Is 23 Super Hero Movies Over The Next 4 Years Too Much?

Indiewire asks a simple question: “Is 23 Super Hero Movies Over The Next 4 Years Too Much?” To which I say…

23?! Really?!

Really! Here they are:

MARVEL
“Guardians of the Galaxy” (8/1/14)
“The Avengers: Age of Ultron” (5/1/15)
“Ant-Man” (7/17/15)
“Captain America 3” (5/6/16)
Untitled 2016 Marvel Movie (7/8/16) [Given all the hiring updates, this feels like “Dr. Strange”]
Untitled 2017 Marvel Movie (5/5/17) [Speculation is “Thor 3”]
“The Avengers 3” (TBA 2018)

20th CENTURY FOX
“The Fantastic Four” (6/9/15)
“X-Men: Apocalypse” (5/27/16)
“The Wolverine 2” (3/3/17)
“The Fantastic Four 2” (7/14/17)
Untitled Fox/Marvel (7/13/18) [Lots of speculation, some can be read here]

WARNER BROS. (D.C. UNIVERSE)
“Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (5/6/16)
“Shazam” (Jul 2016)
“Sandman” (Dec 2016)
“Justice League” (May 2017)
“Wonder Woman” (Jul 2017)
“Flash and Green Lantern” team-up (Dec 2017)
“Man of Steel 2” (May 2018)

SONY/COLUMBIA
“The Amazing Spider-Man 3” (6/10/16)
“Venom” (TBA 2016)
“The Sinister Six” (TBA 2017)
“The Amazing Spider-Man 4” (5/4/18)

Do you remember this dude:

The truth is, there aren’t nearly enough superhero movies available. By historical standards, we’re so deprived of superhero movies that there’s probably a shadow war being fought between paranormal forces of good and evil over the matter.

O ye of little faith as Hollywood is apparently hell-bent on achieving the dude’s wet dream, witness the above list.

However in my humble opinion, the answer to the question is an unequivocal yes: 23 superhero movies in 4 years is too damn much! Set aside how the studios see these franchises as cash cows [although as recently as 2003, one studio chief believed that superhero movies were nothing more than a “fad”]. I get why they are addicted to superhero movies. Let me just speak to the issue from a single perspective:

Writers.

To wit: How many different ways can screenwriters create a sense of jeopardy in superhero movies?

Start with: The fate of the Earth is at stake!

Proceed to: The very existence of the Earth is in doubt!

End up with: The Universe could be destroyed!

Now what? Pity the poor screenwriters, as well-paid as they are, to try and figure out how to create a plot with a different, compelling set of stakes.

24 superhero movies in 4 years. How many times can writers go to the Earth/Universe in jeopardy well before consumers start to say, “Not this again?!”

So no, we don’t need 24 superhero movies in 4 years. But that’s what we’re getting.

For the rest of the Indiewire article, go here.

UPDATE: I mentioned Joss Whedon in comments. Perfect timing as Huffington Post has this article in which Whedon weighs in on the state of superhero movies:

“People have made it very clear that they are fed up with movies where entire cities are destroyed, and then we celebrate,” Whedon said, recognizing that of all of those things crashing into other things is an attempt to harness somewhat newly found visual effects.

Precisely.

There is an inherent clash that characterizes the genre, and Whedon is tapped into that discordance more so than the use of CGI. “You’re in a constant state of being pulled both ways at all times,” he said, “You’re trying to make a populist film with fascist iconography that is just bigger, and better, and longer, and trying to break that down and find a weakness and humanity.”

Ultimately, what Whedon finds important in his work (and what we will see in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” which he wrote and is currently filming in the U.K.) is that emphasis on humanity.

“People come in with a certain amount of emotional baggage,” he said, “So, whether we’re in our larvae stage or our decadent stage, I can’t really say, but I try to make my superhero movies as if there’s either never been one or there’s only ever been them. I work with the idea that it’s just a natural way for people to be, so that you still make a movie about people.”

“Make a movie about people.” That’s all I’m saying. The superhero movies, indeed, any of the big CGI-laden films succeed when they have an “emphasis on humanity,” not just lip service or trafficking in stereotypes. That’s why Edge of Tomorrow worked for me, where many other mega-budget superhero or sci-fi movies did not.

As I have suggested before, instead of always scaling up the stakes — “The fate of the universe!!! — which has become boring, why not scale down, e.g., this specific group of people, this family, this person is in jeopardy as in The Terminator.

As Andrew Stanton says, “Make me care”.

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