Batman & Robin (1949)
Directed by: Spencer Gordon Bennet
“The Dynamic Duo face off against the Wizard, a hooded villain with an electrical device which controls cars and a desire to set challenges for the Dynamic Duo, whose identity remains a mystery throughout until the end.”
This series was quite gritty and real, there were no extremely camp/elaborate villians such as The Joker or the Riddler, it was normal crooks in suits with guns. Everyone was more humanized. As well as literally being black and white, the show had a “Black and White” feel to it, it clear a character was either “good” or “bad”, unlike the more recent Superhero movies which have more mixed, troubled characters.
Stamp Day for Superman
Directed by: Thomas Carr
“When Lois and Clark come upon a robbery while shopping, Superman apprehends the burglar, who claims to have to steal because he never bothered to save his money.”
As it was with the 1949 “Batman & Robin” series, this was a very realistic, straight forward, episode with a clear line between who was good and who was bad. Superman was portrayed to be the icon of good, an incorruptible force. It has a general “light” feel to it, a classic Superhero movie/episode.
Aside from this, there weren’t many Superhero shows on in the 40s and 50s, Batman & Robin, and Superman were the two big ones.
Batman & Robin: (1966 Series)
Directed by: Robert Butler
“Batman and Robin once again face off against the Riddler, The Riddler leaves a trail of riddles all over the city and figure out his plan.”
The Batman & Robin (1966) series went for a more light-hearted, comical, camp feel. Villains were clichéd and were clearly bad, they weren’t humanized at all and no one would be able to empathize with them. Batman and Robin were clearly shown to be good; they were flawless heroes that always saved the day.
Superman (1978 Movie)
Directed by: Richard Donner
“Clark Kent as a young boy is taken in by the Kent family. He grows up with them, after saving Lois publicly using his powers he takes on the identity of Superman and stops criminal Lex Luthor from firing a missile at California, Superman takes on Luthor and his henchmen and eventually saves the day.”
Superman 1978 was a classic superhero moving, reinventing a repetitive genre. It was a high budget film and portrayed Superman as a perfect idol. The film also had humour to keep it from getting to series, the sequels didn’t do as well, only a few more Superman movies where made, and they didn’t do too well either.
Batman (1989)
Directed by: Tim Burton
“The Dark Knight fights the Joker as he tries to poison the city with laughing gas, the Joker eventually falls to his death, Commissioner Gordon sets up the Bat-Light and Harvey Dent reads out Batman’s letter where he promises to defend the city.”
This film was a darker and more serious take on the Batman Franchise, everything was a lot grittier and heroes had flaws and were humanized. It’s clear that after years of light-hearted, black and white heroes, the genre needed to be mixed up and give us flawed heroes and villains, you couldn’t either “like” or “hate” a hero and villain now. Whenever Superman was shown in the 1978 film, he was portrayed to be instantly good, and had no flaws or dark thoughts, in this film (and the sequel), characters were flawed and her personal issues, Bruce Wayne’s being the death of his parents.
Batman Returns (1992)
Directed by: Tim Burton
“Sequel to Batman (1989). Penguin tries to take over Gotham City by putting himself up for a fixed election, Batman must stop him. Catwomen aids Penguin in this plan and they try to kill Batman, Catwomen eventually ends up falling in love with Batman, and they stop Penguin.”
This movie followed the style of its predecessor, a dark and serious movie with a disturbing villain, a complicated romance plot, Batman Returns enjoyed good financial success and is considered a good movie.
Batman & Robin (1997)
Directed by: Joe Schumacher
“Batman and Robin try to stop Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze as he tries to freeze over all of Gotham, Robin starts to have feelings for Poison Ivy which begins to harm his friendship with Batman, eventually they manage to defeat Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze with the aid of Batgirl.”
Following up on “Batman Forever” this movie went back to the comical, camp feel. It is considered to be one of the worst Superhero movies ever and it nearly killed the Batman Franchise for ever. The Batman franchise did not see a return until 2005.
X-Men (2000)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Charles Xavier runs an academy where mutants can live safely and learn to control their abilities, mutant “Magneto” sees humans as inferior and causes havoc, the X-Men are formed and they try to stop him.”
X-Men showed very humanized, flawed, and complicated characters. This successful take on the Superhero franchise lead to two sequels to this film. All Superhero movies from this point on had humanized and flawed characters.
Spiderman (2002)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
“Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider and receives Spider-like powers, when he Uncle is shot during a robbery, he decides to put his powers to use and become a hero to fight crime, the Green Goblin causes chaos and Spiderman faces off against him.”
This film had the humanized and flawed character elements that the X-Men films had, but also had more humour, and was more appealing to younger children. Spiderman was portrayed as mainly a good guy, and Peter Parker was flawed.
Spiderman 2 (2004)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
“Set two years after the events of Spider-Man, the film focuses on Peter Parker struggling to manage both his personal life and his duties as Spider-Man. Dr. Otto Octavius, who takes a turn for the diabolical following a failed experiment and his wife’s death. Using his mechanical tentacles, Octavius is dubbed “Doctor Octopus” and threatens to endanger the lives of New York City’s residents. Spider-Man must stop him from annihilating the city.”
Spiderman 2 had many of the themes from Spiderman 1 but also had themes of sacrifice and bravery, Peter Parker sacrifices any chance he has of having a relationship with Mary-Jane in order to protect her, and he has the bravery to return as Spiderman and fight Doctor Octopus.
Spiderman 3 (2007)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
“Set months after the events of Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker has become a cultural phenomenon as Spider-Man, while Mary Jane Watson continues her Broadway career. Harry Osborn still seeks vengeance for his father’s death, and an escaped convict, Flint Marko, falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape-shifting sand manipulator. An extra-terrestrial symbiote crashes to Earth and bonds with Peter, influencing his behaviour for the worse. When Peter abandons the symbiote, it finds refuge in Eddie Brock, a rival photographer, causing Peter to face his greatest challenge.”
Spiderman 3 was a lot darker than the previous two, Spiderman becomes obsessed with pride and popularity and the black suit turns him into a selfish, violent version of himself. The film also deals with the themes of jealousy and a love triangle. The film received mixed reviews which ended Sam Raimi’s trilogy leading into the reboot in 2012.
Batman Begins (2005)
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
“A reboot/origins story which follows the life of Bruce Wanye from a child up to an adult when he learns how to fight injustice and trains with the League of Shadows, he returns to Gotham City to impose his own brand of justice as Batman.”
Since 1997’s “Batman & Robin”, many attempts were made to reboot the franchise, all of which were cancelled. Christopher Nolan decided to make a much darker and realistic film, similar to Tim Burton’s. The characters were wrote a lot better than Batman & Robin’s, and the plot for the film was a lot more plausible. The film received high praise and began the “The Dark Knight Trilogy” which concluded last year with “The Dark Knight Rises”.
Superman Returns (2006)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
“Superman Returns tells the story of Superman returning to Earth after a five-year absence. He finds that his love interest Lois Lane has moved on with her life, and that his archenemy Lex Luthor is plotting a scheme that will destroy the world, starting with the United States.”
This movie humanized Superman a lot, this was his first big screen appearance in a long time and it was very different to the old ones. His troubles are shown, and the film is about his return and redemption.
Iron Man (2008)
Directed by: Jon Favreau
“Master engineer and billionaire Toni Stark owns Stark Industries and makes weapons for the US Army. When Stark is kidnapped and forced to build a diabolical weapon, he instead uses his intelligence and ingenuity to construct an indestructible suit of armour and escape his captors. Once free, Stark discovers a deadly conspiracy that could destabilize the entire globe, and dons his powerful new suit on a mission to stop the villains and save the world.
Iron Man was very similar in tone to “Batman Begins”, a realistic plot with flawed characters, Iron Man is less dark then Batman though, and has a lot more humour. Both Batman Begins and Iron Man made the possibility of Batman and Iron Man existing in the real world a more plausible idea. Toni Stark is a very troubled character who even turns to alcohol for comfort, a rare thing in a movie mainly aimed at children from 10-16.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Batman is pushed to his limits mentally as the Joker causes anarchy through Gotham, Bruce Wayne finds himself torn between his duty as Batman and his feelings for Rachel whilst she torn between Bruce and Harvey Dent. The Joker tests everyone mentally resulting in the death of Rachel and corrupting Harvey Dent, he becomes the villain “Two Face”, the movie ends with his death and the Joker’s imprisonment with Batman taking the blame for Harvey’s murder to hide the truth so the Joker doesn’t win.”
This was an even darker Batman movie, a sequel to “Batman Begins” it dealt with some rather serious and more themes. The Joker was portrayed as a psychopath who enjoyed harming others Bruce Wayne had to deal with personal issues as well such as his feelings for Rachel. He also had to learn the harsh reality of what he’d have to become to stop people like the Joker, giving credit to the phrase “You either die a hero, or you live, long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Kick – Ass(2010)
Directed by: Mathew Vaughn
“The film tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski , who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself “Kick-Ass”. Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy, a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D’Amico has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl.”
Kick – Ass was a more realistic interpretation of Superheroes, set in a world very much like ours where Superhereos are a thing of comic books and films, it was also more humorous movie, almost spoofing the genre, it was also quite violent. It’s one of the most realistic takes on the genre.
The Amazing Spiderman (2012)
Directed by: Marc Webb
“Reboot of the franchise shows how Peter Parker becomes Spiderman and decides to fight crime after his Uncle is shot in a robbery. The movie delves deeper into Peter Parker’s parents work before they die in a plane crash. Peter finds an algorithm in his father’s work to a serum and gives it to Dr. Curt Connors who then uses the serum on himself and turns into the villain ‘Lizard’. Peter has to stop him from terrorising New York,”
This reboot was very similar in tone to the Spiderman movie from 2002 and it even followed the same basic plot, it was more light hearted and nowhere near as dark as the recent Batman movies.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
“The conclusion to The Dark Knight Trilogy. Eight years after the events of ‘The Dark Knight’ Bruce Wayne has become a recluse and Batman hasn’t been seen. When mercenary leader Bane appears in Gotham Bruce Wayne must become Batman once again and with the help of CatWoman (Selina Kyle), rise up and defeat Bane and the League of Shadows once and for all. The film ends with Batman sacrificing himself to carry a nuke away from Gotham, everyone believes Batman is dead, but Bruce Wayne is shown at the end, alive and married to Selina Kyle.”
This film kept to the main themes of the previous two but was nowhere near as dark, Bane was not as mentally disturbed as the Joker, he was a physically intimidation and the only enemy able to match Batman in strength. The film also has some humour to prevent it from becoming too much of a serious plot.
It seems that all future Superhero movies appear to follow the basis set out by Batman and Iron Man; more dark and realistic characters and plots, mixed with some humour.
willhounsell 