The first of The Incredibles, in its era (2004), was a quintessentially anti-genre superhero movie, and the whole story was set up with a conscious spoof and mockery of the superhero movie canon The binary narrative is contradictory, and of course, it mocks the Superman series (Richard Donner's first in 1978 to Sidney Freer's fourth in 1987), Batman series (1989 Tim Burton's 1st to 1997 Joe Schumacher's 4th), Blade series (1998 Stephen Norrington's 1st to 2004 David High Yay's third installment), the X-Men series (Brian Singer's two films from 2000 to 2003), and most importantly the Spider-Man series (Sam Raimi's two films from 2002 to 2004) ). In the character ability setting of "The Incredibles", it also borrowed and spoofed "Fantastic Four" to a certain extent (the elastic superwoman and the invisible daughter who can put a shield).
2008's "Iron Man" was an important watershed, marking the arrival of the Marvel era of superhero films. By watershed I don't mean that Iron Man was the first independent film made by Marvel Studios. What I really mean is that Iron Man is a movie that changed the most important and central binary narrative contradiction of superhero movies of the past (pre-Marvel era): dual identities. At the end of "Iron Man", Tony Stark generously admitted to the media that he was Iron Man, marking the breaking of the narrative rules of the entire superhero movie.
Before "Iron Man", the dual identities of superheroes were the core narrative duality of superhero movies, and the narrative tension of the entire story was based on this.
The so-called dual identities include both the "Superman" series, "Batman" series, "Spider-Man" series, "Hulk" (2003), "Dear Man" (2003), where the protagonist wanders between superheroes and ordinary people. Among the two identities of people, including the "Blade Warrior" series and the "X-Men" series, the protagonist is sandwiched between the two forces of power users and ordinary people (Blade Warrior is a hybrid of vampires and humans, X-War The police try to keep the peace between mutants and ordinary people).
The Incredibles (2004) should have been the first superhero movie to deconstruct a superhero movie against the genre, if I'm not missing something. After The Incredibles, the anti-genre superhero movies I think are worth mentioning are: Peter Berger's "Hancock for All" in 2008, and Zach Snyder's "Watchmen" in 2009. , Tom McGrath's "Big Bad" in 2010, and James Gunn's "Superheroes" in 2011 (he went on to direct the mainstream Marvel superhero "Guardians of the Galaxy" series) . By the way, I don't think Matthew Vaughn's 2010 Kickstarter is an anti-genre superhero movie, but a very orthodox superhero movie (albeit a fun B-movie). , but superhero movies themselves evolved from B-movies). By the way, I think both Hancock and Superhero are grossly underrated.
If the above films are the anti-type of superheroes, then the "Superman" series and "Spider-Man" series in my opinion establish the classic narrative structure of pre-Marvel superhero movies, especially "Spider-Man" The series is to superhero movies what I see as John Ford's "Flying Over the Mountains" to Westerns.
The three "Superman" and the three "Spider-Man" have a wonderful mirror relationship. In "Superman 1" (1978), the dual identity of Superman-Newspaper reporter Clark was established; in "Superman 2" (1980), Superman gave up his superpowers for his love with Louis and wanted to change with Louis. They became an ordinary couple, but eventually reincarnated into Superman out of responsibility and gave up their love for Louis; in "Superman 3" (1983), Superman was affected by an alien meteorite, his human side disappeared, and he became a The super villain who was destroying everywhere, in the end, Clark's will as an ordinary person defeated his will as a superman and returned to normal. In "Spider-Man 1" (2002), the dual identity of Spider-Man - newspaper photographer Peter was established; in "Spider-Man 2" (2004), Spider-Man gave up his own life for his love with Mary Jane. Super powers, want to become an ordinary couple with Mary Jane, but eventually reincarnated as Spider-Man out of responsibility, and gave up his love for Mary Jane; Under the influence of the star creature, the human side of the body disappeared, becoming arrogant and willful, and finally returned to normal with the help of the church bell.
Both of these classic superhero series structure the story with the conflicting struggle of dual identities as the central conflict of the narrative. The first is the establishment of the dual identity of superheroes and ordinary people, the second is that ordinary people's desires overwhelm the superhero's responsibilities (but eventually the balance is restored), and the third is that the power of superheroes loses ordinary humanity (but eventually the equilibrium is restored).
So why is it that in the pre-Marvel era, most superhero films couldn’t be filmed until the third film, because the narrative core conflict has already been said, and forcing another fourth film is a dog tail sequel ("Superman 4" is garbage , "Batman 4" is also garbage, the "Blade Warrior" series only made a trilogy, the "X-Men" series also only made a trilogy, and "Spider-Man" also only made a trilogy).
The joke design of "The Incredibles" throughout the film is based on the dual identities of superheroes and ordinary people, and after laughing, it is more or less bitter.
Mr. Magic was posing as an insurance salesman and working in a cubicle, his huge size seemed out of place compared to the rest of the cubicle. He couldn't bear to deny a customer a claim, making the manager furious. The manager told him: the company is like a clock, employees are the parts, employees don't need to have their own emotional and moral judgments, they just need to act according to the rules precisely.
Mr. Shenli's son was banned from the school sports day by his mother for running too fast. The son argued that I should not be ashamed of running faster than others. I am proud to be faster than others. My mother said, what you have to do is not to surpass the public, but to integrate into the public.
The most interesting design is the villain in The Incredibles, a little boy who originally worshiped superheroes. But he has no superpowers, just an ordinary person. Mr. Shenli thought that he was in the way, and told him that ordinary people couldn't be superheroes. Only people with superpowers like Mr. Shenli could be superheroes. This turns the villain from despair to hatred of superheroes. Why should only people with superpowers be superheroes? So, the villain uses machine inventions and starts to hunt and kill those superheroes with super powers.
Speaking of which, I suddenly thought that in the pre-Marvel era, in superhero movies, the protagonists fought with their own strength and will, while the villains often turned into madmen with the help of high technology. For example, the battle between Superman and Luthor is about flesh and blood against modern technology; although Batman is a rich second-generation full of external equipment, he insists that he does not use hot weapons such as guns, but uses his bare hands or cold weapons to compete with those who use The villain fights with high-tech weapons; Sam Raimi's version of Spider-Man, his ability to spin silk is a superpower mutation, instead of using high-tech equipment, but the villains Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus, both typical science madmen .
To a certain extent, the dual identity opposition between superheroes and ordinary people is actually the opposition between personal will and modern technology. A few days ago, I read Houlang's new version of the book "American Film American Culture". The author John Belton also mentioned that a potential core narrative contradiction in Hollywood sci-fi films is the alienation of individuals by modern technology. In the pre-Marvel era, superhero movies themselves were a mix of sci-fi and action movies, with a bit of the personal heroism of post-Western films.
Beginning with Iron Man in 2008 and culminating in The Avengers in 2012, Marvel changed the narrative structure of superhero movies pioneered by Superman-Spider-Man. The dual identities of bitterness and resentment have been abandoned, and the opposition between the individual and technology no longer exists (Iron Man is a superhero who relies entirely on high-tech equipment, to some extent the one in The Incredibles. opposition). A Marvel-style superhero movie with a flatter but tighter narrative and a more light-hearted and entertaining plot has become mainstream. After several unsuccessful attempts, DC finally made "Justice League" fully a Marvel-style superhero film.
"The Incredibles 2" is a pre-Marvel superhero film, and it's a little nostalgic when it hits theaters today. It still continues the contradiction between superheroes and ordinary people in the first part, but does not mention double identities much. Except at the beginning, the daughter's face was seen by the male classmate, the father had to ask the man in black to erase the memory of the male classmate, and the daughter's first love was gone. This is really a classic superhero movie plot! It's like the old man who erased his memory, and he is old-fashioned, saying that this is the last time to help you. Except for this paragraph, basically the identities of Supergirl and Mr. Magic are semi-public in the movie.
The plot design of the image PR for Supergirl reminds me of the plot of "Superman Hancock". Will Smith plays an anti-hero superhero who dresses casually and acts arbitrarily and is hated by ordinary people, and a male PR who was saved by Hancock decides to help Hancock change his image in public, the first thing That is, superheroes have to have a uniform!
The plot of letting Mr. Shenli take care of the children at home, in itself, I don't think it is political correctness to please women's rights. Men raising children is a classic Hollywood comedy routine, from "Mrs. Kramers" to "Skinny Daddy", they have been tried and tested. What I am personally dissatisfied with is the lack of interaction between Supergirl and Mr. Magic. For example, because Mr. Magic can't stand his wife's publicity, he is unknown, so he also wants to show his skills in front of the public, but ends up messing things up Troubled, the husband and wife broke out into conflict, but in the end it was Mr. Shenli who made a mistake and exposed the true identity of Pingba because of his previous disservice. This design will not only make the husband's transformation more natural, but also make the exposure of the screen master's identity less deliberate. The most important thing is that the two narrative lines interact.
Of course, the villain's design is still too simple. Most viewers should be able to guess in advance. This is far less than the first "Incredibles". But this villain still insists on the contradiction between superheroes and ordinary people to make a fuss. To be honest, I am quite willing to give nostalgia points.
In fact, I don't dislike Marvel superhero movies, but I have watched it for 10 years since 2008. In the words of Mr. Zhang Guoli, it is inevitable that I am a little tired of aesthetics. Since there won't be any major innovations for a while, it's still a bit moving to see such a superhero film from the pre-Marvel era.
Wish there were more superhero movies out there. I miss the period from 2009 to 2011, when all kinds of anti-genre, anti-hero, and different superhero films were blooming, and Marvel was not too routine. It was a lot of fun watching movies back then. Too bad we can't go back ten years ago.
PS: I know that before "Iron Man", "Fantastic Four" directed by Tim Storey in 2005 has already made public his identity, and there is no contradiction between dual identities. But I personally don't like this movie, and it doesn't have much impact at the box office, far from the transformative effect that "Iron Man" brought to superhero movies. Therefore, the Marvel era must be counted from 2008.
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