I’ll be honest, I probably don’t know the secret of creating a successful integrated cinematic universe. But I’m pretty sure it starts with: create one or two movies that are really genuinely good on their own merits, which people want to watch.
Most of these failed cinematic universes have been launched with absolute unwatchable tripe, or with bland forgettable porridge.
This seems the exact opposite of true?
You know I’ve defended the Mummy, and there’s a lot of artistic integrity to Man of Steel. I don’t know what other universes you are thinking but, but these two aren’t tripe.
If the entire lesson is “use Iron Man and Avengers to launch a CU” then - while it was definitely a risk back then - the lesson seems to be to play it safe with television friendly style story-telling: lots of witty banter and pace the plot to within an inch of its life, but do not deviate from “what will make people laugh and feel comfortable.” Certainly don’t challenge the audience. Take your risks 10 movies in, with Thor 3 and Captain America 3.
So in the broader sense we’re actually not disagreeing here. I did say “which people want to watch” for a reason; I’m mostly talking about the tradesman’s craft of “keeping the audience entertained and invested” rather than anything more highflown. (Marvel has generally done a bangup job of that, going all the way back to Iron Man.) And, yeah, if that’s that goal – which it probably should be if you’re trying to launch a franchise – complicated or deep artistry probably doesn’t offer nearly as much as it risks.
But it’s worth noting that few big-budget action movies have managed to deliver Marvel-style polish. This is not the “easy path.”
All that said…Man of Steel may have integrity but that doesn’t actually make it good art (let alone fun art), I tried to watch The Mummy but literally could not make myself care enough to keep on with it even on a plane, and I’m baffled by the idea that either Ragnarok or Civil War was artistically risky in any meaningful sense.
(Also, if I understand correctly, the movie that was supposed to launch the Universal Monsters cinematic universe was the resoundingly mediocre Dracula Untold.)