“When you're dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That's what makes [Batman] so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.” – Christopher Nolan “When Patty [Jenkins] and I had our creative conversations about [Wonder Woman], we realized that [she] can still be a normal woman, one with very high values, but still a woman. She can be sensitive. She is smart and independent and emotional. She can be confused. She can lose her confidence. She can have confidence. She is everything. She has a human heart.” – Gal Gadot With the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the late 2000s and early 2010s, major studios with film rights to comic book heroes—from 20th Century Fox with X-Men to Warner Brothers with the DC characters—started to recognize the insane financial potential for creating a shared fictional universe involving crossovers of superheroes in team-up flicks. To varying degrees of success, the MCU sparked reboots and slow starts of cinematic universes from the DCEU to Sony’s modern Spider-Verse. So, as the summer blockbuster season winds down, I continue my exploration of the evolution of the comic book genre. In attempting to better understand the triumphant ascent of Marvel Studios’ superhero franchise, I will look at multiple movies that—to one degree or another—were the result of a ripple effect in Hollywood that inspired other studios to try and capture lightning in a bottle twice. So, without further ado…LET’S GET STARTED!! [NOTE: This blog contains spoilers for several movies. You have been warned.] - Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay The Dark Knight (2008) For a summary of the production and release of The Dark Knight, click here. Having written about many Batman movies—including The Dark Knight—mere months ago, I’ll try to be succinct here. For my more in-depth thoughts about Christopher Nolan’s sequel to Batman Begins, click that link above. Simply put, The Dark Knight can easily be described as a “perfect” film. Not literally, of course, as no such thing exists. However, it is by no means controversial for me to contend that the movie exemplifies some of the best modern filmmaking sensibilities in comic book cinema of the past twenty years. From its edge-of-your-seat pacing that never lets the audience lose where the story’s going to the expertly-crafted editing that heightens the suspense and emotional intensity when needed, Nolan’s direction comes together in every way possible to explore some heavy, relevant, and powerful ideas about order, chaos, and corruption. While not my personal favorite superhero flick, I don’t have a particularly strong argument for those who believe that The Dark Knight remains the most well-made movie of the genre. Without a doubt, I concur that it remains in the conversation of the pinnacle of what this genre can be. I know this was brief, so please refer to the above links for my more in-depth thoughts about The Dark Knight. I cannot stress enough just how important this movie is to the comic book movie genre, and I anticipate it will remain so for decades to come. Image by Vinson Tan ( 楊 祖 武 ) from Pixabay X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) As early as 2006, X-Men film producer Lauren Shuler Donner (Pretty in Pink, You’ve Got Mail) expressed interest in adapting the “Days of Future Past” storyline from two 1981 issues of Marvel Comics’ The Uncanny X-Men. After production completed on Matthew Vaughn’s prequel, X-Men: First Class, in 2011, Donner pitched this idea to Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns), who directed the first two X-Men films, and by March of 2011 the treatment, which had been positive receive by 20th Century Fox, was in active development. Writer Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes) approached the screenplay for this project as laying the groundwork for the future of the X-Men franchise. Not only was this due to utilizing actors from the original trilogy and from First Class, but Singer also felt the use of time travel in this story to bridge the two casts was essential. To prepare, he studied time travels films (i.e. The Terminator, Back to the Future) in order to create a set of rules and make his script as plausible as possible. In adapting the “Days of Future Past” storyline for the big screen, Kinberg felt that it made more sense for Wolverine to travel in time (rather than Kitty Pryde, as the original comic had done) because of his healing abilities and the massive audience appeal of the character. Thematically, Kinberg also treated the villain characters as people who “may have been right with their fears” about mutants while also putting the heroes in a place where “they’re all lost and they’re trying to keep it together.” Originally attached to direct the sequel, Matthew Vaughn departed the project in October of 2012 in order to work on his adaptation of Mark Millar’s “Kingsman” comic book series for the big screen. Instead, Singer was brought back to the franchise to help the film after previously directing X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Before shooting began, Singer spoke with James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic) about time travel and the multiverse to prepare for the movie. By March of 2013, the main First Class cast (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult) and many of the original trilogy cast (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Elliot Page) were confirmed to be reprising their respective roles (it was not until December of that year that Singer confirmed Hugh Jackman’s involvement as Wolverine). In February, Peter Dinklage was announced as the film’s main villain and in May, Evan Peters was confirmed to be playing Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver. Principal photography lasted from April to August 2013, with much of the location shooting occurring in Montreal, Canada. In designing the costumes for the film’s 1973 sequences, production designer John Myhre (Elizabeth, Chicago, Dreamgirls) embraced the 1970s look in the way that First Class did with the 1960s. Specifically, the costumes for the First Class characters and Wolverine in 1973 were inspired by 1970s clothing (in stark contrast with the tactile battle fatigues of the original trilogy characters in the 2023 sequences). Released on May 23, 2014, X-Men: Days of Future Past grossed 746 million dollars at the box office on a 200+ million-dollar budget (making more money than both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but falling about 27 million dollars short of Guardians of the Galaxy). To date, it is the third highest-grossing film of the X-Men franchise (only behind the two Deadpool movies). Critics were largely positive, particularly praising the story, action sequences, performances, direction, and themes. Fans also warmly received the film, with many of them feeling that it corrected the poor story decisions in prior films of the franchise (notably X-Men: The Last Stand). Receiving an Academy Award nod for Best Visual Effects, it became the first X-Men film to be Oscar nominated. In my first blog, I gave my thoughts on all thirteen films of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise. And while many of these movies (in my humble opinion) range from lukewarm to awful, Days of Future Past undoubtedly stands out as one of the better examples from Fox’s series that kicked off the modern era of comic book flicks with 2000’s X-Men. Looking back on Days of Future Past, I think that its biggest strength remains how well it acts as a celebration of the X-Men characters that spanned six films before. From the “original trilogy” characters like Anna Paquin’s Rogue and Halle Berry’s Storm to the First Class characters like Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique to the “crossover” characters like Professor X (Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy), Magneto (Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender), and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the film’s use of a time-travel plot to bridge those two worlds makes for some fun adventures and satisfying character-driven moments. Is it zany, and at times a bit ridiculous? Absolutely, but I think that Days of Future Past—better than most films of the series—pulls off an effective balance between meaningful storytelling and self-parody. Rather, the film has an energetic spirit that convinces you to, at the very least, enjoy yourself while watching the movie despite some questionable plot elements. While the story is fun, my personal favorite aspect of Days of Future Past is how it showcases some incredibly enjoyable character dynamics involving actors with great chemistry. Not only do we get some more solid, tense stuff between McAvoy’s Professor X and Fassbender’s Magneto, but by throwing Wolverine into the mix with the First Class cast the film builds on what came before from both generations of the franchise to create something new. It could have easily fell flat, but instead it excels (and is only made better by the inclusion of Evan Peters’s Quicksilver!). So, what is the legacy of Days of Future Past? Unquestionably, the film will be fondly remembered by comic book movie fans for doing the best it could to reconcile the criticisms original X-Men trilogy (particularly The Last Stand) in order to lay a new foundation for a hopeful future of the franchise. Did it ultimately pay off with Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix? Not in the slightest. But, that’s not this movie’s fault and therefore still deserves the credit for trying its hardest to make the best of a less-than-ideal creative situation. At the end of the day, will Days of Future Past be talked about in the same league as The Dark Knight or The Avengers? Probably not, but it certainly deserves some credit for pulling off a rather difficult narrative with genuinely warm character moments that offered a sliver of hope for what Marvel Studios can do with the X-Men characters. Hopefully, one day… Deadpool (2016) As early as May 2000, Deadpool was a character being considered for a big-screen adaptation working alongside Marvel Entertainment. By 2004, Ryan Reynolds (Blade: Trinity, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Green Lantern 😊) was developing a movie centered on the “Merc with a Mouth” alongside writer and director David S. Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins) at New Line Cinema. However, despite support from studio executive Jeff Katz, the issues over rights to the character involving 20th Century Fox stalled the project indefinitely. It did not take long, however, for Fox to express interest in Reynolds making a cameo appearance as Deadpool in one of their X-Men films. This ended up being the infamous, poorly-received use of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Thus, in starting development on a solo Deadpool film after the opening weekend of Origins, Reynolds and producer Lauren Shuler Donner aimed to ignore that version of the character in favor of his more slapstick, metareferential roots. By early 2010, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, Life) were hired to pen the screenplay for the film because Reynolds felt that they understood the tone for a Deadpool movie. After considering a few potential directors (notably Robert Rodriguez), Tim Miller (Terminator: Dark Fate) was hired to direct the movie in April of 2011 after his visual effects work on some of the X-Men films. By this point, Reynolds had also secured a deal to produce the film. In writing several drafts of the screenplay (one every year until it was finished), Reese and Wernick worked closely with Reynolds who was able to “catch” anything in the writing that he felt “doesn’t feel like Deadpool.” Despite their desire to not do an origin story, Reynolds felt that it was important to do one albeit differently than other films of the genre. Specifically, he wanted to frame the character’s origins by starting the film in medias res (“into the middle of things”) that uses the opening fight sequence as the catalyst for Deadpool narrating his own origin before using a “fast-forward button” to return the audience to where the film started: in the middle of the plot. When it came to the film’s wider place in the X-Men franchise, the film was intended to “stand independently” while also sharing continuity with the rest of the movies. Furthermore, Reese and Wernick thought it would do well to include a “straight man” X-Men character to act as a foil to Deadpool, deeming Colossus (who had received little focus in prior films) a good fit for this purpose. Other characters, notably Cable, were considered as villains for the movie but were either consolidated into pre-existing characters or reserved for a potential sequel. While the script was in its early rewrites, due to the critical and commercial failure of the superhero film Green Lantern in 2011 (in which Reynolds starred) the project was jeopardized due to the studio’s hesitancy to put a big-budget comic book adaptation with an R rating out of fear that it wouldn’t make back its money. But Fox also recognized (after several meetings) that altering the film to a PG-13 rating simply would not work for this specific character. Thus, they provided a “six-figure budget” to Miller to make some test footage. The footage was CGI animation with Reynolds voicing Deadpool, but ended up not swaying the studio to fund the project. After the release of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers in 2012, Fox considered incorporating Deadpool into a team-up movie due to their trepidations (which now included apprehensions over Reese and Wernick’s screenplay). Several big names in Hollywood, from James Cameron to David Fincher, expressed to Fox their support in the pitch and script but Fox remained hesitant to move forward. Thus, by July of 2014, the film had spent over ten years in “development hell” and its chances of being made became slimmer every day. That all changed when the test footage produced by Miller’s animation studio was leaked online. Due to the overwhelming enthusiastic fan response, Fox greenlit the film and gave it a 2016 release date by September that year. To this day, Reynolds and other involved with the project are unsure of who exactly leaked the footage yet many of them credit it with getting the movie made. However, Fox allowed Reynolds and his team creative control over the project in exchange for a much smaller budget than most other comic book movies were being dealt at the time. This budget cut from the studio required Reese and Wernick to edit out about nine pages from their most recent draft. Specifically, a motorcycle chase scene was cut and they added in the fact that Deadpool forgets his bag of guns leading up to the third-act fight in order to avoid requiring Miller to shoot an expensive shootout. Ultimately, however, the writers resolved that all of the cuts to the screenplay for the sake of budget ended up helping the film’s pace a lot. During pre-production, Miller focused much of team’s efforts on designing the Deadpool suit. Specifically, he and Reynolds aimed to make “the most faithful comic book to movie adaptation fans have ever seen” and deemed getting the suit right an essential part of this. However, in contrast with the unrealistically muscular look of Deadpool in the comics, Reynolds did not wear a muscle suit under the costume which Miller deemed was the character’s “quintessential” aesthetic. The costume was also designed with practicality in mind, such as the masks’ eyes being removable to make doing stunts in the suit more efficient. Principal photography commenced in Vancouver, British Columbia in March of 2015 and lasted until the end of May. By adding film grain to the digital footage in post-production, Miller and cinematographer Ken Seng aimed to give the film a “grittier” look than other superhero flicks. When it came to the dialogue, the actors (particularly Reynolds) improvised up to fifteen alternate jokes not in the screenplay. Notably, Reynolds’ improvisation about the studio being unable to afford another X-Man for the movie became Fox chairman Jim Gianopulos’ favorite line. Six disparate studios, from Digital Domain to Weta Digital, produced the film’s visual effects. Miller had these in mind, however, be making decisions on set with the amount of visual effects to be added in post-production a constant burden on his shoulders. While they often worked independently, all six studios collaborated on the third-act battle sequence in the wrecked helicarrier which Miller wanted to be the setting for the scene to expand the scope of the third act but had to ensure it looked “as different as possible from the one in The Avengers” to avoid legal issues with Marvel Studios. Made on a shoestring budget of 58 million dollars, Deadpool was released on February 12, 2016. The film became the highest-grossing film in the X-Men franchise and the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, earning over 782 million dollars at the box office (in both cases, it was surpassed by its sequel two years later). Critics were generally positive, with much of their praise directed at Reynolds’s performance and Miller’s direction (specifically the action sequences). However, some deemed the plot overly simplistic and some of the adult humor excessive. Despite being considered a serious contender for the Academy Awards, Deadpool received no Oscar nominations (possibly due to the lack of a campaign from Fox, a bias among Academy voters against comic book movies, and the strength of other more conventional contenders). However, the film cemented a legacy as the progenitor for other studios to consider the possibility that R-rated superhero flicks could have critical and commercial success. Today, fans of the genre credit the movie for laying the groundwork for other unconventional approaches to superhero movies in the future (notably Fox’s own Logan). Of the four stages that a film genre can evolve through, Deadpool is obviously the first great example of the third stage: parody. By embodying a hyper-meta-approach to its storytelling, director Tim Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick pull off a very effective satire of blockbuster moviemaking, comic book flicks, franchises, and Hollywood in general. Without question, this remains the movie’s most significant quality when it comes to contextualizing it within the broader comic book movie genre. What is perhaps more impressive about Deadpool, however, is that it includes an actually heartfelt, well-intentioned story with a strongly genuine romance at its core. While the gratuitous humor and cartoonish violence ups the entertainment factor, the sweet and sexy romance between Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) and Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) elevates the movie to something more than just a raunchy, bloody superhero parody and instead it becomes relatable in spite of its extraordinary premise and narrative methods. To be honest, that’s really all I have to say about Deadpool. The film is a great example of how filmmakers with a coherent creative vision can make fun of the genre they’re playing in while also making a more-than-serviceable movie of that great. Furthermore, it’s an inspiring success story of a low-budget, R-rated comic book movie that undeniably made greater films like Logan and Joker possible. For that, Deadpool earns its legacy as a superhero flick that adults can enjoy. Image by Abderrahman Hadd from Pixabay Wonder Woman (2017)
More than twenty years before it finally came to fruition, development on a live-action film about Wonder Woman began with Ivan Reitman (Stripes, Ghostbusters) attached to produce and possibly direct. By 1999, novelist Jon Cohen (Minority Report) was attached to the project and Sandra Bullock (Speed, The Blind Side, Gravity) possibly starring in the title role. Over the next four years, screenwriters Todd Alcott (Antz) and Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Alita: Battle Angel) contributed to various drafts of the screenplay and other actresses, such as Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago, The Terminal), were considered for the lead. Starting in 2005, Joss Whedon (Toy Story, The Avengers) was hired by Warner Brothers to write and direct the film. However, after two years without finishing a screenplay, he left the project. Around the time of Whedon’s departure, the studio purchased a script that set the story in World War II. However, this was done primarily to retain their rights to the character as they did not want the film to be a period piece. By 2008, the studio was developing a Justice League project directed by George Miller (Happy Feet, Mad Max: Fury Road) and starring model Megan Gale (Mad Max: Fury Road). However, the project stalled rather quickly due to production delays and budgetary issues. It was not until 2010 that Warner Brothers kickstarted their efforts to bring Wonder Woman to the silver screen. After many years hearing pitches and considering a variety of female directors, Warner Brothers hired Patty Jenkins (Monster) to direct the film based on a story that included the involvement of Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, Man of Steel) and Jenkins taking inspiration from the original Wonder Woman comics by creator William Moulton Marston, the 1980s modernization of the character from comic book writer George Perez, and Richard Donner’s Superman film from 1978. However, the character first appeared on the big screen in Snyder’s 2016 crossover film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for which he cast Gal Gadot (Fast Five, Death on the Nile). Initially hesitant about inheriting an actress for the part in her film, Jenkins admitted to being very impressed with Gadot’s performance in Batman v Superman, saying: “They were looking for all the same things I would have looked for—all the values that Wonder Woman stands for exuding from someone in an honest way and boy did they find it… She shares every quality with Wonder Woman and that's no joke.” Principal photography for the film began in November of 2015 and lasted until May of 2016, with location filming occurring in England, France, and Italy. According to Jenkins, the aesthetic for the cinematography was inspired by the work of American impressionist painter John Singer Sargent and the movie was shot on film rather than digitally to capture an “epic grander escapism” for the environment and story. Due to being five months pregnant during reshoots, Gadot wore a green cloth wrapped around her stomach in order for her baby bump to be edited out during post-production. Released in May of 2017 on a budget of approximately 135 million dollars, Wonder Woman grossed over 822 million dollars at the global box office. Not only was it the tenth highest-grossing film of the year, but it was also the highest-grossing film by a solo female director until the release of Jia Ling’s Hi, Mom! in 2021 and the highest-grossing female-led comic book movie until Captain Marvel in 2019. Critics and audiences praised the film, specifically Gadot’s performance and her chemistry with Chris Pine (who played Steve Trevor), and it was generally viewed as a tonally hopeful and energetic film in stark contrast with other entries in the DC Extended Universe up to that point. Upon the film’s release, several high-profile figures both in politics and the film industry offered their take on Wonder Woman in terms of the extent to which it broke barriers for women in cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. Notably, director James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic) argued that there was nothing “groundbreaking” in the film and that Jenkins’s portrayal of the title superhero as “an objectified icon.” In response, Jenkins criticized Cameron’s characterization of her vision and the film overall, saying: “there is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman… if women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong and we aren't free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven't come very far, have we?” If you’ve read my blog about the DCEU from last year, you’ll know I am less-than-enthusiastic about Warner Brothers’s cynical and half-hearted attempt to replicate the success of Marvel Studios’s cinematic universe. But, there are some bright spots in this particular superhero franchise. And, while not my favorite comic book movie, Wonder Woman is certainly one of those bright spots. Largely thanks to the super-charismatic Gal Gadot’s lead performance and her chemistry with Chris Pine, the film is able to endear its audience to a likeable and relatable but flawed female superhero in a genre of cinema that, unfortunately, has lacked diverse representation of strong women for much of its lifespan. Thus, it succeeds in being a successful mainstream superhero movie led by a female actor. To be clear, however, I don’t fully disagree with James Cameron’s critique of the film. While I do think the movie is an important step in representation in this particular genre, it is by no means groundbreaking. Cameron is right to cite his character Sarah Connor from the first two Terminator films or his take on Ellen Ripley from Aliens in this conversation. Not only did they pull off the nuanced strong female action lead sooner than Wonder Woman, but (in my humble opinion) they did it better. That being said, I don’t want to take away from the importance of Wonder Woman. Clearly, it resonated with audiences in a way that Black Panther and Shang-Chi did by showing that any kid—no matter their skin color or gender—can see themselves in superheroes on the big screen. But that alone doesn’t make it a great movie. Important? Sure, but not great. In a way, I compare its significance to that of the first Blade film for being a much-needed step forward for representation in comic book movies at the time but has since been surpassed by films that pull off his feat better while also being more entertaining movies. These are just some of the better examples of how comic book movies began to change in the years following Marvel Studios coming onto the scene. Of course, there are others that may also predict where this cinematic genre is heading. Tune in soon to see what more recent superhero flicks, in my humble opinion, foreshadow the creative directions that studios and filmmakers might be taking in the next decade or two when it comes to crafting the next great comic book movie. Which of these comic book movies do you think serves as the best example of Hollywood’s response to the success of the MCU? What are some other post-2008 superhero movies that you think people should check out? What opinions of mine do you find absolutely ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, this has been… Yours Truly, Amateur Analyst
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Austin McManusI have no academic or professional background in film production or criticism; I simply love watching and talking about movies. Archives
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