WebLog

<< Newer entry | Archives | Older Entry >>

Three Rules For Writing a Good Superhero Movie
9/6/2007

I watched the latest Marvel animated direct-to-DVD feature over the weekend: Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme. It was... well, not awful. But it bungled thru many of the same mistakes I keep seeing again and again in superhero flicks. If you are one of those lucky readers who actually gets to pen one of these films then I'd suggest three simple maxims for your next effort:

  1. Don't start with an origin story. Origin stories are dreary, dull, and everyone already knows them. How many times do we need to see Bruce Wayne's parents shot, Peter Parker bitten by a spider, or friggin Krypton explode? Skip all the lame exposition and go right for a great story. Oh, and villains can also do quite nicely without an origin story. How many great James Bond films bothered to show you the genesis of their villains?
  2. One villain per movie. Let me repeat that: ONE VILLAIN PER MOVIE!!! No mater how fans howl don't vary from this. A good villain needs time to develop, time to menace, and time to be defeated. You will need every bit of your precious 120 minutes to pull this off. The only exception to this rule is that is it's permissible to have a villain "waiting in the wings" for the next movie. A menace that is created or foreshadowed but does not actually manifest itself till a later film.
  3. Smaller is often more interesting than bigger. This may seem like a contradiction when thinking in superhero terms but always saving the world from some massive threat is just kind of, well, dull. At least consider how smaller stories, with a more intimate scope, can actually be more powerful.

And if you happen to be one of the writers for last season's Heroes I'll throw in one more for you:

  1. Don't cheat us on the showdown. If there's one convention in the superhero genre you can't shrug off it's the big fight, the burly brawl, the high-noon shootout at the OK corral. I'm sorry if it's not highbrow enough for you but over-the-top physical confrontation is just part of the way this game is played. You'll please no one if you don't deliver.

9/6/2007 | Permanent Link

<< Newer entry | Archives | Older Entry >>