Anghus Houvouras on R-rated comic book movie adaptations…
The R-Rated comic book movie might be the only creatively interesting area left for comic book movies. I’ve written extensively on my Marvel malaise. Here’s a few links if you want to get up to speed before diving too deep into this column. If that’s too much work, here’s the TL; DR: Marvel is making the same basic movie over and over again to the point of incredulity. While they are consistently entertaining, they are often so incapable of originality that I find them rather average.
We’ve had R-Rated comic adaptations prior to the massive success of Deadpool. However, we haven’t had them consistently. As of now, the R-Rated comic book movie is an anomaly. For 99% of the superhero comics book films, the strong language, violence, and sexual content of an R-Rating hasn’t been a creative motif that has been applied since the film’s inception.
Deadpool’s box office dominance has opened the door for other films to start thinking outside the claustrophobic creative limits of a PG-13 rating. Fox was smart enough to double down with an R-Rated Logan movie slated for 2017.
Marvel Studios has a very successful formula in place, and I doubt we’ll see a deviation from it anytime soon. Their four quadrant hits revolve around being, first and foremost, movies for kids ages eight to 88. The odds of getting an R-rated Iron Man or Doctor Strange movie feels about as likely as Kevin Feige recasting the role of Captain America with Gary Busey. Sure, he has the charismatic personality and million dollar smile for the role, but he’s just a little too old to be taken seriously.
This is where Fox, and potentially DC, could start to carve out some creative (and potentially lucrative) territory for themselves. There are plenty of characters whom could benefit from an R-Rating. Wolverine has been a character cheated in every single appearance he’s ever made by being unable to revel in the violence the characters is so capable of creating. I’m not saying an R-rating would have saved either Wolverine solo film, but I’m guessing a more brutal Logan would have made both far more palatable.
One of things lacking in many comic book adaptations are relationships, mostly because super heroes are relegated to behavior more befitting of a fifth grade dance than adults, both emotionally and physically. As an audience, we’re denied a stripped down, realistic approach to relationships because it takes a back burner to spandex and stopping world ending scenarios that involve lasers shooting into the upper atmosphere.
Deadpool proved that real relationships can be worked into a comic book movie, and thanks to the R-rating, it was given the latitude to embrace two very real characters.
I’m not saying every comic book movie needs to be R-rated. However, there are characters that it would work for. Fox could carve out their own special kind of comic book adaptation by applying the R-rating to more of their X-Men properties… including X-Men.
Wouldn’t the hatred of mutants seem far more realistic in a world where we were able to see the violence and hatred perpetrated toward them? Instead of just constantly reiterating how humans fear mutants, we could actually see just how brutal young mutants have it in a way that a PG-13 movie can only imply. The X-Men have been creatively uninspired for some time. I can’t be the only one who would love to see an R-Rated X-Men movie. One that has actual stakes and characters who are allowed to be like real people, some of whom would be comfortable using their powers in more brutal ways and expressing themselves with some choice expletives.
The sexual dynamic is another aspect often left out of the comic book adaptation, even though the medium often produces some extremely well developed characters and relationships. The R-Rating could provide much needed breathing room to portray our super heroes (or their alter egos) in a much more realistic way.
Take Batman, for instance. Can you imagine the kind of Batman film we’d get from Ben Affleck it was made with an R-Rating? Seeing the Dark Knight dealing with the tragic violence committed by his rogues. Allowing the darkness that flows through the comics to be adapted on screen. Or to give him an actual complicated, sexual relationship with Catwoman. Unfortunately, those kind of movies don’t result in huge toy sales, meaning we won’t be getting ‘Complicated Relationship Batman with Half Chub action’ anytime soon.
What would be ideal is a world where comic book movies could chase a rating that is appropriate for the material. Maybe you have an X-Men movie rated PG-13 for a story arc where they face off with Magneto. But they could produce Days of Future Past with an R-Rating to show the catastrophic violence that catapults the time travel plot into effect. We’ve been delivered some tepid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies for kids. Would one R-Rated Ninja Turtle movie that sticks closely to Eastman and Laird’s original vision ruin the franchise any more than Into the Shadows did?
I think the key to competing with Marvel is not to try and replicate their success but to find a more creatively interesting way to adapt the characters. For some properties, the R-Rating could really benefit the material. Something like Fantastic Four where tasteful nudity could really add a new wrinkle to the Reed Richards/Sue Storm dynamic.
Anghus Houvouras
Originally published December 12, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
