Empire Magazine (Superheroes)

MAN OF STEEL

- David S. Goyer: 

"We're approaching Superman as if it werent a comic-book movie, as if it were real," 

"Thats sort of what we did with Batman, which now seems revolutionary. Before a lot of superhero films had been approached as superhero films, you know: Adam West's Batman or Dick Tracy"

"I adore the Donner films. Absolutely adore them. It just struck me that there was an idealist quality to them that may or may not work with todays audience." 

- Deborah Snyder:

"He is a little lost when we find him, trying to figure it out. That makes him very real. You can relate to the humanity in him."

- Henry Cavill:

"Its not a dark movie by any means. This is a more realistic view on the character."

THOR - THE DARK WORLD

- Craig Kyle:

"We have to constantly redefine what a superhero film is or it'd just exhaust the audience, so Iron Man is the James Bond-y classic, suave action hero; Captain America's the period piece; Hulk is the monster movie; Avengers the disaster movie; and Thor is the science-fiction epic."

KICK ASS

low budget of $28 million, pulled in almost $100 million worldwide.

Chris@empire -

"Kick ass was a breath of fresh air, taking the Michael out of the  comic-book genre while simultaneously giving it a warm embrace, perked up with a violent and coarse edge that set it apart."

- Millar

"But why has nobody dressed up as a superhero and gone out to do all the stuff we'd love to do? Its the flipside to these altruistic guys who go out to fight crime (...) Its the supervillain Clockwork Orange."

WOLVERINE

- James Mangold

"This is really the anti-superhero-movie superhero movie. The stakes of the story are entirely character based. There's fear and revenge, love, hate. It's not a story built on. 'will this city be destroyed?! Will the world be conquered by Doctor Cyclops or whatever radioactive monstrosity?' All that evaporates here into something much more deeply personal." 

Theories

Theories

• Todorov
• Propp
• Halls
• Levi-Strauss
• Cultivation theory
• Hypodermic syringe theory

Todorov's narravtive theory:

Equilibrium
      V
disruption of equilibrium
      V
recognise disruption
     V
fix disruption
     V
back to an alternative equilibrium.

Propp

Hero: Central/ main character

Love interest/heroine: acts as reward for completing tasks

Villain: Seeks to prevent hero/ causes disruption

Mentor: Gives important info or equipment to help. 

Helper of hero: accompanies hero with quest but cannot do everything.

Halls

Preferred Reading: When the audience respond to the product how the producers want/expect.

Oppositional reading: When audience completely disagrees with products message.

Negotiated clothing: when a member of the audience partly with part of the products message.

Levi- Strauss

Binary Oppositions: Good V. Bad, lighting e.g. light V. dark, 

Evolution of superheroes:

• Batman
• Spiderman
• Ironman 

marvel characters over time (batman, spider man, hulk, wonder woman) actors.

Superhero realism

http://www.richardwhitby.net/James%20Bond%20and%20Batman.html

Contemporary heroes:

• Kick Ass
• Heroes
• Misfits
• The Chronicle
• Hancock

OLD:

• Batman the movie 1966
• amazing spiderman 1977-79

”Now the stuff I grew up with… I adored the DC stuff growing up but really, how do you do a movie about Green Lantern? His power is that he manifests green plasma from his imagination and uses them as weapons against someone? Even that in itself if you just imagine then watching a fight scene with a guy who’s like a hundred feet away making plasma manifestations fight someone – it’s not exactly raucous, getting up close and personal. The Flash has door handles on the side of his mask and if he doesn’t wear that mask, I’ll be pissed off, you know what I mean? They’re in a weird, weird situation – if you’ve got a guy who moves at the speed of light up against the Weather Wizard and Captain Cold or whatever, then your movie’s over in two seconds. You can get away with stuff in comics that in live action’s just a bit sucky – the best one is definitely Aquaman. Aquaman can’t even talk under water. If you think about it in comics it’s fine, you just have a speech balloon, but how do you have Atlantis and people talking under water? Are they gonna talking telepathically? Is it going to be body forms?” Mark Miller.