Comic Books, Movies and things I think about them

I’ve been watching the Animated Superman DVD’s I picked up. I also went to seeIron Man last night. So I thought I would try and explain what I like and don’t like in movies/shows based on comic books.

For some insight, I’ve only purchased comic books on rare occasions, most of the time I would borrow them from somebody else. My college roommate was/and still is a collector of comic books. I still go to a sight or two to try to keep up with what is going on. I generally liked most comic books I’ve read, but have really come to appreciate what they can do in the movies. Finally the movies can make the heroes of the comics do all the things they were able to in those comic pages.

My first objective to any movie, comic book based or otherwise, is very simple: When I leave the movie, did I enjoy myself? Nothing other than that. After that I will start look for other things in the movie. If based on a book or story I know, did it follow the thing it was based on. If not, why not? Was the acting good? Did I see the actor, or the character? That’s it, not much deeper than that. This does explain why I’ve liked movies that other people just can’t stand.

For comic book movies, I add one more item. Based on the technology of the day, did the comic action seem real? Why say based on tech, well the latest Superman film released had much better tech than the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. But for its time, the older Superman movies did as well as they could, they were some of the best SFX during that time frame. I expect more from new movies than I do from older movies.

Now onto the movies…

Most of the Superman animated I’ve watched have been decent shows. The story lines on some of them would have made better movies than anything released to date. These seem to follow what I remember from the comic books better than any movie has done. In short, I am entertained by them. Well worth the money spent. I will tend to watch some of the shows more often than others, but as a set they are at least a 3 out of 5 stars.

Ironman… I left the movie and could honestly say I had enjoyed it. There were parts that made me do some thinking (planned by the filmmakers of course), but that is what I expected going into the show. As with most of the comic book movies, there is a need to introduce the character to people who never read the comic. There is the big 3 of course (Superman, Batman and Spiderman) that could have gotten by without the “introduction” movie, but it seems that most others have to have that. Ironman was an introduction movie. We are given a background of the character, and how he became “Ironman”, then the major “comic book” action sequence takes place. Without giving too much away, I found that the actors became the characters. Even though I knew most of them from other movies, they became the parts they played. Good writing and acting all around, I give this movie one of my better reviews scores…. I’ll buy it when released.

My review scores for movies are (from best to worst) Both See it again categories will mean that I get the DVD later.

See it again (At the high priced place)
See it again (Cheap seats)
Buy the DVD when released
Rent the DVD when released
I’ll watch if someone else has it
I don’t ever want to see it again
Can I have my money back?
Leave the theater, and never tell anyone I saw it (you won’t ever see this review mark, but if you ask about a movie, and I say I haven’t seen it. Well I guess I could have, but it was a real stinker in my estimation.)

Recent Movie Ratings…

Spiderman I II and III all were See it again (cheap seats)
Superman Returns that was really a rent when the DVD comes out, but I bought it for my DVD collection of Superman movies
Fantastic Four — same as Superman Returns. I’m collecting Marvel Comic Movies too.
Batman Begins — See it again (cheap seats)
X-Men I, II, and III — See it again (cheap seats)

If you have comic book movies you want my long version review of, just ask