If it’s May, it must be blockbuster season, and there’s a reoccurring theme. Summer has become of the season of the superhero. This season, which will include a reboot of The Hulk and another installment of Batman, has opened with Iron Man, which has made $177,134,000 since opening. It’s not a great film, it’s not Casablanca or Citizen Cane. But it’s not Battlefield Earth either.
One cultural critic laments the rise of the superhero film, while another points out our fascination with superheroes. It seems what ought to be lamented is the glut and the formulaic nature of these films. It’s gotten to a point where, even before going into the theater, you know what to expect. It’ll open with a flawed human; it’ll move on to a life-changing narrative hook that contains within it the seeds of the climatic battle with the bad guy; then it’ll move onto the sudden change in the hero’s nature; the discovery and exploration of his new powers and their short comings; the emergence of the bad guy; the moment of truth; and the final, violent resolution of the struggle between the good and bad guys; then the closer which inevitably leads to the sequel if the movie does well. This is especially true in ‘origin’ movies, which Iron Man is.
The genre has already been lampooned twice, with Superhero Movie (and no, Tom Cruise cannot fly) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. But the genre is drawing better acting talent, even if it is only slowly drawing better writers and directors. What may be necessary now is for the genre to move beyond its conventions. Heroes is a good example of this (when its writers are firing in all thrusters). Indeed, when it came up short in its second season its creator, Tim Kring, actually apologized!
But the genre is here to stay, and what should happen next is that like Tony Stark, it needs to shed its limiting shell and evolve to something new and better.
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