When will superhero movies die?

It’s all part of the making films with old ideas thing. Remakes and existing story lines are about all we get. Super hero movies are lazy and uncreative and will probably stay with us.

As long as the world goes down the shitter, there will be superhero movies. They offer the fantasy that all the world’s problems are actually simple ones, that can be solved by an all powerful violent saviour, or a group of them. Some seek these saviour in fiction, some seek them from religion, some seek them from loud mouthed politicians.
It is a sign of the times.

Probably as long as their fan’s won’t realise that they are watching the same movie for 100th time

They are all to do with neat divisions between good and evil and the glorification of violence. The more complex and frightening the real world becomes the more we require superhero movies and popcorn to see us through.

^^Makes me think of Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. There didn’t seem to be a “neat division” between good and evil characters. The primary antagonist portrayed with nuance imo. @ragingloli

The only modern one I liked was Jessica Jones with Krysten Ritter. It was a series in 2019. Very good, imo.

They will not die but, similar to Westerns, will eventually fade in popularity and be made less frequently.

Given the current success of the Deadpool & Wolverine movie ($700-million as of today), I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.

Never. People are born every day, which means new generations of kids (and adults) are ready to be exposed to superhero culture.

The real question is: What did people do in the 1800s and early 1900s before there was a superhero culture? How did they manage?

When they are no longer needed.

I did like the first Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s about as far as it goes though.

When they don’t reach a certain profit margin.

I loved such things as a kid, and still to a degree. My problem, is that there are SO many comic book heroes/characters, but we mainly see the same characters.

I really liked the Tobby McGuire Spider-Man movies. Many comic book heroes used to be victims of not so-special effects.
Spider-Man needed CGI, to really capture the concept.
But why, oh why, keep making more Spider-Man movies?

It seems like every generation, will now have their own Batman.

I’m sorry. But emo Batman, SUCKED.

So many great stories, and characters out there.

“…every generation, will now have their own Batman.”

It’s almost as if…that’s the point.

Signed Sincerely,
Sherlock Holmes
James Bond

^Yeah. There are probably a LOT of examples.

Eventually Superhero movies will fall into disfavor and not be made for awhile, except lower budget productions. All things go in cycles like that.
As a fan of superhero comic books…. I do not like modern superhero movies. They are way too formulaic.
The only superhero movies I absolutely loved are:
Batman (1966)
Superman and the Mole Men (1951)
Superman (1948)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)

It was all downhill after that from the gimmicky Richard Pryor disaster, to the modern era of formula films, complete with shaky camera action sequences. Boring!

^I loved the Christopher Reeve “Supermans.”
It was crazy, when he was paralyzed. Reality is a bitch.
Superman was paralyzed, lived a very rough life, with a loyal wife, until he died…

I thought the Christian Bale “Batman” trilogy, was AWESOME.

I liked Henry Cavill, as the Man of Steel. As a hairy “man,” I was appreciative of his hairy chest.

Most of the X-men movies, I thought, were excellent.

@MrGrimm888

I use to eat at a restaurant, 40 years ago, that Christoper would eat at with his step-mother, he may have been there when I was in the lounge, eating Hors d’oeuvres when I was with my fellow co-workers.

^I used to meat lots of “famous” people, when I was working private security for the bigger venues in the area.

It’s rare, for me to be “starstruck.” As I often have to act professional, like I deal with those people all the time.

I actually was working a door at a island resort bar, and these tall athletic white guys came in.
Being pretty tall, and athletic myself (back then) I was not at all concerned about any of them possibly being a problem.
I ID’d them, as they looked young enough to be carded.
One of the guys, had a huge ring in his finger. I read it, as a sports ring. His ID, said he was Rob Gronkowski. (I fucking HATE the Patriots.) I wrist banded, and collected money, without saying much.

He came in the next day, in the daytime. He and his athletic buddies, were shirtless in the sun, and having a good time.
Almost too good a time.
I can testify, that I saw Gronk, and his beach body homeboys, sucking shots out of each other’s belly buttons. Thet were lying on the back bar (something I did not permit,) and they were pretty much I guess, “having a gay ol time.”

Not that I have a problem, with homosexuality. I was quite pleasantly surprised at how gay he was. I let him and his fellas, break lots of rules, in their apparent attempt at getting attention.

Like I said, I have NO problems with homosexuality. But…
I don’t think someone could pay me, to suck tequila out of another man’s belly button.
Or honestly, anybody belly button.
I was floating that day, and although they were being kind of obnoxious, I felt like there likely wouldn’t be any violence, so I let them take over the back bar.

Unfortunately. A young woman decided to freak out, and cause a big scene at one of the main bars inside. It was apparent, to me, that she was likely spun (on meth,) or on some other big time street drug.
I gave the bartenders a sign, to go ahead and try to present her with her check. I used to do that, because the place used to keep IDs and credit cards, for people starting a tab. If a person needed to leave, it was easier to get them to pay, before I started the process of removing them.
We couldn’t find her cards. Not a shock. It was common for people to freak out about losing their stuff, just to fond it latter on their person.
She said she may have left her ID and card at the back bar.
So. I escorted her to the door that led to behind the back bar (employees only) so we could resolve her issue and I could throw her out.
She was never calm, and eventually was literally frothing from the corners of her mouth.
As ee couldn’t find her card, and she was positive that we had never gave it back, she flipped out. She started trying to break bottles and kick things off of shelves. I was busy trying the proven losing strategy of telling a woman to “calm down,” when she jammed her hand into one of their giant tip jars full of money.
Whilst I was trying to deal with Ms. Meth, Gronk was laying on the bar (taking up a lot of space) having guys do body shots off of him. At this point, I had grabbed the girl, and was trying not to make the scene any worse. Mr. Gronk, at that time decided to tell me in a condescending tone “can’t you do that somewhere else?”
As I was interrupting his man on man, body shot party.
Instinctively, I wanted to drag his sorry ass, off of the bar, and make them aware that nobody can be on the bars.
I gave him a look. But I had to deal with Ms. Meth, who was busy grabbing everything in reach, and breaking things.

I was about 315 lbs back then. Only an inch or so shorter than Gronk. In the NFL, tight ends, are some of the bigger guys on the field. But I compared more to a defensive tackle. DTs, don’t sweat 240 lb TEs. I sure would have loved, to put him in his place. Instead. I was being recorded by dozens of people with their phones, as I pulled the (maybe 90 lb) meth stricken young lady through the venue.
She was a “grabber,” which is a person that grabs onto everything as they are being dragged out, and she was trying to bite, so I pulled her off the ground and carried her, spitting, bitting, and screaming to the front door. If you didn’t know why a 300 lb man was being rough with a skinny little woman, I’m sure it looked TERRIBLE.

At the front door, her boyfriend appeared. Not surprisingly, that was not the first time she was acting like that or got thrown out of a public place.
Also unsurprisingly, her ID and debit card, were in her back pocket THE ENTIRE TIME.
Some police showed up, and she was trying to cling to the boards of the deck so she could stay on the front deck. So she went to jail. And just in time, because we were about to start a sponsored bikini contest. Gronk, was a surprise “celebrity judge.” So. I had to work with him a bit more.
He had put his shirt back on, and was wearing a hat and sunglasses all of a sudden.
He was, just not the type of person I would ever want to hang with. He was entitled (I think that they just lost a Super Bowl,) and crass. And the reputation he has, for being “dumb,” turned out not to be unfounded. When the local radio stations were saying he was there, we developed a massive crowd. Ms. Meth, was not the only person I removed from the venue that day. It was a cluster fuck.

I have had conversations with some really famous (in a good way) people. The paramount of all the times I dealt with famous people, was meeting Dave Chappelle.
I was heading up security at a venue he was doing 4 shows at.
Originally. We were all told, “don’t talk to Dave. Don’t even try. Don’t respond, if he talks about you during the show. Don’t bother Dave.” That was pretty depressing news, as most of the army of people making his show happen were fans. I know I was/am a huge fan. It was odd, hearing that we were not to even ever speak to him.
In his 4 shows, he was VERY engaged with members of the crowd. Something we were also told, was absolutely not to be tolerated. At one point, we had to just let people talk to him. And he talked with many people and after his first hour of each show, he sat down right at the front of the stage and just hung out with the crowd. It was like a Q n A. Nothing, like we were told to enforce.

At the end if the last show, we w were getting ready to leave, when they said “Dave would like to speak to all the security officers.”
We went up to a green room, and he was just sitting on a very comfy couch, smoking cigarettes.
I got to meet his actual private bodyguard/executive protection.
This guy, no lie, was not real.
He was every bit of 6 feet 10 inches tall, and he was not just tall, he probably weighed around 400 lbs. He was shredded too. No fat. We got shows, and clients like that, because in SC, you can’t use your own security.

Dave looked very tired, and this was the first time ANYONE had seen him after he left The Chappelle Show on Comedy Central, and alledgedly $50 million, and was out of the public eye for about 10 years.

He was not skinny anymore. He had clearly had a strength trainer, and he looked buff, which was a bot odd.
I remember he just chain smoked, and his voice was a bit strained. He looked, older, and although he was buff, he looked almost sickly.
He had talked a LOT, those two nights, and he clearly was just being charitable to us.

There were almost 50 security officers in that venue (lots if fucking doors, that couldn’t be locked because of fire code.)
My boss rook the head guys up, not everyone.
It wasn’t much more, than shaking his hand, and having a brief verbal exchange.
I think we all picked up, on how tired he looked, and we had to walk to our cars, that were all far away. So. It was a short meeting. But. I’ll never forget that moment.
And how Dave was much more approachable, than we were told. I get it. We couldn’t just all talk to him. But the venue owner, was very strict, and I guess he wanted Dave to maybe come back.
I’ve seen him multiple times, since then, mainly on Netflix specials.

I was around Darius Rucker, often. He lives in Charleston, and is essentially from here.
I used to have to be a real asshole, when I was his security. Everywhere he goes, locals pile up around him. My job, was just to let him get a drink without fuss, and have moments of peaceful small talk with people he did know.
One time he was my VIP, I had to physically remove several drunk men from the place we were at.
They just wouldn’t give us space, especially a pretty big guy who was pushing everyone onto us.

I NEVER lived being violent with people. Most of them, are just not typical drinkers, or people having a bad day. I hated thinking of all the men, who woke up sober un jail with a torn rotator cuff. It was a terrible injury to inflict, but the shoulder is a big area of weakness. I could have just punched people out, and thrown people down stairs. (Every club in Charleston, has stairs.) At times, I had to restrain people, to get them out of a venue, or away from a VIP.
That typically involved me twisting their arm behind their backs. The angle (if you could pull off the move) gave you a massive advantage. Once locked, all I have to do is lift up on the twisted arm, and “pop.”
That would nullify most people.

As the HOS (head of security,) of so many venues, I had great power.
“With great power, comes great responsibility.” (Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben.)

Honestly, the opening credits for the new Deadpool movie are the best I have seen in forever.

@ragingloli Sure. What I detest mostly is how they shoot movies now. All digital background. Everyone’s saving money and too lazy to travel outside.

And the screen was too dim in the movie theater. Digital tech in making movies SUCK BIG TIME.

The only benefit for me using digital tech in movies is its capacity to show big visual action images practical effects alone can’t do.

^That was my point, as well.
It would be impossible, to recreate many super heroes without the CGI.
I don’t mind it, as long as the effects people can actually make it seem to fit visually. There’s nothing worse, than a great movie, with an obviously poorly animated and clearly not actually in the scenes character.

I am reminded of the Star Wars prequels, when those first came out. I absolutely hated, the first one. I got physically mad at the directors, for so often subjecting me to fucking Jar Jar Binx. I’m not even going to talk about the character, but he and ALL special effects were terrible.
They were just obviously ALL CGI, and to me it ruined the movie.
They did a pretty good job, with the original movies. Especially, for the time.
I thought that whomever did the prequels, would try and make the effects in the originals as they were.
In one of those movies, Yoda has a light sabre and is spinning around flying everywhere.
In the older movies, some years after these prequels in order, the first time Luke met Yoda, he was mesmerized by a light pen.
In the prequels, he apparently went to many super futuristic places, and led armies in flying shit. And Yoda used to use a light sabre for maybe hundreds of years. It doesn’t make sense, to make changes, that don’t jive with the original movies.
It was a mistake they made, in ALL 3 of the prequels, and the CGI thing was ALL fake ass effects. Which wouldn’t matter, IF IT WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE A MOVIE.

Ewan McGregor, said he rarely even was in any scenes with the other actors. He was always in a room w

^^There’s not enough synonyms for the word hate to emphasize how I feel about the prequels. I edited 1 and 2 cutting out all the scenes that annoyed me the most hoping I would find what remains digestible. Nope. Lucas’ lack of screenwriting skills just got magnified.

He messed up his own baby due to his galactic size ego. Pretty sure he was hurt when pioneering fans like me claimed 5 was the best and credit belongs to Kasdan and Kershner?

Lucas made the brilliant decision not to direct nor write 5 and 6 only to screw said baby with writing and directing 1, 2 and 3! How tragic.

7’s first movie trailer came and my tears fell upon seeing the Falcon soaring once again. Only for my expectations to come crashing down again after seeing what Abrams had concocted. Kennedy is the worst Star Wars producer greenlighting all of that 7, 8 and 9 crap screenplays.

Well. Lucas, despite deserving great credit for the books, and the first 3 movies, wasn’t a very creative guy. Seriously.
What are the side characters in the movies? Catfish head guy. Lobster guy. Pig guy. Etc…
And ALL ish, and bipedal, and somehow about equal as far as intelligence and technology, despite I presume them all being essentially aliens from different planets.
The screenwriting was a bit odd. There are many things that don’t quite make sense.
The scene in which Luke and Co. are introduced to the Millennium Falcon, was like revealing a new favorite character.
And they fucked it up, because they didn’t bother to look up what a “parsec” meant.
But, who didn’t love that ship?
It was hugely important, in the rebels’ war with the Empire.

The technology on display, in the prequels, seemed obviously much more advanced, than the stuff in the first movies also.
I didn’t think they had to completely invalidate all of the amazing/magical things in the first movies with the prequels’ directors going CGI crazy.

My little brother liked the trash. He was saying that Yoda, was a puppet. Which US true, in the original movies. He argued that CGI made him look better. I couldn’t disagree more. I can tell, when an actor is talking to a ball, or stick that will be made into a CGI character.
Maybe it’s because I was younger when I saw the originals, but Yoda looked like a real “very old, swamp dwelling creature,” to me.
They didn’t attempt crazy scenes with characters like Yoda. He was believable when you saw just hos torso.
Jabba didn’t really move much at all.
The Rancor, actually moved around, but they did a good job keeping the scale from showing details of the monster. But. Another passing scene, that didn’t require CGI.

I agree, that CGI, has ultimately made movies and shows better, with the special effects. But, I hate it when the whole fucking movie is 95% CGI. In the case of the prequels, I believe they should have stuck with some of the same tricks, and used CGI sparingly. That would have greatly improved the prequels.

I thought some of the main characters were casted really poorly too. The kid who played the guy who would become Lord Vader, was a stiff, emotionless and the story with him falling in love, with the girl who used to babysit him was absurd. On the girl’s part, it was not typically a thing a woman would do. Fucking a guy she knew as a young child, when she was full grown? I don’t know about that.

Even if the love story part, was real, both the princess and future Vader, had absolutely ZERO on screen chemistry. First a young couple, in love, and probably fucking like rabbits, they never seemed like more than disinterested in each other.

And there was Jar Jar…
I believe that someone convinced someone that that character would bring a comic relief to the story.
Could not have been more wrong, about thar.

If I never heard of Jar Jar ever, and I heard someone taking like THAT, I would leave the area, or if I was bouncing, I would have assumed the guy was way too high on some type of drugs and thrown him out the doors.

I could barely handle the first prequel. I watched it in a theater. So I couldn’t just leave all the people I rode there with.
Every time, I was about to finally get into the beautiful scenery, or something interesting, Jar Jar would start taking. He would come out of nowhere, just to fuck things up.

The fact that a LOT of people backed the Jar Jar phenomenon, shows how out if touch they were. Obviously. It was probably the idea of some CEO, who shouldn’t even have the job. A common problem in the world. Especially in a capitalist nation.

As a result of the first prequel, I avoided the other two movies. I had nothing better to do a few years ago, sitting in a hospital bed, and TNT was playing all 6 movies. So. I watched the prequels, and mostly hated them. I haven’t even remotely entertained trying to watch any of the Disney stuff. Which a lot of people like. But I will not even give that stuff a chance.

If you consider vampires, to be comic book material, then there are a few great things, and thousands of terrible examples.

These “teen” versions of these formidable characters, SUCK.

That teen/vampire crap peaked with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Not a terrible movie, largely because it made fun of itself.

This Twilight shit. I can’t stand it. My ex-girlfriend made me watch “True Blood,” a lot.
My opinions of that series, is that it was just unapologetic girl-porn. At least we would probably have sex, after she worked up her appetite watching that dumpster fire.

The series “The Strain,” was directed by Gearmo Del Toro, and although it was about vampires they did it in a unique way. Tying the story to WWII, and the Nazis, and the becoming a vampire thing, was more like a parasitic thing. People who changed, essentially were just a human body, with another creature in their torso.
The series, I think was on FX, so it’s not R rated material. But. 25 years ago, it damn sure would have been NC-17.
I HIGHLY recommend that series. It was pretty good. And the most unique, and believable/non-magic story about vampires.

^^I appreciated The Strain. I thought about reading the book one day. Del Toro, Stephen King and maybe a few other Hollywood creatives who tackled vampire projects, I like it when they borrow from the great Bram Stoker himself. His way of building suspense which gradually leads to dread to downright horror.

That unique narrative structure that I’m guessing Stoker came up with on his own…where the main protagonists may or may not know each other at first but later on get to meet and bond, forming an alliance to seek and destroy the same great evil who had victimized them or someone they love.

Stephen King used that same structure with Salem’s Lot, Dreamcatcher and It.

I keep saying to vampyre fans that Stoker probably created the first “mission impossible” team in English literature in his Dracula novel.

Back to SW…in my re-edit I took out all the shots where that annoying cutesy-patootsie boy Anakin were speaking. Got rid of all his speaking lines. Lol

I detested Lucas’ decision to show Anakin as a kid but I probably would have bought it if the kid haven’t made a sound or spoken a single word since birth. And the first time he uttered his very first word was when Liam Neeson looked him in the eye.

Also, f@&$k all that midichlorian crap. Everything in those prequels just…blows.

And Abrams not putting old Han, Leia, Luke and Chewie in the Falcon…together again! Unforgivable. Also…inconceivable!

^I’m glad you got to see “The Strain.” I can’t talk anyone, into giving it a chance. I was hooked on the first episode. I thought it was well done.
I can see how your observations about King having maybe a common story told different ways, makes sense.

That’s like when I keep trying to convince someone about something wrong, and keep trying to come up with examples.
I love Del Toro’s twists on things.
I’m not afraid of any horror movie characters. But Del Toro has a way of making things really unusual and creepy. Especially some of his characters, who often lack eyes, or appear close enough to human, to make them extra disturbing. “Pan’s Labrynth,” (and I actually forgot to mention “HellBoy 2”) all demonstrated that Del Toro, has a much better imagination than Lucas.

While we are on the subject, why the fuck did they make another HellBoy? The other, first two were great. And not close to old enough to remake, already.

^^Simple as someone capitalizing on the same popular and potentially profitable product hence the new take on Hellboy?
Also have a feeling del Toro might have taken a pass this time.

My favorite del Toro movie is actually Blade 2. It’s a masterpiece in directing an action film. There is no doubt as a filmmaker he’s special, his choice of stories to tell unpredictable which is exciting to me.

I appreciate him for making a gothic movie “Crimson Peak.” I like gothic cinema and not enough is being made.

One thing though that I don’t enjoy anymore when watching his films is his use of high-intensity color in his cinematography. Too thick, too strong to my eye.

^Yeah. The Blade movies, in general, were maybe just at the wrong time. If they were brand new, today, they would probably have bigger ratings.

^^Blade 1 which was a terrific action-horror film directed by Norrington and written by Goyer ( a good screenwriter until he wrote a piece of crap which was Snyder’s Man of Steel ) and Blade 2 were one of the few well-executed superhero films along with Ironman 1…that probably convinced Disney to buy Marvel’s treasure trove of characters at what would turned out to be a bargain price of 4 billion bucks.

Disney saw a gigantic golden cash cow. The inevitable relentless milking of this golden cow resulting in bland tasting cheese is what I find to be truly unfortunate.

No doubt man. Iron Man 1. That was awesome. Because they made it kind of believable you know.
I still like the Marvel titles, although I have NOT been a fan, of “AntMan.” (Not Anthony Edwards.)
Fucking Thanos! I honestly thought, they wouldn’t do it that way, because it would be so horrific. “Endgame,” it was.

I thought they pulled that off, pretty well. I loved the first “Captain America.” Again. They made it believable.

Great casting too. I actually watched the origin movie for Black Widow, in the hospital again. I loved it.

I watched “Aquaman” in the hospital too. I couldn’t have had lower expectations. But. I thought I was pretty good. I was wondering how they would make him, NOT corny.
I tried watching the latest one. They brought back the orange and green….Uuugh…

DC always had mostly terrible characters. Batman, and obviously Superman, are their bread and butter.

“The Walking Dead,” is a graphic novel to TV series. I fucking LOVE TWD!

“Sin City” was great too.

I really LOVED “The Joker.”
What a movie! It’s really like a sick, and disturbing movie.
You don’t feel “good” after watching it.
“The Penguin,” looks like they are going to go dark with that too. I want to see it.

If you haven’t watched Netflix’s “Punisher” series, it was RAW. I couldn’t believe they stopped after like 2 seasons.

I have to mention “Harley Quinn.”
I thought those suicide squad movies SUCKED. But. Margo Robbie 100%, totally encapsulated that character.
I will spare you the degree of how attractive she was, to me, in that role. She was literally ALL my past girlfriends, in one person. Which also speaks as to why never married, yet…