What is it with all of the comic/cartoon movies?

[mhacdebhandia]

By what standard, exactly, is 1997 recent?

 

[Ranger REG]

Batman & Robin (with Batgirl) still left a bad aftertaste in my mouth, even to this day. I'm hoping Batman Begins will give me a clean palate.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Well, the Superman and Batman movies did well enough for a few sequels to be made, but not so great that it caused a flood of similar movies when they were made.

Yeah, but WB owned all the rights to the DC properties and probably didn't
want to put all their eggs in the same basket, while Marvel's movie rights
were a real tangled mess so nothing could be done with them.

So y'know, that's not really saying much.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Yeah, but WB owned all the rights to the DC properties and probably didn't want to put all their eggs in the same basket, while Marvel's movie rights were a real tangled mess so nothing could be done with them.

So y'know, that's not really saying much.

True, but combine that with my second point about the maturing of CGI technology and it makes more sense. It may even say something worth reading.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, but WB owned all the rights to the DC properties and probably didn't want to put all their eggs in the same basket, while Marvel's movie rights were a real tangled mess so nothing could be done with them.

Well, IIRC, Marvel is not owned by a major media conglomerate, which may be a good thing. It allows other film production companies to bid for specific film rights.

 

[Numion]

The flopped Batfilms made studios beware comicbook adaptations. Relatively small budget movies Blade and X-men in the end of millenium proved succesful and spawned the possibilities for the bigger / more franchises to be realized. Major hits X2 and Spidey I & II followed, along with several smaller budget films.

IMO the key is that they made a couple of good movies to start the comicbook movie renaissance. A lot of crap will follow, though, but we'll have some gems too. Just like with normal movies, and away from the previous situation where one flopped / bad comicbook movie made all studios to reconsider their projects.

 

[Umbran]

Relatively small budget movies Blade and X-men in the end of millenium proved succesful and spawned the possibilities for the bigger / more franchises to be realized.

I cannot find numbers concerning Blade, but X-Men reportedly took about $75 million to produce. While there are movies with $100 million+ budgets, I don't think X-Men qualifies as "small budget".

 

[Arnwyn]

By what standard, exactly, is 1997 recent?

Movie standards, of course.

When people are still watching movies made in the 1930's, something made within the last decade can certainly qualify as "recent".

 

[JoeGKushner]

One good thing about movie comics is that we now have the technology via CGI to do some of the material justice.

Don't get me wrong. I still think we have a long way to go. However, by that time, actors will be voice actors for those moives. Why pay some actor $30 million when you can do a CGI of him and pay him $5 million?

 

[Ranger REG]

IMO the key is that they made a couple of good movies to start the comicbook movie renaissance. A lot of crap will follow, though, but we'll have some gems too. Just like with normal movies, and away from the previous situation where one flopped / bad comicbook movie made all studios to reconsider their projects.

You could say the same for fantasy films, though having another bad D&D movie is worse than having acid reflux disease.