There’s no such thing as a “hero movie” genre
Hero Movie is not a genre. It’s just a something.
It’s a great time to be a nerd. We can see all our favorite comic characters in huge Hollywood productions. We can watch high-budget shows with complex stories that we love, with famous amazing actors.
The entertainment area is being so overloaded with those “Comic books” attractions that some people are already complaining that “there are too much hero movies”. There’s even a term for that: superhero fatigue. But what the hell is a “hero movie”?
One may say that it’s a movie based in comic books. Is Sin City a hero movie then? Is V for Vendetta a hero movie? What about 300? Scott Pilgrim vs The World? Hell, is Road to Perdition a hero movie?
People might argue that is not “hero movie”, but “superhero movie”. It would be someone with super powers, like Superman, Hulk, Wonder Woman — or with some tool that would give the guy a super power, like Iron Man or Ant Man. And maybe Luke Skywalker. He have a “super power” as well. Is Star Wars a hero movie? And Batman has no super powers. Is it NOT a hero movie?
“Hero” is a vague expression. Since Joseph Campbell stablished the concept of the “Hero’s journey”, in 1949, many movies are using this structure as a way for telling a story. It’s easy and it works: divided in three acts, with some milestones, it represents the way a hero can be driven into an adventure (it can be better explained in a further article or you can understand it here) and it’s being widely used; from Star Wars to The Lion King, from The Lord of The Rings to Kill Bill, from Harry Potter to Matrix… Everyone is a hero. Every movie is a hero movie. Shit, La La Land follows this structure.
At the same time, no hero movie is a hero movie. Guardians of the Galaxy is a comedy. Captain America is a politic thriller. Logan is a road-movie. Wonder Woman a war movie… Action movies, adventures, romances, thrillers… There are much to explore using super-heroes and comic books characters: in the next releases, “The New Mutants” will be a horror movie and “Ant man vs the Wasp” was recently announced as a romantic comedy. And it wouldn’t be the first one: Spiderman 2 (from the Sam Raimi trilogy) is already a romantic comedy — a really good one and, in my opinion, the best “hero movie” so far.
Yeah. I know the last sentence may sound incredibly incoherent: I am saying that “hero movies” does not exists and telling which “hero movie” is my favorite.
We can just assume that movies based on “Marvel” and “DC” characters are hero movies, once they are both the top leading comic companies. This may leave out Kick-Ass or Constantine, but it’s the closest definition we can get. However, it is still not a genre: the genre is whatever the producers want them to be. Seeing all those amazing and different movies as the same style is lazy and incorrect. When someone says that they don’t like hero movies, it’s maybe not the “hero movies” per se that they don’t like, but action movies centred on a character with super powers. I can accept that. But that person may like romantic comedies, or drama, or noir, or terror, or whatever — and the history can be around a comic hero.
I’m aware part of the problem comes from the studios, that usually take the easy path and produces all the movies as a funny action with a manichaean villain and similar arc of history, creating something to sell toys and leaving an open-end to eventual sequels. That specific type of story is the one that people might starting to get tired of.
If they want to keep producing relevant movies and content for the next decades, those studios have to be aware of that as well. Announcing an horror movie and a romantic comedy seems to show that they know the audience is looking for something different. Marvel is already slowly going that way. Their next huge-blockbuster-production will be decisive on setting up the path for the future of the studio: Avengers 4 (will be divided in 2 movies). It will be the result of more than a decade of planning and as Kevin Feige told Vanity Fair, those movies will “bring things you’ve never seen in superhero films: a finale.”
What does not mean they’re over.
But hopefully they will keep existing in many different ways for many years to come.
