Why do people keep watching superhero movies?

Ellen Page in "Super" (2010).

Aside from usual Marvel generic films, there have been great innovations within the superhero genre lately with the likes of Deadpool and Logan to revitalise the platform that have kept people interested in how comic book films can be progressed.

There is no reason to think a big corporation like Disney would seek diversity in content when their content decisions demonstrate the opposite. They have money-they aren't dependent on US consumers, so why would they want diversity? They arent even interested in making content for domestic audiences anymore.  Superheroes are too limited in potential due to the super-power aspects of it. Westerns are about mortals and did not have juvenile roots like superheroes did.


As for the US vs Euro western debate-- depends on your framework for quality.
Do you think the Professionals is a good western? I found it incredibly childish in human behavior.
The thing with Euro westerns is that characters were more authentic in behavior than your average do-gooder frontiersman western. Especially the singing cowboy variety. There were lethal consequences. Revenge happens. So does betrayal. Human nature in action. This is what made spaghetti westerns so well regarded today.


The euro westerns didnt relie on long dialogue scenes because they didnt have to.

Watch a film like FACE TO FACE to get an idea of how complex the characterization in a euro-western can be.
Not aware of any US western that would compare in character complexity to that one.

Shakespeare had magical Imp characters. Then there are various religious texts with supernatural characters. You’re certainly taking on giants of the literary world here.

Vera Cruz (which is something of a prototype for a spaghetti western).

Another would be Chuka.

Those are rare cases of a US western where I didnt feel it was romanticized or artificial. VC was appropriately enough, a United Artists film so it was independent not a major studio film.

As for your other remark about Shakespeare. Most of Shakespeare's characters were mortal, not imps. A better reference for you would be Homer. Achilles was a demi-god. But, even he is fated to die so it's not quite the same as your average superhero. Achilles was a soldier--he was in war for selfish reasons--glory for himself. A superhero is devoted to public service so that alone sets it apart. Even a cowboy has an instinct for self-preservation behind their motivations even if it is altruistic.
Odysseus sought to return home. It is a goal many people can identify with on a human level.

Most superheroes are devoid of that aspect.

But back to the original point.
A spaghetti western (or US western if you prefer) is very limited in material. Town, mountains, horses, guns, frontier, indians etc. And yet there was massive variety in story content.

A superhero story in theory should have 10 x the potential in plotting given the lack of restrictions on environment-and yet, people often complain how boring they have become.
Why the difference? How is it that westerns could last for decades but the superhero genre is getting so boring?
The reason is partly due to the limited aspects of human nature in the superhero personality (as I said, they are not motivated by self-interest or survival most of the time).
Another is the stifling nature of the big corporation agenda in filmmaking.
I notice people will praise a film like Logan (including the mainstream media which I dont listen to) but the story itself has little to do with superhero elements. It's basically about a dying guy and a kid with a failure message.
 What's super about it?
And even the mere mortals of a western wouldn't have a plot so dreary.

I said Robocop was the best costumed superhero film. I thought Superman was very good but I can see why people might criticize it for too much humor.
Perhaps we should go back to the Adventures of Captain Marvel serial? It has almost no humor and yet as a straight adventure film was refreshingly simple and entertaining (and true to the source genre).
There isn't any modern superhero movie that uses that formula.
Instead they inject insincere social commentary and character foibles or comedy.

I would say that if the superhero genre was taken out of the hands of Hollywood and given to filmmakers in the US that had no connection to it (lord knows we dont want another superhero given to a Taiwanese filmmaker), I bet a crowd pleasing film could be made for US audiences. But the artists have to come from the community of the audience like in the old days with westerns.