I Like Superhero Movies

And I'm proud to admit it. One of my most anticipated movies of the year is Iron Man 2. I saw Iron Man in theatres opening weekend, and immediately wanted to watch it again. I saw it twice in theatres. Later that summer, The Dark Knight came out in theatres, and it was the best superhero movie I'd ever seen. It was dark, depressing, and the final monologue had me in tears. As the lights came up, and my cousin and brother saw me weeping, they both shouted "You're crying?!", and a number of people turned around to watch me sob into my napkins. It was embarrassing. But that was in Calgary, so no harm done.

The Dark Knight was an exception to my general belief that superhero films are a sort of escapism. You sit back, don't think about realism, and watch the good guys beat the bad guys. They're fun. Generally, I trust that when I am watching a superhero movie, I'll leave the theatre all "pumped up" with a smile on my face.

I remember when Spider-Man came out. I never watched the cartoons growing up, since I thought they were "dumb" and "boring", so my Dad had to drag me to the movie. "You'll like it!", he said. I watched it, and had a good time with it...but I couldn't ADMIT that I liked it! So it was a few years before I could admit to myself that I enjoyed the superhero genre. This was after buying the first two X-Men movies on DVD (I told myself it was just because I liked Hugh Jackman). But when you start watching all of them in theatres, even the really bad ones, it's time to admit you have a problem.

But it's not really a problem, because superhero movies are lots of fun. I like to fantasize about a world where I'd have some sort of neat super power. Yes, people who have powers are always persecuted it seems, but that's because society is afraid of people who are different, and are afraid of people with cooler powers than them. I'd love to be able to fly or teleport, or shape shift.

But even if I couldn't have special powers, I'd settle for a really awesome suit made of metal.