Early on in "Thor" (2011), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) strips his egotistic warrior son of his superhero powers and casts him from the kingdom of Asgard, located where I can safely assume is in “a galaxy far, far away”, to Earth to live as a mortal.
I could just as easily apply that scene to what studios do now with these comic book movies. By comparison, the studios are the Gods who cast these long-awaited big budget adaptations from their back lots in hopes of making millions the first few weeks before slowly dropping off the top ten. The audiences are the earthlings who shell out their hard-earned money in hopes of being entertained.
Director George Lucas created both a good and bad thing when he made a little science fiction movie with a $13 million dollar budget called "Star Wars" in 1977. "Star Wars" changed the way movies are now marketed so much so that I am beginning to wonder if filmmakers today are not as much concerned about churning out a good movie worthy of my time with a great story and memorable characters as they are in mass marketing it as a toy product.
As I sat through approximately 17 minutes of previews before the 11 a.m. showing of "Thor" began (it was 11:17 when the film started looking at my iPhone), I took note of the handful of trailers that were shown. I wasn't surprised to find again that these were easily marketed to the young comic book audiences. They included "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "X-Men: First Class" - all of which are 2011 sequels and the first of what is hoped to be a string of a big-budget follow-ups. Most of these films have toy products either already in stores now or are coming soon to be unveiled at toy fair conventions.
Of course it goes without saying. If a comedy were shown, comedy trailers would play before it. The same goes for horror movies and independent films.
The same could well apply to "Thor," "Captain America: The First Avenger", "Cowboys & Aliens," "Green Lantern" and "X-Men: First Class." They are for eager die-hard fans of the comic books who hope the filmmakers will be faithful to the material. Then they can debate with other fellow fans at comic bookstores about what they did and didn't like about the adaptations while marveling at the character tie-ins to other superhero movies.
Take, for example, the scene in "Thor" when a government agent asks if the giant robotic knight or whatever it was, which reminded of that alien robot, Gort, in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008) that lands on Earth if the thing is one of Stark's technological warfare creations, I just know comic book fans immediately knew the comment was in reference to Tony Stark, the superhero character Robert Downey, Jr. played in "Iron Man" (2008). I wasn't so quick in remembering. Although I do know that any film now based on a Marvel comic book will always feature a cameo from publisher Stan Lee for as long as he is around, I forgot to stick around for the end credits to see another familiar character from the Iron Man movies make a cameo appearance. I didn't know about this until I read the memorable quotes for Thor found on imdb.com.
On a positive note, yes, I did enjoy "Thor". I, again, put it in the same category of other comic book franchise movies I enjoyed that include the Iron Man, Spider-man and X-Men installments. Will I watch "Thor" again when it's out on Blu-ray before December or video-on-demand? I will probably see it one more time. The film is not, however, going to be enough for me to have playing while I am doing something else just to have something to listen to in later years. "Thor," like so many other superhero movies before it just doesn't have the epic feel I got watching "Superman: The Movie" (1978) or maybe "Batman Begins" (2005). I am still waiting for a comic book movie adaptation to come along with that kind of epic feeling to it. Director Zack Snyder almost succeeded with "Watchmen" (2009). Snyder's only sin with that film is he may have been too faithful to the graphic novel.
I suppose if there is any consolation in being subjected to all these "franchise" movies on a yearly basis now it is that studio Gods will not tolerate a big budget, mass marketed financial failure. To them, who cares what the critics think. We critics don't much matter anymore, if at all. As long as audiences walk out satisfied, they got their money's worth that's all that matters. When it comes to giving thumbs up or thumbs down to a movie, the audiences have as much power to dictate a film's success as we do in deciding who to vote for president. Like Odin in Thor casting his son into exile, we earthlings have as much power to send a superhero back to the drawing board if the film fails to deliver the goods.
Hell, hath no fury like a Hollywood studio scorned if the first installment in what is hoped to be a lucrative franchise fails to bring in millions to warrant a sequel. As the saying goes though, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," the same could apply if a superhero film adaptation fails. At that point, the film is no longer called a "franchise." They call them "reboots."
©5/9/11
I could just as easily apply that scene to what studios do now with these comic book movies. By comparison, the studios are the Gods who cast these long-awaited big budget adaptations from their back lots in hopes of making millions the first few weeks before slowly dropping off the top ten. The audiences are the earthlings who shell out their hard-earned money in hopes of being entertained.
Now I understand why when I come across an entertainment article that lists the top summer movies a film critic is most excited about seeing that chances are he or she is not going to be listing movies like Thor or "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (2011) on their must-see list. The reason is obvious. These movies are not summer movies. They are franchise movies, or to put more simply “Franchises.”
As I sat through approximately 17 minutes of previews before the 11 a.m. showing of "Thor" began (it was 11:17 when the film started looking at my iPhone), I took note of the handful of trailers that were shown. I wasn't surprised to find again that these were easily marketed to the young comic book audiences. They included "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "X-Men: First Class" - all of which are 2011 sequels and the first of what is hoped to be a string of a big-budget follow-ups. Most of these films have toy products either already in stores now or are coming soon to be unveiled at toy fair conventions.
Of course it goes without saying. If a comedy were shown, comedy trailers would play before it. The same goes for horror movies and independent films.
Fine. Call me a party pooper or for that matter, "a critic" before sending me to the depths of Hell for peeing in your Cheerios ruining your fun but there was a time when the summer movie season began, I actually got excited about the upcoming films. I saw a few of them as "event movies" like "Batman" (1989). The ones released today don't feel like event movies.Then again, perhaps I should just accept that these comic book movies were not made for older people like me anyway. Many debate that George Lucas' focus was not gearing the Star Wars prequels (1999-2005) to the older audiences who fell in love with the original trilogy (1977-1983). He was more concerned with appealing the prequels to the younger generation, or "younglings" as they are called in the Star Wars universe.
The same could well apply to "Thor," "Captain America: The First Avenger", "Cowboys & Aliens," "Green Lantern" and "X-Men: First Class." They are for eager die-hard fans of the comic books who hope the filmmakers will be faithful to the material. Then they can debate with other fellow fans at comic bookstores about what they did and didn't like about the adaptations while marveling at the character tie-ins to other superhero movies.
Take, for example, the scene in "Thor" when a government agent asks if the giant robotic knight or whatever it was, which reminded of that alien robot, Gort, in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008) that lands on Earth if the thing is one of Stark's technological warfare creations, I just know comic book fans immediately knew the comment was in reference to Tony Stark, the superhero character Robert Downey, Jr. played in "Iron Man" (2008). I wasn't so quick in remembering. Although I do know that any film now based on a Marvel comic book will always feature a cameo from publisher Stan Lee for as long as he is around, I forgot to stick around for the end credits to see another familiar character from the Iron Man movies make a cameo appearance. I didn't know about this until I read the memorable quotes for Thor found on imdb.com.
On a positive note, yes, I did enjoy "Thor". I, again, put it in the same category of other comic book franchise movies I enjoyed that include the Iron Man, Spider-man and X-Men installments. Will I watch "Thor" again when it's out on Blu-ray before December or video-on-demand? I will probably see it one more time. The film is not, however, going to be enough for me to have playing while I am doing something else just to have something to listen to in later years. "Thor," like so many other superhero movies before it just doesn't have the epic feel I got watching "Superman: The Movie" (1978) or maybe "Batman Begins" (2005). I am still waiting for a comic book movie adaptation to come along with that kind of epic feeling to it. Director Zack Snyder almost succeeded with "Watchmen" (2009). Snyder's only sin with that film is he may have been too faithful to the graphic novel.
I suppose if there is any consolation in being subjected to all these "franchise" movies on a yearly basis now it is that studio Gods will not tolerate a big budget, mass marketed financial failure. To them, who cares what the critics think. We critics don't much matter anymore, if at all. As long as audiences walk out satisfied, they got their money's worth that's all that matters. When it comes to giving thumbs up or thumbs down to a movie, the audiences have as much power to dictate a film's success as we do in deciding who to vote for president. Like Odin in Thor casting his son into exile, we earthlings have as much power to send a superhero back to the drawing board if the film fails to deliver the goods.
Hell, hath no fury like a Hollywood studio scorned if the first installment in what is hoped to be a lucrative franchise fails to bring in millions to warrant a sequel. As the saying goes though, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," the same could apply if a superhero film adaptation fails. At that point, the film is no longer called a "franchise." They call them "reboots."
©5/9/11
No comments:
Post a Comment