Monday, March 28, 2016

On Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

(Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead)

There's a moment in the titular fight scene of Batman vs. Superman in which the camera pauses on Superman's face.  It briefly appears as if he's had a moral realization and might try to reach for something deep.  Instead he returns to his pointless, CGI-filled fight with Batman.  That scene more or less summarizes my frustrations wit Dawn of Justice.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

On Zootopia

(Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead)

There's a scene in Zootopia in which red fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) wants to join the animal equivalent of the boy scout troop.  He shows up for his first meeting, only for them to tie him down, put him in a muzzle, and taunt him mercilessly.  The other animals are prey, whereas Nick is a predator.  In this scene, the supposed prey verbally assume the worst in the supposed predator, but their actions paint the prey as the true aggressors.  The bullies are accusing the bullied of being too dangerous.  It's a metaphor for the some of the ways minorities are oppressed in America, and a nice encapsulation of the movie's central conceit that outside appearances rarely tell the whole story.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

On Hail, Ceasar! and Deadpool

(Spoiler alert: spoilers ahead)

Hail, Caesar!
In an act of not so subtle foreshadowing, Hail, Caesar! opens with crisis-management "fixer" Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) giving confession, followed by driving through heavy rain to put out a fire involving one of the actresses at the studio for which he works.  The rest of the movie bathes in the resplendent Southern California sun, but raindrops keep falling on Eddie's head.