Of Disney’s three major Summer theatrical releases, only one truly took charge at the box office. Even with a pair of critically acclaimed Marvel Studios projects opening on either side of it, it was Walt Disney Studios’ live-action Lilo & Stitch that took in the cash. The film’s $423.5M domestic box office total was nearly equal to the combined cash brought in by Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, despite each of those films being expected to factor heavily into the final phase of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga. But that’s the problem…or at least it’s one problem that is frequently cited on social media as folks explain why they have stopped watching Marvel Studios movies.
Setting aside the truth (people haven’t stopped watching them, though they’ve certainly quit watching them in theaters but that’s a different article for a different day), fans certainly didn’t NOT go to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps because it was too connected to prior projects and required too much homework. Kevin Feige made it clear ahead of the film’s release that “it is a no-homework-required movie. It literally is not connected to anything we’ve made before.” And even if that’s why they thought they didn’t go see it, it still made 1.3 times the amount of money at the box office that Thunderbolts*, a movie that did have connections to more previous MCU projects than any non-Avengers film before it. But did it really require a first-time audience member to watch each of the associated projects in order to enjoy or understand it?
The answer is a definitive no; however, a prevailing complaint about Thunderbolts* was that there were just too many characters and too many back stories to follow in order for a Marvel newbie–or oldie–to keep up. Unfortunately, that’s just nonsense and, ironically, Disney’s biggest box office success of the Summer provides a wonderful example of just how silly the Thunderbolts* narrative (that took over social media and message boards and became internet “fact”) truly is.
You’re not bad. You just do bad things sometimes.
Lilo & Stitch may be a remake but before we begin, let’s reject the preposterous notion that “everyone” had seen the original or knew the story ahead of time, or, even if you refuse to do that, remember that the original animated film was also wildly successful when it was released in theaters in 2002.
And then realize that whichever of the two films you want to think about, audiences knew absolutely nothing about any of the characters and relied on exposition to learn what they needed to know. Stitch is an experiment gone wrong, but who are Jumba and Pleakley? There was no Jumba and Agent Pleakley D+ streaming series introduing the devious evil genius and the Earth expert, yet audiences, including young children, are completely capable of deducing what they need to know about them from what they learn in the film. Wondering about what happened to Lilo’s parents? You didn’t miss the prequel where one of Jumba’s prior experiments came to Earth and assassinated them. Wait…Cobra Bubbles is CIA or MIB? Nope, there was no Cobra Bubbles film or series. Audiences didn’t know the characters before they watched the film and things turned out wonderfully.
In the case of Thunderbolts*, a convincing argument could be made that having seen Black Widow would have added to the experience; however, it’s debatable if even that was necessary. Yelena is sad because her sister died. Do you need to know her sister was Natasha to understand that she’s sad? Alexi is unhappy. It’s obvious he and Yelena are family. Nothing he did in Black Widow matters in Thunderbolts*. Didn’t know he was a super soldier? Give him a minute and he’ll tell you.
Everything you needed to know about John Walker (dime store Captain America), Ghost a S.H.I.E.L.D. reject), Taskmaster (the dead one who destroyed half of Budapest) and even Val…all in the exposition provided mostly by Walker in the first act of the film. Bucky, obviously, provides a problem IF you need to understand every reference or need to know who the Winter Soldier is to enjoy the film. If you missed the exposition during the fight in Val’s O.X.E. stronghold where you SHOULD have learned everything you needed to know, give Alexi a minute and he’ll tell you what you need to know. They’re a bunch of people who have done bad things sometimes, but aren’t bad.
Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
Like Stitch, Bob is an experiment gone wrong and, like Stitch, his story requires and is given a fair bit of exposition. And in a wonderfully serendipitous moment, like Stitch, it’s Bob’s ohana, which he finds during the course of the film, that allows him to finally put the monster away and saves him from a terrible fate.
The similarities between Lilo & Stitch and Thunderbolts* run deeper than what’s been discussed here but they are both incredibly enjoyable films and if you can enjoy one, you can also enjoy the other…even if you don’t know anything about any of the characters before you sit down to watch.
