I have not lost all hope for Super Hero movies, but they are starting to annoy me a bit. Despite popular opinion by fans of the genre (yes it has become its own genre now), I don't think super hero movies have done much that is all that interesting, yet that doesn't mean they can't still be fun.
A perfect example of this would be the recent release of "The Avengers", a film not without its faults, but is able to sustain your interest with fine acting from most people, and clever dialogue written by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" scribe Joss Whedon.
But the film itself did not break new ground, in fact it reeks at times of the all too familiar. In the film, there is a threat, the super heroes assemble, and the threat is vanquished in a rather large battle. There is nothing wrong with this formula, and a clever guy like Whedon does his best and giving us scenarios that are entertaining, yet it seems to be a missed opportunity.
A few years ago, I wrote about how super hero movies, had much in common with the latter day western, which had its heyday in the 40s and 50s. The western hero like the super hero was usually an outcast, a loner, and he was driven by some sort of honor or duty, or maybe vengeance. If you replaced the cowboy hat and the six guns with super powers and tights, I could be explaining the same archetype.
Since I wrote that piece, many super hero movies have come and gone, some of them good, some of them crummy, but I would argue none of them have become transcendent. We have become stuck in a pattern with super hero movies, they have become less about story and more about the conglomerate. "The Avengers" is a product, owned by Marvel studios in association with Disney. They are servicing the fans needs to see the characters on screen, and defeating their enemies. That's all fine and good, what we have is a nice B-movie, not unlike old serials from the 30s and 40s, only this time with a big budget and huge special effects.
Maybe that's all the fans ask for, and that seems to be what Marvel Studios is willing to do for them, but as a movie goer, I don't think super hero films will sustain themselves for very long if that is the case.
I had the same feeling watching "The Avengers" as I did with "Thor", "Iron Man 2", and "Captain America", it was difficult to tell them apart. Each film was structured the same way, there was a big bad, and the hero had to vanquish it. "The Avengers" doesn't stray from this formula, other than giving you more bang for your buck. In this case, all the super heroes are in one movie, and it just means more action than most.
As I said I liked "The Avengers" but I will still call this a missed opportunity, here's why: Joss Whedon. Whedon, is a clever guy, when he is taken off his leash and able to do his own thing. Look at "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", which was a complex coming of age drama/comedy, disguised as a campy genre show. Whedon has proven himself capable of creating complex ideas and themes hidden within genre. Even though Whedon wrote and directed "The Avengers", I didn't see much of his own stamp on the finished product, albeit it was a nice surprise to see much screen time given to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, a testament to Whedon's affection for female heroines. Whedon, for the most part acts like a director for hire, doing a by the numbers Marvel movie, which is given life with his flare for wit, and humanity.
Whedon has the talent to dive deeper and further in the Marvel universe, and perhaps he was struggling with his own instincts and what the Marvel overlords wanted in the end, which was a harmless blockbuster. It's a shame because knowing what Whedon is capable of and what we are given does not measure up. And this has become the case for super hero films in general, there doesn't seem to be a risk.
This lack of risk taking is probably due to the huge amount of money these films cost, which makes it more and more difficult to take any chances.
There doesn't seem to be much hope that super hero movies will tone down their spectacle and unlimited action anytime soon, which might make room for a more intimate and compelling film, and I could sense there were a few scenes where Whedon was trying to express that.
Recently I re-watched Howard Hawks' masterpiece "Rio Bravo", a western which is all about relationships, how men talk to eachother, and the comaraderie that comes with that. The final shoot-out at the end of the film comes and goes without much fuss, it was there, but without much importance, it was all about the characters. There's a special laid back feel to a film like "Rio Bravo" about guys going through the motions and enjoying eachothers company, but it's so very much entertaining. Can there be a super hero equivalent? Not so far, but how interesting that would be.
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