OPINION: Saturation of superhero films lessen their impact
Photo by Lotus Lulu / CC BY 2.0
Between Marvel Studios’ The Avengers and DC Comics’ Justice League, dozens of superhero films have been released in recent years.
February 13, 2018
In the early 2000s, directors Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi laid the cornerstone of what eventually became a global, multibillion dollar phenomenon.
Singer’s “X-Men” (2000), and Raimi’s “Spider-Man” (2002) were the first in a trend of modern superhero movies sent out for mass consumption, and the trilogies they resulted in put superhero movies on the map for movie makers in a way they hadn’t been before.
The “Spider-Man” series proved that a well-loved and heavily mythologized hero could be incredibly profitable material for a skilled director armed with a heartfelt script, and the “X-Men” series, while less popular, made a good case for a team of them.
Fast forward to 2018, and it seems there is a costume-clad swashbuckler diving into frame every other week.
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The world has the superbug, and it has had it for a while. Now that everyone from Steven Spielberg to Mark Hamill has voiced their thoughts on the matter, I’ll tell you what I think.
Here are my top five issues with the superhero craze:
1. Explosions, Explosions, Explosions
The recent onslaught of superhero cinema has been seriously lacking in storytelling, and the makers of films seek to remedy this only by adding more and more dazzling, fiery images than even some comic fans can handle.
The resulting array of toppled skyscrapers, fragmented monuments, explosive objects shot full of bullets and walls of flame has many fans (including myself) feeling fried rather than fed.
2. We used to have to wait
It’s been a lifetime in movie years since the successes of Singer and Raimi. We used to have one or two well-written and extremely successful movies a year, and we used to be pleasantly surprised to see them.
Now we can’t go a single day without being bombarded with news about new actors, old actors, new plans, changes of plan, new directors, rewrites and political or critical controversy.
Superhero flicks are hitting the airwaves like never before, and I miss the days of waiting in anticipation for a film that I was fairly sure wasn’t going to be a two-hour toy advertisement. Now, it’s almost inevitable that I know almost everything that went wrong (or right) during the making of the film before I even see it.
3. Oversaturation
Weren’t movies for those who didn’t have the time for reading? The cinematic universes these days are almost as hard to follow as their source material.
When you include TV shows, spin-offs, tie-ins, prequels, sequels and the purchasing of more characters from other companies, super-movie makers are creating a landscape so broad that fans can barely wrap their heads around it. Never mind the fact that Marvel on its own will have released twenty-three movies between 2008 and 2019.
I can barely keep up with the ever-increasing list of movies to be released, and expecting a fan to shell out the average ticket price more than a few times a year is a tall order. The formula means that almost no one will be seeing every film, and most of us will miss out on the details necessary to get the picture of the entire, intricate plot.
I fear that comic fans like myself are going to be deprived of action from certain characters, or even lose them entirely as they become casualties to the movie deadline. The market for these films is just oversaturated, cheapening the whole experience and forcing many of them to be overlooked in the confusion.
“Deadpool” was one of those casualties once, and we’re lucky he was picked back up.
4. It’s a war between two monopolies
The two-party nature of the phenomenon means that each company is competing (if that wasn’t already obvious) for our attention. It means that movies have to come out faster than ever, which makes me wonder about the future of storytelling quality.
To make matters worse, due to a recent deal with Marvel and Fox “X-Men” characters will be able to cross over into Marvel screentime. How many of them will feel rushed and incomplete? How many of them will be memorable?
DC’s latest releases have been frantic gut-reaction responses to Marvel’s success at best, and if you didn’t agree with my comment about spin-offs, did you even see “Thor: The Dark World?” “Thor: Ragnarok”? I saw the Hulk wearing a birthday hat that he dug out of a Hulk-sized Happy Meal and walked the other way.
5. Toys
It’s been a while since I sat through a super-flick that didn’t feel like an extended bulldozing toy advertisement. Sometimes I feel the jokes and the explosions are just there to entice a more juvenile crowd, to rally a dependable source of profit.
As a kid, I loved these films, and I had every toy I could get my hands on. But transport that kid to 2018 — watching him walk down the toy aisle, I just feel like the kid’s being used.
Worldwide phenomenons like this are incredibly popular with merchandising companies (no surprise), and between action figures, clothing, costumes, statues, party supplies, school supplies and those arguably adorable Funko Pops, there’s a lot of plastic sitting on the shelves.