DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has expressed his concerns about the current state of superhero movies, calling some of them “really lazy” and “too generic” in a recent appearance on the Inside of You podcast with Smallville’s Michael Rosenbaum. The statements come as ticket sales for The Flash, DC’s new superhero film that couples the speedster with Michael Keaton’s Batman and a new Supergirl played by Sasha Calle, dropped 73 percent in its second week in theaters.
“People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories,” Gunn said. “And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?’”
“People have gotten a little lazy and there’s a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies, and I’m watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don’t feel like there’s a rhyme or reason to what’s happening…I don’t care about the characters,” added Gunn. “And they’ve gotten too generic.”
The solution to the problem? Gunn suggests creating superhero movies of different genres, such as serious, comedic, or even murder mystery films featuring superheroes. This approach would help break away from the “middle-of-the-road” genre and tone that many superhero movies currently have.
“I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies,” Gunn explained. “I like ones that are a murder mystery but it’s with superheroes. I like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again.”
Gunn, who shot to fame after directing Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, also acknowledges that there are too many superhero films and TV shows being produced. However, he assures that the upcoming slate of DC projects will be carefully crafted to ensure quality.
“We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be,” Gunn said.
The relaunch of the DC Universe under Gunn and Peter Safran’s leadership will begin with Superman: Legacy, set to be released in July 2025. Other announced DC projects include a Swamp Thing movie, Supergirl: World of Tomorrow, and a TV series titled Lanterns, while sequels to The Batman and The Joker will exist under the DC Elseworlds banner, separate from the main universe.
Additional reading:
- https://variety.com/2023/film/news/james-gunn-calls-out-lazy-superhero-movies-bad-third-acts-1235654419/
- https://variety.com/2023/film/news/jennifer-lawrence-no-hard-feelings-box-office-opening-the-flash-crashes-1235653983/
- https://www.ign.com/articles/james-gunn-calls-out-really-lazy-superhero-movies-why-is-this-story-special
- https://www.nme.com/news/film/james-gunn-says-superhero-movies-have-become-really-lazy-3461771
- https://ew.com/movies/james-gunn-says-too-many-superhero-movies-have-gotten-really-lazy/
- https://gizmodo.com/flash-movie-box-office-disaster-ticket-sales-dc-wb-1850576141
Discussion (18 replies)
Join Discussion →So this is Gunn saying. "See guys this isn't me... the NEXT superhero movie (that does well) from DC will be me."
He's clearly deflecting and probably was all along.
Would love to see the market turn around and all of a sudden the movie start doing well to see how he tries to pivot to show this was under his leadership.
Right now for DC they should be realizing Snyder was the way to have gone and be kicking themselves that they didn't go all in. Instead they shake up everything going with someone that was corporately successful and hope they can right this ship.
When what they should be doing is looking at what the DC animated teams are doing a freaking double downing with them to crank out more great content.
The genre has been exploited too intensively for too long. Thats the problem. Theres are retching sounds in my mind between super and hero and movie
It wouldn't be so bad if super hero movies didn't seem like the only thing that was out more than half the time. It's as if movie studios won't bother with much else and certainly won't green light anything that they don't think will make a billion dollars or more.
Just make good movies and they will be successful, simple as that. Blaming lockdowns, superhero fatigue, or the market, is all BS.
If the flash was good it wouldn't have dropped off a cliff because those who have seen it would be telling everyone else to go see it.
This 100% THIS. I'm no longer of a mind to see a super hero movie just because. I did that at first because I wanted more, then they made some really good ones that shocked everyone. Now they can't stop churning them out but the quality has slipped OR they are targeting more and more niche markets with them to be inclusive and pull in a wider breadth of viewers. (Which I am all for not every movie has to be made for me to love it.)
Case in Point the Ms Marvel series... was a lot of fun. I also enjoyed the Capitan Marvel movie when it came out and now I'm kinda looking forward to the next one. Humanizing the titular uber hero should be fun.
Superman needs his kryptonite to have an enjoyable movie. If the superhero is just flawless and nothing can hurt him there goes the suspense. Nowadays even non-superhero movies are made like this, the hero never gets hurt, or just shrugs it off. The action looses its stakes if you know they can survive anything and defeat anything.
I think you are referencing a particular movie where a hero hides behind a LADDER from a machine gun firing into the room they are in. A OPEN LADDER. It was like the air gaps were also bullet proof let alone a aluminum ladder.
A talented enough team could make a good movie based on just about anything, but the Flash has never seemed like a particularly interesting character to me — more like a supporting/side hero at best. And I don't know that the actor chosen for the lead role is doing the movie any favors.
As far as superhero movies are concerned, I would be more interested to watch a movie based on the Green Arrow. The Green Arrow is from DC comics, and the TV series Arrow was successful. Although I've never read the comic books, there are some parallels with Batman. The fact that they're both mortals with exceptional (but not supernatural) abilities and can in theory be killed is one of the things that make them more interesting to me.
I'm still not going to buy a ticket and go to a theater to watch any movie. It's probably been more than five years since I've gone to a movie theater.
What movie was that? Why didn't the hero just outrun the bullets as they do in most action movies?
He's (Gunn) not wrong but at this point I'm even burned out on them and I used to really look forward to them but not anymore. At this point I do want more sci-fi/fantasy but original IPs instead of rehashed crap and reboots. The only exceptions are GrimJack or an AvP Space marine based on Darkhorse stuff, or maybe get Urban back for another Dredd movie. There are comic book options and they don't have to be super hero's.
Ever since Ezra Miller was revealed as a total psycho I can't watch any movie with the Flash, I wouldn't see the character, just the douche playing it.
Extraction 2
Right. Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper should have had that role.
Same. If there had been any confusion about who was playing the Flash, "total psycho" and "douche" removed it.
Ironic, considering James Gunn called The Flash the best superhero movie he had ever seen.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA did he really?!