The superhero movie craze over the last 15 years

I think everyone’s noticed the massive influx of superhero movies over the last 15 years or so, especially in the last decade, and really, specifically in the last five or six.

Marvel kicked off their cinematic universe, and DC recently tried to follow suit.

What’s your take on all this? Where is it actually taking the film industry? I get that these things rake in piles of cash. But I have this nagging feeling that people are just getting... dulled by it all. Seriously. A total mindfuck.

I watched the first Avengers movie and spent the whole time laughing; honestly, it felt like watching something meant for toddlers. Don't get me wrong, Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is an excellent film series, especially the second one. I actually enjoyed that. But lately? Between Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers and Thor, then that Batman vs. Superman, the Spider-Man reboot, and now they're prepping another reboot... I don't know. It’s just grating. I'm sick of it. After seeing that first Avengers flick, I didn't intend to watch another superhero movie ever again. Okay, fine, I'll admit I went to the theater for Batman vs. Superman because a friend pressured me. Once again, like the Avengers. Ridiculous. It's like they assume we all have below-average intelligence or something. The movie just bored me.

And the absolute worst—maybe my single biggest disappointment regarding superhero movies—was that TMNT movie with Megan Fox. The whole plot was so childish. The turtles looked like anything except actual turtles; more like two-meter-tall aliens. And then there's that whole subplot about April O'Neil and her childhood working in a lab with her dad. I was just sitting there laughing. The Teletubbies seem more mature than TMNT. For me, Thor is also complete garbage, as is Captain America.

Look, I can understand the comic book fans, but personally, these movies just don't sit right with me, and it feels like Hollywood is picking up the pace. Every two months, there's a new superhero movie dropping. Then I saw they're making a sequel to TMNT hahaha. What can you even say?

Am I the only one who thinks this superhero onslaught is just pure trash?

Let’s be real, these movies are basically made for elementary school kids, though unfortunately, the trend has started bleeding into adult audiences too.
I can tolerate the darker stuff within that genre, but that doesn't automatically make a movie any good. I actually attempted to sit through your Nolan's Batman, but honestly, I gave up on the first installment after just thirty minutes...
I really hope this era passes us by soon. With our luck, the next one will probably be even worse. 🙂

Back in the eighties, you had massive horror hits like Children of the Corn, Poltergeist, or A Nightmare on Elm Street (...). That era eventually faded away too. This current trend will pass as well.

I'm a fan of what Marvel is doing. I love interconnected universes. If you think this is trash, then what do you call Transformers?
It's clear Marvel is putting in the work, and there's no need to insult comic book fans. People have preferences.

Honestly, I thought I was done with superheroes a few years back, right around Kick-Ass. I haven't watched the new Spider-Man movies or the new Superman flicks either. I just skip whatever looks like total garbage. But hey, Marvel gave me some hope again. Personally, I dig the humor in these movies, but clearly you don't, which is probably where we clash. I'm not really into Nolan's Batman films, except for the first one. The other two are just pure pretension. It only got worse with Interstellar.

People will eventually get tired of it and move on to something else anyway. Doesn't matter to me. There will always be good movies out there, and nobody is forcing you to watch all this. I know for a fact I'd never watch TMNT.

Edward Price6 said:I'm a fan of what Marvel is doing. I love interconnected universes. If you think this is trash, then what do you call Transformers?
It's clear Marvel is putting in the work, and there's no need to insult comic book fans. People have preferences.

Honestly, I thought I was done with superheroes a few years back, right around Kick-Ass. I haven't watched the new Spider-Man movies or the new Superman flicks either. I just skip whatever looks like total garbage. But hey, Marvel gave me some hope again. Personally, I dig the humor in these movies, but clearly you don't, which is probably where we clash. I'm not really into Nolan's Batman films, except for the first one. The other two are just pure pretension. It only got worse with Interstellar.

People will eventually get tired of it and move on to something else anyway. Doesn't matter to me. There will always be good movies out there, and nobody is forcing you to watch all this. I know for a fact I'd never watch TMNT.

And it's the same story for movie buffs. 😁

They really are becoming quite tiresome with this endless obsession over superheroes. Then again, I never particularly cared for those comic books myself, so...

It’s certainly not mandatory viewing. 🙄

Paul Johnson said:Back in the eighties, you had massive horror hits like Children of the Corn, Poltergeist, or A Nightmare on Elm Street (...). That era eventually faded away too. This current trend will pass as well.

Honestly, one decent Children of the Corn is lightyears ahead of this endless superhero assembly line.

OT: I haven't sat through many of these "modern" flicks, but my memory of The Avengers and Green Lantern is particularly grim. Especially The Avengers—with that whole "sexy, cool squad" vibe where half the people aren't even actual superheroes if you think about it for two seconds 😁
Plus, they've got Robert Downey Jr. in there, so that’s an automatic three stars deducted from my rating 🤣

The floodgates are open, and they aren’t going to close as long as there is money to be made. Especially when you look at the Chinese market, where these movies rake in an absolute fortune.

American culture seems totally obsessed with superheroes. It’s funny because even back in the Old World, they used to be just as fixated on them, though they usually pulled their heroes from ancient mythology or national legends.

Now we're living in an era where we have neither, so I guess we just have to dig them out of comic books instead.

Richard Brown51 said:Honestly, one decent Children of the Corn is lightyears ahead of this endless superhero assembly line.

OT: I haven't sat through many of these "modern" flicks, but my memory of The Avengers and Green Lantern is particularly grim. Especially The Avengers—with that whole "sexy, cool squad" vibe where half the people aren't even actual superheroes if you think about it for two seconds 😁
Plus, they've got Robert Downey Jr. in there, so that’s an automatic three stars deducted from my rating 🤣

Look, let's not just talk trash for the sake of it right now.

Grace Edwards said:Look, let's not just talk trash for the sake of it right now.

Nobody ever claimed that Corn was some gold standard of quality—all I'm saying is it’s still better than the absolute trash they're pumping out in today's superhero movies.😉

Honestly, I find myself exclusively drawn to superhero movies and series. There’s just something about living in an era where we can actually witness all those comic book marvels brought to life on the big screen. It’s quite something, really. 🙏

What, are the comic strips themselves not clear enough? 🤣

So, we were actually diving into this for a college seminar recently. It turns out superhero movies weren't just some random fluke—they were strategically rolled out right during the Ronald Reagan era. That’s when we saw the launch of Superman and a whole bunch of other icons.

The thing about referencing Ronald Reagan is that his presidency really kicked off the spread of neoconservatism. If you follow political theory at all, the connection is pretty easy to spot...

But basically, what does this massive wave of superhero cinema tell us from a cultural standpoint? I mean, comics have been around forever, but Hollywood didn't really get obsessed with them until much later on.

In a nutshell, it's about the rise of tactical media. They use these movies to sneak in subliminal messages that glorify the American way of life, and as globalization spreads, so does the influence. And let's be real, Jack Nicholson didn't just make bank playing the Joker; he made a fortune from those toy licensing deals with the industry! The ideology is totally baked into the commercial side of things. (You should really check out that documentary "The Commercialization of Childhood"—it covers some other wild effects caused by the same industry).

So, what do these hero movies actually signal? Well, Superman protects the American lifestyle, and Rambo (even though he didn't start in a comic book, he fits the vibe perfectly here) was all about fighting against enemies of the American state. Even though the original idea was to show the Vietnam War in a negative light, they leaned so hard into the action and skipped over the deeper themes that Rambo just became this icon of bravery... everyone thought he was such a cool, macho figure.

There was even this weird trend where whenever the Republicans held power, there was a huge surge in superhero movie production.

Of course, today’s obsession with turning everything into a superhero franchise looks a bit different. Now, it’s almost purely about the bottom line. Even so, I think there are still some bright spots in the comic world, even if most of it drives me absolutely crazy... from the endless Marvel slog to how they basically butcher DC characters until they're unrecognizable xD

wiredtiger2 said:I think everyone’s noticed the massive influx of superhero movies over the last 15 years or so, especially in the last decade, and really, specifically in the last five or six.

Marvel kicked off their cinematic universe, and DC recently tried to follow suit.

What’s your take on all this? Where is it actually taking the film industry? I get that these things rake in piles of cash. But I have this nagging feeling that people are just getting... dulled by it all. Seriously. A total mindfuck.

I watched the first Avengers movie and spent the whole time laughing; honestly, it felt like watching something meant for toddlers. Don't get me wrong, Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is an excellent film series, especially the second one. I actually enjoyed that. But lately? Between Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers and Thor, then that Batman vs. Superman, the Spider-Man reboot, and now they're prepping another reboot... I don't know. It’s just grating. I'm sick of it. After seeing that first Avengers flick, I didn't intend to watch another superhero movie ever again. Okay, fine, I'll admit I went to the theater for Batman vs. Superman because a friend pressured me. Once again, like the Avengers. Ridiculous. It's like they assume we all have below-average intelligence or something. The movie just bored me.

And the absolute worst—maybe my single biggest disappointment regarding superhero movies—was that TMNT movie with Megan Fox. The whole plot was so childish. The turtles looked like anything except actual turtles; more like two-meter-tall aliens. And then there's that whole subplot about April O'Neil and her childhood working in a lab with her dad. I was just sitting there laughing. The Teletubbies seem more mature than TMNT. For me, Thor is also complete garbage, as is Captain America.

Look, I can understand the comic book fans, but personally, these movies just don't sit right with me, and it feels like Hollywood is picking up the pace. Every two months, there's a new superhero movie dropping. Then I saw they're making a sequel to TMNT hahaha. What can you even say?

Am I the only one who thinks this superhero onslaught is just pure trash?

You're probably counting that from when the first Iron mana popped up, right? Only thing is, you might have missed that this whole trend actually started way back in the nineties... superheroes were popping up everywhere like weeds during that one decade. We had sequels for Batman, The Rocketeer, Blade, Phantom, The Mask, Steel, The shadow... they were just coming out one after another. The only real difference was that they weren't part of some massive studio "shared universe" master plan back then; they were mostly standalone deals. They didn't exactly break the box office records like they do now, though they were still decent hits—well, except for Blade, which pretty much paved the way for everything we see today... without him, we wouldn't be seeing any of this.

Spider-Man (2002) and xmen (2000) really kicked off the whole landslide

northerncobra31 said:Spider-Man (2002) and xmen (2000) really kicked off the whole landslide

Yeah, I mean, those franchises definitely did it... but Blade was really what opened the floodgates for big studio investments since it actually turned a profit. If I remember correctly, before that, the only guy making real bank—besides Batman and Superman—was The Mask. I guess you could count Dick Tracy too, but he doesn't really fit the whole superhero mold, does he?

Look, a lot of superhero movies actually kicked things off. You had the first Superman, then Tim Burton's Batman—totally dark, yet still felt like a comic book with just enough humor. Right after that, we even got the animated Batman series. But honestly, everything has just accelerated since the last decade, and the answer is simple and logical: technology and special effects. That’s it. The Avengers couldn't have happened in the '80s unless you count The Toxic Avenger as the ultimate cinematic hero ☕, but special effects are what allow these kinds of movies to be churns out every single year.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe does a good job, whether people like it or not. Their priority is profit and positive reception. And do they have both? They do. They make massive amounts of money, and critics and the audience praise them. That’s why there will definitely be several more phases to come.

These are just your standard blockbusters for the masses—every era has had its own version of this kind of thing.

What actually gets under my skin, though, is how modern filmmaking seems to operate on the assumption that a hit needs to be catered specifically to kids. It feels like there’s this constant push to keep people stuck in a perpetual state of adolescence... which, honestly, works perfectly for them. You see it all the time—grown adults in their 40s and 50s practically drooling over some mindless superhero flick.