10:06 AM
E
It's over. The sad fact is this: there are two kinds of superhero movies. Movies that came before The Dark Knight and we thought they they were neato cool, the bees knees, and all that shit. Then the movies that came after that are just a steaming pile of feces compared to the might and glory of The Dark Knight. Once The Dark Knight Rises releases, I fear the end of good superhero movies will be upon us. 2012 truly marks the end of civilization.
TDK did something that few hero movies have done before. It made it believable. It wasn't so outlandish that you had to bend reality a lot. Batman's struggle against corruption in Gotham had consequences. The villains that he faced weren't just madmen bent on taking over the world, they had philosophies that they stood behind, even though they were misguided.
A lot of the movies that Marvel has pumped out has been very formulaic. Each followed the Iron Man recipe. Thor and Captain America just felt like the same flick. Fantastic Four was like that too. The heroes are too busy fighting amongst themselves the majority of the movie. In recent years the only two Marvel movies I truly enjoyed were The Incredible Hulk and The Punisher (the Thomas Jane version).
Superhero movies need to be brought down to Earth before a serious fanbase can get behind them. So far comic movies have been summer box office fodder. Shallow story and horrible plot progression seem to be the trend. It might be the difference between Marvel and DC movies. Or it might just be the way the movies are filmed. Wolverine should have been a hard R rated film. No way a character that has claws shed so little blood in a film. Seriously. I'm hoping that 'The Wolverine' and 'Deadpool' change that and get down and dirty. I enjoyed The Punisher and the Blade trilogy because they didn't pull any punches.
Maybe the big difference is Christopher Nolan. The guy can't make crap, it's not in his DNA. I was very hurt when I found out the Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream) wasn't going to be at the helm of 'The Wolverine'. Reason being that the man can't not make an R rated film that makes you so depressed you want to die. That sense of despair is basically what the next stage in Wolverine's life becomes.
What I want is directors of comic book movies not to take me as a fool and accept it because they have flashy special effects and a hero that is literally larger than life. Iron Man 3 can delve into Tony Stark's alcoholism, Thor could view a little more of his arrogance (a three day field trip on Earth and a roll in the hay with Natalie Portman seems like a cheap change of heart). Spider-Man (at least the first one) showed a hero that was human but acted like a hero, super strength aside. I'm hoping that The Avengers movie can put all my misgivings aside and produce a great film.
Eric C.
1 comments:
The problem with comic book movies is that they too often attempt to turn the Comic Book into a film directly. Nolan seems to have upped the ante by producing the Dark Knight Films. If you remember though Batman Begins was at best average, and the Dark Knight often borders the same problem with the hero being a villain to society even though he is the true good guy.
Ledger's performance combined with the direction and story Nolan put out there is what made TDK a masterpiece. Acting, story, plot, action, direction. If those five can be included in comic book movies, the genre will dominate.
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