Uggh.
Mmmmm-- Shh--
[SMASH]
[GASP]
In a cinematic landscape populated
by metahumans, mutants, and demigods,
you'd think there would be a codified visual aesthetic
for the way all of our favorite four color vigilantes fight.
Well, you'd be very wrong.
Today, despite more money, time, and effort
being poured into the production of superhero stories
than ever before, most spandex clad
crusaders embrace one maneuver over all others.
Cliche.
You're imitating the god-man.
It's weird.
No, I'm not.
[GASP] He just did it again.
Before we get too deep into today's episode,
please be sure to subscribe to Nerdstalgic for more superhero
content just like this.
Marvel has completely reshaped what a comic book
adaptation means.
And most people immediately point to the comedic dialogue
and the spectacle as the trademark
of the now behemoth comic book publisher turned movie studio.
But the true key to their success
lies in something slightly more ethereal, movement.
Think about the way Marvel characters move through scenes.
How they fight.
How Captain America kicks people and throws his shield.
How Iron Man flies so distinctly.
Or even Scarlet Witch's hand gestures or Doctor Strange's
magical incantations.
All of these characters have distinctive ways
they engage in combat.
You can tell who each character is by the way they move.
They each have a distinctive physical pattern that's
linked back to their character.
The way Black Panther poses after landing
is distinctly different from Black Widow or the Winter
Soldier.
Marvel's directors, as well as their extensive team
of stunt coordinators and choreographers,
have worked for years to plan and develop
how each of these characters function.
Do they always get it right on the first attempt?
No.
But they develop things over time.
Look specifically at how Captain America
fought in The First Avenger.
He used hand-to-hand combat, and his trademark shield
throw was there, but he wasn't the physically
intimidating and impressive human specimen
that would appear in The Winter Soldier
where he kicks an assailant off a boat.
She seems kind of nice.
Secure the engine room, then find me a date.
I'm multitasking.
This evolved version of Cap is direct, no nonsense, and purely
focused on accomplishing his mission.
He's not there to show off, he's pure functionality.
This links back to who he was as Steve Rogers.
Now look back at Black Widow.
She might have the flashiest and most instantly recognizable
fighting style, using elements of multiple martial art styles.
Her most recognizable go-to is a scissor leg takedown
aimed at her opponent's neck.
She either climbs on their back or jumps through the air
and then employs the takedown, which
is utilized heavily in the Vietnamese martial art
of Vovinam.
They have Natasha put her own spin on this
literally, because she is usually
spinning around while using it.
Happy!
That's what I'm talking about.
I just slipped.
You did?
Yeah.
[DING DING]
It looks like a TKO to me.
Bryan Singer's X-Men ruled the box office for close
to 20 years.
Other than Wolverine using his claws,
can you name a single visual aesthetic or idea
that the X-Men films perfected?
They literally only did the fastball special,
the quintessential X-Men move, once in X3
for a fight scene that happens off-camera.
It's just adding insult to injury.
Class dismissed.
In these films, Iceman, Pyro, Cyclops, Havoc, and Bishop
all basically fight the same.
They just stand there and hold their hands out and look pretty
while the camera circles them.
Singer as a director is interested in the artifice
of power filtered through youth and beauty,
not expressing character through action.
None of the characters featured in the films
had defined personalities that had
tangible physical manifestations, aside
from Logan and maybe Magneto.
They say you're the bad guy.
Is that what they say?
Even Quicksilver's scenes in Days of Future Past
and Apocalypse, while great scenes,
completely miss the point of Pietro's character.
Living life in slow motion isn't a joyous, impishly cool
playground, it's a curse.
But that's too nuanced and complex
of a character for these films to handle.
They just want cool characters doing simple, cool things.
The one notable exception being the Nightcrawler-centric
opening in X2.
The demonic, whirling dervish is a truly unique aesthetic choice
that definitely played a key role in the film's success.
But tragically, Alan Cumming hated
wearing the makeup for the character
and refused to return to the role.
Tattoos that go on, first of all, are just maddening.
You want to, like, lash out and punch people.
Same goes for the majority of the characters in the DCEU.
Wonder Woman, well, she blocks things with her gauntlets,
but she also kind of flies, sometimes,
and her powers are wildly inconsistent.
One moment she runs at the speed of a normal person,
and then the next, she's as fast as the Flash.
Superman, Black Adam, Batman, and Cyborg
all basically fight the exact same way
in their cinematic appearances.
They just punch and kick things and pose in generic cool guy
positions.
There's literally nothing character specific
about any of these fights.
The point of most of the fight scenes in these films
is to attempt to show the impressive power and might
that the central protagonist possesses.
They wade through endless seas of nameless goons effortlessly.
There is never any real danger to them,
and the fights always express the same visual idea.
This is a character that is powerful,
but they rarely express anything about the character other
than their power.
There's only one way this ends, Kal.
Either you die or I do.
Currently, even the MCU is struggling with this issue.
Since the close of Phase III, can you
name a single new character that has a unique fighting style?
They tried with Shang-Chi, but he hasn't had enough time
to truly develop.
He's in his Cap, First Avenger era.
It's just Kung Fu, it's not a signature version
of the Chinese traditional martial
art that reflects anything specific about the character.
The over saturation with these characters from both companies
has led to less and less innovation on this front.
With each successive film and each project attempting
to differentiate itself from the field of other adaptations,
they're all mining the same few pieces of source material
for inspiration.
The other issue is that there just aren't enough top level
stunt coordinators and fight choreographers to go around,
so Marvel and DC often end up employing
many of the same people who fall back on similar solutions
time and time again.
Look, for example, at Sam Hargrave.
He was the stunt coordinator and the fight coordinator
on Suicide Squad, Civil War, Thor Ragnarok, Deadpool 2,
Infinity War, and Endgame.
That's one guy.
Whoo!
Superhero landing.
Yeah, that's really hard on your knees.
Totally impractical.
They all do it.
Think back to probably the most visually inventive superhero
movie of all time, The Matrix.
Not only did they invent and templatize the way
that most superhero films would be shot with bullet time,
but they also understood the importance
of action choreography to express character growth
through movement.
That's why they were so insistent on hiring
arguably the greatest action choreographer of all time, Yuen
Woo Ping.
He and his team worked for six months
to create fighting styles that were tailored to each actor,
and then trained them personally.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] The interesting thing is
in the challenge.
And the challenge is how we can make
these people look as though they know,
they are born with the skill.
Trinity with the Scorpion Kick, Morpheus' patented leap,
and, of course, Neo with his ability
to literally bend space and time.
They all come from thinking about fighting as a way
to express the character.
Come on!
Stop trying to hit me and hit me.
That level of thought is rarely placed
in today's blockbuster fight scenes.
Marvel and DC want to make sure that they are bringing
their A-game, but the solutions aren't ever centered
around character.
They're centered around spectacle
so that the audience feels like it got its money's worth.
Which is ironic because more often than not,
it's the small character moments in a fight that propel
characters into greatness.
Like Bucky dropping and catching the knife in his first fight
with Steve Rogers, or the first time
that Logan popped his claws his way back in X-Men 1.
Those small character beats are the indelible images that
generate generations of fans.
Superhero movies aren't going anywhere, any time soon.
But here's the thing.
Focusing on movement and building a character
through the way they physically interact with the world
around them is the key to making sure
that the next two decades of comic book adaptations
are more like Iron Man 1, and less like X-Men 3.
Well, that's all we have for this episode.
Which superhero fighting style do you think is the best?
Comment down below, and as always, Like
and Subscribe to Nerdstalgic for more videos just like this one.