Watched Shang-Chi at the weekend and it was everything you expect from a Marvel film....and maybe that is the problem with them now.....you know exactly what you are going to get.
The final baddie (no spoliers) was a nice addition as was how the fight evolved, but as with most marvel films, the 'threat' isn't real so its hard to feel attached to the ending....its just something that is happening before the next thing or film happens.
I'm no comic fan boy, so i am struggling to get excited about all these new characters.....it feels like they shot thier load with the initial bunch, all the big hitters everybody has heard of, so even though they introduced unknown characters (for me) like GoTG and Dr Strange, they were wrapped up in what we all know, so it worked. I'm not getting the same feeling this time round and its too many new characters.
I'll still watch them and maybe it will all come good, but i'm now watching for the sake of it and waiting till it comes out on Disney+, no clamouring for watching it on the big screen.
From a business perspective, things are great for Marvel - the brand is strong enough that they can launch unknown characters and still get big box office numbers, and Disney+ opens up a huge avenue for building multiple TV shows.
But creatively, it feels like they're in a tricky spot. The problem with the 'universe' they've built is that it's now so vast it's hard to have a clear throughline, which they had in the first few phases. It was much easier to keep track of the overarching stories when there was two films a year and no TV shows. Now you have three or four films, plus the same amount of TV shows - it's inevitable that big Marvel fans will simply fall away and end up skipping certain things.
In terms of characters, it's obviously a bit of a fallow period - they've lost Iron Man and Captain America who were the heart of the MCU through to Endgame. Black Widow as well, to a certain extent. But it's worth remembering that someone like Iron Man wasn't an A-list superhero before the MCU, it's because of the MCU that he's regarded as such. It'll take a while to build things back up again, and the first Phase 4 films have been a strange mix (a prequel film about a dead Avenger?)
Those films are all a bit of a palate cleanser, and hopefully the upcoming movies will make things a bit more interesting. The next four films are all about pretty major characters - Spider-Man, Dr Strange, Thor and Black Panther - so will likely set the tone for the future of the MCU.
And there's still massive opportunities in terms of new characters, particularly with the Fantastic Four and X-Men. The latter, in particular, has a wealth of well-known characters - Professor X, Magneto and Wolverine are three colossal Marvel characters, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
