Some Spoilers by the way.
Why Hollywood Needs to Phase out of Deconstruction of Legacy Characters.
After seeing Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny, I once said I didn't like how he was a broken man at the film's beginning. That is a trend from Hollywood we've seen a lot lately with Legacy characters that we grew up with. We see them broken and pathetic; they have lost all hope, and don't get me wrong, this can work with certain but not every character.
A good example is Luke Skywalker.
When we got a new Star Wars Trilogy, fans hoped to see this happen to Luke Skywalker.
We wanted to see Grand Master Luke Skywalker, and we wanted to see him lead a new Jedi Order against the First Order. We wanted to see him as a Dumbledore-type character, as well as see him as a father and husband.
But did we get that? No, instead, we got this...
Kennedy and Lucasfilm clearly didn't want him leading a new Jedi Order. They wanted him to be a broken old man who lost hope. We are now getting a Rey film where she will create a new Jedi Order. That should have been Luke.
Sadly, these three never got a scene together.
Star Trek Next Generation got that. The writers of Picard gave fans what they wanted all the original characters together again one last time.
This is a trait I notice from Hollywood, where they take a legacy character people love and care for, downgrade them to broken people, and have them get talked down to by new characters. The same thing happened to Han Solo. We wanted General Han Solo, but instead, he's a deadbeat dad, and Leia, in Lucas's original sequel plans, she was going to lead the new republic, and she was going to be a Jedi as well. She's also the one who saves the day at the end of the last film. That would have been so much better than Rey defeating her grandpa.
However, I give Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Peyton Reed credit for giving us the Luke Skywalker we wanted to see in Mando season 2 despite the de-aging. Even Mark Hamill preferred this Luke over what he got in Last Jedi. He even thanked Peyton for doing this, and Peyton agreed with him that this was the Luke we should have gotten from the Disney Trilogy.
We saw this with Indy too. He's a broken man, and his son is dead, which I didn't like. Karen Allen herself didn't like the idea of killing Mutt. She felt it didn't need to happen because, in the end, it felt forced to kill the character's son. We have Helena, whose unlikeable, and she treats Indy like crap.
I hear James Mangold wanted to make Indy a broken man because he felt it worked for the character, but it didn't. It works for a character like Wolverine but not Indy. He shouldn't have done that to the character of Indiana Jones. We should have gotten Indy just living a retired life with his family, and something forces him to go on one last adventure. It's basically him putting away the hat to live everyday life with his wife, son, and grandkids.
Now James Mangold made Logan. It worked because Logan is the most tragic Marvel character.
This character has gone through so much hell; he's killed people he's loved and lost his memories. Wolverine is one of my favorite comic characters, but he is also the most tragic character, even more tragic than Batman. If you made Wolverine a broken old man, it works because Mark Millar's Old Man Logan is a great story read about forgiving yourself and setting things right.
The Old Man Logan story arc is one of my favorite Wolverine stories.
It was well written, and it felt like the character was a broken man after killing the X-Men by mistake.
In issue 7, after his family gets killed, he forgives himself and becomes Wolverine again.
Mangold did this perfectly in Logan. We see Logan as a broken man taking care of Charles, and then we see him become a father to Laura.
This scene was sad but was a great ending to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.
Logan's ending is so beautiful that he saved his daughter and her friends. Knowing he died saving these kids is a good send-off to Wolverine.
This storyline worked with Wolverine being a broken man and eventually becoming a hero again and is motivated to save his daughter and her friends. I especially love how he inspires his daughter in this movie and tells her, "Laura...don't be what they made you." He tells her to be a good person and help people.
The new character talks down to the legacy character, and they are better than them. That trait is annoying and makes us hate the new characters. We want to see new characters and original ideas but make them good and relatable but don't make them unlikeable unless it's good character development.
Top Gun Maverick is a great example of a movie that doesn't take a great character and break them.
What I love about this movie is that Maverick is older, but he's not a broken character or a loser now. He doesn't get talk down by any of the new characters. What I love is that he inspires a new generation of characters in this film, and he's a positive character in this film, and I just love that idea.
Maverick does have his moments in the film where he feels lost, especially working with his Goose's son Bradley aka Rooster. I love the scene with Ice Cube, played by Val Kilmer, and Ice Cube tells him it's time to let go and the Navy and Rooster need him. See, that is inspiring when the character is inspired not to give up. I feel like we don't get that anymore, and I just love how this film, we see Maverick get inspired and inspire a new generation of pilots. We need to see more of that instead of seeing Legacy characters get deconstruction for the sake of who knows what.
Also, another example like Maverick is Michael Keaton's Batman. He's older but not a broken old man because he's kept Gotham safe for years and enjoying retirement. In the movie,
Flash tells him he needs his help in the film and returns to the cowl. Some would argue that hey Batman works as a broken old man. Look at Dark Knight Returns, and I would say yes. Batman is on the same level as Wolverine, for tragic characters do work but not characters who had a good ending, and things went to shit for them like Luke and Indy.
When Keaton shows up in costume, he steals the show, and he's still got it at 71.
The director didn't downgrade Batman, and he made him the film's saving grace.
I hope Andy Muschietti does a good job with Brave and the Bold despite the Flash's box office.
Although I would have gone with Sam Raimi as director of Brave and the Bold.
This is a trend from modern Hollywood that needs to stop. We need to phase out of this deconstruction of Legacy Characters.
We love these characters and don't want them to be disrespected or treated like crap by some new characters. We want to see them treated with respect and not broken old men unless it fits a particular type of character like Wolverine or Batman. That's fine. However, for some, like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, it doesn't work because even if they are older, they should be wiser and still inspiring to us. We also want them to inspire the new characters in the franchise, much like Top Gun Maverick did.
I think we need to take a break from this broken legacy character trait and give us that legacy character at their best and have them inspire and be inspired by new characters.
So that's just my opinion on this. Let me know what you think?
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