Comic Book Film Adaptations Could Learn A Lot From ‘The Muppets’

While enjoying myself during a weekend showing of ‘The Muppets, I do what I typically do when [...]

By Jack Greer

While enjoying myself during a weekend showing of 'The Muppets, I do what I typically do when watching a film I'm going to review: I glance around a few times to catch the mood of the audience.  What I found is something I yearned to see in Comic Book film reboots (franchise introductions): multiple generations showing a wide variety of emotions.  My 3 year old son clapped during certain moments; I saw 40-somethings with tears in their eyes in other scenes. Then it hit me: with a bunch of misses in the comic book movie world ('Thor', 'Green Lantern', etc), it might be good for anyone looking to adapt a comic book to take some lessons from the Muppets. Cameos.  'The Muppets' must have had two dozen cameos, which created a fun experience for moviegoers.  The same thing should happen in comic book films.  Sure, Stan Lee makes a cameo in all of the Marvel films, but why not expand from there?  There are a ton of comic book lovers out there—everyone from Hollywood celebrities to athletes to politicians. Humor is good. I realize that a lot of comic book films aren't intended to be overly hilarious (though 'Kick-Ass' sure was in a lot of spots), but humor sells.  Especially self-deprecating humor.  Kids get it, so do adults.  Humor helps move a film along, and it provides a sense of realism to the characters.  Besides, laughter is just good for the soul. Bring Out the Heavy Early.  Comic book films continually wait—and wait and wait—to let everyone know how the bad guy is.  Why?  Break out the heavy early in the film.  After all, comic book films are about good vs evil.  Let's find out who we're up against as soon as possible so we can root for our guy (or gal) to kick some tail. It brings the audience together, and it certainly helps the younger folks keep track. Find Someone Younger Views Can Identify With.  With 'The Muppets' a significant portion of the audience was either unfamiliar or vaguely familiar with the furry characters.  The human actors weren't much better.  While I love some Jason Segal, I don't think many kids are watching 'How I Met Your Mother.'  Same goes with Amy Adams.  But the filmmakers were smart—they put Jack Black in a critical (albeit, small) role in the film.  And it gave younger kids someone to immediately identify with.  It relaxed them.  Even if the kids weren't completely following along, they quickly caught up. Go Dark Later.  While 'Thor' wasn't overly violent, it had its moments.  That extra bit of violence limited the audience pool, which decreased the box office haul.  Smaller box office means less future comic book movies.  If you're going to go violent and dark, do it after the initial film. There is one franchise that got this right: The Christopher Nolan Batman films.  'Batman Begins' was rather meek, and it allowed for an expanded audience.  Nolan came back with super-violent 'The Dark Knight' (still don't understand how that movie didn't get a 'R' rating) because he had earned enough goodwill to go that route. So there you have it, future comic book screenwriters and directors.  Follow my script for a rebooting or introducing a franchise, and you can count the money at the box office.

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