A comic book mirror of our world?

The trailer for the next Marvel film is out. It is Captain America-Civil War. It is a war among the Superheros with Captain America and most of the Avengers on one side and Iron Man on the other. If you are familiar with the comic series you will know what it is about.

One interesting aspect is that several characters in the Marvel Universe are making their first appearance in this third entry in the Captain America cycle. Spiderman for one. He was the property of another studio and now the rights have reverted to Marvel. Also the Black Panther and Ant Man make an appearance.

I wonder how far they will take the metaphor. It looks interesting.

"Superhero movies are ruining cinema"

"William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, has dismissed the modern craze for superhero and sci-fi movies."

"Films used to be rooted in gravity. They were about real people doing real things,' the acclaimed filmmaker says. 'Today cinema is all about Batman, Superman, Iron Man: stuff I have no interest in seeing."

He believes that the chase by studios to appeal to the broadest audience possible is why his own films fell out of favour after the Seventies. "That is when my films went like that - out of the frame," added Friedkin.

He dates the change back to 1977 when he made what he considered his best movie - the largely ignored Sorcerer, starring Roy Scheider, about four men transporting a cargo of nitroglycerin in South America - only to see it eclipsed by Star Wars. "If I am remembered at all for anything, I hope it would be that,"

Why no Wonder Woman movie?

It can easily be argued that Wonder Woman was overtly feminist in design... she was an Amazon and came from a culture and place that excluded men.   It would be appropriate that she (if she had an origin movie set in 2015) spend a great deal of time experiencing culture shock and under-estimating the ability of men to be competent at anything... which only works if she's wrong about the men.   In other words, Diana isn't feminist... she's sexist.

Which is likely the biggest reason that we haven't gotten a Wonder Woman movie.  -- They need me to write it. :P --  Because what people pushing for a Wonder Woman movie want is a ode to feminism... and that wouldn't be right.  For all that Wonder Woman could be used to frame an exploration of gender roles and preconceptions, it doesn't work to do that flipping of perception unless the thing that Diana learns is that men are every bit as real as women are real.

Make Wonder Woman a female Captain America, as parochial and "Boy Scout-ish", as set in her ways and misconceptions and unwilling to easily get over what she knows is true... and we could have something rather amazing.

It's not going to happen... partly because the idea is pushed by people who think that Thelma and Louise portrayed "strong" women.  And who think, not that a Wonder Woman movie would be awesome, but that a Wonder Woman movie ought to be viewed as a moral need.

(I think this guy sells posters... )