Superheroes have been in the popular culture vernacular since the beginning of the 21st Century. Movies about superheroes had been made before but not at the level or rate that the genre has evolved to in this new century. Of course, this does not always mean that there are quality productions to the films. In many cases, it actually means the opposite. Comic book characters and stories are sacrificed in the name of commerce and for that reason alone, the quality of the movies suffer. 
This struggle was specifically felt by the Spider-Man and Superman franchises. Both franchises have seen reboots that have worked and others that have flopped. Superman Returns was commercially and critically panned by critics and audiences. It took a few years until the hero saw a reboot with Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel. The Amazing Spider-Man was intended by Sony to introduce the entire Spider-man Universe into a series of films. This intention was put to a halt, after the massive failure of the film. The star Andrew Garfield has remained quiet about the subject until now.
In the latest episode of Variety’s “Actors on Actors”, Andrew Garfield discussed with Amy Adams, another actor with a superhero filmography about the struggles that big budget films face when it comes to prioritizing the special effects and action over the story:
“There’s something about being that young in that kind of machinery which I think is really dangerous. I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America really, it’s a corporate enterprise mostly. I found that really, really tricky. I signed up to serve the story, and to serve this incredible character that I’ve been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks your heart. I got heartbroken a little bit to a certain degree.”
Amy Adams echoed Andrew Garfield’s sentiments when she discussed her own struggle with playing Lois Lane on such a big scale movie:
“That’s the tricky thing with Lois, that I find is, I love playing her, I love everyone I work with, but sometimes it’s tricky because I feel she’s in service of the story instead of the story serving the character. That sometimes can be tricky when you show up and you really wanna retain a character and you have to serve the story….in a perfect universe they all work together.”
It is doubtful that practices in Hollywood would change, especially with blockbuster movies, but judging from both Andrew Garfield and Amy Adam’s comments, you can tell that the actors give as much as they can to bring the iconic characters to life on the big screen. Whether that translates into movies is everyone else’s opinions.
