Are ‘Comic Book’ Films ruining cinema?
I recently read a fantastic book on Hollywood culture by William Goldman, an Oscar winning screenwriter. In one particular chapter he talks about the vice like grip the comic book genre has on the box office. What’s important is what he defines as a “comic book film” - It is a film that displays unrealistic, improbable and often superhuman circumstances and events. For example, James Bond series is a comic book movie, as are Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park.
With that definition in mind, here are some stats. In the last year the highest grossing film for those 52 weekends in America, bar 6, has been a ‘comic book film’. In the top 50 highest grossing films worldwide, I would only consider 4 of them to not be ‘comic book’ worthy. And that’s pushing it.
To be clear this doesn’t immediately make a film good, bad or unintelligent, but the lack of realism allows the audience to become not only passive but also lazy. It encourages the viewers to distance themselves from the events taking place rather than become engaged and moved by “real life” occurrences.
You may think what’s the real problem, people like watching those films, everyone has a right to go and see what they want. I totally agree - the problem though is that it suffocates the market. ‘Comic book’ films are breaking box office records with every new release. Even the slightly less successful ones make the studios gigantic profits. As a result the people who have the power to finance films become more and more timid. Why would you take a risk on a film that doesn’t fit the criteria that actually makes money? There is a grave danger of falling into the trap of churning out the same stale formula again and again because the executives know how to bring the audiences in. Guess what? We are already falling deep into that hole.
Sony announced a few weeks ago that they would be re-booting the Spider-Man franchise for a 3rd time in the past 10 years. I mean are you joking? Do they lack that much imagination that they can’t think of another film to make? Marvel recently released their slate running up to 2019. If you haven’t seen the list let me tell you this, we are in for quite a few more super hero flicks, including another Avengers film split into two parts! All this further suffocates what is already a shrinking market, putting even more pressure on the people who are willing to take a risk in the name of creating something with meaning, emotion and imagination.
Lastly, a potentially even more worrying trend is the reviews these films receive. Let’s take as an example ‘Furious 7’ and ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. Furious 7 received many positive reviews citing its ‘energy’ and ‘passion’. Lets get this straight. Furious 7 is utterly awful. The dialogue feels like its written by a 10 year old learning to speak. The story line makes absolutely about as much sense as voting UKIP. There’s a touching tribute to the late Paul Walker at the end, but that’s it. I don’t mean to be disrespectful but that’s not enough to credit a film for in my opinion.
Now Avengers…. Critics have been applauding Joss Whedon for bringing genuine relationships and heart-warming dialogue to previously bland two-dimensional characters. Round of applause for Joss. Conversation lasted for more than ten seconds and involved Captain America stringing together a sentence lasting more than 4 words. Again its not enough to stop ‘Age of Ultron’ seeming like a clone of all of Marvel’s latest outings. Heroes are doing well, Bad guy comes along, looks like he might rule the world for a minute, then in the process of destroying yet another city our heroes come out on top. YAWN, YAWN. NO SPOILER THERE.
Maybe I’m being overly critical for no reason other than I think the genre is becoming unbearably lazy and involves no effort whatsoever. But that’s the whole point, you should have to actively watch a film, just like you consciously talk to someone or read a book. I might be asking for too much, but wouldn’t it be great to not have to watch yet another set of heroes, be them super or not so super, defeat a villain or villains (they’re on to something there). Rather be moved and impassioned by dialogue that is clever and dangerously real, or by acting that is so emotive your brought to tears. We can only pray to the gods of Asgard (Thats Thor’s universe by the way) I guess…
Since 1927, when Hollywood entered its so called 'golden age' technology has advanced beyond our wildest dreams. We are now in a time when anyone with a smartphone can go out and film the world around them. Surely we deserve something more than an endless stream of comic book movies.
