1.  1999 saw a fantastic version of “The X-Men” produced by 20 th Century Fox and directed by Bryan Singer. Singer had enjoyed great success with his movie “The Usual Suspects” and had taken some persuasion to helm X- men having never been a comic book fan. After reading a slew of X-Men issues, Singer has hooked on the themes raised in them and felt he could bring the characters to screen in a modern way, whilst remaining faithful to the popularity of the comics. The film also benefited from having a mainly unknown cast (with the exception of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen) in the lead roles. The movie made a household name of Hugh Jackman who continues playing his role of Wolverine till this day. He currently holds the record of having played the part of a comic character on screen on seven occasions. The movie was a great success and spawned a slew of sequels the second of which was also helmed by the Singer.

2.  Warner Brothers saw the success of Singer’s two X-Men films and decided to recruit him for their long awaited revamp of Superman. It had been almost 18 years since the disastrous Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987, and there was an audience of fans crying out for a modern adaptation of the character. Warner’s pursuit of Bryan Singer meant taking him away from his work on the third X-men movie at the time, and caused some friction between the filmmaker and his former employers at 20 th Century Fox. The former stating that he would never work for the company again. In hindsight it was a move that did not benefit either party. Singer’s Superman Returns in 2006 was received poorly both critically and at the box office, whilst the third instalment of X-Men (which was directed by Brett Ratner), was also rounded on by fans. Singer’s Superman Returns was one of the most expensive movies ever made at the time of release, and although it did have several decent scenes in it, came up very short of the standards comic book fans had come to expect.

3.  It was a particular disappointment for Warner Brothers, who only the previous year in 2005 had pulled a masterstroke in recruiting a young relatively unknown English director called Christopher Nolan to revamp their Batman franchise. Nolan’s Batman Begins finally gave the fans what they had been waiting for. It showed the Batman origin story (which Tim Burton had chosen to ignore in 1989’s Batman) and portrayed the character in a hyper realistic way, through flashback story telling and an insistence on adding as little special effects as possible. Although many fans were sceptical about the revamp, the movie was a critical success. Although it did not set any box office records, it opened the door for a sequel, which the fans greatly anticipated.

4.  Its sequel “The Dark Knight” in 2008 is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and not just in comic book movie terms. In many ways it changed how these types of films are approached and set a high standard for any future movies in the genre. It was a game changer. What also added to the legacy of the film, was the performance of Heath Ledger as the main villain the Joker. Just two months before the movie was due for release, Heath Ledger was found dead due to an overdose of prescription drugs in his New York apartment. Many attributed his death to the intensity of playing the character, and in a strange way the tragic news added to the anticipation of the film. Many people who may not have previously went to the Dark Knight, went to see Heath Ledger’s last full screen performance, a performance which was so good, it earned the actor a posthumous Oscar. The movie is still one of the highest grossing films of all time, and earned its director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale huge plaudits and recognition as Hollywood gold.

5.  Sony also enjoyed great success in 2002 when they finally brought their production of Spiderman to the screen. After years of wrangling over scripts, directors and actors, they finally went with Sam Rammi in the director’s chair and Toby McGuire as the hero. It was an enjoyable adaptation of the character, which remained true to the comic and in turn was very well received. It also spawned two sequels from the same team, and although these films performed brilliantly in a financial aspect, it was felt by the fans that the later instalments where trying too hard to cram more villains and effects in, rather than concentrating on telling a good story. Spiderman 3 in particular was guilty of this. It raised the question of how much involvement the studio executives put into these movies, rather than leaving the filmmakers to their own devices. Filmmaker Kevin Smith (himself a huge comic book fan) recounts one such encounter with producer Jon Peter’s in the mid 90’s when he came very close to rebooting Superman for Warner Brothers. You can watch his story here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk   The story only serves to highlight just how clueless some of the people high up in the industry are when it comes to producing these types of movies.

6.  As it turned out, 2008 proved to be a big year in the history of comic book movies. Not only were we as audiences treated to the ground breaking “The Dark Knight”, but the year also delivered the first movie in what would be known as Phase 1 for Marvel, who were now in a position where they could produce their own comic creations as they saw fit. Just before the release of the Dark Knight, fans got to see Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jnr and directed by Jon Favreau.   Marvel had left themselves with the rights to what were perceived at the time as their lesser comic creations, (in terms of comic book sales that is). This list included Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Incredible Hulk to name but a few, and collectively this group was known as the Avengers.

7.  Marvel had tried in the years before Iron Man’s release to kick start these characters film development with the release of Ang Lee’s take on the Hulk. The movie was not as greatly received as had been predicted, despite containing some good scenes, acting and themes. Iron Man was viewed as the studios last chance to prove their worth in the cinematic world. They delivered in spectacular fashion, as everything about Iron Man fell into place. Downey Jnr owned the role, and the movie also saw the first post credit scene, which linked the movie into the broader idea of a Marvel Universe. From now on, every Marvel film released would carry the anticipation to an ultimate Avengers movie, which would see all these heroes and more collide for the first time in the same movie. 

8.  This period saw Marvel start to distribute their own movies the way they wanted. They were no longer accountable to executives of all the major film studios. Disney quickly saw what Marvel was capable of and decided to buy the company for a staggering $4 billion in 2009. The Marvel film making crew (helmed by Kevin Feige) were left to their own devices, and any future movies would be distributed under the Disney banner. Marvel had a long term plan as to what they wished to achieve. Feige split this plan into different phases. Phase 1 included Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 2 and Thor. Phase 1 would culminate with the first Avengers movie, where all these heroes would appear together. Phase 2 (which we are approaching the end of with the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron on 22 nd April 2015) showed the progression of the heroes in Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the excellent Guardians of the Galaxy, which is my personal favourite of all the Marvel movies released so far.

9.  Not to be out done, DC and Warner brothers put plans in place to create their own DC movie universe. The start of this process saw Superman being updated again in The Man of Steel, with Henry Cavill in the title role and Zac Synder directing. Future productions will see Batman vs Superman in 2016, an Aquaman movie, Wonder Woman will get her own movie and there is also talk of a film of both the Flash and the Green Arrow, who are currently enjoying success on the small screen with their own TV series’.

10.  The comic book movie trend shows no signs of slowing up when we see what all the studios have planned in the upcoming years. Hopefully they will continue to keep the stories and characters fresh and interesting, and not over saturate the movie going public with the genre. Like the comics these films are based on, there are countless stories yet to be told, and it is with great hope that young film makers from around the world will be able to showcase their talents through this medium.