Stupid Thing of the Week

6 May 2008Often, when I watch a movie (and it's more in old movies than modern ones), I'll see the love story aspect of the film, and feel that it doesn't belong, like it's been thrown in later, as if it was something obligatory. It irritates me when that happens, not because I want all movies to be like the book of The Lord of the Rings and rather like the movie LORD OF THE RINGS, but because some stories simply do not need a romantic subplot, and sometimes, it's just done poorly.

So, the other day, I was talking to my cousin and his wife about IRON MAN, and she asked me if there was a love story in that one. I felt the romantic subplot in IM was pretty darn great, and felt much more natural (or at least less forced) than, say, three of the five modern BATMAN movies, or GHOST RIDER and ELEKTRA.

What's more, they got me thinking about how virtually all superhero movies have a romantic subplot in there somewhere, either front and center, like the SPIDER-MAN flicks or SUPERMAN II, or downplayed, like in the X-MEN films or THE INCREDIBLES.* It irritated me, like the studios think they would lose half the audience if they didn't have some kissing or batting eyelashes in there.

After explaining to her a bit about the Robert Downey Jr./Gwyneth Paltrow subplot, my cousin's wife expressed a bit of interest. "I don't understand," I said, "Why did that make a difference whether you want to see it or not?"

She said, and I quote, "I won't go see a superhero movie unless there's a love story in there."So, chagrin-1, me-0.

Colour me better-informed now.

Rish "Hate Interest" Outfield

*When I think of it, the most major superhero franchise with little to no romance is the BLADE series. What sucks is, when I first saw BLADE II, I was disappointed that there wasn't any lovin' going on between Blade and the Very Hot Vampire Chick. Later I learnt that they did indeed get together in the screenplay, but Wesley Snipes had it changed, as he didn't think Blade would ever get it on with a vampire.