A few people have asked me about my reaction to the latest MCU news regarding Doctor Doom, so I might as well do a post about it.
For those still living in Latveria, there are two news:
1) Doctor Doom will be the main villain of the next two Avengers movies, and possibly the protagonist of the first of those two.
Which is not that big of a surprise, really, considering the second one will be called Secret Wars.
2) Doctor Doom will be played by Robert Downey Jr.
My highly controversial opinion on this is that… it’s probably going to be fine.
It might also be very, VERY good.
Is there a chance it might turn out to be a bad idea? Sure, it could, but here’s the frustrating part about this whole thing.
Some people have already decided this is such a bad idea that the movie will be a complete failure that will doom (pun intended) the MCU when WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE.
For the love of comics can we please, PLEASE stop jumping to conclusions after Every. Single. Freaking. Time. there are ANY news?
And related, could people PLEASE stop complaining about the death of the MCU whenever a movie or series does not perform? Do we have to do this dance EVERY TIME ???
Okay, the rant is over. Sorry but sometimes it’s EXHAUSTING to be a comic book fan.
Back to the topic: why am I not in the “doom and gloom” category and think this could potentially be a good idea?
Like everyone, at first I assumed the news was that RDJ was going to play an alternate version of Tony Stark that becomes evil. Which, while not a bad idea for a movie, obviously would be a terrible way to introduce Doctor Doom.
But then I did what apparently 99.99% of people talking about this stuff are completely unable to do… I actually LISTENED TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT and I actually READ ABOUT STUFF WRITTEN BY THE PEOPLE WORKING ON THIS.
Which frankly I am still AMAZED nobody does anymore because it LITERALLY took me five minutes.
Yeah the rant wasn’t really over. Sorry.
What makes me think this can work very well is what Joe Russo said before introducing Robert Downey Jr. as the actor.
If we’re going to bring Victor Von Doom to the screen — he is one of the more complex characters in all of comics … this is potentially one of the more entertaining characters in all of fiction. If we’re going to do this … then we are going to need the greatest actor in the world.
JOE RUSSO
RDJ himself later repeated:
What I tell you I like playing complicated characters!
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
So what exactly does this tell us?
A) He’s not going to play Tony Stark. He’s going to play Victor Von Doom.
B) They’re not going for parody and they’re not going for a simplified version of the character: they specifically want to do Doom because he’s complex.
And I don’t doubt Robert Downey Jr. is a skilled enough actor to play Doom.
Do people seriously believe RDJ is a one-note actor that can only play Tony Stark?
People know he’s had other roles, right???
He’s been nominated for an Academy Award three times, and the last time he actually won one was THIS YEAR for playing a character in Oppenheimer.
Specifically, playing a character that spends the movie manipulating people to gain power and get revenge against a perceived threat that is entirely in his head because of his paranoia.
And people don’t think THAT GUY can play Doctor Doom???
Yeah sure, it might also be a terrible movie. But why focus on the idea that a movie about which WE KNOW NOTHING must be bad?
Don’t people enjoy things anymore?
This rant gave me enough ideas to do a personal ranking on the MCU movies.
But since I won’t see Deadpool & Wolverine until this weekend, that’ll have to wait a while.