The Wake

Your shoes stick to the tacky theater lobby as, popcorn in hand, you wait for the orange vests to open the theater doors. A hero’s symbol puffs with pride on your shirt, cracked and faded by years of love. A nervous tic works at your cheek as you tap your watch, unable to believe that after years of waiting, you must wait still. And then, in the ticket line behind you, you overhear:

“How about we see that V for Vendetta movie?”

“Ugh. A comic book movie? Let’s see something good.”

It’s a sentiment uttered far too often, and weighted with enough ignorance to make pre-crisis Superman’s knees buckle. Comic book movies are a longstanding cinematic tradition that date all the way back to 1939 with the Batman serial series. Over the years, comic book movies have become an integral part of American culture; from Superman, which launched Christopher Reeve into stardom; to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990, which delighted children and irritated parents. These movies are a stunning and uniquely American form of entertainment.

In present day, with waning ideas, writers’ strikes, and a glut of remakes, Hollywood has come to rely more and more on comic books and their time-tested visual storytelling to keep audiences in theaters. Some of these movies have been complete flops, but their sheer numbers have made this decade belong to superheroes.

X-Men (2000)

Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Famke Janssen

X-Men went down in history as the first successful superhero-team movie. Focusing on Marvel’s iconic Wolverine, Bryan Singer brought a cast of fan-favorite mutants to life and pitted them against the fearsome Magneto, portrayed by Ian McKellen (of Gandalf fame). Patrick Stewart rose to the role of the wheelchair-bound Professor Charles Xavier, a potent telepath and pacifist with his own team of militant super-teenagers to spread his message of peace (by force, if necessary). Dazzling special effects and a phenomenal effort from the cast made X-Men an instant hit. The movie grossed over $54 million in its opening weekend and put Marvel in the definitive lead for super-hero movies.

Spider-Man (2002)

Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco

In 2002, audiences watched Tobey Maguire do whatever a spider can, and loved it. Led by Sam Raimi, a B-movie alumnus who hit the directorial jackpot, this movie is proof of the success that comes from putting a true fan on the helm of a comic-to-movie translation. Special effects weren’t quite up to snuff for the challenge of making Spidey’s 3-D acrobatics visually believable, but that didn’t hinder its success. With an original story which is familiar even to people who have never picked up a comic book, Spider-Man launched a sequel for itself before it even left theaters.

Daredevil (2003)

Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clarke Duncan

Fresh off the success of Spider-Man, Marvel decided to next chronicle the life and times of its blind lawyer-turned-superhero. What else can you do with radar-like sense and a stylish cane, but dress like Satan and wail on mob bosses? Farrell’s psychotic take on the master assassin Bullseye made for some amusing sequences and incredible fights. But mixed reviews and an unenthusiastic reception by fans left Daredevil stumbling in the dark.

The Hulk (2003)

Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot and Nick Nolte

One of the disappointments of the comic-movie continuum, The Hulk had potential to be a success but dropped the ball. Special effects have progressed far enough to create an engaging, if not believable, green giant to rampage across the silver screen. Director Ang Lee, fresh off the wildly successful American release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, created a story with the cadence and flow of a Dickenson poem. Translated to the big screen, it became a long, and, convoluted, two-hour movie intermittent with pointless fight scenes, and capped with an ending that made no sense. To the regret of those who paid to see it, Lee and his production team failed to realize that The Hulk’s reason for being is to smash the fuck out of whatever he sees.

Hellboy (2004)

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Karel Roden and David Hyde Pierce

An odd name for an odd hero, Hellboy brought to the silver screen the tongue-in-cheek heroics of Mike Mignola’s demonic comic book character. Ron Perlman, usually thrust into villainous roles for his gravelly voice, donned a massive red muscle suit to battle a reincarnated Rasputin (Roden) and his band of Nazi collaborators. Confused? Don’t worry. Hellboy’s snappy dialogue, unique humor, quirky characters, and fast-paced action made up for its predictable ending.

Elektra (2005)

Director: Rob Bowman
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Terence Stamp, Kirsten Prout and Goran Visnjic

What’s worse than an unnecessary sequel? An unnecessary sequel spawned from a mediocre movie. Jennifer Garner reprised her role as the tertiary Marvel character Elektra…only instead of being a ninja assassin, as she was in the comics, this Elektra is a ninja heroine protecting children out of the goodness of her heart. Huh? With ridiculous special effects, characters that refused to compel us, and almost no story to speak of, Elektra falls squarely into the ‘Why was I made?’ category of cinema.

Constantine (2005)

Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LeBeouf and Tilda Swinton

Formula for an Alan Moore comic movie: take one book (Hellblazer); reinvent the main character (wisecracking Brit becomes stoic American); throw in a wooden star (Reeves); ignore source plotlines entirely; serve. While Constantine possessed the star power and special effects to make up for its wafer-thin story and deus ex machina ending, fans of the Hellblazer series were baffled by Hollywood’s need to change a series that didn’t need tweaking in the first place. Still, seeing Reeves giving Satan the finger may be enough for some to justify the rental cost.

Sin City (2005)

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba and Benicio Del Toro

Frank Miller’s gritty noir caricature shocked and delighted audiences last year, leaving its mark as the most true-to-source comic book movie to date. Rodriguez worked closely with Miller to develop the visual design and cinematography used in creating this collage of crime, love and violence in sleazy Basin City. Supposedly, the comics themselves were used as storyboards. An all-star cast lifted their characters right from the pages of the graphic novels onto the silver screen, all to a constant narration that broke a fundamental rule of cinema with terrific results. Before Sin City, audiences had never watched a comic book.

Batman Begins (2005)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes

Director Chris Nolan set out to reinvent the Batman franchise, and succeeded in a big way. Batman Begins retells the story of the Dark Knight’s legendary origins. Christian Bale became the first actor to persuasively play both Bruce Wayne and Batman (apologies to Adam, Michael, Val and George, but it’s true). With a seedy Gotham City molded from the streets of Chicago, convincing bat-gadgets, and an impressive Batmobile, Batman Begins single-handedly made audiences forgive the franchise for the cinematic cancer which was 1997’s Batman and Robin.

Fantastic Four (2005)

Director: Tim Story
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon

Most people don’t know that Marvel’s first family had a movie of their exploits made back in 1992. The result of early ’90s special effects combined with an unwatchable plot tanked the movie before it ever hit theaters. It now circulates on the bootleg market as a curio. The latest attempt looked prettier, but still had a long way to go. With a thin story, continuity problems, and a distinct lack of super-battles, Fantastic Four failed to live up to its 40-plus years of source material. The actors’ devotion to their roles (excluding Alba’s Reed-obsessed Susan Storm) remains the bright spot in this otherwise dim view of Marvel’s iconic family.

V For Vendetta (2006)

Director: James McTieque
Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry

After four previous bastardizations based on his source material, graphic novelist Alan Moore refused to attach his name to this project. Too bad, as this is the first movie to draw from his work that actually follows it. Taking a dangerous stance on the positive, patriotic aspects of violence and terrorism, V For Vendetta took a refreshing chance in an industry riddled with conformity and repetition. Using Natalie Portman’s shaven head as a selling point was an odd, but ultimately successful, marketing ploy, and taught us that bald truly is beautiful.