Commenting on the critics with Simon Columb…
Rebecca Keegan, for the Los Angeles Times, writes about the San Diego Comic-Con event itself…
“Begun in 1970 as a small comic-book convention attended mainly by adult men, Comic-Con International is now a multimedia smorgasbord attracting more than 125,000 people annually — including throngs of women, toddlers, school kids and teens. Yet the pop culture expo, which wraps up Sunday, still retains much of its original freewheeling, anything-goes character, a phenomenon that can create some jarring juxtapositions”
Read the full article here.
I considered writing about Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World and Ant-Man, but I thought better of it. Lots of coverage is already available on Flickering Myth, so check it out. But the Comic-Con event itself amazes me.
It is one big advert. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the craze. It must be quite exciting to be in Hall F, or whatever it is, and spot the cast of Firefly walk past. I completely understand why journalists are sent to the convention (they seem to be amongst the crowds with no special treatment) to cover the news, but why everyone else? I may not be part of the cult following that the films appeal to, but I like the new Marvel film as much as the next guy.
Keegan notes in the article how children and families move from one show to the next. Footage and conversation about ‘up-and-coming’ My Little Pony or the ‘released-next-year’ Frankenweenie frustrates me. One thing that deeply upsets me is the lack of awareness children and many adults have towards the history of cinema. The roots of the art form – indeed the roots of art itself. As an art teacher, I place a lot of value in Art and understanding the historical importance of the form. I take great pride in seeing the correlation between Tim Burton’s films and the Romanticist Caspar David Freidrich. I love the Film Noir influence on Blade Runner. I am fascinated by the influence Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing had on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. The use of film in art galleries and exhibitions, such as Christian Marclay’s The Clock. The subtle nods to King Kong and The Wizard of Oz in The Avengers. Films created today are inspired, influenced and – sometimes directly imitating – films, and art, from the past. Furthermore, the ‘look’ of films attributed to cinematographers, often relate directly to specific artists or art-movements. MC Escher in Inception, Salvador Dali in Blue Velvet and Edward Hopper in Mad Men. Art and Film inextricably linked. Something worth celebrating I would think.
Then we have Comic-Con. A convention that celebrates pop-culture. Fans travel thousands of miles to see Robert Downey Jr. talk about a film we know he is in. Information which, seconds after it is delivered in San Diego, it is beamed across the internet, accessible to everyone who has a phone. The event seems to celebrate the nature of ‘teasing’ a product. It celebrates fame and celebrity. It cashes in on the support – and impatience – of fans. Because the people shelling out hundreds of dollars are fans who will be at the cinema, opening night, and support the film anyway. How sad that loyalty is not valued by the studios.
Unlike my personal preference of celebrating where film and cinema comes from, Comic-Con celebrates the opposite – the temporary nature of blockbuster films. Only once is a film name announced, but for some reason, even this is an ‘event’. Is the film any good? Are we valuing the quality of the film? It doesn’t matter. That’s not what the convention is about – it is about telling you something that you don’t know. Its about making publicity and using word-of-mouth as advertising. In my opinion, it is studios exploiting their ‘hold’ on fans of the films. Unfortunately, it is not about the ‘art’ of cinema at all – it is only about the art of advertising and the manipulation of cinema-goers to part with more money for the sake of another mediocre blockbuster. I’ll just wait for the articles and wait for the reviews before giving my money to the studios.
Originally published July 15, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
