Marvel Theme Park in California's Future

Marvel Theme Park, Marvel attractions, Marvel character shows? Marvel resorts? Bring it on!

Disney chief Robert Iger has confirmed that plans are moving right along to bring Marvel themed attractions to California. But I'll bet bigger and say he is bringing a third theme park to the Disneyland Resort.  The Imagineers are hard at work creating new attractions that thrill with characters America and the world have embraced for generations. The spectacular success of The Avengers is paving the way.

Due to restrictions, you won't see a Disney / Marvel park in Orlando. Universal's Islands of Adventure retains the rights to the characters for the East Coast parks. Spidey is see, for now.

Ups and downs? Westcot will not be built. Ups? The West Coast will finally rally for first place with Walt Disney World when looked at from a parks only mindset. With a stale Animal Kingdom, an out of focus Disney Hollywood Studios, California will easily compete on a park to park basis with Florida.

Until the New Fantasyland opens at the Magic Kingdom, there's only a handful of Disney park lovers that would rate it above Walt's Original Kingdom. Epcot is pretty special but now its focus is on selling meals and entertainment not amazing attractions.

The revitalized California Adventure is moving beyond a "best of all the other parks" perspective to finally becoming something incredible on its own. When the third park does open, Marvel attractions will provide the thrills originally intended for the second gate but with great theming as well.

California's theme park standing just moved up and by quite a margin!
(Art copyright Marvel and The Walt Disney Company.)

The Avengers Lose Their Way

Robert Downey Jr. owns this film, but that is not his fault or the fault of the other actors. Compared to Tony Stark's suave and focused Iron Man, Marvel's poor superhero Captain America has little to do in a film where brotherhood should rule the day. For all the other characters, it's more of the same. Much ado about nothing. 

Captain America's heart is full of integrity, straightforwardness, and outright old fashioned patriotism. Combined with his self sacrificial attitude and military training, Steve Rogers is a true hero and a nice counterbalance to Stark's cynicism and irreverence. It's part of what made his first appearance in his own movie so compelling. Chris Evans does the best he can with a script strong on visuals but weak on dialogue, terrific one liners aside. It's a problem all the others seem to share. 

The centerpiece villain is left to inactivity for most of the film. Huge misstep. Tom Hiddleston is made to play the evil character, Loki, yet the script treats him as if he were a nuisance versus a real threat. His brother, Thor, is better here as part of the team than a solo star in his own film. Perhaps Chris Hemsworth just needed a better cast to pull it all off. The sole key female, Scarlett Johannson... just doesn't fit.

I'd give The Avengers a high mark for visual appeal and interesting main characters. However, the film also gets low marks for making poor use of the cast and an even poorer story line. Seems Jon Favreau and company cannot decide between making a Transformers film, sticking to what Marvel does best, or just spending his time setting up a series. The team, including Stan Lee, is stuck between playing tongue in cheek with it all and creating a film where the characters truly believe the world in which they live. 

The potential is huge, and the market is waiting. There's always the next film and a theme park on its way.