SUPERHERO MOVIES ARE SO BACK!!!

What Makes A Good Superhero Movie?

I don’t really like superhero movies, they’re just not my thing. I can’t always remove myself from reality enough to take the ridiculous seriously, which I’m aware is a flaw of my own and not the film itself. You know what, I’m kind of lying. I sort of like superhero movies. They can be somewhat funny, have cool effects, interesting costume design and they usually have great scores. But, if i’m going to really like a superhero movie, it’s got to have one thing. It’s got to have a sense of humanity.

My most favourite superhero movie would be Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, 1 or 2. My least favourite is The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight and I have a messy past, I really can’t get it into it, but I can pin point what differences they share that act to make me dislike one and love the other.

1. Colour

2. Playing into the absurdity of it all/Could it be camp?

3. A good story/Cohesive/Interesting/Not super boring

4. Humanity/Soul

not too much on my girl MJ.

I kind of hate the way The Dark Knight looks—sorry my bias is showing, I told you, messy past—it looks like I turned my brightness all the way down the night before and now it’s 10am and I can just make out the swoopy numbers at the top of my lock screen. The first two Spiderman movies are wonderfully and almost unnaturally saturated. It’s so 2000’s. It’s so yogurt commercial with skateboarders playing during the ad break in-between the switch from Suite Life to That’s So Raven. It’s a comic book come to life.

I’ve had to watch The Dark Knight like three or so times now, against my will. Once with my dad, once in film school and once in my ethics class. No, I don’t really get why either. The thing I’ve always disliked about it, I mean besides how bland it feels(to me personally, winky face), is how seriously it takes itself. No matter how deep Christian Bale tries to make his voice, I just cannot take a grown man in a bat costume seriously. A movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously is Spiderman, because they knew we wouldn't buy it. Who wants to watch Spiderman be mean and emo? Apparently nobody according to the way people felt about previous attempts. If you’ve seen Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy then you are well aware of how excellently it works with the fun but illogical nature of the source material. The best known moments from those films are kind of camp.

I was thinking more of the scene where he dies by the hoverboard.

If that batman flick is remembered for anything, it’s Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is a more realistic take on the character, but I think his portrayal is remembered so fondly because it was a merge of the unbelievability of the comics with the grit of the real world. He still takes the effort to paint on his clown makeup and dye his hair green. He draws attention to himself by wearing purple clothes and dawdling from a burning building in a nurse uniform. Yet, he proves himself a serious threat by his unruly and fearsome actions. We saw how poorly an all angst, no fun Joker was received with Jared Leto’s attempt. Yes, we must factor in acting chops and writing, but the grounded ridiculousness of The Dark Knight’s Joker is what makes it a good and memorable performance.

The absurdity of each of those stories are set in stone, they have been for decades. You can’t go against the grain of a pre-written narrative if you want to keep living within that narrative. You either work with it in your own way, or ignore it and probably fail. I mean, The Dark Knight is obviously not a failure but it is to me and I’m sure Christopher Nolan would be very affected by this news.

I’m not gonna get too into the compelling story thing because this would end up being like a thirty minute read, but I’ll just say that Spiderman gets the gold for a well written story/feature film and The Dark Knight does not make it to the pedestal. Next.

I’ve been very hard on The Dark Knight. For that reason I will acknowledge that it does have a climatic, humanity vs evil scene. I know that’s why it was taught in my ethics class—that and my teacher probably just liked watching it during work—but why not just watch that scene and not the whole movie? Because Batman doesn’t view himself as a hero, Harvey Dent is the good ethical guy, blah blah blah! I don’t view that Batman as a hero. He’s an asshole. I don’t empathize with a billionaire playboy who likes to play dress up. I know this characterization of him is intentional but I think it was a poor execution of it, as he remains a (boring ) asshole after the climax.

What good does Batman really do? It’s hard to believe Batman as a hero when we don’t really know the people he’s saving. By that I mean, watching that film I felt little to no connection to the people of or with the city of Gotham. It’s a dingy backdrop more than the films ‘world’. Batman is kind of mean. He doesn’t seem to enjoy helping people, more like he enjoys cool cars and punching bad guys. He’s in it for the glory, not the human lives at stake. I don’t think that was intentional but it’s how he always reads to me.

Now when we look at Spiderman, we have a very different perspective. New York City is enough of its own character that it should’ve gotten a credit on IMBD. We care about the people Spiderman saves because they feel like real people, and because he cares about them. His friends, his family, the people he runs into on the street or at school, they all feel like unique characters who breathe off screen, not just when Spidey happens to be beside them on camera. There is soul.

Okay, now we can talk about Superman.

credit to whoever made this

I saw it today and I liked it! Not more than Spiderman but it was good and, I think, very well done. I enjoyed the 70s influence, and the character design, costumes and writing were all pretty good. Something I really loved was how much Superman cared about people. Lois says something about him thinking everyone is beautiful. Superman doesn't discriminate against any form of life because he believes we are all worthy of living.

I think it was important that this film didn’t paint the ongoing issue in Palestine as a ‘nobody is really at fault, it’s more grey than black and white’ thing.

It’s not a grey issue, it’s very clear who is having a genocide committed against them and who is committing it. Most people who speak out are too timid to take a real stance, so they stand on the non-existent line. Governments have been quiet and slow to aid as well as drawing attention to the issue. Here we have a blockbuster with, I can only guess, a huge effing budget, taking a very clear and loud stance that millions of people are going to see when they watch the movie. Some media has felt like it’s slowly been shifting right as the American government hauls itself past the right arrow and into hell, but this, sure to be a big hit, movie didn’t feed into that.

The media and art we make and consume does hold power. It reflects and affects. We should be using art to reflect our current world and affect our way of thinking. Not for propaganda, but for truth and hope. We need humanity in the media we embrace, so our lack of it in real life doesn’t make us forget that it’s still here.

Superman is just a guy. With great hair. He eats, sleeps and bleeds as we do.

saw an edit on Instagram reference this

We unfortunately cannot be superhuman and use our powers to stop evil from wrecking the earth, but this movie isn’t (exactly) trying to say we do need that. We need to remember we are human and stop looking for superior power to help or wreck or change, and recognize what we have in ourselves. We have soul. We have each other. I think that’s a lot more super than laser eyes. A good superhero movie knows this. A good superhero movie is inherently human. It loves the flawed, idiotic and beautiful people we are, because humanity is worth saving.

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okay, will say the joker taxi scene is beautiful and I like the part where batman lifts the truck or car or whatever. that’s cool.

Thank you so much for reading!!! Please let me know what you thought of the movie. Side tangent: when I watched Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood a few years ago, I immediately thought David Corenswet should be the next Superman. He was born to play this role. I am so happy this prophecy was fulfilled. ALSO I am loving how much music seemed to affect the character’s personalities and some of the dialogue or vice versa, but it’s super cool!

Thanks again!!

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Em