Current Events > What superhero films would you consider "genre-defining"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Off the top of my head:

Superman: The Movie - Obvious reasons

Batman 89 - Provided a darker, more grounded counterpart to the superhero film sub-genre.

X-Men 1 and 2 - First mainstream superhero movies to really tackle social commentary well

Spider-Man 1 and 2 - Superhero films that managed to combine interpersonal relationship drama with the campy fun of a comic book (something that would go on to define MUCH of the MCU)

The Dark Knight - Took the more serious and grounded tone of Batman 89 and elevated it even further, with the movie feeling more like a character study than anything that came before it

Iron-Man - Broke traditional superhero movie norms by giving us a protagonist who's narcissistic and would be thoroughly unlikable if not for being portrayed by the extremely charismatic RDJ

The Avengers - Obviously kickstarted the trend of having a shared universe crossing over different movie series

Guardians of the Galaxy - Proved that any premise, no matter how utterly ridiculous and how unknown the characters are, could make for a successful, beloved movie

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Much like The Dark Knight, it's a movie that feels less like an outright superhero movie and more like another subgenre of films with some superheroism sprinkled in (in this case, a spy/political-thriller starring Captain America)

Deadpool - Brought R-rated action-comedies starring anti-heroes to the forefront

Logan - A tearjerker story that elevates above and beyond the conventions of the superhero movie genre by feeling closer to something like No Country For Old Men vs a standard superhero movie like the Spider-Man movies

Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame - Somehow managed to not fumble the ball of satisfyingly closing out a story arc that spanned 10 years and 20+ movies.

Black Panther - The cultural impact this movie left, particularly for blacks, cannot be overstated and proved that a mainstream superhero movie starring 90% black characters played by black actors and worked on by black filmmakers could still be a massive box office and critical success even by superhero movie standards.

Into the Spider-Verse - Undeniably the best animated superhero movie out there that's based off of a pre-existing IP.

Spider-Man No Way Home - This may be a bit early, but now that it's beaten The Flash movie to the "multiverse" punch, I think that concept is definitely something a lot of movie studios are gonna want to explore with their film franchises, between bringing back old actors and having an excuse to revisit previous interpretations of a character.

Anything else you guys would add?

I'll also add Wonder Woman for FINALLY being the first good superhero movie to star a female lead.

Spider-Man 1 really made superhero films work, started the whole trend that's lead to this MCU monolith.

Blade.

Guide posted...

Spider-Man 1 really made superhero films work, started the whole trend that's lead to this MCU monolith.

Agreed! And it's still an incredibly enjoyable movie to this day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc5C8ihR7DQ

Fony posted...

Blade.

I hesitate to put Blade here. Not because it's not really good, but because I feel like its influence is limited by the fact that most people didn't even know it was based off of a Marvel Comic series when it first came out.

Although an argument can be made that it did influence the aesthetic of many of the superhero films from the early 2000s.

Spider-Man, Superman: The Movie, Avengers and Batman '89 are probably the Top 4.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

I hesitate to put Blade here. Not because it's not really good, but because I feel like its influence is limited by the fact that most people didn't even know it was based off of a Marvel Comic series when it first came out.

Blade isn't really a "superhero" film, imo. It's a vampire action film.

into spiderverse

batman beyond return of joker

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

blacks

-___-

Blankman.

Ratchetrockon posted...

batman beyond return of joker

That seemed like more of what we already got in the show. But if you're gonna pick a Dini verse movie, what about Mask of the Phantasm.

If you expand "super hero" to "comic book," Joker would need to make the list.

Watchmen has given us well over a decade of dreary crapsack-world DC films desperately trying to recreate it. That's gotta count for something.

Ang Lee's Hulk quietly reshaped how mainstream moviegoers see the character.

DarkChozoGhost posted...

If you expand "super hero" to "comic book," Joker would need to make the list.

Yeah, I would agree with this.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Watchmen has given us well over a decade of dreary crapsack-world DC films desperately trying to recreate it. That's gotta count for something.

I feel like that was more The Dark Knight's doing than anything. MoS and BvS clearly take several cues from TDK

Was going to bring up Watchmen. The stories of people bringing kids to the theater to watch it are kinda funny.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

I feel like that was more The Dark Knight's doing than anything. MoS and BvS clearly take several cues from TDK

This. It brought us the super realistic era of superheroes where everything is dark and gritty, everything is relatively more "grounded", and suits have the armored look and texture to them. It's not really the movie's fault though. It's DC's lack or originality.

Xethuminra posted...

Ang Lee's Hulk quietly reshaped how mainstream moviegoers see the character.

You might have to explain this one.

I'm somewhat inclined to include Kick-Ass because it's kind of like a proto-Deadpool. But I feel like Deadpool had more longstanding influence than it overall.

Thor: Ragnarok - Synthwave and 80's retro aesthetic can make anything better.

But more seriously, I'm gonna try and word this in a way that makes sense, but I kinda suck at articulating my takes:
there's nothing inherently wrong with comedy in superheroes movies (what a lot of people call "MCU quip humour") but if you have actually funny jokes and a movie that plays off of it instead of crams it in, it works super well.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

You might have to explain this one.

Explain how Ang Lee's Hulk served as the basis for what we have in the MCU? I don't need to

What we got is a soft sequel to the movie, picking up the narrative exactly where it left off

Snyder's Justice League

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

I'll also add Wonder Woman for FINALLY being the first good superhero movie to star a female lead.

Except it wasn't good.

I mostly agree with your initial post though

Thor: Ragnarok showed that you can have an auteur-driven movie within the framework of a wider movie series.

Shazam showed that DC can have fun too, dammit!