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You are close but your phrasing is wrong:
You wrote:
"Maybe I am being too simplistic, but to me, there are two types of movies - movies with complex ideas and character development, and superhero movies about dudes with magic powers who are compelled to fight evil. This is about as good an example of the latter as any, and it would not have been improved if someone had tried to make it an example of the former."
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Why does that statement seem wrong? First, a movie about a person with magical powers who is compelled to fight evil is potentially a complex idea in itself. Second, a superhero movie could have some fantastic character development.
Where does "Unbreakable" fit in this? The film, despite the writer/director's decline into self parody, remains one of the best super-hero films ever made.
And, "Wolverine" doesn't fit the mold of tradition super-hero movies at all.
It is a borderline incestuous (Sabretooth: I am so mad at you for leaving me, Wolvie... Say, have you been working out) revenge drama of surrogate families and Darwinian/capitalist struggle (now, if the filmmakers had consciously realized this we might have a better film to watch).
[Actually, I think the real Rosetta Stone to the film is the wrestling scene, which brings about an amusing discussion of not just the politics and history of wrestling, its validity as a sport of fake stunts, its connection to comic books and super-heroes, the problems of steroid use and body modification (adamantium shrinks your ding-dong?), and the basic quality of low-brow fantasy of wrestling plotlines (Creed and Wolverine are just Kane and the Undertaker; or rather Wolverine is the face and Creed the heel).]
Other than deciding to free the mutants, Wolverine does absolutely nothing "heroic." In fact, the often casual warfare of the title sequence, is some kind of weird imperialistic fantasy/nightmare(...which if you also account for the Silver Fox character as a femme fatale, then you realize the film is also poorly stylized piece of film noir).
Furthermore, Wolverine leaves the unit in protest of their illegal work, but doesn't stop them from killing a bunch of innocent villagers. Not too heroic.
Plus how are movies "about" anything? Even if something isn't explicitly in the "text" of the film, it can still spark a debate about the film's broader cultural "where-abouts" in an almost never-ending chain of discussion...a la the blogsphere and weed influenced b.s. sessions with your mates or buddies. |
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