Monday 12 September 2016

Did we need to know that?: Origin Movies and Too Much Info



TheAliMonster and I recently finished the full MCU marathon (the self-styled Marvel Cinematic Universe with added Amazing Spiderman 1 + 2 slotted in) before we sat down to watch the recently released Cap America Civil War. And... OK, we love them. Highly enjoyable from the highs of Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy to the oft mentioned low of Thor 2 (still don't get the hate for that film. Deriding one of these films for having a ridiculous plot is a bit like kicking a kitten for being cute).

Thing is... when you watch them back to back,  and I admit we did it over a week as we're not as young as we once were, you do notice that as good as they are the story telling leaves very little room for mystery in terms of character. It seems we're no longer allowed to meet a fully formed character and enjoy their adventures without being told the minutiae of their life to that point. We certainly aren't allowed to use our imagination to fill in the blanks about their past.

I get that Superhero"Origin' films are seen as hugely important when setting up a potential franchise with ongoing films (and merchandising opportunities) and though they vary in quality, on the whole they do it well. The problem, is that the guys in charge don't seem to want to stop there.

Guardians was a good origin film taking the separate members of the team through a great story until they became, at the climax the the film, the titular heroes. And although their past was mentioned throughout, enough for us to fully understand their motivations and personality traits, at no point were we shown a 5 minute flash back of how Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot became the characters who we met at the beginning of the film. Extremely good writing got us past the need for that so we could move onto something much more exciting. Take note Suicide Squad... THAT'S how you do an ensemble piece!

OK, the beginning of Guardians was an entire flashback of how Peter was taken from Earth as a small child, but as his parentage is a big part of future plots we can probably let that go. Plus, without that scene the Awesome Mix Tape Vol.1 soundtrack would have no reason to be in the film so it's worth it for that alone.

On the other hand X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a pretty poor origin film, ironic given the title. And the problem isn't just that the film wasn't as good as it should have been (and it's OK, just not great) the problem is that over the course of X-Men and X2 we were shown a fair bit of Wolverine's origins, so did we really need a third film to tell us even more? X2 was practically built around his back story yet we were still left with room for mystery and mystery often makes great characters. Let's face it, knowing that underneath Darth Vader's mask is the miserable face of pent-up pubescent rage has rather taken some of the menace from the character when re-watching parts IV to VI. But we know very little about the origins of Boba Fett and Han Solo and yet they remain enigmatic and engaging characters to this day... until the origin films come out that is... sigh.

The most menacing pubescent in the galaxy
Hollywood seems utterly entranced by the idea of showing us the history of characters that we, the viewers, are desperate to see the future of. Ironman was a great origin film in that we met Tony Stark at the height of his pre-suit powers, were shown the incident that changed him and moved straight on to his new heroic destiny. But in subsequent Ironman, Avengers and Captain America films we've seen Tony as a small child, CGI'd teenager, young man taking over his Dad's company and arrogant party boy. Some of these events may have been relevant to the plot, some certainly weren't, most could have been resolved with more focused writing.

The reason I got to thinking about all this was Midnight Special, which we watched just before the Marvel marathon and in hindsight what a difference. It's just so refreshing to watch a story that drops you straight into an ongoing situation with no explanation of the characters, their motivations or what is happening to them, with no option but to watch and try and figure it out. In fact you don't really get a handle on what's going on and how the characters fit until halfway through the film and even then a lot of questions are left unanswered and at no point are we shown how the events of the film started (never mind how all the characters became who they are).



It's not a perfect film, certainly, but it was lovely not to be shown everything, even to the point that the film ends with the merest glimpse of something clearly wondrous, a glimpse that in other hands may turn into a trilogy of movies itself, yet in this film is cut off as abruptly as the film starts.

I say all this in the knowledge that by the time Spiderman Homecomings comes out next year we could well be averaging a Spiderman Origin film (little radioactive spider and all) once every five years since 2002. I hope not... the signs from Civil War are hopeful given that (and i assume this isn't a spoiler) we meet a fully formed if very young Spiderman. Perhaps Marvel will get that by now we all have a pretty good idea about how Peter became Spidey and that we don't really need a slightly different version of the same event. But what's the odds they can't resist showing us anyway?



1 comment:

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