Jamie Bell is maybe Spider-Man

[seriousfic]

Huh. That's probably the best news that could come out of the Spider-Man camp. The guy somehow managed to come out of the clusterfuck that was Jumper with flying colors, easily bitch-slapping the jive-ass Chosen One off the screen (hmm, douchey man-prat or lovably amoral rebel, who should be the hero? Wait, Jamie Bell wants to blow up Rachel Bilson and end a timeless Hayden Christiansen romance, clearly he's... in... the... wrong). Seriously, if the guy just acted like he did in Jumper when in costume... cocky, charismatic, quick with a quip... they're halfway home.

ETA: Then again, he is white. How dare you racist filmmakers not contort a classic character to accommodate a virtual unknown with little acting experience! You're the reason Chappelle's Show was canceled!

Comments

[greyandgold.livejournal.com]

Boy that movie was weird (and not in a good way) as f&ck! It was supposed to be so cool! They shot most of it where I used to work and really it seemed like it was going to be a better movie.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

I just realized that in the book, the hero was seeking revenge on a Muslim terrorist who killed his mother, while in the movie, he's just trying to avoid being killed by a secret society of fundamentalist Christian assassins. Which wouldn't be so bad, only the Christians want to kill him because... only God should be allowed to teleport. It's like the movie is daring you to think of a more nonsensical antagonist.

[azarias.livejournal.com]

How is casting an actor of color contorting Spiderman? Sure, sure, there are plenty of cases where it would make a lot of difference -- black Captain America is an entirely different story -- but Peter Parker's an eternally down-on-his-luck (which is the only reason he knows he has luck) Everyman, and there's nothing particularly white about that experience.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Well, in my mind, it would go one of two ways. One, the script would be written with a white (or neutral, if you prefer) character in mind, then the part would just be performed by a black actor as is. In which case, you would have all sorts of discussion on why Spider-Man is "coded white" and how casting a black actor as Spider-Man is meaningless if he doesn't deal with, for lack of a better term, black issues.

In the second case, the script would be rewritten with a black actor in mind, in which case the complaint would be that instead of being an adaptation of Spider-Man, it's an entirely new character dealing with the black experience (as told by a white director and white screenwriter).

Either way, you wouldn't so much end up with bold progress as you would with very flamboyant stunt casting.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

So either way, there's going to be Unfortunate Implications.

Hollywood, your determination to do the Right Thing in the Worng Way is about to screw over everyone again, isn't it?

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Wait, misread, NVM.

[azarias.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that it's only stunt casting until it becomes common. Then it's just normal. And in the meantime, we get more actors of color in heroic roles, particularly roles that are touchstones of modern American culture, and you change some attitudes.

There just aren't many roles like that that were originally written as characters of color, simply because people of color don't typically get to be heroes in our national myths. If you insist that it's only worthwhile to cast actors of color in roles originally written as people of color, for comic book movies we're stuck waiting until someone figures out how to make a John Stewart movie interesting, or a Luke Cage movie not the death of a scriptwriter's career. And neither of those roles are cultural touchstones the way Spider-man is, or Superman, or Batman, or, hell, the Doctor, which was the last time I saw this debate come up. Sure, Samuel L Jackson is a badass Nick Fury, but not a whole lot of people who weren't comic book fans knew who Nick Fury was before Sam schooled us.

I don't buy that most situations are damned if you do, damned if you don't, and if it ever so happens that that is the case, you might as well do, if it's going to suck for you either way. At least you'll get in a few "Ha ha, showed you fuckers" on your way down.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

For that kind of stunt casting to become common, either racial identities would have to become interchangeable or people would have to stop scouring movies for unfortunate implications. Neither seems likely anytime soon.

And the cultural touchstone argument is a bit disingenuous. Nobody knew who Iron Man was before his movie came out. If a movie about Jaime Reyes or Static was given the same care and talent as Iron Man's movie, then they would become cultural touchstones, which would be a lot better in the long-run than just having Spider-Man portrayed as a black man for one outing.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

>Jamie Bell wants to blow up Rachel Bilson and end a timeless Hayden Christiansen romance, clearly he's... in... the... wrong)

You forgot to mention the part where he threw a bus at Samuel L Jackson.

A bus.

At Samuel.

L.

Jackson.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

It's like someone wrote a story about a cool, badass hero and his hedonistic, spazzy sidekick, then on a dare they switched the characters' screentime.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

That would have made for a much better movie.

Which reminds me, I have to read the book sometime.