The batman stuff does this too, all the cape shit. Batman was a standard costumed pulp adventure dude. 60s batman was a fun silly movie about comic books. 90s batman was a high camp celebration of how silly comic books had become. Nolan batman was fascist erotica and where the wheels really started to come off. Everything since have been batman movies trying really hard to be batman movies and have, accordingly, sucked ass.
Likewise with marvel capeshit - blade was a cool movie about how bad ass Wesley Snipes is, and was way better and more popular than the blade comic. Iron man was about look at this cool fucking guy. WInter Soldiers, for me hands down the best one was a 1970s political thriller and for authenticity they even got fucking Robert Redford. Subsequent marvel movies have mostly tried to be marvel movies and have been dogshit. A thing trying to be itself is going to end up being a poser, and as we all know a poser is the worst thing you can be. Then with dead pool we had a couple of marvel capeshit movies that were entirely about how silly and absurd marvel capeshit was, and that was fun. Idk if the new one was good, but it does seem to be a movie about how silly it's own success at being silly is so maybe it worked idk.
Godzilla minus one? Wasn't trying to be a godzilla movie. It was a movie about modern Japan's struggle between fascist nationalist revanchism and an attempt to finally move past that insane shit and let Shinzo abe and all his buddies, and the war, die. It was about how Japan is enslaved to the us at no benefit to itself and how it's government are inept, useless neoliberal cowards who can't find their asses with both hands. A bunch of civillians fight godzilla with crap they have lying around because neither their american overlords nor their captured, useless government will help, and the whole time they are looking directly at the screen saying "the war was a miserable failure that destroyed japan. There was nothing good or honorable about it except that some people were lucky enough to survive. We do not want to go back, we must not go back. The people of Japan must reject nationalist militarism, the US's geopolitical manipulations, and our shitty government and chart our own path or godzilla is going to wreck us".
Cool as fuck, best Godzilla movie sense the first one, all because it's a movie about contemporary Japanese culture and politics that uses Godzilla as a stand in for the threats facing Japan - as is tradition - instead of being about godzilla.no one being able to afford to have children in Japan's fucked up economy is a key plot beat. Excellent film.
Then with dead pool we had a couple of marvel capeshit movies that were entirely about how silly and absurd marvel capeshit was, and that was fun. Idk if the new one was good, but it does seem to be a movie about how silly it's own success at being silly is so maybe it worked idk.
It triples down on the absurdity of capeshit in a way it's hard to see how they top it.
The batman stuff does this too, all the cape shit. Batman was a standard costumed pulp adventure dude. 60s batman was a fun silly movie about comic books. 90s batman was a high camp celebration of how silly comic books had become. Nolan batman was fascist erotica and where the wheels really started to come off. Everything since have been batman movies trying really hard to be batman movies and have, accordingly, sucked ass.
Likewise with marvel capeshit - blade was a cool movie about how bad ass Wesley Snipes is, and was way better and more popular than the blade comic. Iron man was about look at this cool fucking guy. WInter Soldiers, for me hands down the best one was a 1970s political thriller and for authenticity they even got fucking Robert Redford. Subsequent marvel movies have mostly tried to be marvel movies and have been dogshit. A thing trying to be itself is going to end up being a poser, and as we all know a poser is the worst thing you can be. Then with dead pool we had a couple of marvel capeshit movies that were entirely about how silly and absurd marvel capeshit was, and that was fun. Idk if the new one was good, but it does seem to be a movie about how silly it's own success at being silly is so maybe it worked idk.
Godzilla minus one? Wasn't trying to be a godzilla movie. It was a movie about modern Japan's struggle between fascist nationalist revanchism and an attempt to finally move past that insane shit and let Shinzo abe and all his buddies, and the war, die. It was about how Japan is enslaved to the us at no benefit to itself and how it's government are inept, useless neoliberal cowards who can't find their asses with both hands. A bunch of civillians fight godzilla with crap they have lying around because neither their american overlords nor their captured, useless government will help, and the whole time they are looking directly at the screen saying "the war was a miserable failure that destroyed japan. There was nothing good or honorable about it except that some people were lucky enough to survive. We do not want to go back, we must not go back. The people of Japan must reject nationalist militarism, the US's geopolitical manipulations, and our shitty government and chart our own path or godzilla is going to wreck us".
Cool as fuck, best Godzilla movie sense the first one, all because it's a movie about contemporary Japanese culture and politics that uses Godzilla as a stand in for the threats facing Japan - as is tradition - instead of being about godzilla.no one being able to afford to have children in Japan's fucked up economy is a key plot beat. Excellent film.
Another Frank banger.
I loved Minus One. Great film
It triples down on the absurdity of capeshit in a way it's hard to see how they top it.
Blade gets a brief cameo.
Thanks for writing about the Godzilla movie. I had heard some buzz but didn't know about the depth to it's concept. I'll have to check it out!