#ztoa

A is for Avengers

 I've been reading comics since I was little and have so often been disappointed by films and tv shows that portray the characters and properties I've seen and loved for much of my life. For some reason studios when pumping out a show or film seem ignore most of the source material. Tim Burton's 1989 take on Batman actually helped dissuade that trend. Though it helped reinvent Batman into what the character is today. A darker character slinking through the shadows.

 The subsequent films in that line fell away from absorbing the character and creating its own mythos and became a hot mess of nonsense and bright colours. Lest we forget Bat Nipples.

The Bryan Singer Superman film was just odd. The Transformers films were hot garbage but then that is Michael Bay's film making style. Paint by numbers vulgar hot garbage. The first X-Men film was ok as it had potential to manifest great sequels. The second film was tolerable only because it was nice to see the characters again on screen. Where as the third was one of the worst films I've ever seen. I tip my hat to "director" Brett Rattner it takes a special tool to mess something up that badly. He had a cast most of whom had played the parts for two other films who all he had to do was remember the last two films, do that. Ratner had a film on his hands that would have made itself. Beyond really poor direction the largest faults with these films was that the source material was largely ignored.

 Here comes the biggest reason I love Harry Potter. I loathed the Potter franchise. The hype bothered me. It was so over the top. "The biggest thing since sliced bread" hype usually makes me think like sliced bread what ever is being shilled is crap. Then a friend whom I love and respect told me that it was her light reading books and that she really enjoyed them. She sold them to me for what they were. Fairly well written with decent character development. By the time I had finished the books I had quite a lot of respect and enjoyment out of the series. I've only gotten as far as the third Potter film thus far. Here's why I love the series. The film makers followed the books. They fairly tightly followed the material they were making films about. Some quality films were made and they made made a boatload of money, brilliant.

Making a huge film series tightly following the books opened the doors for actually making movies about properties and not reworking them. Just maybe viewers want to see interpretations of the scenes they had read about. Batman Begins rebooted the Batman franchise. Following the general idea from the comics about how Batman was spoke in a growl rather than George Clooney's cocky wit. Iron Man is still one of the best superhero films largely following the comics template for the development of The character.

The Ang Lee Hulk movie flopped as it wandered into psychological babble rather than Hulk smashing things. The reboot of the Hulk went with a more traditional approach to the Hulk with Bruce Banner hiding out and trying to help people where he could and a Hulk that raged and fought but was still generally a good entity. Which made for a Hulk film distiller from the comic look pages and a fun Hulk movie.

 Thor was generally taken from the comics he was sent to Earth to learn humility and had to earn his right to use his power. (the only real issue I had with this was that it only took a few weeks in the flms timeline to for the lesson to take hold).

   Then one of the most interesting films for me was Captain America which has been done pathetically before. Captain America borrowed heavily from the comics and updated the idea and tried to make things a touch more realistic and they came out with what I saw aptly described as a good war film with Captain America in it.

 The two Iron Man films, Hulk, Thor and finally Captain America wound together to build up towards the Avengers. General Fury, Agent Coulson and The Black widow were introduced in the Iron Man films. Coulson is again in Thor along with Hawkeye who is in the Avengers and Tony Stark/Iron man makes an appearance at the end of the Hulk. To bring together the idea of the Avengers and build towards it.

Several fairly well done superhero films became a viral marketing campaign to a combined sequel to all of them. The set up is brilliant what remains to be seen is whether the Avengers has been crafted in a way that draws upon its franchises past and stays true to the characters and does well in staking new ground and carving its own way as a part of the mythos in an era of semi realistic heroics.