1. Super-Heroes Go To The Movies
There is no argument that Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the Batman movie franchise with two of the most excellent films to come to the big screen since Blade and Superman: The Movie. Taking out the camp and taking the character and the worlds seriously was a huge step in doing what many comic fans and insiders said they should have been doing in the first place, otherwise any franchise runs the risk of ending up with a Batman & Robin or Superman: The Quest for Peace. Often movie makes who take on Superheroes tend to make comments that gives the impression that they spend a lot of time in yoga classes learning to place their heads right up their asses, explaining the fault of a lot of the former failed attempts at bring beloved comic heroes to the big screen. Tim Burton comes to mind as one of those head-planted-in-ass figures. When he was asked if he read the comic he commented, "Do I look like the type to read a comic book?" Beetle Juice and Edward Scissorhands were such films grounded in reality that anyone in a coma could understand why the idea that Burton read a comic would be just silly.
Tim Burton aside, Hollywood began to learn it's lesson on keeping enough camp in any comic movie to make a boyscout jealous when Wesley Snipes and the Worchorski bothers paved the way with two high grossing movies grounded in super hero lore - one from a character so obscure only die-hard comic fans even knew who he was and the other movie an invention of the directors - well they invented the parts they didn't steal, that is. X-Men hit theaters taking the ultra-popular series seriously and grossing more money then Famke Janssen has every seen in every movie she'd done before combined. This began the Super-Hero movie explosion that in the beginning we all assumed would be a 15-minute of fame thing. At the same time teen angst show king WB (which is now CW) decided Superman needed a new series and while the vocal minority that comprises internet whiners heaped hatred on the show and the lovely Kristen Kreuk, the show pulled in enough high ratings to make ten seasons. The second comic boom was here and it was, in fact, televised. Movies came and went, most made enough money to finance large nations, others were blips on the radar coming and going with the duration of UFO sightings.
2. Really Real? Really?
Saying Hollywood learned to take them seriously was half-right. The obvious gross of your average comic-to-movie film will keep the super-hero movie coming for years, but the lesson of "taking them seriously" turned into "make them realistic" and that in and of itself is causing it's own headaches. There may be something to the argument. Fantastic Four went over the top Super-Hero, and while it didn't do as badly as nay-sayers wished, it didn't do the X-Men or Spider-Man or Batman bucks either. Watchmen pretty much told the same story the comic did and was soundly beaten by Paul Blart Mall Cop. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World was the graphic novel come life and it didn't make it didn't top the gross of today's concession stand. (To be fair, our current deficit doesn't top the prices of today movie concession stands, but you get the idea.) So it's an understandable argument to hold on to the idea of the realistic super hero movie.
Batman Begins - $372,710,015 worldwide
X-Men - $296,339,527 worldwide
X-Men United - $407,711,549 worldwide
X-Men The Last Stand - $459,359,555 worldwide
Spider-Man - $821,708,551 worldwide
Spider-Man 2 - $783,766,341 worldwide
Spider-Man 3 - $890,871,626 Worldwide
Dark Knight - $1,001,921,825 worldwide
Impressive numbers, indeed. So maybe there is something to injecting a little realism in Super-Hero movies. After all didn't Marvel spend more then a few decades kicking DC's ass in comics when they came along and decided to inject realism and continuity into their books?
However, there is a flip side to this. There comes a point when the argument gets more then a little stupid. Injecting a little realism is okay, but when you start smoking too much weed in your success you begin to say things makes one wonder. I'm talking specifically about Christopher Nolan and his take on the Batman franchise. That weed is so good that fans, especially geeks, get a contact high and begin repeating a stupid argument without thinking about how stupid it actually is in the first place.
3. Truth in Super Heroes.
When asked about villains many people thought the idea of a Clayface or a Mr. Freeze being in Nolan's Batman would not work because they were not realistic. Because we have to have "human" villains in the movie to keep that "realism" flowing. If that idea wasn't stupid enough, people went further with the idea that They can't include any references to Superman in Nolan's Batman because the idea of him wouldn't fit the realism. And then everyone went back to smoking that bong and putting tin foil on their heads and the mothership picked them up for a trip around the galaxy.
Batman is about a billionaire, who used to be a millionaire, whose so messed up over his parent getting gunned down he puts on a suit, goes out at night and beats the crap out of criminals. As time went on he's diverse group of villains the world has become familair with through the comic, the TV show and the various movie - the most famous of which being the Joker. The 1960's TV show was highly popular and had Batman and comics stuck under an impression of Super-Heroes being about as clownish as Cesor Romero's portrayal of the Joker. Not to mention the addition of Robin and an attack on comics in the 1950's, comics almost died as an industry and from the 1960's to the 1980's they were consider only for kids despite the fact that they were purchased by teenagers, adults and kids.
What made Batman a very popular character, aside from the name-recognition that came with the TV show is that in a universe of super powers he had no powers at all. However the point is he is, in fact from a universe - or continuity - filled with super-powered individuals. Much of the same people who know Batman knows he occupies a world of super people. A lot of comic fans think they are in a special kind of know because they believe they are the only ones who knows all the characters in the world Batman. There a certain truth to this, but it's mostly an assumption. Because comic collecting has always been grouped in with "Revenge of the Nerds." What the fans of the comic forget is people generally know Batman live in the same universe as the Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. They know he's part of something called the Justice League. They might not know that Starro was the League's first villain or that Green Lantern is a cop whose station house is a planet run by omnipotent smurfs. But they do know that Batman is Bruce Wayne and Bruce Wayne lives in Gotham and Batman's main squeeze is a hot chick in a cat suit.
This is no put down on Nolan's movies, but the idea that adding a Clayface to them would be unrealistic is stupid. The idea that letting it known that a Superman exists in Batman's world wouldn't fit the tone of the movies is equally dumb. Batman jumps off tall buildings, throws razor sharp bat shapes at people, uses his cape like a glider and wears a suit that is far from bullet proof and has a big ass cape but allows him to fight like Bruce Lee on steroids. Just the fact a multi-billionaire can maintain the huge business interests the keeps him in his bat toys is far out there enough. Yet, despite all of this - which, by the way, are all portrayed in the movie, the idea of a Clayface or Superman becomes too much? That's just absurd.As much as anyone would like to believe realism in super stories can only go but so far. Once the hero survives a fall from 40 stories, or movies with perfect silence besides wearing a fucking armada on his body, you've crossed from realism to fantasy. So no matter how great the Nolan films are, or how "grim and gritty" Frank Miller makes Batman, in the end he's a fantasy and in a fantasy it's possible to do anything as long as the quality of the production holds up.
So give us a Superman, give us a Clayface or Mr. Freeze (sans the Arnold bullshit.) Stop pretending you're being high-brow with a character that is no less real then a bloody Hobbit and pretend you have the talent to simply make it work. I don't think that's so much to ask, do you?
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