Jason Statham and the New Male Sex Symbol

So I went to a preview screening of Jason Statham's new flick Death Race Tuesday, and it was so forgettable that I didn't even remember to write about it here.

But something has jogged my memory and reminded me of what really puzzled me when I watched the movie: who is this all for?

I mean, obviously, this is for the 14-24 white male crowd, as all stupid action flicks are.

But the slow-mo scans of hot women's bodies are so minor and perfunctory that they might as well not even be in there. The only slo-mo in the whole movie is the one or two scenes when the gratuitous hot women get out of a bus or car. And it literally cuts into the action in a way that must be annoying even to horny 14 year old boys. (Note to horny 14 year old boys: alpha dogs in men's prisons do not get hot chicks bused in. Sorry.)

So whose body are they enthusiastically pornifying? Well, Jason Statham's, of course. Throughout the flick the camera lingers lovingly on his muscles, the breadth of his shoulders, his muscles, the way his shirts hug his muscles, his muscles, the sinews in his arms, his muscles, his pecs, his muscles, etc. There's even a totally gratuitous porn moment where he's doing pull ups on a sort of ceiling grid and the camera scans his musclely back for, I swear, at least 60 long seconds. (You can see a brief flash of this scene in Today's Vid to the upper right.)

So I ask again: who is this all for? Is it for that vast audience of gay men action fans? Is it to draw in the wimmin (who, quite honestly, might be intrigued by Death Race because one of the hotties bused in to the prison turns out to be a strong, smart, brave character, and the big baddie is a woman, played by Joan Allen, whom a prisoner calls the "baddest ass" in the prison)? Or is this muscle porn entirely for the enjoyment of supposedly straight, horny, 14 year old boy action fans?

I have no clue. I really don't.

But I'll tell you this much: if it's aimed at the action genre's typical fans, it worries me. Are we seeing the beginning of an attempt to sell an ideal male body type to teenaged boys? Are they supposed to feel inadequate when they look at Statham's body and run to spend their pennies on free weights? (or maybe make up for it by spending their money on canisters of nos?) Are we going to see male anorexia or teenaged male weight-lifting addictions sprouting up all over the place?

Gor, do we need this?

What do you think? Am I on the wrong track?