Film Courage: What makes comic book movies great?
Scott Menzel, Film Critic, Writer, Hollywood Critics Association Founder: Another question that depends on who you ask. My favorite comic book movies are the ones that embrace being a comic book. We’ve seen a really big pivot in this over the last couple of years. I think Nolan was the one who kind of changed the game with Batman Begins because we then approached superhero movies as being grounded in the real world and as much as I enjoyed Nolan’s views on that and his style and what he’s done with the characters, he’s almost set up this stage for many comic book movies to fail because we want them almost to be grounded in reality now. Going back to my childhood and growing up as a kid of the 80’s, I grew up with Adam West’s Batman which is silly and over the top. Then you had of course Christopher Reeves with Superman, Tim Byrne was Batman and Batman Returns and they all had this different world. I was escaping to a different world. Then Nolan came in and he was like No, it could be grounded in reality. We’ve seen this even with Joker, we’ve seen it with the Matt Reeves Batman where it’s very grounded. On the other end of the spectrum you’ve got the Marvel Cinematic Universe that they’ve been trying to tie in real world issues into this comic book space. I know I sound like I’m beating a dead horse here but it all comes back down to story and characters. If a character is well developed, whether it’s a comic book movie or any type of movie, you’re going to find an audience, you’re going to connect…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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BIO:
Born and raised in New Jersey, Scott Menzel has been a life-long fan of all things entertainment. His love for film started at five years old and has only grown over the years. Scott started writing reviews in early 2002 and has been conducting interviews since 2010. He currently serves as the Editor-In-Chief of We Live Entertainment and the founder of the Hollywood Critics Association.
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