I won't say there's no end in sight for
the superhero movie trend. Now that the Batman trilogy is over and
done with, DC has got to be banking on the success of Batman vs.
Superman to even stay in the game. Marvel is still going strong, with
Thor: The Dark World receiving decent praise at the box office, as
well as by critics, but the somewhat lackluster third installment of
the Iron Man trilogy made me wonder if they may finally be running
out of steam.
That all said, however, we can still
look back at the early 2000's and marvel at just how far the
superhero movie has come since the days of the first X-Men movie.
Sure, technology has improved, and film rights to certain characters
have been hashed out, but I think there is an additional factor we
can consider: finding the balance between special effects and a good
story. The first X-Men movie, for example, seemed to be more of an
exercise in seeing what cool powers could be brought to life, with
considerably less emphasis on having a story, or character
development, or avoiding terrible dialogue.
 |
| What happens when a toad gets hit by lightning? Terrible writing, that's what. |
As a kid, I was super (haha, puns)
impressed by the special effects. As I got older, however, I came to
realize that they did not make a movie good, just sparkly, like an
arts and crafts project made of a cloud of glitter with no paper to
be glued down to. X-Men 2 and 3 were, admittedly, better about it,
exploring the homophobia allegory that's always been a staple of the
comic, but they never really “wowed” me.
Then came “X-Men: First Class”.
Unlike its bad to just unimpressive predecessors, I think First Class
is a great movie, easily one of the best in its genre. The characters
are no longer just walking special effects, they're people. Mystique
is interesting, Beast is interesting, Magneto is incredibly deep for
a comic book character, and although you know he's technically the
“villain”, you can see that he as a very valid point. Sure,
ultimately they're foiling the plan of a super villain, and Emma
Frost reaches Kristen Stewart levels of bland, but there are other
stories and character developments happening at the same time. The
powers are what they should be: elements of the story, rather than
the primary focus.
“But Mike,” some of you are saying,
“aren't the superpowers the reason we come to superhero movies in
the first place?” That's a valid point. After all, you didn't pay
$10 to see “Captain Explosion 2: Return of the Mega-Pecs” to see
all quiet, talky scenes with a lot of character development.
For a moment though, let's consider
“That 70's Show”.
 |
| ...explain? |
Bear with me. What did people like
about “That 70's Show”? Easy, Kelso was the loveable idiot, Fez
was awkward an naïve, Jackie and Red were hilarious (though vastly
different) jerks, and Eric and Donna were, more often than not, the
straight foils to the antics of the others. Know what's missing from
that list, though? The fact that the show was in the 70's. At the end
of the day, the premise and even title of the show had nothing to do
with why we liked the final product. We usually like stories because
we like the characters. They're the ones we're supposed to want to
see win, who we feel bad to see fail. When a character is just
walking laser vision, like Cyclops in the first two X-Men movies,
then we really can't care about what happens to him.
However, I wouldn't go so far as to say
remove the powers entirely. After all, the biggest complaint about
the Iron Man movies is that there was very little actual Iron Man,
especially in the third flick. Character building and getting us
invested are important, to be sure, but if if the amount of payoff
is disproportionate to how long we've waited, then we feel like we've
had our time wasted. The Avengers did this as close to perfectly as I
think any movie has. You knew every quiet talky scene was building up
to another explosive fight scene, and it always delivered. Avengers
are being gathered? Let's have them fight Loki. Now there's a lot of
talking and arguing? Uh-oh, Banner's Hulked out. Post-shock
depressing scenes after the battle on the Helicarrier? Well, that's
okay. We know the climactic final fight is on the way.
While I think the superhero movie as a
trend will go away, I seriously doubt the genre will ever really die
out. Let's face it, if the Phantom, Tank Girl and Steel didn't kill
it back in the 90's I doubt there's much that will. Plus, I think
we'll come out of this fad with a better understanding of how
superhero movies can continue to get better for the future, even if
they aren't as frequent.
Of course, Xavier went from being “the
guy with mind powers” to “the guy who the 70's vomited on”, but
we'll see where that goes.
