entertainment

Superheroes, for once, don't rule Hollywood's summer

17 Comments
By JAKE COYLE

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

17 Comments
Login to comment

and one of the most successful sequels, “Pitch Perfect 2.”

Somehow I haven't even heard of the original, much less the sequel. This is one of those times I realize I've been away for a long time.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

You didn't miss anything. It's all been crap for the last decade.

I was watching an old movie on TV the other day in the US. Now, they edit (usually the best parts) out so they can add commercials. They've lowered the rates for TV spots so any business can buy a 30 second spot. They run 20 (20!!) commercials in a row now. That's 10 minutes of commecials for every 10 minutes of edited out movie.

The place has gone nuts. And there hasn't been a decent movie in years.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@darnname: you should investigate alternative ways to watch movies man! I haven't watched a commercial in about...6 years? Well, not counting ones I purposefully watched (superbowl, movie trailers etc)

Commercials just ruin a good flick, and as you said most often they occur at the worst time.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Superheroes may not rule, but sequels and adaptations do.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Can't wait to see the latest James Bond. Probably be very late in Japan.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It will be released in Japan on Dec 4.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's funny how this article seems to say, let's praise Universal for not just creating an endless stream of superhero movies. But is it really any better that the "diverse" selection of movies they offer are just remakes and sequels?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There is so much amazing history that could be made into movies and I bet would be huge hits even without inventing or distorting history or adding a sappy improbably love story.

I think Hollywood could learn a lot even from old Spaghetti Westerns, but please, just capture the essence and NO MORE REMAKES!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Oh Jurassic copy was a success, milk that T-rex!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Are movies going to go the way of vinyl records and appeal to a niche audience only? Programmes like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, House of Cards (both versions) among others showed they appealed to huge numbers of viewers. Now with all the streaming possibilities the era of commercials interrupted by shows might be nearing its end.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The king is dead! Long live the king!

Reports of their death has been greatly exaggerated.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

As much as I respect & admire Steven Spielberg for his creative output all these years, I have to disagree with his views (“There will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western...”).

Western films are few & far between because they are all pretty much are based on the past.

Superhero films, for the most part, are based on present situations. This enables the audiences to, more or less, relate.

I do believe that superhero films will eventually die down a bit, but I don't believe they will ever go "the way of the Western..."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'm sure Comcast--who owns NBC Universal--has been very happy with this summer. The diversity of the type of films released by Universal this summer shows that if the movie is good, people will go to the theater in large numbers regardless of genre. And that could mean we may finally get out of the excessive dependence on superhero films during the big moneymaking summer season.

(By the way, a little aside--the article mentioned the lower box office revenue in the summer of 2014. The article didn't mention the reason why: the 2014 FIFA Men's World Cup, which occurred between the middle of June 2014 to the middle of July 2014. As such, the World Cup took away effectively a large number of people from the movies, especially since mid-June to mid-July is normally the very height of the summer movie season.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Things may be cyclical, but there's no way that super-hero movies will "go the way of the Western" because there is no limit to the possibilities with super-hero movies, including no limit on time period. It's almost like saying science fiction or horror will go the way of the Western.

In any case, and even with them giving exceptions like Avengers, I'm tired of all the super-hero movies, TV spin-offs, and movies spawned from comics. A lot of them are fun, and some very well done, but the majority are just cashing in and are hoping you tune in to the many "tie-ins" and crossovers to get the full picture of what's going on. For Avengers alone there's a lot you'd miss if you didn't watch the prequels, didn't watch the Iron Man movies, Thor, and god knows what else (I think they probably actually don't WANT you to watch the Hulk movies!), as well as the comic books (Avengers, Infinity gauntlet) and series like Marvel's Agents of Shield. It's all becoming far too serialized, and really pointless to put up on the big screen.

And let's face it; a lot are COMPLETE duds.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Too much is never ood and that's the case with Marvel superhero movies. There are just too many of them which in the end killing the wow factor, unless you are a Marvel fan. It seems they are just too greedy that they kept on rebooting the superheroes which were introduced not that long ago.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

darname:

They've lowered the rates for TV spots so any business can buy a 30 second spot. They run 20 (20!!) commercials in a row now. That's 10 minutes of commecials for every 10 minutes of edited out movie.

I've noticed that the intros and theme music of American shows on TV are so damn short nowadays. And you get some sort of advertisement or something else happening while the end credits are rolling.

Intros and themes are what made some TV shows so iconic. Recently there were remakes of Charlie's Angels, Dallas and Hawaii Five-O. I couldn't believe how they butchered and cut up everything so they could squeeze the intro into less than 30 seconds.

Anyway, back to movies - haven't seen any of these superhero movies. I've seen Spiderman (Toby and Andrew) on DVD or plane, but I'm just not really interested in any others. Time and technology doesn't necessarily mean movies will be better. The first two Christopher Reeves Superman movies are still great.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites