BEATING THE CURSE: WILL UPCOMING COMICS HEROES HAVE ENOUGH SUPERHUMAN MIGHT?
*Note- this gets extremely geeky and is for the most part a pointless rant. If you have something better to do, DO IT! If not, then enjoy! I’ll be surprised if anyone makes it past the first Ninja Turtles reference.
Just saw the X-3 trailer. It was good. Of course, I have been sorely fooled before. It will be interesting to see if it can beat the 3rd installment curse. For those who follow, you know that superhero movies have never been able to get over the number 3 hump. Remembering that Blade is not a superhero, here are a few examples :
1) SUPERMAN III- Lack of logistic writing and a dying budget killed this series. (Which really shows in Superman IV, when a completely human character is flown out to outer-space by a villain named Nuclear Man who was also able to harm Superman using "SOLAR ENERGY", which is exactly what powers Supes.) In this third Superman flick, Richard Pryor (R.I.P) acting like a damn fool was not enough to base the plot off of. Nor was it enough to justify VISIBLE WIRES that a very disheartened fan, Kevin Lerch, had to point out to me. The only redeemable part was that kick ass fight between a very drunken pissed-off Superman and a very assertive Clark Kent. I'm sorry, but you haven't lived until you've seen CK choke-out The Man Of Steel. Chin-up Kev, "Returns" looks good and I have my fingers crossed.
2)BATMAN FOREVER- I do admit I liked it as a child, but as I delved further into the world of the Dark Knight Detective, I realized how off that movie was. As director, it was Shoemacher's (I don't care how his name is actually spelt) idea that each character have their own since of humor and that Gotham "GOTH-AM!" be vibrant with color and flamboyance. (This becomes even more apparent later in the series with Mr. Freeze teaching his henchmen to sing and both, Gotham's observatory and bridge sporting huge Greek stone statues holding them up. Not to mention Batman having his own credit card, showing up to public functions with Robin, and don't get me started on the biggest "what the fuck" with him designing nipples on the rubber costumes.) Back to Forever, the introduction of my favorite character- Dick Grayson, was not enough to justify a giggling Two-Face and Batman spouting lines like, "It's the car. Chicks dig the car." (which Tim Drake beautifully mocked in the now dead comic title Young Justice, which I will post about later) and in response to Alfred offering him food, he jumps in the Batmobile (which glowed mind you) and says "I'll get drive through". My dear Robin became nothing more than a thrill seeking glory hound (and why did he randomly have a brother?). While Jim Carrey's Riddler was to die for, but far too over the top crazed as opposed to the usually suave, pimp-like, and slightly sinister character. All fun-like and funny, but not befitting the characters. I blame not the actors but poor directing. Joel obviously wanted to revive the 1960s camp. Everyone else obviously did not.
3)TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III- This is the one I have the fewest gripes about and actually still love to this day. But I have to be real about this. Thanks to increasing volume in nasty letters from parents who obviously had nothing better to do, Ninja Turtles Three felt far too much like an after school special. By the late 80s, much to my enjoyment, the Turtles had taken a successful kid friendly and moral turn away from the original mindless gore of the comic books. They only fought when they had to and most certainly were not killers. Not entirely ninja-like, but since the turtles were already superheroes and not assassins it really didn't matter anyway. However the movies to me combined the best of both worlds, bringing back some of the teenage angst and head bustin'- arm slashin' violence of the comics, yet keeping some of the values and lighthearted humor I had come to love in the cartoon (i.e. no seppuku or dismemberment). Unfortunately, things like mild blood and crushing the Shredder's alleged skull in the first movie did not sit well with some uptight parents. (which was stupid 'cause the turtles, especially Leo and Raph, had weapons made for killing, yet avoided such all through the movie. In the age of Underworld, Adult Swim, Grand Theft Auto, and Resident evil I bet parents wish the Turtles were on top again.) Re-watch the opening to Turtles II. No one uses a deadly weapon and most of it was cleverly/hilariously inproved in a mall toy store. Now you know why. In the third film, the writers had Raphael the most violent/angry of the group, speak to the kids within the Feudal Japan village about leaving the fighting to grown-ups who only did so if they indeed had to. This was fine, except for the fact that it was too didactic, feeling as if Raphael was saying "Yeah, I mean you kid, in the audience with the red baseball cap holding the jumbo popcorn tub!". The third movie was still funny with all of it's time travelling hilarity, but the costumes had gone down in quality, Raphael spent a little too much time preaching to the kids on non-violence, and there were no recognizable villains which was truly sad as it was the last film in the series. I would have liked to see Krang resurrect Shredder in a fourth movie.... or something. Overall though, I still did enjoy the characters they did use/introduce and the moral wasn't too overwhelming even if it was practically bludgeoned into the minds of the audience. Unfortunately for Golden Harvest films there was not enough profit in the endeavor.
In the cases of the first two, a change in directors really did hurt those second sequels. Which is exactly the position X-men 3 is in. Though from what I've seen Brett Ratner has kept the same feel, and Bryan Singer's alleged idea of "humans and mutants fighting evolution itself". Also the action seems upped, which is usually a given within any sequel involving action based adversity. Spidey 3 however, has retained it's cast and director which is a first for such a movie. If anything it also has a great chance at beating the #3 curse. Of course, if Venom is truly the mystery villain of this film, that might become a trial as Sam Rami hates Venom and alot this "realism" crap that is destroying my favorite fantasy elements in comic book adaptations for the sake of appeasing Joe Moviegoer really would negate Venom's true alien origin. Which when you think about it is funny, considering Marvel is making both Ghost Rider and intends to produce a Silver Surfer film which deal with supernatural elements, such as Johnny Blaze taking on a demonic form with a flaming skull for a face and Norin Raad being an alien that surfs the cosmos as herald to Galactus. Don't care what you say about "realism", there is no getting around Galactus. I can understand not wanting to put the X-men in space just for the sake of encountering Phoenix ('cause alot of the story is ridiculous as I hate the Shi'ar Empire), but Galactus is Galactus. I really don't even like him a whole lot, but he is what he is. And he is key to the story of the Silver Surfer and the power cosmic, which have always been cool to me even though his comics are boring as fuck.
Lastly, the only thing that can hinder any future superhero franchise other than general incompetence, is changing the actors. Nothing is more frustrating while trying to get into a fictional series of any kind, than when randomly a main character is recast. It throws off the chemistry and practically slaughters the illusion of believability. Doesn't matter how much the new actor looks or sounds like the last actor either it just doesn't work. In some cases you can even replace a person with someone who's a better fit for the part (the dude cast for straight to video sequel Inspector Gadget 2 actually seemed like a more natural pick than Mathew Broderick, but it was too late at that point as I had already accepted Mathew), it's still a stupid idea. The only times the same actors stayed for the role of Batman (in series worth mentioning) were with Adam West in the short-lived 1960s TV series, and Kevin Conroy in 1992's Batman the animated series through now with Justice League Unlimited (about to be canceled). And of course, with other TV shows such as the Hulk, Wonder Woman, Lois & Clark, and almost any cartoon series the same casts were retained. The beauty of X-men is that you don't have to replace actors, just write out characters and write in new ones. I'll miss Kurt a.k.a. Nightcrawler, but with Colossus getting a better part, Beast and Angel completing the original comic book X-men set (Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III, and Henry McCoy), and Jean becoming Phoenix I will hardly have time to miss my second favorite X-man.
This is why I hope Spider-man 3 either is the definitive end to the series or that the main cast and Sam Rami extend their contracts. If Sony tries to continue on without any of those people the Spider-man movie series will no longer be "amazing", but sadly reminiscent of the comic book clone series. The Bat-flicks suffered from this, and Ninja Turtles did slightly by switching Aprils after the first one. My last note is that the only time this has been absolutely acceptable in any type of ongoing live action series is with the 007 films. They do a good job of keeping the movies separate as if earlier Bond adventures never happened. When they do reference back it is funny as hell though. Much to the public’s dismay, George Lasenby took over for Sean Connery in the Bond film On Our Majesty’s Secret Service. The film opened -up with a group of guys attempting to jump James Bond. After dispensing of the goons, James casually straightens his tie and says “I thought this sort of thing only happened to the other guy”. Which was what the one liner during the opening of Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker was paying homage to, when Terry said after taking part in a battle that caused several million dollars in damage , “That ain’t coming out of my allowance”. An obvious reference to the fact that unlike predecessor Bruce Wayne, he could obviously not afford to fix that.
Just saw the X-3 trailer. It was good. Of course, I have been sorely fooled before. It will be interesting to see if it can beat the 3rd installment curse. For those who follow, you know that superhero movies have never been able to get over the number 3 hump. Remembering that Blade is not a superhero, here are a few examples :
1) SUPERMAN III- Lack of logistic writing and a dying budget killed this series. (Which really shows in Superman IV, when a completely human character is flown out to outer-space by a villain named Nuclear Man who was also able to harm Superman using "SOLAR ENERGY", which is exactly what powers Supes.) In this third Superman flick, Richard Pryor (R.I.P) acting like a damn fool was not enough to base the plot off of. Nor was it enough to justify VISIBLE WIRES that a very disheartened fan, Kevin Lerch, had to point out to me. The only redeemable part was that kick ass fight between a very drunken pissed-off Superman and a very assertive Clark Kent. I'm sorry, but you haven't lived until you've seen CK choke-out The Man Of Steel. Chin-up Kev, "Returns" looks good and I have my fingers crossed.
2)BATMAN FOREVER- I do admit I liked it as a child, but as I delved further into the world of the Dark Knight Detective, I realized how off that movie was. As director, it was Shoemacher's (I don't care how his name is actually spelt) idea that each character have their own since of humor and that Gotham "GOTH-AM!" be vibrant with color and flamboyance. (This becomes even more apparent later in the series with Mr. Freeze teaching his henchmen to sing and both, Gotham's observatory and bridge sporting huge Greek stone statues holding them up. Not to mention Batman having his own credit card, showing up to public functions with Robin, and don't get me started on the biggest "what the fuck" with him designing nipples on the rubber costumes.) Back to Forever, the introduction of my favorite character- Dick Grayson, was not enough to justify a giggling Two-Face and Batman spouting lines like, "It's the car. Chicks dig the car." (which Tim Drake beautifully mocked in the now dead comic title Young Justice, which I will post about later) and in response to Alfred offering him food, he jumps in the Batmobile (which glowed mind you) and says "I'll get drive through". My dear Robin became nothing more than a thrill seeking glory hound (and why did he randomly have a brother?). While Jim Carrey's Riddler was to die for, but far too over the top crazed as opposed to the usually suave, pimp-like, and slightly sinister character. All fun-like and funny, but not befitting the characters. I blame not the actors but poor directing. Joel obviously wanted to revive the 1960s camp. Everyone else obviously did not.
3)TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III- This is the one I have the fewest gripes about and actually still love to this day. But I have to be real about this. Thanks to increasing volume in nasty letters from parents who obviously had nothing better to do, Ninja Turtles Three felt far too much like an after school special. By the late 80s, much to my enjoyment, the Turtles had taken a successful kid friendly and moral turn away from the original mindless gore of the comic books. They only fought when they had to and most certainly were not killers. Not entirely ninja-like, but since the turtles were already superheroes and not assassins it really didn't matter anyway. However the movies to me combined the best of both worlds, bringing back some of the teenage angst and head bustin'- arm slashin' violence of the comics, yet keeping some of the values and lighthearted humor I had come to love in the cartoon (i.e. no seppuku or dismemberment). Unfortunately, things like mild blood and crushing the Shredder's alleged skull in the first movie did not sit well with some uptight parents. (which was stupid 'cause the turtles, especially Leo and Raph, had weapons made for killing, yet avoided such all through the movie. In the age of Underworld, Adult Swim, Grand Theft Auto, and Resident evil I bet parents wish the Turtles were on top again.) Re-watch the opening to Turtles II. No one uses a deadly weapon and most of it was cleverly/hilariously inproved in a mall toy store. Now you know why. In the third film, the writers had Raphael the most violent/angry of the group, speak to the kids within the Feudal Japan village about leaving the fighting to grown-ups who only did so if they indeed had to. This was fine, except for the fact that it was too didactic, feeling as if Raphael was saying "Yeah, I mean you kid, in the audience with the red baseball cap holding the jumbo popcorn tub!". The third movie was still funny with all of it's time travelling hilarity, but the costumes had gone down in quality, Raphael spent a little too much time preaching to the kids on non-violence, and there were no recognizable villains which was truly sad as it was the last film in the series. I would have liked to see Krang resurrect Shredder in a fourth movie.... or something. Overall though, I still did enjoy the characters they did use/introduce and the moral wasn't too overwhelming even if it was practically bludgeoned into the minds of the audience. Unfortunately for Golden Harvest films there was not enough profit in the endeavor.
In the cases of the first two, a change in directors really did hurt those second sequels. Which is exactly the position X-men 3 is in. Though from what I've seen Brett Ratner has kept the same feel, and Bryan Singer's alleged idea of "humans and mutants fighting evolution itself". Also the action seems upped, which is usually a given within any sequel involving action based adversity. Spidey 3 however, has retained it's cast and director which is a first for such a movie. If anything it also has a great chance at beating the #3 curse. Of course, if Venom is truly the mystery villain of this film, that might become a trial as Sam Rami hates Venom and alot this "realism" crap that is destroying my favorite fantasy elements in comic book adaptations for the sake of appeasing Joe Moviegoer really would negate Venom's true alien origin. Which when you think about it is funny, considering Marvel is making both Ghost Rider and intends to produce a Silver Surfer film which deal with supernatural elements, such as Johnny Blaze taking on a demonic form with a flaming skull for a face and Norin Raad being an alien that surfs the cosmos as herald to Galactus. Don't care what you say about "realism", there is no getting around Galactus. I can understand not wanting to put the X-men in space just for the sake of encountering Phoenix ('cause alot of the story is ridiculous as I hate the Shi'ar Empire), but Galactus is Galactus. I really don't even like him a whole lot, but he is what he is. And he is key to the story of the Silver Surfer and the power cosmic, which have always been cool to me even though his comics are boring as fuck.
Lastly, the only thing that can hinder any future superhero franchise other than general incompetence, is changing the actors. Nothing is more frustrating while trying to get into a fictional series of any kind, than when randomly a main character is recast. It throws off the chemistry and practically slaughters the illusion of believability. Doesn't matter how much the new actor looks or sounds like the last actor either it just doesn't work. In some cases you can even replace a person with someone who's a better fit for the part (the dude cast for straight to video sequel Inspector Gadget 2 actually seemed like a more natural pick than Mathew Broderick, but it was too late at that point as I had already accepted Mathew), it's still a stupid idea. The only times the same actors stayed for the role of Batman (in series worth mentioning) were with Adam West in the short-lived 1960s TV series, and Kevin Conroy in 1992's Batman the animated series through now with Justice League Unlimited (about to be canceled). And of course, with other TV shows such as the Hulk, Wonder Woman, Lois & Clark, and almost any cartoon series the same casts were retained. The beauty of X-men is that you don't have to replace actors, just write out characters and write in new ones. I'll miss Kurt a.k.a. Nightcrawler, but with Colossus getting a better part, Beast and Angel completing the original comic book X-men set (Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III, and Henry McCoy), and Jean becoming Phoenix I will hardly have time to miss my second favorite X-man.
This is why I hope Spider-man 3 either is the definitive end to the series or that the main cast and Sam Rami extend their contracts. If Sony tries to continue on without any of those people the Spider-man movie series will no longer be "amazing", but sadly reminiscent of the comic book clone series. The Bat-flicks suffered from this, and Ninja Turtles did slightly by switching Aprils after the first one. My last note is that the only time this has been absolutely acceptable in any type of ongoing live action series is with the 007 films. They do a good job of keeping the movies separate as if earlier Bond adventures never happened. When they do reference back it is funny as hell though. Much to the public’s dismay, George Lasenby took over for Sean Connery in the Bond film On Our Majesty’s Secret Service. The film opened -up with a group of guys attempting to jump James Bond. After dispensing of the goons, James casually straightens his tie and says “I thought this sort of thing only happened to the other guy”. Which was what the one liner during the opening of Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker was paying homage to, when Terry said after taking part in a battle that caused several million dollars in damage , “That ain’t coming out of my allowance”. An obvious reference to the fact that unlike predecessor Bruce Wayne, he could obviously not afford to fix that.