shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 29, 2023 19:39:33 GMT -5
I'm not sure that super-hero fatigue is due to viewers being tired of super-heroes. It's just that as a genre, such movies were pretty good for a while (thus generating a trend) and have been pretty sucky for the last few years. Paying good money to see a super-hero film is no longer a sure bet (far from it!) and so it sounds more prudent to wait and see. At the same time, DC has been producing films that would have turned heads three years ago and are falling on deaf ears now. Critics genuinely seemed to like Flash and Blue Beetle, but no one was interested. |
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Post by zaku on Dec 30, 2023 2:23:33 GMT -5
I'm not sure that super-hero fatigue is due to viewers being tired of super-heroes. It's just that as a genre, such movies were pretty good for a while (thus generating a trend) and have been pretty sucky for the last few years. Paying good money to see a super-hero film is no longer a sure bet (far from it!) and so it sounds more prudent to wait and see. At the same time, DC has been producing films that would have turned heads three years ago and are falling on deaf ears now. Critics genuinely seemed to like Flash and Blue Beetle, but no one was interested. I'm sure that 10 years ago Blue Beetle would have done good numbers at the box office. I think at this point people are just tired of superhero origin movies. Even the last Batman skipped that part. |
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Post by zaku on Dec 30, 2023 2:42:50 GMT -5
I'm starting to realize that superhero movies are more limited than Westerns.
In the first genre, the protagonist will always have to solve a problem by applying a certain amount of violence. There is always a confrontation with a hostile antagonist.
But in westerns, you can tell about a massacre that lasts the whole movie or just an old man sitting on the porch on his farm thinking longingly about his youth.
Perhaps superhero films, forced into this formula, simply no longer have anything new to say after 24 years (if we want to consider Blade as the progenitor of the current cycle)?
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 30, 2023 2:53:01 GMT -5
Perhaps superhero films, forced into this formula, simply no longer have anything new to say after 24 years (if we want to consider Blade as the progenitor of the current cycle)? I think it's more that fans don't want superhero films to say anything else. Every time a superhero film dared to stray too far from Marvel's base formula (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Eternals, etc) it got critically blasted into oblivion. If it isn't a fun, wise-cracking redemption story, fans reject it emphatically and mercilessly. Don't get me wrong, by the way. I hated Iron Man 3, but not for the same reasons everyone else did. |
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Post by zaku on Dec 30, 2023 3:00:28 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, by the way. I hated Iron Man 3, but not for the same reasons everyone else did. Uh? Iron Man 3 did well, both with critics and audiences.  Maybe you're referring to Iron Man 2? |
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Post by zaku on Dec 30, 2023 3:01:55 GMT -5
Perhaps superhero films, forced into this formula, simply no longer have anything new to say after 24 years (if we want to consider Blade as the progenitor of the current cycle)? I think it's more that fans don't want superhero films to say anything else. Every time a superhero film dared to stray too far from Marvel's base formula (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Eternals, etc) it got critically blasted into oblivion. If it isn't a fun, wise-cracking redemption story, fans reject it emphatically and mercilessly. Yep. The only DCEU films that fared a little better were the ones that followed the Marvel formula (Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman...) |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 30, 2023 3:04:11 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, by the way. I hated Iron Man 3, but not for the same reasons everyone else did. Uh? Iron Man 3 did well, both with critics and audiences. Maybe you're referring to Iron Man 2? Not at the time it didn't. There's a reason the franchise ended where it did, even while Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark was the most beloved character of the entire MCU. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 2, 2024 17:13:13 GMT -5
I started to get superhero movie fatigue in about 2008, around the time of the first Iron Man movie. Most of these films are just dumb action movies, aimed at the lowest common denominator cinema audience, with terrible scripts and all the emotional and intellectual depth of a washing detergent advert.
God knows I love superhero comic books, but most superhero comic movies from the past 20 years suck (with a handful of exceptions, naturally).
EDIT: It occurs to me that my above post might sound a bit insulting to fans of these superhero films, which was not my intention at all. I have no negative attitude towards people who like modern superhero films -- hell, my wife loves them! -- but they just aren't for me.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 4, 2024 14:13:52 GMT -5
Superhero films today actually have to be dumb and simplistic because we live in an age where (thanks largely to social media) actually trying to say something inevitably comes with backlash. If you make a statement (no matter what statement) someone out there is going to take issue with it and rally their friends to agree.
So we tell the same story over and over and over and over again because it's the safe thing to do.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 4, 2024 19:50:57 GMT -5
Superhero films today actually have to be dumb and simplistic because we live in an age where (thanks largely to social media) actually trying to say something inevitably comes with backlash. If you make a statement (no matter what statement) someone out there is going to take issue with it and rally their friends to agree. So we tell the same story over and over and over and over again because it's the safe thing to do. People are protesting that Thanos was right ? |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 4, 2024 21:19:52 GMT -5
Superhero films today actually have to be dumb and simplistic because we live in an age where (thanks largely to social media) actually trying to say something inevitably comes with backlash. If you make a statement (no matter what statement) someone out there is going to take issue with it and rally their friends to agree. So we tell the same story over and over and over and over again because it's the safe thing to do. People are protesting that Thanos was right ? Probably not because his plan made no damn sense. If you have the Infinity Gauntlet, just wish enough resources into existence. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 4, 2024 22:32:59 GMT -5
People are protesting that Thanos was right ? Probably not because his plan made no damn sense. If you have the Infinity Gauntlet, just wish enough resources into existence. You just blew my mind… |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 4, 2024 23:28:12 GMT -5
People are protesting that Thanos was right ? Probably not because his plan made no damn sense. If you have the Infinity Gauntlet, just wish enough resources into existence. That's it! |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 4, 2024 23:33:25 GMT -5
Superhero films today actually have to be dumb and simplistic because we live in an age where (thanks largely to social media) actually trying to say something inevitably comes with backlash. If you make a statement (no matter what statement) someone out there is going to take issue with it and rally their friends to agree. So we tell the same story over and over and over and over again because it's the safe thing to do. If true -- and I'm not entirely convinced that you're right about this -- that seems rather cowardly. And art should never be cowardly. So if you are right, that's just another reason to despise modern superhero films. |
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Post by driver1980 on Jan 5, 2024 6:04:34 GMT -5
I blame social media. Sometimes.
People like Stanley Kubrick were probably divisive, and there’s a lot I’ve read about his directing style that gives me great sympathy for the people he worked with. I am *not* endorsing his directorial style at all, but as a name I’ve chosen at random, I can’t imagine he would have played it safe. As Confessor said, art should never be cowardly.
It’s one reason I hate the idea of test screenings. I’m not saying there’s never been anything positive to come out of a test screening, but I just wish someone would make their art, whether it be a film or album, and let it stand on its own merits (or lack of).
I know commercial realities and artistic freedom don’t always go hand in hand. I get that. But there are times I wish a studio or publisher could say, “We’re putting out the art we wish to put out, even if it makes us less money, but we still hope it’ll be profitable in theory.”
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