Superhero movies are not sustainable, but are they doomed?

Critics vs. Fans: The ultimate showdown. Forget about that super guy and bat dude who fought for all of five minutes in what was supposedly a film about their head-scratching rivalry, only to bond over something as quasi-monumental as the shared name of their mothers. No, no. The conflict worth following over the next few years lies in two schools of thought. There is the “fanboys will be the death of cinema” critics' camp, and then there’s the “screw ‘em, critics are just pretentious and actually like being unhappy” fan hub.

With this kind of unrest, it’s no surprise that every added expansion from the Marvel or DC universe to hit the theaters is simply the next battle in this war. The most recent one has decidedly become the bloodiest. “Suicide Squad” (2016) had a lot of pressure coming from both sides upon its release. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 26 percent Rotten rating, while the audience score revealed that 68 percent liked it. The numbers may vary, but they’re hardly staggering. Yet the animosity continues.

It should not, however, since in the case of “Suicide Squad,” critics and fans alike are on the same “it wasn’t anything special” spectrum. Some vary in the extremity of their opinion, but generally they both found some of the performances worthwhile, but the overall product tepid and tone-confused.

On principle, critics and fans will continue to take issue with one another. Critics operate under a preference for cinematic integrity, while fans gravitate toward canon integrity. When will they realize that since the advent of this superhero invasion, there hasn’t been much of either? What’s to blame for this?

Money. Actually, the studios, in the interest of money, are the guilty third-party that somehow escape the majority of the “us vs. them” rhetoric used in the reception of every major blockbuster they release. It’s an odd phenomenon, considering they’re not immune to the resulting backlash. For instance, “Suicide Squad” did decently in its first weekend, grossing about $133 million. To date, however, it hasn’t even topped $600 million, which, by Warner Brothers standards, is hardly anything to write home about, especially when the projected earnings were estimated to be around the $1 billion mark.

Box-office success will never be an exact science. However, one would think that repeated failures would catalyze a “Hey guys, let’s take a look at this. Why does everyone hate what we’re doing?” moment that could then, in turn, encourage strategized shifts in the way these films are made. There are countless artists who are more than willing and certainly ready to leave their mark on a given franchise, should the studios ease up and let them. It’s happened before. “The Dark Knight” trilogy is so highly revered by both critics and fans because Christopher Nolan made the movies that he wanted to make.

The problem is that studios want to replicate this formula exactly, leading to films that fall flat in the box-office without exhibiting at least a trace of authenticity. After the fiasco that resulted from“Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), Warner Brothers took issue with the reviews that deemed it “joyless.” The resulting "Suicide Squad” reshoots saw David Ayer, the director, lose creative control over the film because the studio wasn’t willing to make a risky move. The original edit got scrambled to make room for the addons, in an effort to make the film lighter. Never mind that the protagonists in question are actual psychopaths.

Perhaps, sooner rather than later, studios will come to the conclusion that repeatedly curbing a director’s certain touch is the riskier move after all. Meanwhile, people like Zach Snyder, the director of “Batman vs. Superman,” are still being kept on the Warner Brothers slate for more films, including "Justice League: Part One" (2017), “Wonder Woman” (2017), “Aquaman” (2018) and “Justice League: Part Two” (2019). Instead of lamenting the lack of a secret superhero movie manual, every studio should do their best in encouraging artistry from the inception of a script to its ultimate release, without pressured reshoots.

Marvel/Disney is not without its faults either. The duo prides itself in delivering content that the fans want, yet the first female-led superhero film won’t be out until 2019, when “Captain Marvel” hits theaters. Additionally, the hyper-focus on making everything fit into the extended universe is coming across as forced and mechanical, rather than allowing the individual characters' stories to grow organically. 

At the moment, the decisions headed by these major studios are made under the pursuit of the finicky cash cow that is the superhero movie. Anyone can see it isn’t sustainable. However, the remaining films that are part of this block of our culture still have the potential to be worthwhile, if they would only go back to the roots of story-telling before the anxiety of having an impressive box office performance shifts the movie experience beyond repair.