So all the straight white males are bad guys.... the lead male is a doofus and has to be told what to do by a strong, humorless woman who is always right and is kept out of academia because she's a woman. The Indian chieftan is a woman (which causes derision in London, of course). The cannibals aren't cannibals at all but are noble savages with a tree that can save the world. The brother has to be gay, of course.
This thing was written with a checklist.
It was woke but balanced with jokes about women wearing pants.
The whole gay brother thing was kind of lame. I didn't think that portraying a homosexual as a whinging pansy would be the kind of representation that the gays would want.
YIKES.🙄
shareEverything woke, my ham sandwich is woke. As for the gay brother, i thought for the most part it was handled pretty well. It wasn't like "look at the flaming gay guy who loves dick". Even tho they did make him somewhat stereotypical gay. And it seems to me this movie pay somewhat tribute to the African Queen. So that woke too i guess. Why is it when women do anything in a movie. Its always woke to some idiots.
shareI agree. This wasn't the typical Hollywood in-your-face woke like some are making it out to be.
The female lead was far from an all-powerful Mary Sue. She knocked around the old men to steal the arrow head and fought back against the "savages" but she also had her weaknesses and moments of being a damsel in distress.
The gay reveal was also subtle enough to not be considered necessarily "woke."
I think was so subtle, i doubt a young kid would know what there were talking about. They don't make a big deal about it, like other movies or tv shows would have. Its like "o.k. your gay, now on with the adventure". But im sure that scene will be cut out in China. Also i didn't find Dwayne Johnson being doofus in this. It seem to be pretty standard role for him.
shareEverything woke, my ham sandwich is woke.
The the hell eats ham sammies these days? PUT SOME PORK ON YOUR FORK, or get that bacon crispy... ham.. so ... ham.
shareI agree with the brother part... I like Jack Whitehall, he comes across as very camp in all the 8 out of 10 cats (does countdown) episodes, and appreciates his own self.. I like that..
but it really didn't need to be in this. Nothing more than a nod to the lgbtqipplmtaciddaytura crowd...
sadly, this is 2021.. nothing is the same. we'll end up in huts and hovels, controlled by think police.. :/
"but it really didn't need to be in this. Nothing more than a nod to the lgbtqipplmtaciddaytura crowd..."
Meh, I'm not so sure about this. The gay/effeminate character trope has been used for as far back as I can remember, mostly for comedic gags. Just off the top of my head, there was the cross dresser in Con Air, and Serge in Beverly Hills Cop - /effeminately "No, you get the fuck out of here."
I'm sure if I gave it some thought, I could come up with a half a dozen more without much trouble.
It seems we've become overly sensitive to it exactly because of the [actual] woke "I'm gay and you're going to love me and celebrate my gayness or you're evil" extremes that it gets taken to. But having a character gay for the gags doesn't meet that threshold to me and I can't see it as service to the alphabet lgbtqipplmtaciddaytura crowd.
Those were comedic roles, and not a nod to the woke status quo circa 2021.
Macgregor's role was for comedic effect. For example, the scene where Frank is tossing all of the extraneous luggage overboard. As Macgregor is identifying the contents of each trunk, Frank is tossing it overboard, "nope, don't need that." Then as he's about to toss the one with the booze, he stops himself at the last second, "that one can stay"
This got a good chuckle from the audience in the theater. It wouldn't have worked without the stereotypical excessive nature attributed to a more feminine character.
Not so sure, in older English movies, there were always prissy cast members, who did not necessarily have to be gay. In fact, more than not, were not. Just used to having everything done for them, and treating lower class people with contempt, but having no ability to stand up to it.
So I didn't see it at that point, as him being a more feminine character, just a typical snobbish brit.
"So I didn't see it at that point, as him being a more feminine character, just a typical snobbish brit."
Well then, that goes to show how subtle it was then. He wasn't a "flamer" as it were.
These days, especially if you're a Brit, if you're not flaming, you're heterosexual.
He does come across as a bit .. you know.. on shows like 8 out of 10 cats and wilty.. but still.. I just thought he was a snoot in this.. haha well I was wrong. ehh whaddyagonnado!
Not so woke. I could have done without the 5 minute scene to do nothing other than inform the audience the extremely important fact that the brother was gay. Who the fuck cares? He was a good character, what matter was it to spend an entire scene establishing his sexual preference?
Other than that one Oscar nomination prerequisite, I didn't feel like the movie was overly woke. The strong female character was good without being impossibly perfect. She made mistakes and had flaws.
Enjoyed it as a nice Diz level action film. 7.5/10