August 18, 2014 Movie Monday: Divergent
If you’re anything like me, you watch the Honest Trailer for every movie they do, whether or not you’ve seen the movie. You might also read the Abridged Scripts (warning: lots of cussing). I like knowing what’s wrong with movies, even as I enjoy the movie. I don’t really know why. It hasn’t helped my critical thinking any, as I couldn’t come up with those kinds of things. My most-thought… er, thought while watching or reading those is, “Huh, I guess it really is like that. How come I never noticed it?”
All that is to say I watch the Honest Trailer for Divergent before I ever saw the movie. I knew pretty much what it was about before seeing either that or the movie itself, but I was still amused by its comparisons to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. After seeing the movie itself, I have to say I agreed with the complaints, but I still liked the movie.
I like to see people succeed, and I guess I don’t much care if they’re male or female or black or white or purple or have 85 shoulders (I use “people” here in the broadest sense of the word, I guess). I’ve started recently wishing they didn’t feel the need to give the Strong Female Character a love interest. My least favorite parts of the recently-watched Veronica Mars were all the parts where Veronica was dating, or wanted to be, or was being let down by a date, or all of that. I found myself having the same reaction during Divergent (even though Veronica Mars is way cooler than Tris – you can quote me on that) – it’s pretty easy to peg early on who’s going to be The Love Interest, and it just made me roll my eyes. A) Of course it would be him, and B) Why does she even need one?
Now, I’ve never been a teenage girl. Perhaps these are important parts to the story? (If you are/were a teenage girl, please chime in on the comments and let us know.) I suspect that teenage girls are much like everybody else, in that they’d like to see all kinds of stories with all kinds of main characters, some who have love interests and some who do not. I realize that the desires for love and companionship are common themes the majority of people can relate to, and I understand why those themes are called upon so frequently. I guess I’m just wishing it wasn’t an all-the-time thing. Maybe it’s the dystopian future genre that brings it out? (Free thesis paper idea for y’all, folks).
I don’t mean for any of this to indicate I didn’t like the movie. I did enjoy it (aside from some head-shakingly ridiculous premises) and I’m sure I’ll watch the rest of the series as it happens. But I’ll still be over here waiting for a Wonder Woman, Lady Sif, or Black Widow movie where the main characters gets things done and doesn’t need to fall in love at any point in order to find the determination to continue.
Bonus Unrelated Veronica Mars Extra Feature:
A man who recently watched through Veronica Mars with his wife (and shall remain nameless) said at one point during the series, “I really wish Veronica didn’t date __________ or _____________” (spoilers redacted).
“Why?” she replied. “Do you wish she was dating you?”
Written by: Mark
- 2 comments
- Posted under Movies
Permalink # Kathy said
The idea that a female protagonist always has to have a love interest is an ingrained cultural thing, especially if you’re a straight girl. We’re taught that if you don’t have a man there’s Something Wrong With You. And if not wrong, then at least you’re gay (which to some people counts as “wrong,” but those people are extra stupid). There’s a progression to it too. If you have the man, then why don’t you have kids? If you have kids, why don’t you have grandkids? It’s just the continuation of traditional gender roles, and you know, Hollywood can’t seem to pull its collective head out of its collective butt over that concept. I don’t get it as most of my friends my age (40’s) and younger really don’t care about the traditional role-thing as much anymore. I think your suspicion is correct, and teenage girls want to see lots of different kinds of people in lots of different stories. Here’s hoping we can give them that.
Permalink # Mark said
Thanks for this input – it makes a lot of sense!