A lot of the arguments I'm seeing against origins are illogical. To say that we don't need to know the how & why of superheroes? This is the kind of mentality that led to movies like "Batman & Robin". Take away the motivation behind what they do, & there's no point in telling their story at all. I don't mean that every hero across the board needs to come out with a 2-hour exposition of what brought them to this point, but to say none of them do is ridiculous.
Mmm, it’s already been said here that reasons and motivations don’t have to be exclusively shown through cause and effect origins. There are many other ways to do that, both in casual and meaningful scenes.
Again, "Spectacular" is a bad example. Keep in mind also that it's aimed primarily at kids who-1, aren't as quick to ponder the how & why of an action series, & 2-have already been fed a backstory via the movies.
Ah, but that’s exactly right:
1) As I said it’s a fairly original idea to ‘breach mediums’ in such a way - if the cartoon relies on the movie, why can’t a movie rely on a comic book?
2) So what you’re saying is that not only kids are the most proper audience for it but that they are also the most educated to appreciate it - that they would almost certainly know Spidey’s origin through the movies.
Why can’t similarly superhero movies be oriented towards the educated comic book and geek demographic? As they already are, to an extent.
As I said before in this thread I’m thinking about the benefit of the story, not the benefit of the audience. I believe that popularising a franchise for all audiences hinders the quality of the plot. I believe that the more audience specific a movie is, the better its audience becomes - one that would go through the trouble to understand it without being spoon fed an extensive explanation right there on the spot. To me that means that viewer is much more dedicated and wants to appreciate the ‘art work’ for what it is - don’t bend the movie, bend the audience.
The fact that it’s heavily action oriented I consider to be a mute point.
And since the only contradiction between the movie origin & the series is the addition of the mechanical webshooters, you can't compare it to, say, a movie about Captain America, where the audience is coming in cold with no real point of reference to draw from.
Wait, I’m sorry, I don’t get what Captain America has to do with a Spider-Man franchise???
Look, comics introduce & establish the characters. Movies that are based on comics & want to appeal to the readers thereof (albeit not exclusively) do the same thing. They're following a pre-established pattern. I've been put off many a comic simply b/c its backstory was either lacking or unclear. It makes perfect sense to do it this way, & I don't see it changing any time soon. I also don't see a reason to.
Is there a reason to do anything?
What I’m suggesting is a creative experiment - to dare something original.
It doesn’t have to be always by the numbers.
I understand that your type of person wouldn’t be the right audience for such a thing but that’s also partially the point why it should be made.
And question - why were you put off by an unclear origin? What is it exactly that you are looking for in a superhero tale?
Dirty Harry & John McClain don't have superpowers, elaborate custom-made gadgets or fancy costumes. They don't have alternate personalities or any other traits of superheroes. Bad example.
It doesn’t have to be as complicated as you make it sound to be.
Here are a few examples how all those things can be tapped into fast and easy - a flashback, a dialogue scene, a test/exhibition scene. All those scenes can be deep and emotional enough without being in a linear 2 hour origin story.
It’s not that it can’t be done; people (both filmmakers and audiences alike) just like it easier that way.
Yet whenever the sequel comes around all filmmakers can say is "Now that we got all that tedious stuff out of the way we can focus on making an original, interesting story."
Hehe, yeah, they do say that sometimes. Although not in such a straight forward dry manner.
