Film & TV > feature > opinion > iann robinson
Where are all the good Fantasy movies?
Iann Robinson looks at the state of the Fantasy film genre.
Iann Robinson, CraveOnline
September 4, 2008
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While we as moviegoers wait to see if The Dark Knight will sink Titanic (sorry I couldn’t resist) I began to think again about something I’ve been curious about since the whole “Geek” explosion gave tinsel town a pair of glasses and a comic folder. My issue is with the fantasy movie genre that, for some reason, has not been able to catch fire the way comic book movies and sci-fi have in recent years.
It hasn’t been for a lack of trying that’s for sure. With every comic book film or sci-fi movie there seems to be two fantasy movies that hit the theaters and then vanish just as quickly. With the possible exception of Lord Of The Rings and the Harry Potter films I can’t think of a single fantasy series that has really caught the attention of the movie going public. The hype is always huge and the payoff is always stilted and it’s left me wondering why.
The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Last Mimzy, The Golden Compass, Eregon, The Narnia Series and so on have all faltered, failed or performed way below expectations and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. It would be easy to say that these movies “sucked” and yes a few of them did but not all of them. I rather enjoyed The Golden Compass and The Last Mimzy and though I had some issues with The Narnia Series I didn’t find them to be awful. So why have they not caught fire? Why have movie audiences decided to turn their backs on films that offer just as much adventure, excitement and as many characters as any comic book or sci-fi movie. When ideas like this roll around in my over caffeinated brain I have to write about them in hopes of maybe finding something to satiate my desire to understand these things.
My girlfriend Sara is an avid reader especially of fantasy novels so my first idea was to ask her. Lifting her nose from her newest book she said, “The movies aren’t the same, they usually just mess them up.” I pondered that for a minute and it seemed to calm my brain down but not for very long. It’s usually true that movie adaptations of books fall flat of the greatness the novel inspired. Cuts are made to the story, characters either combined or eliminated altogether and sometimes whole sections just seem to vanish. Now while the slash and burn aspect of what Hollywood does to books can’t be ignored it also hasn’t changed that much over the years. Films based on books, not matter how altered, have largely been very successful. Jaws, The Godfather, The Firm, Jurassic Park, the list is endless of books that may vary immensely on screen but still put butts in seats, even butts attached to people who thought the book was better.
Having spoken to several Harry Potter fans it seems the movies are not great representations of the novels on any level. The nuances of Hogwarts (The Wizard School) are lost, plot lines forgotten or combined and of course Harry is starting to look like he’s pushing thirty. Even with all of that against them Harry Potter movies clean up. Truth be told there are some obscure books or books that have failed to sell that seem to rake in cash when made into movies. Though it’s true that most fantasy movies are based on books I wasn’t convinced that the poor adaptations were the reason they didn’t do well.
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Where are all the good Fantasy movies?: COMMENTS
P.S. I wanted to be fair and add I that I liked the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Thank you for the interesting article. |
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It is a very interesting article and I think the conclusions you made are all correct.
I would like to add that I think the main reason why adults don´t go to see fantasy is because the studios make absolutely no effort to invite them. Yes, the hype is big, but it is always directed the wrong way: making it as clear as possible for everybody that it is a nice kiddie movie, even if it´s actually something else. The studios have taken it into their heads that comic books and sci-fi are dark adult stuff and fantasy is cute baby stuff and they use their millions of dollars on hype to successfully convince audiences in that. Plus, they keep the movies strictly PG even if it is plain ridiculous to do so. (The bloodless head-choppings of Narnia. O_O)
They are so convinced that only audience they can get is kids and so they make their best to try to get lots and lots of kids, making it friendly and appealing for as young age as possible. Now, of course, if they sat down and thought about it, maybe they would see that ages 3-9 kinda make up smaller moviegoing population than, say, ages 9-deathofoldage... In short, in most cases they seem to have absolutely no idea what the heck are they doing.
Just look at the posters of The Colden Compass. The movie´s visuals were wonderful, but the promotional posters the potential audience sees first are all some horrible sugary pastel colour, making them look like soap commercials. The next year´s "Inkheart", based on a popular fantasy book, has an awesome adult cast (Helen Mirren! Paul Bettany!) but the official teaser trailer is amateurish beyond belief, making its best to scare off every self-respecting adult.
But crappy advertising aside, I think the plain lack of dignity and self-respect is the thing that really makes the fantasy movies bad. All those latest movies you mentioned are medicore at best and real crap at worst. No soul, no aspiration to make one hell of a movie equal to any "real-world" film. They don´t deserve big audiences, they make me glad people stay away from them. Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter were actually good, and people went to see those.
All adults (and first of all, all kids!) know they are really witty, and they want the moviemakers to know that. You want to know that the moviemakers knew that they were going to have you as your audience when they were making the movie, and so made it to actually meet your standards, and, well, meet you in the cinema from the screen, not just throw a movie in random direction and hope they hit some kid and make him drop his money. |
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i think you and sara are both right. first sara makes a good point, which really is that fantasy never lives up to your head on the screen. comics are already visual, so your imagination doesn't fill in as many blanks. as to the darkness factor, i think that's a big part of it as well. dark fantasy does do well, even if it's not "high fantasy," with elves and such. look at city of lost children or 12 monkeys. i think you're right also about the lack of willingness to seem "childish" and enjoy a true fantasy film. which is crazy, because everyone loooves Princess Bride. |
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Ok, I don't know why numbers don't translate on this thread, but I'll try it again by spelling it out (literally): Lion, Witch and Wardrobe made over seven hundred million worldwide and Caspian made over Three Hundred Seventy million. And for the record, Narnia was good, but not great.
Your other points are well-taken. Obviously no other fantasy film, including Narnia, is anywhere where close to The Dark Knight, which was truly breathtaking, Star Wars, Dark Knight, LOTR and Harry Potter are supernovas in the world of moviemaking, a rare event. But if we had movies like this all the time, we'd have no context in which to seperate the good from the bad, or the just ok.
Have faith. There is always a Superman-Batman movie to dream about. Maybe they'll make it into a two-part sequal. |
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" . . . The Narnia Series and so on have all faltered, failed or performed way below expectations."
Er, the other ones you cited (Golden compass, Last Mimsy, etc) certainly sucked eggs at the box office and otherwise.
But Narnia?
LWATW: 0 million domestic, 0 million foreign.
Caspian: 0 million domestic, 0 million foreign.
Is it the whole Aslan=Jesus thing that has you spooked and not seeing clearly? |
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