Actually they did do a Doctor Strange movie, Stan Lee was a consultant too!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strange_(1978_film)
Apologies for any trauma that causes.
-
At any rate, I tend to think they need to stop trying to reboot franchises myself. I say this not just in the context of movies, but in relation to comic books, TV shows, and similar things. It seems that people have gotten it into their heads that somehow there is money to be made by totally changing a popular, and long-running character or series, in hopes that by setting the reboot with an origin happening "right now" they can increase the fanbase. The point that it's the long history of these characters that is part of the appeal, and it's that mythology that causes them to have as many fans as they do. Sadly, the guys who are calling the shots for some of my favorite properties simply do not get it, and are always chasing the big pile of money they COULD have that might be just over the horizon, rather than being content with what they have, and the money they are making.
Truthfully I think the obsession with origin stories is one of the big problems here, I think that movie producers greatly underestimate the exposure super heroes in paticular actually have. While it sold well, I think that the "Batman" franchise actually would have benefitted from glossing over the whole origin of the character and picking up with the character simply being established. This kind of thing also removes the problem of having to relay an origin story that was set involving events decades ago, with the somewhat timeless nature of comic storytelling preserving the characters. I see the upcoming "Green Lantern" as being an example of this, because honestly in trying to make the character "more relatable" they are destorying the entire point that the guy is supposed to be an icon, not some schmoe. From what I've seen, the way Ryan Renalds plays the role is nothig like The Green Lantern should be.
"Superman Returns" was a travesty because someone decided that Superman should be a modern meterosexual "sensitive guy" with "relationship issues". Superman is supposed to be a bloody paragon, an ideal nobody could ever hope to live up to, but serves to inspire. He's bloody SUPERMAN, a point the guys doing the movie missed entirely.
At any rate, I agree that they should leave the rebooting alone, and let the characters speak for themselves. I really don't think many people are going to be lost seeing "The Green Lantern" if it's not an origin story or whatever.
-
One other thing in case anyone read this far:
Super Heroes are supposed to have their weaknesses. Superman is perfect, but has a physical weakness in the form of Kryptonite. Other characters in comics suffer from other weaknesses and this can include things like Lechery, Alcoholism, Spousal Abuse, and similar things.
Typically heroes with "too much money" are defined that way because they are "science heroes". Simply put some dude who can build a battlesuit capable of outperforming most weapon systems produced by bona-fide aliens, is probably going to be smart enough to have made money off of that genius. Not to mention getting the financing to build all of these toys. The guy being rich either in a self made, or inherited fashion, explains how they could have done all of this stuff. It's a stereotypical bit of reasoning, but it works.
Oddly both Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman have arrogance (in their own way) as their major weakness. It ties into Doctor Strange's origins (and he's always grappling with it to some extent). Wonder Woman pretty much throws down when challenged to just about anything, even if it's stupid. Batman's "solution" to Wonder Woman in the "Tower Of Babel" storyline was to exploit that. Written correctly both of them would kind of be jerks.
The Green Arrow, at least nowadays, is pretty much detached from reality. He's like a less mature-title oriented version of the Watchmen's Rorschach. As they put it in "Obsidian Age" he's a liberal conspiricy theorist with an axe to grind. He has a reason for thinking like he does, but at the same time he's detached from reality. This is one of the reasons why he was on Batman's "B League" team that got called in when Batman realized that the League (including him) was going to die. The B League basically including a lot of guys that weren't suited for the Justice League, but Batman figured were crazy, powerful, and/or talented enough to have a chance against anything nasty enough to kill him. Truthfully I'm not entirely sure how a character that delusional would translate to the big screen, the version they used for "Smallville" was a bit more audience friendly and less likely to offend anyone.... of course I'm more of a Marvel Fan, so I can't say what the character is like now, but at the time the guy pretty much wasn't Justice League material for being off his rocker even if he generally does the right thing (and pretty effectively).
Zatanna is a character I've always liked (along with other magic characters like Doctor Strange), a movie about her could be interesting, but as much as I hate to admit it, I think she works best in a supporting role. In general she hasn't been able to consistantly hold down her own title, and I think a lot of that has to do with the simple fact that she's so bloody powerful when written correctly that it's a chore to present challenges unless some way is contreived for her to not be able to use her powers (or for some reason she's greatly powered down). Underused, frequently badly written, but when pulled out of the hat and done right she's a great character to toss into a storyline for a given purpose. Originally her weakness was having to speak her spells backwards (though above and beyond the blood, this doesn't seem to be strictly required anymore) if you could act before she spoke, or somehow silence her, she could be beaten. Nowadays that's not all that probable. I put her up there with "Black Alice" as a fun character that's just a real chore for a writer due to what they can do. At least with Superman it can be argued that stories being more about him finding ways to overcome Kryptonite rather than doing his thing have been around for almost as long as he has and become part of his schtick (it gets disgustingly old, but in this case it seems more like it's kept around due to it's classic nature)
Ah well, enough rambling.
