Has the Marvel Cinematic Universe entered its flop era? From a box office perspective, certainly not: the mounds of money amassed by Thor: Love and Thunder this past weekend – and the records shattered by multiple generations of Spider-Men last Christmas – prove that the public hasn’t lost its appetite for these quippy, interconnected spandex spectacles. Yet the reviews and even the reactions of opening-night audiences tell a different story: the tale of a franchise too big to fail skidding into its roughest creative patch.
Over the last year, Disney has released a whopping six new Marvel movies. Each has been plagued by its own problems, familiar to the MCU but amplified: perfunctory CGI climaxes (Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), boring ensembles (Eternals), convoluted homework plots (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and complete tonal incoherence (Thor: Love and Thunder). The best and most popular of the bunch, Spider-Man: No Way Home, has the novelty of an exchange program, pulling fan favorites from other continuities to provoke standing ovations. But it also has muddy green-screen action and an overstuffed, MacGuffin-heavy story.
