Entertainment Media Now on a Full-Court Press to Boost Captain Marvel
by Brad Slager - Red State
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For weeks now we have been mired in social fallout from actress Brie Larson taking a decidedly activist stance during her PR tour for this weekend’s premiere of “Captain Marvel”. Her efforts to diminish the influence of white male writers has led to a blowback from fans.
There was a quick recognition that Larsson had impacted things, as early projections for the film’s debut was scaled back by tens of millions of dollars. Ever since the studio Disney has been in fierce damage control. They seem to have leveraged the review site Rotten Tomatoes to eliminate the ‘Want To See’ feature from its page, because fans were indication a dropping desire to go see “CM”.
Soon after the studio staged targeted sneak previews with a passel of female reviewers, who were more than likely to deliver positive impressions. Twitter joined in and posted a page in the Entertainment section under its MOMENTS tab that touted all of the advance rave reviews. One feminist even took the bold stance that men should not even attend the film – this despite all of the mewling we had witnessed about men desiring to not see the film.
Now in the homestretch of the release we can see the entertainment press is doing all it can to prop up what is a flagging enterprise. Yesterday, as the review embargo on the film was lifted, the enthusiastic website The Mary Sue detailed that the negative reviews the film was receiving was arriving only from male film critics. This desperate claim was disproven in minutes, as it was shown at least one third of the pans came from female critics.
Not having learned the lesson that targeting the male reviewers is what kicked off this negative wave of feedback for the movie, film writer Alyssa Klein last night proceeded to create a lengthy thread where she listed out the numerous male reviewers from major publications. The purpose to this? In the interest of avoiding mansplaining, I’ll let Alyssa tell us:
The idea that a film with a particular social demographic focus should only be covered by members of said demographic is a very odd stance to take. Films are a subjective art form, and to suggest critics from particular groups are not equipped to review films with a particular focus is drastically reductive. I would bet that Alyssa would have an issue with anyone suggesting that female film critics be told to step away from reviewing male-centric films.
This morning at The Daily Beast was a lengthy screed that detailed much of the supposedly organized outrage, dictating that much of it is arriving from white males and – somehow – incels??? Calmly entitled “How Brie Larson’s ‘Captain Marvel’ Made Angry White Men Lose Their Damn Minds” writer Melissa Leon makes her case not by citing respected and established industry names, nor entertainment journalists, but by compiling opposition from those troll haavens in the comment sections of the web, YouTube videos, and Twitter accounts.
This is held up as proof there is an widespread and organized sabotage efforts, and it is all rooted in toxic masculinity, of course. Describing what she found to be “harassment internet campaigns”, Leon attributes this to what seems obvious to many who ardently support this film — “oversensitive men threatened by blockbuster franchise leads who do not look like them.” But then the writer undermines her claim.
Referring to an active backlash she details, “Distortions of what Larson actually said…in the name of assuming victimhood for “all white man” also fuel a “boycott” of the film that hopes to pit it against another female-fronted action movie, ‘Alita: Battle Angel’.” (This is a James Cameron-produced action film that was released weeks ago.) If these angry white men are reacting negatively to a female character who does not look like them, why would they be running to see a different film — with a female character who does not look like them?!
Of course, the claim of this testosterone-reflex response is also undermined by the reality that was the smash hit “Wonder Woman”, which somehow was never saddled with claims of a toxic backlash. So yes, Larson’s words were the flashpoint for the controversy. Last year she spoke at the Women In Film conference, and we hear this is a regular stance of hers: “I don’t need a 40 year old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about “A wrinkle In Time; It wasn’t made for him!”
What seems to be the case is what we saw take place a few summers ago with the all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters”. After selling us on the estrogen-soaked cast, and not the content of the film, fans resisted. And once there was pushback we saw all manner of social hectoring, leading to the film losing tens of millions for Sony. I wonder if now all of the media push behind the film is not meant to salvage the box office, but to setup the explanation on why it was a disappointment.
After so many female writers invested so much into this title, if it fails to reach the usual heights of Marvel releases they cannot honestly say the content did not favor a wide audience. No, the blame HAS to be lain at the feet of males who simply cannot tolerate female characters! Oh, and the Incels, too.
Feminists Say Only Males Critics Blasting ‘Captain Marvel’: Here Are Female Critics Panning It
James Barrett - The Daily Wire
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"All the negative reviews for #CaptainMarvel are from men," feminist website The Mary Sue declared Tuesday as the early reviews began streaming in for Marvel's — as star Brie Larson describes it — "big feminist movie." The declaration was accompanied by a series of tweets by self-styled "film journalist" Alyssa Klein telling male critics to "sit this one out," with the suggestion that a "feminist" movie can only be properly reviewed by women.
"I'm so excited to finally see Marvel's first woman superhero movie," Klein tweeted Tuesday. "I'm less excited about the fact that many of the biggest publications are having men write their #CaptainMarvel reviews." After highlighting/shaming a bunch of reviews by men, Klein offered some advice to male critics: "[I]f you're a male critic reading this thread and you're asked to write a review of #CaptainMarvel for a major publication, consider saying 'You know, I think I should sit this one out and make room for women's voices.'"
While there certainly are more reviews of "Captain Marvel" by men than women — because there are simply far more male reviewers than female reviewers — the suggestion that male reviewers would be biased against the "big feminist" film reveals more about the feminists making the claim than the reviewers. The reality is a good critic should be able to assess a film on its own merits and put aside, at least to some degree, their biases, including any supposed innate gender biases. As evidence that Mary Sue's claim is false and its underlying premise flawed, below are some excerpts from negative reviews of "Captain Marvel" by female critics.
Reeling Reviews' Laura Clifford gives the film a C- and describes Larson's performance as particularly problematic: "...I found the whole film to be a muddle of special effects, disjointed writing and lack of humor. The humor, especially, is built in to the other Marvel films and I wonder why there is nearly none in 'Captain Marvel.' The answer, I think is in the film's star, Brie Larson, as hot-shot fighter pilot and kick ass warrior Carol Danvers. She is OK in the action sequences, which are many, but is too serious an actor for the character. That is a real problem for a hero in a franchise that is known for its mirth. ... It is telling that there are eight credited writers, making this a kitchen sink of clichés."
World's Megan Basham was really turned off by all the "girl-power pandering": "There’s a moment in Captain Marvel where the girl-power pandering is so over the top it makes the rest of the movie pointless. Carol Danvers, aka 'Vers,' finally discovers the full range of her superpowers and, to the never-so-subtle strains of Gwen Stefani’s 'Just a Girl,' proceeds to pummel a battalion of alien bad guys single-handedly. Her abilities prove so dominant that she can seemingly do anything, be it fly to farthest reaches of space without protective gear or destroy intergalactic warheads with a single blow. Thus does the cause of female empowerment lay waste to old-fashioned storytelling notions like tension and surprise, otherwise known as ... reasons for the audience to stay interested in what’s happening on the screen."
Time's Stephanie Zacharek also found all the "girl power" a bit overpowering: "Is anyone else getting tired of role models? I don’t mean real-life people who are doing estimable work every day, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg (although even her recent commodification, through no fault of her own, threatens to flatten some of her dimensions), but virtuous fictional women who are put up before us as a jaunty reminder that 'Girls can do anything!' Girls can do anything and, like all children, young girls can have moments of self-doubt, times when they need reassurance. And there’s no reason we shouldn’t be seeing women superheroes on-screen; Lord knows there are enough guys. But the delivery system matters, too. And while we know that little girls (or boys, for that matter) might not rush out to see an earnest biopic of, say, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt or Margaret Sanger, does our sense of the power and capability of women always have to be filtered through a highly fictionalized superhero universe—as if that were the only way we could possibly bring ourselves to register the value of what women can bring to the table? Words like badass and kick-ass, used to describe women, have been trotted out so often that they’ve come to mean nothing. They tell us little about whether a woman has any sense of judgment or style or true intelligence. The idea is that it’s best just to bash your way through everything, just as so many guys do. That way, no one will ever think of you as weak."
Culteress's Kristen Lopez thought Larson was "marvelous" but her "big feminist" message, not so much: "Strong moments of character development are immediately dashed away for extended fight scenes leaving characters to feel more like archetypes and not actual people. An extended sequence in Louisiana seems drawn from another movie entirely and should have been developed further. This underdevelopment leaves the third act feeling confusing and unearned. It’s hard to fear what we don’t understand. And yet that mantra permeates Captain Marvel in a way that rings truer than the feminist message it wants to be about."
What She Said's Ann Brody wasn't thrilled by the "dark and empty" film: "The problem is the relentless jolts-per-second universe of special effects and endless fights, tech overload and turgid robotic friend/enemy roleplay. The characters display recognisable humanity which is the film’s balance but not often enough or convincingly. There’s something dark and empty in all the fanfare and fuss, and it seems aimed solely at an audience that grew up in video arcades."
Us Weekly's Mara Weinstein gave the not "epic" film a disappointing 2.5 out of 4 stars: "Sometimes when you have sky-high expectations for a film, there’s nowhere to go but down. Even when the focus is a superhero — scratch that, superheroine — that flies. Enter Captain Marvel, the first female to get above-the-title treatment in the Marvel Comic Universe. That is no small deal. Her film, alas, is no epic."
That's certainly not all of the negative reviews; in fact, even the generally positive reviews by female critics emphasized many of the same shortcomings as the critics above, but most gave the film a net positive rating because of its high-octane action, its often spectacular sequences, and Larson's solid (enough) performance.
'Captain Marvel' TANKS On Rotten Tomatoes Hours After Premiere
By Amanda Prestigiacomo - The Daily Wire
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"Captain Marvel" was hit with tens of thousands of audience reviews just hours after the film opened in theaters on Friday, scoring a dismal audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 33%.
"As of 8 a.m., the film had a 33 percent audience score from more than 58,000 reviews," reported The Hollywood Reporter. The outlet credited the low audience rating to "trolls" sandbagging the film, noting that the number of reviews in a matter of mere hours from “Captain Marvel’s” opening is "more than the total of audience score reviews for Avengers: Infinity War for its entire theatrical run."
On mid-day Friday, the audience score peaked to 35%; the critics' score, however, held at a solid 81%.
"Very little to get excited about here as the villain is the best character in the movie. Brie Larson is awfully miscast in the lead role. Thumb up for Mendelsohn and Jackson. As a lead-in to End Game it's both inadequate and unnecessary," reads one review from the site.
Another reviewer wrote, "Wasn't expecting much going in and that's what I got, not much. Brie Larson was a poor choice for the lead. She's just not believable. I was bored all too often watching it."
"A boring and bland story focused on a character with neither personality nor a single weakness," says another post critical of the film.
Rotten Tomatoes recently amended their system to bar the general public from leaving reviews before the film is released. This was apparently an effort to cut back on "trolls" leaving negative reviews.
"We are disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date," said Rotten Tomatoes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature, for now, is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have."
While feminists in media invested in the female-driven film's success have claimed that the bad reviews for the film have come at the hands of women-hating male film critics, "Captain Marvel" has taken some heat from female movie critics, too.
For example, as noted by The Daily Wire's James Barrett, a female film critic from Reeling Reviews, Laura Clifford, gave the flick a C- and criticized feminist actress Brie Larson's performance.
"...I found the whole film to be a muddle of special effects, disjointed writing and lack of humor. The humor, especially, is built in to the other Marvel films and I wonder why there is nearly none in 'Captain Marvel.' The answer, I think is in the film's star, Brie Larson, as hot-shot fighter pilot and kick ass warrior Carol Danvers. She is OK in the action sequences, which are many, but is too serious an actor for the character. That is a real problem for a hero in a franchise that is known for its mirth. ... It is telling that there are eight credited writers, making this a kitchen sink of clichés," said Clifford.
Moreover, World's Megan Basham blasted “Captain Marvel” for its "girl-power pandering" and What She Said's Ann Brody described the movie as "dark and empty."
