It’s the kind of criss-cross universe comparable to that of their comics that made geeks salivate at the mouth. They even started off pretty well. “Iron Man” had an inspired bit of casting in Robert Downey Jr. and ended up making $318.4 million domestically. They even threw in a cameo of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury! Genius, I say.

Next came the more mediocre “The Incredible Hulk” which barely managed to top its Eric Bana-starring previous incarnation at the box office. But the films successfully began Marvel’s path to the upcoming “Avengers.” There were even rumors that “Hulk” star Edward Norton was so passionate about the character that he took on uncredited roles as both a producer and a screenwriter. He certainly wanted in on “Avengers.”

The company looked like it was different from the ignorant studios that seem to own Hollywood. They were giving fans what they wanted by hiring quality filmmakers and showing a dedication to the quality of their own projects–a live-action Pixar, if you will.

But the studio truly hadn’t been put to the test yet. Their next film was “Iron Man 2,” and it was a clunker if there ever was one. I mean, how do you mess up a film when you have Downey Jr., Jackson, Sam Rockwell and Mickey frickin’ Rourke!? Well, they managed to do it, alright. Audiences expecting the same smarts and energy as the first installment experienced shoddy storytelling, a plot that was not clearly fleshed out, and montages such as Tony Stark shooting lasers around a room and suddenly discovering a new atom… seriously?

What about the dark, alcoholic Tony Stark fans love from the comics? Why were actors like Rockwell and Rourke literally wasted, only performing in scenes necessary to move the plot forward but not to flesh out character? I mean, no one’s going to disagree that they are both excellent character actors.

The studio was clearly becoming a run-of-the-mill entity interested more in getting out quick, fast food-like product rather than giving people memorable films that entertain and refresh far beyond a 90-minute popcorn summer film. Rourke, known for his brutal honesty about everyone from himself to those he works with, outed the studio while he was out promoting the film “Immortals.” Rourke made the following statements about his experience working with the studio:

[W]hen I did Ivan Vanko in Iron Man, I fought… You know, I explained to Justin Theroux, to the writer, and to [Jon] Favreau, that I wanted to bring some other layers and colors [to the character], not just make this Russian a complete murderous revenging bad guy. And they allowed me to do that. Unfortunately, the [people] at Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up the floor.

[It’s] ****ing too bad, but it’s their loss. If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to have to care so much and work so hard, and then fight them for intelligent reasoning, and just because they’re calling the shots they… You know, I didn’t work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor. Because that can make somebody say at the end of the day, oh **** ‘em, I’m just going to mail it in. But I’m not that kind of guy. I’m never going to mail it in.

If they let you, play the bad guy with other dimensions other than one-dimensional. You have to fight for that though, to bring layers to the character. Otherwise, if you’re working for the wrong studio or let’s say a director that doesn’t have any balls, then they’re just gonna want it to be the evil bad guy. […] So, if you’re working with some good studio guys that got brains and you’re working with a director with a set of nuts that’ll let you incorporate that then it’s fun. Otherwise, you end up with what happened on “Iron Man.”

That sounds like enough explanation as to why “Iron Man 2″ felt like it was made by a 13-year-old boy. The films just got worse in quality with the release of “Thor” and “Captain America.” I mean, they picked the guy who directed “Jumanji” to direct “Captain America!” The same guy who was quoted time and time again wanting to downplay the patriotic side of Captain America. What? I thought these guys were trying to be more faithful to the characters they showed on screen. His name is Captain America! The film was awful. The special effects showing Chris Evans as a scrawny pre-Captain America were just sad and awkward. The action scenes were so cardboard that the film felt like it had no personality. And it all just felt like one big rush to the setup for “The Avengers” at the end. Clearly, Marvel Studios had become interested in simply making mindless comic book movies, which is the reason they took control of these projects in the first place.

The studio also dumbly fired Norton when it came time to cast The Hulk in “The Avengers,” and it replaced him with Mark Ruffalo. Here was their explanation:

We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.

I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I can read between the lines. Basically, they needed someone who was more of a puppet than Norton and whose voice would not interrupt theirs. So much for being a novel idea.

Has Marvel Studios really been a success? Not really. “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2″ managed to pull in heavy sums, but “The Incredible Hulk” couldn’t even match its production budget with its domestic haul. Neither “Thor” nor “Captain America: The First Avenger” could even touch the $200 million mark. The hauls they brought in were almost guaranteed just based on curiosity with the movie going public. I, for one, am not looking forward to “The Avengers.” Why should I? Marvel Studios has become just like the studios they were a reaction to. They make mindless entertainment that barely scratches out a profit and they allow no creativity, which we know leads to the lasting success films need.

We’ve already had Ruffalo out there comparing the Avengers to Occupy Wall Street, and behind the camera we have Joss Whedon, whose film credits include directing a whopping total of one picture. Marvel Studios is now just a part of the crop of studios turning out everything from crap to liberal crap and then not understanding the financial results. Waste your hard earned money on something more worth it.

But while their mind game is going on between characters in front of the camera, there’s another one playing the audience from behind the lens. For the words the actors are saying and the situations they are in have been intentionally scripted by director John Curran and writer Angus MacLachlan to sell their own apparent nihilism, according to Norton at a Q&A I attended.

“John told me we have to do this film now while things are bad,” Norton said. “We have to show that traditional establishments like religion and marriage that people have relied on for truth have failed them.” Curran does that by showing those institutions as hypocrisies that are the refuge of hypocrites like Maybrey, a deeply flawed, nasty man who, in his heart, may be little better than the convicts he judges for early release.

A flashback prologue shows young Maybrey sitting in a Lazy Boy and sipping whiskey while watching golf on TV. When his wife says she’s leaving because “you imprison my soul” amid the buzz of a metaphorical angry bee swarm, Maybrey threatens to kill their baby daughter unless she promises to stay. She does. Thirty years later, Maybrey is still sipping whiskey in the same Lazy Boy and watching golf on the same TV — at least when he and his wife (Frances Conroy) aren’t attending Episcopalian church services and reading Bible verses to each other. In his car, in one of the believability disconnects that betray the Curran/MacLachlan agenda, Maybrey augments those passages by listening to the kind of  “Brother Al’s Hellfire and Brimstone Belchin’ Beat the Hades Outa Beelzebub’s Sneaky Serpent Send Me Yo Money Church of the Almighty Me” radio that no High Whiskeypalian (whenever four are gathered in His name, there is a fifth) that I ever encountered during my years in that church would sit through.

At his office in the same Michigan prison where The Jaundiced Eye, a documentary I produced back in 1999, was filmed when it was an active hoosegow, Maybrey deals with Stone, his last case before retirement. During their banter, the repressed frustration of Maybrey’s passionless marriage is detected by Stone and he starts a trash talk narrative about the sexual acts his wife (Milla Jovovich) performs for him.

Stone picks up on the tells that he’s right, sics his screw-anyone spouse on Maybrey, and before long he’s in bed with her and open to blackmail if he does not recommend release of Stone, a man he now realizes is a whacko and clear danger to society. But it’s too late. The judgee has brought the judge down to street level. “My wife told me you fucked her,” as if that’s not what he planned. “See you on the bricks, Jack,” Stone tells the former “Mr. Maybrey” as he leaves prison.

That close call with public ruin at least motivates Maybrey to ask a question that many in the audience would probably like to pose: “Do you actually believe any of this stuff?” Maybrey asks his wife during one of their Bible readings. Conroy’s face says it all: “I’m tired. I’m tired of this charade, and I’m tired of this crutch and I want out.”

Viewers expecting some sort of positive epiphany at that point will do better waiting for Godot.

Stone wanders off into some sort of new age (at least that’s all I can figure it to be) alternate reality he’s concocted in his mind from a book he read in the pen while Maybrey is left to ponder what a profane, SOB he’s been all his life while holding a gun in his hand.

Does he end it all?

No ending-giver here, but as Mabrey’s grown daughter tells her mother at the close: “I can’t believe you took it for so long.”

But it’s too bad my niece didn’t have actor Edward Norton to look to for advice. Not only is he the official U.S. ambassador for Earth Hour 2009, but he was on CNN’s Larry King Live this week, along with Alanis Morissette, to explain just how this symbolic act of the entire world turning out their lights for one hour will encourage world leaders to cap or tax carbon emissions through legislation. Global unity and all that.

Norton even compared turning out the lights for an hour to the famous civil rights march in Selma, Alabama in March of 1965:

If you think about things in our national history, the march on Selma in the Civil Rights Movement, the march itself, unlike some of the boycotts they did was not a, was not an act in itself meant to change the problem. It was a symbolic act and I think this is for my generation, for many people around the world who care about this issue, I think we’re looking for those kind of symbolic acts that show how many people are, are concerned about this.

The only thing the march in Selma has in common with Earth Hour is that they both share the same month.  Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon these days for someone with a cause to promote to try to link it to the Civil Rights movement in order to give it legitimacy. Even The One himself claimed that his parents met at the Selma march in order to give His birth more meaning (even though He was three and a half years old when the first Selma march occurred).

It’s fashionable for Hollywood celebrities to “give back” by donating time – and sometimes money -to a pet cause, be it cancer, AIDS, or whatever. Not only does it make them look like they care (and yes, sometimes they really do), but it gives them free publicity. Everybody wins, right? Unfortunately for them, that publicity sometimes makes them look like knuckleheads.

Global warming has become a popular cause because it’s easy to tell other people how to live their lives while not necessarily making changes in yours. Just by “getting the word out” you’re helping. If Arianna Huffington doesn’t have to live the life of a global warming paragon, why should anyone else? And since you don’t have to have a complicated scientific degree (one only needs to look to Al Gore’s successful global warming career), just about anyone who “cares” can be an expert.  Sheryl Crow, Laurie David, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carmen Diaz are just a few of the glitterati to lend their names to the global warming cause.

Looking back to the 1980s, noted scientist Meryl Streep helped hobble the apple growing industry in America when she became the face of the evils of Alar, despite the fact that claims of its dangers were unfounded. Perhaps Edward Norton is looking to cripple the economy in general by taking part in a hoax that won’t save the earth from anything (anyone heard of the sun?).

By the way, the economy includes movies and television. I wonder how big Hollywood’s carbon footprint is? How much does global warming owe to all of the electricity needed to run the hot lights, cameras, editing equipment, and air conditioning (or heating) for the stars’ individual on-set trailers? Not to mention all of the gasoline that is used traveling to and from site locations and to run the cars and other vehicles featured in the films and shows.

If Norton and others are looking for a way to lessen the threat we face from global warming, how about making the ultimate sacrifice by shutting down the entertainment industry as we know it? Actors and actresses could instead turn to live theater, giving daytime plays outdoors for maximum earth-saving benefit. They could travel around the country by wagon train to further shrink their carbon footprints. And just think of all the electricity we could save by there being no more movie theaters and no need for televisions, DVD players, cable boxes and so on in our homes.

Sure that’s ridiculous, and I would never actually expect it to happen. But if these cap and trade regulations that Norton is such a fan of take place, you can bet that the entertainment industry will eventually be affected. As it is, the recession is causing some celebrities to look for infomercial deals as acting and modeling gigs begin to dry up. Even liberal blowhard Alec Baldwin connected the dots between higher taxes and the entertainment industry. Shocking, I know, but if Alec can grasp it, there must be hope.

Meanwhile, I’ll be saving the earth by making sure I don’t watch any Edward Norton movies, either at home or in the theaters. He’ll be proud of my efforts, I’m sure.