Accuracy in Costumes

[DOBSON10]

Disappointed yes, but I do recall when everyone hated Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Or, more pertinent, Evan Peters as Quicksilver and the design of the Sentinels. All three of those got rave from fans upon release. Ironically, I would even say the Peters Quicksilver and the Sentinels were better received than the Marvel one or Ultron army at the end of that movie.

I still think Evan Peters' costume is beyond horrendous. The Catwoman costume, while solid, was nothing special, just a simple black jumpsuit. Past Sentinels looked silly, the future Sentinels were solid but very, very fake looking during major movements, looked good in more steady shots. Ultron himself was above average, his Army looked OK.

I won't get into how they played out as characters, because that is different from how they look. Being a good characterization or a bad characterization doesn't change how they look.

 

[Batmannerism]

I just want to point out to you that you said:

One costume is too close to the comics. It looks like cosplay.

One costume is too unlike the comics. It should look more like this cosplay.



With that said, I agree that the Apocalypse costume is disappointing.

Yeah, I didn't explain myself very well.

My point is that the costume sucks, and looks more like a power rangers villain. At least the cosplay looks a bit like Apocalypse does in the comics.
Why couldn't they just go with CGI and have him actually look at least something like the comics - because in the comics he's imposing and has a lot of presence. I don't like Thanos CGI that much, but he's a million times more impressive than the photos we've seen of Apocalpyse so far.

Having said all that, if they add a lot of CGI in post production to make it look cool, well I for one will be very happy - and happy for X-fans who are keenly looking forward to the film.

This of course, as another highly enlightened poster mentioned, is subjective and my opinion. If folks don't agree with me, fair enough - if people like the costume, more power to them.

 

[Mad Ones]

People complain because Psylocke looks too much like her comic book counterpart.

People complain because Apocalypse doesn't look enough like his comic book counterpart.

 

[krycek]

Outside of the First Class uniforms, I don't think any of the current X-Men movies have had good costumes. The designs have always felt boring and uninspired to me.

 

[horacethegrey]

Personally speaking, I've always disliked Psylocke's ninja outfit. It's a stupid design (like many of Jim Lee's costume designs), but I'll admit Olivia Munn looks great in it. As for Apocalypse, well I always found his look laughable so for me his move version is actually an improvement.

I think it's a case by case basis whether filmmakers should stay accurate to a character's look in the comics. Sometimes it looks great onscreen (Spider-Man, Deadpool, Iron Man, Superman (Chris Reeve version), Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman), others it doesn't (Green Lantern, Captain America in The Avengers).

I think Captain America in the MCU is a great example of how a superhero outfit is tweaked just right to make it look great onscreen while still retaining the iconic features of said character. And it's great that the filmmakers even acknowledge the original outfit by having Chris Evans wear it in the USO segments in The First Avenger.

 

[Rowsdower!]

That middle stripe on the Avengers: AOU Cap costume bothers me so much. Why the hell did they do that?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Personally speaking, I've always disliked Psylocke's ninja outfit. It's a stupid design (like many of Jim Lee's costume designs), but I'll admit Olivia Munn looks great in it. As for Apocalypse, well I always found his look laughable so for me his move version is actually an improvement.

I think as a general rule, X-Men costumes look terrible in the comics. There are some exceptions, but for the most part they are really bad.

 

[Soapy]

Man, Cap's first Avengers costume is so bad.

That middle stripe on the Avengers: AOU Cap costume bothers me so much. Why the hell did they do that?

To be honest, I don't like the stripes on that one at all.

 

[aNarcHy2day]

I think how good or bad the costume for a comic character looks is highly subjective and accuracy does not always mean the costume is "good" since plenty of comicbook costumes are inherently bad and won't look nice on film. For eg. I love Olivia's costume though there will be people who don't like the costume.

The thing with every costume though is, it should be identifiable. If I see a character in costume I know nothing about I should be able to identify him from a lineup of comic iterations. For eg. For all the gripes people have with X-Men costumes if you see Anna Paquin in costume you can tell it's Rogue. The essentials in the character are intact. Unfortunately, Apocalypse, for me, fails this test. Now we could argue that the iteration they went with is good or whatever but since he is a major character whose appearance is sort of iconic in the way Darkseid or Galactus's look is iconic I still can't get past that right now.

 

[Fincher]

Comic book accuracy in and of itself doesn't matter to me; the most I can say is that sometimes a look from the comics is cool and it would be cool to see that look represented. I like Psylocke's comic look, as well as what I've seen of the film interpretation. It wouldn't work for a hyper-realistic superhero film, but I don't think that's ever been true of the X-Men series, and I think First Class and Days of Future Past are sillier in tone than the older ones. On the other hand, I don't consider Wolverine's yellow costume a good look even for comics, and in live action I'd find it laughable.

Movie Apocalypse looks pretty dorky to me. I'm not arguing that a CG recreation of the comic book version would be better, but they could have done something that looks better, with or without paying tribute to the original look.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think how good or bad the costume for a comic character looks is highly subjective and accuracy does not always mean the costume is "good" since plenty of comicbook costumes are inherently bad and won't look nice on film. For eg. I love Olivia's costume though there will be people who don't like the costume.

The thing with every costume though is, it should be identifiable. If I see a character in costume I know nothing about I should be able to identify him from a lineup of comic iterations. For eg. For all the gripes people have with X-Men costumes if you see Anna Paquin in costume you can tell it's Rogue. The essentials in the character are intact. Unfortunately, Apocalypse, for me, fails this test. Now we could argue that the iteration they went with is good or whatever but since he is a major character whose appearance is sort of iconic in the way Darkseid or Galactus's look is iconic I still can't get past that right now.

Yeah, I agree you should at least be able to tell who the character is. Some costumes (such as many of the X-Men costumes) are ones that I don't think would translate straight to live action, but the live-action characters should at least resemble who they are supposed to be.

Even going by the original 2000 X-Men film, if I look at Wolverine, Xavier, Cyclops, Magneto, Storm, Jean Grey, etc., I feel they pass that test. If you showed me a photo of those characters in their film costumes, I could easily tell you who they were supposed to be.

For an example that would fail the test, we can look at the Fantastic Four remake. If you showed me a photo of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Dr. Doom, and Mole Man from that film, I doubt I would be able to name any of them if you didn't tell me who they were supposed to be. The lone exception is The Thing. That's a complete across the board failure in costuming and character design.

I'm not going to push for complete adherence to the comics, but we at least need to be able to tell who these characters are at a glance. It is important even for non-comic films that characters should be instantly recognizable. Characters like Darth Vader, James Bond, Indiana Jones, The Man with No Name, etc. are iconic at least in part because of their look.

 

[Batmannerism]

The thing with every costume though is, it should be identifiable. If I see a character in costume I know nothing about I should be able to identify him from a lineup of comic iterations. For eg. For all the gripes people have with X-Men costumes if you see Anna Paquin in costume you can tell it's Rogue. The essentials in the character are intact. Unfortunately, Apocalypse, for me, fails this test. Now we could argue that the iteration they went with is good or whatever but since he is a major character whose appearance is sort of iconic in the way Darkseid or Galactus's look is iconic I still can't get past that right now.

Agreed. Apocalpyse (and particularly his lips) has been around since 1986, his look has become iconic (in terms of X-Men Villains) and deserved better service than this.

In contrast, Doctor Doom was the weakest (and perhaps one of the worst) adaptations of a classic villain, but at least they got the Mask and Hood look right, if nothing else. Magneto's trademark helmet got some tweaks for the first X film, but it's still recognizable.

 

[Majik1387]

And Apocalypse is clearly recognizable as well considering everyone knew who it was.

It did its job and it did the job well.

 

[Red Mask]

My question is, is there a point where the accuracy of a costume for a comic book character who has a specific look being done right can be a bad thing?

Yes, if the costume looks so impractical to the current standards of dress and the fights the hero gets into.

 

[Red Mask]

People complain because Apocalypse doesn't look enough like his comic book counterpart.

Most people don't know that Apocalypse is actually dressed in a complete set of armor. His real face isn't that bald head with the gel mouth piece. It's generated by the armor he wears, using stolen Celestial technology.

 

[roach]

Personally speaking, I've always disliked Psylocke's ninja outfit. It's a stupid design (like many of Jim Lee's costume designs), but I'll admit Olivia Munn looks great in it. As for Apocalypse, well I always found his look laughable so for me his move version is actually an improvement.

It's not a Jim Lee design. It's Elektra's costume in purple. Since they both worked for the Hand that seems to be there go to female ninja costume.

 

[horacethegrey]

It's not a Jim Lee design. It's Elektra's costume in purple. Since they both worked for the Hand that seems to be there go to female ninja costume.

The ninja Psylocke first made her debut in Uncanny X-Men 256, which was drawn by Jim Lee. Perhaps Lee was influenced by Elektra's design, but it's still his. And I still think it looks dumb.

http://www.therealgentlemenofleisure.com/2015/02/x-amining-uncanny-x-men-256.html

 

[roach]

The ninja Psylocke first made her debut in Uncanny X-Men 256, which was drawn by Jim Lee. Perhaps Lee was influenced by Elektra's design, but it's still his. And I still think it looks dumb.

http://www.therealgentlemenofleisure.com/2015/02/x-amining-uncanny-x-men-256.html

I know when ninja Psylocke first appeared. I am saying the costume looks like that because it appears to be the standard Hand ninja female costume

 

[Red Mask]

Makes you wonder where Miller got his inspiration from.

 

[aNarcHy2day]

And Apocalypse is clearly recognizable as well considering everyone knew who it was.

It did its job and it did the job well.

Certainly not. The entire point of my last post was that the character should be identifiable if you didn't know the specific character it was supposed to be. I don't know much about Apocalypse, for example, and I didn't think the film version looks anything like the character.

Again, I reinterate, I'm not arguing how good or bad the costume they eventually went with is. I'm trying to quantify the concept of adapting comic book costumes.

 

[Batmannerism]

And Apocalypse is clearly recognizable as well considering everyone knew who it was.

It did its job and it did the job well.

Well, if you think so, but I disagree - and I suspect that the fact that "Apocalypse" is in the film title, and we saw a clip of En Sabah Nur at the end of the last X-film, might be the real reason why people know it's Apocalypse, or perhaps the article and cover on Entertainment magazine.

If I had seen the costume without any of that background information or knowledge I would have struggled to work out who it was - particularly as he's the same height as Storm- so I disagree with you there, that it did its job well, but hey everyone's entitled to their opinion.

 

[Tony Stark]

I can deal with how Apocalypse looks. Storm and Psylock look like ****. They are right that Oliva Munn looks like a Cosplay, but I have a feeling Psylock is going to be a character that is just there for powers not story, by picking a lightweight like Oliva Munn, who was probably only chosen because of all the G4 geeks who followed her and have posters of her on their wall.

Overall on the authenticity of comic book costumes, yes you want them to reflect the comics, but they should also look good on film. Psylock and Storm, just don't look good to me, for whatever reason.

 

[BlackFox]

I'm a little disappointed still the Daredevil costume turned out like it did, hoping the second series is a little but more comic book accurate. It was the only thing they got wrong in the series for me.

 

[Iron_Stark]

I like Psylocke's look, but Storm has a horrendous wig.

 

[roach]

I'm a little disappointed still the Daredevil costume turned out like it did, hoping the second series is a little but more comic book accurate. It was the only thing they got wrong in the series for me.

The cowl looks weird