There is one thing which irritates me more than anything else about the recent waves of Summer blockbusters.
No, it isn’t the fact that Michael Bay can spend $200,000,000 on the worst film ever created (more on Transformers 3 soon). It isn’t the fact that studios still think we need to see everything in appalling post converted 3D. And no, it isn’t the fact that Shia Labouef is still getting work in the bloody things (I mean, seriously, have you SEEN Transformers 3?!)
It’s this perception that the current trend of Superhero movies is often referred to as a fad which is about to have it’s day. As a self confessed super nerd when it comes to comic books and as someone who has academically studied, researched and written a dissertation on the political and cultural relevance of Superheroes I take offence to the idea that these films are nothing more than a passing trend for Hollywood and one which has no cultural significance.
One of the main arguments that often is brought up by the detractors of such films is that “they are all the same” and that each one just features the same story about “some bloke in spandex”. Well, to some extent these people are right. I can’t argue that many of them are reasonably similar. Both Iron Man 2 and Spiderman 2 see the leads consider hanging up the costume as they struggle with the power they have and the commitments which they have vowed to keep. The X Men films are all about trying to fit into a world which won’t accept anyone who doesn’t fit into the “normal” category.
What’s that old proverb? Something about great power having a smidgen of responsibility attached to it?
With great power comes...ummm.
However, to these people I would reply as I always do; what’s new? Aren’t most well regarded classic pieces of literature incredibly similar? Do most Bronte novels feature classic romance tales and people battling the strict Victorian class system? Don’t most Dickens novels feature dark tales of the lower classes and their struggles for survival against the dark forces of their worlds. Don’t most Shakespearean comedies feature a wedding a bit of casual cross dressing? Aren’t their supposedly only 7 stories in the whole of literature?
Please don’t get me wrong, I adore these old stories. The beautiful language and the timeless stories make these classics for a reason. Yet the idea that just because a similar story is told about a superhero and features the odd spandex clad bad guy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the same relevance.
How is Peter Parker’s struggles with coping with his often hard economic situation, the fact that he blames himself for the loss of his biggest role model or the fact that he fears that by helping others he immediately endangers those closest to him any different from these classic tales? It all sounds very Dickensian to me?
In fact we can go back any further. When you break it down Superhero tales are simply modern myths. Superman is the 20th Century Hercules is he not? A man of infinite strength, related to the Gods?
Just because something isn’t 2000 years old doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have the same amount of cultural relevance. What’s that line in Raiders of the Lost Ark? “This watch is worthless. But if I bury it i the sand and dig it up in 2000 years it becomes priceless” (or something along those lines).
Superman in his best Atlas pose; A modern day God.
Some of the other arguments recently have been caused because of the failing of Green Lantern; possibly the largest Superhero release recently which has seemingly flopped spectacularly. Some people have used this as a point to argue that the Superhero film has had it’s day and that audiences just aren’t interested anymore….
Could it not be the fact that this was just a terrible movie? I like Green Lantern as a character. It’s an interesting idea and a great sci-fi concept. But when a script is written by 5 people and the plot seemingly doesn’t know where it wants to go, the CGI looks ropey and the acting struggles to pass beyond laughable then naturally, audiences aren’t going to lap it up.
Of course, this isn’t the case for Transformers 3 or Pirates 4 (which just passed $1bn worldwide). But in these cases they are ready built franchises, not the first instalment. Transformers is for my money the worst film I have ever seen; it is loud, pointless, cringe inducing, poorly acted, badly directed, horribly scripted, offensive, sexist, homophobic and worst of all, boring. Pirates 4 is just more of what we’ve come to expect from a franchise which lost it’s way sometime after the opening credits to the second film.
Yet these are ready made franchises and have mass star power attached to draw in the crowds. Green Lantern didn’t have this luxury and was always going to be a hard sell. A good comparison though is Thor; another B tier Superhero and an “alien” at that. And Thor has done some rather good business, setting up next year’s Avenger’s film with an impressive box office and excellent critical reaction.
Tying all of this together then I have to ask, have Superhero films had their day? Are they just a fad? I believe not as they are essentially what mythical story telling has always been about- extraordinary people, immortals or Gods even blessed with a power we can never imagine and helping out us regular folk. They are the modern day incarnations of Odysseus or Hercules but wearing spandex and not togas. I don’t think they’ve had their day and they won’t for a while.
Not whilst people still want to be amazed.
It's not a fad, it's storytelling.
What do you think though? Let me know your comments below
Reece
xx
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