How Oddly … Familiar
If Hulk was a bomb, why are people calling The Incredible Hulk a success five years later?
Tagged: Box Office, Hulk, Superheroes, The Incredible Hulk
Superheroes
Why the World Doesn’t Need This Superman
Superman will soon be leaving us, and not a moment too soon. After racking up an impressive opening week with his latest adventure, Superman Returns, he got his ass kicked by some dead men’s chests or somesuch. So let the man go away for a while. Five years at least, maybe forever. We don’t want him around. Lois Lane got it right in her Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial the last time that loser left Earth: The world doesn’t need Superman, or at least this one.
Superman and the Crucified Christ
If we’re comparing Superman and Christ, let’s not ignore what seems a fairly blatant artistic reference in the current campaign for Superman Returns, to Salvador Dali’s Christ of St. John of the Cross and Crucifixion.
Tagged: God, Salvador Dali, Superheroes, Superman
Stretching Superman
Jim Emerson directed me to this fascinating article from The Journal of Religion and Film. The piece is remarkable less for its topic – a comparison of Superman to Jesus Christ – than its approach. In its analysis, the thorough, sometimes smart, and often laughable article uses the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies as its text for the Man of Steel. That’s akin to using the movie The Last Temptation of Christ as the authoritative source on Jesus’ life.
Tagged: God, Superheroes, Superman
(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Grief, Strife, and Vigilantism?
In Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan uses the superhero mythology to create an epic study of ethics, evil, fear, and justice. It’s a bracing, dark, provocative, and serious work that at last transcends the juvenile roots of the comic-book genre. It’s not just the best superhero movie ever made, but likely also the best mainstream film of 2005.
Superhero Ennui
The adjective “competent” is a faint compliment if it’s praise at all, but it’s all the enthusiasm I can muster for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. The movie is about as good as superhero movies get these days, but that’s not saying much.
You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Bored
Much of what’s been written about Hulk is true: It’s boring, lead Eric Bana gives a lifeless performance, the titular CGI creature looks more like a rubber ball than several hundred pounds of flesh and bone, and the script has all the sharpness and bite of flat soda. But there is a more fundamental problem with the project: the source material.
Tagged: Ang Lee, Hulk, Reviews, Superheroes
