Whoa, I think we just got a visit from Dorkgollum...

Well, a lot of superhero movies contain the element of "nobody knows what you've become" at the end... but that's not really in the spirit of the idea.   Nobody knows who Spiderman really "is" either, but it's a pretty straightforward Hero's Journey tale nonetheless.    And people do still know about and applaud Spiderman/Batman/et al, so the recognition factor is still there.

But a story where the main character ends up NOT being a superhero anymore, and is okay with that, would be more likely to fit the paradigm.  I can't think of any examples, but there probably are some.

Another Boy-Takes-Heroine's-Journey example that occurred to me on re-listening to the podcast, is The Family Man, with Nic Cage.   I found it to be a really interesting movie - and a surprisingly grown-up effort from director Bret Ratner, of all people.    And I was honestly shocked at the ending they went with, it was actually pretty brave to go that way.   And it fits the paradigm perfectly.

^^  That.

Also - get out of there, Scarlett Johansson.  You are not a superhero, you are a cute girl dressed up for Comic-Con.

And there's way too much Hulk on display for my taste in this new trailer.  Hulk still gets my vote for most ridiculous comic hero idea evar.  I'm convinced that somebody dared somebody else to do a comic based on that concept, and somehow it stuck.

But meh, I'll probably see the movie too.   If it's fun, great.   If not, at least this'll be OVER.

Director's Trademark - Puts Left Leg on Things.

Since they're both nominated for screenplay Oscars and i'd never heard of either one, I recently rented Margin Call and The Ides of March and watched them back to back.  Liked 'em both.

They're actually rather similar, they're both about people living in a world most of us don't (Presidential campaigning/mega-billion-dollar stock trading) and how those institutions can seduce people into doing some pretty awful things.  Not a single Hero's Journey to be found in either flick, and neither movie tells you how to feel about what happens.  Both just show you what the characters do, you have to draw your own conclusions.

Margin Call is especially interesting because - according to the director's commentary - the total budget was an amazing three million dollars.   It has an incredible cast, all of whom clearly did it for love and not money.  Any one of their normal salaries would probably be more than three million.

All the post was done with the Adobe production package that I already had, on the computer I already owned.  I did use funds from the production budget to upgrade my Adobe suite to the then-latest CS3 package, but that was the only VFX expense in terms of actual money used from the budget.