Over the past few weeks, the public-relations divisions of the Disney entertainment megalith and its associated branch, Marvel Studios, have been hard at work, preparing millions of potential ticket-buyers for the release of Deadpool & Wolverine on July 26. That’s roughly three months away, but this is a significant moment for the multibillion-dollar earning, comic-book-spawned Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU, as the interrelated movie series is known, has been dealing with its first downward trend in box office receipts over the past couple of years — leading to accusations that audiences are experiencing “superhero fatigue.” In fact, the creative side of moviemaking seems to be suffering from “franchise fatigue,” although the studios themselves, Disney and beyond, seem to be ignoring any dips in quality.
Two full-length trailers (and a few tongue-in-cheek teasers) have now dropped for Deadpool & Wolverine and more are on the horizon. It’s just business, and despite undeniable star power with Ryan Reynolds as the scarred, indestructible, quip-spouting mercenary Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as the near-immortal, self-regenerating superhero Wolverine aka Logan, there will be no hedging of bets. A lot is at stake for the studio honchos. Wolverine, in particular, is a crucial component here. He’s a solo vigilante type when he’s not being a member of Marvel’s valiant mutant band, the X-Men. And since the acquisition of 20th Century Fox (now known as 20th Century Studios) by Disney, the ever-popular X-Men, an intellectual property contractually controlled by Fox for a bunch of feature films, has now reverted to Marvel Studios — meaning the mutants can be folded into the MCU, possibly giving that massive two-dozen-plus movie saga a boost.
Deadpool & Wolverine could well be a blast (the fun kind) as well as a boost. That remains to be seen. But skepticism is understandable, given the state of the movie industry. A string of sequels for various properties, intended to milk what the suits doubtless consider cash cows, have hit theaters over the past year. Clearly, the Hollywood corporate machine would rather lean on proven brands than invest in anything fresh and challenging. Taking profits out of the equation, this approach has often led to diminishing returns on the artistic front. The most recent examples are a visually colorful, yet repetitive Kung Fu Panda 4, which is the fourth in the series of animated Asian-set action comedies with anthropomorphic animals using martial-arts to fight villainy; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the cluttered less-than-satisfying second movie in a continuation of the supernatural comedy franchise that launched in 1984 (with Ghostbusters); and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a numbing beast-off that’s the latest film about the secretive Monarch organization dedicated to combating giant monsters (like Godzilla and Kong) that emerge from a dimensional rift below the surface of the Earth.
Monetizing assets
For the record, there have been Kung Fu Panda, Ghostbusters, and Monarch TV shows too. That is a lot of milking. And it’s not slowing up in May. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will be released on May 10. It’s the latest installment in 20th Century’s ongoing resuscitation of a movie property that began in 1968 with the blockbuster “simians versus humans” hit Planet of the Apes. Adapting and expanding on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel Planet of the Apes, four more Apes movies of varying quality were cranked out between 1970 and 1973 to capitalize on the popularity of the first. It took a while, but there was a less successful one-film revival, courtesy of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake in 2001. And then, a complete back-to-square-one revival kicked off in 2011 with an invigorating Rise of the Planet of the Apes, followed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes — all of which have been smartly written, well-acted, and enhanced by advances in special effects that replaced the prosthetic ape make-up of the earlier movies with hyper-realistic motion-capture CGI.
The odds are at best even if Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is up to its recent predecessors. And therein is the issue. Kung Fu Panda 4 squandered a lot of the “panda-monium” built up over the earlier, tighter, funnier chapters in the series. The focal point in KFP4 was again Po (voiced by Jack Black), the pudgy noodle-and-bun-loving panda, who became a master of the kung fu fighting style under the tutelage of Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) and served as protector of the happy valley where he, his family, his friends, and allies live. Unfortunately, the return of significant voice actors and the beauty of the animation couldn’t cover up a sense that this was Kung Fu pandering — more frenetic than kinetic.
The Hollywood corporate machine would rather lean on proven brands than invest in anything fresh and challenging.
When the makers of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire decided to resume the tale of the Spengler family, a decision was made to complement these folks, central to 2021’s well-received Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with three proto-Ghostbusters, a couple other oldsters, and assorted newbies. The heartland-dwelling Spenglers were related to a charter New York City-based Ghostbuster, the late Egon Spengler (played by the dearly departed cocreator of the franchise, Harold Ramis), and that inspired the current stewards of the franchise to call on the surviving actors who played the original Ghostbusters: Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, and Ernie Hudson. Leaving the Midwestern location of Afterlife and relocating to New York, Frozen Empire also brought back Annie Potts in the role of the Ghostbusters’ longtime secretary — now a full-fledged ’Buster. The result was a too-crowded affair, long on fan service and short on laughs. Why add the legacy stars if they’re going to be short-changed by a glut of characters — old and new, fleshy and spectral — vying for time with hyper-speed ghost chases and an enhanced mythology?
Draining the well
As for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, it’s a nearly nonstop slug-fest with a slew of realistically computer-animated creatures that are mostly pummeling the hell out of one another in the fanciful, digitally fashioned environment known as the Hollow Earth. Although it could be tolerated as the onscreen equivalent of a white-knuckle amusement park ride, that’s to the detriment of usually reliable live-action performers Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, and Brian Tyree Henry, representing the Monarch contingent, who have so little to do during the proceedings they might have been computer-generated themselves. To be frank, only one of the Monarch monster movies, Kong: Skull Island, gives its human actors enough to do and merits a rewatch.
The overarching question for anyone who wants to see something that doesn’t besmirch an established franchise is simple. How many times can you go to the well before it’s one time too many? On May 24, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga premieres in theaters. It concerns the origins of the warrior woman previously introduced in a decent reboot of the postapocalyptic Mad Max sci-fi films. Furiosa’s story — with Anya Taylor Joy playing the younger version of the female badass first portrayed by Charlize Theron — might be well told. Will a money-tree bloom as Furiosa travels her wasteland setting? Those who green-light the plethora of sequels and prequels and reboots (oh, my!) are counting on it. Moviegoers, whether eager or exhausted, should have the final say.