Comic books and YA X Men James McAvoy, Twilight Eclipse Robert Pattinson, cast

March 28, 2016

I was catching up on Variety articles this week and read a commentary about the latest installment of Divergent.

“Allegiant’s” performance has some on Wall Street doubting that Lionsgate has figured out a formula for young adult films — something it seemed to have discovered in the wake of “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight,” its other tween hit.

I’m sorry but Lionsgate never had anything figured out. I understand why Wall Street (and also Hollywood) thought they did – because the movies were making money. But Hollywood has the same blinders on about young adult (YA) material as it had for comic book movies.

Changing Comic Book Films

Despite his faults, Bryan Singer changed the face of comic book movies with the first X-Men in 2000 for one simple reason. He took the material seriously. He made a movie about comic book characters, he didn’t make a comic book movie.

Prior to X-Men, superhero movies were campy; they were often formulated like kids movies (even if they weren’t marketed toward kids) with exaggerated humor, lampoonish villains and amusing quips. Some would argue that Tim Burton, in 1989, took the material seriously with Batman.

BATMAN RETURNS Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman Selina Michael Keaton as Batman Bruce Wayne (Warner Bros.)
BATMAN RETURNS Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman Selina Michael Keaton as Batman Bruce Wayne (Warner Bros.)

But it’s still a hyper-stylized film (as most Tim Burton movies are). While Burton may have been taking the material seriously, the studio saw not a serious comic book movie but a successful Tim Burton movie and the sequels bear that out in their outlandish characters, simple (and silly) dialog and absolute disregard to ground the material in any sort of reality. (That being said, Michelle Pfeiffer is my favorite Catwoman ever and no one will be able to pull that character off better.)

Singer grounded his film with real emotions, interesting and dramatic character arcs, serious actors and incorporated the unrealistic elements in practical, organic ways. Because, whether he grew up reading comic books or not, he took the material seriously and approached it as a film with comic book characters rather than a comic book film.

And here we are 15 years later with a slew of superhero/comic book/big franchise movies filled with great actors, directed by some of the best names in the business with huge fanbases. But where are we with YA films?

The Faltering Science of YA Films

YA is hot source material for films because Hollywood has discovered there’s money in it. We’re four major franchises in and you can’t say the filmmakers aren’t taking the material seriously. Studios (mostly) know how to make money at it. Still you get the sense that Hollywood is flying blind with YA.

TWILIGHT ECLIPSE Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan Summit
TWILIGHT ECLIPSE | Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan (Summit)

Twilight was a terrible movie, horribly cast (with a few exceptions) and almost no budget. But it hit two under served demographics in women and teens and carried enough emotion from the book along with a world of hype to be successful. (It also had a pretty great soundtrack.) Plus the movies got better as the series progressed (though they couldn’t undo the bad casting). The Hunger Games was well cast and they improved the directing after the first one. The Maze Runner did pretty decent in its opening film (and granted I haven’t seen the sequel yet).

But Divergent was already a shallow story that faltered in its later books. It was Mission: Impossible to Hunger Games Clear and Present Danger.

Because they didn’t understand the material well, they took it too seriously which highlighted all the ways it’s like Hunger Games but not really; Shailene Woodley is no Jennifer Lawrence (though Theo James and Liam Hemsworth make for a decent showdown). And since it was released after the first Hunger Games it just exacerbated the idea that Divergent is recycled material from a worn out dystopian genre.

DIVERGENT ALLEGIANT Theo James as Four
DIVERGENT ALLEGIANT Theo James as Four (Summit) — I like image this because he looks so sad to be trapped in this story

It’s not the only casualty from Hollywood’s lack of understanding. Each franchise has followed the Harry Potter formula of splitting the last book in two. Because why not make $200M twice from one source?

The problem is, fans are already tired of that formula. It worked in Harry Potter because The Deathly Hallows was a giant book where the narrative split pretty cleanly (and even then there were plenty of complaints that nothing happened in the seventh film). Twilight was also a giant book but with a lot less story. Again, very little happened in the fourth film. But fans of both Harry Potter and Twilight loved those characters, (mostly) loved the on screen versions and were happy to spend more time with them even though it was an obvious ploy to make money.

Hunger Games… not so much. The third book wasn’t large enough to sustain the split, it didn’t have a clean narrative line and audiences who had never read the books had lost interest three years later. Mockingjay Part 2 only made a bit more than half of the first film.

Divergent also doesn’t have the story to sustain a split. On top of that, a lot of fans of Divergent hated the last book. The studio was going to be lucky that fans went to see ONE movie of the third book – presumably out of morbid curiosity and for Theo James (presuming that the movie doesn’t destroy Four’s character the way the book does). But to ask them to see TWO movies based on the third book? Only the most dedicated fans or audiences who’ve never read the books and don’t know what to expect are going to show up for that. Everyone else is going to wait for the fourth installment, watch the third one on Netflix and then go see the fourth. Or wait until the whole series is done and catch up then – again out of curiosity but not a love for the characters the way people love other characters and other stories.

The difference, currently, between comic book and YA movies is that geeks came to power in Hollywood. When they set their sights on comic book source material, Hollywood quickly figured out there’s a way it’s done and there’s a way it’s not done. Because geekdom can be an unforgiving community. So they hired the geeks to be the directors, to produce the material and before you know it Chuck is showing the world how cool it is to be a geek.

Any genre is going to have better material when the people greenlighting it and creating it understand and respect what they’re working with. Nia Vardalos wrote the most successful indie movie ever because it resonated with the (now somewhat less) ignored female audience. Minority communities send Tyler Perry and Fast and Furious movies blazing through the box office. Some of those voices are more important than the YA one (though YA is at the forefront of diversity in books), but it doesn’t change that Hollywood is lacking directors, writers, producers and even studio execs who are themselves a part of the YA community.

I had high hopes for David Heyman and the Grisha trilogy, though that version will never get made. In my count earlier of major YA franchises I didn’t include Harry Potter. Because it’s a phenomenon unto itself. Harry Potter could have gone wildly wrong if the material wasn’t understood by the filmmakers and taken seriously. In Steven Speilberg’s hands it could have been an animated, Americanized film that combined several books. But that wasn’t the Harry Potter we were given. Presumably in part due to producer Heyman who secured the film rights from JK Rowling and was attached to produce Shadow and Bone for DreamWorks.

Can you imagine a Grisha Trilogy that’s three movies; that’s dark and fun and sexy and magical; that’s brilliantly cast and looks as good as the Harry Potter films? It would be completely different than the Netflix series we’re going to get.

Can you imagine a Hollywood that understands that YA films aren’t just for teens? When to take the material seriously and how to have fun with it? That respects YA material as much as it respects anything else (which is to say not a lot)?

It paints an enticing picture and still there will be bad movies and flops and good movies that get run over in the box office and are considered failures.

That’s par for the course.

But it doesn’t keep us from hoping; from going to each new film looking for something more.

Pin it up:
Comic Books and YA Twilight Taylor Lautner Robert Pattinson pinterest
Comic Books and YA X Men First Class James McAvoy pinterest

How do you think Hollywood’s handled the YA source material so far? What are you hoping they do with it in the future? And what title are you desperately hoping (and secretly terrified) they’ll adapt next?

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8 responses to “The confluence of YA and comic books

  1. I definitely don’t like the mentality of trying to recapture lighting in a bottle by being formulaic instead of considering just what makes a story great. What works for Harry Potter is not necessarily what will work for The Hunger Games and what works for it will not necessarily work for Divergent. I would love to see a really well-done Grisha trilogy of movies as you mentioned. I would be terrified to see it, but if it was well-done, it could be soooo good.

    • Annie

      right?! We’re terrified of it and excited at the same time. I think that the thing people forget about the phrase of catching lightning in a bottle – it’s rare and it’s as unexpected as it is powerful and you probably couldn’t do it on purpose if you tried. And yet, they keep trying…

  2. I didn’t know that Mockingjay 2 didn’t do as well at the box office! I enjoyed the film, but the splitting of the last book into two films is old. It would definitely be better if Hollywood would consider the story first and not the money, but if wishes were horses, right? 🙂 This was such a well thought out post – I have to agree with everything you said. I do wonder how the Grisha films will turn out – there’s so much potential, I hope they can get it right!

    • Annie

      Mockingjay 2 didn’t do quite as well, though I let my phrasing exaggerate the difference. The first movie made about $400M. MJ2 made $280 – so on the two hundred side it’s half, but 80 is really at the point where you round up. But “almost half” is a easier to say than “almost three-quarters” and it flows better.
      Yes, if wishes were horses! I just hope we don’t end up saying that about the Grisha trilogy.

  3. Ooh, I like what you’re saying here. I’ve been thinking about film versions of YA books a lot – I think you’re right in saying that people making the films are flying blind. Authors of YA books (mostly) understand that a) teens aren’t their only audience anymore and b) that even teens usually have very high standards.
    Have you seen City of Bones and/or Shadowhunters? I’d love to hear your thoughts on those. 😀
    I haven’t seen Mockingjay yet, mostly because I’m afraid of what they did to the story to stretch it out like that. Divergent was horrible as a book series, so I can’t imagine it’s much better as a film, but I’ll have to check it out myself sometime soon. Oh and another children’s book (not exactly YA but still) that was completely ruined by the films? The Hobbit. The first movie wasn’t awful but the rest of the series was just plain bad – at least for me, because I love the simplicity of Tolkien’s original. Oh, well, if only Hollywood listened to bookworms, eh? 🙂

    • Annie

      I was sooo tempted to watch Shadowhunters the other day but hulu started at like episode 6 or 7 and I wanted to start at the beginning. So, I’ll have to wait until all of s1 jumps over to netflix and then catch up.
      Though I don’t think Mockingjay should have been stretched out, the first movie uses the time to dwell on the character’s emotions some which works fairly well. Catching Fire was my favorite film of the series, though. When I first read Divergent I thought, “This would make a better film than book” because it had so much action. Unfortunately, I don’t think it did make a better movie…
      Oh, The Hobbit… have you heard of the Tolkien Edit? This guy cut the whole film series into a single 4 hour movie (which I haven’t watched yet). I imagine it’s much closer to the book which is exciting.

  4. I saw an Honest Trailer (have you seen them?! they’re rather funny) for Allegiant and the guy doing the voicing started showing how the lines in Allegiant and in The Maze Runner were even THE SAME. XD Omg. So I agree: it’s formulatic and it can be frustrating. But as a person who enjoys YA adaptions…I’m okay with it! Plus I loved Allegiant and I think it portrayed and advanced the characters perfectly. I hated the Insurgent movie though, so I doubt I’ll even see Allegiant. I don’t like when the movie ruins the books. But at least the Hunger Games was such a good adaption. <3 I do hope maybe the movie-making-people will decide to pick up some books in a different genre? I'd LOVE to see the sci-fi YA books coming to the screen. And maybe Illuminae's movie will get that going. 😀

    • Annie

      I like Honest Trailers! It’s hilarious how they showcase all the ways Divergent is something else. The Hunger Games was a very good adaptation of that series. I also thought the first Maze Runner was a good adaptation of that book, though I haven’t read the second book or watched the second movie. Illuminae would be fantastic as a movie! Yes, lots more sci-fi YA! I’m also really curious to see how they’ll handle These Broken Stars as a tv series…