The last few years haven’t been easy for Marvel and DC as many of their projects faced harsh criticism and poor box office results. Even high-profile directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola voiced their disapproval, claiming that superhero movies lack the qualities of real cinema.
Tom Hanks shared his own thoughts about the genre’s current struggles in a recent episode of the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast and discussed what could improve the situation.
“The thing is, it’s actually meeting up right with the state of the art. Never mind the commerce,” the actor started. “The state of the industry right now. The great thing that happened was…remember in the 1970s and 80s, they tried to do TV versions of Captain America and Spider-Man and even Batman. The Adam West Batman. The technology did not exist to make it look like it did in the comic books. Now it does. You can do anything at all. You could probably say the Christopher Reeve Superman was the first one that came close because the cutting edge of the technology right there allowed for wire removal. ‘You will believe a man can fly,’ and, you know what, we all did when we saw. It was quite extraordinary.”
Hanks pointed out that technology has now made it possible to bring almost any vision to the screen, but he argued that a strong story remains essential.
“I think we are now enjoying the luxury of riches because you can make anything happen on screen. We are being brought back to the concept, ‘Okay, that’s true, but what is the story,’” his words went on. “Without a doubt now, I’ve used this analogy before, so I apologise, you can drain Lake Michigan and fill it with cuckoo clocks and form a three-headed dragon that breathes fire and destroys the city of Chicago. You can do that but to what purpose is the end of the day? What’s the story and what’s it going to be saying about us?”
“I think there was a period of time, and I felt that way too, where we would see these fantastic movies either DC or MCU in order to see these better versions of ourselves. ‘God, I feel like an X-Man sometimes. I’m as confused as Spider-Man. I’m as angry as Batman is and I love my country as much as Captain America. I would like to emulate all those guys.’ I think we’ve been down that road and had probably 20 years, 15 years, to explore that kind of thing and now I think we’re in an evolutionary place of, ‘And the story is what? And the theme is what? And the point of this movie is what?’”
The actor added, “That’s a good challenge for any filmmaker, it might just not land in the roundhouse for the industry. The industry often says, ‘Well, this works and it will work again.’ The audience is far ahead of it. They see the familiar and say, ‘I’ve seen that already. What’s next?’ It’s not just eye-popping stuff, it’s what’s the story? Tell me about myself. We’re in new territory.”
Recent Marvel releases, like ‘The Marvels’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ along with DC’s ‘Shazam: Fury of the Gods’ and ‘The Flash,’ all struggled at the box office in recent years. To refresh audience interest in the genre, the companies came up with new strategies.
Marvel announced they would value quality over quantity from now on, with 2024’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ marking a new period for the franchise. The third Deadpool movie broke box office records last summer.
Meanwhile, DC Studios underwent a complete reboot led by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Their comic book universe is set to kick off with a new ‘Superman’ movie next year.
