Thanks to some of the comments made on my other posts, it has been brought to my attention that I sounded Cocky, actually I intended to show my passion for the Comicbook World. So with this post I hope to show both the passion I have and the importance of accurracy in the portrayals of Comics in the Movies. Here we go.
When it comes to transferring a beloved Comic Hero to the SilverScreen, accurracy is, pardon the pun, paramount. This is true on three major fronts, first, it helps to bring to life the subtle nuancies of the character that can't be brought out in the pages of a comic.Second, if done properly, it helps to enhance the characters storyline, and third, if effectively done, it can help those who do not share our passion for this medium of entertainment to get a clearer picture as to why we feel the way we do about our Heroes.
With all of this being stated, let me show you why I feel that both DareDevil and Elektra need to be given a, hard to be comfortable with the fact I am saying this, Reboot Treatment. Before I go any further, the actor's are not to blame they did a good job for what they were handed, the writer's on the other hand are at fault.
When I was younger, I read Spider-Man comics on a regular basis, until they scattered the realm of reason to the four winds(Power Cosmic Spider-Man.) One comic I had was an issue called All My Sins Remembered, this took place while Spider-Man had the outfit that would become Venom. In this issue DareDevil hunted down Spider-Man because he felt that Spider-Man was bordering on being too lethal. Then when The DareDevil Movie came out he was portrayed as being what, in the comics, he conflicted with Spider-Man for. So it is no wonder that this Movie didn't effectively attain the three threshholds I mentioned earlier. As a side note, it also would have helped if they had presented Matt's mentor(Stick) more prominently and stayed closer to his actual origins. Speaking of which,Elektra's origins in both The DareDevil and her own Movie were way off base.
Where as I understand that, from time to time, poetic licencing has to be applied it doesn't mean that the transition from Comic to Movie requires a re-invention treatment. From a writer's point of view, re-inventing a character for the sake of SilverScreen appeal, to most creative writer's, is like actively trying to kill their surrogate child. Writer's are very particular people, and they love the character's they create as much as they love their own flesh and blood children. With that being presented, treat each character as if the SilverScreen is a writer's way of bringing them to accessable and actual life. For example, if you could go back and talk to George Reeves, he would tell you that his portayal of The 50's TV Superman took on a life all it's own. So with that in mind, be careful how you change a beloved Comics Hero when bringing them to the SilverScreen, it could be potentially problematic on many fronts in the long run. Till next time comfans.