Why THE WINTER SOLDIER And The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Prove We Don't Need Any More Origin Story Movies

I like origin stories, I really do.

That's all I'm going to say.

The way the Incredible Hulk did it was good. The filmmakers knew we saw Hulk's origin in a movie 5 years earlier so they just showed his accident briefly in flashbacks.

And Thor also. They leave a lot of things unanswered. They dont use too much exposition. You would think a film with a character that the general audience doesnt know would feel like it has to explain a lot so the viewer can really get into it. I thought Thor did a great job of telling a good story and giving you just enough info to be able to enjoy it. Ya know?

I see your point, and I understand that a lot of people seem to be tiring of "traditional" origin stories...but I think this editorial is just a bit too much of a sweeping generalization. We have to look at things more specifically, on a case-by-case basis.

Honestly? I think Man of Steel could've been MUCH better had it just been content with being an origin story. They obviously tried to ape the flashback technique used in Batman Begins...and they didn't do it nearly as well. Would audiences have walked out if they had taken the time to properly set up a scared and overwhelmed Clark Kent in his early years, his bond with his parents throughout his young adulthood, his lonesome life as a rogue, aimless traveler, and then the moment where he finally chooses to become Superman? All in sequential order? How powerful could that have been?

But then you look at TASM 1...and it's obvious that audiences were well aware of Spidey's origins and it didn't need to be rehashed.

Again, I'm not sure origin stories are such a played-out concept that needs to be eradicated from Hollywood forever. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Just like any other kind of movie. But personally...I wouldn't want The Winter Soldier to be my only "origin story" for Steve Rogers. The First Avenger was fantastic, The Avengers built off that, and The Winter Soldier did so even more. I like origin stories...the ones that are original, well-written, and genuinely entertaining.

some of the great origin movie for me has to.
Batman Begins
Man Of Steel
Ironman
Cap 1st Avenger.

@PrinceAwesome

After that comment, you deserve some clapping gifs. Since I'm on my phone and don't feel like doing it, I'm not going to post any; but you sure as hell deserve some.

The First Avenger was.... Caps origin story, Buckys origin story (and by extension the Winter Soldiers), Shields origin story, Hydras origin story... dude what the hell? Everyone here always sites Watchmen as a great example of a CBM but it DID NOT connect with audiences. It made shut money. With Batman, Spiderman, Superman... These characters have been a pop culture staple for so long you can blow through their origin or retell it in different ways and the vast majority of the audience gets the gist because there's a very high level of familiarity already. With Cap, Thor and say Guardians of the Galaxy the origins need to be a bit more in depth because they aren't introducing one character, they are introducing many and at the same time establishing a world or worlds. The first Spiderman Iron Man are the only 2 movies that spring to mind as telling an isolated story that focuses primarily on one character. The way the origin is presented is important for each character and the world the are in. The First Avenger literally established the current MCU.

"tasm is one of the best origin stories for a cbm. next to batman begins and man of steel"

Are you trying to convince us of that, or just yourself?

I never want to see another Batman or Superman origin story (unless it's got a crazy new twist), but I think they're needed for most lesser known characters.

Iron Man was pretty perfect IMO, I knew nothing about IM going into that movie and after the first 20 mins I was totally hooked.

I'm starting to lean towards the "origin stories are not needed" side as well. At least it should be on a case to case level. Certain characters who have had an origin movie within the last 10 years should not have another origin story unless that origin is different from the last one. The way that stories are being told in movies gives the impression that origin stories are not always the best to do first. With GOTG we get no ones full origin was shown, but tidbits from characters that could be shown in later movies, to keep that movie going forward with the plot

Great article. If the hero is in the mainstream an origin story is not necessary.

Well no shit. If the mainstream people know who the character is, we don't need an origin. That's not the point. The point is that the rule only applies to Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man.

Watchmen also happens to be on my list of greats, glad to see someone else thought it was good too. I have every version of that movie on DVD and Blu-Ray lol.

And....I see most people here are disagreeing with you, and that's fine I guess, but really it's the truth. A friend of mine and myself were just talking about this the other day, actually. We were talking about how Warner Bros. could do a Batman movie without rehashing the origin story by way of flashbacks. Everybody knows the Batman origin story, so why not just jump right into a plot that doesn't involve it? Maybe the villain in the movie is trying to figure out Batman's identity, that's a fantastic excuse to throw in some flashback scenes. Bam -- origin story told, ten minutes tops.

@AlphaAndDecima

"A Gwen Stacy that ended up becoming the brains of the bunch while Peter only became the brawn in TAS-M 2. To me, it has nothing to do with introducing Gwen Stacy at all, but the idea that she became SMARTER than Peter Parker in the sequel."

The comics have never reinstated the fact that Gwen is more intelligent than Peter and during the first installment of the Amazing Spider-Man Franchise, it is unclear who composes the smarter intellect out of the two.

"Flash humiliates Peter in front of their peers in the bus, then continues to humiliate him at that campus site they visited. While, yes, Peter does use violence in retaliation against Flash AFTER he receives his abilities, he didn't want to and only punched him once. Yes, that one punch should have killed him, but so could have Webb's Peter(wow, that sounds dirty) when he slammed Flash into the lockers."

But Peter was well aware of his strength and has even concealed his rage within himself instead of exuding it towards Flash.

"The Lizard character wasn't even correctly done or used in TAS-M. To even understand The Lizard, we need to understand Curt Connors, and we couldn't because to even understand Curt Connors, we need to know about his personal life and the film made it seem like Curt didn't have one. With Martha and Billy, that adds layers to Curt once he becomes Lizard and would give reasoning for Curt to want to turn all of NYC into beings like himself. To have an idea of just turning everyone like him without some personal reason is as bad as any cliche "master plan" from a villain."

No, it is not in any way 'cliche'. If any and all, it is the most creative of them all. If you view the mere existentialism of nature, you can see that the sole reason why the human is in the top of the food chain is in due to the the intellect we perceive in order to conceive weaponry in which can retaliate against savage oppressors that poses a threat towards us(such as lions, tigers, bears, hell, even rats) but when you take the weapons out of the grasp of the humane entity, his/her strength becomes equivalent to that of a fruitfly and is now rendered the exemplification of desolation henceforth Connors felt an urgency to 'hurry up' the evolutionary process.

"This should have never been a reason, but simply because it seems like EVERY villain is related to OsCorp in some way is as bad as Raimi trying to connect EVERY villain to Peter Parker. You mentioned The Spectacular Spider-Man in this same comment, but at least TSSM knew how to give each villain different relations, either to OsCorp, to Peter Parker or to other characters in the series."

Which is why this franchise had so much potential to deliver us a fresh, new Spidey, but instead, we got a cheesy and horrid depiction of the Spider-Man character (as portrayed in the sequel).

"Again, it needed to have a personal reason that goes beyond just his own "faults" in life. Using his family would have helped, to the idea of Curt wanting his loved ones to be like himself and never again encounter sickness."

But the Connors character felt that the transcendence of ONE entire species is more beneficial than the transcendence of one entire family, so adding his family into the mix will only create pointlessness towards the story.

"Investigating Ben's killer is fine, but to become Spider-Man out of vengeance is another and disrespects the reason for why Peter even becomes Spider-Man."

Which is why I deem the entire loyal fanbase of anything comic book-related as a plethora of demeaning hypocrites. They get their balls cupped in a one-up when a film conveys certain aspects the fellow CBMer loathes, but scurries in rejoice when that same aspect is replicated under another movie with a different title under a different studio.

"J. Jonah Jameson acted out on trying to prove Spidey was the "bad guy" which finally got the attention from the cops in the first film, and even if the NYPD didn't view Spidey as the "bad guy" after the first film, Jameson still did…pretty much the same thing happening in Webb's films."

But the popular sentiment of the Spider-Man character in Raimi's film was that he was a vigilante in which was loved by any and all, but the comics didn't portray Spider-Man as the kind of hero everyone would scream out their lungs for.

"Too bad his quips were never funny. Spider-Man's sarcasm is usually meant to be funny, but also with almost a childish humor along with it."

Really?

So this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nURhc_maQFg), this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0roGH0afL3Y), this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8n0Anmjb8) and this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsTmJHNp5w) are inferior compared to the almighty non-witty remarks spewed by Tobey Maguire?