On Reviewing Movies I Haven’t Seen

Every month, I review movie trailers in posts called “[Name of Month] Movies I Won’t be Seeing.” Sometimes I’ll throw in a trailer for a movie I do want to see as a compare/contrast. In any case, I’ve received a few comments from people in the real world concerning these posts (because I do interact with the real world and don’t just play on the computer all day, Mom.) I have a few friends who cite the “movies I won’t be seeing” posts as their favorite feature on my blog. Others have expressed confusion about these posts, and I’ve had the following conversation a few times:

FRIEND/READER: You’re judging a movie before you even see it.
ME: …Yeah. That’s the whole point.

But to be fair, I understand why these reviews might confuse people. Part of the reason I write this blog is to dig deep into issues concerning feminism and entertainment. I analyze issues from different angles, approach subjects in different ways, and try to make more than the shallow observation. With the “movies I won’t be seeing” posts, deep analysis and second thoughts go out of the window and I make quick, rash judgments. I do as little research as possible into the actual movie and judge the quality of the film purely on its trailer.

So, why do I do these posts? What is the purpose of this activity?

1. Often enough, a trailer is all I need to see if a movie is crap. I don’t need to see the actual film to tell that The Change-Up is a misogynistic piece of garbage. The entire premise of the movie is about guys trying to get laid while in each other’s bodies, and one man actually says about the other’s wife, “I’m going to ruin her.” The premise, and that line in particular, are both incredibly rapey. I don’t need to see more than two minutes to determine that the movie is sexist, and also not funny.

2. Marketing earns its own criticism. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that The Change-Up is really an excellent movie that actually criticizes rape culture and goes into deep, yet funny, analysis of consent issues. (I will eat a whole plateful of crow if this turns out to be the case, but let’s go with this idea for argument’s sake.) The people marketing the movie are still choosing to present the movie as a lowbrow douchebro comedy. Let’s also say, for argument’s sake, that The Help is more than a feel-good movie (for white people) about Magical Negroes and Mammies who suffer in saintlike ways until a white woman comes by to save them. (I’m 5% through the book on my Kindle, and right now, I’m not optimistic on that front. I’ll probably be blogging about The Help in more detail next week.) If the book/movie has more to it than that, I certainly couldn’t tell based on the trailer.

Bottom line: if the marketing people choose to put together a trailer that makes the movie seem like it’s chock full of insulting stereotypes and cliches, it’s because they think people will pay to see movies filled with insulting stereotypes and cliches. That’s a problem in of itself, even if the actual movie is good (see: Tangled.)

3. Sometimes I’m wrong and I think that’s funny. I wrote a whole commentary on the movie Take Me Home Tonight describing the relationship between Topher Grace and Kristen Stewart’s character, wishing Topher Grace would end up with Anna Faris instead. Shortly after posting, a few readers posted comments informing me that a) Topher Grace and Anna Faris’s characters were twins, not platonic best friends, and b) the actress I had thought was a blonde Kristen Stewart was actually Theresa Palmer. I could have gone back to the original post and made hasty edits, but those mistakes of mine amused the hell out of me, so I left them in there.

I also made a more egregious mistake in that same post, ranting about Thor’s whiteness and how we never see colorblind casting, not realizing that Idris Elba’s character was actually white in the comics. Oops. But I also left that mistake in there and let the comments that corrected me stand as well. I’m not perfect, I don’t pretend to be, and there is a risk of making completely wrong judgments if I just view a film’s trailer and nothing else. If I make a mistake, I’m going to let it stand to show my own fallibility.

Really, though, I just have fun ripping apart the shitty trailers I see. It’s my own short MS3TK. I enjoy doing it and might even do them on a bi-weekly basis starting in the fall. We’ll see.