There are trends that come up within Hollywood that spur on a slew of films. When Hollywood was young, westerns were the big thing. When space exploration became more prevalent, more space themed films came out. With each new decade comes a new trend that sticks around. Starting in the late 80s, comic book movies were starting to appear. They weren’t top of the line back then, some even laughably bad, but they persisted. Comic book movies have been making a lot of money for studios in the past 16 years due to the persistence of the directors and teams that make them. Why is this exactly?
A majority of these trending films is because at the time that is what the directors grew up with. Back to the earlier examples of westerns, it was what the directors and studio heads had grown up with. You are able to make better material with what you have experience with and they played along with it. The reason why some comic book movies suffered in the early 90s is because not a lot of people knew what to do with them. Sure, they had heard that Batman was a good series and with the success of the first film, greenlit a sequel. With minimal knowledge of the genre though, they were only able to make do with what they had. Not to know that the later films were bad, but they tended to suffer in terms of story or character progression. As time went on, the current directors learned and were influenced by the films back then and incorporated their knowledge into the comic book powerhouses that we know today.
(Batman (1989-top picture) was a major success in the comic book movie adaptation. Batman & Robin (1997- bottom) on the other hand was a trainwreck...and bat nipples)
With the recent success of Deadpool, an R-rated comic book movie that outperformed other R-rated films such as Blade, Spawn, and the Punisher, many studios are jumping the gun on greenlighting R-rated comic films. This isn’t a problem per se, but it can lead to some issues. James Gunn, director of the quirky success, Guardians of the Galaxy, knew what made Deadpool a success and why Hollywood should think before they act. “Deadpool was its own thing. THAT'S what people are reacting to. It's original, it's damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers, and it wasn't afraid to take risks.” He later stated that more and more films would be greenlit as rated R, comic book material, that breaks the 4th wall. This is a reaction to the success of Deadpool and is not the way to go. “… if you pay attention to the trades, you'll see Hollywood misunderstanding the lesson they should be learning with Deadpool. They'll be green lighting films "like Deadpool" - but, by that, they won't mean "good and original" but "a raunchy superhero film" or "it breaks the fourth wall." They'll treat you like you're stupid, which is the one thing Deadpool didn't do.”
James Gunn has said some of the wisest words out of Hollywood on why Deadpool was a success. It knew the audience and didn’t treat you stupidly. Hollywood tends to think in absolutes and tries to dumb down experiences so as to gain maximum profit. So I tell this to all potential filmmakers reading this: Do what you think is right. Be passionate about your art. Learn from other’s attempts, mistakes, and successes and build something greater.
