Superhero overload

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest comic book fan. Sure, I used to watch X-Men and Spiderman cartoons in my pajamas during the now distant nineties but as far as turning the pages of actual comics, my only memories are of the occasional Beano – if I had enough change from my pocket money. Many people take the DC and Marvel canons very seriously and the zeal of fans has changed the nature of blockbusters over the past decade. The once action movie staple of the Hollywood summer schedule has very quickly been replaced by the now familiar parade of lycra-cladded superheroes. If you browse through the major film websites and magazines , you very quickly start to get a sense of déjà vu at the bombardment of comic book adaptions that dominate the features and eventually the cinema screens. Are studios scraping the barrel to find obscure characters to spin money from? Will audiences eventually become bored? And how many more flops will it take for the comic book phenomenon to implode and make filmmakers realize that maybe the market is oversaturated.

To make myself clear I have no prejudice against comic book films in themselves. It’s easy to come across as a pretentious snob who only deems that high brow art-house cinema is worthy of our attention and acclaim when having a rant against comic book films. I, like every other person on this planet, loved both Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. However, in rebooting the Batman franchise, Nolan removed any supernatural elements and silliness and in its place dolloped a heavy dose of existentialism. In a similar vein to Coppola’s serious interpretation of the pulp novel The Godfather, Batman Begins was constructed in a realistic manner as opposed to the ridiculous Joel Schumacher versions which ruined the franchise (two words: bat nipples). Such is the operatic scope of the recent Batman films, you look over the fact that Bruce Wayne dresses up as a bat to fight crime.

My problem with comic book films is that they all follow the same formula. We have our hero, who is typically shown performing an appropriate heroic act until an evil villain appears to perform some evil deeds. Our hero eventually defeats the villain but only after nearly being defeated in an epic fight. It’s simple, it’s popular, it’s boring. Look at the first two Iron Man films for example. In both films Tony Stark has to fight a villain with a bigger better version of an Iron Man suit and he only wins by sheer luck. In Ang Lee’s Hulk, Bruce Banner emerges victorious over his demented father who, guess what, is a bigger better green Hulk.

The four big films this summer are Thor, X-Men: First Class, Captain America, and The Green Lantern. Now I can’t pass judgment over Thor as I haven’t seen it but the general vibe I got off reviewers was although it was entertaining, they had seen all it before. X-Men: First Class has a disappointing trailer; it appears to be a feast of CGI wizardry against a thinly constructed political background. The Green Lantern looks truly awful and I can’t see audiences flocking to see Ryan Reynolds play a galactic policeman who wears a magic ring to fight aliens resembling Star Trek rejects.

Captain America has a more interesting premise as it’s set during WW2 but a comic equivalent of The Red Line is unlikely. Cyberpunk Nazis may be a refreshing change from armoured automatons but a hero decked in the Stars and Stripes looks a little bit ridiculous. I guarantee the script will contain some deep mumbo jumbo about the responsibility of power or something similar but it’s inevitable that Captain America will result in a manic face off between Hero and Villain.

The trend for comic book adaptions does not look like slowing at all, in fact it’s accelerating at a scary pace. But although the supply of superhero movies will continue as long as there is a demand for it, there are plenty of people in the movie business with big original ideas and I think it’s time that the major studios stop patronising their audiences and give them something new to watch. The success of Inception proves that the tried and tested formula of Superhero verses Supervillain is not the only recipe for a blockbuster.