how many of the avenger movies have you seen?
I've seen Iron Man which is by all accounts the best of the bunch, and while it was good, I would consider it underwhelming if that's supposed to be the quality that studio films are aspiring to. None of the main creative personnel appear to be the same for The Avengers except for one editor (Director/Writer/Cinematographer all did not work on any other Avenger films) anyway. I've see plenty of other studio productions made under the same system though (Harry Potter/Transformers 2/Pirates 4, etc.) Except for The Dark Knight and the Toy Story sequels, they've almost all been "good" at best.
True, but where did you get the idea that The Avengers is just a cash-in? Marvel's been dedicated to the idea of a united cinematic universe leading up to the Avengers since the first Iron Man. Yeah, they want to make money off of it, so what? They're also doing it for the fans.
Even if the people involved are just doing this for the fans (which is not something that bodes well for future films' qualities), I doubt Disney sees this as anything more than a franchise machine. It's not like it disappointing at the box office would mean that fans wouldn't get to see it. It would just ensure that franchises take a hit in the future.
I mean, it's not like The Avengers is the only movie out there like this and I'm complaining about some isolated incident. Wouldn't everyone agree that this is clearly part of a trend? Who knows, maybe this is the one big franchise movie that would have been made irrespective of contemporary trends, but I don't think I can be blamed for finding that hypothesis somewhat doubtful.
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My bracket wasn't good enough to beat SuperNiceDog's in the GameFAQS Rivalry Rumble. Congrats!
This is Yesmar.