SuperMovie

If you asked a group of people, fifteen years ago if they liked Spiderman, you'd probably hear a room full of crickets. Now though the tables have turned and comics in general are in the mainstream. It is no more a social gaffe to know that Logan is really James Hackett and that he was subjected to the Weapon X experiments during World War II thus creating the animalistic adamantium-laced superhero known as Wolverine. Since X-Men came out in 2000, people and filmmakers have turned thier attention to the box office phenomenon. Because not only do superhero movies make big returns for studios, but they are also very thoughtful and well made films, well at least some are. Here is a short list of some of the major superhero films made as of 2000:

1. X-Men
2. X-Men 2
3. Daredevil
4. Eleckra
5. Hulk
6. Spiderman
7. Spiderman 2
8. Blade 2
9. Blade Trinity
10. Fantastic Four
11. V For Vendetta
12. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
13. X-Men 3
14. Ghostrider
15. Batman Begins
16. Superman Returns
17. The Punisher
18. Constantine
19. 300
20. Catwoman

I added 300, Constantine, LXG, and V for Vendetta even though they aren't traditional comics rather they were adapted from graphic novels. But they have superpowers (John Constantine could see demons, V had super strength. Leonidas didn't have any real super powers other than being a complete and total bad-ass.) I added Catwoman because, even though it was said to be a heaping pile of wasted celluloid, it is still about a superhero.

What I think is great about superhero movies, is that they take away the apparent juvenescence of comics and injected a new maturity to them. These characters are no longer just beings with incredible powers but they have mulitple dimensions with doubts and conflicts. But the thing is, these comics had all of these before. Filmmakers didn't just make all that up for the movies, those qualities have been there since the beginning. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the majority of people either, couldn't or didn't want to, see that.

I just read an interview with Robert Downey, Jr about his research into Tony Stark aka Iron Man. He said that this character was going to be different because of the core character that Stark is: a womanizing alcoholic who dons a protective armored suit to stay alive after he is mortally wounded. Stark sounds like an anti-hero and the first of it's kind in a mainstream superhero film. Blade could be defined as an anti-hero but that film is and forever shall be under the radar (sadly) of films like X-Men or Spiderman. But Iron Man will be the Hud of superhero films and I personally can't wait to see it.