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Even Tom Hanks is talking about it. “Superhero Fatigue” is a thing in Hollywood right now. As the MCU enters the fifth phase (or is it sixth?) and the DC Universe has yet another confusing reboot, the suits are acutely worried that their dominant income stream of recent years may be losing its luster in the eyes of the movie-going public.
Many creatives have chimed in on this, with varying degrees of hyperbole, from both sides of the argument. The latest to enter the arena is Tom Hanks.
Talking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (as reported by Dark Horizons) to promote Here, his new movie with Robert Zemeckis, he made what seemed like the most reasonable and nuanced take on the argument to date. There is an important question that must be asked:
“I think we are now enjoying the luxury of riches because you can make anything happen on screen. We are being brought back to the concept, ‘Okay, that’s true, but what is the story.’
Without a doubt now, I’ve used this analogy before so I apologise, you can drain Lake Michigan and fill it with cuckoo clocks and form a three-headed dragon that breathes fire and destroys the city of Chicago. You can do that but to what purpose is the end of the day? What’s the story and what’s it going to be saying about us?
I think there was a period of time, and I felt that way too, where we would see these fantastic movies either DC or MCU in order to see these better versions of ourselves. ‘God, I feel like an X-Man sometimes. I’m as confused as Spider-Man. I’m as angry as Batman is and I love my country as much as Captain America. I would like to emulate all those guys.’
I think we’ve been down that road and had probably 20 years, 15 years, to explore that kind of thing and now I think we’re in an evolutionary place of, ‘And the story is what? And the theme is what? And the point of this movie is what?’
That’s a good challenge for any filmmaker, it might just not land in the roundhouse for the industry. The industry often says, ‘Well, this works and it will work again.’ The audience is far ahead of it. They see the familiar and say, ‘I’ve seen that already. What’s next?’ It’s not just eye-popping stuff, it’s what’s the story? Tell me about myself. We’re in new territory.”
Hanks also confirmed he hasn’t had any approaches from either the MCU or the DC Universe:
“I’m not in their wheelhouse. I’m not against it, I guess”.
Now all I am thinking about is if Hanks could go totally against type and play a major villain on one of these stories?
The post Hanks Talks Sense On Superheroes appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
