That’s a good point. To clarify, I think they’re using the tools of that machine to criticize it. I mean, “He exploits the story but fails to take advantage of the true identities of each character.” is going out of its way to use language so that people who have not read the book(s) will ascribe malicious cultural…

I guess the wiseness of the choice is irrelevant to me. Criticizing the wiseness of his choice when discussing one of the unintended consequences of said choice just gets too close to assigning some level of unconscious malice to the choice, if that makes sense.

My issue is that two different groups accused the film of whitewashing by utilizing kneejerk, nuance-free outrage in a way that distracts from the true systemic issues with representation.

“No one will see a 100 million dollar movie fronted by some unknown Native American woman.”

Weird, nobody knew who the fuck random Australian Sam Worthington was when he was in Avatar, but that didn’t stop anything. Meanwhile, the financial argument for Ghost in the Shell’s casting didn’t ensure its success (I see why…

Yea! That’s a really great argument that should happen more often. I think that’s my problem with “issues” like this one. They go after a cast that’s fairly diverse by Hollywood standards and then something like Game Night, which is lily-white with a token black couple, doesn’t get taken to task at all.

I read a pretty clear implication in that parenthetical, I guess. Garland saying that he deliberately avoided the sequels already suggests that he had the opportunity to find out more and “deliberately” chose not to. So, I didn’t read any need for that clarification (as you’re reading it) other than to imply there’s…

The worst thing about A.V. Club comments are the people who insist “I’m no mad, YOU’RE MAD!” I’m not aggressive (well I kind of was to natureslayer, but that was just now and because natureslayer’s being willfully obtuse, which can be frustrating to deal with).

It’s only a dumb choice if you think a job of a film adaptation is to be a movie version of a book, instead of its own artistic achievement. But it’s the internet, so it’s not a surprise that you think it’s the latter.

That’s a completely different point. Whether his deliberate ignorance of the content in the sequel novels was a good decision or not isn’t the debate. Your comprehension is bad and you should feel terrible.

I don’t even read the bylines dude (and didn’t even know Sean was still writing newswires). I just read something that was weirdly dismissive of Garland’s completely reasonable explanation and decided to discuss it, you know, in the discussion area of the site.

No it really doesn’t matter at all. Garland DELIBERATELY avoided the sequel. Whether it came out 5 seconds ago or if 75 copies of the book were mailed to his house before and during production, he clarified that he did not want information from the sequel to color his adaptation. That’s the only part that’s vital to…

It’s pretty common. A lot of directors prefer their actors don’t read the book or watch an original movie at all. A movie stands apart as its own artform, so being beholden to a completely separate type of narrative expression is something that an artist would likely avoid.
Again some aren’t. But there’s as much…

Weird, you can recognize that a statement from Manaa (that weirdly enough they haven’t linked to) that they’re not mad, but somehow think pointing out that the allegations feel counterproductive makes me “offended”.

Nah though. Once he said “I deliberately made a choice” the concept of saying “On the other hand, he could have made the choice that he addressed was actively avoided” is redundant and dickish.

“He has also said that he deliberately avoided learning details about the sequels... (On the other hand, the information was out there)“

That’s a really nonsensical editorialization. Like imagine if someone said, “I drove cross-country because I enjoy road trips.” How insufferable do you have to be if you just HAVE…

Imagine the type of person who sees a movie about 5 female scientists that gets mad because 60% of them are white.

Did they cahnge it? I’m just seeing Eric Bana’s face.

“If there was ever a zombie apocalypse, I imagine a lot of people would become vegetarians overnight.”

More than a giant isopod?

Comment username synergy?