Masks covering the whole face...

[SuperFerret]

The "can't emote with their face covered" argument is bull. You can convey emotions with your body, as well as your face, and in a comic book movie, some over-the-top gestures aren't out of place.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I don't think anyone's saying you can't; only that it's harder.

 

[Chris Wallace]

And think about this; how many times have you seen artists try to give characters like Spider-Man facial expressions?

 

[Chris Wallace]

They could've given GG a mask, but it should be like this:

Just a pull over mask, like Batman's, but there should be a big mouth opening, his skin and mouth which are uncovered, could be painted green. This way we can see Goblin talk. I can't explain it very well, but you can get the idea from this.

Ugh. That wouldn't have worked.

 

[Sabretooth]

And think about this; how many times have you seen artists try to give characters like Spider-Man facial expressions?

They also do that thing where the lenses on his mask move like eyes. They get huge when he's shocked,and smaller when he's pissed. You can't do that on film without it looking silly.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

The "can't emote with their face covered" argument is bull. You can convey emotions with your body, as well as your face, and in a comic book movie, some over-the-top gestures aren't out of place.

If you're stage acting maybe, and everything has to be exaggerated. But for everybody to be making over the top physical gestures just so that they can be wearing masks, is a bad idea. It undermines the performance because you'd have to be more self-conscious about it. Plus, it'd look like an episode of Power Rangers. I can see it working with certain characters, but not all of them. Anyway, the only character whose costume has been changed to eliminate the mask aspect is Juggernaut, as far as I know. Well, not counting the X-Men uniforms.

 

[imagine12]

And that whole thing about marvel taking masks away from characters like wolverine is whack. I mean, why couldn't it work? If there was a captain america movie, would they take his mask away? Batman? Why does he get a mask and it works, and his is rubber for crying out loud! Wolverines would just have to be a small(probably refined) version of the the astonishing mask, probably leather of course, but why wouldn't it work? They could just leave the eyes open without that stupid white lense he has... The mask is part of his design, watching logan is never as cool as when he puts his costume on in the comic, and this is a fictional world, why not play with it?

 

[Mr. Magoo]

I don't think they took any of the cowls or masks away from the X-Men so that they could emote. Obviously when your mask looks like Captain America's or Batman's (or Daredevil's...?), enough of your face is shown to not really hinder the performance. But in that case I think it was just a conceptual thing. I just don't think Singer or whoever designed the uniforms wanted them to look like costumes. I honestly can't imagine Wolverine wearing a little mask with his leather uniform. I think it'd look kind of goofy.

 

[Mr Sensitive]

And, to be frank, they were short in money, in the first X movie, to make decent research on how to adapt the whole uniforms to cinema.

 

[Chris Wallace]

They also do that thing where the lenses on his mask move like eyes. They get huge when he's shocked,and smaller when he's pissed. You can't do that on film without it looking silly.

That's what I mean.

 

[The Geek Vault]

you guys are talking masks would be hard. Picture how hard the hulk or Kong was acting with something now really there now that has to be hard! Creating the creatures facial expression from pixels.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I don't think they took any of the cowls or masks away from the X-Men so that they could emote. Obviously when your mask looks like Captain America's or Batman's (or Daredevil's...?), enough of your face is shown to not really hinder the performance. But in that case I think it was just a conceptual thing. I just don't think Singer or whoever designed the uniforms wanted them to look like costumes. I honestly can't imagine Wolverine wearing a little mask with his leather uniform. I think it'd look kind of goofy.

Plus-as I so often argue-it would be hard to justify. He's got no identity to protect (HE doesn't even know who he is!), nobody else was wearing one, why shoule he? And the movie portrays the X-Men as what they are; a sort of military strike force. Not a superhero team. The mask didn't fit the aesthetic of the film.

 

[Chris Wallace]

The "can't emote with their face covered" argument is bull. You can convey emotions with your body, as well as your face, and in a comic book movie, some over-the-top gestures aren't out of place.

As proven by Hugo Weaving in "V For Vendetta".
But I guess it depends on the actor.

 

[huskerwebhead]

I'm sure they would have much rather given Willem Dafore a latex mask or no mask at all, but it's kind of hard to justify, if you know what I mean. Him having a green mask in his house that just happens to go with the glider suit is a reach, but it's not so much a question of internal logic as it is of plausibility. The rubber mask thing, on the other hand: what do you do about that? I know he's "ca-razay", but that basically means he'd have to break into a Halloween store, for some reason, decide he liked some weird goblin mask that just happened to be expressive enough to allow him to emote (so plausibility rears its ugly head in either scenario), steal it and break the **** out of that joint, or maybe he does his own makeup right before he goes 'a-killing. They made him nuts, but he wasn't *that* nuts. Plus it would look like crap on top of his glider suit. Unless he dressed in the whole "Goblin" ensemble, but, again, there'd be no reason for him to do that. You can throw your hands up in the air and say "Crazy", but it really is a question of character consistency and internal logic that has to be addressed. In this case I think contriving some way, no matter how whacked out, to get him into a goblin suit would have been worse for the film than his non-expressive mask was. Plus, at least Raimi got to go tongue-in-cheek with it on that one rooftop scene, so it wasn't all bad.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about this the other day. I thought they could have pulled off the "rubber mask" like so: Keep the tribal masks he had in his house. Then have either Harry or one of his business partners or whoever give him the rubber mask as a joke to "add to his mask collection." They all have alot of money so it may be a pretty detailed mask. Putting up a fake front of amusment Norman would just throw it aside but finds it again after he transforms. The suit could remain the same, but I think it would fit better if it were toned down a little. And he could easily grab some hood/cape from somewhere to add to the cosume if necessary. Or it could even be part of the gag gift. I know it sounds pretty simple...maybe a little lame. But I'm no movie screenwrite. I'm sure basing it off something like that Raimi could have made it look/feel alot more natural.

 

[Spider - Man]

Maybe it's the comic fan in me, but I say they keep his face covered behind the mask. If they want to show his reactions during a battle, they could either zoom in on his eyes or maybe do an inside the armor type shot if it's possible.

That's actually a great idea: for emotion during battle they could show his face darkly lit with like a green heads-up display across his face as if he's seeing things on the computer screen inside his mask. That would be cool AND original AND allow them to show emotion WITHOUT having him remove the mask or alter it. You've GOT to have the full helmet and mask with IM!