2. Trying Too Hard To Be The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvels run of success in the past five years (and their plans for the upcoming five) has arguably caused every science fiction/fantasy franchise to take notice and reexamine their paradigms accordingly. Youve got one or two standalone films every year, then a collective film every few years that ties all the stories and characters together. If this sounds suspiciously similar to what Disney is now trying to do with Star Wars, thats no accident. What shouldnt be forgotten, however, is that Marvel didnt get to this point overnight or without some missteps along the way. Its easy to look at the successes of Spider-Man, or the X-Men, or the Avengers, and get drunk on the possibilities, but for each of those theres a Fantastic Four, or a Ghost Rider, or two failed attempts at the Incredible Hulk. Also worth noting is the fact that comic book movies and space opera are two very different idioms. Star Wars cant explicitly emulate the Marvel Cinematic Universe because the events in the standalone films will not be contemporaneous to the events in the sequel trilogy. If you release a young Han Solo film in 2016, it will be dealing with events 40 to 50 years before the previous years Episode VII. If you release a Yoda film in 2018, its main character will have been long dead by the time of the previous years Episode VIII (force ghosts notwithstanding, of course). Thus, the ancillary threads that tie the Marvel Cinematic Universe together simply arent achievable with Star Wars unless the standalone films occupy the same narrative time frame as the sequel trilogy, which does not appear to be Disneys intent. The danger is that youll be left with standalone films that feel like placeholders (or worse, cash grabs) instead of films that are essential to understanding the events of the unfolding main trilogy.