Thursday, September 20, 2012
Cinema Marvels
While I admire your enthusiasm and time-killing efforts, I have to say one thing here: that while it may have taken the team of Avengers to beat Batman, might I remind those reading that they had seven tries to get batman right, or, if you prefer,three different director-based franchises: Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, and Christopher Nolan (or four actor-based franchises: Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale)- I'm not even going to mention the 1940s Batman attempts. So throughout the previous tries, the directors learned what did and didn't work for Batman audiences - Nolan learning what NOT to do with the last Batman movie prior to his own franchise, the ill-received "Batman and Robin" starring George Clooney, proof that popular actors can't necessarily make up for campy dialogue, cheesy stunts, and muppet-like sets. So with the Avengers making it with a first-round attempt at the collection of superheroes together, I don't see what the problem is. While Hulk and Captain America do indeed have campy beginnings in the 1990s, Thor and Iron Man have made it with stellar results on their first attempts, respectively. So. While this is an interesting project and I appreciate Marvel's having an overall knock-out success, Batman's singular winnings could also be seen as a failure on DC's part to do much with their comics beyond books. Wonder Woman is one of the best female comic book characters out there, and yet there are no movies. Superman's popularity rested with the '80s and '90s in the forms of Christopher Reeves and Dean Cain (Lois and Clark series). Hopefully the latest attempt will be more successful with Henry Cavill as the man of steel... hopefully. Green Lantern? It could have been such an awesome movie, and yet it wasn't that great. To be sure, DC has some great characters, but the live-action comic-based film and TV industries have been dominated by marvel in their success.
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Let's remember that part of Marvel out performing DC in the very basic 100mil+ category is sheer volume of what they have produced. If you look at percentages, DC places their movies on that list at an alarming rate (better than Marvel, actually) and let's also remember that Man of Steel coming out next year will be in that category within two days of it opening (not to mention it is being done by the same genius who just did Batman wonderfully). As for your estimation of the Batman films, the Adam West Batman from the 60s was great, it fit its place in history perfectly. Also, I am not a Tim Burton fan in general, but both of his Batman movies were brilliant. 'Batman'(1989) in particular was a crowning achievement. Burton got Batman right, Nolan just happened to get Batman PERFECT.(well, almost perfect, *SPOILER ALERT* I still wish he had died at the end of 'Rises') the only misstep in Batman's storied history of film was Schumacher, and even those movies are better than any 'Spiderman' or 'Hulk' movie ever made. (Speaking of multiple tries, 2003 'Hulk' was the WORST superhero movie ever, and 2008 was only marginally better) Neither Iron Man movie was better than the five best Batman movies out there, and Thor was only stellar by Thor's standards, which are low to say the least. Thor, as a character, was the least interesting of the entire Avengers team assembled, and his solo movie was only slightly better than Green Lantern, if at all.
ReplyDeleteLet's also remember that historically speaking, DC has dominated when it comes to putting its characters to animation. In the early 90s the only Marvel Cartoons that were worth anything were Spiderman and X-Men, and neither of those were as good as "Batman: The Animated Series" "Batman/Superman Adventures" or even "Batman Beyond" for that matter. Also, no, there are no Wonder Woman movies, but there was an iconic live action TV show, which Marvel has never accomplished for its characters. There was also a very good live action Superman TV series, and in about three weeks a live action Green Arrow is coming out that looks phenomenal. Outside of feature length movies, Marvel has no real advantage in this fight, and in terms of feature length movies, they really only have one elite movie, and several very good movies. Batman alone boasts at least five classics.