Summer means different things to different people. For me, one of my favorite summer pastimes is the annual influx of new superhero movies. With more than a dozen slated to be released in the next few years, it could be hard to keep who is doing what straight or to simply understand why people dig them so much.
X-Men
While the franchise did go off the rails a bit in recent years, the original that opened up many people’s eyes to the superhero subgenre still holds up as a strong film 15 years later. The story revolves around the “good” mutants and the “bad” ones waging war with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Simple, yet effective.
Josh Gamez
The Crow
While this early 1990s venture isn’t a traditional superhero movie as many see it today, the movie takes place a few years after the murder of Eric Draven (played by the late Brandon Lee) and his fiance on October 30. Draven rises from the dead to avenge his and his fiance’s murder. While a simple concept, it is superbly done.
The Dark Knight Trilogy
If any movie changed the perception of the standard superhero movie, the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy did it. Nolan’s vision of Gotham City was much grittier than most comic book universes depicted up to that point. But that isn’t a bad thing. If anything, it makes it that much easier to get sucked into the story and the characters that are quite possibly some of the most interesting in all of comic book culture.
The Avengers
If the Dark Knight films turned the superhero movie into a gritty crime drama, The Avengers flipped the popular point of view back to the more classic approach — awesome fight scenes and huge explosions. However, both are executed wonderfully and both are enjoyable in their own way (and Robert Downey Jr. is an awesome Tony Stark).
Spider-Man
With yet another Peter Parker reboot in the works, the story of Peter Parker is fresh in most people’s minds. While the “Amazing Spiderman” film franchise is an enjoyable one, there is something about the classic starring Tobey McGuire. The original sets the stage for the rest of the series, and in a great way. It’s pretty straightforward, Peter gets his powers and he finds different things to do with said powers and ultimately he saves the city … leaving all of the other details for the viewer to find out, obviously.
Josh Gamez can be reached at [email protected]