I’m not saying James Gunn is responsible for “The Flash” debacle, but his calling out of superhero movies as “lazy” is quite the timing
In an interview on the “Inside of You” podcast, Gunn was fairly no-holds barred when it came to today’s comic book movies, saying that there are “too many” of them, both in theaters and on television.
Gunn, the new co-boss of DC Studios, assured fans the company will not “overextend” their upcoming crop of superhero tales:
We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly vet
Here’s where he calls out their laziness:
“People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories, and they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?' People have gotten a little lazy and there’s a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies and I’m watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don’t feel like there’s a rhyme or reason to what’s happening…I don’t care about the characters. And they’ve gotten too generic.
He obviously doesn’t include “The Flash” as being part of this batch of mediocre films because, if you remember, Gunn called Andy Muschietti’s movie “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Has that aged well or what?
And while we’re at, let’s tackle what Gunn called the “piff, pow, bam” third acts of these films. Didn’t Gunn’s own “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3” have such an ending?
Don’t get me wrong, I thought ‘Guardians 3’ was one of the better superhero movies released this year, but I was turned off by its last half hour which basically resorted to the usual climactic action most of these MCU/DC flicks are known to strenuously inject into their narratives.
Otherwise, yes, Gunn is correct in his assessment of today’s comic book movies, but he doesn’t seem to realize that he might also be part of the problem.