I'm caught in a weird spot where I generally enjoy the MCU movies as popcorn fun that fill a niche while at the same time wishing it hadn't had this galactic impact on the industry where now EVERYTHING is all about franchise potential and tie-ins.
For me, the most memorable superhero movies (or movies set in superhero universes) in recent years have been the darker ones that explore the human psyche. The Dark Knight, Logan, and Joker, to name a few.
don't have any opinions on marvel movies, but the comments section being turned on feels like an interesting new development given that you've blogged for a long time without one.
I just tried to watch Wandavision. I have a baby and the parts with her and Vision and the kids were really something- maybe not intentionally they captured a kind of postpartum derangement, the alienation and also just insane love you feel; and it was also good as a story about grief. I had to skip all the dorky bits about, idk, agents? She made a forcefield? There's a secret bad guy? I hated the ending. It was terrible. The only good Marvel thing is the first season of Legion.
I hadn’t really thought about it in terms of quips, but I’ve long been tired of the fact that we’re a fundamentally unserious culture. Someone said we’re living in the age of stupid. I suppose the homogenization of pop culture and what passes for intellectual culture is represented to some extent by the prevalence of one liners and other shallow humor. Everything is a referent to everything else and we’re all in on the joke, which is supposed to make us feel sophisticated. But if we’re all sophisticated, then we aren’t really. I think this gets conflated to some extent by conservatives who complain about the infestation of politics into culture, but it’s not so much about politics as it is about being in the in group. I don’t think this necessarily goes with what you were saying, but it’s what your post made me think about.
As an aside, you’re one of my three or four favorite writers right now. I’d never heard of you before you started a substack, but I’ve read everything you’ve written so far on here. Thanks.
It seems uncharitable to denigrate something many people enjoy a great deal because you don't enjoy it. But it seems unfair to blame the creators. They are, after all, only giving the people what they want. Shouldn't you really be criticizing the people who choose to watch these movies?
A Disney movie will get edgy and original at the same time they create a theme park ride you have a chance of falling out of. (Cue an article from you about how every large organization devolves into a culture of risk reduction, and cluelessly tries to cheat on the risk-return curve)
Hmmm .. my introduction to the MCU was Guardians of the Galaxy. Nothing but end-to-end jokes, so I figured hey I guess that’s how they roll. Earliest exposure to Stan Lee was Howard the Duck comics in high school (God I’m old). Same thing.
So if these characters *weren’t* doing cheesy humor, I’d give them two Ibuprofen and a day off work.
I'm not sure the humor is a problem. I think there's humor in even the worst tragedies (and I don't just mean the MCU movies :)).
I get what you mean about "really good movies can only be made with the freedom to fail" – and I think it's true of all art.
(And some of the best 'art' is precisely the 'failures'.)
I'm fine with the humor. I generally like the movies. I actually like "Thor Ragnarok" a lot; maybe the most.
And I'm fine with the 'big franchise effect' on Hollywood. I think of the MCU as more of a hybrid between (traditional) 'films' and modern TV shows (e.g. The Wire). And from that perspective, it's totally fine that they're "assembly line movies". The work is the franchise itself. Obviously the individual movies _can_ or _could_ (and thus do) stand on their own. It's perfectly fine to criticize them individually.
But I think it misses the point in a significant way.
It's a book of (beautiful) photos of blast furnaces.
It would be easy to criticize individual photos as being technically (very) well produced but otherwise uninteresting (or 'un-serious').
But I'd be very surprised if you couldn't appreciate the _collection_ itself as a masterful work of art. (Like all great art, it's _fascinating_ to enjoy. My reaction was 'wow!' when I first viewed it.)
In today's day The Rock has franchise potential
https://www.slashfilm.com/the-rock-sequel/
I'm caught in a weird spot where I generally enjoy the MCU movies as popcorn fun that fill a niche while at the same time wishing it hadn't had this galactic impact on the industry where now EVERYTHING is all about franchise potential and tie-ins.
For me, the most memorable superhero movies (or movies set in superhero universes) in recent years have been the darker ones that explore the human psyche. The Dark Knight, Logan, and Joker, to name a few.
don't have any opinions on marvel movies, but the comments section being turned on feels like an interesting new development given that you've blogged for a long time without one.
I just tried to watch Wandavision. I have a baby and the parts with her and Vision and the kids were really something- maybe not intentionally they captured a kind of postpartum derangement, the alienation and also just insane love you feel; and it was also good as a story about grief. I had to skip all the dorky bits about, idk, agents? She made a forcefield? There's a secret bad guy? I hated the ending. It was terrible. The only good Marvel thing is the first season of Legion.
I hadn’t really thought about it in terms of quips, but I’ve long been tired of the fact that we’re a fundamentally unserious culture. Someone said we’re living in the age of stupid. I suppose the homogenization of pop culture and what passes for intellectual culture is represented to some extent by the prevalence of one liners and other shallow humor. Everything is a referent to everything else and we’re all in on the joke, which is supposed to make us feel sophisticated. But if we’re all sophisticated, then we aren’t really. I think this gets conflated to some extent by conservatives who complain about the infestation of politics into culture, but it’s not so much about politics as it is about being in the in group. I don’t think this necessarily goes with what you were saying, but it’s what your post made me think about.
As an aside, you’re one of my three or four favorite writers right now. I’d never heard of you before you started a substack, but I’ve read everything you’ve written so far on here. Thanks.
It seems uncharitable to denigrate something many people enjoy a great deal because you don't enjoy it. But it seems unfair to blame the creators. They are, after all, only giving the people what they want. Shouldn't you really be criticizing the people who choose to watch these movies?
A Disney movie will get edgy and original at the same time they create a theme park ride you have a chance of falling out of. (Cue an article from you about how every large organization devolves into a culture of risk reduction, and cluelessly tries to cheat on the risk-return curve)
Hmmm .. my introduction to the MCU was Guardians of the Galaxy. Nothing but end-to-end jokes, so I figured hey I guess that’s how they roll. Earliest exposure to Stan Lee was Howard the Duck comics in high school (God I’m old). Same thing.
So if these characters *weren’t* doing cheesy humor, I’d give them two Ibuprofen and a day off work.
Thanks for turning on comments! (It's frustrating wanting to reply and not having an obvious means to do so!)
I like the post – not a fan of the title. (It's a little too 'nitro' for my taste.)
I'm not sure the humor is a problem. I think there's humor in even the worst tragedies (and I don't just mean the MCU movies :)).
I get what you mean about "really good movies can only be made with the freedom to fail" – and I think it's true of all art.
(And some of the best 'art' is precisely the 'failures'.)
I'm fine with the humor. I generally like the movies. I actually like "Thor Ragnarok" a lot; maybe the most.
And I'm fine with the 'big franchise effect' on Hollywood. I think of the MCU as more of a hybrid between (traditional) 'films' and modern TV shows (e.g. The Wire). And from that perspective, it's totally fine that they're "assembly line movies". The work is the franchise itself. Obviously the individual movies _can_ or _could_ (and thus do) stand on their own. It's perfectly fine to criticize them individually.
But I think it misses the point in a significant way.
This is one of my favorite works of art: https://smile.amazon.com/Blast-Furnaces-Bernd-Becher/dp/0262023113/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=blast+furnaces+book&qid=1617635675&sr=8-1
It's a book of (beautiful) photos of blast furnaces.
It would be easy to criticize individual photos as being technically (very) well produced but otherwise uninteresting (or 'un-serious').
But I'd be very surprised if you couldn't appreciate the _collection_ itself as a masterful work of art. (Like all great art, it's _fascinating_ to enjoy. My reaction was 'wow!' when I first viewed it.)