Iron Man 2 and the Invasion of Comic book heroes

I love movies. I really do. But the whole comic book craze is just becoming too much. Some may argue that the main objective of a film is entertainment which is undeniably true. The problem is not with Iron Man (1 or 2) but with the aftermath. Trouble is for every Iron Man there will be hundreds of comic book casualties. If you look at what's coming in the future you'll know what I mean:

• Jonah Hex
• Avengers
• Green Lantern
• GI Joe 2 (Even though the first one was fucking awful)
• Thor
• Captain America
• Reboot of Spiderman
• Reboot of Fantastic four
• Multiple movies from X-Men universe
• Ghostrider reboot
• ...and god knows what else

Big question is what's wrong with comic book adaptation. Afterall it passes all the necessary checks:

• Girls -- check
• Explosions -- check
• Exotic Locale -- check.
• Bad-ass (yet funny) villains - check
• Oh! PG-13 rating -- double check.

How can anybody go wrong with that. Studios happy, stars happy, audience happy and critics? Well, who gives fuck about them (remember Roger Ebert v/s Transformers 2).

 

So why am I sulking?

My wife loved it (OK! That's not the reason I am sulking).

I think in all these comic book craze we forget one thing which is intelligent story telling. Comic book movies are good but they have some basic flaws:

• Generic storytelling
• Generic character arc
• Run-of-the-mill antagonist

Generic storytelling follows predictable plot points. If screenwriter is deft then s/he will try to squeeze surprises (Dark Knight for example).

 

Comic books are meant for children (duh!). The story needs to be simple but this simplicity doesn't translate well with mature audience. Problem is if screenwriter deviates too much from the comic storyline then fanboys will cry foul.

As a film lover what I am scared of is that this craze is only going to rise.

I haven't found a single person who enjoyed "There will be blood" (Not that it's the greatest movie ever) except film students.

Roman Polanski in his Chinatown interview said "I love anti-climax and I want people to discuss my movies at the dinner table". Well good luck Mr Polanski I hope that time comes back again.