Your Opinions on the comic book movie rennaissance.

Cafe Society
1

It seems to me that after the release of the first X-Men movie in 2000, there has been a huge surge in the comic book movie genre, especially with Marvel optioning every comic property to every studio they can find.

So here are my picks, placed into three categories, based on all the CB movies I’ve seen since X-Men:

Good
X-Men and X-Men 2
Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
Daredevil
Blade and sequels. (Though I think some of those were before X-Men.)

Mediocre
Catwoman (Only because of Halle Berry)
Men in Black 2

Sucked Balls
Hellboy
Hulk

Finally, movies I am looking forward to:
Elektra
Sin City (Gonna be awesome TO THE MAX!)
X-Men 3
Green Lantern

Movies I am not looking forward to:
Wonder Woman (Sorry, folks. Wonder Woman is just lame.)
Superman Whatever Supe has been done to death.

2

Well, there are Ghost World and American Splendor, in the Indie-genre.

And Mystery Men. But it may have been '99.

And you didn’t mention the new Batman?
And Hellboy was better than Daredevil. I mean, come on.

3

I’ll go a little broader and add some pre-Xmen movies.

Good

Xmens, Spidermans, Batman & Batman Returns, Superman and Superman II

Mediocre

Daredevil, Superman III (not great but humorous), Hulk

Bad

Punisher, Other Batman and Superman movies, Supergirl

Looking forward to

Wonder Woman
Green Lantern
Batman Begins

Not looking forward to
Elektra (dull in Daredevil, could never hold her own film)

4

…you thought Catwoman was better than Hellboy?

I hadn’t really had much in the way of thoughts on “comic book movies.” Seems like the recent flood of them is a pretty predictable phenomenon, based on two facts:

  1. Using CGI, it is now possible to film anything one can imagine. Period.

  2. Hollywood is desperate for decent, pre-tried-and-successful ideas to turn into movies. I can think of no other reason for the *Beverly Hillbillies * film of a few years back, or the recent *Charlie’s Angels * movies.

Given these two facts, it seems inevitable that producers would start checking into the licensability of comic book characters and stories… and after a profitable success or two (particularly the first couple Batman movies), it seems equally inevitable that more films of this sort would be made.

I just hope the *Fantastic Four * movie doesn’t suck. I loved that comic when I was a kid…

5

Let’s not forget some excellent comic-based movies that don’t have to do with superheroes, per se. Some of them have been mentioned already:

American Splendor
Ghost World
Road To Perdition

Non-Marvel and DC heroes:

The Rocketeer (1991; an underrated and fun movie with Jennifer Connelly playing Bettie Page in all but name)
The Crow (the first one was an excellent movie, but all the sequels… meh.)
Hellboy
Mystery Men
The Mask

I think Spider-Man 1 and 2 and X-Men 1 and 2 are the best superhero movies yet, and I prefer the sequels to the originals. I wasn’t fond of any of the previous four Batman movies, although I love Anton Furst’s set design and Danny Elfman’s musical score in the first one. Has anyone tried watching it recently? It is boring and hasn’t aged well. The best Batman movie ever is Mask of the Phantasm, the first animated Batman film. It captures everything that makes the character good.

I’m eagerly awaiting Sin City and Batman Begins and I’ll probably see Fantastic Four, but I don’t have high hopes for it. Elektra looks completely skippable to me. I skipped Catwoman, Steel, and Spawn, and wish I had skipped Hulk, both versions of Punisher, and every attempt ever at filming Captain America.

How about some more obscure choices? Who has seen the made-for-TV Generation X? Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD starring David Hasselhoff? The Justice League TV pilot? The Dr. Strange TV movie from the '70s? Roger Corman’s unreleased Fantastic Four movie? The Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man TV show? I haven’t seen The Flash TV show in many years, but I remember it being really good.

6

Let’s address these one at a time, shall we?

}Good
}X-Men and X-Men 2
Agreed

}Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
Agreed

}Daredevil
Did we see tha same movie?

}Blade and sequels
Hadn’t seen. No opinion.

}Mediocre
}Catwoman (Only because of Halle Berry)
My, you are generous.

}Men in Black 2
Seriously generous.

}Sucked Balls
}Hellboy
}Hulk
Generous? Maybe you’ve got the “Mediocre” and “Sucked Balls” catagories backwards?
}Finally, movies I am looking forward to:
}Elektra
Serious trepidation. When did Elektra get the power to see the future? No seriously, I haven’t read Daredevil in about twelve years.

}Sin City (Gonna be awesome TO THE MAX!)
I’m unfamiliar with the source. No opinion.

}X-Men 3
Only if Joss Weadon or Kevin Smith does it. If Fox tries to get just anyone to write/direct this, it could sink the franchise (I hate the term “movie franchises”) faster than Batman Forever.

}Green Lantern
Was that whole Jack Black thing a joke? If so, then I could be excited, too. Otherwise, I may need aspoon to pry my eyes out.
}Movies I am not looking forward to:
}Wonder Woman (Sorry, folks. Wonder Woman is just lame.)
Again, it depends on who they have write/direct, and who stars.

}Superman Whatever Supe has been done to death.
If WB would just show the charater the same repect they show some of their stars, then they cold have agood movie.

What I am seriously scared of is the HellBlazer movie.

7

The Incredibles is a superhero movie, rather than a comic book one, but it is very grand indeed.

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen should be scraped off our collective shoe.

8

Freido, you may want to re-check your OP. You seem to have transposed Daredevil and Hellboy. :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Like Odinoneeye, I’m going to go back further than just 2000 but will make the Renaissance movies red to stay in-topic.
Great[ul][li]X2[/ul][/li]Good[ul][li]X-Men[/li][li]Spiderman[/li][li]DareDevil[/li][li]Blade[/ul][/li]Mediocre[ul][li]Batman Forever[/li][li]Spiderman 2[/ul][/li]Bad[ul][li]Batman[/li][li]Batman Returns[/ul][/li]Horrible[ul][li]Batman & Robin[/li][li]Hulk[/li][li]Superman[/li][li]Superman II[/li][li] Superman III[/li][li]Superman IV[/ul][/li]Haven’t Seen and Intend to[ul][li]Punisher[/li][li]Blade II[/li][li]Blade Trinity[/li][li]Green Lantern[/li][li]Elektra[/li][li]Iron Man[/ul][/li]Haven’t Seen and Don’t Intend to[ul][li]Supergirl[/li][li]Wonder Woman[/li][li]Batman Begins[/li][]The new Superman*[/ul]

10

Are “they” really going to attempt that? It will either be the best comic book movie ever or the worst.

11

The Hellblazer movie, (Constantine) is supposed to be quite good, if you can get over the fact that Keanu Reeves plays John Constantine. This is based on the opinions of some friends who have seen a 20 minute preview… so… maybe.

I kind of liked the new Punisher movie, though it was far from perfect. I’ll come to the defense of Hulk, too, if only for the jumping-through-the desert-and-throwing-the-tanks scene. Hellboy was OK, no dumber than the comic (c’mon, be honest!).

Really stoked for Sin City and Batman Begins.

12

Good points so far, but don’t forget…

Unbreakable. A damn good movie.

I loved Mystery Men.

Sin City looks promising. Good source material.

13

Do you mean the one with Finola Hughes as Emma Frost taking over the Xavier School? Bleh! (although Finola as a bleached blonde was quite memorable.)

Saw it, and double bleh! Without resorting to IMDB, I remember a Tom Berenger look-alike as the Doctor, a car crash, and the psycho woman from Play Misty For Me (Jessica Walter).

14

Have you seen the trailers? It not only looks like a bad Hellblazer adaptation, it looks like a risibly bad movie, period. Keanu Reeves as John Constantine? Who uses a holy shotgun? And employs a bucket of water and an electric chair to visit hell? WTF?!

As for staying on-topic: I’m all for using comic books as source material for movies, and there have been some good ones. I think Road to Perdition even achieved that rare feat of being better than the book on which it’s based. American Splendor was fabulous. I even have a soft spot for From Hell, which may have been an unfaithful adapatation, but was still a watchable movie. The original X-Men led me into comics, though I learned an expensive lesson that the movie was much better than anything the flagship title has produced. And I can’t begin to count how many non-genre fans loved Hellboy, including me.

What bothers me is the preponderance of superhero movies, while some promising comic-based projects like the adaptation of Whiteout languish in development hell. I’d be first in line if Miramax ever dusted off their scripts for Jinx or Goldfish. There’s so much depth in the medium that isn’t being touched, while the superhero genre’s being stripmined for every last lump of coal. Enough!

15

Keanu Reeves
He would be the absolute last on my list to play Constantine.

That seriously bums me out. Hellbalzer was one of my favorite comics.

I feel like Eric Stoltz in pulp fiction when he opens his front door to see Travolta driving across his lawn with the overdosed Uma Thurman. Why did hollywood have to do this? There were plenty of other comics they could screw around with.

I think I know how those fanboys of Alien vs Predator felt when that shitbird came out.

16

I always thought that this was terribly brave, even to try to do pre-CGI, on TV.

Remember the Spiderman segments on PBS’s The Electric Company?

17

Superheroes on television tend not to fare too well, although recently this trend has begun to turn around.

I remember the Nicholas Hammond *Spider-Man * series, and thought it was remarkably dumb, even at the time (and this was coming from a kid who liked the old Battlestar Galactica).

I remember the Generation X telemovie, and thought it was trying much too hard to be cool. Not grade A stuff, frankly.

I agree that every single attempt to translate Captain America into any genre other that comics has stunk. Even the old sixties cartoon wasn’t too good, and the seventies TV series was… well, durn near indescribable.

The only thing I remember about the old *Dr. Strange * movie was that the art director seemed to be trying to do Steve Ditko otherworld backgrounds, but all he had to work with was cardboard and a fog machine…

The Flash teleseries was… well, kind of uneven. Some episodes weren’t bad. Others weren’t very good. At least two that I can remember veered far enough into Adam West territory to be unintentionally laughable. As I recall, it wasn’t the sort of thing I’d bother to set the VCR to catch if I had a date that night.

I was disappointed with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Badly. I mean, why option the work of a talented writer if you’re not going to use a perfectly good story? This one reeked of glib Hollywood guys “improving” the concept right and left while not really understanding what the whole thing was about.

On the other hand, I’ve still got both LoEG trade paperbacks, and they’re both still good, no matter what Hollywood did to them.

I liked Hellboy; I thought it was remarkably true to the comic. The only thing I really didn’t like was the ersatz romance between Hellboy and Liz, which does not exist in the comic.

*Ghost World * was quite good, but it’s not something most people would think about when you talk about “comic book movies.” *Ghost World * was, for that matter, a pretty atypical comic book, in that it was about the relationship between two teenage girls who did not have superpowers or humungous breasts.

I think the moral of the story here is that you have to (a) understand the material, and (b) have a feel for it, and © be ready to create – from scratch, if you have to – the kind of world where these comic-book people can truly exist and do what they do. Spider-Man can exist in modern New York – he’s built that way. Batman, on the other hand, needs the gothic creepiness of Gotham City.

You’ve gotta meet the material halfway, I think.

18

I liked the Hulk movie. I think Ang Lee did a very good job with a character that is kinda awkward. For starters, the guys origin is tied very specifically to radiation. We didn’t understand it then, so the possibility was less silly. Now the whole thing is ridiculous. Notice how the formerly radioactive spider that created Spider Man is now genetically altered.

And not only is the origin hard to handle, but the hero is as well. He has to go back and forth from milquetoast to mighty, so you have to find scenarios to give him opportunities and carefully flex both characters. His villains are even sillier since a fair amount revolve around the same radioactive origin.

I thought Ang balanced it all nicely and the comic book feel was pretty cool also.

The X-Men movies were kind of hit and miss to me, but that’s the drawback of a group movie. You have to introduce and balance characters constantly, and you only really have about 120 minutes to do it.

The Blade movies were fun, but not what I’d call great movies. The source is weak though. Blade is a hokey character. They did find their niche in the heavy techno fight movie genre and have made the most of it.

I really liked Hellboy and the Spider Man movies. I’d never read Hellboy, but read some after the movie and could see that the tone was the same. I’m gonna get some of the collections when I have the $. I’ve been a fan of Spidey for a very long time, and the movies did not disappoint one bit. Spider Man 2 is, to me, the very model of how a comic book movie should be. From cast to story to director and all the way down to the key grips, the movie is perfect Spider Man.

I have not seen Daredevil, and really have no intention to ever see it. It’s possible that later I may be filled with enough self loathing to rent it, but if I get that bad I may commit suicide to spare myself. I knew the movie was bad when, in the clips they showed on television, I could spot the stunt double clearly.

Catwoman was so far removed from the source material that it shouldn’t even be counted as a comic book movie.

The first two Batman movies are brilliant. The last few never happened. Everyone knows that they stopped making them after Tim Burton left. Joel Schumacher doesn’t even exist. I will say that I like the looks of the new Batman Begins, and I’m really glad to see them pick up the character again after 12+ years :smiley:

Poor Constantine. I’ve never read the comic and I’m totally unfamiliar with the character. But unless he says “dude” as if it were punctuation, I’m thinking the movie isn’t going to be good.

19

Good
X-Men and X-Men 2
Ditto!

Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
Double ditto!

Daredevil
I didn’t like it overmuch, but I’ll give it to you. :wink:

Blade and sequels. (Though I think some of those were before X-Men.)
Yup, yup, yup. :slight_smile:

Mediocre
Catwoman (Only because of Halle Berry)
Agreed. And this is from a Halle Berry fan. :frowning:

Men in Black 2
Mostly dull as dishwater, but it did have some good moments. I’d put it in an ‘eh’ category–I don’t love it to death, but I’d watch it if nothing else was on TV.

Sucked Balls
Hellboy
Dude. No way.

Hulk
…er, well, yeah. woe And Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly… sigh

Finally, movies I am looking forward to:
Elektra
Good-looking cast and a great director. I can’t comment on the comic-to-movie aspects, but I’d like to see this too.

Sin City (Gonna be awesome TO THE MAX!)
One word: sweeeeeeet. :cool:

X-Men 3
Mostly (so far) recasting those from X-Men 2–Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), James Marsden (Cyclops), and Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) are already signed up. No word on the director or any plot details. Still, I can’t wait! excited

Green Lantern
I tried typing this in at imdb.com and got an actor, Jon Stewart. :confused: Can’t comment.

20

Just wanted to back that up with a “me too.” While I wouldn’t put Hulk on the same level as the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, I thought it was a fairly decent tackle on the character. The “split panels” effect was a bit distracting, but not a crippling experiment, and the final fight needed to be redone to make it easier to follow along, but the bulk of the movie was a good go, IMO.

I liked the inclusion of the “abusive father” origin angle; it would have been an easier copout to simply have made the Hulk a victim of a science experiment gone wrong, but David Banner’s presence gave the movie an emotional base to build on.