4 Signs DC Has No Clue How To Make Superhero Movies
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Donnie_Darkrr — 10 years ago(April 24, 2015 11:05 AM)
Want to know the real reason why marvel movies are successful and DC movies are not? Try this simple experiment:
Describe the main characters of a movie without saying what they do or how they look. And then see if you would want to watch the movie based on that description.
Alrighty, then:
Iron Man
Tony Stark - An obnoxious, impulsive drunk.
Pepper Potts - His business-like big sister.
James Rhodes - The cool black soldier friend.
Obadiah Stane - The father figure who betrayed him.
Thor
Thor - An obnoxious, impulsive hothead who loses his powers.
Sif - His business-like big sister.
Heimdall - The cool black soldier friend.
Loki - The brother who betrayed him.
Captain America
Captain - The business-like big brother out of time.
Black Widow - The business-like big sister.
Bucky - The brother who betrayed him.
Falcon - The cool black friend. Who is also a soldier.
Wow, you're right, it's
sooo
much easier to take an interest in these characters when they have snappable modular traits and traumas that sum them up so well like dead uncles, substance abuse problems or superpower disabilities.
You wanna know something? I can cope with a hero I can't relate to. I'm not so f*@king narcissistic that I need to see myself, my species, or even this
planet
reflected back in every fictional character I enjoy.
For example, I could absolutely see myself watching a "Tony Stark" movie. I don't mean an iron man movie. A movie about Tony Stark. A prequel to Iron Man, maybe a 15 minute short, that is just about Tony Stark getting into some shannanigans at a conference.
Or how about a 15 minute video about how Thor takes over from Odin as the ruler of Asgard. Thor sitting on a Throne, bored out of his mind and negotiating with a foreign delegation, daydreaming about being somewhere else. I would watch that.
And who would not watch a 15 minute short about Captain America trying to adjust to live in the 21st century. "Wait, you want to tell me that people stopped reading the newspapers and instead just watched TV until somebody came up with a TV you can hold in your hand, called it a pad and now they read newspapers on the TV? Why did they not just keep reading papers?" Count me in.
And how about a video of Wolverine teaching art history at Xavier's school for the gifted?
All of this stuff takes shape in your mind because Thor and Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers are interesting even when they don't do any superhero stuff.
Not gonna lie, that all sounds like some boring-ass Hellsh!t to me. Just because this works for Marvel doesn't mean DC should follow lock-step, and the reason it's no working for them right now is because they're trying to
be
Marvel instead of what they are. DC makes heroes first and foremost and always has, that's why their characters tend to be cosmic and magical beings born to be heroes first rather than sulky teenagers and emotional cripples becoming heroes by a quirk of fate or genetics. DC heroes make like soldiers and leave their problems in their civilian lives while they're getting on with the superheroing sh!t. Not saying Marvel's better or worse, just different.
Would you watch Clark Kent shop for groceries? Would you watch Bruce Wayne in a business meeting?
No. Not unless they were attacked by robot-wolves from the future at some point. I'm one of those who doesn't give much of a f*@k for superheroes private lives; they are very much the B-plot as far as I'm concerned. It just leads us into mawkish crap like heroes mooning over the damsel they have to save in the last act, in spite of the bigger picture where most of the Eastern seaboard is at stake. I'll give you an example; just as DC's closest equivalent to a Marvel hero is probably Batman, the closest Marvel have to a DC archetype is probably Captain America, a completely selfless character who became a hero for noble reasons, no dead parents, no guilt complex, just sheer altruism. The majority of Marvel fans
haaaate
that guy, seemingly because he's never had to overcome any obstacles to be a hero, he pursued and embraced that life, and still does in spite of the troubles it has brought him.
The reason DC movies suck is because they think that people want to see heroes and Xplosions. But people want to see people.
That sounds like the perfect formula for soap opera, dude. If you want to sit on the couch eating bonbons catching up with 'Days Of Our Heroes' and wondering if maybe in this episode, Captain America and Black Widow might actually 'go there', feel free to do so. Just know that you have a f*@kin'
awful
idea of what makes a good superhero movie. Justjust awful.
Superman 1938-2013. R.I.P. Look up in the sky -
jakubmike — 9 years ago(April 20, 2016 01:33 AM)
I don't know about people as in all the people, never claimed to talk for them and quite frankly I often don't understand them, but I want characters not explosions, then again how many transformers movies are out there? Apparently explosions sell tickets
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Donnie_Darkrr — 10 years ago(June 10, 2015 09:13 AM)
Just because you wish it to be true, that does not make it so any more than your wish to be Batman. Please,
do
point out where the superhero was in those Nolan movies. Does BatBale exist in the same universe as Superman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern? Don't think so. I enjoy the Dark Knight movies for being an alternate version of the Bat-mythos, but they're not even
close
to being superhero movies. They're barely even comicbook movies, being as they are closer to the genre of film noir. If you think they're just some 'gritty' version of the comicbooks that panders to grown men who still read children's literature and like to think these stories 'could happen',thhhh
at's
the most idiotic post ofwell, ever.
Superman 1938-2013. R.I.P. Look up in the sky