Hey guys and gals. Its been awhile since I did an editorial(nothing that made me mad or think came up until now) and I been noticing a certain trend recently. A lot of our comic book movies have foreign directors. Now I'm sure you all know this and think "hey as long its good, I'm okay with it", but what if thats not the main case. Look at all the films recently that have been or are being directed by newcomers and veteran to American audiences. Now it does seem weird that these directors, brilliant in their own rights and contributions to cinema, are coming here and finding fresh new properties to attach themselves to and make a name here in the states.
Yet look at many foreign directors in Hollywood today: Chris Nolan, Matt Vaughn, Kenneth Brannagh, Edgar Wright, Louis Leterrier, Martin Campbell, Del Toro,Timur Bekmambetov, and Peter Jackson. All these men have been in our waters and we are proud to have them here. Now while I'm one to praise these directors I wanna delve deeper into why these men are making such entertaining films and why they seem to be better choices to most typical American directors.
The one thing all these men have in common is that they have vision and a sense of the characters that are being used. Take for example: The Dark Knight, Nolan brought us a dark, gritty, and realistic approach to a hero whose previous film was the worst movies ever made. Nolan not only brought Batman back from the brink of mockery to a film that many consider a true masterpiece to the comic book movie genre, which was sadly overlooked at the Oscar's, in terms of screenplay and director. I for one am looking forward to Inception and trying to see what Nolan will have in store for us. Another example is Matt Vaughn and his recent take with KICK-ASS, he turned a cynical comic book and made it into a fun and crazy wild movie and at the same time made a great film that had great acting and a great sense of wonder and awe. In turn most typical American directors like Michael Bay, Tim Burton, and Stephen Sommers are the guys who churn out film after to film that are only made just for the sake of making money.
These directors also take advantage of the tools they are given. Again Nolan as my example is pushing the grounds on filming in IMAX, I heard from a friend that during the screening of TDK Nolan stood in front of the screen and yelled at everyone for not investing in IMAX and its groundbreaking use. Whats interesting about them is that they don't succumb to straight up using CGI to do all their stunts and effects, they use them to just touch up things(this excludes Leterrier's most recent films Clash and Hulk). Sadly today's American directors seem to just cop out and use CGI to do everything that are typical impossible to create by normal means(I'm looking at you Raimi). There are a few exceptions but they are rare these days
THe last thing these directors have that most don't have are BALLS. What I mean by that is that they are willing to go beyond the norm of typical action movies and show us stuff that you rarely see and are a ton of fun when presented. Nolan gave us great intense moments in TDK, Vaughn made an 11 year old girl kill people and had fun doing it, Leterrier made Hulk cool again, Jackson made an epic Triolgy that rivals the old Star Wars, Wright is making Scott Pilgrim as much of a live action comic as you can, and Brannagh is bringing Shakespear to Thor. These men aren't afraid of going out of their way to bring us something that will shock and awe us(not at the same time...mostly). I look forward to what these people bring us next
Now I will defend a FEW American directors that have delved into the Comic book genre. Favreau surprised me greatly with his take on Iron Man 1 and 2, although they are short on action, they more than make up for story and characters. I loved Raimi's Darkman, it was fun and original. I loved Singers X-men and I did like Superman Returns(why all the hate???). Last to mention is Joe Johnston who made a great film in the 90's, The Rocketeer, and now he's going on to direct Captain America.
In closing, I have a great appreciation for any director who makes a comic book movie now or in the future. They have to be able to make the film appealing to not only the die hard fans but also the general moviegoer. I don't hate all American directors, but I feel as tho they aren't going all out to make us memorable movies and most studios are outsourcing directors to find fresh ideas and minds. I think today's film and cinema are gonna look at foreign directors to bring us new and unuqie views and styles in our films. Perhaps we may see comic book characters we never thought of being made, are made and they become big success stories. Til next time everybody, BlackAirs out!!!