Was an ok xmas film. I’d call it popcorn.
Why does all our entertainment have to be polluted by anything other than an interesting or engaging story and characters. The problem is that when injecting a diverse cast just to tick boxes, it tends to take more precedence than story or characters and thus the quality of story telling we see is getting worse in many areas.
If Richard Curtis actually meant what he said, the on screen talent included Chiwetel Ejiofor and he was put into a bit part role… It’s not the lack of diversity on screen that was a problem - yes there could have been more presentation - but would have it mattered.
When we have 120lb females beating up a group of 200lb bad guys, it’s a waste of an opportunity to have female leads who are meaningfull, rather than imitating men. The travesty is that men would actually enjoy such films too, ask a guy to name a list of great films that have strong female characters and they have a list of them. The reason that it’s important to have men enjoy the films, is that it adds box office and thus is more likely to be a commercial success, if the creators want a mixed audience. Success = More films along that linage.
Another example is John Boyega in Star Wars. Came across as a diversity casting, relegated to fairly meaningless bit part, virtually no meaningfull impact on the story and no character arc…. Hugely under-utilised for the amazing actor he is (watch his performance in Small Axe) because it was so focussed on a bland female lead who was amazing at everything within 5 seconds of trying. #yawn. Again, why couldn’t they have a female character that initially follows the Luke footsteps and then evolves into her own persona, bringing something different to what Jedi’s were, other than good with a lightsaber.
In the west, most stories have already been told…. We get reruns of old stories…. I’d love to learn more about the world from a non uk or usa perspective and the stories other parts of the world can bring. It seems hollywood can only shoehorn a gender or colour change into the same old stories, without adding anything new. Probably why i watch more foreign films and programmes these days.
Yes i’m generalising, there are occassionally some new interesting things…. But diversity for diversity sake isn’t a good thing. There is a rich network of actors and actresses out there from a range of backgrounds, we need great stories for them, not shoehorning.
The one exception i immediately think of….. Is i’d love Idris Elba being bond. He has the on screen persona to make it his own.