Superhero movies. They’re big business. We will probably never again experience a summer without one. It doesn’t seem to matter how many come out or how many times they remake the same one the public still calls for more. The appeal is so great that the powers that be will remake a movie involving the same character within a five-year span. “The Hulk” came out in 2003 and then they redid it in 2008 with “The Incredible Hulk.” The extra word made all of the difference. Spiderman is being remade and will be out next summer and for those keeping score “Spiderman 3” was in 2007. Superman is being remade once again after “Superman Returns” didn’t work out the way everyone had hoped. I say all this not to judge. I will go see all of these movies no matter how many times they get remade and I’ve never read one comic in my life.
However, one point did occur to me recently. The further down this rabbit hole we go the less the casual fan is going to be able to enjoy the movies. My reason for believing this is that comics are primarily for children and are not always of the highest caliber. Therefore if you’re like me and have no attachment to the base material and are there just to see cool characters dress in cool outfits and do cool stuff that most people don’t do, at least not while wearing a cape if the characters are stupid we’re not going to enjoy it. I came to this realization while watching “Captain America.” I was watching Hugo Weaving do the typical Nazi villain for the better part of an hour and then all of a sudden he pulled his face off and revealed a red skull face. Wow. Now I understand that this isn’t the fault of Weaving or the filmmakers, they were just doing what someone else had drawn. If they would've drawn outside the lines, as it were, they would’ve probably pissed off the very fan base that lines their pockets. Unfortunately, for me, I never read Captain America so the nostalgia was lost on me and I was left watching a Nazi caricature with a red head. I believe the “The Green Lantern” suffered the same fate. When I first heard they were making a superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds I was ecstatic, then I saw the trailer. Needless to say I was less than ecstatic. It looked like a cartoon; it involved aliens and space travel, two things that will almost assure me not seeing your movie. Before I judged I checked with a comic book nerd and he assured me that that was what the comic was like and contrary to me he was excited about the film because of the trailer. There’s the divide. The comic readers are desperate to protect the integrity of their treasured base material and the non-comic readers, the people that just want to see action movies with bright costumes.
In the last decade I don’t think that anyone could debate that Batman is doing it best. They seem to be appeasing the nerds while at the same time basically making a crime driven action movie with costumes that anyone could enjoy. “The Dark Knight” was one of the highest grossing movies of all time and my guess is the villain. Heath Ledger’s joker was not just one of the best comic book villains, but he was probably one of the best flat out movie villains of all time. My question is why can’t all comic book movies follow suit? To be fair not all comic books have gritty reboots written by Frank Miller, which is exactly what the most recent incarnation of Batman is based on. That is how the new Batman is able to appease everyone, they’re following comic books, but the ones they are following were written more recently by one of the most widely respected authors in the graphic novel industry with a lean towards darkness and realism. I understand that there is only so much that a filmmaker can do, but the villain is an area that I think we, as a fan base should be able to find some common ground.
Why, so often are comic book movie villains one-dimensional caricatures? Is it because they have to be the polar opposite of the unwavering goodness of our protagonist? Is it because of the need for a PG-13 rating? Would it be so bad for the villain to be funny? Why can’t they be evil and entertaining? In the past decade we’ve seen some of the best actors in the industry completely handicapped by this need for a one-dimensional character. Willem Defoe, Kevin Spacey, and Collin Farrell have all fell victim to creating stupid characters and I’m not sure that it’s their fault. I feel like they all did the best with what they were given, but their characters were stupid and they probably played them like they were drawn. The best were probably the aforementioned Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson (The Joker), Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus), and this is going back a little but Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor). These guys created great characters that didn’t need the costumes to be interesting, with the exception of Molina, they all got laughs. They were not caricatures they were characters. That’s what they should all be striving for. Maybe I wouldn’t have minded Hugo Weaving’s red face if his character wasn’t so unwaveringly evil. Ron Pearlman has proven that red face paint doesn’t stop you from creating a fun character and Christoph Waltz proved that a Nazi could be fun to watch even funny at times.
This is in no way an indictment of the comic book movie industry or even of villain-playing actors. It's just something to think about. These movies can be better. Maybe if we were more focused on making compelling stories with compelling characters rather than staying true to something that most people have only a vague knowledge of then the movies would be better. This is going to have to be a team effort. Chris Nolan can’t do it all.
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