I am an absolute superhero film nerd. The Incredibles (2005) is one of my all-time favourite films till this day, I’ve watched every MCU film multiple times – some multiple times in the cinema, I follow countless superhero series, watched every DC animated film and all my favourite anime are Shonen superhero types.
I say that just so you know I’ve been a diehard fan of most of what we’ve seen happen in cinemas over the last 15 years. The growth of the Marvel Studios industrial complex has been a deeply exciting experience for me – until recently.
In 2019 we had just watched the epic conclusion to a beautifully orchestrated 10 years of filmmaking – Avengers: Endgame (2019). We essentially witnessed the peak being put on the pyramids of superhero films. That pyramid will always stand in the landscape of cinema - a behemoth and testament of what can happen when big money backs some nerds.
Yet, when 2020 came and wiped the release calendar clean, I didn’t miss it. In fact, I found myself relieved to have a break. For all I care they could’ve shut down the division there and then - which is strange given how much I love superhero movies, series, cartoons, anime etc.
This had me asking, are superhero/comic book films tired, old, played out now?
In short my answer is yes if they continue like their most ‘successful’ outputs, but no if they continue to expand their scope – and I do not mean by shoving another 40 heroes into one film.
They’ll make money, but are they good
Now just to make it clear, I have no delusions about how popular SH content is. They make a lot of money. Three of the top ten highest grossing films of all time are Avengers films coming to a total of over 6,3 billion USD. These types of films will continue to rake it in for the next decade. At this point they will never totally disappear from the landscape. They are now the main staple of blockbuster summers, and will be for the foreseeable future.
What I’m more concerned with is the quality of these films. Understandably, most people just don’t care too much about film critics measures of ‘quality’. That’s okay, art critics can be pretentious. The bottom line is that cinema is entertainment, but there is a way to have something appeal to the fans and the critics. The best films entertain, not in spite of but through their depth.
Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese said that marvel films aren’t cinema. In my humble opinion he was wrong, sort of. What Disney and Feige have done is an incredible feat. Putting together that many films that are separate but still work together to create a larger story of a world, is a new level of storytelling never seen before in the history of cinema.
However, his statements do also have their merit. He says the films are devoid of “revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger.” While I can definitely tell you that no one expecting to leave that cinema after Avengers: Infinity War (2018) with a done and dusted L from Thanos, Scorsese is right, many of these films lack any real depth. The characters are relatively shallow, character development is often one note and there is the constant issue of Marvel simply pitting their hero against an evil version of themselves. Right down to one of their most recent releases, WandaVision (2020), in which Wanda goes up against another witch and vision literally fights himself. The stories are quite predictable, and this isn’t limited to plot. All the MCU films typically have the same, modern, light-hearted, action packed wholesome tone about them.
The most significant tonal shifts were with Captain America: Winter Soldier (2013) and Avengers: Infinity War (2019). WandaVision gave us some weird surreal elements but tapered off at the end by moving back into very familiar territory. Showing us that Marvel is willing to experiment to a point, otherwise there is an overwhelming lack of originality.
Everything besides Marvel
On the other end we have DC newly joined by Amazon and Netflix who have also recently thrown their hats in the proverbial vat of acid.
When Fox made Deadpool (2016) and brought in 700million with an R Rating it opened the floodgates for bloody, vulgar, escapades into the world of herodom. That combined with the Legacy of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy laid the groundwork for SH content geared totally towards adults. A lot of what has come out of this has been quite refreshing.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) is a picture perfect example of the difference between the hero movies studios think we want, and the hero movies we deserve. Jos Whedon’s Justice League (2018) has made 675 million, despite the general consensus among audiences that is that it is bad. This watered down, Marvelled up version brought in the masses despite destroying an otherwise original approach. Whedon’s film felt like two hours of struggling to come to terms with cash just grabbed out of my wallet. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was four epic hours of child-like passion and enthusiastic justice to the source material. Snyder was able to achieve this through a film that looks nothing like any Marvel film.
Obviously studios are going to continue invest in superhero films, because of the guaranteed dough. The problem with this approach is investments and finance 101, which tells us that investors generally are risk averse. With that aversion comes the desire for tried and tested formulas which then leaves us as the audience at risk of every potentially interesting story being watered down and Marvelled up. What’s been nice to see is the recent increased involvement of streaming services. Across the board they seem to be just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, as a result we’ve received some new and exciting shows.
The Amazon original show The Boys (2019-) explores new ground, taking a somewhat cynical approach to the whole idea of superheroes by essentially asking, “what would happen if the Justice League was an Apple product?” Here we don’t have 7 heroes who recognise their power and responsibility. Instead, we have 7 heroes who pretend to recognise their power and responsibly handled by a mega corporation hell bent on profiting off that power. In this the ‘Heroes’ are our over-powered antagonists and the outlaws trying to take them down are our foul mothed, relatively hopeless but 100% badass protagonists. The Boys is the perfect subversion of the typical superhero team story and everything the superhero sphere needed.
The Netflix original show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021-) takes a more character driven approach to the Superhero story. The show gives us minimal action but stays engaging by cutting between the origin story of this hero group based in the 1930s and the issues they are facing in modern times. The major theme of this show addresses a moral conundrum we never see heroes grapple with in any significant way – except maybe Batman here and there. The show goes into the depths of a code that stands strictly against killing super villains. Conflict comes as it becomes clear that this code puts a lot of civilians and some of the younger, weaker heroes a-like at risk. To some extent this is the policing, incarceration and execution debate, addressed through the lens of a superhero film. Jupiter’s Legacy is far from perfect but it is an engaging watch and new approach on a neglected theme in the genre.
So, it clear that there is the potential for different stories to be created. The new danger here is that everyone starts adding blood, guts and vulgarity to SH stories to make up for subpar story telling.
What anime could teach Hollywood
One of my biggest gripes with even the new stories we are getting is that they all seem overly concerned with a very basic set of powers: the superman package, telekenetic powers, android/cyborg/techsuit, superspeed, matter manipulation and occasionally magic. There is almost no effort to do anything new on the abilities front, often they occupy an otherwise unchanged world the world they occupy. Justice League, The Boys and Jupiter’s Legacy all have a Superman package. Superhero films are all “high concept” cinema. For any other high concept film that hopes to get green lit there has to be a high degree of originality either in the concept or in the approach, for whatever reason this doesn’t apply to superhero films anymore.
Anyone who watches Anime knows that the approach to powers, power levels and abilities far surpasses anything we’ve seen in live-action SH stories.
In the anime My Hero Academia (2016-) Mirio Togata/Lemillion has the power of intangibility but it’s not like X-men where Kitty Pryde can run through walls but doesn’t fall through the floor. This young man can barely keep his clothes on when he goes intangible. He cannot see or breathe when he’s intangible because light and oxygen pass right through him. Something this series does exceptionally well is show us the trouble these heroes go through to understand their power. Lemillion learns to use this power in combination with martial arts to ensure no one can ever land punch on him. He uses the physics of displacement to help him gain momentum when he moves through objects. The bottom line is that they give their characters creative drawbacks, have them find creative solutions around it, and they find a way to show us all that without laborious and unentertaining explanations.
All this in a world where 80% of people have powers, each one unique to them specifically. They have hero school, registration, specific systems and we’re actually shown how the presence of superpowers has significantly impacted the world. The problem is that we really just don’t see much of that in Hollywood productions besides the in-world superhero paraphernalia and the odd news report talking about past incidents.
Conclusion
In 2014 fanboys went crazy when Robert Downey Jnr said “Superhero films are getting old”. Seven years later there’s no sign of the trend slowing down with at least 10 major SH films coming out in the next 12 months, not including series. With several of those being sequels RDJ was not wrong, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Best Picture Winner Cloe Zhao was brought on to direct Marvel’s Eternal’s, the MCU’s next big team film. With Zhao at the helm I have hope for the possibility of a more grounded, character driven high concept film, but that remains to be seen.
In general, there remains the potential for the west to learn from the east on the creativity of their powers and the worlds they occupy. One would hope that with all the live action anime adaptations streaming platforms have planned, studios might learn something in that regard.
If we get more SH stories that start addressing serious issues at length as a part of their core and not just because they have to (I’m looking at you Falcon and The Winter Soldier), there just might be a future for SH films that even critics could look forward to.
Ironically, I think the further way from the secret formula these superhero stories stray, the better they get – hopefully we can see more of that going forward.
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