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| Pauline Kael awaits buried in a mountain and will come back to us in our time of greatest need. We'll forgive her what she said about Shoah |
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The thing is I'm a geek too. I know my Star Wars and my Marvel heroes. I can debate Alan Moore or 2000AD or Sandman with the best of them. I've watched the 2 hour review of Phantom Menace on Redlettermedia and I think the best sitcom of the last decade was Spaced. A non geek can read Blood Meridian and think of John Ford, a geek will obsess over the scene where the Judge makes gunpowder just like Kirk does in the classic Trek ep. Arena; so I'll match my nerd credentials against anyone, but crucially I don't think nerdom is all there is. I'm excited by a movie like Fish Tank or a play like Jerusalem or a book like The Art of Fielding. You know, grown up stuff.
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I predict that when the final Christian Bale Batman film comes out the critics will lie supine before Christopher Nolan's "genius", but you shouldn't listen to them and get taken in by another awful, boring low IQ comic book movie. The reviewers are either too emotionally retarded and cinematically illiterate to know what a good film consists of or too cowardly to tell the truth about what they're seeing. After believeing the reviews of The Avengers and walking out of that shitefest on toast all I can do is to urge you not to listen to the slavish, boot licking reviews for the flick. The Avengers is not a film for adults. It's a film for teenage boys and those unaccustomed to wit or the deep end of the swimming pool. Joss Whedon is not a good director, and you know what, while we're at it, Christopher Nolan is not a good director either.
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Will the adults ever revolt and demand grown up fare in the multiplexes as well as in the arthouses? I doubt it. It's socially acceptable to be a 45 year old 13 year old. Look at the trajectory of Quentin Tarantino's career. After he made Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown everyone thought he was going to make grown up films from then on, but since then he has gone back to making flicks for 13 year olds and of course they have been hugely profitable.
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A few critics still look back to the early 70's and say hey how come we don't make movies like that anymore, but they are lone voices crying in the wilderness and no doubt soon they too will be coopted by the 13 year old boy bodysnatchers.
74 comments:
Just noticed that the critics of the Globe and Mail and Salon.com are also willing to say that the film is awful. Good for them.
My boy Jack absolutely loved it. Oh wait - he's a 10-year-old boy.
David
I remember going to see Flash Gordon when I was about that age and thinking that it was a great film. Oh the mortification.
Try to find a Dark Knight fan who thinks The Godfather is a better film. Not impossibl,e but close to it.
Unfortunately, it's as Alan Moore said a while back - all these popular folks working in comics or movies are simply cranking out inferior xeroxes of work they saw in their childhood. Nolan puts some epic shots of Chicago up on the screen which the fans go crazy for, but he has completely missed what made Batman interesting - the Travis Bickle-like obsession with fighting crime. John Carter took lumps at the box office and with the critics, but at least it was a fairly well-preserved vision of a classic science-fiction story, not some middle of the road product carefully engineered to please the masses.
When it comes to cinema or breakdancing, I'm afraid that the best work is being done overseas now.
I did find this trailer interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9nD2lkkHD5s
I've been an adult all my life so I maybe I shouldn't comment here.but I remember liking Dark Knight and thinking Batman Begins was the most risible pile of shite I'd ever tried to force myself to watch a half-hour of.
I suppose your post is more about the video-game look of the movies, but I remember when returned to comics a few years ago by way of Allan Moore, I tired quickly of all the modern revisiting of superheroes. Yeah, yeah. I know they have a dark side, but that got played out pretty damn fast. These endless full-bleed-color and dark palettes began to seem more like the noir of moody perfume ads than the noir of David Goodis or Jim Thompson.
Someone ought to to a revised version of a superhero whose gimmick is that he's psychologically healthy and has no hangups or dark secrets.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com.
Good post, Adrian. One thing to remember is that Avengers-type films are designed for an international audience, and that means the plot, humor and dialogue has to be kept simple so that nothing is lost in translation. Also, Hollywood has always turned out empty-headed, badly-scripted spectaculars. The toga epics like Cleopatra or Quo Vadis, viewed today, are hideous, worse even than Captain America or Cowboys & Aliens. One spectacle film from the 60s I watched recently was Grand Prix. The racing sequences were superb, you couldn't do them better today, but the storylines wrapped around the races were beyond lame; it's hard to imagine a contemporary screenwriter penning dialogue that wooden. I think the reason for the favourable critical reaction to Avengers is that superhero films, which have become a very specific sub-genre, have their own, rather loose, critical standards. Some of the critics who praise Avengers probably go into critical fits if a Scorsese or Almodovar puts a filmmaking foot wrong. Let me put it this way: a high school gymnast can score a 9.9, but it's sure not the same thing as a 9.9 in the Olympics. My review of Grand Prix talks some more on this subject:
http://www.jettisoncocoon.com/2011/08/film-review-grand-prix-1966.html
Matt
Its probable that a lot of Dark Knight fans havent even read Frank Miller's superior comic book version of the hero which had real subversion in there: Superman is the bad guy working for a crypto fascist government.
Peter
And it isnt just that. Its the fact that the solution to every single problem can only ever come through violence. No ever uses their brain or tries to come up with solution that doesnt involve hero and villain fist fighting in front of a green screen.
Cary
I remember Grand Prix. It used to be on all the time when I was unemployed in the UK. A Steve McQueen vanity project basically right? The difference between Grand Prix and The Avengers is in the nature of the criticism. I'll bet the critics of Grand Prix were merciless...
Also at least with Grand Prix the actors are in some personal jeopardy aren't they? I mean they are actually in the cars, it isnt all CGI bullshit.
Steve McQueen wasn't in Grand Prix, his racing flick was Le Mans, which was virtually dialogue-free. You're right about the actors in jeopardy; they did virtually all their own driving. John Frankenheimer directed Grand Prix and you can tell he devoted all his attention to the racing bits.
But it's moody, pensive, thoughtful violence.
I remember that back when Gladiator was being overpraised, I found the CGI (or CGI’s predecessor) scenes of the Colosseum creepy and off-putting.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com.
Cary
Just read your review. Yup, you're right two totally diff films. I think I've seen both of them and I think I liked Grand Prix a little better than Le Mans, which if I recall was pretty boring.
Peter
Its the whole uncanny valley thing with CGI isn't it? It doesnt look or feel right no matter how well they do it. Especially movement. They just get it wrong and its unsettling.
I had not heard of 不気味の谷現象 before, but it makes sense to me. It seems so obvious, though, that I'm surprised that anyone needed to make a theory of it. The interesting question about the phenomenon is its history. When did it develop? Was such a respinse inconceivable before the age of robotics, or did humans at some earlier stagein history recoil from what they regarded at the time as exvessively real depictions?
Peter
I heard of it first when people began discussing why The Polar Express looked so disturbing. (Same thing with Tin Tin, so no lessons learned there apparently). You'll notice that the really smart people in animation, i.e. Pixar, have never gone into the uncanny valley whereas Spielberg and Peter Jackson have fallen in a couple of times.
And yes its mostly about robotics or computer generated humans but I think CGI creates a more general unease that is unpleasant for film goers. I think we do notice it some part of our brains and we dont like it.
Ah'm a-gonna rahd my simulated horse into Uncanny Valley.
Isn't it interesting that "Uncanny Valley" sounds like a Western, but "Valley of the Uncanny" sounds like a Gothic horror tale?
Peter
I think a movement is going to spring up a bit like CAMRA, the campaign for real ale, which will be a campaign for real movies. NO CGI, no special effects, no 3D, no 48fps. Just you know, stories and characters and close ups, what make films good for 80 years.
I hadn't heard of CAMRA, but I like the idea of all these movements. CAMRA seems to have gathered a bit more steam than the slow-food movement. I'm not sure what effect such a movement in movies would have, though, beyond an occasional feature that critics could praise as a channel for all theirbguilt about watching all those CGI movies, which they will then go back to watching.
Yikes, here I was, thinking this was some kind of remake of the old Emma Peel John Steed series. And wondering why anyone in their right mind would gear this toward thirteen year old boys.
Peter
CAMRA were great. And they actually won just as their American equivalents are winning across the Atlantic.
Seana
They already made that remake and horrible it was too.
Hey, I'm just back from my local, where I had two Clown Shoes Clementine Witbiers. I never really drank beer until small American brewers started selling zesty beers with zany names.
A. O. Scott of the New York Times says something similar in his review, too.
Having said that, I'll probably go see it, because I don't mind the occasional movie aimed at 13-year-olds.
The review in the National Post said that these movies will be better when they stop fighting crime and start pulling hiests - just imagine The Avengers Job.
I don't know, though, my wife is at the all-day Marvel marathon right now that will end at midnight with the Avengers. She's with a bunch of people being silly and taking the day off from work. Work is depressing. My wife is on the front lines watching as the aristocracy reaffirms its control over the rest of us and you do get tired of losing every battle (here's a tip - electricity is going to get a lot more expensive).
I think we were all sold a bill of goods with the whole "art" thing - sure art may be important but it's too weak to defeat the commerce superhero.
Adrian, it's common practice at the age of the internet to praise or crucify something based on no opinions. George R. R. Martin's last had like 500 reviews before anybody read it, saying "OMG, I CAN'T WAIT, I CAN'T WAIT".
Many movies start strong on RottenTomatoes and fade back to a more realistic grade as time goes by. Patience, in a year from now, the movie will have it's rightful score.
In unrelated news, HBO announced today they have passed on the series adaptation of Franzen's The Corrections and are going instead with a new cop show called True Detective starring Matthew McConaughey.
I heard that, John. I also heard that the reason was it was turning out to be difficult to translate it to the screen.
I think some of us could have seen that coming.
Couldn't agree with you more. Loved the sample of IHSITS, by the way.
Sure, it would be difficult - that should be a reason to do it, not to not do it (wow, that's some writing!).
Seems to be the discussion here. Sure, we've given over the movie theatres to kids but when The Walking Dead is the biggest show on cable it looks like we're giving that to the kids, too.
Have you seen Marley? It's really, really good.
I'm dropping this message here instead of sending you an email.
I know that you love big messy novels (as do I). Heard about one yesterday that might interest you called A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava. I downloaded it yesterday but have only read 10% so don't have much of an opinion. But I think it's possibly a book that you will want to check out.
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo13106363.html
OK, back on track. Have you found that how you watch movies has changed since you had kids. Mine are 10 & 11 and particularly with the boy I find that he enjoys movies that I don't. So I find myself being more forgiving of a movie as I try to look at it through his eyes (and also remembering my own 10 yr. old self).
I think The Corrections is too much about the writing. I felt the same way about the White Teeth PBS version, which felt flat to me after the book.
But then, I'm kind of in a phase where I don't like books into film anyway, even and maybe especially when they do a good job.
You may disagree with the reviewers who loved the film, but at least they, you know, actually reviewed it. You devote one sentence of this piece to giving any analysis of the film ('clunky, unfunny and oh so dull') and then use this flimsy springboard to lord your imaginary cultural capital over the poor plebs scribbling away for the Guardian and Empire. Your assumption that their only motivation in giving the film a positive review could be to maintain their street cred with 13 year olds is ridiculous. How many 13 year olds read the Guardian? You're entitled to dislike the film (which I haven't even seen yet) but you should at least ground that dislike in some analysis and context to support your point rather than tritely dismissing those who disagree with you as culturally illiterate. Your own culutral knowledge hardly shines through in this bile filled rant.
Patrick, I think you missed the class on irony and humorous exaggeration. You're probably right that few 13-year-olds read the Guardian. But if you've spent your career working on newspapers, as I have, you will be familiar with the phenomenon of aging editors and cultural critics straining to prove their hipness. I suspect that's the point Adrian was trying to make.
Also, while I live outside the UK and don't read the Guardian much, I'm not sure too many plebs scribble for it.
This article is okay:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7883348/making-sense-marvel-mega-bet-avengers
Gav
I'll have to check out Tony Scott, I liked him when he was on the old Ebert show.
John
I like the idea of a heist movie better than an alien invasion movie. It might be marginally more clever.
I agree that its a serious defeat when HBO are hiring Matthew McConaughay to be in anything.
Ben
You're probably right. And maybe 20 years from now we'll look back on this whole genre and go what the hell were we thinking?
Sean
Glad you liked Sirens. Feel free to spread the word, mate.
Sirens
I dont think it would be difficult at all. Its just a matter of having the will. And HBO clearly dont have the will. Not enough gun violence in it for them I guess.
Kikaren
It got a sterling review from Tony Lane in the New Yorker so I think I'll see it on DVD.
Brian
I do love big messy books. And I'm a sucker for big messy books published by university presses so I will definitely check that out.
Patrick
It wouldnt be fair for me to review the entire movie because I walked out of it. And really how many synonyms for dull do you need?
Peter
Most newspaper film reviews that I've read basically spend 90% of the text detailing the plot and maybe 10% on actual analysis. I wish it was the other way around.
John
Thanks for that. I think the only superhero movie that really tried a little bit harder was Watchmen which at least asked the question - why are we wearing these silly costumes.
I don't know who Sirens is, but in context I think it might be me. I was just complaining to someone here that the new computer system has my name with two 'n's, so that every sales rep etc will now think my namem is spelled Seanna, but on the whole, I like it a bit better than Sirens.
I'd have to see it done, but I'm going to stick with my opinion about The Corrections. It might be okay, but it wouldn't be great.
Patrick, most of are only here for the bile-filled rants, so get used to it.
Seana
Apologies for that. Pre coffee.
I dont see why The Corrections couldnt have worked. Its certainly not as complex or difficult as Game of Thrones. But then again there is no virulent fanboy base demanding The Corrections.
Adrian, I think the yearning for hipness at newspapers is most apparent in rock-music reviews.
Peter
Agreed. Its pretty embarrassing to read some of those reviews. The ones by Sasha Frere Jones in The New Yorker make my skin crawl.
I'm thinking more of cliche-ridden by-rote newspaper reviews written by aging burnouts whom the paper is afraid to get rid of because it needs rock and roll concert reviews in order to stay relevant.
Peter
I imagine the worst crime in the world for a reviewer is to appear "out of touch" or "old fashioned". It must be terrifying for them, hence the cowardice when reviewing a Christopher Nolan Batman film etc.
Actually, I thought it was funny. Maybe I'll see if I can get people to call me that at work and see how it goes. One of my current coworkers is called Bucket, so anything is possible.
Although the effect I would be going for is, tie yourself to a mast and move on, folks, which might not always be understood.
Game of Thrones has a lot more action though, doesn't it?
My friends are telling me that the latest HBO series Girls is good, but I'm not sure its for the general demographic here. Pretty sure there are no guns though.
I know this is an oversimplification, but the only two films of any kind I can think of that truly lived up to the books are To Kill a Mockingbird and A Member of the Wedding. i"m sure there are others, but those are the two that leap to mind.
Just drove past out art deco restoration theatre Avengers is showing at midnight. Two grown nerds in masks waiting outside on the sidewalk at 11:10 for tickets. Related theme : After reading falling glass I stumbled across Knuckle on netflix. I am sure you're aware of it or have seen it. A 12 year documentary of the feud between the Joyce clan and the Quinn- McDonaghs. I thought a great peek into what strikes me as a fascinating culture within and without the Irish culture. Thanks for hipping me to Killian and the lads. amazing how things connect this way. Peace.
Peace is right.
I just posted my analysis of THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD on my blog:
http://trackofthecat.blogspot.com/
Depending on when you go there, you might have to go down the page a bit.
And Re: 13-year-old minds.
In the United States, the media has been deliberately dumbing down the populace for decades now. I'd say the median mental age now approximates that period of egoist youth most susceptible to the teachings of Ayn Rand. Hopefully the nation will not stagnate there for long.
Seana
I think Last of the Mohicans, The Shining and Silence of the Lambs are better than the books.
BigSean
Yeah the Tinker boxing phenomenon has always been a big part of the culture. Boxing and thieving are the cultural cliches. Not that they arent true. I was taught how to steal bicycles by a Tinker friend of mine.
Rich
Very nice review and much appreciated. I think you picked out my paragraph in the whole book - that one about the Belfast rain. And yup I'm always down for a James Bond analogy.
Adrian,
I know that in this context you're a blogger rather than someone whose job it is to review films, but I still think (comedic exaggeration or not) that providing a one line review before bemoaning the reviews of others is incredibly trite. Likewise, setting it in the context of the 'dubmbing down' of culture at the end of the piece feels like a glib attempt to attach wider significance to what is essentially a rant. There's certainly an argument to be made about decline in mainstream art/entertainment/culture, but I don't feel it's being made very well here. By not flagging up the proviso that must accompany all such arguments - namely, that ideas of cultural standards and decline are purely subjective concepts - this discussion amounts to little more than preaching to the choir (something which Seana seems to admit). Beyond gripes about too much guns and superheroes, there doesn't seem to be much of an attempt by anyone to mention any alternatives or reasons as to this apparent decline. I know it must seem very curmudgeonly of me to take issue with the opinion's expressed in a relatively informal cyber chat, but it's an issue I feel strongly about. As someone who despairs of certain anti-intellectual discourses in mainstream culture, this sort of smug pseudo-intellectualism annoys me because it seems so cliched and counter-productive.
Peter,
I understand that it must be frustrating for you to work in an environment that has its priorities so messed up, but I still feel it's a rather facile assumption for Adrian to make. Had he quoted any of the reviewers' points and provided any kind of counter argument, I wouldn't have taken issue with his piece so strongly. Also, my 'plebs' comment was itself an ironic exaggeration of Adrian's contempt for the writers (or at least, it was supposed to be). Much like the comedic exaggeration I failed to notice in his original piece. The Internet and irony can be a difficult mixture it seems, or maybe that's just me.
I was thinking more about movies that are utterly faithful to the book and render it effectively to the screen, rather than those that improve on them, of which there are a lot more. It's an easier thing to do.
It might be just you, Patrick.
To be honest, I think Samuel L. Jackson's retort to the NYT critic who was less than completely gushing over The Avengers was more succinct and much more entertaining.
But I'm a little too distressed over the thought of Mariano Rivera writhing in agony on the warning track to get into this right now.
Matt, your comment was the first I had heard of the Jackson-Scott controversy. I've just read the review and Jackson's response, and all I can wonder is if Jackson is as petty a moron as he seems.
There was an interesting piece on Jackson recently in the NY Times magazine, last weekend I think, and it does lead the reader to think there is something unusual about Jackson's personality which you might need a DSM-IV to put a finger on. But The Avengers will make well over $100 mil this weekend no matter how many bloggers or film critics criticize it.
Patrick
I'm not sure what your point is. You liked The Avengers and think that its a quality product? Good for you. I didn't and I lament the fact that a cartoon movie with explosions and bad dialogue and no heart or emotional depth is so overpraised by our culture. We've been in a crisis for the last five years and when you look at the last major economic and social crisis 1973 - 1979 the movies that were produced then were grown up, and serious and deep. The Avengers is not art its a cynical attempt to remove punters from their hard earned money. In the forty five minutes I was in the cinema I found nothing redeeming about it at all. Well, except the fact that it was in focus. Maybe instead of trying to make a meta point and using meaningless phrases like "pseudo intellectual" perhaps you could tell me what you liked about the film.
Matt
Exactly. The Avengers will make loads and loads of money. Case closed as far as the executives and actors are concerned. Apple also makes loads and loads of money and Nike and Budweiser.
Mariano Rivera's career ending injury is the bigger disaster this weekend I feel.
Matt, folks like us are just haters.
Here's the Tony Scott review of Avengers in the NYT:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/movies/robert-downey-jr-in-the-avengers-directed-by-joss-whedon.html
what he said.
I discovered that the twenty-somethings that I work with, who are all pretty sharp cookies, were quite excited to be going to The Avengers tonight. They wanted to go to the midnight opening, but for various reasons, they were going to have to be satisfied with the first night.
I have to say that these were not thirteen year old boys, but for the most part, highly literate young women.
Go figure.
Evans, Ruffalo, Downey Jr., Renner, and Hemsworth...
Well, they know where their bread is buttered, give them that anyway. Ruffalo and Downey, who are the only ones I know at all do interesting side projects with the big bucks they get for this kind of stuff. Plus, I'm sure it's flattering to be asked.
Okay, I finally saw the movie. My sons, 12 and 13, did like it. They are the demographic. I thought the movie could have done more with the whole, "free you from freedom," stuff but other than that I couldn't tell it from any other big budget movie. Of course, I didn't grow up reading very much of anything so none of these make me nostalgic or disappoint me.
Adrain,
I feel we'll have to agree to disagree as it seems we're arguing around in circles. However, as I think you seem to have misunderstood me I'll re-iterate my point one my time. As I mentioned above, I haven't seen the Avengers. This is not a case of me getting annoyed because I think it's unreasonable that you have different opinions than I do. What annoyed me in your initial piece was the combination of the vehemance of your derision for those who enjoyed the film, and the glibness of your own points regarding the film itself and the state of mainstream cinema in general. The argument about contemporary culture being in decline is certainly there to be made. It is not an argument I would entirely disagree with. When I used the term 'pseudo-intellectual' I was referring to how you brought up this argument without going into any depth on it. Anyone can use terms like 'serious' or 'deep' when discussing film, but when these terms aren't expanded on, they are, in my view, pseudo-intellectual. Tritely touching on a potentially intellectual argument but without really engaging in that argument. I'm sure I've judged you too harshly, and no doubt you are a person who could engage in such arguments when you want to, but the fact that you didn't on this occasion annoyed me, because you assumed such a position of superiority over those who had given the film a positive review.
I'm pretty sure Adrian has moved on from this. But if you stick around for a while, or read his past posts, you will probably see this is a recurring theme of his writing.
On another note, The Avengers made more in its first weekend than Scorsese's first ten films all together, or thirty times what Goodfellas made its opening weekend.
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