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Before I lost interest in Marvel movies altogether, I used to get annoyed at how they would show these little glimmers of creativity, only to then crush them un
by smacktoward 7y ago
Before I lost interest in Marvel movies altogether, I used to get annoyed at how they would show these little glimmers of creativity, only to then crush them under the boot of The Marvel Formula.
The most interesting parts of the early Marvel movies weren't the super powers or special effects, it was the little notes they gave to their protagonists to humanize them -- Tony Stark as a selfish alcoholic, Thor as a cheerfully oblivious fish out of water, Captain America as earnest but painfully naïve. They seemed to be opening up the possibility of superhero stories that were also human stories, rather than just the kind of juvenile power fantasies Moore is decrying here. But each movie would eventually put that stuff aside and build to yet another Epic Battle as climax, which was disappointing.
In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that the stuff that I found appealing was the result of Marvel, still finding its feet, allowing its filmmakers to doodle in the margins of their studio-approved blueprint a bit. Once the movies took off and the Marvel Formula was proven, they no longer needed to allow space for such divergence from the formula. So we get movies like the Avengers entries, where the entire story is just moving chess pieces around to get them into place for the inevitable Epic Battle.
The Marvel movie I always wanted to see was one that put the Epic Battles aside completely, and focused 100% on telling a character-driven story. Something like the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comics, where the point of the story is deepening our understanding of this one character, grounding him in the context of the brownstone he lives in, the ways he interacts with his neighbors, and their common problem of potentially losing their homes to an aggressive developer. Human-scale stories about human beings.
In other words, I didn't want Avengers: Endgame, I wanted My Dinner with Ultron. But once the Marvel juggernaut picked up enough steam, that was exactly the movie I was never going to get.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago> The Marvel movie I always wanted to see was one that put the Epic Battles aside completely, and focused 100% on telling a character-driven story. Something like the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comics, where the point of the story is deepening our understanding of this one character, grounding him in the context of the brownstone he lives in, the ways he interacts with his neighbors, and their common problem of potentially losing their homes to an aggressive developer. Human-scale stories about human beings. It kinda sounds like what you dislike most about superhero movies is the superpowered heroes.
- TacticalTable 7y agoSeems more like he's upset about the stories being about the super powers rather than the effects of the super powers. Superheroes are always as powerful as the plot needs them to be. Of course they're going to win in the end with their power. But most of Marvel's movies just come down to reacting to the movie's 'twist', and believing in themselves to become stronger. The more interesting ramifications/consequences are often only footnotes. Not every problem can be solved with super strength - Show those.
- dragonsngoblins 7y agoNot really. Read All Star Superman for a great example of how you can have a story be about the fantastical and make it very human. That story is about Superman basically becoming overexposed to sunlight in a way that makes him progressively more powerful (than Superman was already), but it is also going to kill him. It is about what a man like that might do when he knows he is going to die and a lot of it is Superman's connection with people.
- rkuykendall-com 7y ago> Something like the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comics Will be interesting how the forthcoming Disney+ series based on his run turns out.
- blackandise 7y agoI think the ground level superhero shows would do well as a movie then such as a big budget Jessica Jones drama or a Daredevil psychological thriller.
- y4mi 7y agofor a realistic approach to the superhero genre you might want to check out the amazon original series The Boys obnoxious narcissists making the world worse, one deed at a time.
- wtetzner 7y agoThis is what I always enjoyed about Fox Kids Spiderman series. It focused so much on Peter Parker's life troubles, and what he was going through.