Sunday, March 11, 2007

Needs To Be Said

I'm not planning on seeing 300.

It's probably a good movie. I don't care.

The "Look we have computers! Shiny!" thing not promising. When Time does a piece on how your movie is a "sign of things to come" in the movie industry, because it involves technology, that's not good. It indicates that the movie's focus is on the shiny, shiny graphics, which is where we get things like Phantom Menace.

Of course, it's also where you get thins like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and that was a good movie. It was all about the shiny, shiny graphics, but what it was showing was cool enough that it was good. Giant robots attacking New York? Good. Vaguely Spartan MEN! MANLY MEN! talking about how "free" they are? Not so much.

Mostly, I'm kind of off Frank Miller. Since I figured out that his subtexts weren't limited to weird crypto-fascism, "but he's a genius!" hasn't seemed like much of an excuse.

Because if what you're doing is evil, being really good at it doesn't make it any less evil. Depicting women as sex objects, as accessories and plot devices for the male characters, as anything less than human, is evil.

Because it ties into and supports a culture that says, "women can't . . ." because they're women. A culture that says they're not as smart as men, or not as stupid. A culture that restricts human potential based on gender, and that's evil.

1 comment:

  1. First of all, you said "Phantom Menace". I must inform you that I do not understand this, because nothing called the "Phantom Menace" ever occurred. Ever.

    I was never "on" Frank Miller to begin with, but after reading a bit more about him, I think maybe perhaps that is for the best. If I do another gender rant on my blog, it will seem as though I'm obsessed with it (which would defeat the whole point of my original gender post).

    I don't know if I'll see 300. It does look shiny, and the few clips of dialog there are in the previews are witty enough, but I don't know. Before I saw the previews, I had no intention of seeing it, and after I saw the previews, my only thought was "Ooooh, Shiny." I will not allow that to be a justification to see a movie. After all, Matrix: Reloaded and Matrix: Revolutions were both "Ooooh, Shiny." BTW, they really should have named them differently. They're both "The Matrix: Re-something." It bothers me. Granted, a lot of other stuff in the 2nd and 3rd Matrices bothers me more, but still.

    ReplyDelete