My Biggest Issue With Nerds

  So I had another post that I was planning to do right about now, but recently I’ve been having some interactions with people on online forums (Reddit, Discord, etc.) that have inspired me to write this right now instead. Not working off of any outline this time around, so this is going to be fully stream-of-consciousness.

Before getting into the “meat” of today’s topic, allow me to clarify a few things. First of all; yes, I recognize the fact that I myself am a nerd, but that doesn’t mean I have to like all other nerds too. Furthermore, when I say “nerd” here, I’m only really referring to pop culture enthusiasts. Lastly, I recognize that all the things I’m about to say only apply to a minority of nerds out there, but let’s face it, they’re a very loud minority. While it’s true that most people are able to maintain a healthy balance between the things they’re enthusiasts of and all other aspects of their lives, some people out there are very toxic towards the things they claim to be fans of, and all this does is make the rest of us all look bad too.

So now that I got all that out of the way, let’s just get straight to the point of what I want to say today:

In all of the recent conversations I’ve been having online with other fans of things that I enjoy (mainly Star Wars and the MCU), I’ve noticed that most people continue to say the films and shows in these franchises that are generally the more well-received ones are simply “just better.” And yet, these people all fail to provide concrete examples as to why those films/shows are, by their terms, “objectively better” than the films/shows in those same franchises that generally aren’t as well-received.

Look, I know I have very unpopular opinions these days about, well, pretty much everything! But you know what? At least I do two things differently from all of these other people. Firstly, I almost always remember to state that whatever I say is only my own opinion and nothing more. And secondly, I always make sure to support those opinions with story examples, to explain why I feel the way I do. The people I often find myself debating with online, however, fail to do both of these things (let alone just one). They state their opinions as “objective facts” just because the films/shows they like are “the popular ones,” and then fail to provide any examples from the stories themselves (unrelated to their impact on the outside world) to justify those opinions. 

To make matters worse, these same people then proceed to virtually crucify those like me, just for proposing a different way to look at things. Which is fine, if that’s what they want to do. I don’t care what any of them think or say about me. But still, I can’t deny how frustrating it is that people these days seem so pigeon-holed into their own beliefs that they refuse to even acknowledge that opposite beliefs on something can even exist! And for the record, even though I’m just talking about pop culture here (since that’s what I’m most passionate about), I’m well aware of the fact that this sort of mentality exists in many other aspects of the world too (politics probably being the biggest example, of course).

In the past, I’ve mentioned that, at least with Star Wars in particular, generational divides amongst the fandom play a role in all of this. In other words; too much time went by in between the making of each trilogy for everyone to be happy. But while I think that’s a big part of the problem, I don’t think it’s the only factor at play here. At least not when talking about pop culture as a whole, that is. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but a lot of the same people who like to talk about Star Wars also like to talk about Marvel (specifically the MCU). 

Slightly unrelated, but I find it funny that the same people who say “I hate all of the Marvel-ish humor in The Last Jedi” also say “I wish Kevin Feige was in control of all of Star Wars! I want it to be more like the MCU!!” Which one is it, buddy? Also, be careful what you wish for. I doubt the sequel trilogy would’ve been much better had Feige put it together instead. As I’ve said many times on here before, Star Wars became “unfixable” longterm as soon as The Empire Strikes Back decided to retroactively make the whole thing about just one family, among other things.

Anyways, as I’ve also mentioned in the past, MCU fans can be very stuck-up. Almost every film in the franchise is put on a pedestal, and the few that aren’t are instead taken to the complete opposite extreme and treated like utter filth (Captain Marvel comes to mind). Like Star Wars fans, these fans seem to have a hard time accepting when people have different opinions that aren’t “the norm,” and when asked why their opinions are better than anyone else’s, all they can say is some variation of “This movie got a 90% on rotten tomatoes and made $2 billion and everyone likes it!!” Again, exterior elements that have nothing to do with the product itself. Starting to see some patterns?

Here’s the thing, though; the MCU fanbase doesn’t have generational divides, like the Star Wars fanbase does. While Marvel comics are nearly 60 years old now, the MCU itself has only been around for 13 years. So if generational nostalgia isn’t playing a role here, then what’s making these fans just as elitist as Star Wars fans? You’d think, in the case of both franchises, age would play a factor, and that adults would be more mature about all this stuff than teens are. But believe it or not, some of the most toxic people I meet when talking about either franchise are adults who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy. Personally, I think it’s sad that adults can be that whiney, but whatever…

So upon recently giving this question some more thought, I think the answer boils down to one simple concept: Hive Mind Mentality. Or as psychologists like to call it: The Sphere of Influence.

What’s this, you may ask? I’ll admit, I’m probably not sophisticated enough in psychological theory to be able to explain it in an entirely correct manner. In short, though; if you take a bunch of uncertain people in a group, and then a few particularly loud individuals (“loud” being figurative here) in said group make up their mind about something and express it “loudly,” the sphere of influence will spread to the point where pretty much all of the remaining uncertain individuals in the group conform to the hive mind, just for the sake of conforming and, in most cases, avoiding conflict. Again, it’s a little more complex than how I’m making it sound, but that’s basically it.

I remember when The Last Jedi first came out, and people weren’t sure how to feel about it one way or the other (myself included). Then a group of VERY loud fans voiced their grievances on social media, and suddenly I noticed many other friends of mine, as well as popular YouTubers who initially liked the movie, conforming to that mentality (again, myself included). Now, before going any further, let me make something clear: I am NOT saying that anyone who dislikes The Last Jedi is wrong, nor am I saying that it’s a flawless movie (as I’ve said many times before, I have my issues with it just like everyone else does). It’s possible that all of my friends who weren’t sure how they feel when they first saw it have genuine reasons for disliking it now. All I’m saying is that I noticed that most of them only seemed to start saying they dislike it once they saw what others were saying about it on social media first. Just an observation.

Furthermore, I am also NOT saying that movies such as The Empire Strikes Back and Avengers: Endgame are only liked because of “hive mind.” Despite the fact that I think both of those films in particular are a little overrated, even I cannot deny that they both still have many reasons to be as beloved by “diehard fans” as they are. That being said, however, I’m still a firm believer in the idea that “all art is subjective,” which is something that I feel many of these “hive-minded” individuals that I’m talking about here fail to accept, and I’ve especially noticed it when debating the three aforementioned films in particular with these very same people.

As a matter of fact, just today I was writing on a fan forum (on a thread specifically for unpopular opinions, funny enough) about how I feel The Empire Strikes Back is a little overrated and The Last Jedi is a little underrated, providing story-driven reasons as to why I think that way (many of the same points I’ve detailed on this blog), and mentioned how I feel that all art is subjective. Then a couple of people replied to me saying that all art is NOT subjective, providing examples such as “Mozart is an objectively better musician than Britney Spears” and “Citizen Kane is an objectively better movie than The Room.” 

Clearly, these people are too dense to realize that they’re basically comparing apples to oranges here. A classical orchestra composer who lived centuries ago has nothing to do with a modern-day pop star, and a movie made by a professional and seasoned filmmaker has nothing to do with a movie made by an amateur who is also likely a runaway criminal. Simply comparing one Star Wars movie to another Star Wars movie, though? That’s allowed…

Another thing these people fail to realize is that using external factors to try to justify their opinions is useless since timing has a lot to do with the success of all this stuff as well. If the original Star Wars came out in 1985, it might have ended up being eclipsed by Back to the Future. And don’t use the excuse “Back to the Future wouldn’t have existed had Star Wars not come first.” Back to the Future (the original, at least) was made on a super small budget. As a matter of fact, it probably had a better chance of getting made than Star Wars did in the pre-1977 world. Similarly, had something like the live-action Transformers been released in 1977, with the same exact special effects that it had in 2007 (stretch your mind here), it would have eclipsed Star Wars just because of the CGI alone.

This applies to other art forms as well. Had Appetite for Destruction been released today, it would NOT be hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time like it is. Instead, tons of copies of it would be burned at ceremonial group bonfires just because the song It’s So Easy has the line “turn around bitch, I got a use for you.” Similarly, had a band like Slipknot existed in the 1960’s, they’d be banned from nearly every venue in existence for being “too satanic.” On the flip side of that, had Greta Van Fleet existed in the mid 1960’s, Led Zeppelin would be considered “the ripoff band” instead (they kind of already were a ripoff band actually, but that's a whole other can of worms). All of these things are dependent on timing, and luck.

Slightly more on topic; comparing Star Wars to the MCU isn’t fair, either. Someone else I was debating with today was saying that if any of the people who made the sequel trilogy had tried to do Kevin Feige’s job of building the MCU, they would’ve fucked it up. And you know what? They’re probably right. But again, what the fuck does one thing have to do with the other? Besides, as great as Feige is, he probably wouldn’t have been able to “pull off” the sequel trilogy either (as I detailed above), and he also didn’t really pull off the MCU perfectly either (as I’ve mentioned elsewhere). And for the record, after I wrote about Marvel the last time, someone clarified for me that most of the flaws in Phases 1 and 2 had more to do with Ike Perlmutter, who apparently is some weirdo that Feige used to have to answer to. I don’t know much about this guy, but from the little about him that I’ve heard, he sounds like a major asshole, so thank fuck he’s gone now!

Anyways, even though the MCU’s “Infinity Saga” consisted of 23 films, absolutely none of those 23 films had to deal with 32 years worth of unrealistic expectations, like all of the Star Wars sequel trilogy films had to. But again, these same people who say the MCU is “objectively perfect” (bar a few exceptions, of course) also say that it’s an “objective fact” that the original Star Wars trilogy is better than the sequel trilogy, even though many of the same complaints people have about the sequels can almost just as easily be applied to the originals too (character regression, retcons, tonal inconsistencies, messy world-building, universe-shrinking, etc.). And again, I couldn’t care less about the fact that the original trilogy is “influential” and retroactively critically-acclaimed (I say “retroactively” cause people forget that both Empire and Return got a lot of bad reviews back in the day). Plenty of bad movies are successful and influential, and plenty of good movies fail to ever reach anyone’s radar. 

And yet, when trying to explain to people over and over again why I don’t think either the original Star Wars trilogy or the MCU are as great as everyone else does, I get hit with the same rebuttals over and over: “They made a lot of money and are critically acclaimed and influential, and they make the fans happy!” Yeah, cause making fans happy is the most important thing, right? Fuck whatever’s probably best for the story at hand itself, right? It’s all about making the “fans” happy! Suuuuure…

Very few of these people actually address things from the story itself (when trying to rebuttal me, at least). So really, the only conclusion I can draw at this point is that most of these people don’t even know anymore why they like the things that they like. They just… Follow along with the norm. Simple as that, really.

And for the record, if you feel personally offended by this, just know that I’m not talking about you specifically (whoever you are). If you fit into the group that I’m describing here (you grew up with the original trilogy, you think Empire and Endgame are the best movies ever made, etc.), I would at least ask that you take a minute to ask yourself WHY you like the things you do, and avoid pointing towards outside factors like statistics and impact and whatnot. Focus on just the story itself. If you can do that, and come up with some solid reasons for liking the things that you like, and you accept that your opinions are yours and my opinions are mine, then you’re all good in my book.

And to be honest, I’m not perfect either. Back in high school and college, I used to state my opinions as if they were facts, and basically told anyone who disagreed with me that they were stupid. And you know what? Sometimes I still do that, even to this day. In my own defense though, it gets exhausting seeing things that I like get endlessly shitted on and unfairly compared to other things that I find to be overrated. But, just for the sake of being fair, I’ll try to make a more conscious effort of emphasizing the fact that my own opinions are nothing more than my own opinions. Cool?

Still, though; I can’t help but wonder why pop-culture nerds in particular seem to be more susceptible than others to this hive-mind/ sphere-of-influence stuff. If I had to guess (and I know I’m generalizing and even stereotyping a bit here), it’s probably because most of these people grew up feeling isolated in some way, hence why they became such big fans of the things that they’re fans of in the first place. It was those very things that gave them a sense of “belonging.” Therefore, conforming to the norm and liking whatever is popular without taking a minute to stop and think WHY they really like something, might just be their way of furthering that sense of belonging. And chances are, most of them are doing this at a subconscious level, without even knowing it.

Once again, if you think you fit this description, then here’s what I have to say to you: Life is pretty fucking lonely sometimes, no matter who you are. At some point or another, you’re gonna have to learn to deal with that in a healthy way. If you want to be with other people (friends, relationship partners, etc.) in a way that isn’t toxic or too dependent, then you’ll need to know how to stand on your own two feet first. Find a hobby that’ll keep you happy no matter what. Pssst: Try writing!

A lot of people skip this step in life, because they’re just so anxious to get to the “belonging” phase. And for the record, I know this applies to all aspects of life, but I definitely seem to notice it among people who, for one reason or another that likely isn’t their fault, grew up with “social weaknesses” (or in oldschool terms; nerds). Deep down, they feel lonely, so they compensate by just following along with whatever the “cool” thing is and putting down anyone who thinks otherwise. In a way, they become the very thing that gave them grief in the first place. Ironic, isn’t it?

The absolute worst example of this are all those clickbait YouTubers who make up obvious lies and just tell people what they want to hear, so that it increases their number of followers and makes them feel like they have attention. I’m sure click revenue plays a factor too, but that’s neither here nor there. I won’t mention any of these people by name, because they don’t deserve any more attention than they already have, but if you’re as a big of a pop culture enthusiast as I am, you probably know the handful of people I’m talking about. If I had to guess, most of them probably had to deal with childhood social anxiety at the most extreme level, and it probably had something to do with their “nerdy” personalities. 

And while I feel bad for all these individuals, at the end of the day, we all need to become adults. But shitting on other people just for having different opinions, and not even having the decency to provide valid reasons for doing so, ain’t a very “adult” thing to do…

Another unrelated but still valid thing: A lot of people also like to say that the most important aspect of a story is whatever the storyteller’s intention was. And while I partially agree, I think the real answer is a little more complicated than that still. For instance, George Lucas likes to claim that he knew all along that Vader would be Luke’s father, and that Leia would be his sister… He’s lying. But even if what he says there is true, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that there’s absolutely nothing in the original 1977 Star Wars to indicate that this is indeed the case. By judging that one movie all on it’s own, there’s nothing at all that thematically communicates the idea that family is as important to the story as Lucas likes to say. 

Conversely, Rian Johnson has already said several times that a lot of the thematic things that people like me enjoy about The Last Jedi are actually just coincidental, and that he wasn’t even thinking about any of that stuff when he wrote it. Those story choices were just what felt natural to him. Nevertheless, when viewing the film entirely on it’s own, and not thinking about the writer’s intentions, or the story’s impact, or anything else, I don’t think anyone can deny that the thematic messages it gets across are stuff like “family legacy, or lack thereof, shouldn’t define you” and “winning the war isn’t as simple as just killing one person” and so on. So again, the creator’s intention, or lack of intention, isn’t what matters. All that matters is how the final product itself comes across, regardless of whatever the creator’s mindset was or wasn’t.

On that note: I’ll also say that, for me, the best films in a series are the ones that stand on their own, yet still fit together with the rest. In my opinion, The Force Awakens has the issue of not doing enough to thematically set up it’s own sequels, whereas many MCU films (not all, to be fair) focus too much on trying to set up other films, to the point where they themselves feel less like actual movies and more like commercials. The Last Jedi did enough to interest me on it’s own, while still leaving me curious to see where things could go, without giving too much away as to what the next film would be about. It seems like a lot of people these days prefer when films have a lot of “forward momentum” and give a clear direction about where everything is heading, and while I enjoy the MCU, I feel like it had a lot to do with conditioning people to think this way. As much as I love WandaVision (it’s easily my favorite thing in the entire MCU now), and am curious about all the future things it’s setting up, I don’t need literally every story ever to work that way now…

Sorry for getting off-track! Just felt the need to get all that stuff towards the end out of my system. Like I said in the beginning, I’m writing without an outline this time… Okay, I’ll shut up now!

Peace!

PS: Mark Hamill is a hypocrite too. He keeps flipping back and forth between saying that he wishes Luke would’ve become a full-blown Sith Lord and saying that he prefers Luke as “a symbol of hope and optimism.” Which one is it, man?

Three Things I Learned From Self-Publishing On Amazon

  So as I’ve mentioned on here before, at the beginning of this year, I finally got around to releasing my debut story collection Little Life Lessons: Fifty-Five Super Short Stories on Amazon. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit through this experience, so I thought it’d be cool to do a quick little post detailing the top three things that I felt were the biggest “lessons learned” here, so to speak. So without further ado, let’s just dive right in:

1. Do Your Research! As Much Research As Possible!!

Shortly after I self-published the book, a friend of mine read it and had some constructive criticism for one of the story entries in particular, “Lost Causes.” Without giving away the ending, the story tells the tale of a teenage boy who wants to become a carpenter, but is pressured towards a more “respectable” direction in life by his strict, elitist father. Furthermore, he’s struggling in school, particularly in math class. My friend pointed out to two things in particular: Carpentry is actually considered to be a respected field of work amongst most people, and strong math skills are usually required to be successful in carpentry.

So basically, I jumped to conclusions here with this story, instead of doing more research like I should have. That being said, I suppose the reader could just assume that the father in story ignorantly considered carpentry to be a waste of time, and that he just simply wanted his son to go to university for something more “book-focused” and less “hands on.” I suppose the reader could also assume that the protagonist lost his motivation to improve in math once his father took the option of carpentry away from him. Nevertheless, I should’ve still done more research on this subject in particular, before finalizing the story. When you’re self-publishing, and not working with an editor of any kind, it’s up to you as the author to fact-check all of these things, and that’s something I’ll definitely make sure to do for my future stories going forward.

2. Format! Format! Format!

No disrespect to Amazon, as I’m thankful to them for even giving me a platform for my books in the first place, but their uploading process sure is tricky! Apparently it used to be worse, so kudos to them for improving it since, but it can definitely still be smoother than it currently is. Every time I tried uploading the document for my book, the previewer would show it all messed up, even when I made sure it was reading the page size correctly and whatnot. Whether I uploaded it as a word doc or a PDF, it would look wrong in the previewer every single time. This would happen over and over for both the paperback upload as well as the Kindle upload. I even had to download an app to help with setting up the Kindle version, and as soon as I downloaded that app, it vanished from my computer (and yes, I made sure to download the right version for my OS). 

Finally, my stupid ass realized (thanks to a point made by my mother, admittedly) that I needed to add page breaks in order to fix the error. Thankfully, this worked. However, as I was converting the stories over to a new document, one entry at a time, and adding page breaks, the format got messed up somehow and I lost all the italics. The reason this is an issue is because, in my old document, I used italics to distinguish characters’ internal monologues from the prose narration. At this point, I was so anxious to just get the book out there after so many failed attempts, that it was only after I had uploaded and published it that I realized I had made this error. Sure, I could go back and fix it now, but by this point a bunch of friends and family members had already ordered their copies, and I didn’t want to make things more confusing for myself and others than they already were. Besides, from what most friends have said, it was still easy for them to tell apart the internal monologues from the narration, even without the italics. Nonetheless, I should’ve still double-checked all of my formatting one last time, which is something I definitely will do now from now on (along with adding page breaks from the very get-go, of course!).

3. Adult Content = No Advertisements

So after I finally got the upload process right, Amazon presented a series of questions I needed to answer before allowing me to hit the “Publish” button. One of these questions was whether or not my book contained any adult content in it. I wasn’t really sure how to answer this at first, because the book itself is a collection of many different short stories that are all pretty different from one another. That being said, as I thought about it more, I recalled that some of the stories, mainly towards the end, were pretty dark and “mature.” One of them was about a sex slave escaping from traffickers, one of them was about someone who was being held hostage in a dungeon… You get the idea. So I decided to answer “Yes” for the “Any adult content here?” question.

…And then, after the book was published, I tried to set up some ads for it on Amazon, only to then find out that any books that were marked as “mature” weren’t allowed to be advertised on the main website, and that once a book was published, it was too late to go back and change that. If I wanted to fix it, I would have had to re-publish the book, and again, I didn’t want to make things more confusing for myself than they already were. A warning on this during the initial publishing process would’ve been nice. To be fair to Amazon, though, maybe there was actually a warning there, and I just missed it. In any case, I’m not really doing any of this stuff for money or attention, so I’m not too bothered by it. 

That being said, I noticed that once my book started to fall further and further down the Bestseller charts, it became more and more difficult to search for it through Amazon’s search engine. Their algorithm is clearly configured in a certain way so that, the higher a book is on the charts, the easier it is to find when typing it in the search bar. The only way to make my book show up near the top of a search now is to type out it’s full name, subtitle and all. And again, I have no problem with this. I just figured it’d be worth mentioning here in case anyone reading this is planning to self-publish something on Amazon for the first time in the hopes of actually making some money.

So there you have it! Those are my biggest lessons learned from publishing on Amazon for the first time. If you’re an aspiring writer like me, hopefully some of this has been useful for you!

Peace!

UPDATE: Also remember to double-check the book dimensions. I already messed that up twice in a row...

How I Really Feel About Pop Culture - Part 4

 DISCLAIMER: For better context, click here for Part 3.

So we’re finally here at the end of my blogposts discussing pop culture as a whole (or as much of it as I can discuss, at least). I’ve decided to save the touchiest subject for last, so let’s just rip the bandaid off here and talk about…

Political Correctness

For awhile, I was debating whether I should even write this or not, since the topic itself is a never-ending, no-win debate. Furthermore, I recognize the fact that I, by no means, am of any authority to try to tell other people how to think. That being said, I eventually came to the realization that the entire pop culture landscape has evolved in a way where we can’t really ignore the political conversations (and debates) that result from it now. So here we go…

I remember back when the cast for Solo: A Star Wars Story was first announced, and all five of the main actors were white except for Donald Glover. This sparked an outrage amongst people on social media, who claimed that the film wasn’t being diverse enough. As a matter of fact, the hashtag “SoloSoWhite” started to trend for a bit. Then, a few weeks later, it was announced that Thandie Newton was joining the cast, and suddenly the conversation online switched over to “This is just Disney trying to shove their forced diversity down our throats!!” This is a microcosm of what basically the entire Internet is like these days, and I especially seem to notice it amongst pop culture fandoms.

And make no mistake; universally-loved things are not immune to this either. While I personally disliked the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, I’m aware of the fact that most other people out there did enjoy it, but even that episode was scrutinized for being “too PC” by people who didn’t like the fact that most of the side characters were female. Someone even said directly to me “I hate how it’s all women. You can tell Disney forced it to be that way.” What’s funny is that, back in the days of the original and prequel trilogies, people complained that Star Wars didn’t have enough female representation. Now all of a sudden it has too much? Personally, I actually enjoyed all of those side characters in the Mando finale (despite my disliking of the episode as a whole), and didn’t mind at all that they were all women. Furthermore, I liked Thandie Newton in Solo. All of these people are great actors, and their race or gender shouldn’t matter one way or the other. Not that I should even have to say it, but I like that all of these franchises are becoming more diverse and representative. The real sad thing is that stuff like this is still being debated in the first place. 

Do I think it’s weird that Thandie wasn’t part of the initial casting announcement? Yeah, a little, but it could’ve just been a timing issue with her contract or something, or maybe they didn’t want to include her in the main casting announcement since her character dies early on in the film. Whatever the case, they announced her involvement shortly thereafter and, at least in my opinion, the movie was good and well-paced and everyone fit their roles pretty much perfectly, regardless of their complexion, or anything else. That’s what matters the most, at the end of the day. Even Glover’s performance, which I originally thought was so-so, has since grown on me a lot. I think any minor gripes I had with some of the acting performances had more to do with the director change mid-filming, rather than anything else. If Emilia Clarke’s comments in interviews are anything to go by, it sounds like the original directing team didn’t really give them enough direction, and the time for reshoots was already limited as is. Shame, but it is what it is.

Either way, I think the lesson to be learned here is that, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, you shouldn’t jump to conclusions until you’ve actually seen the final product. While I definitely side with the left on this particular example, I still feel that some people (not all, but some) jumped to conclusions about the filmmakers being racist, without knowing the big picture. The Thandie Newton thing isn’t the only example of that here actually. Around the time she joined, Michael K. Williams was originally cast as Paul Bettany’s character, but had to drop out once all the sudden reshoots (resulting from the director change) created a conflict in his schedule, so anything that he had filmed had to be reshot with a new actor at the last-minute, and Bettany just happened to be available. Once again, I recognize that I’m of no authority to try to tell anyone how to think. All I’m saying is that, from my own experience, I tend to see a lot of people on both sides who end up being hypocrites and/or extremists. I know people say that horseshoe theory isn’t real, but again, from where I’m standing, it certainly seems real, especially among pop culture fandoms…

That being said, I still see a lot of misogyny in particular in these different fan groups. Remember when Gal Gadot was first cast as Wonder Woman, and everyone complained that she wasn’t muscular enough to play that character? Whereas when Tom Hardy was cast as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises just a few years earlier, people seemed to just brush off any body concerns with a quick comment like “Oh, he’ll just bulk up a bit. No big deal!” Some people also argued that she was purposefully cast so that the movie version of Wonder Woman would look like a skinny model, thus setting an unrealistic example for girls. Oaky, fair, but why should her body type matter one way or the other? Some people are just skinnier than others. Just like how some people are fatter than others or taller than others or shorter than others… You get the idea. People also complained about her limited blockbuster acting experience at the time (she had a minor role in the Fast & Furious films, and that’s about it). This is more understandable, to be fair, and similar complaints were thrown at Michael Keaton and Heath Ledger back when they first joined the DC franchise as well. Funny how all of them are universally loved now, though. The superhero movie genre sure is strange!

There was also the time they did that all-female Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 (which has since been rebranded as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and all four of the lead actors had to deal with online harassment for like a year. That being said, I understand that fans were more upset at the fact that the film was de-canonizing the two classic-era films (both of which have since been re-canonized now), which is understandable, to a degree, though I still feel like people raged way too hard there. So what if Answer the Call didn’t exist in the same continuity as the first two films? You can still go watch those other two films, you know. And for what it’s worth, I thought the movie was okay. As a matter of fact, I actually like it better than Ghostbusters II. At least Answer the Call had the audacity to just be a reboot, instead of pretending like it existed in the same continuity as the original, yet ignoring most of the events from that very film (which is what II did).

And don’t even get me started on the Kelly Marie Tran situation. Even back when I didn’t really like the character all that much, I still felt that a lot of people out there were making racist remarks about her, and then trying to cover it up with “I’m just talking about the character, not the actress.” To be fair, some people in that group did genuinely have complaints that were just about the writing of the character and had nothing to do with race, but not everyone. Then there was also the “Rey is overpowered” stuff, even though Luke was able to blow up an entire Death Star on his first day of flying in space, and Anakin could build C-3PO and win a pod race at age 9 (no, that “chosen one” crap doesn't count). What’s funny is that people who say that stuff about Rey also say crap like “Starkiller from the Force Unleashed games can totally kick Rey’s ass, bro!” Wait, if Rey’s overpowered, than wouldn’t she be able to beat him? Besides, isn’t that the guy who can make entire Star Destroyers explode with his brain or whatever? If anyone is too OP, it’s that guy! 

There was also that time when Hasbro limited the amount of Rey toys sold during the promotional run of The Force Awakens, because they thought only boys play with action figures or some shit. Little did they realize that fucking nobody plays with toys anymore, because kids would rather play with iPads and whatnot now instead. Either way, limiting the Rey figures was wrong from a moral sense, and I’m surprised that, in the age of social media, Hasbro didn’t have the foresight to see the backlash that would result from this. I get that they were concerned about making a return on investment or whatever, but still, you’d think someone there would’ve pointed out the controversy that would cause…

Marvel isn’t safe from this shit either, despite how defensive all their fans are. For instance, Captain Marvel got ripped to shreds. Personally, I thought that movie was just okay too. I loved all the 90’s nostalgia, as well as the basic story premise, and the friendship between Young Nick Fury and Carol Danvers was spot-on. That being said, there were huge chunks of that movie where the dialogue got too “expotiony” for me, thus making those scenes all feel like “dead air,” for lack of a better term. Like the movie “told” me too much without “showing” me enough. The origin of Fury’s missing eye was also weird, but I got over it.

Some people also criticized the fact that the movie was sprinkled with “girl power” symbolism, but this didn’t really bother me. I didn’t interpret it as a “men are the enemy” type of thing, but rather just a “hey, girls are people too” type of thing, which I can respect. A lot of people also take issue with some of the things that Brie Larson herself says in interviews, but I’m not gonna go into too much detail on that here, as that has nothing to do with the movie itself. Personally, I agree with some things she says, and disagree with other things. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that it’s important to separate the art from the artist in pretty much any situation, whether you even like the artist or not. If you really wanna know more about what I think on this, watch this review (starting at around 5:50).

Then there’s the upcoming Black Widow, which is already receiving controversy because one of the female characters calls one of the male characters “fat” in the trailer, and a lot of people interpret this as a “reverse-sexism” form of body shaming. Personally, as a man, I didn’t feel offended by this joke at all, though I recognize the fact that, if the genders were reversed, the conversation about this movie would be way different right now. On one hand, I like that the advocation for gender equality is coming from all directions, instead of just one. But on the other hand, it’s weird to see everyone becoming so sensitive to stuff like this now. I guess we really do have a long way to go still…

And then there’s the whole conversation surrounding “queer-baiting,” with the most recent example of this being the quick lesbian kiss between two minor characters towards the end of The Rise of Skywalker. On one hand, I suppose more representation of any kind is good, even in small doses, but on the other hand, I can see why people are upset that the filmmakers just threw in this little “breadcrumb,” rather than fully embracing the idea of this form of representation with main characters instead. Perhaps the bigger issue is the fact that this quick scene was cut in some international versions of the film in countries that aren’t as “progressive,” so to speak, and Finn in particular was “downsized” (literally and figuratively) in some of the international marketing of all three Star Wars sequel trilogy films as well. Black Panther was also marketed exclusively with his mask on in some foreign markets too. Some may argue that these big studios want to respect other cultures, or whatever, but personally, I wish they would push for more equality with these things all over the globe. Clearly, we have a long way to go here too…

I bet some of you who are reading this right now think that I’m virtue-signaling/ white-knighting, while others of you may think that I’m mansplaining/ whitesplaining/ straightsplaining (I don’t even know what counts as what these days anymore). Either way, go ahead and think whatever you want, but trust me when I say that I expect to gain absolutely nothing out of saying this stuff. To be completely honest, I’m not even sure why I’m writing any of this, since a lot of these controversies died down long ago anyways, and the ones that are still ongoing will eventually die down too. I guess I just felt the need to get these thoughts out of my system, is all. Also, I know I’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to the whole conversation of political correctness, let alone in pop culture. I simply wanted to write about the examples that came immediately to my mind.

And look, it’s okay if you disagree with me on some of the things mentioned above, as long as you’re not a total jerk about it to me, or anyone else for that matter. Are we cool?

Well, that sure was a lot in one post (let alone this entire sub-series)! Thank you, once again, for putting up with all my rambling here.

Peace!

How I Really Feel About Pop Culture - Part 3

 DISCLAIMER: For better context, click here for Part 2.

As promised, today we’re gonna switch gears a bit. Rather than discussing different big film and TV franchises, we will be focusing more so on their general impact on pop culture engagement as a whole.

So, yet again, let’s just drive right in with…

YouTubers

NOTE: I do not know any of these people personally. I am not here to judge who they actually are as people. I am just here to explain how I perceive their public personas, is all.

    We’re just gonna focus on YouTubers who review movies and TV. Let’s start with RedLetterMedia. I used to love everything about them. These days, however, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of their points, though I still appreciate them for coming across as a bit more “honest” than most others. I also like Doug Walker (preferably when he’s not in his Nostalgia Critic character) and his associates like Brad Jones.

Screen Junkies is okay. They used to be a little too “corporate,” but they seem to have become more wholesome these days, and they all seem like cool people (the ones that are still there, that is). There’s one particular former member of this crew I want to discuss in detail, though, and that’s Dan Murrell. There was a point where he suddenly became way too sensitive about people disagreeing with him on things. That being said, I don’t blame him, cause as an outsider, I could tell that what was really going on was that he just didn’t like his job anymore, but was hesitant to leave, which is understandable. It’s hard to leave your job, especially in a field as unpredictable as the entertainment industry. When he did finally announce that he was leaving Screen Junkies to do his own YouTube channel that focused more on movie statistics (which is what he likes the most), I was happy for him, and now it seems like he’s doing much better these days. I think his taste is a little too “oldschool,” but it’s whatever.

And then there’s Collider… AKA the most embarrassing movie-based YouTube channel blunder in history. No wonder almost all of their shows ended up shutting down! The channel may have started off mostly well, back when it was still AMC MovieTalk, but the fact that members kept coming and going and the formats kept changing just shows that they never knew what they wanted to be longterm, and were just chasing trends. Supposedly most of that was because of their owner, Marc Fernandez, which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen videos of his, and he really comes across as a “my way or the highway” type of guy. The real final nail in the coffin of that show though was when Kristian Harloff had that embarrassing temper tantrum on air just because he didn’t get early access to the new Star Wars amusement park. Once I saw that, I knew it was all over. It’s no surprise that John Campea abandoned that organization. It was clear that he wanted Collider to be one thing, and then Fernandez hijacked it and turned it into something else. And for the record, I have mixed feelings about Campea (and same goes for pretty much the rest of the Collider crew). EDIT: Harloff seems to have mellowed out now, so I’ll give him that.

As far as other YouTubers of this kind go; MovieBob is okay, but long-winded. Andre from BlackNerdComedy is cool, as are HelloGreedo, Mr. Sunday Movies and RalphTheMovieMaker, among others. Chris Stuckmann made some mistakes back in the day, with that homophobic rap video and whatnot, but he recently clarified that a lot of that had to do with his troubled past, and he seems to be a lot more mellow now. Jeremy Jahns, like Murrell, is a little too “oldschool” for my taste. There are other YouTubers of this ilk besides the ones mentioned here, but most of them are very “clickbaity” and not really worth talking about. And for the record; I am fine with reactors, as long as they appropriately edit the content they react to so that it’s not stealing and/or get permission from the content owner to react to the full thing.

So, let’s move on to…

Filmmakers, Movie Theaters and the Streaming Wars

So as most of you probably know, Warner Bros. recently announced that they were going to release all of their films for 2021 in theaters and on their new streaming service, HBO Max, on the same day as one another, for one month. Then, each film would run exclusively in theaters for another two months or so, before moving back to HBO Max permanently. Some people saw this as a convenient way of working around the decline of the theater industry that has resulted from the pandemic, while others see it as WB using the pandemic itself as an excuse to boost the subscriptions for their service (which was failing hard before all of this was announced). Personally, I think theaters were already on their way out before the pandemic was even a thing, and all of the delays from other studios are making things crowded as is. So in theory, I think WB made the right call here. That being said, they supposedly made this massive announcement without warning any of their filmmakers or studio partners in advance. I agree with everyone out there that this was a dick move. According to reports, they’re now working out new deals with all their associates and partners, to make sure that they all remain appropriately compensated, so they’re fixing their shit now, at least. But yeah, the way they kicked this all off was moronic, so hopefully they learn from that.

However, many filmmakers are not happy about this. Someone who has voiced their opinion loudly on the matter is acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who went as far as to calling HBO Max “the worst streaming service.” Over the summer, he pushed to get his most recent film, Tenet, released normally in theaters (even banning it from drive-in screenings where indoor theaters were still open). As one would expect, the movie tanked, which has since lead to WB making the move to streaming, as well as to other studios further delaying their films indefinitely. So, by trying to save theaters, Nolan has actually just furthered their destruction. Good job, Chris!

Now look, I still think Nolan is a very innovative filmmaker, and I respect him for mostly sticking to his own original content. I like some of his films and dislike others. But should he really be biting the hand that feeds him here? Sure, most of his movies are still his own original ideas. But who pays for those (expensive) films? Who pays to make his crazy visions a reality? Practical effects and all? Who allowed Tenet to be released normally and even blocked it from most drive-in screenings when Nolan asked them to? Warner Bros., that’s who. Apparently he vows to never work with them again now. Have fun finding another studio that’ll give you everything you want like that ever again, Chris. EDIT: This was before Universal gave him everything and more for Oppenheimer. Also, I didn’t know he made his first film Following for basically no budget at all. I have more respect for him now.

But you know who threw an even bigger and even more unwarranted temper tantrum cause of all of this? Denis Villeneuve. He went as far as to writing an entire hit-piece article against WB. Now, once again, I think he’s very talented and I admire his work, but let’s take a look at what he’s mostly known for: Prisoners (based on a short story), Enemy (based on a book), Arrival (based on a short story), Blade Runner 2049 (a legacy sequel to an old movie he had nothing to do with), and the upcoming Dune (based on a book). Notice a pattern here? This guy doesn’t even make his own shit! Which is fine, if that’s the kind of filmmaker he wants to be, but then what gives him the right to tell WB what to do and what not to do? Hey Denis, you know who pays for the licenses of the stories you adapt? You know who owns the rights to all those characters? Once again; Warner Bros. does! 

Sure, you can disagree with how they suddenly choose to distribute their properties, but in the end, those are still their properties, that they paid for and own the rights to. Was it wrong for them to do it without warning anyone first? Sure, but ultimately, it’s still their shit, and nobody else’s. If people like Nolan and Villeneuve don’t like it, than maybe they should go back to the indie circuit and start getting used to working with low budgets and low paychecks again. I’d like to see them both suddenly agree to less money. EDIT: Turns out I was wrong. WB did not require the rights to Dune. Legendary Pictures did, and WB changed the release plan without warning Legendary. So Denis’ outburst is actually more warranted than I had initially thought. That said, if I were him, I would’ve chosen better rhetoric.

So basically, there are three “tiers” of indoor movie theaters; art-house theaters (for small, low-budget indie movies), multiplexes (the massive theaters you see in malls where all the big blockbusters go), and local “town theaters” (the middle ground where big movies still play, but not on massive screens with surround-sound or anything). If I had to guess, town theaters will go away almost entirely, whereas the other two kinds will become a rare novelty like drive-ins did. Look, I loved going to the movie theater when I was a kid. Actually, some of my happiest memories from that time are my parents picking me up from school to take me to the movie theater (I’m getting emotional just thinking about it right now). But we can’t stop the world from changing. Yes, it’s sad that a lot of people are about to lose their jobs from all this (if they haven’t already), and I wish them all the best. Hopefully enough theaters will still be close by for the people who really still want to go to them…

And who knows! Maybe someday in the future, long after the pandemic ends, things will actually go back to normal. Even if the theater chains of today no longer exist, new ones may appear in their place (it happened before, so it can happen again). If movie theaters are really meant to come back, they will. But for now, the pandemic is still out there, and continuously delaying all of the movies in limbo right now is only going to make the film industry more hectic than it already is. Let’s focus on what’s best for the present, and then worry about the future when it’s time to worry about the future. You may think this won’t be fixable by then, but trust me, it will be. There are things far more unfixable than this…

Speaking of Nolan and Villeneuve, let’s talk about…

Other Filmmakers

I like a lot of the films done by “classic” directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. I’m also a big fan of movies from more recent filmmakers who still have an old school “touch,” like Quentin Tarantino. I also give guys like Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith credit for finding opportunity with minimal resources. Hell, I’m even a fan of super-old silent movies from directors like Charlie Chaplin! That being said, each of these guys have said or done shit I disagree with, but sometimes it’s best to just separate the art from the artist. To be fair, this is easier to do for some than it is for others. For instance, it’s pretty hard for me to ignore the fact that both James Cameron and Joss Whedon come across as major assholes these days, and I think that reflects in their work now too (I’m still a fan of both of their earlier works, though). Then there’s also people that just suck no matter what, like Michael Bay.

Speaking of films I like or dislike, let’s move on to…

Rotten Tomatoes

I used to be obsessed with this website. I’ll admit it; I used to wait to see what the score of a movie was on this site before deciding whether I liked that movie or not. It sounds foolish, in hindsight, but eh, I was a kid! These days, though, I couldn’t give a single fuck about Rotten Tomatoes. Would much rather just think for myself. Besides, it’s not an accurate reflection of the quality of these movies anyways. It takes all the reviews for a film, determines whether each review is “positive” or “negative,” and then compiles a percentage from there. Here’s the problem, though, what about all the “middle of the road” reviews that could go one way or another? I’ve seen plenty of reviews on that site that seem negative to me, but the algorithm labels them as positive, or vice versa. What makes this even more ironic is the fact that most movies are probably “middle of the road” for most people anyways…

What made Rotten Tomatoes even worse was back when they allowed audiences to add their own reviews as well (for a separate “audience score”). The problem here was that, before last year, the site provided no way at all of verifying whether audience reviewers actually saw the movie or not. This lead a lot of films like The Last Jedi and Captain Marvel to being “review bombed” for biased reasons. Thankfully, the site has since implemented a way to verify whether a user has actually seen the film they’re reviewing now, so that part has been resolved, at least. However, what hasn’t been resolved is the fact that most films still use both the critics score as well as the audience score for marketing. I mean, they’re allowed to do whatever they want, I just find this to be kinda snobbish is all, as it reinforces the idea that what Rotten Tomatoes says is gospel, when really everyone should just think for themselves.

Speaking of websites telling you what to believe…

Online “Journalism”

Let me make something clear for you people… If a piece of news is released by the official source where that news is supposed to come from (meaning the movie studio or the official website of a franchise or whatever), then it’s 100% true. Furthermore, if a piece of news is reported by a reputable source that has been establishing connections to the industry for nearly a century (New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, etc.), then it’s 99% true. Lastly, if a piece of news comes from anywhere else (We Got This Covered, Latino Review, ComicBookMovieNews, etc.), then it’s most likely bullshit. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen read some piece of false movie news from sites like We Got This Covered and then go “Oh my god, I can’t believe this is happening!” when it really isn’t. 

Sometimes these sites get things right, but that’s just because they make educated guesses. One time, Fox News reported something that We Got This Covered said, without double-checking their own internal channels to see if it was correct or not. Basically, all I’m saying is this: The next time you hear some entertainment news, trace it back to the very source of the announcement, and do research to see if it’s a reputable source or not. If more people would just take the time to do this, I’d have less headaches when talking to people about movie news…

And last but not least, we can’t close this out without discussing…

The Pandemic Impact

So when a bunch of these big franchises like Marvel and Star Wars were closing out their most recent “sagas” in 2019, many people speculated that we would enter an era of “fatigue,” and that future films from these franchises wouldn’t do well financially, even if their next movies were good. Sadly, thanks to a certain virus, we will never know if that’s true or not, as all the statistics will be skewed on way or another now. This is really a shame for me, cause I was really looking forward to seeing if the “fatigue” theory was true or not. Oh well…

That’s enough for now. Next time, we’ll wrap this whole thing up (I promise)!

Peace!

Click here for Part 4.