Marvel Studios’ last two big-screen releases,Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessandThor: Love and Thunder, have highlighted a prevalent issue in Phase Four of theMarvel Cinematic Universe. BothMultiverse of MadnessandLove and Thunderwere praised for their stunning visuals, committed performances, and memorable use of music, likeDoctor Strange’s musical note fight andThor’s Guns ‘N’ Roses needle-drops. In fact, the MCU’s two most recent movies have been acclaimed by critics for just about every aspect except their writing.
These two less-than-stellar screenplays suffer from the same problem that could permeate throughout the rest of Phase Four.Multiverse of Madnesswas written byLokicreator Michael Waldron, whileLove and Thunderwas written by director Taika Waititi in collaboration with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Both scripts are let down by disjointed pacing, tonal inconsistency, and on-the-nose expository dialogue ignoring the crucial “show, don’t tell” rule of storytelling.
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That’s because they don’t follow the compass of a single cohesive storyline. Instead, both movies took a wish list of ideas, characters, and plot elements and crammed them into a perfunctory narrative as opposed to coming up with a core story and building the ideas around that.Multiverse of Madnessis jam-packed with disconnected plotlines: America Chavez’s origin story, Wanda’s transformation into the Scarlet Witch,the introduction of the Illuminati. The actual backbone of Strange’s arc – his quest to find true happiness – is hastily tagged on in a couple of lines of dialogue. By the end of the movie, this mechanical plot thread has no real resolution.
Love and Thundersimilarly bites off a lot more than it can chew. The movie works best when it focuses on Thor’s struggles with depression and his own quest for happiness. But this internal conflict is often overshadowed by a jumble of mismatched story ideas. Jane Foster acquires the powers of Thor. Omnipotent City introducesRussell Crowe as Zeus. Gorr the God Butcher wants to wipe out godkind. The movie doesn’t dedicate adequate screen time to exploring any of these storylines in nearly enough depth.
After assuming the throne of New Asgard and its related responsibilities inAvengers: Endgame, Valkyrie barely has anything to do inLove and Thunder. Jamming all these ideas into one screenplay resulted ina movie with a completely inconsistent tone. The Guardians of the Galaxy are essentially background extras in the first few minutes before disappearing for good. Jane’s cancer treatments and a pair of screaming space goats are both interesting concepts in their own ways, but they don’t belong in the same movie.
The overstuffed plotting of recent MCU movies means there’s a lot of telling instead of showing. InDoctor Strange 2, the cameoing Illuminati members are all burdened with long, drawn-out expository dialogue explaining that Strange himself is the greatest threat to the multiverse. InThor 4, Korg catches the audience up on Thor’s adventures in the form of voiceover narration. Jane approaches the remains of Mjolnir and then, all of a sudden,she’s the Mighty Thor. Her origin story isn’t seen on-screen; Valkyrie just explains how she became a superhero. Sif tells Thor that Gorr has been slaughtering gods left and right, but he doesn’t actually kill any gods on-screen except for the first one.
Way back in 2008 when he madeIron Man, the movie that started it all, Jon Favreau wasn’t interested in universe-building. He simply set out to tell a great story. The first MCU movie didn’tintroduce the Infinity Stonesor the multiverse; it just focused on making Tony Stark a character that audiences could care about and sent him on an emotionally engaging journey in which he tackled his flaws and forged a better path for himself. With all of that stuff in place at the center of the movie, Favreau was free to build the introduction of Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. around that. If it was made in Phase Four,Iron Manwould be all about the Avengers Initiative and Tony’s quest to become a better person would be brushed over in two or three lines of dialogue.
Iron Mankicked off the MCU in style, but it’s a standalone narrative above all. The whole movie isn’t dedicated to setting up the Avengers; it’s just something that happens on top of Tony’s timeless hero’s journey. The movie’s main focus isTony’s internal conflicts. In today’s Marvel movies, that seems to be the last thing on the filmmakers’ minds. They’re so focused on cameos and worldbuilding that the character arcs and plotting take a backseat. Instead of coming up with a compelling story for the title character and seeing which cool elements of the comics fit around that, these movies compile a bunch of disconnected concepts from the source material and connect the dots in a way that feels forced.
