X-Men burst onto screens in the summer of 2000, marking the beginning of a decade of superhero film adaptations. The film’s position as the 8th highest grossing film (domestic and international) of the year ignited ideas at Marvel and DC comics, proving two things simultaneously; that the flying, morphing, mutating creations of their fictional universes could now be done justice in film thanks to advances in technology, and that the public were willing to accept such films, the content of which had been traditionally seen as childish or ‘geeky’ fantasy. The superhero bandwagon was set rolling with immensely successful franchises established around famous characters such as Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man in addition to the X-Men. These new films actually ushered in a new way of filmmaking, with clear influence being taken directly from the comic books they were adapting. Furthermore, the act of cinema-going has been altered so that it is no longer a self-contained experience; it has evolved from an act, to a concept that sprawls over a plethora of different media platforms.
A New Link for the Chain
This is partly due to the development of transmedia storytelling, in which, Henry Jenkins explains, ‘a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels and comics; […and] explored through game play’. The effect of this has been that video games have now become a valuable link in the storytelling chain.
The most obvious example of this transmedia storytelling is The Matrix franchise, which utilises the video game Enter The Matrix and a series of cartoons collectively known as The Animatrix to tell its story, however, this is also visible in a wide range of films that have been produced in the last decade, including the body of X-Men films, video games and other media available. X-Men: The Official Game for example, was released in May 2006 to tie in with the release of the third film in the X-Men franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand. The game actually covers events of X2 and X3, bridging the gap between the two films, expanding the fiction and filling in the cracks, explaining why Nightcrawler, a character of some importance introduced in X2, seemingly destined for more filmic appearances, is actually absent from the third film. Through playing the game, the viewer gains a greater depth of understanding of the film, learning how Multiple Man ended up in the prison convoy that Magneto subsequently frees him from in X3. The close nature of the relationship between film and video games is here illustrated through the fact that Chris Claremont, one of the game’s two storyline writers is also the author of the Dark Phoenix Saga, a popular and famous story arc from the comics that is alluded to heavily throughout all the X-Men films, whilst also asking the question: can the film even be considered the primary text anymore?
Power to the People
Film form is now much less rigid, viewers are able to bring their own personal experiences to the act of film watching as, ‘by stretching […] narrative over a range of texts and media, the producers have allowed for a variable and fertile array of spaces, which the consumer/audience can dip into, rework and explore’; going to the cinema is no longer simply a passive exercise, the viewer now has increased power.
Whilst the above quote is specifically referring to The Matrix and its surrounding media, it can also be broadly applied to many other franchises and their media. The saturation of different media platforms means that the ‘text’ of a film franchise is now in constant flux, as viewers bring their own differing experience and knowledge to the text. For example, some may have played the relevant video games or read the surrounding comics and thus take an expanded body of knowledge into the theatre with them, whilst others may be there simply for the spectacle, special effects and the enjoyment of familiar themes being played out on screen, such as good triumphing over evil, or the recognisable video game based narrative of overcoming the next foe/challenge. This does have a flipside however, that is the potential for particular films, such as those based on comics, becoming elitist and exclusive, as Thomas Schatz points out, ‘younger viewers […] are far more likely to be active multimedia players, consumers and semioticians, and thus to gauge a movie in intertextual terms and to appreciate in it a richness and complexity that may well be lost on middle-aged movie critics.’
Sources:
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2000&p=.htm [accessed 03/07/2011]
Jenkins, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, (New York: New York University Press, 2006)
Carr, Diane, ‘The Rules of the Game, The Burden of Narrative: Enter The Matrix’, in The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded, ed. by Stacy Gillis (London: Wallflower Press, 2005), pp.36-47
Schatz, Thomas, ‘The New Hollywood’, in Film Theory Goes to the Movies, ed. by Jim Collins, Hillary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 8-36
Matt Blackwell - I graduated from Newcastle University in 2011 with a First in English Literature, I wrote extensively for the university newspaper and ...
Join the Conversation