"YES. The character shields are ridiculous. Agreed on JP. I LOVE the JP movies, but hated that aspect of Dominion. Literally only the bad guys die, not a single good one."
On one hand, it would have been a downer if Malcolm, Alan or Ellie had died. On the other hand, it's a blatant example of character armour, which removes any sense of tension. Plus, I only recall two significant deaths in the new JW film. All the other deaths were of no-name/background characters, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
"Minorities... I see your point. But also I don't recall it being a big deal about killing Jada Pinkett and Omar Epps in the beginning of 2. Granted, I was 12 and living in a rural area, so if that was a major topic, I missed it. But they even address the black aspect of the genre within that scene. But yeah, things are different now."
That's the point though. I was actually bummed out when certain Black characters died in the original films (i.e. Hallie in Scream 2, and Tyson in Scream 3), but the whole point is that some characters we care about *should* die. NO character should have de facto armour. And, as an aside, I do like that Joel the cameraman survived Scream 2 (mostly because he did the smart thing and ducked out of the situation for a large portion of the movie; that's an example of a character's smart actions/thinking logically leading to their survival; Joel didn't live because he had de facto plot armour; he lived cos he was smart).
"Agreed. The internet has made many creatives bow to fan service way too much. I'm gay, and while yeah I want fair representation, if every gay character had a character shield in every horror movie, that would be lame. Kill us too, that's fair representation. But don't kill us too much, "Bury the gays" and all that (which is a thing but becoming much less so)."
A balance has to be struck. If EVERY single Black character was being killed (which was often the case in old movies) that would be bad...
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HarveyManFredSin (4877)
a year ago
...BUT if only minority and/or 'core' characters are surviving, that also hurts the film, because it robs the film of any real tension.
I mean, I genuinely enjoyed this movie, but in hindsight, it figures that *SPOILERS* the villains would be a white cop and his two kids (although if the villain had turned out to be anyone but Dermot Mulroney's character, I'd have been baffled, since his 'dead son' was a major red flag). It would have taken more guts and been more shocking if a POC had turned out to be the villain.
What I'm saying is that agendas, including an apparently 'woke' agenda, are fatal to these types of films, because they rob the story of any surprises. If you can guess beforehand who is going to live and who is going to survive, where's the fun in that? Sorry, but whilst I hate to be one of those 'anti-woke' guys, in this instance, I truly think there's a genuine argument as to why horror/mystery filmmakers cannot afford to be too woke.
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ADBruno1985 (3330)
a year ago
I agree with everything you've said above. I've enjoyed our banter this evening, rare enough on here :)
JP6, I'm sorry to say, I actually only recall one significant death, the completely obvious Dodgson. Who was the 2nd? I'm blanking
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HarveyManFredSin (4877)
a year ago
Rainn Delacourt, one of the other baddies who gets killed at the dino black market.
But I don't blame you for not regarding him as significant.
And thanks back at you for the civil and agreeable discussion.
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Tongue (449)
a year ago
I don’t like the entire “woke” conversation but you are correct - the “identity politics” being played in most tv and movies is just tedious and frustrating at this point. They are only crippling the enjoyment of their film when they throw that in. It’s so bad that there are modern movies that I know when black characters are introduced that they will definitely not be the bad guy .. it’s that noticeable
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