It's sad that for a movie that looks like the only thing it offers is exciting visual titillation, even the titillation is watered-down. This suggests to me that Snyder thought that he wanted this movie to be about female empowerment, but didn't know what that meant; and then when the ideas of empowerment became too scary or confusing for Snyder to handle, he reverted to sexual titillation, which was also too scary, so he had to cancel out the sexuality as well and go back to the empowerment idea, failing in both areas. It sounds like a man with the emotional and intellectual maturity of the average 13-year-old boy, created this movie aimed at other men with the same stunted maturity level. It's perfect for Hollywood marketers--aimed squarely at the younger age spectrum of the 13-24-year-old male demographic, particularly the ones without enough maturity to want anything more than safely provocative young women fighting monsters with zero consequences for their actions, just like a video game. It doesn't sound good for anyone else however.
I'll save my money for something else that looks good but has more substance, or rewatch Brazil or something.
I'll save my money for something else that looks good but has more substance, or rewatch Brazil or something.
I really liked Manimal as a child, but when I watched it as an adult, I discovered it was awful--the kind of awful that is alternately really boring and yet occasionally interesting.
Angels and ghosts are the new vampires and B-grade superheroes, except that female superheroes are the new male superheroes?
Fairy tale mythology is the new paranormal, except that fictional paranormal investigation is the new documentary/reality TV paranormal investigation?
Some of these sound interesting, but so many of these sound like shows we've already seen, from Touched by an Angel to Dresden Files to Ghost Whisperer and so on.
Fairy tale mythology is the new paranormal, except that fictional paranormal investigation is the new documentary/reality TV paranormal investigation?
Some of these sound interesting, but so many of these sound like shows we've already seen, from Touched by an Angel to Dresden Files to Ghost Whisperer and so on.
I prefer the biting, smart, "two sisters dealing with their relationship" and becoming teenagers stories in the three Ginger Snaps movies.
Sapphire and Steel.
@themightyspitz: Women in Nolan's films are ALWAYS secondary, and always 2-dimensional. Though he appeared, on the surface, to have made a breakthrough in Inception with giving female characters a degree of independence and power, they are still secondary, flat and have little effect upon anything that happens. Though Ariadne had a seemingly "very important role" in creating the architectures, her character was 2-dimensional and mostly relegated to the background, minus a few pep talks. And while Mal was dangerous and deadly, she was subjugated to Cobb's subconscious mind and her power was only exercised through him--she was not an independent character with free will, and her only true ability was in having a detrimental effect, either via Cobb or on Cobb but only in the past.
I don't think Nolan is necessarily a misogynist, but women in his films are always secondary. Catwoman might lead to the conflict or lead either one of them into their battle against the other, but she won't be taking center stage by any means.
I don't think Nolan is necessarily a misogynist, but women in his films are always secondary. Catwoman might lead to the conflict or lead either one of them into their battle against the other, but she won't be taking center stage by any means.
I think the premise of this essay is wrong to begin with--this isn't about heroes that are products of a particular time period.
This is a larger issue about the prevailing attitude in Hollywood about strong women (both behind and in front of the screen), female superheroes in film, and the lackluster success or downright failures of films that have featured singular female heroes (and villains) from Supergirl to Elektra to Catwoman.
Outside of conventional dramas, horror, cartoons, or comedies here and there, powerful women are either part of a group led by men, secondary to the conflicts and desires of men, or both. Female heroes have fared much better on television in the last 15 or so years, and maybe that too is because of their inability to succeed on film.
This is a larger issue about the prevailing attitude in Hollywood about strong women (both behind and in front of the screen), female superheroes in film, and the lackluster success or downright failures of films that have featured singular female heroes (and villains) from Supergirl to Elektra to Catwoman.
Outside of conventional dramas, horror, cartoons, or comedies here and there, powerful women are either part of a group led by men, secondary to the conflicts and desires of men, or both. Female heroes have fared much better on television in the last 15 or so years, and maybe that too is because of their inability to succeed on film.
@taosaur: I'll take a less lame Primeval, without Braga.
Luckily, this is also currently available on Netflix streaming, so you don't have to push a button every 10 minutes.
Having to watch The Cape is too high a price to pay to see Summer Glau again.
@astrogea: I think there's a general rule of thumb that only one type of show can rule the air at a time, and that often, those particular shows are flukes and fill a void. If you think of shows that have had either big audiences or big cult followings, chances are there was nothing else like it on the air at the time, whether we're talking about X-Files, Lost or even Glee. X-Files and Lost have already had many imitators; Glee imitators are coming down the pike. Unfortunately, there are producers that both look for imitators, hoping to score the same audiences, as much as there are producers who don't understand why a show like Lost succeeded where a show like Threshold failed. In other words, we already had one Lost on the air, we didn't need two, three or four.
@warchief_zuljin: Maybe that will be the new trend: reboot any big money movie that doesn't do well until it guarantees a sequel. I feel dirty having just imagined that.
Word of mouth may now be word of shout with such current interconnectedness in the world, but it doesn't raise the level of the average I.Q., doesn't mean people are going to generally make better decisions, doesn't mean people are going to somehow magically have better tastes, doesn't mean Hollywood is going to stop making decisions based around their marketing departments. There are too many people who are perfectly happy paying to see the latest Jack Black movie because that's their level of good times and awesome, and they don't want to spend money to be challenged--they all too easily embrace mindless celluloid pacifiers.
There simply aren't enough people in the population for Hollywood to only create Nolan films or Fincher films and other high quality films. This applies to every other art form.
There simply aren't enough people in the population for Hollywood to only create Nolan films or Fincher films and other high quality films. This applies to every other art form.
@Laertus: One of my favorite sci-fi 80s movies from when I was a teenager that I don't like so much as an adult--however, I will watch any disaster and end-of-the-world movie, no matter how poorly it stands the test of time.
@Annalee Newitz: Liquid Sky also warrants a separate discussion about gender and body politics, and a whole other discussion about experimental music and electronics in sci-fi.
@storymark: I think if at least two of the elements are well done, whether effects, plot, or action, they can make up for a weakness in the other area. Or all three of those elements can be well done throughout and give us The Matrix or Inception. People don't want to spend the money, especially on a 3-D movie, if it's just pretty to look at, or just rote action, or just an excuse for effects (that Skyline effects-only demo reel which had horrible reviews and was gone from theatres in a week).
This list could be shuffled about. I think there should be a whole music/fashion category, inspired in part by MTV and the acceptance of experience film styles. In that category you could put Liquid Sky, The Hunger, Videodrome, and sadly missing from this list, Repo Man and Buckaroo Banzai.
TerrorVision and Night of the Comet could go into the "return of the alien invasion B movie" category with others I'm not recalling at the moment.
TerrorVision and Night of the Comet could go into the "return of the alien invasion B movie" category with others I'm not recalling at the moment.
I think the biggest problem here is that people expect so much more from an action movie now than they did in 1982. They also expect more from animation, computer generated or otherwise. In 2010, people want an action movie that looks amazing, has involved action sequences, and has a complex plot. We can blame this on The Matrix, Nolan's Batman movies and Inception, some Pixar movies, some James Cameron movies--even Avatar in spite of it's plot of cliches piled on top of cliches.
The original Tron has a simple family-friendly plot but it still delivers on effects and action. A studio can't make a movie that is just fancy effects, or just fancy action, or just fancy plot and hope that that is enough unless what they have is really stellar.
Factor in the 3-D and the 3-D ticket prices and people expect even more.
The original Tron has a simple family-friendly plot but it still delivers on effects and action. A studio can't make a movie that is just fancy effects, or just fancy action, or just fancy plot and hope that that is enough unless what they have is really stellar.
Factor in the 3-D and the 3-D ticket prices and people expect even more.
When Walter comments on Olivia's distant behavior and asked, "Do you think possibly they replaced her with a robot?" I immediately thought of Buffybot--when only her closest friends knew that the Buffy out slaying was actually a robot because the real Buffy was dead.
The Last Broadcast did this shortly before Blair Witch Project, though it never made it into theatres beyond the festival circuit.
