Superhero Movie Pet Peeves - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I think, re: origin stories, they need to treat superheroes the way they would treat any interesting protagonist. Die Hard has no scenes of John McClane as a kid. We don't know where Indiana Jones got his fedora. 

 

Unfortunately, thanks to the "Last Crusade" we now know that Indiana Jones got ALL of his distinguishing character traits, preference in work cloths, moral focus, and facial scars all within a fifteen minute segment of his life.  

I am also tired of being retold Spiderman's, Batman's, and Superman's origins.  Jesus, we know were these guys come from, I would wager the average idiot walking down the street who has no idea who their state's governor is knows those guy's origins.  And really, Superman can bitch slap a train,  give the guy some super powered villians to fight, krytonite is supposed to be incredibly rare, why does every Tom Dick and Harry have a chunk of it weighing down paper's on their desks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1 

Yeah, I can do without the internal conflict bits, though to be fair in most of the films where that conflict is presented, it's coming straight out of the source material (Spider-Man and X-Men most notably), and in some cases (The Hulk, The Thing in Fantastic Four) pretty well-justified.

Sure but do we need that much doubt so soon? Save that for an entry down the line. These heroes are ready to give it up right after they become the hero. SUPERMAN 2, SPIDER-MAN 2, TDK... Atleast MASK OF THE PHANTASM had a season or so behind it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1 

Bear in mind most of us are talking about re-hashing origin stories we've already seen in countless forms across various forms of media.  If you don't know Superman was launched from the exploding planet Krypton and raised by humans on Earth...you're some kind of luddite with virtually no contact with the outside world, and probably werent going to go see the new movie anyway...

Or you're 10 and don't know the character beyond what he looks like. Comics don't sell what they use to in this era of technology.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

So if I'm gathering this all together correctly, what people are really looking for is a superhero movie that skips over how the hero got his powers and offers no insight into who he was beforehand.   It should instead focus entirely on the present, in which he should not demonstrate any doubt or regret at spending all his free time risking his life for the sake of anonymous, uncompensated philanthropy, nor should his love interest, with whom he has a 100% open and supportive relationship, in large part because she never has any contact with his heroics or the exclusively 2nd or 3rd tier rogues he fights, whose origins remain similarly unexplored, are not particularly bombastic or charismatic in their insanity, and with whom he has no personal issues beyond their generic villainy.   Also the extras should be SAG-certified, and at least 25 minutes of the runtime should be devoted to our fearless do-gooder mixing protein shakes.

 

Hope you're taking notes, Warner Bros.  Thar be gold in these hills.

Gold indeed. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

We don't know where Indiana Jones got his fedora. 

 

LULZ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I meant whip. We don't remember where he got the whip, right? I don't really remember Indiana Jones much, I've never been a huge fan of those movies. He's the guy who dies in combat, and they make him some sort of robot cop afterward, right? I'm sleepy.

Wrong again. Just watch the first 20 min or so of LAST CRUSADE and even the mystery of Harrison Ford's chin scar will be revealed. EDIT: Or what Jackson said.

I don't need to know the everyday eating and bathroom habits of superheroes, but it is nice to get a feeling of how their powers function. For instance, I always thought Spider-Man's organic webshooters would naturally run low, like any bodily fluid, after repeated usage. Or that Wolverine would need to eat five hamburgers after an especially nasty bit of healing up.

My superhero pet peeve? The rare explanation for why, in this day and age, the superhero is a vigilante in the first place. Batman Begins justified it with the corrupt police force, but why does Spider-Man work outside the law? The movies offer no explanation for why he isn't Super-Cop. Daredevil attempted this by having his superhero life and court life intersect, but all his resorting to vigilantism means is that he's a bad lawyer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

Really?

Some people prefer to not acknowledge that one.
 

Gotta be when the entire movie goes by with about one action scene. Or one near the beginning and another way at the end and a big heap of nothing in between. It's frustrating in Superman Returns--regardless of your interest in Superman's personal issues, Singer should've found a way to tie that into the plot instead of just having Lex Luthor redo his Superman: The Movie plan with a bigger special effects budget. (There's even a clunky line practically high-lighting how Luthor has nothing to do with the story. "You know this Kryptonite island, Superman? It's... kinda like that illegitimate son... you don't know about... isn't it?") But it's just maddening in Fantastic Four, where you get one rescue scene that wouldn't have looked out of place on Smallville, then something like an hour goes by with the heroes having hijinks and trying to "cure" themselves (yes, in a movie called Fantastic Four, let's spend 80% of the movie having the Fantastic Four trying to not be the Fantastic Four), then finally Dr. Doom starts some shit.

Does this look like the case with Green Lantern to anyone else? It looks like the only thing Hal Jordan does in the entire movie is kick Hector Hammond. Once.

I hate the recent trend of the hero or villain's name never being mentioned, or only in the press by the press. It seems like the first Spider-Man started it as a joke, and it was cute. But it gold old real fast. It's the third Spider-Man, it's OK to call him Sandman. We paid to see an Iron Man movie.....it's ok to call him Iron Man, or Iron Monger, or Whiplash. It's like they're afraid people will start laughing......but we all paid to see a movie called Spider-Man / Iron Man / whatever......just dish with the names already. For all the talk about Nolan making his movie's realistic, at least he wasn't afraid to use the names Batman, Joker, Scarecrow, etc...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I think, re: origin stories, they need to treat superheroes the way they would treat any interesting protagonist. Die Hard has no scenes of John McClane as a kid. We don't know where Indiana Jones got his fedora.

That is a really poor comparison.

Regular Joe: "Hey guy who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel with your bare hands, and shoot heat beams out of your eyes...how do you do all of that stuff that a normal human being could not possibly do?"

Super Joe: "Do you ask Indiana Jones where he got his fedora?"

Regular Joe: "........."

Was watching the Spectacular Spider-Man episode where he takes on the Sinister Six, and I asked myself, why can't we have a scene of one hero taking on multiple colorful villains? I know, I know, its because each villain would have to be set up, and it would be super-duper expensive, and all those other practical reasons why it can't happen. But one day I would love to see a live-action brawl, particularly because, at least in the instance of that Sinister Six fight, the hero uses pretty slick strategy to trick the super villains into taking each other out, like tricking Electro into zapping Sandman and turning him into glass or some such thing. 

C'mon Hollywood, give us some of that! 

Most superhero movies that I can think of have been lacking in minions.  Thor addressed it with the Frost Giants, and it looks like Captain America will with Hydra/Nazis.  And there was the Golden Army in Hellboy 2.  But in a movie with four superheroes, there's only one villain?  I'm looking at you Fantastic Four.  Ghost Rider had what, like four minions in total?

I guess they're working on it, but yes, some variety would be nice.

I have no problem with the first entry in any superhero franchise focusing fully or at least partially on the origin.  I just don't feel the need to tie every villain back into that story in subsequent sequels or try to shoehorn them into the hero's life.  Take the Bond formula with the sequels, dammit!  Hit the ground running and present a credible threat for the hero to take down.  You can references other events a bit here and there, but make them standalone entries for the most part.  Can they be personal vendetta's sometimes?  Of course, but make it have something to do with the PRESENT that the hero is avenging.............as opposed to some past transgression that has to have a cameo shoehorned in (I'm looking at you again, Spider-Man III!).  Even if it is a villain that has supposedly been around for awhile, still make it a new incident that sparks things.  If you play it off properly in the dialogue, non-fans will get a sense of the character's history without having to spell it out.  The only exception to this rule should involve a superhero's archnemesis (be they one or a few).  I have no problem with Loki, Red Skull, or Mandarin popping up from time to time or being revealed to have their fingers in the pot.  Let's just make sure we don't try and make it seem as though every villain they face is their worst enemy to date.  If the character isn't compelling enough to stand up to Iron Man or Cap, then just be sure that his potential goal is important enough to warrant their intervention.  I can tolerate a decent villain with a deliciously evil scheme.  I can't, however, stand an awesome villain with a lame one.  Again, looking to Bond here.  007 is pretty much a superhero anyway and it gives you over 20 films of trial-and-error in terms of the do's and don'ts.  There are stellar examples from both sides of the equation in that franchise.  Study them and learn from those mistakes.

Speaking of Bond, I REALLY dug the "Thor will return in The Avengers" bit at the end of the credits!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 Or you're 10 and don't know the character beyond what he looks like. Comics don't sell what they use to in this era of technology.

Once again, Superman and Batman's origin (and to a lesser extent Spider-Man and the Hulk) have been shown and re-shown across a whole crap-ton of media beyond just the comics.  Even a 10 year old might have seen Smallville, or one of the various cartoon series, or their parents' DVD of Donner's Superman or even just their parents telling them.  It's out there, it's been out there, and it's all over the place.  It's basic pop-culture knowledge (again, particularly with Superman and Batman).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny 

That is a really poor comparison.

 

Regular Joe: "Hey guy who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel with your bare hands, and shoot heat beams out of your eyes...how do you do all of that stuff that a normal human being could not possibly do?"

 

Super Joe: "Do you ask Indiana Jones where he got his fedora?"

 

Regular Joe: "........."

 

 

Not as poor a comparison as you might think.  The basic archetypes of the various kinds of superhero is more than familiar enough to people in general that they can likely fill in the gaps themselves with minimal prodding.  If it's relevant at all.  I mean, even if you look at Donner's Superman, you could cut out virtually the entire first hour of the movie (or condense it into a montage) and virtually all the "origin" information needed would be provided by the interview Superman has with Lois and dialogue with the avatar of Jor-El in the Fortress.  Again, I'm not talking about cutting the origin information out of the film entirely.  I'm talking about doing it in shorthand when we're dealing with characters that the general public already knows pretty darn well.

S.D. Bob Plissken, I agree...THOR will return in The Avengers, is...Awesome!

DamnDirtyApe, I agree with your point, call the supervillain by name.  I would like to see costumes more like the comics.  I...Love, how X-Men First Class has blue and yellow supersuits.  There is also no reason to just go...Black Leather on superhero costumes.  Wolverine should have at least some...Yellow, and blue in his costume.  He should definitely have the mask as well.  I also do not like how...Nick Fury is portrayed.  He is too much of a babysitter, and not the...One Man Army Badass, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. that he has been in Marvel Comics.  I want to see him with a jet pack, or a flying car.  I hope there is a...Helicarrier in the Avengers film.  There was in the Fox Tv Movie version of, Nick Fury.  The only thing I will miss in the new...Captain America film, is, Sgt. Nick Fury!