Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoComic Book Movies - I've had enough
October 22nd 2007 13:21
Fantastic Four... more like Fantastic BORE
I'm finding myself becoming increasingly bored with the Marvel Movie Miracle Machine and all it's ilk. Prior to the late 90s, the only big 'comic book' films had been the flagship Superman franchise and the sporadic Batman series. Then the rise of the Internetz happened and the rapid conglomeration of nerds and geeks worldwide alerted filmmakers to the existence of a previously silent majority who had been pining away in their rooms waiting for the silicon revolution to happen. And yay, the Internetz gave them voice, and they did start their piteous moaning and fanboy gushiness. And dollars glittered in the eyes of the Executive Producers.
At first, it seemed great. X-Men and Spiderman seemed right on the money, and the respective sequels to each of these movies upped things up a notch, and everyone got spoiled. Then the sludge started seeping up through the cracks, unworthy adaptations spearheaded by hack directors and hack actors... yeah I'm talking about Daredevil, Elecktra and Catwoman. Fine, I figured, you take the good with the bad.
But then the next and most recent wave of films came... X-Men 3 and Spiderman 3 were two of the worst movies I've seen in recent times, both of the Fantastic Four films scaled brave new heights of mediocrity, and Superman Returns made me wish he didn't. Return, that is. The only good recent comic book film I can think of is Batman Begins... I'm excited about the follow-up, The Dark Knight, if only because of the inspired casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker (and all you naysayers can shut up, Ledger is gonna blow everyone out of the water the way Tom Cruise did with 'Interview with the Vampire'). Ghost Rider looks incredibly pants, and Iron Man doesn't really inspire me with confidence. Things are starting to get a little predictable.
Here's how the bulk of these films seem to be turning out...
1. Whizzbang credits sequences utilising cartoonish CGI and/or comic-book style panels.
2. An older and well-known character actor in a nice-guy supporting role.
3. If it's a sequel, there's usually some kind of piss-poor subplot that would be better suited to a soap opera.
4. Stan Lee has a hugely annoying cameo where he delivers a annoyingly significant single line of dialogue, and winks annoyingly at the camera.
5. Two to three arch-villains improbably team up to do away with the hero.
6. Action sequences become so obsessed with outdoing other sequences in comic book movies that you can barely tell what's even going on.
7. Film ends with a big cliffhanger that will form the basis of the next film, though the next film will somehow manage to be inconsistent with what's already established.
To sum up, I'm over it.
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
And you're right, Ghostrider is utter shit. I only watched it because of the Melbourne element.
Michaelie
Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
They're easy fodder - have a ready market and are digestable as DVD's - in essence - it's all a money over substance argument.
Totally with you on this.
Cheers
MNG
Comment by David
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Yep, I have to add to the chorus of I's... Ghostrider was absolute crap .. as for the added boxtoxed appeal of the older nice guy... oh yuk! I have to say, that John Travolta's role as the Mother of the lead teenage puddin' in Hairspray, was a more honest use of the boxtox look ... not that has anything to do with Marvel Movies mind, but it does add to the slightly off flavour of soured tang, which the Marvel Machine is dishing up, doesn't it?
I couldn't agree with you more about Superman returning either *laughs*
Great rant
Lilla ..
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by Julie Vaux
Books Well Read
Strange Situations
The Purple Challenge
Think about the web design!
If you want light on dark light blue on dark blue would probably be easier on the eyes?
If you need a textured bg file email me maybe something in my files might help!
Do you have Inkscape or Gimp ?
Gimp has this neat random noise filter and if you combine it with a couple of other filters ...
er getting back to comic book based movies ...
I'm hoping IRON Man is good but most ofthe Superman movies have been awful.
Spiderman ... not too bad
X-men THe Last Stand Very Uneven!
Why oh why couldnt at least one big studio give the Pinis money to do Elfquest !!!
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
I've never understood the problem people have with reading white on black... to me it's no different to having black on white, I find it very easy to read and it was a conscious decision based on the name of the blog, 'Old Movies' (ie. black and white)
but thanks anyway!
Comment by Julie Vaux
Books Well Read
Strange Situations
The Purple Challenge
Perhaps a very dark gray or a silver ripple pattern?
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by Earl
Road to Perdition was gold.
And History of Violence, while not supremely faithful to the book, was gravy. Similarly with V for Vendetta.
Sin City was actually a little too faithful, but still good!
Hellboy was alright, but 2 looks like it'll kick-demon butt.
and remember Men in Black (though not recent) was a comic book movie too! (1 was Ok, 2 was not).
Oh, 30 Days of Night was awesome (and based on a comicbook).
(There've been plenty of other bad one's too though. Bullet Proof Monk sucked, The League of Extraordiany Gentlemen really sucked. 300 was, again, too faithful- Millar's stuff aint all good.)
Comic book's aint a genre, they're a medium, and movies inspired by them aint a genre either!
I have hopes for Watchmen.