I agree with all of those sentiments.
I think a real problem for the future of cinema is this: once Disney has run through the super-hero genre, and/or the young audience burns out from it, and once they remake every single animated movie of theirs -- what's going to be left? Viewers who suddenly WANT something more adult -- the viewer that Netflix and Amazon have courted, and which Apple is about to -- aren't going to find it in theaters. And the cinema is going to struggle to get that audience back. As I posted in the Oscars thread, look at the dwindling number of people who have gone to see the nominated fields of the last 10-15 years -- the winners especially. It's a fraction of what Best Picture winners once grossed.
This isn't like 50 years ago when TV came on the scene and people thought the future of the movies was doomed...TV still couldn't replicate the "cinematic experience." That isn't the case today. Audiences have grown accustomed to HDTVs and good quality and the convenience of staying in. Asking them to go back, and trying to lure them back with the kind of "mature" programming that mostly eludes them today because of all the superheroes, recycled brands and remakes -- that's going to be a tough sell.
At times I almost think we're going to end up one day with vacant large multiplexes much like most of our retail malls. Sure, there will still be some theaters -- but I can see them being 3 or 4 really LARGE screens with fewer movies playing on them. The future of the cinema is great for Disney right now, but the world of super-heroes and sequels isn't a long-term recipe for success for the industry. The writing is on the wall.
I was looking at the list of MCU films and in my opinion there is one really good movie, one crummy movie and the rest are time wasters on a sliding scale of banality.
I’m not a big fan of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, but none of the MCU is in the same league as those three films. Artistically speaking (once again IMO), MCU goes for doubles, or base hits and meets those expectations. DC has gone for home runs and struck out most of the time, but their films are probably going to be more interesting for future movie buffs/geeks/historians/lovers.
I think the key is that the DC and the non-Disney Marvel movies usually have more personality. Disney plays it very safe and the formula is very strong, but their films feel very "samey" -- increasingly so as the years have gone on. They've become increasingly good at producing mediocrity, which a lot of the recent MCU films have been.
The Fox X-MEN films have run hot and cold but when they were good, they were very good. Disney never would have made DEADPOOL, it would've been a lousy Netflix show under their auspices (I'm sure they will let Ryan Reynolds make a few more sequels because of the $$ involved, but you wonder how tighter the reigns will be now).
The Nolan Batmans, the Raimi Spider-Mans, the Donner Superman/Lester II -- all of them I rank at the top of the genre, and I don't think Marvel has made anything on their level. (Really the only Marvel movies with a unique point of view are the GUARDIANS films, because the material is so offbeat and they let Gunn do his thing with little interference it seems).
The genre though is a "be careful what you wish for" situation for me. Growing up I wanted more comic book movies -- we never got anything but the Reeve films and loads of disappointments. Now, there's another comic book movie coming every other month. I'll see this Avengers movie but who the hell are these 40 or 50 year old fanboys sitting on pins and needles worrying about what's going to happen? The last two Avengers movies BORED ME TO TEARS. 2.5 hours of tedium in each one, with boring climaxes (a hallmark of the MCU films) and too many cute quips amongst a bloated ensemble where a roadmap was seemingly employed to make sure every one of them had "something to do".
Not that DC has always had its ship in order but they've tried to be at least a little bit more adult and ambitious. I also think they've finally learned their lesson. Snyder was the wrong guy to modernize the characters, his Superman take in general was all wrong, and then it hit a breaking point with JUSTICE LEAGUE and they finally showed him the door. But WONDER WOMAN was fun, and AQUAMAN was also very entertaining -- both of them allowing their directors to put some kind of stamp on them.
The news they are abandoning the "connected universe" concept Marvel shoves down our throats is welcome. They can just make movies, and hopefully better ones now that it looks like they've got their act together now. Watching what James Wan did with AQUAMAN really made me wish he had produced Superman -- maybe they'll give him a crack at it down the line.