A beloved 80's film with sequels.
A devoted fan base.
A modern remake with mostly women leads.
A trailer that most people found terrible.
Filmmakers attacking the fans as sexist for not liking the trailer.
This is what we saw with the bomb that was 2016's Ghostbusters and now it looks as though Terminator: Dark Fate is following in the same footsteps.
I want to say at the outset that I have no idea if T:DF is good or bad. The following analysis has no bearing on the actual final product. We saw echoes of something similar with Captain Marvel's promotions, but that turned out to be a fairly good movie.
The thing that needs to be addressed is how the T:DF like Ghostbusters are adopting a strategy of antagonism towards potential customers rather than trying to win them over.
In a recent interview with Variety, director Tim Miller discussed the action lead played by Mackenzie Davis. He said of her: "If you’re at all enlightened, she’ll play like gangbusters. If you’re a closet misogynist, she’ll scare the f–k out of you, because she’s tough and strong but very feminine. " There is a heavy problem with his logic and his implications if you do not like the character he has created.
Let us take a look at his first syllogism. Forgive this slightly technical digression on syllogisms. I fear that it may come off as techno-babble, but I could not think of a way to make my point clear and avoid it.
There are parts to a hypothetical syllogism, the antecedent (IF statement), the consequent (THEN statement), the affirmation or denial of the consequent or antecedent, and then the conclusion
:
-IF: You are enlightened -THEN: You will love this character
-I do not like
-THEREFORE: I am not enlightened.
This is a valid syllogism where by denying the consequent then the premise must be false. He is stating that his character is such a clear and shining example of a great film character, that if you do not like that you are not only lacking in taste but are morally flawed or unenlightened.
In the next syllogism, affirming the consequent doesn't prove the antecedent. So she could scare the you-know-what out of you for reasons other than the antecedent. But what I find fascinating is his use of the adjective "closet." Without that adjective, the statement is straightforward and makes sense. Misogynists hate women and the lead actress is a woman so it would make sense that they would not like her. But the added qualifier implies that someone who hates the character and shows no outward signs of misogyny is actually a closeted misogynists.
This is similar to a particularly distasteful idea known as "dog-whistling," which means that someone could say something that is on the surface innocuous, but it has hidden meanings that are communicated. In this case, "I hate this character" is taken as a dog-whistle for "Women are bad." The reason I find this type of implication so distasteful is that it eliminates the meaning of words. How can I defend against a charge of dog-whistle misogyny if my arguments defending myself can be interpreted as more dog-whistles. Instead of people trying to discover the meaning of each other's statements, the way Socrates would do, we would now simply place whatever meaning we judge on top of the words of another. Anything you say to me can be a compliment or an insult depending on my judgment of you.
And this seems to be what Miller is doing to people who do not like what they have seen so far of T:DF. Don't like my character? Then you are an unenlightened potential misogynist.
Can someone please explain to me how this type of promotion is supposed to increase ticket sales? The cast and crew of Ghostbusters came hard at their critics and the movie bombed. Why would you poison the well like this and what is the alternative?
I remember when it was announced that Joaquin Phoenix was cast to play the new Joker. I thought it was a terrible idea. I'm sure that there were other skeptics online as well. I do not recall how vocal any of them were. But then they released the first teaser and I was mesmerized. If people didn't believe that Phoenix could pull of the character, the point of the teaser was to show you how amazingly he embodied the character in body, voice, and performance.
In other words, Joker won me over. I am now very excited to see this movie.
People are skeptical about this new Terminator. The last three were also not well-received. The fact that Miller is making a preemptive strike ad hominem strike against his critics tells me that he is not confident about his work and is not convinced that it will be popular.
I wish Miller and the Terminator franchise all of the best and I truly hope that it is a good movie.
But Miller shouldn't assume that people who don't like his movie have a character flaw.
It could just be that the movie has a flawed character.
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