Ryan Reynolds starred in « Paper Man. » Artfire Films There is no denying that Marvel and DC Comics release the biggest amount of great superhero movies…
Ryan Reynolds starred in « Paper Man. »
Artfire Films
There is no denying that Marvel and DC Comics release the biggest amount of great superhero movies on a regular basis. On the Marvel side, there are the very lucrative « Avengers » films, the critically-acclaimed « Thor: Ragnarok, » as well as the films who manage to succeed by every measure, such as « Black Panther. » On the DC side, there are Oscar-worthy films like « The Dark Knight, » profitable projects such as « Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, » and also critical and commercial blockbusters like « Wonder Woman. » However, Marvel has occasionally failed its fans, and DC is no stranger to criticism .
When it comes to superhero movies outside of the Marvel and DC spectrum, we occasionally get to watch exciting projects such as « Hellboy, » « Unbreakable, » « The Incredibles, » and « RoboCop, » which show that you do not necessarily need decades of published graphic novels or a major comic book company behind you in order to be successful. However, more often than not, superhero movies from non-Marvel or DC properties turn out to be disappointing, exposing the studios that try to capitalize on a genre that they do not understand through characters that audiences do not care about.
1994’s « The Crow » starring Brendon Lee became a cult hit that has withstood the test of time. Directed by Alex Proyas — who went on to direct 2004’s « I, Robot » — and written by David J. Schow and John Shirley, the film was based on James O’Barr’s superhero comic book series of the same name, and became one of Miramax’s three big hits from that year, along with « Pulp Fiction » and « Clerks. »
However, as sequels started to get greenlit with literally no one from the original production team behind it, the franchise failed to succeed. 1996’s « The Crow: City of Angels » and 2000’s « The Crow: Salvation » were badly received by audiences and critics, but even those films managed to be better than what would come later, 2005’s « The Crow: Wicked Prayer, » which ultimately became the franchise’s very last installment.
The 1980s and 1990s were great decades for Billy Zane: two « Back to the Future » installments, « Titanic, » and « Twin Peaks. » He was enjoying an all-time high demand. But among those incredible successes, the actor starred in a big-budget superhero film called « The Phantom, » which came with the extraordinarily unimpressive tagline » Slam evil. »
The Phantom had a very poor performance at the box office, failing to even reach $20 million domestically.
Despite the claims from Paramount that the movie did very well on VHS and DVD sales, a planned sequel — rumored to have Catherina Zeta-Jones in the cast — never actually happened.
With the commercial and critical success of 2008’s « Iron Man » and « The Dark Knight, » the studio discussed possibly rebooting the franchise, but the plans never got off the ground.
Before outright buying Marvel, Disney decided that it should develop its very own superhero franchise, which was certainly prompted by the massive success that Sony was having with Sam Raimi’s « Spider-Man » trilogy.
Disney’s « Sky High » was released in 2005 starring Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. It was about a high school for teenage superheroes, which at once gave audiences a Harry Potter/Hogwarts feel while still also trying to capitalize on the superhero genre. On paper, it was a win/win concept for the studio. However, the story of Will Stronghold going to class at Sky High was not compelling enough for audiences, which prompted the film to receive lackluster reviews and weak box office earnings.
A year later, the Disney Channel beat its own parent studio with the release of « High School Musical, » which became a much more successful high school-based franchise than « Sky High. »
1997’s « Spawn, » which has an 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes, is largely lauded as one of the worst superhero movies of all time.
This live-action adaptation of an otherwise incredibly interesting and compelling character was directed by Mark A. Z. Dippé, whose credits included extensive visual effects work in movies such as « Jurassic Park » and « The Abyss. » The film’s writer, Alan B. McElroy, had previously written « Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers » and later became known for the independent horror franchise « Wrong Turn, » which spun six installments.
A commercial and critical failure, the Spawn cinematic franchise did toy with the possibility of a sequel, which was never brought to life.
Despite never being officially canceled, that version of « Spawn 2 » is probably never going to happen, and for good reason. Creator Todd McFarlane is hard at work on a reboot, however.
Veteran music video director Paul Hunter had his theatrical debut in 2003’s « Bulletproof Monk, » a glossy superhero movie starring « Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s » Chow Yun-fat and « American Pie’s » Seann William Scott. Budgeted at over $50 million, the film was unable to even make $40 million and has a 23% score o n Rotten Tomatoes.
On the music side, Paul Hunter directed the likes of Snoop Dogg, Aaliyah, Eminem, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Marilyn Manson, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, Pharrell, and Jamie Foxx in several music videos from the 1990s to the 2010s. In the business of movies, however, the failure of « Bulletproof Monk » was apparently big enough for the director to take a step back and focus on his area of expertise.
It was 2006 and romantic comedies were still at an all-time high. Fox envisioned a rom-com starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson, got Wanda Sykes and Anna Faris involved, and came up the following twist: the main guy’s ex-girlfriend has superpowers.
Aside from the misogynistic tone throughout the entire plot of the film, « My Super Ex-Girlfriend » is just a weak film by virtually every standard.
It was received poorly by critics, earned very little at the box office, and went on to become a very forgettable movie that attempted to capitalize on the superhero genre.
Considering that both volumes of « Kill Bill » had just been released in 2003 and 2004, it is somewhat baffling that Uma Thurman chose to sign on to such a weak and problematic project like « My Super Ex-Girlfriend. »
Starring Tim Allen and Courteney Cox, 2006’s « Zoom » shared a couple of similarities with the ill-fated « Sky High, » which had premiered a year before. The film was essentially about experienced superheroes training super-powered teens, who were played by a young Kate Mara — who would later become the « House of Cards, » « The Martian, » and « Fantastic Four » superstar — and Kevin Zegers, who later thrived in the horror genre.
« Zoom’s » lackluster special effects and weak performances resulted in a $12 million box office performance, which was less than a fifth of its $75 million budget.
Taking into consideration that Sony was at the time enjoying the blockbuster results of 2002’s « Spider-Man » and its 2004 and 2007 sequels, « Zoom » was undoubtedly a massive commercial disappointment for the studio’s projects in the superhero genre.
The 1990s installments of « Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles » struck the right balance between seriousness and camp, making the characters appealing to children — who were the target audience of the film — and properly transforming the cartoon property into a live-action project.
Then came along 2014’s « Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, » which was arguably influenced by the success of the « Transformers » cinematic franchise and thus turned these humorous superhero turtles into somber CGI characters that were unappealing to look at and uninteresting to follow.
Both the 2014 reboot and its 2016 « Out of the Shadows » sequel were poorly received by audiences and critics alike.
On Rotten Tomatoes, « Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles » has a score of 22%, which is among the lowest in the entire history of the franchise.
Starring Ben Winchell in the title role, 2016’s « Max Steel » was a live-action adaptation of the famous Mattel action figure of the same name. It was brought to life as a superhero sci-fi project that had the unreasonable budget of $10 million, which explains much of its shortcomings.
Max Steel redefines all concepts of what a bad superhero movie is.
It has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and, even two years later, it has only earned $6.2 million at the domestic and international box office. In a review, « Variety’s » Joe Leydon called the film « A half-baked, time-wasting curtain-raiser for a superhero franchise that is never, ever going to happen. »
Mattel, the toy maker, is currently working on the live-action adaptations « Monster High » (with Universal) and « Barbie » (with Sony).
2009’s « Paper Man, » otherwise known as « Unlikely Hero, » was a pre-« Green Lantern » failure for Ryan Reynolds in the superhero genre.
