Apparently, you have to have qualifications before you can criticize movie trailers now. You can't just chalk it up to taste anymore. You have to prove your impartiality before you can speak on movies now. I don't know where this shit started, but it really needs to stop. The Batman v. Superman trailer was leaked over the weekend, and naturally, some folks didn't like it, but folks got mad when they dared express that online. Like, more than usual.
We're talking about a movie trailer about a fictitious alien that wants to be friends fighting a fictitious rich guy with an inability to let go of the past. It sounds like the plot to a Pixar movie, but people were acting like they were investigating a murder, trying to figure out the motives of people who didn't like it. This isn't exactly serious scholarship here. Taking on critics of this movie trailer isn't going to get you a job at The Atlantic.
It just blows my hair back when people get this serious over fictional characters, as if it's going to make a bit of difference either way. Instead of people just enjoying the fact that we're all nerds, people are out here acting like people who didn't like it are going to block off the theaters in an act of censorship. People are actually drawing conclusions about the characters of real, living people based on what they thought about a movie trailer. Because, as we know, movie trailers are the modern iteration of Rorschach tests.
And the thing is, I don't think people defending the trailer really understand where the problem is coming from. People aren't loving the way this movie is turning out (and the one before it) because it continues the Batman-ization of the DC Universe, and it was something that a lot of people could see coming after The Dark Knight came out.
See, Batman is grim and gritty. He's tormented. He wreaks vengeance on those who wronged him so that others don't have to suffer like he did. Basically, this dude is broken inside and uses that to punch criminals until they're broken like him. That formula for a superhero made Warner Bros. a billion dollars. And because movie executives are generally unimaginative, they said, "Hey, Superman is having trouble. Why not make him like Batman?" You know, completely ignoring the context surrounding Superman's movies.
I mean, the problem with Superman Returns wasn't that Superman isn't tormented, it's that it was two and a half hours of washing Richard Donner's balls. But who has time for a true examination of the issues?
And that's why Man of Steel is the way it is. That's why Superman is morose, everything is dimly lit, and there's no sense of joy or fun in a single frame of the movie. That's why Superman doesn't save anyone. Superman lives in Batman's world now, and in Batman's world, you need to learn that life is shit.
Except that's not the world Superman lives in. Superman is supposed to represent all of those good things. He tries to save people before he punches people. He's supposed to inspire people to be good and do better. He always tries to de-escalate the situation, even though he's powerful enough to turn the person in front of him into a fine, red mist. That's what makes him Superman. Of course he can kill everyone on Earth, but he doesn't want to. He wants to show us a better way. Even if he's existing in Batman's dark, depressing, basement of a world, at the very least, he needs to be that. He wasn't, and right there is the difference in opinion on Man of Steel.
Superman fans didn't need for Superman to change. Batman fans needed for Superman to change. And Batman fans loved that movie.
That's why some people weren't excited to see the Batman v. Superman trailer, because they're worried that it's gonna be more of the same: A Superman that Superman fans don't recognize. And there's a huge possibility of that if the movie is based on "The Dark Knight Returns," a story that paints Superman as a government-owned bitch. The only people who want to see that are Batman fans. It has nothing to do with a secret love for Marvel or an inability to let go of the Donner Superman movies or any other of the silly shit I've seen thrown out there this weekend. Maybe it just doesn't look that good to some people. We're talking about art, not an arms treaty.
We won't know for sure until the movie gets released, but in the meantime, dial back the hostility. We're all allowed to have opinions, and none of us need to justify them to you.
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