Meanderings on the Logistics of Movie Crossovers

Saw Captain America last night. It was good. If you thought Thor and Iron Man were worth your eleven dollars, you'll likely walk away from the theater satisfied. What struck me about the film, outside of Tommy Lee Jones' scenery chewing, was that, for the first time, I really got the sense that it took place in a shared universe.*

Now, I know what you're going to say. Marvel's been linking their Avengers films together since Samuel L. lectured Tony Stark after the credits of the original Iron Man. However, there's a subtle, yet important, difference.

...Okay, the difference is that the linkages in those movies didn't affect me to the same extent that those in Captain America did. Content-wise, it's harder to put my finger on. There's just something about how the Red Skull is (oh, spoilers by the way) searching for the power of the (Norse) gods, how Steve Rogers goes to Tony Stark's dad's "World of Tomorrow" where they see him demonstrate patented SHIELD flying car technology... It's all woven into the plot to a greater extent than tacking a scene roughly involving Thor's hammer on to the end of Iron Man 2. Perhaps it's simply that seeing some of these characters appear in one or two films is interesting, but crossing over into three is unique enough in movies that I take notice. Don't know. I don't doubt that its intentional; after all, they've had three years and four films to get into their groove with this logistically nightmarish experiment. Hell, Cap even ties into the overarching universe with its subtitle.

The point is, it was pretty cool. A movie universe of interlocking films in which no one protagonist is the star. It makes me wonder: could this model work for original film franchises?

Comic book movies have the advantage that their source material is already built around the shared universe. Even then, it's taken a long time to get from X-Men to Avengers. Come to think of it, I'm not surprised they started out in Iron Man with the dropping of tiny hints and hooks; if they weren't able to pull off their five films' worth of setup, then it'd all just be a drag on the now-standalone Iron Man. Any original movie that would want to emulate the shared universe of The Avengers would have to have some reasonable assurance that there'd be at least two or three guaranteed films.

Then there's another problem: if an original movie is any good (and it'd have to be), then fans are going to want to see what happens next to those original characters, not necessarily some new characters who live on the opposite coast or something. Even though each Avenger is getting his due, you still have Iron Man 2 and soon enough 3. Comic book movies have the built-in advantage that every hero is more-or-less a proven, respected, marketable lead. If we were to get, say, a Matrix side story without Neo or Morpheous, you end up with the danger of fans not liking the new characters. While moviegoers may love Tony Stark, they're not going to think of Captain America as Raiden. Thus, all the leads in your original shared universe films better be both different and compelling.

Finally, that new shared universe better be pretty damn big. In the Avengers film-verse, you have Iron Man fighting robots, Thor fighting goblins, and Captain America fighting nazis. It's the same universe, sure, but each character has a very distinct niche. Take a theoretical Matrix side story again; if it's just a different group of stylin' freedom fighters in the same green world running away from agents, you run the risk of Superman Returns syndrome.

Still, I can't help but want to see if it could be done in a different context, and I can't help but feel that after The Avengers makes a fleet of dump trucks' worth of money next summer, other studios might be willing to try. Though there are dangers to be sure, the idea of what is essentially different perspectives on a single theme has the potential to break the standard sequel mold in a lot of good ways.



*And I don't just mean the Indiana Jones reference, though that was awesome