Those Weren’t the Ideas I Was Looking For

Dear Reader,

I feel like I have finally cracked it. In a good way. I have been struggling for the past few years of writing, trying to work out why each and every one of my stories just was not going to cut the mustard. I knew it, as soon as I would finish writing, that they weren’t going to be The One. I think I have it now though. I feel enlightened – in a way. Perhaps you will sit there and roll your eyes at how stupid this all sounds and how naive I must be, to think this is new information, but I am truly excited.

Starting on this new story, even doing the research, I feel like I am finally on the right track. The other stories were alright, but really they were my own fantasies (sounds sick, I know), however, I suppose that is what people do when they start writing, they write what they, personally, would like to see. In reality, how many tickets would those movies really sell? No wonder I never went back to do rewrites on my scripts. Deep down, I knew there was never anything meaty enough there to attract someone to my script.

This time though, I honestly feel like I have struck gold. Now, there are a TONNE of movies in the genre I am heading for right now, but I do think I have hit on something different. I always google the keywords of what my movie would be and nothing similar has come up – so I am continuing on with my work. That’s always a comforting thought, when nothing glaringly obvious shows up to shit all over your great, brand new, never before seen, wonderful idea.

The secret, I have found, is that my script must be answering a question that the audience want answered. Perhaps they don’t know that they want it answered. Perhaps they didn’t know they wanted to ask that question. Either way, there must be a question and there must be an answer. I expect some eye-rolling again.

I feel happier knowing the path each and every story I write must take and to be honest, I think it is going to be a hell of an easier ride knowing that this (very simple) formula will help me progress. It will help me advance as a writer and improve my stories.

 

Thanks for reading

xxx

 

Nolanfied

Dear Reader,

If I were asked what my favourite superhero movie was, I would answer Superman. The first one. The good one. If I were asked what my favourite Batman movie was, I would answer Batman. The first one (to me, that’s the 1989 movie). The good one.  Yet, many people have said to me that they love the Christopher Nolan Batman movies – which is fine, but they even go as far to say that they are the best superhero movies ever, which often makes me wonder how many they have actually seen. I do agree that Nolan’s vision of the superhero is great, but unfortunately, it seems to have started a bit of a trend within the Hollywood superhero film factory.

What made Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises so good and so unique and so well-liked by audiences, was the fact that it was a new take on the superhero genre. We got a sense that he was a real superhero. I mean that in the sense that him becoming Batman was super believable. He doesn’t have superpowers, he’s just super rich, so he can afford all the cool gadgets and cars that enable him to beat the bad guys. He could be one of us. You get behind Batman, because he’s just a regular (very hench) guy who basically uses his money and (super hench) body to save the people of Gotham. This is all good. Like I said, it was an interesting new take on the genre and one that truly worked.

However, this sense of realism that worked so well with one superhero, has been bled dry by subsequent superhero movies and almost completely put an end to my enjoyment of this genre of movies.  If we take a look at Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy, that was essentially entirely of the pre-Nolan era, the movies still maintain that comic-book charm, the witty quips and the larger than life villains. The sad thing is, the new generation take themselves way too seriously.  The unnecessary Amazing Spiderman movies seem stripped of all the things that make it comic-book or superheroey, and you essentially just have films about an average guy (in all senses of the word) who part times as Spiderman. The superhero aspect takes such a back seat – but I suppose, as long as Spiderman is on-screen for at least 10% of the movie they can still place it under the Spidey umbrella.

We seem to be losing what it means to be a superhero, in favour of ‘how can we make this character super relatable to audiences’. We don’t need the character to be presented precisely like one of us for us to understand their motives or to follow progression of character. Once again, I return to the fact that Hollywood thinks its audience is thick as shit and everything is required to be dumbed down to a very basic level, before we can even start to comprehend the action.  This is the very reason why I love the old, ‘original’ turns of Superman and Batman. They came at a time when the superhero universe had barely been explored at all, so they had nothing to live up to, or to be compared to. These days, every new movie seems to need to live up to its predecessor in some form or another. I feared the day when Man of Steel was announced, knowing full well that Superman too, could not escape being Nolanfied. I hated that movie. Superman, the most super hero of them all was suppressed into becoming just another average guy who happened to have powers. It was horrible to watch and I doubt I will ever watch it again. To be perfectly honest, no one will ever outdo Christopher Reeve, no matter how hard they try. His transformation from Clark Kent to Superman and then back again, while he’s waiting in Lois’ apartment, is one of the greatest performances I think I have ever seen.

What we miss out on too, is the superhero soundtrack. Music that contains such motifs that you instantly recognise them, as they are dotted throughout the movies.  Superman,  Batman, even the damn X Men movies all carried  a very particular sound. The more recent superhero movies possess far less distinctive sounds. Perhaps it’s laziness – I could truly believe that. They assume the people want a superhero, so they give them one, forgetting about all the other aspects of these movies that made them so great the first time around. I will always far enjoy the ‘originals’ and their apparent daring to be as comic-bookey as they come – because that is what I watch these movies for. I’m not interested in a romantic drama, where the superpowers take a back seat. I want a full-blown, all-action, campy-as-they-come superhero movie.

 

Thanks for reading

xxx