Reel Facts & Opinions

FACT: Fans who went to see CAPTAIN AMERICA this past weekend were treated to two early trailers for major superhero releases next year; THE AVENGERS (!) and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. The Spidey trailer confirmed for what many had been fearing; that this is not a 3rd sequel to the Sam Raimi-directed films from the past decade, but an outright reboot that retells the story of the webslinger’s origins.

OPINION: Reboots have worked before. The Batman and Star Trek franchises have recently benefitted from the approach. But in this case, everything is against Spidey. First off, Raimi’s first SPIDER-MAN film, which also told the origins, was only nine years ago and still fresh in people’s minds. Fans are going to have a hard time sitting through the now familiar and nearly tired tale. The film, which has a top-heavy cast in the form of Andrew Garfield, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary and Emma Stone, will also have a struggle at the box office; THE AVENGERS and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES will likely bury it.

FACT: A recent article on www.deadline.com offers the interesting argument that the downfall of the superhero film is well on its way. With the major players in DC Comics and Marvel nearly exhausting their talent pool with new films every year, soon or later they will run out of A-listers.

OPINION: It is true that there are only so many superheroes that can be poached for the big screen, but both Marvel and DC should be all right for a bit yet; THE AVENGERS will likely go at least three films over the next five years, as will their new Spider-man, and DC is working on rebooting Superman for 2013. Unfortunately, Hollywood’s answer to a depleted well is to just refill (reboot) it. Maybe letting the well run dry and stay dry is the right thing to do; even this Blogger can have too much to drink.

What say you?