Superhero movies both suck and succeed just like any other big budget movie. This is news?

I think the point would be better made if we gave 5 producing teams (consisting of a writer-director-producer) each $20M and said, "Go and make the best superhero movie you can for only this amount." I would like to see those 5 movies and see what each focused on...

I don't know if I'd say they suck, but I'm definitely burnt out by them--and I've always been a fan of superheroes! Though I don't read comics now, many years ago I had subscriptions to many of the top mags and I still like to track superheroes' comings and goings, just in case an inspired flick emerges. I like Nolan's recent work with Batman, though. I hope he can sustain it.

Maybe I should say I'm burnt out by the usual treatment of superheroes with super powers, as opposed to grittily realistic cloaked crimefighters like Batman. I still believe that if the superhero story was told in a fresh way, I'd be entertained by it. With this in mind, I'm cautiously optimistic about Capt. America or, as he's known in Russia, The First Avenger (who just happens to dress in red, white and blue and fight for America).

Suck is probably too strong a word. Unless we're talking about Elektra.

But the idea of a super hero movie being an event is lost.

In the Tim Burton Batman days, a superhero movie was awesome simply because no one made super hero movies.

Now X-Men First Class, Green Lantern, Thor...all are totally disposable probably because their ambitions are limited: make a good comic book movie -- which is different from aiming to make a good movie.

Totally agree with the article.

The problem isn't the material. It's the money machine that is Hollywood. It does this to ANY genre.

Look at what's become of the vampire.

It rapes an intellectual property to death. And then rapes it some more.

And then there's the negative side. (/hug Hunter S. Thompson).

Meanwhile, the assembly line keeps rolling along... spurring the creation of ancillary merchandise that's ultimately the real reason for any superhero film's existence...

It's no longer about cinema. The movie is just another piece of the marketing pie, a vehicle to drive revenue to far more profitable endeavors such as video games. Why do you think it's called a franchise?

With a few exceptions, superhero movies are really 2-hour long trailers for this "ancillary merchandise."

But it's not going to go away since today's movie-going audience is all "buy first, bitch later" -- which explains the notorious success of and simultaneous disdain for such films as Transformers 2.