Big-screen superheroes are not the ideal
Not this summer.
Everyday human flaws are the Kryptonite of this year's movie
good guys, who deign to suffer the same foibles as those who pay to
see them. They may be reclusive, egotistical or intellectually
challenged. They may have anger issues or alcohol issues. Some are
alienated and lonely.
While the archetypal superhero always has a "weakness," this
summer's super problems are more fit for the psychologist's couch
than the villain's lair. Such shortcomings make heroes more
relatable, says Marvel Comics master Stan Lee, creator of
Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, among sundry
others.
"If you can have a good guy who's got hang-ups and flaws and
failings, he's more interesting because he not only has to defeat
the villain, but he has to defeat and conquer his own flaws and
inabilities," Lee says. "It rounds him out and makes the
character empathetic."
Flawed heroes are also a sign of the times, says "Iron Man"
director Jon Favreau.
"Complicated times demand for escapist entertainment," he
says. "These characters are facing the same types of problems we
are. They're a proxy for us."
"Iron Man," which opens Friday, stars Robert Downey Jr. as
Tony Stark, a pompous, womanizing, hard-drinking genius whose
superpowers come solely from a supercharged, weapons-filled suit he
created from scratch. Without it, Stark is just another guy with
issues - not much of a stretch for the actor who's a veteran of
both big screen and blotter.
After many nods to that effect throughout the film, Downey (as
Stark) acknowledges at its conclusion that he's "not the hero
type, with these character defects and all."
Indiana Jones is another "real guy," says creator George
Lucas. The archaeologist-adventurer played by Harrison Ford returns
to theaters May 22 with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull."
"He makes lots of mistakes. He kind of goofs up. He has the
same kind of thinking that we have," Lucas says. "It's like he's
not a superhero. He's just an average Joe that's always in over his
head that somehow seems to get through it."
June will bring three more unlikely superheroes: Bruce Banner,
Maxwell Smart and Zohan.
After a gamma-radiation accident, Banner (Ed Norton) discovers
he involuntarily transforms into a monstrous mass in "The
Incredible Hulk." Fearful and emotionally withdrawn, Banner is
"blind to his heroic potential," says Kevin Feige, president of
production for Marvel Studios.
"The creature in him, if used properly, could be a hero,"
Feige says. "Bruce Banner takes a while to see that. That's a flaw
when you undermine your potential."
Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is a top government secret agent,
minus the intelligence and James-Bond cool. Though Smart is the
most bumbling and inept member of his team, he's the hero in "Get
Smart," the movie version of the 1960s TV series.
Adam Sandler is a reluctant hero in "You Don't Mess With the
Zohan," playing an Israeli counter-terrorist expert who hangs up
his heroics to become a high-priced hairdresser in New York City.
"He was a huge hero," says director Dennis Dugan. "And he
basically goes on a journey to leave all the past behind and find
something beautiful in himself."
Will Smith's "Hancock," due July 2, presents a "very
authentic version of an alcoholic superhero," the actor says. The
character is disheveled, disenfranchised and confused about life.
"He's feeling very purposeless and looking for answers," says
producer Akiva Goldsman.
Also due in July is "The Dark Knight," with Christian Bale
reprising his role as rich playboy Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego
Batman - a character who remains traumatized by the murder of his
parents and the vigilantism that turned him to crime-fighting.
"He's a messed-up individual, as well. He's got all sorts of
issues," Bale says. "He's just as twisted and messed-up as the
villains he's fighting, and that's part of the beauty of the whole
story."
Often the problem with superheroes isn't that they're too human,
but that they're not human enough, says Feige of Marvel Studios.
"The risk is presenting your character as being
two-dimensional," he says. "There's a risk in presenting them
simply as an action figure. Presenting their flaws, presenting
their humanity, that's how audiences identify with them and make
their own emotional connection with them."
Goldsman calls the drunken Hancock "an answer to Superman ...
an extraordinary person suffering ordinary human emotions."
"Superman is conventionally and traditionally a Boy Scout, and
that's often what makes him very difficult to relate with," he
says. "We identify more with people who are broken, people who are
damaged. Those are the heroes who stick with us, the ones who are
imperfect despite all their gifts, because everyone feels
imperfect."
And when real life is so chaotic - with war, a faltering
economy, fears of terrorism and a threatened environment -
relatable superheroes are even more valuable, Favreau says.
"It's an abstract version of what our fears are, presented in a
safe way, and we can be saved by a superhuman character," he says.
"People want to see that type of thing when times are hard."
Echoes Goldsman: "The world is often troubling and we often
look for heroes to save the day. If only."
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AP Movie Writer David Germain contributed to this story.