To be fair, that's mostly because there have been so many in just the last eight years. Off the top of my head there's been 3 each from Blade, Spider-Man & X-Men, 2 (not very)Fantastic Four movies, 2 Hulks, Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider, one Punisher film (with another on it's way) so that's what? 17? With another half dozen or so due in the next 2-3 years. Now DC on the other hand has had *counts on fingers* three movies in that same amount of time so it's no wonder the batting average is a little skewed in DC's favour. Still, you could argue that DC have just been more careful with who they allow to develop their properties, possibly due to what Joel and his neon electric rubber nipples did back in the 90's. I can certainly see why Marvel seam to want to take more direct control over what gets made from here on out but I think it'd be naive to expect everything to be of the same standard of 'Iron Man', but at least I think we won't get another 'Fantastic Four' style dud.
Heh...nobody was saying that before The Dark Knight came out. One viable franchise doth not a studio make.
Except for the fourth movie the Supeman movies did rather well at the box office too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(film_series)#Box_office_performance
^I didn't present Reverend's entire quote, but he was speaking of the last eight years, and my reply was in that context.
Its still a lesser count but people often forget, or just don't know, that Constantine, League of Extrodinary Gentelmen, Catwoman and V for Vendetta are all DC comics properties that came out in this same 10year span(Blade'98 to Punisher War Zone '08) that is being mentioned.
Certainly Marvel's output has outpaced DC's by a substantial margin in the last 10 years. It seems like, on the rare occasions when DC can get its shit together and make a movie, it's often one of their more low key, prestigious Vertigo titles like Constantine, V for Vendetta, or Watchmen. The only mainstream DC heroes to get film adaptations in the last 10 years were Batman, Catwoman, & Superman. They still owe us movies for the Flash, the Green Lantern, & Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, Marvel has pretty much exhausted its supply of major heroes. You have Blade, Daredevil, Elektra, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Punisher, Spider-Man, & the X-Men. I think all that's left now of their major heroes are Captain America & Thor. Personally, I thought Robert Downey Jr. took a mediocre story for Iron Man and turned it into an excellent, fun movie. (Way better than The Incredible Hulk. As for Iron Man being better than The Dark Knight, that's just crazy talk.)
Dark Knight is terminally pretentious, sorry to say. Iron Man is much better made. But it is common to underestimate the light touch, which takes far more coordination than the ham fist in my opinion.
I wouldn't be that hard on TDK, mostly because I thought it was a very excellent film. A very different kind of film from "Iron Man", and so I can't say it was nowhere near as well-made. But I completely agree with your latter comment on "Iron Man". It takes a deft touch to make a quality, entertaining film that makes use of both dram and humor. That's the type of film I can watch over and over many times. The more intense character study and heavy theme of TDK, while VEYR engrossing, is not something I can take in to omany doses.
I did not know Constantine or V For Vendetta were DC comics properties and I loved both movies. Huh! Learn something new every day! J.
While I was out today I grabbed this DVD. I knew very little about it except the starring role. It took me forever to recognize who the bearded voice belonged to. He sure has changed since Tron. Not being a big fan of comics I probably missed a lot of inside jokes and references but that didn't matter; I loved this movie. What a lot of fun! Please tell me they have a sequel in the works. Oh, that magnet thing - that was only to keep shrapnel from his heart? But he improved the power source somehow? I didn't get all that as I have to keep the TV volume low.
Yeah Iron Man 2 and 3 are being planned and he will be part of the The Avengers movie as well. He has a cameo in the end of The Incredible Hulk film (2008) And yes, it was to keep the shrapnel away
I read that, that would be a good idea. Though I was hoping that Terrance Howard was going to return for the sequels
apparently he was cast first and he got paid more than RDJ, Gwyneth or Jeff, so that was part of why he was dumped. the other was that Fav wasn't happy with his part, which is why he had several scenes cut and/or reshot to minimise his role. although they really should've left in his scene at Bagram with the general...
Don Cheadle is a fine actor, but at least my initial reaction is that I'm not sure about him in the part of Rhodes. Then again that's probably better left to those more familiar with the Iron Man characters, etc.
That reminds me of the time Tyrese Gibson was paid $8,000,000 for his appearance in Transformers which was more than what the film's star Shia LaBeouf received which was only $500,000. When I saw those figures, my reaction was: "$8,000,000 for saying 'Left cheek! Left cheek! Left cheek!'"