Why can’t a movie just be a movie?

[aadler]

I haven’t seen Captain Marvel yet.

I’m waiting for a chance to do so, at my own convenience. Given the things I’ve heard in various venues, I don’t expect a fantastic movie treat, so I’m watching for an opportunity to view it at low enough cost that I won’t feel I wasted my money. Even so, I intend to go into it with an open mind, if only so I can say truthfully that I hadn’t set my opinions in advance. (As in, I don’t want the people criticizing it to tell me what to think any more than I want that from the people championing it. I reach my own conclusions, and I bridle at any hint of compulsion from any quarter.)

All the same, I’m not especially optimistic going in.

Do the dedicated social justice warriors simply not understand the effect their diatribes have on those people who don’t wholeheartedly agree with them? Do they not recognize that, if I’m not already a believer, I might be actively repulsed by the demand that I approve of the movie because it pushes all the ‘right’ SJW buttons? or is it simply about power, their insistence that they should be able to dictate what people will and won’t like? (See above about my attitudes toward compulsion.)

Right now, I’m almost evenly balanced on this. I was a long-time Marvel fan, starting in 1967 and carrying on into the ’90s (and drifting out then only because of IRL demands and the fact that it just would have cost too much to buy all the titles the franchise was putting out at prices that were already unrealistically overinflated). I’ve watched and enjoyed almost all the MCU movies — missed the solo Hulk entries for some reason — and I’m always willing to be entertained. At the same time, I have a fundamental antipathy to ‘movies with a message’. As I’ve already indicated, somebody attempting to tell me what to think is going to meet some resistance.

That’s not an automatic downcheck. I found the hailing of Black Panther as a racial milestone to be deeply unconvincing (really? a fictional character, from a fictional nation invented by a couple of white Jewish guys in 1966, is supposed to be the hallmark of a new black American awareness? something about that sounds a little off), but the movie itself was decent entertainment, and nothing about it raised my hackles. And, let’s face it, non-liberals in today’s America have a lot of experience in taking what pleasure we can from what’s available while disregarding the implicit dictates that our self-appointed social superiors attempt to spoon-feed us in all their condescending, paternalistic assumption of authority; in that sense, we’re more ‘tolerant’ than the preening champions of tolerance, out of plain necessity.

At the same time, I’ve also had plenty of opportunity to see where those same SJW attitudes can screw things up. The new team on Star Wars were dedicated to ‘the future is female’, and turned out one less-than-totally-exciting movie followed by a clanking, thundering dud: not because of feminism per se, but arguably because their blinkered, tunnel-vision focus on feminism kept them from paying enough attention to the things that might entertain the people who already loved Star Wars. If you’re looking for an audience (and that’s what movies do, they’re how money is made, and it is still ultimately a business), you definitely need to 1) bring in new fans, and 2) not alienate/lose the fans you already had. Which imperative lately seems to take a back seat — a seat very, very far in the back — to ostentatious virtue-signaling.

Is Captain Marvel, in fact, a pure-feminist man-hating movie? If so, does it really make economic sense to pre-emptively insult and push away half or more of the possible audience? If not, then why did Brie Larson go out of her way to do exactly that?

I saw excerpts from Clark Gregg’s interview about the reaction to Captain Marvel. I’ve always liked Agent Coulson, and thus by default enjoyed Gregg’s portrayal of that character; yet, what he said in the interview made no sense at all. People are criticizing the movie purely because it puts the spotlight on a female superhero? Really? It all springs from misogyny, men hating (being threatened by) women purely because they’re women? Really? “Dinosaurs wandering towards the tar pits”? Really?

Unlike some people, I don’t pretend to speak for everyone in a particular group, but only from my own experience and my knowledge of myself. And this is what my knowledge of myself tells me:

I remember watching Terminator 2 in 1991. I remember, seeing it, thinking, WOW. The end of the Terminator really haunted me, because it struck a chord of imagination. John Connor, as described — remember, he didn’t appear in that first movie — had to be an inspiring leader, while at the same time making his own survival an absolute priority (because, according to what he had been taught, he was the only hope of the human race). He had to be the kind of man who could seek out his own father (younger than he was, due to the time-shifting), mentor him, prepare him, and then deliberately send him to his death without ever acknowledging what they were to each other. In order to do what he had to do, he had to be so many things that conflicted with each other. What kind of man could do that? And what kind of woman could turn out a man like that?

Though I hadn’t even come close to articulating it to that extent, that was what I took away from the first movie. And the second one delivered on exactly what had struck me so forcefully from the first. Sarah Connor in the first movie had been a victim who became a survivor because the alternative was not-surviving; by the beginning of the second, she was a warrior, and a damn scary one. At the same time, every part of it was believable. Training herself, seeking ever-more training and knowledge, training and preparing her son; yet smoking (because who has to worry about lung cancer when you already know the exact date the world will end?), and letting her single-minded focus alienate the men she partnered with to gain knowledge, and largely alienating that same son because she could never look away from the mission … Even her combat prowess was convincing, because she used weapons and tactics and leverage and timing and total commitment, nothing that any half-aware person would know wasn’t possible without CGI or super-powers or magic-fu or simple suspension of reality. The special effects were groundbreaking, of course, and won deserved awards; even after such things became familiar, however, we still had one hell of a movie, and Linda Hamilton’s depiction of Sarah Connor remains the strongest part of it.

I loved Terminator 2. Lots of people loved Terminator 2. And, nearly 30 years later, we’re accused of being automatically dismissive of a movie simply because it centers on a Strong Female Character™?

Maybe — maybe — those persons who are criticizing it after having seen it, are criticizing it for things that actually have weight. Maybe those who haven’t yet seen it, but who disapprove of the condemnation of anyone criticizing it, are reacting not to the movie but to the condemnation, and to the “Women are people, too!” posturing of those who can never quite believe that, Yeah, we already know that.

So I’m still planning to see Captain Marvel when I can. And I am determined to assess the movie as it is, on its own merits. That task would have been a lot easier, however, if the lead actress — and those who agree with her — had focused on the damn movie instead of on political bullshit.

Comments

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the Brie Larson interview you refer to so can't comment on that. I have seen some Internet rants specifically hating the movie because it's all "girl power" and for no other reason. I will not spoil the movie for you or attempt to influence you on it. I can only tell you I enjoyed it and all I saw was a handful of strong female characters. I'll be interested what you think after you see it.

As to Black Panther, I've been a little bowled over by the cultural embracing of the movie. I did think the Oscars it won it deserved. Creating a wardrobe for five distinct African tribes that don't exist, making them identifiably distinct was a greater accomplishment in my mind than yet another period piece. I've heard what many have said about having a character that "looks like us" and I guess I underestimated just how important that was. Black Panther is now being hailed as at the forefront of Afro-futurism. Despite all the political and social jockeying that surrounds such a term the idea of entertainment with predominantly black actors that is not all about black pain is very appealing to me.

[aadler]

Can’t really say much to that, since I still haven’t seen it. Just two things:

1) If “looks like us” is cited as the primary reason for liking a movie, that strongly hints that the person saying it considers everything else — including the things that go into making a good movie — to be secondary.

2) Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley*, Buffy Summers were strong women^† in strong vehicles that told an effective story. If Captain Marvel turns out to be a lackluster movie with a few SFC™ roles, I won’t consider the latter to be a substitute for the former.

*I’m primarily thinking of Aliens for this; I never saw the first movie. Which may mean that I’m dead center of James Cameron’s target demographic.
^†(more to the point, strong characters who were also female)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

1) I was mainly thinking of "looks like us" for the cultural embrace that has taken place. It's also a very good movie. And it shatters the Hollywood myth that people won't go see a superhero movie with a black lead, just like Wonder Woman shattered the myth that people wouldn't go see a superhero movie with a female lead. Make a good movie and they will come.

2) Carol Danvers is a flawed human being. That actually makes her more interesting to me. Your mileage may vary. I fear spoilers too much to speak more to this issue. You'll have to decide for yourself if she's a good character or not. My favorite character in the movie is probably the cat.

[aadler]

I’ll just have to see when I get the chance. What I have heard does not inspire confidence. (Seriously, everybody goes on about the cat. Does it have more charisma than the lead actress?)

And Black Panther, in its way, is an example that works counterpoint for me. The hype around it was so excessive, I was mainly relieved to discover the movie didn’t actively suck; as it was, it fell into Okay, but not great territory for me. I don’t know if I can count on being as lucky a second time.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the movie. As a young girl, I was always inspired by the strong women on tv (Xena, Buffy, etc.) Captain Marvel brought back some of those feelings for me. :)

[aadler]

And I keep coming back to the same thing. Since I’m male, I’m not inspired by strong women because they’re women; if they inspire me, it’s because something about them other than their gender is inspiring.

I’ve been writing in Buffy fandom for close to 20 years now. No other fandoms have seized me the same way, either those with Strong Female Characters™ or those that didn’t bother to try. Clearly, something about Buffy worked. An entertainment vehicle, then, should aim for excellence rather than thinking success comes from ticking off the right social boxes.

If Captain Marvel succeeds in the excellence department, good deal. I’m still waiting to see.