So
I just watched a cool movie, it’s called “X-Men, Apocalypse”. Yes, this will be
a post regarding superheroes, a rip-off of Ethan Lee’s posts (Shout out). In
case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer so you get an idea.
So you get the idea, all powerful god person wants to
destroy the world, school kid learns he can shoot lasers out of his eyes,
person gets their consciousness invaded by a bluish-green guy. It’s a typical
day in the X-Men universe. Blah blah blah, same story. There! Move your eyes about
157 pixels to the left, and there’s our discussion. The same story.
(By the way, if you haven’t
noticed yet, I watch a lot of movies. Like you could fill the Titanic at the
bottom of the sea with the movies I watch and it would sink straight through earth’s
crust into the mantle where even magma couldn’t melt the Titanic because of the
sheer mass of movies. Huh, weird analogy. Point is I watch a bunch of movies.)
So
if you haven’t noticed the equation of superhero movies, here it is. Take a
beat-up forgotten actor, make him a superhero, pit him against an unbeatable
opponent, have him learn some lesson about life, shoot an energy beam into the
sky (preferably blue) and have him beat the
unbeatable opponent, then kiss the lover and walk into the sunset. Most, if not
all superhero movies utilize this formula. The question I ask is simple: why?
Why is using a very predictable and repeatable formula effective in creating
one of the most popular movie genres?
First question I ask is: who is this kind of movie
marketed to? Simple answer is teenagers like us.
(So ha Mr. Starace, I was
able to connect X-Men to Merchants of Cool somehow)
So (I do like to use “so” to start sentences) first piece
of evidence to support the notion, first is using teen rebellion as a product
to sell. Many superhero movies include a teenager or young adult of some form
or shape, and that figure is often the one pitted against the unbeatable
opponent, thus eventually beating the opponent. Teenagers then can transfer
themselves into the position of the hero and feel like they can accomplish
anything to defeat the unbeatable villain (aka the parents). Selling this idea
of conquering the unconquerable appeals to the teenage population, and thus
giving a reason to watch those movies.
Another line of evidence is the use of the Mook and
Midriff archetypes presented in Merchants of Cool. For example:
Mook
Midriff
The
man in the first picture, (Quicksilver) is a young man, yet still lives in his
mother’s basement with videogames. He is also immature most of the time, and
cracks a lot of jokes, typical mook. The woman in the second picture, (Psylocke)
is a young woman, most likely straight out of the school for gifted children,
yet she is shown dressed in scandalous clothes while dominating the battlefield
with a really cool laser blade coming out of her arm. The appearance of these
two archetypes show the attempt to appeal to the young population, in order to
satisfy what the viewers want.
So
here’s the reason why the formula for movies work so well. The producers use
the same methods over and over again to appeal to the viewers completely
unrelated to the story. Once they hit the perfect balance of violence, idiocy,
and sexuality, the actual storyline no longer matters, as long as the views
appeal to the viewer. So, in a form of laziness, the producers decide to use the
same plot over and over again because they already hit what appeals to the
viewers.
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