After seeing James Gunn's phenomenal response to a couple of shots at superhero movies earlier this week, I got more than a little frustrated (since was/am an indie filmmaker with a feature film under my belt before I became a mostly full-time superhero writer). Did a little digging, threw some numbers together, got angry and wrote a piece for Home for Wayward Geeks right here...
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aedile79:
I think Hollywood does have a problem with superhero movies in that they're too formulaic. For instance I watched Man of Steel and I thought it was pretty good but I knew the last third of the movie would be an extended fight scene and the same is pretty much true for any superhero movie. I skipped watching the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy because I pretty much know what kind of movie they will be without even seeing them, and by eventually seeing clips here and there my suspicions were pretty much confirmed. It would be nice if a piece strayed from formula. I think Spider-Man might have the potential for this, the character is pretty much a fuck you to superhero stereotypes: he's too young, too skinny, annoying, poor, a helpless failure in his personal life. The "with great power comes great responsibility" maxim is ironic since Peter Parker's struggle isn't with Doctor Octopus or whoever, it's providing for his elderly Aunt since he's responsible for his uncle's death. The real climax of his story is him hanging up his costume and accepting adult responsibility. But that story (movie?) will never be told because where's the sequel? That's why comic book movies are lesser stories: there's no resolution. The kids stay in Never Never Land. Also I think the fact that the audience generally knows the story beats in advance, Bane will break Batman's back etc., so I think that makes things boring, the territory has been explored already, you're just recreating and trying to stay faithful to an audience's preconceived ideas which must be deadly dull. I guess this sounds pretty bleak, but I do think there might be some truth to my conjecture here.
