The future of comic book movies is bright. If you’re a Marvel than like me then the Avengers franchise is pouring out high quality content by the bucket load and will continue to do so for the next few years with nine projects from now until 2015, plus the announcement of two untitled Marvel Studios films and two more Spider Man films. DC fans can now cheer with the success of Man of Steel and the bright future of the Nolan reign leading up to the Justice League.
But with so much content coming out it’s only a matter of time until the formula of these films becomes repetitive and audiences begin to get bored of these super powered blockbusters. It’s already happening in many ways with audiences becoming more aware and constantly questioning the logic and meaning of these story-lines, with Man of Steel’s collateral damage being a big issue at the moment.
So what are we to do? When Iron Man 3 attempted to curve ball audience expectations, many die-hard fans began the hate charge calling it disrespectful and many bad words I will not repeat. I personal liked it, although it took me a while to get over the shock. Yet when Star Trek: Into Darkness gave fans what they were hoping for it was accused of being unoriginal.
What is to be done? Well I'm not going to come up with the answer simply because it’s impossible to predict what audiences will accept and what they’ll reject, also a great idea on paper can be poorly executed in film. In this article I want to put forward my ideas for possible future story-lines and changes that directors could bring into future movies to keep audiences on their toes, while also discussing my predictions for how the upcoming movies may have also began doing just this.
Comic book/Superhero movies have always fallen under the same basic genre, action/drama with a little comedy; generally this has always been the case, so why not change this up. Why not attempt to combine genres in a Marvel flick, we've seen it before to varying degrees of success with the superhero genre mash-ups, we had a Western with Jonah Hex (okay bad example), Captain America: The First Avenger was a WWII movie. Captain America: Winter Soldier is trying to be a 70’s espionage thriller and I’m incredibly excited to see what happens, the idea of Cap and Nick Fury being on the run intrigues me and it changes up the dynamic and tests these characters like never before. What about if we made a superhero horror movie, Spiderman fighting in Mysterio’s haunted house of terrors, or Batman fighting Scarecrow constantly having to question what’s real and what’s not. What about a full on drama with Iron Man 4’s story-line being Demon in a Bottle with a sub plot involving a new villain? How about an apocalypse film with Thor: Ragnarok ending with the deaths of everyone in Asgard? Yes including Loki and Thor. Why not go all out and have a musical superhero movie… okay well I’d love to see that, and hey Joss did it in Buffy once so you never know?
One movie idea I was considering for Spider-Man was if Spidey was trapped in Ravencroft Institute when an outbreak occurs and he has to fight his way out against his rouges gallery. Yes I have stolen that from The Raid, Dredd and Batman: Arkham Asylum, but imagine it with Spider-Man fighting Shocker, Vulture, Lizard, Rhino, Mysterio, Scorpion and more in one movie.
Let’s think also about the future of the action of these films. One big criticism that the first two Iron Man movies received was that the final fights were a little disappointing with two armored men hitting each other until one falls over. Captain America will likely have a more emotional battle against his former best buddy Bucky in the Winter Soldier and I have no idea what madness to expect from an Avengers vs. Thanos battle but I’m seriously look forward to seeing it. What about Spiderman’s enemies, with such a great rouges gallery I personally am looking forward to his fights with a dumb but powerful Rhino, they should be destructive and very amusing, plus an aerial fight with Vulture/Green Goblin could be incredible, getting higher and higher over the city then Spiderman’s webs run out. Wouldn't that be stunning?
I’m not saying that comic book movies are not trying new things, XMen: Days of Future Past looks just as ambitious and brilliant as we’re all hoping (welcome back Bryan Singer, we missed you), The Wolverine is putting it’s hero in a brand new setting we've never seen before with an almost all Japanese cast, and looks to be making a much more subtle and emotional film than we’re used to, we still get a fight on the bullet train and Wolverine surviving a nuclear explosion, but it also has our hero questioning immortality and trying to learn how to gain the inner peace of the samurai. Iron Man 3 took a massive risk with it’s twist ending, which is still open for discussion if it worked or not. Not to mention that Marvel Studios is introducing a raccoon as their new hero.
But how far will these moves go? Will we start exploring even more areas of the comic world, will The Wolverine’s change of setting prompt Marvel Studios to try having a new movie set entirely in Africa with the Black Panther and an almost all black cast? Could Chris Nolan come back to the Dark Knight in a few years with an adaptation of the Dark Knight Returns with an older Bruce Wayne fighting the Scarecrow? They did keep teasing us with Scarecrow so… Will we start seeing major character deaths? With Joss Whedon on team Marvel I’m waiting to see if he goes all out and kills Tony Stark or Steve Rogers in an epic final battle. In fact if you look at the Marvel movies there have been very few good guy deaths apart from Yinsen in Iron Man and, well, the entire cast of Captain America. Could we actually be building up to a Civil War story-line? Maybe? What about Planet Hulk followed by World War Hulk? Marvel have bluffed many times before, as long as they found a way of having Mark Ruffalo in it more than Hulk I’ll be happy.
But what do you guys think, comic book readers please tell me some unconventional story-lines that you would love to see on the big screen. How do you think these movies should spice things up? What new kinds of battles do you want to see? Which characters would you want to see bite the dust? Let m know.
Also final point but here’s one thing that often bothers me with comic book movies… why do so many of the finales happen at night time, Iron Man 1,2 & 3, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Amazing Spiderman, Spiderman 1,2 & 3, XMen 1 & 3. Doesn't anyone get sleepy in superhero movies? At least make it rain, I just find it a little tiring seeing them constantly fight in darkness… it’s a nit pick I know but come on. Be original guys.
Thanks for reading.