Are Superhero films getting out of hand?

[Kane52630]

(I don't know where exactly to put this thread because it talks about a wide range of movies, so mods move it to wherever is appropriate)
I dont necessarily agree to what he has to say but he makes some interesting points.

Who can rescue us from the onslaught of superhero movies?
http://www.joe.ie/entertainment/ent...om-the-onslaught-of-superhero-movies-009420-1

Ten years ago, when the X-Men and Spider-Man arrived in cinemas, we were excited. Ten years on, as the C-List of superheroes shuffle to the cinemas, we say enough is enough.

By Emmet Purcell

Last night US viewers of Super Bowl XLV were not just treated to an intense battle between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, they were treated to some of the most expensive commercials in TV history, with advertisers charged up to $3m for 30-second slots on America’s biggest sports night. With such a huge audience gripped to their armchairs for hours on end, Hollywood execs showcased their wares for the upcoming summer season, with Marvel Studios in particular showing their hand in particular with first looks at their Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger adaptations.

That’s right, Thor and Captain America. Thor, a Norse god from a parallel universe, is being played by ex-Home & Away actor Chris Hemsworth. Captain America, that suit and all, will be portrayed by Chris Evans, last seen suited up as The Human Torch in Fox’s risible attempt at the Fantastic Four. Marvel’s efforts aren’t alone – 2011 will also feature Ryan Reynolds step into a CGI suit for The Green Lantern (not to be confused with last month’s The Green Hornet), while the X-Men: First Class gives the series that kickstarted the superhero trend a reboot, minus Wolverine, the series’ most popular character.

Anybody else feeling a tad unfussed over that lineup? How many more origin stories are we expected to sit through? Will Hollywood admit that after years of Batman and Spider-Man adaptations, 2011 marks the rise of C-List superheroes in their place? Has the barrel been scraped and how long until that barrel gets a reboot and a clean lick of paint?

Name one good movie with a golden eyepatch in it? That's right - you can't

Aside from the disappointing calendar of forthcoming superhero flicks, the past week two headlines dominated the movie world – the first onset pictures of Sony’s Spider-Man reboot and the news that Henry Cavill has been cast in the role of the Man of Steel in 300 director Zach Snyder’s attempt to revitalise Superman. Oh and Hugh Jackman’s 6000 calorie diet for his next Wolverine movie, in which the Aussie actor stated ‘we finally have the character’ – glad to know it only five movies to get there Hugh.

As for the Wolverine project, Jackman also said “Straight off, it's not a sequel, it's a stand-alone.” So it’s not a sequel to Wolverine: Origins, which itself is supposedly set before the original X-Men trilogy (despite the fact the actor was 8 years older). Confusing us further, X-Men: The First Class director Matthew Vaughn has said of his prequel, “I'm trying to make a movie that stands on its own two feet. Hopefully there'll be a lot more of this version of the franchise.” Wait… what version, I thought it was a prequel?

When the first X-Men film hit cinemas in 2000 and grossed $269,000, it kickstarted an all-enveloping trend which has shown no signs of dying out. Superhero movies have a built-in audience that stretches back decades, appealed to kids, young adults with disposable income and older, nostalgia-ridden adults, plus they had built-in brand recognition. Why develop an entirely original concept and cast an expensive actor when you can purchase the rights to a superhero franchise and cast relative unknowns (Tobey Maguire, Eric Bana)?

It doesn’t matter what version of the X-Men franchise you’re telling or whether or not Wolverine discovers a time machine or becomes a pirate – It’s Wolverine, it’s a license to print money. Ten years later we are left primarily with ill-judged reboots, endless sequels, or the cinematic debuts of third-tier comic favourites.

A year after X-Men, Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man swooped into action and broke the US opening weekend record. Suddenly the A-list of superhero franchises were snapped up or brought into production by their respective studios, Universal prepped Ang Lee’s Hulk, Warner Bros. took Batman out of early retirement to ‘Begin’ again and Fox cast their Fantastic Four.

The reason for Sony’s quick decision to reboot the Spider-Man series for release in 2012 or Marvel’s own The Incredible Hulk were simple – for Marvel’s superheroes at least, studios had a window of opportunity to build franchises from their heroes and if they declined and let a few years go by (Universal turned their back after Hulk’s dire critical consensus), the series’ went back to Marvel. Hence the 2012 Avengers supergroup of Iron Man, Hulk (recast again) and the aforementioned Thor and Captain America (plus previously-unseen Hawkeye), a movie whose groundwork will have been laid in five big-budget releases that came before it.

I'm just asking for a little less cynicism for us as an audience (brought to you... by CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION - Spider-Man 2012!)

The success or failure and undoubted expense of The Avengers could largely decide the future of the superhero genre – Marvel’s project is so ambitious that they’re not putting all their eggs in one basket, their putting all the biggest stars that they still attain the film rights to in one movie.

Dredd is back... minus Rob Schneider we hope

Whether or not The Avengers stuns the world or whether Zach Snyder can actually make Superman cool again, I’ve had enough. I don’t want to watch Spider-Man get bitten by a radioactive spider again, I don’t care about Ryan Reynold’s super-powered green jewellery and for god’s sake Hollywood, who decided we as an audience wanted another Judge Dredd movie? He betrayed the law, we get it.

Aside from the purple, figure-hugging sight of The Phantom, it’s tough to think of any superhero whose revival hasn’t yet been plotted for the silver screen at this moment in time. With unwanted sequels (Transformers 3, Pirates 4) aligned beside unloved superheroes, 2011 looks to be a lean period for Hollywood’s coffers, though every fault of their own.

I’m not asking for Hollywood to re-invent the wheel with original, brilliant material – there’s never going to be seven or eight Inception’s or District 9’s for the summer season. I’m just asking for a little less cynicism for us an audience (Brought to you... by CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION – Spider-Man 2012!’) and perhaps a look beyond their immediate horizons for untapped material. After all, there’s another industry that is making record profits and has an identical in-built audience to comics – video games. Oh wait, there’s already over 50 video game adaptations in pre-production right now? Perhaps it’s better the devil you know…

 

[BlackLantern]

oh shut the **** up...don't like it, go troll the film festivals and watch something like "Man in shopping carriage", which has nothing to do with shopping carriages

 

[Erzengel]

How are Captain America, Thor "C" List?

I'm not reading the rest of that on principle.

 

[Assassin]

How are Captain America, Thor "C" List?

I'm not reading the rest of that on principle.

 

[Troy_Parker]

To whoever wrote that...

Go **** yourself, we like Superhero films, they rock. :P

And like Erz said, how the heck is Cap America and Thor 'C list'? :\

 

[BlackLantern]

seriously....Thor, at times, can be seen as B list because he disappears from the Marvel U for stretches at a time

but Captain America.....how dare you sir, how very dare you?

 

[The Geek Vault]

The writer of this article obviously does notknow his comic book material at all, Cap and Thor as C List? I get where he's coming from with the whole reboot, stand alone movie issue and I kind of agree with that. Also I like how when he talks about brilliant material he talks about inception and district 9.

 

[lixdexia]

How are Captain America, Thor "C" List?

I'm not reading the rest of that on principle.

well, they're not a-list, i'd put them at b's.

but really, as if several films in a genre coming out in the same decade is a new thing. why not ***** about westerns, spy movies, rom coms, novel adaptations (another adaptation of sense and sensibility? really? get original hollywood. and do we need a film version of a midsummer night's dream? aren't we scrapping the bottom of the shakespeare barrel there?)

 

[Micromind]

Judging from General audience point of view, some reboots, sequels prequels, remakes do sound confusing, here is the solution watch trailers, read reviews and then decide yourself if you want to watch the movie in the theaters,

And why just single out Super hero movies in case the writer has not noticed, there are lot of Vampire and magical fantasy films being made, why not target some of the negativity there ?

Superhero movie at least offer variety, otherwise Hollywood would be making remakes of old classics again.

 

[chamber-music]

I don't know what the dudes whining about. In the 50s and 60s you had dozens of Westerns. In the 70s Hollywood made lots of heist movies and thrillers. In the 80s and 90s tons of Hollywood action movies.

Hollywood makes films the audience wants to see. When film audiences are tired of Superhero movies they will stop making them. There are thousands of other types of movies out there and people don't have to watch the movies if they don't want to.

If anything comic movies are not scrapping the barrel they are getting better as filmmakers are learning from the mistakes of previous adaptations and improving their attempts at the genre. The best is yet to come.

Plus The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most anticipated movies in years.

 

[THE MR. TERRIFIC]

I wanna punch this dude in the face!

 

[KangConquers]

Cap is sort of like Wonderwoman. An Icon who has been underutilized in the modern era.

Green Lantern and Thor are actually B-list, but all of that could change with their movies.

 

[Rocketman]

I agree with the writer 100%. Between Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, Ghost Rider, Punisher, Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Blade, Thor, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Watchmen, Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four... it's getting a little ridiculous. Just because a superhero exists on paper, doesn't mean a movie should be made of it. We just got Jonah Hex. Now there's talk of Sgt. Rock and Suicide Squad. We're starting to scrape at the bottom of the barrel, and when that doesn't work out, we'll start rebooting all of the above again. It's already happened with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk, Punisher, Captain America, and so on and so on and so on - and most of it is within the same decade. That's crazy, guys.

These studios are trying to make a buck in the easiest way possible, and we're all being suckered into it. Now we're being convinced that Thor is high quality material. Be honest with yourselves. It's the freaking Mighty Thor.

All I'm suggesting is this: Stick to the heavy hitters. Stick to what works, not what we can cram out every summer with toys and clothes and toothbrushes just for the hell of it. We've seen the movies. We know the scripts were terrible. Whoever wrote them didn't really care. We've had our Schumachers and Ratners, and at least one of the characters was able to recover. When you've got Deadpool in name only, and he's not wearing a mask, and he has no speaking lines... something is wrong.

I love this genre - it's why I'm on these boards. BUT, there's going to be a time when people are fed up. It's already coming, and the genre will fizzle out for a few years - maybe ten. And I think that's a good thing. Moviegoers need a chance to miss it. Look at Batman. We didn't have him for eight years, and look what we got. It went beyond our expectations when all we really wanted was a decent movie. We got something more, twice.

 

[lixdexia]

you don't like it, don't go see it. i'm already tired of x-men, spider-man, and superman films and if the same team wasn't making the third batman i'd be tired of that too. you have to change the line up to keep it relevant.

and jonha hex and sgt. rock are in no way superheroes. based on a comic =/= superhero. from hell, road to perdition, a history of violence, scott pilgrim, american splendor...none of them superhero movies, all of them comic movies

 

[chamber-music]

Well if Hollywood only adapted movies from so called A-List Superheroes the likes of Blade, Hellboy and Iron Man would never have been made which like it or not were successful movies.

If people said we shouldn't reboot Superhero movies the Nolan Batman movies would never have been made as well.

What matters most is quality not quantity. Make the best superhero movies filmmakers can make and people will enjoy it put out low quality trash to make a quick buck which is what hollywood did after Spider-Man/X-Men did big at the box office and then people will get bored of the genre.

 

[E-Man]

An article like this has popped up every year since the 2003 before all those comic movies came out that summer. Every damn year someone either asks if it's too much or it's a comic fan wondering if all the candy is going to be taken away. It's just movies with good concepts. All of them aren't the same, so there is no over saturation. Captain America, Thor, and Green Lantern look pretty different. Cap looks like a war movie while Thor looks like it'll be a modern take on comics and Norse mythology. Green Lantern is a freaking space fantasy, so that's far from both of them.

This is just people not expecting the genre to last long wondering why it's still around. It's still around because it was an untapped genre that has long lasting potential. People who went through the so called dark ages of the 90s just aren't used to heroes not named Batman on screen. Comic adaptations are action movies. People love to go see action movies, and if the trailer promises action they'll show up. Movies aren't some great complicated formula that needs to be calculated by men and women in lab coats. It's just a product that people like, and if it looks good they'll buy it. No one is sitting there thinking to themselves that there are too many superheroes nowadays except panicking nerds and cinema snobs who predicted that it wouldn't last past Spider-man 2.

 

[Figs]

oh shut the **** up...don't like it, go troll the film festivals and watch something like "Man in shopping carriage", which has nothing to do with shopping carriages

Agreed.

It's not like someone is forcing him to watch all these films. I do believe the general audience might get sick of them after awhile, just like westerns went out of style after having so many pumped out in the past.

Personally, I don't mind them making more and more, so long as they're good.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

well, they're not a-list, i'd put them at b's.

Thor may not be A-List, but Cap is.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

And Iron Man was extremely C-List before his movie.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Oh and, I love how he basically ****'s on every CBM ever made minus TDK.

What a bandwagoner.

 

[lixdexia]

Thor may not be A-List, but Cap is.

i say cap is b list even though he's tied for my #1 because of his result in "the mom test"

if my mom can identify them from a picture with no name on it, they're b-list. if she can then tell me the general jist of their back story, they're a-list.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

i say cap is b list even though he's tied for my #1 because of his result to "the mom test"

if my mom can identify them from a picture with no name on it, they're b-list. if she can then tell me the general jist of their back story, they're a-list.

I pulled the "dad" test and he said "That's Steve Rogers, Captain America!".

My dad hates comic books too.

 

[Erzengel]

I sure hope you guys don't use your parents for barometers for other things in your lives such as who you should sleep with.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Nah, but I ask them if being a fan of Star Wars is still cool.

They usually just tell me to grow up.

 

[RockSP]

An article like this has popped up every year since the 2003 before all those comic movies came out that summer. Every damn year someone either asks if it's too much or it's a comic fan wondering if all the candy is going to be taken away. It's just movies with good concepts. All of them aren't the same, so there is no over saturation. Captain America, Thor, and Green Lantern look pretty different. Cap looks like a war movie while Thor looks like it'll be a modern take on comics and Norse mythology. Green Lantern is a freaking space fantasy, so that's far from both of them.

This is just people not expecting the genre to last long wondering why it's still around. It's still around because it was an untapped genre that has long lasting potential. People who went through the so called dark ages of the 90s just aren't used to heroes not named Batman on screen. Comic adaptations are action movies. People love to go see action movies, and if the trailer promises action they'll show up. Movies aren't some great complicated formula that needs to be calculated by men and women in lab coats. It's just a product that people like, and if it looks good they'll buy it. No one is sitting there thinking to themselves that there are too many superheroes nowadays except panicking nerds and cinema snobs who predicted that it wouldn't last past Spider-man 2.

Well said, Man-of-E.