Between the Covidiot years, the slump in DVD sales, and making lousy preachy movies pushing political agendas while insulting their audience/customers, Hollywood is in crisis.
I still buy DVDs. The streaming service world has proven in movies, music and games, that they can steal back your paid for content.
And the gaming industry is dominated by a ruthless tiny racist company, Sweet Baby, who's very name mentioned can get your accounts locked. You could have paid thousand$ over the last decade plus buying DLCs and subscription multiplayer, and one comment on a poor quality game ruined by woke crud, and it's Gone.
I'm not one of the idiots complaining about race switching of characters, except when it's overtly racist. If the actress playing Juliet is good, I don't care if she's Korean, and ditto an Eskimo Romeo. Even changing from House Rivalry ( original and the DiCaprio version ) to Gangs, ( West Side Story and the DiCaprio version ) and race divides, ( West Side Story ) can work if well written. It's a timeless story of angsty idiot teens.
But if the Racism and lectures on same is the Point of the rewrite of a story, it's likely lost the original plot and characters you want to root for.
There are stories with unsympathetic characters that don't suck. Dr. Strange is an egotistical jerk, albeit competent, and that is the character arc. He's never going to get to true enlightenment because of his character flaws, but it's the struggle and journey to less jerk, even if momentarily, that drives the plot.
But typically, an author introduces you to a character you like and then puts them through trials/hell to challenge them and make them grow, while you cheer.
I blame the humorless scolds for Hollywood failures.
Especially the idiots who scold their customers. The Gay Movie director who tells the world he didn't make the movie for normal people ( or Feminist Director, men ) and then complain when their hated customers don't buy their stuff?
Morons. And some mental illness that will be redefined as mandatory, probably.
I quit watching after it went behind a Pay Wall, and they changed the whole cast. Just the first episodes with the new ( now gone, female Doctor ) and it didn't grab me like the Reboot ( 2005? ) did.
If you want an example of How To Do It Right, the Dr. Who reboot is perfect. Great characters, personal growth, multi-racial relationship with zero mention/pointing at to distract from the story.
Just good examples, personal struggles with difficult subjects, like war and freedom from mind control, the lectures woven into the story, not laid on top. ( hard to argue with "war is bad" & "slavery is bad" )
Feel free to complain about season whatever.
True, every change in Companion and Doctor is going to get complained about. That's baked into the Dr. Who series. ( my brother in law never liked Donna )
Generally I'd be a fan of Lesbian Space Witches, but I'll wait for the porn parody, instead of the Kennedy version.
I tend to make fun of the Star Wars fans who argue about the different crystals that power everything. ( crystals of dilithium doesn't power the Enterprise, it modulates the raw power from antimatter into useful handwavium! Not at all the same made up science! )
Partly because the original Star Wars trilogy is a Fairy Tale In Space, not Space Opera like the later novels that created the rich backstory and were sometimes accepted as cannon. Props to Timothy Zahn. Subsequent movies tend to follow the Space Wizard theme instead of hard SF.
The notable exception being Rogue One, a spy caper film, and arguably the best since Lucas's original trilogy.
I'm pretty sure someone else has done a great, well researched, paper on the fossil fuel parallels in Star Wars "science", so I'm not going to bother, except to point out how obvious it is, and how the preachiness is off target.
To be fair...
Star Trek novels are mostly fan-fiction and in retrospect you can see where they cut the Kirk/Spock sex scenes from the paperbacks. ( "Draco & Harry in the broom shed" is the Potterverse cliche ) But the Mary Sue characters are there, and ultimately I don't recall a book... Great Enough to become part of the accepted fandom, like the Zahn novels. ( I could be wrong, I probably don't have All the Trek novels, just far too many taking up room on a shelf )
And I quit watching Trek spinoffs after Enterprise and Voyager, partly because I missed big parts with network changes in local cable, plus... Alien time travel space nazis?
The newer CBS stuff is behind a paywall. I did see Season One of Brave New Worlds when they put it on YouTube to tease/advertise Season 2, and it was pretty good. Haven't heard much good about the other spinoffs. So haven't bothered. Please let me know if I'm missing a gem.
I hear the Mandalorian was good, but I don't subscribe so I don't know.
The Meme is the best part. Making Lesbian Space Witches unappealing to 18 year old nerds? Wow.
Frankly I am Almost annoyed more by the Fan screaming than I am by the flushing of a nearly INFINITE PROFIT property that has fans that will accept nearly anything. Space wizards, Glowing magic crystal laser swords, weird milk critters...
There's a lot of really dumb racist and sexist idiocy in the complaints about entertainment.
I don't care if Romeo is Mongolian and Juliet is a cross dressing tattooed mumble rapper, unless you're bragging about authenticity. Set your rip off in the Judge Dredd 'verse, and party on. But don't make a big fracking deal of it, because that just proves you don't give a Damn about entertainment and just want to preach.
It's like Charity. I far more respect the working class dude or dudette that writes a $40 check to help people than a Jillionaire that makes a big deal out of giving a few thousand, since the first is actual charity and the other is Ego and probably Extortion.
While I'm on a rant, casting actors and Directors that Literally tell people not to buy their product unless they are 100% Pro-Whatever Imagined grievance thing of the day is, is so stupid I fail to find words acceptable on this website.
I'm unlikely to ever see The Acolyte, not because of the outcry from probably crazy fake fans and semi pro victim trolls, but because I just don't care anymore about the franchise, retconned so much and so badly that it's like KFC pretending that it's always been a salad bar.
Let me know if it's worth reconsidering.
Oh, and is the Porn version available on Laser Disc? 'cause... Lesbian Space Witches?
In unrelated news, I saw Deadpool and Wolverine at the Cinema on cheapskate Tuesday and I found myself laughing unexpectedly at times. It was worth the $6.50 I spent to see it.
It's probably just fanboy fantasy that this might be a classic like Queen's We Will Rock You, a song played at sporting events and becomes a cliche in movies.
I haven't seen a lot of Band-Maid, but Damn! that's a quintet of Solid musicians. I just saw a reaction video by a Band Teacher ( Aussie ) and the comments section does a fan data dump. Nicknames, credits for writing, Easter eggs!... Quite entertaining both bands have rabid followers. ( wipes chin surreptitiously )
I'm amazed by the skill in writing and performing what could easily be a train wreck. 8 musicians in two bands of very different, stylistically instrumental vibes.
Some things, like for a FICTIONAL example, making James T Kirk a cowardly idiot is worth fans getting upset about. The Studio is messing with long established tradition.
Making Snow White an Arab? Depends. Is it an Arab production, then sure. If it's a Swedish production, you can excuse it as making her exotically beautiful. hashtag getoverit.
Making a British king a gay, dark skinned guy in a wheelchair? I'd expect some push back on that, although the Irish might get a few laughs at the Brit's expense.
Romeo & Juliet as latins, or Balkans, or Ethiopians? Sure, why not? But they have to be young because THAT"S THE STORY.
Personally I really liked the 1996 version, with the original language, but the modern setting in Verona Beach with a heavy Miami Vice Vibe. The STORY WORKED. ( and I'm not a Romeo & Juliet fan )
Make Romeo a 25 year old, and Juliet a 40's Cougar? Screw that, write something original. If you can tell a good story, do it.
btw, While I enjoyed the Parody of Starship Troopers by the Dutch pacifist who hated the book, AS PARODY, he is certainly condemned to the Sixth Circle Of Hell.
To answer the question, yes, a bit. Me, anyway. Won't speak for anyone else.
I'm assured by expert racists that me laughing at racist jokes in jr. High proves I have been indoctrinated in white supremacist thinking. Yep, I still remember one, and, yep it was racist. And some of that laughter was guilty, since I knew it was a racist joke. Hence, sure, a bit.
I'm not taking Polack jokes which were popular in my youth. At my age the same jokes have used at least 3 nationalities, more if you count the WW1 & 2 jokes I'm too young to have heard originally.
Popeye & Bugs cartoons with buck toothed, glasses wearing, squinting Japanese. I'll get back to that.
I always assumed Popeyes goons were vaguely New Guinea tribesmen, like the ones that didn't eat Biden's* Uncle. ( Joe's* a racist liar, if you've been in a coma )
But, yeah, I laughed. Guilty.
But... Today Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is considered a white supremacist, so despite his assassination by a Democrat, we're supposed to forget his wisdom. Just remember his alleged evils, per RFK's & Hoover's FBI.
So consider the sources.
About stupid racism, Against Asians circa 1940... The U.S. Intelligence guys, military attaches, State department, etc. Seriously underestimated the Japanese military and technology. Some of that was brilliant ploys on the part of the Japanese.
Like building the most powerful battleships indoors. ( also probably the world's largest open span building at the time, but never bragged about, for obvious reasons )
Or, when bootstrapping their aviation industry, Japan not only bought planes and engines and licences, they hired/allied experts from Britain and Germany to help design new planes. But... Most missed that they had kept going from a rolling start. The Zero, and Betty, both came as complete shocks to the Allies. No way could that race build advanced long range planes that good!
This despite world record flights, observers in the War in China, and even trained fighter pilots of the AVG sending reports on the Japanese planes.
Unfortunately we still have fools that can't get over prejudices when evaluating today's threats. N Korea, Iran, Venezuela...
Sweet Baby Inc. seems like a cancer of gaming. Worse, it's the Woke Mafia, extortion and threats. Even mentioning them in the wrong game forum can get you banned.
Like a lot of gamers, I tend to pick female avatars/playable characters, just because I'd prefer to see a shapely feminine butt & model than a male one. No one I know cares about skin color as long as the gameplay is good.
So demanding we play fat, ugly avatars? Bite my shiny metal ass. You don't get my money.
Ditto the Movie/Tv Hate/Woke crusaders. Telling everyone not of their cult, that you don't want them to even see your work ( because we don't deserve it, or you ) and then calling the people you just insulted & stayed away racist homophobes? Bite my shiny metal...
And there's great examples on how to do it right.
One of the DLCs for Borderlands 3 is literally the quest to save a marriage between 2 male NPCs. There's even parts where each tells the player of their fears of being unworthy of their betrothed, and it all works, because nobody cares about who loves who & The Publisher never virtue signalled about it. True, you can ignore plot and just slaughter endless monsters and cultists, but it's not an intrusive propaganda fest. The sexual orientation isn't mentioned except the use of the word husband.
And like all Good Fiction, you get invested in the characters and want to help. ( by slaughtering endless monsters and cultists! Yea! )
Posted on Saturday, September 07, 2024 - 04:39 am:
Borderlands, the movie.
Up front, they took liberties with plot and characters, which annoys fans but did provide some rational plot. Big fan of the series, and movies need to be different than a game.
They did capture the "ok we got mcguffin one, now we need to go somewhere worse to get #2" aspect of gameplay pretty good.
Casting was exceptional, imho, though many complained that Jamie Lee Curtis & Blanchett were too old. Ariana Greenblatt was great as Tiny Tina. Florian Munteanu, ( Razorfist in Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ) was good, despite wearing a mask as the Psycho, Krieg. Kevin Hart was even ok. ( and you're not supposed to like Claptrap )
What they did capture was the humor. Borderlands isn't subtle self aware, it's got NPCs dying to cries of "the jokes on you I'm in massive debt" & "now I'm dead on the outside, too" Psychos ( the industrial waste caused ) you catch on fire screaming "I smell delicious!" & low adolescent humor including piles of monster feces you have to inspect ( press x ) to find treasure. ( a metaphor for job seekers? )
Overall, I enjoyed it. I'm sure a fan would get more out of it, it's not Pride and Prejudice. It's not even Dungeons and Dragons...
but there's also no woke idiots screaming that it wasn't made for you, and calling you a-phobic and stupid if you don't fill theater seats despite their intolerance of criticism. Even the second best game movie is better than most offerings today.
