Escape to the Movies: Beautiful Creatures

[gorfias]

snip

Great post. I've experienced, as have friends of mine, women who hate violence, but do enjoy force. So many romantic novels have women being passionately ravaged by a man illustrated on their very cover. These are not lawyers in love (ie "I'm going to escalate physical contact by placing my hand on your buttocks as we kiss. Is that acceptable to you before I go on?")

Assuming this movie is not about rebellion from stereotypes (for the sake of argument only) I guess we can assume that even a woman who wants to be empowered needs some downtime to fantasize about things she wouldn't want for herself in real life.

Movie Bob would have a point that art can effect our outlook on things. Does this movie further stereotypes? I guess one has to watch it to have an opinion. It will be interesting if the movie is about a rebellion from stereotypes, and Bob missed that!

 

[SweetShark]

I expect April O'Neil to become an alien turtle too, because, you know, love interest for the four turtles.
Right?

Hehehheheheheheheheheheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

 

[grumpymooselion]

Can't choose whether she's good or evil?

That's a giant red blinking neon sign screaming, "I'm a terrible writer and this is my forced conflict."

On the other hand it excuses the evil witches from any and all terrible actions they might take, since they really don't have a choice as far as this setting is concerned. I mean yeah, the bad witch just skinned an entire town worth of children, but it wasn't her fault.

I'm rolling my eyes.

 

[Biodeamon]

I dunno about you guys but i think BC just looks like "I Can't Believe It's Not Twilight"

 

[Jegsimmons]

why is it that hollywood and the rest of the world because the deep south is religious we assume everything is witches?


Nobody here believe in witches or magic, not even the deep swamp dwelling stereotype in this area believe in witches.

We're just religious, we really dont care about shit. hell we even have some people who are wiccans and pagans and we dont treat them any different. Maybe if people actually visited this area they would find 99.99999% of us are pretty damn chill.

We are not the cast of moral orel.


Seriously Fuck this movie on those grounds alone, and fuck it again for being a Twi-clone.

 

[Kinitawowi]

internalised misogyny
rape culture
patriarchy
educate yourself

BINGO

Seriously, that whole argument is nothing but a series of buzzwords now.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Geez Bob, you where heavy on the pop-culture referencing more than usual. I'm both Happy and a little embarrassed I know them all

So I'm not the only one who jumped of glee a little when he showed a picture of Daira in the B&B years?

 

[Hyperactiveman]

I have no idea what Bob was saying Fox should not play but as she is bad in everything it is probably good advice. Can anyone enlighten me as to who it was?

I'm guessing "1990" is your birth year. I feel sad now at April being unrecognized.

I was born in 1990... And I fucking loved TMNT. Easily beats the shows it was competing against that I watched in the years it was running like Captain Planet, He-Man, Transformers (don't get me wrong those are all still good just not TMNT).

 

[Sonder Saunters]

"NO" *clapclapclapclap* Well put, Bob. Well put.

 

[Bronzebeard]

Edit: I um, dun goofed, I swear I was just in the Die Hard 5 thread... I don't know how my comment got here and I can't seem to delete it...

Hey Bob, big fan but I can't help but think this review missed the mark.

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Your bit about his son being unreasonable to dislike his hero cop Dad misses the point, the events of the die hard films went on for one day each (roughly) from what other information we get in the films we are lead to believe John is just doing normal cop stuff, In Die hard 1 we get clear sense of why Holly and McClane broke up when McClane can't help but sabotage a tender moment by being an asshole about Holly using the surname Gennero. Yes, at the end they kiss but that's heat of the moment stuff and by Die hard 3 they are not together any more, what's more he's a drunk and loose cannon. John McClane is well meaning and ultimately a good guy but it's pretty clear when he's not battling terrorists he's a pretty shitty husband and father. In fact I can see his son resenting his Dad even more because of how everyone would be telling him how much of a hero he is.

I would have thought you of all people would have recognised the significance of McClane's son being a spy, it's as if he represents a new generation of action films, what with spys and spooks having taken over from cops. I also thought their relationship was interesting to watch, John Junior genuinely seems angry at his father and doesn?t forgive him immediately but over the course of the film he finally gets to see what we the audience saw in the other films, that when the chips are down his Dad is cunning, fearless, and ultimately a good guy, he's finally able to understand him and even get to like him (but still refuses to call him dad...). Stuck together with a common enemy they manage to patch things up, simple yes but done well.

I also found it surprising you could not follow the plot as even my old man who I took to see the film on his birthday followed it fine (watching inception and looper with him ended up both times with me drawing diagrams on napkins). If I had to sum it up to someone I'd go with John McClane crashes his Son's spy flick. To be honest it comes off like you made your decision on the film quite early on and watched the rest of the film angry.

The movie followed the same basic structure of any Die Hard film:

Guy knows where documents proving Chernobyl was not an accident(Wild Goose Chase) guy is not who he says he is, no documents, just the setup for an elaborate heist.

I do have two major criticisms for the film though, firstly that it lacked a truly interesting villain for McClane to call names and aggravate and secondly the villain's heist did not seem particularly clever or exciting as it remains unexplained how the bulk of it was orchestrated unlike Die hard 1 & 3 where we see their ingenious plans unfold step by step. I think the latter also caused the film to feel kind of thin and cut short.

Also I think it's a shame you didn't mention anything about the cinematography which kicked ass throughout. Particularly the shot of a guy gets strangled by a masseusse in a sauna.

TL;DR: Die hard was a well made rambunctious action film that while obviously not as clever as the original film does not deserve half of the flak that it's getting.

 

[rbstewart7263]

I am shocked at the whole, guys decide what they want to be, girls do not. Bu this was written by two women Karmi Garcia and Margaret Stohl. What were they thinking?

Of all the supposed Twilight wannabes, I'll check Warm Bodies on DVD. The rest look so, rotten. (I went to I am No. 4 with a dude that sees just about everything. Martini after, so, that was cool. But that too could have waited for DVD.)

In countries where there is genital mutilation its often the women who defend rhe practice.

 

[gorfias]

In countries where there is genital mutilation its often the women who defend the practice.

Great point. I don't know if I can force myself to ever sit through this to find out: is the movie about support for self inflicted sexism, or about rebellion and empowerment (she bucks tradition demanding to choose for herself).

 

[Fumbles]

Bob, and whomever else it may concern.

Now I am not expert (unlike Crispin Freeman http://www.mythologyandmeaning.com/), but this seems to be the myth of the women as hero taken to its logical conclusion, which says to me that not only is this film wrong, but a lot of human culture's myths and ideas of man and women are patriarchal and screwed up.

What do I mean:

Link and Luke choose to take up the sword when offered.

Serena (Sailor Moon) and Sakura (Card Captors) have magical powers bestowed on them whether they like it or not.

Beatiful Creatures is just the extreme of this sexist myth that only insecure dudes, and those under their influence (lots of people) would come up with in response to something obvious:

"Why is she suddenly bleeding? That's so weird! Oh wait, it may be weird but now she can, and will, seed my immortality." Actually from the biological perspective the women is the default body plan, so no it is not, and don't even get me started on the rest of that...

Anyway, those are just the thoughts of some random rich athletic straight white Christian man, aware and trying to do something about his own power and privilege. Your thoughts?

I feel strongly against your hypothesis.
1. Link was either a) barely a character or b) predestined/forced to act (Ocarina of time and majora's mask). Rarely was he given a legitimate choice to just walk away (He did in Wind Waker, right?). Luke was genetically predisposed to his path, was actively looked after by the guy who would become his guide, and there was that whole jedi prophecy thing. While he could have turned evil, so could have buffy as faith pointed out. The great powers/position of greatness was not a choice.
2. Many popular and old male heroes in the west were predisposed to greatness such as Hercules or Achiles and even Harry Potter through birth. Not all, but many.
3. You picked two Japanese characters and then talk about white christian men? Lets talk about characters created by white men before discussing the Japanese which have their own particular cultural understanding of women

So the ball is in your court if you wish to continue to defend your point of view, I'd love to see what you have to say

Applause, have a cookie.

I would also like to point out that after Luke's Aunt and Uncle died (spoiler...I guess...if you've never seen the movie (is that even possible?)) he didn't have much of a choice. Sure he took up his sword/lightsaber, but he did so because he had no home to go back to.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

Can I just have the parts where Jeremy Irons speaks? With all the "I do declares"? Because I like his voice and that's really the only part of the movie that appealed to me. I think it's due to my recent run of movies featuring Jeremy Irons simply so I could hear him talk.

Does anyone know if he has narrated any books on tape/cd? Because I would totally listen to that.

Also, I'm right with Bob on this one and hoping to God that Megan Fox doesn't play April O'Neil. That would be a terrible idea. April isn't supposed to look like an over-sexualized cheerleader.

 

[rbstewart7263]

In countries where there is genital mutilation its often the women who defend the practice.

Great point. I don't know if I can force myself to ever sit through this to find out: is the movie about support for self inflicted sexism, or about rebellion and empowerment (she bucks tradition demanding to choose for herself).

Its an important thing to realize. People tend to look at sexism in this really good vs evil way where these great respectable women are seeking rights and recognition from the evil ignorant men. There were and still are plenty of women who support old ways of thinking. when a woman says "well Im a woman I cant decide" shes leaning on the stereotype to support her innability at decision making.

I actually read somewhere that the earliest forms of feminism did not actually seek to create equality but rather the group wanted to set themselves up as matriarchial leaders and guiders over other women but not equal to men. Ill have to verify that last one though.

moral of the story. Question your heroes as much or more than you question your enemies. Some have the right idea and the wrong execution or seek to exploit your goals for equality for there own ends.