The MCU began in 2008 with director Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man,” a role that catapulted Robert Downey Jr. into superstardom. Countless fans have been on board with the MCU ever since, including Gregory Middleton, largely because of the attention the saga pays to its characters.
“What’s interesting, actually, is I have seen all the films … and some of my favorite moments are with the character moments,” Middleton told Looper. “I can think of Steve Rogers and Natasha [Romanoff] and the pickup truck in “The Winter Soldier,” talking about what it’s like to be a spy, and [Natasha saying in effect], ‘I think you’re in the wrong business, Rogers.’ That’s what interests me the most.”
From a filmmaker’s point of view, Middleton added that he loves how his fellow cinematographers sometimes mine their inspiration from the comic book source material.
“There’s an amazing shot in the first ‘Avengers’ by Seamus McGarvey, [which is] right around the time that [Agent] Coulson dies, and it’s that out of a comic panel,” Middleton reflected. “We’ve got Iron Man in the foreground and there’s the sun coming through the broken part of the Helicarrier. You’ve got all three of them composed and it’s a real comic book frame, which [is] a way to bring a bit of the art of the competition and parts of comics into the cinema realm, without it being over the top and being a slave to it.
“That’s one of the things about an adaptation,” Middleton added. “It is honoring that piece of art and using it in a way to help form it that will also work within cinematic storytelling, and there’s some amazing issues like that.”
“Moon Knight” is streaming exclusively on Disney+, with the series finale dropping on Wednesday, May 4.
