Superhero Film
A fairly recent subgenre of the American fantasy/action film, featuring the adventures of charismatic, mostly male superheroes, derived from popular comic strips or comic books dating back to the '40s. Usually constructed as visceral entertainment, these movies depend on high budgets and production values, focusing more attention on sets, costumes, make-up and special effect action sequences to create a blockbuster spectacle. The dialogue usually comes in fragments of pun-filled one-liners, while character development often details the hero's turbulent rise -- in the form of death, rejection, alienation or mental illness. Plots commonly present arch-villains (at times, one that's more interesting and well written than the Superhero), obsessed with taking over the world, getting rich, killing someone, or wreaking vengeance against the valiant protagonist. Though Hollywood became captivated with these films after the overwhelming success of Superman, for the most part, audiences didn't share the same enthusiasm until Tim Burton's mega-blockbuster version of Batman hit the screens in the summer of 1989. As the Batman film series grew more commercially successful, other super-heroic hits sprang up in its wake, including The Mask, The Crow, and Sam Raimi's Darkman, the latter of whose inspirations stemmed from the comic-book world, but was a fully original creation for the big screen. A near torturous death was in store for the subgenre though, as 1997's Batman & Robin virtually killed interest in big screen comic book films by embracing a tongue-in-cheek kiddy-tone that did not connect with audiences as its previous entries did. Through it all, Marvel Comics had been dropping the ball in Hollywood, with rights of their high profile properties being sold to low-budget production companies to downright embarrassing results (including Roger Corman)'s unreleased Fantastic Four dud, along with Dolph Lundgren's punishing Punisher outing and Albert Pyun's Captain America). All that changed in 1998 with the arrival of Blade, a hyper violent revamp of a third string Marvel character from the '70s. With its pre-Matrix digital effects and stylish action scenes, the film was a hit for the company and was the starting block for the superhero resurgence that the upcoming millennia would provide. 2000 brought with it Bryan Singer's surprise hit X-Men, which proved that a comic property could be handled seriously and still remain entertaining. Just two years later, Sam Raimi returned to the genre with one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, Spider-Man. Faithfully bringing comic guru Stan Lee's creation to the big screen brought the former cult director to the big leagues and offered him the chance to return to the highly profitable character twice more after the fact. With big ticket and DVD sales came more high profile adaptations than ever before between 2003 and 2005. There were expensive misunderstood visions as with Ang Lee's cerebral Hulk outing, though for the most part, the screen was flooded with cinematic junk that included Daredevil, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Punisher, The Fantastic Four and the downright dreadful Catwoman. Around this same time, other superhero properties were hitting the screen with varying ranges of success, most notably Pixar's blockbuster The Incredibles as well as Disney's Sky High teen flick, both of whom owe much to the groundwork laid by decades of comic creations. Through it all, the most critical and commercially viable comic-to-screen projects of this time found their way to the masses through confident hands of directors such as Guillermo Del Toro (Blade II, Hellboy), Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), and Bryan Singer, whose success with X-Men 2 gave him the chance to finally bring the man in blue tights back to theaters with Superman Returns, a continuation of the character's mythos that lifts off after the events of Superman II. Future superhero adaptations slated for theaters in 2006 and beyond include Ghost Rider, X-Men 3, and Spider-Man 3.
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