The Official Movie Thread

[CiG]

Ben Shapiro commented favorably quite a lot on the Nolan films, calling them pro-capitalist or some shit. I dunno, I think with generic popcorn cinema anybody can project their own biases onto them.

 

[rms]

that'd be a real stretch to my eyes. but as Ein said, lumping Nolan's films into the larger comic book body of work is misleading and not appropriate

 

[CiG]

Chilling, watching some vampire ozploitation.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

Adam Sandler standup on Netflix was good

 

[challenge_everything]

Lets just agree to disagree, you're taking personal interpretations to make your points way further than I ever did.

I think what is happening a lot lately is that masculine fantasies are being conflated with a right-wing fantasy, because for some reason masculinity itself is perceived as right-wing these days.

I really can't be fucked with this argument any more either, but I'm not trying to shoehorn a political agenda onto these movies, I genuinely walked out of Civil War and Infinity War thinking that they were right leaning films. I haven't seen Age of Ultron, and don't recall the first film exhibiting any kind of agenda.

No left-wing government has ever put "traitors" on trial or punishes social and political dissidents. That's strictly an inherently right-wing trait because muh political science?

Don't be ridiculous, of course that's not what I'm arguing. It is the context of the dissidents opposing a quasi-military force operating outside multilateral government control. I distinctly remember in Civil War there were characters advocating for the Avengers to be placed under UN oversight, who were largely given a negative portrayal.

I actually think viewing Thanos as a hard left extremist is the least controversial part of my whole analysis. He is a classic Malthusian ideologue. I had to google this quote: "“The universe is finite, its resources are finite. If left unchecked it will cease to exist". Seems pretty obviously left wing.

 

[challenge_everything]

Also I haven't seen Black Panther but have seen it described as a left leaning film

Spoiler

Michael B Jordan's antagonist Killmonger was widely regarded as one of the best things about the movie and with good reason: he’s not really bad at all. His grievances are actually perfectly valid: how could resource-rich Wakanda stand by and let all these atrocities – slavery, colonialism, world wars, racism – happen to their African brothers and sisters? Wakanda is like a Black Switzerland. It stands aloof and neutral (come to think of it, so does Wonder Woman’s home, Themiscyra). Killmonger is defeated, but he wins the argument: Black Panther realises he’s not the good guy! At the close of the movie, Wakanda begins to engage with the rest of the world, albeit on its own limited terms, which are a far cry from the armed uprising Killmonger had in mind.

 

[CiG]

An opposition to Malthusian thinking isn't obviously right-wing, even if Malthusian thinking itself is left-wing. Marx himself wrote in opposition to Malthus at one point.

But I think you are doing some politically biased shoehorning if you think Hydra is there in place of communism.

Also the irony of the politics in Black Panther is astounding and are really only seen as left-wing because "muh minorities" TBH. Wakanda is an isolationist ethno-state with superior technology while maintaining its ethnic culture with a firm grip. Richard Spencer would jizz all over himself if given a state like that.

 

[challenge_everything]

Goddamn it, I don't even like Marvel movies and I've devoted 2 pages to a political critique of them.

 

[CiG]

This is the most I've ever thought about those films TBH. It has probably set me back at least a year for even wanting to rewatch them so that's good.

 

[challenge_everything]

Most of my superhero movie viewing comes from flying or being stuck in hotels in non-English speaking countries where there always seems to be a Fox sports channel and another playing Marvel movies round the clock.

 

[CiG]

Think of all the sitcoms and movies that made "oh not this movie again" airplane movie jokes, those movies are now superhero movies.

"Oh no, not Thor: Dark World again" [complimentary peanut packet explodes hilariously]

 

[rms]

Also I haven't seen Black Panther but have seen it described as a left leaning film

any film with black excellence will likely be pegged as a leftist movie, but it's all about interventionism and saving those who need your help. at heart, a stereotypical american foreign policy film with black faces

 

[CiG]

NW:

 

[challenge_everything]

any film with black excellence will likely be pegged as a leftist movie, but it's all about interventionism and saving those who need your help. at heart, a stereotypical american foreign policy film with black faces

Read the spoiler quote in my earlier post, the analysis goes a bit further than that. Of course, I can't speak to its accuracy.

 

[rms]

I dont remember Wakanda being pro-black (which Kilmonger was anti whitey) at the end, but they are pro-intervention which is the idea driving American foreign policy since WW1

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Tonight:

Spoiler

 

[CiG]

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

Last night

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

But the films are different beasts than the comics, which were often significantly more complex in their representation of political disagreement and conflict (at least once you get into 1980s/90s--the original comics from the WWII era were virtually propaganda).

the movies are written directed produced edited in such a way as to entertain the specific people who know absolutely nothing about superheros except what they are seeing in the movies

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Watching:

Spoiler