Do we have too many superhero movies?

[cardinal biggles]

So what would you suggest? They stop making superhero movies or space them out, so they become more special again? What would fill the gaps vacated by all these superhero movies? Another buddy cop film? Another spy thriller? Another romantic comedy? Another "found footage" horror movie they made for $50 and a bucket of KFC?

I mean, let's be realistic here: Hollywood is by its very nature risk-averse. When they find a good thing, they want to keep riding it until the legs fall off, and despite the increasingly higher volume of superhero movies over the past six years, the legs show no signs of beginning to fail. And it's the ginormous amounts of money made by your Avengers and Star Wars and Fast & Furious sequels that give the studios the money to be willing to back something smaller and more original and possibly riskier.

So yeah, not gonna happen.

And while the Marvel Studios approach has led to storytelling that's as much focused on three films from now as the one it's supposed to be telling, I suppose that approach is better and makes for a more consistent production than the uneven X-Men series or the utter clusterfucks that were Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Fantastic 4.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^I, for one, love that they care about continuity.

 

[Tosk]

There's so many that they are not special, they're just one in a long line.

Why do they need to be "special"? Most of these superhero movies we are getting are much better than the ones we used to have to wait years for, so we're ahead on both quality and quantity.

 

[bigdaddy]

For better or worse, I'd say WB/DC have taken quite a few risks in MoS and BvS. And, hell, Marvel took quite the risk with GotG. As did Fox with Deadpool (though not that big a big risk, considering the relatively small budget).

I haven't seen the DC movies yet as the previews made them look depressing as hell. However there have been 13-14 Marvel movies and they took a risk with one? That's it? Hopefully that risk paying off will lead to new things i the franchise down the road, but I doubt it.

 

[WebLurker]

Well, as long as people want to see them, why not make more? For some people, their favorite characters are getting onscreen for the first time.

Now, I can see an argument that specific properties have been overused. Even though Spider-Man is my favorite superhero, I'm pretty sure that he's gotten two reboots too many in the space of time (it's only been 9 years since Spider-Man 3 came out!)

 

[wildstar]

There's so many that there's not enough people to make them:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/as-demand-visual-effects-grows-888415

Go to school, learn Maya, or better yet, Nuke, and you won't be out of work for a long time.

 

[The Wormhole]

I just don't want too many more 20th Century Fox, and Zack Snyder superhero movies.

While Fantastic Four was certainly a misfire (and that's putting it mildly) Fox is otherwise doing okay with their X-Men movies. The problem isn't having someone outside of Disney doing Marvel movies, as it is when the other studios are doing the movies for no other reason than to hold on to their license, like Fox with last year's Fantastic Four, or Sony with The Amazing Spider-Man. Fox for the most part has their heads on straight with the X-Men franchise, and while there are certainly misfires there, it's nothing on the scale of the those two examples.

As for Zack Snyder, until one of his superhero movies is a financial failure, we're not seeing him go anywhere.

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm so tired of having this discussion. The Marvel movies make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. They could trot out Power Man Checks His Email 4 and it would make a profit. Marvel, Fox, and Warner Brothers don't give a flying #$@% about anything but putting out as many above average films as they can to make money.

 

[Tosk]

I'm so tired of having this discussion.

Then, I dunno...don't?

 

[Jedi_Master]

I think that this discussion could be retitled "Do we have too many sci-fi movies?" or "Do we have too many horror movies?"
Super hero films are a genre, and it is impossible to determine if a genre is played out until after the fact. For decades Western films dominated American cinema.... then one day they didn't.

 

[Greg Cox]

And as for the "no longer special" thing . . . well, that's true enough, but do we really want to go back to the days when decent superhero movies were few and far between and we had to settle for whatever scraps we got every few years or so?

I mean, sure, a good meal is much more "special" if you've been starving for years, but I'm not sure anyone pines for the good old days when they had one decent meal a year and lived on Top Ramen the rest of the time.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

I'd prefer having more, honestly. They can't (or won't anyway) exist on a TV budget, at least not at a regular base as Jessica Jones and Daredevil are showing, but one of the best things about the comics is that you could get a regular dose of them every week.

 

[Greg Cox]

That's a good point. Comic-book fans, by the very nature of the media, expect the product to keep on coming, so it makes sense that we would approach comic-book movies in the same way.

Think about it. When was the last time you heard a comics fan complain that "What? Another issue of SPIDER-MAN? They've already put out ten other issues this year! And a new issue of HULK, too? Okay, this is just too much!"

 

[Admiral2]

I think that this discussion could be retitled "Do we have too many sci-fi movies?" or "Do we have too many horror movies?"

I think the more appropriate retitling would be: "Do we have too many people whining about the number of superhero movies there are?"

Don't like them? Don't watch them. Want other types of movies? Support them by buying tickets and DVDs. Still think there aren't enough? Make your own. Everybody's got a camera in their computers and phones. Go nuts.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Why do they need to be "special"? Most of these superhero movies we are getting are much better than the ones we used to have to wait years for, so we're ahead on both quality and quantity.

That's my question, too. Will we get an answer?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think we have too many superhero movies. People are enjoying them. I think we have too few non-superhero action and scifi movies, though.

 

[hux]

I find them all pretty bland. They're just background noise now. When they inevitably start searching for more obscure superheroes in an attempt to breathe some life back into the genre, that's probably a sign they're winding down. Then comes the necessary hiatus.

Then comes the remakes.

 

[mos6507]

There's so many that there's not enough people to make them:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/as-demand-visual-effects-grows-888415

Go to school, learn Maya, or better yet, Nuke, and you won't be out of work for a long time.

Tell that to ex employees of Rhythm & Hues.

 

[Marsden]

Thank you......... This is what I am trying to articulate.

There's so many that they are not special, they're just one in a long line.

I don't understand what is special about any movie, how much they can gouge me for popcorn?

I haven't seen the DC movies yet as the previews made them look depressing as hell. However there have been 13-14 Marvel movies and they took a risk with one? That's it? Hopefully that risk paying off will lead to new things i the franchise down the road, but I doubt it.

What does taking a risk mean?

They made Iron Man, well he was pretty much a no-one before 2008, wasn't that a risk, they started a whole business to make it.
Thor? Who the hell knows who he is, outside of Adventures in Babysitting?
Captain America is too 40s to work, he won't relate to modern audiences.
Avengers, you can't have all of these different characters show up from their own movies, that's just unheard of!
Who the hell is going to see a movie staring a tree and a raccoon!
Ant-Man, who is going to see that?

Yes, no risks. And according from some posters, not real movies, either. I love that one. Sausage factory he says.

But I'd say there's too many Melissa McCarthy movies. I'd sign a petition about that.

 

[Gaith]

I don't think we have too many superhero movies. People are enjoying them. I think we have too few non-superhero action and scifi movies, though.

I'll second that. I particularly wish there were more history-based movies (as in not just the past fifty or so years), and was bummed when In the Heart of the Sea, which I really enjoyed, flopped last fall.