Ghost in the Shell is not as simple as cultural appropriation or ‘cultural whitewashing’

There’s been a furore about the issue of Scarlett Johansson playing the lead in the movie version of the classic Japanese anime story Ghost in the Shell. Some critics say that casting a white Hollywood star in the role (just as Matt Damon was the lead in The Great Wall and Tilda Swinton was the sensei in Doctor Strange) is cultural appropriation, or ‘whitewashing’. But it’s not actually that simple, because Scarlett plays a human brain in a synthetic body (a body that is non-racially specific and unrealistically augmented) in a racially mixed future society. One of the key messages of the film is that under the skin we’re all human. It’s an essentialist message. Added to that, there’s a similar intertextual message if you look at other recent Scarlett Johansson films e.g. Under the Skin, Lucy, etc. At the end of the day, I’m not entirely sure which side of the argument I come down on, but it’s perhaps a shame the ‘issue’ is putting people off going to see the film at all, since there is no doubt this is a thought-provoking film.

So what’s this high-concept scifi movie actually about? Well, Scarlett wakes up and finds that scientists have saved her from death by transplanting her brain from her dying body into a synthetic body. She is now expected to work for the government (as secret service) since they kind of own her. Turns out, of course, that she’s being used by unprincipled parties. Ultimately, she has to break free of their control, which sees her branded as a dangerous terrorist. All hell then breaks loose.

The special FX are stunning. There are some lovely scifi ideas, many of them incidental. The world is intricately imagined and delicately described. And we do care about the characters.

There are other themes I could explore (feminist, child-soldier, alienation, etc), but it’s probably best to leave these for you to discover for yourself. So, Ghost in a Shell scores a respectable 8 out of 10 from me.

When superheroes become old and infirm: Logan

One of Wolverine’s claws no longer fully extends. He’s short-sighted. He has a gammy leg. His body is slowly being poisoned by the adamantium in his skeleton. He’s getting old. Professor X (Charles Xavier) has dementia and can’t control his mental powers, so has to be sedated the whole time. Wolverine is working as a driver in order to buy black market drugs to keep Charles comatose. They’re waiting to die and these once proud men are now pathetic.

It’s a terrible thing to see your heroes brought so low. They have a dream of buying a yacht called ‘The Sunseeker’, but we doubt they’ll ever have enough money for it. Then a woman and child on the run come to them and beg for help, offering them money. The child is one of the first new mutants to be born in generations. The corporations are after her, but a comic book that she has promises there is sanctuary in the north for her kind. Wolverine tells them it’s all a made-up fantasy and that dreams never come true, but they’re all too desperate not to try it. One last adventure.

This is a dark film, a melancholy film. A winding down. It’s sad, but there is hope. The torch is handed over to a new generation. Fear not, then, for it’s not the end of the franchise! It scores 8.5 out of 10 from me – good though the film is, it still suffers from repetitive and unnecessary fight scenes, and Logan passes out like a dozen times in a handful of minutes (poor editing and plotting really). Yet it’s the best X-Men movie in a good number of years.

Blood, the gothic and Hiddleston’s bum again – Crimson Peak

Just watched Del Toro’s movie Crimson Peak. It’s got just about every gothic motif going – and sometimes it’s not entirely clear why. It’s all sumptiously staged and filmed – to the extent that it feels a bit stagey. Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain put a lot of effort into the acting – so much, in fact, that it feels overdone and hammy. Hiddleston’s inevitable bum shot is a bit random too. A random hammy bum, Mr Hiddlebum.

But is the movie the ‘botched horror’ that some critics have described? No. Within itself, Crimson Peak is consistent and the narrative thread is coherent – an American heiress is seduced by a lordly philanderer who marries her and takes her back to his gothic mansion in Cumberland, where he inevitably begins to poison her (just as he has poisoned umpteen wives before her) while bullying her into signing over her wealth to him. It very very much reminds me of Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber, just a bit less feminist. Stylistically, there’s a lot of Tim Burton going on as well. None of these things are bad things actually. And it remains camply engaging throughout – in large part because vital information is released in a drip-drip fashion and because Del Toro is a master of the techniques of ‘suspended disbelief’. All in all, then, I’d say this movie has all the ingredients of a cult classic (including Tom Hiddleston’s bum). I’d score it 8 out of 10 – the movie, that is, not Tom Hiddleston’s bum.

#Vampire movie ‘Underworld: Blood Wars’ reviewed

I’m as much a fan of Kate Beckinsale in PVC as the next person, but does it justify this fifth movie in the Underworld series? Sort of. Does this movie advance our understanding of vampire lore? Sort of, cos of the ‘Unseen World’ that Kate (aka Selene) travels to – unfortunately the Unseen World remains just that for the viewer, unseen. Anyway, Kate returns from that world with the power to move around super quickly just in time to save the eastern coven of vampires from the lycans (werewolves). Phew. The End.

Yes, the plotting really isn’t great. It lacks the surprises and ‘credibility’ of the earlier films. The fight sequences aren’t too good – none of the originality of the first movie, and a decided lack of ‘rules’/’plausibility’ to proceedings. Example: the female baddie is winning a fight, but then gets distracted by the fact she can now survive in the daylight, except her distraction then allows the goodie enough time to get up and kill her. Sheesh. Another example: Selene is being beaten by a far stronger opponent at the end of the movie, but then she rushes around behind him and pulls his spine out. Double sheesh. On top of that, a lot of the acting is wooden (except for wonderful cameos from Charles Dance and Lara Pulver). BUT, all that said…

There are ideas and moments enough to stop you from switching off. The internal politics and scheming of the vampires are as delicious as ever. The northern coven, with its white apparel and more peaceful philosophy, is intruguing indeed. The references to Michael and Eve are tantalising and leave us wanting to know more. Although I’m only giving this film 6 out of 10, it’s a stepping stone movie and I will be watching the sixth one. Oh yes, even if just for the PVC.

#Zombie comedy (zomedy?) with a twist: Santa Clarita Diet

Drew Barrymore (ex-Charlie’s angel) is a realtor (real estate agent) showing prospective buyers around a house. Entering the bathroom, she starts throwing up (enough to kill a person). When she wakes up, she has a curious appetite for flesh. Her womanising boss tries to force his attentions upon her that evening, so she eats him…

So goes the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet. It’s grossly funny. At first, there are only upsides to Drew being a suburban zombie: she’s immensely strong, she is liberated (cos the undead are governed by the id and primal urges only), she still looks normal and she has a supportive husband (played wonderfully by Timothy Olyphant, the guy who was the sheriff in Deadwood). But then her hunger for flesh starts getting them into trouble, her behaviour in public is often inappropriate (to say the least) and her toe drops off in the bath. They need to find a cure before it’s too late!

What really works about this show is that each episode is only half an hour, meaning the plot has to be tight, it’s high tempo and the humour needs to be as sharp as it is zany. At the same time, it’s a social satire. Drew and her husband get into domestic role reversal, their daughter is often more responsible than they are, and Drew’s ambitious women friends are made to look drab and uninspiring.

Santa Clarita Diet definitely offers something new with regard to the zombie genre, therefore. It’s very self-aware (sending up geek culture as much as it celebrates it), always surprising and often shocking. The situations the family gets itself into are as humorous as they are credible – making everything surreal/hyperreal. And good surrealist comedy is sometimes hard to come by. It scores 8.5 out of 10 from me, and I’ll definitely be watching series two when it’s released.

Publication of PhD on #fantasy literature

Do you know your ‘high fantasy’ from your ‘epic fantasy’, ‘urban fantasy’, ‘sword and sorcery’, ‘steampunk’, ‘dystopian YA’, ‘dark fantasy’, ‘metaphysical fantasy’ and ‘grimdark fantasy’? Not sure of the definitions, leading authors and socio-history of each? Then you might like to read The Sub-genres of British Fantasy Literature, which I’ve just published with Luna Press Publishing. (It’s based on the PhD thesis I wrote for Huddersfield University, init.)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sub-genres-British-Fantasy-Literature-x/dp/1911143166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488185286&sr=8-1&keywords=sub-genres+of+british+fantasy+dalton

Kristen Stewart scifi: Equals

In the future, we have been genetically (re-)engineered to be less emotional (a bit like Vulcans, I suppose), since it is emotion that leads to war, etc. Expressing emotion (love, anger, etc) is a ‘crime’ and a sign that you have Switched On Syndrome (SOS). To avoid being sent to prison or hospital, those with feelings (like Kristen Stewart) have to discipline themselves not to show anything in public (earning themselves the name ‘hiders’). Anyway, Kristen (predictably enough) falls in love with a young chap and they cannot resist ‘coupling’ (would have been a much more interesting movie if it had been a young woman). They then have to go on the run to escape (aided by a support group).

‘Equals’, of course, nicks the premise of better scifi films like ‘Equilibrium’. Does Equals offer anything new? Kinda. It explores the interior pain and abuse that ‘sensitive’ people experience rather than looking to engage in big SFX and an action-based fight against the politics of a dystopian world.  The sound track is brilliant – a transcendental white noise that is as much psychological as melodic. Equals, then, is a tender, sweet and contemplative little movie. Worth a look if you’re in that sort of mood. It scores 7.5 out of 10 from me (more than most of the nitwit critics out there have given it). So there.