Tony Stark on film is America’s War on Terror id and libido just spilling out all over the world and frankly it’s embarrassing.
3 Likes
on the one hand, i agree with you. on the other, these are movies I really, really hate and it’s easy for me to gloss over the things where I think we (and I) slip into a bit of intellectual dishonesty or some kind of cognitive dissonance as to whether or not we understand the appeal
but, you see, the formulaic episodic entertainment I like is good
But is 9/11 the reason Iron Man had an excellent box office performance? and subsequently, many MCU movies had amazing performance?
Is it? Doesn’t Tony Stark renounce Stark Industries weapons contracts and regret ever playing a role in weapons development, sales, and the military industrial complex?
At the beginning of the movie he’s a cocky asshole and is like aweyeah, just nailed the sale on that badass cluster missile bomb. Hell yeah death is profitable.
And then right after, he gets mortally wounded and imprisoned in a cave. As if to say: you suck dude and what you have been doing, sucks..
Anyway I wasn’t trying to say 9/11 had zero effect on stories in entertainment. I’m just saying I don’t think it narrowed the types of stories available* and I don’t think 9/11 is a key factor in the success of the MCU.
*I mean, 24 season 2 started a month after 9/11 and SPOILERS the season ends on a cliffhanger where an assassination attempt via a contact poison or nerve agent or something, is successfully made on the first black president of the USA. And it ends with him lying on the ground, dying.
Is the content of the film related to its success? I’d venture that yes it is.
And I admit that’s being a little snotty about it. But also, I can’t buy that the cultural context of the themes that launched the MCU into existence have nothing to do with its success.
We don’t only have incredibly simplistic entertainment and only certain types of stories, but we have collectively embraced a specific brand of strikingly simple entertainment with very samey, repetitive stories in that same period. I subscribe to the idea that the scale of this embrace is indeed a reaction to a broader public awakening of how fucked up and interconnected and complicated the world is (and our inability and unwillingness to deal with it) and the necessary acknowledgment that Fukuyama’s end of history’ was delusional farce.
We also have had complicated and challenging entertainment. It has not made a billion dollars every few months.
And Tony Stark’s redemption functions as an expiation of America’s sins, which were on the news constantly in 2008. He went to Afghanistan and maybe he wasn’t a great dude at first, but by gum! he did it right. Goodness prevails! Mission accomplished!
8 Likes
it occurs to me that this may not come off as tongue in cheek and self effacing as I want it to
1 Like
Or maybe Iron Man was successful because it came right about when the people who grew up on him, were in their 20’s and had money to show up. And he looked like they remembered/imagined. Unlike the X-Men movies, which did their best to divorce from the specific imagery of the comics and children’s imaginations. Also the profitable stroking of nerd culture, in general.
I was literally on Active Duty when Iron Man hit theaters and none of my fellow Airmen ever expressed “wow, what a pat on the back that was!”.
And Iron Man debuted in 1963, so the ones who first grew up on him were in their 60s.
Right ok then. So, decades of fans went out to see something which hit the right mix of comic book meets live-action. And that mix leans a bit more on the comic book side, IMO.
Accidentally deleted my post, which said that since Iron Man debuted in '63 the generation who first grew up on him were in his 60s.
That this finally sticks in the year 2002 or so is 100% related to all of this!
1 Like
I think everyone should just watch my movie
…
which does explicitly mention 9/11 exactly once
8 Likes
Screen it in a theater like Marty wants and I’ll consider it!
1 Like
I already did! Marty didn’t show though
2 Likes
that’s the crux of it isn’t it? like, imagine if these fucking marvel movies were actually as fun as a season of xena or hercules? instead i leave the theater feeling like i’m ensnared in a mlm which convinces me that it eventually pays off if i just watch another twenty hours of content.
4 Likes
yeah if all this marvel shit was nearly as entertaining as the other trash i consume i would only be opposed to them on an industry level instead of with every single fiber of my being
1 Like
I’ll just add that the first Marvel film after 9/11 was Blade II. I wonder why it took an additional six years for Marvel films to become cultural events.
Perhaps the political element in the first Iron Man allowed a way for normies to launder their philistinism so that they could enjoy their garbage without feeling self conscious?
1 Like
Because Blade 2 was made by cool people, for cool people!
Actually, I don’t know this film, probably because I’m a bad member of this community! What movie we talking about?
It’s ok! I was talking about Sarasota Half in Dream.
It’s temporarily unavailable at the moment, but there will be a new and interesting place to watch it early next year!
2 Likes