I realized after watching The Dark Knight last weekend that ever since Iron Man in May, nearly every movie that I paid to watch in a cinema has been a comic book movie. The sole exception was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but Indy’s roots lie in pulp comics anyway, so in a way, that still counts. I suppose that this is partly due to the current state of film-making and CGI technology that allows directors to fully recreate the fantastic visuals of the comic book medium on the big screen and partly due to the successes of X-Men in 2000 and Spider-Man in 2002, which opened the eyes of the studio bosses to the commercial lucrativeness of comic book licenses. Not every comic book movie since then has been a success, Spider-Man 3 in particular was a disappointing dud even with Sam Raimi still at the helm, but there have been enough films that “get it” to make this a great time to be alive for a comic book fan. Here’s a quick recap of the comic book movies that I’ve watched so far this year.

Iron Man is in many ways the perfect example of what all comic book movies should be like. It has just the right mix of action, humour and character development, “get” the essence of the Iron Man character while it makes some deviations from its comic book origins, they are still changes that remain true to the spirit of the comic. This is a film that understands that it is commercial entertainment and does a great job at that without overreaching or trying to be more than what it is. The story is tight and focused, Stark’s alcoholism, for example, is alluded to, but doesn’t get in the way of the main story. My only complaint is that the final showdown could have been handled better. Powering down Iron Man for the final fight is a cheap trick when they could just have shown that Stane’s version of the armour is just that much more powerful because he isn’t afraid to hulk it up and go for pure brute power. The best thing of all, it sets the stage for the tie-in between the movies leading up to the Avengers.

As a big fan of Edward Norton ever since Fight Club, there’s no question that I would miss his performance as the Incredible Hulk, but despite initial doubts over the quality of the all-CGI Hulk and the direction the movie would take after the abortion that was the Ang Lee version, writer Zak Penn and director Louis Leterrier managed to make a surprisingly good movie. Apparently Edward Norton is a big fan of the Hulk comics and had a hand in rewriting the script, noting in particular that the essence of the Hulk is that he is forever a fugitive, always on the move and always just one step ahead of the authorities. The movie also managed to cram in a bunch of fanservice scenes that fit just right in the context of the film, from Hulk’s ground smash to clapping his hands together to put a fire out. I also liked that despite whatever the military throws at him, Hulk still comes out as the victor is the end, because as everyone knows, “HULK IS THE STRONGEST THERE IS!” My only disappointment is the casting of Liv Tyler. As cute as she is asking Banner if it would okay for him to get just a little bit excited, I’d still prefer Jennifer Connelly. Cool cameo by Stark at the end and another installment in the build-up to the Avengers.

Hellboy is the only of these whose comic I’ve never read before but I still feel qualified enough to say that this sequel is the weakest of the four movies here. I liked the first one well enough but this one feels like just an excuse to string together cool fight scenes and character designs using poor plot devices that are simply too convenient to be believable. From what I gather from those who have read the original comic, Hellboy isn’t even an outcast and is supposed to be seen as a highly visible hero by the general public. The part about him being an outcast and rejected by the people he saves is not only untrue to the comics, it’s also an overused plot point that might have worked for X-Men eight years ago, but falls flat now. The scene of Hellboy drunkenly singing love songs with Abe is charming, but it’s a pity that there’s nothing else like it in the rest of the film. Its one saving grace is that the character of Prince Nuada is probably as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné on the big screen.

Finally, we have The Dark Knight, the comic book film which aspires to be much, much more than a mere comic book film. It’s been so critically acclaimed that it’s been compared to The Godfather and no less an authority than Roger Ebert has written that Heath Ledger might win a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker. There’s no doubt that it’s an excellent movie and is probably the most serious and mature take on superheroes ever on film but it’s still very much a comic book movie. As I posted on QT3, the fixation on flashy gadgets and big explosions is still there. This helps to sell the movie to mainstream audiences, no doubt, but doesn’t really feel in keeping with a back to basics Batman. The same thing goes for the mobile phone as sonar sensor thing. It would be grittier to have the Batman gather clues using old fashioned detective legwork instead of relying on technological wizardry. Christopher Nolan directed two movies that are on my list of favorites, and as good as The Dark Knight is, it falls far short of the craftsmanship and richness of meaning found in Memento and The Prestige. I appreciate the Nolan touch on characters like the Batman, the Joker and Two-Face, but I’d really like to see him freed up to tackle other projects instead of working on a third Batman film.

This Golden Age seems set to last for a while and Marvel has a pretty packed schedule for releases up to 2012. Still, I worry that they’re running out of the really iconic characters and starting to resort to B-list heroes like Shang-Chi, Luke Cage and Ant-Man. Trying to milk Marvel’s various properties as much commercial value as possible will probably give us some terrible movies and provoke a backlash. I do hope that the Golden Age lasts long enough to allow Marvel to make at least one Avengers film.

In the meantime, I’ll be waiting for the Watchmen next year. If ever a comic book movie can break out of its genre, Watchmen will be it. The teaser trailer for it was supposed to be an exclusive for The Dark Knight, but our cinemas here don’t seem to be showing it, so here it is for anyone who’s interested. The good thing about it is that it’s amazingly faithful to the comics. The bad thing is that it’s so faithful that it’s doubful whether anyone who hasn’t read the comic will be able to make head or tails of it.