Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/30/watch-this-epic-takedown-of-mo.html
…
9 Likes
Yeah, I was really up for Passengers until I found out he essentially kidnaps her and I was like “Fuck that film” and didn’t go see it.
12 Likes
Isn’t that kind of the point of the film?
1 Like
Yeah Passengers was a pretty krappy premise. The guy was literally dying of loneliness, trapped on a ship with thousands of sleepers. The writers had to jump thru hoops to line it up like that, creating preposterous plotholes to put him in a terrible situation.
3 Likes
Tale as old as time…
Is Misery in this list?
12 Likes
Urgh. It’s frustrating watching guys-trying-to-be-progressive that don’t have any grounding in family systems theory. The dude is basically flipping from one extreme to another, from “Women shouldn’t be helpless plot devices” to “Women are just helpless victims in abusive relationships”.
Abusive relationships are complex as shit. It’s very rarely true that it’s “helpless woman entrapped by a monstrous abuser who has ensnared her in his diabolical web”, even though that’s the dialogue that usually permeates discussions on the topic, mostly to avoid falling into the trap of victim-blaming.
In reality, the majority of long-term abusive relationships that most closely follow the buildup-explosion-remorse-honeymoon-normality-buildup-etc. abuse cycle have roles that both partners play, and both partners very frequently have a basket of traits and/or disorders that predispose them to playing their “role” in the abuse cycle.
It’s an ugly topic, and one that’s frequently kept quiet among psych professionals because everyone likes to misinterpret the concept of “Fixing an abusive relationship requires behavioral changes from more than one person in the ‘system’ (a psych term meaning all the relationships relevant to the presenting problem)” as trying to shift blame from the man onto the woman. It’s not, but it only takes one person to derail the whole conversation by screaming “VICTIM BLAMER, BURN HIM/HER”, so unfortunately it’s rarely addressed, and it needs to be.
18 Likes
8 Likes
I see, I see.
So… does it work?
2 Likes
The original advertising didn’t give you that impression. It looks like more a space disaster love story but the idea that he wakes her up screwing her ever getting to the destination really changes the tone of the idea. It’s one thing if it was just an actual systems failure but the knowing act changes the whole tone.
It was a bad idea to use that trope.
4 Likes
To this good summary of a stupid trope and its variations, I’d add that the abduction is frequently played for laughs. That cutesy stuff makes an annoying plot convention cloying as well as creepy
One of the many great things about episodic television’s new golden age is that more writers, freed from a 90-120-minute time limit in which to tell their stories, are becoming less reliant on these lazy (and in this case toxic) narrative shortcuts.
8 Likes
Why do all the lucky ones get alien anal probes? Dammit, is it so much to ask for?
2 Likes
A simple fix would have been the ship gets hit by something like a micro meteorite and damages a number of pods and both of them manage to survive and they have to work together to safe the rest of them but in so doing they will never reach the destination. The punchline is their Decedent makes it to the colony.
You have a reluctant survival love story but one that isn’t forced by an evil lie.
10 Likes
There are many ways the writers could have set it up that didn’t involve him needing to make such a stalker move. But it was the writers choice to make abduction the central plot.
2 Likes
Personally, I give musicals a pass.
5 Likes
Pretty sure most people consider Misery a horror/suspense film that’s a commentary on abduction as romance. He doesn’t exactly fall in love with her before he bashes her head in with a typewriter and a metal pig figurine.
Fun fact: the screenplay originally honored the book and had her saw off his feet, but after the director backed out and other objections were raised over it, they changed it to hobbling.
19 Likes
I am pretty sure that there is a niche for it in Amazon bookstore.
2 Likes
I am willing to bet the honorable Chuck Tingle already has a book about it.
7 Likes
