Comic Books on the Big Screen

Comic book movies have been hit or miss for some time now.  The better of the bunch always seem to get the characters right, and have such fun action that you can overlook the minor flaws.  The best of the bunch reminds you of what you used to read in the comics, and teleports you back to a time when the stories were so rich and detailed....

There have been many, many problems with comic book adaptations for years.  The biggest issue has always been the sequels.  There is some weird thing in Hollywood where they think it ALWAYS has to be bigger and better than last time.  More bad guys, more action....  Its something that needs to stop.



Some of the best stories in the Batman comics are the ones where he goes up against non-supervillains, where its not this huge internal struggle about his effect on the crime underworld, but about humanity, plain and simple.  Spiderman has always been the same way.  Sure, there is always a villain, but there is always so much under that, so much great story telling to keep you hooked.

Before Spiderman had to be rebooted to the Amazing Spiderman it was the best comic book movies that were made.  The first two are amazing, edge of your seat, get hugely involved in the movie, movies.  But then part three came along.  There were SO many villains, SO much going on, that the beauty of the story telling was completely lost.

Venom is an amazing character, the psychological concept of an alien entity creeping into Peter’s mind, changing him evil....  It’s a beautiful concept.  That alone deserved its own movie...but instead we had Venom come and go in a single movie, along with two other villains....  It turned into a confusing mess....

And it ends up happening every time, to every franchise.  Wolverine ended up getting it right, going deeper into the well of story that has been created for the character.  Ironman got it right by making the struggle more and more internal with each film.  Tony Stark was his own worst enemy.

The other major aspect of the comic book adaptations to film is when they seem to be afraid of a character.  Gambit is a good one to point at.  He’s such an amazing character, the inner conflict, the secrets, but he just seems to be passed over.  He popped up in a Wolverine film, but not as part of the X-Men overall.  The Gambit/Rogue romance was one that had, and still has, a huge percentage of the comic book readers in the world hooked.

In the end, it’s a crazy thing to watch these age old characters come to life on the big screen.  Many times they have been gotten wrong, but when they are right, it is a truly beautiful thing to watch.  Probably the biggest problem is...if they get it wrong, they just start over again.  How many times will we be forced to watch an origin story?

All in all, I applaud the efforts and movies I’ve been able to enjoy.  I personally hope that DC can start getting it right and that Marvel can continue with what it is doing, even though I hope the temper their sequels, and not keep going over the top, trying to out do the last movie in the series over and over.  I’m just happy that some of my favorite fictional characters of all time get a longer chance at life, with amazing stories that come across so much better on the big screen.