#i am however ignoring the implications of the movie characters watching their lives be led

[starstruckodysseys]

btw i am literally always enamored with ify’s roleplaying choices this season !! he keeps setting the bar and it’s so fucking cool to watch

[armorbirdpress]

Armor Bird Reviews: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - A One-And-A-Half-Year Retrospective

If you have been following my writings and ramblings and original works and DeviantArt favorites for long enough, you'll know that I am unashamedly a dinosaur fan - I never outgrew the phase because despite what people have told me both online and off, palaeontology, like other sciences, is not specifically a child's thing - obviously dinosaurs are cool, but there is a lot of technical stuff that you'd need college degrees to understand in the field, too. While I certainly am a stickler for accuracy when it comes to dinosaur portrayals, however, I am also not ashamed to admit that I have a love for fictional portrayals of them as monsters, too. Jurassic Park, which was - for its time - pretty much a reconciliation between the "prehistoric monster" imagery of dinosaurs in popular culture and the latest discoveries about the actual fossil animals during its production, is my favorite movie of all time, partly for this reason and partly because there's a lot of depth and sophistication to it as well - a sophistication that modern movies seem to be utilizing less and less. Even the Jurassic Park franchise itself was not immune to this trend, and although it still remains my top favorite franchise of fictional media, the changing conceit of what audiences want in an entertaining film has dragged it along for as much of a long and bumpy ride as just about everything else Hollywood has to offer. Still, even in spite of it all, there are a lot of things to like about the sequels we got since that groundbreaking original - I'm admittedly one of those people who actually enjoyed Jurassic Park III, though in fairness I was too young upon first watching it to really pick it apart and analyze its numerous flaws, and I also heaped a lot of praise on Jurassic World upon my first review of it... in hindsight, perhaps a little generously. Although I won't pretend that everything since The Lost World (including TLW itself) is flawless and that the complainers are wrong, even the infamously controversial JP3 had some enjoyable moments in its own right, despite being seen by many as the worst installment of the franchise by quite a margin.

Which leads us to the most recent film of the franchise, 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

I had intended to review this movie for a good, long while - back when I was a more prolific writer I used to write film reviews shortly after seeing the movies in the theater, though schedule concerns have obviously made that too difficult. But there's a silver lining here, in that by not reviewing a film I've seen until much later (...well, much, much, much later as the case may be), I have the time to really sit down and think about what made the movie tick or not, and oftentimes have come down from my rush of excitement by the time I actually get off my tail and write the review itself. There are exceptions, of course, with certain films actually leaving me disappointed as soon as I left the building, but these cases are mercifully rare. I'm happy to say that despite being horrendously imperfect, Fallen Kingdom wasn't one of those cases. I was genuinely entertained by it more than 50% of the time - which is, for better or for worse, the highest compliment I can give the film because, as we shall see, in some ways it really is quite terrible.

As always with my movie reviews: SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

I watched Fallen Kingdom twice since its release - first in the theater at my home town, and then on rental DVD - and both times, my impression was the same: this movie, in retrospect, plays out much like a big-budget, cinematic fanfiction of the Jurassic Park films or even of Jurassic World (the latter of which I actually consider darkly hilarious for reasons that are highly specific to me exclusively, which you'd only understand if you know what I've written in the past - I'll get to that shortly). This is perfectly understandable, seeing as the director, screenwriter, and production crew have changed considerably from the team that helmed the original trilogy during the ten-year gap between JP3 and JW. Even if the work is canon, it's essentially someone else taking a look at the original franchise material, picking out what they liked about it, and building an original story off of it, oftentimes borrowing characters from the original work and inserting them in (most notably Rexy, and yes, I consider her as much of a character as the humans she menaced in the original movie). Across the board, in all kinds of franchises, this approach tends to fall flat if you don't know about the original work, though I do have to say that there was one very notable exception in the case of Jurassic World, that climactic fight scene with the Indominus rex, which is my favorite part of the movie even if it isn't entirely perfect. Now, I realize that I'm being a bit of a hypocrite by saying that these films are imperfect, because almost a decade ago, a friend and I co-wrote a megacrossover fanfic where Jurassic Park was the most prominent franchise by quite a margin (and didn't even start out that way to boot - my own selfish preferences caused elements of the franchise to slowly bleed in until a recycled plot of the second and third movies took over the whole thing). What makes it truly embarrassing to me is that the fic didn't even need the series' involvement in the first place, and my choice to shove it in anyway was one of the numerous factors that led to it going completely off the rails and turning into a tremendous tangled mess of clumsy writing and mishandled characterization, not just with JP itself but with almost all of the dozen other continua that got dragged in as well. Obviously, the fact that Fallen Kingdom is restricted by its very nature as a sequel to the one franchise only thankfully precludes the sheer absurdity of what my co-writer and I had inadvertently wrought back then, but upon rewatching the film I couldn't help but notice that in a few ways, it does ironically come off as being quite similar to my own old shame, albeit coincidentally, though it still earns points for choosing to be a Jurassic Park/World film and sticking with that conceit, rather than an entirely different film with JP elements shoehorned into it. I've harped on my stupidity as an immature fanfic writer back in the day for long enough, I think, but I felt this was worth mentioning regardless, because like the fic I touched upon above, this is a work I only started having issues with long after the fact, but these days I can't unsee these issues now that I've considered them.

One of the biggest things that stood out to me regarding Fallen Kingdom was that no matter how you slice it, it was trying to be two films at once, and had less time for both than most would have desired. The first half of the movie concerns Isla Sorna being destroyed by a volcano, and everyone trying to get the dinosaurs off of it before they are rendered extinct once again, with another island being noted as their new sanctuary (though of course, one of the antagonists quickly screws that plan over, but more on that later). You could easily make an entire film out of that - exploring the island one last time, dodging potential threats from both the volcano and the dinosaurs themselves, and coming to terms with the fact that not every creature can be saved, and that the end is coming for everyone eventually. The scene with the Brachiosaurus being overtaken by the eruption, with its plaintive wails and iconic rearing silhouette, is proof that such a moral could make a solid closing for this kind of movie, and heck, you could even have the subplot with the executives hoping to exploit the dinosaurs bleed into the movie until, at the very end, you get a scene where their true intentions with the animals are revealed as a sequel hook, rather than being resolved over the course of like half an hour or so in a rushed manner that gives people too little time to consider the implications. And this brings me to my next point.

Remember what I said about that dumb fanfiction I co-wrote having the elements I personally wanted more than my co-writer did slowly fester in true plot tumor fashion until they took over the entire story like literal cancer? As it turns out, what I witnessed in Fallen Kingdom wasn't quite as ridiculous, but kinda sorta similar in its own way. Obviously, Fallen Kingdom isn't so audacious (or ignorant of copyright laws and plain old common sense for that matter) as to let an entirely different franchise stage a gradual hostile takeover of itself, but the somewhat cliched plot of capitalist exploitation being the absolute worst roommate imaginable with a whole franchise's worth of temporally misplaced creatures that can and will kill you if you look at them funny - already done in both the original movie and TLW, and to some extent in JW as well, but still relatable in our current social climate even after so much repetition - still manages to... well, stage a gradual hostile takeover of the movie, and enforces itself in full force during the remaining third or so of the runtime. The antagonists, a pair of cartoonishly evil and somewhat flat executives, sabotage the plan so that the dinosaurs are diverted to the Lockwood Mansion instead of the sanctuary island, and then things escalate when the prototype Indoraptor is bought in and, inevitably, raises hell for everyone involved. As with my previous pitch, the idea of bidding wars over the dinosaurs and the moral debate over the ownership and exploitation of living creatures - something which does happen in the real world - could have made for something interesting, again, if the script wasn't so rushed. Continuing where the hypothetical sequel hook left off, we could open with a discussion between the villains about the implications of what they are doing, followed by the heroes having to deal with the ramifications of such actions along with the involvement of Dr. Wu, the Indoraptor, and of course Blue as a potential prize-winner. Of course this runs the risk of becoming the original Jurassic Park except on the mainland, and thus not really trying anything new, but it could at least give audiences the time to digest the film and appreciate the moments where it makes a genuine impact, even before the dinosaurs end up getting released into the mainland like what happened in the movie itself, complete with the insane amount of ramifications thereof. The Stygimoloch plowing its way through the bidders on its way to freedom was almost as cathartic for me to watch as the climactic fight in JW, and I wish it could've gotten more screentime, or even plucked up the guts to fend off the Indoraptor in a situation that doesn't seem forced, e.g. the hybrid and the Stiggy getting trapped in the same complex, or even Owen luring it over as backup (which is stupider but, given how he got it to bust him and Claire out in the movie itself, isn't entirely unreasonable). As for the Indoraptor itself, I feel like they could have done a bit better with its design, as even underneath the paint job and altered proportions it's still more or less "Indominus 2: Genetic Boogaloo", as I have called it at least once. Still, it has its own appeal as a monster design and, if it weren't for the presence of similar-looking creatures in previous installments of the series, it would certainly have made an impact as a monster. It's almost wolf-like in movement and mannerisms, even werewolf-like, which is intentional given the vintage horror movie homages the production team was going for. The way it menaces Maisie - who has her own set of plot-related craziness to her, but that's a can of worms I'd rather not open - makes you worry for her life, and even fear for Blue when she engages it in battle. I know I'm one of those who actually prefers antagonistic Velociraptors (the inaccurate variety from the films, not the smaller and fully feathered real-world version which I would absolutely take home with me if I could find a way to retrieve it from Cretaceous Mongolia and have it housetrained and okay I'll stop now), but Blue as always is awesome, and after seeing her actually manage to hold her own in her fight against the Indoraptor if only for a short while, there's no denying that anymore - even if that scene with her outrunning the explosion in the boiler room is a bit over-the-top even by the standards of this movie. There is of course no way a spectacle-driven, plaid-speed-paced romp like Fallen Kingdom could surpass the bar set by The Big One and the legendary kitchen scene, but on its own merits, the Indoraptor is a wonderfully serviceable and formidable threat that I just wish could've gotten more screentime and room to develop as a character, rather than just remaining as an unhinged killing machine that exists just to terrorize everyone before exiting the film (the same is true for all the dinosaurs here besides Blue, really, which is sad because, again, I much prefer when films develop monsters as characters rather than mere plot devices). With a little more design work to make him stand out more among the other critters in the franchise and more time to explore his nature, he could easily have become almost as iconic as The Big One as movie monsters go, or at least as much as the I. rex, though the latter bar is admittedly a good deal lower in the wake of how the movie industry has, ahem, evolved.

With that thought in mind, I will now spell out the biggest problem I had with this movie: the fact that it was trying to do so much in such a short space of time. Humorously and ironically, I know almost enough about the issues with my own writing to recognize the signs of that, with significant events being spaced too close to each other, too many characters at once (though admittedly, Zia and Maisie are a treat to watch, Franklin a bit less so but far from unbearable for my taste), and at least one questionable decision on the part of everyone at some point or another, up to and including the writers. There are a lot of things I liked, but not enough time for me to let them sink in, like I was being bombarded with one spectacle after another. It feels like overkill more than anything, and alas, far too many films in recent years have tried to shove that method into people's faces as though trying to say, "Here's your action, here's your fanservice, here's your whatever the whoopity-freaking-doo you consider entertainment, are you happy now?!" (Well, not quite as vitriolic and sarcastic, but you get the idea.) If the filmmakers and the owners of the franchise rights had been willing to accept four movies in the newer series rather than just three, and let Fallen Kingdom be broken up into two separate, slightly slower-paced movies, the problems with each individual portion would likely not have been as significant, and audiences would not have noticed them so readily. Sadly, though, the rapid-fire, dozen-blockbusters-a-year rush-job environment of the modern movie industry was not kind to this film, which is a crying shame. We need more movies that are more relaxed and subdued half the time, the way the original JP film was, and while audiences may have to take the time to once again get used to movies like that, I think it would be a welcome change of pace from the current influx of chaotic, nonstop slugfests and pyrotechnic displays we've become so familiar with.

In tl;dr form, it is with a heavy heart that I have to say that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is, in fact, the worst film of the entire Jurassic Park franchise, even more so than JP3 - though don't get me wrong, as with JP3, I still very much enjoyed it as its own movie, as clumsily handled as it was at times (though even then, the movie itself isn't entirely at fault for it). There's a difference between a movie being the low point in its franchise and a low point among movies in general, a difference which a lot of reviewers need to understand before taking an undeserved dump over movies that could've been so much better if Hollywood had worked just a bit differently. You have to actually try to make a work of entertainment media I consider genuinely terrible, and it was actually a relief to me that even the lowest points of Fallen Kingdom still ranked somewhat midway between "meh" and "shakes hand eeeeehhhhhh" from my own subjective standpoint. I truly hope that the next and presumably final JP film will turn out for the better, especially given that Alan, Ellie, and Ian are all slated to have major roles in it, but I'm not going to dismiss Fallen Kingdom off the bat just because of the issues I have with its writing. If nothing else, it's a perfectly decent popcorn flick with prehistoric monsters in it - and hey, that was pretty much what everyone was there for, wasn't it?

Grading Scheme:

96 - 100: A+

93 - 96: A

90 - 92.9: A-

87 - 89.9: B+

83 - 86.9: B

80 - 82.9: B-

77 - 79.9: C+

73 - 76.9: C

70 - 72.9: C-

67 - 69.9: D+

60 - 66.9: D

Below 60: E

Grades:

Writing: 6

Characterization: 6

Pacing: 7

Creativity: 8

Consistency: 8

Cinematography: 9

World Building: 7

Music and Sound: 8

Effects: 10

Engagement: 9

Final Grade: 78 (C+)

[violetlunette]

Tropes/Cliches I Hate

So there are a lot of lists stating cliches people hate and this is another one. If you like these, that’s fine, I just get irked when I see them myself and want to rant a little. This isn’t a top ten list, just a list of things I dislike. There won’t be any romance tropes here as they deserve and have their own list. Also, most of these are story telling tropes, so just a heads up. Anyway, let me know what you personally think and tropes you hate and why. Oh, and SPOILERS! Before warned.

Tropes/Cliches I Hate

Too Much Drama/Unearned Drama: My most HATED trope. Don’t get me wrong; I like drama okay, but if it’s over loaded or feels like it was just thrown in for by the writers I get frustrated. Yes I know that writers do that to keep people interested, but can’t they make it feel natural or earned?

I liked “Finding Carter’s” drama; This is a story about a girl who discovers she was kidnapped as a toddler by the woman she called mother all her life and being reunited with her birth family. The drama makes sense and is earned by the whole family; (SPOILERS)

Carter’s whole world is turned upside down so her attitude, while mean at times is understandable.

Taylor has spent her whole life terrified of disappearing like her sister and has had her fear fed by her parents, so has lived a sheltered life.

Their mom lost a kid which has affected her marriage so she started to sleep with her partner and was even planning to leave, however when she found Carter she didn’t want to break her family again. Hell, even the drama with the villain is understandable as Carter and Taylor came from her eggs/she was a surrogate mom who was sleeping with the father at the time. You can see why she might think the twins were hers and that she had a right to take one. This is great drama and I would have loved it, but then they had to give the side characters the angstiest backstories they could which distracts from the family at times and felt unneeded.

And I know; that what drama are about. Angst central, I know, but that’s why I don’t watch a lot of drama. At the very least I want it to be earned an in character or story.

The fifth book of Harry Potter did this fairly well as all the drama came from the characters and their actions. Sirius died due to Harry’s impulsive actions and Dumbledore want to keep Harry in the dark to “protect him.” And the drama hits all the harder because it’s something that could happen in real life (minus the magic stuff.).

A bad example is Gilmore Girls where they force the character April in with a bunch of random drama just to keep Luke and Lorelei apart. There was a legitimate way to put off the wedding; have Luke be afraid of rushing things and feeling like he’s the one who has to make all the compromises and give up things and he runs away for awhile. Hell, they could have kept the plot line of her jumping into bed with Christopher because as terrible as that was it was still a very Lorelei thing to do. But the plot with April and everything after? UNNEEDED AND UNWANTED.

We’re not together, but I’m Pregnant/The Baby Plot: Okay, I love babies—when I don’t have to change them or be woken up at 3:00 in the morning. They’re soft, cute, adorable, and squishy! However in TV the baby is usually born to a “will they won’t they” couple as a way to force them together when the writers made the audience believe they were separating them or for drama. News flash writers; if the only way you can keep a couple together is to throw a baby in the mix, then just give up on the pair!

Babies are used for like one arc to cause drama, then are tossed to the side with maybe a passing mention so it’s like what’s the point?

It’s a cheap way to keep a couple together. A child should NOT be a plot deceive to keep a couple together or create drama. Ross and Rachel were the worse along with Belle and Rumple; Ross and Rachel had fallen into a slump and the audience were starting to move on and look at other options for them so the writers thought they could yank us back by revealing they had sex and Rachel was pregnant. All this led to was the same slapstick they went through when they were together before and they never worked through the issues they had before, mainly that they were jealous, possessive, and vindictive except now they had a BABY.

With the Rumbelle the writers couldn’t decide what the hell they wanted with Rumple (did they want him to be evil or a hero), but knew his actions were pushing Belle (and the fans) away. So what did they do? Threw a baby into the mix with a whole contrived plot that was just—what? I mean, it COULD have worked, but not the way the writers did it.

Writers, people; IT IS NEVER A CHILD’S JOB TO FIX A COUPLE. A baby is not a plot device they are people and deserve more respect than they get. If a couple can’t stay together by themselves, then a baby is not going to help. All it does is trap two people and why would want a couple that’s forced together that way?

“We’re trying to protect ya so we ain’t telling ya shit” and Bad communication skills: How many problems in stories could be solved if two people just sat down and talked instead of keeping secrets. Like “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” If Dumbledore had told Harry that Voldemort could get into his head and could hurt people Sirius might be alive. And in a couple? I don’t need to list an example. You’re already thinking of a moment where a couple got into a fight because they didn’t just sit down and talk.

That being said I do like this trope as a potential reason for a hero being ignorant of their past at the beginning of a series as I like the hero from a muggle world. At the very least I want the person keeping the secrets to be called out on it.

Insane maniac pixie girl: This a low one as there are some I like, however I feel this character is over done lately and honestly I can only take so much of the personality. They’re always so loud, screaming all the time, squeaky, and have no sense of personal space. I mean, I like Webby and Mabel, but even then I can only take so much squealing. (I dunno, maybe I have sensitive ears.)

I’m not dead!: Disney gets away with this because the brought backs happen towards the end of the film and isn’t done time and again in the same movie. Compare to the Dragon Ball series were death is like a mosquito bite. Why should I care if they get hurt or the world dies? Just wish them back and everything is fine! Seriously, is anyone who watches DBZ concerned when a character gets hurt or dies still? It’s a cheap trick that feels like a “ha! Fooled you!” moment.

High school drama / Skewd Priorities: Okay when I say high school drama I mean focusing on a school dance when the world is at stake or worrying about whether or not a boy likes you when a murder is on the loose, or focusing on school junk when we as the readers want tto focus on the fantasy elements. This is mostly in YA dealing with kids, so some of this is understandable, but even so it’s not fun to read and even teenagers hate being portrayed like this (at least the one or two I know). When I  was teenager I liked the prom and stuff for quiet moments in stories, but NOT when there was a villain loose or danger was coming. Whenever that popped up I was like, ‘bitch wtf is wrong with you! Who cares about a zit when you have super magical powers.’ When I read a fantasy I want to focus on the fantasy elements, not school! School is boring.

Too Easily Forgiven: Forgiveness is wonderful thing, however it should be earned and you know some things can’t and shouldn’t be forgiven. For me it’s murder. Now if it’s between two warriors in a fight that’s one thing, but hurting or killing innocent civilians? No. No, no. Or hey, what if a person has been horribly bullying you or making your life miserable? Do you have to forgive, fuck no. Now I’m not saying you should seek revenge, but I’d rather they just choose that they don’t want to be angry and anymore and decide to move on.

Forgiveness should be earned when they’ve truly hurt someone and even if they feel remorseful, characters still have the right to be angry when they’ve been hurt or had someone they love taken from them.

All humans /muggles are bastards / idiots: Yeah, humans are assholes. We get it. No one knows how bad humans are than other humans, but you know what? Humans have done amazing things to conquer natural selection and the fact that other humans is humanity’s greatest enemy shows just how powerful the human race is. And not everyone wants to blow up shit, some of us work VERY hard to help and save everything we can and the rest are just trying to live our lives without hurting anyone. We may not be top dog, but we’re not bottom of the barrel either. And why should other races get put on pedestal as the woobie race or holier than thou? That doesn’t make them more interesting it just makes them annoying. I see this trope in almost every fantasy, can’t we switch it up a little?

magical speciesism / the blood must remain pure: Ignoring the real life implications this trope’s just been over done. Can’t we turn this around and have it that cross breeding between a magical and a human is considered the norm or a good thing? Switch it up a bit?

Ron the death Eater and Draco in Leather pants: This annoying enough in the fandom where we like to exaggerate and things we like and dislike, but in the actual show it’s insulting to the character AND the fans. If there’s something wrong with the character then the writers should make an arc to improve them, not drag the character through the mud.

On the other end if a character is an asshole you can’t just make them a hero suddenly and expect the audience to buy it. The characters have to earn their redemption.

And those are ten tropes I hate. How about you guys? What’s your thoughts? Do you hate them or am I alone? And what do guys hate to see in stories?

[kashif1550]

Post 3 - Multicultural America

1.What is the subject of your film, program, or internet/social media selection? Provide a brief summary, describing your selection and how it relates to our course topics, readings, and screenings.

For the site I picked, I used the root dot com because I wanted to find a way to discuss white-passing and also how it’s changing. Initially, I was going to do that by introducing the 1950s movie, Imitation of Life, for my post about films. Both the remake and original, though, give off a white person’s narration of what it’s like to be a white-passing individual, similar to how Gone with the wind is a white supremacist view of how slavery in the south was like. 

(The way the slaves were depicted is far from reality, making it uncomfortable to watch at times when they portray the mammy character.)

In short, it sugar-coats the trauma, glossing over the true pains that black people faced when navigating their world—and for that reason, I avoided it. 

Before I dive into the article about white passing, let us review what “passing” is first. Passing can be used in more ways than just race. For someone to pass, it means to be perceived as something they aren’t. When it comes to the topic of race, white passing is when someone passes as white, but in actuality have a mixed-race background. Throughout US history, African Americans have passed as white as a means of survival, understanding that there life would be at risk if the truth was told about their parent’s racial background. Society was closed off for non-whites; the best schools, best towns, best jobs were in the segregated white side of town. 

For someone of mixed-race heritage to venture into those areas safely, they would have to embrace only one side and play into the image of what they wanted others to see when they looked at them. Because, at the end of the day, the system of how race operates is based on perception.

Still, to this day, people have to put up an inaccurate front, maybe even lie about their real name, to secure a job. Race-based implicate bias in workplaces has led to research being brought to the public’s attention due to how serious the issue has gotten throughout the years. 

Looking at a study conducted by Princeton professors, Paul von Zielbauer, of New York Times, discusses how race plays a big factor—despite having problems with law enforcement. White men with a criminal conviction get just as much, if not more, job offers than an African-American man with nothing on his record.

“White men with prison records receive far more offers for entry-level jobs in New York City than black men with identical records, and are offered jobs just as often—if not more so—than black men who have never been arrested, according to a new study by two Princeton professors.” (Zielbauer, 2005) 

Decades past The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by MLK Jr., African American men are still hindered at entry-level jobs. People tend to push the blame on minorities, stating that the problem lies that, however, that can’t be the case when the entire system of race was built on injustice. The system cannot be deemed broke if it is doing what it was meant to do, discourage darker skinned people from providing for themselves and achieving upward mobility. 

And that, sadly, leads us to why white-passing was so prevalent after slavery and into the 20th century. It was not because these individuals wanted to, but because they had to. Connecting this back to the reading, I think back to Peggy Mclntosh’s piece on white privilege. 

She says, “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cash in each day, but about what I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes tools, and blank checks. Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable.” (Mclntosh, 1989) 

As Mclntosh stated, white privilege is ‘unearned assets’ given to you on the bases of your skin, not your skills. Continuously, we see people try and paint minorities as the ones that caused this curse of bad fortune, dismissing the existence of white privilege entirely in the process. Even more childish than that, people demand the end of affirmative actions as though the playing field has been set leveled for everyone. It isn’t, and to say it has is a clear slap to the face of every disadvantaged black and brown person who lives in this country. 

2. Referring to related and appropriate readings and screenings from the course, describe how your selection represents racial and ethnic identities (and if applicable, intersectionality). In what ways does your selection for each of the journal entries generate a conversation regarding race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity?

The way my selection has represented racial identity is through the lens of the one-drop rule. Through Henry Louis Gates Jr. article titled “How Many ‘White’ People Are Passing?’ he discusses how the roles are beginning to show what was the aftermath of the one-drop rule. 

When talking about the fallout of such a law, it iscreated a precedence of people ignoring the existence of their white parent in order to box that person in to a ‘colored only’ section. For the piece I picked, it creates a conversation by questioning about how often that rule wasn’t used and how it created an unneeded divided. 

“‘Bryc found that about 4 percent of whites have at least 1 percent or more of African ancestry […] “the percentage indicates that an individual with at least 1 percent African ancestry had an African ancestor within the last six generations, or in the last 200 years. This data also suggests that individuals with mixed parentage at some point were absorbed into the white population,’ which is a very polite way of saying that they ‘passed.’” (Gates, 2011)

However, when you compare that to African Americans, the percentage is far more staggering, showing that people who looked “white enough” wasn’t always the case for mixed-race people. Shockingly enough, it is stated that: “research shows that the average African American has a whopping 24 percent of European ancestry.” (Gates, 2011)

24?! That’s means, unlike with white people, African American’s bloodline had someone fully white not as far back. Many people of mixed-race background submerged themselves in to the African American community, as well as the obvious underlining effects of sexual assault of enslaved black women. The article gets even more interesting when they dive into where the hidden ancestry might show up more, showing that whites living in the south had a higher chance of having unknown African DNA. 

“In South Carolina at least 13 percent of self-identified whites have 1 percent or more African ancestry, while in Louisiana the number is a little more than 12 percent. In Georgia and Alabama the number is about 9 percent. The differences perhaps point to different social and cultural histories within the south.” (Gates, 2011) 

It begs to ask the question how many people are unaware of their own identity due to the fear of the past, having grandparents who lied about their linage in order to get a better life for their offspring. 

3.How does your selection relate to the course readings, screenings and discussions?  Reflect upon the representation and circulation of racial and ethnic identities in popular visual culture. Your reflections should be attentive to the intersectionalities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic class and gender.

When it comes to the popular visual culture and “white passing” the stories are definitely there. At the turn of the century, literature had a bit of an obsession of the concept of “passing” as white. The novel like “Passing”, “Imitation of Life” and other tales followed ambiguous African-Americans. The novel “Invisible Man” was less about running between the lines of white and black, but rather a social commentary about a fictional scenario of an ambiguous African American man who drifts between two worlds, unnoticed as an onlooker, and discussing economical and political tensions that are rising.

Overall, when we thinking of “passing” individuals in the media, we notice that many sided with their white side to secure roles. For Broadway star, Carol Channing, she did not even claim her black ancestry until 2002 - at the age of 80. Before that point, she only identified as of European descent. Having been shielded from her own identity till the age of 16, it wasn’t a surprise that Channing had a lot of unsettling ignorance resided about her own heritage, making cringeworthy comments.

When she was told that her father was partly black from her grandfather, she said: “I know it's true the moment I sing and dance. I'm proud as can be of [my black ancestry]. It's one of the great strains in show business. I'm so grateful. My father was a very dignified man and as white as I am. My [paternal] grandparents were Nordic German, so apparently I [too] took after them [in appearance]” (Chicago Tribune, 2003)

I feel uncomfortable now even looking at her say that being black was “one of the great strains in show business.” Her comments were distasteful, dismissing how slaves were forced to perform in front of their masters and how that led into subcultures of new music like blues and country. She chalked up all of her talent to her black grandfather and her white looks to her white ancestors. If only she knew that wasn’t how genetics work. Perhaps, if the divide placed on mixed-race people wasn’t so strenuous, we wouldn’t have cases of ignorance like this.

For the most part, the media has mainly shown the stories of mixed raced women, not showing the struggle of mixed-race men who have to choose if they’d “pass” as only one race. As I stated before, “Invisible man” isn’t really about passing because his own race wasn’t up for debate, but rather what he saw due to his ambiguousness. 

There’s many reasons as to why women were the main focus when talking about “passing.” However, it becomes obviously clear in the film Imitation of Life, writing the mixed-race girl off as a trickster for being something she wasn’t. In a sense, Hollywoods take on “passing” women was that they were deceptive, completely disregarding the essential need of passing as white. Sadly, in Imitation of Life, the mixed-race girl is beaten to a pulp after her white date finds out she’s mixed with black.  

Sources:

Zielbauer, Paul von 2005

    “Race a Factor in Job Offers for Ex-Convicts”

      New York Times, July, 17, 2005

 Mclntosh, Peggy 1989

      “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

Gates, Louis Henry

    “How Many ‘White’ People Are Passing?”    

https://www.theroot.com/how-many-white-people-are-passing-1790874972

Rusoff, Jane

    “At 82, Channing still in step” Chicago Tribune 

[somanysoundtracks]

“Justice League” thoughts

It’s all right. It’s better than “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman”, but those are admittedly low bars. It is not better than “Wonder Woman”. Spoilage below because... well... there’s a thing that’s not REALLY a spoiler but it really sort of is and it’s hard to talk about a good chunk of the film without talking about it?

The Plot: It felt like the film was split into three major acts: set-up, gathering the team/Superman, and the final battle. The third act is where most of the good stuff at least feels like it is. Like I felt genuinely entertained by that point. The best parts are where everyone is gathered together, rather than the solo moments, or even the one on one moments, by and large... at least the ones where Batman is one of the one on ones. And it’s not really Ben Affleck’s fault (unless he was creatively involved there), although his delivery at times felt a bit... wooden? All the actors did a pretty great job in this film. I think they just had bad dialogue. And if you can sell me on the ‘these people work well as a team and I like watching them be a team’, I think the goal of the ‘team movie’ has been accomplished. I came out of this movie thinking ‘okay, I would like to see these characters do more things together’. That is not how I came out of “Man of Steel” or “Batman v Superman”.

Just add more women to the team. Seriously.

My best synopsis of the film is that it is riddled with relatively tiny plot holes, but overall works as a team building story. The problem is when you look at the plot holes. For instance: a big place this story falls apart is the ‘Superman was so awesome and now the world is mourning him and his death makes everything bad now.’ We did get to see some slomo Supes saving people in BvS, but it still felt like the movie was telling more than showing us that Supes was some kind of messiah whom everyone most a lot of people loved, and there really was no reckoning for all the terrible stuff that happened in “Man of Steel” to offset that. So the people REALLY loving Supes: ...sure, okay, we’ll let that one pass for now. Lots of people mourning him. Okay, sure. One follows the other.

It’s the ‘Superman is dead and now everything is bad as a result’ thing that really brings this train to a halt. There’s a montage of ‘bad stuff happening’ and the only part I remember is what is very likely supposed to be a hate crime, with the implication/narration that this is another example of ‘What happens now that Superman isn’t here’. And it’s like... no. Uh... that’s racism. Like, Superman did not end crime. I don’t recall one point in “Man of Steel” or BvS where he was giving any talks on tolerance or teaching classes on cross-cultural relationships or dealing with America’s prison overpopulation issues or hunger or poverty or gang warfare or attempted genocides or sex trafficking or corrupt government officials in America or very many other forms of crime. Saying ‘we live in a more violent/angry/dangerous world’ is meaningless without anything to compare it to. When this continuity’s Superman was alive, the world was not so improved that his absence suddenly meant that things were a heck of a lot worse. Are they at least somewhat worse? Sure. Superman did stuff when he was around. Is it doomsday now that he’s gone? No.

This wouldn’t be such a problem if another plot thread that probably got dropped was that the/a mother box(?) activated when Superman died. I believe that Steppenwolf calls Superman ‘Kryptonian’ during the end battle. Putting aside the fact that this makes no sense because Steppenwolf hasn’t been on Earth in around 5000 years and therefore should have no idea who or what Superman is and Superman’s powers are because he’s on Earth, so Steppenwolf has no reason to believe that this is how Kryptonians who have never been on Earth or exposed to a yellow sun are so how he knows Superman is Kryptonian unless he’s very familiar with Kryptonian symbology is... ennn. My point is: why would the Mother Box know or care that Superman is gone? The world was not a paradise with Superman in it. It is not a hellscape without Superman. I get that you need to answer the question of why the magic creation boxes activated now rather than any other time, but ‘Because Superman is dead’ is a really stupid reason and is never explained. You just have to believe that Superman is so important that the Mother Boxes only activated when he was dead. I guess.

I mean you could have had them activate because Cyborg’s dad was using one of them to experiment and save his son’s life, which used their creative powers and had it send a signal to the other two. Just sayin. I’m not sure why they summoned Steppenwolf, if that’s what happened. I’m not sure what he’s doing or where he’s hanging out when the Mother Box on Themyscira activates. Maybe he’s just floating in space in his giant spaceship with his fleet? A better creative team might have had Steppenwolf on some dung detail mission assigned by Darkseid as part of his 5000-year punishment for getting kicked off of Earth when they detect the Mother Box activation, then teleport to the spot to deal with it. Although if Steppenwolf knows where Earth is, and he had access to his army, and a teleportation device (which is apparently not the Mother Box now)... why didn’t he just go back to Earth to look for the Mother Boxes 5000 years ago (or however long ago)? Has he been spending all that time recovering? I mean the idea of him being on some low-level detail and detecting the activation still sort of works, if that’s the case, but I don’t understand why Darkseid didn’t come in with more forces to take over the Earth himself where Steppenwolf failed all those centuries ago. Or send one of his other lackeys. The point is: Steppenwolf + army of parademons failing to take Earth over and the Mother Boxes being taken doesn’t seem like enough to stop Apokalips from trying again (particularly if the magic world-destruction/domination boxes were lost/taken). Or a couple more times. That was just one of Apokalips’ warriors and one army. They’re a whole planet of fighters, who basically just like fighting and conquering.

Why does Steppenwolf call Earth ‘home’? He wasn’t born there. He never lived there, as far as I can tell, although he seems to have led a war campaign there some time ago? He doesn’t even want to stay there and wants to go back to Apokalips, which sounds far more like a ‘home’ he misses than Earth.

A better plot might have been that a coalition of Earth’s fighters fought back against Steppenwolf’s invasion, kicking them off of Earth, and that coalition was so powerful that Steppenwolf and Darkseid and everyone else decided to just go focus on New Genesis or somewhere else for the time being. However, one of Steppenwolf’s soldiers maybe leaves behind a Mother Box on accident. Which gets discovered centuries later and used by Dr. Stone to help his son. The newly activated Mother Box scans its environment and sends a distress signal to the nearest Apokalips ship - which happens to be one of Steppenwolf’s fleet ships. Steppenwolf reads the data from the Mother Box, and notes that the Earth is even more pathetic than it used to be. It’s no longer an Age of Heroes, but an age of infighting and weakness, and one of their best champions was just killed. Maybe it’s time to go back and give it another shot. Maybe he asks Darkseid for another chance to take it over. Maybe he just goes on his own volition. So he shows up, maybe fights and overpowers the Amazons and the Atlanteans, and thinks ‘Yeah, this is way easier. I’m finishing what I started.’

BUT ANYWAY... hey, remember that bonfire that Hippolyta set? That Diana had to learn about on television at least several hours after it was set? I get it, Hippolyta knows next to nothing about the outside world, still. But why is she so sure that Diana would see it? Because she just... believes? Because the gods would make sure? Why not just ask one of the gods to deliver a message to Diana –cough-Hermes-cough-? For that matter, why does the bonfire signal ‘invasion’? Who were they signaling beforehand for ‘invasion’? Shouldn’t it just mean ‘trouble’, ‘send help’? Did Diana let the Amazons know that she dealt with the problem post-the climax? Or are the Amazons still like GEE I SURE HOPE THAT LITTLE OLD INVASION ISSUE GOT DEALT WITH! Maybe one of the gods popped by to say ‘Hello! So, this team dealt with Steppenwolf and now he’s not an issue :D’ Yeah the gods are like... mostly dead or something but... I just kept wondering. Plus, the gods might be gone or just not talking, btu surely some of their servants stuck around? No one’s got a pair of flying sandals or magic parchment or something to send to Diana saying YO, THE EVIL MAGIC BOX TURNED ON AND A GIANT CGI DUDE SHOWED UP WITH AN INVADING PARADEMON ARMY? No? Okay.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman...

Oh, right I need to say something, don’t I. I mean he was great. He was funny. And... very pretty. Like, this is underwater royalty? Heck yeah, I believe that. He’s got the muscles and the charisma and attitude to prove it. It also really reminded me of “Stargate: Atlantis”. He really channeled his old Ronan Dex. Sigh. Am I ever forgetting almost every single piece of coverage for him as Aquaman ignoring that time he was literally on a show called “Stargate: Atlantis” for four seasons where he played one of the main cast members and had far more lines and screentime than he did on certain other shows about thrones? No. Not yet.

There was a mini plothole where Aquaman saves a sailor during a bad storm and finds some weird green substance on his hands afterward. We never learn if this is blood or related to the parademons or something. He just goes back to Atlantis for no apparent reason. I thought he was going to ask about the green stuff but that didn’t happen. Or investigate the ship. Or something. I also really liked Mera. Her powers were cool. I wish she more involved in the film. I would really like to see an Aquaman-centered film, now, though. Mera’s boobhole costume was stupid. But, well. I really liked the other Atlantian armor, though.

Wonder Woman was great. She had a lot of badass moments (except for that shot of her standing on a statue in platform heels… sigh…). Except for her introduction, which was a cool fight scene and her saving people, she spent a lot of time trying to talk through problems and help the team come together. Although that disappeared when Clark was revived and I kept thinking ‘So Diana, you going to start telling him what happened, or explain what’s going on? Maybe say that Martha and Lois are safe and the world needs him and everything’s going to be fine? No? Just gonna stand there with three weirdly-dressed strangers and stare at him while he’s shirtless. All right then.’ I also liked the Amazons by and large (except for the stupid costumes). The scene where they were on horseback with the Mother Box was pretty badass. Also, remember that time Cyborg was talking to Diana via computer and Diana was like ‘If wanted to attack you, I would have done it at the lake’ and I was just like yeeeeeeeeees.

(Photoshop by @jarmainedesign of a panel from “Trinity #6″ by Francis Manapul)

Ezra Miller was great. I really liked Flash’s story. Yeah, he had a lot of quippy, sometimes overly awkward dialogue, but he was funny. He was fun to watch. You really wanted him to succeed. And his interactions with his dad were very good. I like that he was trying to make friends with everyone. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton to say about him... He actually has one of the only one-on-one with Batman moments I like, which is when they first fight Steppenwolf. “Just save one”. That was a really nice little scene there. Clark spotting Barry while he was running was... so creepy. And so drawn out. I kept thinking RUN BARRY RUN! I’m not really a fan of all the slomo, but I feel like it was used well during that scene (save for Clark’s creepy eye tricks), because you were really invested in the outcome and Barry surviving it.

Total tangent, but I find it oddly comical that no one has repaired the Superman statue yet. All these giant Superman memorials and naw, we’re just gonna leave his severed head on the ground. Cause.

Ray Fisher was great. He sold the role. I loved every scene he was in. I really would have loved more of him, and I like that Diana and Barry were Cyborg’s stronger connections. The design of his whole metal body was a bit odd. I’m used to the “Teen Titans” cartoon version, where he’s bulkier, not the sort of odd-looking CGI metal skeleton. Every time he wasn’t in a sweatshirt and sweatpants was a bit eh for a bit until other heroes showed up so his CGI wasn’t so cringy.

Also I’m not sure why Barry and Victor were assigned literal graveyard detail. What was Diana doing? What was Aquaman doing? Bruce is literally just sitting on somewhere, I guess investigating. It was a nice one-on-one friendship forming moment, but... really? The two college/high school(?) heroes? You assign them to unbury a body?

By and large I liked Superman. Henry Cavill was great, probably because this time around he wasn’t giving overly dramatic monologues or dealing with overly dramatized issues. Mostly he was just fighting or interacting with lots of people, or saving people, which worked. I was prepared for the badly CGI’d mustache. It actually wasn’t that big of a deal. There are only like... 2-3 scenes where it’s sort of an issue? But they’re not THAT long. This Superman cracked jokes that weren’t really problematic (although the ‘okay I’d rather be dead’ one was... eh...) and felt... like Superman. Even if he did have a tendency to randomly go and deal with other things at the worst times. (Although where did Lois find that shirt when they went back to the house? They didn’t have a car and presumably Martha took all the stuff with her when she left. And the house hasn’t been sold yet, so… Also, do those cops know Clark’s secret identity now? Admittedly they’d have to know who Lois Lane is or do a really solid Google search for ‘Clark’ but…)

And now we come back to the ‘Superman dying is why things are so bad now’ problem because... Batman. The reason for Bats starting a fight with Supes in BvS is really stupid. And yeah, maybe Bruce in this continuity did make Superman a lot weaker during the Doomsday fight because of that stupid fight they had beforehand. But in no way, shape, or form, did Bruce bring about Supes’ death. Some guilt getting in the way of that makes sense because... Bruce. But... not to the extent it does in the film. This is why the scene where Diana calls out Bruce’s guilt complex re: Superman dying didn’t really work for me. It felt like a long time running around the point that Bruce eventually gets to, which boils down to: we’re facing an opponent we haven’t been able to defeat. Superman could really help us defeat this opponent, and that is why we need to bring him back. Dealing with Bruce’s guilt is a secondary concern. A better scene would have been ‘hey, we need more people, and we could bring Superman back. Why not do that to help deal with Steppenwolf’ and Diana stepping in quietly and saying, ‘This is ridiculous. And you need to tell me that this crazy scheme isn’t just you feeling guilty for killing him.’ Or her just stepping aside and saying ‘It’s good to bring him back to help, but Bruce… how are you dealing with things, emotionally?’ (I don’t know, I’m not a script writer paid by Warner Bros. and DC). It would keep up this weird dramatic tension they had without being kind of random.

I also don’t understand how Batman knew that the parademons fed on fear at the beginning of the film. Spinning off of that... why do the parademons explode when caught? And why do they leave burn marks of three squares to refer to the Mother Boxes? Did Steppenwolf’s power come from the Mother Boxes? Is that some sort of signature? Why is there a mural of the mother boxes in a random shack in some random fishing village somewhere? Wouldn’t that make the fisherfolk a target?

This is probably the most trusting version of Bruce Wayne I have ever seen. He is very casual about sharing his secret identity, to the point where he doesn’t give a shit if Aquaman calls him ‘Batman’ while wandering through a relatively busy town (maybe they have no Internet/phone service there). He reveals himself to Barry, brings everyone back to his batcave... isn’t bothered that Cyborg can hack into his system...

The fight in the sewer was pretty good. The group wandering around, helping each other, Cyborg taking over the Nightcrawler… That was all good. What happened to Barry’s leg after the fight in the Gotham sewer? He’s injured. We see it. He shouts in pain. It doesn’t look good. I thought we were going to get some mini plot thread about him turning into a parademon or something, or Bruce and Diana fussing over him or… I don’t know. But the next time we see him after this, he’s fine. There’s no mention of it. Even him saying ‘I heal fast’ or ‘I guess that wasn’t poisonous’ would work. Nope. We don’t even see him repairing his costume. Or Alfred or Bruce or Cyborg repairing his costume. And how did Aquaman know to show up there? Understanding water and all that is one thing, but there’s a lot of water on the planet. He seems to not know all that much about Batman, let alone anyone else on the team, so him guessing that Bruce would be in Gotham, somewhere, at that particular time, particularly in that particular spot, seems a bit much. I suppose he might have somehow managed to track Steppenwolf. But we never get that explanation. Yeah, it’s badass that he showed up to help… a little… at that moment, and then joined the team, but… why? Also he didn’t seem to be doing much. Like the water was held back slightly, but not all that much? I mean it looked cool but just seemed ineffective.

So between the time Steppenwolf teleports away from Metropolis with the Mother Box to the time the team locates and then arrives on scene… Steppenwolf really didn’t just… finish Armageddon? Really? Unity didn’t just… happen? How long did it take him to teleport to that random village, plug the third box in, and start the process? We also never see Steppenwolf turn people into parademons. None of the Amazons in the beginning of the invasion. None of the Atlantians. None of the people he captures for questioning. None of the people in that village he was occupying. Nope. Not that I wanted it. The film just made a sort of big deal about where parademons come from and then… nothing ever came of it? I think maybe the story we got about the parademons was between so many hands that none of them ultimately every agreed about it. Because they apparently form from really terrified enemies of Steppenwolf, but then they for whatever reason, with no apparent signal, explode, and leave burn marks in the shape of three boxes. Why? Who knows.

The end fight was pretty good. It was enjoyable to watch. Seeing everyone come together was cool. I’m not sure why everyone was talking about moving quickly when they arrived on scene, and then they just watched Batman go, and kept watching and not doing anything, even just like… going after Steppenwolf and the Unity. But whatever. I could definitely watch Aquaman skysurfing a parademon more often. That was cool. Superman showing up was good (although that Alfred scene in the trailer was cut), but it was really weird when he randomly disappeared to go help the escapees. I’m conflicted on that because it’s one of the few moments in the film outside of Diana’s introduction and the sewer fight where the heroes worry about civilians. And I like that they are worried about actually saving people. But it felt like they had Clark leave because Henry Cavill had some other obligation to deal with and all the other actors had already shot the rest of the scene. Or this was just a scene added later because one of the creatives said ‘Hey, we want more Superman, more quips, and maybe we should have the heroes actually saving people during the climax?’

Also, why did the failed Unity stuff make grass and flowers grow? Sure, it’s a pretty CGI moment from someone writing their resume to work on “Avatar”, but it doesn’t make any sense? I’d ask “why is what Steppenwolf doing bad, if it does that” when you realize that he’d have to destroy and kill everyone on Earth for that to happen. And if Unity is supposed to make Earth like Apokalips, why does it result in that? I actually kept expecting the little girl and her family to keel over and die from like… alien fumes and poisons from the foreign plants. Because Apokalips infecting Earth or something and these are foreign flora. But no. Even a minute of Cyborg saying he reprogrammed it somehow when he was overloading it would have been nice. Is this an avenue he’s going to pursue with his dad, now, and whatever lab is funding them? Bringing life back to areas devastated by human/natural disasters?

For that matter, sure, the heroes are happy to look at it, but maybe go and search for survivors? Make sure the escapees are all right? See if anyone got trapped or needs medical attention? Contact the local authorities so they know what’s going on? At least four of you are American citizens illegally in Russian territory and another one of you is a Greek/British/French(?) citizen illegally in Russian territory so that’s… a problem, to say the least.

And then there’s that corny Lois Lane monologue at the end of the film. I really like that Lois closed out the film. I’m not used to women narrating the ends of films, so it’s a nice change. Makes me remember the badass Maria Hill ending that was cut from “The Avengers”. Unfortunately, the monologue here was really poorly written and vague, about darkness and light. I think it would have been more badass for Lois to be writing about a new case she was working on or something. I basically just tuned her out while watching the stuff on-screen and that’s not great for an end-movie narration.

The race scene between Barry and Clark is cute. And the end credits scene with Luthor and Deathstroke wasn’t bad, either. Deathstroke looks really good. His costume, his make-up, his hair. It looks great.

Overall it was all right. For all the plot holes and non-logic and non-explanation and randomness, I would watch it again, and I’ve only said that about “Wonder Woman” when it comes to live-action DC movies.