Social Marvel Warrior?
Could it be we are going to witness the first SMW on the Big Screen next year? This post is going to be short and, I hope, I'm completely wrong. Because if I'm not wrong, that's another one of my favorite movie franchises going downhill...
source: Wikimedia Commons
I really don't like writing about the SJW phenomenon, because it almost always opens up discussions that are totally off-base and you risk being pushed into some obscure political niche together with racists, haters and male chauvinists. I'll try to explain. Maybe it'll become a bit of a rant, and maybe I'll lose some followers and readers, but this is how I feel...
When I first saw Disney's new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens in the cinema, I had a good time; I was there with friends and family and the little boy inside me was jumping with joy because Disney had managed to bring back that old Star Wars feeling, something I've been waiting for almost 30 years because that feeling didn't come back with the prequels. This was the first time since the original trilogy going back to that universe with flawed machinery and ditto people; a universe that looked like it had a history and not full of shiny new guns and spaceships. Han Solo and his ship, the Millennium Falcon, were the perfect examples of this "lived in" universe. So at a first glance, Disney seemed to have done a good job, but boy was I wrong...
Even during that visit in the cinema, toward the end of the movie, I got the feeling not everything was right. As an old time Star Wars fan I was really disappointed with how the original characters, Luke, Han and Leia, were used. Most eagerly awaited was Luke of course, and he only got a few seconds at the very end. And Han was dead, killed by his own son. On my second viewing it all became clear and I saw that the enthusiasm I had was totally misplaced; The Force Awakens is a carbon-copy of the very first Star Wars film, with some bits and pieces of the second and third movie thrown in. It was designed to capture the emotions of fans of the originals, but was simply a bad movie in every other way.
One of the main criticisms I and many others had, was the lead role, Rey. She is the new Luke, because her journey in the film follows the plot from A New Hope, with one big difference: Rey is a natural, she can use Force powers that Luke, and every other Jedi before, had to train years for. At the end she even beats Kylo Ren, who was trained by Luke himself and Snoke, the replacement for The Emperor from the Original Trilogy; Rey is a Mary Sue, she's perfect in every way. Everybody knows that a hero in any story has to overcome some weakness or adversary, he or she needs to have a major set-back before standing up and rising to the hero-status. That's just basic and essential in any hero's journey. But not Rey; she's b****slapping every obstacle out of her way without breaking a sweat.
But when fans complain about this, and rightfully point out the many weaknesses, plot holes, character flaws and the disrespect shown toward the universe that's been built up over six previous movies, the mainstream media responds with accusations. And almost always the SJW card is pulled: you're a male chauvinist, you can't handle that Rey is a "strong female character", you're a woman-hater... Critics of female remakes like Ghostbusters 2016 and Oceans 8 (2.5 and 3 star rating on IMDB respectively) suffered the same fate for just pointing out how bad these movies are. The mere fact there seems to be a need to remake old movies with females replacing the males, should be indication enough for a SJW agenda in Hollywood and other mainstream outlets. It's not like the fans asked for this; there's a political agenda being pushed here and my favorite movies are suffering bad.
Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel - Official Trailer
Identity politics, however easy it is to understand why one would think they are necessary, just don't work. Racism is still alive and rampant, and women still don't get the same opportunities as men in their professional lifes and the same goes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people; that's obvious. But to then just say we need some quota, to mandate certain percentages of workers to be female or of some ethnic background, as to "better reflect the population" or "give equal opportunity", is self defeating. In our professional lifes there should be one rule only: the best person for the job should get the job. Period. I'm not a male chauvinist if I say that a female soccer team will lose against a male soccer team 9 out of 10 times; that's just being realistic. Jordan Peterson is a quack in my opinion, but he's right when he points out that there are purely biological differences between the sexes that'll stay here for some time to come.
But this failing political agenda has now entered the entertainment industry. Even if you're a Social Justice Warrior, you still got to admit that there's simply no place for politics in entertainment. This development should scare you to death actually; wasn't it the communist dictatorships where the government decided what's fit for you to consume? "You shall adore the females in our movies or be cast out like the male chauvinist you really are."
During all the turmoil on the web, one movie franchise was spared all this SJW nonsense; the Marvel Cinematic Universe was and is universally praised for the quality superhero movies they've been producing for over ten years now. Where Disney's The Last Jedi saw fit to spend half an hour to teach us that capitalism and rich people are bad during the much hated Canto Bight sequence, and re-emphasize the Mary Sue-ness of Rey in an even worse movie than it's predecessor, Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok treated us to some good old superhero madness. Really, there's no sign of Hollywood's SJW agenda in any of their films. Until now, that is.
Like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid I'm not; Marvel's next movie, Captain Marvel, looks like the first MCU movie to be trapped by the SJW agenda. Just look at the two trailers released, and you'll see why "I got a bad feeling about this". Maybe I'm paranoid (I hope that's it), but I see this happening: ALL the universe's superheroes have lost the fight against Thanos, Marvel's ultimate super bad guy, and Captain Marvel will be the "strong female character" superhero that's gonna save the universe. Where Iron MAN, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, War Machine, Falcon, The Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spider-MAN, Ant-MAN, Wasp, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket, Groot and Mantis failed, Carol Danvers will succeed as Captain Marvel and show all of them how it's done; this might become the strongest SJW message put to the big screen to date. I mean, the trailer even obscures the "A" and the "O" in "A HERO" to spell "HER"... I hope I'm wrong...
Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel - Trailer 2
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Captain Marvel was a very powerful character in the original comic series and indeed did save the Universe, so this isn't a deviation from the original story.
I am always surprised at people's shock at Star Wars being used to push a political agenda when the original was an apologia for the VietCong.
Thanks so much for this valuable addition @openparadigm :-)
Agreed on Capt. Marvel being the universe's savior in the comics, but that doesn't change how I feel. And yes, Lucas'political ideas are surely visible in the originals; no escaping the Empire being modeled after nazi's ;-) But that doesn't change anything either. "It used to be that what we saw on television was a reflection of what we see in real life. Now it's like real life is a reflection of what we see on television." A good friend told me that a long time ago. Reflecting the politics and society of the day is what art does, nothing wrong with that. It's something different entirely when art is used to push an agenda, which is what I mean when I say politics has no place in entertainment.
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Great post. Merry Christmas and happy holidays