On Superheroes

I've finally decided what I'm going to use this page for. Heroes. Well, not the ridiculous TV show. I've always been a comic book fan, and there has been a fairly new and remarkable trend of bringing superheroes form comic books into another thing that I love: Movies. This stipulates a very interesting genre, Comic Book Movies. The adaptation of a serial comic book has different liberties than the adaptation of any other medium, and it's fascinating to see some of the decisions that go into bringing these classic stories to the big screen. But even more than that, I think the comic genre is the perfect platform for philosophy and theology, and the themes naturally translate into the movies. Just the idea of Superheroes communicates the need for justice, the idea of transcendence, and transformation for the human race, and the idealization of certain archetypes that represent our highest values as a society.

Superman is of course the prime example of this, and there are a variety of themes and concepts that have been experimented with in comic-dom. I just realized how nerdy this sounds, but I'm doing it anyway. This is philosophy, culture and theology frame by frame. The Comic Book Movie Philosophy Blog.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

            This is a fascinating piece of film. It stars Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Carribean) as the tile role, a young man with his whole future in front of him, currently trying to hold together his sisters and retarded younger brother (Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator) and his mother who is too obese to leave the house. Gilbert’s attention is drawn away from his family by an adulterous grocery patron, and the growing success of a big chain supermarket. At the same time, Gilbert’s brother continues to endanger himself. Soon he is arrested for the families failure to control him.

            Things continue to spiral out of control, and Momma is soon convinced that she must leave the house. The tensions run high in this illustrative look at small town life and the lives of people. It’s a very well acted and very fun piece, chronicles Gilbert’s growing sense of angst amidst his turbulent responsibilities.

            It’s a 2, though not as memorable as I thought it would be while watching it. The characters are what really standout, not so much the plot or subtext, but the performances.