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№ 6 The State of the Super Hero Movie

Season 1

Date

2011-02-15

Featuring

Ben, Matt

Length

1:49:09

Category

Main Topic

Time Looped as

№ 258

Skip

2018-01-26

Mostly predictions of which superhero movies will be good.

Firsts

  • Discussion of postmodernism
  • Ben challenges Superman movie fans to defend the film
  • Phone line set up
  • Mention of Heroes (Ben has not yet seen it)
  • Feedback from Colin from the UK
  • Audio feedback (from Scott Hertzog)

Future Episodes

  • Talan Gwynn
  • Human cloning
  • Cryosleep
  • Near-future technology
  • Parallel universes
  • LOST
  • Top 5 sci-fi TV show theme songs
  • Superman 1-4 commentary
  • The Prestige

Prophecy

Ben
Unlikely that Daredevil will have a big screen comeback
Although he will have a Netflix series that both hosts will enjoy.
Matt
DC and WB will continue to make Batman movies in the Nolan-verse
Ben
Nolan will continue as executive producer and make more movies in the Nolan-verse
Half correct: Nolan was the executive producer for Batman v Superman and Justice League
Ben
If Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern get negative or lukewarm responses it will bring on another period of superhero fatigue.
Thor and Captain America got generally positive responses, but I will count this as true because it was true for Ben personally.
Ben
The superhero genre has solid 4 or 5 years, then another major franchise will need to emerge.
As of 2018, Marvel is still the premier superhero franchise and has shown no signs of slowing down.
Matt
Superheroes will not bring us through postmodernism; Watchmen is a good reflection of the culture.
Looks like this will be correct
Ben
Postmodernism will break down, due in part to superhero films
Has not happened yet, and Ben now wants no more superhero movies, so maybe was too optimistic.

Opening

Matt played Pandemic for the first time

News

Good Omens miniseries coming Now due to be released in 2019

Rumor: Marion Cotillard is Talia al Ghul

Ryan Reynolds will do a Deadpool standalone movie Finally made in 2016

Unbreakable will be a trilogy Happened in 2016

Main Topic

Phases of Superhero Movies

  1. Early (1978-1997, Superman-Batman and Robin)
  2. Rennaisance (2000-2005, includes X-Men 1-2, Spider-Man 1-2, Batman Begins)
  3. Fatigue (2005-2008, includes Ghost Rider, Electra, Punisher, Fantastic Four, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Wolverine, Spider-Man 3)
  4. Rejuvenation (2008-, The Dark Knight, Iron Man)

Factors to determine the future of the superhero genre

  1. Will The Avengers succeed?
  2. What happens to Batman post-Nolan?
  3. Will X-Men: First Class be a successful spinoff?
  4. Will The Amazing Spider-Man be a successful reboot?
  5. Can lesser-known characters like Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern be successful?

Superhero Genre Predictions

Ben

  1. Successful
  2. Nolan will continue as executive producer and make more movies in the Nolan-verse
  3. Good actors, will be awesome
  4. It will be awesome
  5. Captain America successful, Thor will be the best of the three but will get a so-so reception, Green Lantern bad

Matt

  1. Successful
  2. DC and WB will continue to make Batman movies in the Nolan-verse
  3. Will be good, not successful
  4. In my mind, there is almost no way it can fail.
  5. High hopes for Captain America, low hopes for Thor (it won't get many sequels unless it's fantastic), no hopes for Green Lantern (will not get sequels)

Hopefully superhero movies will help bring us through postmodernism.

The genre is unique because it's currently the only one that's mythological.

Will directors and studios see the success of The Dark Knight as caused by it's dark and gritty feel or because it had things deep and objective to say? Sorry guys, they took dark and gritty

Feedback

Hopefully someday, Ben, we'll have enough listeners calling in that we can have whole episodes about listener feedback also. Interesting. That would be fun. That would be fun.

Archivist Note

Both are very optimistic about the superhero film genre, Ben even more so than Matt.