Here we go again! Stephen Spielberg opens his mouth about superhero films and now everybody and their pet goat is asking the same question! The same question media sites used as click-bait to trick people into reading them and questioning the topic at hand! Like this post! I mean, not like this post! The question everyone is asking is: Will Superhero Movies Ever Die?
No, but lets talk about it anyway.
I'll admit that the movie industry is seeing an abundant amount of movies based off comic books, we have around forty upcoming comic book movies in the few years alone. The fact that we're getting so many capes and cowls in movies in this day and age is concerning a lot of people. At first, the only people sick of the comic book movie craze were old film critics, the guys you hear praising Academy Award Winning films you've never heard about because films like "Transformers" and "Furious 7" get better advertisement. Old critics dislike comic book movies for a few reasons, the biggest and most obvious is that comic books and superheroes are still a genre that the majority of people to think as kid's stuff. Even if multiple characters have their hands cut off or The Joker talks about self-mutilation, critics still regard these as "typical superhero movies". The funny thing is, we didn't hear about all this smack talk until "Avengers 2: My Robot Friend" even though the "typical superhero movie" dates back to film serials of the 1950's, the 1978 "Superman" film, and the burst of the genre in the early 2000's with "X-Men" and "Spider-Man". How many critics online did you hear slamming Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy"? How many people came out and said "The Avengers" shouldn't have happened when it came out? "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Guardians of The Galaxy" were highly regarded as some of the best superhero films of our era. And yet-now-critics turn around and harp on those movies. Why are we seeing this "issue" come up now? Well, I'll try to look at this from a critic's perspective. Because target audiences are mostly children and young adults-who don't trash these movies-the older demographic of reviewers feel left out of the craze. Look at it this way: Let's say you work in the fashion industry and for a long time you see very different styles of clothing. You see dresses, coats, boots, all types of one-of-a-kind clothing pieces. Once and a while you may see a dress that is an upgraded version of a decades old piece, once and a while you see a hat designed after one foreign society. Then one day, three foreign hats come in. Now all you see are foreign hats and every other article is swept under the rug, maybe you see an article that harkens back to an old piece but bastardizes what made that old piece special. Soon all you see are foreign hats over and over, and the three designers that made these hats have their logos all over them. Nothing is as special anymore, maybe the hats are different from each other, but even if they seem new and fresh they remind you of the designers who are always there making more profit than the original designers. Movie reviewers dislike comic book movies because they are all what people want to hear about. If a critic is honest, they are shunned. And if a critic praises, they become part of the problem. No matter how many people love these films, critics will continue to stay stuck in an era when ideas were "original".
The reply most people have to the "typical superhero movie" statement is that Marvel Cinematic movies aren't always typical. Maybe The Avengers and Iron Man movies, but not all of them. "Captain America: The First Avenger" was a period piece with a superhero, "Ant-Man" was a heist movie with a superhero, "Thor 1 & 2" were fantasy movies with a superhero, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was a political thriller with a superhero. The farthest Marvel film away from the "typical superhero movie" is "Guardians of The Galaxy", which was a fun science-fiction movie. If "Marvel Studios" wasn't slapped on everything, people would think it was just an original movie. This idea works for characters outside Marvel too, like DC characters. If Warner Bros weren't absolute idiots, a "Green Lantern" film could be a cop flick/science-fiction movie, "Wonder Woman" could be a fantasy action movie, "Batman" could be a detective thriller, "Booster Gold" could be a comedy movie. Hence the PBDC. Characters like The Punisher, Wolverine, Venom and Blade are designed for R Rated films. The only thing that makes people see these vastly different properties as "typical superhero movies" are the costumes. How many old critics would take "Captain America: The First Avenger" seriously if they changed the title to "American Soldier", replaced The Red Skull and HYDRA with Hitler and the Nazis, replaced "The Super Soldier Serum" with training and hard-work, and put Chris Evens in a run-of-the-mill 1950's military outfit? Critics wouldn't be bashing a superhero flick, they'd be admiring a factually accurate look at the second World War from the ideal American. Does that sound entertaining? Maybe, but it also sounds generic, done before, unoriginal. The reason why we have so many upcoming comic book films isn't just the money-oh, and there is a lot of that-it's because there are 75 years of stories and characters and marketable images. Why come up with an interesting new science-fiction film when we can just copy and paste Marvel's "Infinity War" story? Why test the ideals of our audience with a new political drama when we can adapt Marvel's "Civil War"? Why make a movie about African-Americans struggle to fit in during the 50's-90's when we can just reboot Marvel's "The X-Men" and use mutants as allegories? It's just cheaper, easier, and quicker, and it's vastly more popular and marketable given superhero movie uprising and those are the factors every film studio wants for their films.
"It will die like the western" says Steve Spielberg and many others. Western films are nothing like superhero films. Westerns are like a dish and superhero movies are like a condiment. When you make a western you're often limited to one place, one story, one tone. But you can make any kind of movie you want and STILL put a superhero in it to give it a popularity boost. Oh and by the way: The Western never died! Just because we don't live in the 1930's doesn't mean Westerns aren't being made anymore. "True Grit", "Django Unchained", and the upcoming "Hateful Eight" are all modern westerns. And by the way, to any critics who actually liked "Django Unchained", it was a remake. "True Grit" was a remake. Even everybody's favorite new film "Mad Max: Fury Road" was the continuation of an old franchise. You know what films weren't remakes? "Iron Man 1-3", "Guardians of The Galaxy", "Ant-Man", they were all based off comic books, but comic books nobody outside the comic book reading community knew about. How can you not be entertained by an interesting new story when every horror film is a "Paranormal Activity" rip off!? How can you hate on the overplayed "typical superhero movie" when comedy movies have only grown by baby steps!? "Pixels" sucked too!
When you break these stories down, they stop being "typical superhero movies". Captain America is a man who chose his country over his personal life and was taken away from his era because of his sacrifice. Batman is a man who chose to risk his mortal life to protect his home from those who corrupt it and those who abuse it. Ant-Man is a jailbird father who turns to crime one last time to win his daughter back. For Rao's sake, guys! The Martian Manhunter! The Martian freaking Manhunter! He is a man from another planet who watched his entire planet die. His wife, his kids, his neighbors and the entire population of his kind died slow torturous deaths and instead of dying with them, he was ripped off his planet without any choice and forced to mourn his fallen planet on a world that would forever fear him and never accept him as anything but an alien. But the sight of tights and capes makes that silly, right!?
Will the superhero genre die? Maybe. Either the film genre will become half-dominated by films based off comics or after some fifty years people will tire of the genre in exchange for another genre. I doubt they will end, the demand by younger viewers will possibly lessen the amount of films. Critics will have to adjust to the times like everyone else, ranting about the film industry changing is like ranting about gay marriage. Time doesn't move backwards, things change, get used to it or stay angry. I hope my opinion on the matter moved some gears in your heads and gave you an opinion of the future of film and comic book movies.
Thank you for reading and Happy Celebration September.
Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: Panelbiter.podbean.com
The reply most people have to the "typical superhero movie" statement is that Marvel Cinematic movies aren't always typical. Maybe The Avengers and Iron Man movies, but not all of them. "Captain America: The First Avenger" was a period piece with a superhero, "Ant-Man" was a heist movie with a superhero, "Thor 1 & 2" were fantasy movies with a superhero, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was a political thriller with a superhero. The farthest Marvel film away from the "typical superhero movie" is "Guardians of The Galaxy", which was a fun science-fiction movie. If "Marvel Studios" wasn't slapped on everything, people would think it was just an original movie. This idea works for characters outside Marvel too, like DC characters. If Warner Bros weren't absolute idiots, a "Green Lantern" film could be a cop flick/science-fiction movie, "Wonder Woman" could be a fantasy action movie, "Batman" could be a detective thriller, "Booster Gold" could be a comedy movie. Hence the PBDC. Characters like The Punisher, Wolverine, Venom and Blade are designed for R Rated films. The only thing that makes people see these vastly different properties as "typical superhero movies" are the costumes. How many old critics would take "Captain America: The First Avenger" seriously if they changed the title to "American Soldier", replaced The Red Skull and HYDRA with Hitler and the Nazis, replaced "The Super Soldier Serum" with training and hard-work, and put Chris Evens in a run-of-the-mill 1950's military outfit? Critics wouldn't be bashing a superhero flick, they'd be admiring a factually accurate look at the second World War from the ideal American. Does that sound entertaining? Maybe, but it also sounds generic, done before, unoriginal. The reason why we have so many upcoming comic book films isn't just the money-oh, and there is a lot of that-it's because there are 75 years of stories and characters and marketable images. Why come up with an interesting new science-fiction film when we can just copy and paste Marvel's "Infinity War" story? Why test the ideals of our audience with a new political drama when we can adapt Marvel's "Civil War"? Why make a movie about African-Americans struggle to fit in during the 50's-90's when we can just reboot Marvel's "The X-Men" and use mutants as allegories? It's just cheaper, easier, and quicker, and it's vastly more popular and marketable given superhero movie uprising and those are the factors every film studio wants for their films.
"It will die like the western" says Steve Spielberg and many others. Western films are nothing like superhero films. Westerns are like a dish and superhero movies are like a condiment. When you make a western you're often limited to one place, one story, one tone. But you can make any kind of movie you want and STILL put a superhero in it to give it a popularity boost. Oh and by the way: The Western never died! Just because we don't live in the 1930's doesn't mean Westerns aren't being made anymore. "True Grit", "Django Unchained", and the upcoming "Hateful Eight" are all modern westerns. And by the way, to any critics who actually liked "Django Unchained", it was a remake. "True Grit" was a remake. Even everybody's favorite new film "Mad Max: Fury Road" was the continuation of an old franchise. You know what films weren't remakes? "Iron Man 1-3", "Guardians of The Galaxy", "Ant-Man", they were all based off comic books, but comic books nobody outside the comic book reading community knew about. How can you not be entertained by an interesting new story when every horror film is a "Paranormal Activity" rip off!? How can you hate on the overplayed "typical superhero movie" when comedy movies have only grown by baby steps!? "Pixels" sucked too!
When you break these stories down, they stop being "typical superhero movies". Captain America is a man who chose his country over his personal life and was taken away from his era because of his sacrifice. Batman is a man who chose to risk his mortal life to protect his home from those who corrupt it and those who abuse it. Ant-Man is a jailbird father who turns to crime one last time to win his daughter back. For Rao's sake, guys! The Martian Manhunter! The Martian freaking Manhunter! He is a man from another planet who watched his entire planet die. His wife, his kids, his neighbors and the entire population of his kind died slow torturous deaths and instead of dying with them, he was ripped off his planet without any choice and forced to mourn his fallen planet on a world that would forever fear him and never accept him as anything but an alien. But the sight of tights and capes makes that silly, right!?
Will the superhero genre die? Maybe. Either the film genre will become half-dominated by films based off comics or after some fifty years people will tire of the genre in exchange for another genre. I doubt they will end, the demand by younger viewers will possibly lessen the amount of films. Critics will have to adjust to the times like everyone else, ranting about the film industry changing is like ranting about gay marriage. Time doesn't move backwards, things change, get used to it or stay angry. I hope my opinion on the matter moved some gears in your heads and gave you an opinion of the future of film and comic book movies.
Thank you for reading and Happy Celebration September.
Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: Panelbiter.podbean.com
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