By David Futrelle
Reactionary dinguses and #Gamergate leftovers have been raging against Captain Marvel for weeks (months?) now, claiming that the movie is little more than secret SJW propaganda designed to genocide white men or something. Now that the movie has hit theaters at last, you might be wondering how well their Captain Marvel boycott is going?
Not very, it turns out. Far from tanking, the film is actually racking up impressive numbers at the box office, with industry observers currently projecting a $150-$160 million weekend in North American theaters alone, way up from initial projections of $100 million.
So how is the angry mob responding? By declaring the box office numbers to be a big hoax, fake news, no collusion! (Oh, wait, they actually think there is collusion.)
Naturally, the positive reviews the film have gotten are supposedly fake as well:
As it turns out, there actually ARE some fake positive reviews of the movie out there. Namely 100 or so identically worded reviews up on Google. So of course the Captain Marvel foes — who only a few weeks ago bombarded Rotten Tomatoes with so many “don’t want to see” votes that the site disabled that feature — are now accusing SJWs and/or Disney of fraud.
Huh. So a huge multinational corporation pushing a major film is going to try to game the reviews by … hiring some troll to post 100 literally identical reviews on Google? Knowing that anyone who saw more than one of the reviews would instantly realize they were fake? I’d say the chance that Disney (or even freelance SJW “shills”) are behind this, rather than some anti-Captain Marvel troll trying to make Disney look bad, are probably about, well, one in 160 million.
Even Jack Posobiec, the Nazi-adjacent professional troll who’s been pushing for people to see Alita: Battle Angel instead of Captain Marvel, has been sounding a bit defensive today:
You know you’re WINNING when all you can offer is excuses.
UPDATE: The numbers from Saturday night are in:
Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson, shattered the glass ceiling in its box office debut with $455 million in worldwide ticket sales, including $153 million in North America.
The tentpole’s global launch reps the biggest ever for a female-fronted film — eclipsing Beauty and the Beast ($357 million) — as well as the second-largest for any superhero pic behind Avengers: Infinity War ($640.5 million). Overall, it’s the sixth-best worldwide bow of all time, and the international opening of $302 million is the fifth-biggest ever ahead of Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($281 million).
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@Surplus:
I googled it and found the top result to be “historical European Martial Arts” – people who play at longsword fighting, mace & shield fighting, archery, etc.
I’m guessing that’s actually the correct result. It seems to fit. Certainly I can imagine a lot of racists & misogynists attracted to macho chivalry in a white European past.
Historical European Martial Arts, a reconstruction of fighting styles based on study of old fencing treatises and armor and weapons.
Edit: I see that @Crip Dyke has already answered, though from what I understand it is somewhat more serious than e.g. larping.
@Ariblester:
Yeah, I worried the word “play” might be the wrong word to communicate my intent.
My intent is that this is, hrrrmmm, sport(?) to them. They don’t learn this stuff because they actually think they’re going to lance someone from horseback to defend their home from methheads. They do this mostly with blunted weapons (or even just with things that simulate weapons – e.g. a heavy stick with some decoration for a sword). They have tournaments the way that the NFL has tournaments. This doesn’t mean that the NFL isn’t a serious business, but it’s still “play”.
The HEMA community might take it seriously, but no one is actually proposing acquiring a broadsword for personal defense against muggings is all I’m saying.
@Surplus:
Yeah, basically what Crip Dyke said. It’s swordplay for those who think boffer LARP (foam swords, plastic armour) is for NERDS, and the SCA (a more relaxed take on historical re-enactment, similar to an all-year ren faire) is for NOOBS.
To their credit, a lot of groups will actually consult photographs or copies of 500 year old manuals on swordplay and try their best to reconstruct an approximation of the legitimate martial arts of the time, but it’s essentially just enthusiast hobby training, as no-one in HEMA will ever fight with a sword and shield in a real knight-on-horseback war to put their training to the test.
It does look like a lot of fun and it’s a great way to get in shape, but like most martial arts, it is extremely expensive due to being offered only in an official academy setting, even moreso due to the required niche weapons and armour.