The Green Lantern and the Monomyth

That a superhero movie follows the monomyth is no great surprise. The interest is in how each movie treats the hero's path. The new Green Lantern movie features many of the signature elements of the hero's journey. The treatment ranges from the cliched to the surprising.

First and foremost is the apotheosis of the father. Hal Jordan is the son of a fearless test pilot. As such he must live up to those expectations. He walks in the footsteps of his father, yet never feels he is adequate. Irresponsibility stems from doubt. Since he inwardly feels unworthy he, whether consciously or unconsciously, sets himself up to fail. The culmination of these fears occurs in his stalled descent in a fighter jet. Hal misses the opportunity to control his plummeting plane because he relives the moment of his father's death. Frankly this could have been played out more efficiently. With Top Gun and the parody Hot Shots, this scenario has the mark of cliche.

The we have the encounter with the gods and the call to adventure, these two scenarios being inexorably linked in Green Lantern. With the crash and imminent death of Abin Sur, Hal Jordan is selected by the ring and brought to the injured alien. Despite the information overload of being whisked through the air and confronted by an alien spacecraft, Hal shrugs off this disorientation when he spots the injured Abin Sur. This is one of the first of the tests and trials Hal faces in order to prove his worth as a hero.

Abin Sur, as messenger of the gods, offers Hal the power of the ring. The ring here represents the magical weapon, the gift of the gods imbued with the power to fight evil provided the hero is worthy. The lightsaber from Star Wars is such a weapon as is Thor's hammer. But with the power of the ring comes the responsibility of using it wisely. Hal, who has shown up to this point a knack for irresponsible behavior, must overcome his past self to become the hero of destiny.

The call to and refusal of adventure is treated somewhat differently in Green Lantern. At first Hal is eager to accept the call. He swears an oath must further prove his mettle in the underworld, here represented by the planet, Oa. Oa is home for the Green Lantern corps. It is the source of their power. In a mythic sense it equates to Mount Olympus or Asgard. Oa houses the gods. Journeying to Oa, Hal Jordan is first prepared in a baptism of pain. His body is made pure that he may interact with the gods, i.e. the other Green Lanterns. As he explores more and more of Oa, he encounters creatures stranger than the next. Now Hal is a visitor between worlds. His gift removes him from humanity and his humanity separates him from the aliens on Oa. At this time he is the most alone and the most vulnerable.

He is aided by two aliens, other messengers of the gods, who provide him with tests of skill regarding the mind and the body. It is Sinestro, though, who tests Hal's spirit. Sinestro, played by Mark Strong, enters as Hal's rival, filling a role for a bother battle. Hal must match or surpass Sinestro in skill to be found worthy. That Hal fails in this test is the seed of his decline. He rejects the call to adventure and returns to the Earthly realm as a quitter.

It is only when his own realm is threatened that Hal reclaims his charge. All this while evil has taken root on Earth in the form of Hector. A wayward scientist, Hector is infected with evil. It claims his mind, body, and soul. Hector is Hal's shadow. They love the same women. Both have father issues. Each is crippled by self doubt. While Hector is corrupted by his feelings, Hal acknowledges and controls them. He returns to Oa only to be refused assistance. The gods turn their back on him. He confronts the gods, and Sinestro, and oversteps his place.

Hal battles evil on his own, knowing that he is outgunned. He is fully actualized. He uses the skills he has learned along the way, as well as the magic weapon, to defeat evil. In his moment of self sacrifice the gods accept him and rescue him from death.

There are several other elements at work here as well, but that is the gist of the monomyth. It's pretty straight forward. This may, in part, be the source of much outcry against this film. Much seems familiar. Some have remarked that Green Lantern is just The Last Starfighter, failing to grasp that they share the same mythic elements, not the same story and characters. However, other films have been more effective in telling the story. While the script is not as sparkling as Thor or X-Men: First Class, it is a far sight better than the new Star Trek or Tron: Legacy. In short it falls somewhere between, sharing a spot with Iron Man 2. The principle actors surpass the script to deliver a movie that is much better than it could be.

TRON! Legacy?

When Legacy came out I knew we had to see it. I had reservations. I expected very little, but being Disney and being TRON I at least expected it to be fun. It wasn't. It is not uncommon that I may sigh or roll my eyes at a film. Something can be ridiculous, yet still enjoyable. It is rare that I actually sneer at a film.

Why sneer? Because I hold something in contempt. Because the film insults my intelligence. Because I see past the spoken word to see the poorly written script seeping through. There are many reasons to deride the film. Granted I hated Legacy less than Transformers 2 or Armageddon, but far more than Twilight. I hold it about even with the Star Trek reboot. Thinking about it, both movies are a kind of re-imagining for a new and younger audience. Story and structure is less important than pretty people and shiny special effects.

I had my doubts when TRON Legacy opened with a number of TRON action figures on a boy's shelf. Hang on a tick. Did Flynn come out with his adventures? Did he market his story to Disney? Is everyone aware of his misadventures in the system or did he fictionalize his account? I was confused and a little dismayed. Flynn tells the story of TRON to his son, then disappears. This is where the film lost me. A montage of TV news reports informs us of the events that take place after Flynn's disappearance. Besides being a clumsy way to present exposition, the clips take place on TV screens in some nebulous space. Where are these televisions? Are they in the system that, as far as I know, has no connection to the web? It's a poor choice by the film makers that took me out of the film completely.

Then we meet our hero in earnest, a rebellious, tech savvy, twenty-something with more hair gel than soul. We have seen the archetype of the angsty heir before and we've seen it better. Sam cannot compare to Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. So Sam breaks into the Encom building after recklessly driving his motorcycle and avoiding cops. In this sequence we see the amazing Cillian Murphy which lifted my hopes only to dash them. Murphy is just a cameo, when his presence as a villain or foil would have added considerable gravitas to the film. Sam hacks into Encom's system and makes the new OS they worked on open source.

We discover later that Sam is the major share holder and could have avoided flagrant lawbreaking just by attending the meeting. And what's with Encom? The offices are bathed in an electric blue light with chrome and glass everywhere. What happened to the natural wood? The warm, subdued lighting? The system breathes with more life than Encom which only narrows the distinction between these two worlds.

When our reluctant hero finally enters the system we find that he really isn't all that heroic at all. Constantly he is being saved, or lead, or captured. Everything Sam does is passive. Things happen to him. He doesn't really do anything for most of the film. The rare exercise of will does not contribute to the story. Sam is bland and has no chemistry with his father.

And the system itself is a far cry from the TRON we know from 1982. The world of the system then had charm, with it's minimal graphics. It looked like an electronic world. The system of TRON Legacy is hyper real. It looks more like a futuristic society than an electronic dimension. The grid of old has been replaced by what looks like granite or asphalt. The shimmering, latex suits of old appear to be more natural fabrics now. It rains. Moreover, the world seems to be populated by supermodels and EBM band members. The whole experience is more style than substance.

The action itself is highly stylized. Programs don't just throw disks, they have to do some kind of extreme martial arts 900 spinning backflip before doing so. Somehow the modernized representation lacks the charm of TRON 1982. The light cycle sequence, though beautiful, doesn't follow the sharp 90 degree turns of the original film. The sense of a video game world is lost.

And then there is CLU. We see a digitally younger Jeff Daniels. CLU has the same surfer-dude mannerisms of Flynn, yet has this fascist perspective. The lazy posture and the rigid attitude conflict in such a way that I have difficulty fusing the two.

The story is convoluted and mostly involves flashbacks. Flynn creates CLU. They discover the spontaneously generated programs. CLU destroys them. TRON gets reprogrammed. And what is with TRON? How can you in good conscience call a film after a character that features mostly as a foil. And when TRON finally breaks from his spell there is absolutely no consequence. For the most part Legacy follows the basic action of the first movie. Man gets zapped into the system. He has to play games. He escapes. He makes his way back to the portal to get back to the real world. Legacy features a few more action sequences, namely the entirely unnecessary club scene. The added action doesn't move the story, making Legacy the equivalent of The Matrix: Reloaded. Nevertheless, there remains the dull dinner sequence and the light boat scenes that dragged much like the scene by the pond in TRON.

Much has been said regarding the soundtrack by Daft Punk. I felt the music too much in the foreground, the aforementioned club scene being just one account. The music is good, but distracting or, rather, too on the nose. It's presence turns the film into an extended music video. There were many options for electronic artists. I'm left wondering what a Bill Leeb or a Gary Numan may have done with the same opportunity.

TRON Legacy was a film that needn't have been made. Disney showed some speculative shots of light cycles during a technology demonstration. When they heard the response the executive saw with dollar signs for eyes. But in the end, Sam fails. He does not return with his father, suggesting a third movie. I'm not invested enough in this franchise to want a third film. TRON did not warrant a sequel in the first place.

If I were Flynn and nearly died in a computer system would I willingly go back? They have mice and keyboards for a reason, you know.

Conscience of a Killer

There is a theory regarding serial killers. Even the most gruesome murderer wants to be caught. The trademark mode of operation, the calling cards, the letters to the police and the press may not be just a few strokes of the ego. These tropes may be desperate cries to stop the cycle. Granted this is just one theory.

However, the guilt of the murderer plays an integral role in literature. For instance, in Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell Tale Heart, having slain his neighbor, a tenant hides the body under the floorboards. Meanwhile, police were informed of a scream during the night and interview the murderer. The man covers up by claiming the scream as his own. During that night he hears the beat of a heart, the heart he assumes to be that of the victim. This paranoia builds and builds. He is shocked the police do not hear the sound. Finally he confesses to the crime, the beating heart to loud to ignore. It turns out the heart beat he heard was his own, a manifestation of guilt.

Dostoevsky takes a similar approach. In Crime and Punishment, a young student murders his greedy landlady with an ax. However, an innocent woman walks in and in a panic he kills her as well. The guilt of this unintended murder haunts the young man, eating at his soul. Meanwhile, the investigator circle ever inward. The student meets a poor woman and falls in love. He finally turns himself in, atoning for his crimes by pursuing a Christian life and living out his sentence in peace.

The Brothers Karamazov is the story of four brothers dealing with the murder of their father. Each of the four sons has some motive for the murder save the next to youngest, Alyosha, who is pursuing a life of religion. Dmitri, The eldest son, is romantically involved with his father's mistress, and spending money liberally, seems the most likely. Ivan, the middle son, is a student and atheist whose cold logic appears to make no room for morality. It is this approach that inspires the youngest son, Pavel, an epileptic bastard, to confess to the murder. However, it is the student who feels the most guilt. This guilt manifests in hallucinations and poor health. At one point he imagines the devil speaking with him, undermining his atheistic beliefs.

Even in Fritz Lang's M, the murderer feels guilt for his crimes, or at least claims to. The spirits of the slain girls haunt his every moment, silenced only when he is in the act of pursuing, molesting, and killing. In his breakthrough performance, Peter Lorre brings a pathos to what is really a hateful, cowardly character - a child murderer. Whether the guilt he admits is real or not is left for the viewer to decide.

If we train our conscience well it will kiss us as it bites - Friedrich Nietzsche

Im Rhythmus Bleiben

Rhythm plays a vital role in music, dance, and the martial arts. It features in sport as well. Little chance has a rowing team if the stroke is off. Even the sexual act enjoys some rhythmic motions.

So, what is rhythm? Looking at it musically, rhythm is the number of beats to a measure. A waltz is defined by three beats to a measure, the tell tale one-two-three one-two-three we know so well. Behind the complexities of the baroque music of Chopin a trained ear can still distinguish those same three beats. Even :wumpscut: released a waltz as the track Maiden. A waltz suggests a fluidity which is reflected in the spiraling dance sharing the name. A waltz can be smooth, and can be slow, or it can be mad. Yet, a waltz is always a waltz in the end.

Four beats to a measure is also known as 4 on the floor. It is the basic beat for most rock & roll. The one-two-three-four features in pop, rock, metal, punk, you name it. What distinguishes one genre from the next may be the backbeat, or the kind of percussion used. Tempo also plays a part. For instance, metal uses a lot of triple kick drum while goth often employs wooden percussion or a snapping snare. Meanwhile, industrial music has featured metallic percussion while electronica may use a simple digital effect. The 4/4 beat is very structured, yet still provides for a wide variety of musical techniques.

The 5/8 beat is very rare indeed. Since it sounds quite awkward comparatively, only the most experimental of artists try their hand at it. For instance, Einsturzende Neubauten. This is true also for 7/8 time, which has been used by the likes of Sting. Meanwhile 6/8 and 8/8 time, for those who know their fractions, are not a far cry from 3/4 and 4/4 time.

So rhythm is a number of regulated beats within a set measure of time. One can see how this may translate to sport, fighting, or the sexual act.

In sport, rhythm effects rowing, cycling, running, gymnastics, skiing, ice dancing, you name it. Rhythm implies harmony and harmony, balance. The same is true in the martial arts. Whether boxing or kung fu, the rhythm of strikes and/or kicks makes up certain combos. These combos are perfected through repeated exercises that they may be performed swiftly and accurately. In his movies, Jackie Chan strives for a rhythm to the fight sequences. As such, in post production the action on screen will match the soundtrack. Meanwhile, knowing the beat helps the stuntmen in staging the fight. Each beat is an attack or defense.

I needn't suggest how rhythm applies to sexuality as it seems rather obvious. I will only say that the best lovers know how to use rhythm to affect or postpone certain ends.

Weaponization

A hammer has many uses depending on the hand that wields it. It can install a shelf or it can bash in someone's head. In itself the hammer has no moral compass. Though its virtue (arete) is to drive in nails, that function can be easily applied to the cranium. So it is with many tools.

That which is first designed for a constructive purpose may have that design perverted. Look at nuclear energy. The promise was clean, efficient energy of the future. The atomic age. Yet, at the tail end of the second World War, America found itself embroiled in the war of the Pacific. Japan refused to submit. The samurai spirit drove the Japanese airmen to dive bomb battleships, it drove infantrymen to fight to the bloody end on islands that previously were just dots in the ocean. Truman made the difficult choice to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagisaka. Two bombs suggested there could be more. Japan opted surrender over annihilation.

The promise of nuclear energy progressed to the threat of nuclear holocaust. Soon the Soviet Union designed their own atomic bombs. The cold war placed the world in the center of a tug of war, a Western styled standoff. The bear and the eagle had bombs. If one dropped, they all dropped.

The perversion of technology into weapons of war is seen even earlier. The Nobel prize gets its name from the creator of dynamite. The explosive originally featured in construction. No longer had man to chip away at mountain sides. Drill a hole in the granite, place a few sticks in, then ignite the fuse. It did not take long however for dynamite to fall into the hands of bandits and bank robbers. Dynamite features as the weapon of choice for labor union activists. The railroad industry notoriously overworked and underpaid their workers. The Chinese suffered most, having been hoodwinked into the promise of the American dream only to find themselves dangling in a basket over a cliffside with a stick of dynamite in hand.

Weaponization features in the medical field as well. The same technologies used to develop a vaccine or an antivirus are used to develop biological weapons. The Resident Evil series centers around the T-virus. It's original use was medicinal. Soon its darker purpose was exploited. What once was meant for healing the sick now animated the dead. The virus spread, reanimating the victims of zombie attack. Resident Evil takes weaponization as an overriding theme. The T-virus and its offshoots are characters in their own rights, driving the story arc and influencing the behavior of the various characters.

Iron Man vs. Iron Curtain

Stan Lee created Iron Man during a turbulent time in America. 1963 saw an emerging culture war between conservatives and radicals. The civil rights movement was building as the stage was set for the Vietnam War. With the help of writer, Larry Lieber and artists Jack Kirby and Don Heck, Stan Lee created a character that defied everything the youth movement aimed for. Lee took it as a challenge to see if you could design a hateful character and still make it a success.

Tony Stark embodied everything young America stood against. He was made to be a cold war icon, America's defense against the Soviet Union.

A wealthy industrialist, Tony was a far cry from the bohemian artists, beatniks, and flower people of this era. Tony is very much the capitalist. He buys and sells things. Manufacturing those things is his role in life. This includes everything that comes with capitalism. Supply and demand. Advertising. Competition. Buy outs. Investment. During a generation that turned a wary eye towards wealth, Tony's excesses were just that, excessive.

Moreover, Tony Stark is a hawk. He is pro war. He designs and sells weapons to countries, weapons with the very specific goal of eliminating life. These weapons are aimed primarily at socialists that threaten the free market system Tony represents. In short, Iron Man employs capitalism to defeat socialism.

Ayn Rand keeps making her appearance in this blog. Tony Stark is not that far off from a Gail Wynand or Roark type of character. Tony Stark is a self mover. He is self sufficient. An inventor, he designs the product he sells. He is creator and salesperson in one. He is Stark Industries. Furthermore, he is the epitome of narcissism. Most heros keep their real identity secret. Not Tony Stark. Not content with passing by the publicity and the acclaim, he admits to being Iron Man. The two are synonymous. Based loosely on Howard Hughs, Tony Stark has his eccentricities. He has also had many loves. Indiscriminate sex is just how he rolls.

Despite what appears to be a checklist of things young people hate, Iron Man had gained considerable popularity. As far as superheros, he has received the most female fan letters. Self confidence, intelligence, and wealth speak volumes when it comes to attracting the ladies. But that is not all. Consider his injury, a wounded heart. The metaphor is clear. Here is a great, yet vulnerable man. The technology he builds to protect the world also serves to keep him alive.

However, Tony's rather unique independence caused concern over the years. He founded the illuminati, a society of superheros originally formed to make the various heros answer for their actions. Ironically, Iron Man also went on a rampage, destroying everything based on his tech, including the S.H.I.E.L.D. Mandroids. Furthermore, Tony Stark pushed for the reinstatement of the registration act that led to the Marvel civil war.

Tony is quite the conundrum, having been the head of The Avengers, having been an inquisitor, having been a drunk, having been a soldier for peace. Yet, basic elements of the character remain throughout. At the root of it all he is a playboy industrialist in a shiny, armored suit.

Muscle vs. Mental Memory

So as you may know, the wife and I are fans of the TV show, CHUCK. We well loves it. However, there is an element to the show that struck me just recently. With version 2.o of the intersect, Chuck Bartowski is able to upload martial art techniques. This is a great boon to any spy, surely. It has saved his life and the life of his friends on more than one occasion. Yet, how does it work?

Anyone who has studied a martial art knows that the physical routines are important. There is a reason martial artists practice kata again and again. A kata is a battle against an imaginary opponent wherein the martial artist performs his or her arsenal of fighting techniques. This develops muscle memory. Muscle memory is the basis behind why you never forget how to ride a bicycle. Your body learns about balance, extension, contraction, fluidity of movement, resistance, and so on. Both athletes and dancers rely greatly on muscle memory. Without it could their bodies do the things they do?

The Chinese say you must taste the bitter to learn kung fu. Americans call it building character. Others say you must suffer for your art. No pain no gain.Physical training is a part of learning a martial art. Whether stretching to improve flexibility or climbing stairs to build endurance, a good deal of time and effort must be invested in order to develop one's body.

So how can one leapfrog this step? Has the mind such dominion over the body that it can dictate muscular strength, control, and speed? The tabletop role-playing game, Cyberpunk, also features a skill chip that, when inserted into the computer brain, grants the user martial art abilities. However, in this case much of the rest of the body is cybernetic as well. If your neural network has been replaced with wires and your muscles replaces with synthetic duplicates it stands to reason that muscle memory no longer applies.

Yet, somehow, Chuck is able to bypass this essential step. Or perhaps I'm judging to harshly. Perhaps the intersect grants Chuck only those abilities his body can handle. He is an IT professional. His typing speed may very well be quite high. Furthermore, a fan of video games, his hand eye coordination may be considerable. Playing the guitar could very much fit in with his natural ability. Why not the martial arts as well? Perhaps if he were in better physical fitness his kung fu would be all the more outstanding.

It is something to ponder, but nothing that keeps me from enjoying the show.