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mknod  ·  3608 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Should I Watch? X-Men, Days of Future Past

I agree with most of your sentiments here. I think my biggest problem with comic book movies is that they almost all follow the same arc:

1. Origin story

2. "New bad guy" (with internal struggle of main characters)

3. Internal struggle resolved whilst fighting "New Bad guy" with bigger powers

But, that's not what comics are, so of course the comics don't translate to the movies.

Good comics have nothing to do with super powers. I'll write that again for someone who skipped that sentence: GOOD COMICS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SUPER POWERS. Super powers in a comic do not make a character good. They do not make the character "super".

What makes a good comic book character, to me, is a character who would do the same thing with or without their powers.

But the movies never address this. They are so concerned with showing off the powers of the people involved that the people get hidden behind them. Professor X? He's literally shown in Days of Futures Past actively suppressing his powers, and during that time, he's just a total dick. It's not until he gets his powers that he wants to help defend the Earth. The same goes for Beast. Hank McCoy is simply a nobody until he becomes blue and (SPOILER ALERT) nearly drown magneto!

What a rip off! Super heroes have flaws, sure, but those flaws are best addressed when separate from the "Super" aspect.

Here is how to make a great comic book movie:

1. Read the comic you want to make a movie about

2. Type out that comic into a screenplay

3. GOTO 1

That is it. Comic book writers know what they are doing (for the most part anyway) there is no need to tweak it to death.

(Sorry about my rant, for those wondering Days of Futures Past is a fine movie for a rental, don't go see it in the theater unless it's a matinée and you've seen everything else)