20 years of Super: '12-'16

2012: AVENGERS!!! The movie economy has recovered and done so in a healthy way. This massive blockbuster pushed Marvel into the spotlight permanently and guaranteed huge movie attendance for the next 10 years.  

They also made The Amazing Spiderman. Well, Sony made it but it’s a Marvel character. This was rushed a little bit but I’m okay with erasing that memory of Toby McGuire. If they waited 2-3 years I think it would’ve been better. DC struck back and completed their batman trio. 

A new standard was set for grittiness, Chronicle, also one of my favorites, pushed the bar even further. It is straight up dark from start to finish. That standard still stands.

2013: Slight movie inflation has started. Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World weren’t necessary but made anyway. Not much character development in it either. They were “Eh” at best but did advance the plot to set up the next avengers. 

The Wolverine came out. That was a disaster and made the X-Men take a step back. 

I think the best movie to come out of this year was Man of Steel. I liked it best but it still wasn’t great. It advances the plot for DC. It was pretty gritty for the traditional Superman and I like that. 

The best THING to come out of this year was the Producers realizing that we can tell the difference between a good product and a pile of crap. The movies didn’t do that great in the box offices, when they lose money, they take note.

2014: Marvel had a damn good year. Damn good. Winter Soldier (best individual Marvel movie in my opinion), Spiderman 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy. I mean damn. They knocked it out of the park here. They dominated the competition and earned our trust. They put out all good stuff. We liked it all, even the sketchy stuff. If you told me I would love a move about a raccoon, a tree, and some people in space, I wouldn’t believe you but hell, I love it.

2015: A bit of an off year. Age of Ultron put a cherry on top of the Marvel superpower. Ant-Man ate shit at the box office and hurt out trust, but only a little. No one expected much and that what we got. A shitty new Fantastic Four came out. I think everyone knew after the first trailer that it would suck. They should’ve scrapped it but pushed it though. Oh well. Their loss, not ours.

2016: Our final year, so far, only Deadpool was released with massive success. 

Batman V Superman is going to come out, hopefully it pulls DC out of their grave. If it doesn’t do well, I don’t know how they could recover. Civil War is coming out and has a lot of people excited. Can’t wait to see the showdown. X-Men: Apocalypse is coming out. I think they might be beating a dead horse here but ill probably go see it just because. Suicide Squad is another hopeful highlight, it appears that Chronical might lose its spot, I hope it does.

So there you have it. A lack of movies in the late 90s gave birth to a huge generation of crappy movies that caused a pretty big recession in the late 00’s. But just like a superhero, the industry fought back and came back stronger than ever. I can't wait for the future, it looks bright. 

20 years of Super: '07-'11

2007: This is arguably, the start of the super recession. Ghost rider, Fantastic Four, and Underdog. The aftershock of the realization that the movies of the past fucking suck. Hell the best movie to come out this year was Spider Man 3. People finally caught on that they were scammed into going to these movies that they didn’t even enjoy that much.

2008: This is kind of the bottom of the trough. But the “Stimulus” is firing up and even though it might not make a huge impact, it is stopping the downward spiral. In a perfect summary of the crap of the past, Superhero Movie comes out. It mocks the horrible films of the past. But the light is starting to shine though in two huge, industry defining ways. 

Iron Man and The Dark Knight come out.  They are game changers. They are a new thing for the industry. They are actually good. The Dark Knight is one of the best films of the last decade, including all films.

Iron Man laid the groundwork for the next 20 years of marvel movies. They will come to define a new era in movies. 

Another movie I want to point out is Hancock. I feel it is significant because it takes a realistic approach. At this point, the makers of superhero movies are learning that realistic, gritty, believable stories and characters are better than cheesy stuff. Hancock is an extreme version of that and I think it set the flank of the industry. It is the most real, and believable superhero movie I’ve seen that is worth mentioning.

2009: Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are the two best movies out of a very narrow field. I’ve already mentioned it before, sometimes a year off can be a good thing. Those two movies are good, both follow the new gritty approach to super. They aren’t remembered all that much but they held the line in a time when they easily could’ve been passed up or simplified into stupidity.

2010: Another off year. Iron Man 2 came out. I feel it was rushed. It was good, but could’ve been much better. I think this might have been a slight resurgence of the inflation from the mid 2000s. It was okay though. Kick-Ass also came out. It comes close to the far flank of Hancock for its realness.  It also is one of my favorites. Another off year, but better than before.

2011: This is a huge year for Superhero movies. Marvel takes off. Thor and Captain America come out. They return to the middle ground. Halfway between cheesy and gritty. They take on real issues and they are both very good. Thor wasn’t earth-shattering and the fanboy inside me is dying but Cap’s movie wasn’t either, but they set a precedent for future improvement. 

Marvel also pushed out First Class. My personal favorite for X-Men movies. DC took a step back from Batman by making Green Lantern. We won’t talk about that but it was an attempt to go back to the old ways. If green lantern came out in 2003 it would’ve been one of the best that year, but it came out in ’11 and was one of the worst.

After the downward spiral came some pretty damn good movies. We've come a long way from '96. Superheroes are back in the swing of things and for the first time, possibly every, they compete with other movies and in many cases, win. 

20 years of Super: '96-'06

The Last 20 years of superhero movies is quite revealing, Trends can be tracked and patterns can be seen. This is the first decade I will analyze. Most if this is simply opinion and you are encouraged to disagree. 

1996: Ah yes, a year before I was born. The highest grossing superhero movie was “The Crow: City of Angels” so yes, this is the great depression of superhero movies. It sucks.

1997: The biggest, and only movie of note, was Batman and Robin. It’s an okay movie. But far from great. These are still dark times. Movie producers aren't making superhero movies because there is no money in it.

1998: This is a legendary year for movies, but not for superheroes. The Mask of Zorro was the highest grossing movie, but I’d hardly consider it a super hero movie.  I’d consider this a slight bump but basically irrelevant in the large scale. Hardly any real superhero movies are being made and all of them are low budget and aren't very popular.

1999: Mystery Men is the only superhero movie in this year. Dark times indeed. But still, I’d consider this a tiny movement in the right direction. It’s a fairly good movie but not really a classic, it wont have much of an impact in the long run.

2000: The first X men movie came out. This is huge. I’d consider this a massive turning point. It finally brought awareness back to the genera.  People were actually excited about comic book movies. Movie makers took note and decided to get in the business. 

2001: Nothing. Normally I’d say this is a bad thing but a year off to make some good movie is better than a year of bad movies.

2002: Blade two and Spider Man. I have to argue against the quality of these two but the biggest point is that it brought about even more awareness. People were excited again and these movies made a big splash. The wake of the splash would continue. Quality aside, the sheer quantity of the popularity is noteworthy. 

2003: The second X-Men came out. But so did Daredevil. This is the year that we are beginning to see some of the “inflation”- bad movies that do okay and a whole lot of them. They are trying to cash out on the profit without and regard for accuracy and without any fucks given to the fans. These are the blockbusters that no one remembers.

2004: This is a pretty big year for superheroes. Some good and some bad and some that made a bigger difference than one might expect. Spiderman two and Cat woman came out. I’d say they are equally shitty but they still brought in a lot of dough. Hellboy appeared this year, that’s cool, I’m not a fan but I can appreciate it. The third blade came out. Ugh. But what I’m going to focus on is Punisher. It is cheap, it didn’t do great, but I think it’s important. It is dirty, gritty, it’s just a man who is pushed too far and he kills people. Honestly, it reminds me of a more serious Deadpool. I’d argue that Punisher is part of the reason we see the style of Superhero movies we do today.

2005: We are hitting peak inflation here. A shit load of crappy movies. They made a lot of money but no one looks back at them and says “Wow that was great” Fantastic four, sky high, Shark-Boy and Lava-Girl and many others are good examples of bad movies. It’s not all bad though. Batman Begins came out. That’s a big plus. Other than that, it’s clear we are about to go off a cliff. The money is flowing but attendance is slowing. Some are beginning to question the movies. 

2006: We are starting the downward spiral. Halfway through our journey and it doesn’t look so good. The only light from the great shadow of Superman Returns, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Special, and Zoom is one of my personal favorites, V for Vendetta. Originally a comic book, so I’m counting this one. But it’s a loose connection. 

Shitty movies make a lot of money. It doesn't look good, but what will the second half bring?

Deadpool

Newsflash, Deadpool breaks a crap ton of records in its opening weekend. Why? I'm going to tell you why and give you my own opinions on this movie.

So why is Deadpool so popular?

1. Its gritty. This is a growing trend for superheroes. It started with the Dark Knight series and reverberated across the genera. Superman is snapping necks, the winter soldier kills innocents, and they aren't afraid to kill people in Spiderman. The point is, the trend in these types of films is shooting towards a sense of dirty realism where not everything ends up all happy and you could realistically see that happening.

2. it’s funny. Actually the funniest movie I’ve seen in a while. That includes comedies. It’ll make you bust a gut and the best part is, it’s all completely natural. Nothing is forced. Watching this movie reminded me of hanging out with funny people, they crack jokes and make quips. If it’s your style, it’ll have you rolling.

3. it’s creative. This isn’t the movies doing but the characters. He is a bad superhero. It’s something I’ve never seen before. He makes bad choices, but you really feel good about them. He isn’t an anti-hero because he doesn’t do anything wrong, he just does the right thing in the most violent way possible.

4. Self-awareness. This movie is a giant walking fourth wall break. A lot of times that takes you out of the movie and breaks your focus. But this just sucks you in. A superhero making jokes about the acting skills of a Hollywood star, and the star is playing the superhero. It’s great.

5. Rating. Its rated R thank god. We all came to a movie and knew that a lot of people were going to die. When that is the case, you should go ahead and show that stuff and make it rated R. No one likes the kids in there anyway, they just ruin it.

6. Rudeness. This movie plowed forward with reckless abandon. They gave 0 fucks about the social implications behind what they showed and said. It is dirty, and it knows it, and it doesn’t care. For too long I’ve tried to watch movie that want to be edgy but fail to entertain because they are too afraid to go there. This movie goes there. To use an analogy, blood is to Terinino movies as nasty, dirty, rudeness is to Deadpool.

It’s a great movie with a great story and great characters. I can’t find anything wrong with it. Go watch it in the theatre while you can. It’s that good bro.