[This was posted on 15 April 2006, and you can find it here, with comments by Bill Reed (whatever happened to that dude?) and Dan Apodaca (more seriously, I wonder whatever happened to Dan, who was always a fun commenter). Yes, Greg spelled it “theatre” like a Brit-lovin’, ‘Murican-hatin’ snob, but what are you gonna do? Sadly, as with so many old things on the internet, the scans have been lost, but I’ve tried to put some in that may or may not have been in the original post but reflect the spirit of it. Enjoy!]
So my wife and I are watching our recently-arrived Season 2 DVDs of Lois & Clark, and I found myself doing it again. The thing that all comics fans do, whether we admit it or not. It was the fifth or sixth episode from that season, the one where the cloned gangsters are trying to take over Metropolis, and Emil Hamilton turns out to be the guy that did the cloning.
And my fan reflex kicked in. It was an instantaneous, instinctive reaction. I immediately stopped caring about the story and instead I thought, “Wait a minute. That’s all screwed up. They got it wrong.” And I spent the next minute or so riffling through my mental Superman Fan Rolodex ticking off all the continuity mistakes the show had made.
Then I got over it, thankfully without starting to rant to my wife about it. Julie really loves Lois & Clark — I rather like it myself, at least the first couple of seasons, but Julie really loves it — and she would quite probably have thought I was being mean and making fun of her for liking something I didn’t.
But I thought it through a little bit, and realized that this fan reflex of mine was a bit ridiculous. First of all, there was no way that the show could have got Hamilton “wrong,” since it was his first appearance on it. Secondly, even if you are judging the portrayal as being consistent with his appearances in the comics, it WAS consistent — because if you asked for the quick summary of Hamilton, it would be “He is a brilliant but misguided scientist, whose well-meaning experiment results in creating a menace that it takes Superman to put down.”
Well, that’s what he was on Lois & Clark. And in the Dini-Timm cartoon. And on Smallville. And, oh yeah, in the original comics. None of these Hamiltons bear more than a passing resemblance to one another, but the same through-line and plot points apply to all of them. So what was my problem? I should relax and let it go. The ESSENCE was there.
Realizing this made me think about how weird we get about the movie and TV versions of superheroes. Remember the seething fan rage about Spider-Man and his organic webshooters? Or when it was announced Michael Clarke Duncan was playing the Kingpin? Or when Jessica Alba was announced as Sue Storm? Or … I’m sure you can come up with your own example. God knows there are hundreds.
So what’s that about? I’m just as guilty of it as anyone — nobody has been snarkier than me about the cinematic versions of Captain America — either version, whether it be the horror that was the Reb Brown Cap —
— or the Matt Salinger straight-to-video version, with the Red Skull as an Italian concert pianist.
So, you know, I do it too. I’m just as picky and vicious as the next fanboy.
But what I’ve noticed in recent years is that even though Hollywood has been doing a lot better — no, if you are honest you have to admit it, they have been. Take a look at the old Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man from the 70’s show or the Rex Smith Daredevil from “Trial of The Incredible Hulk” and THEN come bitch at me about organic webshooters. Most comic-book movies, these days, seem to work fine AS MOVIES, they hit a reasonable minimum-entertainment value as popcorn action flicks, but we are just as crabby and hard-to-please as ever. This despite the fact that not only is Hollywood doing better at adapting … but they are actively COURTING us. San Diego has become overrun with studio flacks and actors pushing their next Hollywood project. Want to be really weirded out and vaguely embarrassed? Check out Jennifer Garner’s videotaped message to the San Diego convention about how great the Elektra movie is going to be and how sorry she is that she can’t make it to the con to show the clip package. “You’ll all be happy to know that the costume WILL BE RED this time,” she vows. Seriously. She said it. It’s on the Elektra DVD as a bonus feature.
Think about that. Jennifer Garner taped an announcement begging the geeks not to boycott her new movie because her costume was the wrong color in Daredevil. I’m sorry, but there’s something deeply messed up about that.
And this isn’t even an isolated incident. Every major superhero movie has somebody out there hitting the convention trail, pleading for our good will. In fact, I was shocked to see, on our recent DVD acquisition, a bit in the documentary with Deborah Joy Levine talking about how scared she was to bring a clip package to the San Diego con back in the early 90’s, trying to push this Lois & Clark show she was putting together.
So if the complaint was that we weren’t being counted, or our opinion wasn’t being considered, that’s just not the case. That fight’s over. We won.
Which leads me back to my original question … what WAS our complaint, exactly? Think of a certain comics-based movie or show that really annoyed you. What was your issue? That it wasn’t done “right”? That there was no “respect for the original”? Bryan Singer’s been stumping pretty hard for his new Superman movie. He knows what running the fan gauntlet is like after two previous cinematic outings with the X-Men. Fans are already lining up with their tomahawks after the first shots of Brandon Routh hit the net (The S is too small! The belt buckle’s all wrong!) and yet, of all the characters in superhero comics, Superman is easily the most adaptable and resilient. Check out this amazing collage I found at the Superman Supersite:
[Edit: Sorry, no idea what this looked like or where to find it on the Superman Supersite, but it’s still there, and it looks pretty keen!]
Now tell me which one is the “real” Superman that Bryan Singer has to respect or we will spend the next six months on the internet screaming for his head on a platter.
See where I’m going with this? Maybe we should unclench about this Hollywood stuff a little bit. Enjoy the good and ignore the bad, and otherwise don’t worry about it. Because if we’re at the point where the studio requires that Bryan Singer or Brett Ratner have to show up at a con and swear they did their best to a room full of pudgy guys in homemade costumes, I think we can relax and move on.
See you next week.
You could almost say the same thing about Batman and any other super-hero character in the Arrowverse (excuse me, that’s WBverse now) whether they’re depicted in film or tv series.
The Hollywood people will ALWAYS take creative liberties to do their “homages” to whatever super-hero is being shown.
I’ve found it best just to sit back and try to enjoy the showing. No point in worrying about the missed details, Life is too short. 🙂
A lot of it is a “likes the movie” factor. I can forgive the organic webshooters because the movie was awesome; the “errors” in Reb Brown’s Captain America are way more annoying.
Also it depends whether the changes are justified. I didn’t care for “Gotham” but I can understand the logic of most of their changes. I can’t see any reason for making Bruce’s son in “Gotham Knights” a completely new character rather than Dick, Jason or Damien.
More generally, while I’m inclined to agree with Greg, on the other hand I have the same thoughts as about Hollywood changing any property. Up until they get your money it’s “If you loved the best-selling novel/hit comic book/nostalgic TV show you’ll love it on the big screen!” Only afterwards do they puff themselves up and insist there’s no comparison, don’t you people realize it’s a different medium?
Heh: I looked over the comments at the original post and noticed that the 1970s Dr. Strange TV movie came up, with Greg pointing out that bad as it is, Jessica Walter is AWE. SOME. in it. Can’t say I disagree. Of course, that can generally be said about Walter.
I like the movie myself. Good enough the changes from Eastern mysticism to Arthurian didn’t sour me on it.
Generally speaking, I’m okay if it feels like they got the basic character down correctly. I didn’t gripe that Gene Hackman wasn’t bald, in Superman, because he was a great Luthor. A different one; but a great one. I did gripe about Krypton, because the concept of it didn’t make sense to me. What the hell are all those crystals supposed to do? How do you program them? Why is everyone wearing tinfoil? Art Deco was way cooler. That sort of thing. It was minor. I was a bit iffy on the ending, because it seemed too much of a cheat and the visualization of him going through time didn’t quite work; but, not enough to ruin the experience of the movie.
The Burton Batman had some staging problems and conceptual problems, but was pretty darn good and way better than my initial misgivings. The sequel went too deep into Freak Town for my tastes. I kind of felt Burton was better suited to take his cues from Fritz Lang, rather than Tod Browning.
The Rocketeer is what I point to for a near perfect “adaptation.” The characters act like those in the comics, where they made changes for legal or other reasons, there is a logic to them and they fit into the spirit of the thing (Doc Savage replaced by Howard Hughes, model Betty replaced by aspiring actress Jenny, Errol Flynn wannabe villain, rather than generic Nazi agents, etc). Hellboy (the first one) proved that a fan could make a good movie of what they love and still make a film experience.
Where i start to go nuts is where they change fundamental things for no good story reason and it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny in the film. I’m looking at you, Snyder. I have no problem with Supeman killing in extreme circumstances, though I like him better when he uses his brains to work his way out of that dilemma, like in a good Eliot Maggin story. I have a major problem with Jonathan Kent telling his son that maybe he should have let people die to protect his secret. Greg did a whole rant on that and he was right. Jonathan Kent is a moral man and he was the one who instilled Clark with his moral values (Martha too, plus the people of Smallville). One of those values was that you help people because you can, not because of rewards or attention, or whatever; but, because it is the right thing to do. End of story. The Jonathan Kent I know would sacrifice privacy and probably freedom, to save the lives of a busload of people. That is why Superman does what he does.
I actually liked the second Captain America tv movie, as it fixed a lot of the problems with the first and had Christopher Lee as an interesting villain. Plus, a couple of pretty good stunts, on a tv budget. Reb Brown wasn’t going to win an Emmy; but, he was better than, say, a Peter Lupus. He actually was pretty good in Uncommon Valor, which suggests a bad script and direction did him no favors in those two films. He at least didn’t seem self conscious in the costume, which is more than I can say about Matt Salinger. Then again, he wasn’t under layers of latex, either; just spandex. Dr Strange…..I liked Jessica Walter; but, she never had a bad performance. The Hulk tv movies I could sit through, but didn’t really enjoy them, until the third. I only wish they had made the female character Black Widow, in name, not just swipe heavily from her template. Andreas Katsulas was great, as her spymaster and Bixby was always good, even in mediocre stories. Same with Lynda Carter, in the modern era Wonder Woman episodes. The 1940s setting was much more interesting and tended to be better written; but, she always embodied the character and Jeannie Epper and her other stunt doubles did a great job of making it look convincing, on a tv budget.
I remember this article because Greg always mentioned what was wrong with shows and would figure out the ending of new ones before they were done. 99% of the time he was correct but occasionally writers threw in a curve ball.
Also, I am sad to say Greg did not find a piano-playing Red Skull. He really looked hard everywhere. If I could get into our old computer I would look if there are old articles but sadly I am having trouble setting up in the new place and I can’t find anything unrelated to the kid’s work on his USB drives.
You have more important things to do, young lady! It’s too bad he couldn’t find a piano-playing Red Skull – that would have been amazing.
I know a Red Skull playing piano would be awesome!