Continuing with this week’s theme of comics and commentary I want to discuss two recent superhero films, one based on a comic and one that is a wholly original creation. I want to discuss them within the recent trend of amping up superhero films by going for graphic and over the top violence and then mixing it with comedy. While I’m not against either comedy or violence or violence in comedy or comedy in violence, I’m not sure what the directors of these films were getting at.
First out of the box was last years Kick Ass. Based on the comic by Mark Millar the film tells the story of a teenager who trains himself as best he can, gets himself a costume and then goes off to fight crime. Along the way he makes the acquaintance of a little girl and her father (who dresses similarly to Batman) who go about very deliberately killing any bad guys they meet.
The comic is a base, in your face romp that highlights the real dangers of being a superhero. You either go with it and it’s tone or you don’t.(Many people I know find it unfunny and offensive)
The film is a similar sort of thing, except that the film bounces around with it’s tone from comedy to drama, to satire, to pointed comedy and back again with the result that I never knew whether the filmmakers were getting at. Were they serious? Were they sending things up? It’s hard to know since one minute the film seems to be making fun of everything and the next people are dying and blood is spraying every which way in a decidedly unfunny way as if the filmmakers are showing us what this would be like in the real world. How can I decide if I like the film or not; or if the film has merits or not since the filmmakers don’t seem to know themselves?
To my way of looking at things the filmmakers want to have it both ways so that they can protect themselves, they can say they are making a point so the film isn’t obscene; while at the same time they can chide those who are horrified by claiming it’s all a goof. To my way of thinking you have to go all in one way or another.
The real trouble with the film, and the one that makes the bouncing tone completely unworkable, is that the film is actually two stories. It’s Kick Ass and his battle with his arch enemy, which is more or less a funny goof until the end. At the same time the film is also the little girl and her dad. This is the bit that gets most people crazy because the film has a little girl talking dirty and killing people. I don’t have a problem with it. Actually this is the part of the film that I like the most since it’s a spot on send up and commentary on all things superhero. As separate pieces the films are fine, but the trouble is that when they blend them together the film falls apart. Are we suppose to be laughing at the film in a Japanese gore film (Mutant Girls Squad, Tokyo Gore Police) sort of away or are we suppose to take this as serious commentary on violence such as Straw Dogs?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Ultimately he film never over comes to terms with its split nature and so is neither fish nor fowl with the result is that the film seems like it’s the work of a bunch of clever school kids who use the violence to get attention rather than to make a point.
As a complete film I can't recommend it, but as pieces I can.
Another film that doesn’t seem to know how to handle violence is James Gunn’s recent film Super.
Rainn Wilson stars as a guy who’s life goes into the toilet when his wife runs off with a drug dealer. He manages to turn things around when he picks up a wrench and dubs himself the Crimson Bolt after watching one too many religious superhero shows. He is aided by Ellen Paige as a young girl who deduces his identity and insists that she become his side kick Boltie.
A more solid film in many ways than Kick Ass in that it has one twisted tone through out, this is also a film that doesn’t really know what to do about the shocking violence it shows us. Actually it does know what to do, it plays it for laughs, but at the same time there is only so many times that you can chuckle at someone being beaten to a bloody pulp by a man with a wrench before you have to question what sort of psychosis the filmmakers and their intended audience have.
For me the uncomfortable laughs of Wilson’s crappy life gave way to the catch in your throat chuckles of the Crimson Bolt in action. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t laugh but at the same time I laughed less and less as the film went on before I simply stopped. There is only so many times you can see some of this nastiness before it stops being funny. It was a matter of diminishing returns that completely stopped paying out when Ellen Paige has her head blown in half by a shotgun blast. Sure it’s what would happen in real life (as is most of the violence) but the death of the character and blind insistence at staying the comedy course wrecked the film and it only got worse with some later silly nastiness with the bad guy.
At that point I had to question what the point of the film was.
I know you could argue that the film is a comedy and unreal, and that all is fair in the name of a laugh, but at the same time why keep the violence real? The filmmakers must be looking for something beyond just yucking it up with the audience, it’s just not clear what it is.
I think on some level I’m kind of questioning the morality of the films.
Are the films amoral?
I don’t think so. I don’t see what they are doing wrong other than not having a point of view. I think the lack of a point of view, either as a goof or as a commentary makes the use of violence merely a way of attracting attention to films that wouldn’t get noticed without it.
I’m not going to preach to anyone. I like mindlessly violent films in the right frame of mind. I love to unwind with mindless action. I also love to be troubled by realistic violence in a good well thought out film. However I find the growing use of violence in comic films troubling because most of the films don’t have a point. The filmmakers are simply using the graphic realistic nastiness as a look at me gambit. Whats troubling is that in the case of Kick ass and Super there is enough intelligence behind the scenes and in the scripts that the films could have made a real statement about something, anything, instead of bouncing all over the place. By seeming to have a point and pulling away from it they ultimately are worse off than if they had just gone balls to the wall and just splashed everyone with mindless gore.
You can't have it both ways. You have to choose.
In the end I choose not to watch.
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If I’m talking home made superheroes I should also mention the film Superheroes which premièred on HBO in August. The film follows several real life costumed characters such as San Diego’s Mr Xtreme, The New York Initiative, Life, and others from across the US and Canada as they go about trying to find crime and help those needing help.
The reality of these real life heroes and their cinematic counterparts are light years apart. Seeming to focus more on helping and making a difference rather than crime fighting (though they do that on heir nightly patrols) these costumed people are actually making a difference in some small way. They are actually just a costumed version of the Guardian Angels that Curtis Sliwa started several decades ago.
Watching the heroes in action I came to several inescapable conclusions. First the whole idea of a costumed hero in real life is truly ridiculous. No matter how cool the costumes look, they look really silly on the street. Indeed several of the costumes look like they’d end up getting the wearer killed with the limited visibility of their masks and lack of protetion.
Next pretty much everyone covered in the film is in serious danger of getting themselves killed. I don’t care how much they practice martial arts and what they have on their utility belts I don’t think one of them would stand a chance with many of the people who pass through the courts where I work in my day job.
I think the whole patrol thing is incredibly dull. Watching the various people out looking for trouble I was bored silly. I applaud them for sticking with it, because it looks really dull.
Lastly I think short of a real life Batman showing up I think these people should stick with helping the needy rather than actually fighting crime because that’s where they excel.
The painful reality is that real life is much duller than either comics or movies.
As for Superheroes the film, it’s a mixed bag. Its not bad but I wouldn’t watch it a second time, unless there was a reason to (say something happening to one of the heroes.) the problem with the film is it’s a great many characters saying the same thing, doing the same thing and, I hate to say this, looking rather sad.
Worth seeing once, but only if you happen upon it on HBO.
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