In Which I Rant About Romance...

[scifi_tv_addict]

So I freely admit that I'm a romance junky - period pieces, rom-coms, superhero movies, the works. I say this before I make the following comments, just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from as a viewer.

WHEN YOU WRITE A ROMANCE, YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY WRITE. THE. ROMANCE. I don't care what genre you're in - fantasy, action, comedy, drama,

Comments

[bkwurm1]

I get what you are saying and even as I watched MoS and acknowledged the brevity of Lois and Clark's interaction I found them believable as a couple. It had nothing to do with the seventy years of history behind them since on Smallville I had huge issues with TPTBs choice to pretty much only tell viewers Lois and Clark were meant to be but skip the showing. MoS skimped on the personal relationships in general but I think they did give us a reason to believe why both Lois and Clark would have fallen for the other. Lois finds an amazing man who not only saves her life but is a huge discovery. She tracks his life and only discovers more and more about this super man who saves people and takes no credit for what he does. Then she finally meets the man and learns why he doesn't want to come forward with his secret and even understands the emotional weight and real cost he's had to bear and I think she only admires him more and I'd say the movie established that she had learned to admire him long before she tracked him down, I'd go so far as to say she was seriously enamoured with him. Now she has to walk away for his own good. That right there is a potent mixture of emotions.

In Clark's case it's a little harder to explain or maybe just subtler, but I think the movie showed his loneliness and isolation very well. He grew up pretty much without friends. He leaves home and still avoids letting anyone know the real man. Now in Lois he has someone, a pretty someone , who knows his secrets and has not only accepted him but chooses to protect him from the world. He told his mother Lois was a friend and in a rather sweet and sad way, it seemed like she was his only real friend. I mean until he saved Pete's life he was picking on him and he still ratted him out to his mother and as an adult to a strange reporter. There was a certain naïveté about this Clark that made me think for him it was an instant love connection and that if Lois had been a devious person, he probably would have gotten used very badly by her.

As a fan of romance I would have enjoyed this connection played more explicitly on screen but I do think it came across to the point that next time they meet (call it their second date) i had no trouble believing he'd ask to see her one last time or that she'd be torn up about him being handed over to strange aliens. Throw in some bonding over evil aliens, meeting his dad, almost dying a few times only to be saved by him again and again, I had no trouble believing she was head over heels for the man.

But beyond that I agree with you on the sad state of romance on the silver screen. It's almost like they don't even try. I sometimes wonder if they see tv where a romance can be built over years and just don't think they can come close.

[kathpup]

This is how I read MoS. I do wish they'd have shown more though, or, *gasp* not have them get together on screen at all. Don't people do UST anymore?

...I would pay good money to read a devious!Lois fic.

[scifi_tv_addict]

I feel like they don't...not even on some shows now.

Sometimes I feel like studios/filmmakers are courting female viewers when they tack on or force these sorts of romances. They can't be bothered to actually write strong/interesting female narratives...so they throw this at us and think that makes everything squared.

[scifi_tv_addict]

Oh, I can believe them as a couple...but that's based more on reason than feeling. Logically, they make sense in the context of the movie. Unfortunately, I find that logic can only carry me so far if there's no heart behind it.

Understanding why they'd be attracted to each other doesn't justify the 'epic love' angle the filmmakers seemed to be going for. Yes, maybe there was something there...but they didn't EARN what they tried to make me swallow. You can't give two characters a couple of scenes (no matter how engaging) and then play it off as some sort of sprawling intergalactic love story. Allies, with a spark of attraction? Sure, but that's not what they were trying to sell. Not in my opinion, at least.

[bkwurm1]

Oh I agree on the epic love angle but I wasn't thinking along those lines. I did buy into an epic moment like the kiss but that can be earned pretty quickly under the right intensity and almost dying a few times (Lois) and saving the world (Clark) was pretty intense. It IMO justifiably amped up their attraction and so the kiss was earned. The scene where Lois comforts Clark after he has snapped Zods neck was actually harder IMO to justify based on their relationship to that point. It almost feels too intimate but again I fallback on the idea that the intense day jacked up all their feelings so even if they actually didn't get have an epic romance they were at least feeling really big stuff. Only time and further development will give weight to the relationship in the long run but I guess that's what I'm expecting in the next installment.

They will be shown working together and I guess I'm expecting the next movie to come in shortly after they left off so that we will get shown why they should work as a couple.

I guess the simplest way of saying it is I didn't think TPTB were trying to sell me an epic relationship, but just an intense start.

Of course that said I am in total agreement with you about the serious lack of romance in pretty much all movies these days. I rewatched Supes I and II since my first post and was amazed how much time was devoted to romancing the characters and in turn the audience. It's not like movies now a days are getting so much shorter but there never seems to be time for it anymore. I don't really know what movie makers are afraid of but something has them running scared.

[campylobacter]

I haven't yet seen any summer blockbusters beyond Iron Man 3, but my theory is that most screenplays are trying to fulfill an explosion quota, and that the total screentime of female characters to male characters is probably 1 minute of a woman onscreen for every 8 minutes of males only.

Hence the lack of relationship-building scenes.

[bkwurm1]

Everything I've been reading lately about the studios says they are trying to make movies that appeal to the widest audiences. I guess that means tacking on a weak romance to snare a few female eyeballs and in turn cutting down the romance even when the plot really calls for a more fleshed out relationship to keep the guys around.

That method of movie making reminds me of marble cake. Bakers think when they mix a white cake with a chocolate cake they are pleasing everyone but in the end the chocolate and vanilla part is tasteless and nobody wins. I'm guessing its clear I don't like marble cake. People,grow a backbone and just pick one or the other. And yes, I did recently have to go to a baby shower.