights to the X-Men property. So when Marvel Studios got off the ground, they did everything but X-Men. I don't know if that ever changed. In any case, I agree. Logan was really good. And it was really good, in my opinion, because it was character-driven and not just 13 hours of drawn out, boring as hell, CGI "porn" action sequences. And I figure it was like that because it wasn't made by Marvel Studio.
    - moberley 3y ago
      Logan was produced by 20th Century Fox. To the best of my knowledge the X-Men films made before Disney acquired the X-Men rights in 2019 (along with the rest of Fox) were made in partnership with Marvel Entertainment (the publishing and licensing company) and not Marvel Studios (the Disney "cinematic universe" subsidiary).
    - Izkata 3y ago
      > But if I remember correctly, Fox held the film rights to the X-Men property. So when Marvel Studios got off the ground, they did everything but X-Men. I don't know if that ever changed. Early on they were planning to adapt Inhumans as their replacement for Mutants, but it flopped badly when they finally got around to making something focused exclusively on them (as opposed to when they were just a part of the Agents of SHIELD plots).
- mschuster91 3y ago
  It's a ton of action, high quality CGI, good acting, and a host of "source material" which means the MCU movies/series don't have to invest valuable time to boring worldbuilding - the material is the world.
  - chrischen 3y ago
    In my opinion a lot of comic book worlds are quite ludicrous and lazy. A man with the power of... ants. Spider man. A man that wears tight underwear on the outside of his pants... A man that pretends he is a bat. Compare this with backstories from Japanese manga which clearly some are targeted at more adult levels of intelligence I'm flabbergasted a hollywood exec would decide to pour millions of dollars into some backstory aimed at children from the 1940s.
    - mschuster91 3y ago
      > In my opinion a lot of comic book worlds are quite ludicrous and lazy. Which is precisely why they have such a large following. Most people are mentally drained after 40+ hour long work weeks.
      - Spivak 3y ago
        "Why is this media that's made to be entertaining so popular?"
        nwienert 3y ago
        There's so much media that is entertaining but not dumb
      - chrischen 3y ago
        I'm fairly certain the reason is Marvel is Disney and they are pandering to a wide audience that includes children, because it's much more profitable to take the whole family for their tickets than just the adults.
    - 3y ago
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  Yeah, they are the apex of cheesy action-led movies. The first Avengers is so perfect that even Marvel had to change their theme after it. What then changed to light-comedy action-led movies.
  - FormerBandmate 3y ago
    There are a ton of good Marvel movies. It’s suffered from the fate all franchises do where they run out of ideas and the original writers are replaced by hacks, so it goes to shit. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was good, but it will probably be the exception.
mcphage 3y ago
Also Harry Potter—8 movies in a row that were, at their worst, merely good. I was amazed they pulled that off, given as you point out, how many series are utterly terribly by the 3rd title (anybody see Jurassic Park 3?).
- BLKNSLVR 3y ago
  Harry Potter had phenomenally good source material such that they would have had to try really hard to mess it up. I'll hold my breath for the TV series... Jurassic Park had two books, from which they've now made five (or is it six? Jeez who cares by this point) movies.
  - isk517 3y ago
    It also helps that Harry Potter is really a single story divided into 7 books/8 movies. Jurassic Park was a story told in a single book that was later expanded because it was profitable.
  - mcphage 3y ago
    > Harry Potter had phenomenally good source material such that they would have had to try really hard to mess it up. I wish that were true, but there's too many terrible movies with outstanding source material.

nwienert 3y ago

Was nodding along until you brought up Marvel, I’ll never understand how so many people like them. I can’t get past how incredibly cheesy and overly dramatic they are.

me_me_me 3y ago
The first few are quite enjoyable flicks. I watched few randomly but it quickly became boring. They quickly became copy and paste with bit of a different paint movies. I would suggest to watch Logan, its excellent.
- gspencley 3y ago
  Was Logan Marvel Studios, though, or Fox? (I know I could easily look this up, I'm just making conversation). In the 00s I really liked the Marvel movies. Then came Marvel Studios to ruin everything. But even in the beginning, the first couple of films were really good: Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. But once they started to expand the "MCU" I quickly lost interest in the films. I like character driven stories that focus on the person behind the power. Batman is interesting because of Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is interesting because of Peter Parker etc. When you start doing these big mash-ups and team stories, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers, you lose focus on the individuals and it becomes lots of long, drawn-out & boring action sequences. But if I remember correctly, Fox held the film rights to the X-Men property. So when Marvel Studios got off the ground, they did everything but X-Men. I don't know if that ever changed. In any case, I agree. Logan was really good. And it was really good, in my opinion, because it was character-driven and not just 13 hours of drawn out, boring as hell, CGI "porn" action sequences. And I figure it was like that because it wasn't made by Marvel Studio.
  - moberley 3y ago
    Logan was produced by 20th Century Fox. To the best of my knowledge the X-Men films made before Disney acquired the X-Men rights in 2019 (along with the rest of Fox) were made in partnership with Marvel Entertainment (the publishing and licensing company) and not Marvel Studios (the Disney "cinematic universe" subsidiary).
  - Izkata 3y ago
    > But if I remember correctly, Fox held the film rights to the X-Men property. So when Marvel Studios got off the ground, they did everything but X-Men. I don't know if that ever changed. Early on they were planning to adapt Inhumans as their replacement for Mutants, but it flopped badly when they finally got around to making something focused exclusively on them (as opposed to when they were just a part of the Agents of SHIELD plots).
mschuster91 3y ago
It's a ton of action, high quality CGI, good acting, and a host of "source material" which means the MCU movies/series don't have to invest valuable time to boring worldbuilding - the material is the world.
- chrischen 3y ago
  In my opinion a lot of comic book worlds are quite ludicrous and lazy. A man with the power of... ants. Spider man. A man that wears tight underwear on the outside of his pants... A man that pretends he is a bat. Compare this with backstories from Japanese manga which clearly some are targeted at more adult levels of intelligence I'm flabbergasted a hollywood exec would decide to pour millions of dollars into some backstory aimed at children from the 1940s.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    > In my opinion a lot of comic book worlds are quite ludicrous and lazy. Which is precisely why they have such a large following. Most people are mentally drained after 40+ hour long work weeks.
    - Spivak 3y ago
      "Why is this media that's made to be entertaining so popular?"
      - nwienert 3y ago
        There's so much media that is entertaining but not dumb
    - chrischen 3y ago
      I'm fairly certain the reason is Marvel is Disney and they are pandering to a wide audience that includes children, because it's much more profitable to take the whole family for their tickets than just the adults.
  - 3y ago
marcosdumay 3y ago
Yeah, they are the apex of cheesy action-led movies. The first Avengers is so perfect that even Marvel had to change their theme after it. What then changed to light-comedy action-led movies.
- FormerBandmate 3y ago
  There are a ton of good Marvel movies. It’s suffered from the fate all franchises do where they run out of ideas and the original writers are replaced by hacks, so it goes to shit. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was good, but it will probably be the exception.

mcphage 3y ago

Also Harry Potter—8 movies in a row that were, at their worst, merely good. I was amazed they pulled that off, given as you point out, how many series are utterly terribly by the 3rd title (anybody see Jurassic Park 3?).

BLKNSLVR 3y ago
Harry Potter had phenomenally good source material such that they would have had to try really hard to mess it up. I'll hold my breath for the TV series... Jurassic Park had two books, from which they've now made five (or is it six? Jeez who cares by this point) movies.
- isk517 3y ago
  It also helps that Harry Potter is really a single story divided into 7 books/8 movies. Jurassic Park was a story told in a single book that was later expanded because it was profitable.
- mcphage 3y ago
  > Harry Potter had phenomenally good source material such that they would have had to try really hard to mess it up. I wish that were true, but there's too many terrible movies with outstanding source material.