Posted in: Movies | Tagged: monster-verse, The Mummy

Universal Admits No One Is Behind The Wheel Of The Monsterverse

The Marvel Cinematic Universe changed the way movies are made for better or for worse. The idea of a large and interconnected universe is a great idea in theory, but in practice it appears that almost all studios doing their own version of this have missed the thing that has kept the MCU together. There are a lot of plates spinning when you're building this sort of universe, and you need someone like Marvel's Kevin Feige to have a hand in all of it. That way, there is one person whose main job it is to keep everything making sense. To make sure that each movie feels like it is part of the same universe as the previous movie, even if they have vastly different tones or are part of different genres. The DC universe has suffered for this and now has Geoff Johns looking over the entire production. The "kaiju-verse" with Godzilla and the like is only two movies in, but doesn't appear to have anyone trying to keep it all together. Now with The Mummy coming out we once again see that no one at Universal has a steady hand over the "monsterverse".

In an interview with Collider producer Chris Morgan basically admitted that while they have ideas they are mostly flying blind with these new movies.

"We kind of designed them all to be kind of standalone sorts of franchises that have kind of similar things between them. And as the scripts came in, then we started putting them in a, 'Well this would be a good order. We reveal this here' so now it really comes down to, again, it's a studio decision on which film is coming out next. Just with all the films we're working on, Bride of Frankenstein, Van Helsing, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wolfman, Invisible Man, and on and on and on, it's a real embarrassment of riches in terms of awesome, fun characters. I always say it this way: I'm in my office right now and I've got a Werewolf head mounted on the wall. It's pretty good to come into your office and—that's what you're working with, you're working with monsters that are 80, almost 100 years old. There's a real legacy, a real respect, the fact that this studio, I don't think, would have lasted if it wasn't for the monsters, it really built up."

While that is a good idea in theory, to build each movie to feel independent but also connected in smaller ways, it isn't practical for the way that shared universes work. The people in charge can say over and over again that these are "standalone sorts of franchises that have kind of similar things between them" that's not using the shared universe as anything other that lip service (and perhaps that is the intention in which case the studio would be basically lying to audiences). The shared universe model is one that will get more confusing as it goes on; that's why the Marvel movies are becoming less and less approachable to the layman. This is why Marvel and DC Comics keep blowing up their universes and rebooting; the bigger the universe grows the harder it is for new people to come in.

Morgan seems to realize the model that they are building from but also seems to think he's rising above it.

"We live in a world of superhero movies now—and by the way, I love them and I see them all and I have a great time, but I can't identify with them as closely as I want to because I know I'll never be perfect like that. Whereas the monster movies are saying that everybody has darkness in them, everyone has secrets and things they are ashamed of and don't want to say or something that feels monstrous and dangerous about them. We're just kind of embracing that and saying, 'That's ok.' The films are just gonna be interesting, emotional, action-y, largely global sorts of films. I think The Mummy trailer sets up, in a really good way, kind of the tone of these films."

That is just an incredibly pretentious way of disregarding an entire genre by acting that their movies about monsters are going to be somehow easier to relate to is ludicrous. While the superhero movies might have people with god like powers they are often shown to have many flaws. This also begs the question of how much of a role the monsters in question will actually play? Is this going to be like the Transformers movies where they are supporting players to boring human characters?

We don't really know at the moment, since The Mummy is still two months away but perhaps Universal is just waiting to see how the movie does before they kick off their universe. They have scripts, as Morgan said, and stars like Johnny Depp and (rumored) Javier Bardem waiting in the wings for movement. There is still time to put someone in charge who could do a read through of those scripts and be the steady hand over the entire project. There is a lot of history with these characters, as Moragn said, along with being the first "movie-verse" before the age of blockbusters, and this needs to be done right.

"The studio is mostly interested in just doing good films. They would like them generally to be more contemporary I think, just to reflect a modern sensibility and a modern take on the monsters.

We want good movies too so make it happen.

The Mummy will be released on June 9, 2017

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