It was the best of Times...
It was the worst of Times... To be a Comic Book Fan.
When I first began to read comics they were as popular with guys as Video Games are today with everyone. Not every boy was a fan but they were reading something. Comics were for kids that was well understood. Then along came titles likes "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchman" and suddenly adults were buying graphic novels. I have always felt some people were just itching for an excuse to reconnect with those old kid feelings but for whatever reasons comics grew up a fair bit.
The the movies started. I had enjoyed the Superman films and loved Burton's Batman. But even at their height they did not inspire the creation of that many other films. It was like there was a market but it just was not big enough.
2000. X-Men. Everything changes. It was not exactly the Comics come to life but it was a good movie and it was a success. 2002 Spider-Man was the big hit. Oddly it was fairly close to the spirit of the original source material. The important thing is that the floodgates were now open and new SuperHero movies were greenlit all across Hollywood.
In the last 8 years we have had 36 SuperHero movies! When you add in things like
300 the total is even more impressive. But I can almost hear some of you saying 'But a bunch of those were crap!' It is true that some were failures what is also true is that few failed to make a profit. Gone are the days where the only measure of a film's success is box office revenues.
I am going to confess something: Considering how film school analysis based on character development, pace and other little details are tossed around here this might come as a shock.
Most of the movies I love were not successful.
Critics hated them, the general audience mostly passed, they are not good movies by any of the traditional measures. What they are is fun. You would have to look long and hard through the hundreds of movies I have on DVD to find even a single Oscar winner. Oh sure I have things that got awards for special effects and the other minor ones but Best Picture? Nope not a one. Oddly when I hear best picture buzz I cross the movie off my list.
I watch movies for fun. Movies of all sorts of genre's will do but the yardstick is still the same. I have seen many of the great movies but generally once. Let me illustrate with a very well respected movie: Saving Private Ryan. It is brilliant and I am glad I saw it. Frankly everyone should see it once they are over 18 because some of the real horror of war is there to see and feel. But for myself personally I have no desire to see it again. It is great but it is just not fun. I am a better person for seeing but more viewings offer little more to me.
By contrast I have put
X-Men 3: The Last Stand into my DVD player over 40 times. This is far more than my viewings of X1 and X2 together I suspect. Like most people I play movies as background quite often so many of those times I was not just sitting and watching. The point is that X3 has the X-Men and an almost comic book level of action. Horribly flawed film. I know that really.
The X-Men were a group of 5 young mutants who were not very powerful. They worked together as a team and were able to defeat much more powerful foes like Magneto. At the end of X3 there are six mutants calling themselves X-Men who go off to fight Magneto and Phoenix. They win not brute force but by working together as a team.
By the time X3 was over I had finally seen all 5 of the original X-Men on screen. Cyclops and Phoenix were dead. Beast had had a chance to rumble. Angel got to fly and at least do one save. Best of all Iceman finally appeared in his full Ice form. Those are the moments that make these modern CBMs for me. Along with little touches like Shadowcat phasing Iceman into the ground much to his dismay. Did anybody but me think that after the battle he is going to start working on his trademark ice slides?
So often so much on this Site is negative. I do feel for those true X-Men fans out there. Their favorites were used to kick all these CBMs. But at the same time they have gotten the worst in terms of sticking to the source material. That is why I chose X3 above just to show that even in the 'worst' there are still some golden moments.
That is the true point of this article. I would like to celebrate the Comic Book Movie. For once I would like to lay the negatives aside and focus on the wonder of it all. There are moments and films are literally are dreams come true. Lets talk about those.
Iron Man I: The Mark II Armor
When the Mark II armor came alive and the camera slowly spun around it, I was grinning like an idiot. I knew at that moment that Iron Man was about to come to life before my eyes. Most importantly I knew it was going to be perfect. The moment pictured above where the armor turns to look right into the camera gave me chills. Iron Man just looked at me! I knew it was CGI but that so did not matter and still does not.
Even more than when Tony dons the iconic red and gold Armor the Mark II walk-around is just perfect.
So lets hear it people. Tell me about those moments. Don't worry about what anybody thinks. This is Personal Opinion and as such is NOT up for debate.