Now I love Stephen King. His stories are some of my favorite to consume but there is one thing you always know going into one of his tales: People are going to die and it is going to be a lot to take in. It is what it is.
So tell me why King now thinks that the violence in superhero movies borders on being “almost pornographic”… To be fair to King, he did clarify that his issue is with the lack of blood and gore in the franchise seeing as entire city blocks will be destroyed and it is kind of glossed over visually. I will say in defense of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the destruction is often tied into the emotions of characters and you do still feel what that violence has done to the people it impacted.
But if you’re watching it and ignoring the characters and what they’re going through, then sure. The level of destruction doesn’t really equate the amount of suffering it should. But we see the pain of these violent events through the people. Spider-Man: Homecoming showed how people used the destruction as a way to profit. The Battle of New York was constantly used against the Avengers as a failure.
King was speaking with The Times UK when he lobbied his complaint against the violence in these movies. “If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood,” King said. “And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic… I said [for The Long Walk], if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”
You don’t have to show the blood shed to get your point across though
King has two adaptations coming out back to back that both feature people who, essentially, volunteer for game shows that are going to kill them if they lose. Both The Long Walk and The Running Man feature violent death scenes to drive this point home. While I would argue that the shocking nature of the blood in The Long Walk did work on a shock value level, there are other ways to show destruction that doesn’t make the squeamish less inclined to enjoy a story.
Superhero movies are typically meant to entertain a wide range of ages with each new film. Is King then suggesting that I show my 5 year-old niece a Spider-Man movie (her favorite) where part of the destruction in a final battle includes a lot of bloodshed? I’m assuming no and I think that’s what he is missing from the conversation.
The Avengers and their films are not the same as The Long Walk. A villain destroying a city is still seen as the bad guy! Kids understand that, adults understand. It is universally understood that bad guys are bad! So I don’t really understand why King thinks that it means that we have to see the blood to understand that this situation isn’t good.
Whatever the case, I think the level of violence in a superhero movie versus that in King’s work is not comparable. The two types of stories are trying to do their own thing and that’s okay! We can use our braincells to understand that destroying an entire city block is NOT a good thing!
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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