By Suzane Jlelati, Staff Writer
Enough is enough. There are too many superhero movies being made and they’re not as enjoyable as they were before. My first superhero movie was “Iron Man” (2008), which was fairly exciting and checked off everything that should be in a superhero movie. By the end of this year, a total of eight superhero movies will have been released; that’s almost a superhero movie a month and they all follow the same story with the same predictable action scenes. It’s getting out of hand.
From Reddit threads, to movie critics, to even actors, people are speaking up about the surplus amount of superhero films.
“I don’t know what’s going on with superhero movies. They’re fantastic, but I think we’re reaching a point of oversaturation. So that’s why the story is so important, is that the gimmicks and all that, they can only take you so far. That’s what I want, better stories,” said Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.
Speaking of the need for better stories, “Spider-man: Homecoming” could have used a little help. The movie is titled “Homecoming” but Peter Parker barely steps foot into his homecoming; the idea of attending is barely touched upon until the end of the film, making it feel dragged on and boring. Plus, it was missing that big, iconic scene like the upside-down kiss in the original “Spiderman” series.
“Wonder Woman,” as a bright spot, was a film that couldn’t have any bad reviews. Warner Brothers turned Wonder Woman into a feminist icon which I found extremely exciting and different from the usual male superheroes which are “targeted” to attract male viewers. Young girls and women could now have a female icon to look up to who was just as strong and heroic as any other male superhero. The beginning of the movie until about half way through was played out fairly well with great action scenes and a powerful soundtrack. But the ending was sloppy and cheesy: Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pines, dies in the plane when he could have jumped out of it and the bland death scene of Aeries, played by David Thewlis, left the audience unsatisfied in my opinion.
Movie go-ers nowadays can expect to see a superhero movie being played whenever they go to the theaters and it becomes an easy movie choice when indecisive between two films to watch. Superhero movies bring in hefty amounts of money in weekend box offices with a cheap production.
“…but now that the genre is utterly dominating the industry, I’ve grown increasingly bored of them,” said movie critic, Piers Marchant, of Philadelphia Magazine, Pop Matters.
Perhaps Hollywood is going through a creative block and filling that hole with superhero movies and book adaptations, attracting brainwashed movie “lovers” of all ages to watch Hollywood’s attempt of producing thought out, original movies.
But I have a solution: If viewers are looking for creativity and something outside the cyclical stories of Hollywood remakes and adaptations, Sundance films are something to try out. Movie lovers can try out different genres such as mystery, horror or sci-fi. But, if action films are what you lean toward, try out other films such as the “Kill Bill” series, anything made by Quentin Tarantino, Chan Woo Park or Baby Driver which was the most recent action movie that was above the satisfactory pay grade. And the last resort, maybe stop watching movies all together to escape Hollywood’s tightening grip of the immortal entertainment industry.
