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enkitaI guess it all started from Ghostbusters, 2016. A beloved and nostalgic franchise, a part of many people's childhoods. And Hollywood, in it's rebooting craze, decided to reboot the franchise with a bunch of SNL actors. Female actors. Actresses.
When the trailer was released, it was received with overwhelming negativity. It looked absolutely horrible, seemed to be the common opinion, and the Youtube video of it quickly became the most disliked trailer on the entire site. But why? Because it looks bad. No, but why? Why is it getting so much hate? Because they're rebooting a beloved franchise and people don't like the trailer. Is it because of the women? Sigh.
So that was the press' opinion on the matter. Terrible sexist fanboys hate the new Ghostbusters trailer because it has women in it. What about all of the women who also think it looks bad? Pfft it goes against the narrative, so let's just pretend they don't exist. The situation became an internet battle, in a culture war if you will. People accusing Ghostbusters fans of being sexists and Ghostbusters fans defending themselves from these claims.
Ghostbusters holds no special meaning to me, and no amount of terrible reboots of it are going to affect me. It was never a part of my childhood, it's so old that it's something my mother watched as a teenager. I didn't have any opinion on the trailer either as I had no expectations. But as the controversy inflated to ridiculous levels I found myself sympathizing with the Ghostbusters fans. The nail in the coffin had to be the attacks against Angry Video Game Nerd. He made a Youtube video where he stated that he was not going to watch or review the new movie because it looked terrible and he disagreed with the way the studio has treated the franchise over the years. He made no mention of the cast or any women in it. Still, the media's opinion on the video was that AVGN is a stupid sexist manbaby who can't watch a movie with women in it. The personal attacks that were made against him and HIS WIFE were ridiculous. Who the hell attacks someone's wife over a Youtube video about some summer popcorn flick?
Ghostbusters 2016, later known as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, now had an important role. The role to succeed. For the sake of women, for the sake of feminism, for the sake of... Hillary Clinton? As the official Ghostbusters twitter account publicly endorsed Hillary, the battle formation had been finalized. The credibility of everyone writing negatively about the reboot's critics was dependent on the movie's success.
It wasn't successful. Ghostbusters 2016 was a flop and also not a very good movie, many have said (I haven't watched it). The company who had made the Ghostbusters 2016 video game went bankrupt. Sony had wanted to start a Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe with this movie, but clearly that wasn't going to happen. The movie was quickly brushed under the rug, and the discussion in fandom circles moved on to something else.
The Captain Marvel part starts here.
Ghostbusters 2016 started a phenomenon. A phenomenon of journalists (usually, plus their supporters) and fans (usually making Youtube videos) ending up in an internet battle over an upcoming movie. We could see some of that with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, for example. And we could definitely see some of that with Captain Marvel.
Captain Marvel star Brie Larson had made comments about how she didn't want to hear white males' opinions on movies that "weren't made for them" but instead see more movie reviewers of different backgrounds. Now I'm sure there's a different way to phrase that, one that wasn't so divisive. But that is what she said, and that is where most of people's problems with Captain Marvel come from. I wasn't surprised by this reaction and I knew that it wasn't going to hurt the movie. This wasn't a Ghostbusters reboot, this was an MCU movie. It was going to make money no matter what. Because of the previous battles in this internet war, and I'll admit that they had affected me on this, I wasn't excited to see Captain Marvel at all. I have seen all MCU movies in theater since Guardians of the Galaxy but now I was considering skipping this one.
However, my friend asked me to join her, and join her I did. With a party of four (me, my friend, my mom and my bro) we went to see the movie. And I was... positively surprised? You see, I liked the movie. It's not the best stuff that the MCU has put out, but still pretty good. Definitely better than Black Panther or Spider-Man: Homecoming (these are fighting words, I know). And I come home from the movie and, there are plenty of normies (people not involved with the internet war) who are voicing their criticisms of the movie with the quantity I had not seen for most other Marvel movies. Did you know that when Thor: The Dark World, one of the most disliked MCU movies nowadays, was released the Youtube videos talking about it were mostly positive?
So I'm baffled. What's so bad about it? Someone criticised the movie for "being like a phase one MCU movie" like that's a bad thing? I love phase one! And I liked Captain Marvel's simplicity. And I liked how it expanded the space side of the MCU. So what is it?
It's not sexism if that's what you're thinking about. The normies aren't sexist like that. Some of the people knowingly involved with this war have criticised the movie for it's feminism but honestly... the "feminism" in Captain Marvel is super vanilla. Nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, it's very safe and something that mostly appeals to maybe ~30+ aged women. (Then again, the movie does take place in the 90's). So it didn't bother me.
Then there's the strong will to paint the movie in the worst way possible. "Audiences hate it", "Even Marvel hates Brie Larson", "Second weekend drop is horrible". It's a decent movie that's doing well in the box office, I'm sorry for having to break the truth for you.
So I guess I'm in a complicated place. I understand where these reactions stem from, but I don't understand how this specific movie could have offended so many so much. Don't say that it's sexism, Wonder Woman never created these reactions. The only controversy related to that movie I remember were the female only screenings. Some complained that that is, in fact, illegal, and others accused those some of being sexists....... and then it turned out that those screenings were actually illegal. Oops.
So, maybe it's Brie Larson. The MCU has been compared to Star Wars in the way that the MCU handles fans well, and SW doesn't. Brie Larson isn't the first MCU actor to practise some activism but I guess she's the first one who's comments have been so tightly connected to her then upcoming movie. And that might not be a good thing.
Maybe this is exactly what Marvel wanted Larson to do, or maybe Marvel doesn't even care. One thing rings true, however. Some of the creators of the 2016 Ghostbusters never wanted that movie to become so political. They didn't want it to be a part of any internet war, and they understand that that might partially be responsible for the bad reputation it's got.
Here's hoping we can one day criticise and praise movies without it turning into a part of any culture war. Without having to fear being accused of sexism or anything else because of some entertainment flick. And without having to turn everthing into an issue out of principle.
When the trailer was released, it was received with overwhelming negativity. It looked absolutely horrible, seemed to be the common opinion, and the Youtube video of it quickly became the most disliked trailer on the entire site. But why? Because it looks bad. No, but why? Why is it getting so much hate? Because they're rebooting a beloved franchise and people don't like the trailer. Is it because of the women? Sigh.
So that was the press' opinion on the matter. Terrible sexist fanboys hate the new Ghostbusters trailer because it has women in it. What about all of the women who also think it looks bad? Pfft it goes against the narrative, so let's just pretend they don't exist. The situation became an internet battle, in a culture war if you will. People accusing Ghostbusters fans of being sexists and Ghostbusters fans defending themselves from these claims.
Ghostbusters holds no special meaning to me, and no amount of terrible reboots of it are going to affect me. It was never a part of my childhood, it's so old that it's something my mother watched as a teenager. I didn't have any opinion on the trailer either as I had no expectations. But as the controversy inflated to ridiculous levels I found myself sympathizing with the Ghostbusters fans. The nail in the coffin had to be the attacks against Angry Video Game Nerd. He made a Youtube video where he stated that he was not going to watch or review the new movie because it looked terrible and he disagreed with the way the studio has treated the franchise over the years. He made no mention of the cast or any women in it. Still, the media's opinion on the video was that AVGN is a stupid sexist manbaby who can't watch a movie with women in it. The personal attacks that were made against him and HIS WIFE were ridiculous. Who the hell attacks someone's wife over a Youtube video about some summer popcorn flick?
Ghostbusters 2016, later known as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, now had an important role. The role to succeed. For the sake of women, for the sake of feminism, for the sake of... Hillary Clinton? As the official Ghostbusters twitter account publicly endorsed Hillary, the battle formation had been finalized. The credibility of everyone writing negatively about the reboot's critics was dependent on the movie's success.
It wasn't successful. Ghostbusters 2016 was a flop and also not a very good movie, many have said (I haven't watched it). The company who had made the Ghostbusters 2016 video game went bankrupt. Sony had wanted to start a Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe with this movie, but clearly that wasn't going to happen. The movie was quickly brushed under the rug, and the discussion in fandom circles moved on to something else.
Now, there is obviously a lot more that happened during this whole wild ride, including plenty of Twitter drama and, leaked nudes even? But that isn't really relevant here. There's a reason I've been talking so much about Ghostbusters in this Captain Marvel post.
The Captain Marvel part starts here.
Ghostbusters 2016 started a phenomenon. A phenomenon of journalists (usually, plus their supporters) and fans (usually making Youtube videos) ending up in an internet battle over an upcoming movie. We could see some of that with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, for example. And we could definitely see some of that with Captain Marvel.
Captain Marvel star Brie Larson had made comments about how she didn't want to hear white males' opinions on movies that "weren't made for them" but instead see more movie reviewers of different backgrounds. Now I'm sure there's a different way to phrase that, one that wasn't so divisive. But that is what she said, and that is where most of people's problems with Captain Marvel come from. I wasn't surprised by this reaction and I knew that it wasn't going to hurt the movie. This wasn't a Ghostbusters reboot, this was an MCU movie. It was going to make money no matter what. Because of the previous battles in this internet war, and I'll admit that they had affected me on this, I wasn't excited to see Captain Marvel at all. I have seen all MCU movies in theater since Guardians of the Galaxy but now I was considering skipping this one.
However, my friend asked me to join her, and join her I did. With a party of four (me, my friend, my mom and my bro) we went to see the movie. And I was... positively surprised? You see, I liked the movie. It's not the best stuff that the MCU has put out, but still pretty good. Definitely better than Black Panther or Spider-Man: Homecoming (these are fighting words, I know). And I come home from the movie and, there are plenty of normies (people not involved with the internet war) who are voicing their criticisms of the movie with the quantity I had not seen for most other Marvel movies. Did you know that when Thor: The Dark World, one of the most disliked MCU movies nowadays, was released the Youtube videos talking about it were mostly positive?
So I'm baffled. What's so bad about it? Someone criticised the movie for "being like a phase one MCU movie" like that's a bad thing? I love phase one! And I liked Captain Marvel's simplicity. And I liked how it expanded the space side of the MCU. So what is it?
It's not sexism if that's what you're thinking about. The normies aren't sexist like that. Some of the people knowingly involved with this war have criticised the movie for it's feminism but honestly... the "feminism" in Captain Marvel is super vanilla. Nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, it's very safe and something that mostly appeals to maybe ~30+ aged women. (Then again, the movie does take place in the 90's). So it didn't bother me.
Then there's the strong will to paint the movie in the worst way possible. "Audiences hate it", "Even Marvel hates Brie Larson", "Second weekend drop is horrible". It's a decent movie that's doing well in the box office, I'm sorry for having to break the truth for you.
So I guess I'm in a complicated place. I understand where these reactions stem from, but I don't understand how this specific movie could have offended so many so much. Don't say that it's sexism, Wonder Woman never created these reactions. The only controversy related to that movie I remember were the female only screenings. Some complained that that is, in fact, illegal, and others accused those some of being sexists....... and then it turned out that those screenings were actually illegal. Oops.
So, maybe it's Brie Larson. The MCU has been compared to Star Wars in the way that the MCU handles fans well, and SW doesn't. Brie Larson isn't the first MCU actor to practise some activism but I guess she's the first one who's comments have been so tightly connected to her then upcoming movie. And that might not be a good thing.
Maybe this is exactly what Marvel wanted Larson to do, or maybe Marvel doesn't even care. One thing rings true, however. Some of the creators of the 2016 Ghostbusters never wanted that movie to become so political. They didn't want it to be a part of any internet war, and they understand that that might partially be responsible for the bad reputation it's got.
Here's hoping we can one day criticise and praise movies without it turning into a part of any culture war. Without having to fear being accused of sexism or anything else because of some entertainment flick. And without having to turn everthing into an issue out of principle.
