How Did Guardians Of The Galaxy Blow Past All Expectations?

PHASE TWO

Miracles

"Ah, what the hell, I don't got that long a lifespan anyway."

Unlike all the other entries in this Make Mine Marvel series, I've already reviewed Guardians of The Galaxy on this website, so I decided to change things up a bit for this particular essay and take an in-depth look at how Guardians of The Galaxy became such a huge hit last summer. Prior to last August, nobody knew what a Groot was, how Gamora and Nebula were related or that raccoon's had a compulsion for metallic limbs, but by God, they do know.

Behold! The Awesomeness of Captain America: The Winter Soldier!

PHASE TWO

Miracles

"The price of freedom is high....and it's a price I'm willing to pay."

Continuing the saga of the three individual Avengers with ongoing franchises after the release of The Avengers was a daunting task, but it's interesting to see how each of the post-Battle of New York continuations went in a unique direction with their respective superheroes. Iron Man 3 went deeper into the existentialism of its titular character, while Thor: The Dark World took time to look at how a massive event like the one that brought The Avengers together would affect Thor and Loki as brothers.

Why Is Thor: The Dark World Such A Marvel Misfit?

PHASE TWO

Miracles

"This is so unlike you brother! So clandestine!"

Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe won't be complete until Ant-Man goes on his epic first adventure in July. Even with that mind, it feels like Thor: The Dark World is likely to become the lowest grossing movie in this phase of the MCU domestically (Ant-Man has a good shot at going lower, but it has summer weekdays that Thor 2 didn't have to boost its grosses). Thanks to this, it's been deemed one of the lowly entries of the entire MCU, to the point where Entertainment Weekly dubbed it the "Batman & Robin" of this franchise last year.

Iron Man 3 Is Not A Film That Likes To Play Things Safe

PHASE TWO

Miracles

"Is that all you've got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?"
"Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography!"

The Avengers wasn't just greeted with decent box office when it debuted in May 2012, no no, it pretty much crushed all its box office competitors and seized any box office record in its path. Becoming the (currently) third biggest movie of all-time domestically and worldwide, the world was clamoring for more adventures with these Marvel-ous superheroes, and they got their wish when Iron Man 3 debuted the following summer.

The Magnificence Of The Avengers Stems From Its Energetic Joy

PHASE ONE

Discovery

"The Avengers. That's what we call ourselves. Earth's mightiest heroes type thing."

There's a lot of different emotions that can be expressed through the storytelling medium of summer blockbusters, but perhaps the most pivotal is that emotion of wonder. It can certainly be felt during any kind of film (I know I felt it during recent dramatic masterpieces like Boyhood and Her), but the way summer blockbusters call up that emotion is quite notable. It's that feeling that creeps up your shoulder, as the visuals on that enormous movie theater screen seem to be a gateway to the kind of unbelievable images you've only dreamed of. The perfect example of this kind of phenomenon is that incredible moment in Jurassic Park where Alan Grant and Ellie Satler see the titular theme parks dinos for the first time.

Captain America Was Successfully Brought Into The 21st Century With A Retro Approach (Make Mine Marvel)

PHASE ONE

Discovery

"Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. Stay who you are. Not just a soldier. But a good man."

One of the weirdest criticisms I've heard about Marvel Studios and their films is that they have a "house style", which strikes me as kind of a peculiar criticism. I mean, sure, all the movies under the studio are PG-13, and typically have action in them, but a major part of why these features have become such enormous successes is because of the variety of tones, environments and aesthetics each individual project has. Even the action elements can deviate from movie to movie; Guardians of The Galaxy, as one might imagine, dishes out more sci-fi enhanced violence than Iron Man 2 for example.

Thor Took The Marvel Cinematic Universe To Exciting New Realms (Make Mine Marvel)

PHASE ONE

Discovery
"Whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

Last summer, everyone was in a tizzy over how Guardians of The Galaxy was pretty out-there for a conventional summer blockbuster, and while that film was truly unique from its typical summer blockbuster brethren, at least that one had the post-Avengers Marvel brand to give it a boost. Back in 2011, I was pretty much certain Thor would fail to muster any kind of notable box office or critical reception. Here was a film where a guy with a giant hammer would ride a rainbow bridge to fight ice monsters and his brother, who is prone to donning a horned helmet.

Iron Man 2 Has Some Ideas Of High Quality, The Problem Is There's Too Many Ideas Overall (Make Mine Marvel)

PHASE ONE

Discovery

"All I have to do is sit here and watch, as world consumes you."

After Iron Man shattered every box office expectation in 2008, there was no question that a sequel was to come. The Monday after Tony Stark's first movie opened to $98 million, Marvel announced four new movies, one of which was of course Iron Man 2, set for April 30, 2010. The date moved up one week to May 7, but another big adventure with everybody's favorite genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist did indeed arrive in 2010.

What Exactly Was The Incredible Hulk? (Make Mine Marvel #2)

PHASE ONE

Discovery

"I don't want to control it. I want to get rid of it."

The filmography of Marvel Studios is still so small (Age of Ultron will be only the eleventh film from the company) that it truly is surprising, especially when considering their tremendous influence on the pop culture zeitgeist, that one of their big budget summer blockbusters could slip through the cracks and become relatively forgotten. But that's the fate that has befallen The Incredible Hulk, a 2008 attempt to revive the beloved character of The Hulk after the 2003 feature from Ang Lee went nowhere except for the $5 dollar Blu-Ray bin at Wal-Mart.

Iron Man's Influence Spread Far Beyond Its Own Cinematic Universe (Make Mine Marvel #1)

PHASE ONE

Discovery

"Iron Man. That's kind of catchy!"

Looking over the history of superhero films, there is no more important time period than the summer of 2008, wherein five very different superhero films debuted over the course of 12 weeks. One, Hancock, was not based on any preexisting property, while another, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, delved into Guillermo Del Toro style fantasy with aplomb. The differences between just these two movies is vast, but tossing in the other three that premiered over the summer just shows how wide in storytelling scope the framework of superhero cinema can be.

Welcome To Make Mine Marvel

The entire model of cinema is built on risks. People taking leaps of faiths solely because they believe in the artform of storytelling. That was the sort of perilous situation the folks starting up Marvel Studios found themselves in during the middle portion of the first decade of the 21st century. Adaptations of the characters Marvel had made over the countless years had ranged in quality, with some like Spider-Man 2 being of a high caliber of quality. But then there was Howard The Duck, The Hulk and Fantastic Four and forthcoming films like X-Men: The Last Stand, Ghost Rider and Spider-Man 3.

These movies not only missed what made the beloved superheroes so popular in the first place, they also forgot about making these into features that could stand on their own as good cinema. Now, Marvel Studios, with $525 million in financing from Merrill Lynch, was out to bring the characters they still had the film rights to in a way that would be both profitable and artistically successful. A similar previous effort to create a multitude of features based on their comic book characters in collaboration with Artisan Entertainment didn't yield much success, but this massive endeavor wound up finding some level of opulence, to put it very very lightly.

With The Avengers: Age of Ultron on the horizon, I think it's time to look back on the 10 movies the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created. Starting today, and all the way through April 29, I'll look at each of the films in this epic saga in a series of editorials entitled Make Mine Marvel and analyze the qualities, flaws and impact on pop culture at large of each individual motion picture. Join me, won't you, for an adventure that's gonna be loads and loads of nerdy fun!