"Joyless" is exactly right. How did the historical swings between campy and grim in the comics end up so firmly and irrevocably in the "grim" camp? It's sheer bloody-mindedness, to try and make an icon of gritty realism from a man who dresses up as a bat. Honestly.
With you on the Superman fear. I rather liked Bryan Singer's film, in sharp contradistinction to most other viewers - it managed to be slightly serious without losing all sense of idealism or fun. The Nolan/Zach Snyder producer/director combo does not fill me with hope, althoug I suppose there's always a chance they'll cancel out each other's more egregious and diametrically opposing flaws.
not this tortured, gritty, brooding thing, this tone of relentless angst.I feel this way about all my entertainment: films, books, television, etc. I find the kind of...wallowing...this film expresses just boring and tiresome. It's so self-indulgently self-absorbed I want to grab it by the lapels and shake it. I don't expect sunshine, lollipops and rainbows--I also don't expect a single note of "Life sucketh
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Oh, lord, yes, I share the grab-it-and-shake-it impulse - bloody teenage self-indulgent brooding. I think Marvel are doing so much better a job than DC because they've hit a good balance between the essentially mythic and consolatory aspect of superheroes, and at least some kind of nod to contemporary realism and actual risk.
Superman was my first ever superhero crush, and I still have a huge fondness for him, but his depiction is always a problem. So much of his construction is so idealised and so basically overpowered, trying to temper that for realism and relatability runs a very real risk of over-compensation into untoward angst. (And, apparently, outbreaks of alliteration). But I agree, taken as a whole Superman is anything but simple. In the same way that Captain America isn't, actually. I share your concerns.
A trend I do not likefirst_fallenMarch 18 2013, 18:06:15 UTC
There is a trend that's been happening in sci-fi/comic movies in the last 10 years or so, a move towards more realistic and grim. You can see it in the new Batmans, the new Star Trek, and the Avengers (somewhat less there).
I wonder if the filmmakers have realised that the world is shitty, there's a recession on and climate change means we'll all be dead in 50 years, and they'd better just get that across to us now. Movies are about blatant escapism and they seem to have forgotten that.
I have not read your review above. I haven't seen the movie in question nor do I plan to. The Burton Batmans will always be the "real" ones for me - just the right mix of redonk camp and brooding emo. As with ST: the new one is fine as an action movie set in space, but it has none of the humour, camp and idealistic "we're all going to be ok, the world ends up a much better place in a couple of centuries" vibe that the originals had.
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I'm hoping Nolan's treatment of our favourite son of Krypton is a little less dour, as I'm a bigger fan of Superman (and Henry Cavill). :-)
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With you on the Superman fear. I rather liked Bryan Singer's film, in sharp contradistinction to most other viewers - it managed to be slightly serious without losing all sense of idealism or fun. The Nolan/Zach Snyder producer/director combo does not fill me with hope, althoug I suppose there's always a chance they'll cancel out each other's more egregious and diametrically opposing flaws.
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Superman was my first ever superhero crush, and I still have a huge fondness for him, but his depiction is always a problem. So much of his construction is so idealised and so basically overpowered, trying to temper that for realism and relatability runs a very real risk of over-compensation into untoward angst. (And, apparently, outbreaks of alliteration). But I agree, taken as a whole Superman is anything but simple. In the same way that Captain America isn't, actually. I share your concerns.
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I wonder if the filmmakers have realised that the world is shitty, there's a recession on and climate change means we'll all be dead in 50 years, and they'd better just get that across to us now. Movies are about blatant escapism and they seem to have forgotten that.
I have not read your review above. I haven't seen the movie in question nor do I plan to. The Burton Batmans will always be the "real" ones for me - just the right mix of redonk camp and brooding emo. As with ST: the new one is fine as an action movie set in space, but it has none of the humour, camp and idealistic "we're all going to be ok, the world ends up a much better place in a couple of centuries" vibe that the originals had.
Sigh. Woe. Get off my lawn.
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