I have not always seen eye-to-eye with fellow fans of various franchises. I disagreed with the love of the X-Men film Logan, seeing it a bad remake of Pale Rider instead of a finale for The Wolverine. I have also been frequently critical of the hate the Star Wars prequels have received over the years. That being said, I do see the value of fandom and its impact on film franchises like the MCU, DCEU, Star Wars, etc.
However, others do not. The IGN article “The Era of the Fan-Influenced Movie Has Arrived (And It’s Not Good)” by Tyler Johnson highlights how elitism leaks in nerd/geek outlets too. He whines about complaints over the first trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog, but then praises the redesigns.
“From Sonic to Justice League to Star Wars, the vocal minority is exercising outsized influence on Hollywood lately,” he writes in the sub-heading.
“And when that Sonic the Hedgehog trailer dropped, boy, was Twitter unrelenting,” he whines. “I’ll admit that I think the new Sonic movie design is a thousand times better than the original.” Make up your mind. Was the fan influence was bad or good? He just complains and discusses “art” like a first-year college student, but never explains why the redesigns were bad.
Next, Johnson attacks fans for the cuts to Justice League and then whines about the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. He praises Warner Bros. for not caving and then simultaneously admits he would be curious about it. Again, make up your ever-loving mind.
He then whines about fan influence on Star Wars and the MCU, but then praises them for Captain Marvel and Black Panther. It’s clear, he just likes The Last Jedi and falls for the “toxic fandom” line.
Where Johnson and IGN goes wrong is that these kinds of movies should connect with the fans. The fans put people in seats, generate buzz, and PAY FOR TICKETS. The stuffed shirts that IGN and Johnson are trying to appeal to don’t pay tickets. They just complain… a lot. Marvel and Star Wars are made stronger by the fans. Sure, the fans are wrong sometimes, but blaming them for the backlash to Snyder and Rian Johnson is nonsense. These guys are just bad filmmakers and that has nothing to do with fans or wishful wannabes who kind of liked their films.
That’s not to say fans should have influence over every single movie, but the DCEU, MCU, Star Wars, and others are made possible by the fans. These nerd outlets like IGN, Anime News Network, CBR, ScreenRant, etc, use to be for the fans but turned on them at some point. That is sad.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, or novel you would like me to review. While you are at it, check out my posts “Star Wars Fans Can Be So Ungrateful” for further reading. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more posts like this one.
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I agree with you. Fan servicing is important for those subjects that are basically fan driven. A franchise like SW or Marvel needs to stick to the script, if you will. That is why I hated TLJ (except for the Reylo parts). I don’t want my “expectations subverted” in a franchise like that. We have beloved characters and we don’t want them changed unless you are talking real character growth WITHIN that actual character. Han is a good guy, but he’s still a fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy and also a smart ass, etc. That should never change. But we saw that he had heart and he knew when he needed to be on the side of good and it was obvious that he loved Leia very much.
JJ changed that in TFA (although I wasn’t completely angry b/c I had no chance to care about the fact that he and Leia had a child as it was kind of thrown at us with no chance to process). Same with Leia. Leia would abandon her child? And Luke? But that could have been delved into and explained in the second movie in a way that made sense. But Ruin Johnson did not do that. That meant JJ had to pick up the pieces and I think overall he did okay at it, but they had to slam so much stuff into the last movie, that it felt thrown together and not cohesive. Also, they killed Ben with no explanation. Vader died b/c his suit was destroyed and he could not live without it. He didn’t want a new one b/c he felt freed. He had saved his son, “killed” the Emperor, he was done. Ben was NOT done. He was not Vader. He had done bad things, but not like that. He deserved a chance to make amends, live out his life, have children. That should have been the rise of Skywalker – the continuation of the bloodline through Ben and Rey.
Yes, there are some “fans” who are toxic. I saw that firsthand when the last Harry Potter book came out. The Harry/Hermione shippers went ape shit. It was horrible. They attacked JKR relentlessly. They were wrong. And it was clear they were wrong from the beginning. But they didn’t care.
Same with SW and the whole anti-SJW thing. I”m a conservative, and I don’t like SJW stuff either. But I didn’t see the new trilogy that way (at least in TFA). Yes, there was Rey. And Finn was black. So what? It didn’t come across as virtue signaling in that movie. But those kind of anti-SJW guys are usually also probably closet bigots and sexists so I ignore them.
TLJ obviously hit us all with the SJW stuff which is why I hated it and in that vein, even the bigots were correct – it was horrible. Again, you took 2 new characters who we had grown to love and ruined them all for the purpose of elevating female characters and turning Leia into a feminazi harridan. Horrible. Rose. Holdo. Ugh.
Anyway, that’s my long way of saying that there is a time and place for fan servicing. And it belongs to long running franchises. Stick to the script and you’ll be successful. “Subvert expectations” and be ready to fail.