On Superheroes and Lonely Robots

For the last several days, I've been trying to pin down what I found so immensely unsettling about "The Dark Knight," and I think I've figured it out - it is the fact that even Batman can save neither his love interest from being blown to pieces nor his city from descending into utter chaos that I find absolutely frighting. Superheroes were once a form of escapism and hope - now they seem just as confused, terrified and human as the rest of us.

It occurred to me that of the last 10 or so movies I've seen, at least half of them have depicted, each in their own way, some sort of nightmarish, post-apocalyptic scenario. Forgive me for making grandiose assertions about societal trends, but it seems to me that this might be some sort of reflection of the times we live in. "Children of Men," "Cloverfield" (which I didn't particularly enjoy), "I am Legend," even the Disney Pixar film "WALL E," which I just saw tonight, all illustrate different scenarios of a very grim future for humanity. There have always been big-budget Hollywood disaster films, but the difference between "King Kong" and "Cloverfield" is that that the former has a happy ending. The two big Oscar winners last year, "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," had a similar effect on me as "The Dark Knight" - they left me perplexed and scared.

"WALL E," which was absolutely brilliant, was not an outwardly frightening movie, but it had some very haunting moments which themselves are worth the twelve dollar ticket price. I can't possibly do it justice; I can only say that I think it was a beautifully made film. I believe what distinguishes it from any other Disney film that I can think of, is that it is not escapism that drives the film, but optimism. I think Hollywood is currently in desperate need of films that are not necessarily about escaping reality, but about the possibility that a brighter reality is still conceivable.


- Matthew