Yes, we've seen superhero movies before. The last decade's been littered with them. But this one is very different. It's not just that Avengers is the first honest superhero team-up movie; it's that the superhero team-up really represents something absolutely huge for superhero storytelling.
The one big question that often determines if comic book movies get made is, simply, will the audience buy it?
It's easy to make a movie based around only one hero. You can tailor the entire movie's world around a single character (or group of characters) without having to acknowledge that any other heroes exist. The bright, shiny, romantic world of the first three Spider-Man movies is clearly not the same place as the relatively dark and politically-driven world of the X-Men films. Comics actually work much in the same way. It's easy to have Batman off in Gotham City fighting crime, but once you bring in Superman and the rest of the Justice League, you have to wonder how it all connects. Why is Batman concerning himself with local crimes when there are literally world-ending threats out there? Once you have heroes' worlds cross over, it irrevocably changes the fabric of the overall story. You have to greatly relax the level of suspension of disbelief and hope the audience will buy the fact that such vastly different characters (mutants, aliens, billionaire tech geniuses, Amazons, space cops, etc.) can exist together.
It's something that the film industry hasn't even seriously attempted until now, and with good reason. It's every problem with suspension of disbelief from four different film series all stacked on top of each other.
The thing is, I've never actually bought the idea that suspension of disbelief was actually that big of a deal. With special effects being what they are today, as long as the story is decent there's only one factor you really need to deal with: fun.
There's something impossibly fun about having superheroes meet each other. Whether it's an initial misunderstanding that leads to two heroes fighting each other or a massive threat that requires a team of heroes, it's always fun. It's something we've seen in comic books for over half a century now, but only now do we really get to see it become real.
I mean, look at this page from Thor (2007 series) #3:
Wow. Seriously, this is amazing. I've been lucky enough to have been witness to the entire modern arc of superhero movies over the last twelve years (starting with X-Men in 2000), and this really is a huge turning point for superhero cinema. This is the point where audiences will prove, with their soon-to-be-emptied wallets and handfuls of movie tickets, that they will buy even something this outlandish. And once that barrier's broken, we'll get a ton more movies that won't be shackled by studios' restrictions. Warner Bros. is undoubtedly going to get a Justice League movie made ASAP, Batman is probably going to be fighting more fantastical villains like Killer Croc on-screen, and there's already a huge wave of comic book TV shows set to hit the air within the year.
The floodgates are opening, and it's really exciting.
I agree with you. My problem was with some of the movies leading up to The Avengers. Iron Man, Thor, Green Lantern, and others were all set to lead to this point. All those movies have different writers and directors and that varies the quality greatly. Batman (Nolan) = awesome. Iron Man = quite good. And the rest (Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America) and others ranged from "meh" to "I'm going to vomit". Some of those scripts have sat around for so long you'd think someone would make them good.
ReplyDeleteOops, I forgot Batman is DC.
DeleteI actually think the modern Marvel Studios films (Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, IM2, Thor and Cap) have been pretty consistent. The only one I'd call "bad" was IM2; the rest were decent at worst. They also all have a really similar feel, probably because Marvel has a huge amount of creative control. Marvel keeps the directors from going off the deep end, which is probably why none of the directors of those films have ever come back (except for Jon Favreau, but even he's not coming back for Iron Man 3).
ReplyDeleteHm, I actually liked both Iron Man movies. If I only stick to the lead up movies to Avengers I could somewhat agree with you (that they were of somewhat consistent quality), but X-men for example was all over the place. One was okay, two was better and three sucked. First Class was the best of them all. Then there's Spiderman. First one was okay, second was better, third sucked and now they're restarting the whole thing. Even though it's DC they're doing the same thing with Superman. Ang Lee's Hulk wasn't any good, I never did see the new one. I guess I'm disappointed because none have been able to hit the consistent "good" note that Nolan has with Batman.
ReplyDelete