Marvel Studios Facing New Era in Massive shakeup

[Elbie]

This is really interesting. The secret society of MARVEL lol.

[UK_fan_05]

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

Here's Whedon talking about butting heads with the executives (AKA the Committee group) on Ultron:



BadAssDigest had a whole article about this as well with Wright and Marvel, and the notes that eventually forced him to leave. Ike, and the group, have been problematic from time to time. It's not an always thing, but it's enough that they have hurt some of their own films with notes that really don't necessarily make things better. Movies like The Dark World and Age of Ultron could have benefited from being longer, not shorter as mandated by the group, etc. It's things that have been talked about a lot, and as someone who clearly loves the MCU, I'd like to see what Feige can do now without them handing a lot of notes to the filmmakers. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but I have a feeling without Ike breathing down people's necks, and the group disbanded, the MCU can see much better days with Feige leading the charge fully. Just my two cents.

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

Exactly. That stuff really needed to be there. Though, I do think that they had notes that Edgar did't like that included having more of Hope in Ant-Man, which I actually thought ended up being better for the film. But more often than note over the last two or three years, the group has become hard to fight through. You add on to that what was happening with Ike, and it's clear that Feige and his team were facing an almost daily uphill battle with their films. To me, it shows just how good at what he does Feige is, and make good-to-great films, even with odds. I think that shows his true passion for the material. I'm hoping we'll see more of that now with Feige and his two collaborators calling all the shots now.

I honestly don't care who had their hands in the cookie jar, it was working. I just find it funny that these guys have been "what's wrong" with the MCU films and it is only talked about after Disney does some restructuring.

Feige is the guy who let Shane Black butcher Mandarin so I'm not going to be jumping for joy now that he is "fully" in control. I don't expect to see the quality of the films change but I'm sure the same people who praise this decision will notice the difference in quality and blindly support it.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Sounds like huge potential to allow the Marvel Cinematic Universe to grow by leaps and bounds! However, they must still proceed with caution. Too much freedom could turn into a surefire shit show if allowed to run rampant.

I have faith that Feige can keep the reigns tight enough.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by UK_fan_05

Feige is the guy who let Shane Black butcher Mandarin so I'm not going to be jumping for joy now that he is "fully" in control.

Sadly, that's what you get when a studio takes the PC road because a good piece of their box-office comes from overseas. I remember being surprised at seeing Afghanistan clearly mentioned in the first "Iron Man", since this was just a few years after 9/11.

[Dalekbuster523Bluray]

This can only be good news that they're reporting directly to Disney now because Disney have well and truly proven they know how to handle the Marvel properties they own in their ownership of Marvel. It's certainly going to help if Marvel get the Fantastic Four rights back because Disney can certainly help them with a FF film.

[R3P0]

Originally Posted by Walts Ghost

Man, this is incredible news. Ike and the creative committee have been hindering what Feige and the Marvel team have been trying to do for a long time. This can change things in a lot of ways, I'm really happy to see the studio getting a chance to spread its wings without their meddling. Age of Ultron in particular took a beating because of its run time by the creative committee, which explains people's frustration with many of film's aspects, mainly the Thor sequence in the cave. This can really change the way things are going at Marvel Studios, and I'm happy to see it growing. Very curious to see how this all comes together.

Creative committee also wanted to get rid of one of the best parts of the movie the farmhouse sequence as well.

[Geoff D]

Interesting news. Arad's been sidelined at Sony, Perlmutter's gone at Marvel Studios, the terrible twosome have finally been taken out of the loop. Thor 2 was the first sign to me that all was not right, it's a jumbled mess of a movie that was turned into a virtual two-hander with Loki after the fact, which gutted the story that they originally shot. I ain't saying it would've been Lawrence of Arabia or anything but it couldn't have been much more random or boring than what we ended up with, and I'm not jumping on the anti-"creative committee" bandwagon with those comments, it's how I've always felt about Thor 2.

I guess the wranglings with Whedon over Ultron - which didn't reflect well on those mysterious execs and ended up virtually estranging the director from the studio - were the final straw for Disney and Feige, along with the Ant-Man snafu.

[Johnny Blu]

I wonder how the committee felt about the Mandarin twist.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by Johnny Blu

I wonder how the committee felt about the Mandarin twist.

hopefully they agreed that it's one of the best things to come out of the series yet, because it absolutely was. The nerd rage it generated alone made it worth the price of admission.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by spectre08

hopefully they agreed that it's one of the best things to come out of the series yet, because it absolutely was. The nerd rage it generated alone made it worth the price of admission.

I never read the "Iron Man" comics growing up, but I do recall hearing about the Mandarin originally being an allegory for Communist Russia. Since the USSR fell in 1991, it made sense for them to change it...but that twist came completely out of left field. I hated it at first, but later realized my reaction was mostly due to the marketing...which bordered on a malicious lie. I really hope Trevor's kidnapping from prison gets mentioned in a future film, and we're given a far more threatening Mandarin.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by Moviefan2k4

I never read the "Iron Man" comics growing up, but I do recall hearing about the Mandarin originally being a allegory for Communist Russia. Since the USSR fell in 1991, it made sense for them to change it...but that twist came completely out of left field. I hated it at first, but later realized my reaction was mostly due to the marketing...which bordered on a malicious lie. I really hope Trevor's kidnapping from prison gets mentioned in a future film, and we're given a far more threatening Mandarin.

I don't know why this is such a big problem for people. Do people really want the trailers to just spoon feed you the entire story?

It made ABSOLUTE SENSE within the context of the rest of the events of the movie.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by spectre08

I don't know why this is such a big problem for people. Do people really want the trailers to just spoon feed you the entire story?

It made ABSOLUTE SENSE within the context of the rest of the events of the movie.

When you advertise a movie like that, where the villain is said to be a massive terrorist, and the comics had Tony fight the Mandarin many times...fans wanted to see that. But instead, Marvel gave us the Extremis story and completely butchered the purpose of the Mandarin. They only backpedaled with "Hail to the King", after the fans cried foul...and I'm hoping they finally do a proper version of that story.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by Moviefan2k4

When you advertise a movie like that, where the villain is said to be a massive terrorist, and the comics had Tony fight the Mandarin many times...fans wanted to see that. But instead, Marvel gave us the Extremis story and completely butchered the purpose of the Mandarin. They only backpedaled with "Hail to the King", after the fans cried foul...and I'm hoping they finally do a proper version of that story.

since less than 1% of MCU movie-goers have ever or will ever read a comic book, yeah, definitely falls into boo hoo deal with it category.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by spectre08

since less than 1% of MCU movie-goers have ever or will ever read a comic book, yeah, definitely falls into boo hoo deal with it category.

I doubt the number's that small, but regardless, these movies wouldn't have even started without the original core audience. Thankfully, Marvel's respected the fans for the most part across the rest of the MCU...and I'm thankful for that.

[willtopower]

The Mandarin "surprise" was underwhelming and left us with an even less satisfying villain to take his place. It was a completely unrewarding experience for this viewer.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

You all say this is a good thing. Look at George Lucas and the prequels. He had total control over that. And you all loved those prequels.

[Drookur]

I was fine with the twist as it made sense in the story, and I just couldn't imagine Ben Kingsley being a physical threat to Iron Man (Extremis or not). My issue was what they turned it into. Kingsley played the Mandarin threat wonderfully in the first half. Trevor was certainly comedic, and I enjoyed the character for the most part (even in the one-shot retcon), the introduction to him right after blowing up the bathroom was a bit lowbrow for me. Even though this isn't exactly high art, I still don't need poop jokes in an Iron Man movie . But that's just my own personal preference.

The rest of the movie is fine. I'll even accept the "quick fix" for the PTSD was just Tony focusing on what needed to be done and putting all that aside, just to have it come back exponentially in Ultron when Scarlet Witch messes with his head (and may or may not be the driving force behind Civil War? I don't know - haven't tried to keep up on it). The Iron Man series just never recaptures the feeling of the first movie which is still one of the bars set for the MCU.

[dgoswald]

Wasn't the Mandarin as created for the comics an Asian (Asian in U.S. terms) character? I vaguely recall him being a Chairman Mao type figure. Unless I'm completely off-base? I guess they felt the need to contemporise the threat, hence the switch to a Middle Eastern character (even if it ultimately proved to be a twist).

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Michael Bay Fan

You all say this is a good thing. Look at George Lucas and the prequels. He had total control over that. And you all loved those prequels.

I was never a rabid worshiper of the original trilogy, so when the prequels came out, I accepted them for the most part. "Phantom Menace" opened a few months before my 19th birthday, so I grew up with the OT on video before the DVD era.

Originally Posted by Drookur

Trevor was certainly comedic, and I enjoyed the character for the most part (even in the one-shot retcon), the introduction to him right after blowing up the bathroom was a bit lowbrow for me. Even though this isn't exactly high art, I still don't need poop jokes in an Iron Man movie . But that's just my own personal preference.

Same here; it was completely unnecessary.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

Wasn't the Mandarin as created for the comics an Asian (Asian in U.S. terms) character? I vaguely recall him being a Chairman Mao type figure. Unless I'm completely off-base? I guess they felt the need to contemporise the threat, hence the switch to a Middle Eastern character (even if it ultimately proved to be a twist).

The comics depicted him as Chinese and English, with a genius intellect and expert martial-arts skills. He is the leader of the Ten Rings organization, which kidnapped Tony and led to the existence of Iron Man.