#plus some other projects that aren't cinematographical

[dkettchen]

I’m taking a break from the MCU

at least from its new content

not just infinity war, but everything

And this is not about professional standards and boycotting their movies/supporting their more progressive ones out of principle, this is about my personal healing process.

As most of you know, Ragnarok brought back my depression, after being depression free for over a year.

After spending a quarter of my life on the MCU, it felt like breaking up with someone you loved. It felt like betrayal, it felt like having the person you trusted most stab you in your heart when they were supposed to win you back.

It wasn’t just the professional disappointment with Taika, as someone I looked up to, but rather the heartbreak, because I thought he of all people could be trusted with the thing I loved most. He as the person who made my favourite movie, to make a movie about my favourite superhero-franchise. 

Having lost the one part of the MCU that I cared about the most, I was forced to analyse the good and the bad of the genre, and I could no longer close my eyes to the idiocy and out-datedness of its flaws. It prompted me to emancipate myself as a creator rather than keep confining myself to the rank of only a fan, which is good, but it also means that I can no longer value the mainstream shitty version of the genre I love the same way I did before.

The MCU has forgotten what the superhero genre is about, and my allegience lies with the genre not this franchise. 

I’m not giving up on what came before (don’t worry), and I don’t give up on the genre (never could).

I just don’t wanna watch these movies because I feel like I have to, like it’s a chore. I don’t wanna watch them because I’m supposed to be hyped about them, just for the sake of being hype, when there’s not enough there to warrant that hype. I don’t wanna watch them when they emotionally drain me without actually paying off anymore. 

I would love to support Black Panther, to support a diverse future for the genre (something I care greatly about, and try to work towards with my own work as well), but if that’s my only reason to watch it, that doesn’t seem right. 

And considering the premise of the storyworld, of combining native culture with hightech, and featuring a royal family as the protagonists, it has too many parallels with Thor. Different continent, same concept. I don’t think I’m ready for that. 

I’ve decided to take a break from franchise movies in general.

I am watching Black Lightning on netflix and I’m looking forward to the Spiderverse animated movie, that’s my superhero content for the time being. (EDIT: AND DEADPOOL I FORGOT ABOUT DEADPOOL) Because it has a freedom to it that the MCU doesn’t have anymore. 

The idea of the MCU was to have a bigger story world that’s interconnected between movies, to be able to tell bigger stories within it. But by planning it out from the beginning, it failed to adapt with the times, while everything on the outside was moving so very fast, and it failed to leave itself enough space to change. 

The idea of the freedom a bigger universe could give you was undermined by not using that freedom to do literally anything. After Avengers it seemed like they didn’t really know what to do with that new potential anymore. 

And Ragnarok was a chance to make something new, to do something daring and progressive (YOU HAD THREE QUEER CHARACTERS, that’s like half of your speaking roles come on) rather than continue to stagnate on their early-2000s level of mediocre inclusivity like they have for the past like 5 years, and they went and made it into the biggest mess so far (including some of the oldest and most outdated of tropes from big ol’ sexist patriarchal superman himself (more on that in that video essay I am STILL WORKING ON))

I’m taking a break from franchise movies, so I can focus on my own work, and the good non-franchise work of others, and maybe even venture out into some of my other favourite genres, beyond superheroes.

So look forward to that :)