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Last week, Zackary Russell and E. Stephen Burnett celebrated the Realm Makers Expo!¹ That means this episode is another Stephen solo show. This one reveals a shocking truth: these days Stephen finds a lot more joy in books than he sees at the movie houses. Can fans, including Christians, help save the cinema from synthetic moralities, sloppy franchises, and scandalized/sillified superheroes?

Episode sponsors

1. Oasis Family Media presents “1232” dramatic audio podcast
2. The Company: Kingdom Writers, World Changers
3. Above the Circle of Earth by E. Stephen Burnett

Mission update

• Lorehaven reviews: new Anointed, upcoming Warsafe
• Subscribe free to get updates and join the ever-growing Lorehaven Guild

Quotes and notes: superheroic articles

• ‘Batman v Superman’: An Exquisite Superhero Theodicy
• Does ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Use ‘Safe’ Bad Words?
• Did Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 Fly or Flop?
• Revealed: Here’s the Little Trap I Set to Expose Rotten Tomatoes
• How Does #ReleaseTheSnyderCut Reveal Fandom’s Grace and Idolatry?
• ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Hints at Redemption from Postmodern Pain
• ‘The Flash’ Ranks Characters Over Spectacle for a Surprisingly Heartfelt Speedrun

Quotes and notes: earlier podcast episodes

• 17. What Can Christian Fans Learn From #ReleaseTheSnyderCut’s Success?
• 58. How Did We Enjoy the Heroic Majesty of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’?
• 122. Why Are More Fans Turning Against Their Favorite Franchises?
• 161. How Can We Celebrate the Restoration of Failed Franchises?
• 199. How Should Christians Fight to Love a Declining Disney? | with Josh Shepherd
• 258. How Would We Restore Disney Film Franchises?

1. Movie villain 1: made-up moralities

• Yes, Virginia, there really is a “woke agenda” that ruins a lot of movies.
• Most recently this resurfaced as associated with Disney/Pixar’s Elio
• Some claim the new Superman is “woke, but is this only director rhetoric?
• It’s waning, But look for creators to rally for a last self-worshiping hurrah.
• Stephen wanted to like Fantastic Four, but one of its actors is obnoxious.
• No, he doesn’t hold to the “shut up and sing” line. Actors are people too.
• But viewers can also support actors who don’t get into all that stuff.
• And yes, there are many such actors. Look for those who avoid politics.
  • Apolitical actors include Henry Cavill, Tom Cruise, and Tom Felton
  • Or directors like Kenneth Branagh, Terry Matalas, Christopher Nolan
• It may also matter to you whether directors are spouting woke shibboleths.
• Stephen usually finds it hard to ignore that nonsense from directors.
• Of course they very likely believe certain things that I strongly disbelieve.
• But if they spout about bad politics, they say, “You’re not my audience.”
• They’re revealing they care more about looking “righteous” before others.
• So it’s okay to avoid certain movies because you’d rather not “reward evil.”
• And it’s okay to support certain good movies because actors act better.
• Ask: does the movie’s creators tend to follow the “canon” of true morality?

2. Movie villain 2: flippant franchises

• Stephen isn’t alone; actor Wil Wheton (Wesley Crusher) feels similarly.
• A major problem with all those movie trailers was an air of self-indifference
• We’ve long since jumped the sharks of writers acting painfully self-aware
• This is the kind of “flippancy” Screwtape loves, where everything is a “joke.”
• We might also call this flippancy unrealistic. It’s the bad kind of escapism.
• Reality is real. Some things, including, death and dishonesty, aren’t funny.
• But this attitude doesn’t just come from bad writers—it starts at the top.
• Flippancies are increasingly steered by meme-level shtick, even studio PR.
• For instance, relying on the increasingly rigged Rotten Tomatoes “score.”
• Flippant systems rank movies as either “great” or “rotten,” with no nuance.
• Stephen has well-documented how this was done for his own film reviews.
• Movie critic Stephen M. Colbert first observed this for ScreenRant in 2019:

The unfortunate impact is Rotten Tomatoes and other review aggregators regularly give major boosts to movies where reviewers generally lean in a more positive direction, but few people react negatively, by presenting them as having a higher score than movies that were genuinely reviewed better, yet elicited more negative responses.

At the end of the day, everyone has unique tastes, and that includes movie critics, so the notion of taking all those disparate opinions on a movie, distilling it down into a simple thumbs up/down, then aggregating that into an average approval rating and expecting it to be applicable to individual audience members seems very backward. As always, audiences are better off finding a particular reviewer or outlet they tend to agree with and trusting in their reviews, or even better, take a “risk” and go see a movie with an exciting premise, cool marketing, or an actor or director you like and form your own opinion.

• Ask: does a movie company marketing tend to follow a “canon” of reality?

3. Movie villain 3: sillified superheroes

• Stephen wrote this before two out of three of this July’s big film releases.
• Personally, he enjoys overtly fun and serious superhero stories in all worlds.
• That means he likes many versions and won’t “gatekeep” hero characters.
• For example, he enjoys all the visual Superman adaptations: Reeves, Reeve, DCAU, several DC animated spinoffs, Routh, Cavill, and even Hoechlin.
• (My jury’s out on the new guy, because of the reasons I’ve listed above.)
• For years I’ve been allergic to demands of “comic accurate” being used to justify “true to the one single canon, or perception of such, that I like best.”
• Other fans want to know whether a story is faithful to morality and reality.
• These fans also want higher standards for cinematography and writing.
• As one of my social-media friends, Michael John Petty, recently observed:

I used to be a major proponent of wanting things “comics accurate,” but nowadays I prefer the phrase “comics consistent.” Not all “accurate to the comics” ideas are good, but if you take what consistently is good and works with the characters, you can’t go wrong. That said, all of these Batmen [Adam West, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck] are great in their own way, and work in their own way for consistent reasons — but that doesn’t mean they all need to be the same.

• Stephen feels “allergic” to early hype or hatred for yet-unseen versions.
• And he’s allergic to the sort of Bene Gesserit “seeding” of media narratives.
• That includes “caught” ideas about a filmmaker’s supposed sincerity or evil.
• “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you’ve got it made.” (George Burns)
• At least one director said he loved superheroes because they are stupid.
• Alas, this director has personally popularized many flippant tropes.
• Stephen says he considers these “deathworks” that harm our culture.
• We’re already hearing about how a spinoff DC show gets back to vulgarian.
• Others, like many Marvel and DC directors, embrace the heroes earnestly.
• In general, people really need true sincerity about superheroes and villains.
• When a film or show can offer that, he’ll show up. If not, why waste time?
• Our loyalty is not to some comic canon or corporate character/figurehead.
• Instead, he looks to invest time and fandom energy in creators with vision.
• Ask: does the movie’s creators tend to follow a “canon” of real sincerity?

Com station

Top question for listeners

• What movies do you want to enjoy, or avoid, this summer season?

Next on Fantastical Truth

As we’ve often heard, some movies feel difficult to enjoy! Yet today we want to celebrate animated films across the years, including the artists behind classic characters like Cogsworth, Iago, Pumbaa, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Kronk … and now, coming this fall, the greatest Hero of all. Famed animators and twin brothers Tony Bancroft and Tom Bancroft bring their magic to our studio in advance of their next feature film in cinemas, the traditionally animated Light of the World.