I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying we can learn more from failure than from victory, well that saying goes along with the subject at hand. Every movie has flaws even the best of movies, as humans were are not perfect, so mistakes and mishaps are going to happen, from bad movies like Green Lantern and Jonah Hex to fantastic films like The Dark Knight or X-men First Class. Now what’s good and bad varies from person to person, some people love Ironman 2 and others will say it’s a terrible film, but as a whole a movie is going to be received as good, great and fantastic to bad, terrible and atrocious.
Honestly I believe unless the studio wants it this way, no one sets out to make a bad product, they want to put out the best material they can for an audience but many things can prevent that from happening. Bad casting, bad script to bad directing and studio influence, I mean you can have the greatest script in the world but if the actors are not right for the part then it can all fall apart.
A lot of work goes into making films even bad movies. With so many comic book movies being put out these days, especially superhero related movies the pressure is on big time. There was a time when superhero movies were seen as a joke and even today to some they still are, but they’ve made there mark and people love superheroes, even people who will never pick up a comic book will go see the movies based on these enduring characters.
Comic Book Movies are the biggest thing in Hollywood right now; we have at least 3 to 5 of them come out a year. The problem is that now we have so much that’s it’s almost overbearing, and with so many coming out, every one of them is trying to outdo the other, it’s like a race you almost don’t have time to take a breather.
With that being said, every studio and distributer wants to make a comic book related movie and not all for the right reasons. Guys like Chris Nolan simply want to make a good movie period; while others like say Fox and Sony want to make a quick cash in and put out a crappy product. Let’s not forget that even bad movies make big bucks these days, Michael Bays Transformers movies are a good examples of terrible movies making a ton of money. Everything under the sun is getting a sequel or will be a trilogy somehow.
So with all that in mind, how can bad comic book movies be a good thing? What lessons can we learn from them?
1.As much as we love these characters and want them to succeed, we have to remember that they are products and can basically be presented in anyway the studios, directors and producers want to be. Personally I don’t think we should flock to a movie just because our favorite character is featured in the movie. I’ve said this before many times and I will say it again and again, going to the movies is a big gamble, you can hit the big one with a great movie or lose big time with a god awful movie.
2.Company Loyalty also falls into this, being strictly a Marvel fan or DC fan is not wise at all, Marvel is owned by Disney and DC by Warner Brothers, both of those giant corporations have put out good and bad material in movie form. Being loyal to one company, you are bound to be disappointed and you’ll find yourself missing out on some good stuff because of a company loyal name. So I think being open-minded and well rounded is a must, you can always discover new things and find you might like what the other company is doing.
3.Just because a movie sucks does not mean you have to hate the characters. There have been tons of book adaptations that I’ve hated, but that does not stop me from still enjoying the source material to the fullest, in fact it helps me appreciate it more. Good and bad movies are going to happen it’s just a fact we all have to face.
4.Last but not least, learning more about movies and how they are made is important. The more knowledge you gain the better you’ll be a spotting and pointing out things that will help determine if a movie is good or bad. A couple years back I had little to no knowledge on how movies were made and how they were advertised etc but now that’s changed and it had to happen. I think it’s important because the more you know the better off you’ll be. Having an opinion and voicing it is important, if a review can convince a person to see a great move and avoid seeing a crappy film, then I think that’s a job well done. The more opinions out there the better. This can also help the movie studios know what to do and what not to do and both sides can help improve.