seriousfic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seriousfic) wrote2011-07-07 08:02 pm
seriousfic) wrote2011-07-07 08:02 pm
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In Soviet Russia, superhero save you!
A random thought: There's always been some controversy over the new darkness in the DC universe, stretching back to the Identity Crisis reveal that superhero history was secretly full of rape and mind-wipe. I think what grates is that this kind of darkness can only be justified by being necessary to tell a story, and DC has been saying they're telling one large story incorporating their entire comic line. The thing is that now it's obvious that their only meta story is "throw shit against wall, see what sticks." It's kind of like that World of Warcraft episode of South Park. They're grinding and grinding and grinding to get to the point where they can play the game. DC has been doing reboot after reboot after reboot to get to the point where they can call off the event storytelling and just tell some stories, but it never happens.
Speaking of superheroes, it's no real secret that the defining characteristic of the genre is power fantasies. A lot of the classic superheroes are iconic precisely because of the fantasies they embody--the Flash is "I wish I were so fast I could get everywhere on time and get everything done," the Hulk is "I wish when people pissed me off, I could just go off on them and beat them to a pulp," Wonder Woman is... okay, she's a hot woman in an American-flag bikini with a feminist worldview who gets tied up a lot. I think we need to unpack that some more.
Cancel my appointments.
Of course, later on a lot of superheroes were created to deconstruct or reconstruct the initial superhero power fantasy premises, and these days it seems like the power fantasy is "at least I'm a superhero, always getting raped and mind-wiping people." Then there's the huge fight over who the power fantasy is for--the creators, the fans, or a new audience that wants to be included in the comic book world as more than eye candy and tragically-dead sidekicks. Let's move on before I offend someone!
Anyway, the purpose of this rambling is to get to Black Lightning, a Russian superhero movie created from scratch by the director of the cult classic Day Watch and Night Watch movies. The fantasy there is almost depressingly petty--wouldn't it be great if you had a car that never got into traffic jams? A lot of superheroes deal in flight, but I think Black Lightning may be the first one to narrow that down specifically to not getting stuck in traffic (sure, a flying car is neat, but it's still pretty much a plane).
Aside from that one twist on the genre, Black Lightning is sort of the Spider-Man to Darkman's The Shadow. There's the hot chick the hero pines after (named Nastya, because in the absence of red hair, you have to put the actual word 'nasty' in a woman's name to make sure the audience gets they'd be awesome in bed), the douchey rich best friend, the Ayn Randy businessman villain, and of course the doomed mentor (here given an upgrade from father figure to biological father). I don't mind the excessive homage... Timur B. comes up with some good twists on the material, even if it is somehow even more ham-fisted than my bb Raimi (now get that phrase out of your heads), and since he's not adapting anything, he can make the material as contemporary as he likes without losing anything in translation (much as I love the first Spider-Man... an honest-to-god shoot wrestling match? C'mon). The hero's responsibility for the death of Uncle Ben is, if anything, made a bit more brutal.
It's movies like these that make me a little ambivalent to Americanized remakes like the upcoming Akira, concerns of it just being a plain shitty movie aside. "Akira with white actors? That's as ridiculous as a Japanese Spider-Man!"
Somehow, Japanese Spider-Man gets a better costume than Andrew Garfield and a giant robot. Damnit, Japan, you lost World War 2, remember?
There's also a weird subtext of the hero's heroic Volga, which his pops compliments as being the kind driven by Lenin (uh... I guess that's pretty good, in the field of Soviet leaders whose names end in 'in'), and later the villain (naturally) making an evil, more heavily-armed flying car out of a Mercedes-Benz. I don't know, it seems a little like a British hero using the wonders of imperialism to fight the troubles of modern-day England, but maybe I'm missing something.
If anything, Black Lightning seems to have escaped right out of the Silver Age. There's some tacklessly on-the-nose scenes, some insane contrivances, and a plot so comic booky it's a wonder that Wolverine doesn't show. All that's missing is a cameo by Stan Lee.
Speaking of superheroes, it's no real secret that the defining characteristic of the genre is power fantasies. A lot of the classic superheroes are iconic precisely because of the fantasies they embody--the Flash is "I wish I were so fast I could get everywhere on time and get everything done," the Hulk is "I wish when people pissed me off, I could just go off on them and beat them to a pulp," Wonder Woman is... okay, she's a hot woman in an American-flag bikini with a feminist worldview who gets tied up a lot. I think we need to unpack that some more.
Cancel my appointments.
Of course, later on a lot of superheroes were created to deconstruct or reconstruct the initial superhero power fantasy premises, and these days it seems like the power fantasy is "at least I'm a superhero, always getting raped and mind-wiping people." Then there's the huge fight over who the power fantasy is for--the creators, the fans, or a new audience that wants to be included in the comic book world as more than eye candy and tragically-dead sidekicks. Let's move on before I offend someone!
Anyway, the purpose of this rambling is to get to Black Lightning, a Russian superhero movie created from scratch by the director of the cult classic Day Watch and Night Watch movies. The fantasy there is almost depressingly petty--wouldn't it be great if you had a car that never got into traffic jams? A lot of superheroes deal in flight, but I think Black Lightning may be the first one to narrow that down specifically to not getting stuck in traffic (sure, a flying car is neat, but it's still pretty much a plane).
Aside from that one twist on the genre, Black Lightning is sort of the Spider-Man to Darkman's The Shadow. There's the hot chick the hero pines after (named Nastya, because in the absence of red hair, you have to put the actual word 'nasty' in a woman's name to make sure the audience gets they'd be awesome in bed), the douchey rich best friend, the Ayn Randy businessman villain, and of course the doomed mentor (here given an upgrade from father figure to biological father). I don't mind the excessive homage... Timur B. comes up with some good twists on the material, even if it is somehow even more ham-fisted than my bb Raimi (now get that phrase out of your heads), and since he's not adapting anything, he can make the material as contemporary as he likes without losing anything in translation (much as I love the first Spider-Man... an honest-to-god shoot wrestling match? C'mon). The hero's responsibility for the death of Uncle Ben is, if anything, made a bit more brutal.
It's movies like these that make me a little ambivalent to Americanized remakes like the upcoming Akira, concerns of it just being a plain shitty movie aside. "Akira with white actors? That's as ridiculous as a Japanese Spider-Man!"
Somehow, Japanese Spider-Man gets a better costume than Andrew Garfield and a giant robot. Damnit, Japan, you lost World War 2, remember?
There's also a weird subtext of the hero's heroic Volga, which his pops compliments as being the kind driven by Lenin (uh... I guess that's pretty good, in the field of Soviet leaders whose names end in 'in'), and later the villain (naturally) making an evil, more heavily-armed flying car out of a Mercedes-Benz. I don't know, it seems a little like a British hero using the wonders of imperialism to fight the troubles of modern-day England, but maybe I'm missing something.
If anything, Black Lightning seems to have escaped right out of the Silver Age. There's some tacklessly on-the-nose scenes, some insane contrivances, and a plot so comic booky it's a wonder that Wolverine doesn't show. All that's missing is a cameo by Stan Lee.
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