Unveiling the Marvels of Adaptation: Creating the Best Comic Book Movie
Comic book movies have become a staple in the film industry. The success rate of these movies is pretty high, but it’s not just by pure luck that they achieve this. When it comes to creating a superhero movie, things can get kind of tricky. It’s important to keep the audience entertained and interested. As someone who critiques these types of movies for a living, I’ve seen what has worked for several movie makers in the past.
Don’t Stray from The Original
No doubt about it, we all know that every story will be changed when you take it from one medium and put it into another. But despite this change its important to try as hard as you can to stay true to the original work. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” did an amazing job at sticking with their comic book visual style and multi verse theme.
Respect The Characters
These characters have been around for close to a century now and have built up very complex personalities over time. Treating them well and showing them on screen how they’re supposed to be shown will catch the audiences’ eye easily, while also being loyal to fans. Batman was done really well when he brought his character back to life in “The Dark Knight”. It showed him as someone who had gone through tough times and had many dilemmas.
Storytelling Is Key
It’s true that overly done special effects are cool but don’t let them overshadow your storytelling abilities/talent! Now I’m not saying that superhero movies suck at telling stories because normally they do an awesome job at doing so, but there are times where everything goes south because the focus is just on action packed scenes only — not even showing much of any story line behind it anymore like it’s supposed to be.
Bad Guys Need Stories Too
Make no mistake, heroes are only hype when their villains are just as interesting and complex. Bring some more life to your movie and give your bad guys a story line as well. Make people think about who they should be cheering for while watching, by knowing them on a deeper level than just wanting to see their downfall. We all know the joker from “The Dark Knight” was an incredible antagonist.
Pay Attention to Details
It’s been said before but will never stop being true — details are important. When you make a comic book movie it’s only right that you bring comic books to life visually. Whether it be in costumes or even on set, paying attention to these small things is what’ll keep people entertained and actually thinking about how much they love the fact that they’re watching a super hero movie.
Be Inclusive
The world we live in now is so diverse, everyone’s looking for themselves in anything and everything. Give people something to relate too! Whether it be through featuring different types of people of just flat out making someone who represents the whole cast say their lines (hero/villain-wise). There wasn’t a single person of color that didn’t feel something when they watched wonder woman fly through the air, or when we saw our ancestors come back alive after watching “Black Panther”
Fans Know Best
Fans love their favorite characters more than anything, and a good movie should pay attention to what they have to say. While filmmakers don’t have to listen to all the wants that fans ask for, they should try to make something that respects the original material. “Deadpool” is a great example of this. His fourth wall-breaking jokes left fans in stitches.
A comic book movie adaptation isn’t easy work. But by sticking close to the source, respecting the characters, and focusing on storytelling it is possible. By embracing diversity and listening to what fans want you can be sure your movie will not only be fun but meaningful too. — Brad Kern
