My nerdy weekend (Despite forgetting to go to my LCS for Free Comic Book Day) and a free rant
I think it's awesome that there is a Barbara Gordon working in the same office I work at. If you think that was a tragically geeky thing for me to get excited about, it must also be known that I love the fact that I live in the electoral division of Batman. I do have to note though that it is actually named after John Batman and that it is pronounced different from Batman the superhero (It sounds more like Bat-mun instead of emphasising the word "man").
Now onwards to my nerdy weekend!
Saturday May 7:
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was on TV it and made me think about superhero movies and getting the right actors. What I realised when I was watching this movie was how important for whatever comic book superhero franchise to not try to ape off another superhero franchise's in the hope for copycat success. While the first Fantastic Four movie seemed to try to be Spider-Man, this one while not exactly a great movie at least felt more comfortable with being a Fantastic Four movie. Also, when it comes to finding actors to play superheroes, it's not necessarily about finding the cream of the crop of thespians, but about finding actors who are comfortable with inhabiting their character's role with conviction, especially when wearing a silly costume. I mean, Ioan Gruffudd is incredibly respected as an actor but his awkwardness with his role shows in the first movie, while in the second one he seemed to be a bit more comfortable, while Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans seemed to make their character feel really lived in for both movies. With poor Jessica Alba though, she was just massively fucked with directors and screenwriters who didn't seem to care on working with Sue Storm, but were only thinking about fanservice. This blog post gives a perfect summary and collection of just why actresses get the short end of the stick in film and what Jessica had to put up with.
Sunday May 8:
I like going to see two movies in one day because while it is an entertainment overload it turns to be cheaper as I'm only buying one lunch and since I'm in the cinema for most of the day, it gives me less time to shop. I was initially planning to see Water for Elephants but decided to watch that movie next week instead (or maybe just read the book now that I heard about the skeevy training methods used on the elephant from years ago), since this way I can have a thematic nerdy weekend:
Paul
I thought it was a rather sweet movie even with really silly humour. My absolute favourite part when when Clive and Graeme went to Kirk's Rock to reenact scenes from Star Trek. It's the idea of a cool, rude, stoner alien that cracks me up. I can't wait to rewatch it on DVD because I want to make sure I catch all the references.
Thor
It's pretty good! Sadly though, despite hearing it said a couple of times, I still have no idea how to pronounce Mjolnir. It keeps up with the other Marvel movies and while I think that the Jane Foster/Thor romance was a little unneccessary and rushed (although when I think about it, at least they didn't bother with following the sequel hook will they/won't they like in Spider-Man or Iron Man), what I think the movie does better than other movies was have a female character who actually felt like an independent person and protagonist rather than just a support role. Jane was someone who represented the human world (essentially making her the Midgard protagonist, while Thor is the Asgard protagonist), quotes Arthur C. Clarke and had her own motivations and issues. (In fact, one of the nicest things that Thor does for Jane is help her with something that seemingly has little value or meaning to him, but as a girl who keeps sketchbooks and organisers can attest, would mean the world and more to Jane).
Jane Foster is also a triumphant example of changing a character's career (nurse to scientist) and actually making it work in favour of the female character, rather than simple fauxgressiveness that actually has no meaningful plot relevance and still supports the male characters*. For one thing, we actually get to see Jane have her own assistants, showing her leadership (and how she is kind of like the Midgard protagonist). We also see her at work, and have visual evidence of how much work she has done in the past to get to where we were in the movie. While the movie is still essentially about Thor and obviously, Jane's work puts her on a path to encounter him (and will assist in them seeing each other again), she still gets to keep her individual motivations and issues, even if she is now connected to him. She also gets to show her intelligence and show signs of intellectual curiosity and quotes sci-fi authors. In other words, when Jane was transformed into a scientist, she really and truly did transform into a scientist instead of cheap lipservice.
I was also happy that other women were featured in the movie, and lacked the mildly catfighty/competitive/fanservicey aspect like in Iron Man, which I really appreciate although I think that they could have been featured more (I always think that!). But I was really happy with Sif, Frigga and Darcy and that they did get their moments, whether in fighting, caring or even comic relief. In fact, while Darcy was a very minor cipher at first, when they casted Kat Dennings in the role they expanded her role to benefit her and therefore the character too. It feels like a nice evolution from Iron Man, which had a fantastic role for Pepper but was either scanty with other female characters who intrigued or mildly skeevy from a meta point of view.
*In the FF movies, Sue was a scientist (in the veeeerrrry early comic days she tried to pursue an acting career) but aside from a casual mention of the uniforms, it's Reed who everyone defers to for science stuff and who was shown to be working in his field of science. Basically, she was upgraded in a way that would seem really progressive but was ultimately just used for cheap plot convenience and to support a male character. Jan in the UItimates also became a scientist because it was plot convenient to support Hank but she doesn't get to do anything that really mattered in her field (It also goes against Jan's characterisation as being a girly fashionable person who was from a completely different world in life but who chose of her own will to step out and become a superhero) and it was still Hank who was deferred to as a scientist and who now basically exploited her, a severe departure from the original significance of Jan's origin.
Also, considering the movies I went to, I saw a lot of previews for:
X-Men First Class
Well, on the bright side we get to see Eric and Charles when they were young, and the slashiness that it will entail. There is also Beast and Mystique (although I have a sad feeling there will be no Destiny which sucks since I love Mystique/Destiny). But no Cyclops! I'm sorry, I don't care how much you hate him or don't care, it feels unbelievably weird to have an X-Men FIRST CLASS without him. He's just meant to be there. So I don't really know, it depends on if I have enough money to burn when it comes out, otherwise I'm just going to let it pass me by and maybe read up on spoilers so I will know whether to try on DVD in the distant future.
Captain America
Well, at least I can now tell my comic book guy that I have seen it! (He thinks it's hilarious that I keep on avoiding seeing the preview in fear that a part of my soul will die - he knows - and he should know! - that Cap is a dear favourite of mine). Well, now I know how they depict a pre-serum Steve. Looks really weird because we know it's superimposed and how Chris Evans really looks like but strangely enough, that weirdness could symbolically work in its favour. So far the trailer seems to give enough info in a simple and coherent way and shows promise. I was happy with the teeny bit of Peggy we get. Considering how happy I was with Iron Man in regards to Pepper and Thor in regards to Jane I hope we can keep the progress going forward, although I fear that since this will be a superhero period and war film they might use that as an excuse to be cheap with female representation. After all, if we can only have one good female character and screw the rest then we haven't really made enough progress and in turn can be exclusionary. But duh, of course I will see this movie!
Green Lantern
I still think that the preview isn't promising. Being brief doesn't bother me, but it seems rather messy and disjointed. I also wonder about casting Blake Lively as Carol, because I think she looks too young, while Carol may have been young but she was still a woman who could match Hal. So I really don't know. Hopefully Carol isn't the only female character in the film. That all being said, Blake Lively as Carol in the preview is still more impressive than Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane in the entire Superman Returns movie. (I know that's mean, but Kate looks waaaaay too young to have been knocked up by Superman years ago without it being statutory rape. That and I'm rather protective of Lois Lane and how she is portrayed - she should be a woman (even if occasionally girlish), not a girl!)
Bad Teacher
Hmm, I'm torn between feeling bad because I know that teachers in the US are getting such a bum rap and being terribly amused at flipping the stereotype of women being inherently nurturing teachers who don't care about money at all, thus justifying giving teachers crappy salaries. I think I will choose to be amused and I hope to see it when it comes out. If not, I have to at least watch it on DVD!
Bridesmaids
I was surprised that Judd Apatow was producing this movie but found out that it had a female screenwriter, so this should be really interesting. I'm glad that there is going to be female driven comedy coming out though. It's about time though that we have a stupid comedy that doesn't expect women to be supporting character/serious killjoys, especially coming from the Apatow stable.
And on to TV!
The return of Merlin!
LOL, I missed so much of season 2 but after watching this (Season 3) on Sunday and reading around a little, I think that I will happily return to regularly watching this show again. I think Morgana smirks way too much (I know she is evil, but enough is enough!) but I absolutely can't wait to see the episode "Queen of Hearts" so I can see future!Gwen as the Queen of Camelot. I still think Gwen is way too good for Arthur but I realised that since I missed so much of season 2 and have a shaky memory of previous episodes I am not being fair. I do want to her and Arthur get together though. As long as Arthur is good to her, I will approve.
No Ordinary Family
Okay, so it was the second episode on Monday May 9, but I don't care! I find myself rather endeared by this series, even though, let's face it, a story about a superhero family is in no way a new or original concept. What I do like about it though (besides the fact that it has Michael Chiklis in it) is how Stephanie Powell gets to be a dedicated scientist (and is shown to be doing her work and approaching things as a scientist!) and Jim gets to be a police artist (so they basically get to represent two sides of superheroes when it comes to science and law) who was shown to be an active and emotionally connecting parent. I also liked Katie who is Stephanie's assistant and is a comic book geek! Female comic book fans, represent! The kids also seem to be okay so far too. While I am not necessarily giving it a full two thumbs up just yet (like I said, not that original), I am intrigued and endeared enough to keep on watching, since I think it could develop into something really good. Sadly, the prospects for its survival are not great.
Also, I rant I can't keep under wraps
I never ever EVER want to see a post like this again.
Josephine Baker is an awesome, beautiful, incredible, powerful, passionate BLACK woman! Okay?! OKAY!!! She is not fucking white! To take that away from her is basically pissing on her legacy as a fierce and fabulous sex symbol. It is not just white women who
-Express their sensuality/sexuality through performance art (burlesque)
-Slept with Frida Kahlo (I know that it was only more of a sexual fling/one night stand, but could you imagine what kind of awesome bisexual WOC power couple they would be?)
-Work for the French Resistance
-Fight for Civil Rights
-Refuse to work for segregated clubs
-Adopt many POC children (LOL, didn't I know? Only Nice White Ladies are allowed to adopt children, especially POC children from outside the US)
-Are bisexual
-Was even asked to take over leadership for the Civil Rights struggle
-Never let anyone treat her as a lesser being for being a black woman
What, is the idea of an incredible black woman too much for people to bear?! Jesus shit, that is so fucked. I guess the reason why this sticks in my craw so bad is because we hardly ever get to hear about iconic WOC and the idea that of course only white women get to be awesome irritates the shit out of me. Also, the idiot poster from the above link was commenting on a Josephine Baker TV biopic. How dense can you get?! The biopic even explicitly talks about how much shit Josephine Baker got for being a proud and defiant black woman. Grr.