Fiction & Film & Critics

Hello, my name is Yokie and this is “I Can Do This All Day,” named after Earth’s Mightiest Hero, Captain America. And you’re welcome.

On this post, I’m going heavy straight out of the box again- because I does this- and I’ll be discussing fiction writing and how its television and film interpretations are ranked. Sound complicated? That’s because it is. So pay attention.

As stated, I watch a ridiculous amount of television. (See previous post with photo of television schedule attached and don’t judge because I give not one hot damn…) 

I also watch a lot of films. A LOT. I’m in the theatre almost every weekend, I’m a huge fan of franchises and I’ve lost sleep just to catch a midnight show of a new release if it merits my attendance. I’m sure if the box office is tallied and traced back to 2001, economists will discover I kept the Motion Picture Association of America afloat during the recession of 2008, but I digress.

In all of my time watching television and movies, I’ve amassed a sizable well of opinions- mainly mine- so I consider myself qualified to cast judgment upon pretty much everyone when it comes to viewing preferences, thank you very much.

And I have noticed something about the opinions that have been thrown around lately by certain directors and actors...

Leo deserved the Oscar just for showing up...

Sidebar: allow me to say that Martin Scorsese is a god among men when it comes to the dramatic masterpieces in the cinema he’s created over the years. The Departed is absolute perfection in my very overqualified opinion and Leonardo DiCaprio deserved an Oscar WAY before The Revanant.

But Mr. Scorsese, talented as he is, doesn’t know SHIT about comic book movies.

Allow me to elaborate…

The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (another director who seems very opinionated as of late…) is considered a phenomenal movie by many. It’s up there is the highest echelon of cinema, right?

This was me as a child, rain not included

I saw it as a child (Yes, my mother had a tendency of allowing us to watch whatever we wanted, yet we couldn’t get wet in the rain and were treated like little mogwais… so go figure) and I’ve all but forgotten the details.

I googled “Why is The Godfather considered so good?” This is exactly what popped up:

The Godfather trilogy is so great because we, as an audience, are made to feel so much affection for the rich characters of the Corleone family, so it is heartbreaking to see what becomes of them, and especially Michael. ... It's a heartbreaking tale because the entire time, Michael was fighting to protect his family.

(https://www.quora.com/What%E2%80%99s-so-great-about-the-Godfather-What-makes-it-one-of-the-greatest-movies-of-all-time-Why-is-it-considered-a-masterpiece)

Now, I know that’s not a professional opinion like mine, but it’s the first one that popped up and I’m trying to wrap this up before “The Walking Dead” starts, so bear with me. 

A movie like The Godfather rose to fame for many reasons, but I’m going to focus on the ones quoted above. The writer (not named because I haven’t figured out how to get that info yet homey, so my bad) states that the movie makes the audience members feel affection for the main characters and it’s heartbreaking to see what happens to them. 

In my opinion, a film that makes you, as the viewer, so completely invested in the characters that you are moved to physical emotion when the story concludes, has certainly done its job. It appears that The Godfather does that for its fans and that’s awesome. But you know what else does that for its fans?

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

Not to be confused with the NYCfinancial institution

That’s right, folks- MARVEL.

That great big conglomerate, money-making machine known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU for short.

I saw Avengers: Endgame in the theatre on opening night this past April. I was prepared for this cinematic conclusion to a ten-year, 23-film franchise that culminated into the biggest, most daring venture on screen ever. I nixed the snacks so I wouldn’t lose concentration; stopped drinking water around 2pm to make sure I wouldn’t need a bathroom break during the 3hr ride; and I meditated that morning in the hopes of not dissolving into an emotional basket case before the movie would end. 

In the end, I succeeded with two out of three points, and I’ll let you guess which point I failed...

Fine. I dissolved. I totally did...

Regardless, as a member of the audience on that evening, allow me to tell you what I witnessed.

I saw grown men sobbing when a beloved character, with whom they had become so invested after TEN YEARS AND TWENTY-THREE FILMS, sacrificed himself to save the world. 

I heard people cheer uncontrollably when a favorite character thought dead flew in to help save the day.  

I saw people clap and pound their fists in the air when serious bad guy ass was kicked by the good guys.

And that was from the audience.

On screen, I saw Academy Award nominees and winners giving everything to roles taken from fiction and adapted for the screen. 

I saw actors and actresses putting humanity into science fiction. 

I saw characters that were created on colorful paper inside big word boxes and sold in stores to kids and adults come to life in front of me and deliver a story so bold, so complex, that it took twenty-three films to tell.

I witnessed cinematic perfection.

But apparently, there are some who think films based on comic books and rooted in action and explosions and superpowers are “diminishing” the cinematic experience.

Last year, after Avengers: Infinity War was released, I noticed a post on FB by someone who had seen the movie with their child and proceeded to make fun of the people that were crying in the movie theater. This person ignorantly cracked jokes, along with commenters and presumably friends, about adults who had an emotional response to the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. 

What I found so sad about this is not what they said, but rather what they clearly saw. 

So this response is to Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, the stupid bitch on Facebook that deemed herself worthy enough to provide an unsolicited opinion, and anyone else who feels the same way they do about comic book films:

I’m sorry that when some people see a comic book adaptation that’s rooted in fantasy or science-fiction, they can only see the costumes, the powers or the fiction. 

Not all of us see it that way. 

We see compelling stories about multi-dimensional characters with dramatic redemption arcs, character development and intense scenes of friendship, love, loyalty, bravery, courage, sacrifice. 

We see people who started out as a regular person with deep flaws, and ended up getting amazing abilities; and instead of using those abilities to further themselves, they put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us that don’t have abilities. 

We see beautiful stories. 

And yeah, sometimes those beautiful stories are tragic and sad and overwhelming. And sometimes we have visceral responses to those stories. Sometimes we laugh, we cheer, we cry and yes, some of us actually sob. 

Because to us, the characters on the movie screen are just as real as the person sitting next to us in the movie theater. 

So I’m sorry that you are so intellectually stunted and emotionally constipated that you can’t imagine feeling an emotional response to a fictional character on screen simply because that fiction comes in the form of a comic book rather than a novel or a screenplay. 

But I would like to point out some hypocrisy in that belief:

I saw Titanic in the movie theater in 1997. And there was not a single person- man or woman- that did not cry. That story of the sinking ship is real, but the characters of Jack and Rose were not. 

I guarantee you cried, too. 

The Notebook was based on a novel of fiction written by Nicholas Sparks, ergo the main characters are fictional. It’s a touching movie about enduring love. 

But it is fiction. 

I guarantee you cried, too. 

The Fault In Our Stars. 

Atonement. 

Big Fish. 

Million Dollar Baby. 

Brokeback Mountain. 

The Color Purple.

All devastating stories of FICTION created from a novel of FICTION, yet emotional and beautiful in different ways. All tear-jerkers that no one questions. 

Incidentally, if you haven’t seen or read any of these, why are you even alive?

So again I repeat:

The Godfather trilogy is so great because we, as an audience, are made to feel so much affection for the rich characters of the Corleone family, so it is heartbreaking to see what becomes of them, and especially Michael. ... It's a heartbreaking tale because the entire time, Michael was fighting to protect his family. 

But this time, let’s amend that:

“The MCU franchise is so great because we, as an audience, are made to feel so much affection for the rich characters in the Avengers, so it is heartbreaking to see what becomes of them, and especially Iron Man. ... It's a heartbreaking tale because the entire time, Tony Stark was fighting to protect his family.”

Are they really so different?

The Godfather sets up tragedy and love and loss and betrayal amongst a family, and people die in a steady stream of gunfire and a beautifully played soundtrack.

The MCU franchise sets up tragedy and love and loss and betrayal amongst a family, and people die in a steady stream of superpowers and a beautifully played soundtrack.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

There is none, that’s what. The people who negatively bemoan the MCU do so because they didn’t think of it, or they didn’t reach so unbelievably high with their own work, or they have nothing better to do. Who knows and who cares?

What matters is that they are ultimately not just wrong, but seriously, willfully and pathetically misguided. And the sad thing is, they are so ignorant that they don’t even notice the irony of connectness. 

Their movies are just like MCU movies, yet they hate on the MCU anyway.

So the logical conclusion here is that the difference is not that people like me cry over fiction, or fans of the franchise pay good money to see it play out and enjoy the “spectacle” of it all, but rather that the fiction we are crying over and paying for and enjoying isn’t a fiction of which THEY approve. 

So to that I say: fuck you and go kick rocks, you uncultured swine.

So, that’s it for today. Feel free to share this, should you so choose to spread the confusion. You can always check out my website, yokairytavarez.com, for insight into this disaster of a mind of mine. And be sure to check back in periodically for posts on everything from writing novels and raising kids to film, theatre and politics; with a whole lot of nonsense in between. 

Next time, I’ll be discussing- or rather complaining about- navigating this new age of digital media when all you’re trying to do is live your life and pay the goddamn bills...

Or something like that.

Thanks for reading. And as always, a million thanks to Captain Olivia Benson from Manhattan SVU, for making all of this possible. 

Peace, yo. ✌