The Lego Movie
Nov. 23rd, 2014 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI finally watched The Lego Movie. I...don't think I liked it.
First, this is not a movie that translates well to the small screen. Most of the shots are long shots, and there is so much detail in every inch of them, always interesting things going on in the background, and on my medium sized TV, a lot of that I just couldn't see.
But my real problem with it is that it was sexist. Sexist in the way that all Hollywood is, sexist in the way that the air we breath in media is, but as this is a film for kids, and as LEGO has had a history of real problems with sexism in its marketing, it bothered the shit out of me.
This film sets itself up as a satire of the very special ordinary man film, but then ends up endorsing that trope rather than overturning it. The prophecy turns out to be fake, but Emmett still becomes the most important, most interesting person to have ever lived.
Whereas Wildstyle, who has spent her whole life in pursuit of defeating Lord Business, gets relegated to the role of Emmett's number one fan and love interest. She gets a moment to believe in herself and be special--but she does it by telling everyone how awesome Emmett is. Her character arc is getting over her jealousy of Emmett and accepting that he's just more special than her.
There were so many WTF moments for me. Like when she's giving the backstory, and Emmett just hears "blah blah blah." Yes, this is a joke about how boring info dumps can be, but it's also a joke about how boring women are when they talk about something they're passionate about. Women should just shut up and let men gaze at them, amirite?
Then there was her "I have a boyfriend" rejection. Because her rejecting Emmett isn't enough, she needs to invoke a claim by another man.
And of course there's the fact that, even though she has a boyfriend, she of course ends up with Emmett at the end of the film, because Emmett completed his hero's quest, and so is entitled to the woman of his dreams. Even if he doesn't want to listen to her.
The end of the film is where it really lost me. On the one hand, meta. Okay. But it also turned the film from an implicit toy commercial into an explicit toy commercial. And a toy commercial that had one message: fathers and sons should bond over playing LEGOs together. Which, as Anita Sarkeesian outlines in one of her excellent videos, has been one of LEGOs' real advertising campaigns. And one that was coded specifically as a male activity: no mothers or daughters allowed.
So to have the final joke of the film be that a girl is going to play with the LEGOs, and that her playing is going to destroy the world, fuck you, LEGO. No really, fuck you. The entire end of the film is about how a boy's creative play saves the world, and now you bring up a girl's creative play and it's going to end it?
And can we mention how Cloud Cuckoo land, the land that is so bizarre and unthinkable that it's the only hidden realm, is all pink and rainbows and coded as girly? Because girliness is just sooooo abnormal and weird and not how you're supposed to play with LEGOs.
Like I said, none of this sexism is in any way unique to this film, but because of the way that LEGOs has been trying to make itself more inclusive to both genders, and because of the criticism it has already come under, the fact that the movie was so stuck in retrograde attitudes about women bothered me to the point that the rest of the film didn't make up for it. So I guess I'm that 4% on Rotten Tomatoes that didn't like this movie.
First, this is not a movie that translates well to the small screen. Most of the shots are long shots, and there is so much detail in every inch of them, always interesting things going on in the background, and on my medium sized TV, a lot of that I just couldn't see.
But my real problem with it is that it was sexist. Sexist in the way that all Hollywood is, sexist in the way that the air we breath in media is, but as this is a film for kids, and as LEGO has had a history of real problems with sexism in its marketing, it bothered the shit out of me.
This film sets itself up as a satire of the very special ordinary man film, but then ends up endorsing that trope rather than overturning it. The prophecy turns out to be fake, but Emmett still becomes the most important, most interesting person to have ever lived.
Whereas Wildstyle, who has spent her whole life in pursuit of defeating Lord Business, gets relegated to the role of Emmett's number one fan and love interest. She gets a moment to believe in herself and be special--but she does it by telling everyone how awesome Emmett is. Her character arc is getting over her jealousy of Emmett and accepting that he's just more special than her.
There were so many WTF moments for me. Like when she's giving the backstory, and Emmett just hears "blah blah blah." Yes, this is a joke about how boring info dumps can be, but it's also a joke about how boring women are when they talk about something they're passionate about. Women should just shut up and let men gaze at them, amirite?
Then there was her "I have a boyfriend" rejection. Because her rejecting Emmett isn't enough, she needs to invoke a claim by another man.
And of course there's the fact that, even though she has a boyfriend, she of course ends up with Emmett at the end of the film, because Emmett completed his hero's quest, and so is entitled to the woman of his dreams. Even if he doesn't want to listen to her.
The end of the film is where it really lost me. On the one hand, meta. Okay. But it also turned the film from an implicit toy commercial into an explicit toy commercial. And a toy commercial that had one message: fathers and sons should bond over playing LEGOs together. Which, as Anita Sarkeesian outlines in one of her excellent videos, has been one of LEGOs' real advertising campaigns. And one that was coded specifically as a male activity: no mothers or daughters allowed.
So to have the final joke of the film be that a girl is going to play with the LEGOs, and that her playing is going to destroy the world, fuck you, LEGO. No really, fuck you. The entire end of the film is about how a boy's creative play saves the world, and now you bring up a girl's creative play and it's going to end it?
And can we mention how Cloud Cuckoo land, the land that is so bizarre and unthinkable that it's the only hidden realm, is all pink and rainbows and coded as girly? Because girliness is just sooooo abnormal and weird and not how you're supposed to play with LEGOs.
Like I said, none of this sexism is in any way unique to this film, but because of the way that LEGOs has been trying to make itself more inclusive to both genders, and because of the criticism it has already come under, the fact that the movie was so stuck in retrograde attitudes about women bothered me to the point that the rest of the film didn't make up for it. So I guess I'm that 4% on Rotten Tomatoes that didn't like this movie.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-23 08:08 pm (UTC)