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Will Hollywood's Superhero Movie Binge Ever End?

After this summer of Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class and Green Lantern, can we be done with comic book movies finally? --Bryan W., Utah, via the inbox
/ Source: E!online

After this summer of Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class and Green Lantern, can we be done with comic book movies finally? --Bryan W., Utah, via the inbox

I hate to shoot you down with my Cosmic X-Ray Flying Space Laptop of Truth, but the research within does not lie, son: comic book movies are not leaving us anytime soon.

How can I be so sure? Well, I found a real live guy who can see the future. And he says:

THWACK! Check out Superhero Fashion Police

We are in for a very heroic 2012 and 2013--and probably beyond.

Why? Why are we going to see more Batmans and Ghost Riders and Avengers and Spider-Mans and so on? Well, for one, says Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex blog, special effects have finally caught up to the material. "It's really the CG age of cinema," he notes.

Second, Boucher points out, such special effects are often a deciding factor among movie fans debating whether to head to a theater or enjoy a night in front of the TV:

"Hollywood is trying to come up with more spectacle films that get people out of the house." And nothing is better served by special effects than (a) a comic book hero, (b) a boy wizard, (c) a Pirate of the Caribbean or (d) some unholy union of any of the above.

Finally, we're still dealing with studios and their budget people. Yes, producers are still happy to shell out $250 million to make a comic book movie, but only if, in general, they're considered safer bets than an Inception or Matrix.

"Hollywood has a real reluctance to bet $150 million to $250 million on a movie where people don't know the title the first time they hear it."

Still think that interest in fanboy movies is on the wane? Well then why is there going to be a second annual Hero Complex Film Festival, hmmm?

There's plenty more about this--and how one of my b!tchlings may or may not have killed Osama Bin Laden-in this week's podcast!

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