When I was a kid, I had a Captain America action figure. I
don’t remember ever reading a Captain America comic book but I liked that
action figure so much, my next birthday party was Captain America themed. I
liked him because… I liked him. That was all there was to it. I just knew he
was awesome, maybe even instinctively. You didn’t have to sell Little Steve on
the idea.
Leaving the theater after seeing Thor last summer, I felt as though I had been handed one
of those cheap plastic toys you get in a Happy Meal with “Collect All Four”
printed on the package. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the movie
(and I’ll admit Marvel Studios is currently making some impressively flashy toys)
but it left a bad taste in my mouth. The movie didn’t seem to care whether or
not I enjoyed it, only that I had bought a ticket.
Well, not just one ticket. Six tickets (and counting!) if
you’re keeping score. Each Marvel Avengers movie is entwined in a massive and
knotty marketing campaign as staggering in relative size and ambition as the
Large Hadron Collider. They have all been part of an ambitious setup building
to The Avengers, which is really just a
setup for The Avengers 2 anyways.
And so we wait with bated breath for the next movie, which will then tell us
what exciting movie is in store for us next. And so on.
Now, I’m being cynical and probably not giving these movies
their full due. I’ve enjoyed most of them (Robert Downey Jr. has successfully
carried two Iron Man movies, and Captain America had a giddy charm to it). Marvel’s
mega-marketing scheme would hardly have paid off if the films weren’t
entertaining. Still, there’s a nagging corporate agenda at work here that, at
least for me, leaked into The Avengers and kept me from enjoying it. The movie never tried to win me over; I
had already bought a ticket so why would it?
Part 2: Your Friendly Neighborhood Blockbuster
A number of people I have spoken to had similar feelings
about The Amazing Spider-Man and several critics wrote perfectly reasonable reviews that mirror my own reaction to The
Avengers. The latest Spidey adventure is a
clear studio cash-grab; in order to keep the rights to the character, Sony had
to make another movie. It is a faithful reworking of Sam Raimi’s 2002 film with
just enough superficial differences to distinguish it from its predecessor – a
new villain, a new cutie for Peter Parker to kiss – but it breaks no new
ground.
What can I say? I fell for it anyways. Give me two likable
romantic leads and throw them in a zippy energetic action movie and I’m happy.
But is this the best we can hope to get from superhero
movies in 2012 and beyond? New versions of the same old and a fresh, young cast
to replace the actors who have outgrown their roles? I don’t have the answer
and as long as superhero movies are as fun as The Amazing Spider-Man, I’ll be too busy having a good time to even ask.
Part 3: The Dark Plight of the Superserious
There is, however, at least one filmmaker who believes
superhero movies can give audiences more than disposable entertainment.
Christopher Nolan has done an admirable job taking superheroes to a whole new
level. In his hands, Batman, who had been languishing throughout the 90s in
increasingly goofy (and decreasingly watchable) movies, gained some much-needed
emotional heft and narrative sophistication.
Batman was always a childhood favorite of mine – Saturday
mornings, I was reliably glued to the TV watching reruns of Batman: The
Animated Series – and Christopher Nolan’s
movies take the character every bit as seriously as I did when I was a kid.
2005’s Batman Begins and 2008’s The
Dark Knight (still the high-water mark of
the genre) are dark, brooding stories but they’re also great popcorn movies.
Little Steve would have loved them.
With The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan has taken his series to its inevitable conclusion.
Most everyone I know has been satisfied by its ending. It is a breathtaking
movie and certainly one of the best-looking summer blockbusters in years. As
Gotham City descends into anarchy in the dead of winter, its snow-covered
streets are as gorgeous as they are ominous.
But Christopher Nolan gets so caught up in his bleak tragedy
of a dying city that he neglects Batman. There is a half-baked love triangle
and a full circle moment about falling to learn to get back up
again, but these inclusions feel peripheral to the main story. The movie loads
one grim development on top of another until it risks collapsing under its own
weight. It may well be a satisfying finale to a gloomy series but somewhere in
the middle of it, Little Steve walked off and started playing with a different
toy.
- Steve Avigliano, 7/25/12
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