Chapter 164: The ultimate superhero movie

Tuesday is cheap movie day here in Canada. So, to round off our shopping trip to Nanaimo, Lori treated me to a visit at the movie theater. We saw “The Avengers”, 3D.

It’s an impressive movie, mostly maybe because it’s got most of the superhero stars of the recent years starring in the same film. It reeks of money. But it’s also kind of amazing, how they’ve built up to this one. All the superhero movies, independent, but also prequels to this one in a way. And I’ve seen them all.

The first Iron-Man movie, I saw at the theater with Natalia. We both have a thing for Robert Downey Jr. The second I saw by myself at home, because Natalia was in Bolivia when it ran in the theaters. The Hulk movie I also saw at home. I like Edward Norton, I think he did a good Hulk. I guess they had a good (financial) reason for changing the actor.

The Captain America movie I saw at the theater with my baby brother Aron. He’s at that age now, when he starts to enjoy the slightly lighter adult movies. I think that’s cool. If I’d been home, I probably would have gone to see it with him (or Natalia, or both), and I’m pretty sure he would have claimed it was the best film that he’s ever seen. He does that, sometimes, especially if the special effects are cool. And that they certainly are in “The Avengers”.

The Thor movie I saw on the flight over from Frankfurt to Calgary. I liked Natalie Portman’s character. I think she should have figured in this movie too. But I guess it isn’t as easy as that. They just can’t afford to have too many superstars and super special effects in one movie. But maybe in the next one?

Generally, there were far too few women in the film. I was disappointed. I had expected better of director Joss Whedon, the genious creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a TV show from the wonderfully feminist nineties. But I guess he had to work with the Marvel characters, and couldn’t really create any new ones himself.

But really, for being a superhero movie, it was good. There are so many of them made now. A new Batman is coming, too, and a Spider-Man without Maguire. I remember when we had a couple of weeks of film history in Finnish class in nineth grade. I guess my Finnish teacher was a real cineast. Well, one thing I learnt during those weeks was that there were a lot of scary movies being made in the nineteen-thirties. There was a depression, and the film industry caught on to peoples need to get a break from their tough life situations. With the scary movies, they got to get scared in a very controlled manner, by monsters that weren’t real. It created a world on the screen where recognizing your friends and your foes was easy. And not like in the real world, where everything was wrong but finding someone to blame all of it on was impossible. The film history textbook said that in troubled times, like durng the Great Depression, movies like that thrive. People need the un-real.

And I’m thinking that maybe it’s the same now, only with all the special effects we can make now, the movie genre of choice is superhero action instead of scary. Those movies have heros and villains and the stories they tell are so far from our own that we can’t really relate. Instead, we get a break. There, most things are simple. While out in the real world, things just seem more and more chaotic, entire countries are on the brink of bankrupcy, the rainforests are disappearing, the food is genetically modified and the jobs are constantly being outsourced to some other faraway place. People feel lost, and in the superhero movies they can buy two hours of 3D clarity.

Or then it’s just cause its cool. Because if “The Avengers” is anything, it’s cool. Especially Robert Downey Jr. He will always be my favourite. No question about it.