Skip to main content

How Not to Make an Audience Care

I recently watched Thor: Ragnarok, the latest in Marvel's seemingly endless torrent of superhero comedy/action movies. While I generally enjoyed it (at least compared to other films in the same genre), I found myself rather bored during many of the scenes which were intended to be the most dramatic. The movie puts an enormous amount of effort into epic music, gratuitous explosions, and intricately animated fight sequences, but many of its action scenes just felt like something to be waited through until something more interesting happened. In fact, I think you could cut out a solid 10 minutes of absurdly acrobatic duels and massacring of minions and the film would't actually lose anything of value.

Now, I should say that I am not bored by all action scenes. For example, Mad Max: Fury Road managed managed to keep me on the edge of my seat, and that movie is probably around 50% giant explosions. So what exactly did Thor: Ragnarok lack? After a fair amount of thought, I have come to the following conclusion: the action scenes weren't engaging because I didn't actually care what happened. For all of its special effects, the movie wasn't able to get me invested in what was going on. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters, the plot wasn't atypical enough to intrigue me, and there wasn't really any dramatic tension. After all, it's not like Marvel is going to allow one of their protagonists to lose in the end, much less actually die. 

This flaw in Thor: Ragnarok is made even worse by the fact that it is entirely possible to have extremely dramatic action scenes with the simplest of visuals, as long as the viewer actually cares. The webcomic Order of the Stick is a perfect example of this. It is a parody of Dungeons & Dragons/fantasy adventure drawn entirely in stick figures which still manages to be more exciting than any Marvel movie I've seen. This is due to a myriad of factors, foremost among them a genuinely well-written and unconventional plot, nuanced characters, and a real willingness on the part of the author to have the heroes lose, often quite badly. The plotline which runs from strip 623 to 663 is a particularly strong example of how action can be dramatic without extravagant special effects.













In the end, the viewer's enjoyment of action in any entertainment media is not dependent on the visuals with which it is portrayed, but rather on the interest they have in the characters and the situation. While it is unfortunately extremely unlikely that this will actually occur, I do hope that eventually Marvel realizes that story and characters are more important to the drama of a scene than grand spectacles of computer-generated destruction.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's Not Fantasy, It's "Magical Realism"

As you probably remember (if you're in Mr. Starace's class at least), Ms. Heitz semi-recently gave us  this article  explaining what magical realism is and how it differs from fantasy. As I read it, I became more and more irritated, finally deciding that I needed to write something demonstrating how it is emblematic of a significant problem in how those who analyze literature view certain genres. Luckily, I have a blog where there is a possibility that someone might actually read my rant on the subject, so here are my thoughts on why magical realism is not a distinct literary genre, but a category of fantasy literature. Literary critics, wanting to feel more discerning than the average reader, are loath to ascribe literary merit to popular "genre fiction": fantasy, science fiction, mystery, horror, etc. They were thus presented with a conundrum when a new style of writing arose in Latin America. It was full of supernatural elements, and thus fit the standard defi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking the Shackles of Ancestry

I very recently had the good fortune to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi , and while there were a host of things I liked about the movie, there was one which especially stood out: the identity of Rey's parents. Now, if you haven't seen the movie yet, please go do so before reading the rest of this post. It really is excellent and will be better the less you know about it going in (I purposefully did not watch any previews or trailers beforehand, and that definitely enhanced the experience). Now that you've returned (or have already seen the movie, or just don't care about spoilers) I will continue. In The Last Jedi , it is revealed that Rey's parents were... (drumroll, please)... not named characters, but a pair of inconsequential nobodies who sold her to buy alcohol. Yes, that's right, Rey is not descended from anyone important. It may strike you as odd that I would be so excited by this, so I will endeavor to explain why it's one of the better parts of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do We Really Want the Trump Administration Censoring the Media?

MissRepresentation was an excellent documentary. Before watching it, I was already aware of many of the problems with the representation of women in media which it illuminates, but I was still impressed at how comprehensive and powerful its argument was. However, I disagree with the film on one major point: I do not think that media content should be further regulated by the government or any other organization, even with the purpose of reducing the objectification of women. To see why this kind of regulation could be so problematic, it is helpful to look at the history of media censorship in the United States. From 1930 to 1968, almost all American movies were produced under the  Motion Picture Production Code , a set of rules governing what could be shown onscreen. The rules were intended to safeguard public virtue by eliminating immoral content from the media and were created by the film industry itself to preempt government regulation. While the idea of such a code may seem l...
5 comments
Read more