Death Note: Episode 4 – Pursuit

We start in the Shinigami realm, were we see several Shinigami designs. I don’t nerd out about these guys too much. What’s interesting about this is that they’re talking about Ryuk, and this is the first instance we learn that Ryuk was carrying two different Death Notes. We’re already aware that Ryuk was bored and that’s why he dropped the Death Note into the human realm. We didn’t know that he was in possession of two. We also don’t know why it’s terribly important that one Shinigami has two Death Notes, but it’s worth remembering for now.

We come back to the Eye Deal cliffhanger. Light says the trade is “out of the question.” Light explains that he wants to be God of the New World for a long time. He doesn’t want to sacrifice his own life. Ryuk says, “I still felt I should tell you the deal existed just in case.”

There’s a couple of different writing mantras at play here. First off, it becomes abundantly clear in this moment that all the talk of the Eye Deal at the end of the last episode was primarily more exposition from Ryuk, more set-up. While it is very important later in the series, this basically renders the whole end of the last episode pointless. However, it is important that when you plan on having an element at play in a series you present it early on so it can pay off later. I just feel that the way they did it here was a little clumsy. Especially since they cut the episode there.

“He’s not the slightest bit daunted by the fact that I’m a Shinigami,” Ryuk says to himself. We learn that there’s probably more rules of the Death Note he’s not letting Light know.

“Next thing you know I would actually start becoming a real Shinigami,” Light jokes with Ryuk. Ryuk responds by telling him he’s already a “worthy Shinigami.” Ryuk explains that the Shinigami World is rotting, where the Gods of Death don’t even remember why they exist, and that they only write down names because they are scared to die themselves. Themes of religious nihilism come back in at this point. It’s clear that the mythology of mankind which has long revered the existence of beings like Shinigami is entirely underminded by an almost realistic point about Godhood. You can’t die, but your world is so removed from anything human that even sustenance is unnecessary, existence is meaningless, and for the Shinigami in particular, the only thing you’re any good at is ending human lives. It’s a characterization of a world that is deeply interesting and impacting. It also sets up an image of what any “worthy Shinigami” has to look forward too. It’s inherent criticism of the idea of having the power of the Death Note. The realm of the Shinigami is closer to what Light’s ultimate goal would be like than any other image in the whole series. The desolation is internal as much as it is external.

Should I end up talking about the works of Death Note beyond the anime series, it’s important to note that there’s a popular fan theory that suggests Light became a real Shinigami at some point. If I review the films that’s referring too, I’ll explore the theory a little bit.

Light suggest that Ryuk take lessons he learns in the human world to try to make a better Shinigami world. As I’ve already explained, this is Light’s naïve showing through. It’s also a bit of positioning, Light claiming that the human world is somehow better than the Shinigami world. It is as if Light has forgotten that he said the same things of the human world in the first episode that Ryuk is saying now of the Shinigami World.

Light comes up with a plan to figure out his stalker’s name. He says he’s going to manipulate the rules of the Death Note. We cut to Soichiro Yagami receiving reports of six more deaths. However, each prisoner did different things before dying. L receives updates from Watari. L reads a letter, and suggests that details of the deaths can’t be released to the media. This again, seems like backwards movement. L suspected in the last episode that Kira had access to police information. If he already knows or suspects this, the move to black out the media coverage is a mostly pointless move. It could be that this is just a way to confirm that Kira has access to police files, but again, the primary motivation is to make sure Kira doesn’t know his experiment worked. It doesn’t really prove anything. So again, it feels like at times they slow L down so that the series can catch up, but they do so in ways that feel arbitrary about what he’s already done in the series.

Light hacks the police files and goes over the results with us. The limitations of the Death Note are revealed here. Most importantly: Someone can’t express thoughts they can’t have themselves, they can’t get somewhere they couldn’t physically get to, and they can’t represent images that they haven’t seen themselves. These limitations are very interesting and as far as I know this doesn’t contradict anything in the series. But, it will be fun to see if that’s actually true. Light says he left a note, “a meaningless dying message.”

L reads the letter, entirely in Japanese (sorry I don’t know the specific language) and the screen highlights the top row of letters.

We cut back to Light who says he’ll use a criminal for some sort of plan. Then he flips open his phone and calls a girl. Light meets up with said girl and it turns out to be a date. Light explains it’s a cover. Ryuk is told to just watch what happens, which of course is Light telling us to sit back and watch what happens, which is a great set-up.

So we jump to the stalker’s perspective. The agent explains that there’s no cause for suspicion. This is going to be cause for irony later on.  This music that plays on the bus ride is so nice and peaceful another highlight of a seriously excellent score for the series. We see the criminal Light targeted earlier get on the bus. He holds a gun to the bus driver and it’s announces a bus jacking.

We get dual perspectives between Light’s thoughts and the stalker’s thoughts. Light passes a note to Yuri, but the stalker intervenes. Light crumples up the note and sticks it in his pocket. Light pressures the situation until the stalker has to reveal he’s an FBI agent and his name is Raye Penber.

Raye seems to recognize the criminal on the bus. Light drops the note and the bus jacker looks at it. He throws the note. Light gets him and we learn the bus jacker can now see Ryuk, who susses out that Light purposefully dropped a Death Note page. This is interesting because up to this point Light’s only used pages attached to the Death Note. It’s important to realize that the pages of a death note have the same power of the Death Note itself. And to explain how often that comes into play in this series now would be to ruin the whole thing.

To Raye it seems like the bus jacker is hallucinating. Ryuk’s dialogue here is again seriously purposeless, he over explains the whole situation that has already been shown to us in the series before. It is a very impressive move on Light’s part, but Ryuk doesn’t need to tell me that. “I’ve said all of these things at one time or another. Well he is the top ranked student in the country.”

The bus stops the hijacker jumps off and is immediately hit by a car. The looks of shock on the characters faces is brilliant here. But it also seems like Raye should suspect Kira at that point in time. Light explains the Death Note entry. This is also a sequence we’ll see several times over, where post-death Light explains what he wrote.

“The Death Note never fails. You will be next, Raye Penber.”

So this is probably one of the best scenes in the series after L’s confrontation. If episode three felt a tad slow, but overall better, than this episode is entirely better. It doesn’t feel anywhere near as long (actually it seemed a bit short in rewatch, like I wanted more). It establishes a lot of things, it shows the logic of how a Death Note manipulation works out in real life, it shows that Light is willing to risk himself in person to make a plan come together, it shows Light’s genius in collecting logic from the world around him and applying it to situations to better his cause. I mean, the episode overall is just incredibly impressive. There are very few shows that ever play the rules of their universes to this extent and if they do its usually later on, not in the fourth episode of the series.

—–

So next time we’re going to do something slightly different. I have the full Manga of Death Note as well, and I will be reading it concurrently with the series. If I note enough major differences between the narratives or the segments between the episodes and the Manga chapters, I’ll make a post explaining them so far. This will be more important when we get to the later parts of the series as significant chunks were removed for the pacing of the Anime, but for now we will see if there’s any minor details worth noting between the two.

Thanks for enjoying the series so far, I’m enjoying writing and watching myself. See you all for next weeks entry.

Death Note: Episode 3 – Dealings

We begin the episode with a breakdown by the investigation squad. This is a good scene for re-establishing how difficult it is to hunt Kira down, because what all this set-up does and continues to do for a while is show how intelligent and good L is at being a detective. The harder it is for everyone else the easier it seems for L.

It’s also a very realistic scene. 14 people claiming to know or have information about Kira, but none of which is relevant or not publicly known. 21 people claiming to actually be Kira. Presumably most of these people are people who will continue living in Light’s “new world.” Its not directly stated, but, there just are more problems with the world and people than just violent crime.

The police are also following up on L’s claims about Kira. They discover that the timing of the murders are indicative of a student as L explains. Now when L says this the Police Chief seems to perk up. “I think it’s safe to assume that he’s driven by a very idealistic notion of justice. It’s also possible that he aspires to be some sort of God-like figure. In short, we are dealing with a person who has a very childish notion of right and wrong.”

What L says is much of what I’ve been analyzing over the past couple of episodes. L puts words to the ideologically opposed viewpoint of Light’s. This better highlights their antagonism of each other. It further separates the moral issue at the center as well.

“You must re-examine the possibility that our suspect could be a student.” The reaction shots of the police in this scene seems to suggest that a student being at the center of all this violence is a shocking possibility. I might be reading too much into this, but doesn’t it seem like L is addressing a pre-conceived notion that a student is less likely to be this violent? This attitude about students and violent ideology wouldn’t seem to hold up next to the mass killing sprees that have made media attention in the real world. While some of those are older, a lot of young adolescent males cause harmful ideologically driven violence in the world.

At the end of L’s interruption, the police chief looks up as if he has been zoning out. Something was apparently on his mind during that conversation. But what could it possibly be? (No foreshadowing here doot doo doot).

Matsuda is addressed by name and stands up to say something. “In the last few days throughout the world, but especially here in Japan, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of violent crimes that have happened.” This results in a lot of disgruntled sounds in the room and a few nasty looks of frustration from the other police officers.

L requests information about the victims identities. He asks specifically about photos. Now, there are times when Death Note does this, where it seems like L had previously proven names and faces to the world when he did the broadcast thing. Technically he didn’t, but this still feels like it could be a backwards move in the plot. L needs something to do while the plot continues to thicken and build up, and getting confirmation of photos is a small, but almost superfluous from a writing standpoint, piece of information to focus on.

We cut to the Chief and Matsuda outside the office. Matsuda apologizes for what he says. “Nobody said it would be easy to speak the truth, but it has to be done, even when it isn’t easy to say.” If we think of this in terms of the moral discussion at Death Notes core, we get this little give and take this little push towards the gray. Of course having Kira around makes the job of the police safer and easier because violent criminals would be afraid of a conscious person punishing them. However, it further establishes the stance. Kira is a criminal, a murderer, and as a police officer, the Chief nor Matsuda can actually let them get away with it.

We cut to Light and the doorbell rings, “If the police try to come after me I’m pretty confident I have something that will give me the advantage.” We cut to the Chief who is revealed to be Light’s dad, Soichiro Yagami.

We listen to the family discuss Light’s genius, and Light asks about his Dad’s exhaustion. Ryuk recognizes it. Light reveals that he can keep track of the investigation against him because his Dad’s computer is on the home network. He quickly hacks in and sees all the investigation folders. He pulls up the information about the police expecting a student and he mentions the Death Note’s rules. Light says he should be able to write down the time of death in the details.

We jump to another Death Note montage of Light going about his daily business of being a student while prisoners die. A wonderful cut from Light giggling happily to a prisoner keeling over dead sort of perfectly contrasts this situation.

We jump back to the investigation where the police explain that criminals have begun dying every hour on the hour. They already begin saying this pokes holes in the theory that Light is a student. L however claims that Kira is sending the message that he can just kill at whatever time he wants. “As soon as we began to suspect that Kira was a student, the pacing of the killings changed. A coincidence? No, it’s too convenient. This can only mean that Kira has access to police information.”

Light seems to have placed the police and L into conflict with each other. “My real agenda is to get close to L, so I can eliminate him.”

“In this world there are very few people who trust each other. What’s important is that L and the investigators don’t trust each other.”

Light explains his master plan which is to create a rift between the police and L, so that the police can identify who L is so that Light can kill L. It’s a brilliant plan, and as we will see in future episodes, one that almost works.

After the break we come back to the investigation headquarters to see three police officers resigning. It eventually comes out that L’s theories are true to them and that they feel exposed as police officers. This is the start of the conflicts that Light was talking about as well. L not having a public identity is causing conflict between them. This moment actually exists as foreshadowing for WAAAAY later in the series also. The idea of a room full of investigators being murdered randomly at any time.

We go to a classroom where Ryuk seems to notice something. We see a shadow and Watari’s voice intercuts talking to L saying that the FBI are in Japan investigating the Japanese police. L has a list of people in the police force with access to classified information. There is a bit of a cinematic flourish were L drops the stack and Soichiro Yagami’s profile lands on the floor.

Ryuk talks to Light and tells him “I don’t have anything against you. I’m here because I have to stick around until the Death Note is finished or you die whichever comes first. I’m not your side or L’s side. I’m not here to support you or give you my opinion I’m just a spectator.” Ryuk explains that “You’re being followed by another human, he’s watching you right now.” We stop, and we see the shadow creep into frame then step out. Light continues walking.

Light wonders who could be following him. He thinks of how he must look to someone following him. He decides he has to stop him. Ryuk found his exposition file again and explains incredibly important rules for the Death Note world.

Ryuk says that Shinigami take human lifespans. This is an ongoing topic of interest in the Death Note world. As a fictional rule its explained that if a Shinigami kills someone before they would under a circumstance where a Shinigami hadn’t killed them, the Shinigami inherits the humans lifespan. Ryuk explains the Eyes of the Shinigami, which has the power to see any humans name and lifespan. He also shares information about the Eye Deal. A possessing Shinigami can grant a Death Note owner the Eyes of the Shinigami. The price is half of the humans remaining lifespan.

In other words, Light could make the deal and become an incredibly powerful person. And the episode ends on the question of whether or not Light will take such a deal.

—–

This episode ends on a cliffhanger question, though when we get to the next episode I’ll have a bit more to say about what I think of this. For now, I won’t spoil anything because I like to keep this series as a moment to moment reflection.

This episode contains several elements that sort of build up the Death Note lore and universe. We have the dual plot of Light’s experimentation and attempting to throw wrenches into the investigation against him. We have the Chief being Light’s Dad, which is bound to get tied up in the mix eventually. We have the suspicion between L and the investigation team leading to conflict and suspicion. We have the Eye Deal, something of massive plot importance for the series, and some rules about Shinigami life. We also have Matsuda expressing a hard truth of what the police are doing, potentially hunting someone making their lives significantly easier if they just accepted Light as the God of the New World.

Overall this episode is a lot better than the last episode, although it doesn’t have a scene as strong as the Confrontation.

Join me next week for Episode 4: Pursuit

Death Note: Episode 2 – Confrontation

Welcome back to my episode-by-episode analysis of the Anime series Death Note. Today we’ll be talking about Episode 2: Confrontation, where we meet the odds that Light will be up against for the majority of the series in super-detective and mystery man “L” and the combined police forces of the world.

———

We open up in Light’s classroom again where, much like the last episode, the translations are highly related to what is happening for Light himself. “He found himself overwhelmed with happiness and satisfaction, knowing that at long last his dream had finally come true.”

Ryuk tries to talk to Light who explains that he can’t talk to an invisible Shinigami because that would draw attention to himself. This moment seems like a time where Ryuk may actually be trying to test Light. This could also be a moment where the writer’s are trying to catch up anyone who may just be watching the second episode on TV. While Death Note doesn’t end up being particularly repetitive, I think its a show that’s highly splashable. You can just pick up an episode and immediately fall into the series.

“Of course I have something to do,” Light tells Ryuk. “Yes, something very important.” These bits of dialogue show Light’s own perception of what he’s doing, though for anyone who watched the first episode this isn’t a surprise. We jump to him writing names in the Death Note. Ryuk repeats his apple eating habits. Light ends up explaining that he kills criminals during a certain period of time each day. This will come up again in a later episode.

Light is interrupted by his younger sister, Sayu. She doesn’t pop up in the series terribly often, but when she does it tends to be important. She is a major plot point later on in the series. When an element like this is introduced early – as opposed to just before it becomes important – it makes it feel like she’s a constant aspect of the universe.

Here she is used by Ryuk to explain that anyone who touches a Death Note can see the possessing Shinigami. This is primarily an impetus  for Light to do something in an episode that is more concerned with developing his opposition.

We jump to the ICPO, where Light’s murder spree with the Death Note is being discussed. This scene is important for a lot of reasons, but here I want to point out that when writing something like Death Note you have to figure out who is going to be a primary antagonist for your chosen protagonist. The moral discussions that take place in this scene are primarily basic, their discussion of meaningful evidence, it’s all mostly fluff. It’s all saying the same thing: It would be very difficult for any normal body of police officers to find a way to convict a spectral mass murderer like Light.

We meet the Japanese Chief of Police and a newer officer. Neither of them are named yet, and that’s for a very important reason, but again, we’ll discuss that when it actually becomes important.

The Chief tells us L’s background: “He’s managed to solve every case he’s ever taken on, and he’s tackled some of the greatest mysteries this world has ever known.” These are the primer moments for what will be the episode’s ultimate pay-off. L’s contact, Watari walks in. His shadowy trench coat appearance here is actually less interesting once the context of who he is comes around later on, but for now the imagery of what he looks like adds to our growing sense of curiosity and dread about L. The appearance of the letter “L” on the screen and the voice masker sound introduce us to aesthetic choices that also remain important for the rest of the series.

You may notice by this point that a lot of what I’m pointing out becomes more important later on. That’s because this episode is a lot different from the last one. A lot of what we see is set-up, a lot of it is universe building. That makes this episode a little less interesting or fun than the last one. This is going to be a trend for the next several episodes actually and this marks what I feel is one of the less interesting parts of the series.

We jump to Light who is coming up with some sort of plan to help conceal the Death Note. “If I make one mistake I might end up killing my whole family.” Light says this just in case you weren’t convinced that he is sort of a real bad guy. He’s never discussed just killing people for reasons of self-protection before. This is the hypocrisy of Light. He thinks his own importance is worth sacrificing a consistent morality, or more specifically, he deludes himself into believing that his own life is worth more than anyone else’s.

Back with the ICPO, L says that Light’s murder spree is unforgivable and then states that the ICPO’s cooperation is super important, then singles out Japan’s police agency. He explains what he thinks and then sets up our later scene. “A direct confrontation?” Why that would be the episode title.

Whenever the two officers stand up, you can actually sort of make out the names that are on their desk. In short, you could spot the identity of the Japanese Police Chief before it’s naturally revealed in the series.

We cut back to Light who explains to Ryuk a trap he made to conceal the Death Note. In short, anyone who goes looking for the notebook will either be casually dissuaded by a fake journal, or will accidentally destroy the actual Death Note by forcing their way into a sealed part of the drawer.

There are two details that are important about this scene that make it both different from everything else you’ve probably ever watched, and naturally compelling on its own. The slow pace and intellectually based ideas established so far in the series lend themselves to this breakdown. Light uses a very small key, the pen insert, to make the drawer safe. This means that tiny details get incorporated into Light’s plan and he has a powerful spatial awareness. Then he also explains the two scenarios that he’s thought about happening: a normal person snooping around in his desk and seeing the diary, but also, someone more determined looking for incriminating evidence. It’s the fact that Light has multiple plans for something as simple as a drawer trap that impresses us even more. I mean really, who would’ve thought about that?

Here we get a montage of civilians in Kanto. We also hear dialogue discussing the fact that inmates are “dropping like flies.” Then, someone says, “Don’t you know about Him?” “Kira.” We see a text message that transitions to Light’s computer screen. Light explains that the people have begun believing in him as a righteous force of judgment. This is the scene that gives us the name of Kira, which will later become entirely exchangeable with Light.

Light explains that people will always say the correct response to whether or not someone should be killed. He explains it entirely as social pressue. This is another example of Light self-righteously explaining that he’s doing something people actually want him to do. The fact that Light has opposition in the series sort of shows the fact that Light isn’t actually correct about this. His enemies believe that he is evil. As viewers we are interested by Light’s philosophy and ideas, but we should also recognize the string of psychotic justification that Light uses to motivate himself and elevate his own self-worth.

A “world-wide” broadcast begins. We see a man named Lind L. Tailor on TV and he reveals himself as L. So we instantly think that this L guy isn’t as smart as everyone claimed he was. He’s made himself entirely vulnerable to Light’s ability to kill people. We understand that L would have no reason to think he’s going to die. And really we shouldn’t have a reason to believe that Light would kill L. L is a detective, he’s a good guy, he’s a hard working individual protecting innocent people from criminals. Light in his “justice” should have no reason to kill this guy.

And then L calls Light evil.

“You think I’m Evil.” We see the first flash of the L grin, a reoccurring aesthetic image throughout the series. “I am justice, I protect the innocent and those who fear Evil. I am the one who will become the God of a New World that everyone desires. All who would oppose that God, they are the ones who are truly evil.” Light’s emotions get in the way of his talk of justice and a better world. He doesn’t want to make the world a better place, he wants a new one, he wants to be worshipped, he wants to be the God. This is the moment that makes it clear how bad of a guy Light really is. If the end goal doesn’t include him at the top he doesn’t care about the lives that are ended to make it happen. In this moment, every police officer, secret agent, and super detective are put in Light’s cross hair.

“This could have been a lot more interesting if only you were a little smarter.” Light writes Lind L. Tailor’s name in the notebook to a massively huge degree.

This is the first time we get the countdown sequence as well. This includes a shot to the Chief and Matsuda in the office. We will see this countdown again, we will also see this type of shot again. This is again a reoccurring aesthetic for the series.

If you didn’t think that Death Note was a smart series before, the next scene should convince you.

Lind L. Tailor is dragged off screen and L’s pop-up comes on over the news feed. “I never thought it would actually happen. Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person.”

L explains that Lind L. Tailor was an inmate Light could not have known about (in short, he knows where Light gets his information). L tells Kira to kill “me, if you can.” Light knows he can’t do it. We get a shot to the streets of Kanto again where some civilians are alarmed and others are encouraging Light to kill L. The police officers think L must be crazy.

Ryuk laughs. L tells Light that the “world-wide” broadcast isn’t truly worldwide, they’re only broadcasting in Kanto, meaning L knows Light’s location. L explains he knows who the first victim was. The end result of the scene is that L has radically outplayed Light. It also zooms up what could’ve been a long series of dead ends for police and detectives in a normal procedural investigation. L has proved about four core facts all at once, and the pressure and stakes for Light have instantly raised ten fold.

L’s dialogue and sureness is reflective of Lights as well. He doesn’t seem to think he could lose. He explains that he will find Kira and execute him. Ryuk explains the new stakes that this scene has established. “Each of them has to hunt down the other without knowing each other’s name or face and the first one whose identity is revealed will die.”

“L…”

“Kira…”

“I will hunt you down wherever you’re hiding and I will eliminate you.”

“I am-”

“I am-”

“Justice!”

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If you enjoy these analyses, go ahead and hit that Like button down there. These will be published on a weekly basis each Tuesday. See you next week for Episode 3: Dealings.

Commentary: When are Spoilers actually important for a narrative?

NOTICE: Today I’m going to be writing a topic about SPOILERS. To sum up, I’m going to explore whether or not the inclusion of plot elements within a film, video game, book, or other piece of artwork is actually important to the quality of that piece of entertainment and whether or not it should affect your experience negatively. I don’t think it should, however, in recognition that not everyone feels this way I’m going to warn you now, to discuss SPOILERS one is going to have to actually use examples of SPOILERS. Since I feel some of these SPOILERS are AMAZING EXPERIENCES when UNSPOILED I will list the works following this notice that I WILL ABSOLUTELY BE SPOILING in order to have this discussion. If you haven’t seen or read or experienced the following things, you may feel like missing this post. Of course, for the sake of my argument, perhaps you’d still consider reading anyway and seeing how you feel about the experiences AFTER having them spoiled.

Titles THAT WILL BE SPOILED:

Skyfall

Saw

Gone Home

Oldboy

Without further ado, let’s begin.

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A Spoiler can be defined as any element of plot that, upon initial experience, a viewer/reader/player is not aware of until after the initial experience. Now, that’s a bit broad, but it encompasses a wide variety of truths and impacts heavily the way we discuss movies. For instance, if I told you that James Bond lives through the end of every film in the series, I’m technically spoiling an aspect of narrative for the viewers. However, our experience of action films and the nature of the protagonist, especially in a franchised series, has taught us that James Bond dying is a narrative choice that would never happen. No one would treat this as a spoiler.

However, if I told you that Halle Berry’s character in Skyfall actually turns out to be Money Penny, or that M dies at the end, then I have actually given away elements of the plot in Skyfall that people would rather learn in the cinema themselves. I could perhaps encompass my entire argument by simply discussing these two reveals, but for now let’s say that while these are both spoilers, they have different impacts on the narrative. Halle Berry being Money Penny is “interesting” and “cool” but the choice and affect it has on Skyfall’s narrative is actually rather shallow and empty. It has none. If Halle Berry weren’t Money Penny, it would change nothing about Skyfall. If Halle Berry just showed up in the next film as Money Penny literally nothing would be different about the situation. It’s a spoiler, but having it revealed has minimal impact on the plot and therefore the meaningful and important experiences of the film.

Telling you that M dies is entirely different. The character of M as played by Judi Dench has been very important in the new Bond trilogy, and she’s been a staple of the series since the nineties. She’s been M for an entire generation of movie viewers, and her official “death” in the role is a big impact. You aren’t expecting it because it comes dangerously close to the idea of James Bond himself dying. It alters our perception of the narrative, it transcends its franchise up to this point, but beyond that, it locks together Skyfall’s thematic ponderings on death, generational change, and the loss of parents. It’s one of the most impactful moments of the 2011 cinematic year, and a strong reason for why Skyfall is one of my favorite films.

But if you’ve read this paragraph without previously knowing that, there’s literally nothing about the film that has changed. If you as a viewer go into Skyfall knowing that Judi Dench dies, absolutely none of the films build-up, thematic construction, and importance, impact, or emotions have to be lost on you. If anything, the first experience of Skyfall is a half-experience, because without knowing where everything is going, or how the entire narrative is building up to that final moment where you wonder whether or not she’s going to die or James Bond is going to save the day you are rendered entirely incapable of perceiving the importance of each moment, each shot, each dialogue exchange.

That isn’t to say you can’t enjoy Skyfall without having been spoiled, but ironically, you can’t truly experience the depth of artistic quality within Skyfall until AFTER you have been spoiled, whether by the film itself or someone else.

That’s because to really dig into a film, to really “get” a film, you have to look at the additive quality of the whole entire thing within the context of the whole entire thing.

What about a film with a “twist?” The whole notion of twist endings and their revelations is to create an experience for the audience. If you don’t get the intended experience that the film maker was going for, don’t you lose something essential?

In 99% of the situations, I still think that the “twist” in question, doesn’t radically transform our understanding of the themes. In short, if a film features a “twist” that is one hundred percent an essential experience to understand the themes of a movie or is important in analysis of a films characters or plot then it’s accomplished one of the highest plateaus of artistic achievement; making a mechanic that normally robs a text of its overall value into something that substantially increases its worth.

For instance, the original Saw features a twist ending where it’s revealed that Jigsaw, the mastermind behind the games, isn’t who you think it is, but it actually a guy who has been laying in the middle of the floor posing as a suicide the entire time. It’s a great twist. It’s also a Final Fantasy twist, because the guy you thought was the villain wasn’t and the big bad reveals himself at the last possible second.

This twist tells us that Jigsaw is bad ass. A mastermind manipulator of people and capable of planning hugely elaborate schemes. He’s also a real sick puppy, wanting to see how his victims struggle in his game himself by keeping a close monitor. But the reality is the impact this has on us is minimal. The plot itself only reveals that Jigsaw was there the whole time, which we already felt was the case from the presence of the tape recorders, cameras, and all that jazz. It’s shocking, and it’s really fun to go through, but it’s not terribly important.

Now, there is a question of quality at play here. I imagine some people might be thinking something along the lines of, “Yeah, but Saw was a shite film. If you took away that one twist you might ruin the only enjoyable thing about the whole film.” Here’s what gets me about this viewpoint, or any argument that emphasizes the twist as an essential piece of a film.

In order to emphasize that a twist is the most important aspect of the film, you have to pack away almost every theme within a piece, every other idea and scene prior to the twist, and essentially declare it less important than a single moment in something. Jigsaw getting off the floor, has to be made more important than the commentary and experience that people who’ve done something wrong should suffer for it in these traps. It takes away the observation that the best way to punish people is by letting them end up in a situation where they can only cause pain and harm to themselves, and then some will survive past the experience and some will die. This creates an incredibly existentialist experience in the middle of a low-budget horror flick. There’s some seriously interesting shit being said in the original Saw that make it kind of an essential experience, say what you want about the acting or the plot itself, the premise and the cinematics of that premise are the basis of what created that franchise. The twist got swept in with all those far more pertinent things, and if you want to know why the other Saw films are a step below or more, that’s all you have to look at; an emphasis on elements that weren’t as important as people thought.

In fact, in all the stories I’ve ever experienced, a book or a film containing spoilers or a “twist” is typically hiding essential information to understanding anything from those in the passive seat of viewer or reader. When we aren’t a part of a story, our job is to pick up the pieces of what the writer has provided and plug in the pieces into places where our unique brain canon creates causality, connection, and interpretation. This is the reader’s job because the reader is disconnected from the actual experience by virtue of their position.

However, someone playing a video game is not.

This hints at one of the most interesting things about video games. As an interactive experience, as someone making a variety of choices within a play space, the impact of narrative is phenomenally more concerning to a player than it is to any viewer or reader. We empathize with film and movie characters, but we ARE the video game characters.

As an example, the Indie Darling of 2014, Gone Home features a few experiences and twists that are vitally important. You play an older sister returning from schooling in Europe to your New England home. The night is stormy, and when you get there you find out that there’s no one there to see you. In fact, your sister has left an alarming note on the door that says she’s gone and you shouldn’t try to find her. As you go through the house you can examine anything in the home, even move things around. Your parents inherited a mansion from your grandfather, and it includes many hidden shortcuts, loose walls that lead to crawlspace passages between wings. You have to manually turn on all the light switches, open and close all the doors. But most importantly, depending on what you find around the house, you’ll get these narrated journal passages from your younger sister. She’s sixteen and very rebellious, talking about her anxieties going to a new school, talking about how she misses you. These confessions are telling you the things you’ve missed out on because you were away, but you accept and move forward because, there’s still a missing little sister that you need to figure out where she is or where she went.

When you go upstairs that’s when the game presents it’s mid-game twist. Your sister begins getting incredibly close to a girl she meets at school. She says she loves her. And it’s in this moment that when you hear your sister tell you her feelings that you have that experience of, “Oh no, oh God,” and you begin to understand why she would run away. Then a distinct significant fear hits you. The attic is locked. Your sister loved going up there. Her petulant signs of “DO NOT DISTURB” and “DO NOT ENTER” become motivating fears and you begin to think that your sister may have killed herself. “Don’t look for me” echoes in your head from her very first note and everything becomes more frantic.

And the thing is that video games don’t disembody their audience from the experiences that occur in the story. Gone Home isn’t just about another coming out story for an LGBT youth, it’s about you, the player, as the concerned absentee older sister of this girl, to discover something you didn’t know before, to be faced with your presumptions about her, to completely see her struggle and later arguments with your parents, her distress when her girlfriend is going to leave to join the Army, and the horrid nightmare scenario in your head of suicide.

You eventually reach the attic where the story receives a happy ending. Her girlfriend came back, and they’ve taken off together. You don’t know when you’ll see her again, but somewhere your sister and her girlfriend are happy, together, in love, and driving away from the problems that home presented. Gone Home’s title should perhaps be Home is Gone.

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While I think I’ve made more than my fair point, I wanted to include a last moment here for some who might still have questions regarding my stances. While I’ve expressed that the narrative of films and video games are perhaps weakened by having a “twist” or at the very least, contain plot spoilers that aren’t vitally important for enjoyment of a film or book, I would like to say that missing out on some “twists” can make the experience of a first viewing lose its steam.

Oldboy is a Korean revenge film. If you haven’t experienced this film, STOP READING and go watch it. To have it spoiled in this blog post is going to be perhaps the loss of one of the most impactful twists in a film narrative and you should not miss it.

Anywho.

It’s genre floats between action-thriller-drama. However, as becomes clear later, it’s genre is solidly traditional tragedy. We follow a man named Oh Dae-Su who gets kidnapped on the night of his daughter’s birthday and locked in a prison for fifteen years and is then released for mysterious reasons. He goes on a quest to discover who kidnapped him. He’s spent the last fifteen years teaching himself martial arts and studying literature and preparing for this day. The entire time we get different quotes regarding the link between humanity and beasthood. We get these lilting philosophical ideas of monster and men. The tenuous link between the two, and Oh Dae-su engages in battle various times using household objects to commit painful violence on his path.

On the way he meets Mi-Do, a much younger girl and someone who he quickly falls in love with. He comes face to face with his captor, Lee Woo-jin an hour into the film. He smiles and tells Oh Dae-Su that if he can find out why he was imprisoned, he’ll save Oh Dae-su the trouble of bloodying his hands and kill himself. Oh Dae-su goes on to discover that they went to the same school, and that Oh Dae-su had once caught him having incestual sex with his own sister. Before going to confront Lee Woo-jin, Oh Dae-su and Mi-do have sex.

So he goes to Lee Woo-jin’s penthouse. Oh Dae-su tells him that he’s committed an unforgivable sin and must kill himself for redemption. At this point Lee Woo-jin points to a purple box sitting on his desk. Oh Dae-su opens the box and sees a photo album. We get an interspliced scene with Mi-do at a hotel room nearby, where she opens her bag to reveal a pair of wings we saw earlier in the film, a gift Oh Dae-su had gotten for his daughter. The photo album flips open and we see Oh Dae-su’s daughter at various ages as she eventually grows into Mi-Do.

This moment is fucking horrifying. Oh Dae-su’s reaction is to rage, attempt to murder Lee Woo-jin, fall to his knees, beg for forgiveness, he marks himself with the same words he’d given to Lee before, “I have committed an unforgivable sin,” but he requests Lee doesn’t tell Mi-Do. Then, Oh Dae-su licks Lee’s boot, says he’ll become his dog if he just doesn’t reveal the truth. Then he makes an offering. He cuts out his own tongue with scissors, leaving himself incapable of telling the truth either. Lee leaves Oh Dae-su in the now destroyed pent house, he leaves on an elevator and kills himself.

This twist might be one of the best ones of all time. Like Gone Home, our experience of this twist occurring in tandem with Oh Dae-su, especially after we’ve gone through his journey primarily with him in his confusion, in his passion, in his rage, and in his confrontation. We were right there with him in thinking, wow Lee Woo-jin fucked his sister, that’s fucked up. And then when the rug is pulled from underneath us we’re disconnected. We were with Oh Dae-su a moment ago, and while we still feel sympathy, we realize he’s done something he won’t forgive himself for, something we would now be hypocritical to forgive him for. His quest for revenge was his quest of demise but not because of the violence, but because of the lust, the passion, the love, that a vengeful man cannot place correctly.

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So I hope you’ve enjoyed this lengthy discussion of spoilers, twists, and plot things. If you’ve never checked out my other blogs: Fictional Conundrum (especially if you’re a writer), or MFA in FML (especially if you’re an English major like me), then you might check those out for more content. In Fictional Conundrum this week I’ll be discussing why we shouldn’t write twists in our stories. In MFA in FML I’ll be updating everyone on my job hunt, and discussing a book resource for writers specifically.

I won’t always bother you with this, but if you like the post consider liking it or sharing it on your social network of choice.

Expository Conundrum will be updating weekly on Tuesdays, so join me next week for more gaming, movie, or music content. Thanks for reading.

Review Blurb: 100 Hundred Words Review – 2nd

One day late, but here it is, the finale to what began last week. Ten more movies. Ten more reviews. 100 words a piece. Here we go:

 

Man of Steel

Directed by: Zach Snyder

Written by:  David S. Goyer

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russel Crowe, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner

Review

One hundred words doesn’t give me enough space to complain enough about this movie. All of the hype and build-up the trailer gives that Superman is some existentially challenging being in this universe is blown over constantly to move forward a plot about General Zod. An origin movie with a 20 – 25 minute origin isn’t doing a great job setting up a huge character, its just rushing it. It’s more Zod’s story than Superman’s, and the final speech and fight from him are probably worth more by itself than the rest of the entire movie against it.

 

World War Z

Directed by: Marc Forster

Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan, J. Michael Staczynski

Starring: Brad Pitt

Review

World War Z is about the zombie apocalypse. That being said, it rushes through what would be your typical zombie narrative (a small group of survivors land themselves in a building that is slowly being overrun and must wait for rescue of some kind) in about fifteen minutes. While we understand Brad Pitt’s motivation there’s no emotional connection. This doesn’t stop this from being a thrilling film. It explores a fantasy world where the doctors aren’t insane, the military is not in control, and the goal of every second is to survive to the next.

 

Pacific Rim

Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro

Written by: Travis Beacham

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Mako Mori, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman

Review

Pacific Rim is probably my most disappointing film of the year. It’s not that I wasn’t satisfied with the straight-faced action story, it was just that it set up characters that didn’t get their proper emotional exploration. When the narrative structures includes something as freeing as a mental connection between two characters you get freedom to explore human connection, and considering the film makes a huge deal of what are ultimately unrealized human relationships, we’re instead forced to watch every typical action movie scene again. Oh, and robots punch monsters.

 

Fruitvale Station

Written and Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Starring: Michael B. Fox, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer

Review

Fruitvale Station is based on a true story, and focuses on the last 24 hours of Oscar Grant’s life. 24 hours is a misnomer though, it features flashbacks and seeming flashforwards from a criminal past to a clean future, a series of events that won’t happen that quick, and its these moments where you can tell the film is deviating from reality. However, the entire film has realism at the forefront of its mind, and when all is said and done, it generates such a powerful feeling of loss and wrongness, that the film successfully simulates what its like to be the survivor of a horrible injustice.

 

The Conjuring

Directed by: James Wan

Written by: Chad & Carey Hayes

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, various children actors

Review

The Conjuring, once you get passed the unquestioning facets of Christianity’s power over demonic forces, is a scare filled horror house style flick that only lacks a substance beyond its tale. Taglined as a true story based on real life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, it seems bogged down by all the usual meanderings of people who really want you to believe demons exist so that you really believe they can do something about it. This, after Ed is pinned as a logical man. Still, this is probably the best horror film I’ve seen recently.

 

Only God Forgives

Written and Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm

Review

Following Drive, this newest film from Refn is just as dialogue lacking and imagery driven as his previous outing. While it doesn’t contain as much sympathy or transformational aspects as Drive, it still tells a highly psychological tale of a mob-cop revenge drama. Ironically the weakest acting job here is from Gosling, while Pansringarm is menacing good and Thomas steals the show with her motherly breakdowns. The film revolves around a perverted sexual imagery for Gosling’s character, living at times in imagination, and is by far the least explained and weakest aspect of the film, unfortunately.

 

The Heat

Directed by: Paul Feig

Written by: Katie Dippold

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy

Review

The most remarkable thing about The Heat has nothing to do with the movie, but more what the movie represents. Just like Feig’s last outing, this is a narrative driven by women behaving in ways we don’t typically see in movies. The film is funny and Bullock and McCarthy play off each other well, although McCarthy’s persona is so large she can do that just about anywhere. Refreshing from the angle I mentioned earlier, is that Bullock and McCarthy are heroic cops and detectives representing two sides of chaos and order.

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At this point I’ve run out of new movies that I’ve seen recently, and would like to take this time to run over some films I’ve seen from recent years.

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Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Written and Directed by: Jay & Mark Duplass

Starring: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon

Review

Jeff is a pot smoking prophet who lives his life by following signs. Meanwhile his brother and mother, who try constantly to tell Jeff how to get his life in order, find themselves pickled in troubling relationship situations. An indie comedy through and through, while this film remains constantly optimistic, it also remains a bit formulaic. However, it does strike such a sweet tone, and tells two stories with endings you aren’t going to see often. When we get to the point where someone has to chase after their girl, it feels well earned.

 

Young Adult

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Written by: Diablo Cody

Starring: Charlize Theoren, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser

Review

Possibly a companion or even just a stark jumping away from Cody’s film Juno, a film about a hopelessly optimistic confused high school girl who was pregnant, we get a film about a powerfully pessimistic certain adult who’s willing to hurt others. The film does several things, it at once humanizes and strikes against the stereotypical types we find ourselves sympathizing with in other films. The nerd gets justice given to and dealt at him. Same with the prep and the jock. The ending scene can feel out of nowhere, but is perhaps a good capstone to this interesting film.

 

Red State

Written and Directed by: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks

Review

Kevin Smith’s attempts at criticizing every potential indoctrination group at once falls miserably to a misguided plot with some of the worst possible film writing I’ve seen. Coming off as a first draft as opposed to a finalized script, Red State’s single accomplishment is that it introduced to me one of the most powerhouse actors I’ve seen in Michael Parks. For the story, a couple of high school dumbasses go to gang bang an older woman and are then trapped in a Westboro Baptist style church where they’ll be executed before the FBI can come save them.

 

And that’s it for 100 Word Reviews, perhaps I’ll continue this format next time I get dreadfully behind on reviews. Thanks for reading!

 

Film Review: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Review for Iron Man 3

Directed by: Shane Black

Written by: Drew Pearce and Shane Black

 

Quick Review

 

Come on, this is Iron Man 3, you seriously don’t know what to expect? This movie is more of the same except this time with some different set pieces. In fact, if anything, this is the first one that’s begun to bore me a little bit with the proceedings. Throw in some terribly oblivious villains, and this is a mediocre super hero flick, nothing more.

 

Full Review

 

Story

 

Iron Man 3 is the first Marvel movie to take place after last years mega blockbuster, The Avengers. Tony Stark has been having psychological problems ever since his heroic near death battle against the aliens through the wormhole in New York. Whenever a terrorist know as the Mandarin begins enacting bombings across the World, Tony is called back into action. There’s also an inventor guy who Tony Stark blew off years ago and yada yada yada, arbitrary reason for Tony Stark to lose access to his suit, and blah blah blah, superhero movie plot.

 

No, in all reality, you aren’t here for the story, you’re here for two things: what, if anything, is going to be the impact of the combined continuity of the marvel universe that’s been established in five previous movies, and what is this big plot twist that I hear everyone talking about?

 

First, the plot twist. In case you didn’t know there’s a late act 2 plot twist that defies what is established in the comic book universes and what has been promised from the movie trailers so far. And in actuality, this twist is a very interesting move on their part. However, this twist doesn’t add anything to the movie and serves more of a real world effect. If anything it takes away from the film.

 

The other question I mentioned was, how does the Avengers affect the personal story we see in this film. What’s great about the continuity experiment is that what we see is the evolution of several different characters throughout different films. Let me restate that again, the entire point of continuity is to see character development beyond what a normal stand alone film or even trilogy offers us. Let’s be honest, the fact that Iron Man repeated his personal development from Iron Man in Iron Man 2 was a bit of a let down.

 

This is why other similarly sequelized action series aren’t impressive anymore, to the point that they aren’t even trying. Die Hard realizes it doesn’t have a story, Fast and the Furious realizes it doesn’t have a story, but that isn’t so with these stories. Superhero movies aren’t supposed to be normal action blockbusters, and especially not when they have multiple movies creating a large expansive universe for them to be involved in.

 

So when this film begins and Tony Stark is suffering anxiety attacks due to his near death experiences in the Avengers, it plants a seed of progress. This isn’t just going to be an Iron Man movie, its going to have true personal development from another film entirely. We finally have something to focus on besides Tony Stark’s relationship connection problems and reliance on the Iron Man suit.

 

And this character trait gets played for about three brief scenes where we see Tony pant in what is one of the worst portrayals of an anxiety attack I’ve ever seen. Seriously, this element was included almost specifically as a point to say, “hey remember that exciting movie you saw last year? Well this is totally because of that! Now, let’s keep talking about Tony Stark’s relationship connection problems and reliance on the Iron Man suit.”

 

I’m not even joking. The only play that Iron Man 3 is in an extended universe is three throw away scenes of dialogue about a throw away plot element that we didn’t even know was a point until this movie. It serves absolutely no purpose, and is only played when it can conveniently drag out some exposition.

 

So to see what I always saw as the most entertaining of the three big Avenger heroes be made to go through the same exact personal discovery story again and again, and to see the entire point of expanded universe continuity fail right in front of me was the most disappointing thing about this.

 

That’s not to say that it wasn’t enjoyable but, I’ve seen it before, from you, and that’s why this film, as much as it tries, sincerely doesn’t elevate its story above a Fast and the Furious or Die Hard film, its the same thing, done in the same style, with the same result.

 

Well, until the end at least. The very last ten minutes of the film manages to do something interesting and trope reversing, and then the very last thing Tony Stark does insists that we aren’t going to have to go through this entire storyline again in the next Iron Man movie. But it also acts like its ending a series or trilogy, for seriously no reason.

 

I’ve spent a couple pages complaining about this, so I’m just going to stop. To sum it up: The twist is interesting, but not within the film itself, extended universe continuity apparently isn’t important anymore, and the very end of the movie promises us that the next film is going to be what we deserved way back in Iron Man 2.

 

So for me this is just frustrating, but the core story of the film is precisely what I was expecting. Those outlying fragments of the story though really had some power, and I felt like they weren’t used at all in an effective manner. Seeing a film not only waste its potential, but waste potential that its perfectly aware of, really marks it down in my book.

 

NOTE: After writing this section I researched Shane Black and realized this is the guy who made Lethal Weapon. This explains my problems, I never found Lethal Weapon to be particularly engrossing, being one of those mindless action flicks.

 

Base Score: 8/10

Story: – 1

Score so Far: 7/10

 

Filming

 

What can be said about action movie filming? There are big action set pieces with a lot of things going on, and a lot of it is computer animated. Computer animation in and of itself isn’t very impressive, and the visual quality hasn’t increased since about the Transformers point in time.

 

These are super hero movies and as such the visuals are handled appropriately.  There are a few mentionable parts, but these are mainly where the film goes away from the normal scenes. The Mandarin’s terrorist videos (done similar to Osama Bin Laden’s videos) feature short montages of interesting film.

 

There is one part where a suitless Stark must infiltrate a guarded facility and does so in James Bond like spy fashion. It was a nice break from the rest of the film.

 

All in all, I can’t really give or take from this film for its filming. These are high quality simply because they have to be, they are action blockbusters. The action set pieces are cool but… so what? Nothing here is better than the Battle for New York in The Avengers, although none of them are quite as bad as Iron Man restarting the propeller in the same movie. I just find it difficult to reward a film for a “cool” computer animated scene, because that isn’t impressive anymore. It’s like rewarding a Call of Duty game for implementing a Kill Cam at this point. It’s kind of par for the course.

 

Score So far: 7/10

Filming +0

New Score: 7/10

 

Acting

 

Somehow the traditional categories of analysis are failing me today. We all know how well Robert Downey Jr. does as IronMan. I mentioned that his acting of the anxiety attacks was painful to watch, but I can’t truly blame Downey Jr. for that part, as the script called for it, and failed to capitalize on it, not the actor.

 

Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts has always promised to be something more than the traditional female foil for Stark, and her character’s above the love interest roles in the previous movies has always hinted at that. While I’d like to say it plays out here, she’s actually far more reduced in this film to that oh so traditional damsel in distress role. Even an important change in the last action scene doesn’t help change the fifteen or so minutes of traditional female stereotyping.

 

Don Cheadle’s role in this film is extremely small and mostly thrown in because… well, it wouldn’t feel like Iron Man if he didn’t have his buddy cop sidekick thrown in right? In all seriousness, Cheadle’s Iron Man suit plays more of a role than the actor himself, and this is unfortunate, especially after Iron Man 2 featured him prominently.

 

As the bad guys, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley do excellently in their given roles. While most people will be wondering how Kingsley does as the Mandarin, I can’t comment too much on that. He’s sinister and evil, but beyond that I can’t mention much. It’s pretty unforgettable though. Guy Pearce in everything except the intro of the movie is pretty much a classic douchebag over the top evil bad guy for Tony and others to beat up.

 

Score so Far: 7/10

Acting +0.2

New Score: 7.2/10

 

Score

 

The music in the superhero films have been missing something truly notable. You don’t remember Iron Man or Thor or Captain America scores anywhere near as much as I feel like I’m going to remember the new Superman score (the trailer already brings tones to my head) or any of the Batman movies. I guess Marvel gets the first collaborative movie and DC is going to get the musical talent.

 

Anyways, the score in this film is appropriate, nothing more nothing less.

 

Score so Far: 7.2/10

Score +0

New Score: 7.2/10

 

Enjoyability

 

And this is where my complaining is going to come back to get me. No matter what can be said about the filming, the story, or anything else, where these films ultimately come back is their universal likableness. These blockbusters are built from the ground up to sit you down and entertain you.

 

Iron Man particularly I’ve found to be one of the more enjoyable super hero series. The character is just fun to watch, in a similar strain to Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

Marvel’s universe provides inspiring action pieces, although as I already said, this is pretty par for the course. The final one in this movie is entertaining, but mostly at the very end.

 

I will say that Iron Man 3 features some bad guys that are, for lack of a better word, exhausting. Some regeneration factor comes in with them, and by the time you’ve seen a few of them shake off bullets, you begin to miss the mortality of previous villains in this series. Iron Man just seems to have lost a lot of his power from the first movie. Perhaps this is a good thing, but it threatens a serious problem for future films to continue outdoing themselves in increasingly outlandish ways.

 

Finally, a lot of Marvel’s stories revolve around characters, and does this to about as effective a point as Dragon Ball Z did back in the day. It’s cool, but it really begins to look like filler next to the set pieces, especially when characters refuse to change.

 

So, in the end, of course this is an enjoyable movie, it was designed that way. Hopefully, that sentence sounds a bit frustrating, as it is to me. When something is manufactured to be fun to you, that feels like its robbing me of my free choice to feel however I want about a movie. Iron Man entertains, but not in any particularly special way, minus the way in which Downy Jr. portrays Tony Stark.

 

Score so Far: 7.2/10

Enjoyablity: +0.2

Final Score: 7.4 /10

 

Final Notes

 

There was a lot of complaining in this review, but I did enjoy this movie. I just see a lot of potential with superhero movies, so to see them because this franchised thing is disappointing. I recall my Avengers review from last year where I desperately urged people to view Watchmen about a thousand times. This is because stories aren’t about just entertainment, but intellectual stimulation as well. They aren’t just about getting lessons told to us.

 

The inevitable everymen who step up in superhero stories to become demi-gods among men each say something about our society, and every hero has a unique way of saying it. So to see these wonderful heroes say the same thing over and over again really is disappointing.

 

This is why I urged Watchmen on people when the Avengers came out, because while it was supposed to be unique and special, it became an excuse for a multi-starred action set piece, which has since exploded into the biggest blockbuster draw force for almost every film coming out now. Fast and the Furious, The Expendables, Red, even Legends of the Guardians all have remixed the Avengers formula. Its times like these that we usually turn back towards the source of the innovation, waiting to see what it does in response to the trend it has begun.

 

And we almost always come up empty handed. But I think, there’s about to be a very good film that’s going to provide the Watchmen shaped hole in my heart some sort of support. Zach Snyder is at the head of Man of Steel, and from what I’ve seen, that film is going to be quite the experience. Also, anyone who even so much as mentions the name Nolan for the quality of that film is going to have a gigantic history lesson full of Gerard Butler’s only reason for having a career (300), and zombies (Dawn of the Dead). Also live action anime (Sucker Punch). And of course, Watchmen (Watchmen).

 

Final Score: 7.4/10

 

 

P.S. – The Video Review is still coming, its just taking longer to make than I anticipated. Keep your eyes peeled.