Posted by Jack Spencer Jr at sa7-p22.dreamscape.com on January 22, 2003 at 13:44:23:
The subject line should have been "You know, they should stop making comic book super hero movies" but that went over the character limit.
Anyways, my point is that they should stop making movies out of comic book super heroes. I have a number of reasons to back this up.
First of is do we really need a movie version of a comic book super hero? Or a movie version of anything for that matter? I am guilty of this myself. I've read several novels and though "Gee a movie based on this would be cool." Why is that? Did I not enjoy the novel? Do we not enjoy the comic book? Why does a book or comic book being turned into a movie feel like it's being legitimized? Is that the word I'm looking for? This is a whole topic in and of itself, I suspect.
My next couple points all kind of go together. First of is that costumed super heroes are not mainstream enough. It's easy to forget this since super heroes appear to be mainstream in comic books, but keep in mind that they're nich inside a niche market. To the mainstream, these people in silly outfits looks silly or like some kind of BDSM fantasy. They don't get it. And while they they may check out well-known names like Superman and Batman (and it's probably the TV shows that made these names well known) lesser known names (like Daredevil) are not as likely to attract a mainstream audience. Which leaves it up to the comic fans to pick up the slack with multiple viewing. This won't happen if the movie sucks. Sucks being a very subjective term. I thought Spider-Man sucked because A) the effects were sub-par B) there was not nearly enough action because they spent all of that time on the origin story C) what was the deal with the web shooters???
My C is admittedly a nitpick, but comic fans don't nitpick, do they? I thought so.
But then, I could seeing some comic fans trying to rally other comic fans to support super hero movies that suck because "we have to support them so they will make more super hero movies." This kind of happened in roleplaying circles when the Dungeons & Dragons movie came out. My response to they people, besdies the above where we don't even need the movie in the first place, is that the movie sucks. If we support it, they'll think we want this shit.
But this is just my own opinion and one not likely to be listened to by anyone who matters because the damn things make money. Which, I guess, is the most important thing.