AO Scott's argument that superhero movies have peaked, and will soon begin to fall from grace. But reading his article actually convinced me of quite the opposite: There's a lot of life left in the genre. Scott's basic insight is that superhero movies have "rules, and they are the conventions that no movie of this kind can escape. The climax must be a fight with the villain, during which the symbiosis of good guy and bad guy, implicit throughout, must be articulated. The end must point forward to a sequel, and an aura of moral consequence must be sustained even as the killings, explosions and chases multiply." My sense, however, is that that won't be true for very long.On a very basic level, modern hero stories explore a simple question: What would happen if human beings could do X? X, in this context, can mean anything from fly to shapeshift to lift trains to build mutation enhancers. In a way, it's simply an extension of the basic question of movies: What would happen if human beings were smarter and prettier and had better dialogue than they actually do? Well, one of the things that happens is that more people want to watch them go about their days. And that's turning out to be even truer when it comes to people who are smarter and prettier and have better dialogue and can fly. What we're finding from the superhero movies is that the action sequences are actually the least interesting. The fights in Batman were significantly less riveting than simply watching a sociopath like the Joker conduct his business. The climactic battle in Iron Man wasn't half as gripping as watching Tony Stark fly for the first time. The hospital scene in Hancock was basically an afterthought, and nowhere near as interesting as the scenes where Hancock awoke, drunk and lonesome, on a park bench. The epic clashes, in other words, have been far worse than the mundane scenes that preceded them.If the last few decades of superhero films were like the early decades of comics, where good fought evil, and the last few years of superhero films were like more recent comics, where good fought evil but it wasn't always clear which was which, then my hunch is that the next wave will begin to focus on what comics are moving towards: Not the superheroes, per se, but the world around them. How do you understand a world in which there's a Superman? What does it mean if the person you're dating turns out to be genetically superior to you? What superheroes allow you to do is personalize questions of power: We live in a world of massive countries with incredible militaries, where sociopaths can conceivably detonate cities and the rich inhabit lives so different from the poor that they may as well be genetically separate. It's a hard world to face up to, frankly. And so, sometimes it's easier to give it a supernatural gloss, to pretend it couldn't happen here, even as it allows us to explore what is happening here. Which is why the fight scenes haven't really been working: Life isn't very climactic, and so climactic battles aren't very relatable. But what comes before has been gripping entertainment, even art. And I expect well see more of it.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Randy, Son of Robert. THE FUTURE OF SUPERHERO MOVIES.
AO Scott's argument that superhero movies have peaked, and will soon begin to fall from grace. But reading his article actually convinced me of quite the opposite: There's a lot of life left in the genre. Scott's basic insight is that superhero movies have "rules, and they are the conventions that no movie of this kind can escape. The climax must be a fight with the villain, during which the symbiosis of good guy and bad guy, implicit throughout, must be articulated. The end must point forward to a sequel, and an aura of moral consequence must be sustained even as the killings, explosions and chases multiply." My sense, however, is that that won't be true for very long.On a very basic level, modern hero stories explore a simple question: What would happen if human beings could do X? X, in this context, can mean anything from fly to shapeshift to lift trains to build mutation enhancers. In a way, it's simply an extension of the basic question of movies: What would happen if human beings were smarter and prettier and had better dialogue than they actually do? Well, one of the things that happens is that more people want to watch them go about their days. And that's turning out to be even truer when it comes to people who are smarter and prettier and have better dialogue and can fly. What we're finding from the superhero movies is that the action sequences are actually the least interesting. The fights in Batman were significantly less riveting than simply watching a sociopath like the Joker conduct his business. The climactic battle in Iron Man wasn't half as gripping as watching Tony Stark fly for the first time. The hospital scene in Hancock was basically an afterthought, and nowhere near as interesting as the scenes where Hancock awoke, drunk and lonesome, on a park bench. The epic clashes, in other words, have been far worse than the mundane scenes that preceded them.If the last few decades of superhero films were like the early decades of comics, where good fought evil, and the last few years of superhero films were like more recent comics, where good fought evil but it wasn't always clear which was which, then my hunch is that the next wave will begin to focus on what comics are moving towards: Not the superheroes, per se, but the world around them. How do you understand a world in which there's a Superman? What does it mean if the person you're dating turns out to be genetically superior to you? What superheroes allow you to do is personalize questions of power: We live in a world of massive countries with incredible militaries, where sociopaths can conceivably detonate cities and the rich inhabit lives so different from the poor that they may as well be genetically separate. It's a hard world to face up to, frankly. And so, sometimes it's easier to give it a supernatural gloss, to pretend it couldn't happen here, even as it allows us to explore what is happening here. Which is why the fight scenes haven't really been working: Life isn't very climactic, and so climactic battles aren't very relatable. But what comes before has been gripping entertainment, even art. And I expect well see more of it.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Randy, Son of Robert. 
