Comic Book Movies Reach Another Level
July 20, 2008 by brian
Image details: World Premiere Of "The Dark Knight" Presented by Belstaff - Inside Arrivals served by picapp.com
No less of a critical luminary than Roger Ebert has noted there’s something special going on with the comic book movie. Beginning with Spider-Man 2 and culminating (at least so far) with Dark Knight, Hollywood is being turned upside down by this movement.
It’s not a coincidence that every book anyone’s ever heard of (Captain America, Flash) is at some level of production as well as a few books most folks haven’t heard of (Caliber, Afterburn). One thing that hasn’t changed: most of these movies will probably suck. But the bar for how good they can be has gone through the stratosphere.
There really isn’t a good excuse for the likes of Elektra anymore. Remember how far the Bat franchise had fallen? Even George Clooney thought he and Joel Schumacher had killed it. To be honest, they did put it on life support.
But those bad works have been forgotten, if not undone. I’m torn. I want a Bat sequel because the first two Nolan films have been incredible. But I don’t know how Nolan can top himself. There aren’t enough superlatives to heap on The Dark Knight. I was a little sad as I left the theater. I was sure before going in nothing this summer would top Dark Knight. I left the movie wondering if anything I see this year will top it.