X-Men, The Last Straw…
I made a mistake, this weekend; not a big mistake, just a mistake. I went to see X-Men, the Last Stand. The first two X-Men movies, while not dramatic works of art, were just fun, action-adventure movies, with the usual romantic angst between a Level 5 mutant, and the two male mutants who love her (talk about art reflecting life!). However, after seeing it, I’ve decided that a more appropriate sub-title for this movie is “The Last Straw.”
Sure, I’d heard the rumors that the whole superhero thing had been co-opped by the gays as a metaphor for their own lives (talk about self-aggrandizing!), but I thought they were just reaching. I mean, they’ve co-opped the color purple and rainbows, for Pete’s sake; where I don’t think either of those things is inherently “gay” I won’t be painting rainbows on my SUV. But, Hollywood, in their infinite wisdom, and in case those of us who are not gay hadn’t been clued in, introduced the following sub-plot:
The anti-hero had developed a formula that would “cure” mutants so that they became fully human. The first person to be “cured” would be the anti-hero’s gay (oops! I mean “mutant”) son. The son wants to be “cured” for his father’s sake. When the son hesitates before taking the injection, his father encourages him by telling him, “It’s a better life, etc.” At the last moment, the son bursts through the closet door (oops! I mean the straps on the chair), and, for the first time, stretches his snow-white wings from tip to tip. Then, to dramatic music, and the setting of the sun, he rushes through the window of the high-rise to soar above the clouds. In case you’re wondering, the wings weren’t gossamer and translucent, like you’d expect “fairy” wings to be, but that would be a little too obvious, don’t you think?
Okay, okay, those of us who didn’t realize before, get it now. In addition to that rather obvious bit of propaganda, the female element of the mutant love triangle kills off her boyfriend, and then she gets killed by the third element of the triangle (see? Straight relationships are bad, bad, bad). To make it worse, the still shot for the dramatic “I have to kill you to save the world scene” is the hero (sans shirt), holding the heroine’s dead body (dressed in some sort of gothic, maroon, shiny medieval dress), against a backdrop of an exploding building. I’m afraid that at this point, in the stillness and silence of the theater, I burst out laughing, and couldn’t stop.
I truly think that this might be the last movie I ever see in a theater. I’m sick and tired of Hollywood twisting every decent concept to justify their own pathetic “life choices.” I believe that it is a common literary theme for every hero to have a tragic or fatal flaw. The basic idea is for the hero to overcome the flaw, or to triumph despite the flaw, not to embrace the flaw, and so lower the standards for heroes everywhere. Guess what Hollywood. If it comes to a choice between rejecting heroes and rejecting Hollywood, Hollywood, out the door you go.
Yeah, seeing the movie was a mistake, but at least it was a matinee.
I made a mistake, this weekend; not a big mistake, just a mistake. I went to see X-Men, the Last Stand. The first two X-Men movies, while not dramatic works of art, were just fun, action-adventure movies, with the usual romantic angst between a Level 5 mutant, and the two male mutants who love her (talk about art reflecting life!). However, after seeing it, I’ve decided that a more appropriate sub-title for this movie is “The Last Straw.”
Sure, I’d heard the rumors that the whole superhero thing had been co-opped by the gays as a metaphor for their own lives (talk about self-aggrandizing!), but I thought they were just reaching. I mean, they’ve co-opped the color purple and rainbows, for Pete’s sake; where I don’t think either of those things is inherently “gay” I won’t be painting rainbows on my SUV. But, Hollywood, in their infinite wisdom, and in case those of us who are not gay hadn’t been clued in, introduced the following sub-plot:
The anti-hero had developed a formula that would “cure” mutants so that they became fully human. The first person to be “cured” would be the anti-hero’s gay (oops! I mean “mutant”) son. The son wants to be “cured” for his father’s sake. When the son hesitates before taking the injection, his father encourages him by telling him, “It’s a better life, etc.” At the last moment, the son bursts through the closet door (oops! I mean the straps on the chair), and, for the first time, stretches his snow-white wings from tip to tip. Then, to dramatic music, and the setting of the sun, he rushes through the window of the high-rise to soar above the clouds. In case you’re wondering, the wings weren’t gossamer and translucent, like you’d expect “fairy” wings to be, but that would be a little too obvious, don’t you think?
Okay, okay, those of us who didn’t realize before, get it now. In addition to that rather obvious bit of propaganda, the female element of the mutant love triangle kills off her boyfriend, and then she gets killed by the third element of the triangle (see? Straight relationships are bad, bad, bad). To make it worse, the still shot for the dramatic “I have to kill you to save the world scene” is the hero (sans shirt), holding the heroine’s dead body (dressed in some sort of gothic, maroon, shiny medieval dress), against a backdrop of an exploding building. I’m afraid that at this point, in the stillness and silence of the theater, I burst out laughing, and couldn’t stop.
I truly think that this might be the last movie I ever see in a theater. I’m sick and tired of Hollywood twisting every decent concept to justify their own pathetic “life choices.” I believe that it is a common literary theme for every hero to have a tragic or fatal flaw. The basic idea is for the hero to overcome the flaw, or to triumph despite the flaw, not to embrace the flaw, and so lower the standards for heroes everywhere. Guess what Hollywood. If it comes to a choice between rejecting heroes and rejecting Hollywood, Hollywood, out the door you go.
Yeah, seeing the movie was a mistake, but at least it was a matinee.
posted by Madeline | 10:27 AM
3 Comments:
When I saw the movie, the gay subplot did enter my mind when he burst from the chains and stretched his snowy white wings, but my SECOND thought was - maybe he's going to do a toilet paper commercial. That would explain why he wasn't with the rest of the superheroes when they were fighting evil.
I went to see "Over the Hedge" as the 'othercott' suggested by Barbara Nicolosi on www.churchofthemasses.com It was really about the Mexicans going over the border and taking stuff belonging to the owners of the land on the other side and bringing it back over the border for themselves. It wasn't too realistic, though, as the parallel disolved when the animals didn't better side of the hedge but went quickly home again. I love these movies, as you do, with hidden meanings known only to the astute amongst us. Good pickup on the gay thing.
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Video gaming is a part of our yesterday, our today and our tomorrow. It's amazing how fast they grow in complexity. You can only dream of where video games will go in the future. It will be interesting to see what types of gaming systems you will be enjoying in the future.
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