DC Vs Marvel: Film Franchise Face Off
By: TFG1Mike
Throughout this week I’ve had a trilogy of blogs that I have been publishing. Films of DC, Films of Marvel, and the penultimate post this one right here.
My goal in writing up these blogs had several criteria going into them:
– I wanted to cover all the major theatrical films that most everyone knows from both DC and Marvel.
– Yes I did give my initial opinion on several films I have yet to see. My thinking in this was that if I left them out people would be like, well why isn’t this on the list? Turns out a few people did ask that of stuff I actually left off the list.
– Stuff that did not make my list was any made for tv movies, movies I barely remember, and that weren’t technically a superhero movie, or stuff that came out before I was born. OK Granted there is an exception in the “before I was born thing” because of Superman, but cmon it’s fuckin Superman!!!
– If I was doing an overall DC and Marvel properties blog post, that would have to encompass 70-80 years of comics history, tv, film, animation, and toys. That kinda blog would be like 10 pages for each company at the minimum.
– I wanted to compare and contrast the DC Films Vs the Marvel Films
Which I will do right now……
In film Marvel has explored more of their characters then DC. If you look at the DC Films I talked about in the Films of DC blog, it is pretty much the big two. Batman and Superman reign the DC Films for the most part. Whereas Marvel has hit nearly every major character by this point in 2012.
I’m very curious as to how DC will even tackle a potential Justice League film. Marvel with the stuff the created from Iron Man to The Avengers have a great story arc leading up to the team up. Yet DC has had tons of Batman and Superman films. Yes they did Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and The Watchmen, but they have yet to tap the other DC heroes and villains. With Nolan’s trilogy coming to an end, and Man of Steel coming next year, I’m hoping that DC and WB can do a Justice League film after that.
The reason why I say that is, because if they use Henry Cavill’s Superman, and then recast Batman, find actors and actresses for the other main JL roles, I think that a JL film would be a jumping off point of more DC films in the future.
I do enjoy the Superman and late 80s early 90s bat films for what they are. The first two Superman films are amazing, while I enjoy Superman III and IV for popcorn movie sake. For me Batman 89 and Batman Forever are the best in the four films. I can watch Batman Returns and Batman & Robin for enjoyment, but very rarely.
As far as the NolanVerse the entire trilogy is amazing. (Well I haven’t seen TDKR yet, but I’ll edit this once I do) The funny thing is while I do like Batman Begins, it is not my favorite. I think it was a great film, and a great way to introduce a new Bat story in film. Let’s face it without Begins we wouldn’t have Dark Knight or Dark Knight Rises. However TDK was wayyyy more powerful to me than Begins was.
When talking about Marvel, as I’ve said before Marvel really has laid out all their mainstream character cards on the table. For me it was great when X-Men was released in 2000. Sir Patrick Stewart is now known for two of the many pop culture icons. Captain Picard and now Professor Charles Xavier. I could not see any other actor in the Professor X role in the X-Men Trilogy. At the time in 2002 seeing Spider-Man’s world come to the big screen was amazing. While nowadays I don’t care for Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker, back then I thought it was genius. Again just from seeing certain characters in the 90’s Marvel cartoons, I was super glad to see them come to life in film. This was especially true with Daredevil, as someone who is classified as being “Legally Blind” I thought Daredevil was a superbly done film visually. Bringing the world of a blind person to life was just amazing to me. From 2004-2007 there were hits and misses with Marvel, but 2008’s Iron Man launched the lead in to The Avengers. Marvel pulled off an amazing feat with The Avengers, and I think that film pulled all the story arcs from the previous five films together so well.
The age old debate between DC and Marvel is one that I think will never be won. Everyone has their own favorites, whether you are a Marvel or DC fanboy/fangirl. For some they are hardcore Marvel or hardcore DC. For me I find myself in the film universe here I am more on the flipside of the coin with Marvel. I can and have rewatched many Marvel films over the years. Where it might be 2 or 3 years in between rewatching any of the DC films. So what do you the readers think, are you DC Films or Marvel Films fans?
