With the success of Avengers, studios started to realize the benefit of having a singular ‘show runner’ as it where to oversee different movies that are all part of the same universe. This makes total sense and I’m all for it. So when Fox said they were putting Mark Miller in charge of their comic book properties I was supportive even though I didn’t know much about him other than I watched the Kick Ass movie.
After the past few months I’ve come to realize that Mark Miller really needs to just stop talking.
Recently he completely ditched the idea of making a Justice League movie.
“I actually think the big problem for them is the characters are just too out of date. The characters were created 75 years ago, even the newest major character was created 68 years ago, so they’re in a really weird time.”
Granted, characters like Wolverine, Rogue and Gambit were created in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (or there abouts if you want to get technical). But the core of the X-Men go back to the 60s. Like there is nothing weird about the time span between the 60s and 90s? Especially when compared to today.
Also, the DC characters have been rebooted several times in the past years in order to make them more ‘current’. Batman especially has shown in the Nolan movies that he is just as modern as any other character and he was created in 1939!
He goes on to say in that same interview:
“The actual logistics of each member of the Justice League is disastrous, and you put them all together and I think you get an excellent way of losing $200 million.”
Five Main Characters – Lord of the Rings had how many?
Five Justice League members are too much but a group of at least five mutants all with their own equally different powers/backgrounds, not to mention DOFP will include old and young versions of said mutants, is okay?
“On the other hand I though the third film felt crowded, but then Singer is excellent at working with ensemble casts. So with this one [DOFP] I feel it is all fine. I have read the screenplay and it doesn’t feel rushed and it doesn’t feel like it is too many characters.”
So obviously he thinks it can work.
“X-Men in the Nineties was so convoluted in comic-book terms, and Bryan drove a knife through it and make it work [in X-Men 1] and simplified the whole thing.”
So maybe it’s just a 90s thing? Which would be odd since he says that JL won’t work cause it’s so old. Is there like a sweet spot then, a frame of years that only produce good comic book movies? Nope.
Millar then expresses no worries in how the film [Days of Future Past] is being handled, despite the heavy mythology. “I think as long as it’s done right.”
Oh, so not age, just how it’s done? Wouldn’t that apply to Justice League or is it just an X-Men thing? Nope.
“From what I’ve seen [of the Fantastic Four reboot] and from talking to him [director Josh Trank] – he and I have had dinner a couple of times and we talk quite regularly as well – he’s contemporarising it. I think he’s just making it work for the screen – he’s a great storyteller.”
I’m admittedly bad at math but I count more than five here, even if you take out Sabes and Toad.
So, Justice League is impossible to handle and contemporarize but X-Men and Fantastic Four are okay?
Oh, in the same article he compares FF to Chronicle and Alien… wha? He can make those kinds of comparisons but it’s impossible to do anything ‘new’ or ‘different’ with Justice League?
But really, the crux of his whole ‘the actual logistics just wouldn’t work’ idea is this: You are a paid creative consultant. If you were working for WB it would be your job to make it work, and you would make it work. That is what you are supposed to be doing and what you should be doing for Fox.
Case in point: Sentinels, the big, bulky, fiscally irresponsible, destined to be considered Transformers rip-off’s, purple robots.
Here he talks about them as being ‘cool’.
“I don’t really want to give too much away but the Sentinels are a big feature of this story. They will be cool and this will deliver on all of the teasers.”
Really? So yeah, you can make those robots cool but you can’t figure out how to make Aquaman talk under water? Oh wait, you did.
“Are they gonna talking telepathically?”
Just make sure your actors can emote and can do voice overs and it could work. Or, dunno, take the movie out of the water for most of it? You would think of something cause it’s what you’re paid to do. If, you know, you were being paid by WB, which you’re not, but I’m sure you’d be singing a different tune if you did.
And apparently I’m not the only person who thinks there is something a whole lot dodgy with Miller’s latest comments about WB’s Justice League movie.
Of course, that’s the movie version he’s talking about, as for the comics, well, he knows how he would have done the reboot. Which, yeah, I guess we’ve all had that moment of ‘man, I could do better’, but when you put it with everything else he’s said you can’t help but read it with such an arrogant tone.
Which is made all the more arrogant by this…
“I just feel the exciting stuff that’s happening just now is creator owned.”
Umm, that’s kind of the opposite of what is going on with the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies as they are licensed by Fox… you know, the people who are paying you to make sure their movies are good.
But then, Miller’s getting several of his own properties off the ground as movies: Kick-Ass 2, Nemesis, Supercrooks and Superior and Secret Service. Seems like his job as ‘creative consult’ is working out very well for him personally. I’m not gonna begrudge the man getting his comics the film-treatment, but again, with his bashing of everyone else’s works, everything he says is tinted with a hugely arrogant and unattractive tone. Makes you wonder just how much he really cares about the X-Men and FF films.
Especially when he takes credit here and here for The Avengers movie, which, okay, fair enough, he’s happy for them…
“People have suggested we should feel ripped off, but we don’t own these characters. All we did was give them a lick of paint and come up with a story and the visuals. These are Marvel-owned characters and I have my own little empire with Millarworld so I’m genuinely just pleased to see all this on the big screen and wish them nothing but the best with it.”
But that praise is short lived because apparently the Avengers movies aren’t going to go far…
“Where I think it’s going to be difficult is once you’ve done that thing of putting all those characters in one film…you know, it’s like having Harry Potter, James Bond and Spider-Man all in one movie. I think what’ll be difficult then is to try and top that because people want to see it get bigger.”
Well, just scrap the X-Men then, cause once you have an ensemble movie that’s it apparently. No one is going to want to see just an individual movie about their favorite super-hero, one of which they might not have realized was awesome until having seen them in Avengers. [note the sarcasm here]
Sorry Hawkeye, no movie for you! Ant-Man and Dr Strange beat you to it. Story of your life, huh?
Seriously, how many people went back and watched Captain America and Thor after watching Avengers? Does he really think audiences don’t want to see their favorite characters in a more highlighted and individual setting? Tell that to all the Hawkeye fans begging to get him a movie.
“The X-Men feels like a universe by itself; there’s so many characters and so many great potential spin-off characters.”
Basically, what I’m getting from Mark Miller is that only stuff he is involved in can work… everything else can’t?
I am really excited to see The Wolverine. I’m also waiting anxiously for more information onDays of Future Past because I think it could be epic. But every time Mark opens his mouth I suddenly get an overwhelming sense of dread, and not the cool Judge Dredd kind.
So please, Mark Miller, stop talking, especially if all you are going to say is backhanded compliments that are truly just insults.
3/ Third would have to be Dark Knight Rises. Controversial, I know, but I think this might be my favourite of all the Batman movies. It has its problems, especially Nolan’s reluctance to make Batman himself especially interesting, and the pay off with Bane SO anticlimactic after such a brilliant build up. But it’s got so many good moments and was so incredibly ambitious that I think it clobbers Avengers in terms of pure cinema. Avengers was a very fun popcorn movie with a lot of good jokes, but in terms of actual scale and depth I think Dark Knight rises to the top for Summer 2012 for me.
So, TDKR had a major character that was dull and no pay off but that was apparently better than Avengers.
Considering Miller’s role in upcoming comic book movies and major franchises, he really shouldn’t be going around putting down everyone else’s works just to make his look better. I think someone needs to give him a dictionary and open it to the word ‘tacky’… then let the movies speak for themselves.
X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 