*SPOILER ALERT: The Following Article Contains Spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier*
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is on one hell of a successful roll. Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened this past Friday to critical acclaim & a sizable box office weekend. The entire Marvel franchise became the third highest grossing franchise worldwide of all time with a whopping $5.9 billion in worldwide ticket sales and Kevin Feige announced that the MCU has now been planned out until 2028. It’s hard to recall the time when people doubted Marvel would be able to pull this daring idea off back when they announced their intentions around the release of Iron Man. Yet, it has grown into being one of the most successful and adored franchises to ever exist.
Still, not everyone seems too pleased. In a recent article for CinemaBlend.com entitled “Why Marvel’s MadLibs Style of Filmmaking Is Bad For Storytelling,” writer Gabe Toro spoke about his theory that, because lead MCU producer Kevin Feige told Winter Soldier writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFreely that he wanted to have helicarriers crash during the third act, Marvel is putting the needs of spectacle over those of storytelling. He goes on to criticize familiar recurring elements of the MCU, particularly its pension for callbacks and in-universe jokes which he feels drive focus away from the story, stakes and characters. Now, I have nothing against Mr. Toro or his opinions on The Winter Soldier. I do, however, firmly disagree with pretty much everything he says in the article, from its assertions about Kevin Feige and Marvel based on one quote to its claims about the MCU’s priorities in terms of storytelling. So, rather than mindlessly bitch about Gabe’s opinions in the comments for his article, I have attempted to craft a reasonable retort… which hopefully won’t come off as bitching in essay format.
Now, it seems clear that the idea of a shared universe isn’t as impressive to Gabe Toro as the story or characters are and I actually do agree with that point. The small nods to what has happened and what will come in this universe are nice, but at the end of the day, my opinion on the films is based more on their individual story, direction and overall feel rather than the easter eggs. Toro even brings up one of the more contested entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man 2, and asserts that The Winter Soldier had even more heavy use of references than it or any other film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I couldn’t disagree more with the comparison between the two films. The real issue with Iron Man 2‘s world building isn’t that it exists, b