Friday, May 9, 2008

Arms, men, supermen, superheroes

I don't think I'll get around to it this weekend, but I kind of want to see Iron Man. As I've said before, I like superhero movies if they're well-done, and Iron Man has gotten great reviews--plus my housemate, who saw it the day it came out, really enjoyed it.

One of the biggest Iron Man raves comes from Time magazine, but the review also contains an error that amuses me. What's wrong with this sentence: "Tony is an arms dealer, an occupation that has fascinated playwrights for ages (George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman, Arthur Miller in All My Sons)"?

Answer: Man and Superman isn't Shaw's play about an arms dealer--Major Barbara is. I wonder if the reviewer slipped up and wrote Man and Superman because he had superheroes on the brain? And I also wonder if it's possible not only to mix up Man and Superman and Major Barbara, but to add Arms and the Man to the confusion. Out of all these titles, Arms and the Man sounds like it really OUGHT to be about an arms dealer (and would make a good alternative title for Major Barbara), but it's not.

Speaking of superhero movies, in my post about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (linked above) I made a parenthetical remark about enjoying the first two Spider-Man movies. I didn't realize at the time that Michael Chabon actually helped write the story for Spider-Man 2 (which I like even better than the first movie)! So now it seems that I adore superhero books and movies only if they are written by Chabon. Or something. Because I really hope that I'll have fun at Iron Man too, when I get around to seeing it.

No comments: