Tag Archives: Marvel movies

April 11, 2021

Superheroes Bore Me

I’ve mentioned quite often in posts, and in comments to posts, is that I’m quite bored by superhero movies. Somehow though I’ve never been moved to post about exactly why in detail. A few recent conversations about it made me realize it might make a good Sunday Sermons post.

The thing is that it does go beyond being just bored. There is a cultural aspect to it that’s gotten under my skin more and more. It has to do with the massive violence and destruction inherent in these movies and with a fundamental aspect of these comic book superhero stories.

They center on fighting, and I’ve never been a fan of it.

20 Comments | tags: D.C. movies, fantasy, Marvel movies, movie violence, soma, Star Wars, superheroes, TV violence, violence | posted in Movies, Sunday Sermons

December 4, 2019

Thor and Avengers

By Wyrd Smythe

Well I have at long last finally seen Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) and Thor (2011) — two of the early films in the long-running Infinity Saga (the series has 23 films out so far; more are coming). The short version is I thought The Avengers had some good bits, but overall I found them both fairly underwhelming (but I’m so not the audience for these).

Unfortunately, I was also a little underwhelmed this week by Stargate: Universe, which I tried binge watching because John Scalzi (whose book Redshirts I really liked) was the creative consultant on the show. I quit after three episodes. It wasn’t that it was bad so much as it (as with these comic book movies) just seems like the same old stuff I’ve seen many, many times.

Ah well, you can’t win them all.

13 Comments | tags: Marvel comics, Marvel movies, science fiction, science fiction movies, SF, SF Movies | posted in Movies

February 17, 2016

Lights, Camera, Action!

By Wyrd Smythe

Avengers Ultron You know that great action movie where the bad guys suddenly storm in and take over the place where all the people are, and the bad guys’ evil (but well-planned) operation goes off without a hitch… except they didn’t count on that on that one guy, that unexpected hero who saves the day against terrible odds?

Or how about that awesome disaster movie where that really bad thing happened to that place where all the people are, and only a handful of plucky (or purely lucky) people survive against terrible odds?

Remember those? I sure do. And that may be a problem.

6 Comments | tags: Age of Ultron, Die Hard, James Spader, Joss Whedon, Lethal Weapon, Marvel movies, Mavel comics, Roger Ebert, The Avengers, The Poseidon Adventure, The Terminator, The Towering Inferno, Under Siege | posted in Movies

May 9, 2015

Movies: I Am Groot!

By Wyrd Smythe

Movies, for a variety of reasons, are hard to make. They’re even harder to get right. Science fiction and fantasy are also hard to get right — in addition to all the other challenges of storytelling, they require much more imagination and invention than fiction based on reality or history. This, in large part, accounts for the truth of Sturgeon’s Law.

So it’s not often that a science fiction movie gets all the notes exactly right. Many are lucky if they have just a few good ones that make the film worth seeing. A very rare few get enough right to make an SF film notable. (For my money, Elysium and Oblivion are recent good examples, and Ender’s Game and Edge of Tomorrow weren’t bad.)

And once in a blue moon a film gets it so right that the horse sings.

20 Comments | tags: Chris Pratt, Drax, Galaxy Quest, Gamora, Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy, I am Groot, James Gunn, LA Story, Marvel comics, Marvel movies, Peter Quill, Rocket Racoon, science fiction, science fiction film, Star Lord, The Fifth Element | posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Saturday