Marvel’s reboot of the Spiderman saga came with an expected turn towards the “noire” style made “oh so” popular by Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight“. And although it was to be expected it wasn’t necessarily amazing. But I’ll explain if you bear with me.
The super hero movies, which seem to be experimenting a major increase in popularity, vastly connected to the widdest range of special effects used through the course of the last few years, are bound to live in the shadow of the Batman saga. This is, of course, with the one exception of “The Avengers”. Why is it that the flick about a superhero team finally managed to be more successful than Batman? Is it because they are a team? No. Because they have a massive raging green guy? Also no. It’s because they created their own style rather then going for the dark environment that every director seems to be aiming at when directing a superher hero film. I’m thinking about “Green Lantern”, “Captain America” or “Thor” although this last one doesn’t use the formula quite so obviously.
But why is it that the “bat” got all of this recognition from the critics, the audience and apparently directors? The answer is simple and yet genious. Christopher Nolan studied the very essence of the Batman comics and had the discernment to make two movies, with the third one coming, that just transmitted the feeling of the comics to the big screen. This is not easily accomplished, and we know for a fact that “Chris” is one of the very best directors of our time but yet this is what we must demand from a movie of this sort. It has to make us feel, or rather, it has to bring the world created in the comics to life and make us fall in love with it because it is unique. In Batman’s case this is a world filled with darkness, much because of the protagonist’s personality. It had to be so. Batman. Not the others!
Ever since this “winning” formula was invented, most of the movies envolving comics adopted it. That quirky, almost laughable feel that Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman” had, back in 2000 was lost, much like the one in old, old, old Superman or Batman movies and don’t get me wrong, I think that was for the sake of the greater good, but today’s superhero movies just look the same to me. Sort of a rip-off of Batman’s style. I had hope when the Avengers movie came out bearing a new formula, an action packed mix of comedy, drama and a fresh-looking environment but after seing “The Amazing Spiderman” I lost it completely since it’s pretty much like every other recent movie. Dark with some humor. “Dark Nightish”.
Before I finish I must make an honorable mention to some comic-book based movies that, well, were dark for they’re own reasons and weren’t atributed much credit since the “Dark Knight” franchise monopolized the “noire” genre. With this I reccomend you “V for Vendetta” or even “Sin City”. Two great examples of how to make a superhero movie with his own feel and great quality. If you have Nolan’s Batmans and The Avengers you have yourself the best movies of the genre in a while…but If you don’t have it, then here’s the link for some awesome quality DVDs and BluRays which you might want to get hold of.
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