I’m a fan of movies, that is no lie, with over three hundred films logged on the platform Letterboxd, and I often find myself watching movies as a pastime.
But in the past years, one genre has kept popping up on my radar almost every year a new movie experiments with this. This genre is simply titled “multiverse movies”
According to Oxford Languages, a multiverse is “a hypothetical space or realm consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one.”
Now the 2 headliners for movies in the genre and the most well-known would be the 2023 Oscar Winner Everything Everywhere All At Once and the Marvel movie Doctor. Strange: In the multiverse of madness
These two movies are widely different, One is a character-driven indie-style movie while the other is a big-budget action blockbuster Superhero film.
Now these two movies mark an upcoming change in how movies will be going forward, The keyword is, Character-Driven. (while that technically is 2 words)
While Doctor Strange is the fourth highest-grossing film of 2022 EEAAO is the one that is still discussed among geeks and film fans alike. And there is a simple reason for this. We as fans of movies have seen movies like Doctor Strange so many times before, it follows the Hollywood formula of Superhero movies. Even I feel that Marvel Movies have begun to blend more and more together and they all feel stale (Of course there are exceptions, and I won’t tell you not to enjoy these movies, they are highly enjoyable and gross so much for a reason)
While EEAAO is a breath of fresh air, a story that hasn’t been told that tries so many new things that it feels, new. The movie also put the film studio A24 on the radar for many film geeks alike, with previous titles such as Midsommar and Hereditary, to new releases such as Civil War in 2024. What most if not all of these films have in common is how they are Character-driven, the main driving force of the narrative is the characters themselves. Meanwhile, most Marvel movies have a bigger conflict or a war going on to drive the story, they focus more on the action and the in-the-moment scenes.
and yet, with all the excitement and fast pacing of DR strange, I keep thinking about the themes and topics EEAAO explored, and all the little things it did to push my buttons and make me feel. the action scenes in EEAAO felt more impactful and while they were more humorous I was closer to the edge of my seat during EEAAO than I was during Dr strange. Purely cause, when I enter a Marvel movie, an action superhero movie, I always know approximately what will happen
Rather than following a set formula, everything everywhere does its own thing. It tells the story of a family but keeps the story interesting by sprinkling in action scenes, humor, and a bigger story about the multiverse. But it doesn’t focus on it like Dr strange does
Furthermore, new movies seem to follow the Character-driven way of telling a story now in 2024 outside of the multiverse genre. Take the new film “Civil war” an A24 movie (if you watch a lot of film you know about A24) This is a character-driven film that takes place during a fictional Civil War in America, though the movie leaves some to be desired about the worldbuilding, we learn so much about the characters that it makes up for what it loses since we build a personal relationship we feel more while watching and I prefer this way of telling stories.
Another good example would be 2023’s smash hit Oppenheimer which hit the industry like a bomb with its massive success (pun intended)
The movie would not be half as good if we didn’t get to know the doctor as well as we got to, and entering his personal space builds this eerie ambiance needed for huge story pieces.
But, before I close off this article I want to mention how this is all mostly personal thoughts, I urge you to share your opinion on this subject matter.
But I believe a change is on the horizon, where Marvel is setting back production to fewer movies and shows a year and other studios get more place in the spotlight. Could this be the change I have longed for since I got into movies & film? or is this just a small temporary change?
Have a good day