I was thinking about the fact that I am not really enjoying The Acolyte. I find it kind of boring and the dialogue sounds too Earth 21st century in places which annoys me but the Dude Bros on line hate it because they hate anything that isn’t featuring a white male in the lead which is a stupid and terrible reason not to like something.
It reminds me of the Ghostbusters reboot (no not that one, the other one). The Dude Bros hated it because it was featuring women. I hated it because it was aggressively unfunny and useless with nothing new to offer and did not care that it had a female leading cast. In fact Kate McKinnon was probably the best part of a bad movie.
On the flip side I am one of the few people that liked Justice League. I’m not a Snyderbro, in fact I liked it in spite of him not because of him. He has no idea how to deal with the character of Superman (Man of Steel is bad) but they seemed to be course correcting that and their version of Batman is probably the best live action one we have seen. So for that and other reasons , I like it but find most of its other defenders are terrible and defend it for the wrong reasons.
So what are some things you like or don’t like but find yourself a little icked by the company you are keeping with that opinion?
As you can guess by my name I like a certain type of anthropomorphic media. I however do not want to be lumped in with certain extreme fetishes.
As a person who’s into comic books, fantasy and science fiction I sigh when I realize that most people would judge me by the rabid fans who are out there.
I feel the same way about the Ghostbusters remake. It’s not like I didn’t want to like it. I paid money to see it in the theater. I disagree about Kate McKinnon. I thought she was aggressively unfunny in the movie. Her character was just weird for the sake of being weird with no explanation. Jenny McCarthy and Kristen Wiig’s characters were bland and interchangeable. Leslie Jones was the one that surprised me. I’m generally not a fan of her. The commercials made it look like she was just a screeching stereotype. The actual movie turned her into the most fleshed out character. Strangely enough the funniest character in the movie was a man. The only parts I laughed at were with Chris Hemsworth I did go see it with my teenage daughter who loved it so maybe I wasn’t the target audience. Also maybe their target audience was too small. What could have been the most enjoyable part, the cameos, turned out to be the worst part. Cramming in as many unrelated cameos seemed very forced and distracting. Afterlife did it much better. Have them be the original characters instead of shoehorning them into scenes.
I agree that the Ghostbusters reboot was mediocre but I usually feel compelled to defend the few aspects of the movie that are decent simply because the people who viciously attack it are among the worst people in the world.
The thing I like that I’m very careful about advocating is Fight Club. I think it’s a great dissection of the stupidity and broken psychology that allows manipulative ideologues to recruit hordes of mindless followers into dangerous cults … whereas a disturbing number of the people who call themselves Fight Club fans think Tyler Durden is a genius and long for him to be real so they can follow him. “I like it, but not like they like it” is a perfect description of my position.
The Female version of Ghostbusters was okay. It was a little funny in a few parts.
Snyder hate the idea of Superheros, so was a terrible choice. But yeah, the film- with the exception of Supes- was pretty good. “What’s your superpower?” “I’m Rich!”.
“The Last Jedi”…I think is one of the worst movies that came out that year and definitely the second to worst Star Wars movie…but the stuff that toxic nerds hated the most was the only thing I liked-- hermit Luke who was disillusioned with the bullshit? That was great!
Rick and Morty is now a great example of the idea that half the fan base of just about any media doesn’t actually understand that media.
Doctor Who really did start to suck when they had the first woman doctor.
I wanted it to work, I really did. She was well cast and everything. But the quality of the writing took a sharp downward turn. I haven’t watched it since.
The thing is, when they put a woman in a role and the thing turns out to suck, I get extra angry about it, because I really want women to do cool things.
Ghostbusters is another good example. I am an enormous fan of the original. Chris Hemsworth was the only good thing about that movie.
Ooh, I’ve got one. I love Brad Pitt. He’s become one of my favorite actors. Has absolutely nothing to do with how he looks. I actually don’t find him that attractive. But throughout the years I’ve known many women who are fans of his appearance.
Ditto Ryan Gosling. Great actor. Not attractive to me.
Everything that I like, basically. I like lots of different nerd-adjacent things, but never have been obsessed enough about one of them to dress up like one of the characters (past child Halloween age) and pay to get in a building to stand in line and pay to get an actor from the show to write their name on a piece of paper.
I’ll add my name to the list of those that didn’t like the Ghostbusters reboot for reasons having nothing to do with the Ghostbusters being women. I especially disliked the villain being an ordinary human who wanted to get revenge on the world because he felt unfairly bullied. There were a lot of other things I didn’t like about it, but that was the biggest problem I had.
I didn’t like Beavis and Butthead for the same reason I knew too many teenagers exactly like them who were too dumb to realize they were being made fun of in a not exactly nice way
I kinda like Forrest Gump, but view it as a tragedy. Forrest has an extraordinary life, and takes part in some of the most historic events of his time, but it’s all wasted on him. Those things don’t mean anything to him. He cares about Jenny, but she returns his affection for only one night. He even lets slip that he’s aware of how unintelligent he is. On his terms, he doesn’t seem to have had a happy life.
I’ve never heard anyone else with that take on it.
What I’m reading here is that, as a generalization, people want good stories. The story is the important thing, not who is in them. What failed the shows listed in here (Acolyte, Ghostbusters (female), and Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor) is the writing not being good. Nothing to do with the leads of it.
Okay, random thought I have had on this. Is the problem that the writer writes as they normally would, for a white man, and then when it goes to someone else, they don’t change it?
Spoiler for Doctor Who and Flash movie. One of the lines that still sticks with me is in the new David Tennant episode, The Star Beast, when the Doctor can’t figure out how to solve the problem but the two women know. They give up the power, something that a man wouldn’t think of. I’m pretty sure I’m in that group! It’s like the Flash movie where the alternate Barry just needs one more time to fix the timeline instead of realizing he can’t.
I’m glad you liked Justice League. I like parts of the DC movies but they haven’t been great to me, with exceptions like Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. Maybe Flash, as I did like that movie, and I might be the only one who liked that.
I have heard that Forrest Gump is a tragedy and I agree, especially when he admits he has some idea about his situation.
I didn’t watch the female Doctor season, but, from what I hear, the new series is pretty good, and I really enjoyed the one right after Jodie’s regeneration.
Having Russel T. Davies back seems to work. Chibnall just didn’t seem to be able to pull it off, despite the quality of his work in other shows.