I was so tired last night that I decided to skip the press screening for “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” I just couldn’t fathom spending 148 minutes bombarded by CGI and manufactured storytelling. I’m honestly close to quitting these movies. Thank the heavens my job doesn’t require me to be forced to sit through this thing.
As far as I’m concerned, “Avengers: Endgame” was the proper ending to my superhero journey. This year, I slugged my way through “Black Widow,” “Shang-Chi,” “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” “Eternals,” and “The Suicide Squad.” Suffice to say, I’m superhero’ed out.
’No Way Home’ is getting decent reviews and I would think I’ll eventually watch it somewhere, either in theaters or at home, but I’m just not that excited by the prospect of watching this genre ever again. Hell, I haven’t even seen the Disney+ stuff, such as “Hawkeye,” “Loki,” and “WandaVision.”
With that being said, I think most of us would be in agreement that the genre peaked in 2008 with “The Dark Knight,” right? I’d shave off a good 10 minutes from its runtime, but what Christopher Nolan did with that movie, and really the entire trilogy, is as artful as it gets. Maybe an R-rating would have further pushed the boundaries with those movies, but they were more than worthy.
What else deserves to be in the modern-day superhero movie time capsule? I came up with only ten movies, released in the last 20 years, that actually raised the genre to some kind of art.
The Dark Knight
Spider-Man 2
Joker
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
X2
Avengers: Endgame
Logan
Iron Man
Thor: Ragnarok
The Incredibles
I wrote thoroughly about this on 02.28.21 in my piece titled, The 10 Greatest Superhero Movies of All-Time. I’m honestly quite tempted to just call it a day with these films. They are not evolving into anything other than manufactured product.