Origin stories are boring, I don't care what the character was like as a kid, or how much of a chump he was before he decided to become a badass. Unfortunately the origin story seems to be at the zenith of it popularity, and with the upcoming "Green Lantern", and "Thor" releases, I see no end in sight. Apparently, every super hero film thinks they need to devote the entire movie to explaining to me the circumstances surrounding our heroes rise to fame. Let me spare everyone the suspense, your hero starts out as a total chump, and is either emotionally scarred by tragedy and thus motivated to dedicate his life to stomping bad guys, or he receives a "divine blessing" and stumbles upon an external force that empowers him to stop being such a doormat, cue feelings of inadequacy and initial rejection of responsibility.
Financially I understand that it's beneficial for a movie to drag its feet in advancing the plot, it allows for a story that should take 45 minutes to be turned into a trilogy, thus more cash. That aside I wish studios would stop the nonsense, and actually focus on entertaining us. I have stopped viewing "Super Hero" movies whether they be based on Marvel, DC, or Indie characters primarily because of "Origin Syndrome". Their are plenty of movies that give you almost no explanation of the characters origins yet succeed tremendously in creating a compelling character, aided in no small part by the suspense created by not revealing the mechanisms behind our characters motivations.
Movies like the Predator, Gladiator, or Blade, all succeed in dumping the audience into the thick of the action with minimal explanation of their past. These characters talk with their fists and throughout the course of the film we usually learn along with the other supporting characters, the true capabilities of our protagonist. These movies show you what the character is rather than providing a constant stream of inane justifications in the hope of convincing the audience that the supernatural events portrayed in this fictional universe are some how plausible.
If you look at a film like the Predator, you never are provided with any sort of narrative as to his origins or capabilities. All you see is that he came from outer space and is armed to the teeth with high tech weaponry. Based on his Actions, and the realizations of Ahhnold, you learn that the Predator is some kind of zealous ritualistic hunter on a human hunting safari. If anyone wants to know what happened during the Predator's childhood to drive him to kill, skin, and make trophies of human skulls, just go ask any of the current "Super Hero" film directors, Im sure they would love to bore us with a three part examination of Predator culture.
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