Cut Scenes: The summer in genre film

Pardon me for subscribing to a very mild generalization, but if you’re a hardcore gamer, there’s a good chance you enjoy genre films. That is, you’ve got a taste for sci-fi, action, comic book or adventure flicks. It makes sense – in this transmedia, franchise-happy landscape, most gamers just tend to be avid consumers of entertainment, and TV/films are starting to borrow heavily from gaming and internet culture, so much so that it makes sense to cover it all on a site like gamertell. Plus, Comic-Con just ended, and everyone is abuzz over crossover games and movies, not to mention that kick-ass Watchmen trailer.

So this week, I’d like to take a peek at the non-interactive world, and ponder just why this summer’s genre offerings are doing so well at the box office. The quick answer: because most of them have been shockingly good. I may be generalizing yet again, but I firmly believe that it’s a great time to be a nerd.

Not too long ago, comic book movies were kind of a joke. Aside from a few excellent standouts like the ‘70s/’80s Superman flicks, they were poorly written, badly acted, and often entirely embarrassing affairs. A few years ago (I’m going to say the early 2000s) this all turned around when big time talent (directors, stars, screenwriters, etc.) came on board to make serious, layered films that just happened to star superheroes. I’m looking specifically at the X-Men and Spiderman flicks (the first two of each franchise), though there are plenty of other solid examples from around the same time. Since then, the genre has been a bit hit-or-miss, for every excellent flick like Sin City, there’s a ridiculous pile of steaming schlock like Daredevil or Catwoman.

This summer, however, there have been several solid, decently-performing comic book flicks. Hulk, Hancock, Hellboy 2 and especially Iron Man outperformed the hell out of this summer’s estimates, and each received decent critical attention. The Dark Knight has hit it out of the park so hard and so far that it’s forever raised the bar for what can/should be achieved in a comic book flick.

And that’s not all, folks. Wall-E was a fantastic, Oscar-caliber film about one thing gamers can always appreciate: robots. Well, it’s really about providing an anti-materialist message (the irony of this considering it’s status as a Disney-partnered production is lost on no one) and it’s an achievement in animation and nearly-dialogue free storytelling, as well as one of the most endearing and entertaining movies of the year.

There are a few theories on why genre movies are so popular at this point in time. The most commonsense explanation makes sense to me: when the (US) economy is in the toilet, people want to engage in some low-cost escapism. I’d like to further add that superhero flicks tend to be so popular in shakier times due to the appeal of the superhero – the idea that one guy can be so powerful and overcome enemies in a tangible, spectacular way is in fact, empowering. But all the pop psychology doesn’t explain how these movies got so damn good all of a sudden.

That, my friends is a tougher nut to crack. I think it has a lot to do with the increasing popularity of shows like Lost, Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, which have been instrumental in making “genre” entertainment wildly popular again. Some of it must have to do with the simple fact that fans have become more vocal, demanding, and able to be heard in our great age of the internet. And maybe – just maybe – filmmakers are just now figuring out how to capture this kind of audience with the characters, story lines and settings that speak to both nerds and average moviegoers.

Read [Wired]