Every time a Marvel or DC movie comes out and underperforms, "superhero fatigue" re-enters the conversation... until the next film comes along and smashes the box office to pieces.
To be fair, it has been a while since we've had two back-to-back superhero "blockbusters" (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods) fail to meet studio expectations (and pretty much tank completely in the latter's case).
Have audiences become tired of the formula, or is it simply a case of sub-par movies failing to put butts on seats?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn was asked about the concept of superhero fatigue during a recent interview, and he feels it is a real thing - but believes the bigger issue is a lack of engaging stories in major studio tent-poles in general.
"I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue," the filmmaker tells Rolling Stone. "I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes. "It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts."
"If it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring," he continued. "But I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”
Do you agree with Gunn's take?
GOTG Vol. 3 hits theaters next month, and we've heard great things, so it'll be very interesting to see how the MCU threequel performs at the box office.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.