James Gunn has spoken up about his frustrations with recent superhero movies. The director of the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy and The Suicide Squad admits there is too much superhero content out there but does still believe there is a future for the genre.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Inside of You podcast; the new head of DC Studios revealed that he won’t go overboard with too much new content to minimize over-saturation. He also explained that he wanted to avoid derided stories that failed to differentiate themselves from other generic tales.
Going ahead with the DC cinematic universe, he is looking to avoid making superhero movies that lack any reason other than using an already popular character.
“People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. 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?”
He added further insight to his opinions on the popular genre:
“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?”
Gunn, who is working alongside Peter Safran, has a full ten-year schedule planned for DC. Which includes Superman: Legacy and The Brave and the Bold as well as television series Waller, Creature Commandos, and Booster Gold.
At least James Gunn understands that the genre is a little full at the moment and that audiences would rather have quality over quantity.
“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 assured.
The Brightburn director also went into detail on the podcast about the specific issues he had with modern superhero movies. He explained that he had become disappointed in “tepid third acts,” where there are little to no character payoffs.
“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. And they’ve gotten too generic.” Considering Gunn has a hand in creating some of Marvel’s most beloved on-screen characters, we trust his judgment.
The director revealed how he would make audiences care more about the genre and its characters. He explains that it starts with embracing other cinematic genres. He believes that superhero movies have issues connecting with audience members because they have “this sort of middle-of-the-road type of genre and tone.”
“I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies. I like ones that are a murder mystery but it’s with superheroes. like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again.”
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