 |
| The Avengers.. Defending NYC from carnage? |
Today I went to the cinema and watched the new superhero film. here are some thoughts:
1. This is a very efficient film, because now I don't have to bother watching The Hulk, Captain America, Iron man, Iron man 2 or any of those Marvel comic blockbusters, because they are all in it! I feel like i have already seen them! However, as I haven't seen them, I was a little confused, my partial deafness didn't help and some parts of the storyline were a little bit confusing..
2. Mark Ruffalo is such a babe! Aww I have loved him ever since he was in 13 Going On 30, and he makes a very likable Hulk.
3. Putting all those superheros into a room together to fight a new evil did bring about the inevitable clash of masculine egos that you would expect. Made me hate all of them a little bit (apart from Mark Ruffalo and Scarlet Johansson, who was also quite good)
4. It is a good thing Captain America got frozen after world war two, or he would have joined the Republican Party. Instead, he is just slightly confused and adorable. And he loves God. #allamericanhero . The patriotic propaganda of Captain America is so obvious it becomes semi ironic. When he said how he "met a man who tried to control people in Germany once before, we didn't get along too well" I actually LOLed because of the cheesy, American fascination with like the only time they "beat a bad guy", and the awfully reductionist view the media takes on such wars.
The USA have generally tended to support such "bad guys" (Milosevic in the 1980s, the Contras in Nicaragua etc) as long as they line up with the US economic interests.. But hey Claire! Stop ruining Captain America with all your "political correctness" and historical "facts"... jeez. But on a level I actually think Captain America is such a camp stereotype that it is too obvious to hate on him. Like Loretta Lynn.. he seems like a nice guy..
5. They break soo much stuff. Watching this film I sort of slipped into a slightly comatose state where I watched enemies attack an invisible spaceship, fights would happen, there was be punching and shooting and it just happened in front of me with no need for a coherent story line. The special effects were very shiny..
And on a more serious note, the WSWS reviewed the Captain America film last year, and have also referred to Marvel comics as Super epic Cold-Warriors. They have a lot more clever things to say about it, but I do think at a time when we have a global economic crisis and bourgeois leaders intent on starting imperialist wars in Syria, Iran, Libya etc, such sparkly blockbusters with a vague story and ability to make people feel comatose are intended to do so. They like to get across these ideas of patriotism and heroism. It has been the practice of the USA over the past 60 years or so to make their citizens feel threatened about the invasion of "others", to justify their warmongering as a defense on American Freedom.
And this movie even went as far to justify the use of Nuclear weapons against the attacking Aliens, who were brainwashing people and attempting to "take peoples freedom", teach them that "freedom is not freedom" and other such right wing doublespeak. Free market sort of freedom? that doesn't feel so free to me. And the fact that the invasion was centered on New York city, and contained lots of evocative images of buildings falling down.. just felt a little bit 9/11. I am just saying. Lets get the Captain Americas organised to fight the attackers? Is that what they want the audience to say?
However on the whole, the film was watchable, if one suspends disbelief (as with a lot of Marvel comics). The last line of the film, the defeated enemy alien attacker says something about how formidable the Humans are, he won't try attacking them again!! It made me cry out (literally) "yaaay, I am a human!!". How nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment