Trolls?
It's a label many love to use. Is it accurate?
We
ask because some thin skinned types are insisting all criticism is
trolls. We are being told that poor entertainment conglomerates are
under assault -- trolls at the gates! -- and all they want to do is
entertain.
No, honey, all
they want to do is make a buck. Doubt it? If we're watching ANT MAN
& THE WASP on FX, we're not watching it because we want the lower
right hand of our screen to be promoting DISNEY+ and the new offer if
you subscribe. We're watching for ANT MAN & THE WASP. If they want
to actually entertain us, stop distracting from the film with that
garbage in the lower right hand corner.
Are there trolls?
Yes,
there are and there always have been. Josiah something on YOUTUBE
strikes us a troll. He's always attacking this woman or that.
Now
some female-led shows deserve to be attacked, that's reality. MARVEL
has made three female-led shows for DISNEY+ and they've all been
garbage. WANDAVISION promoted the rest cure that Charlotte Perkins
Gilman railed against over a century ago. MS. MARVEL stripped the
character of a number of her powers, of her connection to the larger
story and her powers were no longer inherent within her but gained when
she wore a bracelet. And then they offered the joke that is SHE-HULK:
ATTORNEY AT LAW. Our criticism of the latter, led to a DISNEY+ exec
huffing that "for your information, WONDER-MAN will be a comedy as
well." That doesn't improve the stats. Three times they could have
created a strong female hero that people took seriously and three times
they failed.
Brie Larson is bothered by trolls. So much so that she may quit playing Captain Marvel, or so she's insisting to the press.
Are the people criticizing her all trolls?
Brie's
personable. She's been fairly good as Captain Marvel. Fairly good?
The first movie is a mess (and far too enamored of the US military) We
liked her mixing it up with the Avengers but felt there could have been
more done to bring her character in -- she was a bit of an after-thought
and more mingling might have helped ward off some of the criticism. Equally true, while we loved Carole Danvers as Ms. Marvel and as Binary and as War Bird, we do understand why a lot of people found the comic book Carol as Captain Marvel off putting (she embraced fascism, among other things). Listening to Brie whine, it only reminds us that she clearly knows damn little about the character she's playing -- including the whole Civil War 2 that destroyed Carol for a lot of comic book readers.
Brie feels she's a victim of trolls spewing sexism.
We think she might be right. But we'd argue the trolls spewing sexism are the ones writing the scripts to her movies.
MARVEL really should look at how it portrays women.
Equally true that some being called trolls are not trolls, they are very devoted fans.
As
the eighties wound down, it was announced that Michael Keaton would be
playing Batman. And people were outraged. The guy from BEETLEJUICE?
!!!! But then people saw the film BATMAN and realized that Keaton could
(and did) pull off the role. Fans are happy to be proven wrong. They
will rail and rail -- look at Anne Rice before INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE
was released -- and then, when they see the actual film or TV show,
they'll offer praise.
If it's done right.
Alden
Ehrenreich is someone films and TV need to retire immediately. He was
never going to be a star. He struggles in leading roles. He's
off-putting. People objected to him playing Han Solo in SOLO for a
number of reasons -- including that he looked nothing like Harrison Ford
who originated the role. When they saw him onscreen, they were given
no reason to re-evaluate him. He was awful in the role (and worse in
Warren Beatty's film -- we love Warren but it needs to be noted that
he's always struggled when it came to casting male actors -- whether
it's jealousy or only appreciating beauty in women, he's cast one dog
after another in film after film).
A lot of bad casting has taken place.
And
some of it may not be bad casting, it might be threadbare writing.
Maybe STAR WARS shouldn't be churning out new movies? Maybe that should
have died long ago. The trilogy is beloved. What came after, much
less so. Maybe part of the problem stems from these watered down copies
and studios should be learning to create new stories with new
characters?
But when you're
casting someone in a beloved role, there is going to be controversy. A
Michelle Pfeiffer triumphs as Catwoman (in BATMAN RETURNS) while Halle
Berry struggles in the same role. Bad writing. And not understanding
females. Catwoman can take on anyone -- and does in BATMAN RETURNS.
But in CATWOMAN, someone got nervous about Halle battling men and felt
the need to create a villainess for Sharon Stone. She wasn't a
villainess, she was a bore and her powers were unimpressive and the
conflict was reserved for the final third of the film.
Recently,
Viola Davis played Michelle Obama in FIRST LADY and had a hissy fit
because people called her out for "duck face." As we noted in our
review, she looked more like Michelle when she was making the "duck
face." But we didn't call the people calling her out trolls or say they
were wrong. It was a spot-on criticism that had nothing to do with
trolls but everything to do with an acting choice Viola made.
The
tendency to reward cry baby artists is something we don't understand.
Jennifer Lawrence, for example, whining that she only got $25 million,
less than Leonardo? Stop whining.
You're
not a very good actress to begin with. You've had seven flops in a row
(that does include the film with Leo which didn't generate ticket
sales). You're lucky to be working. THE HUNGER GAMES series gave you
the pretense of popularity that you honestly do not have. Every attempt
you've made to carry a film has resulted in the film flopping. You
aren't box office.
And,
more to the point, there are a lot of people out of work in the country,
there are a lot of people struggling to make ends meet and the fact
that you didn't get X number of millions but only T number of millions?
We don't feel sorry for you.
One
of the reasons that Chris Pratt has been so popular for so long is
because he had avoided whining in public -- until recently. He took to
whining over his AMAZON series. We avoided writing about it because it
bored us. It bored Stan who did write about it "THE TERMINAL LIST" and it bothered Stan
when Pratt started whining -- "Chris Pratt is getting on my nerves." Sometimes, a person just doesn't like
what you did, has nothing to do with being a troll.
A
limited number of actors and actresses are paid a lot of money -- in
most cases, too much money when you factor in that they don't actually
deliver at the box office -- and they need to develop a tougher skin.
But maybe they complain because they realize that they're not as talented as they pretend to be and that they're overpaid?
But
if someone has invested the time to watch the performance (and, in some
cases, paid to watch the performance), they have every right to
complain.
Again, it all
comes down to whether you deliver or not. Actor or writer, if people
are calling you out, instead of responding "Troll!" you probably need to
take a moment to step back and look at what you offered. You can't
force-feed entertainment.