Misunderstood mythology of superheroes by Bea
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that sticking to the ”golden standard of superhero movies” is a first rule of filmmaking in the genre. You are sometimes allowed to stray from the path if your name is not Zack Snyder but, in general, the more you adhere to the rule, the greater critical acclaim and box office returns. Sounds ridiculous? Definitely, but due to audience expectations, strong desire for escapism, corporate greed, and disastrous state of film criticism/journalism, it is the situation we are currently in. I will explain this slightly baffling statement step by step by describing two different perspectives on comic book movies that led to completely opposite perceptions of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies. I will provide examples of expectations and assumptions made by critics that determined their perceptions as well as examples of the profound impact of these movies on some people. I will present some opinions/arguments concerning the ”golden standard of superhero movies” and its harmful influence on comic book movies (promoted by many entertainment journalists and critics). Finally, I will discuss the main reason (in my opinion) of this condescending attitude towards these movies, stemming from a profound misunderstanding of mythological nature of superheroes and its importance in pop culture.
When I watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS) in the theater I was shocked it received such an awful critical reception. I know I am not the only person who felt there had to be two separate versions of BvS. The first one was shown to the majority of critics and a substantial fraction of the audience who hated it, and the other one was shown to selected critics and majority of viewers who appreciated it. In general, I don’t care for critics’ opinions because I can think for myself. Despite my not always agreeing with their opinions, there are several critics I respect because I know they would offer some food for thought. However the opinions of majority of critics baffled me so much that I started to read their reviews and discovered the abyss of all sorts of cognitive bias, snark, openly expressed hatred for the director, disdain for the genre, arrogance, and very little actual analyses of the movie. As Stanley Kubrick said: “To see a film once and write a review is an absurdity… There’s not much in a critic showing off how clever he is at writing silly, supercilious gags about something he hates.” “The reviews that distinguish most critics, unfortunately, are those slambang pans which are easy to write and fun to write and absolutely useless.” (1).
I was shocked by such words, phrases and statements as: “worst superheroes movie of all time”, “incoherent “, “indigestible”, “convoluted”, “horribly written”, “laughable” “pretentious” (even “howlingly pretentious”), “lumbering”, “bombastic”, “pompous”, “ponderous”, “preposterous”, “dark and gritty”, “zero humor or self-deprecation, as there was in Joss Whedon’s pitch-perfect The Avengers“, “when was it decided superhero movies shouldn’t be any fun? “, “taking itself too seriously”, “self important”, “dead-on-arrival”, “not fun”, “strenuously empty movie”, “dumb as bricks”, “vacuous”, ” devoid of wit”, “beautiful shell with nothing inside” etc. I was wondering why nobody mentioned that BvS is an Elizabethan-type revenge tragedy, even if it is obvious for everybody who has read Shakespeare, or Epicurus and the Problem of Evil (even if some critics noticed philosophical themes or Joseph Campbell influence). It baffled me why Lex’s beautiful and deeply philosophical dialogues (that made my jaw drop several times) were mocked and dismissed by a critic as “chattering screenwriter-ese” (Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out) and superbly written script (story, characters) described as horrible (2). It baffled me that the use of a complex and non-linear narrative, visual storytelling, and rich themes were perceived as convoluted, overstuffed, and incoherent (”Wildly overstuffed and oddly slapdash, filled with characters and sequences that serve little purpose other than to set up a ‘cinematic universe.’” Sonny Bunch, Washington Free Beacon; ”Such a bleak, disorienting and incoherent mess that despite the few promising moments that sporadically appear, it’s nearly impossible to enjoy” Julia Alexander, Polygon; ”Filled with scenes of gloomy characters confronting their demons or wrestling with insipid moral quandaries, this joyless slog isn’t a superhero film so much as it is an excruciating therapy session with huge explosions and guys in capes” Tim Grierson, The New Republic). I was dumbfounded to see that all themes, allegories or parallels were either overlooked, misunderstood, perceived as pretentious or dismissed out of hand (e.g. “You can feel “Batman v Superman” occasionally reaching out toward more than what its corporate interests have dictated […] Such moments are fleeting, however, and are mere filigree on Snyder’s real agenda of blowing stuff up” – Alonso Duralde, The Wrap; ”If only the film actually had depth, along with a little levity to lighten the bulk in the script, the visual murk and the sonic overkill.” – Rotten Tomatoes (RT) Top Critic Peter Howell, Toronto Star; ”A pretty hollow movie that wants to be more than just a superhero movie” – William Evans, Black Nerd Problems; ”That fight comes late in the game, and it’s so grim, humorless, and vicious, it stops being thrilling early on. It isn’t in the service of any of the themes the film has struggled to express, it’s just a meat-headed, brutal throwdown” Tasha Robinson, The Verge; ”again the movie its sky castle is built on is every bit as hollow and empty-headed as an action figure” David Crow, Den of Geek; ”it will frustrate anyone looking for substance” David Blaustein, ABC News Radio). How could anyone say that BvS ”has the dubious distinction of showing utter contempt for its audience and wearing that contempt on its sleeve.” (Jim Schembri, 3AW)? It blew my mind that a critic didn’t recognize a 1% doctrine or thought that the reason of Batman’s hatred for Superman was …. messing up the Batmobile (he either didn’t understand it or saw it as pretentious and delivered one of ”those slambang pans which are easy to write and fun to write and absolutely useless”) (3). Some remarks are particularly baffling when a critic writes: ”If you’re not convinced of just how weird this film is, consider the unexpected amount of horses in it. Seriously, there were like four different horse moments” (Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, The Daily Dot). I will not discuss the symbolic use of horses in BvS because it has already been done by many fans in detailed analyses. Of course, horses as symbols have been present in various forms of art for centuries. There are also directors (e.g. Andrzej Wajda) who use horses as symbols and they are allowed to do it in their art-house dramas, but it’s ridiculous if it’s done by Zack Snyder in a superhero movie (sarcasm). I was stunned why the final fight that looked like Titans versus gods straight from Greek mythology (with Superman stabbing Doomsday evoking a painting of St. Michael the Archangel slaying Satan or St. George killing the dragon) was reduced to “a grim whirlwind of effects-driven action” (Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus). I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was reading: ”By the end of the film’s near-unwatchable final battle, any hope of nuance or intentional subtext had been snuffed out by hours of ugly CGI and pulverized debris […] The action sequences are dull, fake, and poorly shot, and don’t remotely compare to the clear visual storytelling of The Avengers” (Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, The Daily Dot). Hours of ugly CGI and pulverized debris? Dull, fake, and poorly shot? Clear visual storytelling of The Avengers? We must have been watching entirely different movies! It’s also the only logical explanation if a critic writes a review “explaining” why BvS (a film with final monologue “Men are still good. We fight, we kill, we betray one another, but we can rebuild. We can do better. We will. We have to”) is the most cynical or the most nihilistic superhero picture ever.