Friday, April 1
I
took a little break from this blog....I just got really busy
during February and March!
Things have been crazy. Anyway, every week I do just
about the same things. I work on our
primetime news pages
daily. This
weeks page is here and
next week's
will be here. Mondays through Fridays, I run our
Daytime soap
transcripts and put them up. I sometimes will do TV
interviews or
reviews, but I've
fallen behind on both of those as well. I hope to catch up
this week. I've been trying to start some new sections for
our site for other shows I want to cover. In the
meantime, I'm always putting up more actor
appearances,
and show news and spoilers for
the shows we
already cover. That keeps me pretty busy!
This week I want to talk about critics and superheroes.
Many critics, that are employed b
y
newspapers and magazines (print media) as well as many
online blogs, were trained in journalism or they got film
degrees. I was a liberal arts major, and I started out first
as a music major, then later I took English lit courses,
where I did learn about literary critique (which is similar
to TV and movie critique). I'm guessing that art and
music critique are similar. Critics are trained find
the "best" works, the ones that not only entertain us but
also move us or leave some sort of great impression on the
world that may last for centuries.
In truth, taking literary criticism courses nearly ruined
reading for me. Since I was trained to read a novel or
story from that point of view, I couldn't just read for
enjoyment. Also, I found that a lot of the so-called classic
literature is really sad and depressing. I'm glad that I
didn't
have
to continue along that track because I really love reading
for fun, almost as much as I love going to the movies or
watching TV for fun.
So as a TV critic here on my site, I watch shows for fun.
When it comes to review them, I don't care about whether the
show has any great art or historical value. It's TV, ok?
Yes, it's literature of a sort, but it's meant for the
passes. It's not great art. I'm not saying that some TV
can't be great art, but that's not really the point of it.
The point is entertainment. So when I write a review,
it's to tell you whether I think it's worth watching or not.
Is it entertaining? Did the jokes make me laugh? Is it fun?
Do you care about the characters?
Now, personally, I tend to like scifi, fantasy, and comic
books (especially superheroes), so I'm very happy that there
are so many of these now in movies and TV shows. When a film
or TV critic watches these things, they rarely give them
good reviews. If they do, then often I find
that the movie is trying so hard to be artsy or a "great
film" that they're not good for those of us who love to just
go to the movies and have a good time. I usually watch
all of the superhero movies and ignore the critics because I
usually love the movies regardless because they remind me of
when I was a kid, reading comics, or watching old shows like
"The Adventures of Superman" or the old "Superfriends"
cartoons. They make me laugh, and I enjoy watching people in
costumes fly through the air and beat the bad guys. This is
why movies like "The Avengers" are great.
Nowadays it seems like the anti-heroes are bigger than
the heroes, so you can't just have Superman. You have to
have a conflicted Superman. For instance, in "Smallville,"
Clark was afraid to fly, and he became dark for a while,
almost like Batman. I hate when they do that
crap.
I enjoyed "Smallville" -- don't get me wrong. I also loved
"Lois and Clark" and the current "Supergirl." I just don't
like all that angsty silly stuff. Heroes need to be
heroes, not screwed-up jerks. I only want to see villains
lose, not get their own movie.
Now, don't get me wrong because I really love "Daredevil"
on Netflix, and he's pretty dark. However, they did such a
great job of capturing the character from the comics that I
grew up with, that I don't mind that it's dark. He was
always kind of dark, anyway. I do love "Arrow," too,
but he's certainly nothing like the "Green Arrow" comics I
grew up with. I much prefer "The Flash" because it's
brighter and more fun. I can enjoy darker shows like
"Gotham" and just remind myself that this is an alternative
"Batman," not the one I used to enjoy (which is also how I
enjoyed "Smallville.)
I just read a really scathing review of this season's
"Daredevil" in Entertainment Weekly. Well, I haven't
finished watching it yet, but so far I'm enjoying it. I
seldom agree with EW's reviews, especially when it comes to
superhero movies or shows because they are not fans. They
review from their own point of view that has nothing to do
with what I enjoy, or what you enjoy.
The people making the superhero TV shows and movies just
want to make money. Luckily, they don't care too much about
the critics, either.
I love all of the superhero TV shows, so I hope they keep
coming up with more.
Although I was mostly a DC fan growing up, I also read
plenty of Marvel comics. I've loved all of the "X-Men"
movies, even though I don't like their costumes. I'm so sick
of all the muted-colored leather they wear now instead of
the bright colored costumes I enjoyed in the comics. The
stories and acting were great, though. I love the Iron-Man
and Captain America movies, and about half the Spider-man
movies. I liked the first Avengers movie okay, but the
second one was better. Ant-Man and Deadpool were perfect. I
enjoyed the Fantastic Four movies and didn't hate the recent
one as much as everyone else. I didn't mind Ghost Rider or
Green Lantern, either, even though both bombed. The
critics and fans alike loved "Guardians of the Galaxy," but
I was not thrilled with it. It was okay. It reminded me of
"Star Wars," not superheroes.
The DC movies are hit-or-miss, except for the great
animated movies they do that usually come out direct-to-DVD.
Those are fabulous. I don't know why their live action
movies can't be as good.
Now, perhaps my standards are just low because I seem to
enjoy almost any TV or movie version of superheroes. Some I
like better than others. I really haven't enjoyed most of
the recent version of Batman or Superman, but then again, I
wasn't too thrilled with the Christopher Reeves version,
either. Part of that is because it was really the
first good superhero movie to come along, and I didn't like
how they changed so much from the comics. I also didn't
think Reeves was a great choice because his voice was too
high. Superman needs to have a deep, authoritative voice.
However, over time, I've grown up a bit and realized that
the movies and shows will never do things exactly like I
want them to, so I just have to enjoy them
for
what they are. (Comics change all the time, too, so even if
a movie were exactly like the comics of any particular year,
it would not be the same as the ones from another time
period) I loved the first "Batman" movie and most of
the others since then have not really measured up to it.
Tomorrow I'm going to see "Batman v. Superman," and my
expectations are low. I really hated the last two Superman
movies because they were too dark. (I didn't mind "Superman
Returns" nearly as much) I'll let you know if I hate it or
not, but I'm fairly sure, judging from criticisms I've seen,
that it's not great art. But who cares? Not me, and I'm
guessing, not most fans.
You can find my older blog posts at
http://www.tvmegs.com
Chronicles
- My personal blog, which is not about TV.
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