There are many different ways that fans are shorted on seeing thier favorite comic heroes on screen. They have powers they shouldn't. They look completely different. They act in no way as they should. In this editorial I hope to address some of these issues. Sometimes they are altogether alien from the charecter they are to portray. I am a Marvel/IDW fanboy so take what I say with a grain of salt. With that said, I have certain problems when characters I love are misrepresented I really do feel like someone in the studio just smacked my grandmother. On the other hand, when characters I don't really care for get an update I resound with joy. This article however, deals with the one thing any real fan boy can't really tolerate, or at least that's how I think about it. The phenomonon is akin to getting tickets to the Superbowl and somehow being locked in a bathroom at the stadium with nothing more than a fuzzy radio that for some reason is picking up an elementary pee-wee game. There are many instances where we tune-in or buy a ticket to see what we hope will blow our minds. We hope to have a rich story involving our most loved characters. That isn't what we experience though. Due to Hollywood just wanting to cash in on our childhood dreams at a very inexpensive cost, we get stories about characters that have met or live in the same universe as the characters we wanted to see. There are some great examples. Transformers, Agents of SHIELD, X-men, and I believe TMNT. This article will address my own frustration with each.
The Transformers I remember ever had anything to do with humans. Sure, Spike and his dad were present but extremely minor characters. In the most recent Transformer trailer, I counted 30 seconds of Transformers in the 2:30 trailer. It really seems to be an honest trailer in comparison to the horrible movies that predated it. All it missed was Shai going "No, no, no, no, no..." Even the original Transformers erked me. Jazz was killed off because he was a distinct character. He didn't just melt away with Ironhide and the others into "Indescript Robots" So instead of a story about the Autobots overcoming the forces of the Decepticons to advert the direst of consequences, I got some whiny kid's experience with Bumblebee who couldn't even speak and everything I wanted to see kinda happened in the background due to over complexity of the Transformers design. How amazing would it have been to gotten a much simpler Optimus Prime with much more story and much less Shai? It really comes down to money. Studios give us a few really great scenes that cost millions to make and hope the story can ride on that. It can't.
Yep, I'm a AOS hater. Sure am. Aside from the incredibly cheesey acting, real agents wouldn't act in such away. SHEILD agents don't sit around crying and taking on just anyone into an agency of such high security clearance. I understand this show is about SHIELD. I completely understand that. SHEILD deals with Superheroes and Supervillians. What do we the viewer get? Not the B list, Not even the C-list. We get horrifically unbelievable character in a less believable team. Once in a while the C-list shows it's face as a cameo. I understand SFX are expensive. But I'd rather watch the 1970's version of Captain American than this. At least it had Captain America. Why not do with AoS what Arrow has done. Bring a B-list character to light and show him to have A-list qualities. Some might say that's Agent Coulson. Sorry, as a fanboy it's hard for me to give and credibility to that. I want a real superhero. How about Red Hulk or even Carol Danvers? Instead, we get a spear, and some Chitari hunk of junk. If we wanted to stay cheap, Frank Castle would be much more fitting. The Avengers showed the MCU Earth it wasn't alone in the universe let's see the Kree or the Skrulls... Sorry AoS is extremely underwhelming because there isn't any emphasis on really making it amazing. It is nothing but a desperate attempt to squeeze every last cent that can be squeezed from Marvel fans.
The X-men has been my favorite comic back before the Age of Apocalypse. It spoke to me as student of philosophy. It is utterly tragic that the X-men have taken a backseat to Wolverine. While Wolverine is an important character in the history of the X-men, he doesn't encompass the X-men. There has only been one X-men movie that wasn't about him but the guy still gets a cameo. The X-men in general, in my opinon, have seen the least amount of respect when it comes to being true to the comics. The supporting characters in the 6 Wolverine movies that have been created should have been the stars. Cyclops and Jean Grey are exponentally more important to the X-men than Wolverine. Storm, Iceman, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Actual Rogue and Beast are more important to the X-men than Wolverine. The focus was so heavy on getting Logan right that they didn't even bother with the rest of them. Storm is Egyptian, Colossus is Russian and Banshee is Irish. But those things are easy to ignore as long as Wolverine is good. So why do this? Is the Phoenix Saga not incredible and deserving of a much richer piece of the silver screen? No. It's because Wolverine's claws are cheaper than an intergalatic war.
When I was a kid I had every TMNT figure there was, except April O'Neil. She was just hard to find. It was no big deal to me though. From everything I have seen, the upcoming TMNT movie feels exactly the opposite. No this is just another chance for Megan Fox to strut around in a Micheal Bay movie. I know he's not directing it but you can be assured that he is the reason she is there. However, If I was to watch this movie I wouldn't want see April, I want to see Leonardo, Rapheal, Michelagelo, Donatello and Splinter, and maybe some Casey Jones. This will be another movie where the main characters take a back seat to a cheaper supporting character in hopes to make more money. Sure, that's the name of the game though right? But really think about it, how much more money would be made if they went all out? What if the we had the story of the Ninja Tribunal? What if we had a story that had nothing to with April at all and just focused on the growth of each turtle? These turtles will just be flat characters with no depth. Like most other major character that have been pushed into supporting roles, because they are more expensive to spend time on. This article was written in response to the recent TMNT trailer and the frustration as a fan grows with each insult the industry smears our noses in an then tells us it smells like roses. Sorry, I can't sit by and not complain.
What if you'd went to the theaters to see this:
And got this?
It may have been an ok movie but it certainly wasn't the Avengers.
This is just the rants of one fanboy trying to relay his frustrations. I'm looking forward to everything but the new Transformers and TMNT movies. I don't have a specific studio that I think is better than another. I just want to see the characters I adore represented with respect for the characters and their fans. I know that pisses some people off and they accuse me of being petty when I should just be happy that I am getting something. Sorry, Corn Beef, and Chitlings aren't enough for me. I hope I said somethings here that people can agree with but I'm sure this article will get flack from plenty others. As I said, this is just my opinion.