It's a given fact these days, that superheroes dominate the viewing audience in movie theatres. With a wide range of different characters with strange powers, to engaging action scenes and new and exciting universes to explore, most superhero movies drives on all cylinders. But it hasn't always been like that. For the longest time superheroes belonged in comic books and occasionally on the small screen with cartoons catered to children. Today, I will give my take on why I feel superheroes have won such a prominent role in our current media world.
First of all I think the main reason for the heroes succes stems from the fact, that those people, who grew up with them in their comic books or on television are now the core demographic of movie goers. So we have a huge segment of the world, who are not only invested in these characters and their world, but they have grown up with technology, that lets them share experiences easier. In that sense, as fans of a certain superhero sees a movie adaptation, not only will he/she build up her excitement online before seing the movie, but her excitement will often have a ripple effect on his/her peers.
Another reason I feel, is the fact that we live in a time in history between wars. There are currently no clear "one enemy", so we have nobody to rally behind against a foe - these heroes gives us that somebody. We want to root for Superman, Batman, Spider Man and whoever else in the fight against evil. The reason why we want to do that, is that they have become symbols of what we as people strive to be: to be able to face our challenges head on, to be there for our loved onces and if need be make the ultimate sacrifice. Of course there are also several power fantasies being fulfilled watching our heroes going toe to toe with great villains, with all odds stacked against them, and still coming out on top.
If we take a hero like Captain America, who was created during World War II as a figure of hope for the American people in face of the nazi war machine - how can he still be relevant today? It's simply because the ideals people rally behind in times of need will always be sought by people, even if the fights aren't as grandeur with high stakes as in times of war.
Superheroes are also iconic characters, much like such characters as Darth Vader, Indiana Jones and James Bond. And much like James Bond, these roles as heroes are not only career defining, but have also shown to be career saving. Take Hugh Jackman for example: nobody really knew who he was before we grew adamantium claws and lead the X-men into battle, and now he is a Hollywood superstar. Robert Downey Jr. is another prime example of this, as his career were basically over at some point. He had portrayed one of cinema's greatest faces, Charlie Chaplin with bravour, but ended up in addiction and other troubles. But after he was cast and dawned the helmet of Iron Man in the now vast Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has now risen to become the highest paid actor in Hollywood. Not only that, but his characteristics, and personality has almost become indistinguishable from that of his role as Tony Stark (the man behind the Iron Man suit). In some way, much like Tony Stark turned his life around, when he stopped producing weapons and made the Iron Man suit to protect people, so too did the Iron Man suit turn the life around for Robert Downey Jr. This also helps superheroes seem more engrained within our own world, which in turn increases their appeal through identification.
While we're on the topic of Iron Man, this was the first movie made from Marvel after Disney bought the studio, and was the movie who lay the foundation of what we know now as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or MCU for short). This was/still is a huge undertaking, the likes which have never been tried before in cinema, where multiple franchises of different heroes build on the same universe, to ultimately come together in a big ensemble movie. This movie was The Avengers, a movie that to this day is the third highest grossing movie of all time, and ultimately proves the appeal of superheroes as top players in the world of movies.
Yet I think the reason why super heroes have gotten such a major upswing within the last decade is thanks to Christoffer Nolan and his Dark Knight Trilogy. Before the trilogy, super hero movies just didn't caught on. We have had multiple attempts at trying to built movie franchises on superheroes, but with little to no succes. The old Superman movies saw multiple recasts and reboots, Marvel released a few movies of their lesser known heroes without much succes either. The closest thing we had to a franchise before the Nolan movies were the first Spider Man trilogy by Sam Raimi. He was two widely popular movies, as this was the first time Spider Man had been seen as he should on the big screen, but it ended up falling apart with the third movie being vastly inferior to its predecessors.
But with Batman Begins and its sequal The Dark Knight, Nolan showed us a superhero movie, that was much more rooted in realism, and with a star-studded cast that brought in millions of movie goers. This trilogy opened many of the mainstream audience eyes to these characters, that were often associated with nerd fandom.
Today Superheroes are not only dominating the big screen, but have also garnered new positions on television as well. DC Comics have been building a television universe of heroes composed of Green Arrow on the show Arrow, a show that have spawned a spin-off show with The Flash, and other new series currently waiting to be greenlit. Both shows have recieved alot of positive acclaim and shows no signs of slowing down.
Marvel have also seen the posibilities of television shows, and have expanded their cinematic universe with their show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which fills in some story gaps between their cinematic movie releases. In that way, events taking place in the movies have a direct effect on the show as well. Marvel also have a serie about their hero Dare Devil to be released on Netflix this April, also tied to the same universe. With more and more shows down the pipe-line, it seems that superheroes' expansion into television is as steady as their theater counterparts.
I feel like superhero movies are here to stay for a long time to come. With Marvel and DC both having released their slate of movie releases well into the 2020s we are not getting off this freight train anytime soon. With even The Academy acknowledging superheroes at this years Oscars, with Birdman winning Best Picture (it being somewhat of a meta-movie about Michael Keaton and his previous role of Batman) and Disney's Big Hero 6 nominated for Best Animated Movie, we can clearly see that we have embraced our superheroes firmly. The previously flat pictures of men in tight outfits have sprung to life and are now more relevant than they have ever been before. Excelsior!
Popcorntroller Out!
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar