I went to see the new Batman movie last weekend. Now it was not a bad movie, and I don’t want to give that impression. In my opinion it was also not one of the best movies of all time nor a masterpiece. Maybe I was expecting too much. It was mostly entertaining, which is the prime aim of a comic or superhero movie. And it was very dark, almost too dark. There was little in the way of humor in this movie. I went to see the Avengers again at the $3 theater the day after seeing The Dark Knight, and I found The Avengers, a movie I considered much superior, to be chocked full of humor. Humor made me care for the characters. After two hours of pure darkness I really didn’t care what happened to Batman, or the fine citizens of Gotham City. I just wanted them out of their misery. The Avengers was a longer movie that could have been even longer. The Dark Knight was too long for what they tried to do with the material. People clapped enthusiastically at the end of The Avengers. I was among them. People clapped politely at the end of The Dark Knight, and I was not on board.
One of the major problems with the movie, in my opinion, was the overuse of flashbacks. At one point I thought I was watching a remake of Sleeping With The Enemy. A couple of flashbacks in a film are fine. But too many are just, too many, no other way to say it. And when they did a flashback toward the end of the movie, the climax, totally slowing down the action to present a vignette of the childhood of the villain, I almost lost it. Why, oh why did you have to present such an action breaker right in the middle of the action. I also wondered throughout the movie what had happened to the Batman of old. The one who was so acrobatic and well equipped, with a utility belt of gadgets. All he used in this movie was a batarang (once) and some sleep darts sort of shaped like bats. And he fought like a flat footed slugger. I kind of miss the old representation of Batman.
Before the movie they showed a preview of Man of Steel, the upcoming Superman movie. While watching the scenes of the water and the fishing boat at the beginning I got kind of excited, thinking this might be a movie about Aquaman. But no, it is another reboot of Superman. D C seems to be caught in a cycle of making movies about their two main characters, and only those two. Superman, Batman, Superman, Batman. How many times can we watch different takes on Superman’s upbringing? What about the other heroes of the D C Universe? The Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, The Martian Manhunter. Maybe even the Justice League. Sure, they did a Green Lantern movie, but that was the only deviation from the Superman-Batman franchise. D C could learn a lesson from Marvel, which is now basking in the profits from their multiple hero movies. The Hulk, Thor, Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Captain America, The X-Men and derivatives. They’ve even done Blade and Ghost Rider, and will soon be releasing an Ant-Man movie. And all the while D C is stuck in a rut with their two big headliners. Wonder what the next Batman reboot will be like? Maybe they can get Adam West to play Alfred.
Thor
All posts tagged Thor
I loved the Hulk as a child. I mean, what wasn’t there to like about the big guy? He was a bad ass, the Chuck Norris of the comics. And he was the typical Marvel character, troubled on many levels. Bruce Banner did not want to be the Hulk, it wasn’t a power he reveled in. But when he was the Hulk he became the most powerful can of whupass on the planet. No other super being could stand against him. Not Namor, not Ironman, not even Thor, though the hammer was quite an equalizer. Namor always got weaker out of water, while the Hulk never got weaker, so that fight was over as soon as it began. Ironman hit the Hulk with a jet, and probably got billed by the Air Force for destruction of Government property. And all it did was stun the big green guy long enough for Ironman to get out of Dodge. The Thing always wanted to think he was a match for the Hulk, but he never stood a chance. Because the Hulk had unlimited strength, the madder he got the stronger he got, and there was no limit to his rage. He was very good at smashing things that got in his way. He was even proficient as breaking things he really hadn’t set out to break, like the jet fighter he just happened to pass through on his way back to the ground after a leap. He broke things but didn’t really kill people, at least in the comics. In the modern movie version it was insinuated that he did kill people, but not out of any desire to kill. He was a bull in the china shop, and our fragile bodies were china compared to his muscular physique.
But the greatest thing about the Hulk to a child was his motivation. He was not really a hero, not really a villain, and a little of both. Sometimes he saved the world. But it was when he blundered into some situation and had to fight his way out that he foiled the plans of the villain based on world conquest or destruction. Mostly he just wanted to be left alone. And the bullies of the world, the militaries of the United States or Russia, or aliens, or evil people bent of conquest, would not leave him alone. Just as the bullies in school would not leave an intelligent child with a lot of imagination alone. But unlike the child, the Hulk could do something about it. He could smash, and drive the bullies away for just a short moment. They always came back, but he was always ready for them.
The other attractive part of the Hulk was the Bruce Banner character, who was always self sacrificing in his attempts to try and keep the beast from going on a rampage among civilization. This didn’t always work, because again and again the bullies tried to capture him in his weakest form, and would trigger the transformation into the unstoppable engine of destruction. Then afterwards Banner would calm down and the Hulk would revert to human form, with no memories of what happened. Sort of like a drunken blackout. But that’s another topic for another time.
I went to see The Avengers the day after the Tallahassee Writer’s Conference. I had seen the trailers on Youtube, heard the hype, hoped it would be good, and prepared myself for the disappointment that the movie would not be as good as hoped. And it Rocked most excellently. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, at least not to this comic loving boy who grew up on the lore of the Marvel Universe. There was no way they could make it prefect, and if I wanted to I could have sat there and picked apart every little mistake they made about the Marvel Mythos. And there surely were a lot of them. Instead I went to the movie wanting to see the superheroes I had grown up loving brought to life. And were they ever.
Nick Fury was actually shown as the action hero he was when he was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., not just a desk sitting director. The flying aircraft carrier did not just have a bit part as I feared, but was an integral part of the story. There was the obligatory battle between Ironman and Captain America versus Thor, just to show that testosterone powers the Marvel Universe, and Thor was show to have true super strength in this movie, maybe not quite as much as the Hulk, but in that range. The battle between Thor and the Hulk was a gem, in which the big green guy was the stronger, though Thor got in his licks, and the hammer equalized them. I loved it when the Hulk was shown incapable of lifting the hammer. Only Thor could do that in the comics, and that was shown in a great manner in the movie. Otherwise the Hulk was shown to be pretty much unstoppable once the anger got going. Loki appeared to be much stronger than he was in the Thor movie, but that might have been because now he was dealing with mere mortals. One of the more humorous parts of the film was when Loki reviled the Hulk, calling him beneath the Asgardian God that Thor’s brother was. The result was predictable but still very funny.
Even Hawkeye was shown to be worthy of the mantel of hero, even if not super. The little automatic arrow head attaching quiver system was very cool. Black Widow had her moments, although as a mere human, no matter how good at martial arts, I still felt that she didn’t really belong in the Avengers. The big four of Ironman, Thor, Hulk and Captain America definitely belonged. I really wish they had put Giant/Antman in the movie along with Wasp, but I guess since they didn’t have their own movie Marvel thought they wouldn’t do well in this one. Or the special effects budget was already too high, so they left out the growth and shrinking effects.
One of the complaints I had read about this movie was that it didn’t have enough action. Now granted, it wasn’t all action, and there was some plain old talking conflict. But not enough action? No way. The movie started off, after the introduction of the villains, with Loki invading a secret SHIELD lab that is destroyed. There is a fight with Captain America and Ironman versus Loki, then a fight where Thor takes Loki and Cap and Ironman fight him. Then the battle on the helicarrier, in which Thor fights the Hulk, Ironman and Cap fight some thugs while trying to save the ship, and Black Widow fights Hawkeye. Then the battle between the Avengers and the aliens that had to run forty minutes or more. That was a lot of battle scene, and probably took most of the non-actor salary budget. But then again, some people are never satisfied. All in all I found it to be a very good movie that I decided not to pick apart for its mistakes, but instead appreciated for its triumphs. They set up the sequel, and I for one can’t wait for it. I guess I will have to, as it will be at least a year before it comes out. Maybe they will have a chance to introduce Giant/Antman and the Wasp in that time.
This Friday the movie version of The Avengers is coming out, after a long way and much publicity building up to the day. At times I wondered if I would die of old age before this film actually hit the theaters. And no, this is not a remake of the British TV series, like the Uma Thurman vehicle of a few years back. This is the Avengers of the Marvel Universe, and while I have some problems with the choice of some of the heroes (Black Widow, come on now) for the most part they are staple superstars from the Marvel stable. And with the exception of Hawkeye, they have all starred in their own movies. Unfortunately I have a writer’s conference this weekend, but took Monday off to rest up, so Monday will be movie day.
The Hulk of course is the mightiest of Marvel’s superheroes, though he was always more in the mold of the antihero. When the Hulk became the opponent of any other super being that was basically all she wrote. Thor was almost as strong, plus had the really cool hammer that only he could pick up. Ironman was not really a superhero, but the ever evolving suit gave him all the abilities of a super being, and the movie version is just as good. Captain America was almost the Batman of Marvel. Sure, he was a supersoldier, and better than a normal human being in strength, speed and agility, but not in the class of his compatriots. He wasn’t even as mighty as Spiderman. But that was part of his charm. He fought hard with what he had (and the shield was really cool) and came out the winner. I would have liked to see some of the other Avengers featured such as Wasp and Giant/Antman. But such is not to be. I guess Wasp and Giantman didn’t have their own movie, so didn’t have the initial marketing the others had.
From what I have seen the movie looks like it is going to be really fantastic. They even have the flying aircraft carrier of shield for goodness’ sake. I followed all of these guys growing up, and even though they have changed with time, they are still essentially the heroes I knew and loved. Now I am sure that some of the critics will pan this movie, just as they did Thor and John Carter (see my earlier post, They Don’t Get It). They will rail about all the silly superhero stuff in the movie, and gush over the non fantastic parts. They don’t understand that we, the target audience, go to these movies to see Thor throw his hammer, Ironman use his repulsor rays, or the Hulk to smash. They would prefer to see Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner sitting around discussing their problems, and I don’t think they would really relate to Thor’s problems.
The times are great for the movie magic of superheroes. A friend recently posted a fan made trailer for the Avengers as set in the 1980s. Ironman looked like he was made of plastic and rubber, and was made in one of those vacuum former machines. Dr. Donald Blake (Thor) held up a hammer that looked like one of those rubber body shop instruments and turned into the God of Thunder. Captain America rode a motorcycle and had a Plexiglas shield. The Lou Ferigno Hulk was the best of the bunch, but even though that series was decent, it wasn’t the Hulk we fans wanted to see. Now we can see that Hulk, and a flying Thor and Ironman as well.
Like most lovers of the fantastic I love movies about the fantastic. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic heroes, James Bondesc spy movies, sometimes even big dumb Japanese monster movies. I loved them all despite the bad special effects which included guys in really bad monster suits and claymation dinosaurs. I suspended my disbelief to see the type of story that I loved brought to life. I saw Jurassic Park on the big screen, and fell in love with the new CGI dinosaurs. Never mind that raptors were actually smaller animals than portrayed in the movie. Technology had brought living breathing animals to the screen. And then I saw the first Spider-man movie and I knew that movie making had arrived. Here was my childhood hero on the big screen, and he was not just crawling up sideways walls like Batman did in the 60s. No, he was jumping, leaping, twisting with incredible, one could almost say super, agility. I was in love with the movie makers art. Now not all of these movies were action and suspense. There were some very human scenes as well. The old man discussing his dreams for Jurassic Park with Dr. Grant while they eat ice cream and the children are lost in the dinosaur haunted wilderness. Toby McGuire crying over his dead uncle. While these scenes were important to the movies in question, I would have walked out of the theater disappointed had these scenes been all of the movie. They would not have been what I came to the theater for that day.
This morning I read a critique of the soon to be released movie John Carter on a Site called Flick Filosopher or some such. They state that they watch the bad movies so you don’t have to, which to me seems to sum up their philosophy going in. They seem to feel that a movie like John Carter should be an emotional, tear jerker kind of movie that the critics all seem to love. She actually criticized the movie for having too much action. To me this is the kind of movie that fans of the genre expect to see. That they love. Of course no movie is exactly like the book. Most are not even as good as the book. It is still a treat to see them come to life, to suspend disbelief, to ooh and ah over the great backgrounds and ground breaking special effects.
Last year I remember getting ready for the Thor movie release. This had been a favorite character of mine while growing up. Of course the one in the comic didn’t have a beard, but I was willing to forgive that mistake. Before seeing the movie I read a review. The critic thought the superhuman scenes were over the top and kind of stupid. He thought that the scenes of Thor as a human trying to figure out the Earth were wonderful, and the movie would have been much better if there had been more of that. Sorry, but I didn’t pay my eight bucks to see a story about a young man estranged from his father, falling in love with a girl from a different class, while trying to reconcile with dear old dad. I came to the conclusion then that the critics just don’t get it. They don’t get the love of the fantastic that those who truly enjoy it bring with them to the movies. They watch those same movies without the joy and come to a completely different conclusion. That’s OK. They can have their opinion, just as I have mine. But I don’t pay much attention to their opinions anymore. If it looks good to me I go and see it, and most probably enjoy it.
Critics seem to love to criticize. And almost all of their negative comments are at variance with what I enjoy. I don’t have to pay attention to their blather, and neither do you. If the papers want to get it right maybe they should hire specialist critics just for the fantastic genres. People who grew up enjoying pulp fiction and comic books. People who get it.
