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   I’m not much for the Hollywood movie-culture scene.  Either I’m getting to old or too smart for the usual smarm of what Hollywood has to offer; and on that note I’d like to think of my self in the later rather than the former category.

Ironic self-delusion aside, pop culture these days rarely entices me with its chintzy glitz and shiny images.  Enter Iron Man 3.  This is the end chapter for Tony Stark and the current Disney/Marvel money machine.  IM3 hastily ties up the plot lines started in the previous movies and attempts to give the viewer a satisfying denouement to the Iron Man story (rest assured dear readership the money-mantle is just changing form, prepare yourself for Avengers “9” and Thor Infinity).

Iron man 3 is a mediocre flick, it had all the prerequisite action and ‘witty-dialogue’, but as a final chapter those are now baseline expectations, and thus I expected more.

I suggest looking at rotten tomatoes or metacritic for an actual review of Iron Man 3 because it is not really my intent to review the movie so to speak, but rather set up a preamble to some inane meta-thoughts spawned by the viewing of said movie.

Meta-Thought #1 – How long is the superhero fad going to last?  Marvel and DC are currently churning out flick after flick about super powered characters and the woes that they face, but the saturation point must soon be coming.  There are only so many times we can genuine feel someone with fledgling  superpowers/super-situation rediscover their humanity and victoriously battle evil to save the girl/earth/multi-verse.

Why do I tire of this?  Because humanity isn’t that fucking special.  Human dignity and worth are crushed as a matter of routine and a large majority of people who are not the ones with Orwell’s perpetual boot stamping on their face do not know or do not care to know about it.  We stand atomized in our societies and hem and haw about the injustice going on, while those without the burden of conscience continue to perfect the system that allows for the savage exploitation of so many.

We have ‘super-problems’ in the present on a scale that individuals cannot fix.  Yet, we are fed a stream of movies that exemplify individual action and ‘sacrifice’  that always somehow manages to resolve the problems and win the day.  I think that the glut of hero movies being promulgated as Triple A entertainment of late represent the subconscious desires of people who feel fundamentally powerless to escape that crushing reality and identify with a idea/role that gives them some feeling of autonomy and power.

Meta-Thought #1A – A meta thought on a meta thought (Groovy!).  Gee-Wilikers!  How far can the Arbourist go on this thought-wanking experiment?  Don’t worry gentle readership it will be all over soon, my interest and angst are waning as writing stuff like this depresses the heck out of me.   But, back on topic, (let’s, like good academic writers, paraphrase the last sentence to establish a sense of coherency ((another level of meta! Holy Frak!))) the idea that somehow an individual can rid themselves of the sense of powerlessness through exclusively embracing individual action is at its very foundation misleading.  Misleading in the sense that, back here in the real world, it is going to take to change things is mass-coordinated, cooperative action to change what is wrong with our societies.

The great man (and I do use “great man” because it is part of the trope, women-folk with their “feelings” just don’t cut it)  that is going to change society for the better does not exist.  Great men wannabees are identified and either destroyed or co-opted to work for the system rather than against it.  Herein lies my discontent – the model of change we are being shown simply does not work.  Individuals, without organizational support,  that go against the system are crushed.  It is only through collective action and coordination that change can be affected on the societal level.  But we’re never given that set of blueprints to base our narratives on.

Why?  Because it might inspire people to get together and actually change the system.  And that is why Iron Man 3 is a mediocre movie.

(Wow…concluded just about as well as the movie did…)