Videoage International March/April 2021

8 Book Review March/April 2021 V I D E O A G E T he past 20 years saw the meteoric rise of the superhero movie across the U.S. and the world. The most recent iteration of the superhero genre has been led by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with the release of Iron Man in 2008. Since then, the financial success of superhero movies has skyrocketed. Most recently, in 2019, Avengers: Endgame set records for both domestic and international box offices. In its opening weekend, the film earned $1.2 billion worldwide, and it became the fastest film to gross $2 billion worldwide, joining four other films to do so, Avatar and Titanic among them. Avengers: Endgame , the 22nd film in the MCU, grossed $858.3 million in the U.S. and Canada, and garnered a worldwide total of $2.798 billion, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. Superhero movies are the subject of Terence McSweeney’s The Contemporary Superhero Film: Projections of Power and Identity (176 pgs., Wallflower Press, 2020, $22). McSweeney, a senior lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Solent University in Southampton, England, previously wrote Avengers Assemble! Critical Perspectives on the Marvel Cinematic Universe , an academic exploration of the film franchises of the MCU, and The ‘War on Terror’ and American Film: 9/11 Frames Per Second , a study on the impact of September 11 on the Hollywood film industry. McSweeney’s latest book continues his analysis on the cultural impact of superheroes and spectacle by introducing readers to the conversations and scholarship surrounding superhero films. Among auteurs and established filmmakers, superhero movies have a bad reputation. Some even liken them to the lowest form of entertainment, extravagantly produced rubbish from mindless studio execs. In 2019, Martin Scorsese described them in The New York Times as “closer to theme parks than they are to movies.” The distaste toward superhero movies extends into academia and the crème de la crème of cultural criticism. McSweeney, however, would like to reclaim the superhero genre as a relevant object for critical investigation. In doing so, he asks a number of questions. What draws audiences to superhero movies? Why are they so popular? Despite the judgement that superhero movies are only for kids or maladjusted adults, he argues that these films speak to all types of people and offer many routes for social and cultural analysis. McSweeney advocates that “the genre is worth studying not despite the criticisms directed at it but because of them, and not simply due to its financial success but also for a variety of reasons, the first of which might be that it alone, above all genres, has come to embody and even redefine the parameters of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster film, providing a template for many of the changes that have swept through the industry over the last twenty years.” What is the template the contemporary superhero movie provides? Well, in his book Mc- Sweeney lays out certain narrative conventions and motifs common to them. He also looks at other elements of the genre, such as mythology and portrayals of gender, race, and ethnicity. Throughout it all, he brings in case studies and examples, from Batman and Superman to Wonder Woman and Black Panther. One of the more interesting chapters looks at the role and production of superhero movies outside of the U.S. McSweeney considers both films from American franchises, including MCU and the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), and local productions from Spain, Malaysia, and South Korea. He contends that the more recent wave of U.S.-made movies shows a greater understanding for international audiences. Many of the contemporary films feature globe-trotting sequences, which not only increase their appeal in international box offices, where a sizable portion of income is made, but also offer tax incentives for their productions. The difference between U.S.-produced super- hero movies and other global productions often comes down to cost. Very simply, most global superheromovies cannot compete with American films that have exorbitant budgets, which usually double when marketing is also considered. As counterpoints to films like Avengers: Infinity War and Batman v Superman , which had budgets of $356 million and $250 million, respectively, McSweeney points out how the films in the Malaysian superhero franchise Cicak-Man had budgets between $500,000 to $750,000. “These much smaller budgets often result in films that appear cheap or amateurish and therefore unappealing to many Western audiences not used to the styles, rhythms, and idiosyncrasies of other national cinemas,” notes McSweeney. In addition to budgetary concerns and CGI quality, another factor affecting global superhero films are subtitles. In English-speaking countries, there seems to be an unwillingness to read while watching a movie. McSweeney also mentions the difference in cultural references and how global superhero movies are often misunderstood as poor imitations of the American versions. To this point, McSweeney comments, “The global superhero film instead should be understood as manifestations of international cinematic and industrial practices but also unique national identities and monomyths, at the same time impacted upon and influenced in complicated ways by the domination of the superhero form by the American cultural industries.” With The Contemporary Superhero Film , Mc- Sweeney has accomplished an informative and well-done primer in defense of superhero movies. He has presented a slim and concise study of the genre, while directing readers to a slew of resources for further inquiry. While designed for students and academic research, the book is highly readable for anyone interested in superhero movies. McSweeney concludes that “for now and the foreseeable future, whether we like it or not, we are living in the age of the superhero .” Film and television scholar Terence McSweeney explores the social and cultural content of superhero movies. Superhero Movies: How and Why They Continue to Appeal to Global Audiences By Luis Polanco