X-Men Director: Superhero Movies Are Dying

[Tom Goldman]

X-Men Director: Superhero Movies Are Dying

The director of X-Men: First Class isn't sure that anyone is going to care about superhero movies in the near future.

Kick-Ass [http://www.amazon.com/Kick-Ass-Nicolas-Cage/dp/B002ZG983M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1281367625&sr=8-2] director Matthew Vaughn thinks audiences are being overwhelmed with superhero movies, and that they'll soon lose their audience. He's currently working on X-Men: First Class, but according to him the movie could be one of the last starring superheroes that people will actually want to go out and see.

He told the LA Times [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/mined-to-death-xmen-director-says-hollywood-is-killing-the-superhero-movie.html] that the superhero genre has "been mined to death and in some cases the quality control is not what it's supposed to be." Vaughn says: "People are just going to get bored of it."

So why is he working on a superhero movie in the upcoming X-Men: First Class? He's getting one in while people still care.

Vaughn reveals: "I've always wanted to do a big-budget superhero film and I think we've kind of crossed the Rubicon with superhero films. I think [the opportunity to do one], it's only going to be there two or three more times. Then, the genre is going to be dead for a while because the audience has just been pummeled too much." Vaughn also says he "could have made something a hundred times better" than the last X-Men movie, X-Men: The Last Stand [http://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Trilogy-X2-United-Stand/dp/B000HEVZ9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1281367641&sr=8-1], which he nearly directed. We'll see, won't we?

With plenty of comic book movies slated to be released in the next few years, including Avengers, Green Lantern, Thor, and Captain America, it could be a major problem for studios if Vaughn is right. Is there something about superheroes that will turn people off even if all of the movies coming out are actually worth seeing? I personally don't think so, but then I actually read comic books, so I look forward to good comic book movies. If the products that studios put out are garbage, that's another story.

Via: Collider [http://www.collider.com/2010/08/08/x-men-first-class-matthew-vaughn-director-superhero-almost-dead/]

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[saintfrankie92]

considering how excited people are for the avengers movie and the iron man 3 sequel, i think Vaughn is talkin' out of his ass

 

[Proteus214]

The market has been saturated with superhero films since the release of Spiderman and X-Men. Of course we're getting bored with it! Once they're done with The Avengers, there isn't much left that is recognizable to the general public.

 

[Jared]

I think hes right to be honest. Its got so dilluted at the moment and can see it already falling out of style...

I mean if we are down to make sequels for Cats and Dogs...yeah...

 

[Ragsnstitches]

That's a load of nonsense. Frankly people always want more of the same and only on occasions want something new and refreshing... how else would film series like saw and final destination last for so many incarnations.

That's like saying people will get sick of superheroes... no they won't, Superheroes have been popular for over half a century now, films and comics alike.

Not to mention, most people watch films for fun, which most superhero films provide in spades. I fear for the new x-men film if the he thinks the genre is getting weak.

EDIT: Also would like to state that even people who don't read comics, like superheroes. For these people, film is their primary source.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Yeah, I'm on his side on this one. Can't see much more in terms of superhero films coming beyond the next few years.

 

[DemonicVixen]

Erm, yeah i think this idea was already spotted without them making it more clear. If they do the movie good enough, then people will like it. Such as Iron Man. X-Men wasnt too bad either. Superman, Batman...sorry, i hated them.

I just think it depends on the special effects and the type of super hero, whether it be an already cartooned hero, or a new creation.

 

[blackcherry]

Well he does speak the truth. To be honest, I'm not even bothered that much about the avengers film, as personally I never have seen the appeal.

But then i have only read the ultimate universe version, where the writers clearly had the idea of, 'lets take all the marvel main universe characters and make them arseholes'. So my opnion may be clouded.

 

[TPiddy]

Sorry, but with most of the comic book nerds growing up and having most of the money now, comic book movies are very bankable. Even B-level stars like Ghost-Rider and Daredevil still pulled in over 100 million.

Will the spiderman reboot match the success of the original? Probably not, but any superhero that has a solid following and gets a big-screen treatment will probably do well. We've only scratched the surface of the x-men series, and the way the Avenger films are going I would think we've got at least another 10 years of good content before the barrel is scraped dry.

 

[Jaebird]

Hey, Mr. Vaughn, you know what else is getting stale? Romantic comedies. Action-adventure romps? Boooooooring. Suspense and horror? Too predictable. Drama? That's so yesterday, girlfriend.

This is the same kind of bullcrap that anyone who's bored with life spews out just to get attention. Shut up, and go make a movie, monkey.

Speaking of monkeys, where's my "Dial M for Monkey" movie? I think we're long overdue for one =)

 

[The Great JT]

If they are dying, it's the writing in things like X-Men 3 that'll kill them.

 

[Woodsey]

I think it's only because we're running out of superheroes that people care about.

Still, when the next Batman comes out (not technically a superhero, I know) people are going to be jizzing themselves, just like they are over the Avengers film.

 

[TimeLord]

I loved Iron Man 2, everyone I know loves Iron Man 2.

Mr Vaughn knows squat.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Well, what else is there? Movies based off comics, sequels, and remakes are the majority of the movies out there... then there are those rare new movies...

 

[Auron555]

What about regular action movies? Dramas? Hell, romantic comedies? It's like the claims that the rhythm game game genre is oversaturated. Look at the other genres--sport and FPS games are everywhere. The only problem superhero movies are facing is a dearth of source material.

 

[Rect Pola]

Yeah, the X-men franchise (and other superhero movies done by Ratner) is not the place to base your analysis of interest. Not since Marvel and DC started making their own movies and doing it right.

X-men: First Class may be the last superhero movie by outside studios that people are willing to see.

 

[Covarr]

It's because they keep doing them like superhero movies. That's why The Dark Knight worked so well, because it WASN'T like all the others. Supposedly The Green Lantern is gonna be that way too, I really hope so. I'm also getting tired of Superhero moves, not because there's too many, but because most of them just aren't that great.

Too many filmmakers (or people in any business, really), seem to think that if you copy something that's popular, you'll also become popular. In the '80s it was cop movies, in the '90s there were about a thousand father-son bonding movies, and right now the big thing is superhero movies (at least it's not penguins anymore). After The Matrix came out, every movie had bullet time. Most filmmakers don't know anything except bandwagons, and they find the most trivial aspect of a movie and think that's why it was successful.

With penguins, it started with March of the Penguins. It was a massive, and unexpected success. Soon after came Happy Feet, Surf's Up, and probably some others that I'm forgetting. The big studios thought that MotP's success was because it was about penguins, it didn't even occur to them that it was simply because it was a good film.

Just watch, I bet sometime in the next few years, we see a dozen crappy Inception clones.

P.S. Thanks

 

[oktalist]

He's only just realised this? Talk about slow.

 

[ranger19]

I disagree wholeheartedly. Sure, I love comics, but I'm not simply biased - I've paid careful attention to audiences' reactions, because I'm not the one who will decide the fates of the genre. It will be the people not already sold on comics. And they've been doing great. The Dark Knight broke records. Everyone loves Iron Man. So where is this sentiment coming from?

That's a load of nonsense. Frankly people always want more of the same and only on occasions want something new and refreshing... how else would film series like saw and final destination last for so many incarnations.

That's like saying people will get sick of superheroes... no they won't, Superheroes have been popular for over half a century now, films and comics alike.

Not to mention, most people watch films for fun, which most superhero films provide in spades. I fear for the new x-men film if the he thinks the genre is getting weak.

EDIT: Also would like to state that even people who don't read comics, like superheroes. For these people, film is their primary source.

Me too. This sounds like an early cop out if the movie does poorly. The sequel to TDK and the Avengers movies are slated to be two of the largest (and most successful) movies of the year.

I think hes right to be honest. Its got so dilluted at the moment and can see it already falling out of style...

I mean if we are down to make sequels for Cats and Dogs...yeah...

What does Cats and Dogs have to do with it? That's not a superhero movie.. if anything, that's evidence that movie studios need something new, and there's still a lot of potential to mine in the super hero genre.