Okay, so I've just posted my thoughts on the News Room post about the new casting choices made for Marvel Studios films, in particular, James McAvoy as a young Charles Xavier, and Tommy Lee Jones as Captain America's mentor. And when reading those replies I noticed a lot of people complaining or commenting about the liberties Hollywood are taking with the source material.
What I want to know is why complain? My starting point will be Marvel. After all the films made of their comics recently, Marvel decided a few years ago to create an entirely new divison, called Marvel Studios, that would revolve around the building of a seperate continuity to all previous films in a similar style to the comic universe. The Marvel Film Universe, as it's known, consists of the last Hulk film, the Iron Man series, and a load of other films you already know about that will provide background of the Avengers before their proper movie later on. And as we all know, Samuel L. Jackson is playing Nick Fury in all of these movies.
Another continuity exists only in film with the X-Men series, as Marvel is building up a detailed backstory series (Origins) as a tie-in to the main trilogy. So why do people complain that these aren't sticking to the backstories set out in the comics?
To emphasize this, I give you DC and Batman. When Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise with Batman Begins, nobody batted an eyelid as far as I'm aware when he revamped everything. Ras'al Ghul was made into a full on enemy rather than a minor villain, and the entire series was moved to early 21st century Gotham. Everything was changed, including a few minor points of Bruce Wayne's backstory, and no-one cared. Even the Batmobile got an overhaul, no longer known as that, but as the Tumbler. The Dark Knight did it again, with both The Joker and Two-Face being killed off (though admittedly one of those was a necessity) after their first appearances, whereas in the comics they were both recurring villains. And Nolan has stated that the third film, currently in production I believe, will be the last and will tie up the entire storyline of the Batman Nolanverse.
So no-one complains about those. Yet when Marvel create an entirely new continuity for their films, and state this to be a new continuity, including necessary changes for things like age and whatnot that are needed because of the time they're set, people complain. You could simply argue that the film continuity is set on another Earth, maybe Earth 617 or something? But people still feel the need to moan. So why? What's the point? Can anyone help me understand why that's the case, or is it just something that people will always moan about no matter what concessions are made?
What I want to know is why complain? My starting point will be Marvel. After all the films made of their comics recently, Marvel decided a few years ago to create an entirely new divison, called Marvel Studios, that would revolve around the building of a seperate continuity to all previous films in a similar style to the comic universe. The Marvel Film Universe, as it's known, consists of the last Hulk film, the Iron Man series, and a load of other films you already know about that will provide background of the Avengers before their proper movie later on. And as we all know, Samuel L. Jackson is playing Nick Fury in all of these movies.
Another continuity exists only in film with the X-Men series, as Marvel is building up a detailed backstory series (Origins) as a tie-in to the main trilogy. So why do people complain that these aren't sticking to the backstories set out in the comics?
To emphasize this, I give you DC and Batman. When Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise with Batman Begins, nobody batted an eyelid as far as I'm aware when he revamped everything. Ras'al Ghul was made into a full on enemy rather than a minor villain, and the entire series was moved to early 21st century Gotham. Everything was changed, including a few minor points of Bruce Wayne's backstory, and no-one cared. Even the Batmobile got an overhaul, no longer known as that, but as the Tumbler. The Dark Knight did it again, with both The Joker and Two-Face being killed off (though admittedly one of those was a necessity) after their first appearances, whereas in the comics they were both recurring villains. And Nolan has stated that the third film, currently in production I believe, will be the last and will tie up the entire storyline of the Batman Nolanverse.
So no-one complains about those. Yet when Marvel create an entirely new continuity for their films, and state this to be a new continuity, including necessary changes for things like age and whatnot that are needed because of the time they're set, people complain. You could simply argue that the film continuity is set on another Earth, maybe Earth 617 or something? But people still feel the need to moan. So why? What's the point? Can anyone help me understand why that's the case, or is it just something that people will always moan about no matter what concessions are made?