Truthful Nostalgia Acceptance
For many years now studios have been doing the best they can be to adapt franchise potential properties from comic books,TV shows,and video games.In the early years of adaptation some can argue they are the best or all that could have been done.Others would say nothing will ever be as good as the original,then theres me(and maybe a few)who firmly believes the studios are finally having the balls to accurately adapt the product they’ve owned the rights to for some time.
Im not going to pinpoint the exact film that made a success yet still diverting too far from the source material but I will use one as an example that grew to a massive franchise that I couldn't foresee even 16 years ago.
The very first X-Men film maybe have not been the first successful comic book adaptation but it was certainly the first Marvel film to be successful WITH good reviews(so put your pitchforks down Blade fans).Because of its fun but serious tone to the world of comics it ushered in never-ending avalanche of comic book adapted films for years to come.What use to be maybe 2 every 2 years is now 4 or 5 a year(2016 alone has 6).Without Bryan Singer’s surprise success with that property we wouldn't have the films we have today.But what that means is we had to endure several studios attempts at “understanding” our interests in mutant heroes in the first place.And in some cases they were wrong but with a hint of right.No beef against them,obviously,because when you're a studio exec with no time to read comics you just take what you can get and try to make the best of it for story and logistical reasons.
Even the gargantuan Spider-Man films had missteps in their source material’s adaptations.What I’m getting at is if Fox and Sony didn't dip their toe in the pool in the beginning we wouldn't have them cannonballing into them finally now.I bring this up because this year we’ve had several films and shows SO close to the source material,or rather uncanny representation of our childhood visions of it its staggering how many fans that have grown with both have forgotten what it was they wanted made to see in the first place.X-Men:Apocalypse for example is probably not only the closest adaptation of the 1990s comics but the beloved animated series that we wanted SO BAD to see be made into a movie.But because of our acceptance of the what we had(much like the studio execs)we settled and of course grew cynical of what I call the perfect adaptation and possibly one of the best comic book movies ever made.A bold statement but since my childhood fantasy of seeing an all out massive X-Men film like the show finally realized before me I can't help but remind myself “THIS is what you've always wanted to see”.
Other examples I’ve noticed have been Deadpool(one of the most accurate films to date),Gotham(a strong live action adaptation of Batman:The Animated Series sans Batman),Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice(despite its many faults a great amount of it was reminiscent of the Justice League Unlimited animated series),and now of course Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Out of the Shadows.Yes thats right TMNT:OOTS is by far the best adaptation of the show.Everything about it was accurate,the characters,the action,the humor,hell even the original theme makes several appearances throughout and it made my inner childs heart explode because again I told myself “THATS what you've always wanted to see.”
So I don't know if the studios all came together in a committee and said “I think its time we made EXACTLY what they wanted” or someone in each office really does understands the fans because they ARE fans.
So I thank them all for giving us what we wanted,and for all of you jilted and ripping on these films.Go back and watch or read the source material and remind yourself what it was you wanted to see.As for TMNT:OOTS,go see it.If you're just not a fan of TMNT at all then you have no business even leaving a review because its a film made directly to the fans and it isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
Lets hope Power Rangers next Spring continues this streak,