It honestly feels like Adam straight-up invented criticisms of this movie and the hype around it to fit the narrative that all Marvel movies are equally junk. Him calling the movie apolitical when the villain's motivation is quite literally bringing about black liberation through violent means and colonialism and the theme of the movie being the balance of keeping African heritage and adapting to a modern world is complete bullshit. The whole thing with "12 Years a Slave" and "Moonlight" that /u/sudevsen brought up is just the icing on the cake.
I want to believe that Adam just saw the movie in a different way than I did, but knowing how smug he can get over his opinions and reviews, that's probably not the case.
Just watch his let’s play of Uncharted 4 to see how he actively tries to find flaws in things he’s already made his mind up about. He doesn’t review things, he already has preconceived notions about things, and merely lays out points that support said notions.
To be clear: he didn't say that he thought the movie was apolitical, just that he watched with apolitical intent (looking for a good movie, rather than a compelling political statement). Also, when he says he's surprised that people consider this movie political at all (in the beginning of the review), he follows up with context of the rich white film producer joke and his criticisms of the film's quality to clarify.
From what I understand, Adam feels like the politics presented in this movie are a bland statement of "racism=bad, slavery=bad" covered up by poor special effects, moderate acting and an unconvincing plot. Simply: If you judge the merit of the film instead of the moral behind the film, you're left with something unimpressive.
From what I understand, Adam feels like the politics presented in this movie are a bland statement of "racism=bad, slavery=bad" covered up by poor special effects, moderate acting and an unconvincing plot.
This is fine, and I think Adam's review would have had some good points to make if it wasn't so clearly tainted by his anti-Marvel bias. Above all else, it's his opinion, and the technical aspects of a film should definitely be a part of a review. But...
he didn't say that he thought the movie was apolitical, just that he watched with apolitical intent (looking for a good movie, rather than a compelling political statement).
That's a terrible way to review and generally consume entertainment as an adult with proper analyzation skills. All art, even the most corporate art like a Marvel movie, says something and has emotion and a message behind it. Adam clearly throws away the reasoning as to why anyone would consider this movie to be personally important to them, as shown by going full recency bias over 12 Years and Moonlight and his defensivetweets about the review. Of course anyone that's detached with the emotional response a film tries to give an audience is going to be unimpressed with it. It's like he's criticizing the incorrect anatomy of Picasso's paintings and not trying to recognize what they could mean or why they were made.
Yes, Marvel makes cinematic junk food and is mainly aimed at making profits and drawing in new customers. But in my opinion, Black Panther is the Gatorade of Marvel movies: It's loaded with sugar to make sure it satisfies almost every palette, but it has things inside of it that can benefit people. And with this review, Adam just took a sip and declared it to be garbage without even bothering to look at the nutritional facts or ask anyone that's ever done a lot of exercise or had a stomach virus why it's helpful.
"The fact that people are considering this a political movie at all is just baffling."
That is an ambiguous statement. Also, it's the actual quote, not a paraphrase. Considering it a 'political movie' could mean a movie focused on politics, a movie with the intent to convey a political meaning, a movie whose topic-matter is politically contentious, all sorts of things.
When looking in context of the rest of the review (where Adam clearly acknowledges that most people watch the movie for political reasons in the sentence: "Believe it or not, some people actually watched this movie for reasons that were completely apolitical"), it's clear that the baffling quote means something along the lines of: 'This movie is by no means politically significant in its themes. They're not controversial or thought-provoking'.
Is his phrasing shitty? Fuck yeah. But he's not an idiot. Sometimes giving an intelligent, somewhat respected reviewer the benefit of the doubt turns out to be correct.
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u/alstor Feb 17 '18
It honestly feels like Adam straight-up invented criticisms of this movie and the hype around it to fit the narrative that all Marvel movies are equally junk. Him calling the movie apolitical when the villain's motivation is quite literally bringing about black liberation through violent means and colonialism and the theme of the movie being the balance of keeping African heritage and adapting to a modern world is complete bullshit. The whole thing with "12 Years a Slave" and "Moonlight" that /u/sudevsen brought up is just the icing on the cake.
I want to believe that Adam just saw the movie in a different way than I did, but knowing how smug he can get over his opinions and reviews, that's probably not the case.