I fear that future Superhero movies will be no longer be "stand alone features"

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Now let me explain myself but before I do let me just say that I am not defending Batman v Superman in THIS case because though I have tried to defend it, I agree out of all the criticisms this movie got the one thing that is the biggest issue is the cramming of too many extra canonical things. Less about making a good story and more about setting up future DC movies. And that is what I am going to talk about.

Batman v Superman is just merely the concequence of the standard that Marvel has set with their Avengers movies because ever since the Phase One Marvel movies were a success at setting up a intermovie universe. It set a precedent that everyone with Superhero lisenced movies wants to do there own and even Marvel is trying to hard aswell.

Edgar Wright's vision for Ant-Man was for it to be completely stand-alone with no connection to the bigger Marvel universe just merely a movie to tell a story. But Marvel's interfernce resulted in Edgar leaving the project and the hiring some Yes Man director. And now they added Extra Canon things like Captain America appearing at the very end.

Sony's planned Spiderman movies: I have watched on Youtube the script for what was going to be the Sinister Six movie and not only was Spidey going to fight them but also Venom and I think Black Cat at the same time. And again Setting up future movies.

Age of Ultron, we already know about the blatent setting up of Thor Ragnarok among other things.

And now Batman v Superman. And don't get me started on this flood of "TV series" that everyone is producing.

If this trend contiunes I fear all Superhero movies will just be a interwoven convoluted mess. Let me give you an example of a worse case scenrio because this is happened in the Comic Books world themselves.

Take for example DC's Infinite Crisis, just reading it straight away you are going to get confused as shit because appearently before DC made Inifinite Crisis they made a whole bunch of Lead up comics and they are as follows:

Countdown to Infinite Crisis, The Omac Project, Raan-Thanagar War, Day of Vengence, Villains United, and a 4 part run of Donna Troy (Wonder Girl)

That's six plus novels for you to read in order to fully comprehend the Infinite Crisis book

And Marvel is just as guilty of this in their Comic Books aswell especially with their comic book version of Civil War (and that comic also lead into the horrible Spiderman One More Day comic book)

The comic book example of what I just showed is exactly what I am afraid these theatrical movies will end up becoming. No more stand alone stories in movies. Heck no more Origin story movies if they end getting all the heroes they need.

 

[mduncan50]

The only times I would agree that Marvel has done this is Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron, and even then, it was pretty much one scene in each one that was really out of place. Beyond that I think they've really let all of their movies stand alone. As far as Ant Man goes, we really don't know what the creative differences were between Wright and Marvel, or what parts were changed as a result, but Cap showing up in the after credits sequence is completely in line with what they have done all along since Iron Man, and affected the story in no way at all.
As far as Batman v Superman, so far as I can tell they were trying to tell three stories at the same time. Introducing this version of Batman, the idealogical and physical fight between him and Superman, and the Doomsday story, and all that is involved with that. To try to do all three of those stories, not to mention teasing the Justice League, and whatever the hell Lex was trying to do, none of them got the proper care that it deserved and we see the result.
All that being said though, all three of the last movies from DC (Man of Steel), Marvel (Ant-Man), and Fox (Deadpool) all told self contained stories that required no understanding of the worlds outside of those movies, though obviously there were continuity beats in them for those that enjoy them, so I don't think the issue is so prevalent as you think.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The only times I would agree that Marvel has done this is Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron, and even then, it was pretty much one scene in each one that was really out of place. Beyond that I think they've really let all of their movies stand alone. As far as Ant Man goes, we really don't know what the creative differences were between Wright and Marvel, or what parts were changed as a result, but Cap showing up in the after credits sequence is completely in line with what they have done all along since Iron Man, and affected the story in no way at all.
As far as Batman v Superman, so far as I can tell they were trying to tell three stories at the same time. Introducing this version of Batman, the idealogical and physical fight between him and Superman, and the Doomsday story, and all that is involved with that. To try to do all three of those stories, not to mention teasing the Justice League, and whatever the hell Lex was trying to do, none of them got the proper care that it deserved and we see the result.
All that being said though, all three of the last movies from DC (Man of Steel), Marvel (Ant-Man), and Fox (Deadpool) all told self contained stories that required no understanding of the worlds outside of those movies, though obviously there were continuity beats in them for those that enjoy them, so I don't think the issue is so prevalent as you think.

The 3 movies you listed were Origin stories and those usually have a tendency to be standalone.

Also I am just offering a caution if the worst case scenario happens.

 

[mduncan50]

I just don't see that worse case scenario happening though, since every time a studio makes that mistake if bites them in the ass. For BvS it definitely has so far as reviews go, we'll see about box office.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Depends on the superhero really. I mean the WB/DC and Disney/Marvel stables are for the foreseeable future be intertwined with one another, but the X-Men are still their own thing and doing rather well with that I might add. Fantastic Four was a disastrous fuck-up true, but there's a lot of superheroes in comics, so the idea of optioning off one that the Big Two give zero shits about and let some guys go hog-wild with it isn't off the table.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

This serial TV format of "it's all connected" probably draws in more crowds than "here's a movie about a D-lister you don't know".

 

[mduncan50]

This serial TV format of "it's all connected" probably draws in more crowds than "here's a movie about a D-lister you don't know".

I think it's mainly about building a brand. There are lots of people that aren't even comic book fans that will go and see every Marvel movie because they've built a reputation for good movies, and the public is familiar with their world. And to be fair, their brand didn't start with an A lister lol

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Films still need to have a vaguely conventional plot structure to be considered good films, as it's just not satisfying to not get a conclusion after sitting through ~2 hours. Having films connect can be good or bad depending on how it's handled; by and large Marvel are doing it right as each film still works self-contained, but builds up to much more epic events later on in Avengers films.

DC don't really seem to get it are trying to build a universe too quickly. It's like building a house with no foundations. You need to make the audience see a hero do his thing, get to know them and go through an adventure with them, before putting them in as a part of something larger. Failing to do that means that the audience just isn't going to care about the characters, or even really have a clue about what's going on.

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh, don't worry, that's totally where this is all leading. People are still riding high on the Marvel love train, so they don't care, but yeah, eventually going to see a Marvel superhero film is going to basically be like trying to read a Marvel comic book; just when you find something you think is interesting, you discover it has crossovers with five other books and three issues halfway through a particular run tie in to some huge brand-wide event.

Comics are really hard to get into, and it's amazing to me that the publishers seemingly can see that (what with how many times they've tried "resetting" things) and yet still always fall into the same trap. It's really just a matter of time until it happens with the films, too. Seems like it's already happening with DC, mostly because they just don't know how they should pace things out.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Eventually I'll be able to say "I was there the day the strength of Marvel failed."

I don't think we're going to have a complete shutdown of the genre but we certainly are going to have a shift in gears when the multi-million, multi-cast, multi-storyline 'bridging' films cease their draw.

Deadpool was fun but I honestly have no energy to watch Batman V Superman. I'm only considering going to see Civil War... Its just a lot of superhero and I feel like watching other stuff more these days... <.<

 

[Scarim Coral]

This only really apply to Marvel and DC attempt to follow their leads. Even then with Marvel, it all leading up to the Infinity Gem but there will be more movies set after that unless there will be another big lead after the Infinite Gem?

I suppose it depend if they want to adapt another stand alone graphic novel like 300 and Watchmen that is until they make their own and slap it as a sequel like 300: Rise of An Empire.

 

[Saelune]

Good. I LOVE expanded universe. I love character cross-overs. My favorite thing about Spider-Man is his penchant for team ups. X-Men was cool because it wasn't just one person. Hell, Id be fine if they stopped naming the movies after a character. Hell, the new Captain America movie is...well, An Avengers movie and I am fine with that. (Not fine with butchering the Civil War plot, since it should be its own phase, but whatever...Black Panthers in it.)

Single hero movies deny realism within its world. The Avengers came to be cause multiple heroes responded to one villain's attack. Really there should be many Avengers type groups. Sure when The Shocker shows up I bet Iron Man is like "Spidey's got it" but youd think characters like Venom, Magneto, and any time Hulk rampages tons of people would always have to show up.

 

[Hawki]

All indications are that it's already ended bar origin stories. Civil War? It's obstensibly a Captain America film, but if you haven't seen the Avengers films, good luck trying to understand who all the other characters are. Thor: Ragnarok? If you were only interested in Thor movies, good luck in getting up to speed with who the Hulk is.

Honestly, I found it jarring even in Phase 1 MCU films (Iron Man 2 is the one people keep bringing up, but I find Thor and Captain America to be similarly guilty), and it's part of the reason why I like so few of them. But for me, the shared universe idea was showing its drawbacks from the outset. If anything, it's got me more afraid for Star Wars, how they're showing one movie a year. A bit less egregious since they still share the Star Wars series title, but if I have to start seeing "Star Wars Anthology Film 3" to understand Episode IX or whatnot, then yes, we've got a problem.