Movies Based On Comic Books And Cartoons

[Darth_Andrea]

In recient years alot of movies have come out based on Comic Books and Cartoons. I have enjoyed most of them and can't wait for more. Currently in production or pre-production

 

 

Live-Action Justice League Of America

 

Live-Action BatMan The Dark Knight

 

Live-Action/CGI Transformers 2

 

Live-Action G.I. Joe

 

CGI Thundercats

 

Live-Action Superman : The Man Of Steel

 

Live-Action Ironman

 

Live-Action Green Lantern

 

The Green Lantern project was just announced reciently and Warner has already picked a director.

 

Taken From Scifi.com

 

Berlanti Rings Up Lantern

 

Warner Brothers has set Greg Berlanti to direct Green Lantern, a live-action take on the DC Comics superhero, Variety reported.

 

Berlanti will write the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Donald De Line will produce; Andrew Haas is executive producer.

 

Berlanti hopes to make the jump to big-budget fantasy fare after serving as writer and executive producer on such TV series as Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers & Sisters, Everwood and Dawson's Creek.

 

Green Lantern was created in 1940. Hal Jordan, a second-generation test pilot, is an ordinary man who has been charged with defending a sector of the universe.

 

 

I personaly can't wait for this I am a huge fan of the Green Lantern comics. (Fangirly I am) But I must ask myself are the studios over saturating the theaters with comic heroes? While I love seeing these characters on the screen it almost seems like its overkill. To much of a good thing you know, whats your thoughts?

 

 

Darth_Andrea 

[the dude]

i think that the studios are seeing a really good cash cow and riding it into the ground.  to me, most of these are about the movie studios hoping to make a killing by making movies for the fanboys and -girls, and hollywoodizing them enough to get everyone else to go too.  the comics are hoping likely to bring in new fans who watch the movie and get interested. 

 

the thing is, the movies rarely resemble the comics except on the surface and most banal details, and the rest is just paint-by-numbers action movie crap.  the comics fans go, and are disappointed by something that isn't what they wanted to see.  those few who watch the movie and check out the comic are going to find out that it's not the same as the movie they just watched.

 

i generally stay away from these.  few that i've seen have turned out that good at all.  frank miller's 2 projects turned out really well, the spider-man flicks do have their moments (both good and bad), but there's little in the rest of them that have really interested me.  fantastic four sucked enough that i didn't bother seeing the second one (not that i really go for the FF anyway...).  x-men had its ups and downs, but was also very scrubbed up for hollywood.  i'm not going to start in on what i think of the transformers movie.  i haven't seen it and i won't.  that's the nicest thing i can say about it.

 

oh, batman begins was pretty sweet.  i don't include the older batman movies in here because i don't really see them as part of the same trend.  the first keaton batman was really good, but it was done so long ago, and was really part of that last comics-movies craze back in the late eighties and early nineties.

[lou]

i agree with you on batman begins, fantastically well done. the dark knight. christian bale was both batman and bruce wayne, where noone else has been able to do so.

ugh, spiderman really lost me. where was the whimsy of spiderman? there was no fun at all in these movies. it seemed that the villians were less angst than spiderman. did these people read even one comic?

i loved the x-men, both comics and movies (though i didnt agree with the big screen's depiction of the pheonix or jean grey's death)

fantastic four was really about what i expected, although the silver surfer was actually very cool.the conflicted harbinger of doom.

i think i have geeked out enough for one day. its not my fault, i grew up with four brothers.....

[the dude]

i agree about spider-man.  he wasn't nearly quippy enough.  really, he wasn't quippy at all.  he had the whiny down, and spider-man is whiny, but there wasn't enough mid-fight banter.  almost none.

[DPR]

 

I think it's cool that the genres are starting to come together enough that the mediums can be combined - Frank Miller's stuff is a perfect example. Mike Mignola is doing well with Hellboy, and now his new project, Baltimore.

 

There will always be blatant attempts by Hollywood to shovel movies at the public in hopes that something catches on. I do think that the latest splurge of superhero movies is a desperate search for a new sequel producing tent-pole. But, don't forget, Hollywood is freaking out right now over the writer's strike, so an unusual number of scripts are being rushed to "green light" status so that there are still movies to make. Sadly, Justice League, G.I. Joe, Green Lantern, Flash, and a few others are rumored to be so rushed that the quality of the scripts is already being labeled as questionable. We'll see.

[eclipse0]

I agree that Hollywood is rushing these movies.  Spidey 1 and 2 were ok and Batman Begins was pretty good but now they're casting Heath Ledger as the Joker in Dark Knight.  Big mistake IMO.

 

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were crap, Spawn was crap, Spiderman 3 was crap, X-Men trilogy was eh, Blade 3 was crap, Superman Returns was crap Hulk was crap, Daredevil and Elektra were both crap and the FF duo was crap. I didn't even bother to see Ghost Rider, the new Punisher or Transformers. Though I've heard that Transformers was actually halfway decent, but come on, Nick Cage? They couldn't find someone more...  cool?

 

Somewhere along the line, the original Batman series got too big on budget and too small on writing and directing talent, and it seems to have steamrolled on the success of the Spiderman and X-Men trilogies.  It needs to stop again before they turn off the fanbase so much that no one turns out for these anymore.

[Big Moose]

Clearly Hollywood remains excited about the potential profitability of these films, and that has no doubt caused them to rush poor quality projects to the big screen.  I have not read many comics (though I would like to; only so many hours in the day, you know?), but I love comic-book movies.  I like them best when the movies are set in a realistic world.  That's why I like the Spidey movies; it seemed like Spiderman was a hero placed in our world.  Same for the X-men movies.  I cannot tell you how geeked I am about the Justice League movie.

 

I do not care for the (for lack of a better word) "artsy," or stylized worlds, such as the settings in the first four Batman movies, (although Keaton was pretty good).  Maybe that is because I am not a comic book reader.

 

There are exceptions, however.  The settings in the Fantastic Four movies were realistic, but the movies were not good.  Superman Returns had a good setting, in my view, but the movie was average.

 

I agree with everyone on this thread that Batman Begins was great.  I guess I'm not adding much to this thread (I'm a newbie; do I get any slack?), but I'm curious if there are others like me who love comic-book movies, but prefer the settings to be more realistic, as if we woke up tomorrow and a real Superman showed up.

[Darth_Andrea]

I actually like Ghost Rider. It was a decient take on the orgin of the rider, and Nick was (for as much as I actually hate the man) very good in the movie. Transformers was execllent better than Harry Potter 5 IMHO and I saw both the same day. I would like it if they would stop changing things about the orgins of the heroes in the movies, Rogue in the X-men movies being the prime example. And taking a existing story from the comics and changing it, the recient Superman/Doomsday animated movie had so much of the story from the death of superman comics reworked or totaly striped away that I thought it made the movie stink worse than open septic tank.

 

 

Darth_Andrea

[animus]

Ghost Rider was absolute shit. I hate to swear, I prefer to be more colorful, but Ghost Rider deserves it.

 

What other Frank Miller work has been made into a movie other than Sin City? Sin City was actually good.

 

And as for Heath Ledger playing joker...well, I too am rather dubious. But did you see the pictures of his mouth all split and stapled? It's beautiful, and gives me hope. Plus, Batman Begins was excellent.

[Doyn]

I think we can start the "Comic Book Era" of movies with the release of Spider-man. It was at that time that CG caught up to the point to make thing possible. I really thought Spider-man and X-men were well done. Fantastic Four added in cheese to that so I really didn't think it was all that great. Daredevil and Punisher were so so, character don't really lend themselves to a big budget film. Blade was unique in that the trilogy started before the Comic Book Era but ended in it. But that trilogy was not revolutionary by any means. I actually like Hulk for the artistic side of it.

 

But now that the big hitters are out of the way, Marvel is starting to fall back on B-list characters. Iron Man is secondary to the Avengers which probably should be their next move, rather than individual character movies. Spinoffs like Wolverine work much better out of team movies because they can gauge interest. All in all there is not much in the way of comic movies I am looking forward to now outside of Doctor Strange and Thor as they are my faves. I will see them, but I don't think they will have staying power. The couple of B/C listers coming out like Ant Man, Nick Fury and Black Panther will probably recoop production expenses at first. But as interest wains, so will the Comic Book Era. I would much prefer see The Avengers, then Thor, Iron Man, Captain America individual movies.

 

However the one thing I have been enjoying is the Lions Gate line of animated features. While not the best acting in world these direct to DVD releases have been entertaining and allow us to see our comic people in action.

 

Now all that said about Marvel, DC is in shambles. They were behind the times after Marvel struck big. They had to push out new Batman and Superman movies. Batman succeeeded, Superman was enjoyable. But they pushed so hard, they don't have anything in the pipeline. Sure they have ideas. But that is all they are. When a movie script is on a fifth rewrite like Wonder Woman and have pushed out a fanboy favorite like Joss Whedon, you are in trouble. Now they are talking about running the whole gammut of A-listers like Lantern, Arrow, Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman in addition to a Justice League movie? They may be a little too late. Cut the losses, go with Justice League and hope that it has some base to spin out individual characters.

 

The other line movies like Constantine, 300, History of Violence, Sin City, V for Vendetta are done on a much more cinematic scale. While they are based in comics and graphic novels, they do not belong so much to the Comic Book Era as they are not identified with the prototypical superhero with superpowers mold that is the Comic Book Era. And these types of movies will continue to do well even after that Era has ended.