Marvel vs. DC

Lately, DC and Warner Bros have been trying to implement an approach to making movies similar to Marvel's example. I can't think of a worse idea.

In the past, DC has largely gone with quality over quantity. There's more effort to find good directors, good scripts, and good actors that fit the parts. Christopher Nolan directing Batman movies. Bryan Singer directing a Superman movie. Originally hiring Joss Whedon to direct a Wonder Woman movie. Now Martin Campbell (the guy who revitalized the James Bond franchise TWICE) directing Green Lantern. Even though the Superman movie was underwhelming and the Wonder Woman movie was abandoned, it still shows an effort to bring in talent to make a quality movie that will be more than a flash in the pan.

Marvel has done the opposite. They've hurried to release as many movies as possible, creating just terrible movies like Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Elektra... you get the idea. They've had a few successes, like the X-Men movies (thanks to Bryan Singer), Spider-man (in my opinion a surprise), and recently Iron Man. Singer's success on the X-Men is not a surprise. He had great talent acting for him and he's a good director. But does anyone remember the uproar when X-Men came out? People were pissed. There was so much that wasn't true to the comics. There were so many characters left out. There were characters who didn't do anything except be annoying (Cyclops). The success that Bryan Singer has had in the minds of X-Men fanboys, like myself, is really due to Bret Ratner completely tearing the franchise to shreds in The Last Stand.

Sidenote: originally, Ratner was going to direct Superman Returns and Singer was going to direct X-Men 3. Who can honestly say that wouldn't have been a better situation? Superman Returns didn't have enough action, and The Last Stand was nonsensical. What one lacked, the other had in scads.

Also, Sam Raimi. Ok. Evil Dead is a cult classic. I get it. That's fine. Army of Darkness is hilarious. No argument. But how many duds has he put out? Anyone seen The Quick and the Dead? Yeah, it's on TV all the time. Why? Because it's about as good as a TV movie. It's overdone and hyper-stylized. But it's a whole lot better than Spider-man 3. I've heard people say this: "Spider-man 3 is like, the quintessential comic book movie." My response is: What comic books are you reading? What comics have a Saturday Night Fever strut down a sidewalk? Or a dance number to Twist and Shout to visualize sexual tension between two characters? Or a weird dance number in a jazz club? And in what comics is the main action set piece an out-of-control crane? Really? I promise you it's not one written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Joss Whedon, J. Michale Straczynski, Mark Millar, or even Brian Michael Bendis. Spider-man 3 is an example of Sam Raimi off his leash, so to speak. By that, I mean he wrote it as well as directed it. He didn't write either of the first two. Blame the studio if you want, but there were fundamental flaws with the movie that did not involve too many villains.

There are always exceptions. Always. Here's an exception: Catwoman. Catwoman was garbage. Ask anyone. It was cliched, ridiculous, pointless... you get the idea. It sucked. Not a lot of effort went into the movie and it showed. On the flip side, we have Hulk. Not The Incredible Hulk. Hulk, directed by Ang Lee. I was really excited about this movie because I didn't think Ang Lee made bad movies. He's a good director. Yes, he then directed Brokeback Mountain. I stand by my statement: his movies are normally good. Here was an example of Marvel showing some effort in making a quality movie. It... wasn't.

Now that Marvel's seen success with X-Men, Spider-man, and recently Iron Man, Marvel films are attracting more successful directors. Excellent. DC is trying to mimic Marvel's success. Exhibit A: Jonah Hex. Anyone see that movie? Me neither. Heard it sucked. It might not, I guess.

Ok, really quick and then I'll shut up. They're coming out with X-Men: First Class and Matthew Vaughn is directing. Excellent. Vaughn directs movies that balance "good" and "fun" exceptionally well. It's rumored that Joss Whedon has been in talks to direct The Avengers. Excellent. Serenity was one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. That being said, they should switch projects. Whedon's strength is in two places: writing pain and writing women. Avengers has a dearth of both. Vaughn would bring something awesome to The Avengers, and Whedon would bring something amazing to the X-Men. Don't believe me? Read his run on Astonishing X-Men. It's fantastic.

In closing, DC: your approach to movies being fewer but better is fine with me. I think I speak for a lot of fans that we'd rather see a few good movies than a storm of terrible ones. Marvel: dude, slow it down and make sure your movies are worth watching. The fewer horrible treatments of our beloved comic book characters there are in the world, the better our world is. Seriously.