I read a lot of social justice media blogs, because, relevant to my interests. And whenever something sci-fi comes out, inevitably people rush to point out the sheer whiteness of the cast. Especially when it's an adaptation of a book or something, and character of color in the book are cast as white actors. Anyway, I've read complaints about white-washing so often that when I watched After Earth, I was SHOCKED by how right they did it. I mean, first of all, the two main characters were black. But the supporting cast, and the crew and the soldiers and everyone--was very well represented. Black, brown, white, every shade in between. It was actually as if the human population, with its minority of white people and majority of people of color, had moved to space and gotten jumbled up.
It was so lovely. I hope people are talking about it! I hope it is a thing that continues!
Other than that, though, the movie wasn't much to write home about. Interesting father/son dynamics, but I scoffed at the idea of being devoid of fear while facing terrifying creatures. I stand firmly in the "courage means doing something even though you are a afraid" camp, and I don't want no fearlessness advocates messing with my jam.
But race? They win gold stars.
Oh race! Oh sci fi! I was embarrassed when someone had to point out to me that in Firefly, although they all speak Chinese, none of the main characters is Eastern Asian. #cue_no_one's_asian_in_the_movies
ReplyDeleteFirefly was definitely one of the shows for which I heard much complaining. Although, yeah, I didn't notice it until someone else pointed it out.
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