Cartoonish villains and Revenge Fantasies

Went and saw "I, Robot" last night. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, so I was reasonably satisfied. But that's not what I want to talk about here. Instead I want to talk about an trailer I saw before the main movie started for a forthcoming movie called "Paparazzi."

Apparently the movie is about some big Hollywood action star who finds himself the subject of the Paparazzi. They take pictures of him and his wife naked, and also pictures of his kid. Then he punches one of them, and, well, why don't I let the official synopsis tell what happens next.

"The paparazzi become increasingly relentless, ruthless - even criminal. One night they trap Bo and his family in a high-speed chase that ends in a terrible accident, sending Abby into intensive care and 6-year-old Zach into a coma."

Yep, a reporter (of sorts) becomes transformed into a cartoonish monster, people who kill without mercy. You have to watch the trailer to look at how cartoonishly evil they look as they flash their cameras again and again into the stars eyes as he drives. One of the paparazzi literally says "let's box them in."

And guess who is one of the producers of this movie is? That's right, it's Mel Gibson.

This is a revenge fantasy movie. Revenge fantasies are pleasant enough, I guess. But they always involve dehumanizing your victims. The hero is totally justified in what he does by the very inhuman nature of his enemies. The Paparazzi are evil, pure and simple, and so killing them, taking the law into your own hands (as the character in this movie apparently does), well, that's totally justified.

I mean it's only murder if your victims are human, isn't it? I mean if we thought that the Paparazzi was so aggressive because he was about to lose his house, and his marriage was on the rocks, if we knew that he took these pictures because he is angry at a Hollywood that betrays the huge rewards given him, if we know that he cries and laughs and feels pain, in short if we know that he is Human . . . Well it takes all the fun out of the revenge fantasy.

You know, now that I think about, I'm not so sure I like the idea of enjoying revenge fantasies. Seems pretty destructive.