Comedy Cake is so excited to introduce to you the analog creature that’s long lurked in a dusty temple of cinema. Consumers of digital entertainment beware, the VHS MUMMY has arisen. This week the great one scratches off some of the “superhero” labels applied by haters.
Yo there!
It’s yr buddy the VHS Mummy checking in from the haunted bargain bin! It’s been a hell of a summer, particularly getting my face melted by a talking space raccoon with a giant bounty hunter tree of a buddy.
I’m not gonna review Guardians of the Galaxy, in case you’re wondering. There’s, like, a zillion of those. I want to address how and when a superhero movie is no longer a superhero movie, and when it is simply a great chunk of story.
Think for a moment, about Guardians in this regard. These are a bunch of assholes in space who botch every possible avenue of fuckery until the only path left to take is the righteous one. It just so happens that they’re pretty good at doing the right thing, lucky enough for the citizens of Xander. Accidental heroes at their best.
The same could be said about the first Iron Man film. Tony Stark is a big fat turd to everybody around him and really does the right thing when there’s no other option for him. Is it an accident that the best Marvel movies involve jerks who reluctantly steer their vices toward the good of those around them? Methinks not.
And when it comes down to it, these movies really have dick to do with superheroes, per se. Iron Man is a movie about an egomaniac taking the ultimate power and, despite personal involvement, finally doing good with it. The same could be said for Top Gun, Casablanca, Three Kings and many more.
Consider some of the more recent genre classics that employ masterful scripts, casting and/or directors and unfurl with tactful pacing and memorable characters. If you flip the script and reexamine these like superhero pieces, they totally work:
- Drag Me To Hell: Girl gets cursed, girl tries to fight off demon and girl gets taken to hell. This would fit as a suitable origin story for a voodoo demon-fighter superhero like Dr. Fate or Brother Voodoo.
- Let the Right One In: A bullied kid befriends a lethal force of nature in the form of a fellow child, culminating in the most adorable bloodbath known to man. This would make a killer formula for many of DC’s darker Vertigo titles, particularly those related to the Sandman franchise.
- District 9: A naive cubicle nerd becomes the very thing that he hates, literally transforming into an alien with enormous physical strength. One can only hope that Metamorpho or Sleepwalker would be graced with an origin story of such panache.
By this line of logic, Iron Man shakes out as an action dramedy and Guardians comfortably ranks as a sci-fi comedy classic. Deal with it.
When Marvel cooks ‘em up right, these films stand on their own, and, much to my chagrin, the mouse-house simply gets it. In this regard, I’m particularly stoked to see the forthcoming Star Wars installments that are now percolating with film maestros Josh Trank, Rian Johnson and Gareth Edwards. It’s soothing to know that the future holds more genre-benders to come!
‘Til next time, tape heads, keep it tipped to the crypt!
CakeMama