Sewing for Superheroes

[Swaki]

they actually never really putted that much time into explaining dr. crane in the batman movie, which is a shame since him and harley quinn have the most interesting back story.

but i agree whit bob, it would be wonderful if the comic book movies didn't need to explain themselves, also you can say many things about the adam west batman show but they where able to explain they're take on a villain in 30 sec (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjXAAS3VpeY)and then focus on the story.

 

[The Bandit]

I apologize for being part of the problem and not the solution. While I 'get' it, I like a good back-story and better appreciate characters when they have reasons for becoming what they are rather than donning a ridiculous outfit and committing/preventing crime. People with my mentality are getting in the way of your dream and even though I apologize for it, I'm not going to change.

I have but one question for you and your ilk:
Why do you want a guy to be more realistic, when he can fly and shoot lightning bolts from his ass?

Superheroes can certainly live inside a realistic world (ex: The Boys [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_(comics)]), just not the well-established ones we all know and love.

I hate this question. No offense, but it's a silly one. People always pull this crap up when speaking about video games too (you want HALO to be realistic?! it's about space aliens! lol), and it's annoying as hell.

Why do I want things to be realistic? It's very simple: I'm much more willing to accept something if it's realistic. How the hell can I immerse myself in a story if I'm questioning every aspect of it?

 

[Doug]

And you can probably forget seeing folks like Mad Hatter or Mr. Freeze in Christopher Nolan's ultra-realistic re-imagining of Batman.

I dunno, the Joker wasn't explained in alot of detail himself in the movies - aside from his own conflicting versions just before he stabs somebody.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

Why do you want a guy to be more realistic, when he can fly and shoot lightning bolts from his ass?

I hate this question. No offense, but it's a silly one. People always pull this crap up when speaking about video games too (you want HALO to be realistic?! it's about space aliens! lol), and it's annoying as hell.

Why do I want things to be realistic? It's very simple: I'm much more willing to accept something if it's realistic. How the hell can I immerse myself in a story if I'm questioning every aspect of it?

No offense taken - I really don't have any problem with superheroes being portrayed in a more realistic, human light. I do, however, have a big problem with compromising morals to achieve such realism. Superheroes, by their very nature, are not like us. They are bastions of hope that the world might just be all right to live in, so long as they exist. Chipping away at the unquestionable "good-ness" of a superhero is counterproductive - it attracts more people, but gives them no sense of hope or empowerment.

Superimposing "realness" onto hero archetypes isn't a writing technique - it's a publishing technique. The superhero as we know it may have died if it weren't for the constant renovation they undergo by the publishing companies. I'm just saying that maybe Superman should have stayed dead, Batman didn't need ninja training to kick ass, and Spiderman was socially outcast and smart enough to come up with polymer webbing. More importantly, they would be more powerful as social icons than the realistic versions.

We can get deeper into faith allegory another time, but that's really what lives at the root of the old-school vs new-school superhero debate. The fact that unasked questions must be answered in order for someone to accept a hero archetype is as much a matter of faith as Catholic vs Protestant, Fundamentalist vs Secular, or Nathan's vs Hebrew National (hotdog brands, if you don't know). We all like the idea of superheroes, but not all of us need to live beside them to understand what they're all about.

 

[heyheysg]

It might work in a few years.

Funny story, during that scene in the hospital with Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent, Dent asked Gordon to tell him what they called him back in Internal Affairs.

Despite the film showing half his face burning off before and only showing half his face in that scene.

The guy next to me went through the entire Batman's Rogue gallery (Mr Freeze, Penguin, Joker) before Gary Oldman said the name.

Insane.

 

[Zarthek]

A movie, that has to last at least an hour and no more than 3.

Wasn't one of the LoTR movies 4 hours long or something? Or did it just feel that way.

Anyway sometimes an origin story is a good thing because it can go somewhere that the comic books didn't (actually i'm fairly clueless about that because i've never read a comic book in my life), but I agree that a Spider-man movie that starts with some crime-punding action instead of all this backstory would be awesome. Would also work for Superman, Hulk (please).. i'd keep going but i'd list every superhero I've ever heard of.. haha

 

[Carbonhunter]

Spend any small amount of time with the same person trying to force-feed you sharpened metal and you start to learn how they attack, it's like knowing which of your mates will run for the sniper rifle. Trust me, it doesn't take a Ninja to go "Hmmm, he made me use THAT block, could it be!?"
Sorry, needed to get that out, feel better now... Suppose I should say something comic related... If spiderman's palms are hairy does that make him mad?

 

[MB202]

Reading this article, I couldn't help be be reminded of this:

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/10915-captaina

For those who don't know, the Nostalgia Critic reviews old, typically bad, movies and TV shows. Here he reviews an old Captain America movie, and in it, he laughs at Captain America's costume, seeing as the movie gave little-to-know explain of it. I was really pissed off about that, and seeing this makes me feel like I was right to be a little mad. It's like you said, he's a superhero, he doesn't need an explanation of it, that's just what superheroes do.

 

[Meado]

Actually, of all Spiderman's villains, Rhino would be reletively easy to adapt to fit the movie. Just have his suit be a stolen experimental exoskeleton called the Rhino MKII or something. Voila! A villain that requires little backstory or explaination, who can provide a decent secondary threat to the protaganist. Simple, basic, cut, print.

 

[Sylocat]

Well, to each their own, but I've always found the human elements of the story more interesting than the action elements. One of my only real complaints against the Watchmen movie [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.127496] was that when it had a choice between skimping on the character development or the ass-kicking action, it prioritized the action every time, even though the thing that set Watchmen apart from the pack wasn't the action, it was that it was more about the characters than the action.

I think that WHY someone would dress up in tights is interesting, even though it doesn't have to be set in the real world. Like Noelvelga, I define believability as "conducive to suspension of disbelief," not "plausibility," so it doesn't have to be something that could actually happen, but saying "because that's just the way things ARE in superhero stories" is not only uninteresting, but a severe limitation on your storytelling potential.

Personally, I HATE it when writers feel they need to throw in genre conventions for no other reason than that they ARE genre conventions. Oh, don't get me wrong, I think Tropes can definitely be used WELL, but when they're thrown in just for the sake of "the audience expects it," there's something wrong.

 

[NeoShinGundam]

Actually, I think the Mad Hatter COULD be done well in a Christopher Nolan movie. I could easily envision him as someone who is so twisted and obsessed by "Alice in Wonderland" that he constructs a Saw-style nightmare land to throw Batman off-guard while he's trying to rescue hostages.

Could the Mad Hatter carry a whole film himself, I doubt it. But obviously somebody gave him all the money he needed to build a death-trap capable of keeping Batman busy. My vote for "man behind the curtain" in this scenario would be Black Mask.