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I was at a family get-together the other day and I
was talking with my uncles about The Hulk coming
onto DVD this week. The conversation moved to
comic-book movies in general, and how there are
essentially two types; ones that everyone knows
are comic-book movies (Spiderman, Hulk, X-Men), and
those that aren't (Matrix, LXG, Road to Perdition,
Ghost World). The former obviously comes with a
built in fan-base to help sales while the latter
doesn't have this advantage. Those comic-book
movies that the majority of the public don't
realize are inspired from comic literature have to
make it on their own merits, and *IF* they become
box office success stories, nobody really connects
them to the comic-book world. Hence, what we're
seeing is the wide-spread stereotyping of
comic-book movies as spandex-wearing PG-13 heroes.
Now that I'm done telling you what you already
know, let me tell you about the meat of my
conversation with my uncle, it went something like
this . . .
ME: . . . So, the new Hulk DVD comes out on Friday, I
hope it has lots of new cool stuff in it.
UNCLE: . . . I dunno, I never saw it at the theatre,
there are just too many comic book movies, I think
people are getting sick of them.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hold the phone! Have comic book (inspired) movies
gotten to the point where people can classify them
as such? And then go on to decide that they will
or will not see them if they are related to a
comic book?
The answer, I believe is YES.
Unfortunate as it sounds, there are so many comic
book inspired movies being produced that the well
is being run dry. Don't get me wrong, I love
watching comic-book movies, and a part of me says
keep on making them until the public is so sick of
them that they end up being straight to video junk
(Marvel "movies" pre-Spiderman). The big
blockbuster success stories that Spiderman, Xmen
and Xmen 2 brought in probably won't be repeated.
However, even I was surprised at the lack of
blockbuster success that Daredevil brought in.
The Hulk, with international and DVD sales, will
prove to be a blockbuster over time. I just hope
that the mountains of price-reduced Hulk Movie
toys won't make retailers a little leery the next
go-round. (As a side note, I really think that
more Hulk villains should have been produced, and
a quality cartoon to market as well). There is
hope for the comic-book movie scene and it comes
(for me) not in the spandex wearing heroes, but in
expanding the genre.
I was on ComicBookResources.com this morning and I read
that the new Man-Thing movie is scheduled to be
released next summer. This took me by surprise
because I hadn't even heard that this movie was in
production (maybe because it was filmed totally in
Australia) AND because Marvel Studios is going to
be heavily hyping this as a HORROR MOVIE!
Yes, the House of Ideas is going to be putting out a horror
movie for the public, something that I hope will
get people to see comic-book movies in a different
light. Hopefully when HellBlazer and Ghostrider
eventually make it to theatres, they'll be able to
get people to think of comic-book literature in a
broader light.
-- Clayton Harriman
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