Both Marvel and DC Comics have a long great history of excellent characters and excellent talent writing and drawing them. The transition to the small screen and the movies is something else. Though not the first superhero, certainly the biggest at the time, Batman starring Michael Keaton in the late 80's was everything a comics nut would love. There was a realism to it. Even non-superhero movies need realism, and what made it so cool was that realism. It wasn't so much the acting, though that helped, it was the setting. Actually trying to provide some semblance of a city, made it believeable. The franchise later tanked horribly, when they started putting nipples on costumes that were supposed to be body armor, and resorted to crappy puns, but the stage had already been set, the right actors, the right direction, and the superhero movie could shine
Of course now its 2015, and the excellent Dark Knight Trilogy is behind opening the doors for an expanded DC Comics movie universe, as well Marvel pumping out movies that aren't just well written, or based on some of their more interesting stories, but they're putting tremendous effort into putting out a high standard product for the fans. Movie budgets are obviously way higher, and special effects are far superior to even movies made 10 years ago. But things are different between the DC movie franchise and the Marvel one than just production and characters. Marvel has the upper hand in characters that have better name recognition than DC, though DC has more history, at least comic book history.
It seems to be that Marvel hasn't made a single bad casting move yet. Which is just crazy to me. Even with the Marvel Cinematic Universe breaking into TV with shows like Daredevil and Agents of SHIELD, the effort even in making TV shows is evident. Yes, you can't produce the same effects in TV as with a movie, but even the storytelling comes off extremely well. The thing is, its about effort, and its shows in the Marvel movies and shows. Casting Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is horrible, casting Ben Affleck is also horrible. Affleck already had a shot in a Daredevil movie, which tanked, and Eisenberg was in that dopey Facebook movie. First thought that comes to my mind is, "Why is Mark Zuckerberg trying to kill Superman?" Both DC and Marvel have has some stinkers, but DC just seems to making casting blunders, when they've got the money, the time, and the opportunity to do something great. They really couldn't just offer Christian Bale more money to keep playing Batman? He was great in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and look at what Marvel has done with Robert Downey Jr. He's got 3 Iron Man movies, 2 Avengers movies, and plenty more to follow. DC should be milking the cow as long as they have it around, but now Bale is gone, and I guess Batman will be Ben Affleck's comeback or improvement project or something.
I want to see comic movies because I love the characters, and love the concepts, I don't want to go and be sort of held hostage by watching because this is the only Batman, or whatever, that's here at the moment, so that's what we have to go with. You want to go and be able to enjoy the movie, and if the actor is good enough you won't even "see" them, so to speak, but you'll see that beloved character right in front of you. That's all. No amount of special effects, or story, will hide bad acting, or likely alter pre-movies bias. Comic moviegoers don't like crappy casting, storytellers and writers, don't like it, and neither will the general public.
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