The problem with hollywood and capeshit: The Cinematic Universe Meme

Can anyone explain to me what the point of a Cinematic Universe(tm) is exactly? Like what reason is there to jam multiple conflicting characters into the same continuity? And why has this become such a popular meme? Hell, even fiction writers are doing it, just look at Brandon Sanderson's "Cosmere" shit that connects all of his novels despite being about completely different characters.

Like I don't see any benefit to this, all it does is create a world where multiple characters who don't belong together are in the same continuity. There's a thing I've learned about storytelling, character-driven storytelling in the case of superhero stories, which is that your world should be built around your character. The world should serve to accentuate your characters. Which is what Marvel and DC originally did. Batman was in a universe without any aliens or fantasy shit, it was just this crime-fighting story where some normal guy in a bat suit went around beating up normal thugs. Thor was apart of this fictional world that was based on ancient greece mythology.

The problem now with these shared universes is that they're putting characters who don't belong in the same continuity because the universes that were originally created for them don't mix. I mean in DCEU we have fucking batman not only in the same universe as a greek goddess (and the greek pantheon actually canonically existing in this same setting, with fucking BATMAN), but with fucking intergalactic alien supervillains (Darkseid and friends). You have fucking spiderman, some crimefighting mutant who got his powers not from magic, but merely the result of a scientific accident, existing in the same universe as fucking THOR, an alien god with mystical powers.

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How can a villain like Joker ever compete in level of threat when compared to the likes of fucking Darksied? Just the latter's mere fucking existence in the same setting trivializes the shit out of the former. Joker worked as an antagonist because he suited the realistic setting he and his rival were apart of.

THESE CHARACTERS' ORIGINALLY HAD THEIR OWN UNIQUE SETTINGS THAT WERE CREATED TO SUIT AND ACCENTUATE THEM, AND PUTTING THEM ALL IN THE SAME SETTING COMPLETELY DESTROYS THAT. And for WHAT PURPOSE? Last I checked capeshit was extremely profitable before hollywood got the idea to do shared cinematic continuities, so for what purpose was the idea of a cinematic universe made? Because from a storytelling perspective, I see only negatives, and from a financial perpective, I see zero benefit. Was it just because it's significantly easier to have all these different superheroes just have the same fucking setting instead of having to meticulously craft a unique world for each individual character?

Easy sequels.

>Thor was apart of this fictional world that was based on ancient greece mythology.
Fuck off

If you want to watch the new movie, you gotta watch all those that came before. There is your financial perspective.

THEY DO IT FOR MONEY. IT'S SO SIMPLE. PEOPLE EAT THIS SHIT UP.

Superhero movies are a cash cow, one way to extend the cows life was to create a cinematic universe for all labels. This way studios can hold the rights to an entire catalog of characters, keep pumping out literally the same movie again and again, and reap the reward from comic nerds who are excited to see several of their favorite characters thrown into a movie together.

>How can a villain like Joker ever compete in level of threat when compared to the likes of fucking Darksied?

He's not supposed to. Batman is already at his limit dealing with normal villains, so when he meets super threats like kryptonians, he's just totally overwhelmed and feels powerless. It leads to him becoming jealous and results in the events of BvS.

It was Norse mythology.

>talking shit on the Cosmere
Came here just to call you a faggot. capeshit != an actually well constructed literary universe

>comic books shouldn't have shared universes
I don't disagree but they have for decades now so everyone's just used to it. Now they've finally managed to translate that to film, they're not gonna stop.

It's for money you dumb fuck. Films as art is dead. Bury it. Consider this mercy. It's never coming back. Film will die before that happens.

>And why has this become such a popular meme?
Because disney broke the bank with it once and the retards at warner and sony think people give a fuck about continuity

>If you want to watch the new movie, you gotta watch all those that came before. There is your financial perspective.

Yeah until it reaches the point of MCU where there's just so many of these goddamn movies that your average consumer couldn't be assed to slog through them just to catch up to the latest one.

>just start watching
>1 minute 20 seconds in
>already lectured audience about indians and native americans

DC and Marvel have had shared universes for decades.

Also, you usually won't find Spider-Man or Batman fighting the same enemies Thor or Green Lantern do.

>Came here just to call you a faggot. capeshit != an actually well constructed literary universe

>Brandon Sanderson's writing

>Well constructed

That's where recap movies come in ;)

Compelling argument friend.

They aren't showing any signs of slowing down. The people who get into the mcu buy the dvds and blu rays, average person will watch it if there's lots of commercials.

Every year Disney should do a 1 or 2 hour prime time special where they catch everyone up with all the movies and shows so everyone knows where they are narrative wise. Dunno why they don't do this.

>>just start watching
minute 20 seconds in
>>already lectured audience about indians and native americans

Interesting about the MCU is that it started off light on the liberal bent, but seems to have slowly racheted up the cucking with later installments, with the most egregious of all being the afformentioned Spiderman:Homecoming. It reminds me of the slowboil effect, to get comic fans gradually more and more normalized to these viewpoints rather than starting off with full blown diversity like in Homecoming. Though perhaps that was the (((intention))).....

Because they can sell their lesser known properties. You think something like guardians of the galaxy would do as well without the MCU brand?

it's literally taking after what comics do. is this bait?

>Compelling argument friend.

Sanderson is literally the Marvel Studios of fantasy literature. Dude churns out hastily scraped together drivel made to be as lacking in creativity and inoffensive as possible to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Why do you think his shit is so popular with? Because he appeals to the same type of people as the MCU audience. If you want real quality fantasy writing, you should read the works of this man here.

It's one of the reasons why the Raimi Spidey flicks worked...you knew there wouldn't be friggin' Tony Stark swooping out of nowhere to save Spidey's butt if things went south. It was all on him to save the day.

Plus, being just one hero in a sea of super-heroes dilutes the uniqueness of the character.

Modern capeshit is so trash. It all went to shit when Disney got involved.

I appreciate the recommendation and I'll look into it. I'll give you the argument that Sanderson's quality is analogous to capeshit in intellectual difficulty, but saying his universe itself is poorly constructed or in any way comparable to the mish-mash nature of capeshit power levels existing on one planet is pretty disingenuous. I mean, come on.

They are also building a loyal and rabid fan base. Similar to console wars, whatever the product you must buy it.

People don't need to watch all the others. People watch sequels all the time without seeing the originals. People watch television season finales without watching the season. People just want to be entertained. Cinematic universes are just an expansion of normal storytelling. Showing you the stories of everyone around in the world. Populating it with recognizable faces rather than generics. The MCU is just a big budget television show with hour and a half long episodes.

>The MCU is just a big budget television show with hour and a half long episodes.
Exactly. It reduces film to television. We still haven't gotten to the S1 finale either. Constant Thanos cockteasing for a fucking decade now. Fuck Marvel. Check that, it's worse than television.

Crossovers can be fun. There is an appeal in seeing your favorite characters interact with one another, as well as meet other characters that you might know much of, which keeps things fresh and serves as a entry point into their stories.

I'm not really understanding the issue with certain themes not matching, as to me it is all fiction in the first place. Themes are just used to make the narrative structure more appealing or familiar. It's not like super powered humans really match or make sense in reality. If you don't like the mixture of certain themes and motifs, it's more of a personal problem really.