Labels

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Let's start the platinum age!


There's no denying it, Thor was a good movie.

Now that my opinion is out of the way, I'm going to tell you why, and relate it to all superhero movies. I can guarantee you that you didn't think I would think of this.

Because I didn't, I'm basing this review off of something that a guy named Moviebob said, except he related Thor to Transformers, but I said, "Why not relate Thor to its genre?" So that's what you're getting. I also encourage you to check out Moviebob's "The Big Picture" on The Escapist.

Thor was campy, maybe not Adam West/Batman-campy, but it was certainly more lighthearted than any movie Wolverine has been in. Thor wasn't trying to be gritty and real, it was just about some super-powered dudes having a punch-out in New Mexico, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Recently, there's been some kind of idea going around the super hero genre that movies need to have some level of what most would call "grit." Not real grit, otherwise they would need to sell toothpaste at my local AMC, but grit as in the hero can't go five minutes without saying "shit," or having a shot of Dack Janiels.

Thor was something else entirely, it was just a bunch of super-powered dudes, having a punch out in New Mexico. This is what the comics industry got started on, when the Silver Age started booming, all comics were just like the Thor movie was, except all the super-powered dudes were having thier punch-outs in New York. But then the 90's came and went (thank God), and now the children of the Silver Age are my Dad. Now that comics are more or less on their feet again, I believe that the writers of the comics and movies think they still need to play to the same audience, and thus, the comics have grown up with the readers. (See above image.) I don't think this is right.

Instead of making every superhero movie a chronicle of the human struggle, or about a middle aged man battling alcoholism, or having comics be overly violent and gory, they should be targeted towards the youth of today.

Marketing to a new generation would get said generation into comics, and perhaps even start another great age, all they need to do is relaunch all the series like DC just did, and make the comics less about Wolverine's lovers, and more about a bunch of super-powered dudes having a punch-out in New Mexico.

I'm not saying gritty realism is bad, I just think that there needs to be a balance, and right now, the scales are tipped. Thor exposed us to what we've been missing, and I say we run into that light full force.

So to sum up, Thor was awesome because it showed us what super heroes once were and hopefully will be again.

Friday, September 2, 2011

The Fretless Bass Reviews: Game of Thrones season one


Game of Thrones is fabulous, not for a long time has TV seen a fantasy show so vivid, real, and most of all, believable.

Fantasy is a popular genre, as a result, a lot of people write it, so it's hard to be better than everyone else when all anyone's really doing is ripping off The Lord of The Rings anyway. So George RR Martin decides that he's going to rip off Lord of The Rings like thousands of other writers of fantasy worlds, but he does it better. What he does is he tells each chapter through the eyes of one of a few characters, and as a result, they become real people, real believable people.

The TV show is good for the same reason the books are, there's nothing special or interesting about the world Martin has created, nothing at all, it's not nearly as interesting as Middle Earth, or Dune, but the characters are fiercely developed and I feel like I know most of them personally.

The show follows the Family Stark of Winterfell, wardens of the north and keepers of the great wall that protects the seven kingdoms from the snow zombies beyond. When the old "hand" of the king dies under mysterious circumstances, Eddard Stark is called upon to replace him. Thus the family is thrown into the middle of a massive conspiracy, and they must fight to protect each other, and the king's peace. There's also a couple of scenes that would be classified by a bible group as porn, so don't watch it with your mum like I did.

The show is much more complicated then that, but if I went into detail, then this article would be so long your goldfish attention span would short-circuit.

To close off, Game of Thrones impressed me, both the book and the TV series, and I believe with all my heart that everyone should read and watch, also the theme rules, here it is.