Spider-Man Trilogy.
X-Men Trilogy.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Iron Man.
Iron Man 2.
Ghost Rider.
Blade Trilogy.
Man-Thing.
The Punisher/The Punisher: Warzone.
Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Daredevil.
Elektra.
Hulk/The Incredible Hulk.
Of those 22 movies, how many have been worth the time?
Blade: Kickstarted the comic book movie resurrection. It's an excellent piece and a reversal of the comic/movie trend. Blade of the comics was actually edited according to how perfectly Snipes portrayed him. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it opened with THAT rave scene.
Hulk: An amazing piece of filmmaking that captured the psychological element of Hulk's character perfectly. Ang Lee also forgot to include fighting and action in his three hour movie. The Incredible Hulk is the opposite. It touches on Hulk's loneliness but includes far more action. The balance wasn't perfect but I feel it was better as a film. Very good, I enjoyed it.
Elektra: A piece of shit.
Daredevil: Blighted by theatrical cuts. The director's cut is better and worth a watch if you like the theatrical release, but still, it's a sub-par movie and a missed opportunity.
Ghost Rider: I don't particularly know what happened here. Ghost Rider LOOKED the part, the C.G.I. was amazing and he was a great visual treat. Aside from that, the movie was inexcusably bad.
Fantastic Four/Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer: This is the best example of a man having no respect for the source material and trying to adapt a franchise to appeal to Saturday night movie goers, none of which give a shit about comics, nor will they after this movie. I hate that excuse; "We're updating it to draw new fans in, while pleasing old ones.". Clearly you're not, Tim Story, because if you cared you wouldn't have made Dr. Doom an American businessman who shoots lightning out of his hands. You would have cast people suitable for the roles and picked a better storyline to go with. As for Surfer...well. One of my favourite comic characters ever and he was treated as I expected. To be fair, his role was so minimal that it wasn't really ruined. Except for that shit about him losing his powers if he comes off his board. Although, Galactus' role was also minimal and that was horseshit.
X-Men Trilogy: The first one, credited for bringing credibility back to live-action comic movies (No, Blade did that), was shit. Poor acting, poor story, poor casting. Why did Sabretooth look like a hobo? Second one was fun, but ultimately suffered from sequel syndrome (Too many characters and regarded as the film where they can just do all action because story was handled in the first movie). The third one was the same, but worse and without the fun. Whoever cast Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut holds the trophy for worst casting in a Marvel movie. "He couldn't have been in it otherwise! C.G.I. would have looked dumb!", then don't have him. Either have him properly or don't have him at all.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The best and only good thing about this movie was the minute or so of Ryan Reynolds. Despite taking liberties with Wade Wilson's origins, he has the character down. He reads the comics, has done for years, so I knew he would. I really hope the Deadpool movie (A reboot and totally disconnected from the abominable excuse for Deadpool in the Wolverine flick) is good. They seem to have the right ingredients, so we shall see.
Spider-Man Trilogy: Aside from Blade, THIS movie started it all. Some misguided casting and sluggish pacing aside, I loved how they told this story and it was the first time I truly felt the Marvel magic on the big screen. J.K. Simmons as J.J. Jameson was genius. I'd have gone for Justin Theroux as Norman Osborn, but Dafoe did a good job. The second one was shaping up to be that unspeakable rarity; a second installment better than the first. Then they removed his mask and made it the love story that it didn't NEED to become. The third, as seems customary with Marvel, was total shit and proved that fans should never be in charge. "WE WANT VENOM! OH MY GOD, WHERE'S VENOM!?", "Here! HERE'S VENOM! NOW ARE YOU HAPPY?!", "OH MY GOD, HE SUCKS! FUCK YOU, SAM RAIMI!". Horrible movie. Not to mention that I would probably find watching porn with my parents less embarassing than the scene with Peter dancing in the jazz bar.
Man-Thing and The Punisher I'm indifferent to. I haven't actually seen The Punisher: Warzone, yet.
Iron Man: What to say that hasn't been said, amazing. A slightly disappointing third act, but an EXCELLENT movie. Excellent casting, breathtaking effects and solid story. The performances were excellent from all involved, and even Paltrow as Pepper Potts didn't give off the typical damsel vibe. I love how they captured that. Pepper likes Tony, but Tony's just out for fun, and that's the way it goes. Hopefully sequel syndrome doesn't strike with Iron Man 2, because the Comic Con preview made me do a sex pee. I'm concerned about Scarlett Johansson sounding like a tool when doing a Russian accent as Black Widow, but I love how they cast Justin Hammer as a young guy (Sam Rockwell is a brilliant choice). I love the element of competition that introduces between Hammer and Stark. Mickey Rourke looks sick as Whiplash, but the decision to mix him with Crimson Dynamo is odd to me. So needless, but it could be irrelevant if it's done well. War Machine? Mmm, MMM!
This brings me to what was GOING to be the main point; Thor's movie. All things considered, this could be the best movie on paper. It has theatrical elements, grand elements, mystical elements and it damn sure has elements of action. Thor is an epic character, but I always enjoyed the idea of Thor more than most of his actual comics. I'm a bit puzzled as to why they cast Chris Hemsworth as Thor, considering this is a BIG role that needs to be perfect, and he's done next to nothing. However, this is Marvel Studios handling this. I doubt they'd have cast him if he wasn't good. Most recently, Anthony Hopkins has been cast as Odin, Tadanobu Asano has been cast as Hogan (Weird, but I can see it) and Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster. I'd have gone with Brian Blessed as Odin, but I certainly have faith in Hopkins. Tom Hiddleston has a VERY devious look about him, and is perfect as Loki, visually.
This could either be the best Marvel movie ever, possibly the best comic book movie ever, or it could be among the very worst. I don't think they'll blow away the reality that Marvel Studios has attempted to create by linking all these movies together, though.
Ultimately, the endgame is to have the movie adaptation of the Avengers. The Avengers already has a cast; Downey Jr. is returning as Iron Man, Don Cheadle and Scarlett Johansson as War Machine and Black Widow respectively and the aforementioned Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston will be playing Thor and Loki. This is VERY good. Marvel NEED continuity of actors if this is to work. Additionally, now that we've had Downey Jr. do a cameo in The Incredible Hulk and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) do a cameo in Iron Man (As well as a role in Iron Man 2), Edward Norton has stated that he'd love to be in The Avengers as Bruce Banner with Hulk as the villain.
If of that all works out, it would be utterly crucial for the success of this movie.
Marvel need to step their game up though. Captain America also has a movie coming out, erroneously titled The First Avenger: Captain America (He was NOT the first Avenger), allegedly in the same year as Thor (2011, with The Avengers slated for 2012), and they don't even have anyone cast as Steve Rogers/Captain America.
When you look at the proposed cast of The Avengers and when you consider that Jon Favreau (Iron Man director) is executive producer, there's not much that can seemingly go wrong. The chance that this could be a monumental and unprecedented success is shadowed, sadly, by the concept that it could be a cataclysmic failure.
I hold my breath with anticipation. I've followed comics since I was a young boy, single digits. Some have been into it decades longer than I have, too. I just hope these people care enough about us to aim for us when making this. Give us something to be proud of, Marvel. When all these mainstream folks go to see these movies and suddenly decide comics are cool now, give us reason to stand up and know that we had known it all along.
-The Mast
