James Gunn said there are "too many" superhero movies and television shows and that writers and directors have "gotten really lazy" with their storylines.
Gunn, who sits alongside Peter Safran as co-chief of DC Studios, made the remarks during an appearance on the "Inside of You" podcast, assuring fans that the company would not "overextend" itself as it prepares to launch a new DC Universe.
"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 be," Gunn said.
The volume of superhero content may be somewhat of an issue, but Gunn noted that lazy storytelling presents a bigger issue.
"People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories," Gunn said. "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?'"
Gunn continued: "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."
Gunn presented a solution of "having very different genres" within the larger superhero movie genre. This is as opposed to "this sort of middle-of-the-road type of genre and tone that so many superhero movies have."
"I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies," Gunn said. "I like ones that are a murder mystery but it's with superheroes. I like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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