Super hero films are a sub-genre of movie that in all honesty, I don’t care for. What? I hear the two of you scream! (average audience figures taken in to account) But you’re a nerd, nerds love super heroes! Well, you’re right I am a nerd and I used to like Super heroes. I used to like Superman when I was a kid, Spiderman too and especially the Dark Knight himself who was probably my role model second only to Brandon Lee’s the Crow…oh and of course Burke from Aliens. So, Batman’s like totally number three most influential…number four, I forgot Arnie (I let him go). Anyway, what was I trying to get out here? Super Heroes, right. So, what put me off then?
Answer: I grew up! No, that’s not really the answer, because I never did, but the super hero fan in me kind of died somewhere between Batman Forever and Spiderman (the Spiderman that was now three or four Spidermans ago.) Since then there have been a raft of what can only be considered B Rate super hero films, coinciding of course with Marvel and DC Comics investing heavily in their own film studios. Both Comic book giants have a mass of IP (intellectual property – very valuable for some reason nowadays, just ask Apple or Samsung) held within the vaults of their underground fortress libraries. X Men, Batman, Spidey, Superbad, Megamind and Casablanca to name but a few.
Using these untapped (or largely untapped) intellectual resources, Marvel and DC seem to have gone about systematically over taking the Box Office over the past few years with forty three percent of all top 10 box office films in the last three years being comic book adaptations (I made that up, but it sounded plausible enough didn’t it?) We have been treated to such gems as the Green freaking Lantern, Hulk and Hulk the Reboot, then with the Avengers we got a whole heap of movies that lead up to one giant super hero sticker book of a film. Now of course the ‘final’ Batman movie has come out to a roar of Box Office success and critical acclaim and I feel like the last person stood at the back asking why everyone is so excited.
There was this magical time when I would hang with geeks and like minded borderline obsessive Star Trek crazies and discuss all the latest developments in our shadowy comic world. Now, everyone is a geek. I am probably one of about six people in the world who didn’t watch/care about the last Batman film in the entire world. So when did this shift of geekness occur? Why am I now ostracised for not being a nerd? Or is it just that Batman and Iron Man and Captain America (seriously! Captain America!) are all so awesome that you non-nerds, you anti-dweebs had to scoop them up and steal them from us?
Give me back my Batman! This is like being back at school…I hate you all.
cynicalcyclical 