The success of Captain Marvel, indicates that films based on comic books will be with us for awhile. Although many are enjoyable, some aren’t, like Justice League and BatmanVs. Superman. Hollywood should be coming up with new ideas, but they have always adapted films from other sources. For the most part, they’ve adapted the material from the comics fairly well, with some additions that work, and don’t work.
Hollywood has made books into movies, since its been making films. Some examples are Ben-Hur, The Godfather and Jaws. Only The Godfather, remains true to the book, with the omission of a minor character’s storyline. Hollywood with comic books, sometimes takes poetic license to an extreme.
One example of Hollywood completely going off the rails with comics is The Fantastic Four. The first movie has The FF being chummy with their arch enemy Doctor Doom. It also has him pining for The Invisible Woman. The sequel has a very loose adaptation of an old Fantastic Four story This involves Doctor Doom, stealing the cosmic power of The Silver Surfer. He is a character created by Galactus, an alien, who was known as the devourer of worlds in the comics. In this pathetic sequel, he is a galactic cloud. Tinseltown couldn’t stop there, they made a third film, years later, that is best forgotten.
The best thing to come out of The Fantastic Four movies was Chris Evans. He made an exit out of the first two films, and landed on his feet, playing Captain America. The character successfully transitions from the comic book to the silver screen. The three movies starring Evans, never lag, and there are very few changes to the character, that would upset comic book fans. Chris Evans as Captain America, lives up to the the name, Living Legend of World War2.
The Avengers movies work well. All of the main characters from the movies are in it. The first one is the best. It adapts the origin story from the comics, with Loki, Thor’s nemesis, as the villain. The Hulk is in this movie, after the character’s two previous films failed. He is misused as comic relief in the film. He isn’t the same character as The Thing, in The Fantastic Four movies. The second one has Ultron as the villain. The variation on the story is that the evil android, was created by Tony Stark, and not Hank Pym, his creator in the comics. The third one, featuring Thanos, the mad titan, has most of the heroes of earth disappearing. This ending leaves people hanging. Fans will have to wait for the fourth film coming soon.
Ironman is played in The Avengers movies by Robert Downey Jr. He overcame personal problems and resurrected his career, with the Ironman films. He plays Tony Stark, a millionaire industrialist, who is almost killed in Afghanistan. He builds a suit of armor, that saves his life. In the films, he battles a variety of villains, Obadiah Stane, Whiplash and The Mandarin. Robert Downey plays Tony Stark as a somewhat unlikeable, sometimes very paranoid guy. Sparks do fly between his character and Pepper Potts, portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow. Scarlett Johanssen gives a good performance as The Black Widow. She continues her role in the Avengers movies. The Ironman films succeed mainly because of Robert Downey Jr.’s ability to immerse himself in the role, and give a terrific performance.
It’s hard to understand why a film like Batman Vs. Superman doesn’t succeed. They are the two oldest and most famous characters in comic books. One reason would be that Batman is a very serious character, who needs a certain type of actor to play him. Ben Affleck doesn’t quite fit the role. The actor needs to play the dual part of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Both are played with rigidity. Another reason is Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Lex Luthor, Superman’s nemesis. He seems to be playing him over the top, which worked in the early Superman movies with Gene Hackman. It just doesn’t in this one. The best part of this film is Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman. She is exceptional in the role, and makes it her own in the stand alone movie.
Justice League is another movie that doesn’t work. It should because the three main heroes, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, have been around for decades. Their isn’t much interaction between the heroes, like there is with The Avengers. Also the villain, named Steppenwolf, is lame. Most of the story concentrates on finding more heroes to fight the villain, and the resurrection of Superman. Hopefully when the sequel comes out, it will be better than this film.
Comic book movies should always translate well to the big screen. Unlike novels, there are many stories and villains from which to choose. Sadly the film industry does the same thing to this medium, that they’ve done countless times with novels. They don’t always get it right. Many comic fans become upset with the final product and rightly so. They see their heroes powers altered or changed, as well as their personalities. Even though Hollywood does this, most of these films take back their production costs many times over. They do this because comic books, despite alterations on screen, still have great action and moral tales. Hollywood will stop making these films when the public’s taste goes in a different direction. It seems that for the present, the film industry shows no sign of slowing down with these movies.