Comic book fans: What irks you the most about Superhero films

Here's my take. I'm willing to suspend disbelief(when I say that, I'm talking separating the movie from the comic) as long as the movie is entertaining. It's like the Silent Hill movie. I love Silent Hill the game(at least 1,2, &3) but when I first saw the movie, I thought it didn't do the game justice. Changing the protagonist from male to female, turning the antagonist into a bag lady while creating a totally unrelated antagonist, putting an iconic character that had nothing to do with the first game into a slightly major character of the movie(knowing the psychology of the creatures in SH 2 made their appearance in the Silent Hill movie a real head scratcher), etc were hard to bear. However, the more I see this movie, the more I like it. Silent Hill game series rarely overlaps and each is it's own story so I chalked the movie up to being it's own story. That said, same with comic book movies.

Now, big name super hero's are hard to mess with because they are known not only to comic readers but to mainstream audiences as well. Batman had his own TV series(as campy and cheesy as it was) as did Superman(the George Reeves series was excellent even though the characters didn't act like the comic characters), and Wonder Woman. All were adapted well but had to make adjustments to be a weekly series(Lois and Clark notwithstanding). However, for a 2 hour or so movie, you need to keep the audiences attention. The first Batman movie(1989) I thought was well done. Burton did well to capture the dark tone of Gotham and his casting of Jack Nicholson was brilliant as Jack was a wonderful Joker and I even liked Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Batman Returns was OK. Michelle Pfeiffer I thought was a great Catwoman but Danny Devito's Penguin was not who the Penguin is supposed to be(he's not a freak of nature psychopath but rather a pudgy sophisticated con artist) but the movie was entertaining. Batman Forever is where the series took a sharp turn down and don't get me started on the trainwreck that is Batman and Robin.

That said, thanks to Michael Bay, today's movie goer wants action, CGI, and explosions and a lot of it. So, the filmmaker must adjust to this. And you have to adjust the characters to attract non comic readers to the theater. This is why I didn't think the X-Men movies weren't all bad. They were entertaining. If I want old school X-Men, I'll pick up a comic. Now Nolan's Batman movies were brilliant because he made Batman believable. As for Bane, yeah, I didn't understand the need to make him Eastern European or didn't delve into venom at all. I didn't mind the breaking of Batman that much because, even though they didn't go about it like Knightfall, they did wear Batman down(he was a broken man at the beginning) which made it easier for Bane to defeat him. All 3 movies were entertaining and IMO were the best superhero to film adaptations. Did Nolan take some creative liberties? Sure he did but he wasn't setting out to placate the hard core fans and those who liked the first 2 movies but weren't comic fans could care less that Robin's name isn't actually Robin.

Anyhoo, instead of getting all ******** because the movies aren't direct screen adaptations of the comics and just get some popcorn and enjoy the show. Unless the entire movie is a trainwreck like Batman & Robin then flame away.

I don't expect a Justice League film to be successful, since their stuff is epic, and somehow, epic just doesn't capture on film, it just sounds cheesy and stupid. Some stuff really need to stay animated

Thank you. I keep telling people the exact same thing. You never know what type of gem or stone you're going to find with some of the movies that come out.

Nick Fury not being white in the movies.

It drives me nuts.

Excellent point. And it is telling of the actor, isn't it? It shows what they think of the audience & what they believe the audience will accept from their performance.

Because, if you're a good actor & you pick up that script & go "yeah, I can see why everyone would love this." But it turns out people DON'T love it. Why should people trust that, in the future, you'll take your role in films seriously enough for us to pay money to see it?

I mean, even if you're the actor & you're saying "well, that wasn't all me that ruined that" okay, but will you fess up to how much of it WAS you? Hmm? Or are you gonna pass the buck off to the editors or something? Because passing off your responsibilities doesn't garner you any more respect either. This is the type of guy Ben Affleck is. So are you gonna trust him? I'm not. I lost respect for that blow-hard years ago. Then he goes on Jimmy Fallon & laughs about the negative responses while equating it to previous actors, even though the previous actors didn't have as many huge roles prior to being cast as Batman as he does.

To a LOT of people, he's always Ben Affleck. Sometimes he's Ben Affleck with a beard. Sometimes he's Ben Affleck as a stoner. But he's NEVER the dude he's cast to play. Nope. He's just Ben Affleck. Not that there aren't parts in movies for him, because there are. Batman never seems like Ben Affleck in the comics, so it's obvious to many why he doesn't fit.

In the end, this is just about signing Ben Affleck on to WB movies so WB can use him in all sorts of other stuff too, should they get the opportunity to exploit him.

You don't like the Ultimate Universe Nick Fury? I prefer the classic Nick Fury too, but I like the Ultimate Universe Fury too (and I really don't like most of the Marvel Ultimate Universe).

It makes me extremely frustrated when people judge the actors/actresses for the previous roles. Not to mention that the directors at times don't really consider what the fans may want and if they actually do listen then they just deviate from the graphic novel that the films are potentially based on. If anything, I'd rather watch the DC Animated Universe because it seems more by the book and they really actually pay attention to all the details in every single arc.

Why? This is how everything works. If you buy a certain brand of car & it turns out to be garbage, then you find out almost everyone felt the same way... do you go buy that brand again later? If you eat at a restaurant & get sick, then you find out that happens to most people who eat there... do you go back & try again?

Even if I were the only one who didn't like watching Ben Affleck in movies, does that mean I can't like or dislike whatever I want? I'm free to do so. So are you. If you like Ben Affleck, then just say you like Ben Affleck & you're looking forward to the movie. I really don't like Ben Affleck & I don't think him being in a Batsuit will make me like his horrible voice even more. Not to mention his smarmy face & fat temples. I'm certainly not giving them my money before I even know if it's good or not. I really don't have that much faith in the film industry to believe they'll do something right after they find out some new thing is a cash cow. Superhero movies were done right a few times, so now they seem to think just having them exist is what people like & that we're so dumb we'll just go & give them our money. I am not like that. I rarely go see movies in theaters. I was ashamed of myself just trusting that Iron Man 3 would be good & that they'd satisfy my craving to see the Mandarin in a movie enough that I went and paid to see the movie. Sadly, the Mandarin has not been in any movies throughout history ever to this day. I repeat:

THE MANDARIN HASN'T BEEN IN ANY MOVIES. Such a shame. It would be nice to see the Mandarin in a movie.

So, I will not go see a film in the theater, unless I get some kind of confirmation that it is worthy of my money. I agree with whoever said that these trailers aren't telling any kind of truth to what the movie is like.

You can do what you want. I'm not giving them my money anymore until they get the message & stop messing around.

Never read any Ultimate Universe stuff, I grew up reading comics before everything was computer generated garbage that it is now. When I read comics Nick Fury was white. I've never seen him be anything but, except in the movies. In other words, it doesn't live up to my childhood memories. Guess I'm just old...

When I grew up Nick Fury was a cigar chewing BAMF, and minus the cigar he still is.

David Hasselhoff certainly looks the part, and gave us a respectable and earnest portrayal in a bad tv movie.
But Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury.

Grrrr, guys.... Grrrr.... I'm Batman & I'm angry... grrrr...

What Irks me is when they completely rewrite or get most aspects of certain characters wrong simply to create more appeal. Biggest example is Superman.

Though many may say that Superman did Kill Zod in S3 (IIRC) but people should realise that there were different outcomes filmed for that. In an Interview for S4 Christopher Reeves confirmed that Superman does not kill... referring to the controversial killing of Zod.

Other things that piss me off is when they make bad guys look like idiots. Parallax in the Green Lantern movie made me throw up in my mouth at how pathetic he was portrayed.

Another thing is when they summarise the movie within minutes and the rest being action scenes after action scenes with endless special effects and completely forgetting story structure and character development (looking at you MoS) and how they like to appeal to one character more than the others (e.g. Writers always finding a way to make Batman beat Superman - DKR2 or always making Batman out to be an all knowing God).

The only DC movie I have ever watched and could not think of a way to criticise it was Watchmen. Even though I hate Zack Snyder as a director he did a good job in that one.

On another note: The casting of MoS2 or Batman Vs Superman again makes me vomit in my mouth.Thats not even that bad until you realise who is directing it... You guessed it. Zack Snyder. Not a fan of Marvel but would rather watch Marvel films than DC (but would rather read DC than Marvel)

What irks me? Ryan Reynolds that's what.

Watchmen is nigh on perfect in my book

I agree to the point in that when I go to a movie, unless it is stated as a documentary i.e. fact based, I go strictly for entertainment purposes whether it's comedy, horror, drama, etc. Sometimes I am entertained, others not so much...it's 50/50 which I find entertaining in and of itself

Maybe for those of comic book fandom the problem is there is pre-judgement on visuals because of what can be seen on pages vs book adaptations brought to big screen where the the viewer's preconceptions come from their own imaginations when they are reading the story. I have noticed that most people are more accepting of big screen adaptations when they have little to no knowledge of the original.

Just a thought on this that's all

BTW...I am actually a avid comic book reader and have been watching adaptations since the days of George Reeves and Adam West...thoroughly enjoyed those as a kid so am in awe of ANYTHING they do today ...lol

I Love the avengers. But what irks me is during the solo movies. Where are the rest of the avengers when iron man's house is getting destroyed in iron man 3? Same can be said for all the other movies.

If I was a super hero and one of my super hero buddies was in trouble I would be over there helping away.

I'm probably a little older that most on this board - I remember when nearly every super hero movie was listed as 'in development' in the back of Starlog magazines. That was around the time when the first Punisher movie (with Dolph Lundgren) and first Swamp Thing movie were about all there was in terms of comic book movies. I'm absolutely stunned at how many comic book movies have been released since then (to include indie properties like Scott Pilgrim and more obscure titles like Hellblazer). So, for the most part, I'm pretty happy just to see some of my favorite heroes on the big screen - even if the movie is pretty crappy (like Green Lantern). Having said all that, what irks me most about super hero films is the constant need to tell an origin story. We don't need to see Batman's origin again - ever. Same for Superman. Or Hulk. We know how they got how they are - time to move on. Other, minor pet peeves - incredibly bad casting for the sake of hiring a 'name' (Jessica Alba is probably the worst); hiring prima donna actresses for R rated roles and they are the only non-nudes in a movie where their comic book counter part was nude (again, Jessica Alba, Sin City); I really can't stand two actors being two different superheroes - especially in the same universe (Chris Evans as Human Torch/Captain America; Ben Affleck as Daredevil/Batman); Christopher Nolan changing Bane's voice; all the hate for Daredevil and Elektra - I liked the casting, liked Bullseye and Kingpin, and even enjoyed both movies - too bad no one else seems to like them.

Basically what was originally stated. If it works don't fix it. This is why game movies and comic movies suck big time. Instead of expanding they retell and fail.

Keep it as it is and add to it.

It's like going to see an artist live- dont get cute with your song we like the version that's on the album

When the mandarin gets turned into a joke and the extremis is done wrong and when pepper pots gets powers.

So in short...ironman 3.

Also that there aren't any good female heroes or villains represented in them...other than black widow and faora.