Ezra Klein recently took a look at the resurgent genre of superhero movies and made a very interesting and IMO very accurate point: If you look at some of the better superhero movies out there (like “Batman Begins” or “Iron Man”), it’s pretty clearly the case that superior storytelling and character development, not the number or quality of their action sequences, are what sets them apart.
Or as he put it:
The climactic battle in Iron Man wasn’t half as gripping as watching Tony Stark fly for the first time.
Klein goes on to look at how the superhero genre allows us to look at issues of power and inequality in the world:
What superheroes allow you to do is personalize questions of power: We live in a world of massive countries with incredible militaries, where sociopaths can conceivably detonate cities and the rich inhabit lives so different from the poor that they may as well be genetically separate. It’s a hard world to face up to, frankly. And so, sometimes it’s easier to give it a supernatural gloss, to pretend it couldn’t happen here, even as it allows us to explore what is happening here.
He has a point, but he also might be giving Hollywood a little too much credit. This is also the industry that gives us an unending stream of crappy lowbrow comedy and slasher flicks.