by the fans for the fans

Hello Movie fans, Lancer here w/ an interesting topic to share...I was reading an article on Yahoo Movies and it hinted that possibly the reason that the last 3 Comic Book movies...Thor / Green Lantern / X-Men 1st Class didnt do as well in the theatres as previous CB movies is because Comic Book movies have lost their audience.

I just had an interesting convo w/ my roommate about this subject. He feels that CB movies have reached their saturation point and that if it isnt the A-List heroes the movies will not do well period.

IMHO the 5 Biggest CB Heroes are...

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Spiderman
Wolverine

After that it is tertiary.

It is a shame that Green Lantern got a bad rap from critics because it is a good movie (If SFX driven) but to do that type of movie it needed to be. However there is a reason that Iron Man, Thor, X-Men 1st Class, and maybe soon other movies are not going to do as well...PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM...There is a reason why they're 2nd or 3rd tier Heroes...Now I am not talking about us Geeks/Nerds of Anime/Comic Book reading Convention Cosplay wearing people...I am talking bout layman's people who only know of the Major Heroes...

Of course there are exceptions to everything...Iron Man did extremely well in the theatres because they had a good casting for Tony Stark and the Movie was well written and cast.

WTF is Chris Hemsworth and why is he cast for Thor??? Most of the people in X-Men 1st Class were not Big Name A-Listers.

Maybe that is part of the reason why Superman Returns did not meet expectations of the studio (Costing $200M & making $200M) so they broke even, which is movie speak for DIDNT DO WELL! Who was Brandon Routh??

To make a GREAT Comic Book movie you need 1 or 2 of the following 3 items...

1. STAR POWER...Flood the movie w/ A-List actors and a Kick Butt Script

2. Great Story w/ or w/o a Well known Hero (Superman, Batman, Etc.)

3. All No-Names AND a GREAT Cast/Story/Director

Or even some combo of the three.

Look at the Best (IMHO) Comic Book Movies to date...

Superman 1 & 2 (Donner Version) Element 1
Batman (Tim Burton vrs) Element 1
Batman Begins & The Dark Knight...Element 1
Blade...Element 3
Iron Man...Element 1 & 2
Spiderman 1...Element 2
X-Men 1 & 2...Element 3

These movies were in some way did better than the expected numbers and when you left the theater you wanted MORE & thought WOW THIS IS A GREAT FLICK!!

There are a lot of CB movies that just leave you feeling...Meh it was ok or good but not WHOO HOO I WANT MORE HAVE MY BABY!!!

The way trends are moving, we could end up not having what us geeks want (JLA, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern 2) or a lot of other "alsorand" characters that may be good on paper but horrible on the big screen. Instead we have a redux of Spiderman/Superman/X-Men.

Hollywood needs to take a page out of what worked and not what will make them money, because usually what works will make them money, not lets do XYZ because I think that will make us cash, instead of lets do ABC because that did make us money but we dont want to do that again.

What is your opinion? I would like to see more CB/Anime movies, I just believe that if we are EVER going to see RLAM or any other Anime movie that will become a Blockbuster, it needs to follow the previous mentioned formula and stop w/ the half-arsed crap! Otherwise we will never be satisfied.

Lancer Out
NONJA

I'd have to say yes, there's been way too many comic book based movies as of late. And I do imagine some people are getting burnt out, but then again most movies if not all are usually based on some sort of medium, whether that be comic books, novels, video games, cartoons, you name it.

I think that the so-called Hollywood "fads" are the burning out point. Yes, they make some awesome movies, but also make some pretty terrible ones, that either didn't have enough talent behind them or didn't translate well to the big screen. Yes fads are annoying, especially if the movies that are churned out just turn out horrible, aka straight-to-DVD types. But that all depends on the ones behind the production. When you get talentless hacks who keep making awful movies, it usually sends a bad message, and that message is "we're sick of comic book movies". Why? because most of them have been stupid. That's when people become burned out on the stuff, same with the 3D gimmick and all the bad movies released in that format. It just seems like movies are selling just for their effects rather than anything else. A lot of people will go see a bad movie if the effects are good, and they will see it in 3D.

I heard Thor was terrible..........it even looked bad based on the trailer I saw.

If WB did decide to make the RT movie, it could either be good or bad. I'm kind of glad they didn't make it during the peak of the TF films..........if anything it would have been labeled a rip off of Transformers by your typical idiot IMDB users. Besides I don't think an RT movie should have to compete with anything, if it were going to be a good film, I'd rather it stand on its own and not have to be compared to other similar movies.

But back to the comic book movies........yes there's been a lot and from what I've researched, there's going to be a lot more. Some of them just sound like a bad idea, especially the wonder woman movie. Come on, that's going to be so stupid, right up there with that horrible cat woman movie they made. The spider man reboot always sounded like a bad idea, especially since it hasn't been that long since the last spiderman film.

I know I've joked about this a lot, but I'm starting to think we're going to see an Aquaman movie some time soon. Someone SOMEWHERE is already writing a "brilliant" script for one, and going to try and sell it.........egads.

Common practice in the industry. The Spiderman/Xmen movies opened up the exploitation of the Comic book movie. Everyone wanted to get on the band waggon, and did so. Now there are too many, and even the targeted fans are getting bored or perplexed with the current choices of super-hero movies.

The thing will die down, until the next best seller. Star Wars & Alien triggered the next decade of Sci-fi action & thriller trends, flooding it until the 1990's when sci-fi movies in theatres were dead.

Who knows what the next trend will be, but hopefully its something I can get behind. =]

I kind of wish they would stop with the "trends" and just make some good movies regardless of the genre.

They do, just they never get picked up by the cinema's. A large portion of those Straight to DVD releases are actually good movies, just lack that proffitability the cinemas and movie companies are after.

OK, THROWING IN A FEW THOUGHTS...


IF YOU AS OLD AS I YOU KNOW THE TREND OF USING COMIC BOOKS TO MOVIES HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE FOR A LONG TIME AND IT WILL NOT CHANGE ANYTIME SOON. SUPERMAN IS A GOOD CASE. FANS STILL HAVE THAT CLASSIC RICHARD DONNER MOVIE MAKING FRESH IN THEIR MINDS THAT SOMETHING OF A REBOOT WOULD HAVE TO BE A GOOD SCRIPT AND GOOD WRITING.

A-LIST IS NOT A NEED.

LOOK AT HARRY POTTER. FRESH OFF THE CROPS IN ACTING AND IT'S MOVIES HAS HELD ITS OWN IN THE TOP RANKING OF MOVIE RETURNS.


I DON'T THINK A CHANGE WILL BE ANY LEST DRASTIC. WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED IS MAKE THE MOVIE BELIEVABLE WITH ITS CHARACTERS AND STORY ALL AROUND. COMIC BOOKS WILL ALWAYS BE A SOURCE AND A TREND SETTER LIKE THAT OF VAMPIRE MOVIES, HORROR MOVIES, ALIEN INVASION MOVIES...ETC. ETC.


I SAY GO THE OLD WAY WITH FRESH ACTORS THAT DON'T HAVE THEIR PERSONA OF LIFE MIX IN WITH THE ACTING OF A CHARACTER. THEN YOU WILL AT LEAST HAVE A GOOD CHANCE A MOVIE CAN GET YOU FAR.

Have they reached their saturation pt? Probably, it happens with all trends eventually. Still, doesn't mean there couldn't be a hit super hero movie. People go to see movies for a variety of reasons, there isn't necessarily a formula that works. I think most movies do well because of either cleaver marketing, positive name recognition, and good word of mouth.

I personally think the most recognized super-heros would be Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Hulk, and Wonder Woman. They all had Live Action tv series which have repeated on a variety of channels over the years. I suppose Robin, Flash and Aquaman would be runners up as they seem to most often appeared with the others in toons like JL and Superfriends, plus two have been in live action series.
Transitioning them to Live Action movies is tricky though as you have to overcome the preconceptions people have from the tv series. So the movie needs to either be a big budget expansion of the tv series format or something unique that it can claim as its own.
So much for my two cents...

GOOD THOUGHTS THERE RTSURFER.. TO ADD,

IF A REBOOT IS SIMPLE ENOUGH, TAKE BATMAN DARK KNIGHT AND XMEN FIRST CLASS FOR EXAMPLE, IT COULD REALLY BOUNCE WELL.

THEN AGAIN.. TERMINATOR SALVATION WAS DONE IN A SIMPLE WAY...


SO YEAH, THERE IS NOT THAT REALLY A FORMULA TO FOLLOW. I LIKE TRANSFORMERS AND KNEW THE PROBLEMS WITH TRANSFORMERS 2 AND STILL ENJOYED THEM FOR WHAT THEY WERE.

super hero movies are kind of boring I do not like super man but the hulk is kind of cool and that big guy made of rocks I forget his name