here comes daredevil!
Categories: life
2 Comments »
Ah, my weekend. I went up to San Francisco with a few friends to watch the Chinese New Year’s parade, which confused the heck out of me since Chinese New Year was a good two weeks ago. Nonetheless, the parade was pretty much the same as the previous year, except that since it was raining this year, everyone was in panchos. Watching a dragon dance around in an clear garbage bag is as exciting as playing through Axl Low’s storyline.
Afterwards, we caught Daredevil at the Metreon. Of course, we got the digital theater, featuring digitial projectors (no film!) and full THX sound support. Needless to say, the experience rocked. The image quality is just incredible, but it was wasted on a movie that was black a good 40% of the time. I did not enjoy all the long periods of nothing. It just brought back painful memories of The Blair Witch Project.
Daredevil just highlights the typical difference between Japanese and American comic hero types. Every single American comic movie I’ve seen follows the same format:
– Boy sees parents/loved one die.
– Boy vows to use powers/wealth to serve “justice”.
– Fast forward to present day. Superhero apprends some minion of the main bad guy.
– Superhero meets chix0r.
– Bad guy kidnaps/threatens chix0r to trap superhero.
– Superhero kicks butt, credits roll.
Batman, Superman, Buffy, Spiderman, Spawn, and to a lesser extent, X-Men all follow this basic forumla. At least X-Men tries to shake up the formula by having multiple superheroes, each with a different circumstance where their parents/loved one were killed.
To me, saying “Daredevil has a weak plot” means nothing. Especially compared to, oh, Shiinji Ikari. Now there’s a real plot. A plot so thick, unpredictable, and engaging it doesn’t need to make sense. Shiinji actually behaves like how a normal boy might behave instead of “Oh, my parents died, I think I’ll dig a big underground lair and prowl around at night wearing a bat costume.”
I think I’m just desensitized to the cruddy creativity shown in American entertainment these days, with each new character, show, or movie being a clone of the one before it. It just doesn’t compared to the deviant minds that spawned a doctor who wears a paper bag and enjoys poking people in the butt with a scalpel, a princess who thinks she’s a prince, or a space alien who enjoys running over little boys and then smacks them with a guitar.
Just that Americans think that heroes prowl the night in weird costumes. I beg to differ. Some of the most compelling heroes are those who help others overcome daily life– Mahoro and Suguru; Belldandy and Keiichi; Kagome and Inu Yasha. How many combat maids do you seen on American TV? Or how about Inu Yasha, a half-demon with greater than human powers, but, in the end, he’s Kagome’s equal, or even her sidekick. Can you imagine Wolverine bowing down to Kitty Pride?
This also brings up the issue of how few heroines there are in American culture. Wonderwoman just seems like an afterthrough after Superman. What happened to affirmative action? Does it not apply here?
Until the day comes when Hollywood stops manufacturing cookie-cutter hero types, I’m going to stop paying attention to “plot”. By default, there is none, so why cry over it?
2 Responses to “here comes daredevil!”
You know, the actual comics of some of these (like X-Men) tend to be a heck of a lot better than Hollywood’s movies. I mean come on, haven’t ya learned that yet? :P **scurries off to read Generation X** By the way, Wolvy’s gotten his arse kicked plenty a time by both genders. ^^ Plus around Jubilee he’s like a big wolfy or something. XD The American market’s afraid to try something new, because they’re in it for the money most of the time. Very few networks and studios are open-minded enough to try and shake up the formula, for fear of losing status and dollars. Until policies change, and they make movies to creatively explore new ideas, you’re not going to see much of a change. Stuff like Lord of The Rings is a step in the right direction, but it’s going to be a long, long time before we see any serious deviation from the norm. Plus then, if Faust, Utena, and Haruko were the norm, what need would we have for video games and anime? :P
The entertainment industry is designed around the thought that their audience is everything. In America, which is where Hollywood is located ironically, the average person isn’t interested in real life or deep drama. They want action. James Bond is probably the culture icon that best represents our culture. Thankfully, other (more interesting) cultures exist.