Those born in the 90’s experienced a rush of original movies. You might remember films such as “Scream”, “Titanic,” and “The Matrix” that challenged the status quo of filmmaking. I remember that “Titanic” created a whole new awareness for historical monuments that society had forgotten and added the wonder of the question ‘What happened to them?’ I will also never forget the first time I saw ‘The Matrix’ (I doubt anyone would!). The way Neo had to navigate his way through the new reality outside of the matrix definitely made me re-think the world around me.

It wasn’t long until film adaptations of comic books flooded the film industry. Who could blame the big movie houses for producing them? With the development of more detailed CGI and revolutionary film technology who wouldn’t want heroes from the 19th century to finally breathe and kick some butt with high powered explosives in 3D? One of my favorite super hero films are Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy. I loved the authenticity of Batman’s goals as well as the raw reality of the villains that make their actions against the hero believable.

As I was looking at some upcoming films, I noticed a trend: over the past decade, comic books heroes have become more prevalent. But is this a good thing?

Comic book heroes: have they overstayed their welcome?

At first this was the best news in the world for film nerds (including myself). The action scenes were new, fresh, and exhilarating. The characters and costumes cool and one of a kind. Yet, through the years, the explosives kept blowing up, heroes were only as good as their next smart alec one liners, and the characters felt all the same. Yet, Hollywood insisted that the public needed a never-ending string of sequels and re-boots of films that should only have had one shot.

The original X-Men film helped to establish the mark for comic book movies. Until the second one came out, and then another one….and another one. The same can be said for the Spider Man film series, which evidentially, is getting a re-boot with the director of “(500) Days of Summer” even though it hasn’t even been a decade since they were first released.

Filmmakers’ superhero emphasis stifles creativity

With the overload of mainstream superhero movies, I feel like I have been visually chewing on a stale piece of gum for the past ten years. The big movie companies may think that their safe choices are sure moneymakers, but this overly cautious approach of selecting a film to make is what is causing our generation’s creativity to stagnate. Taking a risk on something is not supposed to be safe, that is why they call it a “risk” in the first place.

When parents take their children to see an action movie, it sets a standard within that child as to what ‘creativity’ is. Yet when that child, like thousands of others, have watched nothing but the same type of action, the same type of characters, the same type of struggles, the imagination of that up and coming generation is bound to be nothing more than mediocre, at best.

Do you think Hollywood’s focus on superheroes is over done? Is there something else they should be focusing on?