I must be absolutely honest with the answer to that question: To my own surprise, not really. At least not to the extent I was expecting. A bit yes, but not even nearly as badly as I was lead to believe.
I have to admit that recently I have been mislead by negative anti-SJW feedback on at least two movies, this being one of them. The other was Solo: A Star Wars Story.
I was extremely prejudiced against Solo. The reception and feedback against that movie was really negative, it severely under-performed in the box office, and the sentiment among anti-SJW critics was also likewise negative. This prejudice wasn't exactly helped by the disappointment that was Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Recently I nevertheless decided to give the Solo movie a chance. As said, I was really prejudiced against it, and expecting it to be so bad and so cringeworthy that I might not even want to watch it to the end. And, at least in the first half hour or so, I was quite bored, to be frank. However, to my surprise the movie ended up being not even nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. It was in fact pretty enjoyable. Perhaps not the best movie in existence, but enjoyable. The "artificially inserted real-life political message" that I was expecting was actually pretty much non-existent. (There was some criticism on a robot "fighting for the liberation of robots", as being some kind of real-life political metaphor. However, not only did this take like a minute of screentime overall, it was also quite mild and not preachy at all. I didn't feel any sort of artificially shoved-in real-life messages or allusion to real events or real people.)
I freely admit I was wrongly prejudiced against Solo: A Star Wars Story.
But what about Captain Marvel? Is this also a case of being too prejudiced against it, with no justification?
Well... sort of.
I did give also this movie a chance, just to see if the same story would repeat. Perhaps all the negative feedback was greatly exaggerated and the movie would not be as preachy and not stock full of feminist rhetoric as I was lead to believe?
There is most certainly some shoved-in feminist rhetoric in the movie. These are not bad spoilers, so I don't think you should avoid reading this (unless you are really purist and abhor any sort of spoilers at all cost).
The main protagonist, "Captain Marvel", doesn't remember her past. However, due to some circumstances she starts having sporadic flashbacks from all around her life, from childhood to adulthood. Most of these flashbacks, rather superfluously I would say, deal with sexist attitudes against her. Her capabilities and abilities are repeatedly doubted because she's a girl. Many of these memories deal with some male telling her quite directly and obnoxiously that she's no good because she's a girl, and that whatever she's trying to do (such as trying to become a combat pilot) is a man's job. ("There's a reason it's called a cockpit" might be the most obnoxious one.)
These are quite bad, quite obnoxious, and quite superfluous. They could have been changed to something else without the story being affected at all.
However, overall, these take only a minuscule part of the entire movie. Unlike I was lead to believe, she doesn't spend the entire movie attacking men for being men, or trying to prove herself as a capable woman, or acting like an obnoxious self-entitled feminist.
Sure, she smirks in a smug manner quite often... but overall it's actually not that bad. It sort of fits, actually. She even shows a little emotion at times (although not even nearly as often as eg. Wonder Woman in her own titular movie.)
I must admit I was prejudiced against this movie to mostly unjustified extents. There was a bit of artificially inserted feminist rhetoric, but not even nearly as much I was expecting. It wasn't actually a completely bad movie. Sure, they could have left that out, and it would have made the movie slightly better, but in the end, it didn't completely ruin the movie.
The actress portraying the main protagonist is a completely different story in real life. However, I am perfectly capable of separating works of fiction from their creators. I can perfectly well enjoy a work of fiction regardless of what kind of person created it, or acted in it.
I have to admit that recently I have been mislead by negative anti-SJW feedback on at least two movies, this being one of them. The other was Solo: A Star Wars Story.
I was extremely prejudiced against Solo. The reception and feedback against that movie was really negative, it severely under-performed in the box office, and the sentiment among anti-SJW critics was also likewise negative. This prejudice wasn't exactly helped by the disappointment that was Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Recently I nevertheless decided to give the Solo movie a chance. As said, I was really prejudiced against it, and expecting it to be so bad and so cringeworthy that I might not even want to watch it to the end. And, at least in the first half hour or so, I was quite bored, to be frank. However, to my surprise the movie ended up being not even nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. It was in fact pretty enjoyable. Perhaps not the best movie in existence, but enjoyable. The "artificially inserted real-life political message" that I was expecting was actually pretty much non-existent. (There was some criticism on a robot "fighting for the liberation of robots", as being some kind of real-life political metaphor. However, not only did this take like a minute of screentime overall, it was also quite mild and not preachy at all. I didn't feel any sort of artificially shoved-in real-life messages or allusion to real events or real people.)
I freely admit I was wrongly prejudiced against Solo: A Star Wars Story.
But what about Captain Marvel? Is this also a case of being too prejudiced against it, with no justification?
Well... sort of.
I did give also this movie a chance, just to see if the same story would repeat. Perhaps all the negative feedback was greatly exaggerated and the movie would not be as preachy and not stock full of feminist rhetoric as I was lead to believe?
There is most certainly some shoved-in feminist rhetoric in the movie. These are not bad spoilers, so I don't think you should avoid reading this (unless you are really purist and abhor any sort of spoilers at all cost).
The main protagonist, "Captain Marvel", doesn't remember her past. However, due to some circumstances she starts having sporadic flashbacks from all around her life, from childhood to adulthood. Most of these flashbacks, rather superfluously I would say, deal with sexist attitudes against her. Her capabilities and abilities are repeatedly doubted because she's a girl. Many of these memories deal with some male telling her quite directly and obnoxiously that she's no good because she's a girl, and that whatever she's trying to do (such as trying to become a combat pilot) is a man's job. ("There's a reason it's called a cockpit" might be the most obnoxious one.)
These are quite bad, quite obnoxious, and quite superfluous. They could have been changed to something else without the story being affected at all.
However, overall, these take only a minuscule part of the entire movie. Unlike I was lead to believe, she doesn't spend the entire movie attacking men for being men, or trying to prove herself as a capable woman, or acting like an obnoxious self-entitled feminist.
Sure, she smirks in a smug manner quite often... but overall it's actually not that bad. It sort of fits, actually. She even shows a little emotion at times (although not even nearly as often as eg. Wonder Woman in her own titular movie.)
I must admit I was prejudiced against this movie to mostly unjustified extents. There was a bit of artificially inserted feminist rhetoric, but not even nearly as much I was expecting. It wasn't actually a completely bad movie. Sure, they could have left that out, and it would have made the movie slightly better, but in the end, it didn't completely ruin the movie.
The actress portraying the main protagonist is a completely different story in real life. However, I am perfectly capable of separating works of fiction from their creators. I can perfectly well enjoy a work of fiction regardless of what kind of person created it, or acted in it.
Comments
Post a Comment