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Tampilkan postingan dengan label Twitter. Tampilkan semua postingan

Rabu, 16 Oktober 2013

Twitter Fights Back Against the Racist Reactions to a Black Human Torch

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Yesterday, the folks over at The Wrap revealed that director Josh Trank is considering the possibility of casting his “Chronicle” star Michael B. Jordan in the role of comic book superhero Johnny Storm — aka The Human Torch — in the upcoming relaunch of “The Fantastic Four,” which is scheduled to hit theaters in the summer of 2015.

Needless to say, fan reaction to this idea has been mixed, falling somewhere between “that’s cool” and “OMG IT’S ARMAGEDDON!!!!” on the freak out scale. The “problem” some fans see with the casting news? Jordan happens to be African-American, while Johnny Storm traditionally is not.

Now, this doesn’t really seem like that big a deal to us. Jordan is already one of the most highly respected actors of his generation, not only landing a major smash in “Chronicle” but also earning rave reviews for his work on the legendary HBO series “The Wire” as well as the breakout Sundance hit “Fruitvale Station.” And if there’s one thing that Marvel’s superhero movies have proven over the past five years, it’s that the quality of the actor is even more important than the quality of the CGI. Getting top talent is trumps all.

At least, to some people. To others… well, maybe not so much.

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One thing that’s interesting about “The CheekyBrit’s” complaint is that it’s framed in terms of Jordan’s age. As it happens, Jordan is actually 23. More to the point, however, is the fact that in the comics, Johnny Storm was 16 when he became the Human Torch. A literally hot-headed teenager with super powers was the entire point of the character. So that argument seems a bit misguided to say the least.

Other protesters, however, just cut right to the chase when voicing their displeasure.

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Honestly, we’re just glad we finally found out who poached the handle “BalloonMerchant” from us. That’s been bugging us for awhile.

But not, apparently, as much as the idea of a black Human Torch is bugging these guys. On one level, it’s kind of understandable only in the sense that comic fans are notoriously touchy about Hollywood screwing around with their beloved characters. Heck, there was a massive outcry when Jack Nicholson was cast as The Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 version of “Batman” and he turned out to be the best part of the film. So fanboys definitely have a history of histrionics.

This, on the other hand, does feel a bit different, not in the least because, seriously, does anyone really feel that passionately about the Human Torch?

Luckily, there were other Twitter users on hand to put things back into perspective.

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From where we’re sitting, both “artboiled” and “FreakishNerd” cut right to the heart of the question. The goal of any film, superhero or not, is to cast strong actors in well rounded roles. If you do those two things well, the rest of the movie will pretty much take care of itself. Does it matter that this new Human torch may be black? Well, it only matters insofar as Jordan’s performance makes it matter.

And frankly, “The Fantastic Four” has much bigger hurdles to face, such as the fact that screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire himself recently, as “ZacharyWhitten” so eloquently pointed out.

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And for fans still clutching their pearls over the fact that the Human Torch might end up being portrayed by an African-American actor, we offer up these two final facts. Firstly, Johnny Storm only exists because the original Human Torch, who was an android named Jim Hammond, was completely revamped and reconceptualized to make him more appealing to modern audiences. And secondly, the “Fantastic Four” cartoon from the 1970's thought so highly of Johnny Storm that he was left out of the show entirely, replaced by the epically stupid HERBIE the Robot.

So the idea that Johnny Storm as Human Torch is some kind of inviolate trust that can never be changed? Yeah. Right.

Keep on fighting, Twitter.

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Categories: News

Tags: Chronicle, Fantastic four, Josh trank, Matthew vaughn, Michael b. jordan

Rabu, 16 Januari 2013

WTF? Random Twitter Guy Quoted in ‘A Haunted House’ TV Ad

Ancient Chinese Proverb: Be wary of TV pull quotes.


If you took more than a passing glance at his Twitter feed or Facebook profile, you’d know that Steven Cuellar is your average gay Texas dude with a dead boyfriend working at Dave & Busters who loves his nephew, Justin Bieber, and margaritas… In that order.


One thing Steven Cuellar is not is a movie critic, either professionally or even at an amateur blogging level. You wouldn’t know that from a recent spree of TV commercials for the Wayans Brothers atrocity “A Haunted House,” because they use a quote from Cuellar’s Twitter account, which currently has 43 followers.


The quote? “Funniest Movie Ever!”


Not to knock a cheap “Paranormal Activity” parody before having seen it, but it’s fair to say Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, The Zucker Bros, The Coen Bros, The Farrelly Bros, Judd Apatow, Chris Tucker, and even motherflippin’ Burt Reynolds would have a word or two with Cuellar around the subject of “hyperbole.”


That’s beside the point, though, because Open Road Films is the culprit behind this sleaze-a-rific promotional move. They apparently just grabbed the quote, presumably because Cuellar is the only person in the universe that would like it enough to make that statement (and want to see it again to boot).


At first Cuellar was tickled by it:
“OH THE CELEB THAT I AM. They put my name on the commercials for the trailer #AHauntedHouse cuz of the tweet I posted.”


Then the Twitter trolls swooped in to bombard him, like Jared Tikker who wrote:
@cuellarsteven27 you should see the footage of my dad’s colonoscopy, you’d piss yourself laughing so hard. #funniestmovieEVER


Now its gotten to the point that Cuellar’s 15 minutes of fame has turned into 15 minutes of pain, as when someone asked him how he got in the commercial:
“@Mr_Alexius I have no idea.. I had no clue… The past two days I’ve been getting attacked by everyone by that. I had nothing to do with it.”


Poor Steven! You didn’t know that before they start reviewing movies most professional critics are taken for a two-week boot camp where they’re berated by fat internet nerds and beaten with bars of soap inside a sock. We’re conditioned for this kind of punishment, and you are not. If only Open Road had warned you…


Of course this is not even close to the first time a studio has tried to scam the public through TV commercials, with Sony using a made-up guy named “David Manning” to promote pictures like “The Patriot,” “Hollow Man,” and Rob Schneider’s comedic excrement “The Animal.”


Even when the quotes are “legit,” they’re about as sincere as Pinocchio in a bordello. Hell, I personally have been quoted positively in an ad for a movie I only saw half of. For reals. If you’re curious about the process by which pull quotes are divined by the cosmos, let me take you through it:


1. A film journalist gets invited either personally or through his/her outlet to a screening, taking discreet sips of whiskey (smuggled in a Vitamin Water bottle) throughout.


2. After the film is over they take two Dramamine, then the bus home to their sh***y one-bedroom apartment where an e-mail from a studio rep asks, “Hi! Would love to hear your thoughts on the film!”


3. The weary journo writes: “It’s like if Batman held a nursing home hostage and cried the whole time, and then Nicole Kidman made him magically not dying of cancer all of the sudden.”


4. Studio writes back: “Thanks! Can we have permission to quote you in some advertising? We’d like to shorten the quote slightly to read, ‘It’s the next BATMAN! Nicole Kidman is sensational!’”


5: Journo writes back: “Fine.”


And here’s Steven Cuellar’s fifteen characters of fame, as it hatched:


So given the BS process through which studios go fishing with dynamite for quotes, is using random Joe the Plumbers off Twitter in commercials all that much more disingenuous? All I know is, in an age when we invite our privacy to be invaded through social media, this has been a big week for Steven Cuellar. Also, he’s getting a birthday tattoo on Sunday. Good for you, buddy!

Categories: Features

Tags: A Haunted House, reviews, twitter, Twitter Famous, A Haunted House