Friday, August 23, 2013

Fans Killed the Fun


No one has aided pop culture more than the fans and no one has ruined the fun of pop culture more than the fans. The proof comes from years of beaten up, retconned timelines in comic books and recast, rehashed characters in television and movies. Everyone needs to accept part of the blame, if there is even blame to go around; the distributors, the movie studios, the major companies that own these franchises, but the ones that don’t want to own up to their fair share (a large majority in fact) is the fans.
It’s their whining and crying that led to the demise of the pop in pop culture, especially once the internet became universally available.  Everyone became an unpaid critic and most of the opinions expressed thoughtlessly, instantly; usually uninformed but always were worth every cent they were paid, which is none for those that got lost.

Fans cried for better comic book movies, they’ve gotten some of the best to date with The Avengers and Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Now, the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman has caused the smugness of fans to choke the life out of those of us that still enjoy pop culture but haven’t been able to have as much fun anymore because there’s no one to have a jubilant conversation or a level headed debate with any longer. If you have your own opinion, according to a “true fan,” if don’t agree with them – you’re wrong. Sound that out – Your OPINION is wrong. That has to be the most overly expressed, dimwitted response throughout the internet’s existence.
For the majority of you “true fans,”Man of Steel 2 is going to suck because they have already made up their minds that it is going to in fact suck. They have already decided that Ben Affleck is horrible casting as Batman and that Zack Snyder seeking a conference with Frank Miller is the biggest mistake in the history of DC Comics’ movies. The biggest mistake in DC Comics was selling to Warner Brothers and making products before making good stories; same goes for Marvel when they sold to Disney, but that’s actually nothing new. They’ve just recycled an old business practice only on a higher level. That was how DC and Marvel treated their characters in decades past, only they didn’t have the major financial backing of entertainment heavyweights such as Disney and Warner Bros. to bail them out if a financial rut if ever necessary. Remember, Marvel twice filed for bankruptcy. Of course, that means Superman is Warner Bros. bitch. Captain America is Mickey Mouse’s bitch. Remember that.

Musical followers decry their favorite artist’s integrity because of a change in the core of their sound. God forbid these musicians be actual musicians and explore the unlimited spectrum that music offers. Even when a member does a side project that sounds radically different from their norm and warns the fans about the side project not being for them, fans of the musician’s regular band will still piss and moan about the side project sounding nothing like the typical stuff.

When Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan declined dozens of millions of dollars to return to the Bat-franchise “fans” called them greedy. None of them care to think that as artists they are truly done with that part of their life and want to move on and explore other avenues of their craft to which they have only a limited amount of time, considering the types of roles they want to play and the amount of time from their lives as human beings it takes to make these movies. Nolan and Bale don’t want,  definitely don’t need the extra cash that fans gripe about other artists being overpaid for in other medias. Superman 3 and Superman 4 were paydays for Christopher Reeve. He loved the character, but he also loved his comfortable lifestyle that he attained mostly through his connection to Superman. Look how that turned out.

Boycotting a project doesn’t work either. Yes, people, your money makes studios and artists listen, but for every one that will actually live up to their word and not see a movie or hear an album, the rest of the drones that reflected the statement either buy into it anyway or download it and experience it in hiding, then, share with the world on the internet their opinion of the project, usually admitting that they obtained the project illegally – idiots – and despite their lack of dollars at the cash register, thousands or millions of other people do plunk their cash down for these products making the boycott a personal victory or the façade of one.

Ben Affleck loves Batman. I believe he will do a great job. Mostly, I love the decision of Ben Affleck as Batman because it’s pissing all of you off. Suck it. Reap it. Own it. It’s your damn fault anyway.  The only way I could be happier is if Warner Bros. fires Zack Snyder and hires Affleck to star and direct the damn movie. The fanboy-shitstorm would be epic and I'd love every moment.