Noah and Captain America: No Empty Tents

I don’t expect much from most movies anymore.

In this “tentpole” age, the primary goal seems to be distraction. Distraction from things we don’t want to think about … global warming, the Ukraine, growing corporate monopolies, terrorism, etc.

Original Film Poster for 42nd Street

This isn’t such a new thing … after all, 42nd Street was all about distraction from the Great Depression. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and Ginger Rogers and that maestro, Busby Berkeley, were geniuses at keeping audiences thinking about things other than bank failures.

Today’s films shy away from tenors, the Great American Songbook and plucky chorus girls in mechanized dance formations. Instead,  they give us action, CGI, more action, twists on iconic and/or familiar characters (even better if non-copyrighted), more CGI still more action, still more CGI, a dash or more of sex and/or romance, violence (cartoonish or visceral, depending), and the promise of being able to continue our distraction off-screen by buying a spin-off product.

They are also far more global products than their Golden Era predecessors, more dependent on the box office in Shanghai than in Dubuque. Their aimed appeal, in fact, is so broad that dilution and vacuity is often collateral damage.

[image error]