Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Yes, it is a direct
responsa to the mess that the U.S. is currently in, but it is also a response
to my family’s latest visit to our house – we all have barely survived the two
weeks of holidays staying in the same house, (ok, apartment building),
cooped-up together – it was that bad. I do not want to dwell on it, however, so
let me just reassure my followers by proclaiming that I am not dead yet, and
move on.
…The entire U.S. situation is not something that I want to
discuss – not yet. By opening his big mouth, the Donald revealed himself to be
an idiot of the highest caliber and quality, one that apparently hates the U.S.
with a passion that not even Putin come close to, and one who should’ve been
removed from the Capitol, the White House, etc., etc., a long time ago.
Instead, we got a hot mess between the Republicans and the Democrats once again,
and the Donald keeps on wheeling and flying over the U.S. unhindered.
Seriously, do the American politicians consider other American people to be
worthy of mattering? Alternatively, do they ignore them completely? Yes, some
corporations have cut-off their funding either to the Donald or to the both of
the abovementioned political parties – and this does not brighten the picture
in the D.C. either, but still…
…At any rate, I have tried to distract myself by watching
the new DC movie, ‘Batman: Soul of the Dragon’, and… I have regretted it. One
of the worst wastes of my life and time ever!
Here is the thing. WW84 is a wonderful movie, (pun
intended), just dealing with the modern political issues in atypical ways, as I
have written last year about it. Hence all the rage from the independent movie
critics and connoisseurs, (or whatever they are supposed to be). Those that are
more dependent, like the IGN, of course, sing accolades to WW84 instead – but IGN
have sang accolades to the ‘Dragon-Bat’ film as well. What is the problem here?
It is banal. WW84 has plenty of content, something that none
of its’ critics deny. Not everyone is liking WW84’s political content, and not
everyone is recognizing it for what it is, but it is present; WW84 has put
itself onto a higher rung of the ladder of the movies’ worth, and right now, WB
and HBO believe that it is a winning horse, (and rightly so) – WW84 is trying
to do something else than just to entertain – it is trying to educate about the
social and gender norms, (aside from anything else). ‘Dragon-Bat’ does not do
anything like that. Instead, it is a straightforward fic, er, flick, about
Batman teaming up with several other DC characters to bring down the Kobra
cult. Pause.
Here is the thing. It is not a bad concept on its’ own, and ‘Dragon-Bat’
isn’t entirely a bad movie, it is only forgettable: none of the characters
really have much of defining characteristics outside of martial arts – and everyone
in the ‘Dragon-Bat’ has martial arts. The ‘dragon’ part seems to be coming from
Richard Dragon, one of the movie’s main characters, and who got the worst part
of the deal – lady Shiva has appeared in all sort of DC franchises and so has
the Bronze Tiger/Ben Turner; I, in particular, remember his incarnation in the ‘Batman:
The Brave and The Bold’ cartoons, and I got to say – I liked this version
better. There he had backstory and traits that made him different from the rest
of the BB characters – yes, it is obvious, but it needs to be said. Here, in ‘Dragon-Bat’,
he is not, and neither is Richard Dragon, who seems to be little more than
Batman’s/Bruce Wayne’s pale shadow instead, (somewhat how Homer’s Menelaus was
a shadow of Odysseus in both ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’). After all, unlike lady
Shiva and Ben Turner, he doesn’t have much of a presence outside of the DC
comics… anything else?
Sadly, no. ‘Dragon-Bat’ doesn’t focus much on its
characters; they appear to be almost interchangeable, and none of them appear
to be too interested in each other beyond what the game – I mean, the movie –
demands of them. ‘Dragon-Bat’ feels like a badly filmed RPG, in other terms.
Lady Shiva, for example, is one of the more interesting female characters in DC
– and here she is just a crime lord in the local Chinatown. Pardon me, a top
crime lord or something. Fancy that. Do the other characters care? Not really.
Is it all that important within the greater movie? Also not really. Ouch.
And the same can be addressed towards the Dark Knight
himself, though he is a special case, actually. Yes, he is the Dark Knight, the
Caped Crusader and so on, but he is more of a masked detective than a dragon
slayer instead – somehow, here he feels redundant – even IGN admitted that in
this movie his role could’ve been taken over by Richard Dragon or by anyone
else, with the plot of the movie being none the worse. Only… the ‘names’ of
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and so on have selling power that the ‘names’
of Richard Dragon or Ben Turner or even lady Shiva lack. Batman is here to make
‘soul of the Dragon’ sell, first and foremost, and everything else is
redundant. Ouch!
But then again, everything about ‘Dragon-Bat’ is redundant
and forgettable: yes, it is fun to watch once, but nothing else: you watch it
once and probably will not watch it again. WW84, on the other hand? Has staying
power and will be staying in discussions for the next little while, even as the
‘Dragon-Bat’ will not be. However, that is real life for you. It sucks.
This is it for now – see you all soon.
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