This weekend, Marvel Studios kicked off the FIFTH phase of their ongoing cinematic universe with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The box office results were perfectly fine. Audiences seemed to enjoy themselves. Critics were pretty unimpressed. Such has been the case for just about every film from Marvel Studios since they reached the pop cultural summit of Avengers: Endgame.
This MCU malaise has prompted countless discussions about what’s wrong with Marvel and what they can do to fix it, and as a devoted fan of this franchise I’ve participated in plenty of these discussions, on both sides of the issue. Am I still enjoying these movies? Sure! Do I also think they’ve lost their way? It’s hard to argue otherwise.
