I posted not so long ago about the odd intensity of the culture war around Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and how the "bro" movie reviewers (who despise the active feminisation of franchises like Star Wars under Disney - and producer Kathleen Kennedy in particular) have been trying very, very hard to ensure the movie is not deemed a success.
That campaign has continued apace, with that Critical Drinker guy seemingly betting his entire reputation on the film failing. (He has now seen it and called it "an embarrassment" - but I'm not going to watch any review until after I have seen it.)
While I am indeed nervous as to whether I will like the movie or not, I am slightly encouraged by the general review score of the movie increasing over the last couple of weeks. No one is calling it the greatest movie ever, but there are enough saying they think it somewhat better than Crystal Skull, and a more-or-less fitting enough send off, that I am slightly hopeful.
Going into a film with low expectations (especially with sequels) is always a good idea,though. I remember fondly, for example, how blown away I was by seeing Empire Strikes Back with no real expectations as to quality. I was busy at university at the time, and had barely read a review (which were only available in magazines and newspapers - so it wasn't as if you could easily read many anyway). I was therefore completely delighted with how spectacularly good it was - and how it deepened the themes from the original. It's also an odd aspect of that film that in fact the original reviews were not as strong as you might expect for a film that soon became universally credited as the best in the series.
It does seem to me obvious that these guys are just trying too hard to will Dial to fail. But given that the trailer looks decent enough; the amount of press that an uncharacteristically cheerful Harrison Ford has been giving (perhaps recognising that there is a need to counter an internet culture war campaign against the movie); and it not being a professional critic disaster: I suspect it will in fact be a box office success.
3 comments:
The woke movement has extreme elements and so do the reactions against it. The movement is driven by good intentions, I'm not so sure the reaction against it is similiarly motivated. I think the woke mania will recede to a more balanced position. For example, BLM, toxic masculinity, and incels have long since disappeared off the social movement scene.
There is another report today that the younger generation(born after 1980) are not shifting to the Right as they age. That spells huge problems for conservatives and the Liberal Party. It looks increasingly like conservatism is dying out. I'm not surprised by that. Look at Catallaxy, mostly old folk lamenting the good ol' days. While I dislike Albo he nailed it with the "Noalition" accusation. Conservatives and the liberal party are all about NO. The lack of positive messaging, their constant harking back to the good ol' days, is increasingly making them irrelevant.
"While I dislike Albo..."
I have very neutral feelings about him - although I did say to a friend recently that I think he has a significant touch of the John Howard vibe about him: a kind of (shall we say) cheerfully grumpy middle class demeanour that has a down to earth, air of sincerity about it. Utterly unlike Morrison, who reeked advertising executive fakery.
On the woke side, it is certainly true that there are some centrist "wins" being made on the trans issue (sporting bodies ruling relatively sensibly on the unfairness of transwomen participation), but as the Media Watch episode showed last week, there is a considerable way to go before I feel the extremes have lost.
When he won the election the first thing Morrison said was, "I've always believed in miracles. That was a dog whistle to Christians because his particular brand believes God acts on their behalf. At that moment I felt he was going to be a problem.
Albanese can be as calm and collected as he likes but the Australian public are not calm and collected. We face numerous cost of living challenges. Chalmers has gone to ground because he has no solutions. There probably isn't much the government can do about this. However if this continues it is going to seriously hurt their chances at the next election.
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