With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
At 89 years old, Stan Lee's name appears on more than one BILLION comics in 75 countries in 25 languages. Arguably the most recognized name in comics, Stan Lee has co-created over 500 legendary pop culture characters including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk. Stan continues to create new material and entertain fans of all ages with fantastic stories and characters in all areas of entertainment. With Great Power: the Stan Lee Story, explores the vivid life and imagination of Stan Lee, from the early days of his Depression-era upbringing through the Marvel Age of Comics and beyond! The film uncovers original transcripts, illustrations, photographs and stories of Lee's fascinating journey from his early years at Timely Comics and World War Two, the comic book industry's censorship battle of the 1950's led by Dr. Fredric Wertham, the dawn of Marvel Comics and the legendary characters Stan co-created, to his current company POW! Entertainment.
Watching this documentary was like opening a time capsule. Seeing the footage taken from Flip cameras or early smart phones really dated it, even though it was released only 13 years ago. Despite that, it was interesting. Stan Lee is a subject that I don’t know a lot about but I have consumed a lot of his work through the years. I learned a lot and had fun with the movie. However, my main complaint is that it felt incomplete. I understand making a documentary on a subject still alive is a risk, but the filmmakers probably looked at Stan Lee at 88 years old and figured there wouldn’t be a lot left. Marvel had accomplished a 180 and there were numerous successful films. However, I would have loved to have seen the impact of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had on Stan Lee. I also would have loved to learn more about his later life. Other than seeing some news articles about elder abuse, I feel there’s more to know. I probably won’t do independent research, but if there’s a new documentary I’d check it out. There’s still a rich vein in this story to mine.
Technically, I’m not an expert on the various ways of making documentaries. I did not like the way the filmmakers chose to animate the historical photographs. It felt awkward.