Luther: The Fallen Sun is one of the most weirdly regressive movies I've seen in a long time

I love murder mysteries an inordinate amount. Almost all of them are some form of copaganda, but I simply cannot help myself. I love a puzzle box, and I love to watch someone pick it apart in a satisfying way. And I of course love to see someone get their comeuppance.

But I'm aware that they are, ahem, problematic at the best of times. I knew this going into Luther: The Fallen Sun, though I have never watched even a second of the TV show this is based on. But it surprised me with exactly how regressive it is in one specific way.

Hella spoilers below.

First of all, Andy Serkiss's wig is absolutely terrible:

That's a flattering photo, I guarantee you it looks much worse in motion.

In the movie Andy Serkiss is a serial killer who, as it turns out, is also a bajillionaire. And he runs a massive blackmail network by spying on people using their webcams and whatnot. It's a whole Moriarty-from-the-bad-Sherlock-show kinda thing. He's Batman, and even worse, he's also got a really bad wig. 

The whole big plot is that he's kidnapping and blackmailing people so he can run a website where he kills people live on camera. It's so so overblown and ridiculously evil that it's impossible to take seriously. I assume this is them trying to one-up their own show, which I assume had gotten more and more contrived and ridiculous. 

Near the end, Andy "Gotta Nut" Serkiss has a big speech to all his viewers who are, presumably, also all serial killers. And he talks about how the world oppresses them for their desires, makes them unsafe, polices them unjustly. And that now, with the power of the internet, they can all come together to build their own community and finally express themselves. A direct quote:

Do you think I can help being what I am? Do you think any of us can? [...] You have got no idea what it's like to be born like us. To live your entire life not being able to express who you are for fear of people like you... policing us.

Sound at all familiar? Kind of like something you might say if you were, I dunno, gay? Or trans? Or a person of color? Or any oppressed group at all in the whole world? 

Well, this movie indirectly compares us to serial killers. 

Like, I was actually stunned by this. This movie came out February of 2023. Four months ago. And the theme appears to be "people coming together on the internet to express their shared identities is evil". 

I don't think it's on purpose (when is it?) but it's absolutely bizarre to me nonetheless. Just, such a weird thing to be burned into someone's psyche as a potential plot for a film. 

And there are a bunch of other possible ways to resolve this plot with a different theme. The guy's a bazillionaire, that's an easy lever to pull for "bad guy". Or it could be undermined - this guy thinks he's somehow pulling together a group of oppressed people, but everyone is disgusted with him. Hell, I'd even accept the simple "technology is bad" route.

But even without reading the specific reactionary message that "oppressed people should remain oppressed," this is still a deeply bleak and cynical film. It appears that hundreds of thousands of people tune in to watch this guy do Live Murders. That alone is such a cynical worldview, you know? What a way to think of your fellow human: as a voyeuristic, amoral creature just looking for bloodshed.

Anyway, the rest of the movie is also baffling. Mostly, the plot does not make a lick of sense, there are numerous bizarre leaps of logic that even I can't commit to, and the whole thing stinks of Cops-as-Superheroes which is one of my least favorite kinds of copaganda.

and that god damned wig

Highly disrecommend, F-, do not watch.