Re: Iron Man : The Movie
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:08 am
I didn't think Daredevil was bad. Just thought it was kind of uninspired. I had a similar view of the first Fantastic Four movie -- I got to the end and just said, "Okay." They were fun movies, but I had no desire to see them a second time.
With Daredevil, I think they diluted the storyline too much, by introducing Bullseye, Kingpin, AND Elektra all in the same flick -- which should have concentrated more on the origin. They should have trusted the franchise enough to save Elektra for the sequel, and let the first movie be about who Matt Murdock is on his own, the anguish he feels about his father, his sense of justice, etc. But they fell back on playing the romance angle instead, probably because of the success of the whole Peter and Mary Jane thing. But Daredevil is a darker comic than Spider-Man, that wasn't really honored enough.
While I'm off-topic anyway, my problem with Fantastic Four is that there was almost NO character development through the entire movie. All they kept doing was repeating the simplistic stereotypes of each character over and over -- Reed's a detached geek, Sue's a woman who wants to be taken seriously, Johnny's reckless, and Ben's a grumpy guy with a temper. We get it. Also, as portrayed, Doctor Doom seemed kind of ridiculous and unthreatening. I would have much preferred they go with the classic origin story of Moleman's giant monsters burrowing up out of the streets of New York.
In both cases, I feel like the writers weren't in tune with the "heart" of the comics themselves, and didn't make the right choices about how to show us these characters are heroes. The Spider-Man and X-Men franchises have done a much better job of this ... well, except for X3 and the most recent Spider-Man movie. But that's a post for another time.
I'm actually optimistic that Favreau -- an unabashed geek -- will find a way to connect with the Iron Man material in a way similar to what Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer (also geeks) were able to do with the Spider-Man and X-Men comics. Put some passion into it.
With Daredevil, I think they diluted the storyline too much, by introducing Bullseye, Kingpin, AND Elektra all in the same flick -- which should have concentrated more on the origin. They should have trusted the franchise enough to save Elektra for the sequel, and let the first movie be about who Matt Murdock is on his own, the anguish he feels about his father, his sense of justice, etc. But they fell back on playing the romance angle instead, probably because of the success of the whole Peter and Mary Jane thing. But Daredevil is a darker comic than Spider-Man, that wasn't really honored enough.
While I'm off-topic anyway, my problem with Fantastic Four is that there was almost NO character development through the entire movie. All they kept doing was repeating the simplistic stereotypes of each character over and over -- Reed's a detached geek, Sue's a woman who wants to be taken seriously, Johnny's reckless, and Ben's a grumpy guy with a temper. We get it. Also, as portrayed, Doctor Doom seemed kind of ridiculous and unthreatening. I would have much preferred they go with the classic origin story of Moleman's giant monsters burrowing up out of the streets of New York.
In both cases, I feel like the writers weren't in tune with the "heart" of the comics themselves, and didn't make the right choices about how to show us these characters are heroes. The Spider-Man and X-Men franchises have done a much better job of this ... well, except for X3 and the most recent Spider-Man movie. But that's a post for another time.
I'm actually optimistic that Favreau -- an unabashed geek -- will find a way to connect with the Iron Man material in a way similar to what Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer (also geeks) were able to do with the Spider-Man and X-Men comics. Put some passion into it.
