5 Signs The Superhero Movie Bubble Is About To Burst

2. Repetition

In order to please wider audiences studios have begun to tame and dumb down their movies. They€™ve created a formula that pleases a huge number of people and they are sticking with it. After a brief exposition the main problem or villain appears. The villain usually wants or has a mythical object or weapon (infinity stone, tesseract, nuclear bomb). The hero works to unravel the mystery and fights a couple baddies in a short action sequence. The hero finally confronts the villain in a big set piece and he loses. Then when it looks like all is lost the hero picks himself back up and formulates a half-baked last second plan to stop the end of the world. There is one last big battle scene, the hero wins and then we get a not-so-subtle hint at the inevitable sequel. Throw in the usual tropes, a character who dies tragically, but isn€™t really dead (Iron Man, Nick Fury, Batman), a bad-ass supporting lady in tight black leather (Black Widow, Catwoman), another nicer girl who supports the hero but is generally unhelpful (Rachel Dawes, Pepper Potts), a wise older mentor (Alfred, Uncle Ben), an awkwardly funny sidekick to force the adventure-comedy feel studios like Disney crave and you€™ve got a 300 million dollar hit on your hands. The problem? Audiences are starting to notice. There€™s only so many times an audience can watch the same basic storylines without getting bored. Studios have done a decent job hiding it through humour and a change of aesthetics promising to be grittier or funnier. And they have done an excellent job of embracing elements of other genres to freshen up some films, like the political thriller aspects of The Winter Soldier, and the sci-fi in Guardians of the Galaxy. But forcing a different skin on the same barebones structure won€™t keep working. There have been films that broke off from the pack and strayed into the realm of real creativity like the Dark Knight but it has never lasted, as each sequel just brought the franchise back to centre (see The Dark Knight Rises). This doesn€™t mean the movies aren€™t well made or boring, but it would be smart for franchises to start taking new directions. Otherwise they may find themselves without an audience.