A feeling has been growing inside me for the past couple of years. Call it my movie-going Spidey-sense. I am becoming less and less interested in comic book and graphic novel adaptations. A genre staple at the multiplexes for some years now. This year alone I’ve passed on Iron Man 3, Bullet to the Head, R.I.P.D., and Red 2 (still haven’t seen Red either). Actually, let me rephrase that: I am not losing interest in the genre, I am losing faith in the Hollywood machine to do something fresh and creative with it. Two comic book films this summer have attempted to break the mold. To distance themselves from the formula of what we have all been trained a comic book movie needs to look like: Man of Steel and The Wolverine. The ambition, on paper, of these movies is admirable, but ultimately, in both of their final acts, they fall back into familiar, and therefor uneven, territory.
As I’ve commented briefly before the production team behind Man of Steel was a perfect marriage of talent. Zack Snyder is a highly stylized, visual director who was made for comic adaptations (300, Watchmen). Christopher Nolan, who single-handedly brought new hope to the comic book genre with his Batman trilogy, was a no-brainer to oversee the production. David S. Goyer, who has written Nolan’s Batman trilogy as well as another favorite of mine: Dark City. Throw the massive music of Hans Zimmer into the mix and you’ve got a godsend of talent. Man of Steel is a who’s who of everyone you would hope to be involved behind the scenes to carefully not screw up Superman.
On the other hand you have a different approach with Marvel’s The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman has now appeared six times as the character. Amazing. And a couple of those times have been in really terrible movies (The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine which everyone wants to forget ever happened). Something needed shaken up to reward Jackman and the fans with an effort worthy of the character. Enter James Mangold. The odd choice for director. His credits include 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, Girl Interrupted, and CopLand. Great films that have nothing to do with the genre. One of the two credited writers, Scott Frank, is also an interesting choice. He handled the screenplays for Minority Report, Marley & Me, and Out of Sight. It’s promising to see a studio hire diverse talent like this on such a big franchise.
Both films start out ambitiously by establishing moods and bringing an emotional weight you rarely see in comic adaptations (outside of Nolan’s Batman trilogy). They also take their time to develop their characters and settings. Sure, there’s action, but when there is it actually means something. In Man of Steel you have Clark’s inner struggle to hide his true self while also wanting to protect the human race who has raised him. In The Wolverine, Logan’s dark past and guilt of having killed his true love have sent him into seclusion but unfortunately without being able to age (or die) he has no sense of purpose in his life. These setups are intimate, personal dilemmas, something the audience can focus on and breathes life into the characters. Something much more interesting than battling 1,000 faceless clones.
Man of Steel sets up our caring alien and the warm people in his life, it dazzles us with beautiful cinematography and a pounding score. It delivers some truly amazing action sequences in the town where Clark was raised (and where everyone knows everyone) and there’s a real threat there for the character and the safety of those around him. And then halfway through the film everything that’s been built up is thrown out the window for a bland, typical ending where Clark goes into a downtown section of a massive population and assists Zod in bringing every building down (seemingly killing thousands) around him while they have a pissing contest. We’ve seen this scene in nearly every superhero movie and in 45 minutes it nearly ruins everything in the film that has come before it.
Following a near-perfect opening scene in Nagasaki during the bomb drop, The Wolverine has an even quieter setup then Man of Steel. A real gutsy move but a welcome one. Logan is at his lowest point. Out in the woods, passing the time. When he comes out of hiding he struggles with involving himself in any kind of destructive situations. But a man from his past presents him with an interesting opportunity to become “normal” and mortal again. Of course this friend’s family is in danger and Logan finds himself caught in the middle. Along the way he meets a woman and starts to fall in love. The film builds a pretty solid emotional core by the time it reaches it’s mid-section and the love story doesn’t feel nearly as forced as it did in Man of Steel. Being a fan of the comics it was nice to see the meat of the film take place in Japan as well. A nice added dimension was threatening Logan with mortality and the potential for death. Unfortunately it didn’t play out as strongly as I would have hoped. The supporting cast of baddies (like in Man of Steel) are weak and underdeveloped too: the Poison Ivy-like “Viper” and the annoyingly flip-flopping “Harada”. On a much smaller scale The Wolverine eventually falls into the same cliche traps as Man of Steel in its finale. The lead-up is cast aside for empty spectacle and the ending literally goes nowhere.
I clearly don’t hate these films. I just feel genuinely let-down by the system that created them and I’ve started to give up on the entries in the genre that just aren’t bringing anything new to the table. Take the first half of Man of Steel and the first 2/3’s of The Wolverine and you have some really interesting themes and strong characters. Stand-outs in their genre. I know that not every superhero movie can, or should, be Batman, but I feel like it is still the only property that has been able to keep that balance of character, story, and spectacle. I hope that people tire of seeing the same ending tacked onto these big budget movies. I hope that sooner, rather than later, the mold is completely broken and a creative team is able to deliver an adaptation that sees it’s vision through until the end. No more half-assed, formulaic endings. Let’s get some emotion pay-offs worthy of some of these characters and their A-list stars. If you’re going to hire talent to make these films, let them think outside the box. Leave the hacks to the bland, dumb blow-em-ups. There are plenty of them.
So what do you think, dear reader? Hollywood has obviously found a formula that works. Are you satisfied with their superhero output recently? Am I right in craving more from these big budget adaptations or have I grown far too picky?
My Ratings for 2013:
The Wolverine – 7.5/10
Man of Steel – 7.5/10
Dredd – 7/10 *
The Amazing Spider-Man – 7/10 *
Oblivion – 6/10
* Released in 2012
I saw these films at Cinemark’s Tinseltown 17 Theatres on Peach Street in Erie, PA. Click for showtimes.
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