When it comes to things like superheroes like Superman, the Hulk, Iron Man, or Batman, everyone has an idea of their origin stories. But as the superhero movie franchise only continues to barrel forward, how important is it for writers to include an accurate recount of the superhero origins for new viewers? Or does it matter at all?
It matters to an extent. The idea of an adaptation is to provide a new interpretation to something pre-existing. You don't want the filmmakers to exactly follow the comics or else it would be boring. It has to be suitable so it can be translated to screen for a general film audience – cbo10946 years ago
I think to a certain degree people stop caring about the origin story since for some heroes its such commonly treaded ground that its basically mud the next time a reboot rolls around. Spiderman Homecoming skipped it completely keeping the movie fresh and exciting. Of course as an introduction for new viewers it might leave them in the dark, but if you value yourself as a writer you should be able to help ease new viewers in with slight exposition rather than pulling a BVS and shoving it in in the first 2 minutes as a dream sequence. – AMedina6 years ago
Many different TV series and films offer various visions of the future. Spanning from a dystopic universe where water is scarce and people scavenge, such as Tank Girl, or where the water levels have risen and earth is scarce, such as Waterworld, to futures where we have expanded into the stars, Star Trek, etc.
There are many interpretations of what comes next for us, and I thought an interesting topic would be to map some of these and look at the origin concept at their core. The easiest example would be to use Waterworld: rising sea levels due to climate change lead to eventually all but the highest peaks become completely under water that is more salt than fresh. Humanity moves to living in floating communities and diving for materials from the world before.
Many of these interpretations are not that far into our future and offer some interesting points of view on where the human race is heading. Can you think of other examples?
To see how different futures are envisioned from the period when that particular future was developed. The 1950s and atomic testing or the present and climate change. How the times affect future-vision. – Joseph Cernik6 years ago
Compare the two fictional characters by contrasting character development for each. Also, shed light on how similarly crucial each character's narrative is to the overarching narrative.
Can you offer more context? Comparison in what manner? Also, most people are familiar with Snape and his character - but perhaps not so much with Itachi. – Karen6 years ago
@Karen This would be fitting as a revision to this topic. =) – Misagh6 years ago
I didn't want the topic to be restrictive. But I am sure the concept of sacrifice should figure in the comparison... Anyone who is familiar with both characters should be tempted to write about the parallels between them--I think. – purplelight716 years ago
My revision was marked as fixed, however your summary is the same as before. Please add more context to your topic. – Pamela Maria Schmidt6 years ago
Oh I apologize I thought 'fixed' was like pin this comment here! I'm new here :( – purplelight716 years ago
Why is this side by side comparison important to explore? They may well be very similar, but the similarities between morally gray characters in two unrelated (albeit popular) franchises isn't necessarily a relevant topic. You can write a paper comparing any two things and even make a successful argument about it, but there should be a good reason to make the comparison in the first place. So why is it worth while to contrast and compare these guys? – TheCropsey6 years ago
One thing that joins these two characters is how much the fandom loves them and forgives them after hearing about their true motives despite the fact that they both did horrible things. You can examine how Rowling and Kishimoto managed to make them fan favourites to the point where some fans don't care that they were presented as horrible people for the majority of the series. – tmtonji6 years ago
purplelight71 no worries! – Pamela Maria6 years ago
I would love to read an article detailing Native American representation in Hollywood cinema. Whitewashing, the Marlon Brando Oscars debacle, and more.
There was a 2009 documentary title "Reel Injun" that did a terrific job exploring this, and it is a powerful topic because of the influence that the portrayal of First Nations in films has had on the European North American consciousness. In light of the more recent calls for recognition of indigenous sovereignty, rights, and title to unceded land that have been in the news lately in both Canada and the US, examining our perceptions of First Nations peoples and biases formed by Hollywood visions would be well worth reading. – petethicke6 years ago
You're right that "Reel Injun" addresses this and does so amazingly. It is about 10 years old; however. I have yet to read recent well written online articles detailing this issue. – nbenn0576 years ago
There are many of them, and there are scholars who dedicated their careers to that subject and wrote books about it. – T. Palomino2 years ago
Marvel has used the superhero movie genre to tell a wide variety of stories – for instance, a heist film (Ant-Man), a spy thriller (Captain America: TWS), and a war film (Captain America:TFA). The same is true on television, where the Netflix series deals with such serious issues of race, sexual abuse, toxic masculinity, and much more. As the slate of superhero content stretches out massively into the future, can it be constantly used to tell varied interesting stories, or are the limits already beginning to show?
This is a great topic! Especially in the wake of Deadpool 2! The first Deadpool was a rom-com, while the second was a family movie at its roots. Because this is such a bizarre approach for a superhero movie, there's theories floating around about what the next Deadpool will be. (The AtZ Show on Youtube speculates that it might be a mock-umentary, something to look into btw.) – M K Keane6 years ago
What is the 'Marvel Formula'? I like this topic but the formulaic aspect is unclear to me. Are you saying that Marvel movies are usually action type films? Huh. If so, I think Marvel's use of humour can be a limitation, in the sense that it's a staple in Marvel films. On another note, there's the overarching plot (or continuity) that blankets all individually released films—the past few led up to Infinity War. But what's next? Marvel's cinematic universe is amazing, but I worry for the day when it could seem 'dragged out'. (Then again I'm an uncultured non-comic book reader who doesn't know what'll happen after Infinity War, ack.) – Starfire6 years ago
T’Challa is not the typical hypermasculine black superhero attributed with traits like emotional sensitivity, thoughtfulness and respect. On the other end, Killmonger the villain of the film has many traits closely associated with the black action hero and the stars of the blacksploitation films. Explore and contrast the gendered depiction of T’Challa and Erik Killmonger and how masculinity is constructed in Black Panther.
There haven't been a whole lot of black superheros. Is it sensible to talk about 'hypermasculine black superhero' as a large grouping? Maybe better to broaden this to all male hypermasculine superheros.
Also, it would be wonderful to get a clear sense of what the specific traits are that Killmonger shares with conventional black action heroes.
Great topic though! – hwilkinson6 years ago
Thank you for the feedback Hwikinson. While hypermasculinity is a part of all male superheroes, the black superhero is doubly fetishized, due to their race. This is particularly true in the blaxploitation films of the 70s that first brought many popular black male superheroes to light and served as role models or many others - think Shaft, Superfly, Luke Cage and Black Lightning. These were more often than not one-man inner-city vigilantes, detectives, and ex-cons waging a war against the establishment. Often in Blaxploitation films, the hypermasculinity of the male action hero was used as a tool to replace old stereotypes of submissive blacks with new stereotypes of hyper-sexualized, violent, anti-social blacks living in a fictionalized ghetto world characterized by vice and lawlessness. These traits are remarkably more similar Killmonger, who also wants to destroy the system that he considers as oppressive than to T'Challa. – bansari6 years ago
It seems that there are 2 theories regarding the ending of Inception. If we accept that the entire movie is not a dream and that Cobb did in fact escape his limbo with Mal, then it is reasonable to believe he also escaped his limbo with Saito.
It is possible that the entire movie is a dream, and that Cobb never left his own limbo. Which one do you think is the correct one? Or do you have a different theory?
I'd love to see how this is answered. Can I say how frustrated I was with the movie's ending? I do think that it would be interesting to discuss why it was left so unsettled and how this communicates the themes of the movie. – tclaytor6 years ago
I was under the impression that the ending being ambiguous was intentional. I haven't watched Inception in ages so my memory is a lil fuzzy, but I thought the whole movie was, in essence, about questioning what is reality and what we want to be real. I think the ambiguous ending encapsulates that existential debate. I don't think there's a correct theory; at least, I don't think there should be one. – Starfire6 years ago
Nolan was greatly influenced by Satoshi Kon's 'Paprika' (2006) and I'm of the opinion that since both deal with the 'dream' world and reality, then the meaning within both 'Paprika' and 'Inception' is very much down to personal interpretation. So, either theory regarding the ending is correct - it's all about how we personally perceive it. Good topic suggestion! – Amyus6 years ago
Animals are widely used in the film industry for various reasons, but are they always accurately represented? In the reboots of "Planet of the Apes," I highly praised the use of non-verbal communication between the animals, as a lot of the way animals communicate is through body language. However, horses are commonly portrayed as loud and always making a sound if they are on screen, which is very inaccurate of horse communication. Film is an intriguing medium that uses both sight and sound, so a lot of animals have sounds inserted to add to the verisimilitude, but it can actually detract – in my opinion – when animals who wouldn't normally be making sounds are indeed doing so. Thoughts?
This is a neat idea for a paper, and I like the example of the horse (I know nothing about horses, so I never would have guessed how they really communicate). This reminds me of the classic "bald eagle on screen with a red tailed hawk's cry, because bald eagles sound like chickens, and an accurate cry would spoil the drama of said eagle" thing. However, I'd like for this topic to have a clear thesis; what are the ramifications of inaccurate portrayals of animal behavior? What are the merits of accurate animal portrayals versus the merits of tailoring a fantasy about that animal for the viewers to enjoy? – TheCropsey6 years ago
Right, or the use of a tiger's roar in "The Lion King" because they are louder. – Sara L.6 years ago
I think that movie directors try to add as many effects to movies as they can because in their mind it will improve the movie. So I doubt that they will choose to resort to accurate portrayal of animal sounds if they feel that it will result in scenes that are lacking detail. – Health6 years ago
I thought communication was handled somewhat awkwardly in the recent Planet of the Apes films. It was unclear to me why Caesar and others were able to "evolve" to be able to speak, but only at times of emotional stress. I may be misremembering the film, but I thought it was an inconsistent and inaccurate (albeit, fictional) portrayal of primate communication. – Dropoutbear936 years ago
Dropoutbear93,
The evolution of the primates is not exactly what I was referring to, as you do make valid points to that unrealistic representation. I am referring to when they communicate to each other through a lot of gestures (not strictly in sign language), and body language in addition to the general grunts and howls we think of when we picture ape communication. – Sara L.6 years ago
