Would this work in movies?

tlj009 · 02-03-2009, 08:01 AM

There has been several movies about comic book teams like the X-Men. These movies seem to focus on one of the team members with some minor elaboration on the others. Much like the X-Men movies were about Wolverine. I am wondering if it may work to shoot 2, 3, or 4 movies at the same time with the same plot but from the point of view or following different characters in the group. The same characters being used, many of the same sets, many of the same events but with different writing and from a different perspective. Take X-Men 3, could they have made basically the same movie following Wolverine, another showing Storm trying to hold things together, and maybe another about the younger group of heroes taking a more active role. I just like the idea of watching a movie, going to another film and seeing some of the same stuff from a different perspective. Much like Back to the Future did in the second film.

The questions that I have is would this be a good idea, can it be done, and has something similar been done?

**Epaphras** · 02-03-2009, 08:46 AM

Maybe not for a movie...but you are basically describing Heroes. It works much better in a show.

**thesteve** · 02-03-2009, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epaphras

Maybe not for a movie...but you are basically describing Heroes. It works much better in a show.

And even then it only works if the characters are interesting. The few times I watched Heroes there was definitely too much time spend with characters I felt no attachment to.

tlj009 · 02-03-2009, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Maybe not for a movie...but you are basically describing Heroes. It works much better in a show.

Except that the individual characters are more removed in heroes so that you don't see the same scene from a different view. You just follow different characters as they do their own thing.

I was thinking of something a little different. Think about the shows where the different characters tell their own view of how something happened. Each may be the hero in the story or may idolize someone else and therefore see things differently. Now a television can only do it in part because everyone wants their favorite character in the show. So you are limited by time and by having a story that progresses. But in a movie, you can have a complete story that leaves the audience satisfied and still go back have the same sequence of events from a different characters perspective. So that while it is the same basic story about saving the world from something, you have a different character with different problems to overcome whose story is intertwined with the character from the other movie. What I am talking about is basically expanding the world within a movie so that you have 2-hour movies that can stand on their own but if you watch the 2 or 3 other movies, you get a more complete picture of the global significance of whatever the plot was that was thwarted.

**Sean** · 02-03-2009, 10:06 AM

Kind of like how the author of Twilight started to write a book which tells the story of Twilight from the perspective of Edward instead of Bella.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Sun_(novel)

...I feel 45% less manly for posting this.

tlj009 · 02-03-2009, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Kind of like how the author of Twilight started to write a book which tells the story of Twilight from the perspective of Edward instead of Bella.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Sun_(novel)

...I feel 45% less manly for posting this.

I didn't watch Twilight or read the book but from the wiki article it sounds like what I was thinking of.

**Epaphras** · 02-03-2009, 10:40 AM

Well...Vantage Point played around with this idea as well. It was a neat-enough gimmick but I called it halfway through so the end was anti-climactic.

conceived in fire · 02-03-2009, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epaphras

Well...Vantage Point played around with this idea as well. It was a neat-enough gimmick but I called it halfway through so the end was anti-climactic.

Yeah, your idea sounds like a composite of the storytelling devices in Vantage Point, Heroes and perhaps Crash. Sounds like it would work if the characters and plot were interesting.

smhatahy · 02-07-2009, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epaphras

Maybe not for a movie...but you are basically describing Heroes. It works much better in a show.

Sort of what LOST used to do

Meningitiphobic · 02-08-2009, 12:54 AM

id get bored of the same character on the screen for 2 hours long

**Sean** · 02-08-2009, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akshay

Sort of what LOST used to do

It would be like the episode of LOST where they showed the first three seasons of the show from the perspective of the Others.

**Epaphras** · 02-09-2009, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean

It would be like the episode of LOST where they showed the first three seasons of the show from the perspective of the Others.

Or the episode "The Other 48 Days" in season 2, when it shows what the survivors from the tail-section went through during the same time as we'd seen all of season 1 and season 2 up to that point.