Attack of the super – heroes

Do you think that Batman, Judge Dredd and all the other super-heroes are just for kids? Hollywood’s movie makers don’t agree with you. Last year Batman Forever took $ 45 million in its first weekend in American cinemas! These days, the super-heroes of the screen mean serious money. So it’s not so surprising that in 1996 our screens will be invaded by comic characters once again. What makes a successful film super-hero? Let’s investigate.

Batman? He’s a man who wears a black one-piece rubber suit with a utility belt. He has no superhuman powers but he’s a millionaire and has his own mansion, cave and rocket-powered car.

Judge Dredd? Well, he’s the one who lives in Mega City One (New York in the future). He’s a cop, judge and executioner with a motorcycle that flies. His first name is Joe but people usually call him ‘Judge’. He never smiles and he doesn’t talk much except for saying his favourite phrase: ‘I am the law’.

Spider-Man? His real name is actually Peter Parker and he’s a chemistry student. He had a nasty accident that made his blood radioactive, giving him special powers. His hobbies are walking on the ceiling and fighting crime. He wears a red and blue suit and he swings around the city on special ‘webs’ (which he makes in the college chemistry laboratory).

If any of these sounds like a joke, don’t laugh too loudly. Hollywood takes these characters very seriously. Batman Forever made an incredible $45 million on its first weekend in the USA. And don’t forget the T-shirts, posters, mugs, CDs and designer jackets that always accompany these films. It’s a successful formula and it’s easy to repeat. There have been three Batman films so far. There are plans for a whole series of Judge Dredd films. Last year we had Tank Girl, The Plantom and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

This year Spider-man will be joined by The Fantastic Four (perhaps with Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Thing!) and The X-Men.

Legal Web

Who’s the man behind the Spider-Man movie? It’s James –Cameron’, the respected director who brought us Terminator 2. He’s been trying to bring Spider-Man to our screens for more than two years. Unfortunately Cameron got tangled-up in a legal dispute with the company who owned the film rights to the character. Now it looks as if Spider-Man is almost free from this legal spider’s web. The script should be finished by March and filming will start as soon as possible.

Comic powers good vs evil!

Spider-Man the movie is already set to be a huge hit. But what makes comic characters so successful on the big screen?

Perhaps the answer is simple. Audiences know the film charac­ters because they’ve already read the comics. Specialist comic shops like London’s Forbidden Planet are open all over Europe. Maybe it’s because of the success of the tele­vision series. But if you want a deeper explanation, serious film critics think –that Hollywood has always loved the struggle between good and evil. Characters in these films are easily identifiable as ‘good­ies’ or ‘baddies’. The plots are ac­tion-packed, simple and full of incredible special effects. The fight between good and evil is as old as Hollywood itself. Just look at the western films of the 1950s and 1960s or cop films like Die Hard. Everybody loves a little fantasy. Super-hero films like Spider-Man offer new chances for Hollywood to tell its favourite story one more time.