How Comic Book Movies Changed

Comic Book movies have
become more than hollow
action films

As many of you know, the godfather of all comic book movies was 1978's Superman: The Movie before the next big success was another DC adaptation 1989's Batman. Both were smash hits at the box office and both took vastly different approaches. In 1998, Blade was Marvel's first successful film after a slew of mediocre made-for-TV films (mostly sequels to The Incredible Hulk series) and Dolph Lundgren's Punisher before 2000's X-Men started the momentum that made Marvel Studios. At first comic book movies were cheesy, then slightly cheesy, then dark until taking themselves seriously. They've attracted big name producers, directors and actors to a lot of success. Heath Ledger broke through to win an Oscar for his performance of the Joker in 2008. Comic Book movies are changing "making it less comic-y" but let's take a look at the evolution in Comic Book movies.

"Comic Book Movies should not be origin stories because it's rare when someone picks up issue #1." -Joe Williams, author of the indy comic Kyaku

First, the Superman vs. Batman styles:

Superman: The Movie deal with a being
of unlimited power finding his limits. 

1978's Superman took the approach of the linear origin story. It starts with the demise of Krypton and the proceeding through the importance of Superman's childhood with the Kents. The death of Jonathan Kent is the most important part of his character development. When director Richard Donner told the story in this fashion, it worked and in spades. 1989's Batman ISN'T an origin story. Director Tim Burton does have a variation of the Joker's beginnings and a mere flashback to Bruce Wayne's parents death. Now, BOTH styles were perfect for their genre's. One story NEEDED to go into detail of the main character and the other could rely on simply telling the back story in seconds. (This style will be further explored in a moment.)

Marvel Employs the Same Tactics:

Did we need to see Blade grow up?
Nope. A simple monologue was
Blade'sorigin story.

Marvel had the same ideas employed by the DC movies in THREE of their films. First was Blade, that used his backstory with a perfect monologue by Kris Kristofferson. Second was a full backstory by Sam Rami in Spider-Man as audiences were shown Peter Parker's growth into his powers, trying to cash in and the MURDER of Uncle Ben. The third was used by Bryan Singer in X2 when he took less than 30 seconds to show Wolverine's Weapon X Experiment- still the most bone-chilling origin in comic films. Each film employed the origin the films needed and not more or less.

Sequels:

Spider-Man 2 is the perfect
character study of the hero

DC's Batman Returns and Superman II stand alone as really their only quality sequels (add Superman III if you're a fan), but Marvel's sequels have excelled greatly. Spider-Man 2 and X2 are among this blogs three best comic films and in spite of a weak Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers were great. The main story line of each other the sequels remain the same: Is Being the Hero Easy? Some heroes go about their business (Batman Returns), some yearn to find answers (Wolverine), peace of mind (Tony Stark) while others question if they should be the hero (Spider-Man and Superman). At the time, villains ran the gauntlet. Start with the big villain and then go to the secondary villain, (Batman's Joker and Batman Returns' Catwoman and Penguin. Spider-Man's Green Goblin followed by Doctor Octopus) and all villains died until Batman Forever and X-Men. 

"There's three excuses to comic book movies: 
1) Because they're ninjas and ninjas are awesome 
2) Because it's comics so accept it 
3) Because it's Christopher Nolan and fanboys think he can't do wrong" - Scarlett

Christopher Nolan Enters:

Untold before, Batman Begins showed how the
Dark Knight came to be.

In, 2005, Memento director Christopher Nolan entered the fray. Armed with screenwriter David S. Goyer, they set out to reboot the comic movie franchise and likely didn't realize that they'd change comic films forever after that; focusing on making the story more character driven like the Marvel series. In Batman Begins, audiences were told about the origin of Batman and how he came to be the Dark Knight. Taken in by Ra's Al Ghul (pronounced differently from his appearance in the animated series and Arkham City video game) to be an assassin to take down Gotham, Bruce refused and left to become a symbol to unify Gotham. Focusing mainly on Batman and spending a little bit of time on secondary villains (Ghul and the Scarecrow), Nolan spent more time developing Bruce Wayne into Batman. In the process, he made the first film of the series without even a mention of the Joker until the film's closing seconds. Nolan also made the first successful "Dual Villain Film", which never worked out well in their history.

Batman's arch-nemesis wasn't even mentioned
until the closing seconds of Batman Begins 

In 2008, Nolan released The Dark Knight (the first of the series to not use the Batman name) and achieved critical success as well as box office records. As mentioned, Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor, but The Dark Knight was nominated for 8 Academy Awards. It prominently featured Batman's biggest villain (The Joker) and developed a second villain in the film (Two-Face). In 2012, Nolan finished his trilogy with the plot hole filled The Dark Knight Rises. Even though Batman is in the middle of nowhere with no money and no contact, he gets back to a quarantined Gotham with stealthful ease. Why? See rule #3. The third part to a comic series still has unperformed with Iron Man 3 (very) arguably being the best one and there's plenty of debate. Still what Nolan did was create a blueprint for the way comic book movies would be made. If you don't believe me...

Marvel Employs the Nolan Method:

Robert Downey Jr was perfect...PERIOD

Marvel released two notable Origin stories after Batman Begins. First was Iron Man, which is possibly the best origin story ever put to film, and recently was The Amazing Spider-Man. Now, the benefit of Iron Man was the lack of a central villain so every villain was secondary and the focus was solely on Tony and his changing role in the world. By the end of the movie, Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Marvel's playboy was all people could talk about. It also employed a disconnected timeline (a la Nolan's style), but did not have a tone too dark for the very flip hero. 

Did we need to see a full origin story for Spider-Man AGAIN?

With 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel returned to tell Spider-Man's origin story that was told ten years earlier with a slight variation for the Ultimate Spider-Man series. The darker tone was good, but not quite a perfect fit for Spider-Man, but director Mark Webb used The Lizard and spoke about the Oscorp CEO Norman Osbourne without showing him. Thus the focus was mainly on Peter and developed him... slightly differently from the original series. In the next film, Chris Cooper will play Osbourne, but it is unknown if the Green Goblin will appear. Director Webb released a picture of "Locker 14" where Peter finds the alien symbiote that eventually becomes Venom- perhaps another foreshadowing of a future villain. It'll be interesting what Amazing Spider-Man 2 reveals next year.

Another staple of the "Nolan Blueprint" is rebranding the franchise. Batman became The Dark Knight, (from Frank Miller's series), but as producer his method and rebranding are now out for Man of Steel- the new Superman film. Again, focus on the hero's origin and a secondary villain as Lex Luthor did not make an appearance. You could say this same style was used in the Sherlock Holmes series that didn't introduce Professor Moriarty until the second film, but mentioned him in the first.

Marvel Creates a Universe:

A second credits scene at the end of The Avengers was
missed by most audiences that left early.

Starting in X3: The Last Stand, Marvel began using scenes after the credits. It was a simple scene that let audiences know that Professor X somehow survived his encounter with the Phoenix. In 2008, Marvel used another scene after the end of Iron Man to introduce Nick Fury and The Avengers initiative. After that, Marvel used it's films and characters to interact in their films even when the films are distributed by different studios (as seen when Paramount's Tony Stark made a cameo in Universal's The Incredible Hulk). Within the next couple years, Marvel firmly planted the idea that ALL of it's film's are connected. Now Marvel has encountered trouble blending Spider-Man into The Avengers, but Wolverine made a cameo in X-Men: First Class, Howard Stark (Tony's Dad) was a key character in Captain America: The First Avenger, Hawkeye was introduced in Thor and Black Widow was a supporting role in Iron Man 2. Even in Marvel's other film like the lucrative Spider-Man series, Eddie Brock was mentioned in the first film and Marvel used a credit-cut scene in The Amazing Spider-Man to hint at another mysterious character (Michael Massee). The point? There's more to a Comic Book Movie than just "here's a character and HIS story"; they exist in a world and occasionally those worlds can intersect with other heros. It is important to remember that the character exist FOR their own films. One complaint about Iron Man 3 is the lack of presence BY the Avengers even though the events of the film are continually referenced. If the Avengers popped up out of nowhere, Iron Man 3 would have suffered.
DC employs the Marvel Methods:

DC used a "Credits Scene" to hint at a
Green Lantern sequel.

DC did not use any cut scenes or references to Metropolis in it's Dark Knight series, but LexCorp and Wayne Enterprise made very QUICK cameos in Man of Steel. With rumors of a Justice League movie in the works, DC could have used a little momentum with a credits scene at the end. They chose not to, but DC did successfully employ the credits scene setting up a sequel... but it was in it's biggest failure- The Green Lantern. In the credits, audiences are shown the Ring of Fear and see it's stolen by Sinestro (perfectly played by Mark Strong). Say what you will about the lackluster Green Lantren, but the idea of Strong's Sinestro in a sequel is appealing. (By the way, you can't tell a guy would turn bad with a name like Sinestro!) There are perils to making a Justice League movie that will be covered soon.
The New Type of Comic Book Film:

Jackman is Wolverine again. That's good news for audiences. 

There is one more HUGE comic film on the horizon this summer- Marvel's The Wolverine. Director James Mangold has films like Girl Interrupted on his resume and Darren Aronofsky was originally slated to direct the film, but took a smaller role in production. The idea of the film is to flush out the Wolverine character. Sure it's going to have it's action, but the film is being billed as a "new type of comic book film". Time will tell in late July.

Comic Book Movies have shown they're more than just fluff when the situations have called for them. They could be tales of the "tragic hero" like a Greek Myth or simply show that there's more to a hero than wearing a stupid costume and covering his face (or not in Superman's case). They've evolved from 1978 to tell better stories that continually improve. Sure, now we're going through the reboots, but varying the adventures of these titans isn't necessarily a bad thing... if they can pull it off. Still, it's not out of the question that one of these days a Superhero film can take home a Best Picture as the quality of these franchises continues to improve.

The Greatest Comic Book/Graphic Novel Movies of All Time

In honor of The Dark Knight Rises, this week's blog is about the Best Comic Book/Graphic Novel Films ever made. Of course if you look at IMDb, there's no need for this list since EVERY Christopher Nolan movie is in the top 250 of all time, but I hope you won't mind a healthy debate. Read on and argue with me at the end. Quick ground rules: one movie per series.

Blade kicked off Marvel's movie
superiority.

10) Blade (1998) – Marvel didn't have a good film track record until this late 90's Wesley Snipes movie surged through theaters. This film did well even when vampires weren't in every movie. The story of the half-human/half-vampire slayer was done justice by Snipes and Kris Kristopherson. It would spawn two more sequels that never reached their potential, but it was better than Twilight- then again... so are infomercials.

Watch out who you cross
in Sin City?

9) Sin City (2005) – Frank Miller's graphic novels were brought to life in Robert Rodriguez's film by following the framing used in the comic. The story's were done with a serious and slightly campy style that perfectly fit the film noir feel of Sin City. It had good performances by the all-star cast led by Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen and Alexis Bledel, but it was the opening story with Mickey Rouke and Elijah Wood that kept your blood pumping throughout the film.

Hanks, Law and Newman
delivered great work.

8) Road to Perdition (2002) – Sam Mendes' encore after American Beauty was a well-crafted, well-written and well acted piece that many didn't know was originally a graphic novel. Tom Hanks plays a hitman whose son witnessed a hit by Daniel Craig and as a result Craig has his family killed. Hanks escapes with his son and is on the run from the mob, including his boss Paul Newman in his final Oscar nominated performance. Jude Law turns in some of his best work as a hitman with a hobby of photographing the dead.

To ignore 1989's Batman is to be
completely ignorant. It was great.

7) Batman (1989)– Tim Burton's blockbuster hit with a surprise choice to play Batman (Michael Keaton) was considered the movie of the decade by critic Rex Reed. It took a very reserved Batman without a stupid voice (hint, hint Christian Bale) and homicidal maniac Joker (Jack Nicholson) to bring it to life. Like Blade, this was not an origin story for it's first segment and has a good debate with Dark Knight on the better Joker movie.

He was the first comic TV show and
the first comic movie.

6) Superman (1978)– Richard Donner's original comic book film from 1978 that didn't see an equal for some time. Christopher Reeve was the best choice for the Man of Steel as well as Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor. It gave us a full history of Superman from Krypton to Smallville and let audience's know, just because you have a ton of ability, doesn't make you a god.

The Best Origin story
ever and a sign of our times.

5) Iron Man (2008)– The Dark Knight Rises was said to mimic our current times, but Iron Man did it better. Weapons manufacturer Tony Stark sees soldiers getting killed by his own creations and decides to turn over a new leaf. Robert Downey Jr. has been sensational in every installment of this series, but this one showed the public at large just how talented he was. Jon Favereau did a great job making the Marvel hero come to life and there's more only to come.

How was it possible to blend so
many heros together? Joss Whedon
found a way.

4) The Avengers (2012)– What makes The Avengers an achievement is blending so many heroes to make one great film without favoring one too much. Joss Whedon took all six heroes and used them like a Long Island Iced Tea- great going down and packs a punch. The action was great and seemless for Hawkeye to Black Widow to Iron Man to Captain America. Go ahead, see this again and not want to clap when Bruce Banner tells Black Widow about his secret technique.

A sequel worthy of greatness.

3) X2 (2011)- Bryan Singer's follow-up to 2000's X-Men was bigger, better and more gripping than the first. The human villain Brian Cox exposed humans as a bigger threat than Magneto (but Ian McKellen quickly reminds audiences that he's the top of the food chain). Every X-Men actor was on point, even the scenes that had to be added for recent Oscar winner Halle Barry. If you don't have a chill down you spine when Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) walks into the lab that put the metal on his bones, you're made of stone.
Honorable mention: X-Men First Class (2011)

How many times did
you see The Dark Knight?

2) The Dark Knight (2008)– Lost in the hype over Heath Ledger's Joker was the fine performance by Aaron Eckhart as Gotham's fallen District Attorney Harvey Dent. Christopher Nolan added the best chapter of Batman in the first film that didn't feature Batman's name in the title. Ledger was terrifying as the sadistic Joker. Bale was strong as the conflicted billionaire that is trying to clean up the streets of his beloved city while people are being killed to force him to quit. It reveals the price of being the hero, but it isn't the best example on this list.

The winner and still champion had it
all. Action, Story, Great Performances and
a hero without a stupid voice.

1) Spider-Man 2 (2004)– No secret, this is the Greatest Of All Time! It isn't as dark as the Nolan Batman's, but it's message of “the price to be the hero” is presented better than any other comic book film. Peter Parker's life is hell as he tries to keep the promise to Uncle Ben by remembering “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. His efforts to be friends with Mary Jane are threatened. His best friend hates him and blames him for his father's death. His aunt thinks he's dangerous. His grades slip. He can't make rent and is barely scraping by at the Daily Bugle, but he tries to soldier on as his powers begin to fade with his own personal resentment of his alter-ego. Eventually, Peter forgoes the life of Spider-Man in an effort to be Peter Parker, but the world needs Spider-Man one way or another and he must don the Spider-Man costume again despite the cost to his own life. When his identity is revealed, Peter thwarts Doctor Octopus, saves Mary Jane, but creates a new enemy from his best friend Harry Osbourne. Peter gives up Mary Jane again, but MJ choses to encounter the pitfalls of being Spider-Man's girlfriend with him as the sequel ends on a high note... then they made #3...

There you have the list. Feel free to debate. I know there's going to be a clamoring for 300, but figured Sin City was enough.

Can Spider-Man Still Amaze Us?

The Amazing Spider-Man
opens July 3rd.

In 2002, Spider-Man bursted in movie theaters with the single weekend record at the box office. Becoming the first movie to open with a $100 million dollar weekend, the Spider-Man franchise went on to destroy that record twice. As far as the films went, the first two were exceptional and the third...was a movie. Any way, the Amazing Spider-Man comes out in theaters on July 3rd with a new cast and new director. No more Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi. Hello Andrew Garfield and (500) Days of Summer director Mark Webb. Will The Amazing Spider-Man do just that?

Spider-Man 2's train fight was iconic. Can The Amazing Spider-Man
deliver the same great action sequence?

Previously written in this blog in Advice the Dark Knight would give Spider-Man and Vice Versa, Spider-Man's original concept worked well as opposed to Batman's flawed and failed Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. That's why Batman could reboot a lot easier than Spider-Man. Unfortunately, most people have fresh memories of the great films in the franchise. Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker was outstanding and considered by many as one of the best heroes on screen. Raimi's vision for the francise had a very comic style without hindering storytelling. Spider-Man 2 was called the greatest comic book movie ever by Roger Ebert. The franchise has one of the most iconic action scenes in comic movie history with the train top fight between Doc Ock and Spidey, culminating with a runaway train and a mask-less Spider-Man human surfing the people he saved. The first two films were well written, well casted, well conceived and well performed. Again the third installment...was a movie too. How can they top that? By telling another origin story? Come on, gotta give us something this franchise hasn't seen at all. 

Andrew Garfield takes the reigns
as the nerdy web-slinger.

That's what Sony and Marvel is attempting. This Peter Parker will be snarkier than ever and will show case Parker's scientific side more than the previous series. Gone are Parker's organic web-shooters. Now, Peter has to make his own shooters. Of course, there's going to be the traditional trial-and-error period every superhero has, but this could be different from Maguire's flight into a wall in the original.  It will also introduce a new (...or original) love interest- Gwen Stacey (played by Emma Stone). It'll also be the second time a Spider-Man love interest goes from a natural redhead to a blonde as Bryce Dallas Howard did the same in Spider-Man 3. Odd, Kirsten Dunst was blonde that went red for the original three films. This film also has another new villian by introducing the Lizard. Now, the original story had Curt Connors as Peter's teacher. This one appears to go in a different direction. Connors worked at Oscorp with Peter's father. Will their teacher/mentor relationship translate to this new style? Spider-Man has always had one mystery that many fans never got to know: what happened to his parents. As seen in the first teaser trailer, this film wants Spidey fans to see that story. Trailers show great fight scenes with the Lizard and a huge antenna collapsing toward the streets of New York, so fans will get to see plenty of action, but will it top the originals?

Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey will develop much different
from Kirsten Dunst's MJ.

Tuesday audiences will get to view The Amazing Spider-Man for themselves. It has a lot to live up to, but also a bit to make audiences forget. What remains to be seen will be the plans Marvel has for the rest of the series and will they mess up the third part as bad as they did originally. If they do, it's no problem. The Spectacular Spider-Man is likely due out in 2023 if there's any hiccups. If it's successful, then this franchise can swing it's way to new heights.

The Lizard is unlike any previous Spidey villain. Can he
compete with the Green Goblin and Doc Ock?