Boggled

Write a little. Then write a little more. It's a dopey way to do things, isn't it? The content here at QM has shifted over time to be much more about story than reviews and thoughts, as it was at the beginning. Is that a good idea? I don't know, but this has never been about anyone over than what I want to write. If it's good for any of you readers, that's a bonus! Selfish, isn't it?

So, we've shifted onto story, and that's a natural outgrowth of my consuming far fewer movies and television shows than I did previously. It feels as if a lever has shifted and that passive enjoyment is somehow an unworthy activity, and that's kind of an unhealthy attitude. It's all to do with ageing and time and not wasting anything but actually it is completely okay to watch a movie or television. Work pressure should never stop relaxation. We all work so hard that we shorten our lives ridiculously, or at least our useful working time. And yet I still don't relax well. It's hard. Tick tock.

Changing tack, there's a big movie coming out this week, and it's called 'Man of Steel'. To be honest, there is nothing about modern day cinema that leads me to believe a good Superman movie can now be made which isn't a hollow action movie. Almost everything gets hollowed out for action or dumb comedies, with real inventiveness and heart being out in the indie move land that made 'Safety Not Guaranteed'. Even 'Premium Rush' - the other movie of 2012 - was really pushed out under the wire and treated like an indie movie and perhaps that's why I liked it. Superman movies need a hefty injection of soul and heart to make them worthwhile, and it's hard to see that happening somehow, especially with the Nolans and Goyer lurking in the margins. Those chaps are much better at grim and miserable. On the other side of the equation, there still hasn't been that definitive, unflawed movie for either of Batman or Superman. There's still potential.

When you get down to tacks, you can't really make an action movie out of either of DC's Big Two. They're both predicated on the idea of not fighting as much as possible. Superman has so many powers that getting into a fight means he's monumentally failed on numerous levels or has met his match. If he's met his match then that's bad news; When would Superman ever get into a fight after all? He doesn't know about people fighting dirty or brawling. Batman again should base his own career on countermeasures so that he almost never has to fight, for every fight uses up his body and shortens his career, or even ends it with one bad moment. The definitive Batman movie really is a detective film, and we haven't seen it yet, although Batman 1989 was closest.

What a strange diversion this was today! More tomorrow, here on the Quirky Muffin!

O.