Comments on: The Future of Superhero Movies

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:10:11 +0000

I heard Joss Whedon was working on Wonder Woman. That would be cool.

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:59:59 +0000

Have y’all seen this? What if origin stories started to take over, too?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6H7t1wXZI

By: CppThis

CppThis — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:14:50 +0000

I think we’ll see a mix of all three. The big-name franchises are starting to get tapped out so they’ll switch to lesser-known stuff or just go back to inventing action heroes like we did in the 80s. There have always been different takes on the superhero genre, but they’ve often flown under the radar (Mystery Men anyone?) and this will continue. And of course there will be a lot of standalone stuff like what Miller does, it sells well and usually doesn’t come with the baggage that more traditional superhero franchises do.

We’ll also likely see a lot of medieval/scifi/fantasy/horror crossovers. Lord of the Rings was huge and Hobbit is currently in production, and they’re remaking Red Sonia and possibly Conan the Barbarian. Those terrible Matrix sequels and Star Wars prequels did a number on sci-fi, but the market’s there for someone with vision and original ideas.

As for more female superheroes, I agree but they’ll only work if their gender is not an essential aspect of their character. Unfortunately this is unlikely as most everyone in Hollywood is either a horny guy or a batshit-crazy feminist; I suspect they’ll remain sex objects and one-dimensional womens-lib statements for the forseeable future.

By: UnSub

UnSub — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:34:31 +0000

To some extent, this shift away from ‘traditional’ comic book movies is already happening – “Sin City” and “300″ came from the (mysoginistic, at the very least) pen of Frank Miller; “American Splendour” and “Ghost World” were indy titles; “Road to Perdition” was a comic series first (even if everyone involved seemed embarrassed to say so.

“The Dark Knight” has shown you can do a serious, layered comic book movie and be successful. It won’t stop the “two chase scenes and a fight” school of superhero movie making, but it does open the door further (arguably “V for Vendetta” walked this road first; there may have been others I can’t think of right now) for more serious films.

Of course, such things are up to the director. Would anyone else other than Christopher Nolan even tried to do something like “The Dark Knight”? I doubt it.

On female superheroes: the only solid and extremely capable female superhero I’ve seen in a comic book movie was Elasti-Girl in “The Incredibles”. I can’t think of any other female superhero that appeared in a movie and wasn’t grossly inferior to the male(s).

By: lee

lee — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:59:00 +0000

“Superheroes interacting with the Real World”: you left out one interesting example: “The Incredibles,” which is obviously far from a conventional superhero movie, but one that does deal with the real world and often mundance consequences of masked guys with superpowers doing battle with evil and wreaking havoc along the way. Though it obviously belongs more in the Pixar genre/realm than the likes of Daredevil and the Incredible Hulk.

Which reminds me: the Pixar genre (yes, I would argue that it’s a genre unto itself, and no, it does not include other studio’s animated films like Madagascar) is probably worth its own round of Overthinking, especially in light of Wall-E.

By: B

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:55:19 +0000

You know what I want to know? When are we going to get another damn Podcast?

By: Gab

Gab — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:37:02 +0000

Oooh, no, I’m worried. Looking up the list of people involved in “Wonderwoman,” the only name I had heard was Joel Silver, and his track record is so bi-polar that I just have no idea what he’d do with/to this. Add to that how two of the writers have no other experience and the third helped to create the campy series (which would NEVER do for a film)and that the other producer did “Charlie’s Angels,” I’m afraid this is just going to do the exact OPPOSITE of what I think we all hope for: it’s going to kill any hopes for quality films featuring kick-ass women. It’s going to be campy and cheesy and poorly executed (because campy and cheesy CAN work sometimes) and not be taken seriously, and will just perpetuate the stereotype that women are better left as the person being rescued than the person doing the rescuing.

My soul hurts again.

By: stokes

stokes — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:14:10 +0000

Lord, it WOULD be nice to have a good superhero movie with a female lead. But the track record is so bad. Wonderwoman is apparently in production for 2009… we can keep our fingers crossed.

By: Gab

Gab — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:07:13 +0000

Well, according to IMDB, “Sony has made their payment to Marvel to renew the rights” to make “Spider-Man 4.” More official details here:

http://www.hecklerspray.com/spider-man-4-coming-to-ruin-your-2011/200814893.php

I thought the first “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” movie was a nice fluff film, but if all superhero movies took on its style, the genre would “die again” because of that- too many fluff films that look the same would cancel each other out like protons and neutrons in the atom of box office sales. For some reason, action and kind of dark films don’t do that as easily as fluff ones. Plus, since fluff is generally not a box office draw, even *if* they’re good, they still won’t do as well if they’re all sugar and no salt.

I pimped your podcast out to a friend, and, disappointed in the lack of discussion about Rachel, the only female with more than three lines, it led to us discussing a new line of superhero movies that involve FEMALE leads, ones that don’t suck so much ass like “Elektra” and “Catwoman” did. A really, really good WONDERWOMAN movie, to start, and maybe something like “Witchblade” to go darker and deeper. And then other movies with “superheros” like sorceresses or werewolves and vampires (and better stuff than the horrible adaptation of “Blood and Chocolate” or this terrible-looking “Twilight,” but good stuff like “Sabriel” or “The Last Vampire”). If nothing else, having more movies about women may give a new spin to the genre that would pique interests and/or draw a new audience into it. Being a feminist, I’d *like* to think female-empowered movies could take on their own category that would be a combination of all three; but I can see how that could just sort of go along with your conclusion and put movies starring women together with ones starring men. And I suppose working together would make it easier, eh?

Bottom Line: GIRLPOWER! WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE! EQUAL REPRESENTATION!! MORE FEMALE LEADS!