#Chris Kent { v: Hero For hire }

[compressedwaywardsoularchiv-blog]

        “ Bunch of Cadamus Stormtroopers came into our streets, stirred up shit, kidnapped kids and they ended up dead; I ain’t gonna shed a tear. “ Playing coy, he knew those kids would sooner die then ought him for killing their captors. “ Nice to see my tax dollars going to work solving the deaths of Nazi pricks rather than re-opening the community center ruined in the Daxamite invasion. Then again, Cadamus was part of the government. If you want to have a drink order something and tip good, but otherwise, I ain't got nothing else to say.” 

[kyukurator-blog]

SQUARE ONE, WITH A TWIST

 In the beginning, DC Comics were solid and square — squirmingly un-ironic and chiseled of jaw. 

 Over the years, superheroes became more and more angst-ridden; and then turned ironic. 

Positive reviews of superhero movies are rare – and female superheroes, even rarer.  But with a morally upstanding heroine who could be Christopher Reeves’ kissing cousin, DC seems poised to score on both counts. 

    WONDER WOMAN (2017)

 Wonder Woman isn’t the first female character to front a superhero blockbuster.  Three previous projects bombed: Catwoman (Hallie Berry, 2004), Elektra (Jennifer Garner, 2005) and Supergirl (Helen Slater, 1983).

But this time it looks like the stars are aligning – reviews are pretty much all raves (notable exception: our homeboys at The Guardian).

The Wonder Woman character is an Amazonian demigoddess, but her real-life origin story is nearly as mythic.  The DC character was created in the late ‘40’s by psychologist William Moulton Marston who lived in a polyamorous relationship with two powerful women — his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and a former student Olive Byrne.  Byrne, in turn, was the niece of birth control trail blazer Margaret Sanger.  Plus, for what it’s worth, Marston also invented the lie detector.  Check it out in Smithsonian.   http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/origin-story-wonder-woman-180952710/

Since the iconic ‘70’s Linda Carter series there have been several unsuccessful attempts to revive the warrior princess with the lasso of truth.  The current incarnation (Israeli Gal Gadot) was reportedly the high point of last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Too sad, too bad, we missed that one – if you saw it, please weigh in.

The blockbuster was directed by Patty Jenkins, who has been doing TV (and winning Emmies) since she wrote and directed her astonishing first feature – Monster (2003, Charlize Theron as serial killer Aileen Wournos).

Accompanied by Chris Pine, straight arrow Diana Prince intervenes in WWI – a conflagration with clear cut battle lines, trenches, and bad guys.  Germans.  Which pretty much guarantees that POTUS will be joining the crowds this weekend.

    LOGAN (2017)

The culmination of a long descent into arty darkness, this is the remarkable final instalment in Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine series.

Writer/director James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted; 3:10 To Yuma) configures Jackman’s sendoff as dystopian superhero movie masquerading as character-driven western.

Logan is set ten years in the future along a walled-off Mexican border.  Jackman plays an arthritic Wolverine who has gone underground as a limo driver (Logan is his non-mutant name).  Society has less and less tolerance for mutants.  Doctor X (Patrick Stewart) has dementia; and Logan cares for this father figure with a gruff tenderness.  The family tableau is completed by a mutant wild child named Laura (young shooting star Dafne Keen)  who is making her way across the border.

The villain, the righteous cause, and the special effects kick in, as they must – inevitable as they are necessary.  But this is a fascinating and entertaining evolution of the standard superhero saga.

  DEADPOOL (2016)

Deadpool is the highest-grossing R rated film of all time.   We understand the rating for literal reasons – a nonstop stream of violence and foul language.  But to us this exercise in superhero extremity seemed so cartoony that the relentless splatter and profanity read as just par for the  course.

Likewise, we willingly overlooked the reliance on cliché that soured a lot of critics.  When we do consume superhero movies (saw this one on a plane),  we actually come to them for the reliable entertainment that well-executed clichés provide.  What we want from a film like Deadpool is that the beats be hit (check), that there is a certain novelty in the way it hits them (check), and that the movie is meta enough to comfortably wink and nod at itself (check).

 Deadpool is a beloved character in the Marvel pantheon, a joker who is hero and villain rolled into one, a hyperkinetic trickster with a self-justifying moral code who doesn’t stop long enough to take his angst too seriously.

    GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOLUME 1 (2014)

Guardians is a playful hybrid of space opera and superhero.  It takes place today, but in a grimy, pirate-ridden part of a far, far away galaxy.  Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is an earthy but wholesomely appealing sometime thief and gun for hire who would like to be known by the ridiculous sobriquet of Star Lord.  Raised as an earthling, he has a metaphysical past and was stolen in youth after the death of his earth mother who bequeathed him a soundtrack of 80s music.

Through various misadventures he accumulates a motley but powerful band of misfits.   The green assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the bulbously muscled and righteous Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), the virtually indestructible tree humanoid Groot (Vin Diesel), and the incredibly smart and larcenous mutant android raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper).  This uneven group of goons for hire find themselves reluctantly positioned as saviors of the galaxy.

Surprisingly, the Guardians series was the brainchild of a young woman screenwriter.  In 2009 NYU graduate Nicole Perlman was accepted into Marvel’s screenwriting program and offered a list of obscure Marvel franchises.  Guardians was her unlikely choice.  Years and drafts later, the project made it onto the production slate and director James Gunn (sci-fi/comedy/horror film Slither) was brought on in 2012.

The film is remarkably tight for an origin story, and was so much fun that the recently released Volume 2 felt like a flimsy but entertaining anthology of riffs on the colorful characters from the first one.  But who are we to judge – box office on the sequel is outpacing the first and may cross a billion dollars.

  THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

Despite the dreaded sequel syndrome, there are a handful that are universally regarded as even better than their predecessor.  One of them is the 2004 Sam Raimi/Tobey McGuire Spider-Man 2.

Dark Knight is Christopher Nolan’s singular follow-up to his complex, haunted reinvention of the franchise, Batman Begins.  With a deeply disturbed and disturbing first-among-equals performance, Heath Ledger stole the ultimate Joker mantle from Jack Nicholson; Ledger’s pre-release death and posthumous Oscar win added a chilling real-life resonance to a film that would have been one of the definitive superhero films of all time anyway.

With Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Micheal Caine, Gary Oldham, Maggie Gyllenhal, et al.

  SUPERMAN (1978) 

When he won the part of Superman/Clark Kent, Christopher Reeve was a tall, skinny kid just out of Juilliard, with a lot of Shakespeare under his belt.  His most notable role had been a Broadway run playing Katherine Hepburn’s grandson.

Richard Donner was an experienced TV director who had just broken away from the pack with a very successful Exorcist knock-off, The Omen.

Together, they launched the modern superhero movie.  Donner cast Hollywood’s best (Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando) and wanted the movie to be relatively realistic, but with a constant undercurrent of humor.  Reeves saw Superman/Clark as a dual role.  The Man of Steel is a nice, modest Midwestern boy, and Clark is modeled on Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby – but Cary Grant as he might be played by a Midwestern boy.  It’s fascinating to watch Reeve turn the Clark character on and off.

There are lots of special effects, executed well, and with traditional cinematic craft – rear projection, travelling matte shots, blue screen, etc.  In other words, analogue – faker and yet strangely more realistic than CGI.

Like Wonder Woman, this Superman is notably light on angst. Despite losing his parents and his entire planet, Superman has always been remarkably well adjusted.  His biggest internal conflict is not being able to tell Lois (Margot Kidder) that the chump in glasses standing next to her is really the hunky guy she’s in love with.

  SQUARE ONE, WITH A TWIST was originally published on FollowTheThread