ABED wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 8:07 pm
It's far from pretentious. Big issues like racism, sexism, and inclusion are important and worth including in art, especially popular art.
It's worth it when it's done right. Otherwise, it's pretentious, and can stir up more problems than solve any.
And as I've said over and over, the MCU's track record in comparison to plenty of other similar blockbusters is a good indicator that the MCU has figured out something that most of Hollywood hasn't.
Okay, I've seen you mention this before, but I'll bite. What "track record" are you even going by? Ratings? Or is it revenue? I really hope you're not talking about revenue.
It's really not.
It really is. It has nothing to do with what we're talking about.
They didn't go out and hire the first black director they could find off the street to make Black Panther.
Why does it even matter if he's black? Just hire a director who is good at directing.
Personally, and from personal experience (I'm mixed black/white btw), I think it's much better to solve racism by normalization. Black Panther could have just been a cool superhero movie without throwing in the race baiting virtue signalling nonsense. It actually don't see it as helping any problem of racism. Because it further prevents normalization.
Look at characters like War Machine, Nick Fury, and that guy with the wings (forgot his name). They're black, but they're normalized. We're not constantly reminded of race by the narrative when it comes to them. They're just cool characters, just like Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor etc.... are just cool characters. That's the way to actually solve it. Normalization. Into the Spiderverse, another good example.
I can give you a good example in Dragon Ball. Whis, who is implicitly gay (he blushed at Beerus's junk), is very normalized. Toriyama wasn't trying to win virtue points from people when he invented Whis. He just invented him. It's an example of "inclusion" without pretentious virtue signalling. Wonder Woman is a good example of female empowerment, without again, pretentious virtue signalling. You know who else is a good example? Wanda Maximoff, and she's in the MCU. Why is she any less worthy than Captain Marvel to represent female empowerment? I mean, she seems pretty powerful and badass, so what's the deal?
DB's lack of pretention isn't a reason it is successful, much less the reason.
Admittingly a personal opinion, but I kinda think it is a big part of its success. Even if the fanbase itself doesn't realize it. I think the lack of pretentious is
subconsiously very attractive to people.