The Superhero Genre

[Mr. Arkadin]

Let me start by saying I'm not a fan of the Superhero genre. While I am a kid who loves his comics, many of the superheroes brought to the big screen are sadly lacking as heroes and films. I think part of this is because we are used to seeing a drawn, still image instead of moving film. Another is the fact that many writers and directors so want to preserve the legend for the fans that they bring nothing new to the screen.

Why am I saying all this in a thread about a genre I dislike? Because I recently saw The Dark Knight and Iron Man (2008), both of which have made me rethink previous misgivings. While the films keep much of the original characters and their ideals intact, they explore them in new ways and use different themes not usually associated with masked men, namely, political ones. Each movie can actually be seen as right and left wing American viewpoints and both argue their cases through entertaining drama, but never feel like forced propaganda (I won't say which is which--watch the films and decide for yourself). To have made both of these movies in the same year is rare, rarer still in an election year, and perhaps rarest of all is the fact that neither of them is seen or discussed in this way.

As for the movies themselves, The Dark Knight is clearly the deeper of the two, but understandably so as it is a sequel and does not have to invest time in introducing its characters or their origins. I personally felt Robert Downey Jr. gave the best hero performance in Iron Man, while the The Dark Knight had the better supporting cast with the exception of Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I personally thought was the worst actor/actress in either film (and a lot of other films I've seen).

If you're a person who likes their comics untouched, these films aren't for you. However, if you like underlying themes that are as intense as the action onscreen, Iron Man and The Dark Knight will give you a lot to chew over after the end credits roll.

[Ollie]

I have suspected I have enjoyed the Single Figure superhero films more than the ensemble casts - I liked DAREDEVIL and IRON MAN, but find tremendous weaknesses in FF and XMEN. SUPERMAN has so many options that its weaknesses tend to quantitatively overshadow any good points (although I do like him catching the airplane at the baseball game. Nice work - let's see Cal Ripken do that). I find that I also discredit those films that diverge from their comic sequencings or origins, or their castings. The SPIDEY films do that and whatever good things might have been in-place, why why why can't they stick to the original tale? Or why not invent their OWN superhero? Not being a fan of Stan Lee himself, this is another issue I blame him for entirely - this and about 200 others.

When he's dead and gone, I hope it's with a stake thru his heart, and they'll cut off his head and fill the mouth full of garlic.

But go ahead - ask me how I REALLY feel about him.