The suspension of disbelief is something that I find incredibly important when it comes to storytelling. Any fictional universe, realistic or not, needs to have it's own idea of what can and cannot happen within its world. With this recent trend of superhero movies taking place in more and more realistic settings, I actually find the stories themselves becoming less engaging and increasingly unrealistic in their own contexts.
Superheroes, by definition, are a thing of fantasy. After all, if Superman couldn't fly, if the Flash couldn't run, and if Spider-Man couldn't sling webs, then they wouldn't be superheroes at all. Superheroes always have the exaggerated, extraordinary powers that intentionally subvert what is real...that's kind of the point. So to put these characters in situations where they have to deal with the trauma of every incident, explain away the unrealistic aspects of their worlds with pseudoscientific justifications or deal with the mundane aspects of reality detracts from the escapist glee of superhero films in general.
Even without powers, Batman's assortment of technology and the fact that he fights supervillains makes me still think of him as a superhero.
The same rules of reality apply to supervillains, where placing them in a realistic setting ruins the fun of them. In Batman Returns, both The Penguin and Catwoman come from very unrealistic backstories. The Penguin is born to the wealthy Cobblepot family, who dumps him in the creek after discovering that he is deformed. In a real world setting, this would have to be played as a very heartfelt, sympathetic scene where the audience sees that the Cobblepots are cold hearted monsters and Oswald is a tragic hero. Now, while this may be somewhat true in Batman Returns, it is definitely played up for laughs (see the happy "Merry Christmas" that the Cobblepots say to the other family as they go to murder their child). Tim Burton's version of Gotham is clearly disassociated with reality, so it's easier to accept this strange situation because that's just how things are in Gotham.
Plus, fantasy worlds allow for jokes like this to not seem out of place.
Ridiculous? Yes. Fitting? Also yes.
The same is also true for Catwoman, who's revived through the power of cat tongues and turned into a confident and vengeful version of herself. The audience might wonder for a minute how this is possible, but in the Whoville-esque Gotham where reality has been thrown out the window, this origin story is much more believable. The story can move past these origin stories and into the evil schemes of the baddies without lingering too much on the explanations.
Two morally corrupted cities driven by nonsense and injustice. But it works.
Compare this to the 2016 movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Placing this movie in the real world causes the audience to ask more questions about things that happen. How can Batman build a suit that's stronger than the Man of Steel? How does Lex Luthor make a monster out of General Zod's body? Placing these stories in the real world just leaves the audience questioning things that they wouldn't in a fantasy world. Along with this, the fun and cool powers of Superman and the cunning of Batman are weighed down by heavy (and quite frankly, boring) real world politics about the morality of the existence of someone like Superman. As fun as the idea of Batman and Superman fighting each other would be, any potential that this movie has to be interesting is lost through trying to fit this ridiculous (yet fun) idea into a realistic narrative.
Why does this movie have to try and be so serious? Let the bat and the alien man punch each other!
Villains also get watered down in these more realistic universes. A lot of the stylistic flair that makes supervillains so interesting gets sacrificed when they're placed into the the modern world with real life implications. Take Suicide Squad, where the actual villain of the story, The Enchantress, is an incredibly generic "evil magician" character. I understand that it's difficult to try and make realistic villains appealing without glorifying real terrorists and otherwise evil people, but that doesn't excuse that even the most interesting heroes become a lot less interesting when battling a boring and one-note villain.
Enchantress creates a weapon to kill people because she wants to. That's all we get to know.
It's easier for not only the audience but also the filmmaker to place these crazy superhuman characters in an equally crazy world. Superheroes and supervillains are much more flexible in a fantasy environment, and this versatility allows these movies to become much more interesting and refreshing. Although it may be fun to ask ourselves "What would it be like if superheroes were real?", the result is almost always a drab, disappointing and weaker version of original superhero stories. I come to superhero movies for superheroes, not for long, dark dramas that are restricted to the laws of the real world. But maybe that's just me.
Plus, realism ends up with scenes like this. MARTHAAAAA
Comments
Post a Comment