GARETH BOYLE
The end of 2022 marks the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four. With a lifespan of almost two years (January 2021 – December 2022), Marvel pumped out seven films, nine Disney Plus shows (including I Am Groot), and two Special Presentations (Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special). With eighteen projects being released within the span of two years, Phase Four stands out as Marvel’s biggest Phase yet, and with that comes some big criticism. This article will acknowledge the criticism with reference to the films, so consider this as a spoiler warning for the content ahead.
Phase Four was filled with gifts to the fans, bringing back familiar characters (Professor X in Multiverse of Madness, the Spider-Men in No Way Home) and introducing new ones to carry on the legacies of past characters (Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk). While new characters and universe expansion are every comic-book nerd’s dream, the quantity of Phase Four’s projects appears to have taken away from the exciting quality of this fan service.
Before Phase Four, Marvel rarely received flack for their visual effects. Phase Four received backlash for its visual effects on almost every individual project released, and one of the possible reasons for this is their ignorance of a “quality over quantity” mindset when releasing their movies. In comparison: Marvel’s Phase Three (2016 – 2019) released eleven projects within the span of three years, starting with Captain America: Civil War and concluding with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Phase Four released seven more projects within less than two-thirds of Phase Three’s timeline, and with that comes extreme crunch time and cutting corners in post-production work.
Marvel Fans used social media as an outlet to express their concerns and judgments of Phase Four’s VFX quality. One notable moment that blew up on Twitter and Instagram is “The Illuminati” on the planet Titan in Multiverse of Madness:
Another notable moment is Heimdall’s son in Thor: Love and Thunder, where lighting is also inconsistent around his floating head:
While some picked on the films of Phase Four for their VFX, others believed that there was no apparent storyline like the first three Phases before it. Phase Four introduced a character variant by the name of Kang in Loki, whom people expected to be the next big villain after the events of Loki opened up the multiverse. With no mention of him throughout the rest of the Phase, some began to speculate what the point of indtroducing him so early was without expanding on his future impacts. The people who complained about this, however, have received their answer with Kang returning as The Conqueror in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantamania, kick-starting Marvel’s Phase Five in February, 2023.
What are your thoughts on Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Leave a comment below.
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