Adults should grow up and stop watching superhero movies.

[The Wormhole]

After reading over the whole article, I kind of get the impression the writer has for some reason been forced (or at least feels like he's been forced) to abandon his childhood passions and only focus on "grown up stuff." And now it's becoming cool for adults to continue to enjoy their childhood passions into adulthood which is making him feel like he's made a terrible mistake and betrayed his inner child. It's kind of tragic in a way, and this is how many bullies start out.

The guy should just sit down, watch a superhero movie and allow himself to enjoy it for the healing to begin.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Until recently it was the cultural norm that you have certain things you love as a child that you cast aside when it's time to seriously sit down and start a family. And still the norm in countries like Japan.

It's only recent that it became culturally normal to take your childhood hobby and grow it up with you. I think the video game industry played a large part in that as it figured out how to keep an older and older audience that grew up playing games.

As with any cultural shift, a conservative counterreaction is to be expected.

 

[Spider]

Several years into retirement, I'm quite enjoying Arrow, Flash, and Agents of Shield. And the Batman and Superman movies when they finally make it to Amazon. So, screw 'em, old folks don't appreciate being told what to like.

 

[Set Harth]

Until recently it was the cultural norm that you have certain things you love as a child that you cast aside when it's time to seriously sit down and start a family. And still the norm in countries like Japan.

On the other hand, in Japan comics are enjoyed by people of all ages and walks of life.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, but it's more socially shamed there than here.

 

[Set Harth]

I don't get that impression; that's what I meant.

 

[DeepSouthTrekFan]

Imagination is ageless! Keeping the mind young is part of the deal! If superheroes does it for you, go for it!

 

[publiusr]

Imagination is child-like not childish.

We have too little of it now.

 

[Trekkin]

The entire diatribe seems to be built on a false premise.

Unadjusted, the highest grossing movie of all time is still Avatar, followed by Titanic. Only three comic book movies are in the top 10, and they're basically sequels to one-another. There's also two children's fantasy movies, three non-comic sci-fi movies, a heist/action movie, and a historical romance/disaster movie.

1. Avatar $2,783,918,982
2 1997 Titanic $2,207,615,668
3 2015 Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens $2,057,528,312
4 2015 Jurassic World $1,670,328,025
5 2012 The Avengers $1,519,479,547
6 2015 Furious 7 $1,514,019,071
7 2015 The Avengers: Age of Ultron $1,404,705,868
8 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II $1,341,511,219
9 2013 Frozen $1,274,234,980
10 2013 Iron Man 3 $1,215,392,272

Honestly, sci-fi action films in general seem to be dominating, but not by a huge margin. Even without adjusting for inflation, general audiences seem to have reasonably wides tastes. We tend to reject comic-book movies as often as we embrace them (Hi, RIPD - the 10 biggest money loser of all time.)

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

So how are superhero stories any different from stories from Greek, Roman, Indian and other mythologies? Many superhero stories are really old stories being retold in a modern context. I do think consuming too much Spandex action is probably a bad thing, of course. One should leaven it with the occasional dip into works such as "Love in the Time of Cholera".

 

[OtherGene]

Christ, he sounds like my older brothers. I've always found it a bit bizarre that being obsessed with a sports team as a child and adorning a bedroom totally with memorabilia etc etc and then continuing that obsession into adulthood is somehow seen 'normal' whereas doing the same with Sci-Fi or Fantasy interests isn't.

 

[Kor]

And it's OK to paint your face and dress up in what amounts to a costume for a sports game, but not to dress up as a sci-fi character and go to Comicon or something similar.

Kor

 

[IndyMac]

*Brought to you by Scotts Lawn Care: You yell at those dang kids to stay off, and we'll do the rest!

Seriously, just look at the other nonsense this guy writes about and you'll realize he knows nothing about being an adult.

Anyway, I don't go to the movies to think, I go to be entertained.

 

[Leviathan]

The persecution continues. For many generations, as long as humankind has existed, these great peoples have been thusly oppressed. NEVERTHELESS! The Geeks are a strong people. The Geeks built the pyramids, the parthenon, and indoor plumbing. The Geeks made possible the machines with which thier oppressors complain and force them into servitude. Yet they create. From 'The Odysee' and the less commercially successful 'Odysee II' onward they have woven thier tales. They may not have thier lunch money but by the various Gods they have thier culture.

 

[OtherGene]

I must admit these days it seems less of 'a thing' for kids to be into this stuff. As I alluded to when I was a kid in the late 70s and 80s (and 90s, 00s etc etc) there was a bit of a stigma liking Star Wars, Star Trek etc but it seems to be a bit more mainstream nowadays, probably because the of business opportunities it presents.

 

[OtherGene]

Why is there no 'Edit' function? My last posts sounds like I've been alluding to things since the 1970s.

 

[Kor]

^ The "edit" function isn't available right away when you first join the BBS.

When I was in middle school in the '90s, I was kind of an oddball for liking SF (Star Wars in particular). Once, one of the "cool" kids came up to me privately and said that he, too, liked Star Wars, and that he read all of the novels. I smiled and half-jokingly asked something like "Oh cool, should I let everyone know?" and he got a panicked look on his face and said "No!"

Kor

 

[OtherGene]

^ The "edit" function isn't available right away when you first join the BBS.

When I was in middle school in the '90s, I was kind of an oddball for liking SF (Star Wars in particular). Once, one of the "cool" kids came up to me privately and said that he, too, liked Star Wars, and that he read all of the novels. I smiled and half-jokingly asked something like "Oh cool, should I let everyone know?" and he got a panicked look on his face and said "No!"

Kor

I think in some part, not to diss the past, but Sci-Fi has got cooler, better made and more relevant. I've never been a fan of Dr Who, for example, but if you look at how good the production values of that are these days it's no wonder people watch it now who, perhaps, wouldn't have watched it when the sets were all wobbly, as fondly remembered as that it.

 

[OtherGene]

"As that is"

 

[HIjol]

Wow! Another layered and interesting Thread. Just finished reading it, and I would just say that I am a Baby Boomer, and have never relinquished my Childhood. Nor would I give up my love for Superheros and like genre. In my experience as an Early Childhood teacher, and student of humanity, if we give up our childhood and reject that which shaped us as Grownups, we sacrifice an essential part of our "self". I know people that have made that sacrifice, and they are accomplished and successful...

...but they have forgotten how to laugh and be silly and remember "Clobberin' Time," and "Flame(ing) On!" and being "Faster than a Speeding Bullet" and a thousand more "building blocks" of their Adulthood...

...and, also, they do not seem to be too happy.