On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 11:12 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I thought I was clear that Bond was one of the few exceptions inasmuch as > they rebooted the franchise but they made it work. Same with Batman, and > they do so largely by granting the premise the hero will prevail and > focusing on telling a compelling story of how he will prevail. I don't care > if Bond got beaten up as child or that he never got the bicycle he wanted > for Christmas, and I like that Bond doesn't seem to care about those > things, either. Not to spoil Skyfall for anyone, but by the end of the > film, Bond IS Bond, and if you look at the three Daniel Craig movies, there > wasn't all that much origin in there, yet audiences were still able to see > him evolve into the ultimate secret agent. They were able to do it without > showing Bond's parents dying, or Bond getting recruited into MI-6, or > Bond's first clumsy attempt to seduce a woman or thwart a villain. We > didn't see Bond's novice angst, though we did see him mature in a more > subtle manner. And you can't say the same about Reeve as Superman or > Spider-Man or the individual Avengers films or the Burton Batman, where we > had to have every moment of vulnerability rammed so far down our throats > that we expelled them gaseously. > Ah yes, I see that now - you were saying Bond and Batman were exceptions to your rule that origin stories are lame. Apologies. I think still you might be low-balling the amount of back story in the Craig Bond films. In Casino Royale after all we do see the two kills, the first somewhat clumsy, that qualify him for his double-ought, which is pretty close to seeing his first clumsy attempt to seduce a woman. As a non-superhero lover I am not all that qualified to have an opinion (but I never let a thing like qualification stop me) - what I can agree with on is that the constant re-booting is getting tiresome. I think audiences can accept a different actor as Spiderman (and as I understand it dude has different girlfriends anyway, so no need to worry about a different actress) without going back and re-doing the first installment. I can forgive Burton's Batman trilogy, as he had a very specific take on it. I enjoyed the Ironman films - mostly because I was unfamiliar with the character, but I found Thor and Captain America to be tedious, and Hulk only okay. Still, for me that is a matter of either poorly told stories, or over-told stories. To the original point, as to whether flawed or perfect superhero characters are more compelling, in general I would go with the flawed. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
