Have you ever wondered why some movie critics seem to be so out of touch with the viewing public? That when they love a movie we know we won't like it or when they hate it we'll sell out the theater? If you're anything like me, you enjoy the escapism of a summer blockbuster. I like going to these big-budget-special-effect-laden-sometimes-low-on-plot movies because I get to "escape" reality for a short length of time before having to return to my humdrum life.
Critics who take their jobs seriously must hate escapist movies. They're forced to watch meaningless film after meaningless film and have to find something redeemable in them. These are the critics that I don't usually follow. They would rather we didn't have a fantasy to run to and watch something poignant and heavy that will change our world view. No, thank you. Reality is weighty and depressing enough for me. I'm not big into catharsis. I don't enjoy angst for the sake of angst or the soap operas that are filled with lust and murder and I'm-so-happy-I'm-not-them. I also hate when a character I identify with chooses the WRONG person to be with. Hollywood decided that romantic (or sexual) tension is necessary and we must keep the perfect matches apart or viewers won't be interested and stop watching. I have to say that I'm still enjoying Castle and Bones, despite the couples getting together. And The Office. Jim and Pam forever! I'm hoping that they're still together by the end of the series and I don't like the friction they're having, despite the realism of it. If PB&J can't make it, then no one can. See, Hollywood writers? Stop messing with my life by messing with theirs! And when you purposely keep the matches apart for several seasons we begin to believe they're never getting together and we give up because why watch.
I love a good movie based on comic books. I have several of them in my film collection. Perhaps my love of the comic book-based movies in particular derives from the long car trips my family would take during the summer to visit relatives in other states. There were comic book stands in several gas station stores and we'd stock up especially when we already read through all the books we'd brought. When I was really young I'd read the Archie comics and wish I was Betty or Veronica (I'm most likely Betty--you know, the perfect girl for Archie, but as she was the girl next door he never saw her true value and wasted his time with Veronica who could never decide who she wanted--romantic tension). We won't get into the psychology of those comics...today.
As I grew older I started to get interested in the comic books my brother was buying. So I transitioned from the antics of Josie and the Pussycats and Sabrina the Teen Aged Witch to Green Lantern and Captain America. When I started buying my own instead of just reading my brother's I started buying Wonder Woman and Supergirl. I also loved the Teen Titans and the New Mutants. It's true that I still have a box of those comics and I'm super thrilled that the next X-Men movie is "Days of Future Past." This was a specific storyline that was later put into its own graphic novel. I was first introduced to it through a German version that my brother had. I can't speak German, but I was fascinated by the pictures and was dying to know what was really going on. It took me awhile, but I found the English version. It's actually very sad and post-apocalyptic and how humans fear mutants and are trying to hunt them to extinction.
That's a common theme in all of the X-Men-based series: the fight between Xavier's "good" mutants and Magneto's "bad" mutants and how their war directly affects how the world sees them. Poor Magneto's actions were always self-fulfilled prophecies. By acting badly of course the world viewed mutants poorly when they're trying to take over the world and being all superior to regular mortals. So it will be interesting to see what kind of happy ending that they can tack on so we're not all depressed when we leave the theater. I think the X-Men series was created to make us really think about how we view others and that no one should be treated differently. It's a cautionary tale.
I'm also super excited about Iron Man 3 (go Tony Stark) and the next Star Trek installment. Yea!!!!!! May is going to be an awesome month for movie-goers even if those are the only two movies we see. Over and over. In 3-D and/or IMAX. Or 2-D. And then we preorder the Blu-ray/DVD combo packs and wait impatiently for that lovely Amazon.com box to show up. Squeal of excitement! For some reason I'm getting the urge to watch The Avengers. Marvel studios, I love you. Disney, thank you for taking them in and letting them work on the interconnectedness that is the comic book world.
There was a brief time as an adult that I would go on Tuesdays to the comic book store and buy the latest installments of my favorite series. What I learned was that current writers are ruining my beloved comic heroes. Instead of leaving our heroes on pedestals they are making them flawed. Very flawed, in fact. And fallible. And sleeping around and unwed pregnancy in Teen Titans. I don't even want to address what they've done to Wonder Woman's home Themyscira (Paradise Island). Again, I wanted to escape reality, not revel in it. I'll not be seeing the last Batman movie. I don't care how wonderful people thought it was. It's dark. Too dark for me. I want funny and hopeful. I want the Hulk punching Thor for no reason. I want Alan Quatermain rising from the dead at the end of LXG. I want Superman and Lois Lane to be together (sorry, Superman Returns--I didn't like the unwed pregnancy--hated it, in fact). Heroes should be people we aspire to be, a better version of us, not exactly the same but with super powers. Stop ruining my escapism! Or I'll have to start creating my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment