 Originally Posted by bassman
To be fair, i've never thought the Iron Man films were as great as some people make them out to be.
I thought they were solid, fun-time superhero adventures and it was probably a good idea for them to take that route, as Tony Stark could easily just have been a bad riff on the Batman series, otherwise.
While DC hasn't put out many films and a few that were clunkers, they've still got the bar set high with Superman and Batman.
I kind of disagree. While I do agree the 1st Superman film stands out due to its approach (both technological and thematic) and landmark treatment of a comicbook hero property & fantastical storytelling, which was so groundbreaking when it was filmed, I just think otherwise it's a great example of how to then run a good series into the ground. The new Superman was...okay, but pretty flat overall. Hardly a good example, to me anyway, of a superb superhero film.
Now the recent series of Batman films is probably one of the best pathos-filled action series to come out of Hollywood in a decade. That said, I don't see Batman as the epitome of a superhero movie. Maybe a comic book or pulp movie, but not precisely a superhero film. The character himself is very removed from superheroes in some respects due to his approach to crime fighting, his means and techniques and that is one of the reasons why it's easy to do a strait action flick with the character. He doesn't fly, shoot laser beams, throw cars, telekinetically topple buildings and his whole mythos is just grounded enough that they can artfully pull it off--admittedly with great vision, topnotch acting and direction.
So to me, it's just a different type of success. DC has nailed doing serious, down to earth, higher concept superhero films (which is SO odd, to me) and Marvel has bombarded the theaters with high action, superhero adventures and done very well in some cases. Marvel's volume is superior, but they need to be pickier about their projects from concept through to execution, which is where I agree with you in that they could stand to up their game.
Honestly, though, for Marvel to take on Captain America and deliver (for a lot of us viewers anyway) was ballsy and well done, in my opinion. Talk about a million ways to possibly go wrong with bringing a boy scout-style, super-patriot character to the screen. I think generally, Marvel films have been trending upward in quality, but they need to slow it all down and stop rushing them out like cashcows, or they risk quickly falling into the over-campyness of where the 1990s Batman series ended up with More Daredevils, Fantastic Fours and Hulks.
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Dude, 1 & 2 were comic book movies that delivered a comicbook story and did so very well.
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