Glee in 3D
Took the boy to see Glee in 3D yesterday. The filming was amazing. The clarity was unreal. When people obstructed the screen in the movie, it really looked like they were there in the theater so much that it actually annoyed me a few time.
However, this movie review is here instead of Moonagewebdream for a reason that has nothing to do with how well the movie was filmed. It has a very important message.
Everyone is special.
No matter what your “problem” is, you’re special.
But then it took a quizzical turn:
The “special” kid hopped up and danced. That really bugged me on a whole bunch of levels. Although the character sold himself that he was “special” because he wore glasses, there’s really nothing special about being a “four eyes”. I’ve been one most all of my life. No one’s ever taunted me about wearing glasses. I’ve also been about half deaf most of my life. That HAS been a source of ridicule and bad attitudes. However, unlike faking being in a wheelchair or choosing to wear glasses instead of contacts, deafness isn’t something you can choose to turn on or off. If you want to look cool, you don’t hear anything. You want to hear stuff, you wear hearing aids. It’s not an option. Thinking for one second kids are running about faking deafness just for attention would really, really, piss me off. Everyone in a wheelchair dreams of just jumping up and dancing, but they can’t. That scene has to hurt.
Secondly, it sends out the message that in order to be “special”, there HAS to be something wrong with you. Nothing is more wrong than that. ”Special” to me has nothing to do with your body, it has everything with attitude. In this movie people were special because they were short, handicapped, or gay. I say that because even the “normal” girl had problems:
She was so sure her boobs were so fabulous that 3D couldn’t really handle them. And of course, there’s the Barbra Streisand wannabe. There was some performers that were probably fubar as well but seemed normal, but they didn’t expand on them very much. For the sake of this post’s argument, we’d assume they were fubar in some way because they are in this movie. Arrogance seems to be “special” in this movie too, so we can assume that’s it.
I think the message was supposed to be that “special” people are “normal” too, but that’s not the way they package it. They dwelt on two kids that were gay, one who was short, and one who I suppose had mental issues. But, the way comes across is that they think in order to be “special” there has to be something unique about them. That’s not a good message. Kids have a hard enough time finding their role in society without needing more pressure to be “special”. They need to be encouraged to just be themselves. Not everyone will be a gay rock star. Not everyone should feel they need to be a gay rock star in order to be “special”.
I would have worried a lot more the impact this movie was having on my kid, who is hearing-impaired not by choice and wears hearing aids that any other kid can see, if it weren’t for one very obvious issue with the movie:
The movie is very, very, boring. 30 minutes into the movie he crashed. Hard. Whatever message might have been intended for the G rated movie on this kid was lost.
I’m glad about that too.
The intent of Glee is admirable. It’s just piss-poorly thought out. Although I have no experience watching the tv show, the movie, without having any reference, is very boring. No thumbs. I know Moonlet will not be asking to see it again.
I’m sure if you’re a Glee fan the movie is much more enjoyable.
Now, the big question:
