Last night I was watching "The Flash" ( if you aren't watching this show you need to because it's really good) and during the end credits we got a sneak peek at an upcoming villain. After having a 10 minute nerdgasm at the reveal, I started asking myself this question: Do we really need realism in comic movies and shows?
So obviously the entire premise of "The Flash" wouldn't exactly lend to realism seeing as the main character was struck by lighting, fell onto chemicals and woke up with the power move and incredible speeds; but fact that this show is even on air is a feat within itself seeing as how Hollywood has a hard on for taking comic book characters and trying to make it seem as real as possible. Take the Dark Knight Trilogy for example, no one is gonna say that it was a series of bad films but can you really say that it was a Batman trilogy? Sure the names the same and the origin is pretty much spot on but the emphasis on grounding it in reality meant that a lot of what made Batman so great gets lost; we don't get to see him fighting fantastical beasts or scientific monstrosity nor do we see just how resourceful he is to be able to handle a mugger one night and Clayface the next, we lose the part of Batman that shows that no matter the situation he is in, he will be able to save day...at least that's what I felt was missing from the series. Of course the trilogy went on the make an incredible amount of money so naturally Hollywood felt as if it discovered the winning formula but there is another film that went the opposite direction and saw massive success too.
The Avengers took the world by storm, raking in Tony Stark money in the theaters and you want to know why? It's because they gave us what we wanted, a comic book on the big screen. There was no pretense of realism the minute a space god opened a portal, brainwashed Hawkeye and commenced his plan to unleash aliens onto Earth in an effort to conquer it. That is what I like, fully embracing the source material and telling realism to go glum up some other movie, we have a Hulk! Colorful costumes? check, insane villain with a grandiose plan of world domination? yup, technology that couldn't possibly exist in modern times? that's a big ol repulsor blast of a check and it lead to a climatic battle with the aliens, not unlike you'd see as a splash page in a comic book. The Avengers showed that if you can have a good comic book film and still embrace the fact that it's a comic book and still make a profit (because that's really all Hollywood cares about) and Hollywood looks like it's starting to pick up on the concept; Warner Bros in particular as their upcoming projects involve Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg..good luck trying cram realism in a film about a man who is the king of an underwater kingdom.
I am aware that comic book films do have some element of realism otherwise we couldn't connect at all to what's happening but when I say realism I mean taking a character like Batman and not utilizing some of his most iconic villains because they are "unrealistic". I mean switching a character's villain from being magic based to be science based because magic doesn't exist, stuff like that. Look comic book movies and shows are just more fun when they embrace their roots. Arrow was good in the beginning but now it's awesome because it delved deeper in the source and now we have people coming back from the dead and craziness, remember without introducing powers we wouldn't have gotten Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke and that was a fantastic addition for season 2. I for one am glad that shows like "The Flash" exist because they are fun and I don't need realism getting in the way of me and watching the heroes that I love go crazy on screen. As far as I'm concerned, realism can go in the sewers of Gotham and become Killer Croc's midnight snack
No comments:
Post a Comment