What's Next For Superhero Movies?

New submitter Faizdog writes "The Atlantic has a very interesting article on what's next for superhero movies after The Dark Knight Rises leaves theaters. DC in particular doesn't seem to have a good pipeline of readily available heroes to create movies around. The article discusses the challenges surrounding the upcoming Man of Steel movie, as well as how the circumstances around the successful Spiderman reboot may not necessarily translate to a Batman reboot. The author also mentions the necessity and viability of the comic book print medium continuing on in light of the film successes, especially in terms of revenue (the Avengers movie alone made more profit for Marvel than all comic book sales for the last two years). The article concludes with an interesting suggestion that television may be the ideal medium for comic book adaptations, as it may permit a richer and more complex story telling experience than a two-hour movie."

Comments

write a new story?

[notgm]

or has that been done before?

Re:write a new story?

[cayenne8]

Why don't they just keep doing more Batman movies in the same vein as the current one?

It seems well done....characters good, etc. Even if the same director wants to quit, couldn't someone else take over the reigns, but keep the same basic 'flavor' of the current movies.

I don't like this having to 'reboot' every fucking 3-4 movies. I could understand it for the Star Trek movie....and it was done well. I've not seen the new Spiderman yet, but I'm confused for the need to do the 'origin' all over again....and start over. Sure I know new actors, but you don't start the story all over again, just because you have new actors.

Hell, if they did that...James Bond movies would have been only an endless chain of origin movies....I think the audience can handle different actors playing the characters, but we don't need everything around the character to keep changing every 2-3 movies....leave the basic background story going forward and just change cast.

Re:write a new story?

[BillCable]

You really have to admire Marvel for how well they've handled their movie franchises the past decade, especially the Avengers arc. It's hard not to be in awe of what transpired to bring The Avengers to fruition. They made smart choices which eventually paid off handsomely. DC, outside the Nolan films, has botched everything. Warner Bros. just doesn't trust creative people to handle the material.

Re:write a new story?

[kamapuaa]

The vast majority of movies that are created aren't based on pre-existing content. However, the movies people actually care about and go watch generally are. For instance, if you look at Slashdot's "Movie" tags, it's entirely comic books and Star Trek and Star Wars. Not much on "The Queen Of Versailles" or "The Imposter" although these are both supposed to be excellent movies.

Nothing wrong with that, but it's bizarre to complain that you want to see original content, and then not go see the original content that is easily available.

No mention of TV?

[JDG1980]

Interesting that the article suggests movies possibly superseding the original comics, but doesn't even mention TV series based around these characters, despite the popular and critical success of many such series. Batman: The Animated Series almost single-handedly pulled animation out of its 1980s kiddie ghetto.

Re:No mention of TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Go watch the Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited animated series that followed those two. They were done by the same guys and were phenomenal. The first season of JLU might well have been the high point of the DC universe in any incarnation--comics, animated, or live action. They pulled out almost every minor superhero DC ever created, gave them each their own shining moment, and tied everything together through a season-long arc that was just an awesome piece of storytelling.

Whoever that guy is who's writing the Justice League movie script had better be studying those shows religiously.

Wasn't there a time when...

[ilsaloving]

I have this vague distant memory of when comics were celebrated for bursting with imagination and exploring all sorts of important social issues (racism, sexism, various other isms). With complex twisting plots

While movies, by their nature, can't get that intricate, studios seem to think that people want nothing more than brainless Bay-esque explosion festivals. Then once in a while they accidentally spit out something like Avengers (Can't comment on batman since I haven't seen it yet) where they have something resembling a plot and depth of characters. Yet can't bring themselves to accept that people are tired of the same old Hollywood cliches and want something genuinely new and interesting. Something that tugs on your emotions and somehow pulls you in so deeply that you actually care about the characters as if they were actual living beings.

Here's a hint hollywood... I saw Avengers SOLELY because it was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is the first movie I have seen in theatre in years, and it's the first movie I have EVER seen where I can honestly say that I would happily fork over money to watch it in theatre again. Why? Because despite Avengers being another comic regurgitation, he still managed to do the above.

Can we have that back again? Please?

Re:The change of pace

[Black Parrot]

It's impossible to make a good movie from a video game.

The studios aren't interested in good; they're interested in how many people will pay to see it.