Editorial: The Non-Marvel Shared Universe Movies Need To Stop

(Or: What Hath The Avengers Wrought)

After Marvel's extremely risk plan for combining stand-alone movies into one massive feature film called The Avengers paid off big time, studios began to scramble to join in on the newest cinematic craze; shared universes. The first franchise not from Marvel Studios to test this out was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which took it's 2012 Andrew Garfield reboot and tired to stretch it to include hints at future spin-offs and sequels. The film was a calamity quality-wise and disappointing financially, which you'd think studios would take as a sign that not all movies need a shared universe.

Nope.
Dan Aykroyds comments recently about turning Ghostbusters into a massive franchise for Sony reeked of desperation. The dudes always been insistent on continuing this beloved 80's franchise, but now he wants to take two simple movies and turn them into a universe on the scale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That sounds...mindbogglingly idiotic. Now, just another Ghostbusters movie would be fine, especially if it involved a cast full of talented female comedians, but trying to churn out endless spin-offs off this franchise just feels wrong.

They're not the only ones looking to create a massive universe out of certain cinematic properties. Universal intends to start a shared universe centering around their monster starting with The Mummy in June 2016, while Warner Bros. is using Man of Steel as a launching pad for an entire DC Comics universe. Neither of those sound promising on any level, but it must be said that not all non-Marvel Cinematic Universe attempts at a massive universe feel futile.

With Star Wars: Episode VII in December 2015, Disney intends to start putting out a new Star Wars movie every year, with every three years bringing a new "episode" film and all the other years being home to spin-off features focusing on popular character in the Star Wars universe like Yoda or Boba Fett. Potential ideas for spin-off films don't sound like guaranteed masterpieces, but Star Wars has always had a massive universe of interconnected characters thanks to books, video games and even popular television shows.

But of course, the main thing that currently separates the MCU from the shared universe abomination that is The Amazing Spider-Man franchise is that they have actually quality movies under their belts. The various directors and writers in charge of the Marvel Studios motion pictures put good stories and characters first in many of their features, using world building as another aspect of the storytelling instead of a substitute for it. If you have a great story in hand, maybe a shared universe could work, though even then I have a hard time believing that Ghostbusters could become a cinematic universe on par with the one one Marvel Studios has concocted.