X-Men Director: Superhero Movies Are Dying

[Drauden]

I was pumped about superhero movies... around five years ago.

These days, the only ones I care about are the Batman movies, and the occasional cult classics, like Watchmen, Kickass, Scott Pilgrim.

 

[Premonition]

It's a theory as good as any other, but I don't think that it's one that's going to pass. As long as superhero movies are done right, people are going to care. I mean, saying those movies are going to die is like saying romantic comedies are going to die.

 

[Blue Musician]

I agree with him. I am actually getting tired of superhero movies already...

 

[CaptainCrunch]

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.

DC has been run by Warner Brothers since at least the early 90s. Marvel is currently owned by Disney. Don't think for a second that a handful of decent films has anything to do with them taking on their own thing. The studios just loosened their deathgrip on the creative balls for a while, and discovered it wasn't a bad idea.

I have no doubt that they'll start squeezing again, trying to wring every last drop of money they can from comic book fans. When that happens, we'll stop giving them our money, or start complaining louder than ever.

 

[I Max95]

i happened with westerns before this
and now you'd be hard pressed to find a real western movie in todays holywood

with it getting harder and harder to make movies it will take longer but there is truth to what he's saying

 

[C117]

How about this; make up some new superheroes that haven't appeared in over 9000 comics already, and maybe the popularity will rise.

Either that, or just make two Superman live-action movies, based of the "Death of Superman"-saga. Because Doomsday is kickass.

 

[Buizel91]

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.

I personally think their are many more heroes we all loved as kids still to be in a really good movie, Green Lanturn for example along with Cyborg, Beast Boy (which would be awesome) hell, i still want to see a she Hulk!

OT: Personally i think he is wrong, simply because their are many more superheroes/Villains we have yet to see in these movies, i think the problem is they are following the comics...while it is good they are doing this as well (because it keeps fans happy), it can be hard sticking to them...in order to survive i think they to spread their wings a bit...

 

[twm1709]

I think he may be onto something here. Back when Spider-man came out in 2002, superhero movies were a no-show. But this days it's no longer something special.
I keep hearing the words "yet another superhero movie" coming out from people I know. How long before this catches up?
I hope after The Avengers at least...

 

[Cousin_IT]

Personally I reckon the genre still has life in it. But at the rate they're being churned out, the superhero genre will have their own Cleopatra [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1963_film)] sooner or later. Hopefully it wont be Marvel Studios that has to bite that bullet.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

It's not that we are bored of seeing super heros kick some ass, it's just watching them over and over again that really puts me off.

The Daredevil movie, I saw it and I loved it (still do).
The X-Men movie (the first one) saw it, loved it. However by the third one I was a little bit bored. I don't think it's super heros are dying, it's just repitition that is killing them.

 

[saintfrankie92]

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

Im going to have disagree with you on your first point. The dark knight succeeded because it was an awesome movie. Watchmen had the same tone and i don't even think that turned a profit. I have to agree that hollywood has a follow the leader style of making movies. alien invasion movies were all the rage for awhile, then brooding anti-heroes, quirky scientists etc.

 

[cerebus23]

well put some damn work into the stores and the acting, and make it a great movie and people will go see it.

phoning it in and the hollywood bullshit kills movies, or just bad script writers in general, and infighting over the scripts and rewrites and haggling that goes on. forcing characters into stories to make some more action figure tie ins and tee shirts and merchandising, and focing romance plots and etc because movies need them.

just too much follow what came before and never try to be different never take any real risks gofor the same cliches and remake the movies that worked over and over, but of course make them worse as you retread the same ground.

give us crap movies and no people will not go see them.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Vaughn is probably right on this one.

And definitely right in claiming that X-Men: The Last Stand was a pretty sloppy film, in my opinion.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Vaughn definitely has a point; for the past ten years we have been beaten to death by superhero films and in 2012 we're going to have the final chapter in Nolan's Batman saga. The superhero movie is the new western and as such it's being milked as far as it can go without rhyme or reason (well, except money of course). Marvel certainly isn't helping by thinking they can Xerox their beloved onto the big screen

 

[Jandau]

They aren't dying, they are just reaching the top of their current life cycle. They'll likely die down later in the decade, only to be rediscovered again a few decades later. Also, the "audience" he's talking about is roughly split into 3 sections: Comic book geeks, Kids and Males aged 16-30. The first only care about the source material being represented and will go see anything (case in point, the Star Trek movies), the second two groups are distracted by special effects and shiny lights, which is something superhero movies have plenty...

 

[Blueruler182]

Yes, we have been beaten to death. But now a comic book company is making the movies and showing people how to do it right. It's not going to end any time soon, it's going to go through a genesis and come out better because of it.

Super heroes aren't going anywhere any time soon. They've never been more popular.

 

[Darktau]

Anyone for anime/manga movie adaptations for English viewing? (the intelligent ones, similar to sherlock Holmes, but anime. (Death note movie re-make?))

 

[Samwise137]

Food for thought: At the end of Mallrats Kevin Smith (vicariously through Stan Lee) said "you keep buying them, we'll keep writing them." If we're still willing to pay 10$ to see Deadpool kick a pizza guy's ass, somehow I think they'll still make the movies. The question in my mind is will we continue to see A-list actors and directors or will we get another Hulk (2003)?

 

[punkrocker27]

Well, isn't he presumptious. "My movie's gonna be the last one people will wanna go see because there are just too many of 'em now!" After quitting on both the Hulk movies before like act 2 I can tell you that the problem is quality, not quantity.