I know it's been kind of quiet around here lately. I've been busy finishing up a new photo project, but I did see a new movie and a new network TV show that made me want to ask...what's up with all this non hero stuff?
Have you seen Deadpool? If not, you are in the apparent minority. It broke the box office record for a film opening in February. My wife piped in that it's an unfair comparrison seeing how ticket prices are outrageously higher than they were in decades past. Don't be a buzzkill, dear. I'm sure they allow for that obvious discrepancy. Who knew that the unhero would be the next big "thing" (no Fantasic 4 reference intended).
Talk about the new anti hero? Then we need to mention the ultimate unhero as namesake for a new network TV series called "Lucifer." Yes. That Lucifer. Who in the hell had the notion for viewers to root for his satanic majesty as the lead character in a detective series? I can't imagine the network bean counters not worrying about Proctor and Gamble pulling advertising or the Tea Party vilifying the show or a lack of viewers in the so called bible belt. Did the network executives get together after a black mass and decide it was time for their misunderstood master to have his moment in the sun?
Hero movies have always been a mainstay of film and tv studios. From the little man successfully defeating the forces out to destroy him (mean bosses, evil banks or corporations, coveting neighbors, etc.) to the super hero fighting evil aliens or geniuses, we the public have engorged ourselves at the trough of derring do (archaic english for heroic acts). Why stop there? When I was a kid there were the Italian made Hercules movies starring Steve Reeves. Oh boy! I loved those films. He was quite the man in his lion skin (?) and bare chest with rippling muscles as he fought his way through the Italian version of his namesake's mythology. He always got the girl too, must have been that 1960s Italian Greek mythology at work.
Remember the stop action monsters? They would photograph the model and then move it a bit and photograph it again and again making it appear alive and on the attack. The actor would be fighting air while the superimposed monster (usually giant spiders or scorpions or three headed wolves or cyclops) flailed back in their direction. Great stuff. It was all we had. We were expected to supply the imagination to accept it as real (well...you know what I mean).
Today we take so many things for granted in the movies it's hard to surprise a kid when they see a film. That first shot of the Imperial cruiser following the scrolling words in the original Star Wars was the cinematic deathknell of having to stretch your imagination while sitting in the movie house. It was the tip of the iceberg. The development of computer generated movie making has never looked back. Digital photography's (see, we are talking photography) constant technological improvement and drop in cost of high quality CGI (computer generated images) has made it too easy to suspend belief. It isn't required for anyone to ignore the wires controlling the scary beast on screen or two guys dressed as Godzilla and Mothra duking it out claw to claw while crushing a miniature Tokyo, to enjoy a scifi thriller. Imagination isn't required when you see the splattered flesh and blood of monster or hero generated before your eyes by high end computer generated magic. We are becoming immune to the thrill of cheering for the hero. How many Superman, Spiderman, X Men, Wolverine, Avengers, Captain America, Batman, Green Lantern, Iron Man and Fantastic 4 movies can we absorb without screaming, "Enough!" I haven't included the too many Star Wars or Star Treks. They are even rebooting movies that haven't been around long enough to be considered classics. As with all good things (the music industry comes to mind) the lust for gold has caused a glut of similar product being dumped on the public and we, due to human nature in the land of excess, are becoming numb and disinterested. No more super heros please! We want something else. Someone out there knows what we want. A computer is whispering to them.
Next time: More about the Non Hero and some photos of the lastest stage show.
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