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The Gaurdian Article: Saving Hollywood from Superheroes

cloverfan98

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This may have been posted already and this may be the wrong section and if those two things are the case I apologize. I cam across this article today and it really ticked me off. Naturally I am biased against this as a huge superhero fan but so much of this article comes across as being written by a whiny pretentious hipster who has no clue what he's talking about. So ALL superhero films are sexist and anti government? Really? I'm dying to know everyone's thoughts here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jun/11/man-steel-hollywood-break-superheroes
 
I'm trying to hard to hold an unbiased opinion, because I don't think EVERY movie needs to be geared towards comic books or superheros, and I do (kind of) agree that maybe Hollywood should back off from ultra-high budget films at least a little bit. You can still make a fine film without $200+ million, I do think the budgets are getting a little insane.

But it's gonna be tough to even finish that article after reading "At heart, all superheroes are Republicans."
 
The few valid points he has are lost amidst his pretentiousness. There are points of truth, the sexism, anti-government, etc. but mostly he just goes on and on with his obvious disdain for superhero movies.

We've had superhero comics since at least the 1930's but it wasn't until the late 70's we got something halfway decent and even then it wasn't until the late 90's and early 2000's we had the superhero boom of movies being done successfully and continuing to be successful. So, pretty much everything from the 1930's through the late 1970's, parts of the 80's, early-mid 90's was a terrible time to make a movie. Just call this a catch up.

I can only guess he'd say the same of zombies, werewolves, vampires or war movies but somehow, I doubt it.
 
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I'm trying to hard to hold an unbiased opinion, because I don't think EVERY movie needs to be geared towards comic books or superheros, and I do (kind of) agree that maybe Hollywood should back off from ultra-high budget films at least a little bit. You can still make a fine film without $200+ million, I do think the budgets are getting a little insane.

But it's gonna be tough to even finish that article after reading "At heart, all superheroes are Republicans."

Right there are still lots of films coming out every year that are not superhero or comic book related. Apparently this guy is unaware of Star Trek Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, Gravity, etc. Some of the biggest films in the past years have not been superhero based. Avatar, Inception, Prometheus.
 
Right there are still lots of films coming out every year that are not superhero or comic book related. Apparently this guy is unaware of Star Trek Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, Gravity, etc. Some of the biggest films in the past years have not been superhero based. Avatar, Inception, Prometheus.

Exactly. It's like since he doesn't like the genre personally, he asserts (or at LEAST implies) that it is stomping all over "higher" films and art form.
 
The few valid points he has are lost admist his pretentiousness. There are points of truth, the sexism, anti-government, etc. but mostly he just goes on and on with his obvious disdain for superhero movies.

We've had superhero comics since at least the 1930's but it wasn't until the late 70's we got something halfway decent and even then it wasn't until the late 90's and early 2000's we had the superhero boom of movies being done successfully and continuing to be successful. So, pretty much everything from the 1930's through the late 1970's, parts of the 80's, early-mid 90's was a terrible time to make a movie. Just call this a catch up.

I can only guess he'd say the same of zombies, werewolves, vampires or war movies but somehow, I doubt it.

Women don't always get the best roles in superhero films but that's true for many DIFFERENT kinds of films as well. Scifi films, action films, heck I can think of some "romance" or "romantic comedies" that are just as darning in their portals of women as the worst of the superhero films. Plus I don't remember there ever being any anti government speeches or plots in the Spider Man films.

We do need better super heroines but I think we are getting there with Black Widow in the Avengers and Catwoman in TDKR. What we need is a great Wonder Woman film and I don't blame sexism for that not happening I blame DC and Warner Bros.
 
If you don't like the genre, don't watch it. You don't see me *****ing about romantic comedies.
 
Personally, I think that Hollywood needs saving from the tedious, depressing Oscar-bait films that flood the market every Fall, earning very little and thrilling only critics and pretentious art house snobs. But that's just me. :o
 
Personally, I think that Hollywood needs saving from the tedious, depressing Oscar-bait films that flood the market every Fall, earning very little and thrilling only critics and pretentious art house snobs. But that's just me. :o

AGREED 1000000%! Half of those films I will never see. I'm not they shouldn't be made but I hate how those films are "better" because they are Oscar Bait. I hate the Oscars.
 
The few valid points he has are lost admist his pretentiousness. There are points of truth, the sexism, anti-government, etc. but mostly he just goes on and on with his obvious disdain for superhero movies.

We've had superhero comics since at least the 1930's but it wasn't until the late 70's we got something halfway decent and even then it wasn't until the late 90's and early 2000's we had the superhero boom of movies being done successfully and continuing to be successful. So, pretty much everything from the 1930's through the late 1970's, parts of the 80's, early-mid 90's was a terrible time to make a movie. Just call this a catch up.

I can only guess he'd say the same of zombies, werewolves, vampires or war movies but somehow, I doubt it.

Agreed.
I started the article, all prepared to roll my eyes at some pretentious twit (it's the freakin' Guardian, for crying out loud), and....rolled my eyes at some pretentious twit. Mostly. But there *are* some points I agree with, among them the fact that the genre *still* refuses to create any of the strong heroines that appear all over the place in *actual* comic books; and the fact that so many of them keep going back to the bait-n-switch storyline of the "decoy" threat and the "real" threat (which is why I find the hypocrisy of the hue and cry against IM3's Mandarin Twist deliciously ironic, since practically *every* damn superhero movie has done the same, or is doing the same).

But the rest of the article is unfocused pretentious crap, with this idiot contradicting himself time and again --- he complains against the vigilante superhero, then bemoans the fact that Hollywood no longer has Clint Eastwood-style vigilantes. He condemns the superhero for fighting against the government and authoritarianism, then calls them fascists and Republicans (???). He whines that he doesn't know the parameters of each character's powersets, then starts off on a rant about how the heroes receiving their powers are just being fame-hungry Generation Xers.

Unfocused, pretentious horsecrap.
 
I don't see the Oscars as anything special anymore. I gave up hope for them I realized they're only interested in rewarding a narrow field of movies.
 
In summary...

stopd.jpg
 
Superheroes are Republicans. Republicans like Ike Eishenhower, Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

Supervillains are also Republicans, like George Bush Jr., Dick Cheney and Richard Nixon.
 
I hate the snobbery toward films because of their genre.

A movie should be judged on nothing but its individual merits, not based on being, OMG, a "comic book movie" (insert scornful snort and eyeroll).
 
I hate the snobbery toward films because of their genre.

A movie should be judged on nothing but its individual merits, not based on being, OMG, a "comic book movie" (insert scornful snort and eyeroll).

But the thing is their opinions are in the minority. The films are massively popular and it irritates them. The smug sense of superiority is just another sign of a miserable human being.

I'll never get why some people obsess over things they aren't interested in. Avoiding a film or TV show you don't like is the easiest thing in the world. There's no need to insist that it shouldn't exist at all.
 

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