I am always intrigued by the built in audience of the franchise film. Do you want to see it because you are "sold" on its individual merits or simply because it is part of a franchise? In other words, are there aspects of the franchise that have gone unexplored up until this point that you feel will be revealed/examined in this film or are you looking forward to new things?
Speaking from my POV of Deron and men (mostly) who go for this kind of thing, it gives them a feeling of security. Of something to hold on to from their childhood. A chance to BE a Superhero (or at least feel like one for two hours.)
I have to be "sold" on the individual merits to like the film, but, yeah, the "franchise" will lure me in. Fantastic Four was a piece of crap, and it looked like it was going to be before I saw it, but I went anyway out of allegiance based on years of comic book reading. But that allegiance didn't make the film good per se. And I'm not a fan of any comic book franchise -- obviously the Transformers movie is of little interest to me, and several DC characters would not be enough to drive me to the theatre by themselves.
My love of comic books goes back to my earliest memories, by the way. Mom would buy me issues of Spiderman, Hulk and Plastic Man (who actually is more rubbery) and read them to me. I would read along with her, and by age 3 or so, had learned to read via this method. So comic books do have a special place in my heart.
Some comic book fans hate comic book movies because they change details of the characters' origins or powers -- in the Spiderman comic book, for example, Peter Parker is a science whiz who invents a device for shooting his webs, while in the film he develops the power to shoot organic webs out of his own body. I'm not this adamant that the film needs to be faithful to the source material. The characters are interesting to me in how they can be used to explore the themes integral to the genre -- narcissism, for one thing (see my more recent post). So it's not so much an issue of unexplored aspects or new revelations, but how this specific iteration of the genre is applied to a particular story.
4 comments:
I guess I'll have to go see Spiderman III with you, eh? But I guess I'd better rent Spiderman II first. Okay, put it in our Netflix queue. Sigh!
I am always intrigued by the built in audience of the franchise film. Do you want to see it because you are "sold" on its individual merits or simply because it is part of a franchise? In other words, are there aspects of the franchise that have gone unexplored up until this point that you feel will be revealed/examined in this film or are you looking forward to new things?
Speaking from my POV of Deron and men (mostly) who go for this kind of thing, it gives them a feeling of security. Of something to hold on to from their childhood. A chance to BE a Superhero (or at least feel like one for two hours.)
I have to be "sold" on the individual merits to like the film, but, yeah, the "franchise" will lure me in. Fantastic Four was a piece of crap, and it looked like it was going to be before I saw it, but I went anyway out of allegiance based on years of comic book reading. But that allegiance didn't make the film good per se. And I'm not a fan of any comic book franchise -- obviously the Transformers movie is of little interest to me, and several DC characters would not be enough to drive me to the theatre by themselves.
My love of comic books goes back to my earliest memories, by the way. Mom would buy me issues of Spiderman, Hulk and Plastic Man (who actually is more rubbery) and read them to me. I would read along with her, and by age 3 or so, had learned to read via this method. So comic books do have a special place in my heart.
Some comic book fans hate comic book movies because they change details of the characters' origins or powers -- in the Spiderman comic book, for example, Peter Parker is a science whiz who invents a device for shooting his webs, while in the film he develops the power to shoot organic webs out of his own body. I'm not this adamant that the film needs to be faithful to the source material. The characters are interesting to me in how they can be used to explore the themes integral to the genre -- narcissism, for one thing (see my more recent post). So it's not so much an issue of unexplored aspects or new revelations, but how this specific iteration of the genre is applied to a particular story.
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