Eras

The movie industry is fascinating when looked at in the long view. Seeing it as part of a long timeline you see the rise and fall of genres, stars, studios, and movie fads. It’s interesting because you can measure how trends rise and fade and how tastes change. 

Look at 1999 and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT’s surprising success which then led to years and years of found footage films with varying creativity and success. As time passed though the fad got old for the mainstream audience and became relegated to the bottom shelves of people’s interest. That’s what happens. 

For over ten year theaters – and television – have been full of comic book adaptations, namely superhero movies. They have raked in big money and influenced the culture but they people are tired of them. It makes sense. Tastes change and with Marvel the movies and television being synchronous have made things overly complicated for the casual fan to just dip in and out of and DC got gloomy and messy as the studio wasn’t sure what it wanted. 

As a tried and true fan, I can’t argue with some of the criticisms. I have talked about it in several blogs before, but I get it.

Empires rise and fall. 

The thing is though that the cries for comic adaptations to end are silly. Trends change, as I said, and it doesn’t take a film degree to see it. The studios behind the comic adaptations haven’t helped themselves. Marvel has made things too complicated and convoluted, as I just mentioned, and they got caught watching the box office too often and second-guessing themselves. The trouble with adaptations of any kind is that while there’s a built-in audience to tap into, there are also a lot of people ready to grab a torch and pitchfork because you’ll never, ever accurately recreate what they already saw in their heads. Even with comics people still would cast the stories they love with the actors they dream would be perfect. Fans don’t think in terms of box office or logistics. They think in terms of their personal perfection. 

There’s no way to really fully adapt something to perfection. 

There will always have to be sacrifices but as long as you can grasp the big picture and the core themes, then you’re off to a good start. 

Witness the DARK TOWER adaptation. 

A decent enough movie but a sloppy adaptation that tried to fast-forward its way into the sequels. It cut so many corners that it didn’t feel like a proper telling of that story. It tried to be a greatest hits but the whole thing sounded out of tune. 

So it is with any adaptation. 

Fans will make or break your movie, and if they feel you aren’t capturing what they love correctly, they will turn on you. 

But it isn’t just poor adaptations and poor box office. It’s a much bigger picture than just that. 

But the tides rise and fall. 

Times change. 

Trends pass. 

A lot of people are bored with superheroes. 

We’ve seen them for over ten years. 

I get it. 

The problem though isn’t with the superheroes but in Hollywood’s refusal to tell new stories. To counter the superhero films with more compelling stories. We will see superhero movies taper out. Not quite die but they will fizzle out so that they are not the biggest projects getting made any longer.  It’s natural. 

Once upon a time westerns ruled, as did musicals, as did goofball comedies, as did historical epics, and on and on. Superheroes have had their moment but it’s clear that they don’t hold the sway they did. 

The thing is this though, they have captured the attention and imaginations because a lot of us grew up reading comics. Where classic literature was once the foundation of childhood imaginations now it was super powered heroes. Once technology reached a point where you could capture what the heroes could do then things changed forever. 

Like it or not, superhero movies encapsulate the things that make going to the movies so fun – big stories, big special effects, and big stakes. A big part of going to the movies has been about the spectacle. These movies give you that in spades. They have made movie-going fun. But just as I am not interested in going to see musicals, a lot of folks have no interest in these films. That’s fair. We all have our interests. Mine isn’t any more important than yours and once upon a time Hollywood spread its money out more so that more types of films were made at varying budgets. 

But as we saw recently, it doesn’t take superpowers and supervillains to bring people out. OPPENHEIMER and BARBIE both proved that people will come out to the movies if you give them something interesting, something fun, and something that speaks to them. That doesn’t take a superhero, it takes imagination. 

I have said it before and say it again, the problems are not with superhero movies or comic adaptations, the problem is with a lazy movie system that wants money alone. They want box office hits and then they want to replicate them over and over. That’s why you see so many remakes and sequels and that’s why people get bored. There are so many stories to tell, small and personal, big and grand, but we often get the same themes and ideas over and over. There’s a reason horror surprises people when it pulls in money but fans aren’t surprised. Horror evolves, it changes, it adapts. Even in horror though there are ruts. There were the zombie movies that flooded the marketplace, or vampire movies, or found footage, or you name it. Even at the lower budget levels you get copycats and people riding the trend. It stinks because it kills the interest in those ideas and runs them into the ground but that’s capitalism. That’s movies, baby! 

But change is good. 

Change is key.  

People get bored. 

It’s natural. 

Tides rise and fall. 

Superhero movies aren’t here forever but they won’t disappear. Nor should they have to. There’s space for all of these types of films, Hollywood just needs to dial down the budgets, make fewer films that are repetitive, and give us new ideas and voices. Make room for the next surprise hitmaker. 

There are a lot of movies out there, friend. You’ll find what you love, and if you can’t for now, there are tens of thousands of movies waiting to be discovered and re-discovered from the dawn of filmmaking and I guarantee that among those films will be some that will simply blow your mind. 

…c…