Speaking of ‘Jupiter Ascending’, I remember when that movie first came out and the *white feminist* section of the Internet was all “this is such a fun movie for girls! it’s just like that fanfiction you wrote when you were 14! it even passes the bechdel test in the very first scene!!! FLYING WEREWOLF ALIEN CHANNING TATUM BOYFRIEND <3333”
but my reaction was just… “okay I’m glad we agree that this movie is so beautifully bad it’s good, but are we all just going to pretend that Jupiter isn’t a terribly-written female character?? and there’s something a little patronising and messed up with excusing the bad elements re: the plot/acting/characters because ‘it’s for girls!!!’ i know we’re all thirsty for female representation in Hollywood, but please love yourselves” :|
You fail to understand that the people who really love Jupiter Ascending, the people still engaging with it and creating/re-blogging tumblr posts, do not – for the most part – consider it a bad film. I think most of us can accept that it’s flawed, but flawed does not equal bad – personally, I’d much rather have an ambitious but flawed film (like JA) over a safe corporate blockbuster created to appease stockholders (every Marvel movie).
Along similar lines, we do not all agree that it’s “beautifully bad” – some people think that, certainly, but that view isn’t particularly prevalent anymore. As a rule, the people who saw the film in that light had a chuckle about it, shook their heads and moved on. That the film still has people writing meta, producing gifs and creating fanart is testament to the fact that Jupiter Ascending’s fans – the one to have really stuck with it, anyway – don’t consider it sparkly crap. On the contrary, we consider it to be worth our time, interest and love.
And I presume you’re playing the ‘Jupiter was weak because she got saved a lot’ card by saying that Jupiter was a terribly written character. I’ve remarked on this extensively elsewhere, but I will say this – Jupiter is only weak in terms of her physical strength and lack of understanding, and that she has been so widely scorned and dismissed says more about our depressingly limited concept of heroism (as something masculine that demands physical accomplishment, savviness and stoicism) than the character. Jupiter is brave and courageous, and always tries her best to make the right choices according to the knowledge she possesses. She makes mistakes but that’s natural since she’s entirely out of her depth. It’s far more honest to show her struggling and requiring help than it would be to have her magically gain superpowers – that would have been the easy, well-trodden, route, but the film refused to take it. Instead, it presents Jupiter as a character with human weaknesses and limitations that she has to overcome in order to rise.
And we love ourselves plenty, dear. That’s what makes it so wonderful to finally have a sci-fi heroine who’s not some distant icon of bland heroism, a heroine whose behaviour any of us could emulate if put into a situation where we have to make a difficult choice. Jupiter doesn’t need any superpowers to do the right thing and make a difference, and that’s why she’s wonderful.
Also, she’s an immigrant, she’s poor, she’s a cleaning lady, and she’s undocumented. That’s not exactly the sort of hero Hollywood spits out on a regular basis. There’s a LOT more going on than “oooh, she’s a girl who can’t defend herself from aliens.”
Edited to add: Also, she’s not the only female character in there. There’s also Diomika, Kalique, Razo, Famulus, Aleksa…. I think Jupiter Ascending has more female speaking parts than both Avengers films put together, as well as having a hell of a lot more diversity in its cast. That’s got to count for something.