TV/Movies Megathread

[Barrister]

Two quick things:  The changing of characters' (Norse gods at that) races in the Thor franchise was odd to me, but I learned to move on fairly quickly.  Second, Viper's arguments are null because he actually thinks Frontier is excellent.  Bleh.  I wanted to like that show.  I really did, but... it is trash.

Aren't the "Norse Gods" in the Thor franchise actually some sort of aliens ... ? 

I... think that's where they went with that?  I don't recall.  It's been a while since I've seen them.  Also, as per the source material I don't think Marvel had them as such when the movies were developed.

In Thor, and Thor 2, they were Aliens from Asgard.

Thor Ragnarok suddenly they start calling each other Gods and Goddesses.

[Malthus]

Two quick things:  The changing of characters' (Norse gods at that) races in the Thor franchise was odd to me, but I learned to move on fairly quickly.  Second, Viper's arguments are null because he actually thinks Frontier is excellent.  Bleh.  I wanted to like that show.  I really did, but... it is trash.

Aren't the "Norse Gods" in the Thor franchise actually some sort of aliens ... ? 

I... think that's where they went with that?  I don't recall.  It's been a while since I've seen them.  Also, as per the source material I don't think Marvel had them as such when the movies were developed.

In Thor, and Thor 2, they were Aliens from Asgard.

Thor Ragnarok suddenly they start calling each other Gods and Goddesses.

Just wait till Jehova (and his wimpy sidekick Jesus) show up in Marvel comics as super heroes. 

[Syt]

Heck, I remember when Nick Fury was a white guy,

[grumbler]

For example: the adaptation of King's Dark Tower novels with a Black actor.

This would have been a very bad idea - if the movie stuck anywhere close to the books - because, though a fantasy, the fact of Roland being visibly white-skinned (in fact, a medieval deliberate expy of spaghetti western gunslingers like Clint Eastwood) was an actual plot point in the series: he meets, and eventually befriends, a major character who is a Black woman, and one of whose personalities initially takes a strong exception to Roland because he is White (in fact, attempts to kill him ...).

This leads to all sorts of in-book implications about race, power, gender, movie tropes, etc., which the series is rich in (for better or worse). Changing his skin colour changes the story fundamentally.

Patrick Stewart starred as Othello, and every other actor was African-American.  http://www.playbill.com/article/patrick-stewart-stars-in-race-reversed-othello-in-dc-nov-17-com-72158

[Admiral Yi]

Jesus has been thoroughly reinvented for centuries as lily-white, and few people apparently object...

That's hardly true.

[Valmy]

Reinvented? What was the original Jesus? We can only go back to the 3rd century AD or so and the iconography seems reasonably consistent. How thoroughly 'lilywhite' he appears in those depictions I guess depends on your perspective.

We have no idea what he actually looked like, after all. Some people think he may not have even really existed...which makes the point rather weak.



4th Century...yeah looks like Jesus to me as he is usually portrayed. I don't see this big reinvention. Peter and Paul are also readily identifiable.

[Oexmelin]

Jesus has been thoroughly reinvented for centuries as lily-white, and few people apparently object...

That's hardly true.

What part?

[Oexmelin]

We have no idea what he actually looked like, after all. Some people think he may not have even really existed...which makes the point rather weak.

What are you talking about?

[Eddie Teach]

If anything, modern Christians are more likely to recognize his Semitic heritage. In the Renaissance, he was painted to look like a local.

[Valmy]

We have no idea what he actually looked like, after all. Some people think he may not have even really existed...which makes the point rather weak.

What are you talking about?

Julius fucking Caesar.

Oh for fucksake. I apologize for trying to have an earnest discussion. Far be it from me for asking an academic for evidence for their bullshit.

Nevermind. Throw out all the garbage you want.

[Oexmelin]

Oh for fucksake. I apologize for trying to have an earnest discussion. Far be it from me for asking an academic for evidence for their bullshit.

Nevermind. Throw out all the garbage you want.

???
It's not an earnest discussion: it's a bloody tangential point.

But sure: we only have a vague idea of what Jesus looked like, if he existed at all. Huzzah. Same with King Arthur. But it never has prevented Western art, from the middle ages on to this very day (i.e., just do a simple google image for popular devotional images of Christ) to look a lot more like a pale, brown-haired delicate, European than any other simultaneous representations that were produced about people from the Levant. And yes, I am aware that there are many representations of Christ from Coptic traditions, or Ethiopian art, or some Black Panther militant, have represented him as a black man. Why, I am sure if all those devotional images sold in the US started depicting Christ the same way generic Arab men are depicted, there would be no backlash at all.

[Admiral Yi]

Jesus has been thoroughly reinvented for centuries as lily-white, and few people apparently object...

That's hardly true.

What part?

I originally thought you meant up to and including the modern age, but I see now that you probably meant short of the modern age.  So disregard.

[Razgovory]

You know, I've played all three Witcher games (I still playing the 3rd one), and to claim it someone how belongs to the Eastern Europeans seems odd since it rips off standard Western fantasy elements without a look back.  I mean it has all the player races from the 1990's version of Dungeons and Dragons all playing essentially the same roles.  Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings and Humans.  Honestly, I find it derivative.  The games are fun and there are some elements of Slavic mythology such Vodyonoi (though even these are seen through the lens of Western Pop-culture.  They are Fish people who worship a giant fish monster named Dagon and live in a city called Ys.)

[Eddie Teach]

Dagon was from the Middle East.

[Solmyr]

I'd be really pissed off if Netflix did a series on a black D'Iberville.  Or an asian Louis XIV.

So is this only for Netflix, or does it apply to everyone? What if the Chinese made a film about Louis XIV? Would they have to find all white French actors, in your opinion?