The Corner

Re: Bourne, Captain America, etc.

A few quick thoughts and responses.

First, on the Bourne movies, the first Bourne novel, The Bourne Identity, was far-and-away Ludlum’s best book, and is among the best spy novels of all time. That Hollywood made a successful movie franchise out of it (after TV versions had fallen flat) is hardly evidence of ideological bias on the Left Debt Coast. There’s plenty of evidence Hollywood leans left, but the Bourne movies are not among them.

Second, as for the Captain American movie, the working title is The First Avenger: Captain Americaso there’s no omission of his name from the title. With this film and the other Avengers-related movies, Marvel is trying something very ambitious — a series of superhero movies that will all tie-in together. This was the plan with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (each of which includes teasers for the larger story arc), as well as the Iron Man 2 movie filming now, and the Thor movie which is also in production. The Captain America film is to be pentultimate film before The Avengers, a film planned to unite all of the characters. Using “the First Avenger” in the title will help with the tie-in, and will also make sense historically, as the “origin” story is that Cap was an early (if not the first) recipient of the “super soldier” serum. (Some of this history is hinted at in The Incredible Hulk.) There’s also a possible Nick Fury movie that would also be related to these films, but it’s a ways off.

As for G.I. Joe, who knows and who cares. Having bad guys wreck the Eiffel Tower has been done before . . . by puppets.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. His books include Business and the Roberts Court and Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane.
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