"From now on, let's stay together like this forever. Let's eat together and live our lives together forever."

Imagine my shock to see the Russos in the credits of Arrested Development's pilot. Per IMDB they directed 10 episodes, which don't suck. They DO have tight character-based writing, a solid vision of specific locations, seasoned actors with other series under their belts who grok ensemble work, and an established fake-documentary visual language of quick cuts with camera motion and close-ups. Costumes, props, editors, narrator, even the music is on-board with what story they're all telling.

That’s an interesting piece of information. 

I haven’t seen Arrested Development so I can’t really judge the quality of that project, but assuming they did do a good job directing episodes for it, that makes their work in the MCU even worse, in a way. Because if they were otherwise capable of creating good content, why mess it up this badly now? Especially since the MCU has a big similarity with TV productions: It’s, for the most part, the same group of people working on each film. So they’re all on the same page in terms of what they’re doing.

So why didn’t the Russos do their part? I mean, sure, there’s pressure to finish fast, there’s pressure to do things in a specific way, but how come other people manage? I could be unfair and compare them to Taika. And I’d say I’d be unfair not only because Taika is a talented director, but also because one could argue that solo MCU films aren’t as taxing as the group projects. Still, I look at the Winter Soldier and I look at Thor: Ragnarok and I can’t help but wonder. 

The Winter Soldier is arguably their best work in the MCU. It had a decent script, (even though there are things that I’m decidedly dissatisfied with in that film). Looking at it in terms of film-making, it’s nothing special and it does have a lot of badly directed scenes, mostly the quiet/non-action heavy ones. Not to mention it suffers from the same bland lighting and locations most MCU films suffer from. I say most because the 2 films that have managed to make a space for themselves in the MCU (imho) are Thor:Ragnarok and Black Panther. 

Those are 2 films that don’t suffer from lack of cinematic merit. And those are the films that dared to adapt elements of the comics in their language (the colours, the bold characters, the extra dramatic scenes, all that fun stuff we actually like from the comics). The Russos make grey film for the MCU.

Creative decisions (or lack thereof) aside, making films for the MCU comes with its special set of challenges. I’ve heard enough stories during VFX meetings and seminars, to know that most FX studios are not exactly happy with Marvel, given how often they end up remaking the same scenes for the most ridiculous of reasons (e.g. re-render the Endgame entirely, because Marvel suddenly decided they wanted some changes on a “watch” the characters were wearing). Usually those stories end with a “welp, that’s Marvel for ‘ya”. 

But in spite of that dissatisfaction (and the ridiculous deadlines), those studios manage to produce solid work (except for Endgame, but that’s a disaster for another day). So do the other MCU directors, not to mention the countless composers, make up artists, costume designers etc. Solid, not necessarily noteworthy. 

I see how it might look like I’m targeting the Russos, and while that used to bother me (they are people trying to do their jobs) I’m not feeling particularly bad about it anymore. It becomes more and more obvious that they simply didn’t care after a point, something that their more professional coworkers didn’t end up doing. 

Plus, I look at all the female film-makers (and composers and actresses and costume designers etc) out there, fighting tooth and nail and praying to their Gods that they don’t misstep because that would be the end of their career. And I look at those dudes who made 4, 4 films for the MCU, of which 1 is somewhat good, whom the male part of the famdom has deemed untouchable for whatever reason, and I end up being particularly petty. Damn those Russos xDThanks again for the ask! I’m loving the discourse on the subject and I have to go watch Arrested Development now, from sheer curiosity xo