Comic book movies generally come in two forms; those that tell the story of a single hero, and those that focus on the super team. Typically, Hollywood produces films that focus on the story of a single character and comic book movies are no different. With good reason. Juggling the screen time for several characters and doing them all justice is a very difficult thing to do. There have been several attempts at the super-team film, with varying degrees of success. Is this a problem with the team-movie idea itself, or is it something else?
Of course, there are many examples of ensemble pieces that have been successful; The Departed, Pulp Fiction and Magnolia are all excellent films to name but a few. However, when it comes to superhero films, the ensemble has been somewhat problematic. In most cases there is one of two problems; either one character dominates the story leaving everyone else in the dark, or there are so many characters that the film as a whole comes off as muddled and bogged down. It's a hard balance to strike, but is it impossible for a CBM featuring a team to delight all?
With Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman/Superman/Justice League, a new Fantastic Four and Avengers: Age of Ultron all coming our way in the not-too-distant future, can we hope for better?
First, let's take a look at some of what we've had so far...
The X-Men Films (2000 - 20??)
Lots of negativity gets thrown at the X-Men franchise and some of it is quite understandable. A great deal of people have problems with continuity, costume and line-ups but setting that aside, how do they hold up as ensemble pieces?
The first thing to address is the role of Wolverine. X-Men movies are all about Wolverine right? Everyone knows that. Well, yes and no.
X-Men was the first modern team film and on the whole it did an excellent job. In the film's universe the X-Men are already an established team so it makes sense to approach the story from the perspective of characters newly introduced to the set-up i.e. Rogue and Wolverine. It is both of their stories we follow through the first X-film, they have a lot in common which typifies themes central to the X-Men; both are outsiders looking for solitude, afraid of what they might do to those around them. Whilst secondary villains don't get a lot to do the other X-Men do get their fair share of the screen and by the film's finale, they are acting as a team. The balance of time spent on each character is justifiable when you consider the film an introduction in to a largely unknown universe.
Skipping ahead to X-Men: First Class, and we have another decent attempt at the super-team. Of course Wolverine does briefly appear but the decision of the filmmakers to (almost) reboot the property was a strong one in that it freed them from what came before and allowed them to approach the movie as the ensemble-piece any team movie should be. Along the way some characters do get brushed aside - Darwin and Azazel being perfect examples - but almost every other member of the group gets something of significance to do.
Which brings us on to the X-films that came in-between. X2: X-Men United was an excellent follow up from Singer; it upped the ante in every way but it was also the start of 'The Wolverine Show'. A new villain is introduced in Stryker, whose plan to eradicate mutantkind could have been enough on its own but his involvement in Wolverine's past puts the ol' canucklehead front and centre. Wolverine along with new recruit Nightcrawler get most to do whilst returning members Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey are somewhat side-lined. Disappointing considering what this treatment would lead to in...X-Men: The Last Stand.
Brett Ratner's entry in to the X-universe is almost universally despised. But looking past the film's flaws how did it do as a team movie. Well, it picked up where X2 left off. The film introduced a myriad of characters and spent almost no time with any of them. Instead we got Wolverine doing mostly everything. Like Nightcrawler before him, Beast adds something new and is a highlight, but once again the returning members are short-changed. Just one word really: Cyclops.
Fantastic Four (2005 - 2007)
Fantastic Four and its sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are not good films. The casting is wrong, the tone is wrong and the villain, oh the villain! Wrong is not the right word. But despite their flaws, the films did achieve a balance between their protagonists. Tim Story may have everything else wrong but at least each member of the team has a chance to shine; Reed shows off his genius, we see Ben’s struggle with his transformation, Johnny cracks wise and Sue...well she looks great. Unfortunately in the case of Fantastic Four, this balance is meaningless when it falls down everywhere else. Sure, no-one is overshadowed by anyone else too much (in terms of time if not performance) but when Reed doesn't feel like Reed and Sue is stripping in the streets, it doesn't matter how well you do at balancing characters.
Fantastic Four is good for one thing though as it does give some insight in to the dangers of making a super-team film. It is benefitted by having only four members and therefore has more time to give each, but it also highlights the need for quality filmmakers to realise these properties fully. As we know the balancing act is difficult, just ask Ratner, and it requires a director with the capability of handling multiple characters. Bryan Singer did a decent job; regardless of what else he may have done with the characters, he used his experience from Usual Suspects in delivering films that gave every character a chance. But it is the director on the next team film who really shines at this.
Joss Whedon had a lot of help in making The Avengers the film it was. Firstly, every character in the team had been set up previously in the MCU. Whether in their own solo films or as secondary characters in those films, each member of The Avengers had been seen before. This obviously helped in cutting down the time taken for set up and allowed for more time to be spent seeing what badasses everyone was. This film may not be heavy on the development of those characters but each have a turn at showing what they can do, although Hawkeye is reduced to mind-controlled-zombie for much of the picture. The battle of New York is the set-piece in the film and during it every single Avenger does their fair share of the heavy-lifting both in terms of fighting off alien hordes and in holding the screen.
Secondly, Whedon is greatly helped by his past experience with ensembles. Much of this was on television where there is more time to develop several characters, but it is in his writing that we find at least part of the key to The Avengers' success. Whedon excels at fast-paced, witty back-and-forths between his characters. It is prevalent in all of his work. His ability to write humour and balance lines between actors is what gives his work that sense of camaraderie between team-mates. The Avengers did a wonderful job at bringing the super-team to life and is in my opinion, the best example we've had so far of such a film.
Since the dawn of this new age of CBMs the films, in general, have been getting better; for every Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance there is a Captain America: The Winter Soldier, for every Catwoman there's a The Dark Knight. And whilst the quality of solo-hero movies are on the up, things appear to be looking better for the team film too. We already know ensemble films can work but their success or failure is reliant on the quality of the filmmakers, just as it is with most films. No matter how interesting the characters involved might be or how great the actors playing them are; without a capable hand to guide them, they can easily become dominated by just one character or, can have so many balls in the air they come across as a jumbled mess.
With more and more shared universes springing up, and more characters being introduced, we can expect bigger films with larger casts to be made. Indeed, some are in production right now. There are sequels or reboots to all of the above films coming up. And it's not just Marvel; DC are of course putting Batman, Superman and other Justice League members in the same film for the first time. Perhaps most interesting of all, Sony will produce an evil ensemble in the form of the Sinister Six. Just how will these fare against the films that have gone before? Much mud has been flung at The Fantastic Four reboot for various reasons, but Trank’s experience on Chronicle may just be enough to give a balanced team film. Snyder with Watchmen has also had practice with multiple characters although it must be said, much of this was laid out already in the book. As for Whedon, I can only expect he will deliver again, but Avengers: Age of Ultron will also see several new characters introduced - is this too much for even him?
But what are your thoughts? Am I completely wrong about the films mentioned? And what does the future hold for super-team films? Are they the next big thing or will they be the death of comic book movies?