Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have often been likened to McDonald’s, and for good reason. The Marvel team are experts of mass production, and fantastic at generating cross-cultural appeal, repeatedly packaging themes such as romance, love, and good vs. evil into fun, easy-to-watch films. I’ll never forget watching Black Panther and enjoying how excited and emotionally amplified the movie theatre was. WandaVison, the Disney+ special that explored the story of Wanda and Vision has been a welcome diversion from typical products of the Marvel-Industrial Complex.
The attention to details shines through in WandaVision. The cinematography perfectly imitates each decade that the show references, from the 70s to the 2000s. The high degree of accuracy and attention was impressive, especially alongside the exploration of two unexplored Marvel film characters. That’s really a testament to the talent at work; Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, who play the titular characters, tantalise and impress within their roles. A special mention must go to Bettany’s Vision character, who is continuously covered head to toe in red paint, but never swings towards cartoonish presentation.
Rather than the full season dropping at once, a format we have grown used to in the Netflix era, WandaVision compacted episodes into weekly 40-minute releases. This decision left audiences wanting more and sharing theories frantically across Reddit and Twitter. At 11 o’clock on Friday evenings, I would look up the USA release time and stumble across spoilers through the immense social media chatter. There is definitely a reason that WandaVision literally crashed the Marvel website.
Available on Disney+