Superhero Critiques
.I haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet. I intend to see it, although my feeling about Batman Begins was that the first half was excellent and the second half execrable. I hope the second movie doesn’t continue the downward trend. I also have my doubts about the presence of Harvey Dent—I’ve never found that character compelling or believable, even in The Dark Knight Returns.
“I don’t believe in Harvey Dent” is a pretty good critique/rant about the recent superhero movies, including The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man. John Pistelli also covers The Dark Knight, and Hellboy II (which I also intend to see).
I did see Iron Man, and mostly enjoyed it even while wincing at its jingoistic elements and underlying message that American imperialism is all good except for the occasional corrupt traitor.
I do sometimes wonder how the superhero genre in its traditional form survives at all, but then tales of great evil opposed by great heroes are more or less guaranteed to be of general use to those upholding the status quo, which is usually itself a mundane evil happy to roll along without any heroes opposing it, and to crush or co-opt the occasional few that briefly jam the gears.