The superhero movie craze over the last 15 years

I caught an interview where Jim Carrey was talking about how the industry just goes through these cycles. Basically, some actor lands a hit, everything becomes trendy overnight, and everyone starts obsessing over it endlessly. That’s pretty much what we're seeing right now with all these superhero movies.

Personally, I've never been that into superhero flicks, though I guess I've sat through a few of them just to stay current. To me, the whole genre feels like pure mass production—it's got this heavy vibe of "let's just churn out a movie to rake in massive profits."😁

Bawring.

Robin Hayes2 said:I caught an interview where Jim Carrey was talking about how the industry just goes through these cycles. Basically, some actor lands a hit, everything becomes trendy overnight, and everyone starts obsessing over it endlessly. That’s pretty much what we're seeing right now with all these superhero movies.

Personally, I've never been that into superhero flicks, though I guess I've sat through a few of them just to stay current. To me, the whole genre feels like pure mass production—it's got this heavy vibe of "let's just churn out a movie to rake in massive profits."😁

Bawring.

Jim Carrey is the king, though. He played The Riddler in Batman Forever. So, he's not exactly allergic to those kinds of movies. And he did The Mask, if you can even call him a superhero. Honestly, I think it’s impossible to reboot The Mask because there isn't an actor out there talented or perfect enough to step into his shoes. That role just fit him perfectly.

Let's face it, Hollywood has completely run out of ideas. I guess you could count maybe five films on one hand that actually tackle fresh themes, like Inception.

I guess the SF genre has been most consistently dragged down by romance, even if it has had some absolute disasters. The reason is pretty simple. The rise of the multi-complex has fundamentally changed the nature of filmmaking itself. Today's moviegoers are paying an extra 50% just to sit there eating popcorn, soda, ice cream, and tacos from various snack combos. At that point, a trip to the theater easily hits $80.$33I guess cinema just isn't what it was forty years ago. It's different now.

Sci-fi is probably the easiest genre to wrap your head around. Superhero flicks work in any culture because they’re just so simple to follow. You've got evil Thanos attacking the world, everyone has to team up, blah, blah, blah. It's basically just an excuse for the whole family to hit the theater and for the kids to demand extra ice cream. That’s the entire business model, I guess.

Studios simply don't give a damn about art anymore. We aren't getting that Golden Age from the 50s back—no more classic noir, no more gritty Westerns, no more unforgettable dramas or musicals. And the icons? They're gone. We won't see film divas or legends on the level of Wayne, Garbo, Monroe's, Bergman's, Taylor's, Stewart, or Brand ever again. Once the old guard—De Niro, Pacino, Hopkins, Caine, and Eastwood—finally pass on, I guess cinema is just going to hit rock bottom. Right now, the only thing making real money is SF, specifically those superhero flicks, and it looks like that's not stopping anytime soon.

It’s a fact that there’s never been more absolute garbage on the market than what we’re seeing today, yet profits have never been higher. I guess the era of the historical epic and the heavy drama is behind us now, and maybe they're just headed for the same fate as the Western.

Looking further down the road, I guess the very concept of what a movie actually is might start to change. These kinds of action-heavy spectacles could eventually turn into interactive experiences where the audience gets to participate in the story, or maybe even see VR headsets becoming a standard part of the theater experience. It feels like things might move closer to the world of video games and drift a bit further away from traditional filmmaking.

Just finished watching Spider-Man: Homecoming. Pretty solid flick.

Marvel Studios dumped over $2 billion into their Cinematic Universe, and they’ve pulled in nearly $13 billion. That kind of $11 billion profit over the last nine years... well, it says a lot.

What we saw:



What comes next:

You can't just lump SH movies into the sci-fi category—nor is sci-fi necessarily the "easiest" genre to grasp.

Lisa Patel4 said:Let's face it, Hollywood has completely run out of ideas. I guess you could count maybe five films on one hand that actually tackle fresh themes, like Inception.

I guess the SF genre has been most consistently dragged down by romance, even if it has had some absolute disasters. The reason is pretty simple. The rise of the multi-complex has fundamentally changed the nature of filmmaking itself. Today's moviegoers are paying an extra 50% just to sit there eating popcorn, soda, ice cream, and tacos from various snack combos. At that point, a trip to the theater easily hits $80.$33I guess cinema just isn't what it was forty years ago. It's different now.

Sci-fi is probably the easiest genre to wrap your head around. Superhero flicks work in any culture because they’re just so simple to follow. You've got evil Thanos attacking the world, everyone has to team up, blah, blah, blah. It's basically just an excuse for the whole family to hit the theater and for the kids to demand extra ice cream. That’s the entire business model, I guess.

Studios simply don't give a damn about art anymore. We aren't getting that Golden Age from the 50s back—no more classic noir, no more gritty Westerns, no more unforgettable dramas or musicals. And the icons? They're gone. We won't see film divas or legends on the level of Wayne, Garbo, Monroe's, Bergman's, Taylor's, Stewart, or Brand ever again. Once the old guard—De Niro, Pacino, Hopkins, Caine, and Eastwood—finally pass on, I guess cinema is just going to hit rock bottom. Right now, the only thing making real money is SF, specifically those superhero flicks, and it looks like that's not stopping anytime soon.

It’s a fact that there’s never been more absolute garbage on the market than what we’re seeing today, yet profits have never been higher. I guess the era of the historical epic and the heavy drama is behind us now, and maybe they're just headed for the same fate as the Western.

True, sci-fi is way too broad a term.

I’m talking about superhero movies. That's probably the easiest way to get my point across.

Honestly, when it comes to the whole superhero craze, all I can say is that Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is the only thing worth watching. Everything else just feels like cheap popcorn flicks made for kids...

😁

dustycanyon5 said:Honestly, when it comes to the whole superhero craze, all I can say is that Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is the only thing worth watching. Everything else just feels like cheap popcorn flicks made for kids...

Look, Nolan's movies are definitely overrated, even if they are good.
Thankfully, all those attempts to copy his style with that forced "dark and edgy" nonsense didn't really take off.

Superhero movies should be colorful and fun. They shouldn't constantly try too hard to make every single hero act like Batman. There's only one Batman.

I don't know, I just can't get into these Marvel Studios superhero flicks. All that stuff with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Iron Man, and the rest of the crew.

I honestly don't get why everyone gets so worked up over these superhero movies, especially the recent ones. They churn out three or four of them a year, and if you aren't interested, you just don't go. Based on some of the box office numbers, you'd think there’s a new SH flick hitting theaters every single week.

Personally, I'm fine with it. I watch probably around 300 films a year spanning every genre imaginable, so it doesn't bother me one bit if ten of those happen to be big-budget superhero spectacles.
Take musicals, for instance—I can't stand them, so I don't watch them. Should I feel obligated to trash La La Land just because critics were raving about it when I actually find the whole genre unbearable? No, I haven't seen it, and that's that. As far as I'm concerned, they could make fifty of those a year and it wouldn't affect me.
I actually enjoy superhero movies; they usually have a decent narrative, there's a sense of continuity, the characters are generally well-developed, the visuals are stunning, the acting is top-tier, and the soundtracks are often great... It works for me. If I had to choose, I'd rather sit through a solid thriller, but every once in a while, I'll pick a SH movie.

Jessica Gonzalez said:Looking further down the road, I guess the very concept of what a movie actually is might start to change. These kinds of action-heavy spectacles could eventually turn into interactive experiences where the audience gets to participate in the story, or maybe even see VR headsets becoming a standard part of the theater experience. It feels like things might move closer to the world of video games and drift a bit further away from traditional filmmaking.

It won't happen; just like 3D faded away, VR will likely follow suit. It's fun to experiment with new tech, but a movie will always be a movie, and it'll stick around for a long time. Sure, theaters might host all sorts of experimental stuff, but nothing is going to replace the simple pleasure of sitting on your couch and turning on a regular 2D film without any bells and whistles.
Even if we eventually reach a level of technology like the holodecks in Star Trek, film as a medium will still remain the gold standard of entertainment.
It's like books. Movies didn't ruin reading, and new technology isn't going to ruin movies either.

Totally agree—I honestly don't get why everyone is making such a huge deal out of it. Aside from the newer stuff, I’ve got a massive backlog of classics I haven't even touched yet... I could boycott every single new release for two years straight and still not catch up.

If superheroes aren't his thing, hey, whatever—he should just stick to what he actually likes. It's not like anyone's life is ruined because of those four or five movies that come out every year.

Superhero movies have become this massive cultural phenomenon, haven't they? We haven't seen this kind of genre hysteria since the days of the old-school Westerns.

True classics are being made, sure, but even this will eventually fade once the current Marvel's lineup—guys like Downey and Evans—moves on. I honestly suspect their run might wrap up around 2020.

After that, we'll probably see fewer films like these, though the ones that do come out will likely be much more serious and grounded, something along the lines of The Dark Knight...

wiredtiger2 said:Just finished watching Spider-Man: Homecoming. Pretty solid flick.

Marvel Studios dumped over $2 billion into their Cinematic Universe, and they’ve pulled in nearly $13 billion. That kind of $11 billion profit over the last nine years... well, it says a lot.

What we saw:



What comes next:

I've only checked out the first four from this list 😁...thinking about declaring this summer of superheroes and sticking to those along with the rest 🤣

Look, nobody's forcing anyone to watch anything, but honestly, even just the trailers, photos, and ads popping up everywhere are incredibly annoying. It feels like they're trying to force-feed them into your brain, which isn't far from the truth.

I'm running out of ideas here; it feels like everything is just a rehash of stuff we've already seen.

So, I caught TV The Perfect Murder the other day—it’s a pretty solid thriller with Michael Douglas from back in '98. Once it wrapped up, I had this nagging feeling that I’d seen this exact setup before in a different format. And then it hit me: it's basically the same vibe as Dial M for Murder...

That's really how it goes, I guess. It's even more obvious with those superhero movies. It feels like they're just recycling stories that have already been told.

I haven't really immersed myself in the whole superhero craze lately, though I see they've finally given some diversity a spotlight 😁
I'm predicting a total flop for him.

Looking at this epic Marvel release schedule through 2020 just makes me feel completely overwhelmed...🤦

Laura Palmer25 said:I've only checked out the first four from this list 😁...thinking about declaring this summer of superheroes and sticking to those along with the rest 🤣

Look, nobody's forcing anyone to watch anything, but honestly, even just the trailers, photos, and ads popping up everywhere are incredibly annoying. It feels like they're trying to force-feed them into your brain, which isn't far from the truth.

Correction... there are actually five...The Avengers themselves, and I honestly forgot I'd even seen them. They’re absolute classics, even within their own genre.☕