Rose from the hot flames of Spider Man

...And her too

Okay, let's talk film. LA times has an article by the compassionate, insightful Rachel Abramowitz today that tells us that we are into Superhero movies now because of the troubled times we live in. She informs us that we need a hero to watch on the screen in times of economic trouble and well in what she believes is bad leadership in the presidency. Now, this is a political issue. We don't do politics on this site. Plus I am not a politician, so I am not going to take on that role of a politician. But as a savvy Hollywood player, I can say that Ms. Abramowitz's well structured article is nothing more than a lousy anecdote. It is a water cooler diatribe the LA times loves to publish. Well I can't really talk about that article like I want to.

Like I said this is not a political site. This is a film education site. If you know a lot about film, this is your site. If you know all your actors and directors, this is your site. If you want an edge to cut through the BS of Hollywood articles on other sites or if you like to bag on overpaid Hollywood studio executives, this is your site. So, having written that, I can safely say as a Hollywood player, that the article which is linked here. is political but I am here to tear the politics away from it. Please read it if you will. I understand your opinion is not my opinion and vise versa. I will give you my opinions that are not politically charged. But I can easily separate the politics of this article from the truth, because when you strip down the reasons why we watch superhero films, it has nothing to do with politics. Ms. Abromowitz is fusing politics

Why do we go watch Superhero movies? Well lets take the main excerpt for analysis here. "WHILE I believe in hope and change, I know some cynics (mostly die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters) who think Barack Obama taps into the same collective yearning as superheroes. He might as well be called Obama-man, political wonder boy, able to leap giant deficits in a single bound, vanquish scores of angry Iraqis merely by batting his doe eyes.

Coming soon from Warner Bros.

Obama-man has no past. Like all caped crusaders, he is a mysterious cipher, and yet a reassuring figure, like Superman or Spider-Man. And you all know that beautiful, lanky Michelle Obama would look great in her own spandex. Personally, I have more confidence in Obama, and I'd just like to say, what's the alternative? John McCain as the Incredible Hulk?"

Unbelievable huh. I will debunk this article in less than three sentences. Here they are: Two reasons and they have nothing to do with Obama in spandex I assure you, Ms. Abromowitz is that Hollywood is still reeling in the fish from Spider Man 2002. (Well, the whole trilogy for that matter,) AND TWO, big explosive action movies appeal to the main demo That Hollywood has always been about pleasing since Star Wars in 1977. AND the THIRD AND FINAL SENTENCE, The film release schedule is made two to three years in advance, therefore we as a media induced society didn't even know about Obama then.

Okay now lets dissect this even more. I know, I hope you're as excited as I am. When Spider Man was released in 2002 and it did over 70 mil in it's opening weekend then, went on to gross 314 Mil overall in domestic sales, it lit the fire under everyone's butt to rush more superhero movies to the screen. That was the big to do at the time. Superheros got their high five and pat on the butt to return to the big screen. Yet, he schedule wasn't set yet, they need to plan, film (I know that annoying factor for execs, and release films in the near future. I will break this down even further.

Batman in 1990 was a huge hit for Warner and DC. However the sequels suffered. Batman Returns was very sub par and by the time Batman Forever hit the screens in 94, Hollywood lost it's superhero audience. They lost us so much in fact there was only a trickle of superhero films in the late 90's. You had Judge Dredd in 95, the whole Teenage Mutant Turtle thing and Mystery Men in 99. Keep in mind these for mentioned comic movies were all DC comics. SO Marvel saw the drought. They saw the failed attempts by DC to produce good comic movies. So in light of these failures, in around 1995, they green light Blade, Spider Man and X Men.

This is the time that Clinton was in office. According to those times, the economy went bad when Bush took office. So the new Superhero Genre was green lighted during the Clinton Administration when things were GOOD in the economy and in the presidency. So how could know the future? They can't that's the thing! How can Hollywood be on the cutting edge and release Superhero films to be something we can look up to and escape to when those times didn't exist yet? I am going to continue that soon.

Now we all know Hollywood is an animal that "Has whatever she's having". They don't order anything original or make anything new on their own. There has to be someone who make it big with a genre first, then everyone can jump into it. In the 90's there were only a small handful of superhero movies because Batman was winding down. So, Hollywood said, forget this. They wanted to forget the whole genre. If you remember the 90's focused on realistic action films like Die Hard, Fugitive, Lethal Weapon, Pulp Fiction. Titanic and Goodfellas were 90's. During that decade film focused on realism. Hollywood resurrected the teen film beginning with Clueless. Not Another Teen Movie! HELLLLOOOO!

Hollywood was still rehashing Pulp Fiction and teen prom comedies. So By the time Not Another Teen Movie was released they were backing away from realism and needed something else. Well in 2002 they got their something else, Spider Man, which was green lighted in 2000, made huge money. The other two comics, Blade and X-Men were in demand for a sequel. Then, Hollywood went superhero crazy. Here is the list of superhero films that were green lighted in 2002 and 2003.

Catwoman released in 2004
Constantine 2005
Daredevil 2003
Electra 2005
Fantastic Four 2004
Hellboy 2004
Hulk 2003
Punisher 2004
Sin City 2005
X Men 2 2003
Spider Man 2 2004

Yes after Spider Man's release and only after its release, did the world explode in superhero frenzy. Sure the frenzy did happen after 9/11, YET, Hollywood follows what does well. So you can't really factor in 9/11 when Spider Man was green lighted before 9/11.

So now with IN-President incumbent hard times, according to majority thinking and Ms. Abramowitz, we apparently want to view superheroes in film to escape. Well we as an audience watch what's out there. We, the common people don't have a say as to what gets green lighted. So it is Hollywood's sole doing that these films are released when they are, by Hollywood execs who are upper class people who don't go through the hard financial times that we do. AND once again, Ms. Abramowitz, this trend started in 2000, when Spiderman was green lighted during the Clinton Era and released in 2002 when Bush just got into office. Therefore, since Hollywood ONE, copies everything that does well and TWO, appeals to the main DEMO of 18-35, how is it an era of escapism of the economic crisis when these films were green lighted way back before this crisis happened.

Well this LA times Author, journalist is out of touch, Film Fans. Even looking back to WWII when audiences did go to the movies to escape, it was musicals that were in theaters, not superhero films. Laughing and smiling are the ways to get over a crisis. I think Ms. Abramowitz needs to LOL a little more.