{"id":11587,"date":"2012-05-11T05:30:31","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T09:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=11587"},"modified":"2012-05-11T05:30:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T09:30:31","slug":"aristotle-and-me-on-the-avengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/05\/aristotle-and-me-on-the-avengers\/","title":{"rendered":"Aristotle and me on “The Avengers”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We saw The Avengers<\/em>, the movie that\u2019s setting box office records.\u00a0 We went whole hog, springing for the version in 3-D AND Imax.<\/p>\n

Like other comic book movies, it was mostly what Aristotle in his Poetics<\/em> called \u201cspectacle.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Movies today go all out with high-tech special effects.\u00a0 They can be fun to watch.\u00a0 (Though frankly I have not yet seen a new generation 3-D flick that made satisfying use of that technology, including this one.\u00a0 A trailer for the new Spider Man movie was more promising, showing a deeper field of vision than the usual flatness with a few things jumping out at you.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think the Imax version of \u201cThe Avengers\u201d added that much either.)\u00a0 Anyway, the overall spectacle of \u201cThe Avengers\u201d was fun.\u00a0 But as Aristotle goes on to say, spectacle is the lowest level of dramatic art.<\/p>\n

In addition to spectacle, though, unlike many comic book movies, \u201cThe Avengers\u201d also had interesting characters, well-rendered and, in what is often considered optional for the genre, well-acted.\u00a0 \u201cThe Avengers\u201d put serious actors like Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johannsen in silly superhero costumes.\u00a0 But it paid off!\u00a0 The computer-enhanced Ruffalo\u2013who was sensitive and angst-ridden as Bruce Banner\u2013 made a great Incredible Hulk.\u00a0 One of my favorite parts of the movie was when Scarlett Johannsen, as the Black Widow, took a call on her cell while she was on the verge of being tortured and complained to the caller, \u201cI\u2019m working!\u201d, going on to thrash the Russian interrogator while she was still tied up in her chair.<\/p>\n

\nThere were other good moments.\u00a0 Captain America, being of the Greatest Generation (waking up in our day after being frozen), dismissing Loki\u2019s claim to be a god by saying that \u201cThere\u2019s only one God.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think he dresses like you do\u201d [something like that].\u00a0 And did anyone catch what the Hulk said, in one of his few actual lines, when he was flailing Loki about?\u00a0 Some comment about his alleged divinity.\u00a0 (In the Marvel universe, the residents of Asgard like Thor and Loki are not so much deities as they were to the Norse and Germanic pagans; rather, they are denizens of another planet.)\n

Still, though, there was not enough of what Aristotle considered the most important part of a drama.\u00a0 Namely, the story<\/em>.\u00a0 I prefer plots with twists and turns, a narrative that goes somewhere, with maybe surprises along the way.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a lot of that in this movie, basically just good guys and bad guys fighting each other.\u00a0 Internal conflict is far more interesting, as in, to cite another comic book movie, The Dark Knight<\/em>, which is also being reprised this summer.\u00a0 Aristotle\u2019s heroes are not just \u201cgood guys\u201d; rather, they are noble figures who have a tragic flaw\u2013a hamartia<\/em>, which is the New Testament word for \u201csin\u201d\u2013that gives them complexity and doom.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We saw The Avengers, the movie that\u2019s setting box office records.\u00a0 We went whole hog, springing for the version in 3-D AND Imax. Like other comic book movies, it was mostly what Aristotle in his Poetics called \u201cspectacle.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Movies today go all out with high-tech special effects.\u00a0 They can be fun to watch.\u00a0 (Though frankly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,31],"tags":[58,205],"class_list":["post-11587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-movies","tag-the-avengers","tag-aristotle"],"yoast_head":"\nAristotle and me on "The Avengers"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We saw The Avengers, the movie that's setting box office records.\u00a0 We went whole hog, springing for the version in 3-D AND Imax. 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