Superhero Movies: Why Hollywood Rarely Gets Them Right


Superhero movies don’t always turn out right, and in many cases, Hollywood actually did their best. There are some solid reasons why they don’t turn out as good as some would hope.

First off, superhero movies tend to need a huge budget if there are any powers being used onscreen. This may not be a huge problem for films featuring Batman, who actually has no powers, but there are still plenty of action shots involving vehicles that don’t exist in the real world. When you have a superhero riding a fictitious vehicle, there could easily be a CG model thrown in to save having to hire a stunt double to ride what is probably an expensive rig. Money is a huge issue with superhero movies any way you look at it, and sometimes the money doesn’t exist in the budget.

There is also the source material to keep in mind with superhero movies. Oftentimes, the origins need to be altered, which by itself tends to immediately annoy the comic book fanatics. A lot of origin stories tend to be boring or borderline impossible to film if you really look into the process. Also if there are too many characters, there isn’t enough time in the movie’s target length to include everything. Origins stories get glossed over so films like Daredevil don’t end up taking hours just to cover everything.

Another factor is the actors and actresses themselves. Sometimes there are egos involved, or people clash off-screen, and the emotional impact reflects onscreen, as was the case with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Even in the best-case scenarios, some actors are involved in several films at once and simply don’t have the time to dedicate to getting everything right. Sir Ian McKellen could be considered such an example if he happened to fall short. He played major characters in the X-Men franchise and Lord of the Rings, and this year he’s had to do both. He’s a terrific actor, but everybody has their bad days.

Directors have a lot to do with superhero movies being a success or just crashing and burning. Batman and Robin was full of actors and actresses who could have done a much better job, but Joel Schumacher had tried too hard to take the comic route and ended up making an embarrassing mess of everything.

A lot of factors come into play over why superhero movies fail, and it’s amazing that they work as well as they do.

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