RETURNING

some time on, to a land where i do things other than watch movies all day.

however, i remembered how much fun it was writing about superhero movies, and i realised i forgot to discuss, in depth, my theory that Captain America is a projection of how America Views Itself, and how Tony Stark is a libertarian god-figure, against the government! (nb. i don't know a lot about libertarianism because it seems really dumb. before writing the afformentioned post up, i'll get all skilled up with the wikipedia article and shit).

i also hated the most recent Batman film, and need to talk about how sad that made me feel -and i'm about to watch the rebooted Spiderman.

not to mention that motherfucking SUPERMAN comes out this year - i watched The Adventures of Lois and Clark as a kid, occasionally - i was friends with a girl in primary school who has really intense feelings for Dean.. someone? that dude who played Clark, anyhow.  it was creepy in retrospect.

anyhow.
MOAR LATER.

Movie Eleven: X-Men Origins - Wolverine

OR: That's a few hours i'm not getting back.

Well, that's a bit harsh actually. I liked it.  It was a bit stupid, and a bit too much of a Rom-Com-ish thing, which, well, might be straight out of the comics, but i am feeling too lazy to look up right now - but it really wasn't as bad as i'd been prepared for.  Yes, trash. No, not the worst trash I have ever seen. 

Actually, now I'm curious to know if Wolverine's back story is actually that stupid.  

Elapse time.

I forget how intricate wikipedia entries about pop culture can be.  In this instance, I was unable to establish if, in the film, the story of how he chose the name 'Wolverine' is the same as the comics.  I don't know why the romantic sub-plots tend to irritate me so much, at the moment, but they do.  Gender, again.  In particular, again, the Needing Men to lead the female characters out. Diamond Woman needed Wolverine? I very much doubt this.  Again, with the females (even mutated ones) needing the saving from the males, by the males, of both sides. Again, with male power, female disempowerment, and the empathy placed with the man, who is strong for her, and fights for her, but oh, is she strong enough...? Kerpow.

 The aesthetics of using Five Mile Island pleased me - i really like the way nuclear reactors (or is it the cooling towers?) look.  The cement, the shape, the curves, the brutalist architectural elements - are an aesthetic i like. Pity about nuclear power though.  


Gambit: how great is he?

I Might mean by this 'how attractive is this guy, wow, i think he is almost as attractive than the not-existing Skinny Steve from Captain America who, by the way, really, seriously looks like Ian-my-internet-crush' OR i might mean that it's a terrible shame that an interesting complex, and fan-loved character had been pushed out of all of the movies.  I like Wolverine, but seriously, i think most of us would have preferred some character development over Shirtless Men.  He's also wearing a nice coat here.   


I'm tired and not very good at life this week, so sorry about the shit write up - at least it's a shit write-up of a shit movie.  


I'm thinking of watching either: Kick-Ass or the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk. OR something... ELSE.  requests taken.

Ten Already? The Green Lantern

I went to see this in the Dendy Cineplex.  GOSH DARN how i like going to the cineplex.  I ate a mint choc-top, and had a Light beer, because i am being good.

Now, there's nothing left at the cineplex worth watching. WTF cineplex? I hate the fact that the so-called 'arthouse cinema' in canberra is actually just a blockbuster.

Anyhow:

The Movie:

I have major issues with Ryan Reynolds. Nothing personal - I'm sure he's a great guy.   But I have an irrational loathing of him. I think it comes from watching 'Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place' (which from memory turned into 'Two Guys and a Girl' which sounds more like porn than a really limp comedy).  I can't even remember any details of this show, other than that i THINK i watched it only because i had a crush on a guy who also watched it, and it was my way of feeling closer to him. Elizabeth! Being Creepy since 14 years of age.  He also liked Sandra Bullock.  I watched that hideous movie where a man gets hit by a train and she pretends to be his fiancee SO MANY times. oh god.

Anyway.

The movie probably would have been good, if it didn't seem like about 60% of the narrative had been randomly hacked out.  It would move from one scene to another, appearing as though something major had transcribed without providing even an ounce of context for the viewer. 

Also, my dislike of DC, compared to Mavel, grows.  There's a little bit of sacrifice but Hal gets to be super strong, keep all of the things he has in his life, and make magical green things out of his imagination.  Yeah, his father died at a young age: I've realised though that this is a given.  The lack of two parents, with one or both dying in some sort of gory, memorable, life-shifting way, seems to be par for the course.  What is more interesting is when Genuine sacrifice is required - where Genuine suffering is felt, and when the whole film isn't just a vague plastic cover for a Rom-Com. 

I really dislike rom-coms. 

But i think what frustrated me the most was that this actually could have been a good movie, Ryan Reynolds and all, if not for the really terrible editing.   

Spiderman 3 - Shit-tastic

Movie: Spiderman 3

Watched: In Bed

Date: 10 August

Review.

This is the thing i hated most about this movie:

Tobey Maguire's stupid face.  Not that his face is, in and of itself stupid: i find him far more attractive than the beefcake type actors (please don't start me on Ryan Reynolds before The Green Lantern) but he constantly pulls That Face.  Someone's in danger? The Stupid Face.  He's happy? The Stupid Face.  He's sad because his oldest friend is dying? The Stupid Face.   I wished by the end of the film that I had within me say, the superpowers of Storm, so I could electrocute the fuck out of him every time he pulled that Stupid  Goddamn Face.

As well.  Bad Spiderman/Peter is most clearly symbolised with slightly different hair, and black clothing. Good Spiderman/Peter has neater hair, and BLUE AND RED uniform.  This was just me reading too much into it, until the great bit when Spiderman Flies VICTORIOUSLY before the American Flag.    The use as 'ugly' as a marker of evil, or the constant use of 'blackness' as a marker of evil makes me uncomfortable. 

Peter and Mary Jane:  What is With This?  I know, the Hollywood invention of Love is stupid.  But these people have no common ground. Do we even see one conversation which shows any sort of connection between the two of them? I honest to god detest the way relationships are modeled in mass media.  That out there, there is a one true love, which once you have found, you become a new human being.  The idea that the one we love helps us be better people is never the point, nor is the fact that you probably want to connect on some level with this person. Nope.  You will just willingly sacrifice everything for the idea of Love.

This is across all of these movies: sacrifice and LOVE.  The love is occasionally complex and interesting, based on what seems to be relationships shared between people who genuinely have an intimacy, a shared life, growing together and trying to work as two individuals to build a life.  But then, you have The Romantic Lead who's often nothing better than an aesthetically pleasing woman who needs saving, over and over again. 

At least X-Men breaks from that (even if the film shits on the fact that Jane could have blown them all up without another care) but even then, it's a man who saves Jane from herself. Clearly, she's incapable still of her own decisions, abilities, direction and faculties and needs a Big Muscular Aesthetically Pleasing Man to fight for her and make her do the right thing. Heaven forbid a woman make up her own mind!

The storyline was also erratic and irritating, and the characters were extraordinarily thin.

It was probably the first movie I've felt irritated enough during to almost not want to finish it, but I think that's more because I'm sick at the moment. 

Spiderman - 1 & 2

Movies: Spiderman 1 & 2

Watched: 8th and 9th of August

Location: In Bed

Review (of sorts):

Ok. The most notable thing here is the cheesey dialogue.  Really?  Really script writers? Can you not do better than this?

"You've spun your last web, Spider-Man."

"[voiceover] Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: "With great power comes great responsibility." This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-man."

Two, of Far too many examples to name.

Perhaps it was just the substandard acting.

However.  Spiderman is particularly great. The scenes where he swoops around NYC are stunning - the movement, the leaping - it's particularly well done.  The villains were particularly... how do i say... comic-book like.  They were less scary, and more laughable.  The torment of spiderman moves between pathos and then more towards bathos really damn fast - so much sadness, while Peter Parker sits there with a slightly dumb grin the whole time. 

Genderwise? These two movies were a whole new realm of awful.  Mary-Jane had nothing even vaguely resembling autonomy.  What does she do? Get In Trouble! What does Spiderman do? Save Her.

Not to mention the other main stars: Mary-Jane's Wet-shirted Breasts.

Go Mary-Jane. She's an actress. She's a model.  All she can really do is scream often and get endangered and display nipples through wet thin clothing.  Surely she could have been given a bit of spunk- one circumstance in which she had at least an inch of power?  Surely there was more in her life than staring out, out into the audience waiting for Peter to be In Love With Her and go to her play.  You know what, people? Being in LOVE with someone isn't going to solve all your problems, or that there is only one True Love for you, or that being in Love with someone can excuse them being an arsehat to you.  It's not the ultimate aim of human existence worthy of sacrificing all of your dreams and plans. For example,  Peter's decision to choose using his powers over his BIG LOVE for Mary-Jane.   But Mary-Jane has no real character outside of when she realises she love Peter, and then her halfhearted relationship with a guy who, you know, would Do The Job.

Side Note:  i love it how she's his best friend, apparently, yet in neither of the two films is their friendship highlighted. When do they develop this? it seems that he quietly moped about her in high school, then all of a sudden, she is His Best Friend.   I'm guessing this is explained in the comic, but the film did a really bad job of illustrating this. 

Perhaps i'm just bitter and jaded. 

additional BackDrop material

Sleepless night, dear blog readers.  THIS WILL INSPIRE AN OVERSHARE.

My motivation for doing this, is clear by my typographically-error ridden address for the blog.  Every single male I've dated, or wanted hungrily to (ok, with the exception of Jule, but Jule generally doesn't make any sense, bless him - oh and Alex - but Alex actually wins the 'most disliked' boyfriend award because  no matter what nasty gross madness the rest did post break-up, the mean things he did were before that - i bet this is because HE DID NOT LIKE COMIC BOOKS) has been fixated on comics.   God, my email address came from the title of a zero issue comic which I bought while trying to impress my first boyfriend. This blog title came from reading Strangers In Paradise at the recommendation of another.  I am a firm believer of, no matter what the good or bad of the relationship is, or the person, or what happens between you, Take What You Can that has made your life better from the time together.   No matter how good, or bad, or ugly, any of them have been or are, all of them liked comic books.   And i was, in some ways, a shitty partner who didn't take an active interest in this, to try and work out what about superhero comics is exactly so great.  

In the course of a conversation with Ian, a guy i know in Arizona, who is very rad, and whom i have a blaring crush on, (yes, i realise this is stupid because he lives in Arizona. HOW ASTUTE OF YOU, unspoken readers), he states, 'You really don't know much about comics, do you?'  i was defensive at first, glaring down my line of indie comics about Mice with Swords, and a world with only one known man, and kick arse lesbians, and obligatory numbers like Ghost World.  Then i realised i had no idea of the difference between Marvel and DC. in fact, i didn't even know there were two different superhero worlds.  i referred to it as a Pantheon (thus provoking Ian's understandable reaction).  Ignorant. Yes. I. Am.  I like learning things, and i'm pretty bored right now.

This is probably, honestly, the main reason i am actually doing this.

Further to it,  i've been pondering which comic book series to read, in order to get a more... rounded experience.  i can't go overboard - 1. comics are expensive en-mass and more importantly 2.  there is a lot of stuff i need to read in Life, and i am not sure reading every x-men and batman comic out there is just what i need.  So, i essentially picked the one i was told to read, which was Daredevil.  i don't even know if his name is the exceptionally clever pun i think it is yet, or anything other than the  fact he is the man without fear, and the art for it is particularly stunning. i know where to start to read it, and i know which writers and artists to start with.  and as far as characters go, he's also one that i find really engaging.  I'm realising that the overly dramatic morose part of me that loves the Romantics really, really likes Tragic characters. If there's not conflict, and loss, and sacrifice, i don't really care.  Interesting. i am sure this says something about me. 

Dragging. Three Movies. several days. all awesome-times.

Movies: X-Men - The Last Stand, The Dark Knight, Iron Man.

All watched in bed.

The third X-Men movie shat me for all the reasons it's shat everyone else.  Poor narrative, stupid characterisations, constant continuity errors with not even a feeble attempt at ret-con, Magneto flipping between Ultimate Evil and Sympathetic Complex Character, Jane Gray being fairly wimpy, which is idiotic given her near unlimited power.  I liked the bits with explosions, but even those bits became irritating due to the inconsistent and irritating narrative.

The Dark Knight is one of the few movies i'd already seen.  Being frail inspired me to watch it again.  It was as rad as it was the first time. Batman.  He's way more cool than me.  The Joker. He's fucking scary. Harvey Dent.  Shit happens, and when it happens, you get a Bit Nasty. Poor Harvey!  Good and evil are complex things, and morality is struggled with, debated, and constructed and deconstructed within the narrative.  The Batmobile turned into a Batmotorcycle!  Exceptional! Gotham is generally rad! &so forth.

Iron Man was brilliant.  It was, like The Dark Knight, an interesting film, rather than just being escapist superhero stupid-movie.  The morality was fairly simple, but the exciting twist of the Surprisingly Evil was great.  Also, exceptional explosions, breaking through multiple levels of cement, smashing of cars, fireballing things.  Fight scene with robots? Don't Fucking Mind If I Do.

Now, I'm going to recede into the Batcave in my heart, and download the Spiderman movies.