Recently, I had a talk with a fellow comic book enthusiast about this year’s crop of superhero movies. We agreed that Batman V. Superman could have been better, and then discussed how awful Suicide Squad turned out to be. He is a huge DC fan, so I started teasing him by saying their cinematic universe was not off to a good start. He agreed with me, even though I could tell he didn’t like that statement. However, the next thing he said was how superhero movies are starting to blend together now. He couldn’t tell them apart.
I didn’t know what to say to him. I wanted to tell him that wasn’t necessarily the case. There was no way the superhero genre was losing steam. But after thinking about it for a while, he was right. The genre isn’t what it used to be anymore.
Warner Bros. and Disney are planning over a dozen movies over the next four years. It’s unlikely we are going to get anything original, or exciting, in these new movies. It will be the same formula of a new big baddie emerging and threatening to destroy the planet. Our hero, or group of heroes, will try everything in their power to stop the new threat, but end up losing. In the third act, they finally gain the strength and courage to stand up against the evil and defeat it.
If it is a movie about superheroes against superheroes, like Batman v Superman or Captain America: Civil War, then they’ll start off fighting each other, but realize they need to team up in order to beat the bad guy. These two movies played around with this idea, but it didn’t change the fact that it is an overused trope.
I’m not saying that I hated these movies. I enjoyed Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse. It’s okay to enjoy a movie while also realizing it has flaws. What I’m saying is that we need something new and exciting to the genre. Something unpredictable.
Deadpool, which came out earlier this year, changed the way we view blockbuster superhero movies. Fox took a risk when they decided their movie was going to be full-blown Rated-R. However, it ended up paying off, because Deadpool made more than half of its budget back in the first weekend. It’s not like we haven’t seen Rated-R superhero movies before. They just haven’t been as successful.
Even when studios find something that works, they will reuse it over and over again until audiences are sick of it. For example, The Dark Knight made Warner Bros. millions of dollars back in 2008. All anyone could talk about was how “dark” the new Batman movie was. It seemed as if Warner Bros. believed this was the only reason The Dark Knight was so successful. Now, they continually make their movies with dark and brooding tones. It’s gotten old, fast. Movies like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad don’t have the same effect as The Dark Knight because they couldn’t capture what made it good in the first place; compelling story and rich characters.
Maybe my friend was right. Maybe the superhero genre is getting old. Maybe I need a break from Marvel and DC movies. I’m not going to wait for them to change. People are afraid of change, and they want what works and what’s safe. Because of this, Hollywood won’t change their formula since that is what makes them money.
And even though I say I need a break from this genre, I am still eagerly awaiting Doctor Strange and Spiderman: Homecoming; hoping these superhero movies can bring captivating stories and complex characters.
Caesar Torres
Features Editor