Superheroes of summer Comic book denizens a bonanza at box office
Michael D. Reid Times Colonist Friday, July 11, 2008
CREDIT: handout Summer of the super hero.
With Superman turning 70 last month, it's fitting that this is the Summer of the Superhero. It seems you can't swing a bucket of popcorn at the multiplex these days without hitting a superhuman character: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Angelina Jolie's assassin in Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy and, oh yes, next week's The Dark Knight.
Superheroes aren't what they used to be. They're more complex and conflicted than the Man of Steel. Which isn't to say the crimefighter who was faster than a speeding bullet was a slouch.
It's just that Superman is so yesterday. And not just because the late Christopher Reeve was sadly not as invulnerable as his character in Richard Donner's Superman 1978, that decade's sole superhero blockbuster.
The upside was that the success of Superman and the first of its three sequels -- and of Batman (1989), Tim Burton's darkly riveting franchise-launcher with Michael Keaton as the caped crusader -- inspired a glut of superhero flicks.
There were some misfires -- Judge Dredd, Batman and Robin and Catwoman, for starters. But Hollywood finally woke up to the fact comic books weren't just the obsessions of geeks with arrested development.
The comic book has gained mainstream respect. And despite predictions that comics would disappear as fans aged, the "graphic novel" has become a renewable, sequel-ready art form and source of ideas for Hollywood.
With amazing advances in visual effects making it easier for directors to replicate the stuff of a comic book scribe's wild imagination, it's an ideal fit. The downside is that comic books risk being dumbed down as they're tailored for movie potential.
But what's not to like for a studio executive? If you take the right gamble -- the Spider Man, Blade and Batman franchises, for example -- you can cash in big time with well-written movies, not just for fans but a mainstream crowd.
Comic-based movies have varied dramatically -- swinging from darkly violent fare like Alex Proyas's The Crow (1994) and David S. Goyer's Blade 1998 series to the X-Men movies, stronger on character development and superpowers. What keeps the genre exciting is that it has shape-shifted as much as the Silver Surfer, most memorably with Batman Begins.
Directed by Christopher Nolan from a story by Goyer and with an electrifying Christian Bale in the Bruce Wayne/Batman role, Warner Brothers' 2005 reboot of its faltering franchise was a brilliantly introspective descent into the Dark Knight's origins. Few superhero films have been as hotly anticipated as its sequel -- reportedly the darkest, most adrenalin-fuelled Batman flick yet -- and not just because of the macabre prospect of seeing the late Heath Ledger as the Joker.
The Incredible Hulk? Not so much. While Edward Norton was more compelling as Dr. Bruce Banner than Eric Bana's bland embodiment in Ang Lee's disappointing 2003 version, Louis Leterrier's update reaffirmed that some comic book characters are best left on the page.
The new Hulk film also lacked what, in addition to Robert Downey Jr.'s deliciously ironic turn as playboy industrialist Tony Stark, made Iron Man the summer's top-grosser -- a sense of humour and sparkling dialogue to match way-cool special effects.
Liquor-loving Stark, who like Bruce Wayne was traumatized by the death of his parents, is typical of today's dominant superhero: the troubled crimefighter who could use some help of his own. Stark might find it at an AA meeting with Hellboy, Ron Perlman's boozy, cigar-chomping horned demon warrior.
My new favourite is Hancock, the Bad Santa of superheroes. Portrayed with ragged charisma by Will Smith, he's a surly, self-loathing superhero with a drinking problem, a foul mouth and a serious need for redemption.
Hancock, not for everyone, is darker and more thoughtful than expected despite inspired visual gags and comic exchanges between Hancock and Jason Bateman as Ray Embrey, a PR consultant who tries to improve the reluctant hero's image.
I loved how director Peter Berg turned the genre on its ear, sending up its digital overkill as Smith's boozy, dishevelled hero zaps, under the influence, from one location to another, yet is forced to accept responsibility for the destruction in his wake.
Hancock also has one of the summer's funniest movie lines. It's the hungover crimefighter's shocked reaction to footage of his drunken self lifting a beached whale and tossing it back into the ocean, where it lands on a yacht and sinks it. Oops.
"I don't remember that," Hancock deadpans. Replies Ray: "Greenpeace does."
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