A Perfect Storm

A particularly bad or critical state of affairs, arising from a number of negative and unpredictable factors.

I know that starting out this article with the meaning of the title is pedantic and pretentious. But I also know that I don't particularly care. My reason is that this storm is a perfect counter to all the nonsense put out by trolls and idiots that say they don't want politics in the entertainment media they consume, whether it's video games, movies, music, books, etc.

So, let's set the stage. Recently, Gal Gadot has stated that she would not play Wonder Woman again until Warner Bros. cancels all partnership with Brett Ratner. The link to the article is here. 

Okay, for those who don't know who Brett Ratner is, he is the director of the Rush Hour films, X-Men 3:The Last Stand, and the Hercules film starring The Rock that nobody saw. He has also been the subject of sexual harassment allegations. My default state is to believe the victims for obvious reasons, not the least of which this is the automatic stance that law-enforcement personnel must take when performing their duties (or rather, they should, but that's another subject altogether).

                The other Hercules film nobody saw that year, and it doesn't even have The Rock in it.

Brett Ratner also owns RatPac-Dune Entertainment, which helped produce the Wonder Woman film, and thus profited from the deal. The closest analogy I can think of is (Godwin's Law incoming!) if Hitler financed and produced the film Schindler's List. I hope you can see what the problem is here. If not, let me spell it out for you:

A man accused of sexually harassing women profited from a film that has women's empowerment themes.

And, oh, it gets better. According to the article, the Warner Bros./RatPac-Dune deal was originally brokered by Steve Mnuchin, the current Treasury Secretary for president Donald Trump. And no, the lower case p is NOT a typo. And yes, Donald Trump has also been accused multiple times of being a sexual harasser too, at least.

Trump: "Here's a great idea! I want as my Treasury Secretary the guy who financed Batman v. Superman. I'm sure he'll knows how to spend America's money wisely."

All of this is to make the following point: even if the entertainment media you enjoy has no political themes IN IT, that doesn't mean politics is completely devoid FROM the making of that media. And that leads to situations exactly like this. And I can't believe I have to explain this relatively simple concept to people. 

Now if you don't care about the politics surrounding entertainment media, that's fine. But that means you also lose the right to bitch/moan/complain when those politics result in good media not being made. 

I, however, do care about the politics surrounding entertainment media, and that means I take notice when the politics behind one of the first (and, if we're being honest, the ONLY) good movie DC Films has ever made may result in more good movies not getting made. 

Now, to be fair, as the article points out, the chances of Warner Bros. completely severing ties with RatPac-Dune are really good, since Wonder Woman was a good/beloved/profitable film, so Gal Gadot coming back to do more Wonder Woman films is also very likely. 

But since Warner Bros. also likes to shoot itself in the foot every now and then, it is equally likely that they'll replace Gal Gadot and put out an objectively inferior Wonder Woman movie. And this is not even taking into account that Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, would probably walk out too (and if you don't think she will, you haven't been paying attention). That last paragraph may be my opinion, but I'm willing to bet money I'm not the only one who thinks that way. 

           Meet your new Wonder Woman! Fighting for truth, justice, & the Nazi way...Wait, what??!!

So, to all those (including myself) who don't think politics matter in entertainment media, I say this: we're all fooling ourselves.