Tag Archives: heroes

The supernatural cinema

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I find it fascinating how much entertainment is based on the supernatural. Movies and television shows are filled with superpowers, ghosts, magical powers, and talking animals. It’s not good enough for someone just to be evil, they need to be possessed. The wardrobe leads to an alternate world, so does the rabbit hole. A radio active spider, an unusual electrical storm, or even prophecy propel an otherwise normal person into a realm of heroism and chaos that are beyond the norms of every day life.

Even when there are no extra or supernatural powers, there are feats of incredible athleticism and often pure luck that get a protagonist out of dire trouble. Secret agents or regular unsuspecting people faced with impossibly complicated scenarios, saving the country or the world from eminent destruction.

I love when a story feels new. When the formula is a little broken and it’s not just a hero’s journey story being retold with the same, usually happy ending. I hate when the Americanized storytelling ends with a group of people applauding the protagonist, as he or she finds love, or receives a medal, or defeats the alien invasion.

Do we really need a cast audience to tell the movie going audience to clap or to be happy?

I love escaping into a good movie or TV show, but my definition of good has changed a lot. Get rid of the cliche endings, or the hero who finds the perfect solution to every scenario. It’s fine to have supernatural experiences, just don’t rehash old storylines with better effects. Share something I really haven’t seen before… that’s what appeals to me now.

Suggestions for movies and shows that do this would be greatly appreciated.

Broke the mold

I enjoyed television until a couple shows broke the mold. Then, many shows disappointed me because they became too predictable. The shows that changed the watching experience for me were Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Both of these had me bought in, made me a fan, gave me characters I really enjoyed… then killed them off!

At first this was hard to accept. But then suddenly the show got better. At any moment a favourite cast member could be killed off.

I grew up on Scooby Doo, The Lone Ranger, Magnum PI, The 6 Million Dollar Man, The Rockford Files, Starsky & Hutch Charlie’s Angels, Chips, Hawaii 5-0, The A-Team, the cartoon version of Spiderman, and many more shows that had similar formulas… the good guys always win in the end, and no matter how perilous, the star characters always survived.

As soon as this mold was broken, these shows, and the many series that followed them, seemed terribly simplistic. I mean, they were simplistic before these shows changed the formula, but having gone through the experience of a series with characters that could die at any moment, the old drama/suspense/mystery formula just ceased to be enjoyable.

In July I got into listening to a novel series called ‘The Grey Man’ by Mark Greaney. The Grey Man is a former spy who is a hired mercenary who only hunts bad guys, but is also targeted by the CIA, and his former colleagues.

I was really excited to see that a movie version came out, but it was painfully bad. I know that movies have to take liberties when moving from text to screen, but this movie had the Gray Man do many things that undermined his character. He didn’t work alone. He chose a dangerous hand-to-hand Hollywood ending battle over an easy kill. Essentially, for the sake of a few dramatic scenes, they ignored his true character and put him into the hero mold that most movies have… but it is precisely because he didn’t fit that mold that I and many others liked this character.

I really don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I do I don’t want to see the same boring formula that has been used for years. I want to watch shows where the mold has been broken, and the story isn’t watered down to fit a cliche formula that no longer appeals to me… not that it ever really did, it’s just what was available.