Is It Possible To Take Anything Seriously Now?
A week after the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11th, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter declared an “end to the age of irony.”
A month later, New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani triumphantly declared that cultures responded to tragic events with “darker works of art resonating with a culture’s deepest fears and forebodings” and not with “PG-rated displays of inspirational good taste.”
I guess we can say this is the first time an effete cosmopolitan was wrong about culture.
Here we have the Hellboy reboot, an R-rating on a comic book movie that looks to be burning it’s under 17 audience merely for the sake of blood and gore.
Blood and gore that isn’t supposed to be taken seriously because how can you when characters are quipping “Haven’t we got to be saving the world or something?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmp-tTFF1f4
I know, I know… it’s supposed to be good light-hearted fun with flying demons, collapsing cities and decapitations.
I hear you, Goblins! I love Deadpool. Deadpool is at least a little subversive of the genre or at least as subversive as an R-rate comic book can be.
I’m not asking for the superhero version The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert or Happiness. It doesn’t need to pervert and degrade the culture.
Just give me a superhero beating up a father in front of his evil son and I’ll be happy.
