Madame Web And Caring About Characters
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Madame Web and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this superhero origin story movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I both watched Madame Web, a superhero movie set in the not-so-distant past. I was excited for this movie as it features a group of female superheroes! Yay!
But it was…challenged. In many different ways.
The key one being…
I didn’t care about most of the characters, including the heroine, the future Madame Web.
And I believe this has to do with how they were presented to us.
For example, we see Cassie Web, the heroine, saving a life in her job as a paramedic. But she does this coldly, without emotion, like it is merely part of her job and nothing more.
Then we see her being cold and dang mean to innocent little kids wanting to thank her for saving their beloved daddy.
Sure, later, we see her feeding a stray cat. But our first impression of her is already set by then.
And that first impression is NOT good.
I disliked her. Intensely.
The irony is…
A two minute ‘scene’ would have flipped that for me. All the director had to do was show Cassie’s internal struggle. Show her talking to herself, telling herself to not get emotionally involved, to not feel for others, to not risk being hurt.
Then have a flicker of caring, of softness in Cassie’s demeanor when she is thanked by the kid before she pulls herself back into her cold emotional shield. Let the coldness be a struggle, not her natural personality.
We have to like SOMETHING about main characters. Remember that when writing tough-to-like heroines and heroes.
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The Tearsmith And Modern Fairy Tales
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Tearsmith (Fabbricante di lacrime in Italian) and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this absolutely magical darker fairy tale romance movie (with the expected romance ending!), you might wish to skip this post.
I recently watched The Tearsmith and, my friends, this movie is absolutely magical. It was filmed in Italian, yes, but the English subtitle work is some of the best I’ve ever experienced. It is poetic and beautiful and it really gives that wonderful fairy tale feel the entire movie captures.
This is a modern fairy tale and it is a romance with the expected romance ending (which means, of course, critics hated it – nothing makes critics angrier than a happy ending – grins). It doesn’t have any paranormal elements. It is set in today’s world devoid of magic or shifters or anything like it.
Yet it FEELS paranormal. It FEELS like a magical story. It FEELS like it could be written by the Grimm Brothers if they lived now.
The hero is a prince turned into a monster by a wicked being. The heroine is his princess, to be protected and cherished but never to be his. There are evil forces working against them.
It is a wonderful story and I definitely recommend it to any writing buddies seeking to craft their own modern fairy tale. The Tearsmith does this very, very well.
(smiles)
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Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein And Monster-Loving Heroines
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this beautiful monster movie based on the classic novel by Mary Shelley, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I watched Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and we both really enjoyed it.
It was an absolutely gorgeous movie. The little tweaks to Mary Shelley’s classic story worked for us. GdT did a wonderful job of showing us who was the true monster. And I found the ending sad but not as very, very sad as the endings were in previous Frankenstein movies.
And the love story between the creature and Elizabeth was done very well.
Which is often difficult to do.
Because it takes a special being to love a ‘monster.’
Society has trained us to reject those who are different, especially those who look differently.
And many people never move past first impressions. They can’t see past physical appearances.
The average person would never allow themselves to be attracted to someone who looks like a monster.
Elizabeth isn’t the average person.
She has been raised in a convent and has limited exposure to men. She doesn’t know what is or isn’t normal. They are all strange creatures to her.
Society hasn’t indoctrinated her in that way yet.
And when she’s freed from the convent, she’s…h@rny.
Basically.
Though there are no sex scenes shown.
She has the hots for her future husband. She has the hots for her future husband’s extremely different in all ways brother. I suspect if her future husband had three brothers, she would have had the hots for all three of them.
She doesn’t yet know what she likes in a romantic partner and she has a lot of passion to share.
She also loves insects, the stranger the better. She’s fascinated with wild creatures that aren’t often loved by the average person.
The Creature, as Frankenstein’s creation is often referred to, is simply another strange being she encounters. She doesn’t care that society might reject him and their relationship…because she doesn’t yet know what society likes or what the punishments are for rebelling against society expectations.
The Creature adores her. And he is even more innocent and new to the world than she is, which must be super appealing to her.
I understand completely why she would be attracted to him.
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2022’s Persuasion And Believing The Happy Ever After
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the 2022 Dakota Johnson movie version of Persuasion and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this romance based on the book by Jane Austen, you might wish to skip this post.
I enjoyed the 2022 Dakota Johnson version of Persuasion very much. I thought it was fun and witty and entertaining.
(Although I cringed as always during the ‘My brother-in-law proposed to me first’ scene. I think of Anne as a mean girl and as disloyal due to that scene.)
But I didn’t believe the Romantic Happy Ever After. At all.
I didn’t believe it in the book and I didn’t believe it in this movie version of it.
Anne Elliott was persuaded years ago to break off her engagement to Wentworth. He was poor and her family didn’t like that.
Anne didn’t fight for Wentworth or their relationship.
And I got the impression he didn’t fight for her. He, instead, went off to sea.
In the book and in the movie, we NEVER see Anne fight for Wentworth and their relationship.
When all seems hopeless, she, a person whom we’re told takes action in disastrous situations, says and does nothing.
We also NEVER see Wentworth fight for Anne and their relationship.
When all seems hopeless, he decides to go off to sea again.
Thankfully, he left her a letter this time.
And that is the ONLY reason they end up together at the end.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have been happily in love for over three decades.
If there is one thing I know about love and relationships, it is that we have to fight to make them last. We can’t give up. We have to do the hard things, perhaps make others displeased, battle for the other person to make it work.
I don’t think Anne and Wentworth are willing to do that.
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Jurassic World Rebirth And Living Up To Hype
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Jurassic World Rebirth and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this dinosaur-filled movie, you might wish to skip this post.
I LOVE dinosaurs and I’ve enjoyed all of the Jurassic Park/World movies.
Yes, even the second one. (grins)
Jurassic World Rebirth is my least favorite.
It has moments of wonder in it. I loved the saved family, especially the boyfriend and his character arc. I thought the scene with the Titanosaurus was absolutely beautiful.
My big disappointment was with Distortus rex.
Every Jurassic movie has a new ‘terrifying’ dinosaur. This dinosaur is usually bigger and scarier and more deadly than any we’ve seen thus far.
And this is set up to be true in Jurassic World Rebirth.
We first ‘encounter’ Distortus rex in the first scene. We don’t see her but we know she’s huge and deadly.
And I was waiting excitedly the entire movie to finally see her.
When we did see her, toward the end of the movie, she was a let down.
She definitely didn’t live up to the hype.
She was hard to look at. She was so ugly. She had numerous arms but we didn’t really see how that was much of an advantage.
Because her scenes were few. And the fight was over quickly.
We weren’t shown how she was a better predator than the T-Rex, one of our favorites.
She had no endearing aspects or traits, nothing to give us a connection to her.
And I’m not interested in seeing Distortus rex ever again.
If she is the future of Jurassic dinosaurs, I’ll give that beloved franchise a pass.
This is a reminder for myself and writing buddies.
If we build hype, we have to deliver on that hype.
If we tell readers, for example, our hero will do ANYTHING to protect his love interest, we have to show him doing some serious sh*t to safeguard that being.
If we hint that sh*t will hit the fan if anyone found out about their relationship, someone has to find out and sh*t has to hit the fan. Hard.
Live up to the hype.
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The Gorge And Building A Romance Without Dialogue
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Gorge and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this awesome SciFi Romance movie, you might wish to skip this post.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched The Gorge.
I LOVED it.
This is a true SciFi Romance in movie form, with the expected Romance Ending. You and I know how very rare these movies are. And this one is terrific.
I laughed. I worried through the dark moment. I believed the relationship would last…forever.
And this was done with a lot of that relationship not having any dialogue. Or having any direct physical connection.
Because the hero and the heroine are separated by an almost impassable gorge for much of the movie.
They communicate with white boards i.e. the written word, which, as a reader, I loved. And they communicate through movement.
We saw how they think similarly in many ways and how their differences in personality complement each other. And this is brilliantly done.
The Gorge is a must watch for writers who want to SHOW how a relationship builds.
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Deep Impact, Bad Parents And Flawed Heroines
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Deep Impact and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this awesome comet disaster movie from the previous century (1998 – grins), you might wish to skip this post.
Deep Impact is my favorite comet disaster movie. I really like that it has a news media/journalism angle to it and that it talks about how a government might cover up a possible world ending disaster.
(It stars Morgan Freeman as one of my favorite movie world leaders which is a huge plus.)
I also like that the characters are fully developed, including some seen-only-in-one-scene characters like the older gentleman reading his paper.
Jenny Lerner and her parents are especially nuanced. Jenny, as a high profile journalist, has a guaranteed spot in the humanity saving ‘arc.’
If she chooses, she can survive the disaster.
You and I suspect she won’t survive it because she’s the heroine, yes, but also because she has character traits that serve as flaws in any disaster situation.
She is soft-hearted and VERY easy to emotionally manipulate.
Her mom knows this.
Jenny’s mom doesn’t have a place in the ‘arc’ and she realizes her daughter won’t allow her to die alone. Jenny will, if given the choice, walk away from her place in the ‘arc’ and sacrifice her life to be with her mom during the comet strike.
So Jenny’s mom makes her own sacrifice and ensures Jenny doesn’t have that choice. She does everything left in her power to increase the odds her beloved daughter will survive.
That’s how much Jenny’s mom loves her.
Jenny’s dad also knows Jenny is easy to emotionally manipulate.
And he, being a selfish bastard, has no qualms about doing that to ensure HE doesn’t die alone. He, without hesitation or any hint of regret, emotionally blackmails his daughter, knowing it will result in her death.
I hated him for doing that.
But I LOVED that the writers built this nuance into the story.
The writers could have given Jenny solely the expected-in-an-action-movie heroic motivation of saving an innocent child and stopped there.
But they gave her a secondary motivation. She is manipulated by someone she loves.
Someone whose last act shows he doesn’t love her enough.
And that is great writing.
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The TV Series Versailles, Second Season, And Allowing Characters To Find SOME Happiness
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the TV series Versailles and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this historical drama TV series, especially the first season of it, you might wish to skip this post.
I’ve now completed the second season of Versailles and I now know one reason this show didn’t gain a sufficient audience.
The writers don’t allow ANY of the characters to find happiness, especially romantic happiness.
Yes, the main characters are based on real people. And these real people didn’t find romantic happiness. Or much happiness of any kind.
But there are secondary characters the writers clearly didn’t base on real people. And they weren’t allowed to find happiness of any kind either.
And with a cast of thousands, that’s…a lot. Everyone is miserable. Everyone is in constant drama.
There’s no backbone of contentment or joy or happiness.
In a Romance Novel Series, this role would be filled by the happily bonded couple (or more) of one of the previous stories in the series. Or a set of long time happy and now super content parents. Or the grandmother who is always in her kitchen baking cookies when the hero needs someone to talk with. Or the best friend who always makes the heroine laugh when she’s feeling sad.
These characters are relatively drama free and they are a respite for the readers/viewers from the darkness, from the conflict. They show us where we want the main characters to end up, our wish for them.
All drama all the time with all characters is tiring. And that type of story doesn’t appeal to many people.
Give your readers a sanctuary.
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The TV Series Versailles And A Cast Of Thousands
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about the TV series Versailles and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this historical drama TV series, especially the first season of it, you might wish to skip this post.
I’ve recently been enjoying Versailles, a historical drama TV series inspired by some of Louis XIV’s life. I’ve completed the first season.
And stars, I’m emotionally invested.
This is despite the showing having a HUGE cast and the similarity of how the characters look (all white, all in that period’s clothing, having that period’s hairstyles, etc.).
I believe this is because of how uniquely every character acts and thinks and how consistent they are regarding this.
Louis XIV and the Duke Of Orleans are brothers, for example.
But we know that Louis XIV will always make decisions based on what he believes will result in the greatness of himself and of France. He is also always aware that people want to harm and kill him. He’s paranoid about betrayal and he has good reason to be so.
The Duke Of Orleans has been betrayed also. But his default is trust. Because he has been raised to trust in the monarchy and in the King’s (in this case, his brother’s) decisions. This results in him trusting a loved one who, time and time again, betrays that trust.
These two very different approaches to life impacts their behaviors and their thinking.
Louis XIV acts quickly and decisively. He doesn’t ‘talk.’ He commands.
The Duke Of Orleans will defer to others. He is unlikely to act without support or consensus. He listens more than he talks.
And because he knows he has support, he isn’t overly worried about being assassinated. He ‘trusts’ other will keep him safe.
That’s great character building.
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The Other Boleyn Girl And Fanfiction
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Other Boleyn Girl and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this awesome fanfiction-based movie, you might wish to skip this post.
Every so often, there will be a debate in writing communities about whether or not fanfiction is a valid type of writing.
The Other Boleyn Girl, the movie, based on the book by Philippa Gregory, is definitely fanfiction.
The names of the characters are real. Certain things like Anne Boleyn marrying King Henry VIII and then being beheaded are historical facts.
Most of the rest of it is completely made up.
Heck, even the birth order of Mary and Anne Boleyn has been fabricated.
Mary, in the movie and in the book, resisted becoming the mistress of the King Of England, as another example. She didn’t want to cheat on her husband.
According to many historians, in reality, she was the mistress of the King Of France before she was the mistress of the King Of England. And her first husband was aware of that before he married her.
So I doubt there was much resisting happening.
I KNOW The Other Boleyn Girl is fanfiction.
I KNOW it has very little historical content.
Yet I still very much enjoy the movie.
It has an amazing cast (Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, and more). The costumes are gorgeous. The story is entertaining.
It works for me as a movie.
Fanfiction is a valid form of writing (as long as you observe copyright).
Don’t let anyone tell you any differently.
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