4TheRcrd Mag.

Hmmm.

Call me paranoid, but is it me or has there been a steady flux of Super-American-Heroe s invading the silver screen since 9-11?

Pop-cultural-wise, what does this mean to us the hapless consumers? When we are current laid seige by a barrage of Alien red caped wonders, Home-grown genetic mutants, the spider-bittens and the human-tech augmented types Batty crusaders and a man in a flying-toaster suit …

As of the late, the cresting of these Super-Americans have been doing a lot of domestic rescues: Snatching people from falling buildings, etc, etc. BUT not crossing the border much to enact some good ole American Justice.

Until recently, that is.

We have the latest ironic Iron Man (no pun intended), where a U.S. arms manufacturer, deals with all the gray-areas of international trade, corporatism, and environmental-energy issue through the explosive end of a techno-doo-hickey. 

Robert Downey Jr. needed this role as a sinner needs a savior, he plays the perrenial high-rolling “Hugh Hefner + Howard Hughes” composite character Tony Stark, who found his conscience in a piece of sharpnel fatally lodged in his chest.

Cue the Wizard of Oz moment where the Tin Man sings ” If i only have a heart” — well, that or shall we go the way of Campbell and analyze this American Wounded God archetype that flies across our screens?

If Superman is an anxious Immigrant hoping to prove his overweening Patriotism to his adopted country, before they cart him off to guantanamo bay in a kryptonite cage; then Iron Man is the champion of good ole Weapons industry trying to justify itself, and trying best to win back the support of the viewing masses (and their economic power) by trying to wrap its wolfish form in the sheepskin of the American Business Pioneer. If 9/11 is an emasculating incident for anyone on the world stage, this movie absolutely redeems the Male Psyche by solving the issue by, ironically, applying a copious amount of firepower.

Oh yeah, Iron Man did fly to the Middle East and save a civilian middle-eastern father so he could hug his middle eastern son. Cue me some emotional music. How manly and Iron John of him.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not bashing this flick. It has some very nice CGI moment, and it definitely is a guy-oriented movie: american muscle cars, explosions, fast jets, and the not too subtle plug for U.S. Army recruitment. The lay-out is like a comic book– Adverts  targeting the teen to young to infantile hot blooded males are all included.

Like all the Superhero movies but with alot more rhetorical bells and whistles, this movie is another attempt at feel-good Catharsis, if not for the post 9/11 efforts, then it is for the current political manouvers out in the Middle East.

Watch it if you can multi-task with your critical senses on, and it will be a provoking movie. Tony Stark is no virtuous Clark Kent, self flagellating Bruce Wayne or Moralizing Peter Parker, instead he is a flawed, glory-monger who is trying out this new thing called “conscientious compassion” like a new sports car. He did not go out there to save a world, merely trying to do damage control of his old corporately careless ways. A flawed hero for a flawed age. Ironically, he is more believable to me than Superman ever could be.

If you are a feminist, go watch Narnia,  the intellectual solutions that this  tossing aside the strong-willed womanhood and corset from Emma, Gwyneth Paltrow is nothing more but a moony-eyed secretary (NOT personal assistant) in this flick. There are nothing more but his one-nite-stands and flight attendants turned pole-dancers.

But what can you expect from a culture who is mostly secular, and has since created a pantheon of Superhumans as pagan pop-gods to fill the empty vacuum that consumerism has left them? Good senses and policy suggest that we should never mix religion with politics, but that common sense never really took root, from the marauding hordes of ancient Mesopotamia, the Greek and Trojan affair, to the Legions of Rome, and the recent installation of Hitler and his Aryan Superhumans soldiers and Japanese “Kami (Spirit)-kazes (wind)” pilots, nothing says glamour when you have God/s on your side in any political campaign?  

I know I know, it’s just a movie folks, but hey, you are what you eat, you are what you think, do have a care? Just one last thing — just how big of a carbon foot-print does Iron Man leaves (watch the movie and find out)? But all I can say is, the only redeeming technology that provides any sense of Catharsis and salvation for the character and the viewer is — not real.

(Iron Man is now screening in all Lower Mainland Theatres)