Are there too many comic book movies?

As a casual comic book fan and as someone who enjoys going to the cinema as one of my favourite past times, the yearly binge of comic book adaptations of the last six years or so has for the most part been worth it. But with the announcement of a Justice League movie in the works, I'm beginning to have very slight niggling doubts at the back of my head.

A comic book movie has a lot of advantages over other big budget film productions, before the movie is even released you already have an established fan base as well an established mythology to play around with, they also have the privilege of appealing to any audience of any age and gender. Along with bigger budgets, the more advanced technology at hand, and the box office returns, it's understandable why film studios are so eager to make as many of them as possible.

It also helps that most comic book movies of the last decade or so have been generally consistently good or at least worth the ticket price, my own personal favourites are 'Spider-man 2; and 'The Avengers Assemble', and before those there was the first and utterly superb albeit more bloodthirsty and mature 'Blade' film. And going back before that we had the old Batman films with Michael Keaton, although they've dated quite badly they are still entertaining and full of charm. But with the ever expanding Marvel universe (which is apparently going to run until 2028) and now the Justice League film on the way, they're now just becoming cash cow franchises.

A cynical example of this is with the recently released 'The Amazing Spider-man 2', although a flawed movie it was still good. But its whole existence seemed to be just a hoodwink into a sinister six film (a group of villains who come together to stop Spider-man for those who didn't know). It has already been confirmed that there will be another two in the main series as well as two spin offs (Sinister Six and a Venom movie).

It's no doubt that all of these films are capable of being great, the Justice League film as well as the Superman versus Batman film are both intriguing, and even if they get bad reviews I will most likely go see them, as will most other people. But I was actually looking forward to a standalone sequel to 'Man of Steel', after dealing with the Superman origin story I thought the sequel would lay the ground works for a real Superman film, we would finally get to know more about who Clark Kent was, but we're not really getting that now. From what the people behind the scenes have said It's now obvious that Batman appearing in a Superman movie was never planned from the start, it just kind of came about at some point in a board meeting.

Another problem, and this one is more to do with the Marvel Universe, is that with all of the films connected to one another they all have to consider what's going on elsewhere (which in this case leads to another Avengers film). There's a number of problems with this, all of the characters have to follow the same story arc, and it could just lead into repetition...running, jumping, shooting. Over and over.

Comic book movies are not the only ones saturating the market, the upcoming remakes and reboots is listless. Terminator (yawn, talk about flogging a dead horse), Beverly Hills Cop (same as Terminator), The Mummy (has potential), An American werewolf in London (don't bother), Godzilla (this actually looks amazing). These films are being made for the same reason comic book movies are being made, established audience and the technology to make them. There's nothing really wrong with any of this, I will no doubt watch many of these movies and probably enjoy the vast majority of them.

But of the top twenty grossing films of all time (adjusted to inflation) only four are from original source material (I'll give Titanic a free pass), and more than half of them are sequels, and most have come in and around the last decade or so.
The point I'm trying to make is that I would like to see more creativity in modern day blockbusters, new characters, new stories and more risks.

Because let's be honest, in another thirty or so years, when Iron Man 10 comes out, we could be in danger of seeing the continuous and unnecessary remakes of the remakes.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

An action packed comic book film adaptation, only bettered in the last five years by' The Avengers: Assemble'.

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Certificate: 12A

Running time: Two hours and sixteen minutes

While their content can be quite limited, I generally love comic book films and 'The Avengers' was the best one I have seen since Spider Man 2, it stood for everything that going to the cinema should be. But I honestly found the first Captain America to be rather boring and timid, so I'm glad to write that the sequel is better and far more interesting.

Set two years after the events of the battle of New York in 'The Avengers', Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is still working for intelligence agency S.H.I.EL.D, while at the same time he is struggling to adapt to contemporary life in Washington DC. S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) returns along with Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

The premise of the film is centred around 'Project Insight', a fleet of air carriers which use satellites and spy technology created by S.H.I.E.L.D to eliminate potential threats and targets. The situation is made worse when the agency is compromised, which means it's up to Captain America to stop its launch and those who are perpetrating it.

Even with the film's attempts at building a story about the shadowy power of intelligence agencies and the importance of civil liberties. The action scenes are what make it so good, which let's be honest, is primarily what comic books are about. Fun and enjoyable action set pieces.
And there are plenty of them in this film, and the action is far more physical which fits well with Captain America's superpowers (which is basically his super strength and the iconic shield). They are also choreographed perfectly, there are no flashy quick camera edits here which plague so many modern action films, everything you see hits home with the right impact and appears believable.

The special effects are as good as anything I have seen before, while not mind blowing, they serve their purpose perfectly when needed. Another positive is that the central villain was more than a match for the hero, the battles between Captain America and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) are impressive and once again choreographed well without being overblown. Although he doesn't have an abundance of screen time Robert Redford is effective as the snarly S.H.I.E.L.D director Alexander Pierce. 

In a post Assange/Snowden world it's good that a comic book film is trying something more than just another good guy versus bad guy, the film (vaguely) eludes to the idea of power being given to people with the wrong intentions, and the growing fear about the uncertain world we seem to be living in, and what role the government plays in this. So credit where credit is due.

But the film does have a few weaknesses, the narrative is very contrived, certain plot devices are unimaginative and seem to be just leading the audience on with very little surprise, one particular supporting character suddenly plays a prominent role within the last third of the film without too much character development. And the film could have perhaps had fifteen or twenty minutes shaved off of its running time.      

   

But the positives far outweigh the few minor negatives, 'The Winter Soldier' is a perfect way to lead into the next Avengers film and the second phase of the Marvel Universe.

And stay around for two post credit scenes, one halfway through the credits, and the other when they are finished.

Verdict- 4/5