I'm the bad guy
Jan. 12th, 2022 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI watched The 355 yesterday--if it hadn't been for that bitch 'rona, I would definitely have gone to a theatre for opening night and I'm really bummed we couldn't do that, and also especially bummed to be denied the red carpetry of all the leading actresses and Sebastian Stan. I was SO looking forward to seeing him in couture suits and reveling in being the token boy for all the promo work. All we got was some stupid zoom appearances in unflattering clothes, boooo. (Also, the studio dumped it in January, so...even without the fucking virus, it wouldn't get the full push.)
As per the uzh, men are so up in arms about the movie (first IMDB review line I saw: "Ignore the misandrists, this movie sucks") because it's about a bunch of women joining forces in an action espionage thriller. I love that Jessica Chastain was basically like, "I want to make a movie about a bunch of women joining forces in an action espionage thriller" and made it happen with some of the best and most beautiful women working today, and also said "I want to have a Bond boy eye candy role" and asked Sebastian if he'd be interested. It's not a spoiler to say that their adorable RL friendship really glows on screen.
Although, seriously, if you've ever seen a movie or read fanfic, you're pretty likely to have come across every plot point or "twist" in this thing. I knew what was gonna happen just from watching the trailer, when I recognized the back of Seb's head when he was getting the shit beat out of him by Jessica Chastain. Judging from the set photos back in 2019, when they were filming in Paris, it was obvious he was playing her partner/love interest/boy toy, and so seeing her fighting him in the trailer, there it is spelled out: he's gonna betray her.
He does do all that--and he gets killed early on in their undercover op after they've taken their relationship from best friends to lovers. So right away you're--if you watch any movies, like I said--thinking, oh, is this like a serious version of Spy, and he's not really dead? (I wasn't even asking myself that, I knew the answer.) Édgar Ramirez was also around to be eye candy, and he also dies early on, though his certain resurrection isn't made as explicit, and he doesn't, in fact, turn out to be alive later on.
Anyway, Jessica goes off mission at the CIA at the same time as Diane Kruger, who blew Jessica and Seb's initial op, goes off mission in Germany, and Jessica rounds up her former BFF and cyber security expert/MI6 agent Lupita Nyong'o, and then they go head to head with Diane and Penélope Cruz, who was with Édgar's character when he died, though she is not an actual spy herself. They end up overcoming their mistrust of each other and their different purposes to work together to get the MacGuffin back--a super duper drive that does something something bringing chaos and disaster to the world something something. Fighty bonding and tensions ensue, plus they get the obligatory "crashing a rich people gala/auction event for stolen Bad Stuff while dressed in formalwear" scene, which I always enjoy.
That's where Fan Bingbing comes in and rounds out the group to five, and where we find out that Nick, Sebastian's character, is indeed a Very Bad Man who faked his death and is the one doing bad things with the drive before they can steal it back from him, which gets him in hot water with his Evil Nefarious Boss and makes him somewhat more homicidal than he was before.
It's kind of funny how we as fans know what a complete dork in real life Sebastian is, because he is incredibly smooth and suave and smugly, sexily Bad here. He wears it really, really well. I'm just shallow enough that he was as much a draw for me for this movie as the five actresses getting to do action, and he really doesn't disappoint, even though I admit I wanted him to be a good guy. But ALL the men in here with substantial parts are Bad. The only ones who aren't are basically the stay at home wives--Lupita's boyfriend, Penélope's husband--and the rest of them, like Diane's spy mentor or Jessica's boss, are not great guys, and Édgar Ramirez is kind of in-between, though he's the reason the whole disaster started and a lot of people died. So you can absolutely see why all the whiny fanboys and MRA types are pissing their pants about it.
One thing I really appreciated was that the women got to be very different degrees of competent--Diane is the hardest, most closed off and lonely; Jessica is a loner too, but a little more well rounded and with different support levels and friendships around her; Lupita is the damaged "I'm out of that life but they're reeling me in for one last job" person who just wants a life with her boyfriend; Fan is the mysterious, competent ringer who comes in and surprises everyone. But they let Penélope be the one out of her league while never making her awful; she's a psychologist who works for Colombian intelligence and is not a field agent, and she's often extremely scared and confused and she badly wants out but knows that what the others are saying--that if she doesn't help them, Very Bad Things will happen to the world--is true and so she helps them at great personal cost.
There's one scene where Jessica asks Diane if she's under control, and Diane doesn't know how to answer, so she asks "are you?" and Jessica just flat out says, "No!" They let the women be human beings while still being the most badass agents around, and that's something that male-led movies don't usually do. I do wish they hadn't killed some of the male collateral but then completely dropped those threads afterward; it's like everyone moves on way too fast and none of the guys who supposedly mattered to them mattered all that much in the long run.
Anyways, it's cheesy fun and has fabulous locations and great cinematography and lots of beautiful people to look at, no matter who you're there for. It's dumb but exciting and doesn't go on too long, even if you can see the story beats coming a mile away. Also it's just always fun to think of the men having apoplexy over it. I definitely want to see it again, and not just for sexy smooth Sebastian.
As per the uzh, men are so up in arms about the movie (first IMDB review line I saw: "Ignore the misandrists, this movie sucks") because it's about a bunch of women joining forces in an action espionage thriller. I love that Jessica Chastain was basically like, "I want to make a movie about a bunch of women joining forces in an action espionage thriller" and made it happen with some of the best and most beautiful women working today, and also said "I want to have a Bond boy eye candy role" and asked Sebastian if he'd be interested. It's not a spoiler to say that their adorable RL friendship really glows on screen.
Although, seriously, if you've ever seen a movie or read fanfic, you're pretty likely to have come across every plot point or "twist" in this thing. I knew what was gonna happen just from watching the trailer, when I recognized the back of Seb's head when he was getting the shit beat out of him by Jessica Chastain. Judging from the set photos back in 2019, when they were filming in Paris, it was obvious he was playing her partner/love interest/boy toy, and so seeing her fighting him in the trailer, there it is spelled out: he's gonna betray her.
He does do all that--and he gets killed early on in their undercover op after they've taken their relationship from best friends to lovers. So right away you're--if you watch any movies, like I said--thinking, oh, is this like a serious version of Spy, and he's not really dead? (I wasn't even asking myself that, I knew the answer.) Édgar Ramirez was also around to be eye candy, and he also dies early on, though his certain resurrection isn't made as explicit, and he doesn't, in fact, turn out to be alive later on.
Anyway, Jessica goes off mission at the CIA at the same time as Diane Kruger, who blew Jessica and Seb's initial op, goes off mission in Germany, and Jessica rounds up her former BFF and cyber security expert/MI6 agent Lupita Nyong'o, and then they go head to head with Diane and Penélope Cruz, who was with Édgar's character when he died, though she is not an actual spy herself. They end up overcoming their mistrust of each other and their different purposes to work together to get the MacGuffin back--a super duper drive that does something something bringing chaos and disaster to the world something something. Fighty bonding and tensions ensue, plus they get the obligatory "crashing a rich people gala/auction event for stolen Bad Stuff while dressed in formalwear" scene, which I always enjoy.
That's where Fan Bingbing comes in and rounds out the group to five, and where we find out that Nick, Sebastian's character, is indeed a Very Bad Man who faked his death and is the one doing bad things with the drive before they can steal it back from him, which gets him in hot water with his Evil Nefarious Boss and makes him somewhat more homicidal than he was before.
It's kind of funny how we as fans know what a complete dork in real life Sebastian is, because he is incredibly smooth and suave and smugly, sexily Bad here. He wears it really, really well. I'm just shallow enough that he was as much a draw for me for this movie as the five actresses getting to do action, and he really doesn't disappoint, even though I admit I wanted him to be a good guy. But ALL the men in here with substantial parts are Bad. The only ones who aren't are basically the stay at home wives--Lupita's boyfriend, Penélope's husband--and the rest of them, like Diane's spy mentor or Jessica's boss, are not great guys, and Édgar Ramirez is kind of in-between, though he's the reason the whole disaster started and a lot of people died. So you can absolutely see why all the whiny fanboys and MRA types are pissing their pants about it.
One thing I really appreciated was that the women got to be very different degrees of competent--Diane is the hardest, most closed off and lonely; Jessica is a loner too, but a little more well rounded and with different support levels and friendships around her; Lupita is the damaged "I'm out of that life but they're reeling me in for one last job" person who just wants a life with her boyfriend; Fan is the mysterious, competent ringer who comes in and surprises everyone. But they let Penélope be the one out of her league while never making her awful; she's a psychologist who works for Colombian intelligence and is not a field agent, and she's often extremely scared and confused and she badly wants out but knows that what the others are saying--that if she doesn't help them, Very Bad Things will happen to the world--is true and so she helps them at great personal cost.
There's one scene where Jessica asks Diane if she's under control, and Diane doesn't know how to answer, so she asks "are you?" and Jessica just flat out says, "No!" They let the women be human beings while still being the most badass agents around, and that's something that male-led movies don't usually do. I do wish they hadn't killed some of the male collateral but then completely dropped those threads afterward; it's like everyone moves on way too fast and none of the guys who supposedly mattered to them mattered all that much in the long run.
Anyways, it's cheesy fun and has fabulous locations and great cinematography and lots of beautiful people to look at, no matter who you're there for. It's dumb but exciting and doesn't go on too long, even if you can see the story beats coming a mile away. Also it's just always fun to think of the men having apoplexy over it. I definitely want to see it again, and not just for sexy smooth Sebastian.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-01-13 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 01:13 am (UTC)(Not saying that this movie is flashy, shallow fun as I haven't seen it, but just in general...)
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Date: 2022-01-13 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-13 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 04:58 pm (UTC)Unrelated, just saw this about a "Justified" sequel series and thought immediately of you: https://tvline.com/2022/01/14/timothy-olyphant-justified-sequel-series-city-primeval-fx/
no subject
Date: 2022-01-20 01:10 pm (UTC)Would have been nice to see it on a big screen, though...