Ooooh, Crimson Peak looks so good! But also like I will need to see it at a matinee because I am a scaredy-cat.

I am convinced to see Jupiter Ascending this week, now do I go tomorrow first showing, or Tuesday after work (bargain night)? Hm. If I want IMAX it'd better be tomorrow.

Man, I watched that trailer, and flashed right back to ita's reaction to the use of Red Right Hand in Hellboy (Which was also a Del Toro movie. Huh.)

Oh, come now. Jupiter falls off of... well, everything and gets kidnapped and rescued a lot, but once she gets her feet under her (metaphorically), she handles herself pretty good. She doesn't just climb a ladder, she climbs a ladder that's collapsing off an impossibly high structure, and then beats the crap out of a bad guy who's trying to kill her. All by herself. She also makes her own decisions, for better or worse; nobody tells her what to do. People try to influence her and use her and kill her, but nobody orders her around. I think this is a GREAT movie for girls and young women, frankly, and I think Jupiter is an excellent role model far beyond wearing a lot of pretty dresses and becoming a space queen.

There, I bucked the popular trend of hating on JA. Everyone can make fun of the silly OTT movie (and it really is silly and way OTT and SPACE BEES), but I'm still right: it's a fun and gorgeous movie, it's a great movie for girls, and it's no stupider than Star Wars or Superman.

Male adolescent power fantasies become hits, and female adolescent power fantasies get made fun of, regardless of their objective quality (or lack thereof). I'm getting a little sick of it, tbh.

Crimson Peak looks incredible. ::bounces::

Oh, and someone on Tumblr made a great point. There are a lot of women (and POC!) in this movie; besides Jupiter herself, there are three "main secondary" female characters. And there are two macho warriors, a big scary male bounty hunter, and two evil male villians. And you know what there is not? A rape threat, or slut-shaming, or a gender-based insult or threat of any kind. Not one. I can't think of any other movie with a "strong female character" that hasn't had at least one of these. Even in happy fun GotG, Gamora gets called a whore. By her own teammate. In JA, there's not even a hint of it.

Leah Schnelback at tor.com also likes the movie.

That's a great review!

That's just how I described it to my sister, too: remember the stories the kids used to tell when they were little? They were all breathless climax: "And then Luke and Han got away! And THEN Darth Vader showed up and grabbed them! AND THEN a bunch of tie fighters showed up! And it was Leia and Chewie and she rescued them! And THEN..." Plot exists so we can have explosions and chase scenes and also pretty dresses and dances with bees.

She also makes her own decisions, for better or worse; nobody tells her what to do.

Seriously? Everybody tells her what to do! She makes, at most, one decision on her own. She spends the entire movie naively following directions, and doesn't question anyone's motives until Eddie Redmayne threatens to kill her family IN FRONT OF HER. Her great achievement at the end of the movie is Has A Boyfriend And New Shoes.

She hasn't saved Earth from anything - when she dies at the end of her natural human lifespan, Earth will be inherited by one of the other siblings who will harvest it anyway. And that's assuming neither of them try to kill her again.

She makes, at most, one decision on her own. She spends the entire movie naively following directions, and doesn't question anyone's motives

Nope, sorry, disagree. She listens to what everyone says, which is wise and it's reasonable when she doesn't know what to do in this entirely new world to follow directions from people who do. She IS naive in this situation; she's totally new here. Swaggering in with guns cocked and taking charge in a situation you know nothing about is for arrogant macho leading men. Jupiter listens and learns. She decides to stay with Caine after he rescues her from the Grays at the clinic, when she could have demanded to be taken home, because despite all the weirdness and danger she wants to know what's happening. She decides she can trust Caine and Stinger; she doesn't trust any of the others but she listens and tries to make the right choices in a confusing and dangerous situation when she doesn't know what to do. (This, to me, echoes how young girls often feel in real life - the world is really crazy and everyone says they know me and they know best, but who do I trust? what do I do? ) Lots of people have an agenda for her, and she listens to what people are telling her because she doesn't know how things work. She gets influenced, most notably by Titus who presented himself as wanting what she wanted, she gets blackmailed and lied to and kidnapped and physcially attacked, but she does not get ordered around. Nobody ever says, "Jupiter, do this!" with the expectation that she will simply obey (except her mom). Whenever she has a chance to make a decision, she does; she never collapses in a wailing helpless heap, as I've seen many other "heroines" do.

And no, she hasn't really saved the Earth from anything YET. She must be aware of that. But she's bought time. And left a great starting point for a sequel, which I hope we get.

Zen has nearly convinced me to pay full price to see it. Or at least at a matinee on a good screen instead of at the crappy screen at the dollar movie house.