Will people get tired of Superhero movies?
Be ready for what's coming.
What is coming?
The answers...
There are two answers to the question: 1. Yes, of course. Just like people get tired of comedies. 2. There technically isn't a Superhero genre. Superhero/ Comic Book movies are all hybrids.
Most movies in the Superhero/ Comic Book genre are drama/sci-fi hybrids. They follow one character's trial and redemption. Well, with some cool toys thrown in for good measure (See: Iron Man, Batman.) When done right, these have the potential that any other movie has. Other Comic Book movies may be fish-out-of-water/ fantasy films (See: Thor, Man of Steel.) These films have a narrower margin for error. After all, they sort of have to be a one off. Who wants to see Thor be awkward and out of place two movies in a row? Check the box office numbers compared to the other Marvel: Phase Two movies if you're really wondering.
(Marvel Owns You)
But once in a while, the sub-genre of the movie meshes perfectly with what the main character is or does. Iron Man and Sci-fi for example. Or Captain America and political thriller. How much better did that work than Captain America and period-piece? Imagine making a Batman movie that was also a romantic comedy for the flip side of how this dynamic can work.
That brings us to the new Fantastic 4 trailer.
The Fantastic 4 reboot has been billed as a Sci-Fi/Horror movie since the project was announced in correlation with it's director. Contrast this to the Sci-Fi/Comedy hybrid that the first two films tried to pull off.
Forget everything you know about Comic Book movies and the Fantastic 4 in specific. Re-watch the above trailer with the idea that it is a Sci-Fi/Horror film. It feels like The Fly had a baby with Event Horizon. (I'll always work in Goldblum and Sam Neil references when I can. Thank you, Josh Trank.)
Very little is revealed in the trailer, so I can't say whether this will be the perfect meshing of genres that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was, and I can't even say it will be better than the Sci-Fi/Comedy Fantastic 4 films we've already (regrettably) seen. But golly, it sure looks like the Sci-fi and horror parts are going to be laid out in spades. So maybe it will fail the Superhero aspect of things, It could still be a pretty wicked horror film, or a thought provoking sci-fi. Or it could be bad enough that it becomes an unintentional comedy. But if there is even one live wire in the thing, meshing three separate genres could make it a special film.
If Hollywood catches on and starts attempting the Comic Book "genre" in this way, not only will the films not be going anywhere for a while, but we may not have even seen them at their pinnacle.
If the brain trusts at Marvel, Sony, Fox and Warner Brothers sit down and try to mold the world that each character has to reside in inside the larger universe that all the characters share, the movie universes could become as diverse and compelling as their comic book counterparts.
Except for Superman, you can't make a good Superman movie.
ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University.
Nice review. I'm on the fence about this reboot. I think movies if they get rebooted at all, it should be at least two generations after the first round of films. That's my opinion on it because I'm still picturing Jessica Alba and Chris Evans for Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan's characters. There wasn't enough space in between films for me.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that it could be a terrible film, but it looks like at least they have made decisions about their vision and went 100% for that.
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