So I posted some thoughts on Wonder Woman 1984, I overall like the movie but had some issues. I'm not even at all surprised that other people's issues were the opposite of mine.
But what gets me is how often the criticism the movie is getting is frarmed as it being a "Richard Donner style" which allegedly can't work anymore. And it reminds me of what I (and others) used to say about Superman Returns, calling it the worst movie ever made. But WW84 isn't actually like the utterly boring Superman Returns? Is it????
I haven't actually watched that movie all the way through since 2006. But what I like about WW84 is tied to my tastes in Anime not some reversal of how I feel about "Cheesy" Superhero movies...... but none of the Anime I'm thinking of here I had seen yet in 2006, a good deal of it existed already, but I'd still only seen a handful of shows.
And as I was recalling what I was like as a mid to late 2000s Comic Book Nerd on IMDB message boards it all came rushing back to me, I used to be an Edge Lord. I used to be the type of Batman fan who wanted the legacy of Adam West and Joel Schumacher buried, and used Silver Age as a dirty word. It's true I was not one of those Robin and other sidekicks shouldn't exist people, but that's because I wanted the stories where The Joker kills Robin and cripples Batgirl. I got into DC Comics because of War Games and Identity Crisis and OMAC Project. And yes I even specifically wanted Superman stories to be darker then what Christopher Reeve ever gave us, more then once I was disappointed at Smallville not killing Chloe Sullivan off.
Even the beginning of my relationship with Anime (besides the literal kids shows I got into in the 90s) was Darker stuff, that I still call Noir my favorite Anime probably gives a bad impression of my current tastes. And after that it was the other Bee Train Shows, Witch Hunter Robin, Code Geass which has dark moments, Death Note, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Attack On Titan. The first Magical Girl Anime I watched to completion was Madoka Magica, then I saw Utena, then Rose of Versailles, then Le Caviler D'eon, then Gankutsuou.
I was never only into dark and edgy stuff, Pokémon for example was always somewhat of a balancing presence. In fact I've always been unashamed to admit to still liking the kids shows I watched as a kid. Plus I've always been a defender of Superman IV and Batman Forever. And there were always certain limits, I always found the first issues of Allstar Batman and Robin offensive, and the way season 8 of Smallville ended always bugged me. I've always preferred a happy ending and I oddly valued Batman's no kill rule more then then I do now. And I haven't lost the ablity to appreciate Dark stuff, I still like what I liked then and get crap for defending Zack Snyder.
But something has changed. I've on this blog attempted to summarize the timeline of my descent into Anime before. But I'd been trying to think of it as me simply being late to finding what I secretly wanted all along. However the me who was super into every shocking thing DC was doing in 2005 would never have predicted I'd wind up defending the idea of having an epic super heroic battle to save the universe where no one dies.
When I watched Madoka and Utena for the first time, it was while the Sailor Moon revival was starting in 2014. Sailor Moon had an on and off again presence in my life, but at that point I still hadn't seen most of the season finales, and I considered S the best season because it was seemingly the darkest. (Now my Sailor Moon rankings are greatly different.) Remember what I said about being concerned some westerners might learn the wrong lessons from Sailor Moon? well I'm remembering that that would probably have been me if I'd gotten to write a Sailor Moon knock off back in the 2000s.
Before the Sailor Moon revival kicked off, earlier in 2014, certain western TV shows I was watching had disillusioned me by crossing those lines I always had. And the one I was starting to love more then ever before was in one of it's darkest hours. So I think I was primed to appreciate Sailor Moon in a way I hadn't before, even though I wasn't connecting these things at the time.
2015 helped shape my modern sense of humor between how much I enjoyed the early episodes of Gotham and my at some point getting into Engaged to The Unidentified. Meanwhile I started watching more Magical Girl shows too.
But 2016 was the major turning point. My relationship with Batman V Superman is complicated, I wanted it to be the best thing ever, but after it came out I initially praised it but believe it or not there was a period where I was pretty down on it. And that's when I watched Yuri Yuri and Lucky Star and began my relationship with slice of life Anime, they picked me back up. And then I watched Haruhi to help me further appreciate Lucky Star, and then slowly but surely got into things like Fate/ and Nanoha and Steins;Gate.
All this did kind of coincide with some of the changes in my Theology and Politics, my becoming a Communist and a Universal Salvation proponent.
And then following seasonal Anime over the course of 2017 and 2018 further radicalized me.
So the question is, would I suddenly like Superman Returns if I rewatched it now? I don't know, I still feel like it's largely boring in a way WW84 definitely is not. But I guess I should give it a try some time soon.
However I now consider the worst movie ever made to be End of Evangelion.
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