Let's be honest: After a banner year for superhero movies with Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2015 suddenly looks a bit, well, dull in comparison. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has been pushed to 2016, Ant-Man seems to be off to a rocky start, and even Avengers: Age of Ultron feels a little familiar at this point. If only there was a superhero movie on its way that seemed fun, inventive, and entirely out of left field.
Oh, wait. There is one, and it's extremely unlikely you saw this one coming. The trailer for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has arrived online, and not only does it feature the chance to see SpongeBob, Patrick, Plankton et al in the "real world," complete with Roger Rabbit-esque messing around with real people hijinks, but it also introduces you to SpongeBob and friends as superheroes with suitably strange powers.
The trailer is undeniably silly and—unsurprisingly for SpongeBob—downright corny in places, sure. But it's also a breath of fresh air after the gloomy destruction and frowning, muted aesthetics of the fare we've seen in almost every superhero movie of the last few years. It's almost as if the goofy off-kilter nature of Guardians of the Galaxy was taken to an extreme that even James Gunn wouldn't dare attempt. It may not rock theaters in the way that (presumably) Star Wars: Episode VII will, but could it come out and be a pleasant surprise in the way The Lego Movie was? Absolutely.
Watch the trailer above and then ask yourself if this doesn't look a bit more exciting than watching Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man punch robots for two hours.
