7. Realism
As I mentioned above, Christopher Nolan has extended the renaissance de super human to another level with his re-envisioning of the Dark Knight in much more realistic terms, particularly regarding his powers, purpose, and villains. He took that to even greater heights with Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker. Simply brilliant. The Joker has been very hard to bring into reality since the
early days. Even the great Jack did more fool that mania. But purely on this homicidal re-invention of the Clown Prince of Crime,
The Dark Knight (2008) can make the sole claim as the greatest superhero movie ever. Realism counts. It's hard, but it is worth the effort, because it transitions a comic book to mainstream adult audiences.
Iron Man (2008) and
Iron Man 2 (2010) excelled in this area, though, decidedly more light-hearted. Others ... not so much. To illustrate this I want you to join me on a nerd rage regarding something that seems like a rather insignificant nit. Take last year's
Thor. Coming from Shakespearian-crack-fiend, Kenneth Branaugh, you'd expect that he'd insert a bit more intelligence and sophistication in the piece. No. There is one scene in particular that really rankles me. Thor is an Asgardian. The Asgardians made contact with early Scandinavians on Earth, which spawned a primitive religion (Wotanism), which continues on to this day as folklore and legend. Thor Odinson comes back to Earth for the first time in many centuries and he ... speaks English with a cheap British accent. Even when confronted with a native Norseman, Dr. Erik Selvig (portrayed by Swede Stellan Skarsgard), while drinking heavily at a bar, good ole Thor maintains his English. Not one word of Old Norse throughout the entire movie. Not one word of Swedish. Not even a Viking toast over beers. How can the man that has written and directed FIVE Shakespeare movies have such contempt for his audience's ability to read a subtitle or two? Is Branaugh's fault or some guy in a suit giving him notes? I'm literally dumbfounded, because it casts a dark light on the whole production. If you can't even use common sense with a rather simple scene, then how can I expect you to direct your concept artists in creating a realistic blend of super-technology and magic that is Asgard without making it look like
Flash Gordon crossed with
hair metal? Or make the
hrimthursar (i.e. frost giants) look like
28 Days Later. Or that SHIELD seizes all of Jane Foster's essential, ground breaking research from her lab and she never once thought to put any of it online? Have you heard of DropBox? Like I said ... nerd rage.
