The Diversity Test: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Hard to believe in our age of two Marvels a year, when everything kicked off, not only was it nearly two years between films, but this one was the only one we got in all of 2010.  Iron Man 2 is not without its controversy, as a large portion of online opinion isn't all that kind to the film.  I agree that it's certainly unfocused, has too much going on, at times feels like set up for The Avengers, and comes up short in its inevitable comparisons to Iron Man.  I don't think it's a bad movie, though and it does try to give Tony some more depth with his sickness.  Plus, it's fun, though the final showdown with the villain, much like the first Iron Man, is underwhelming.  It was certainly a step up from The Incredible Hulk at any rate.

This movie, though, is when the main vs. supporting character line begins to blur.  Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey (recast) are back and seem easy enough to categorize.  But what about the main villain, Ivan Vanko?  He gets jailed and disappears for what seems like a good part of the movie.  What about the debut of Black Widow?  Does she have enough of a role to be considered main?  Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer, who most seem to forget was even in the movie?  Happy Hogan in an expanded role?  It all comes down to judgment calls, I suppose, which is a major part of this exercise.  I do my best, but who knows if anyone reading this will agree?

The Diversity Test: The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

From the movie that jump started the MCU to the one that almost killed it.  I kid, but poor Hulk.  He just can't seem to get a decent movie.  They can't seem to think of much beyond the Bruce/Hulk Jekyll/Hyde struggle and "Oh no!  Hulk rampage!  We must stop him!"  Even The Avengers had to throw that into the middle of the film (and then add the development that sometimes he can control it somehow, but that's for another time.)

In any case, here is the film that fans and the studio apparently try their collective best to forget, but the stirrings of connective tissue are there.  We do get a Tony Stark cameo, after all, but will Liv Tyler or William Hurt ever reprise their roles?  Everyone very much doubts it.

The Diversity Test: Iron Man

Iron Man (2008)

The movie that began it all, that sparked a movie series no one even imagined and may have changed film franchises in ways yet unseen.  It was a massive success and still held in high regard, regularly ranked near the top of the ten Marvel films released in the last nearly seven years.  Let's take a look at the cast:

The Diversity Test: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

So, a few months ago I suggested to a moderator on theforce.net forums that someone should analyse the diversity of the biggest film franchise in Hollywood right now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a.k.a. the MCU.  You see, the moderator Mike is a major advocate of greater diversity in media in general and in Star Wars in particular, having started and actively participated in a number of threads focusing on the topic in Star Wars and greater pop culture entitled, punnily enough, "Ignorance is Bias".  As a recurring participant in the thread (though my visits to the forums are more sparing than they used to be, Ignorance is Bias is always a thread I click on when I do visit the forum's Literature section), I've read and voiced my thoughts on diversity issues in entertainment, particularly genre works, and it occurred to me that few properties, maybe none, are at the level of popularity and visibility right now of the Marvel Universe films.  Other studios are trying to ape their winning formula, from other comic properties (DC, Sony with Spider-Man, 20th Century Fox with X-Men and Fantastic Four) to other genre properties (Disney and Star Wars, Universal and their classic monsters, bizarrely enough).

Marvel is king right now and with that has come extra attention and extra scrutiny, much of it deserved.  It's easiest to see one of the biggest issues by looking at the leads in the Marvel movies so far.  10 movies in and 9 films have had a white man as the lead character.  The only exception is the ensemble The Avengers which has... five white men and one white woman as its title leads.  At this point, our first person of color in a starring role will be the 18th planned MCU film (Black Panther) while the first woman in a starring role will be the 19th (Captain Marvel).  So, it made me wonder, just how diverse are the Marvel films?  Are they becoming more diverse as time goes one?  How do things break down as far as race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation go?

Mike has a simple and enlightening system he uses to measure the diversity of any given work when he experiences Star Wars stories, simply tallying up the dramatis pesonae of any work and finding the percentage of characters who are not white male humans.  So, for example, if you were viewing The Empire Strikes Back and simply wanted to know the diversity of the main characters, this might be your tally:

Luke Skywalker
Leia Organa
Han Solo
Chewbacca
C-3PO
R2-D2
Lando Calrissian
Darth Vader
Yoda

You can debate whether or not all of those characters count as "main", but for this exercise it works.  There we have 9 characters listed, 3 of whom are portrayed as white men (Luke, Han, and, knowing what we know after Jedi and the prequels, Vader).  If you wanted to take it a step further you could go with how many are portrayed  by white men (in this case only Leia and Lando would qualify as exceptions, along with half of Vader since the voice is James Earl Jones and the body David Prowse).  In the case of the characters, you have a diversity score of 66 (67 if you're rounding up).  For the actors, the diversity score drops to 28 (though arguably it's 39 since R2's performer, Kenny Baker, is a little person, a member of another minority group, though one marginalized enough that it's rarely brought up when speaking of diversity).

With the scoring in mind, I had to make a decision of who to count when I'm making my tally.  Tony Stark is one thing, some random bartender with a single line, not so much.  Any lines I draw between characters are bound to be arbitrary, but I had to draw it somewhere.  Here are the categories I've settled on:

Main Characters - Characters I consider to be the main stars of the films.  It can be harder to categorize than you'd think, especially as the casts grow.

Supporting Characters - Characters with multiple scenes, who contribute largely to the plot, are a major part of the ensemble, but the story isn't necessarily about or driven by them.  Think Legolas and Gimli.

Minor Characters - Characters that are at least in two scenes, that a viewer will probably recognize on multiple viewings, but don't get much if any definition in the story.  They basically qualify if they appear in two or more scenes and get lines or some focus.

Miscellaneous - Finally, the section where I cover everything else.  It can be major non-white male (WM) characters that only appear in a single scene, notable settings or extras that demonstrate diversity, or other thoughts on a movie's portrayal of diverse characters.  This is also a grab bag of any additional thoughts I have.

So, with that out of the way, the next post will be the first in the series where we look at the film that kicked everything off way back in 2008, Iron Man.

Book Review: Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown

Darth Maul is a character with a varied history.  Perhaps the new character most associated with the Prequel Trilogy, even though he only appeared in one film, had a handful of lines, and was unceremoniously killed off.  Perhaps it was the look, perhaps it was arguably the best lightsaber duel in the six film saga (so far), but the character endured beyond his initial run that included Episode I, the materials leading into that film that involved him, and any sequel stories of dubious canon dealing with his resurrection.  The Clone Wars began his return with a twist at the end of a trilogy of episodes that introduced his brother Savage Oppress and the 3-D re-release of Episode I brought an explosion of Maul material, from short stories to a new young readers' book to a significant role in Darth Plagueis, his face plastered all over toys and merchandise, and his official resurrection in The Clone Wars.  The acrobatic Sith Lord has seen his story expanded beyond what anyone would have imagined just a few years ago and in my opinion, much of that material has fleshed him out in high quality and entertaining storytelling.

Joining that wealth of new material comes Joe Schreiber's latest venture into the Star Wars galaxy, Maul: Lockdown, a book set shortly before Episode I and tying into the highly popular and detailed Darth Plagueis.  Schreiber is well known for his two previous Star Wars horror novels, Death Troopers and Red Harvest, which brought the zombie genre and a level of brutality and gore rarely seen in the Star Wars universe.  In many ways, Schreiber is the ideal choice for telling a story in which Maul is pretty much the protagonist, putting the living weapon in a setting of savagery and lawlessness and letting Maul's considerable physical abilities shine.  Yet, as the apprentice to Star Wars' greatest villain, the brilliant mastermind Darth Sidious, Maul also gets to display his cunning, adaptation, and improvisation, something The Clone Wars began to display on a grander scale and had always been hinted in previous Maul-centered stories, but may have been overshadowed by this relentless physical nature.

The story is set in a space station and prison, where Sidious has dispatched Maul to infiltrate and track down an elusive arms dealer, Iram Radique, a figure few have met or seen and may, in fact, be a myth himself (The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze seems to be a major inspiration).  Complicating matters is the nature of the prison, designed so that the cells can be reconfigured at a moment's notice, two cells linked, and two inmates paired in a fight to the death, a match that's broadcast throughout the galaxy with a lucrative gambling industry having sprung up around it.  The concept reminded me so much of 2008's Death Race remake that I imagined Joan Allen as the prison Cog Hive Seven's unscrupulous warden.

This isn't our first foray into a Darth Maul-centered adult novel, with Michael Reaves' excellent Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter back in 2001.  In that, however, Maul was a more traditional antagonistic presence, pursuing a ragtag collection of good guys in an unstoppable chase.  This time around, Maul is even more of the center of the story and dealing with such a collection of shady characters that he's almost the good guy, even though his ultimate goal will benefit the most evil character in Star Wars.  As I noted above, Schreiber is a fitting choice to write Darth Maul and this brutal prison is the type of setting that lets Maul thrive.  Maul is focused on his mission and that, along with the instruction of Darth Sidious to refrain from using the Force lest he reveal his nature as a Sith Lord in a constantly surveilled setting, means he has to think before he acts, plan before he moves, and investigate without giving himself up, maneuvering himself into the the prison's power structure uncovering the shadows without sparking the ire of the warden and guards or the inmates working for the very target he seeks.  We get plenty of Maul's natural lethal capability, even without the dark side to call upon, while at the same time get to see him working, probing, and manipulating the other inmates to accomplish his own goal.  In many ways, it's a microcosm of the Sith's Grand Plan, the manipulation of others to benefit his own ends, and seeing Maul get to accomplish that is gratifying.  We uncover the mystery with him, learn new twists as he does, and it's captivating.  Schreiber's structure of short, sleek chapters, a method that he used in his first two Star Wars novels, works even more to his advantage here, making the story move at a breakneck pace that still never feels rushed and makes the novel hard to put down.  It seems like something is always happening, with a diverse cast of colorful characters all with their own agendas and motivations, all working to survive and triumph over the threats surrounding them.

Beyond Maul's characters, the prison and events relating to it are shaped through that motley collection of supporting players, from the manipulative warden to a father with a few secrets of his own and his son in the prison; two gangs of fierce inmates and individual inmates with their own strange quirks and secrets; and a few familiar faces from this era of rising Sith and underworld scum.  Some are more interesting than others, but none drag the story down nor stand out as a glaring weakness.

The story isn't without its faults.  After a strong start to a small climax about 2/3 of the way through, the story seems to lose its focus for a while before picking up for a strong finish.  There are a couple of head scratchers that don't quite pay off as far as I could tell, one character who serves as a nice Expanded Universe tie-in, but was probably introduced too late to have as much character development as they could have, and a twist with one character midway through that had almost no impact on the story.

Overall, though, it works, from its take on Maul's perspective as he experiences physical difficulties and fear of failing his master, to the setting itself, with its strange geography and hidden terrors.  I wasn't sure what to expect going in, especially when it was first announced, and was pleasantly surprised.  If this is one of the final books before a new era in EU literature, it's sending it out on a high note.

8 out of 10

Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy

The last post I had was a terrific trailer concerning Nolan's Batman trilogy.  Well, before Batman, we got a trilogy of superhero films starring Marvel's most iconic hero, Spider-Man.  Now, it's pretty close to consensus that Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy isn't quite on the level of quality of Nolan's Batman, especially when you throw in its weakest entry, Spider-Man 3 (side note: I do have to say that it's refreshing to have a set of movies content with doing just the Title, Number format.  In a world of Dark Knights Rising, Trekking Into Darkness, Last Stands, Winter Soldiers, Dinosaurs Dawning, Shrek Forever After, etc, it's nice that we just got Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3.  I'd also like to thank Toy Story).  But there was a lot to like in this colorful, sometimes campy, but very sincere portrayal of the old webslinger.

We must also remember just how important the success and popularity of Spider-Man was to the rash of comic book movies we've had since.  If X-Men showed that superhero movies could be serious and cool, Spider-Man showed that and that they could be wildly popular.  So we can thank Sam Raimi (and to an extent, Bryan Singer) for Nolan's Batman trilogy, Marvel's Iron Man to Avengers universe, and everything in between.

In that spirit, here's another trilogy trailer, this time for Raimi's Spider-Man:

BTW, Spider-Man 2 is still one of my favorite superhero films.  And its trailer is still one of the coolest out there.

The Dark Knight Trilogy

Some videos work oh so well.  This trailer for the entire Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, where we see the three films combined and meshed with scenes and dialogue, make me realize just how well that world they built fits together.  Just fantastic: