Super Hero Movies: What's their lifespan?

[Herschel]

All teh Supers movies lately got me thinking: How many of these things can they really make before people are compleyely bored with them?

Looking at the latest Batman trilogy, the Rhas Al Ghoul/League of Shadows arc really encompassed a good deal of villainspace with Rhas, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Bane and Talia. The Joker also fit the theme with "watch the world burn" schtick. Christopher Nolan is great and they made a tremendous trilogy, but where could they go from here? There's still The Riddler, Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from the comics, but how many of them could cohesively fit in the series that people would care enough about?

The First three X-Men movies worked around the mutant/human split but while adding more support characters there was never really much more seemingly looked at as far as central villains/characters. First Class seems to have some prequel traction, but how far can they go with that before butting up against the first three?

The rest of the Marvel stuff is quickly boring me. Robert Downey Jr. is great, but his villains are already starting to lack. Is Thor going to find a way to face Loki a few more times? The Hulk's pretty much a one-trick pony and they've already re-booted it once fairly recently (Bana to Norton/Ruffalo). Spiderman 3 was god-awful and they've tried re-booting that again.

For mainstream audiences, do comic book hero movies really have much of a shelf life?

 

[Relique du Madde]

I think the key to making a good super hero movie is having an end goal in sight.

Most of the recent Marvel movies worked since they built up to the Avengers. The original X-Men worked (to a degree) since they were building to the Dark Pheonix Saga and Nolan's Batman worked since he might have been builting up to Nightfall all along.

I think what kills a Super Hero movie is when they are written poorly or and episodic Villian of the issue mentality (which I think hindered much of Iron Man II's plot).

Personally as far as Loki is concerned, they need to do a movie of Kieron Gillen"s run of Journey into Mystery. It's a story that makes you care about Loki before it socks you in the stomach during its final pages.

-Sent via a cybernetic device.

 

[Spatula]

Well, the comics have been around for 50 (Marvel) - 80 (DC) years, so I would say their shelf life is pretty long. The most comparable property in movie-land would probably be James Bond, and he's still going strong after 50 years himself.

 

[billd91]

As long as they're being well made with interesting villains and stories, people will keep coming. How many modern Batman movies have there been? More than most other movie franchises.
The bane of superhero movies is trying to pack in too many different villains. It dilutes the story and focus. It dragged the first Batman franchise down. It dragged down Spiderman 3. I would have been willing to watch another Raimi Spiderman had they followed up with a better one, with a tighter plot and better focus.

 

[Morrus]

The rest of the Marvel stuff is quickly boring me.

I think you might be in the minority there.

 

[sabrinathecat]

I think you might be in the minority there.

Minority, but not alone. I was underwhelmed by XM:FC and Thor was a mess. Worst of all, through, was Captain America: while it had the mood and flavor of the era down, it was just plain boring as hell.

A well written movie, unless both the actors and director are inept, will shine through and be good. THAT is the problem. It must be well written, or there is not point. This is a lesson that Hollywood seems to feel free to ignore whenever possible (thus all the writer strikes that seem to happen every 5-10 years).

 

[Ahnehnois]

I think, as with any other movie, staying power is largely a reflection of basic quality. The cream of the crop superhero movies (which to my way of thinking are TDK and Spider Man 2, from the last decade or so) are going to be watched for a while. There's good reason for the widespread complaining that it was too soon for a spider man reboot, and I don't think we'll be seeing Batman dueling the Joker on screen for a while.

There are many decent popcorn movies that are ultimately forgettable in the superhero vein, but that isn't really different than the glut of other action movies they have partially replaced. There are also plenty of failures that deserve to be forgotten and/or remade.

 

[Kaodi]

I am still waiting for a purely Canadian superhero movie. Wolverine is a great and beloved character, do not get me wrong, but his creators are American, and ironically the folks that did Origin include Brits and a Frenchman, but no Canadians.

One should not discount the contributions to the character (and Sabretooth) of British-Canadian John Byrne, who was apparently instrumental in keeping Wolverine in the X-Men. But it would still be nice to have a comic book movie that was based here, made here, by people here. Heck, Byrne's own Alpha Flight may even be the best source material for such a movie!

There has been talk for some years of a Captain Canada movie, I have even heard Ryan Reynold's name floated around it, but I am not sure how "another" Captain would be received in theatres up here, even if he is our own.

Given that anything with big budget and special effects seems to have a fair shot at making money, I think it may be time Marvel and DC break out some lesser known characters who could have great stories written for them, as has already been pointed out. A well done movie with a great story is not going to lose money just because it does not have a member of the A-List attached to it. If we should have learned anything with the superhero movie experience, it is that superhero movies generally fail only when they suck. Hell, I bet Defendor made money... Oh, wait a minute... Apparently that is a Canadian superhero film... Oops, . In any case, it was made on a shoestring budget and was never intended to be a blockbuster. But it had an animating idea and it ran with it.

 

[Morrus]

Minority, but not alone.

That's what minority usually means, yep.