Blockbuster movie season is here,
and that means excellent comic book movies.
The big 3 we're all hanging for? Iron-Man, Batman
and Hulk.
The first one, Iron-Man, Rocks.
The last, Hulk, is the one that I'm secretly
anticipating.
At the same time though, mention the word 'Hulk'
and it's like all of a sudden there's a huge
green elephant in the room- Ang Lee's Hulk.
The first Hulk divides audiences, personally
I loved the first Hulk movie, for a few reasons;
Firstly, it was the first big blockbuster movie
to be character driven. sure, it made it a bitch
to market, but without Hulk, other character-driven
blockbusters such as Batman Begins (and even
the latest Bond movie) would not have been possible.
Secondly, I read a story about an interview
with Ang Lee. Basically, on the first day of
shooting he walks into the Special effects department.
He looks at the special effects guys and holds
out a moss covered rock and a piece of bark,
then says "This. This is what I want the
movie to capture."
Texture. Watch the movie again and it captures
the concept of texture really well.
Oh sure, it has it's faults.
Angry Shrek; the Hulk sequence's seem a trite
cartoony. It's a physics thing, the concept
of Mass is missing.
And that ending; Amoeba Lake, what were they
thinking?.
Remember the first Blade movie? Well, it has
an alternate ending. Stephen Dorff's vampire
still becomes "La Magra" the Blood
God, there's still a cool flashy showdown, the
big difference is that upon transforming into
La Magra, he becomes this big Amoeba Blood thing,
all of a sudden Stephen Dorff's cool-as Bad-ass
vampire we've known for the last 90 minutes
is gone. Unsuprisingly that ending tanked with
test-audiences, which is why we have the way
cooler ending that includes the key Face-to-face
moment before the final stabbity-stabbity moment.
And these realy are the big Three Do's or Don'ts
of Comic book movies.
Do-
1 - Make it character driven, we want to care
about our characters, connect with them, and
understand them, Whether it's Jack Nicholson's
Joker or Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, we need
to feel that the story is about the character's
at it's heart. I'ts the difference between an
emotional roller coaster ride and just some
pretty effects sequences on screen, (the difference
between the Matrix and it's sequels.)
2 - Make it Epic. There's an old Stand-up comedy
theory, begin with your second best joke, finish
with your best
We want a massive climatic battle sequence at
the end, and this is important, it needs to
involve the big-bad villian, (how else to you
get that key face-to-face moment, when the hero
seems beaten, the villian gloats, and then a
triumphant resurgence of the hero? it may sound
cliched, but we love it everytime)
And Don't,
3 - Break cheap out on the effects sequences.
That doesn't mean they can't be done to a budget,
but keep it consistent with the rest of the
movie, Stylized can be good here (think Sin
City) but the key is keep it consitent.
Or to put it another way the list reads -
Keep it Character driven. If we don't care about
the characters, we won't care about the movie.
this equals good DVD sales.
Keep it Epic. After all, it's what makes it
worthy of the big screen. this equals good Box-office.
Keep it consistent, Or maintain our suspension
of disbeleif. If you break that suspension of
disbelief you break the movie. It's that simple.
Iron-Man does all of these brilliantly. In
fact the only niggling concern I have with Iron
Man is that it often feels like two movies;
Your classic super-hero movie (guy gets powers,
then conscience, reoslves to make the world
a better place, and leads to lots of whammo
special effects sequences) and then theres another
movie there with an A-list cast led by Robert
Downey Jr with Robert doing this slick and cool
character driven soap thing. Both of these things
are really good, but they don't always gel.
Remember point 3? Well, thats what stops it
being a perfect movie. Still it has all the
other bases covered and is brilliant.
Spiderman, X-Men 1 & 2, they managed all
three very well (though I'd still rate Iron-man
higher) They were all good at the box office,
and are worth owning on DVD.
Spiderman 3, X-men 3? sure, they were epic,
but they were also punctuated with some poor
effects, and lacked a sense of character, great
box-office, but you'd only buy them on DVD to
complete the trilogy.
Hellboy, some wonderful character driven moments
(I love the sequence where he stalks Liz while
she's on her date with the special agent) But
it lacks that epic feel. It's way better on
DVD than the big screen.
So how will our big three shape up?
Like I said
Iron Man rocks (trailer viewable here)
The trailer
for Batman; The Dark Knight suggests they've
nailed it to,
And the one I'm thinking will suprise us all,
Hulk, gives some concerns about the CGI,
but could also prove that Edward Norton is the
greatest actor of all time.
11th May 2008
