Now if the title doesn’t upset a few people I don’t know what will but recently Matthew Vaughn, the director behind best spiritual movies and the same man who is directing Super Hero movie “X-Men: First Class” has stated that he believes the current swash of Super Hero based movies will be coming to an end soon. He gives his reasons which include the quality of some of these movies and that he believes that audiences will grow tired of one Super Hero movie after another. But it has to be said that there is a sort of an irony here for a man who is directing a Super Hero movie to come out and say that basically the end is nigh.
But whilst it is ironic I have to say I agree with Matthew Vaughn and think the recent popularity for Super Hero movies could come to a crashing end within a year or two. Why, well let’s look at the facts.
Spoilt for choice
Super Hero movies are not something new, they have been around for decades going back to the 1940s with the likes of “Adventures of Captain Marvel”, “The Phantom” and “Superman”. When I was growing up during the late 70s and 80s there was Christopher Reeve in “Superman” and then came the “Batman” movies but that was really it. But never have we had so many Super Hero movies making their way on to the big screen.
Whilst many will probably be salivating at all these Super Hero and comic book adaptations it does mean that where as once you were loyal to just one Super Hero now your loyalties are being tested, forced to split between several and there is only so far your loyalties can be split. Because quite simply if you are a fan of Spider-Man, Superman, Wolverine and say Iron Man by the time you watch Thor, Captain America or Green Hornet you struggle to embrace them.
If like me you love movies the chances are you are aware of IMDB, one of the main if not the main source for movie information on the net. It’s a very useful site for those wanting the latest news and reviews as well as information on movies both new and old.
One of the areas which use to be of interest was the IMDB 250 movie list which ranked the most popular movies as rated by the IMDB members. I say use to as at one time it would consist of movies which have remained popular over years having stood the test of time where as these days, well it often features new releases which get an influx of votes from over enthusiastic members who think the likes of “Toy Story 3” is superior to “Goodfellas” and “The Prestige” is better than “Raging Bull”, come on seriously.
And that is the flaw with the IMDB top 250 movie list, it is prone to those who don’t understand what makes a great movie, and I do mean great. They watch a movie think it’s the best thing since slice bread and give it an over zealous rating on IMDB. It has to be said that as IMDB has become more popular this problem has got worse and just looking through the IMDB top 250 movie list today I can spot at least 10 movies which are less than 5 years old which have found themselves high up on the list thanks to over enthusiastic rating from members.
The trouble is these movies knock others of the list and then stay on there until after a few years these movies get more realistic ratings and slowly start to drop down and drop off. Which would be okay if it wasn’t for the fact in the mean time yet another new release has got itself on the list and if this cycle continues then at some point the IMDB top 250 movie list is going to feature more modern movies which whilst maybe good aren’t great.
So what can be done?
Well the first thing which could be done is for IMDB to tackle the issue. In their formula for creating the IMDB top 250 movie list they should factor in the age of the movie. Possibly reducing the value of member rates in the first couple of years after release so the enthusiasm doesn’t create this problem. That way the list would end up more realistic as it would consist of more of those movies which are great and have stood the test of time. It would also stop over enthusiastic members artificially boosting the rankings of newer movies just to get them high up on the list.
What they can also do is make the rating of a movie a more thoughtful process. They could ask you to rate different aspects of the movie such as the storyline, acting, effects and camera work taking an average of these rates to calculate your overall rating. Of course some will still just rate at the top of the scale on all of these but it will encourage some members to think more deeply about what goes into a great movie which is what the IMDB top 250 movie list should be all about.
And something which members can do is to start thinking seriously about what they rate a movie before they click the mouse. Even if IMDB doesn’t prompt you to take into consideration the different elements.