Control: Summer Movie Season

Daniel Trump
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

I’ve never jumped out of a trench, charged into enemy gunfire, and used a shield to block everything from a big machine gun. I’ve never stopped the god of war from taking over the world through warfare. I haven’t even snuck into a cargo truck to prevent a vulture-like villain from stealing what’s inside. Hell, I haven’t even saved people from a falling elevator on the Washington monument…or anywhere.

Either my life is out of whack or summer movie season doesn’t really reflect real life at all. I mean, let’s look at the summer movies. In Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Star-Lord meets his dad, who’s a god, and tries to stop his abusive father from destroying the universe. The best they can do is to say that it’s a metaphor for abusive fathers. Well, I don’t have an abusive father. I have an excellent father who cares about me.

In Logan Wolverine finds his daughter and protects her from some guy who wants to use her as a living weapon. He even works driving people around. This is the best summer movie — even though it came out in March — because it reflects real life in an effective and intelligent manner. People try to abuse eleven year-old girls and take advantage of them all the time, and kid soldiers are a real thing.

In Wonder Woman we have a protagonist who is a goddess who saves the world and does all sorts of other ridiculous and outrageous things. She stops bullets with her hands, takes no damage during the movie, and fights hordes of enemies with her sword and shield. They have bullets. I’m beginning to think that I should go to the middle east with a sword and shield and bother to stop every terrorist in a day and a half. No, wait. This is real life. I’d get killed.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming a geek dates a popular girl. Bam. This is far more ridiculous and unrealistic than even Wonder Woman. A fifteen year-old boy fights crime. Do you know what I did well at fifteen? Nothing. Nada. I didn’t have the intelligence, maturity, or drive to do anything well. He has a friend, a group he is involved in, and is chafing from adults not giving him any responsibility. This is all good. However, what is not good is the fighting of all the bad guys. Again, we will look at it as a metaphor. No, I have never tried to stop someone from stealing and selling weapons from terror sites.

I cannot communicate enough how broken my life is from schizophrenia. I know, non sequitor, but for once, I want real life issues from my superhero movies. They say that Infinity War will be people doing the movie equivalent of mashing together toy figurines. Well, I don’t want that. I want Thanos to reflect something about real life. I want to feel like this has some connection to something meaningful, no matter what that is.

Is that too much to ask? I suppose so.

Thanks, and take care, friends.

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Daniel Trump

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Daniel Trump wrote the slasher/horror epic Impressions of Suburbia. Buying it is the way he makes money for his writing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RPXPQPC

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