So with Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, we have come to the end of an era that was kicked off in 2014, back when a quirky independent filmmaker with a mostly horror-movie background took a bunch of D-list Marvel characters, who included a talking raccoon and a walking, talking tree, and turned them into a global box-office sensation. Writer-director James Gunn has very publicly declared that this is his last Guardians of the Galaxy film and that he has crafted this story to serve as an ending for these characters, and to be fair, he has completely delivered on that promise. He has also decamped from Marvel Studios, the studio that gave him his big break, and is now presiding over DC Studios, who have had a considerably more troubled time than Marvel getting their film slate off the ground. Gunn's first film for DC? A new Superman film tentatively titled: Superman: Legacy.
To those old enough to remember, or who have a fondness for reading about these things, there might be something vaguely familiar about how this has played out. Maverick filmmaker with strong indie background gets a big break to direct a property based on Marvel Comics characters, then gets poached by Warner Brothers to direct a Superman movie? This has happened before, only the filmmaker involved was Bryan Singer.
This time, though, it's different, and I'm happy to talk about why.
Back in 2003, Bryan Singer was red-hot following the release of X2: X-Men United, which made a then-stellar $407 million at the global box-office off a $120 million budget, got great reviews and was regarded by many fans as a high watermark in superhero movies. Unfortunately, though, even with this success, Singer's clout wasn't nearly enough to get the suits at Twentieth Century Fox, led by Tom Rothman, to agree to the kind of budget that Singer felt was necessary to execute his vision for X-Men 3. After all, it wouldn't be for another five years that a comic-booked based movie, The Dark Knight would gross a billion dollars, and it wouldn't be for another nine years that a movie based on a Marvel Comic book, The Avengers, would gross that much. Comic book movies based on Marvel properties were, at the time, far from the sure thing at the box-office that they became during the heyday of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Singer haggled for more money, but Fox management was intransigent.
Suddenly Warner Brothers came along and offered Singer a blank check and the opportunity of a lifetime: to revive their dead Superman franchise, which had not been seen in theaters since 1987. Singer left the X-Men franchise to do Superman Returns, which infamously flopped at the box-office. Fox went on to do X-Men: The Last Stand without Singer, ironically handing a budget of $210 million to the eventual director Brett Ratner. That movie didn't necessarily flop financially, but it went on to live in infamy as the film that derailed the X-Men franchise, irreparably damaging it.
Singer and Fox would eventually mend their fences, and Singer would go on to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse for them. The first of these two movies was a hit, but the second one wasn't, and for the second time, their relationship would end in tears and would leave the X-Men film franchise with even more scars which, as of date, have yet to heal. But that's another story.
The Singer/Fox breakup, with Warner Brothers swooping in to play the third party, was an especially ugly story, but even though, on the surface, James Gunn's split with Marvel resembles it, it was, in reality, much easier to accept for a number of reasons.
For one thing, when Singer left, the X-Men franchise was on the verge of truly taking off, with Singer having lined up the seminal Dark Phoenix story for his next film. Fans were robbed of what this story could have looked like in the hands of a competent director, and if I'm perfectly honest, the X-Men franchise as a whole never fully recovered from that. Singer would eventually come back to Fox thanks to Superman Returns flopping, but the damage had been done and things were never the same again.
In contrast, James Gunn has been able to comprehensively share the tale of the Guardians of the Galaxy, with a great deal of love for the characters and a keen eye for excellent storytelling. We had ten years to savor the work he's done for Marvel, compared to the paltry three we had with Bryan Singer before he was whisked off to DC. We got to enjoy the best Gunn had to offer Marvel, whether it was his films or his input on the various scripts that Kevin Feige threw his way. This guy truly helped build the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a true powerhouse of cinema. Fans don't have to wonder about what could have been, like they did with Singer, because they got to see Gunn's work in all its glory.
On a related note, back when Bryan Singer left the X-Men, there were only two movies in the franchise. In contrast, the MCU was a fully-fleshed out universe by the time Gunn announced his departure from Marvel, with three whole phases having been completed in fine style thanks to Avengers: Endgame. In short, there's nothing to regret. Whatever the state of the MCU may be right now, there are, at least, glory days to speak of, unlike the then-burgeoning X-Men franchise, which basically felt like it had been killed off in its infancy.
Finally, whatever may be going on behind the scenes, there is no open acrimony about Gunn leaving, even though Marvel basically precipitated this by firing James Gunn in the first place due to old, admittedly inappropriate Tweets. This paved the way for Gunn working over at DC and producing The Suicide Squad and, perhaps more importantly, the much-beloved Peacemaker series. Fortunately, Kevin Feige never gave up on his buddy and got the big brass at Disney to take him back and let him wrap up his trilogy. Singer's parting from Fox, as I understand it, wasn't exactly amicable, and as I wrote before, everyone, from Fox to WB to the fans, lost in that scenario. In Gunn's case, I'd say everyone wins: Gunn learned a valuable lesson about the internet being forever, Marvel got a heartfelt, well-crafted finale from Gunn for the Guardians of the Galaxy, and DC Studios now has serious hope for the future with Gunn in charge.
Does it hurt that Gunn is leaving? Oh, absolutely, especially given the visible decline in quality of the MCU's releases post-Phase III. Apart from Spider-Man: No Way Home, there has been very little to really cheer about in Phase IV of the MCU, and Phase V started off an a truly embarrassing note with the critical and commercial failure of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, so the high quality and success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, while most welcome, are also a sad reminder that we won't be seeing James Gunn's work on a Marvel movie again any time soon, if at all. But if he has left for good, then at least he's left in the best way possible: on a high note.
No comments:
Post a Comment