July Links Part the First: Splice, Jonah Hex, Megan Fox, Scott Pilgrim, Red Dawn
This was going to be June Links Part the Second, but then it took me weeks to write my Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review and I fell down exhausted after that. In the comments to that post, -J- says my "initial take did seem very harsh" and I almost cried because that was approximately my 2,537th take and I still don't know if I agree with myself completely. But there are some good comments on that post by several folks, so if you have seen the film or read the book(s), hop on over and let us know what you think.
Now onto some links. I'm going to pass on linking to anything about The Last Airbender because the internet is now exploding with good writing about how that film is not only chock full of racist casting, but also quite bad, and I imagine you can find some of that writing for yourself if you are interested.
We didn't get out to see Splice because, well, we didn't know there was going to be any ass-kicking. Luckily for us, though, some other folks got out to see it and had many very interesting things to say. Trigger warning on any discussions of Splice, by the way, for references to sexual violence.
From feministthemes.com, Splice and Women in Science (Fiction) by Mz. Wizzle:
Splice is a sci-fi horrorish film that is in many ways a modern retelling of the story of Frankenstein. What Splice does differently from most sci-fi horrorish films is to incorporate complex, intelligent female characters and examine (both directly and indirectly) female emotional and sexual development in an extreme situation. Until it blows it at the end.
From Kills Me Dead, Splice: "What To Expect When You're Expecting" probably does not have a chapter on this by Elizabeth:
What kind of staggered me about this movie was that at the end of it I wasn't left with questions about the morality of human genetic engineering but with issues surrounding mental illness, performative gender roles, and rape culture. Surprise!
Via the Bitch Blogs, A Woman of Science by Tammy R. Oler:
Vincenzo Natali's Splice is just about everything I was hoping for: a smart, scary, visceral, well-acted, and good-looking two hours of scifi/horror. That alone would qualify it for accolades, as it's been kind of a depressing year for both scifi and horror so far. But what really makes me excited about the film is its odd equal opportunity nature. With Splice, we finally get a female mad scientist worth the screen time.
From FlickFilosopher.com, Jonah Hex (review) by MaryAnn Johanson:
Why did director Jimmy Hayward [...] torture poor Megan Fox [...], transforming her via a squeezed-tight corset into something disturbingly freakish when she barely has cause to be here at all, except as a pawn that can be used against Hex? [...] Why not give us even a little bit more of Hex's story with the Indians, instead of leaving it all to look like the flick is simply obnoxiously appropriating a bit of Native culture for effect, for a dash of spiritual whatsit?
From Tiger Beatdown, SEXIST BEATDOWN: The Persecuted Tan of Megan Fox Edition:
Back when Megan Fox was mouthing off about Bay, everyone was like, "she's only doing this because it helps her career." And it's just, like... How often does a woman speaking her not-entirely-complimentary mind about a much more powerful man HELP her career? We wanted to punish her then, and I'm getting a vibe of distinct celebration because we can SEE her getting punished now. By, um, being dropped from "Transformers." Surely the worst of all fates!
Also from Tiger Beatdown, Pilgrim's (Lack of) Progress: The De-Gaying of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World by GarlandGrey:
I did a little research: her name is Roxy Richter, she is a lesbian, she was Ramona's college girlfriend, and she's half-ninja. But at 01:15 Scott's sister refers to them collectively as "evil ex-boyfriends," just as Michael Cera does earlier in the trailer. AND when the Los Angeles Times reported on the new trailer, they used the phrase "seven evil ex-boyfriends" in their story.
(It's funny, watching the trailers that have come out so far, Ramona herself says "evil exes" and everyone else says "evil ex boyfriends.")
From Hyphen Magazine, 'Scott Pilgrim' Movie is the Sex Bob-omb:
Funny how the cultural diversity that manifests itself so naturally and without contention in comics and animation can lead to casting controversies and meltdowns in live-action film adaptations of the same (recent example being Avatar). Perhaps the Scott Pilgrim characters should beat some sense into those feeble-minded film execs, classic 8-bit video-game style. KA-POW!
From Change.org's Race in America blog, Red Dawn: A Contemporary Remake of Yellow Peril Hysteria? by Jenn Fang, also of Reappropriate:
As with The Last Airbender and Prince of Persia, most of Red Dawn's heroes will be played by young white actors. In contrast, the villains of the film are almost universally Asian. Yes, two American characters - Mayor Jenkins and his son Danny (who is part of the Wolverines) - are played by African-American actors. Yet in the 1984 film, both characters are revealed as traitors who side (willingly or otherwise) with the invading Russian forces.
Of course the studio that is making Red Dawn has run out of money, so it may not get released anyway, or at least for a very long time. So there!
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