Recently, I watched the 1991 cult Disney film The Rocketeer. It was an adaptation of an independent comic set in the 1930s about a pilot getting his hands on an experimental rocket pack and fighting off a Nazi spy plot. What struck me the most about this film was how earnest it was. While one could consider the dialogue and performances corny, I didn’t see it that way. The way it was presented made it feel genuine and almost like something that came from the old era of Hollywood. More importantly, however, watching this also reinvigorated a topic in my mind: the aesthetics of superhero films.
It’s no secret that superhero films have always maintained some form of relevance in our culture. From Superman and Batman starting the trends to the bizarre failures of the 90s to the revival in the 2000s, and their domination in the 2010s. Every decade since the 70s has either had an important film or a long-standing trend of how these characters would be brought to the screen. With the 2020s however, there has been a lot of fatigue as of late with the sense that since the mid-2010s, most superhero films have sort of felt the same. Marvel ushered in a new era of superhero films with The Avengers, but they also created a template that other studios rushed to follow. From the characters to the dialogue to the tone, most superhero films tried to imitate what got Marvel a lot of success.
However, going back to my initial point, one of the biggest issues in my mind that has latched onto superhero films in the past decade or so is the look. Marvel films have mostly aimed to capture a realistic look with futuristic technology and mostly basic production design. However, there’s a feeling that while this fits well for a base look for the universe, it’s felt more dried out as of late. Except for films like Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy whose premises rely on distinctive aesthetics, Marvel has mostly stayed uniform with how their films look. While this wasn’t a bad thing at first as again, it works as a starting point, I feel that it has both stagnated and gotten worse. When looking back at older superhero films, it’s apparent that, regardless of quality, there was an effort to make them look distinctive and almost like the pages were on the screen.
The Batman films of the 90s, regardless of how they are as films, made an effort to present Gotham as otherworldly. The Burton films were defined by the gothic architecture and even the Schumacher films, while not great, had a design that made Gotham look bizarre and full of life. Another film, Dick Tracy, deliberately made everything garish and colorful at every turn to resemble the original comic as closely as possible. Even in films that did present a more realistic world, there was still an effort to present it distinctively. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man films are the best examples of this as the New York it presents is one that while being a normal-looking city, still presents itself in a way that reflects a goofy and light tone that resembles the earliest comics. Even the early MCU with films such as Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger executed different locations with more craft and distinctiveness compared to later installments.
With recent movies, the trend has been driven away from these flashy and stylized approaches and more toward basic aesthetics. One of the reasons is due to how filmmaking has changed over the past decade. With CGI becoming more abrasively adopted by studios to make blockbusters efficiently, production design and effects that were once practical have been uprooted by just using greenscreens on set. Rather than letting the world be built around the actors, they just insert it in later. However, given how CGI artists have been forced to rapidly produce effects, the result is not as effective and creates more of a distracting artificiality. Even films with distinctive production designs like Black Panther fall into this issue since it’s clear they weren’t given the time or schedule to make the effects look polished enough. So, while you get a distinctive look, it can’t fully immerse you into it since it’s not there or presented in a way that feels real. The less polished the special effects are, the harder it is to make the audience believe it is right there. Compared to older films where they built sets or allowed more time to put proper work into visual effects, modern superhero films feel more artificial than ever and not in a way that feels endearing.
This also applies to the design of characters as well. With costumes or creatures, you either get something to stripped down from the original designs, or something so overdesigned that it just feels like it is compensating for something. There have been plenty of jokes about how MCU suits just add detail for the sake of it. While it is an improvement from when films tried to focus more on realism or less color, the over-detail in some costumes ends up feeling distracting. This is not helped by the fact that characters don’t tend to keep costumes and have to get new ones (mostly for merchandise obligations). Ms. Marvel had arguably the best-looking costume in the MCU that both reflected the comics and the aesthetic of the MCU, but she was then given a new one in The Marvels that just felt like it threw too many new details that weren’t necessary. Even Iron Man shows this with how the original suit was a simple one that mixed practical and CGI effects, while the later ones are more focused on details and futuristic gadgets all with CGI without the sense of weight the earlier suits had. The opposite issue can occur when a design is simplified to the point that it feels generic. Look at the monster at the end of Shang-Chi for example. The Dweller in Darkness in the comic is a giant octopus-like creature with a more human body that both feels distinct and embraces the bizarre absurdity of the world the comic presents. The film just shows us a flying dragon that bears little resemblance to the original and has too many of the modern design tropes of giant film monsters in America. Even so, the best designs both embrace the bizarre, but also understand how to apply it in a way that doesn’t feel too overwhelming.
Something that I feel can apply to both the overall look of the film and the design of its elements is that I feel they just don’t feel committed. The overuse of CGI waters down what could be potentially interesting ideas and just makes them look unengaging. The best example of this is Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania where The Volume, an LED screen technology, was used to present the Quantum Realm. However, that tech requires throughout craft as seen in films like The Batman and Dune to not make it feel flat since it is just a screen. As such, while there are a lot of interesting designs here, they don’t register due to the implementation that just feels painted over. The usage of practical effects has also been on the decline which is another element that while artificial, creates a sense of realistic connection since it’s still there on set. It’s the sense that if you are going to make films about these fantastical characters, commit to the bizarre elements. I don’t mean just throw CGI weirdness either. I mean create a sense of unreal with the world you are trying to portray. Something that is unusual and doesn’t exist in our world, but could potentially. The overall look of many of these films, however, is the biggest issue. While there has been a decline in the overall craft and execution of so many big-budgeted films, superhero films show it off the most. So many films are just set in normal-looking cities without much flourish or embrace less fantastical looks in favor of a simple approach both in design and in the overall techniques of filmmaking. For a few films, this would be fine, but if almost every superhero movie tried to ape similar aesthetics even when something drastically different would be more beneficial, there’s a problem. Even simple elements like cinematography and lighting that would be used to great effect before in unexpected ways are now just a simple afterthought and are executed in the most basic of ways.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t films in the superhero genre that aren’t applying themselves with interesting looks. Spiderverse, despite being animated, took a different approach to other animated films in general which not only led to its success but influenced the industry to start experimenting with different animation styles. The Batman is also a great example of what I think should be applied. Following the very realistic Dark Knight and DCEU films, The Batman aims to harken back to a Gotham that, rather than looking like an ordinary city, looks like a place that is falling apart. Gothic architecture is around modern buildings, there’s moody lighting everywhere, and there is a focus on the finer details that most superhero films gloss over. Even if it does share elements of older Batman films, its overall commitment to the execution makes it stand out and arguably resembles the world the comics created far more than any previous adaptation. Even films that do have similar elements to most other superhero films, such as The Suicide Squad, stand out in the usage of different filmmaking techniques, practical effects, and an overall sense of polish in the craft of the film.
I guess my main issue with the look and approach many of these films take is that while it isn’t inherently bad, it just feels basic. If you are going to bring these fantastical characters onto the big screen, bring that sense of theatricality and style that defined them in the comics. If the story or approach to your adaptation calls for a more realistic setting, that is perfectly fine. My issue lies with the decline in distinctive aesthetics and an overall sense that the craft going into these movies has taken a backseat. Though, I feel that a lot of this has less to do with the talent going into these projects, and more how these productions have been streamlined. Directors at Marvel are put through a system to oversee every aspect and it has made the films they make less distinctive in general regardless of who they hire. Many of them have stated that they weren’t as involved since the studio itself would handle many aspects of the production. It doesn’t help that this sort of approach has become the norm in Hollywood in general to the point that even when there’s creative freedom, it’s much harder to make films that look great since studios would prefer to just make them quicker. It’s why a lot of movies, even good ones, just don’t look that great compared to older ones in terms of effects, lighting, and even basic color grading. With that said, since these types of films have been rejected by audiences as of late in favor of more distinctive ones, even in the superhero genre, maybe we will see more distinctive-looking films make a comeback in this regard. I think that nowadays, audiences want movies that are unique and ambitious and while the high of the superhero craze is very much over, I’ll take one or two great and artistically focused films in the genre over a dozen lesser ones a year anyway.
