re: Spielberg: "There Will be a time when Superhero movie go the way of the Western"

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Scientists estimate that we reached Peak Superhero in the summer of 2008, when “The Dark Knight” sucked the attention of every critic, pundit and sentient moviegoer into its inky nexus. It is not as if the number of movies featuring troubled guys wearing costumes and fighting evil has diminished since then. Quite the contrary. But the genre, though it is still in a period of commercial ascendancy, has also entered a phase of imaginative decadence. (Do you really want to have an argument about this? If so, put on your best oversize metal suit and wait for me at the top of the New York Times building. I’ll be there as soon as I finish beta-testing my death ray. Apologies in advance to any commuters crushed by flying debris.) The latest evidence — though it is unlikely to be the last, with a new “Spider-Man” and another “Dark Knight” looming on the horizon — is “Marvel’s The Avengers.”

While “The Avengers” is hardly worth raging about, its failures are significant and dispiriting. The light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre. Mr. Whedon’s playful, democratic pop sensibility is no match for the glowering authoritarianism that now defines Hollywood’s comic-book universe. Some of the rebel spirit of Mr. Whedon’s early projects “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly” and “Serenity” creeps in around the edges but as detail and decoration rather than as the animating ethos.

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LINK

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I lump superhero movies into the pile of exhausting prequels/sequels/reboots that seem to be 50% of all movies made. 11 of the top 15 movies at the box office last year were prequels/sequels/reboots.

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In 1995, 10 of the Top 17 films were prequels, sequels, reboots or movies coming from another medium.

That's not a HUGE jump.

Not only that, see here:

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2014 saw 200 more films released than 2005. 200 more films. Are they releasing 200 Superhero movies? No. We're getting more films, not less. And Superhero movies make up a far smaller percentage of films than they used to.


I do agree that

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prequels/sequels/reboots

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trends are a little stale, because that's cross genre.

12 downvotes. LULZ.

I thought there was a minimum age of 18 to post on this site.

Anybody who vehemently defends Jurassic World is probably well shy of that age (and quite close to a high single digit age).

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Freauxzen

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the problem is less about "Superhero" movies specifically, although that genre is the most visible.

the problem is lazily made films based on known intellectual property and there is undoubtedly a LOT more of this today than there was 20 years ago.

If you had told 14 year old me that in one summer I'd get an Avengers movie, a Fantastic 4 movie, a Terminator movie, a Jurassic Park movie and an Ant Man movie I would have completely lost my mind with excitement. Of those 5 only Ant Man was something I'd even consider watching again. How badly they neglected Ultron is probably the tipping point for me in terms of when I officially turned against these movies.

I agree that some of them have been very average, at best. However, there's only a handful of comic films that come out every year. As Freaux mentioned, we only got 3 this year, 4 each of the past 2 years. That's really a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things. These films are making a boat load of cash so it seems to be rustling a lot of feathers these days.

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How many of these movies get made in Today's climate? Maybe 1?

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all of them

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I agree that some of them have been very average, at best. However, there's only a handful of comic films that come out every year. As Freaux mentioned, we only got 3 this year, 4 each of the past 2 years. That's really a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things. These films are making a boat load of cash so it seems to be rustling a lot of feathers these days.

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Like I said in another post, I think the backlash is less about superhero movies specifically and more about the trend of taking a known intellectual property and rushing through a haphazardly made movie. People may say "superhero" movies, but I think (most) of them are talking about a bigger thing and are just using that as a catch all term incorrectly.

yes it is

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Bachelor Party (1984)

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sex comedy

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Big (1988)

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body switch comedy

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Edward Scissorhands (1990)

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Tim Burton's modern take on Frankenstein

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What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

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Oscar bait based off a novel

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Thelma & Louise (1991)

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girl power infused road trip flick

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Seven (1995)

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serial killer thriller

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12 Monkeys (1995)

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apocalyptic future movie, remade as a popular SyFY tv series

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Fight Club (1999)

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popular book adaptation

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Out of Sight (1998)

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heist film, also adapted from a novel



all of these types of films are still made today

Last year, 33 movies made $100 million, the old benchmark for a smash hit. 67 movies made $50 million, the standard for at least a modest hit (a single, not a home run). If you think there were 67 superhero films made last year, you're deluded.

Heck, let's look at some of the $100 million films squarely aimed at adults:

American Sniper, Interstellar, Gone Girl, Into the Woods, Unbroken, Noah, and (maybe) Edge of Tomorrow.

Lowering the bar to $50 million:

Heaven is for Real, Imitation Game, Fury, The Other Woman, Monuments Men, Think Like a Man Too, Exodus, Gods Not Dead, Son of God, Grand Budapest Hotel, Horrible Bosses 2, Hundred Foot Journey, No Good Deed, and Selma.


The idea that movies aren't getting made is just fiction. And that list doesn't even include movies like Boyhood, Birdman, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, Inherent Vice, the Theory of Everything, and Wild. We won't even get into genuine indie films like Coherence, God Help This Girl, Listen Up Philip, Mr. Turner, the Immigrant, and Under the Skin and foreign films like Force Majeure, the Missing Picture, Winter Sleep, and Two Days One Night.

If you're missing out on great film, that's on you. Last year was fricking amazing. I mean that. fricking amazing.

Yep. I regularly check out the Hulu trailers and there is dozens of trailers for all different movies. Its not just super hero. The big problem is that like everything else, when something is niche it is awesome and cool. Originally comics were just for nerds and people dropping a few bucks for a picture book that had a lot of colorful pictures. You had your sub groups, main stream, and indy comic fans.

Now everyone knows about comics. When i stop into the shop I see people who have no clue what they are looking at, but is buying a gift for someone who liked the latest comic book movie. Its pop culture now and people hate it. Its the sell out theory. People try for so long to justify their love for something to others but once it is accepted by the mass, it is no longer theirs and they label it as selling out.

I've heard people ripping on the original Avengers and calling Whedon a sell out. What? That movie was loved when it came out. Comic book movies (mostly Marvel) grab unknown or low profile directors and pair them with low profile or cheap actors and give them a guide line. The crew goes from there. If you can't see the difference in Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor's first movies then you didn't want to see them. They each had their own style but in a similar format.

Comic book movies will go out of style. Hopefully not before I get Avengers 3, but if every studio tries to throw a dozen movies out (like slated next year), it could increase the burn out.

Side note, don't forget that there is a number of indy or less known titles that got made into movies and people never realized they came from comics. Comics are being treated like books now. Hollywood is turning to them for easy ideas rather than producing their own. But as pointed out before, Hollywood has been piggybacking on others ideas for a long time now. It didnt start with comic bool movies.