When Dreams Go Dark

I read an interesting article over the weekend involving Richard Donner's opinion of Zack Snyder's version of Superman. Considering the two versions are at opposite ends of the bell curve, it's no surprising that Donner objects to Snyder's negativity.

Christopher Reeve's version is the movie I grew up with. It came out when I was thirteen. My dad took me and my sibs to see it when our mom was suffering from some medical issues in order to give her a little peace and quiet.

At this point, Superman was considered ultimate good. More powers than anyone should have. Practically, a god. But he did NOT kill. I admit it's an over-the-top fantasy.

For those of us who were kids in the '70's, movies like Superman and Star Wars gave the thing we sorely needed--hope. Our parents were losing their jobs due to an awful recession. Some of my friends lost their homes. Awful things were happening around the world.

On that level, I agree with Donner. Folks need hope. I know I did during the last three years of COVID pandemic. I watched and read a lot of old favorites. Positive things that gave me that elusive hope. Sure, some were action-packed and violent, but in the end, the protagonists did the right thing.

It's not that I have a problem with darker stories. Snyder's Sucker Punch is one of my all time favorites. But even with the terrible things that happened in that move, Snyder still ended on a tiny ray of hope. It wasn't the good guys doing the "real-life" killing, and ironically, the girls characters used fantasy as an escape from their terrible situation.

So when Snyder yells at the reporter to "Wake the fuck up!", I wonder what he's really thinking. Does he really believe that we want our heroes to be sick assholes? If so, do it with another property. Why does he feel the need to turn the DC superheroes into nihilistic versions of the themselves?

It's one thing to do an offshoot, like DC's Elseworld stories. But label them as such. But taking away Superman's innate goodness by making him a murderer isn't what a lot of people want to watch. Not with a major war in Europe, a pandemic that's still raging across the world, and the financial chaos caused by the war and pandemic.

That's how I look at my job as an entertainer. No one would want to read my books if the antagonists got away with their evil, shitty deeds. Even when crap knock my protagonists down, they get up and do the right thing.

And that's all we can do in real life, too.

Movie Mania Wednesday

I FINALLY made it to the theater to see Sucker Punch yesterday.  It's definitely one of those love it or hate it movies because of the radical departure from conventional movie storytelling.  I normally don't talk too much about a movie lest I ruin it for other people, so consider this FAIR WARNING!

***SPOILER ALERT***

Zack Snyder, the co-writer and director, tells you in the title itself that this movie won't have the traditional HEA.  That doesn't mean he won't have you wishing and cheering for it during the course of the film.

Also, ignore the reviews.  Most of them look at only the surface of the film, and trust me, it's much deeper than it appears.  So deep I want to see it again because I'm sure I missed something.

 The inital layer of the story, which I'll call "Reality" for simplicity's sake involves Baby Doll (Emily Browning).  Baby's mother dies leaving her fortune to her two daughters, but also leaves them at the mercy of their stepfather.  After the funeral, Stepdad learns the terms of the will and tries to rape Baby in revenge.  When she fights back, he locks her in her bedroom and goes after Baby's much younger sister.  By the end of the opening sequence, the little sister is dead, and Stepdad has Baby committed to an asylum where he bribes an orderly to make sure Baby is lobotimized.

This fades into "Fantasy 1," which is Baby's way of dealing with the trauma.  In Fantasy 1, Baby is a virgin sold by a priest to a brothel.  She befriends Rocket after she stops the cook from assaulting the other girl.  Baby then makes friends with Rocket's older sister Sweet Pea and their fiends, Blondie and Amber.  The five girls devise a plan to escape from the brothel, but the plans hinge on Baby keeping the club owner Blue distracted with her dancing.

Baby's dance sequences lead to "Fantasy 2," where she and her friends are commandos carrying out missions to retrieve the items they will need to escape in Fantasy 1, which also mirrors the events in Reality.

At the ends, Baby Doll surrenders to her fate in order to allow Sweet Pea, the last survivor of the band, to escape the asylum.  Ironically, without Baby Doll's defiance to prop his ego, Blue the orderly devolves into a weeping mess and is arrested for abusing the girls under his care.

A lot of reviewers mock the anime/computer game style of the movie, but that style adds another layer to the story itself. It is essential a movie about the lengths we will go to escape our realities and ourselves in order to survive.

I highly recommend it.

My Bribe

If I can get a couple of thousand words done this morning,this will be my reward this afternoon. Well, the movie plus extra butter on my popcorn.