CBMs Which Were Stripped Of Their Greatness.
In This Strange And Cruel World, Some CBMs Don't Reach The Heights They Should Have.
There's something about superheroes that draws children and adults alike to them. Whether it's what they stand for or how they represent all the things we wished we could do, they've had a strong impact on the world. And there is always this magical moment when our beloved characters jump on the big screen. Such classics such Christopher Reeve's 'Superman and Superman II',Tim Burton's Batman films and Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' and 'Spider-man 2' come to mind.
Since then, we have had the joy of experiencing many other delights and Comic book movies are now taken much seriously than they were before since their birth. But there is no ride without its bumps. Movies like Elekrta, Batman and Robin, Catwoman and Spider-man 3 have plagued us fans and have damaged the credibility of CBM's as a whole. However, while there are great movies and bad movies, there are also movies which were on the road to greatness but were somehow derailed. This usually is caused by studio interference as they believe they know best. So Highflyer is here to list a few CBMs which I believe were unjustifiably butchered.
1)THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
When it was announced that Sony was rebooting the Spider-Man series, I was confused. Some people were claiming they were just recasting the role of Peter Parker while others were saying the whole cast was not returning. This soon was proven not to be the case as it was revealed Peter would be returning to high school while also developing his powers. Unlike most people, I didn't have a problem with this since I felt comfortable with Peter returning to his young days. My interest was increased ten fold when the marketing campaign promised to tell 'The Untold Story'. I immediately thought of the storylines from the ultimate spider-man comics. My assumption was backed as the synopsis focused on Peter's parents and the trailers that had Doctor Conners telling Peter, 'If you want the truth about your parents, Peter... come and get it.'
So when the movie was finally released, I couldn't help but think to myself 'What happened?' Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the movie and it succeeded in getting me interested in the inevitable sequel but I couldn't help but feel something wasn't right. The movie felt somewhat incomplete and roughly edited. It wasn't long until rumors spread that the studio had to cut many scenes as audiences reacted negatively to the new origin story. This of course led me to look for the deleted scenes and why people didn't want these scenes in baffled me. One of the main complaints of the movie was that the villain felt underdeveloped and felt too similar to the Green Goblin due to the voices in his head, the movie didn't try anything new and that Peter didn't seem to be responsible by the end of the movie. Most of the deleted scenes would have solved these problems. In the deleted footage, its obvious that the 'voices' were not originally intended to be there, but was supposed to be an interesting question for Peter.
2)GREEN LANTERN
I'm going to be honest, prior to this movie, I was never a big fan of Hal Jordan. Maybe the fact I grew up watching John Stewart's Green Lantern on the animated show, 'Justice League Unlimited' was the reason why. I didn't even have a strong knowledge on the Green Lantern mythos. All I knew was the basic 'Normal guy ends up with a space ring and joins a space police force.' So I had I didn't know what to expect. To get me up to date, I read 'Secret origin' and while the action was all fun, the one thing that stood out was the theme of family. That was exactly what I felt was lacking from the film. Sure, I would have preferred a little more action and more time in space but the lack of focus on Hal's family.
In the extended cut, we see more of Hal's childhood and the effect Hal's father's job as a pilot had on the family. Hal's mother was as distressed as she was in the comics and it didn't get any better when Hal became a pilot too. These scenes also flesh out the relationship between Hal, Hector and Carol. It is established that Hector doesn't really like Hal even though Hal isn't a bad kid. He just envies Hal for what he has and who he is.
Even though all this doesn't make the movie gold and it still has major flaws like Parallax and not exploring other lanterns and other galaxies, it sure did impress me. Especially considering that that they feel like they were taken shot for shot from the comics.
3)THE INCREDIBLE HULK
I have made it no secret that The Incredible Hulk movie starring Edward Norton is one of my favorite CBMs ever. Its the movie that turned me into a hardcore Hulk fan. I loved what Edward Norton did with Bruce Banner and the way he portrayed Bruce's paranoia and the savageness of his hulk kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the score and the similarity between the Hulk and Banner was particularly noticeable this time round.
But like the aforementioned films, this movie was butchered during the editing process. While Edward Norton definitely made me care about Bruce Banner to the point that I actually hoped he would find a cure or escape the army instead of hulking out, I felt most of the cut footage should have remained intact since it provided more character development for both Bruce and the supporting characters like Betty Ross. Betty, who was a shallow love interest became a real character. Not only did the deleted scenes provide character development, but it also added suspense as Bruce tried to figure out who he could trust.
Honorable mention: Daredevil. The director's cut was pretty damn good. I'm telling you, if you haven't watched the director's cut, you haven't watched Daredevil. When complaining about Ben Affleck as Batman, people are quick to mention Daredevil but I always saw that as a plus. I will always wonder why they didn't release it in theaters instead of the butchered version the general audience ended up with. Matt Murdock is a devout catholic lawyer. The director's cut really explores that. His cases in the director's cut was interesting enough for me to care.
Well there it is, the CBMs which I believe didn't lived up to their potential due to studio interference. Did I miss anything? Sound off below!
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