Do you believe origin stories in movies, tend to be a bit... overdone?

[Parasondox]

Gooooooood, okay it's not good, it's just a stormy Saturday, and hello to you all at the Escapist,

Origin stories, boy can they be boring at times. Okay maybe that's harsh, they can be good and expand the character and explain why they became the person they are today. However do you think it's getting a bit too much. Do we need a whole movie on the origin story or that character or just 20 mins or less to explain things and then get straight to the action.

"Let's reboot something and start with the origin story, again."

"Okay the franchise is over, so to make more money, let's do an origin story" (looking at you The Amazing Spider-man)

I don't think I have much to add. What do you think? Are origin stories getting overdone within movies and even other mediums like games (once again Gears of War, you are guilty of this) and TV?

Comment below and oh one more thing... these CAPTCHA's suck!

 

[FalloutJack]

Mostly, it's comics that are guilty of this. Takes more effort to do it in other forms of media, so they're more spaced out.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Origin story are there for people who can't be arse/ bother looking up on the actual comicbook origin on wiki/ comicbook sites. As for the Amasing Spiderman origin, it is to distinguished itself from the Sam Raimi Spiderman, kind of like comparing the Incredible Hulk origin (based on Ultimate Hulk origin) to Ang Lee Hulk origin (based on the 616 comic).

 

[gargantual]

Gooooooood, okay it's not good, it's just a stormy Saturday, and hello to you all at the Escapist,

Origin stories, boy can they be boring at times. Okay maybe that's harsh, they can be good and expand the character and explain why they became the person they are today. However do you think it's getting a bit too much. Do we need a whole movie on the origin story or that character or just 20 mins or less to explain things and then get straight to the action.

"Let's reboot something and start with the origin story, again."

"Okay the franchise is over, so to make more money, let's do an origin story" (looking at you The Amazing Spider-man)

I don't think I have much to add. What do you think? Are origin stories getting overdone within movies and even other mediums like games (once again Gears of War, you are guilty of this) and TV?

Comment below and oh one more thing... these CAPTCHA's suck!

Hollywood is cynical. They need as many reasons as possible to rekindle the money-pouring excitement of release day.

hey think in terms of brands, icons and marketable properties,

not of the large mono myths, tropes, mechanics talent, people, suspense smart execution and story elements that make all this stuff resonate with audiences.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

My problem with origin stories--at least in movies--is that the entire movie, or at least a vast majority of it, is spent on the hero's origin. And then, another good chunk is spent on the hero not appreciating his power/gift or whatever. I'm going to go sulk, I'm going to go party, I going to flirt with that girl. It's not until the last ten minutes that the hero finally steps up, and by them I am extremely bored.
This is why I like Captain America the most out of all the origin films. He got his powers and he was ready to go. No soul searching, no moping. "Let's go be a freaking hero!"

Meanwhile, Thor spends the vast majority of his movie being stripped of his powers and figuring out what it means to be a bad guy, just to get to about five minutes of action at the end. Thor 2 fixed that though, so there's that.

 

[shogunblade]

Some movies would benefit from an origin Story movie. I use this logic with my client, Jonah Hex. That is a movie who assumes Jonah is as well known as Superman or Batman, and when the movie starts, we are literally thrown into an adventure. The hooker he is friends with has no background, Jonah gets a two minute story point and we know nothing of the John Malkovich , and BOOM! We are supposed to understand that he is the bad guy.

If Jonah Hex had a story, I'd have loved it more, as it stood, it was average. As for Origin Stories on the whole, I don't mind them if they have enough of a build to make me understand them. I haven't seen the Spider-Man remake, but I'm going to check it out soon and see if they do it wrong, but in most cases, I never mind an origin story.

 

[TheKwertyeweyoppe]

I imagine origin stories show up a lot because they're the easiest way of forcing character development. Plus, we naturally like to begin things more than we like to continue them.

 

[Illesdan]

I really wished they skipped Green Lantern (Hal Jordan's) back story with that horrible CGI mess of a movie. Emerald Dawn (which most of the movie was lifted from) was an awesome 6 comic miniseries. Did I read it as a kid and think this would have made a great movie? HELL. NO. It was just an interesting read that offered some insight into how Hal went from arrogant test pilot to a bland, white bread hero.

Sorry if that sounded cynical; my favorite Green Lantern was always Guy Gardner.

 

[Dire Trout]

It depends on how well-known the character is, I think. The first Iron Man movie had to be an origin story just because, at the time, most ordinary schmucks had no idea who Iron Man was, so that was okay. Endlessly revisiting the origins of Superman and Batman and Spider-Man is completely unnecessary, though. At this point, there are probably single-celled organisms living on hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the fucking ocean who could tell you where Batman came from.

But then, this is Hollywood we're talking about, and new, original ideas are to Hollywood what holy water is to a vampire, so we can pretty much count on a new Batman origin movie every ten years or so. I deal with them by just not bothering to see them--I never saw Man of Steel or the last Spider-Man movie, myself, and it sounds like I'm better off for it.

 

[Vausch]

Origin story are there for people who can't be arse/ bother looking up on the actual comicbook origin on wiki/ comicbook sites. As for the Amasing Spiderman origin, it is to distinguished itself from the Sam Raimi Spiderman, kind of like comparing the Incredible Hulk origin (based on Ultimate Hulk origin) to Ang Lee Hulk origin (based on the 616 comic).

Which is actually what's funny because they took the whole thing from Raimi's Spider-man.

Ben and Peter never fought in the comics, nor did Peter ever show off his powers or any abilities at school to get back at the people that picked on him (at first). That's all Raimi.

 

[Ratty]

Warner Bros seems to think so, since it looks like we're going to skip the origin story movies for Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Nightwing and (thank god) Batman in their next flick. Though I wouldn't be surprised if (assuming the movie is successful) they go back to do a Wonder Woman origin movie. Also Marvel is apparently rolling the Vision's origin into the next Avengers film.

I agree that the amount of sameyness most of these origin stories show when put side by side is soul-draining.