Not everyone likes superhero movies
Superheros movies are quickly becoming one of the most popular genres of film. In the United States alone, box office revenue from this type of movie generated more than $1 billion on three separate occasions. But not everybody agrees.
Wesley Morris wrote, for The New York Times, about why he thinks superhero franchises are ruining movies.
On why he dislikes superhero movies:
I don’t mind the superhero franchise in theory, but in reality what it’s doing is it’s ruining this whole other aspect of movie-going for me which is the experience of movie stars, which I love. I love movie stars. And I love going to the movies to watch stars work out and work on their persona. And that is directly in conflict with what the superhero movie is all about, which is a genre that basically features its own stars and your stardom gets messed up in the process. That’s very depressing.
His thoughts on superhero movies as an opportunity for minority actors:
I think that the way it’s been good for black actors — especially if this Black Panther movie actually happens, for an actor like Chadwick Boseman — it’s really great. I don’t know what Chadwick Boseman would be cast in otherwise. He was incredible as James Brown, he was a good Jackie Robinson and this is a guy whose fame is now bound up in other famous people and other famous characters. The downside of course is that he’ll be probably forever known — if these movies are a hit — as Black Panther.
On the cost of the popularization of superhero movies:
One of the side effects of this type of movie that everybody loves, that is the biggest genre of movie in the world in the history of the world by the time this is all said and done, is that it’s costing us something that used to really mean something and was special about movies in general. I think, unless you’re going to cast Iron Man in your romantic comedies, you really have to think about what it means to let a single genre of movie predominate and dictate the terms of the characterization and the charisma of the people in the movies. That’s kind of a worrisome thing, to look outward and see that with fewer movies being made this single type of movie is dominating not only the box office but the cultural conversation too.
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