By: Steve Anderson
I'd like to
discuss the reasons why I always end up with a sour taste in my mouth after
watching any movie based off a comic book series. First off I want to start by
saying this article is only about comic movies based on continual series, not
stand alone comics, so basically your big name characters/teams, ie X-Men,
Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four, Avengers and so on. I'm probably going to get
a lot of heat for the opinions I'm about to discuss, we all know how heated
people can get defending or trashing a comic book movie, I'd ask that everyone
hear me out first before flying off the handle though.
I'm going to start with saying, as a
fan boy, I get excited almost every time I hear they are making a new movie
based on a comic series I love (excluding anything written by Alan Moore,
Hollywood has done far too many disservices to the great works of Alan Moore,
that could be a whole other article in itself), then after that initial
excitement I get an overwhelming sense of dread. This dread isn't for the
obvious reasons such as casting or writing or who the producer is and so on;
this dread is simply because the two mediums are just not in any way compatible
with each other.
Comic books are continually in
second act, sure you start with the origin story which is like the first act of
cinema/theatre but EVERYTHING else is second act. Comics cannot have the big
third act blow off, even the minor blow offs to end a story arc are usually
geared towards setting up the next story arc, or putting an antagonist off to
the side for awhile so the protagonist can move onto the next adversary or
issue he/she has to face.
Movies on the other hand need the
third act, without the big finale movies just don't work; it's the whole point
of the silver screen. The good guy saves the day, everything is settled, the bad
guy is dead or in jail or exiled in some way, to never return.
This
last point is what kills it for me when watching comic book based movies. In
comics these super villains always come back, they play a continual adversarial
role to the hero, and this is as much a part of who the hero is as his own
personality.
Where
would Batman be without the Joker, Superman without Lex Luthor, the X-Men
without Magneto and so on.In
the movies usually we get a single movie to visit each of these adversaries and
then they are shipped off/killed off/written off and we’re onto the next Bad
Guy.
X-Files
used to have episodes like this, they were called “Monster Of the Week episodes”. The
only problem is these episodes didn't define the X-Files series, there was the Smoking
Man who was a constant antagonist to Mulder and Scully through every season;
this built the mythology of the show. When
comic book movies do not return to these antagonists, it kills the mythology of
the main character.
Now, after getting all of this off
my chest, I know in the future I'm still going end up shelling out my $10 and
whatever astronomical fee they charge for popcorn these days whenever one of
these big movies comes out, and I'm going to sit down and enjoy the film as
best as I can and try to forget everything that drives me nuts about comic
movies.
But
I just want to ask one question to everyone before I go: With all the great things
happening in cable television these days, why can't we have a serious drama
based on one of these iconic characters? Does
this format not lend more to the mythology building that has been part of the
comic industry since its creation? DC
and Marvel, if you are paying any attention to this poor annoyed fan boy, give
it a try, hell it doesn't even have to be any of your true icons, give us a
good show on The Flash or The Punisher.
If
you do it right like The Walking Dead you could have the next big thing in
television on your hands.
I
just think there's a huge untapped market that is being completely overlooked
which could eliminate all the disappointment and rage ultimately felt by fans
as a movie series continues into its second or third sequel and sure enough
everything that was good about the first or second movie seems to be slowly
disappearing from the series until we are ultimately left with Spider-man 3 or
X-Men: The Last Stand.
*The opinions
expressed in this article are the authors and the author's alone and do not
necessarily reflect those of www.geeksbyday.com
Steve Anderson
lives in Peterborough, Ontario. When not writing he consumes far too much
coffee and nicotine for any normal human being. You can follow him on twitter
@SteveAwesome.
