The Collapse of the MCU and the End of an Era

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The decrease in Marvel’s quality of production in recent years is shown through their reviews, CGI and storylines.

Maggie Goldberg, Writer
April 21, 2023

Marvel movies have been known for decades for their quality and length. Even if you weren’t interested in the storylines, the entertainment aspect is undoubtable and the special effects have been nominated for awards countless times. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made films on superhumans, futuristic technology and outer space adventures since 2008, with their first film Iron Man based on the Marvel comics by Stan Lee. Four of the top ten best-selling movies of all time are Marvel movies. 

The excitement around new releases is mostly from pre-existing fans rather than new recruits. 

Storylines from Marvel are complex in themselves with otherworldly creatures and technology. When stories overlap, they can be difficult to follow. Outside of complexity, the movies are long. They are often close to three hours with posti-credit bonus scenes. Fans believe these are some main reasons that the films are loved by people who have followed since the beginning rather than new fans. Stories have compounded over themselves for so long that being someone new to the fandom would mean watching hours of movies for context or starting to watch in a place that doesn’t make sense without prior knowledge. 

The fan base however, isn’t responsible for the movies themselves, which many fans believe are declining in quality. Marvel fan, sophomore Ethan Chahine, is disappointed in this decline of the movies. 

Decades of Marvel movies have allowed for millions of fans to relate to a variety of characters and backgrounds, with the out-of-this world adventures they pursue capturing audiences. The start of the fall of Marvel has not been easy for fans like Ethan. MCU’s stories need to capture and hold the interest of new and existing fans. 

“There has definitely been a decline in quality in Marvel movies,” Chahine said, “Projects like Black Widow and Thor: Love and Thunder dont nearly live up to their potential.” 

Chahine believes the Black Widow movie had potential to be spectacular because of how long fans have loved Natasha, but the end result of the film was a let down due to a mild story and poor CGI compared to other films.

“In recent years I think Marvel’s CGI has been slacking, the first Iron Man had some amazing CGI for the time, but films like Thor: Love and Thunder despite coming out years after the fact look way worse,” Chahine said.

Chahine believes Marvel’s CGI contributes to the Marvel movies, but the problem with the CGI in recent movies is it’s used in unnecessary places and it ruins the quality, like using a greenscreen rather than a real cityscape.

“I am sad about the Marvel Movies declining, the MCU finally is able to use almost all of their characters (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men),” said Chahine. “The stigma around the MCU that the decline has created makes it harder to establish their stories within the general public without a negative outlook on them.”