This is my first blog/article on here, and I will be sticking to the main Marvel/DC films except for the Blade movies, and movies like Jonah Hex.
It has been 11 years since Fox released the first of their "X-Men" films, and started a boom of comic book movies, and the genre has seen its highs and lows since then. In the early 2000's, before Marvel studios, Fox and Sony eagerly bought up rights for X-Men, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and other heroes they hoped to make a summer blockbuster based on. Some of these, like "X-Men", "X2", "Spider-Man", and "Spider-Man 2", were for the most part well received. These films, like all movies, have their flaws, and although not ever comic fan (myself included) liked everything about them, when compared with "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace", or "Batman and Robin", were a breath of fresh air to the genre. Both the first two X-Men and Spider-Man films attempted to go for a less cheesy feel than some earlier CBM's ("Batman and Robin"). However, while these 4 films had a mostly positive reaction, several poorer CBM's started to appear based on many of Marvel's other heros .
In 2003, Fox released "Daredevil" starring Ben Affleck in the title role. Daredevil struggled capture the dark crime drama nature of the comic, and was not well received by most Daredevil fans. Later that year, Universal Pictures released Ang Lee's "Hulk" film. The film rambled on for over two long hours as Eric Bana's Bruce Banner conversed with Nick Nolte about his trouble childhood, while occasionally turning into the Hulk to fight "Hulk-poodles". Of all modern CBM's I have seen, "Hulk" remains the hardest to watch for me.
Meanwhile, DC attempted their own CBM in 2004: the much maligned "Catwoman", starring Halle Berry. The film bombed with critics, comic fans, and casual moviegoers alike, and was another black eye for DC's movies. Marvel released The Punisher in 2004 as well. While I have not seen the Punisher, I do know its reputation was pretty negative.
2005 gave us something new, the CBM "reboot" and another try at Batman, Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins". In my opinion, Nolan's take on Batman is best worded like this: "inspired by DC's Batman comics". Nolan took the characters, concepts, and places, from Batman comics, but put in alot of his own style as well. I thought the movie was very well done, and attempted to break away from the recent cheesier CBM's. However, Nolan's take is still controversial to some Batman comic fans, who felt it was too much of a break from the comics. Meanwhile, Marvel was busy putting together an Elektra film no one asked for (or saw) featuring a butchering of the comic assassin, and a hokey Fantastic Four film, which saw their top villain, Dr. Doom, turned from a brilliant, heavily armed, magic wielding, ruler of Latveria, into a dull businessman made of metal, who conducted lighting through his skin.
DC attempted to reboot Superman, as they had done with Batman, with 2006's "Superman Returns". The film was overall a failure, despite decent numbers at the box office, due to the inability to base a franchise around the new film, because of the poor reception it had. Marvel gave us "X-Men: The Last Stand", much to the disappointment of X-Men film, and comic, fans. The movie was successful at the box office, but pointlessly killed off characters who should have lived, had cheesy dialogue (Juggernaut, anyone?), and nearly wrecked the X-Men movie franchise.
2007 saw several comic book movies, and hoped to rebound from the disappointment of 2006's film. This did not happen. Instead, 2007 became a very dark year for the genre. The year began with "Ghost Rider", a very poor attempt to bring the character to the big screen. A few months later, the most finically successful movie based on a Marvel character: the controversial "Spider-Man 3". Early hopes for the film were great. Spider-Man 2 had been a huge success, even getting 5 stars from Roger Ebert, and by bringing in fan-favorite villain Venom, the movie looked to be a chance for something great. Although financially the movie did well, due to the success of the previous Spider-Man films, the movie was crammed with too much, had a horrible interpretation of Venom that even the actor himself thought was wrong, and left the franchise with a bad conclusion. Shortly after this, Fox made one of the worst Marvel CBM's yet: a Fantastic Four sequel which turned Galactus into a cloud, and Silver Surfer into a weakling.
Despite the downward turn over the last few years, 2008 ended up being the best year yet for quality CBM's. The newly formed Marvel Studios' Iron Man ended up being a huge surprise hit, and started the push towards the ambitious film of "The Avengers". On the DC end, Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was the biggest CBM yet, both financially and critically. These two films cut away the cheese of the previous years, and set a very high bar for the quality of future CBM's. Later that year was "The Incredible Hulk", Marvel studios reboot of Hulk, and "Punisher War Zone" a Punisher reboot. These two films showed that reboots are becoming more common in CBM's, a subject that I will address at the end.
2009 did not have many CBM's, the main Marvel one being a poor take on Wolverine's origin (and an even poorer take on Deadpool) and DC's controversial movie take on "Watchmen"
2010's big CBM was Iron Man 2. I personally enjoyed it, because of RDJ's acting as Tony Stark, but the film had its flaws as it tried to set up "The Avengers", rather than tell its own story.
This year, 2011, was proclaimed by many to be "The Year of the Comic Book Movie", as Green Hornet, Thor, Green Lantern, and Captain America all had big screen films in a short amount of time. I'm skipping writing on Green Hornet, just as I skipped it at the theater. I liked Thor, especially the acting of the main 3 characters, but something about the film itself I thought could have been better. I'm not quiet sure what it was though. Green Lantern was horrible I though, but not "the worst CBM ever" like some said. The only good thing in it to me was Sinestro, but it wasn't as bad as the Fantastic Four films to me. Some people also fear that Green Lantern being lesser known, and a disappointment as a film, will lead to more reboots of famous characters, instead of attempting a new character. Captain America did a good job portraying the morality and heroics of Steve Rodgers, while not making him a bland character. I think Cap is the best of those 4 movies.
So this leaves us for 2012 and the future. Next year's Avengers film is a big moment for Marvel, but not just because of what it is, but because it has a non-cliche story. It's not about a guy who gets powers, gets a girl, fights a villain who just got powers to rescue the girl, and also sets up a sequel. "The Avengers" is something new and different. It's the first crossover film, and has a great writer/director in Joss Whedon. The film can break the genre away from cliche stories like the Green Lantern film, but it could be years before Hollywood catches up. We already have had reboots for Batman, Superman, (a needed) Hulk, and Punisher, and now just 5 years after Spider-Man 3, we have a Spidey reboot, an upcoming Superman, a Ghost Rider reboot, and talk of who the next Batman should be, before the 3rd one with Bale is even out. Also there are rumors of a Fantastic Four reboot, and talk of a Daredevil reboot/sequel. Hollywood needs to be careful not to flood the genre with origin story reboots, while leaving out any chance for movies based lesser known characters with better origin stories, or less cliche ones, all because Green Lantern was bad. I think "The Avengers" will be a great film, but I hope it's not the lone bright spot in a future filled with reboots of origins we've already seen.
Fantomex777