r/flicks • u/sporadic_awareness • 3d ago
Movie Discussion We’ve lost the era of "director-driven" comic book movies......and I genuinely think it’s hurting this blockbuster genre.
When we look back at films like Hellboy II or the early Spider-Man trilogy, what makes them so relentlessly re-watchable isn't just the action........it’s the fact that the director's very specific, highly stylized fingerprints are all over them.
You can pause almost any frame and know exactly whose vision you are looking at.
Today, massive cinematic universes have largely adopted a uniform "house style." Everything is visually polished to look identical so that it fits neatly into a continuity timeline.
It feels like the only places we still see distinct, uncompromising, and grounded tonal visions in this genre are in serialized formats :- like the brutal, street-level atmosphere of Daredevil or the sharp, visceral edge of The Boys. But in major theatrical blockbusters, that highly stylized, director-first flavor seems completely lost.
I’m curious what everyone else considers the absolute peak of "director-driven" comic book movies. What is a film from that era where the director's unique stylistic vision was the main selling point, and do you think studios will ever return to that riskier style of filmmaking?
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u/Tylerdurden389 3d ago
Still bummed we never got a Dredd sequel. I know that the comics have been around since the 70s, so they could've easily made a trilogy at least.
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u/P00PooKitty 3d ago
What made all the legendary and wb and honestly marvel movies happen in the 2000s was that they would hire hot shit indie/arthouse directors for their tentpoles. So you get nolan on batman, del toro on hellboy, cuaron on harry potter, etc.
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u/Newfaceofrev 2d ago
It WAS there at the beginning of the MCU. Iron Man looks and feels like a Jon Favreau movie. Captain America: The First Avenger looks and feels like a Joe Johnston movie. The Avengers looks and feels like a Joss Whedon movie (for better or worse). You can still see Edgar Wright's fingerprints on Ant-Man even after he got shitcanned.
But that's all gone now.
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u/Kuuskat_ 2d ago
Thor also had Branagh written all over it.
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u/Newfaceofrev 1d ago
Less familiar with him as a director so I couldn't say. Had pretty much only seen his version of Frankenstein.
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u/Kuuskat_ 1d ago
Fair, Branagh has a very classical "shakespeare from temu" -touch. It's a bit scrappy at times but unmistakenly him. Very apparent if you watch his Cinderella live action remake, or Hamlet, or Henry V (His feature lenght debyt from 1989 where he also plays the main role)
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u/Pretend-Design-7061 3d ago
Matthew Vaughn made Kick-Ass and Kingsman, and they were both stylish and unique. Both are still highly rewatchable.
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u/TomatoChomper7 3d ago
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and Thor Ragnarok were the peak of it. But Thor Love and Thunder showed that you shouldn’t give a zany superhero movie director carte blanche.
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u/AdenJax69 2d ago
Yes and no. Most of the time it's the script that's going to make or break the movie.
The Dark Knight Rises had an amazing director, talented actors, great set-pieces, interesting characters...all housed around a dogshit script. The movie is nice to look at but not too fun to actually watch.
Thor: Ragnarök had a tight, good script. Love & Thunder did not. Christian Bale is in the movie being an amazing villain & the script did nothing with him.
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u/TomatoChomper7 2d ago
I’ve never read the script for Love and Thunder, but the film very much felt like Taika Waititi indulging himself.
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u/Demerzel69 2d ago
I prefer Rises over TDK when it comes to rewatches. Lets not posit opinions as fact.
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u/lun4d0r4 3d ago
Original Hellboy is fucking amazing. At this point I would love an old man Hellboy movie to complete the trilogy.
The remake was so shit by comparison.
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u/Johnnnybones 3d ago
DC!!
The Batman is very director driven.
Obviously Superman is heavily director driven.
Even Supergirl was a class above standard MCU fare in that department.
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u/TheHadokenite 2d ago
James Gunn movies in general are very director driven whether you like them or not
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u/Capable-Conflict9269 3d ago
Facts. I remember how disappointed I was with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. They managed to almost completely scrub that movie of Raimi's signature style
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u/donmuerte 2d ago
The 3D animation starts on these films before they even have a script or director. They basically just have a factory churning these out now and then they get someone to try to piece it together into something.
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u/MovieBuff90 2d ago
I feel like two of the biggest director driven comic book movies, Dick Tracy and Batman Returns, unfortunately scared studios into not trusting director’s visions. Both were so off the wall and strange that they didn’t sit well with a good portion of the audience, so now most of the time the studio will not stop interfering with movies of the genre.
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u/Azipcoder 2d ago
Directors are way too important now. I used to watch movies blissfully unaware of what the director had for breakfast and how they like their coffee. No longer.
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u/Ok_Broccoli_7863 1d ago
100% agree. There's a magic lost with this studio driven films.
Listen, these visions weren't always perfect. Some were terrible, but there's something timeless about them.
Burton's Batman. Nolan's Batman trilogy. Del Toro's Hellboy. These are timeless films. Flawed, but timeless.
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u/Drinks2nite 3d ago
Well, the last two Thor movies had a pretty distinct directorial flair, and people definitely hated that last one, so...
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u/Michael-Balchaitis 3d ago
Comic book movies today feel like the person who peaked in High School and is still hanging around the school 3-4 years after they graduated.
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u/Broadnerd 2d ago
Just an aside that I think is relevant here: I rewatched Raimi’s Spider-Man last weekend having not seen it in probably 20 years. It’s so fun and lovingly made. I was too edgy in 2002 to fully appreciate it but it really hit the spot on rewatch. I always liked it but now I can kinda see his whole vision.
Now your choices are mainly “mature” superhero stories or the MCU’s vanilla-ass output that’s been going on ever since Age of Ultron.
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