>> One complaint that I've seen involves race; many of the bad guys are Asian**, <<
An Asian drug gang developed and distributed the drugs. Their boss is the main antagonist.
>> while the lead, who spends a lot of time fighting, attacking and killing them, is blonde and white. <<
Correct.
>> I don't know how accurate this is, but it sounds problematic. What's your take on it? <<
I think it was well done.
1) First consider possible options. You need a drug gang for your plot. To get an American drug gang, you'd need to be in America, which makes it much harder to justify this specific method of body-mule transport. Overseas location works better and the most powerful drug gangs are Asian, Hispanic, or at a stretch Russian. They all hate us, it's just a choice of which enemy you pick. But there's a reason for going Asian because they're the historic root of the opium trade. The drug in question has profound psychotropic, entheogenic effects. It's a dandy match.
2) Now consider the protagonist. She's meant to look helpless and not too bright in the beginning. Blonde is classic and symbolic for that. Symbolism matters because this is an archetype-heavy movie.
3) But everything is subverted. The evil Asian druglords just accidentally unlocked the uplift for humanity: doing a tremendously great deed for horrifically wrong reasons and in dire ways. The blonde waif turns into a goddess.
4) Plus which, the only other fully sympathetic major character in the story is the professor, and he's black. I loved seeing them pair a white girl and a black man, even though it's not romantic. You still almost never see that combination anywhere in film. The only complaint to be laid there is Magical Negro, but since her mojo massively outstrips the whole of humanity, that doesn't stand up. I really liked the interplay. He's also the only other character who manages to make anything meaningful happen after she powers up -- he gave her the idea of transmitting information.
4) There was one Asian hero who really stuck out in my mind. Quiet, you'll miss it if you don't know supervillain de-escalation tactics, but daaaaaaamn if a supervillain shoots up your hospital you want that guy on the spot. There's a scene where Lucy-hera breaks into an operating room, shoots the patient on the table, dumps him on the floor, and demands emergency services. The surgeon actually manages to stop panicking, calm her down, and get the job done in a professional and effective manner. I'm entirely sure if he hadn't, she would've shot everyone in the room and moved on to another room. And he isn't a superhero or a cop or anything like that, just a guy whose dayjob happens to include a lot of oh-shit moments, so he was willing and able to step up when the occasion called for it.
5) Really everyone else in the movie besides Lucy is set dressing. Everything revolves around her. She treats the white men like doorstops too. I found the gender dynamics massively more salient than the racial ones, but then I went into it looking for gender, not for race. I'll try and remember to reread for race when I watch it on DVD.
>> **I've seen claims that ALL of the bad guys are Asian, but I'm not sure if that's true or not. <<
Disproven. Lucy's boyfriend is white, and he is an asshole who gets her involved in the whole mess. I enjoyed seeing him splattered all over a window.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-01 06:43 am (UTC)An Asian drug gang developed and distributed the drugs. Their boss is the main antagonist.
>> while the lead, who spends a lot of time fighting, attacking and killing them, is blonde and white. <<
Correct.
>> I don't know how accurate this is, but it sounds problematic. What's your take on it? <<
I think it was well done.
1) First consider possible options. You need a drug gang for your plot. To get an American drug gang, you'd need to be in America, which makes it much harder to justify this specific method of body-mule transport. Overseas location works better and the most powerful drug gangs are Asian, Hispanic, or at a stretch Russian. They all hate us, it's just a choice of which enemy you pick. But there's a reason for going Asian because they're the historic root of the opium trade. The drug in question has profound psychotropic, entheogenic effects. It's a dandy match.
2) Now consider the protagonist. She's meant to look helpless and not too bright in the beginning. Blonde is classic and symbolic for that. Symbolism matters because this is an archetype-heavy movie.
3) But everything is subverted. The evil Asian druglords just accidentally unlocked the uplift for humanity: doing a tremendously great deed for horrifically wrong reasons and in dire ways. The blonde waif turns into a goddess.
4) Plus which, the only other fully sympathetic major character in the story is the professor, and he's black. I loved seeing them pair a white girl and a black man, even though it's not romantic. You still almost never see that combination anywhere in film. The only complaint to be laid there is Magical Negro, but since her mojo massively outstrips the whole of humanity, that doesn't stand up. I really liked the interplay. He's also the only other character who manages to make anything meaningful happen after she powers up -- he gave her the idea of transmitting information.
4) There was one Asian hero who really stuck out in my mind. Quiet, you'll miss it if you don't know supervillain de-escalation tactics, but daaaaaaamn if a supervillain shoots up your hospital you want that guy on the spot. There's a scene where Lucy-hera breaks into an operating room, shoots the patient on the table, dumps him on the floor, and demands emergency services. The surgeon actually manages to stop panicking, calm her down, and get the job done in a professional and effective manner. I'm entirely sure if he hadn't, she would've shot everyone in the room and moved on to another room. And he isn't a superhero or a cop or anything like that, just a guy whose dayjob happens to include a lot of oh-shit moments, so he was willing and able to step up when the occasion called for it.
5) Really everyone else in the movie besides Lucy is set dressing. Everything revolves around her. She treats the white men like doorstops too. I found the gender dynamics massively more salient than the racial ones, but then I went into it looking for gender, not for race. I'll try and remember to reread for race when I watch it on DVD.
>> **I've seen claims that ALL of the bad guys are Asian, but I'm not sure if that's true or not. <<
Disproven. Lucy's boyfriend is white, and he is an asshole who gets her involved in the whole mess. I enjoyed seeing him splattered all over a window.