MovieChat Forums > Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Discussion > Do people not get that is was intentiona...

Do people not get that is was intentionally dumb?

posted 13 years ago by stayprettystockholm
9 replies | jump to latest

That's kind of the whole point... Do people seriously expect some vapid valley girl cheerleader to be good in a scary movie where she kills monsters? That would just suck. It has dark parts but of course it's mostly funny in a dumb way, because the "dumb" blonde would naturally do or say dumb things along the way. It's not this dark, sarcastic, feminazi crap like the TV show was. (Which I'm sure had many good parts but for the most part is overhyped, and SMG comes off as too intelligent to play someone like Buffy, the way Buffy is SUPPOSED to be. I prefer her as an evil, scheming stepsister or a scream queen).

http://i44.tinypic.com/x4ozk.jpg

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

I'll admit flat-out that I've never watched the TV show, but even I could tell you that you've completely missed the point.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER was always meant to be "dark," "sarcastic," and feminist, if not "feminazi." It's generally common knowledge that that is the reason why the TV series was created in the first place. BUFFY was written as a theatrical movie, and (for the time it was made, at least) a fairly countercultural one at that - but Twentieth Century Fox turned Joss Whedon's script into just another Reagan/Bush-era teen comedy, like TEEN WOLF or ENCINO MAN. Not that those are necessarily bad films, but BUFFY was supposed to be different. Whedon hated the film and relaunched the concept on TV precisely so he wouldn't have a powerful studio compromising his vision.

[–] mstheroff-1 13 years ago

"BUFFY was written as a theatrical movie, and (for the time it was made, at least) a fairly countercultural one at that - but Twentieth Century Fox turned Joss Whedon's script into just another Reagan/Bush-era teen comedy, like TEEN WOLF or ENCINO MAN. Not that those are necessarily bad films, but BUFFY was supposed to be different."

That's nonsense historical revision on Whedon's part to come off like a serious artiste. The fact is, even the title he chose to title the film is a joke. If he wanted it to be so edgy and dark, the character wouldn't have been a cheerleader named Buffy. He can pretend it was supposed to be so much more, but when it comes to this film, he's as full of crap as George Lucas is about his work on Star Wars. I don't know why he seems to be ashamed of his work on this that he needs to say it was changed to such a degree--for what it was, it worked. You don't see Todd Phillips going around saying how Old School was supposed to be dark and serious and the studio ruined it by making it a comedy. You also wouldn't see him trying to make a serious television show for geeks based on it where he's killing off Frank the Tank to keep it real.

[–] TeaBunny 13 years ago

"It's not this dark, sarcastic, feminazi crap like the TV show was."

I think perhaps YOU'RE intentionally dumb.

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"Love means never having to say you're ugly." - the Abominable Dr. Phibes

[–] marcusman48 13 years ago

I remember the early 1990s well, and at the time there was the start of a shift from silly, surreal Hollywood comedies to more reality-based and snarky material. You see a bit of both in BUFFY: campy villains and ridiculous quips, but also dark undercurrents of the absurd: a girl who (at first) is living a purposeless life, plagued by nightmares she can't overcome and burdened with memories she can't understand, with parents who don't care about her and surrounded by what seems like an entire species of jerks and incompetents. It's actually kind of a sad movie, a tragicomedy - sure, nowhere near as angsty as anything by Judd Apatow, but it's not EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY, either. I could imagine Tim Burton or Sam Raimi directing this back in '92 and doing right by Joss's vision. The TV series just updated the original movie's basic formula to the late '90s and ramped up the angst and the dark humor even more.

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

Intentionally funny - yes
intentionally dumb - no.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] LightningLad 12 years ago

Is it just me or did the second poster manage to blame Republicans for silly 80s movies?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mortal-Creeps-ebook/dp/B006LO3TCA

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] pioneergrrrl 12 years ago

Well, the movie shows Buffy getting a conciousness about being a slayer (ie a feminist) and deciding that there were now more important things in life.

The movie showed her intellectual change from a 'Cordelia' character--to a more thoughtful and serious person. So it's good in a different way.

[–] marcusman48 12 years ago

No, I didn't. I was simply trying to establish boundaries for the span of teen movies that seem " '80s", from ANIMAL HOUSE to this one.