I woke up this morning, checked the box office numbers for the weekend, and saw with horror and disappointment (but not, I admit, surprise) that the new Spider-Man film (the second in a shamelessly rebooted series) is going to pull in $90 million at the North American box office.
Amazing Spider-Man? You want to see amazing? Try “Nebraska” or “August: Osage County”. And yet, those kinds of films make less in their entire cinematic runs than a superhero film makes in popcorn sales on its opening night.
Every once in awhile a superhero film does accomplish a truly herculean feat: it attains depth and profundity (the Batman series sorely did need a reboot and we can be thankful Christopher Nolan stepped up to the plate). But the vast, vast majority are men (and the occasional woman) in tights, bouncing around New York (or some other metropolis) amidst a flurry of CGI explosions whilst being chased by a “villain” that looks like it was dreamed up by a ten year old boy at recess.
And what does the future look like? “Batman vs. Superman” and “Flash” and “Shazam” and a flurry of additional shameless reboots and maybe another “Hulk” movie and “Aquaman vs. Industrial Aqua-culture” (that sounds like a winner!) and …
The one bit of good news is that there are currently no plans afoot to launch “Captain Canada” on his cinematic career. Thank the Lord for little graces…
