Flash Gordon

Okay, so I finally got to see the new Flash Gordon premiere, and honestly, I have to say it's definitely a case where low expectations win out the day since in the end I actually enjoyed it.

I think the biggest problem was the length. There was way too much meaningless crap before they got to the other planet that bored me to tears. Once they got there though, things perked up considerably. It was by no means masterful storytelling, but it IS a pilot episode, so I'm willing to cut it some slack.

Also, shirtless torture with gratuitous eye-abuse. (Ever since my own eye issues, I get a horrible, sadistic amusement out of pointy things coming at people's eyes. Mostly because of the way everyone else cringes.)

I liked the other planet. I also liked the actors/characters in general. Flash Gordon is very appealing. (I'd actually love to see the guy play Captain America at some point, since he's got that big, blond, slightly-bland prettiness that'd really work there. And he's not a horrible actor either.) Dale was not nearly so obnoxious as she could have been. I'm leery about the whole love triangle/unresolved sexual tension thing, but I really like the way the two interact with each other as friends with a past.

For female portrayals, I thought it was fairly satisfying, at least as first episodes go. We see a number of women in various roles, performing various actions, with varying degrees of kickassness. Flash's mother is appealing, Dale is fiery and fun, Aura's entertainingly petulant, and the female bounty hunter is fairly awesome.

I wish there was a bit more visual variety though. They're all slim, white and brunette and while they're all very pretty, it's a bit repetitive. Hopefully there will be a greater variety later on.

When it comes to race, the pilot's definitely more problematic. The only non-white character of any sort of prominence is Flash's best friend, who as of yet is still in the dark about the whole thing. This is a problem that I'm hoping the series will rectify soon enough.

I do understand, from my privileged white woman/liberal guilt perspective, why they did not choose to make Ming or Aura Asian. Ming's got that history as a forerunner of the "Yellow Peril" idea, and he and Aura have traits that while largely unremarkable (if cartoony) on white actors start to resonate with very unpleasant racist connotations when re-associated with Asian portrayals. It's definitely an association that would be worth avoiding.

At the same time though, white-washing the characters is a solution that leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. It's not like white actors have any dearth of visibility or representation after all. We're everywhere.

It's a really difficult situation. No one wants to be racist, I'd bet. But it's an issue that must and should come up whenever an undoubtedly racist concept is revisted in the modern day. I have no real idea of how this could be rectified. I suppose the best hope is that subsequent episodes will make more effort to integrate more non-white representation (fairly prominent representation, at that) in their cast. I hope this is the case.

Anyway though, despite myself, I actually did enjoy it and I'm planning to catch the next ep, ASAP.

I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be seeing rockets real soon. :-)