Comic book movies are still hot stuff for the moment, but there’s definite danger signs ahead. The biggest one right now is Batman Vs Superman, which will also include Wonder Woman, possibly other heroes as well.
This has all been inspired by The Avengers, and the studios are trying to line up similar superhero teams in the wake of its success. Yet several recent stories have been calling out the major studios for being greedy in cramming a ton of superheroes into one story.
The Daily Beast asked, “Can the comic book flick genre survive this bloat?,” but at the same time, it also mentioned how Batman Begins introduced four villains very well: fake Ra’s al Ghul, Scarecrow, Carmine Falcone, and Ra’s al Ghul. Can Batman Vs Superman possibly do a similar balancing act?
“I grew up reading Grant Morrison’s great run on Justice League of America, and watching Justice League on television,” Chancellor Agard wrote. “Those are awesome. If this all ends with a Justice League [movie] blockbuster, then all is forgiven.”
Vulture put things more baldly, headlining their report “Superhero Movies Are Getting Too Greedy.” The just announced Spider-Man spin offs struck Vulture as “a bald-faced attempt to mimic Marvel’s successful business plan, yet it strikes me as one more example of a studio blindly chasing that Avengers cheddar to the detriment of what could be a perfectly fine and lucrative stand-alone franchise.”
The site added, “Sony really ought to know better, since way back in 2007, Sam Raimi delivered the disappointing Spider-Man 3, which was packed with far too many villains at the expense of plot coherence. And yet these studios press on, mistaking more for better.”
So indeed, the powers that be behind these movies should be careful, because overstuffing the turkey is a distant cousin to jumping the shark.
Teaser Image: Andreas Englund
