Breaking news: when movies have strong emotional themes, both audiences and critics respond to those films, and find they can take something away from them bigger than “I spent two hours in air conditioning and ate some popcorn.” Yet despite this pretty obvious idea that’s existed since the dawn of drama, it’s taken a while for superhero movies in particular to get around to this relatively straightforward premise. It isn’t the fights and tights that make the superheroes soar; it’s the human emotions. And particularly here in the first half (or so) of 2025, movies like Thunderbolts*, Superman, and Fantastic Four: First Steps are thrillingly figuring that out in real time.
Look, it’s not that themes haven’t existed before. Plenty of movies featuring men in capes have had strong ideas behind them. If you took a shot every time Batman Begins drove home it was about “fear,” you’d be dead of alcohol poisoning a third of the way through the movie. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was very purposefully about grief, given the shocking death of star Chadwick Boseman. Logan was (among other things) about legacy. Giving your superhero movie a strong emotional hook between explosions hasn’t been entirely absent from the genre… But over the past few years, comic-book movies have somewhat lost their way.
