I never want to play Shadowrun with Max Landis Ever
Incredibly good take
4 Likes
Weirdly upon further research it seems almost all of Landis’ script was thrown out before they filmed anything, it got a quick rewrite by David Ayer, and a lot of the dialogue was improvised by Will Smith/etc.
I’m just, even as someone that enjoyed the movie I hope Landis is finally really for real done now. Though given how his dad is super rich and literally got away with murdering three people I’m not optimistic. 
I got the opposite impression of the movie and I think the ways in which it is anti-fascist are the only things about the movie I’d go above “fun” and say are actually done in a smart way because it does get a bit meta with the themes of white supremacy and fascism and racism that are so often (in some cases unintentionally) pervasive in fantasy gaming and fantasy as a genre.
The initial world building gives us one of these very by the numbers social orders, and also drops a lot of very ham-fisted parallels not to real life, but to how bigoted assholes regard various folks in real life. Then throughout the film each of these specific outlooks and structures about each race in the movie are explicitly shown to be a load of shit. And even just on the surface, this is a movie where a cop murders four textbook fascist cops and is 100% justified and right to do so in the context of the movie, and is troubled that the city is honoring them at the end of the movie next to the one fallen cop who actually trusted them and was a good guy.
So it’s cool to see a story like this that, while a typical buddy cop story at its heart, does work a little bit on another level of eviscerating a lot of the criticisms people have about fantasy setting design in games.
So they switched out the spoiled dolt harasser with a man who probably pleasures himself while watching CBS cop dramas. That’s not exactly an improvement.
Very stunned you would doubt the caliber of the man who directed the Oscar Award Winning Film™ Suicide Squad.
7 Likes
Eh, the critics I trust say it’s a dud and I’ve never found Max Landis the kind of person who’s work I’d want to support so I think I’ll give it a hard pass.
I was going to watch it but knowing that Landis is known for assaulting women and not just being an asshole I think I will pass as well
2 Likes
