Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers
This is going to be lovely: a post on Spiderman and other comic-hero movies, with absolutely no links or swiped images. I mean, come on, you all know how to use Google, IMDB, and Wikipedia. The only thing we want for is interesting ideas, and that’s what d21 is really here to provide! Ready? OK, here we go:
My gamer friends are by and large also comic book fans. That means they often care about comic-property movie conversions and such related fare. Often, these movies are bad, not out of any lack of merit in the source material (there’s that too, though), but in certain defects in the movie-making apparatus of the world (aka “profit motive”) that basically doesn’t see the value in putting out top-quality fare when these movies will always be seen by a core audience no matter how bad it is, and never seen by anyone one else no matter how good it is. My friends and I have helped perpetuate this system over the years by going to see such clunkers as Daredevil, Underworld 2 and Ultra-Violet. So, shoot us. Only Robert Rodriguez is pulling off the long-shot miracles with Sin City and Grindhouse, and he’s basically re-inventing modern moviemaking in Austin with this Troublemaker Studious to do it. That just underscores how hard it is.
Ah, but there’s that other kind of super-hero movie. The big-budget one. The kind that’s built from the ground up to be mass-consumer summer-popcorn fare. The Batman and Superman franchises had their past glories in this arena and are currently undergoing painful rehabilitations. X-Men has had tried, with mixed results. But the undisputed El Supremo of the current era is Spiderman. Interestingly, I see gamers avoiding these big-budget numbers out of a sense that these movies aren’t really made “for them”, and that even more awful liberties than the usual will be taken with their beloved comics in pursuit of Joe Average Movie-Goer. (Even more awful than the casting of Bullseye in Daredevil? Not possible!) “Dumbing-down” is said scornfully, and not also without a a hint of unintended hilarity. Really, now. Sure, the big-budget route yields its fair share of failures (big-budget failures!) just as much as their fan-boy only runt siblings, but it’s not the respective hit-miss ratios that matter here, as it is overall production aesthetic. Even in these days of bountiful CGI, big money still adds up to bigger visual bling. As for getting the script and casting right? Yea, those are line items on the budget right down there with the catering.
Interlude. Watching playoff hockey yesterday I got to “enjoy” that woeful Comcast commercial over and over, the one that somehow attempts to promote the new Spiderman movie while simultaneously ridiculing the costumed, nerdy, loser fanboy who loves the movie even more than you do. What exactly are you being told to aspire to here? A measured approach to empty-headed pop-culture consumption extemism? I mean, it’s as stupid as it is painful to watch. Nice job there, Fratboy Marketing, LLC!
Oh, OK, back from our break? So, here’s your single-item checklist for whether you’re dealing with a big-budget crappy superhero movie, or a fanboy-only crappy superhero movie. You know, aside from the budget. It’s this simple: smoking hot babes. Fanboy movies always have ‘em in spades and they try like the dickens to get them naked, or in leather, or spandex, or thermal straps, or melted butter, or whatever the hell it’s going to be. (…because that’s how it happens in issue 72, page 14… it’s about being true to the source material, wink-wink, nudge-nudge…) Big-budget superhero movies always downplay the sex angle, even though they all end up in the same PG/PG-13 bin when all is said and done anyway. Like I said, it’s about aesthetics. Kirsten Dunst is a pretty face and non-threatening; kind of like how Helen Hunt was in the (ahem, non-superhero TV series) Mad About You, lo those many years ago. Kate Beckinsale in Underworld (now available in the “even more tight-leather ass-shots of Kate HD-DVD edition!”) is decidely something else.
This is an easy call: the disdained little audience for fanboy-only fare is, hey you guessed it, all young and male. Shovel in all the hot babes they can handle! Spiderman is for mom and dad the the 7–year old twins. Mary Jane better be plenty damn wholesome, no matter how bus-fulls of innocents are going to explode or get heaved off bridges.
My gamer friends aren’t lechers. But I’m sure they didn’t mind all the hot booty in Aeon Fluxx. I mean, how the hell else are you going to pass the time? Whereupon a point is proved, such as it is.
Posted on May 7th, 2007 at 12:23 pm. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
I thought Colin Farrell as Bullseye was the best thing in _Daredevil_. Maybe he didn’t look right for the part, but at least he was interesting to watch.
Let me put out another theory here. The difference between “suck” and “no suck” on these types of comic book movies has everything to do with SCRIPT. Get the story right, dumbasses, and everything else (acting, special effects, hot babes, etc.) will fall into place. The problem with your Spiderman 3 and/or your X-Men 3 is that the studio is trying to do too much with the effects, packing in too many characters, and eventually the story becomes a messy jumble of ideas without a clear arc for developing the main characters. When the audience finds the right reasons to empathize with the characters, to CARE about the characters, that’s when you have a decent, memorable film (_Batman Begins_ and the first two Spidey movies could be credited with doing at least a better/ passable job in the script department).
Posted on May 7th, 2007 at 5:02 pm. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
Have to leave a Ditto - as a NON-reader of the Daredevil comics, I had no prejudice to the neature of the character fo Bullseye. Coming in a a complete stone-cold Daredevil virgin, I recall two things I thought really stood out as uniquely innovative in that movie. 1) The special effects/CGI especially at the beginning of the film on how Daredevil’s accoustic sight power developed and was percieved to him, and 2) the supporting character/villan of Bullseye. He was just so interesting to pay attention to compared to the rather less memorable comic book drama.
-The Emperor
Posted on May 8th, 2007 at 8:57 am. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
I almost feel as if I don’t have the right to comment because I actually liked Ang Lee’s Hulk (except for the brawl with his father at the end).
Ever since Blade, I’ve been pretty happy to see superheroes getting the star treatment. Telling, retelling, and reformulating hero origins is something of a recurring event in comics so when the movie deviates from the continuity, I try not to sweat it too much and focus on what excites me about comic book characters.
Unfortunately, the Hollywood machine has little respect for storytelling. Once they have a hit, they won’t stop beating the formula to death, through undeath, and beyond. For many comic book heroes there are several types of stories that work very well but we rarely see more than the one in which they are introduced.
With Spider-man, Sam Raimi has at least managed to make the trilogy feel like the one continuous journey of self discovery as Peter Parker grows out of his awkward adolecense into manhood and heroics. Considering that Sony pays the bills and the usual trend with Hollywood, I think he deserves some praise for holding it together as well as he has!
Excerpt form an NPR review:
Posted on May 8th, 2007 at 11:34 am. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
My biggest problem with comic hero movies is that comics are serials and movies are usually made with a beginning and an end. Most of the big heroes have been around since the 1960s, with a few going back as far as the 1930s and 1940s. Sure revamps have happened, and in some cases characters have been morphed completely into new identities, costumes, backgrounds, etc. But usually, the “kewl” elements that movies want to incorporate have complicated and twisted histories not easily told in a 3 hour movie. Try and explain all the twists and turns in NBC’s “Heroes” or ABC’s “Lost” in a single movie. It’s just not possible.
BTW, for those interested, the black costume IS an alien parasite accidentally freed by Spidey on the Beyonder’s constructed world at the edge of the universe in Secret Wars #7. He wore it for a long time until the public uproar (and plummeting sales) caused comic writers to change it back. They worked up the whole plotline about the suit becoming evil (from rejection) and then developed Venom, which later led to Carnage, several clones of Peter Parker, etc….
The same problems cropped up in X-Men. You can’t start a story in the middle and expect to use elements of a story without background and still please an audience. I would rather have them come up with their own hero concepts than use established heroes and muck everything up!
Posted on May 8th, 2007 at 11:55 am. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
I consider myself (as do many others) a gamer and I’ve enjoyed all the X-Men and Spiderman movies so far. I guess I am more forgiving of the ‘liberties’ taken to make a movie that will make a profit. If they were Fanboy flops then they’d stop making them.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen ANY movie where I didn’t have problems with something, well maybe Finding Nemo was perfect.
I am just glad they are making super hero movies of any sort. Some of them I’ll love, some I’ll like and some I’ll dislike.
Posted on May 9th, 2007 at 4:52 pm. About 'Spiderman Movies - Not Really for Gamers'.
I liked the Underworld movies actually, and I’m hoping they make a 3rd one at some point. I admit I’m only vaguely aware that they are based on a comic book. Sure Kate B. is a babe and all that, but I thought the writing and direction were good as well, and the general story, thematic content, and tone and look of the film. In #2 there was a great chase scene with a flying demon and an old truck, for example.
For that matter I like 300 alot too.
I agree that Daredevil and a bunch of the others you mentioned suck. But c’mon his superpower was that he was blind.