Hello! And Welcome to what I hope will be the first of many entries from the insights of me, Dan Brixius. The aim of this blog is to spark thought, inspire laughter, and question reality. This is my first time blogging, so please, once you read this, tell your friends, neighbors, and anyone else to read this as it will enlighten their day. Don't believe me? Lets keep reading!
Still here? Alright then, lets start some controversy!
I hope the title of this blog is what sparked your curiosity to pay me a visit today. I am certain that many if not all of you reading this have seen a comic book movie in your lifetime. X-men, Spider-man, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, and Blade are just a few examples of some movie you may have seen. Recently, Hollywood has blown up with comic book movies and it almost seems that if a studio wants to make some money, they need to put out superhero film. Think about it! Name the movies you saw in theaters this summer. I bet you they include The Avengers, Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider-man, and The Dark Knight Rises. Now you are thinking, "Wow Dan, you read my mind! That is so amazing!" Yes, yes I am amazing.
For those of you who do not know me, I am a true comic book fan. I have hundreds of comic books at home ranging from Ant-Man to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I grew up watching all the cartoons, and to this day I still collect comic books. I am the kind of person you need to take with you when watching a comic book movie so that I can fill you in on any unknown characters or unexplained plot-holes, but I am not the douchebag that picks apart every comic book movie and says why it's wrong. (Exceptions: X-men 3, Superman Returns, Spider-man 3, The Dark Knight Rises). All in all, I love watching comic book films. Why? Because they are the epitome of everything I wanted to be growing up. My brother and I used to dress up like X-men and play around. My mom got mad when I put knives between my knuckles so I could pretend to be Wolverine. Its not my fault, she wouldn't buy me the costume! I literally shed a tear when I watched the trailer for The Avengers because I knew it would be epic. (I actually teared up and got goosebumps during the whole "Battle for New York" scene. No comic book movie has ever reached that scale of epicness). Comic book movies are awesome and now that we have amazing special effects, Hollywood can make a serious movie without laughing at the cheesy special effects. (See the original Fantastic Four and Captain America).
This is the problem- Hollywood has milked the comic book genre so much they have dried up the cow. There will never be another amazing super hero movie. Maybe the Justice League, but that is still up in the air if it will ever be made. This makes me sad, but I am the one to blame as are you, fearless reader, for why Hollywood has forever killed the comic book movie.
See, Hollywood does not make quality movies anymore (No dip, Sherlock!) They are a business no more different than a 7 Eleven. They need to make money and will only make movies that will make them money. Before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, it was unheard of for movies to reach $100 million plus for a movie. Sure, some movies did, but they were few and far between. Now, thanks to rising ticket costs and 3D surcharges, some movies will not even get a sequel unless they make over $300 million. As long as moviegoers will pay to see a movie, Hollywood will continue to make them. Think about the Transformers franchise- probably the most hated franchise ever. Michael Bay even said Transformers 3 would be his final entry in the series. Well guess who is coming back to direct Transformers 4? If you guessed Michael Bay, you are correct! Moviegoers desire to see more Inception like films but tell Hollywood, "It's okay, keep making more Dude, Where's My Car? (But Dude, Where's My Car? is still funny)
For those of you not familiar with comic books, there are three time periods known as the Golden Age of Comics (1940s- early 1950s), The Silver Age (mid 1950s-1970s) and the Bronze Age (1970s-1985) These 40 plus years of comics deal with issues from World War 2 to drugs, gangs, and peer pressure. And each age is great within their own right. There were 40 plus years of great comics (50 plus if you count the Modern Age). For movie goers, the gold, silver, and bronze age of movies has come and gone.
I will start with what I feel are the golden years of comic book movies. I won't count the original Captain America, Flash, Punisher, and Fantastic Four movies because they wouldn't help my defense. The golden years of comic book book movies happened from 1978-1992 and included Superman and Batman. (I will nod to the Wonder Woman and Hulk TV shows, they were excellent as well). The original Superman movie was so great that it made people actually believe a man could fly. Batman was spectacular and dark, and just like Heath Ledger did in The Dark Knight, Jack Nicholson stole the spotlight as The Joker. After Batman Returns, Hollywood gave us the more campy and family oriented superhero films Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin. This is what brought us into the silver age of comic book films. Hollywood started to care less about source material and more about what brought in the money. The Silver Age almost died off until the year 2000 when Bryan Singer's X-men revived the comic book movie. The Batman franchise crashed so hard after Batman and Robin that Warner Bros. scrapped plans to make a fifth Batman movie entitled Batman Triumphant where Scarecrow would be the main villain and Harley Quinn would appear- as Joker's daughter. Thank goodness that was avoided. When X-men came about in 2000 it rebooted the comic book movie franchise so that people would actually take it seriously. Films like X-men, Spider-man, and The Punisher showed that you can make a good movie and still care about the fans. Towards 2003-2004 the Silver Age of comic book movies ended and almost died off again with failed films like Elektra, Catwoman, X-men 3, Superman Returns, etc, but was revived in 2008 by The Dark Knight and Iron Man.
Think about it for a minute- before The Dark Knight, comic book movies could do just about whatever they wanted, now thanks to The Dark Knight everything has to be grounded in realism, no matter what. That is why I think a lot of people hated the Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds, because they were expecting a realistic green lantern and you just can't combine Nolan's Batman with Reynold's Green Lantern. I myself was very confused when I first saw The Dark Knight and Joker appeared on screen for the first time. I asked myself- is this a man that likes to put makeup on his face? How many films now take Christopher Nolan's formula and use it? The new Spider-man franchise now has to be grounded in realism. What have we done?
2008-2012 is the Bronze Age of Comic book movies. Think about how hyped you were when you watched all the marvel movies leading up to the release of The Avengers. I can't put in words how pumped I was to actually see a studio take such a perfect approach to the greatest superhero movie ever. Every time I saw a post-credit sequence teasing the next Marvel movie I grew more impatient for it to come out. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. The Avengers was so great that it not only broke box office records, but it said, "Hey Batman! Looks like you don't have to be dark, realistic, and gritty to be a great movie!" No movie ever will be able to duplicate the recipe or the hype for success like Marvel did with Avengers: Phase one. Ever.
That takes us to today. 2012 is fading out fast and all the great Superhero franchises have ended. Now that Marvel has had such success with their films, they will dominate the box office over the next two years until The Avengers 2 comes out in 2015. Guess how many movies marvel has lined up over the next 3 years? 9. 9 films. That is overkill, especially now that everyone will hold the next Marvel film to the caliber of The Avengers. Iron Man 3 already has 3 villains and 3 'Iron Men' including War Machine and Iron Patriot. It is going to be very tough for Marvel to top what they have done. Nowadays, everyone is bombarded with comic book movies and now that the two best franchises are done with, the popularity of comic book movies will fade out. Don't believe me? Dredd 3D was released this past weekend surrounded by nothing but hype and good reviews. It made only $6 million. It received better reviews than House at the End of the Street and Trouble with the Curve but performed worse than they did. From what my comic book loving pals say about Dredd 3D is that it is one of the best movies adapted from a comic book to date. Yes, it's R-rated but sometimes you just can't do a good comic book justice with a PG-13 rating. Would The Punisher have been so great if it was PG-13? It would have been cheesy. No one, besides true comic book fans, will remain loyal to these franchises. Its time that Hollywood brings back original ideas like The Matrix, Inception, Star Wars, etc.
Epilogue
Well that was kind of a downer, wasn't it? Sometimes, the truth hurts. I may have sounded cynical and pessimistic at some points but its just because I love comic books so much and I can see they are being destroyed nowadays. Lets end this on a jovial note!
Two atoms are walking down the street. One atom says to his friend, "Oh no! I've lost one of my electrons!" "Are you sure?" the other atom asks. Says the first atom, "I'm positive."
See you next time, friends!
