Zoe Saldana, Queen of my Heart
Just got back from The Losers - I enjoyed it. A lot. An excessive amount, perhaps.
I love comic books* - and this movie feels exactly like the kind of comic book I search for - irreverent, brightly coloured, and full of powerwalking.
Look at this powerwalk - can you hear the ridiculously over the top amazing soundtrack? These people are badass.
These are the Losers: Aisha, Jensen, Clay, Pooch (in the back there!), Roque, and Cougar (in the hat!). Zoe Saldana is Aisha. She is amazing and the reason I went to see this film in the first place. You know the parts in Serenity when Summer Glau kicks people in ways you were previously unaware the human body could move? Yeah. Well, Zoe Saldana also used to dance ballet, and it shows. Her fight scenes are inspiring. I now desperately want them both to be in an action movie together. They will clasp forarms and kick people in impossible ways.
She is just as cool as this poster suggests.
I'm pretty much in love with Aisha. She is sexy (and likes sex) but isn't the token sexy girl on the team. The movie respects that she has her own goals, her own issues, her own sense of humour (when she laughs at Cougar's nickname? <3!), and so do the rest of her teammates (with whom I am also in love). Here they all are now, looking all suave on a boat.
I want to go drinking with these kids. On a boat!
One of the reasons I am in love with them is because they recognise that Aisha is a super badass awesomesauce person. At one point, on his knees and about to be executed, Cougar looks up and smiles at something off in the distance - his would-be executioner gives the standard "what're you lookin' at?" response, and turns to see. We already know what's coming.
The hero shot that follows is epic, and as they all stare admiringly at Aisha and her totally awesome back-lit rocket-launcher stance, Jensen remarks "That's one badass chick." Indeed, Jensen. Indeed.
Given Salt's apparent feeling that dudes being rescued by a lady is somehow emasculating, may I just say how excellent it is to see that this film has no such silly issues. Aisha rescues them, and they like it.
This movie is as in love with Zoe Saldana as I am. It didn't occur to me as I watched, but when I started writing this and most of my text consisted of 'omg Aisha is magical and amazing', part of me cringed and said 'oh no. Is she a Mary-Sue?' Which is ridiculous, and not behaviour with which I am down.
I come firmly down on the side of 'as a tool of criticism, Mary-Sue is at best not very useful, and at worst actively damaging.' The fictional women I read about/watched on TV as a kid/teen would probably have qualified as Mary-Sues; they were smart and brave and scarier than anyone else in the room, and they always won. (Susan Ivonava invented throwing people out an airlock!)
But, of course, that was why I liked them. That was why I wanted to be them (and frequently pretended I was). Who doesn't want to be smarter and braver and win all the time?
Anyway, I think one of the things that appeals to me about comics is that they enable me to easily find those women**. Comics have a larger-than-life quality - comics are brighter, louder (despite being paper, I know - but: BIFF POW ZAP! I think my point stands), bigger, and the idea that a teenager could ropeline from one Gotham skyscraper to the next is the least of the impossibilities in Batgirl.
Comics, by virtue of dealing with situations that are just more, seem to allow for the possibility of women who are smarter, braver, fiercer, than I find in certain other genres (well, ideally. The execution of this is problematic to say the least - where is Cass Cain? Seriously, is she okay? I am concerned. She walked off that roof naked.)
The criticism of OFC as too smart, too competent, too strong, too desired - as unbelievable - is just harder for me to map onto women in comics. So, I don't have to deal with the internalized 'oh, she is not a believable character, because women in real life aren't that competent/likeable/intelligent/resourceful etc.' reflex, because jeez, people are flying and fighting Dinosaurs in Underpants, a woman being super-competent is like the least of my concerns.
It's like the narrative conventions of superhero comics are a natural defense against the Mary Sue criticism, because in comics, who isn't extraordinary? Aisha is not too smart, too competant, too desired and desiring - she is just right. She is definitely a woman who would say, out loud, "I'm awesome". And the team recognises it too. It's lovely. You know who else is lovely?
This guy.
That's Cougar, and he is fantastic. He is quiet, and wry, and he will defend his hat to the death. He is also a sniper, which immediately makes him like 10 times more attractive to me.
Okay, I just think they look hot here. Look at her lean! Look at his gun arm shoulders!
Aisha and Cougar are going to make out be best friends one day. I've decided. They make bets on children's soccer games, and when Jensen completely fails to interact socially once again with Aisha, Cougar just shakes his head and looks amused. I want fic so bad.
This is not a movie where plot matters so much. This is a movie with engaging characters, who have interesting relationships with each other, and who really have no problem standing around looking cool while shit blows up behind them.
The music is fun, the explosions are big, and I haven't even told you about Pooch and Jensen and Mrs. Pooch aka Jolene, who I'm pretty sure knows they are alive all along because her husband's ring doesn't come back with his dog-tags, and she seems like a very smart woman.
(Pooch is so awesome he fights after he has been shot in both legs, and he is greatly annoyed about it too. Pooch does not suffer fools lightly, which is why he and Jensen as BFFs is completely adorable. Yes, you may draw your own conclusions about what this says about Jensen.) (Also, there is a bit with cock-fighting at the beginning that was awful and upsetting, but it is over quickly. Much like the eye-gouging which is there too, but later.)
recessional has an actually articulate post which is part of what convinced me to see it in theatres and not wait for dvd. Read it too, because it is thoughtful and interesting, on race and gender and heroism.
* I should clarify, when I say comics, I mostly am talking about superhero or crime comics.
**I guess sci-fi/action in general does this for me: Ivonava, Delenn, Crusher, Jadzia Dax, Mara Jade, Leia, Buffy, Aeryn, Sarah Connor. It's not that other genres don't have great women, I just feel like I have to look harder for them.
I love comic books* - and this movie feels exactly like the kind of comic book I search for - irreverent, brightly coloured, and full of powerwalking.
Look at this powerwalk - can you hear the ridiculously over the top amazing soundtrack? These people are badass.
These are the Losers: Aisha, Jensen, Clay, Pooch (in the back there!), Roque, and Cougar (in the hat!). Zoe Saldana is Aisha. She is amazing and the reason I went to see this film in the first place. You know the parts in Serenity when Summer Glau kicks people in ways you were previously unaware the human body could move? Yeah. Well, Zoe Saldana also used to dance ballet, and it shows. Her fight scenes are inspiring. I now desperately want them both to be in an action movie together. They will clasp forarms and kick people in impossible ways.
She is just as cool as this poster suggests.
I'm pretty much in love with Aisha. She is sexy (and likes sex) but isn't the token sexy girl on the team. The movie respects that she has her own goals, her own issues, her own sense of humour (when she laughs at Cougar's nickname? <3!), and so do the rest of her teammates (with whom I am also in love). Here they all are now, looking all suave on a boat.
I want to go drinking with these kids. On a boat!
One of the reasons I am in love with them is because they recognise that Aisha is a super badass awesomesauce person. At one point, on his knees and about to be executed, Cougar looks up and smiles at something off in the distance - his would-be executioner gives the standard "what're you lookin' at?" response, and turns to see. We already know what's coming.
The hero shot that follows is epic, and as they all stare admiringly at Aisha and her totally awesome back-lit rocket-launcher stance, Jensen remarks "That's one badass chick." Indeed, Jensen. Indeed.
Given Salt's apparent feeling that dudes being rescued by a lady is somehow emasculating, may I just say how excellent it is to see that this film has no such silly issues. Aisha rescues them, and they like it.
This movie is as in love with Zoe Saldana as I am. It didn't occur to me as I watched, but when I started writing this and most of my text consisted of 'omg Aisha is magical and amazing', part of me cringed and said 'oh no. Is she a Mary-Sue?' Which is ridiculous, and not behaviour with which I am down.
I come firmly down on the side of 'as a tool of criticism, Mary-Sue is at best not very useful, and at worst actively damaging.' The fictional women I read about/watched on TV as a kid/teen would probably have qualified as Mary-Sues; they were smart and brave and scarier than anyone else in the room, and they always won. (Susan Ivonava invented throwing people out an airlock!)
But, of course, that was why I liked them. That was why I wanted to be them (and frequently pretended I was). Who doesn't want to be smarter and braver and win all the time?
Anyway, I think one of the things that appeals to me about comics is that they enable me to easily find those women**. Comics have a larger-than-life quality - comics are brighter, louder (despite being paper, I know - but: BIFF POW ZAP! I think my point stands), bigger, and the idea that a teenager could ropeline from one Gotham skyscraper to the next is the least of the impossibilities in Batgirl.
Comics, by virtue of dealing with situations that are just more, seem to allow for the possibility of women who are smarter, braver, fiercer, than I find in certain other genres (well, ideally. The execution of this is problematic to say the least - where is Cass Cain? Seriously, is she okay? I am concerned. She walked off that roof naked.)
The criticism of OFC as too smart, too competent, too strong, too desired - as unbelievable - is just harder for me to map onto women in comics. So, I don't have to deal with the internalized 'oh, she is not a believable character, because women in real life aren't that competent/likeable/intelligent/resourceful etc.' reflex, because jeez, people are flying and fighting Dinosaurs in Underpants, a woman being super-competent is like the least of my concerns.
It's like the narrative conventions of superhero comics are a natural defense against the Mary Sue criticism, because in comics, who isn't extraordinary? Aisha is not too smart, too competant, too desired and desiring - she is just right. She is definitely a woman who would say, out loud, "I'm awesome". And the team recognises it too. It's lovely. You know who else is lovely?
This guy.
That's Cougar, and he is fantastic. He is quiet, and wry, and he will defend his hat to the death. He is also a sniper, which immediately makes him like 10 times more attractive to me.
Okay, I just think they look hot here. Look at her lean! Look at his gun arm shoulders!
Aisha and Cougar are going to make out be best friends one day. I've decided. They make bets on children's soccer games, and when Jensen completely fails to interact socially once again with Aisha, Cougar just shakes his head and looks amused. I want fic so bad.
This is not a movie where plot matters so much. This is a movie with engaging characters, who have interesting relationships with each other, and who really have no problem standing around looking cool while shit blows up behind them.
The music is fun, the explosions are big, and I haven't even told you about Pooch and Jensen and Mrs. Pooch aka Jolene, who I'm pretty sure knows they are alive all along because her husband's ring doesn't come back with his dog-tags, and she seems like a very smart woman.
(Pooch is so awesome he fights after he has been shot in both legs, and he is greatly annoyed about it too. Pooch does not suffer fools lightly, which is why he and Jensen as BFFs is completely adorable. Yes, you may draw your own conclusions about what this says about Jensen.) (Also, there is a bit with cock-fighting at the beginning that was awful and upsetting, but it is over quickly. Much like the eye-gouging which is there too, but later.)
recessional has an actually articulate post which is part of what convinced me to see it in theatres and not wait for dvd. Read it too, because it is thoughtful and interesting, on race and gender and heroism.
* I should clarify, when I say comics, I mostly am talking about superhero or crime comics.
**I guess sci-fi/action in general does this for me: Ivonava, Delenn, Crusher, Jadzia Dax, Mara Jade, Leia, Buffy, Aeryn, Sarah Connor. It's not that other genres don't have great women, I just feel like I have to look harder for them.