Article by Scott Essman
Since the box office explosion of Tim Burton's Batman feature adaptation in 1989, the major Hollywood movie studios have attempted to exploit the comic book / graphic novel in feature adaptations of hordes of previously dormant franchises. In the past twenty years, there have been many such films and sequels, not to mention many other films which have tried to copy the métier of these films with the hope of kick-starting a new franchise for studios who increasingly rely on the synergy of their various divisions, be they publishing, broadcasting, print, amusement parks, and emerging digital technologies. The issue is that only a very few of these properties have proved worthy of their legacy, and even fewer have created the buzz that the modern incarnation of studios swear by to generate material across the many media that they govern.
In the 1990s, after three increasingly poor Batman sequels, comic book adaptations and copycats seemed to lose their way, especially in the age of independent successes and the verite storytelling. During this time, Alex Proyas' The Crow best nailed the spirit of the comics, and Luc Besson's original The Fifth Element provided a sideways homage to periodical books including Heavy Metal. Above all of these The Matrix captured the cyberpunk/comic zeitgeist more so than any film of the decade. Coming at the tail end of the 1990s, it fully outstripped the first prequel of the second Star Wars trilogy, released at the same time, by offering a slick combination of ideas, action, nouveau technology, noir settings, and heroic characters.
The first decade of the 21st century was nothing if not a crushing disappointment on many levels, and the comic book-based films were prominent in this failure to fulfill high expectations. A long rumored and awaited Spider-Man film by the unlikely Sam Raimi provided the best of all of these films, but a quickly made first sequel offered nothing new whatsoever in the best example ever of a completely safe rehash of everything that worked the first time out. A second sequel was even more pointless, coming at a time when two meaningless additions to the fray arrived in the form of two Hulk films, each with its strengths, though the studio machinations would have us believe that the second film was a complete improvement over the first in every way. It wasn't. The second tier of these films were punched out in the 2000s, including forgettable fare such as Daredevil and its brethren Elektra, a miscreant Catwoman film, and a slew of middling films based on the X-Men franchise that were more about the agendas of the filmmakers than the resurrection of a classic property. Everything that was needed to say about X-Men was said in the first film, but that didn't stop three more films from coming through the studio pipeline.
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A Superhero with the Greatest Powers: His Brain and His Heart
Instead, what we get is more standard chuckles between Ben and Johnny, Susan's concern over how their celebrity is ruining her marriage and family plans, along with another one of her "Oh, damn, I'm nude again in public" scenes, and simplistic children's twaddle that completely erases the grandeur, nobility, and greater depth depicted in the comic book for gosh sakes. Digest that last sentence again: the 1960's comic book storyline had more depth than this movie.
Journeys end in lovers meeting, or so the saying goes. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson do have one rough journey, though, before that ending comes. 




