Sony Pictures have confirmed that they are to make at least three more Spider-man movies. I heard that they were committed to making six when Jonathan Ross was interviewing Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (Maguire didn’t rule out coming back as Spidey, but I got the impression he wasn’t keen on the idea and only Sam Raimi directing and a great script would change his mind). That seems like an awfully big number to have committed to at an early stage, most franchises rarely make it past three, and usually fall apart at four (Batman and Robin, for example).
I like the Spider-man movies, but I don’t rave about them as other people seem to, they’re OK, they don’t fall into the trap of making the stories too outlandish or the villains too camp (although the Green Goblin in the first film was pushing it), but they’re far from dynamite. (Note: This started as a quick list of those I like but I’ve extended it because you don’t realise how many adaptations there have been) Thinking about comic book adaptations, here’s a quick run down from my opinion as a non-comic book reader, based on the movies alone.
Super heroes
- Superman Returns is probably my favourite of late and the others are classics too
- Batman (the original) is top of the class but the rest are dubious, I like Batman Forever and Batman Begins is OK
- Blade is pretty good, but went downhill with 2 and 3
- Who can forget the iconic Flash Gordon? Slightly camp but oh so good.
- The Crow is excellent, but I never watched the sequels
- Men in Black is good, the sequel has its moments
- I also like Timecop, though I didn’t know it was based on a comic book
- Neither did I know Road to Perdition or A History of Violence were based on comic books
- Constantine, good and solid
Super villains
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, starts well, goes downhill from the midpoint, ends as a farce
- Catwoman, not seen it but apparently awful
- Judge Dredd, what were they thinking?
- Howard the Duck, what a pile of bird droppings
- Captain America, made too early
- The Flash, made too early
- Masters of the Universe, nothing like the animated TV series I loved, camp in the extreme and bad story
- Dick Tracy, what were they thinking?
- Spawn, utter garbage
- Hellboy, moments that were OK, generally just bad
- Hulk, not seen it, but the effects on the trailer were enough to put me off, not surprising they want to remake it, but unusual for the remake to be so soon
- The Punisher, so much potential, so wasted
- The Shadow, I like the idea, but plain horrible
- Elektra, just bad
- The Phantom, another animated series I loved that was ruined on the big screen
- Tank Girl, so OTT it’s almost funny
- Barb Wire, even with Pam as eye candy it’s hideous
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dis you know we call them Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK as they didn’t like the Ninja part and were afraid of the effects on kid? Anyway, bad.
Honourable Sidekicks
- Fantastic Four, not much for or against it
- Spider-man, as I said, OK but not great
- X-Men, again, OK but not great and X-men 3 is just rehashed junk
- 300, OTT to the extreme, all testosterone and a hint of racism, but visually interesting
- Sin City, definitely a guy movie, but massive kudos for the visual style
- The Mask, Carrey at his hilarious best, but again, loses it a little at the end
- Daredevil, I don’t mind this
- V for Vendetta, nothing to dislike, not much to like either
- The Rocketeer, I actually quite like this
- Bulletproof Monk, another pretty reasonable film, I thought, though that could be down to Seann William Scott and Jamie King, it’s fine while they stay away from the mad Nazis
- Mystery Men, kooky, but all right
- American Splendor, not your typical comic book adaptation
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