Monday, January 12, 2004
So, I was watching the Hulk film and was struck by how similar it was to the Spiderman film. I was planning on trying to work Daredevil in as well, but I'm still receiving therapy to get over that one (He's a blind man! Fighting a woman in broad daylight in the middle of his 'hood! And no-one notices!).
Anyway;
1) Both main characters are CGI.
2) Both films have Stan 'The Man' Lee in.
3) Both films have respected older actors slumming it as bad guys.
4) Both films are about the relationships between father and son, whether biological or imagined/spiritual. In Spiderman, Peter is the son Norman doesn't have, and wishes Harry was more like.
5) Both films have the main character haunted by a death in the family, with Bruce it's his Mum, with Peter it's Uncle Ben.
6) Both films have the father working on military applications, whether a personal flying armour thingy with super-strength add-on, or instant repair systems with super-strength add-on.
7) Both films have lots of shots involving the main character arcing through the air, either through jumping or webslinging. Both of them get involved in fights with airborne opponents.
8) Both films have the fathers undertaking forbidden procedures on themselves because their project is about to get shut down.
9) Both films have the father come into conflict with the son, whether biological or imagined/spiritual, when one of them fails to live up to the others expectations (okay, bit of a reach in the case of Spiderman I admit, but I think it's a possible reading that Norman is disappointed he will have to fight and kill Peter).
10) Both films have the lead character NOT get the girl and come to terms with the danger of the power within them.
11) Both films aren't that good.
So, who's turning out these cookie-cutter movies? Every film suffers from having to spend most of the film setting up the premise of the world, X-2 was better than X-1 because it didn't need so much exposition and I suspect Spiderman 2 might be good for similar reasons. But when you consider their comic book origins, Spiderman and the Hulk were quite different so it's interesting that the films are so similar.
Anyway;
1) Both main characters are CGI.
2) Both films have Stan 'The Man' Lee in.
3) Both films have respected older actors slumming it as bad guys.
4) Both films are about the relationships between father and son, whether biological or imagined/spiritual. In Spiderman, Peter is the son Norman doesn't have, and wishes Harry was more like.
5) Both films have the main character haunted by a death in the family, with Bruce it's his Mum, with Peter it's Uncle Ben.
6) Both films have the father working on military applications, whether a personal flying armour thingy with super-strength add-on, or instant repair systems with super-strength add-on.
7) Both films have lots of shots involving the main character arcing through the air, either through jumping or webslinging. Both of them get involved in fights with airborne opponents.
8) Both films have the fathers undertaking forbidden procedures on themselves because their project is about to get shut down.
9) Both films have the father come into conflict with the son, whether biological or imagined/spiritual, when one of them fails to live up to the others expectations (okay, bit of a reach in the case of Spiderman I admit, but I think it's a possible reading that Norman is disappointed he will have to fight and kill Peter).
10) Both films have the lead character NOT get the girl and come to terms with the danger of the power within them.
11) Both films aren't that good.
So, who's turning out these cookie-cutter movies? Every film suffers from having to spend most of the film setting up the premise of the world, X-2 was better than X-1 because it didn't need so much exposition and I suspect Spiderman 2 might be good for similar reasons. But when you consider their comic book origins, Spiderman and the Hulk were quite different so it's interesting that the films are so similar.
