Disney Studios- The Laws of Comic Book Movies (And how so many movie studios are doing it wrong)

I love the Disney and Marvel combination. They are a perfect fit for Disney and help them reach greater demographics, but the bread and butter businesses relationship between the two is not comic books, merchandise, or television...it is the movie. Disney has had very little experience in creating and successfully executing a comic book movie. Most industry comic book movies make a modest revenue at the box office, but are considered terrible movies overall, so we must ask ourselves why the dichotomy? The answer is simple- Comic book movies are a different entity of movie genre to which Disney needs to get up to speed on (as well as most of the other studios). They are NOT action movies. They are NOT dramas nor comedy. A successful comic book movie tells a story that is based on that character so that READER'S FAMILIAR WITH THE CHARACTERS CAN RELATE TO THE STORY. So why do most comic book movies fail and why are the few good ones that much better? I present to you a Bill of Rights for Comic book movies.

 Law 1-  Comic book movies should have a LARGE budget. Eisner's old "singles and doubles" strategy does not correspond well to Comic book movies. These movies need to be larger than life and should never be skimped on, but where you invest the money is what's really crucial. The bulk of the money should go the STORY and the SUPPORT elements (directing, lighting, costumes, make-up, props, visual effects, etc.) A comic book is born on the page and so too are their movies; THEY ARE WON OR LOST ON THE PAGE. Invest in a good writer, invest in a good director, invest in a good support staff, and make sure you have a solid story that stays true to the original creation.

 Law 2- Casting A-list stars can actually hurt your movie. A-list stars may help get butts in seats for many dramatic or action movies, but not in a comic book movie. THE COMIC BOOK CHARACTER PUTS THE BUTTS IN THE SEATS. The same fan will go see the Hulk whether is it played by Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Eric Bana, etc. There is no need to pay $20 Million for Edward Norton when a lesser known actor WILL LIKELY BE BETTER in the part. Don't mistake what I'm saying, Acting is crucial to a comic book movie as it is to any movie and bad acting will kill a movie, but discovering relative unknowns with strong acting talent is a better choice than paying for a well-known celebrity actor. The actor must become the character that the fans know. The actor must BE THE FACE AND IDENTITY OF THAT CHARACTER FOR THAT GENERATION, hence the actor should not already have a face in another big movie three months from now. Additionally, signing relative unknowns to multi-film deals will drive down your costs and lower the overhead. Edward Norton is a great actor, but he is not the hulk. Find me an actor who's got real talent and is hungry, he'll work for a low wage, but will deliver the character better than anyone. Stay away from actors well known or iconic enough that they skew the image of the movie or what its going to be.

Law 3- A good director is fundamental. A good director should understand the comic medium and ALREADY BE A FAN OF THE CHARACTER so that the intent of the story is true to the comic. Christopher Nolan's Batman movies are so good because he is a self-described Batman fanatic, so the movies are a natural fit.  Alternatively, Ang Lee is a well known director, but his Hulk movie was so abysmal and unnecessarily dramatic that I wanted to erase it from my memory.

Law 4- Do not make up main characters. The comic book universe is filled with characters and there are decades of stories to draw inspiration from, so why on earth do so many writers and directors take such liberties as making up a new character, especially for a villain? Nick Nolte's character in Hulk was so bad, not just because the guy literally has no acting talent, but because what character was he? Hulk fans around the world were trying to figure out who this Electric guy was or wondered why Hulk was fighting big dogs rather than a known villain. The film should draw characters exclusively from the books.

Law 5- Do not add extra characters if they do not serve the story. X-Men origins Wolverine was terrible. I hated every minute of it, but what I hated more than anything is that they wasted Gambit. A comic book character cannot appear in different movies that have different settings; once they've been used, they can't really come back, therefore Gambit will not be making an appearance in later X-Men movies since he was already in a prequel. Gambit is a great character, and fans have been clamoring to see him, but he was wasted. His part was minimal and useless. He served no real purpose in the story. Same principle for Blob. THEY USED THEM TO INCREASE FAN APPEAL AND MARKETING NOTORIETY, BUT HAVE NO OVERALL PURPOSE TO THE STORY. If the character doesn't fit, don't waste him, wait and put him in the next one. A five minute Colossus bit part in X-Men 2 does not do justice to the character. X-Men 3's depiction of Angel was terrible that many fans just assume it didn't exist. Don't waste characters.

Law 6- Do not double-dip actors in the same universe. When I heard that Chris Evans was Captain America I was sad and confused. Why is the Human Torch playing Captain America? CHRIS EVANS IS THE HUMAN TORCH, I have two previous movies that say that. Is the acting pool really so shallow that we have to double-dip actors for roles? Now there can never be Captain America and Human Torch in the same movie (I don't know why they would, but you never know). Once you've played an iconic comic book character, you're done, you are that character from that point forward. Disney and Marvel must look at each actor as a LONG TERM investment in the character. The rumors that Wesley Snipes wants to play Black Panther should send a chill down all of our spines. Aside from being perceived as a tax-evader, Snipes is Blade, so he can't be Black Panther. Now, though I don't like Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool and Green Lantern, at least they are in DIFFERENT UNIVERSES, so it makes it acceptable. Movie companies need to realize that you get one guy to play each character. If If I was casting Captain America, I don't look at how many butts a person has put in the seats. The movie will make money regardless. I would look at who's the best fit. My personal preference would be someone that looked like John Cena (from the WWE), but without the terrible part time rap career.

Law 7- Do not formulate a plan for a sequel only after it has made significant revenues. A writer should be aware of the LIMITS of the current script and ALREADY HAVE IN MIND where they'd like to take the next sequel. The "Go or No Go" decision should be based on the revenue incurred, not the idea for the movie.

Law 8- Ensemble movies only work if character backstories has been successfully built. Disney does this very well. The Avengers movie only occurred AFTER the Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk movies had all been made. DC is having the opposite problem. They tried to make a Justice League movie (that nearly began filming) that would have had over 20 characters, with only three of them having had their own backstory and own movie. This would have been a disaster. Since there hasn't been a Wonder Woman movie yet (don't ask me why DC moves so slowly at churning out quality scripts), throwing her into a Justice League movie would have been disastrous.

Law 9- Don't make movies faster than you can ensure they are made well. There needs to be a strong FILTER MECHANISM in place to ensure character development is done well. This is self-explanatory.

Law 10- The movie should exude fun and should feel like a comic book. The movie should not feel like a soap opera, a love story, or another Die Hard movie.

The Marvel films good and the bad

1970's and 1980's-
Spider man, Punisher, and Captain America. These were all terrible and looked like a highschool film project.

Pre Disney
  Blade (1998)- Good
  X-Men (2000)- Good
  Spiderman (2002)- Good
  Blade 2 (2002)- Terrible
  Hulk (2003)- Terrible
  X-Men 2 (2003)- Very Good
  Daredevil (2003)- Bad
  Spiderman 2 (2004)- Very Good
  Punisher (2004)- Average
  Blade Trinity (2004)- Terrible
  Fantastic Four (2005)- Bad
  Elektra (2005) Terrible
  X-Men 3 (2006)- Bad
  Spiderman 3 (2007)- Bad
  Ghost Rider (2007)- Terrible
  Fantastic Four 2 (2007)- Terrible
  Punisher: War Zone (2008)- Average
  Incredible Hulk (2008)- Average
  Iron Man (2008)- Very Good
  X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)- Terrible

Disney owned Era
  Iron Man 2 (2010)- Average
  X-Men First Class (2011)- Good
  Thor (2011)- Good
  Captain America (2011)- Average

As shown, the track record thus far is not stellar. By wasting characters (see Law 5) Disney is very limited in what characters they can pursue (even if other companies own the larger characters film rights, Disney still has a seat at the table).

 Potential future movies-
   Dr. Strange
   X-Force/X-Factor/Avengers West Coast
   Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet
   Sinister Six (With Spiderman)
   Gambit origin
   War machine

Comic Book Movies to emulate
   The Dark Knight
   Watchmen
 
 
Marvel makes more than THREE times as many movies as DC, but when DC makes a good one, it's usually VERY GOOD. Marvel must continue to make CONSISTENTLY good movies and realize that the deeper well of potential characters is their GREATEST ASSET. DC has no room to make a bad movie because they don't have an ample amount of characters. Marvel has an ample supply of lesser known characters; by following these laws they can make a good movie out of a character/story that not many people know.