I was sitting in the theater last night, halfway through the latest big-budget superhero flick, and I had this sudden, jarring realization: I wasn't actually watching a story. I was watching a roadmap.
It’s a weird feeling. You go in expecting to get swept up in a narrative, to feel something, to be surprised, but instead, you find yourself mentally checking boxes. *Okay, there's the joke to lighten the mood. Okay, there's the inevitable setup for a movie coming out in three years. Okay, there's the obligatory cameo that's designed to make the fanboys go wild on Twitter.* It feels less like art and more like a series of interconnected corporate deliverables.
I remember back in the day, when I first got into these kinds of stories, there was a sense of finality and weight to every arc. When a character went through a major life change or a massive loss, it felt like the world had shifted. There was a beginning, a middle, and a definitive end. Now? It feels like nothing is ever truly "over." Everything is just a bridge to the next thing. We're living in an era of perpetual "to be continued," and I think it’s stripping these stories of their soul.
The problem for me isn't necessarily the quality of the individual pieces—the stunts are still shiny, the CGI is getting more expensive by the second, and the actors are usually top-tier. The problem is the *intent*. When a studio's primary goal seems to be "how do we keep this IP alive for another decade?" rather than "how do we tell a compelling, standalone tale?", the audience can feel it. It’s like eating a meal where you can taste that the chef was more worried about the presentation for an Instagram photo than the actual flavor of the food. You leave feeling full, but not satisfied.
I've noticed this creeping trend of "the interconnected universe" becoming a mandatory requirement rather than a creative choice. It’s created this pressure for every single movie to serve a larger purpose. It’s hard to care about a character's personal growth when you know they’re essentially just a piece on a chessboard being moved around to facilitate a crossover event six months from now. It makes the stakes feel artificial. If the universe is always expanding, does anything actually matter? If every tragedy is just a setup for a team-up, does anyone ever actually lose?
I find myself gravitating more toward smaller, contained stories lately. I miss the days when a movie could just be a movie. I miss when a hero’s journey felt like it had its own gravity, not just the gravity of a massive, multi-billion dollar franchise machine trying to pull every character into its orbit.
I don't want to be a cynic—I really don't. I love these characters. I grew up with them. But I'm starting to wonder if we've reached a saturation point where the "cinematic universe" model is actually doing more harm than good to the very stories it's trying to build. We're trading depth for breadth, and I think we're all feeling the emptiness of that trade-off.
Do you guys think we're reaching a breaking point with the "connected universe" style of filmmaking, or is this just the new normal that we'll eventually get used to?
It’s a weird feeling. You go in expecting to get swept up in a narrative, to feel something, to be surprised, but instead, you find yourself mentally checking boxes. *Okay, there's the joke to lighten the mood. Okay, there's the inevitable setup for a movie coming out in three years. Okay, there's the obligatory cameo that's designed to make the fanboys go wild on Twitter.* It feels less like art and more like a series of interconnected corporate deliverables.
I remember back in the day, when I first got into these kinds of stories, there was a sense of finality and weight to every arc. When a character went through a major life change or a massive loss, it felt like the world had shifted. There was a beginning, a middle, and a definitive end. Now? It feels like nothing is ever truly "over." Everything is just a bridge to the next thing. We're living in an era of perpetual "to be continued," and I think it’s stripping these stories of their soul.
The problem for me isn't necessarily the quality of the individual pieces—the stunts are still shiny, the CGI is getting more expensive by the second, and the actors are usually top-tier. The problem is the *intent*. When a studio's primary goal seems to be "how do we keep this IP alive for another decade?" rather than "how do we tell a compelling, standalone tale?", the audience can feel it. It’s like eating a meal where you can taste that the chef was more worried about the presentation for an Instagram photo than the actual flavor of the food. You leave feeling full, but not satisfied.
I've noticed this creeping trend of "the interconnected universe" becoming a mandatory requirement rather than a creative choice. It’s created this pressure for every single movie to serve a larger purpose. It’s hard to care about a character's personal growth when you know they’re essentially just a piece on a chessboard being moved around to facilitate a crossover event six months from now. It makes the stakes feel artificial. If the universe is always expanding, does anything actually matter? If every tragedy is just a setup for a team-up, does anyone ever actually lose?
I find myself gravitating more toward smaller, contained stories lately. I miss the days when a movie could just be a movie. I miss when a hero’s journey felt like it had its own gravity, not just the gravity of a massive, multi-billion dollar franchise machine trying to pull every character into its orbit.
I don't want to be a cynic—I really don't. I love these characters. I grew up with them. But I'm starting to wonder if we've reached a saturation point where the "cinematic universe" model is actually doing more harm than good to the very stories it's trying to build. We're trading depth for breadth, and I think we're all feeling the emptiness of that trade-off.
Do you guys think we're reaching a breaking point with the "connected universe" style of filmmaking, or is this just the new normal that we'll eventually get used to?