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[bryant]

In the lobby of the Lowes Harvard Square today, while waiting for Million Dollar Baby, I saw the following two posters side-by-side, much like they are below if your browser window is quite large.

Both these movies are distributed by Warner Brothers. They're both comic book adaptations. They ought to both appeal to a similar audience. What are the execs at Warner Brothers thinking? This is why Marvel-based movies are on a fairly strong run, while DC-based movies are not.

Comments

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

The protagonists' poses are even similar...

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

DC Comics movies make me weep. It's by far the company I've followed the closest through the years, where I know and love the characters best. Granted, Marvel's not full of hits, either, with The Punisher and Daredevil (and I have low expectations of Elektra), but even they can't approach the travesty that was Catwoman.

I dunno. I'm excited about more Spider-man and X-men movies. I'm curious about Batman Begins, but still mad as hell about Constantine (can't get over the casting of Keanu). With Gaiman behind the script, the Death movie might not suck, but a lot can happen between screenplay and screen. I love comics and would love to see a lot of my favorite storylines on the big screen, but at the same time, I'm always worried the movies will just be crap, and it makes me tired.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I dunno, i kinda like the posters. And Batman Begins might not suck.

Marvel's 'hits'

[carneggy.livejournal.com]

I'd say Marvel is partly having all these hits because they're just mining more of the catalog. But more is not always better, by far.

Just wait until Fantastic Four comes out, it is looking.. uh... craptacular, from the footage I've seen.

Also in the pipeline for Marvel movies: Iron Man, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Luke Cage (seperate from Man-Thing), and MAN-THING. Yes, I'm serious, and no, it's not going to be a Giant-Sized movie.

Pretty much every Marvel hero that had a comic title in the 70's or 80's has been optioned, at this point, if not actively greenlit yet.

Re: Marvel's 'hits'

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I believe I was hasty in giving that much credit to Marvel; I hadn't heard of the others, but just knowing about Man-Thing drops my expectations.

Maybe they just got lucky with Spider-man and X-men, or something. But Catwoman still makes me cry more than any of them. o.O

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Whoever thought casting Jessica Alba as Sue Storm was a good idea needs to be repeatedly punched in the back of the head.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Say, Bryant, have you seen the Sin City preview? I also have a 6+ minute preview which reveals the horrid acting ability of both Josh Hartnett and Jessica Alba, but everyone else involved rules.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

This is why Marvel-based movies are on a fairly strong run, while DC-based movies are not.

Um, Bryant, what about Daredevil (and now the sadly wasted Jennifer Garner in Elektra)?

I think that DC just hasn't hit the highs that Marvel has, but both of them have had their share of stinkers. Or at least their due share thanks to Sturgeon's Law.

Re: Marvel's 'hits'

[bryant]

I'm not saying they're not getting greedy these days, but they had a superb multi-year run and it's partially because Avi Arad was a merciless control freak about quality. That multi-year run is why they've managed to get so many of their properties into development.

I do think they've slipped, starting with Daredevil.

Oh, also in the pipeline: Werewolf by Night, Shang-Chi, Sub-Mariner, Deathlok, and Black Widow.

[bryant]

Starting in 1998: Blade, X-Men, Blade II, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, X2. Quality doesn't start slipping till Daredevil, in 2003, and 2003 also sees X2 (which was good) and Hulk (which was flawed, but not for the usual reasons comic book movies are flawed).

I'll stand by it -- they were on a strong run between 1998 and 2003. One bad movie during that time doesn't derail the claim.

[bryant]

Yep. I'm very much looking forward to it.

[bryant]

Well, I like each of 'em individually. But when you put 'em next to each other, there's an unavoidable impression of lack of creativity, you know?

I do think Batman Begins has a good chance of not sucking.

[ivan23.livejournal.com]

Check the dates: February / June. My guess is that they weren't intended to run side-by-side, or possibly even at the same time; and the local theatre chain is to blame.

[kodi]

Hulk (which was flawed, but not for the usual reasons comic book movies are flawed).

Personally, I thought the usual flaws were there, too. "Oh no! An unstoppable monster! Get the foam!"

[rfrancis]

I think the run is still strong. To my recollection, since the end of your list we've had Punisher (which I thought was good, although it had moments where they thought "hey, comic books!" and got stupid, like the final monologue), Spider-Man 2 (excellent), and Blade III (haven't seen it, but admittedly haven't heard much good about it so far.) Oh, right, and now Elektra, which, well, whoops, from what I've read. Okay, maybe they stumbled a bit at the end of 2004.

-R

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yah, Keanu as Constantine just....rrrr.....there's just nothing good to say about that. I was pretty excited about the Constantine movie up to that point.

As far as Gaiman's Death movie goes, in the UK they made a mini-series out of Neverwhere back in 1996. I really wanted to like it, but it was BBC TV production values, which for Red Dwarf is fine, but for this was disappointing.

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

I'd take exception to Blade II being in that list, but then I like Wesley Snipes only slightly more than I like Keanu. Other than that, I generally agree with the good run theory.

I can understand Marvel thinking about Luke Cage/Iron Fist/Shang Chi in the current Kung Fu renaissance and I suppose I can see Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, and Man-Thing as attempts to get back into the monster movie/anti-hero market (as well as the flush of racing movies for Ghost Rider like Torque, TFTF, 2F2F, etc), but Namor the Sub-Mariner???

Namor's only slightly more exciting than Aquaman because he can fly and has a pissy attitude. Other than that, he talks to fish. Deathlok, Black Widow?

Marvel has a whole universe of characters they can make movies of and THESE are the ones they choose? I mean, I know Cap America flopped every time they tried to bring it to the big screen, but they can do better than that. They've proven that.

I think Dark Horse's success with Hellboy disproved what may have been a popular notion with DC and Marvel that they can only make movies of characters that are already well-known to mainstream America. Maybe that's why they're bringing up these third stringers, but....really!?

[bryant]

I can understand not liking Blade II. What did it for me is that old del Toro magic; it was so damned Grand Guignol that I forgave the CGI fight scenes and everything else.

Black Widow is a great spy character. Namor is the goof. The only explanation I can think of is that everything from Blade until Punisher made $70 million or more -- usually much more. That's a hell of a golden cow. Alas, the execs clearly lost track of why those movies made money.

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Black Widow is a good spy character (which is why in some ways she sometimes seemed out of place amoung the flashy superheroes) and may play better to the big screen than to comics.

You do make a good point about Guillermo del Toro. And if it weren't for Blade II, he probably wouldn't have been able to make Hellboy for Dark Horse.

And you also make a good point about Marvel's golden cow (which I would name Mooby from Dogma). In a time when fewer and fewer kids are buying comics and it's a relatively small number of 18-35 year old males buying them, I imagine that they see this as making up for market share lost to video games, CCGs, and other things the younger kids are into. While Marvel does have inroads into these, they don't have the market share in them like they've got in the comic market.