As fans of various genre narratives, I wonder if we have appropriate expectations or even appropriate desires from our entertainment. Do we want smart, considered meditations on the possibilities of the future or alternate worlds? Or do we want dumb escapist fun that takes our mind to more entertaining places than our current realities? Do we want each sometimes? Is there a happy medium between the two?
Let me bring out some examples, such as the Matrix. Personally, I think the idea of keeping humans around as a power source for machines is dumb. I think that controlling of that source of power using an elaborate virtual reality that occasionally frees people to create an opposition that requires destroying as part of an elaborate cycle is really dumb. Yet, I think that a cool virtual reality where people can do amazing things and fight scary agents is pretty fun and exciting. The problem is, I have a hard time rationalizing the dumb parts with my brain and rationalizing the mundane parts with my gut. I want visceral experiences but I want them to make sense. I want quirky, ginchy coolness but I want it to follow some kind of real world rules.
For instance, you know who lacks any logical ability to fly under any possible understanding of aerodynamics? The Rocketeer. You know who has a sweet helmet and costume? Yup, you guessed it.
If this made sense, you would be looking at the coolest quadriplegic with third degree ass-burns in the world.
Should I be thinking about why Wolverine’s claws wouldn’t cut easily through metal no matter how hard or sharp his claws? Or should I enjoy Wolverine fucking people up in cool and interesting ways?
I face the same paradox as a creator as I do as a fan. When writing a screenplay, a comic script, or even a D&D adventure, I need to balance the child-like fun with logical sense. I’m not talking about the creation of derivative material (that will be another post) but the creation of material we know doesn’t make sense but makes us feel good, or happy, or excited. If you watch Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, some people thinking that ginchy giant robots are amazing. Others wonder why you would have have a flying machine with flapping wings. The balance of sense and wonder is completely subjective.
So we get to my problem. I want my heart to soar, but keep my head from hurting. Is this possible? Is this a problem for anyone else? I feel like this is my biggest dilemma as a fan of geek culture. It is something I have touched on before and will return to again.
The Occasional Scott Brown 
goddamn i remember seeing that rocketeer poster and being soooooooo fucking stoked. goddamn! jetpacks are cool. (i think you are seeing where i generally fall on this issue)….but really it’s a case by case thing. I don’t think many people give a shit that there are explosions in the space of the original star wars…because they were too busy giving a shit about the well done fantasy and characters/actors who had at least some chemistry on the screen together. sky captain is completely stylized, and i find that the absurd technology works in that film because the level of pulp is consistent through the whole thing, it’s also a movie that you decide if you’re going to like it or not in the first 5 minutes….the rocketeer is a tough example actually (the film, if not the comic) because the movie has enough straight up plain ol’ real shit that it’s a little harder to swallow the fact that there’s one dude in a cool ass helmet flying around,he doesn’t fit.
i agree that a lot of the ideas behind the Matrix are totally effing stupid, but i wonder if i would be as critical of these basic plot points if i was more enamored with the overall badass sunglasses and leather clothes gunfighting thing. I like it ok, but i’m not getting out of it what other people do. I’d be interested to hear examples of movies/media that you guys feel walk the line between these sensibilities really well.
One example- Raiders of the lost ark -tends do this really well
– its all in the setup in the first act. We get bits of character, we understand the world he lives in. So once that ridiculus gaint boulder comes out, you are saying- of course it would be a gaint boulder! When you include an element of style or the fantastic, the audience will need to buy into that or not. Its when you drop that stuff in later, that audiences are more likely to go- no way, i dont buy it, ruined it!
as unrealistic as Jones swimming along side a submarine to the secret nazi island is, there is more acceptance of it cause of all the gaint boulders,boobytraps,medalion hand burning,snake pits and nazi sympathing monkeys.
A film like DIE HARD- another great example. First 15 minutes- i know everything i need to know-john mcclane, family situation, the setting, and who the bad guys are. its all setup and you believe these people are more then just cardboard cutouts, so the unrealistic action or situation can then be accepted. You are there with John mcClane, believing it.
The Boulder was unrealistic in Raiders? How the hell did that spear trap work? Ancient Hovito Photo-receptors? How the hell was there still air pressure in those seventy thousand dart guns that the ancient Hovitans had buried in the wall? Questions like this…
We have this porno at the Video Store called Kung Fu Girls number something, anyway, on the back is a bunch of naked girls in ninja masks having sex with naked guys in kung fu headbands AND ONE GUY in an Indian Headdress… I pointed it out to a co-worker and was like: “What the…? How and no one on set had the heart to tell him?” And my co-worker just shook his head and said: “Don’t ask, that way lies madness.”
So, I think it all comes down to whether or not you like the silly thing. I “like” Equilibrium, not that much, but enough, so its completely asinine and unnessecary anti-emotion pill thing, not to mention Gun-kata… eh… I let it slide.
Plus, I think half the time, its a “whats the point” type situation. Pointing out how dumb Equilibrium is like pushing down an whiny little kid: Easy. Fun. But you don’t get any respect for it. Observations like: “How do you make a screaming banked turns in space?” or “How come everyone speaks English in Star Trek?” or “Why the hell won’t giant man just shrink down and drink out of a regular-ass sized tea cup?” are usually only answerable with “Yeah, duh… thats just how it is.”
Unless you don’t like the thing, then… pile on!
Also, the Rocketeer is so sweet looking that I can almost forget how terrible the movie was and think about re-watching it.
I don’t, but, you know… I think about it.
I think a lot of it has to do with how much of the plot hinges on your belief of a really really stupid idea. The premise of the movie can start with something implausible as long as everything proceeds logically from that point forward. The problem is when the rules of the implausible world stop making sense according to its own system. I think this is what you were describing Mike.
The matrix is offensively dumb to me because they actually spent time to try to explain this stupid thing as if it could make sense but no one behaves accordingly. Despite Neo’s ability to alter virtual reality, he still engages the Matrix on its own terms. Not strategically reasonable.
Terminator on the other hand…yeah, he’s a robot from the future. Figure it out. Or don’t. It’s your call, but we’re not getting into it more than that. The main thing you have to buy is that Sarah Connor is scared of robot Arnold and that unless she get’s a time machine, she has to deal with it.
I do have to say that in general I want a movie to be either beyond any question of plausibility (Equilibrium, Iron Man, Spider-man for instance) or to be a mixture of some real science, speculative sociology, and magic (Solaris, 2001, Bladerunner, Dune). Who’s going to see Moon?!
I really wanna see Moon, but dunno when it opens in philly, is it already out on NYC?
It’s out this weekend here in NY. Only 3 theaters are showing it though.
I am really looking forward to Moon and District 9. Also 9. And Iron Man 2.
Raise your hand if, when you first heard that Rourke was cast you went: “Man…” And then saw the pisture of Whiplash and went: “Hmmm…”
Fette has a jet pack and he is bad ass. Anyway when I read, create, or watch fanstasy its just that. It doesn’t need to be logical because it is fantasy, but sometimes it can be just plain stupid and not entertaining, i.e. Journey to the Center of the Earth, thanks HBO…not only can I be unemployed but I can be completely bored out of my mind. Maybe everyone speaks English in Star Trek because it is the universal nautical language, so when exploration moves beyond our waters and into the universe on a large scale they will extend English to be the universal universe language. I personally liked Equilibrium because of the action scenes and Christian Bale, I’ve had a thing for him since Mio min Mio (which I have on vhs). Conclusion, I am a lame nerd…now I’m off to raid.
See, I think thats a cheat. It does have to make sense. It has to. IA fantasy world has to support itself somehow, if not by it’s own rules at least, then by the “real” world’s, because if it doesn’t, then some jerk is going to come along and stomp on your sandcastle and nobody wants that.
Underworld(wear) is a good example a movie that didn’t bother to think about its rules and as a result: ppppppphhhhbtt!Thumbs down.
Or take Dr. Strange in the New Avengers — He can’t do anything when it would help. When they’re falling out of the sky?
“Can you teleport us?”
“Oh no, man, but that would be helpful, huh…”
But when three missiles are heading their way? (And after the first two have already hit the Quinjet…) The Doc takes care of the last one with a simple wave of his hand… Why? Why can he suddenly do something here, but not there? There are no rules and it ends up seeming like a cheat both ways.
Magic and fantasy has to have rules, because we ALL notice when it doesn’t and then we start making fun of it, and once you start making fun… it loses something. But what can you do? Its either make fun or become an apologist (God forbid).