Ant-Man is coming out soon. We just got a new trailer for that Superman vs Batman thing, and got a new glimpse at Jared Leto as The Joker. This has gotten a lot of people excited about new superhero/comic book movies. But will there ever be a tipping point? Will we ever get sick of this?
I was thinking about this recently because I remember years ago thinking that we were about to see the last of them. This was around the time Iron Man came out.
The rest of course, is history.
Marvel started really taking over the game. Admittedly, because they were (and are) making good quality movies. But a large part of me thinks this will go down like the Western. Hollywood used to churn out Westerns like nothing else, now they’re death at the box office. Will superhero movies go down the same path?
I think it’s a case of maintaining quality. I don’t know if Ant-Man will be good, but that always felt like a step too far for me. As long as the movies are of a high quality, I expect that audiences will still go and watch.
But these things are cyclical. Perhaps we’ll all get sick of this in a few years time.
Comments
79 responses to “Off Topic: Will We Get Sick Of Superhero Movies”
I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of the genre. Action always will be a solid movie genre and superheroes provide a PG to M entry point that does well with kids and teens. However I do think there’s a bubble on the production side where they’re going to start flopping soon because they put way too much money into copying the success of Iron Man.
This is true. It’s also potentially why the DC movies might themselves be a breath of fresh air. With movies that clearly aren’t copying the Marvel slate or design, it won’t be a case of ‘been there seen that’. Suicide Squads trailer alone set up the aesthetic for something that hasn’t been done yet. BvS looks highly interesting too. Marvel looks to be extending gloriously into TV beyond the mediocre Agents of Shield with better, more adult oriented shows like Daredevil and Deadpool, well, what can I say, an R rated Superhero movie set in the Xmen universe is just all sorts of appealing to me. Calling Colossus a giant cock gobbler had me in fits of laughter lol.
gotta agree with you on the adult orientation of comic book hero entertainment. i mean dont get me wrong, i love a good laugh and Guardians of the Galaxy still gets me laughing each time i watch it, same as with Avengers, but seeing some more nitty gritty stuff is much needed in the market.
i think it will only be so long before the superhero scene dies an ugly death, it might take a few years, but i dont know if they will be able to sustain interest forever.
I don’t know if we’ve gone over the bubble yet, or its burst or whatever, but I think we’re balancing it REALLY carefully.
I heard someone say the other day 2018-2020 is the ‘bubble’. Why? Because Avengers 3 and JLA finish in that time period. What happens after that? Oh ‘phase 4’ and DC’s ‘phase 2’ more or less. Who cares? I mean where do you go after the Infinity Gauntlet Saga? Where do you go after Apokalips?
didnt you know. phase 4 of marvel includes an all new Spider Man reboot, and Phase two of DC includes an all new Batman reboot. cant wait. XD
but yeah, after infinity gauntlet, there could be the secret wars, or house of M. who knows? but lets hope they can to cater to audiences needs to provide entertaining and riveting viewing.
XD
They’re combining! SPIDERBAT!
I actually just thought this as well.
Once that 2018 – 2020 period has come and gone I see things tailing off.
Sure there might be a lot of other stories that can be told but I think that will be the saturation point.
I actually foresee quite the opposite happening. WB/DC are going to introduce a half dozen new superhero movies over the next 5 years, to a movie-going audience that are again starting to question the general amount of superhero movies in cinemas.
Marvel has dropped… 8? Yeah; 8 superhero films since 2008! Guardians of the Galaxy, while still a comic-book movie and still using similar tropes and mechanics as the others, was a little different, maybe just in the looks and setting, but that’s normally enough for summer blockbusters.
I think the Marvel producers noticed audiences starting to get superhero exhaustion, which is exactly why so much of their “Phase 3” films are not going to look like superhero films…
DOCTOR STRANGE is going to be very surreal, due to its supernatural roots. Strange is NOT a superhero either.
GOTG2 is going to be similar to the last one, but I’m expecting a cosmic shit-storm to happen, which will shift the momentum and will keep it fresh. It’s probably going to get very serious (and fatal) in the 2nd half, considering where the future films are heading.
THOR RAGNAROK is going to be a LOTR: Return of The King type film, because it deals with the end of Asgard and the decimation of Yggdrasill (the cosmic tree).
BLACK PANTHER… It’s set in Africa, but in a fictional, futuristic city named Wakanda. Could be Tommorowland, could be Blood Diamond?!
CAPTAIN MARVEL, yes will be a superhero film, but before she becomes Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers will be an officer in the human front-line defense against alien invaders. We could get Avatar, or The Last Starfighter. Either way, it will probably be a space-epic where humans are the lowest piece of the food chain until Danvers becomes Marvel.
INHUMANS… Game of Thrones in tights. That’s all I can give you, cos no idea where they’re going with it.
So Marvel are mixing the comic book stuff up. I reckon it’s WB/DC who are in trouble; they’re releasing superheroes in tights fighting classic bad guys…
For some reason I don’t think Inhumans is going to be that, it’ll play the more ‘safe’ route as a movie. The Inhumans have taken the mutants place in the MCU, so we won’t likely see anything as daring or exciting.
Black Panther will be very interesting, I hope they steep it in Wakandan culture rather than having a copout plot like ‘T’Challa visits America’ or something.
Doctor Strange, I’m hoping it turns out great. He’s the true ‘wildcard’ for the MCU, NOT Antman like people are saying. Why? Strange changes it all up. No superpowers, but occult powers. Magic. Even Scarlette Witch used telekenesis, Strange uses actual magic. That’s going to be the true test for Marvel, integrating that into the MCU and not bothering to overexplain it (unfortunately the line in Thor about their magic being just ‘the same as science’ or whatnot was a bit of a stinker).
Thor Ragnarok might be good, but so far for Thor, realistically, they’re batting 0 for 2. Thor was ok, but not bad, it just wasn’t up to scratch with the others. The Dark World was a damn turd though, let’s be honest.
Captain Marvel, no clue yet. Rumours circulate she may stay earthish bound for her first movie, which would be awful and not be out in the wider galaxy. I hope that’s not true.
I don’t know where you get the idea of ‘superheroes in tights fighting classic badguys’ from though, that’s a bit hypocritical given Daredevil had Kingpin, Spiderman is casting Norman Osborne (again…) and noone needs to see Superman in battlearmour 😛 lol Not to mention we’re going to see Loki trotted out a third time in Thor, as well as apparently the third Avengers movie apparently (Hiddlestons signed for a few more movies yet, I like Hiddleston, but by this point, Lokis a bit overplayed).
But realistically, the way Jesse Eisenberg will be playing Luthor is vastly different and more in line with the manipulative businessman of the comics, not the hokey 60s Luthor. That, and he’s only a minor villain, we’ve yet to see the actual villain of BvS who’s actually rumored to be either Doomsday, Metallo (possibly recently debunked) or possibly even Bizarro… none of which have been done on screen yet.
And Letos Joker? Well. Suicide Squads a whole movie with new villains isn’t it 😛
There is definitely a bubble burst ready to happen. They are making big budget movies about characters with less appeal or recognition to the larger audience of movie-goers. Not everyone knows Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Shazam or The Inhumans but they’re all getting their own movies.
Iron Man was virtually an unknown character to non-comic readers prior to 2007?
Most people knew Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wolverine, Wonder Woman and Captain America… http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=251791
Was he (serious question)? I thought the Avengers were well enough known, and he was a big part of that. I’m not the right person to judge though coz I was really annoyed when the first Avengers movie didn’t have Ant man and Wasp in it.
He was kinda second tier in terms of marvel heroes. Popular enough in the comics, but wasn’t a Spider-man or a Wolverine or a Hulk in terms of public recognition
I don’t think he was unknown. Certainly more recognisable than Doctor Strange to the average joe. He was one of the Avengers. You don’t need to read comic books to know who they are, you just kinda absorb that knowledge as you grow up.
He was a 2nd-tier, barely known outside of his name to general public. He also wasn’t a selling point; check out these two video game covers, the first released before the Iron Man film, the 2nd just afterwards… http://imgur.com/a/g0Nlw
There were many versions of the Ultimate Alliance box art and the original PS2 version had Iron Man on the cover.
what? the iron man cartoon was hugely successful
Which Iron Man cartoon are you speaking of? The mid-90’s one? Because that was a toy-selling show and lasted 2 seasons…
The next Iron Man cartoon that I know of occurred AFTER the success of the Iron Man film.
That got re-ran on Cheez TV (and Aggro) about a billion times.
I think we will get sick of the Genre, I already am suffering from Super Hero fatigue.
Action movies will always be around, but I think people will get tired of Super Heroes being the delivery mechanism for them.
I predict a resurgence of the Jurassic Park/Indianna Jones type movies that are closer to real world stuff. (yeah I know they are still insane fantasies…)
I think at the very least, we are no longer that excited or interested in our comic book/super heroes being brought to the big screen. It is now taken for granted and with that comes lower expectations. It is not really the movie’s fault. As you had said though, as long as they remain of a high or above average quality, we are ok with it.
Wash your mouth out, Serrels. There can never be enough Batman.
I take your statement and raise Joel Schumacher.
I’m not sure that was too much Batman/superheroes, it was too much Joel Schumacher.
All would have been forgiven if the equal rights committee ensured that Batgirl had nipples like Batman did.
Some Batman memories have been appropriately repressed.
As have some Batman mammaries.
What does this article have to do with bloodborne mark……lol
Nah, that’s why I like variety, DC and Marvel are so different, both will bring new things. If everything was the same, I reckon I will get fatigued
Yes. Definitely at the point where they’re no longer must-see, even for big names like Avengers.
I’m already over them. Avengers 2 was the tipping point for me. I still love a good superhero film, it’s just a torrent of movies at the moment!
I hope that if they do go the way of the western, that we then get our superhero Unforgiven, our superhero Django, our superhero Hateful Eight.
I didn’t really like Iron Man 3 or Avengers 2. Removing the central conceit of the arc reactor from Iron Man and having the individual pieces of his suit able to fly across the US on what looked like jets of compressed air was just too stupid for me to suspend my disbelief.
I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy though, that was what the Green Lantern movie should have been like.
So streams of compressed air were hard for you to ignore but you enjoyed a movie with a talking racoon?
Riiiiiiight.
I called ‘peak superhero’ once Avengers2 dropped. I like a good action flick but seriously, there looks to be about 50 of them planned for the next couple of years. Everything has a season and this will be the same, the movies will continue to rake in big dollars but the ‘meh’ factor will be unavoidable over time…
AoU failed to make the same box office as Avengers 1, which was a pretty big sign for Marvel apparently. We’re still talking 1.3 billion though, so thats mega money, but they’re still aware less people returned for repeated screenings. We’ll hopefully see less ‘safe’ movies, which I felt was AoU’s biggest failing.
‘Will we get sick of…”
Brother, I’ve been there for a while.
I don’t think so. To me, Westerns suffered from a lack of differentiation – after a while, it was just repeating plotlines and bland mediocrity.
Comics, on the other hand, have 80 years of rich storytelling to draw from. Sure, not every story will transition well to the big screen, but the graphic nature of comic stories makes it very easy to transition it to film. In that sense, comics are a halfway house between books and movies. There is still such an immense back catalogue for Hollywood to draw from… so no, I don’t see them abandoning comics any time soon.
I’m just happy I get to see Dr. Strange on the big screen.
Since Ironman 1, the Marvel movies have followed the exact same formula with a few twists.
Which follow the exact same narrative structure of most blockbusters before them. The vehicle/plot is the same, the setting is different.
People will always want this narrative structure, we find such tales interesting and non threatening.
I somewhat disagree, by that I mean I agree that Marvel haven’t done enough to mix up the formula but I think they have definately tried (and I expect/hope they will keep trying).
i.e. The Iron Man films have all been very much standard action, just like the main Avengers really but then you get things like Captain America (period war film), Guardians of the Galaxy (sci-fi), Thor (tries to be more sci-fi fantasy), Ant-Man (apparently much more of a heist film than standard action), etc.
Hoping they expand on that a lot more with the movies they have coming up but who knows.
The narrative structure of all the movies stays relatively the same though. It’s a very standard heroes journey for most of them, just in a different setting/genre.
Kids will always want to be super heroes, I think. At least a fair proportion of them. Even if hype dies after a crapton of reboots, future generations will continuously bring the genre back.
After the PC ‘release’ of Batman : AK, it doesn’t matter how many superhero films WB puts out, I won’t be watching any of them. But since for the most part they suck I don’t feel like I am losing.
Boycott WB. Boycott Rocksteady. Boycott Iron Galaxy.
Woooo PC masterrace! Yeah!
It’s not just about maintaining quality, but also maintaining uniqueness. If we keep getting the same Marvel and DC comic hero stories made into movies over and over again then it’s going to burn people out pretty quickly. I think there’s enough movies being made that explore the concept from different angles though to always keep it fresh. Personally I’d like to see more culturally diverse superhero movies (ie. Superheroes from other cultures, not just people from another culture styled in the Western superhero ethos) along with deconstructions of the genre.
I’ve never had any interest in typical Superman stories, so I tire of them easily. I am sick of Batman and Spider-Man being rebooted nearly constantly.
The current Marvel cinematic universe has been really well plotted out. Iron Man was a surprise success as I honestly expected it would suck. I never thougt you could get me to enjoy something like Captain America and I was wrong again. Even Thor managed to impress me. By the time Avengers came around I was on board the hype train, but thought for sure they’d gone too far when I saw a trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. Nope, wrong again, idiot.
So do I think Ant-Man will be a flop, by introducing a character that no one really seems to care about into an already jam-packed universe? Yeah, but clearly I’m the worst at this. And besides, this movie could be the worst thing since the Fantastic Four and we’ll still be hype for Civil War next year – maybe they’re intending for this to be a palate-cleanser after the stakes have constantly been raised with Winter Soldier/Age of Ultron. I mean where do we go from there? Time to scale it back a bit, yeah?
Will we tired of superhero movies? Sure, but not yet. The Marvel movies seem to be planned so even though it seems dense as hell, it’s actually carefully meted out.
I don’t have the same confidence in the current DC setup for an eventual Justice League movie. If Batman vs. Superman isn’t any good (personally I think it will be) I will probably avoid the DC movies just so avoid the superhero burnout.
I just hope once the MCU phases are completed they don’t immediately spin it into a reboot. Give it a few years for the dust to settle.
Yeah nah, if you look at successful superhero movies in the past, they were popular then(Superman/Batman), and they’re popular now. The Matrix was huge, and that was based on comic book/anime stuff. Frozen was huge… and Elsa may as well have been a mutant. People watch movies to be entertained, and superhero flicks bring that with things that you don’t normally see in your day to day life. You just have good and bad superhero movies… compare say Daredevil and Green Lantern with Days of Future Past/Avengers/CapMurica2.
Plus have you seen the Deadpool trailer? The only thing I’m sick of is waiting atm =p
We might not get sick of the movies, but I certainly might get sick of them rebooting their stories.
We’re on our 3rd run of Batman within 20 years, a 3rd reboot of Spiderman coming up, Fantastic Four Again, Superman has been done a couple of times recently too, and if Marvel/Disney ever get the rights back to Xmen and Fantastic Four I am sure they will get the reboot treatment as well to tie them into the current MCU.
At least now DC are getting consistent with their movie universe (but not tying in their tv universe!) and Marvel have gloriously mixed their film universe and tv series so we have continuity between them.
Reboots are bound to happen with actors ageing out of their roles and new writers wanting to put their own spin on things, but there’s only so many times I need to see Bruce Wayne’s parents get murdered in an alley or Peter Parker get bitten by a Spider and wasting half of a movie retelling a story I’ve seen 3 times before.
just to remind everyone, there are 4 transformer movies, each one progressively worse then its predecessor.
Whether ‘we’ get sick of them or not, there is a brand new audience being born every second that will continue to be amazed at the latest blockbuster, even tho we know they scraped the bottom of the barrel a long time ago, and are now deep in bedrock
I’d like to see a Batman movie based on Hush.
Yes
I already am. Have been for a while now.
There’s plenty of interesting/good movies outside superhero movies. It doesn’t really matter.
Yes I’m sick of it Omfg…
I haven’t seen any Avengers movies or Guardians of the Galaxy or any of the Iron Man’s. I just don’t like comics and when your only options at the cinema is comic related movies, then you can’t help but hey sick of it all. It’s not they I don’t like them or think they suck, but the fact that it’s ALL COMIC BOOK RELATED MOVIES. Please do some thing different
I have been sick of Super Hero movies for ages. The last one I saw at the cinema was The Avengers, and the last one I liked was Thor.
Not that I think they’re bad movies, because they’re not, but they’re all the same to me. Same identikit trailers, same story beats, same everything. They’re everywhere you look on the web, too.
I try not to actively diss them online though – I know a lot of people like them right now, and there are far, far worse alternatives out there. But they’ll be like the Slasher movies from the 80’s, Platformer’s of the 90’s, the WW II shooters of the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era, and the glut of brown games that preceded Gears of war. They’ll go out of fashion, then comeback, like everything else does.
I’m sick of them now. Guardians of the Galaxy and Spiderman are the two exceptions.
Superhero movies have already gone for way to long, they need to bring something else to the table
looking at what’s coming in the pipeline is a joke, they are just milking the cash cow now.
or… you know, giving people what they want?
Movies don’t make billions of dollars simply because they get released…. (hell if that were the case I’d make rubbish movies every day)
Uwe Boll’s recent failed kickstarter/indiegogos and subsequent bitching and moaning about their failures are proof that movie audiences have some standards.
*Cough* Transformers!
Have been sick of them for quite a while now. Sure, I’ll watch them when I find I can be bothered, which is rare, but I don’t see them in cinema or even in the first year or 2 since release.
Sure, but superhero movies need to evolve to stay ahead of this (which they seem to be doing). You can no longer follow the standard comic origin style story (normal guys get powers defeats bad guy) and hope for success.
Comic book movies have started to embrace other genres and will continue to do so. The Winter Solider had a bit of political thriller to it, The Dark Knight had a crime/thriller angle, Guardians had a sci-fi/comedy bent, Man Of Steel had a sci-fi edge to it as well, while Deadpool seems a sort of zany/violent action/comedy.
It’d be awesome to see this continue, imagine a horror/thriller/noir style Batman movie, or a buddy-copy Green Lantern, or time-travel Flash movie! Plenty of room left for amazing stories.
I think people were a bit shocked at when Marvel announced their plan for the next few years of how many films are actually being planned and then add DC on top of that and it is a lot of films. Add something like Star Wars on top of that with a new film each year, that’s a lot of action films in just 3 franchises.
Side note though, I love Westerns. I love Sci Fi. Westworld is one of my favourite films ever. They should make more Sci Fi Westerns 😀 reminded myself to look up the current status of the Westworld tv series in the works
It could get tiresome, but they’re a genre, love it or hate it. It’s like getting tired of westerns – even if you do, it doesn’t change much. They’re still a thing. As for super hero films, they’ll make them as long as they’re profitable and people are interested. People are still very interested.
I’m enjoying it still. I think Marvel revealing it’s long term plans for MCU films kind of shocked people a little. Even though we knew it was a thing, it was like holy shit – here’s clarification they’re going to be making a lot of films in and releasing them in a short period. But that’s also the fun part – there’s something for everyone, and they’re always of a pretty high standard. Keep ’em coming, I say.
My wife is sick of the dark and moody tone of DC and i’m starting to agree with her but we are all for the Marvel movies. It helps for me that I grew up reading all of those characters.
I thought Suicide Squad would have a lighter tone but from the trailer it doesn’t look like it unfortunately.
Exactly – lighten up, DC! You guys created Lobo back in the 80s to parody the kind of overly-grim stuff you keep shovelling out these days… oh, I’d kill for a fun Lobo movie after sitting through the BvS preview.
I can’t remember at time when superhero movies *weren’t* a thing. Sure, it’s a bit on steroids now, with a whole heap of live-action movies getting churned out no that FX and what not have caught up. There’s still a decent hit/miss ratio when it comes to quality. I can’t see it letting up any time soon.
I am sick of superhero movies 🙂
This is gonna sound weird from someone who wants to make a living in comics, but…
Dear God, I hope so. The market saturation of superheroes right now has passed well beyond ridiculous… and I do miss movies where people resolve their problems without levelling a metropolitan central business district.
This is why I think we’ll see a string of smaller-scale conflicts startwith with Ant-Man, and Civil War being more of an internal threat instead of a world-threatening catastrophe. We need it after Age of Ultron. Then we can build up to the stupidly scaled stuff again, around the time we get Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
Doesn’t matter to me. I’ve been left behind years ago. I get to the cinemas two, maybe three times a year if I’m lucky.
With at least one of these films coming out every month, all interlinking, I’ve got no hope of keeping up, even if I wanted to (which, thankfully, I don’t).
I personally got caught up on all the Marvel movies on Netflix immediately prior to seeing Age of Ultron, the first time I’d been to the cinema since, I dunno, Pacific Rim? Kind of like buying new games when I’m ready to play them instead of buying everything at launch, having no time, and winding up expanding my pile of shame every year.
The next time I go to the cinema will be for Star Wars, because, well, Star Wars. Disney are planning to give that a bit of the Marvel treatment too, with spin-off movies planned for Han Solo and Boba Fett in addition to episodes 7-9. That might test my patience, but first things first: will JJ make a decent SW movie in the first place. This December will be make or break.
Anyway, I went off topic. All I’m saying is, Disney seems to have a pretty decent thing going, at least in my opinion.
I just want more animated movies rather than live action.
Yes and in particular I am mostly tired of new Spider-man films. None will match the greatness of Spider-Man 2 (2004) yet we’ve since had a rebooted duology with another on the way.
15+ movies between now and 2020… It’s going to crash harder than the Greece debt
I’m definitely sick of them already. I used to love the X-Men films, and the Dark Knight Trilogy is one of my favourites of any genre. Not to mention enjoying Super, Iron Man, and the original two Spider-Man films. But everything else, especially lately? Ugh…
I do enjoy Batman a lot, so the upcoming DC films look great. But Marvel has completely lost me. I’m only slightly interested in Ant Man (because of the charismatic Paul Rudd), and Guardians was a breath of fresh air that made me care again, if only about that group.
I think it comes down to oversaturation. Too much Marvel. Too much same-ness. I have no real hate for it, just indifference.
I don’t think it will go the way of the Western. The Western died because the genre is creatively limited. Your limited by history, the setting, the technology, the culture etc. Comic book superheroes however are privy to a litany of interpretations. There are very few tropes that a creator has to stick by when making them which allows for a greater amount of creative freedom. This keeps the genre fresh. However, I do think people will inevitably get sick of them and will need a nice long break. When that happens though is anyone’s guess.
I think I’ve reached the tipping point. I watched both the Superman and Suicide Squad trailers and just kinda rolled my eyes.
Attempted to watch Avengers 2 but was bored shitless. In saying that I thought the first one was rubbish too.
Batman 1989 4 Lyfe
I agree with all but the last line. Batman 89 doesn’t hold up very well as is not much better than this current crop. At least though it wasn’t trying to follow a formula of form over function.
I’m sick of the current crop of superhero movies where the focus is pretty graphics and pretty actors and actresses but not the story – ie Avengers, Cap 2 & Thor 2. I havent been able to bring myself to see the new Avengers movie, as it’s another formula cliche mess with eye candy to make up for it.
Superhero movies were supposed to get us away from the terribe movies that did this, not follow them. But when someone invests that many hundreds of millions in a movie, they force a set of checklists that need to be met to get the various demographics in the door.