In the world of film and certain corners of television, there exists a cosmic force known as fan service. Fan service is usually reserved for films based on books or comics and is the process of remaining true to the source content and revelling in it.

It can come in a variety of flavours, emulating something note for note, dropping easter eggs into the background, stuff like that. The key point of fan service is presenting things in a fashion that fans will go nuts for (when done right). It is a very odd phenomenon indeed.

I watched Iron Man 2 recently and it has left me dwelling upon fan service, it’s application and consequences. I’ve thought about it for a while and I think I’ve figured out what fan service is like.

Fan service is like spice

Adding spice to food can make it better but the more you add, the more people you exclude from it’s appreciation. It’s exactly the same for fan service. The more you add, the more specific the medium in question becomes, relevant to only the select few who are passionate about the it.

Now it’s not like adding salt & pepper. That is a decision you make. Fan Service is grounded in the core ingredients used by the chef. If you don’t like it there’s very little you can do about it. But if you do like it, YOU’LL LOVE IT.

Through the this thought process I’ve been able to establish a scale of Fan Service based on an episode of the Simpsons. The episode in question is

El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer

An episode from the golden age of the Simpsons where it was truly unbeatable, keep your Family Guys and dare I say it South Parks, when The Simpsons was this good it was unrivalled. We’ve all seen it a million times. Homer engages in a search for his soul mate after eating chilli so hot it makes him violently hallucinate. It guest stars Johnny Cash as a talking Coyote and has this scene with a dog barking which I find staggeringly funny and….sorry. Look what you made me do?

Anyway, the scene is question is the chilli cook off. Homer, as a veteran chilli enthusiast, is only satisfied with the very hottest chilli Springfield can provide. You see where I’m going with this?

The three different chillis that Homer samples can be compared to a film that implements fan service and how it turned out.

Firehouse Ned’s Five-Alarm Chili

Homer’s first stop is Firehouse Ned’s Five-Alarm Chili. As it transpires it’s not five alarm at all

“Oh, I admit it. It’s only two-alarm, two-and-a-half, tops. I just wanted to be a big man in front of the kids.”

A chilli that was made for all the wrong reasons, to be a big man. Showing a lack of understanding about why a chili is great, you think you can make any old chili and people will like it. Chili doesn’t work like that.

The best example of Firehouse Ned’s Five Alarm Fan Service was the colossal turd that was…

Yes, Spiderman 3. I could rant at length about how crap this film was. When I left cinema having watched it, I was trying to talk myself into not hating it as I felt I’d invested so much anticipation, I couldn’t face the reality that it was terrible. As time passed I’ve come to dislike it with Venom (see what I did there?). Too many cooks spoiled this broth, trying to fit at least 2 films worth of story into one bloated, diluted mess. It was an utter shambles.

Sony tried to harness the power of fan service whilst showing a fundamental lack of understanding of what makes the content so loved among the faithful. The symbiote and Venom are very very strong Spiderman storylines and if done right could have been the something truly special, but instead they shoe horned it in there with 3 other half arsed storylines to get as many faces in there as possible. It was a cynical joke.

I don’t blame Sam Raimi for this as when left somewhat to his own devices he made Spiderman and Spiderman 2 which were gorgeous films. But the level of studio intervention in Spiderman 3 was glaringly obvious. So much so that when 4 was going the same way he walked away. Fair play to you, Sam.

Spiderman 3 was fan exploitation dressed up as fan service. The thing about fan service is you have to want to do it. With Spiderman 3 they didn’t want to do it, they didn’t care. They tried to exploit it and went horribly horribly wrong. Shame on you Ned Flanders.

Moe’s Chili Bar

The next stop for Homer is Moe’s Chili Bar. Once again Homer is not impressed.

“A bland, timid entry, suitable, perhaps, for patients recovering from surgery”

This showed a very basic understanding of chili. A chili that Adrian Chiles would be happy to eat and recommend to his elderly grandmother. A middle of the road, simple, accessible chili that anyone can enjoy. Anyone that’s not Homer of course. A good example of a meal from Moe’s Chili Bar would be

Xmen 2. Yes. It was alright I guess. It just didn’t mean anything. They put just enough spice in to say they put spice in. In fan service terms it did the bare minimum to get people interested. There was nothing inherently bad with it really, it was just dull.  It’s perfectly fine to do something like Xmen 2. But to the proper fans such as they are, each one of these films is an opportunity missed.

There are countless films like this where trying to appeal to broader spectrum of viewer has bleached out the potential for something good by the fans. With such a rich universe to plunder you’d think they’d go for something a with bit more gravitas. But with this comes the risk of alienating “normal” people and this isn’t a risk producers generally want to take. Cowards.

They don’t owe us anything really but this is a point I shall cover later. Next!

The Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango

Homer’s final stop was to be his undoing. He severely underestimated the power of this one

“Grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.”

This chili was made to be so spicy that only the choicest few could possibly enjoy it. Made in a fashion that completely ignored and almost poured scorn on those that didn’t understand hot food. Taking fan service to an unknown extreme that challenges even the hardcore. It’s like “you want fan service? we’ll give you fucking fan service”.

There aren’t many that achieved this level of fan service but one springs to mind immediately.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The key point of this film is, if you don’t like/haven’t played Final Fantasy VII, this film makes absolutely no sense. It goes so far out on a limb for that only it’s most loyal fans can possibly enjoy it.

This takes it to the level of ultimate fan service. Where they gear the content to the fans so much that effectively say fuck off to everyone else. That’s quite a statement to make. Now as a fan of Final Fantasy VII, I love this stance and that’s kind of the point.

By making something like Advent Children, we (Square Enix, yeah I’m taking credit for it, ha!) you cement the love of the fans and they’ll turn up in droves for whatever you do. Remembering and treasuring it forever.

And now…the point

I originally thought this was gonna be a review of Iron Man 2, but the nature of the film has lead me to consider fan service as it encapsulates for me everything about the film and the driving force it is a part of. I think what Marvel Studios is treading perilously close to the Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango with what they’re doing and I really saw this in Iron Man 2.

To be honest if you look at Iron Man 2 as a film, it’s pretty tame with a distinct lack of consequence. I don’t wanna blab about it too much because I don’t like spoilers but if you’ve seen you might agree with me. Iron Man and War Machine aren’t put under any massive pressure throughout it’s all about setting things up.

It was an establishing film just like the first one was. Nothing of any true weight happens. It felt exactly like reading a short graphic novel, like a 6-10 comic run.. It showed a patience that I’ve not seen before.

The reason for this is peppered throughout the film including a lovely (and I don’t care what @Twistedlilkitty says :P) little nod to the next film right at the very end. Marvel Studios are building all this as part of the Avengers project. Bringing together Iron Man, Captain America, Thor etc etc for something which stands to be pretty amazing if they do it right. The good thing is they are doing it right.

Now I’ve been saying that Iron Man 2 is patient and not a massive amount happens like it’s a bad thing. But as a fan, who loves fan service, it’s completely the opposite. This is possibly the most well done fan service saga that could ever be. Each of the films building to this glorious whole. Taking the time to bed characters in so when it all comes together and kicks off, it could be truly truly stunning. So while I’m watching Iron Man 2 I can just see how its spanning out, enjoying them taking the time get things right.

“Never Compromise. No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise” – Rorschach

Now the argument is there that this stuff should be made accessible but I just don’t agree. As a idiot fanboy type, I love this kind of selfishness. There are plenty of films out there for everyone. A compromise in this situation would be an awful thing. Spiderman 3 proved that. This project should be made for the fans, they made Marvel what they are. Enough people love it to show there is a treasure trove of fine characters and stories out there for people to enjoy and these movies should be an introduction to that.

I love what Marvel Studios is doing. It knows what its fans want and it knows how to do it. They’ve been pleasing us with this daft stuff for decades in the comic realm and I really can’t see them messing it up now. The idea of studio intervention to make it more accessible just doesn’t exist because they are the studio. It really does make me smile to know that everyone can be pulling in the same direction for something like this.

So there you go. Iron Man 2 is quite a spicy film but I bloody love spicy food so I adore it.

Note: I couldn’t find room in my analogy for this picture so I’m just chucking it in there because it’s brilliant.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 8:43 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.