Ghostbusters
Jul. 24th, 2016 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI saw Ghostbusters! And it was fun! And I feel like I should have more to say about it, given that internet firestorm that it has kicked off over the last few months, but I don't really; aside from the all-female team, it's a fairly standard fun popcorn summer blockbuster movie with lively explosions and some good laugh lines.
Which I guess is what makes it seem so threatening to some people. The summer action blockbuster was one of the few remaining bastions of near total dude supremacy. Until now.
So, yeah. It was enjoyable in the way that summer blockbusters are generally enjoyable, with the added fun of seeing female action heroes wearing reasonable fighting clothes (coveralls!) and not spending oodles of time on love interests. (Not that action movies with male stars are immune from wasting time on love interests. I think movies and television across the board would benefit from a 50% reduction in love interests.)
I actually kind of enjoyed Erin's completely dorky crush on Kevin, though; I'm not sure why. I think partly because the movie doesn't try to sell it as anything deeper than that (and it is 100% about how he looks), and while it's clearly not going anywhere, there's no suggestion that she's silly for having it? I feel like often female characters are held up as ridiculous if they have unrequited feelings, and while Erin sometimes acts ridiculous about her crush, there's no suggestion that she's a ridiculous person for feeling this way.
And also she's just generally sort of endearingly ridiculous, so it fits with her character.
Oh, and I teared up when Erin dove into the void to save Abby. Friendship! That's what I'm talking about! (I also liked Abby and Holtzmann's weird little hand-slapping ritual in this regard. It's like an ultra-girly high five and I love it.)
Which I guess is what makes it seem so threatening to some people. The summer action blockbuster was one of the few remaining bastions of near total dude supremacy. Until now.
So, yeah. It was enjoyable in the way that summer blockbusters are generally enjoyable, with the added fun of seeing female action heroes wearing reasonable fighting clothes (coveralls!) and not spending oodles of time on love interests. (Not that action movies with male stars are immune from wasting time on love interests. I think movies and television across the board would benefit from a 50% reduction in love interests.)
I actually kind of enjoyed Erin's completely dorky crush on Kevin, though; I'm not sure why. I think partly because the movie doesn't try to sell it as anything deeper than that (and it is 100% about how he looks), and while it's clearly not going anywhere, there's no suggestion that she's silly for having it? I feel like often female characters are held up as ridiculous if they have unrequited feelings, and while Erin sometimes acts ridiculous about her crush, there's no suggestion that she's a ridiculous person for feeling this way.
And also she's just generally sort of endearingly ridiculous, so it fits with her character.
Oh, and I teared up when Erin dove into the void to save Abby. Friendship! That's what I'm talking about! (I also liked Abby and Holtzmann's weird little hand-slapping ritual in this regard. It's like an ultra-girly high five and I love it.)
