Every-so-often, I have blog ideas that are way too short. I usually discard them in-favour of other, fully fleshed-out ones, but occasionally I go for them and they’re padded messes. So I’ve decided to try something new: a blog containing multiple short blogs. (I might do this more if it’s a hit.) You ready?
(And yes, this is a rip-off of Bob Chipman’s Junk Drawer series.)
Hellboy had a tough legacy to live up to. It’s a reboot of a mid/late-2000’s superhero franchise from one of Hollywood’s greats. It also, on that note, bears the same name as the original film in said franchise, and it stars someone who’s taking over for Ron Perlman. Even if the movie hadn’t been poorly-advertised, it’d be next-to-impossible to recreate Guillermo Del Toro’s brilliance. And yet, in spite of everything, it still managed to be a disappointment.
I feel bad. I feel bad because I desperately wanted Hellboy to succeed, and I feel bad because it didn’t. I also feel bad because it seems like David Harbour, who plays Hellboy here, genuinely enjoyed himself. He seems to have really cared, and it shows. So why does everything else fall flat?
I’ll be the first to admit that Del Toro’s take on the character was nothing mind-blowing: Hellboy was a standard and repetitive origin story, with a lot of padding. Hellboy II: The Golden Army, while tighter, had plenty of narrative detours and ended anticlimactically. And the two films had dialogue that fluctuated in quality, with serious moments feeling funnier than they needed to be. The latter also ended with the promise of a trilogy-capper, but since it was a Del Toro project…
The only advantage this new movie had was its R-rating. (I know it’s also been touted as “being more-faithful” to its source, but you know my thoughts on that.) An R-rating could’ve allowed for more creative freedom, as evidenced by Harbour’s casual and appropriately-timed F-bomb in one of the trailers. This movie being rated R also meant that it could’ve explored some dark themes, fitting for a character named “Hellboy”. It’s a shame that that didn’t end up mattering, though.
Oh, and the Rotten Tomatoes score reveal, while not unsurprising, came off as mean-spirited.
How about that new Marvel movie? Yeah, I’m excited for The Avengers: Endgame too! I won’t see it right away, for religious reasons, but I’m still excited. I’m even excited that it’ll be a 3-hour epic, something I didn’t expect.
That said, I do have to raise a concern about that. In a recent article, Kevin Feige noted that the movie won’t have an intermission, and that there won’t be anything worth missing anyway. I’m not averse to long, some of my favourites are long, but not having that intermission might be an issue for many people. It’d be an issue for kids, who don’t have the bladder tolerance, but also for the elderly and people with bladder disorders. Given that Marvel movies tend to be mass-appeal, that’s a little bit mean-spirited.
I’m aware that 3+ hour epics aren’t anything new. Hollywood of yesteryear had plenty in the forms of Lawrence of Arabia and The Ten Commandments, and there’ve been dramas since that’ve clocked at over 3-hours. Even my favourite biopic, Schindler’s List, is over 3-hours, and it’s amazing! But a family-friendly action movie clocking over 3-hours becomes unfair when there’s no bathroom or concessions break. Because wouldn’t it make sense to have both built in? Wouldn’t that help theatre chains make more money, something they’d want?
Maybe I’m short-sighted, but if you’re allotting 3+ hours for a single experience, then you might as well be entitled to a small break. You’re paying money for this, after all! If plays, which often go over 3 hours, have intermissions, then why can’t The Avengers: Endgame have one?
So Netflix recently revealed details about its remake of Cowboy Bebop, a show I hold dear, yet haven’t been shy about being critical of. I also agreed with most people that this might not be worthwhile to re-adapt, as the original felt like lightning in a bottle. It’s rare that such a talented production house, writer, director and composer would come together to make something that’d, incidentally, also change the face of dubbing in The West in 2001, so how could anyone replicate that?
Netflix appears to be on the right track so far with its casting. The stars are diverse and fit their characters, something this show needs. My only complaint is John Chu as Spike Spiegel, and not because he’s a terrible actor, or even because he’s Korean. No, I’m concerned that he’s a Korean actor who’s playing a Jewish character.
See, Spike Spiegel sounds like a pretty Jewish name. Or, at least, the last-name does. I know people with that name who are Jewish, that’s how baked in it is with that identity. Spike, in my mind, has always been Jewish, and I was hoping he’d be played by one ever since the original choice of Keanu Reeves fell-through. So while I mean no disrespect to John Chu, I loved him in Searching, I think he’s woefully-miscast.
The question that’s probably swimming through everyone’s heads is, “Why does it matter?” It matters for the same reason that racial miscasting matters: Jews, despite being big in Hollywood, are often overshadowed by non-Jews in roles. The characters that best suit them are usually given to other talents, and they’re left with stereotypes. I can’t begin to tell you how many Jewish characters in Hollywood are rabbis or nerds. It’s embarrassing.
But outside of that, proper casting validates minorities. Remember when Ruby Rose was announced as Batwoman in a show on The CW? Remember when people were upset that she wasn’t Jewish, yet was playing a Jewish character? This is the same sort of scenario, except with John Chu.
I know that the Jewish identity is a weird outlier, in that it defies preconceptions of race and ethnicity. Jews aren’t this homogenized, Euro-centric group, they’re incredibly-diverse. A Jew can be Jewish and Turkish, as is the case with Hank Azaria. A Jew can also be Jewish and black, as is the case with MaNishtana. And a Jew can be Jewish and Asian, as is the case with Kaifeng Jews. So why can’t Spike Spiegel, whom I identify as Jewish, be played by a Korean-Jewish actor? It’s not like South Koreans don’t have a devoted community of Jews and converts, I know a few personally, so can’t Netflix have sent out a casting call to them?
Anyway, that’s all for now. Ponder these completely-unrelated tangents, and I’ll see you next time!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts (Monthly)
-
Korrasami sucks, everyone. Honestly, I was debating how to start this one off: do I go for the verbose “Korra and Asami is a terrible f...
-
Is the book always better? This is a debate that’s been going on for a long time. So long, in fact, that you probably don’t remember its ori...
-
There’s plenty I can say about Agatha All Along . Like how it made me care for an antiheroine who murders other witches. Or how, despite bei...
-
I’ve been mixed on writing this for some time. I’ve wanted to on many occasions for 7 years, namely in response to the endlessly tiresome ra...
-
Another year gone, another year of reflection. Politics wise, it was the year of Donald Trump’s presidential hopefulness, Justin Trudeau ove...
-
It’s been rather rough this week. On Tuesday night, I spent the evening watching the American election results in real time. Despite not ant...
-
One of the annoyances about The Acolyte ’s cancellation is that the show wasn’t afraid to venture into new territory. For one, it came befo...
-
Last time, I ended with the following sentence: “If you’ll excuse me, The Boy and the Heron recently got added to Netflix...” Having now ...
-
Internet, it’s time we had a little talk. *Grabs the collective body by the ear and drags it to a private space* This is Frozen . I’m s...
-
So I rewatched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse . Despite the behind-the-scenes involving the animators slightly diminishing my enjoymen...
Popular Posts (General)
-
Korrasami sucks, everyone. Honestly, I was debating how to start this one off: do I go for the verbose “Korra and Asami is a terrible f...
-
( Note: The following conversation, save for formatting and occasional syntax, remains unedited. It’s also laden with spoilers. Read at you...
-
It was inevitable that the other shoe would drop, right? This past month has been incredibly trying . On October 7th, Hamas operatives infi...
-
I recently watched a YouTube video deconstructing Howl’s Moving Castle . Specifically, it drew on The Iraq War parallels and how they held ...
-
(Part 1 can be found here .) (Part 2 can be found here .) At E3 2005, Nintendo announced their latest console . Dubbed “The Nintendo ...
-
Ableism’s an unusual kind of bigotry. It’s prevalent in how we communicate, and it shapes how we live our lives. The biggest offenders on a ...
-
On March 3rd, 2009, Warner Bros.’s animation division released an original, direct-to-video feature about comics’ prized superheroine, title...
-
I’ve been mixed on writing this for some time. I’ve wanted to on many occasions for 7 years, namely in response to the endlessly tiresome ra...
-
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and I have a weird relationship. I’ve seen plenty of Batman films, being a huge fan of the character, but none...
-
This week marks the third in a period of the Jewish calendar called " The Omer ". That was one of the hardest sentences that ...
No comments:
Post a Comment