Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Second rate reporter says what?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Saturday Night Eye Candy Open Thread

Saturday Night Eye Candy Open Thread

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From this still, Benedict Cumberbatch is almost too good a Dr. Strange — he’s so close to the 1960s comic that my first thought involved recent leaps in 3D printing technology. But then I’m one of the few who feel that Mr. Cumberbatch is a native of the Uncanny Valley, and what more appropriate aura for the Master of the Uncanny?

***********
Apart from pop culture, or concerning it, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Misterpuff: In Anne Laurie’s defense, they did start drawing him as a white male of European descent after a while. But originally Ditko had him as sort of ambiguously Asian.

    Personally I don’t find his acting compelling at all. I do like the Doctor Strange character, but can’t stand to watch Cumberbatch act. So I’m not really sure whether I’ll go see the movie.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brachiator: The official movie explanation is that 1) Admiral Marcus had his memory altered and 2) had him subjected to 23rd Century plastic surgery to make him look Caucasian. So: no.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @redshirt: As I said: I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Whether my interest in how well they treat the source material can override my dislike for the actor they’ve cast in the lead role.

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @redshirt:

    By the flickering flame of the Faltine!

    (So useful that I remember that stuff from 50 years ago rather than something important.)

  23. 23.

    Steve in the ATL

    @LAO: When are you coming to Atlanta? Some of my sovcit pals are dying to meet you. They will be at the airport with long guns–can’t miss ’em.

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Admiral Marcus had his memory altered and 2) had him subjected to 23rd Century plastic surgery to make him look Caucasian

    I must have been munching popcorn when this was said, because I missed it. And it doesn’t make a freakin’ bit of sense, especially the memory alteration bit. Hell, the whole damn thing.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brachiator: It was part of the reveal. He had his features altered and they implanted a fake identity of a lieutenant in Star Fleet intelligence who had suffered a serious injury requiring plastic surgery and causing some memory loss. He went rogue when his augment’s naturally superior healing process brought his own memory back that he was Khan.

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    I have honestly, never heard of Dr Strange, but I do know folks who are Marvel-afficianados and they seem to like B.Cum as Dr Strange.

    I love him as Sherlock though. Didn’t hate him in da Star Trek movie like some.

  39. 39.

    Mary

    Apparently a whole lot of Hillary delegates didn’t show up and Sanders ended up winning. A whole lot of shenanigans involved, including one of the officials sharing confidential Clintin campaign correspondence with Sanders’ staff and an email to all delegates incorrectly telling them that if they registered on Friday they didn’t have to show up Saturday. http://heavy.com/news/2016/04/bernie-sanders-wins-nevada-flips-clark-county-convention-las-vegas-delegates-arrested-clinton-videos/

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary: According to the LV Sun almost no one showed up. They have an entire run down of the entire process that explains what will happen at the state convention. Its not going to make any real difference for Senator Sanders other than a brief bought of the campaign patting themselves on the back.

  41. 41.

    mclaren

    Ha! The Third Eye, written by a British plumber from Devon in 1956, is the original version. The Dr. Strange comic is just a jonny-come-lately ripoff.

    What we really need is a movie version of The Third Eye.

    In the meantime, if you really want a hoot, watch the 1978 Dr. Strange TV-movie…

  42. 42.

    Punchy

    Anyone know of a fit-bit type wrist device that gives one a real-time update and info on running pace?

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    Everyone have a lovely night. I’m taking the Aching Ankle of the Ankolus to bed!

  46. 46.

    satby

    I’m about 100 miles west of Chattanooga in a Rodeway inn tonight. I got word from my sister that my mom passed away peacefully this afternoon while I was driving through Kentucky. It was unexpectedly expected: her vital signs had been strong enough that we all were dreading a long, drawn out ordeal; but my mom as always did it her way and made her exit when she was ready. I’m just grateful that she has escaped the continuous pain that had developed over the past two weeks.

  48. 48.

    mclaren

    April Fools:

    Microsoft announces full native binary Ubuntu linux support on Windows 10.

    Except this appears to be real, rather than a joke.

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    @satby: I am so sorry you didn’t get to see her, but glad that she didn’t suffer any longer than she did . Take good care of yourself and drive safely. Sending you virtual hugs.

  53. 53.

    benw

    @Punchy: I have a Garmin watch that’s GPS-based and does run tracking and gives a real time pace-estimate while I’m out for a jog. It syncs with my phone and I can see all my stuff on my account’s online dashboard. I’m overall pretty happy with it.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @satby:

    I’m so sorry. Don’t beat yourself up that you weren’t there — it sounds like you’re right and she went the way she wanted.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @redshirt:

    Dr. Strange’s origin has fuck all to do with The Third Eye. That’s a reach even in mclaren’s parallel dimension.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @Misterpuff:

    The old Charlie Chan movies are weird because they would cast Caucasians (most notably Warner Oland) as Chan but cast actual Asian actors as his sons, with an emphasis on the comedy that resulted from Chan having a Chinese accent and his sons having an up to the minute gee whiz, Pop! American accent.

  58. 58.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary:
    It sounds to me like an investigation, and maybe a voiding of results won by illicit means, is called for here.

  64. 64.

    Brendancalling

    I loved the Doctor Strange comic.

    Tonight: party with the Philly DL crowd, then bluegrass pickin party.

  68. 68.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Dr. Strange was originally depicted as Asian.

    Huh. I assumed, then and now, that he was supposed to be vaguely “of steppes extraction” — like Cieran Hinds or Barry Corbin. The square-jawed, heavy-lidded physiognomy that the Golden Horde distributed through Russia to Northernmost Europe, with genetic assistance from the reindeer herders, common among Scandinavians and (via the Vikings) the modern Celts.

    Nobody outside of the David Ickes/Aryan websites uses the 19th-century term “nordic fold” any longer, for reasons, but if you look at headshots of Hinds or Corbin or Tip O’Neill or the Kennedys, they’ve (we’ve) got the same fat pads above our eye sockets that make stereotypical Asians ‘slant eyed’. Even Dick Nixon had that permanent-squint problem, through his Irish mother’s side; it’s part of why it was so easy to draw him as suspiciously shifty-eyed.

  69. 69.

    Emma

    @satby: I am so sorry. Today is the one-month anniversary of my Mom’s death, so believe me when I say, I understand everything going through your head. Go easy on yourself; take care of your own heart.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    The old Charlie Chan movies are weird because they would cast Caucasians (most notably Warner Oland) as Chan

    I think I saw some of the versions with Sidney Toler, another non-Asian actor, as Chan. Whatever tv channel showed these also would show the Mr Moto films, starring Peter Lorre as the Japanese detective.

  74. 74.

    Mike J

    @Amir Khalid: Without digging in too far, I think it pretty much went from 51-49 to 49-51 in a contest with proportional delegate split. It’s probably not going to make any difference in the outcome. I probably doesn’t do much for faith in elections though.

  81. 81.

    Anne Laurie

    @satby: My condolences, and virtual hugs (for what they’re worth). Sounds like your mom went on ‘her terms’, and that’s never a bad thing.

  82. 82.

    James Powell

    We who call ourselves Democrats really need to have a sit-down about this primary/caucus mishegas – I say we Democrats because the right-wingers are never going to do anything that works for democracy.

  83. 83.

    James Powell

    @Randy P:

    For the most egregious white guy cast as Asian, I’m going with John Wayne as Temujin aka Genghis Khan

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    Since G finds 1970s TV soothing, we’re watching “Columbo” on the Hallmark Channel. Joan Van Patten is actually kind of scary — not only did she kill her brother and the guy she hired to fake a robbery, she framed her (adult) niece for the crime, all while claiming to love her like a daughter.

  86. 86.

    Amir Khalid

    @James Powell:
    I remember the Hollywood movie of Pearl S. Buck’s novel The Good Earth, which cast white actors in many of the leading roles of a film about a Chinese family.

  87. 87.

    Anne Laurie

    @Randy P: Never seen the movie, never wanted to, but Vern Sneider‘s Teahouse of the August Moon was one of my favorite novels when I was nine or ten. I still have my college-days paperback copies of Teahouse and his semi-related The King from Ashtabula, both of which can be described as gentle satirical versions of The Ugly American. Had not previously heard of A Pail of Oysters, but I may have to break down my aversion to longform screen reading and buy a Kindle copy.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    They did the same with Dragon Seed, which has Caucasian actors playing the leads and Asian-Americans playing their kids. It gets a little surreal sometimes.

    Part of the weirdness was caused by the Production Code’s strict (and strictly enforced) rules against miscegenation. You couldn’t cast a white actress and an Asian actor as a married couple, because then people would think about miscegenation, so both actors had to be the same race. And since most movie stars were white, you ended up with weird makeup on white people pretending to be Asian.

    The one sort-of loophole was that Latinos are considered racially white, so you could cast Mexican-Americans like Ricardo Montalban or Fernando Lamas as romantic leads.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Catching up on SNL. Has Trump exploded on twitter about that joke about Ivanka?

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    Along those lines, the Latino Loophole is why actors like Montalban or Anthony Quinn were cast as a wide range of “exotic” characters like Native Americans, Sikhs, etc — they were dark-skinned enough to not look ridiculous but were racially “white” so they slipped past the censors.

  92. 92.

    RandomMonster

    Commercial crab season finally opened in Nor Cal, so we bought a couple and murdered them.

  93. 93.

    ruemara

    @satby: My deepest condolences. This has been a rough year all around. I’m glad your mom got to go her own way but I hope you and the family find comfort with each other and the memory of her.

    This shit in Nevada is outrageous. How does that even happen that some people are told not to show up but others are given different info?

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    The previous one had William Shatner in the most amazing toupee, and Leonard Nimoy did one as well. I think Johnny Cash did two episodes.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    @efgoldman:
    My dad drove the same Peugeot model, the 403, in the 1960s, but his was a four-door hardtop sedan rather than Columbo’s two-door convertible.

  97. 97.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: Ol’ Dick really played that role well. I nearly named our first cocker “Dog”. I don’t think the wife would have gone for it, the dog ended up getting named Wendy after the hamburger chain.

  98. 98.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike J:
    Even if it didn’t make much difference to the result, the thing should be investigated to protect the integrity of the process.

  99. 99.

    ruemara

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I’m glad that it’s a minimal win, but this is some dubious shit. And I love the Sandersfans claiming it’s the HRC campaign who was cheating but somehow it backfired against her.

    I brought up the undemocratic nature of the caucuses with one, patiently explained how it excludes certain groups, provided proof and the progressive wunderkind said, that’s too bad. if they don’t want to take the time to vote, then they don’t get considered the majority of voters. only the participants are. Then he explained I needed to learn how government works. The revolution is only for the right groups, I see.

  100. 100.

    ruemara

    I’m looking forward to the Doctor Strange movie strictly because I’m a huge Doctor Strange fan. I’m just hoping it isn’t awful. I’ll see it, but I don’t want it to be awful.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    The revolution is always only for the right groups. That’s why heads landed in baskets during the French Revolution, and the majority of them weren’t aristocrats, because the aristocrats had the means and money to run away.

  102. 102.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @ruemara: I guess it’s for folk that have free time and are not introverts. I’ve got the former but I’m a bit of an introvert. Guess I’d be disenfranchised, sucks to be me.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    @ruemara:

    I was a big Dr. Strange fan back in the day and look forward to seeing what they do with the movie. I was an omnivorous reader of both Marvel and DC comics in the ’60s, and it always bugged me that the Dr. Strange titles seemed to be infrequent and underappreciated. I always wanted more.

  104. 104.

    Anoniminous

    @ruemara:

    Pretty funny considering the caucus states — starting with Iowa — were the key to Obama’s victory in ’08.

  106. 106.

    ruemara

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Rather thought a populist movement would be, I dunno, more populist.

    @Steeplejack: I had a thing for Strange and Fate. Found their issues interesting, but I have to agree, they were very under-appreciated.

  107. 107.

    magurakurin

    Dr. Strange looks cool

    Senator Sanders is finished.

    He can now decide if he wants to join the team for the big win or not. Either way there is a chance that Clinton turns the whole map blue with a Reagan level landslide. Sanders can be part of that or not. If he chooses not, he’ll be regulated to back bench loser status forever. If he decides to throw his shoulder in and help out, he’ll be remember as a hero. Either way, Clinton wins. It all depends on what the Senator wants his legacy to be.

  108. 108.

    NobodySpecial

    I really really really want a quality Dr. Strange movie, but I’m terrified that this won’t be it. I’m terrified that this is now the time when Marvel will finally lay an egg in one of their movies, and that they’ll fuck up the source material to a point where it’s unrecognizable. I’m also not sold on Cumberbatch as Strange outside of the exterior looks.

  112. 112.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @redshirt:

    Has anything else in the MCU been fucked up?

    Iron Man 2 was unwatchable except when Downey and Paltrow were on the screen together. Half of the first Captain America film made no sense, including the key scene for setting up the second movie. The first Thor movie was pretty, “Meh,” and I haven’t seen the second one.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: Our neighborhood has some pretty ‘mature’ trees, and two have come down on top of houses in the past two years…I’m keeping my fingers crossed that nobody drew a short straw last night.

  115. 115.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s very cool – never having watched Smallville, I had no idea the JSA had made a TV appearance. Hawkman needs to get in the gym (but then, who am I to throw stones?)

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @mclaren:

    In the meantime, if you really want a hoot, watch the 1978 Dr. Strange TV-movie…

    A quick glance at Google Image’s results tells me everything I need to know, hoo boy…

    You know, “Bad 70s/80s Takes On Superheroes” wouldn’t be a horrible Halloween party theme.

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    Sorry to hear this, Satby. For some reason it reminds me of my father’s death: I had a trip scheduled to go see him, but he died just beforehand. He had been in a decline, but it was still a little unexpected. So my trip ended up being for his funeral. I was sad about not being there at the end, but I was buoyed by the fact that my last visit with him had been very positive. And I had made it clear to him that I loved him and appreciated everything he had done for me.

    Remember the good times with your mother, and let your girls give you solace. From all that you have written about this last year, it is clear that you have been a strong influence on them, so it’s good to let them see it all. It’s part of life. My thoughts are with you.

    Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic.”

  119. 119.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @benw: Thank you for reminding me that my generous husband gave me DVDs of “The Hollow Crown” for Christmas. Ben Whislaw, Jeremy Irons, and Tom Hiddleston, sweet!

  121. 121.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I went to see “Allegiant” yesterday because a friend who lives elsewhere is a fan and wanted to talk about it. I have some questions about the world building. It seems that there’s red rain and radioactivity outside a wall around Chicago, but not inside. Perhaps it’s a Trumpian wall?

  122. 122.

    Zinsky

    I was a huge fan of Marvel comics back in the Silver Age, but Dr. Strange never did much for me – too ethereal and not enough rock ’em, sock ’em fistfights like you got with Spiderman, Daredevil or the Fantastic Four. I guess it predated my trippy college days when the LSD and mescaline would have made the Dr. Strange series a lot more interesting! Cumberbatch does have the perfect vibe for the role, though.

  123. 123.

    satby

    Good morning and thank you all! I’m both sorry to have missed seeing my mom again while still relieved that her immense pain is over. She was getting morphine every three hours and occasionally in between to keep the pain at bay, I can’t be sorry she’s been released from that.

    @Steeplejack: and thank for those thoughts and music Steep. My mom and I talked regularly until just a few days before the end, when she wasn’t really conscious any longer. Every call ended with “I love you”. She went knowing that from all her family and friends, she had a good long life.
    I appreciate the kind thoughts, everyone.

  126. 126.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @satby:

    Condolences and many blessings to you satby. Been there done that. We wouldn’t let our pets suffer like we do our precious loved ones, so there is a huge relief knowing it’s finally over.

  128. 128.

    Matt McIrvin

    @redshirt:

    Has anything else in the MCU been fucked up?

    Yes! Iron Man 2 was pretty bad, Iron Man 3 was mediocre except for the clever thing they did with the ostensible villain, and while Age of Ultron had some nice moments (Ultron himself was a hoot), it was kind of incoherent overall, deprived of focus by the need to stuff in ten million characters and teasers for upcoming movies.

    On TV, people tell me that Agents of SHIELD eventually got better after they no longer had to keep the plot twist from Captain America: The Winter Soldier under wraps, but I’d given up by that point.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @mclaren: Charles Band made a cheapo knockoff movie called Doctor Mordrid starring Jeffrey Combs as the guy, and it’s actually unusually watchable for a Charles Band movie, mostly because Jeffrey Combs is always entertaining. Also has Yvette Nipar, Robocop’s partner from the 1990s Robocop TV series, as the audience-identification foil.

  130. 130.

    mike in dc

    I’m looking forward to Dr. Strange, who once made Galactus scream in the comics.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @satby: Adding my condolences. We lost Mom last August in her 103rd year, 8 years after the dementia started in. She spent her last months either sleeping or screaming–the docs couldn’t find any cause for her to be in pain & she couldn’t tell us what was wrong. We had resigned ourselves to a even longer drawn-out ending when with no warning she passed on. It wasn’t “a blessing,” as well-meaning but insensitive folks sometimes say–but it was a mercy. Sounds like it was the same with your mom. I don’t recall if her faculties were substantially intact up to the end, but if they were–& if she recognized you & could understand your love for her–that was a blessing for both of you.

    @magurakurin:

    It all depends on what the Senator wants his legacy to be.

    Bernie was offered marquee billing for the role of a lifetime: Moses leading his (Democratic) people out of (DLC) captivity into the DemSoc Promised Land.

    Unfortunately the grifters & shills he hired to run his campaign have been whispering in his ear that he should hold out for Pharaoh, & he seems for all the world to have listened to them–& the electorate will most likely be left to wander in the wilderness waiting for a prophet without delusions of grandeur.

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @magurakurin: Sanders is doing well enough (within 10 points in national polls of Democrats) that it would be historically unusual for him to drop out at this point. He has no realistic chance of getting the nomination, but it makes sense for him to stay in until Philadelphia to maximize his influence over messages and appointments.

    Many of his supporters are still convinced that he has a real chance and it’s only mass-media hostility that makes it seem otherwise. One way or another, I still worry about the ability of the party to unite after the convention; some of his supporters are already convinced that Clinton is stealing the nomination, and some of them are probably going to keep on with conspiracy theories. Of course, the Internet magnifies this kind of thing.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    The first Thor movie was pretty, “Meh,” and I haven’t seen the second one.

    Also pretty “meh”. The Thor movies’ great saving grace is Loki, but the first Avengers showed him off to greater advantage than either of them did.

    The nominal main villain of the second one was Christopher Eccleston as Malekith. Eccleston is a fine actor and I was disappointed that he didn’t actually have much to do other than a little ranting and glowering.

  134. 134.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The Eye of Agamatto was the name of the comic books shop where I was hoovering up all my fix back in Tha Day (early-mid 80s) in Ann Arbor…so yeah, totally some love for the Eye from me!

  135. 135.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby:

    And a belated, Sorry for your loss. (reading threads first forwards and then backwards makes you miss things sometimes).

  136. 136.

    mike in dc

    I fully understand the perspective of Clinton supporters. The math is in her favor and prohibitive for Sanders. On the other hand, Sanders seems likely to win on Tuesday, possibly by a decent margin. One poll for NY had the gap at around 12 points, which is close to “striking distance” for a 2 week ground and air campaign. IF Sanders can pull off an upset in NY and win by 4-5 points, that changes the math a bit, and improves his prospects for the 26th. Now, if he loses NY and loses badly on the 26th, then, yes, I agree, he’s going to lose the nomination. But he’s not at that point yet, so it makes sense from his perspective to vigorously contest each race. After the 26th, May is relatively favorable(only 4 contests though), and then June 7th would be the decisive battle for the nomination.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He has no realistic chance of getting the nomination, but it makes sense for him to stay in until Philadelphia to maximize his influence over messages and appointments.

    I think this rationale is overblown. The only part of Bernie’s message that Clinton may fully appropriate is the free college stuff. And this is going nowhere with a GOP dominated Congress. And Bernie has been too much of a lone wolf to have any ability to suggest anything with respect to appointments. He has no political followers.

    Many of his supporters are still convinced that he has a real chance and it’s only mass-media hostility that makes it seem otherwise.

    This may be a problem. But the larger question is how many of his supporters simply do not care for Clinton (even if their reasons are spurious or self-defeating) and might simply sit out the election if their guy does not win the nomination.

    The nominal main villain of the second one was Christopher Eccleston as Malekith. Eccleston is a fine actor and I was disappointed that he didn’t actually have much to do other than a little ranting and glowering.

    Eccleston was also defeated by the makeup, fine in a comic book, but distancing in a movie. The weird thing is that most Marvel villains are weak, and work much better on the page. Thanos is supposed to be a Big Bad, but just looks like some doofus sitting on a big CGI toilet.

    Loki is a grand exception. Marvel might have given him his own movie and capitalized on the character’s popularity, but they were too beholden to their Marvel Universe plan for rolling out the movies. It’s obviously worked for them, but with some missed opportunities along the way.

  140. 140.

    J R in WV

    @magurakurin:

    When you say “…he’ll be regulated to back bench… ” I suppose you might have meant relegated… which meaning fits into your statement, while regulated – well, I guess charitably that could refer to the means by which he would be forced to take a back seat?

    no offense, just being picky…

  141. 141.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator: The other exception was James Spader Ultron, who was actually entertaining, in a movie that was otherwise kind of a bad jumble of things. But he was a one-off.

    I thought Captain America: The Winter Soldier was wise to go the political-thriller route in which the real Big Bad is an all-encompassing conspiracy rather than any one single person you can kill or subdue. And Iron Man III teased a stereotypical villain and then pulled the twist that he didn’t really exist at all, but the real villain was not very interesting.

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