Filmed in Exile

I just saw “Kick-Ass” which was one of the best times I have had at the movies in years.  It brought up a question: Why are comic movies the best genre-style movies around while everyday non-comic inspired movies continue to suck?

This is not about so-called “Serious Movies” (anything starring Meryl Streep except the atrocious “Mamma Mia”) as comparing Kick-Ass to “Sophie’s Choice” makes about as much sense as comparing Archie comics to James Joyce.  Besides, this type of movie continues to be pretty good and even great.  I am specifically referring to genre movies, such as “Die Hard”, “Transformers”, “Max Payne”, “Friday The 13th”, “Public Enemies” Etc.   The movies people actually pay money to go see.

To a comic geek (of which I will readily admit, pretty-fucking accurately describes me) the answer is obvious.  Comics have been great for decades.  It is certainly no surprise that someone made a great popcorn movie out of Spider-Man or Batman, because us fanboys have been reading great Batman stories for decades.  Even as good as “The Dark Knight” is, it is a B+ compared to it’s source material such as “The Killing Joke” or “Dark Night Returns”.

Comics are essentially genre stories.  With the exception of the occasional departures like “Love & Rockets” and “Box-Office Poison” comics thrive in the world of genre entertainment. occupying the same ground as genre movies (Note: even these departures tend to be better stories than the Hollywood equivalent.  For instance compare “Ghost World” to any coming of age story).  Why then, are comics so much better at telling genre stories?

Here are my thoughts on why, and what Hollywood needs to do to catch up to Comics and stop their movies from sucking:

WHY COMIC MOVIES ARE BETTER THAN MOST GENRE MOVIES

1. Movies are written by committee.  Comics are the vision of a writer and artist. Because the audience for comics is considerably smaller than that of movies and the cost to make a comic is so much less, the comic writer has been free for decades to experiment, to twist the genre and to re-invent.  The movie writer on the other hand has been encouraged to rehash and rewrite.  Their films have been written by committee instead of being the vision of a couple of people.

Comics had their day of being programmed conventional crap.  Companies like Vertigo and Dark Horse pushed the limits of what comics were and found that the audience was waiting for these stories to be told.  It is time for the movie companies to catch up.

2. Comics understand that the audience is not stupid, they just like goofy shit. Let’s face facts, nobody like Transformers: The Movie (unless we’re talking about the Orson-Welles-as-planet animated movie.  That thing rocks).  We just like watching Megan Fox bend over an engine and will pretty much be happy with any movie that features a robot battle. 

We all know it sucks.  But it’s the kind of movie we want to see.  We will pay for it, suck it up and complain about the story while we wait in line to buy the DVD.  But we know it sucks, and we want it to be good.  We want Christopher Nolan directing Transformers instead of Michael Bay, because we, the audience, understand better then Hollywood, ANY story can be told well.

The comic companies figured this out years ago when their sales were failing and the indies were creating a new audience.  Marvel didn’t stop making super-hero comics,  they just made comic books with the same passion for storytelling that is put into serious comics.   Marvel made the genius step of putting creative talent in charge of development.

Movies don’t get this.  You either make “Serious films” or you are making movies for children.  Only when they realize that all stories must be created equally will they earn the respect of the audience and evolve cinema into what it needs to become – a fusion of the art movie and the popcorn flick.

3. Comics are created by people who love comics.  Genre movies are made by people who want to make “films”, and instead get hired to make goofy crap. Most people in the comic field are there because they love comics.  They love genre storytelling.  This is what they want to do with their life and they do it with passion.  Genre movies are often written by people who have no interest in genre movies and have no idea how to make them interesting.

Film school will only prepare you to make “films” and continues to turn out people interested in making Avante-Garde films or serious movies.  You will not find a film school that teaches you to make pop-art, therefore, most filmmakers get into the industry trained to make the kind of movie nobody wants to see.

Mission Impossible - Holllywood's lamo version of a great idea

For instance, Robert Towne was hired to write Mission Impossible.  Which, we can all agree, blew.  Towne is a genius screenwriter, but the guy wrote Chinatown.  He has no interest in writing goofy shit like Mission Impossible.  He phoned it in and it stunk because he is not a genre writer.  Hollywood always makes the mistake of getting the great writer to write their goofy action movie.  The same thing with director.  Ang Lee directing the Hulk was about as bad an idea as you can get.  Unless the Hulk is going to confess is forbidden  love for the Abomination, Lee just is not the right guy for the job.  They hire music video directors to make our myths instead of storytellers.  Kick-Ass is great because it was written by a guy who loves comics, not because they hired some Oscar winning screenwriter to do his prerequisite sell-out screenplay.

If Hollywood wants to survive and create trust with the audience, it is time they put a creative visionary in charge of a studio.  Stop hiring music video directors and Oscar winning writers to make the movies that should be made by genre geeks.  Treat the genre movies as they would a serious film and the audience will keep going to the movies, buy the DVD and a poster and a t-shirt.  If they do not, they are going to feel a serious sting when the genre geeks finally get the equipment in their hands to make the movies we are all waiting to see and this digital revolution finally kicks in.