215. Heroes

I decided to take in the movie Suicide Squad last night. I wavered on whether I wanted to go see it or not, but after my date canceled on me, I thought it was the best course of action to salvage my evening. I just wanted to be away from my computer and phone and enjoy a good story for a few hours.

The more super hero movies I consume, the more I accept that this is my pop culture. These are many of the things that people will look back at 20-30 years from now. These are the movies I will try and persuade my kids to watch, much like my dad convinced me to watch James Bond and Alfred Hitchcock movies. Are they all classics? No, but it’s not like every movie released in the 1960s was a classic either. (Don’t believe me? Just watch some of the first Bond movies. They’re cringe-worthy.)

I don’t remember the first superhero movie I took in with great interest. I saw the Spiderman and X-Men movies, but I don’t remember why I saw them. I think the first one that really captivated my interest was The Dark Knight in the summer of 2008. A co-worker of mine at camp told the rest of the camp how awesome it was. I was intrigued.

I can’t remember when I saw it, but I was hooked. I loved the Batman character. I remember watching Batman Forever when it first came out, but the follow up Batman and Robin pretty much killed the franchise. I remember enjoying the Iron Man movies and the Captain America parts of the Marvel franchise.

The first superhero movie I ever bought an advance ticket for was 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. I couldn’t for it. I saw it at a 6ish showing after work. I remember coming back to my apartment and tell him how much I loved it. I was speechless. I saw it again the next night.

Ever since then, I’ve pretty consistently seen the the big superhero movies of the summer. (Except the Fantastic Four remake, no thank you.) I remember that I’ve seen a good number of them by myself. I don’t mind that really. I like inhabiting another world for a while. It’s a good escape.

After the Captain America: Civil War blockbuster earlier this summer, I didn’t put much stock into this one. Civil War was probably a top-three superhero movie for me. Maybe one of my favorites ever.

With all that lead up, I’ll just say that I wasn’t impressed with the movie. I didn’t care too much about the characters. The villain was lame. And the end battle just a lot of smashy-smashy. My favorite superhero movies are ones that make me like the character, but also make me walk away with something else. Either a sense of optimism, or sadness, anger, or curiosity over where the characters are going next. After this part of the DC film franchise, I just wanted to go home.