THB #514: Monkey Man

There is nothing wrong with Monkey Man.

Is it a perfect movie? Well… how do you define movie perfection?

For me, the experience of Monkey Man was a bit hollow. It wasn’t that anything was wrong. It was that I never had much time when I felt like I was experiencing something I hadn’t felt before… repeatedly.

I don’t believe in Superhero Fatigue. I believe that people just run into a superhero movie or movies - or any genre, really - that just aren’t as compelling. They stop surprising us. And that feels like exhaustion with a genre… until someone makes a film in that genre that shocks us into excitement once again. (It’s exactly what Disney is hoping for from Deadpool & Wolverine this summer.)

Those moments you remember from movies that you remember loving… those are the moments that define entire genres.

The master of this phenomenon, extended out a bit, is James Cameron. It’s an oversimplification of his unmatched success as a filmmaker, but he is The Third Act King. There are many wo…