Super Heroes

So I have this theory that superheroes will be the next big thing in romance. In a way, we already see this with all of the paranormals. I can't help but believe, though, that the success of the Batman series won't spill over into romance in the same way we see it in the popularity of Heroes on TV. Time will tell.

I had a number of friends recommend IronMan to me because they liked Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. His performance definitely salvaged that film for me, but in the end the romance-lover in me had a hard time with his near total lack of self-knowledge related to his love for Penny. Maybe he feels that he can't love her and he has to sleep with all of these hot women who she literally cleans up after for a reason, but I never learned what that reason was aside from guessing that it fulfills some kind of adolescent male fantasy in the same way that the excessive gadgetry of the film did. The other problem being of course that Penny is a total doormat.

Despite having felt a little burned by IronMan, I went ahead and rented The Hulk. (It's such a nice thing to have total control of the remote while Hubby is out of town.) I had pretty low expectations of the movie given the reviews, but I'm a sucker for all things Ed Norton, so I thought I would give it a try. I also happen to like Liv Tyler. She's not an acting powerhouse, but her dark-haired femininity appeals to me.

Now after the IronMan experience, I was delighted to learn that The Hulk is really superhero candy for romance lovers (putting aside the whole lack of a perfect HEA, which I was prepared for). I loved how the Hulk's love for Betty is what allowed us to see the humanity of the monster and the fact that the relationship drove a lot of the action in the film.

The villains, though, they weren't so great. Why again did Tim Roth want to become a monster? Because he wanted to have a fight with the Hulk who never actually did anything to the Tim Roth character except kick him after that guy went over and demanded of Mr. Green, "Is that all you've got"? Come on guys, is that all you've got--a villain with no motivation other than a big old chip on his shoulder?

I'm also not going to go into Betty's whole daddy thing, either. The man's an idiot on too many levels to merit time on this posting.

I've got 8 hours left on my rental--I think I'm going to squeeze in some extra laundry folding this afternoon so I can watch it again.