The Comic Movie Paradox.
I went and saw Iron Man last night, and I gotta say I was a little disappointed with it. Majority of critics liked it a lot. Which means maybe I shouldn’t listen to critics anymore. The first 1/3 of the movie is pretty solid. Especially an opening wide-shot that is silent; it’s eventually ruined by the sounds of E, D-D-D, A-A-A (Back In Black). I know I’m just saying the same shit everyone’s said about it so I’ll make it quick: RDJ’s great as Tony Stark, the last 1/3 sucks, and it is very formulaic. Which kind of sucks. I mean, I love John Favereau. I thought the casting was great. The CGI was limited (to some degree). But I just can’t like this movie. Or think it’s great at all. It isn’t bad. But it’s pretty God damned average (especially for the praise it’s receiving).
But that’s the problem. I’ve heard so many people compare this movie to OTHER comic-book movies; that’s the WORST way to think about how good a movie is. For real. To some extent we do need to compare within genres… but this should happen more and more with SPECIFIC genres, and less and less with more blurry genres. OK- I’ll give you Westerns, Samurai Flicks, Horrors (particularly zombie films). But Cheez, these people are comparing Iron Man man to a genre with such a small history. The history between Dulph Lundgren’s version of “Punisher” and “FF4 2″ isn’t nearly as long as “Zatoiachi” to “Samurai Fiction”. Or ESPECIALLY “Stage Coach” to “Open Range”. The problem with this is there’s NOTHING to compare a movie like Iron Man to. And the stuff that is there is mostly shit.
Since Batman Begins hit the theaters the amount of comic-book based movies has went through the roof. But let’s get fucking real for a second: Begins set the bar pretty fucking high for that kind of adaptation (one where visual arts combine with philosophical archetypal writing). Why did Begins work so well? Because it’s almost an UN-comic-book comic-book movie. Nolan made the film in such a realistic manner, the normally outlandish comic-book moments and devices weren’t there. On top of that, I really believe that Chris Nolan is one of the CONSISTENTLY best main-stream filmmakers we’ve seen in a long, long time. It isn’t a fucking mystery. Every single one of his films are entertaining on a very simplistic level, but complex and riddled with philosophical themes on a deeper level. It is my firm belief that almost no other comic book movies will come close to Begins because of these two facts: it’s an un-comic comic-book film, and it’s directed by someone who can entertain and at the same time enlighten.
Alan Moore is completely correct though. With a very small amount of exceptions, comic-books should NOT be adapted to screen. Especially as gigantic summer-type blockbusters (unless they’re as good as Begins). The medium is special in its own right. It isn’t strictly visual art, and it isn’t novel-ish. The experience you get from reading a comic-book will never translate PURELY to the screen. It’ll never be the same. Even Begins, which I love, isn’t quite like reading a GOOD Batman comic-book (like comic-book movies, the comics Industry is also filled with a lot of crap). And there’s the fucking dilemma right there. Part of me wants to see my favorite books on screen; part of me wants to see another Begins with a different character. But the other part of me just wants DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Avatar, etc. to just stick to what they know. Because when they start pumping out adaptation after adaptation hurriedly to try to make that one movie that will be as good as Begins, the result won’t be as good, or good at all.
Lord- apparently now Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, Ant-Man, and Iron Man 2 have been greenlit by Marvel for around 2010-2011. I suppose the money Iron Man raked in this weekend has something to do with that. That’s the other problem with the whole thing, once these comic-book companies start making deals with the major studios, and reading too far into numbers, money becomes everything.
Fuck it- I’m not seeing Hulk or Hancock or any of that shit. But I am still going to see Dark Knight because I trust C. Nolan and that cast and crew.
-Sonny
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