Sony is proving everything wrong with modern superhero films
From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Haters of Sony’s superhero films featuring Spider-Man villains received mixed messages last week. In the middle Kraven the HunterAfter box office failure, Sony has reportedly abandoned its plans to create an interconnected universe of Spidey’s rivals. However, Variety reports that the studio is busy with upcoming releases such as: B. will continue to work in this genre Beyond the Spider-Verse and the live action Spider-Man Black Series starring Nicolas Cage. While no one can deny the sophisticated quality of the Spider-Verse films, the news that Sony will continue making superhero films depresses me because they exemplify everything that is wrong with the genre.
Sony superhero films taste successful
As Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock noted, Sony’s fatal flaw is that “they had a taste of success Poison“, and that led them to think they could just make “superhero” movies centered around Spidey’s colorful rogues’ gallery. He noted that the studio didn’t recognize “that.” Poison could carry a franchise while these other characters couldn’t.” Keeping Spider-Man out of his own villains’ films “was the fatal mistake” because most of these villains were unconvincing and disastrous on their own Madam Web proved that Sony is equally incapable of focusing its inadequate films on a superhero rather than a supervillain.
Who are these heroes?
Which brings us to the first obvious example of Sony’s hubris: they inexplicably assumed that audiences didn’t want any brand recognition for these cinematic protagonists. Wonder has been working hard since the ’90s to make Venom a Colo comics character, and accordingly there was plenty of material for him to draw from when creating his solo films. But like characters MorbiusMadame Web and Kraven aren’t nearly as popular or developed, and the focus on them was just as crazy as if the MCU had released Vulture or Mysterio films without Spider-Man.
Speaking of which MCUA comparison with Sony shows how much the latter studio puts the cart before the horse with its superhero films. While Marvel has already cast some big names, many of the fan-favorite characters are played by people who were relatively unknown, including Tom Holland. Marvel took the time to hire good actors who would win over audiences, but with films like Kraven and Madam Webthey seemed to be hoping for some well-known stunt casting (hey, look, the guy from Kick ass is now an anti-hero!) would be enough to pique the audience’s interest.
No connecting web
Making matters worse is that Sony has never quite figured out how to properly tie its superhero films together. We get gestures towards a shared universe like Vulture in the MCU Morbiusand a No way home Post-credits confirmation from Marvel that Sony’s films were set in their own multiverse. But the films never seemed to develop into anything or take advantage of their shared universe. This wouldn’t matter if the individual heroes and villains were incredibly compelling, but that’s simply not the case.
The crux of all this is that Sony is eager to make more superhero movies and there’s basically no sign that they’ve learned from the critical and commercial failures Morbius, Madam WebAnd Kraven the Hunter. The studio seems intent on burning millions upon millions of dollars on stuff that looks and feels like the crap you’d find on Tubi’s virtual shelf. We can only hope that they have at least internalized one lesson for the future: that audiences actually want Spider-Man in a Spider-Man universe film.
Or, you know, they could just hope that things like these ironic “It’s Time for Morbin” memes give these terrible films the cultural footprint they’d never enjoy due to their dismal merits.
Source: diversity
