Muting the Avengers

I survive the never ending maelstrom of social media with a heavy blocking and muting policy. It does not take much. Any gross display of entitlement, any thoughtless piece of rudeness, or any bigotry at all, and it's an instant block. Life is much better that way.

But there are some topics where good people have dodgy opinions that I just can't get behind, and that requires a delicate sense of muting. And several months out from the latest Avengers film from Marvel, I have trained my meagre social media presence to ignore all things related to that film.

On one hand, there is some mindless adoration and endless publicity that I can avoid, but on the other, I get to also avoid exposure to all the cool kids telling me how much they hate the films. So I still want to follow film writers who bang on about great transgressive cinema, but I really don't need to know how much they hate Spider-Man movies, because of course they fucking do.

I really don't get either side of the love/hate equation to the Marvel superhero movies. None of them are masterpieces, but none of them are total dogshit either, they're all just fine. And sometimes fine is okay is all right. Some basically competent filmmaking with a few things we've never seen before is all I need for a good night out at the movies. I rarely remember much about them, but that's all right, my brain is full enough.

The trigger for my latest bout of industrial strength muting was the general complaining about all the homework that was supposedly required for the new film. All the past stories that needed to be revisited to get the full effect of the latest effort. 

The biggest complaints seem to come from people who would never see the new film anyway, and I don't think you need to see a damn thing before going to these movies. I can get the gist. I don't understand the plots of almost all the James Bond films, but I like the sex and violence.

Besides, I was 350 issues behind ion Fantastic Four when I first started reading that regularly, complete bafflement about the history of every damn little thing is the point.

So I don't find myself missing much by cutting out the chatter. It can make the end experience better because it's no context, all feeling. I've enjoyed the past few years of Doctor Who a lot more because I haven't been interacting with that vast and sprawling fandom at all, and I greatly enjoy going to see films as soon as they come out on a weekday morning, before any reviews or general hot takes ruin it for everybody

So I won't know much more about the new film before I go see it in December- unless they put a big spoiler on the sides of buses or something - and I look forward to that marvellous experience all the more for it.