Just like the rest of America, I take great enjoyment from going into a darkened room with strangers and watching something on a screen that completely defies logic and totally captivates my imagination. This is probably the thing I take the most enjoyment in when I really sit back and think about it. One of the most exciting things about going to the movies is seeing something on the screen that you've never seen before, which leads me to a thought about superhero movies. That thought is are we, as audiences, getting too many of them? I know this may sound like sacrilege on a site like this, but just hear me out. Think about the lineup of superhero-based films coming out in 2012. There's Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, The Wolverine and Kick Ass 2, then Captain America 2, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant Man, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Justice League and, of course, The Avengers 2 set for 2014 and 2015 respectively. Don't get me wrong, I love an amazing superhero movie, but it just seems like we're just getting way too many of them with diminishing results. My point is that all of the best superhero films have already come and gone, and all we're going to be left with is a slew of mediocre movies that only exist to promote the next movie, not stand on their own. Superheroes are like the modern day equivalent of mythology. Superheroes are larger than life figures that represent values we can all aspire to and showcase stories of good vs. evil. That's basically a simplified synopsis of every superhero movie ever made, which is why we just need to chill out on making so many of them.
All of the stories end up feeling too similar to other stories, which made most of the Marvel phase 1 films kind of run together. Could you distinguish the style of any of them? They all look like their direction and cinematography was designed by a committee instead of a filmmaker with a vision. This is what really worries me about Marvel phase 2. It just looks like more of the same, but when the originals weren't excellent great to begin with (besides the first Iron Man) the news that sequels are coming out just doesn't really excite me at all. The phase 1 movies were perfectly passable entertainment, but once the lights came on I wasn't really left with anything that caused me to look back on the films. This is because they all just sort of blend together and once you've seen one, you feel like you've seen them all. Was the Captain America movie made for any reason other than it kind of had to be for The Avengers? This is why I say it feels like they were designed by a committee and not a person with a specific vision. Look at Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight movies. Those films were high, cinematic art masterminded by one of the greatest movie minds of this generation, and the films will be remembered as some of the best of the decade. This is because they weren't treated like mild, popcorn superhero films; they were treated seriously. Nolan used his trilogy to create allegories for the 21st century, and Wayne's personal strife with a superhero being used to tell a complex, intricate story of much more than just good vs. evil.
The same goes for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Sure, the third one was a disappointment, but looking back on it, the film is much better than people say it is. It could have been on par with the first two if someone just cut the running time and the amount of villains. Spider-Man is the perfect superhero to illustrate my point of overexposure. Why was the franchise rebooted so early? What can Mark Webb improve on over Raimi's version? Raimi created a Spider-Man trilogy that had the element of dark humour found in all of his best films, but also a heart and characters you truly could feel attached to, which elevated it above your standard superhero fare. This can't be said for any of the Marvel or DC movies that followed it, other than The Dark Knight trilogy of course. The truth is it's going to be a very long time before we go a year without seeing at least one superhero movie, because whether they are good or bad is irrelevant to financiers. As long as these movies are making money they will get made and if The Avengers' box office results are any indication, the superhero movie will be profitable for quite a while. So then, can we please make these movies more than just the simple "good vanquishes evil" story over and over again, and actually give them some personality and wit? I'm not saying any of them have to be The Seventh Seal or There Will Be Blood, but if Marvel really wants to make great films and not just the same, standard story, in every movie they need to introduce some distinguishing qualities and diversity similar to the way that Christopher Nolan and Sam Raimi did. Thank you for reading and I'd really love to hear everyone's opinion about the state of superhero movies in the comments.