Why
yes, this is another largely useless department here at the Third
Row. I'll be honest with you- It mainly just exists as another excuse
to horde office supplies.
You
laugh now, but when you find yourself hard up for a stapler, you'll
remember me and my citadel of them. Then who will be laughing?
...Okay,
I promised angry old man, not delusional.
Anyway,
this has been an interesting few weeks in the film circles as far as
comic book films. Actually, this time of year is shaping up as an
interesting one. For one thing, DC confirmed the inevitable moment we
all knew/dreaded coming - yes, a Justice
League
movie WILL happen, and they have Zack Snyder locked to direct.
Whether or not this is because Snyder managed to make Man
of Steel
profitable for them (...well, Snyder and an ad campaign that was the
PR equivalent of carpet bombing) neither DC nor Warner Brothers has
said. For another, over the last few weeks, we have seen/will be
seeing the continuing installments in not one, but three different
comic book franchises.
Captain
America: The Winter Soldier
opened a few weeks back to probably some of the best reviews Marvel
has gotten since The
Avengers
came out (and deservedly so. This will likely see a writeup in the
near future here, even though it's a bit late for its release.) In
another few weeks, Fox will be rolling out its next X-Men
installment, Days
of Future Past,
which will either solidify their comeback or bury it, depending how
things proceed. Finally, this weekend, Sony released their follow-up
to their Spider-Man
reboot, The
Amazing Spider-Man 2.
This, in particular, is the one that's inspiring my angry old man
grumblings.
The
Amazing Spider-Man
brand hasn't been sitting particularly well with me for a while now.
The first film was...okay. Not awful, but not really as amazing as
its title would suggest either. The arbitrary retread of the
Spider-Man
origin story felt rather forced at the time, but given Sony was
trying to hang onto their license of the character in response to the
building steam of the Marvel money train, I was willing to let them
have a quick brand lock and trust they would at least try more the
next time around.
This
was also around the time The
Avengers
happened. With a wave of strong reviews and audience response,
Marvel's big gamble paid off with a vengeance. It was pretty safely
locked for one of the biggest hits of 2012 and the entire effort was
seen as a game changer for how comic book movies would be made.
...and
Sony took the absolute wrong lesson from it.
Of
course, I can't say it's JUST on Sony here, seeing as DC/WB has also
been pretty openly trying to jump-start their own super franchise in
light of the movie's success. When they went from a standalone
Superman
movie to announcing its sequel would also feature Batman, Wonder
Woman, and even Cyborg with the intent of turning this into a Justice
League
project, it was no surprise that people read this as a pretty
bald-faced attempt to ape Marvel's success.
Which
is particularly unfortunate since, as I've said before, Man
of Steel
wasn't a bad idea for a movie. Doing a film that tried to break from
the Richard Donner mold was a great idea, and actually playing more
with the idea of the possible mistrust Superman would face as an
outsider was a concept with a lot of potential to build from. Even
some of what Snyder and Goyer gave us was decent, if flawed. I left
the film thinking what they had left this one off with could be
salvaged with some more thought and work on a sequel. For a couple of
weeks after its release, I was even willing to go to bat for them on
the idea that this could be growing pains. Then they made the fateful
announcement that the sequel would be Batman vs Superman and I was
willing to concede I'd backed the wrong horse. They weren't
interested in trying to fix up the flaws in their new Superman -
they'd gotten a profit out of it and that was enough. Now they were
gonna take this sucker to the big leagues as hard and as fast as
possible.
I
could make all manner of tasteless analogies for what they're doing
there, but you get the idea.
Not
ones to be outdone, Sony is now busting their humps to turn their
Spider-Man license into its own super franchise as well. It was
actually pretty striking that, in the months ticking down to ASM
2's
release, for every announcement about what the movie itself would
contain, their would be at least one, often more, announcements
heralding Sony's plans for the overall Spider-Man brand - including
announcements of spinoffs already in the works for supporting
characters like the Sinister Six and Venom. The former of these also
resulted in some criticisms towards the current movie, care of the
fact Paul Giamatti's four minutes of screentime seems to amount to
little more in the film than to set up the next movie. Even up to the
week of the movie's release, Sony was rattling off more of their
future plans than having anything to say about the film itself - they
even made announcements about the ASM
2
Blu-Ray release before the film was even in theaters. It was like a
Mel Brooks gag come to life.
Then
the movie came out, with all the mixed reception, the speculation was
confirmed. Even now the film is currently the most critically roasted
Spider-Man movie. Yes, even more so than the infamous Spider-Man
3
from the Raimi years. One of the big reasons for this - as many
people pointed out in reviews, was the fact the movie devotes more of
itself to hyping up future releases than it does to making the movie
it has here and now good. In fact, a friend of mine over at MoarPowah
probably put the problem best when he described the film as not a
movie, not a trailer, but a two and a half hour long power point of
Sony's plans for the next ten years.
Not
that this is necessarily a shock at this point. Between the Giamatti
confirmation happening months before the film's release, and even ASM
2 teasers containing blatant hints of upcoming villains care of gear
for the Vulture, Sony has been pretty clear this film is being made
with one eye on the camera, the other on the business plan.
While
I have concerns for Fox's actions here, I'll admit, I'm inclined to
give them a half pass on this one. Not because I necessarily thing
DoFP
will be good - it could go either way at this point. Rather because
they've been building up X-Men for a while now. I mean, they've been
at this brand for a good ten years off and on now. While it's not at
the same level of work and dedication as Marvel's shown on the
Avengers project, they've at least paid their dues so far. Whether
this marks a continued rise or fall is all on the individual film
now, but at least it feels - for now at least - like they're focusing
on just making this film work first before they start jumping on
future projects.
Which
brings us to where the old man in me is bitter and rambling. The
reason Sony and DC/WB are annoying me as much as they are -
especially in Sony's case, is because of the utterly blatant the
attempts to piggyback off the success of The
Avengers.
In both cases, they're essentially operating as though a big
cross-media franchise will be a given, rather than a possibility.
It's like they forget just how much of a roll of the dice the first
Iron
Man
movie was years ago, given that was the film that would ultimately
make or break Marvel's chances at the Avengers
effort. Prior to its release, they'd played those plans close to the
chest, and even after its release, they were pretty careful. It
wasn't until after the success of The
Avengers
and its follow-up features that they decided to announce plans for
the next fourteen years of movies.
I
feel a fourteen year plan might be a bit excessive - but Marvel has
paid their dues here, so for now, they can do as they will. By
comparison, DC and Sony have each had two relatively successful, if
not particularly memorable, films to their names and were following
them up with plans for a big industry on the spot. This wasn't even a
matter of taking a slow road to get there - it's again worth
pointing out that DC intends to use their Superman movie to bus in
Batman and Wonder Woman. They're in such a hurry to get to the
Justice League that they don't even want to give two of their brand's
vaunted 'big three' chances to stand on their own, which is
particularly damning given just how little representation Wonder
Woman has had so far. On the other side of the coin, rather than
going for the big event film, Sony is already convinced with two
movies they have enough ground laid to spin off films for supporting
characters and villains that, at this point, have really had little
to no screentime.
Maybe
I'm finally just that bitter old man I joke about. Maybe the
industry's changed and I just have a hard time keeping up. All I know
is, looking at this model, I just keep hearing the old Yoda line:
“This
one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away...to
the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What
he was doing. Hmph.”
I
wouldn't mind this approach if the films being made in the present
were good. Unfortunately, it feels too much like they're so caught up
in the dream of pulling in Avengers
money that they're not actually bothering to see if the films they're
making now are even worth a damn. It also gets harder to shake the
concern that, if this keeps up, we'll see audiences lapse into a
state of comic book film burnout within the next few years, causing
even Marvel's thought out plans to take a hit.
Granted,
this isn't a new observation, and other, better people than me have
likely already made this same observation. Still, sometimes it helps
to just get something out of the system.
Or,
for those who want me to be more succinct:
Sony,
Warner Brothers -
HOLD
YOUR FREAKING HORSES! FOCUS ON MAKING THE FILMS YOU HAVE NOW BETTER
BEFORE YOU JUMP TO THE NEXT ONES!
...sorry.
I can only play it polite just so far. Either approach, I think the
point is clear. A franchise needs at least some quality before you
can make with the quantity, guys.
Got
a review coming your way in the next couple of days to make up for
this (no, it won't be CA
just yet.)
Till
then though!
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