I think with the underwhelming Box Office of SR, we may be seeing an end to the "Geek Golden Age" we've been so lucky to live in. I'm 32 years old, and I remember back in the 80's and most of the 90's, all the fanboy "dream projects" were just that...unlikely figments of our imaginations. The Lord of the Rings was deemed "unfilmable". George Lucas had moved on from Star Wars, it was over. We kept reading about potential movie versions of our beloved comic books in the pages of Wizard Magazine and before that, Amazing Heroes ( yeah, I go back that far...sue me, I'm old ) But they never happened. All we got were campier and campier seuqels to Batman an childish tripe like Steel and Spawn.
And then the Matrix happened. And then the idea that a sci fi "comic book" movie ( in theme if not in fact ) could be great and commercially succesful wasn't a crazy one anymore. Then X-men happened, and instead of making it another campfest, Fox got Bryan Singer, an actual director with pedigree, to make a real film out of a comic book. Then Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films went through the roof. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings proved that not only was it filmable, it could be made into a damn fine series of films. Even Hulk, while dissapointing in many ways, dared to treat the subject matter with seriousness. Sure, there were dissapointments...the new Star Wars trilogy couldn't compare to the originals, and Fantastic Four and Daredevil weren't what I'd call Oscar quality, and that's putting it mildly. But they happened. The idea that there would even be a Fantastic Four movie and a Daredevil movie would have been a pipe dream when I was a kid. ( And I'll go as far as saying both those movies are better than just about any of the 90's super hero films ) Sometimes I still can't believe they made a Hellboy film. Who whould have thought that back in the day?? And Batman Begins once again proved a comic book movie could be made with the same quality and integrety as any Oscar nominated film. And because of that, Warners trusted Bryan Singer to make a Superman movie with the same seriousness as Nolan gave Batman.
But now it looks like that gamble has not paid off, and I'm pretty sure that the suits at all the studios are gonna balk at more adult oriented takes on Super Heroes, especially with more family oriented stuff like Pirates gobbling up everything else around them. This bodes ill for those of us who were excited about seeing real quality films made out of comics. Warners has got to be freaking out about Wonder Woman, Flash and especially the Watchmen right now. And Jack Black should be getting a call anyday now for a more Comedic family friendly Green Lantern *shudder*
One good thing is that Marvel is in control of their further movie output, so hopefully they won't let anyone dumb them down. But even they are gonna feel the pressure to do so now.
But in any event, this really was a "golden age" for us geeks in many ways, maybe we should have appreciated it more while we had it. We all knew it had to end sometime.
Discuss....
And then the Matrix happened. And then the idea that a sci fi "comic book" movie ( in theme if not in fact ) could be great and commercially succesful wasn't a crazy one anymore. Then X-men happened, and instead of making it another campfest, Fox got Bryan Singer, an actual director with pedigree, to make a real film out of a comic book. Then Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films went through the roof. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings proved that not only was it filmable, it could be made into a damn fine series of films. Even Hulk, while dissapointing in many ways, dared to treat the subject matter with seriousness. Sure, there were dissapointments...the new Star Wars trilogy couldn't compare to the originals, and Fantastic Four and Daredevil weren't what I'd call Oscar quality, and that's putting it mildly. But they happened. The idea that there would even be a Fantastic Four movie and a Daredevil movie would have been a pipe dream when I was a kid. ( And I'll go as far as saying both those movies are better than just about any of the 90's super hero films ) Sometimes I still can't believe they made a Hellboy film. Who whould have thought that back in the day?? And Batman Begins once again proved a comic book movie could be made with the same quality and integrety as any Oscar nominated film. And because of that, Warners trusted Bryan Singer to make a Superman movie with the same seriousness as Nolan gave Batman.
But now it looks like that gamble has not paid off, and I'm pretty sure that the suits at all the studios are gonna balk at more adult oriented takes on Super Heroes, especially with more family oriented stuff like Pirates gobbling up everything else around them. This bodes ill for those of us who were excited about seeing real quality films made out of comics. Warners has got to be freaking out about Wonder Woman, Flash and especially the Watchmen right now. And Jack Black should be getting a call anyday now for a more Comedic family friendly Green Lantern *shudder*
One good thing is that Marvel is in control of their further movie output, so hopefully they won't let anyone dumb them down. But even they are gonna feel the pressure to do so now.
But in any event, this really was a "golden age" for us geeks in many ways, maybe we should have appreciated it more while we had it. We all knew it had to end sometime.
Discuss....
). If Supes would of came out during the winter it would most likely made more.
