Welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things which are happening! Before we start, did you see some of the awesome Halloween cosplay people did this year? Did you have an awesome cosplay for the occasion? Link us photos in the comments!
The big story this week is the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic about musician Freddie Mercury and the band Queen. The movie has had mixed reception, with a strong divide between the opinions of critics and audiences. Indeed, the Rotten Tomatoes score for it currently has a 60% rating from critics and 94% from audiences. The divide appears to be based around whether the movie is assessed for its portrayal of Mercury’s life or for its entertainment value.
BuzzFeed News published an article about the movie that critiqued its depiction of Mercury, saying that it “ultimately sells a moralistic, sanitized version of his life and music, rendered ‘respectable’ for mainstream audiences–both because of what the film emphasizes and what it leaves out. The movie doesn’t deny his sexuality, but it also doesn’t explore the nuances of Mercury’s life or art as a queer man.”
Fans, by contrast, have had generally positive things to say. Despite a minor kerfuffle on Tumblr about whether the movie uses the “Bury Your Gays” trope, reaction has been enthusiastic. A quick glance at Twitter shows a landslide of emotional tweets:
I like Malek as an actor. I love Queen's songs so bad. I enjoyed the movie right from start to (especially) the very last scene. And I don't give a damn what critics say. Period. #BohemianRhapsody
— hend kurn (@hendk) November 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/kimberlyxcaffi/status/1059222698021281793
So what did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments!
Elsewhere, folks are talking about the upcoming release of the video game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Polygon published an article relating the game series’ success with fandom to the fact that the games themselves are basically an epic example of crossover fanfiction.
There’s a reason why Super Smash Bros. has given birth to so much fan fiction: It’s a work of fan fiction in itself, jettisoning the canon of each fighter’s franchise so that they can square off against characters they have no business being near. Nintendo has given us a ludicrous crossover that only players would dare dream up, and it’s made something amazing out of it.
Since the series is the basis for a fanfic that’s over 4.1 million words long, among many others, this declaration is hardly a stretch. And with Ultimate’s new World of Light story mode, it seems likely that this fanfic trend will continue.
Lastly, BlizzCon 2018 was this past weekend. It was pretty cool, eh? Too bad there wasn’t any news about Diablo, though. *innocent whistling* Here, have a video of Laura Bailey singing Daughter of the Sea.