Superhero Movies: "Frankly My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn"

I, like many people, love superhero movies. Modern superheroes are truly the contemporary equivalent of the Greek Gods of old. We love to see feats of strength and bravery from those who have great power and great responsibility. It's no wonder that we see a resurgence in superhero movies coming out nowadays. There are more and more coming to the forefront, but why now?

In order to understand where this resurgence in superhero movies come from, one first has to understand that there was a dark age of superhero movies. It went from about 1985 to 2008: this Dark Age of Superhero Movies contained such garbage as Steel, Superman IV: the Quest for Peace, Spawn, the Toby McGuire Spiderman, and Batman and Robin, to name a few. Granted, there were a few good ones in the mix, namely Tim Burton's Batman, the Mask of Zorro, and Batman Begins. However, these movies were the exception rather than the norm.

Everything changed when the Dark Knight and Iron Man blew the expectations out of the water. Hollywood is not very original, so when they saw the amazing success that these two films gained, the thought was that they could build on it. Marvel had already taken a huge risk with Iron Man and since it had paid off so well, they put their universe-building plan into action. Successful releases of everything from Captain America to Avengers made Marvel a huge money-making enterprise.

Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy also made a lot of money and was largely critically acclaimed. DC didn't build on their success as well as Marvel did. Man of Steel got mixed reviews and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice received a largely negative reception. The success of DC was mostly found in their TV series (Arrow or Flash).

With a Justice League movie well in the works, we have to consider, have superhero movies worn out their welcome? I would contend that they have. In the past few years, we've seen two incarnations of both Batman and Spiderman in different series; we've had so many different heroes get so many different stories that we no longer know what canon we should be following.

Superhero movies have been an important part of our film culture in the past ten years, but as many of the new films seem to be on the decline, maybe we need a break so Hollywood can get some new ideas. I don't think superhero stories will die. They will last a long time into the future as long as there is a new generation to love and appreciate them. The key is to let it be while we are still ahead and not drive a good idea into the ground.

H. Logan Christensen
(Pragmus Alpha)
CEO of Pragmus Media