[ad_1]
I am not an advocate of comic book movies and TV shows, especially Marvel ones. While entertaining, they can be a bit blank and become bland over time. I had planned to never watch another Marvel property again after Avengers: Endgame, but then came WandaVision. I was intrigued.
For those familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the show’s premise and early episodes feel like a major departure. Marvel has devoted entire movies to telling the origin story of a particular character, but opens up WandaVision dropping two Avengers in a strange place and the wrong decade with no explanation. The movies take the superheroes on quests to dark corners of space, but the series is confined to a small town in New Jersey.
Movies are action movies full of explosions and battles. But in WandaVisionIn the first episode, viewers are treated to a 1950s sitcom starring Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Wait what? Wanda, a witch with superpowers, and Vision, an AI android whose body is made of vibranium, both came to the MCU in Avengers: Age of Ultron. They then fell in love. But (spoiler alert!) Vision is dead End of Game, so what is he doing alive and well in the 50s with Wanda and a boring office job?
At first, it seems even Wanda and Vision aren’t quite sure. They fail in polite gossip when diners ask benign questions about their past. They know they’re different – Wanda brazenly signals to Vision to switch from her android self to a human upon exiting the door, and we see that even the superpowers can’t help her in the kitchen – but the first few episodes don’t. present no context like why they live in a small town, in the past, or why time keeps on blowing.
The second episode takes place in the 1960s and over time the illusion begins to wane. In her grief, Wanda, in a way she doesn’t understand, brought Vision back to life and transformed a small town in New Jersey into an idyllic sitcom setting where they can play at home. But the viewer begins to understand that there is more to the series: strange objects and people appear, and we learn how the town of Westview is closed.
This is perhaps the most mature entry in the MCU canon, with Wanda’s heartbreak and Wanda and Vision’s home life serving as the series’ focal point, while a recurring vague worry ends up turning into a mystery. in its own right. The series removes the typical attributes of a superhero movie, even avoiding a cut and dried hero and villain model – viewers don’t learn the identity of the “big bad” until the seventh episode of the nine episodes. season. And while we’re supposed to find Wanda likeable, she’s clearly no longer a hero – she’s sort of kidnapped an entire town and forcibly controls the minds of its inhabitants to make them play with her fantasy.
While the show is entertaining and even compelling at times, it still gives way to the corporate world building that has come to define the MCU. There’s a lot of fan service and nods for the comics, and, especially in the later episodes, the show focuses on its own storyline.
There has been a lot of discussion about the “implications” of various creative decisions regarding the show, which serve to set up the Dr Strange sequel: How a casting decision offers a glimpse into the Marvel multiverse, how a character apparently gaining superpowers could be a prelude to his own possible films, how the focus on magic could mean Marvel’s magical properties will join the MCU , how a subtle retcon sets up the X-Men. WandaVision is not allowed to be a property on its own, it must always be linked and set the stage for other Marvel properties.
While WandaVision manages to be an intriguing spectacle, it is also a deeply frustrating spectacle. It serves as a subtle reminder that pop culture can be more than we’ve experienced in recent years, and a not-so-subtle reminder of how franchise building can pervert the art of filmmaking. If this was a standalone show, where the writers weren’t forced by the MCU’s past and forced to plan for its future, how would the show have been different? It’s a testament to the strength of the creative team members behind WandaVision that they make the show work as well as it does, even if Disney forces them to step into a creative corner. I suspect that with more freedom the show would have been even better.
WandaVision shows that the audience can and appreciate the complexity of what they watch, that they don’t need a big show and emptiness CGI fight scenes to stay invested. Perhaps, hopefully, studios will begin to realize that such depth can be enjoyed without superhero veneer.
[ad_2]
Source link