#I was so happy when I watched The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk and the black mask outfit was just there

[threshie]

The black mask in Trial Of The Incredible Hulk (1989)

The amount of Daredevil in this ol' movie was an absolute delight, let me tell you.

the black mask #forscience

+ Jessica’s scarf

[lokigodofaces]

list of variants/timelines i want to believe exist (and probably canonically do now)

this got long so i'm putting in a cut

a world where all of the events that happened in the Framework are real

bonus if the Framework world has their own version of the Framework that is like the real world in aos

Steve fell off the train, not Bucky. bc of the crap Zola did to Bucky, he survives in ice and well, and everything happens the same but Steve and Bucky's roles are reversed

Coulson doesn't bother to keep it a secret that he's alive, and the mcu is mainly just aos but with all the main characters as well (in other words, there's mainly good writing)

also in that world Steve and Bucky love Lola

Steve doesn't go back in time to live with Peggy

to all the people claiming aos isn't canon: Sylvie just made everything canon y'all. aos absolutely happened, and while i will argue that it happened in the main timeline, if you don't want to believe that it still happened in a timeline

Bucky didn't remember Steve soon enough, not until he killed Steve

Steve killed the Winter Soldier and didn't know who it was until he removed the mask

Hydra didn't hunt down Jiaying and by extent Daisy, so Daisy was raised by Jiaying and Cal who are not crazy bc they didn't have the same experiences they did in the main timeline

Thor never takes the others to Jotunheim, so Loki never learns he is Jotun

Fitz didn't survive almost drowning

Ward wasn't recruited by Garrett, but by literally any non-Hydra agent so he is a good guy

Coulson and May listened to the agent telling them to not send May in at Bahrain, heaven knows what happens there

the government gives the Avengers more than a week to go through the Accords, so they all get to the enhanced-people-have-to-wear-trackers, giant-underwater-prison, enhanced-operatives-can't-investigate-politicians, no-trial-for-enhanced, no-investigation-for-enhanced, etc sections so they all decide to not sign and just don't care what the government says

this is random, but i feel like Bucky as Ghost Rider would be a cool aesthetic.

the Avengers meet Robbie bc he keeps assassinating their targets bc they're targets of Ghost Rider's

Daisy dies instead of Lincoln

Daisy kills Lash before he can save her

Loki never "dies," so he is sent back to Asgardian prison after tdw

Radcliffe never reads the Darkhold, he just gave it to AIDA, so most of s4 doesn't happen

Dreykov comes after Natasha between Avengers and CACW, leading to the Avengers beating his *ss (like Yelena said, the god from space doesn't need an ibuprofen after a fight)

everything's the same but no Joss Whedon going on and on about Natasha not being able to have kids

whatever ship scenario you have is canon now

Loki gets all panicky after the Hulk beats him to a pulp, having now realized what he's done. Thor believes him, and this leads to Thanos being killed in 2012-13

Deadpool sits in the back of everything, shouting comments like "Yay! Superhero landing! But don't do that, it's bad for your knees!"

Peter Parker's parents never die

the Cavalry is an Avenger

Yondu brings Peter Quill to Ego, causing the universe's destruction

Gamora and Nebula get along their entire lives

Gamora and Nebula switch roles (Gamora becomes the cyborg, Nebula the guardian and Thanos's favorite daughter)

Heimdall actually bothers to look for Loki, seeing if they can find his body for a funeral, to find that he is being tortured by Thanos. Odin refuses to send anyone to save him, making Thor realize just how awful he is. Thor, Sif, and Warriors 3 go with the help of Heimdall to save Loki

Odin and Frigga are actually good parents, creating the most iconic trio ever

tw suicide for the next bullet point

Bucky commits suicide between TWS and CACW (Sebastian said in an interview once that Bucky was suicidal)

Loki keeps coming back as DB Cooper for fun or bc he keeps losing bets

the Eternals did interfere

the shrapnel kills Tony

this one thing i made about Mr Rogers adopting Loki

Robbie is part of the Avengers in 2012, but when he sees Loki he immediately says that Loki isn't the issue and goes off to fight Thanos single handedly (and wins)

for whatever reason Coulson and May do legally adopt all the Bus Kids

Hunter and Bobbi both go to break Fitz out of prison, and they stick around for the rest of the season

Fitz and Jemma never meet (saddest of sad days)

Loki for some reason is in FFH and he sees Mysterio's illusions and just laughs bc he's such an amateur

everything's the same, everyone's just obsessed with classical music and it's constantly playing so i get happy watching it

Asgardians are like the elves in LOTR (books, not the movies), so they're constantly singing and dancing and all

Loki is shown playing a Norse flute-like instrument (we know they exist, we've found them, they're different than your typical flute and we don't really know how they sound but i want Loki to be a flautist and no i'm not not projecting (note the double negative) and yes i headcanon Loki to be a flautist i don't care what anyone says)

everyone gets therapy

someone (Monica or Jimmy) hits Hayward on the head, knocking him out (the same way Gandalf knocked out Denethor in ROTK when Denethor told everyone to flee) and the rest of SWORD works with them because clearly Hayward has issues

Stephen commits to not texting and driving

somehow Luis becomes He Who Remains just for one timeline so the entire story is told like how he tells his flashbacks

Coulson doesn't help Fury and Carol escape

T'Challa does not survive and M'Baku becomes Black Panther

the suit in Iron Man 3 is not garbage the entire movie

Tony doesn't find a way to save himself in time

Ross dies in Incredible Hulk

Loki has a pet flerken he just always carries around

by the same logic, Bucky has a kitten he meets between TWS and CACW that he always carries around. said kitten attacks people when they attack Bucky

Bucky becomes Captain America instead of Sam

when Thor goes back to 2013 Asgard, he drags Loki with him back to 2023

Clint tests the time travel by going to Sokovia and drags Pietro back with him

Steve comes back an old man, but they use Bruce's attempt at time travel to turn him back into the 30 something Steve he was

literally anything happens other than Thanos killing Loki bc Loki only used knives when he isn't even tall enough to reach Thanos's neck

Sam and Bucky straight up kill Walker

Daisy never goes through terrigenesis

Loki somehow ends up a tutor for Daisy

Bucky joins the aos team after they find him on the run from Hydra

Bucky plays baritone saxophone bc bari saxes are awesome and it adds nothing to the plot but he spends at least half an hour in each movie playing bari sax

everything's the same but John Williams is the composer

S.H.I.E.L.D. uses GH-325 to revive a bunch of composers (Mozart, Dvorak, Beethoven, Bach, Bizet, Holst, y'know, all my guys) because they for whatever reason have their bodies because of some wack mission. and now they have a bunch of classical composers alive who insist on writing more music. and what are you going to do, tell Bach to stop composing?

by that same logic, someone working at the Guest House decides to steal Freddie Mercury's body so that they can revive him bc he just loves Queen that much

Thor realizes how awful Odin is and makes it his goal to get revenge for what Odin did to his little brother

Thor meets a bunch of Loki variants (most notably gator Loki) and just decides to stop questioning anything ever

Mobius teaches Loki how to ride a jet ski

Loki arrives at S.H.I.E.L.D. and informs everyone he wants to go to school and learn about politics and run for president and S.H.I.E.L.D. is like "okay whatever just don't tell anyone you're a literal god" but have no way to stop Loki from telling anyone

y'know the "shot heard 'round the world" thing from the Battle of Lexington (first battle in American revolution, if you don't know what it is, we have no clue who made the first shot & both sides were telling their troops to not fire. once that shot was fired the battle broke out)? yeah well that was Loki i'm pretty sure

Loki comes to Earth and becomes an Avenger and all but only ever introduces himself as DB Cooper. Thor doesn't ever come to Earth, so everyone just thinks DB Cooper found the secret to not age and just showed up to save people. he disappears for stretches of time & everyone stops being confused bc he was in hiding for decades of course no one's gonna find him (he is actually on Asgard)

[daresplaining]

Hello, I seen on Twitter that you don’t care for Zdarky’s DD run. That it’s too dark-grim drudgery. Your hoping Mike and McDuffie with take it out of that. And make it all light and happy like Waid did. Which I’m not of fan of his DD work. My question is this is Daredevil. What wrong with dark, grim and sinisterness. DD thrives in those types of environments. Not saying DD needs to be dark and grim all the time. But I don’t see anything wrong with the darkness.

And to further my question. Did you not enjoy The Netflix series? It was one of the main reasons why got a gritty and dark Daredevil back into comics. Did you not enjoy Miller, Bendis and Brubaker’s work on the character? I don’t think nothing wrong with dark, grim and grittiness. As long has things don’t get to bleak and hopeless. I’m not trying to sound aggressive or attack you. I love Daredevil. His sinister, realistic and gritty make him different from his superhero contemporaries.

Hello, One final question. Then I well stop pestering you. Daredevil was to get an animation film or series. What tone and vibe would you go with. Same question for video game has well. If DD got a high quality game. What tone and vibe would you give it.

    Hi, and thank you so much for reaching out! (I know we’ve been talking on Twitter too). I’m going to preface my answer with this: When I express my opinion on something (an issue, a run, a writing style, etc.) it’s not with the intention of claiming my opinion is somehow correct, or that anyone who doesn’t share my opinion is somehow wrong. It’s just one fan’s opinion, shared in a public space; a way for me to express my own appreciation of Daredevil. I fully expect people to disagree with me about things, because people are people and everyone’s fan experience is different. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you not connecting with Waid’s run; I completely respect that, and you’re certainly not alone! 

    To your next point: I actually really like grim street-level Daredevil stories. I know my blog has tended to lean light and swashbuckly lately because that’s the kind of Daredevil material I’ve been missing in recent years, and it is a flavor of Daredevil that I love. But I also love Bendis’s run, I love Brubaker, I love “Born Again” and Shadowland. I love the movie(s). I loved the Netflix show! (I don’t know if you were following me pre-cancellation, but this blog was 75% Netflix show for several years). I love to see Matt beaten down and dragged through the mud. I love watching him unravel as the world falls apart around him. I love watching him pull himself up from the brink of destruction. Those types of stories are powerful and Daredevil is full of masterpieces of that genre. My issue with the current run is not that it’s dark. It’s that I haven’t been able to connect with its particular flavor of darkness, and-- more importantly-- I haven’t been able to connect with Zdarsky’s portrayal of Matt. And that’s why I’ve been grateful that other characters who I definitely know I’ll enjoy-- Mike and Kirsten, notably-- have been brought into the story. And I’m hoping that over time, I’ll grow to enjoy the way Zdarsky writes Matt too! I haven’t yet, unfortunately, but again-- that’s just me and my opinion.   

    Your final question is really interesting. As far as a video game is concerned, I’m actually not picky about the tone. I think a dark Bendis-style crime noir adventure would be neat. My priority would be POV; I would love to get a first-person Daredevil video game where serious thought was put into portraying Matt’s sensory experience. If done well, that could be really, really cool. I also really want an animated Daredevil adaptation; I think that’s actually the ideal medium for DD. And yes, for that I would want it to be swashbuckly and channel Kesel, Kelly, Lee, Waid, and early Miller. That’s because every single other major Daredevil adaptation we’ve had so far (Trial of the Incredible Hulk, the movie, and the Netflix show) has been dark and gritty, and I just think it’s time for some variety-- time to put the “daredevil” back into Daredevil, as it were. One of the my favorite things about Daredevil is that his stories have such a broad tonal range, and I think it would be neat if the adaptations reflected this. You may or may not agree, but I personally feel that the lighter Daredevil stories have just as much emotional resonance as the dark ones.   

   I hope this answers some of your concerns, and please don’t hesitate to reach out again. I promise you’re not pestering me. 

[fangirlshrewt97]

Geralt Whump Week Submission Day 5

TITLE: I Walk a Lonely Road

SHIPS: Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier|Dandelion (Platonic or Pre-Slash)

PROMPT: Loneliness

MEDIUM (Netflix, Books, Games, Hexer): Netflix

WARNINGS: NA

SUMMARY:  Excerpt:

And yet, Jaskier had followed him. Jaskier followed him despite his grouchy demeanor, his taciturn nature, his ostracism at the hands of the general pubic. And not only did Jaskier follow him, he befriended him. In his long life, Geralt had come across the whole swath of humanity, from the saints to the scum of the earth, but very few had had the courage to be able to look him in the eye for more than a few minutes at a time. And even less had thought him to be someone worth knowing. Jaskier was the first, and only, human brave enough to ask to be - no not ask, declare himself to be Geralt’s friend.

Alternate title: Geralt misses Jaskier and ponders on having a friend.

WORD COUNT: 1483 words

AUTHOR’S NOTES:  Additional Tags include Geralt Whump Week, Loneliness, Introspection, Friendship, Angst with a happy ending, Geralt deserves better, Geralt has abandonment issues, Geralt has trust issues

AUTHOR: Fangirlshrewt97

CHARACTERS: Geralt of Rivia, Jaskier

LINK TO AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25089355

                                                         ///

It was odd, how unsettling the silence was the first time Geralt and Jaskier parted for the season after they started to travel with each other for the majority of the year. Geralt heading towards Kaer Morhen, and Jaskier back towards Oxenfurt.

The world seemed to be amplifying the specific absence of nonstop chatter and mindless strumming, so that even the existing chirping of birds, the rustle of leaves against the wind, the rush of the stream down the hill, all of it seemed to be background noise to the silence.

Geralt urged Roach into a light trot instead of the sedate pace she was currently on. Maybe distance would lower the volume of the silence.

Jaskier was closer to Oxenfurt than Geralt had been to Kaer Morhen, so Geralt had led them towards Redania after they finished their business in Temeria. It was simply because Geralt did not want to cause the bard further difficulties as he made his way back to his winter roost. It was challenging to travel during winter even for a Witcher, it would be even worse for Jaskier.

Roach started to slow down after nearly two hours of trotting, so Geralt decided to make camp, dismounting from Roach and leading her by the reins as he scanned the area for a good campsite. Finding a small clearing a little ways from the road, Geralt tied Roach to a tree and settled down saddle bags. He removed a small dagger and went in search of food.

After a quick hunt and a large rabbit that had had the unfortunate luck of crossing his path, Geralt gathered firewood and created his fire for the evening with Igni. He went through the motions of cleaning the rabbit and cooking it, eating mechanically.

It was difficult to believe so now, having travelled alone on the Path for nearly seven decades now, but three years with Jaskier were all that Geralt had needed to become used to him. There were some days when the bard was too much, too loud, too colourful, too much frenetic energy. But other days, he was the one bright spot of sunshine that reminded Geralt that while most humanity hated him for his existence, his duty was done for people like Jaskier, people who made life worth living.

Who brought some joy into a world of cruelty and death, a breath of fresh air through the stink of decay and destitution. Who was brave, and smart, and courageous. But who also was not afraid to fight for what he believed in, or who. Geralt had lost count of the number of fights he had stopped Jaskier from getting into over himself, but the surprise of someone fighting for him was there every time.

If Jaskier had been here, he would have been complaining over the blandness of the rabbit, and prattling about buying spices at their next stop at a town so it did not feel so much like they were eating barely-cooked meat.

Geralt felt his lips twitch upward at the thought. Even without being beside him, the bard had wound his way into Geralt’s head and life. It had not actually been too difficult, Geralt had never had to properly set up walls to protect himself beyond the insults hurled at Witchers. Why bother, what human would ever want to be around a monster like him? And sorcerers? Please, they were so stuck up with their inflated senses of selves, Geralt found it incredible some of them did not simply fly away with egos. Other Witchers were so few that he crossed paths with. And his brothers? Well they had always had a place there.

So. Geralt had skin thicker than the hide of his armor, but his walls crumbled at the slightest show of affection, or understanding, or kindness. Or even just being treated as a person and a not a killing machine.

And yet.

And yet.

And yet, Jaskier had followed him.

Jaskier followed him despite his grouchy demeanor, his taciturn nature, his ostracism at the hands of the general pubic. And not only did Jaskier follow him, he befriended him.

In his long life, Geralt had come across the whole swath of humanity, from the saints to the scum of the earth, but very few had had the courage to be able to look him in the eye for more than a few minutes at a time. And even less had thought him to be someone worth knowing. Jaskier was the first, and only, human brave enough to ask to be - no not ask, declare himself to be Geralt’s friend.

Geralt did not know how to react to this, he had been brought up being told that Witchers travelled alone, their duty was one observed alone, their lives a sacrifice for the greater good, not their own.

His earliest memory, well, second earliest was of his mother abandoning him on the trail that lead to Kaer Morhen. It was calling out for her and stumbling down the path until nightfall, disoriented, hungry, and scared. It was being terrified of being eaten by the hulking figure with golden-yellow cat eyes that glowed in the dark until that figure revealed itself to be a Witcher.

Among his fellow trainees, his brothers to be, Geralt felt the first sense of family. He felt like he was part of a cause, like the hero of the stories people were going to write. And then they went through the trials. He watched, as one by one, most of the boys he considered to be his brothers died painfully, screams echoing through stone halls. He remembers very little of his own trial, knows it was just as scream-filled, but it is their voices that haunt him on the nights when he is most isolated. He also recalls the first time he left to venture on the Path, the beginning of the rest of his life, saying goodbye to the few constants in his life. Returning the next winter, weathered and worn by a world that had shown itself not to be kind. Returning to a hall where, of the handful of brothers he had stepped into the Path with, only Eskel returned. He learned then more than ever the true meaning of the words of his teachers. Friends were a liability, connections were distractions, and distractions got you killed. Help those in need, help your comrades, but above all, make sure you go into a situation with a clear head.

Geralt shook his head from his musings and cleaned up the remains of his dinner. After putting everything away, he took out his sword cleaning kit and settled by a rock next to his fire pit, using the whetstone to sharpen his blades before running over the swords with oil. He polished the blade to perfection as he had been taught, and placed the two swords back in their scabbards in Roach’s saddle.

He stretched for a bit, still feeling a little restless, but feeling too filled with energy to meditate. The cracks from days of laying on hard floors and riding make themselves known, and the stretching leaves him feeling pleasantly sore and limp. He makes his way to his bedroll, dropping gracelessly onto the mat and rolling onto his back. The clearing he had chose was well hidden from the road, and the circle of trees were tall enough to provide further cover. But straight upward? There was a large opening unobstructed by plants that allowed for a view of the starry sky.

The moon’s beams were at the edge of the circle of trees, lighting up the sky to give him a view that reminded him just how small he was in the larger scale of their world.

One of the lessons that was drilled into Witchers during training was to learn the night sky, and use it as a compass to orient themselves anywhere on the Continent. Geralt had not been the quickest at identifying them, but had enjoyed the lessons nonetheless. They were one of the few that taught the trainees the beauty of their world, rather than the violence and horror of it.

Geralt stayed staring up at the night sky until his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep to the sound of the woods, the rustling of the trees, the distant calls of owls, the scampering of small wildlife out on a hunt.

He had lived for the majority of his life believing himself destined for a life of loneliness. But he had found himself a bard - no, a friend. Someone who was voluntarily spending time with him because he enjoyed to do so.

The thought brought a smile to Geralt’s face, and he fell asleep underneath the canvas of the night sky like that.

Full of happiness and pride, humming a familiar song that had been written about him.

[servinglemonade]

My first reaction to Disney +

Hello... It’s been a while since I have posted here. I had exams, then summer vacation and then I finally started college! So now that I’ve settled in I thought it would be fun to give you my thoughts on Disney+! Yes, you read that right! Disney+ is here... in the Netherlands. Exclusively. Disney is having a free trial here which started on September 12th and goes on until launch day on November 12th!

So let’s dive into Disney+ 

Interface & Features

The interface is pretty standard. It looks like Netflix, but obviously with a nice Disney touch! The home page looks really great in my opinion. On top, there is a header that showcases one movie per category (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic). You can browse per category as well. When you hover over the brand you get a little animation. Disney has a castle with fireworks, Pixar has the clouds, Marvel has their intro, Star Wars has stars and National Geographic a scenic mountain view. On the search page, you also have several collections like the Princess Collection (all princess movies and series) or Disneynature (all Disneynature movies). Hopefully, they’ll add some more soon. It’s a handy feature in my opinion. You can also create a watchlist. 

I find the movie-watching experience great as well. It’s simple and sleek. You can choose from multiple languages for both audio and subtitles. It’s also really nice to have all the movies in HD. Some of them are even in 4K/HDR! These are mostly Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Live-Action movies and 2 animations (Ralph Breaks The Internet and Aladdin!). 

There is an awesome feature that I stumbled upon while I was doing my research for this post. You can change the way the subtitles, from the color to the font. Even the opacity of the background and the font size! I did see some people complaining about subtitles. I didn’t mind them, however, the fact that Disney is truly listening to the users and trying to fix all these issues is great! Two thumbs up for ya Disney! The last thing I want to touch on here is the extras for the movies. These extras mostly include deleted scenes and trailers. However, some of them have some really cool behind the scenes stuff. The making of Beauty and The Beast, Staging The Ball from the Cinderella Live-action and the making of Sleeping Beauty just to name a few! Really great that all of those are on Disney+ as well.

Profiles

Just a quick little thing I wanted to touch on before I go to the content. You can choose from a significant number of Disney characters for your profile picture. Ranging from Disney Classics to Marvel & Star Wars to villains and princesses and even Disney Channel!

There are so many to choose from! It’s overwhelming. Here are just a few

Now it’s time for the most fun part: the content. All of the originals are not on the service yet, those will come out when Disney+ officially launches on November 12th.

Disney

What isn’t on this page?! The amount of content is so incredible. And not even everything is on it yet! Here you can find your classic Disney animations from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Ralph Breaks The Internet. All in glorious HD or even 4K sometimes. They also have some true Mickey Mouse classics like Steamboat Willie. All the Live-action movies are included here as well. From the more recent remakes (even Dumbo is on here already! If you haven’t seen it yet, please do) to absolute classics like The Princess Diaries, Mary Poppins and all the Pirates of The Caribbean movies. If you grew up with Disney Channel, all your favorite movies and shows can be found on Disney+ now! Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Camp Rock, The Cheetah Girls, That’s so Raven, Halloweentown, Descendants and so many more (all the seasons and sequels for everything). For the little ones, there’s some Disney Junior content, like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Pixar

All the Pixar animated classics are here. From Toy Story to The Incredibles 2. Hopefully Toy Story will be streaming soon too. If you love the Pixar shorts, you’ll be happy to hear that these are all on Disney+! Like Piper, Bao, Knick Knack, For The Birds and more. There are even shorts with characters from some of your favorite Pixar movies like Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, Cars and Toy Story.

Marvel

I just want to thank Disney and Marvel for basically having all the MCU movies here on Disney+! From Iron Man to Captain Marvel. Most of them in 4K as well. And a surprise… Avengers Endgame will hit the service tomorrow!! I’m already preparing to cry my eyes out again. The only movies that are not on the service yet are The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man Homecoming. I really hope Spidey will be on Disney+ as well. I need Far From Home in 4K. Besides MCU related content, you can also watch multiple Marvel animation shows. Like a lot of Spider-Man shows, Rocket and Groot, X-Men, Fantastic Four and many more. Some of the newer live-action Marvel shows are also on the service, like Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD.

Star Wars

Now for Star Wars. I started watching the movies back in the summer. Disney+ was not being tested yet. So I was excited that all of the entire Star Wars saga can be found here! From Episode I The Phantom Menace all the way to Episode VIII The Last Jedi. It’s been really great to have 1 place to watch these movies.  You can find the spin-off movies Rogue One and Solo here too! You can also watch some animated shows like Star Wars The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and lots of Lego Star Wars shorts.

National Geographic

To be honest, I haven’t anything from Nat Geo yet. However, they do have a very exciting original coming tomorrow! However, they have Brain Games! I used to love that show, so I’ll definitely watch that. They have some amazing documentaries. Drain The Ocean, Titanic 20 years later and Free Solo just to name a few.

Disney+ originals at launch

Here is a list + some thoughts:

Star Wars: The Mandalorian (series) (trailers looked very good, so I’m excited for this) Lady and The Tramp (movie) (again trailers looked amazing, great cast as well! Really excited for this!) High School Musical The Musical The Series (series) (yes, that is the actual title, not sure about this one as a massive HSM fan, however, I will check it out) Encore! (series) (not really interested in this one, might watch it one day) The World According to Jeff Goldblum (series) (this is the nat geo original I was telling you about. Such a great idea, who doesn’t love Jeff?! Will watch this 100%) Noelle (movie) (a Christmas movie?! Yes please, I’m in full Christmas mode already so bring it on) Marvel Hero Project (series) (might watch at some point after I have watched all the other things I want to see first) The Imagineering Story (series) (as a huge Disney Parks fan, I might be most excited about this, so that will be the first thing I will watch tomorrow) Pixar In Real Life (series) (I didn’t even know about this until a week ago, looks like a lot of fun, so I will watch this for sure)

The Disney+ app

The app has been pretty solid. It basically works the same as the web version, it’s just on your phone or tablet. The app also has a download feature. Which means you can download anything on the service and watch it offline. How handy is that!  If you have a chrome cast, the app is a must. You can cast all of the movies and shows on your TV, which is great because you won’t have to look on your small screen.

Some issues

This was obviously a test version of the final product so it wasn’t perfect from the get-go. The app struggled in the beginning with the continue watching feature. When you were watching a show, it didn’t let you watch the next episode from your continue watching. However, this has been fixed and now works like you would expect.  The other big issue was the chrome cast compatibility. When I had just subscribed for the trial it would start normal, however, after a while, it would freeze and the image would get all distorted. So that was pretty annoying. Lots of people were having this issue and by magic, it was fixed a couple weeks later and now works as expected!

Is it worth it?

Now if you either love Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars or you love everything, yes it is worth it. Even if you just love Marvel and/or Star Wars, I feel like it’s worth it. You have The Mandalorian coming at launch and so many more in the years to come. Like Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, an Obi-Wan show, and so much more. So maybe if you’re waiting for that, you can get it when those shows will be on Disney+. Plus for the price, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Just €6.99 per month or €69.99 per year (which if you calculate it, can save you €13.89 per year). I love everything so for me it can’t get any better than this. Lots of the movies I watched on Netflix were mostly Disney or Marvel movies, so for me, this service is perfect.

Wow, this was a long one. If you have read it all the way through, thank you so much! I hope it was informative.

So how excited are you for Disney+? Will you be getting it at launch or will you wait? Plus if you are getting it, what will you watch first?

Have a magical day!

XO 

Yenai

[magicianbound]

“Think of What the World Could Be” - An Asravos Drabble

This drabble goes out to the incredible @arcanawise! ;w; I was struck with inspiration for this a while ago (remember that night you killed me by sending me this song?), and since your birthday was coming up I couldn’t resist! I love you and everything we write together so much, and these two adorable, sassy, thirsty magic bois are no different! THAT SAID I also couldn’t resist throwing a bit of angst at them, since, ya know, I’m me xDDD (ALADDIN SHRUG)

Happy birthday, Sam!!! I hope you have a birthday that’s as awesome and amazing as you are! <3

***TRIGGER WARNINGS for panic attacks, self-depreciating thoughts, mentions of death, and descriptions of burns! Read safely, everyone!***

He’d thought he’d finally found the answer.

It had seemed so obvious when the thought struck him, enough that he’d been shocked he hadn’t thought of it before.

Asra had known how he felt about Aaravos for longer than he should likely admit, but now he knew that the elf felt the same. Considering the recent...advances in their relationship, consulting the Lovers now made perfect sense. Romantic ideals were only part of what the Lovers embodied, albeit a large part, but now that they had crossed that line...

And yet his most recent journey to the Lovers’ realm had left him dismayed, more so than he’d ever been. Perhaps it was his own fault. If any of the Major Arcana would have the answer, he’d dared to hope it just might have been them.

Instead they’d told him he was at a crossroads, and advised that he be prepared to make a choice steeped in consequences. Sacrifice. The Arcana rarely spoke plainly; normally Asra wouldn’t be so frustrated with vague pointers and riddles, even enjoyed parsing together the meanings of the beings he so revered.

But as he sat at the edge of the largest pool in his oasis, gazing into an endless expanse of stars reflected in rippling water and trying in vain not to let his thoughts drift to the most beautiful star in his life, Asra could feel his patience wearing thin.

He’d met with a dozen of the remaining Major Arcana, now. The fact that over half of the most powerful beings in existence couldn’t offer an answer boggled as much as infuriated him. All his life he’d held onto his faith in the magic his parents taught him. Through all his life’s trials, it had never failed him. He had to believe it wouldn’t fail him now. Magic was willpower—the more he believed it, the more likely it was to be true.

If he had to search every nook and cranny of the realms, if it was the last thing he did...he would find the key to freeing Aaravos. In that moment Asra drew upon the well of power within and swore it with all his might, and the promise etched itself into the very fabric of the oasis. The landscape hummed in response, and the luminous plants around the pool flickered until they shimmered the same colors as the stars that adorned Aaravos’ body, twinkling in such a familiar way that it made his heart swell.

Wait—

Asra paused, focusing on the sensation unfolding in his chest. The air shifted, and his magic picked up on something, dangerous and coming closer.

But that shouldn’t be possible. There were hostile creatures in the magical realms, but nothing should be able to enter his gateway without his permission. Violet eyes cast about the edge of the pool as he stood, hands poised at his sides and magic on high alert.

“Asra.”

That voice. It haunted his nightmares and stained his worst memories. Sickening dread filled his stomach before he even felt the manifestation of raw, corrupted power at his back, so immense that it bled into the edges of his aura. On instinct he beckoned to the oasis, and a surge of magic came to meet him, manifesting as a kaleidoscopic glow around his hands as he turned to face an adversary he’d hoped to never deal with again.

Even after the defeat he’d suffered, the Devil stood tall before one of the parties responsible. His hulking form was only made more intimidating by the waves of magic he exuded, and the piercing red eyes that leered from inside a circle of wickedly curved horns. The stark white of his fur didn’t even reflect the colors of the oasis; he was a streak of pure black and white, a tear ripped into the glowing, vibrant landscape that proved how much he didn’t belong.

“You.” Disdain twisted Asra’s features and darkened the word into a curse. “What are you doing here?”

The Devil gave no reaction. He merely watched Asra with cool disinterest, eyeing his magic in the air like one would observe an ant about to be crushed underfoot. Utterly insignificant.

“It seems our time apart has sullied your manners,” he finally said, low and leisurely as if they were a pair of casual friends having a chat. “Is this how you treat all guests in your gateway?”

“Guests are invited.” Thankfully he hadn’t brought his most recent guest with him—the thought of Aaravos being subjected to meeting the Devil knotted his stomach. “If you came looking for a fight, I guess I should thank you for confronting me in my own gateway.”

The Devil shook his head, tsking like a disappointed parent. “So hasty. You should know by now that grudges are a mortal construction. I mean you no harm. In fact, I’ve come with valuable information. It would do you well to listen.” Asra remained unmoved, coiled and ready to strike, and the Devil sighed, meeting his glare with a look just shy of exasperation. “Come now, Asra, you’re a knowledgable, well-traveled magician. You know that there are benefits to having an open mind…when I can give you something you want.”

Asra bristled, a cold hand of dread slithering down his spine. The words were a violent alarm in his mind, so similar to those spoken years ago.

A trap he let himself fall into. A bond he can’t escape.

A deal he can never forget.

“I want you to get out of my gate,” Asra spat. A tense silence dragged on where the Devil watched him expectantly.

“Make me, then, if you’re so opposed to my presence. Oust me from your realm and I’ll take my leave.”

It was a blatant challenge, a dare to strike first that the Devil knew Asra wouldn’t take. His magic may be strongest in his oasis, but he couldn’t be sure it was enough to take on a Major Arcana alone. For the first time in longer than he’d realized, Asra found himself wishing that Trinity was at his side if only for her immunity to the Devil’s influences.

He and his magic remained alert, but Asra made no move. Fists clenched hard at his sides as he stood his ground, appearing undaunted even as his heart pounded at the base of his throat, threatening to choke him.

Blood-red eyes gleamed, darkly amused. “I thought as much. Even you don’t know all there is about magic. Listen well, and you may learn something.”

The Devil’s air was languid as he moved, starting a leisurely walk around Asra’s form—circling, watching. Asra turned with him, keeping an unflinching hold on his gaze. “You know my power, and you know the feats of which I am capable. I’m sure I needn’t remind you of how I brought Trinity back to life. How I pulled her wretched soul from the void and transcended it across realms.”

Fire sparked in Asra’s veins and leapt to his lips before he could think better of it. “How dare you—“

“Ah ah.” The Devil held up a hand and raised his brow: a threat, if not a subtle one. Asra seethed, his magic rippling with it, but fell quiet. The Devil hummed in mild displeasure. “You also know how I hate rudeness, so try not to interrupt. As I said, you’ve seen what I can be capable of, when given the proper incentive. What seems a miracle to mortal beings is child’s play for a Major Arcana of my power. I’ve come here because you’ve failed to notice a plain and simple truth.” He made an offhanded gesture. “Or perhaps you simply refuse to admit it.”

The more the Devil spun his riddled words the more dangerous he grew, and Asra didn’t have time for them regardless. “Get on with it.”

A smirk curled across his face. “Very well. I know what you’ve been searching for. I know that you’ve been scouring the realms and seeking council with the other Major Arcana, and yet the entire time, you won’t admit to knowing the obvious solution. I have immense power, enough that transcending Trinity’s soul across realms was painfully trivial.” His eyes hardened, and he spoke his next words slowly, deliberately, “You have ignored the fact that doing the same for a living being is an even simpler endeavor.”

Asra’s throat went dry. The words shocked him so deeply that he could only stare, blinking stupidly as they processed. And when they did…

The dread constricting his chest multiplied tenfold. His panic was so powerful that he felt it seeping into the oasis around him, heard the crackle of fissures opening in the ground beneath his feet. How did the Devil know about Aaravos? After the ordeal in Vesuvia he’d slinked off to his own realm, and Asra hadn’t seen nor felt any hint of him across the realms since. How could he have known about their travels, much less about the solution they were trying so desperately to find?

And yet, if the Devil meant what he implied…

For a split second every hope, every dream that had blossomed in what remained of Asra’s heart shone freely on his expression. It was a momentary chink in his armor, but a moment was all it took for the Devil to notice. The Arcana’s mouth curved just so, a flicker of cruelty shining through the diplomatic facade.

“You—what are you saying?” Asra wouldn’t be the first to say it aloud. Couldn’t risk planting the seed in the Devil’s mind if it hadn’t sprouted there on its own. But the gleam in red eyes told him all he needed to know.

The Devil almost looked smug, staring down the curve of his horns. “I have the power to set Aaravos free.”

The statement hung leaden in the air, refusing to absorb even though the Devil allowed a pause for it to do so. It seemed such a short time ago that Asra had traipsed through the realms of magic with Aaravos, hand-in-hand and wishing for a miracle with every step, every touch, every kiss.

Traveling the magical realms always felt like a dream, but sharing them with Aaravos? Their aim had been the same—endlessly looking for the key to his imprisonment—but with the return of the elf’s senses bridging the final chasms between them, the journeys had barely remained about their search.

They had become so much more. The first journey became the chance to find what they’d both been missing. The second became the chance to give in to what they’d craved, to satisfy their barely tempered desires. The tenth became the chance to admit to feelings long-since labeled hopeless and buried.

For those short, incredible times, Asra could forget about all the obstacles that stood in their way. He could forget about the elf’s imprisonment. He could forget about the hole in his chest that so easily pushed others away.

The experiences had only stoked Asra’s fire. He ran himself ragged scouring every inch of the realms. He barely rested between journeys, had stopped returning to the shop and instead took brief respites in his oasis, driven by a renewed, desperate desire to have those same experiences with Aaravos outside the magical realm.

Asra had lived so much of his life wanting what he couldn’t have. Loving from afar and slowly crumbling under the burden. If Aaravos was free, Asra could find a way to him in his own world. They could truly be together. No more barriers, no more reservations.

Could the Devil really grant that miracle?

It took a physical effort for Asra to tamp down any trace of hope. The Devil’s brazen promise had cracked the mask that hid it from view, and Asra scrambled to cover the gaps. “Even if I believed you, you don’t give miracles for free. That’s why you’re really here.” The Devil had to want something. After the plot he’d spun to try and merge the realities, Asra could scarcely imagine what he could be planning now. “What do you want?”

“Fear not, magician, my price is a mere trifle, no higher than one you’ve already paid.” The Arcana stopped circling, standing directly in front of Asra and facing him fully. “All it would cost...is the remaining half of your heart.”

The Devil’s gaze pierced into him as he spoke those damning words so casually, drilling a sickening sensation into his chest cavity that stole the air from his lungs. It wasn’t often that Asra could feel the difference, but in that moment the hollowness at the center of his chest ached, like it was reacting to the presence of the power that had torn it open in the first place. Asra stiffened, gritting his teeth against the wrongness of the feeling. All the while his thoughts raced, waging war against logic and magical instincts. The magic gathered around his hands flickered and dimmed, dispersing in his distraction.

Disbelief made him want to refute the Devil’s claim. A slew of protests nearly escaped out of sheer desperation, but the magician swallowed them down. All his teachings, the magical knowledge he’d accumulated throughout the years—it all spoke to the opposite.

The soul was the most complex part of a mortal being. If the Devil could retrieve a human soul after death, mold it to accept a heart that wasn’t its own, tether it to a body that was barely organic...what great struggle would shifting the plane of a physical form pose? Asra had seen the Arcana do it, been powerless to do anything but watch as the Devil had whisked Trinity into the void and left her stranded in the realm between realms.

Asra knew nothing of the powers that held Aaravos captive, but he knew the Devil’s power intimately. It wouldn’t even be difficult for a being like him.

And all it would cost...

A hand raised and pressed against his chest, feeling his own half-strong heartbeat against his palm. To anyone else it might seem an unfathomable cost, but Asra held no great attachment to the piece that remained. Not when he’d paid as much before. Not when he’d be giving it up for Aaravos.  

What was his heart for, if not giving to those he loved?

But it wasn’t the cost itself that unsettled him so. Something about it didn’t fit.

For Trinity, the piece of his heart had been needed to replace her own. Without it, her soul couldn’t have connected to its new body; Asra’s heart was what allowed her to live, a logical price to pay for her miracle.

But Aaravos was alive, safe in whatever distant realm where his full body resided. Freeing him was a matter of moving a physical form, not inhabiting one. To demand the remains of his heart in exchange would mean…

The Devil’s low chuckle shattered his thoughts. The sound echoed immeasurably, growing until it somehow filled the endless sky, pressing in until Asra could barely tell he was standing in his vast oasis. The sound crushed him, leeching the color out of the air, the plants, the ground—compressing until he was trapped. Confined.

Chained.

“You always were a perceptive one.” A full grin cleaved across the Devil’s features, red eyes and pointed teeth flashing with hunger. “Your heart isn’t required to complete the deed, but some price must be paid. Proper incentive. This time…your heart would belong to me.”

Asra’s entire being reacted to those words: every fiber, every atom, every drop of arcane power that made up his magic reared back in primal fear. Instinct drove him to retreat, only to find that he couldn’t move. His feet were rooted, and he looked down just as a pair of red chains burst from the ground.

Chunks of fertile earth scattered in all directions. Before he could react the chains snared his legs and Asra cried out, blistering pain accompanying every inch higher that the Devil’s bonds coiled. Through the burning Asra scrabbled for his magic, and it surged out of every speck and seam of the oasis, rushing to his call and channeling towards the chains. The supernatural bindings hissed and writhed against the magic building up beneath them like a second skin of water, forcing them to loosen until they released him fully and dissolved in a rush of heat.

As soon as he was free Asra crumpled. Pain sapped the strength from legs covered in hellish burns, and he buckled to one knee. His rage blazed just as hot, and amethyst eyes hardened, sure as his voice as he shouted, “No! I won’t fall for your tricks again!”

The Devil had inched closer, his towering form looming over the magician with barely concealed hostility. The Arcana’s tone carried a hint of laughter when he spoke, like he was amused by Asra’s resistance. “Our bargain for Trinity’s life was no trick. I never promised the state of her mind upon return, and you never asked. Surely you’ll be wiser in that regard this time around. I assure you this too is no trick. You needn’t hunt for your beloved’s freedom any longer.”

Refusing to be looked down on by the likes of the Devil, Asra ignored the pain and struggled to his feet. While his footing wavered his magic remained strong where it materialized into a shimmering shield between them, protecting him from being snared again. “I am wiser this time around—wise enough to never believe you.”  

The Devil huffed and the amusement faded from his features, seemingly losing his patience. “If you won’t listen to my word, then perhaps this will sway you: surely you know that Death is under my heel. Every mortal being is merely a clock ticking down, and Death sees how much time is left; they see where, and when, and why a mortal’s time will come.” His wicked grin returned, delighting in the horrors he spouted. “They have seen that your search is in vain. Without my intervention, your beloved Aaravos will die the same as he is now: imprisoned and fragmented.”

The words struck him more painfully than any physical blow or burning magic. It was stated with such confidence, such triumph. Asra’s eyes searched the Devil’s countenance desperately, but there was no hint of doubt. His broken and battered heart shuddered, aching with the horrible truth, with the knowledge that it had to be.

Major Arcana couldn’t lie. It didn’t stop the Magician from spinning riddles, or the Devil from weaving deceptions that bent and mutated the truth. Perhaps it was the shock, the all-consuming panic that took hold, but he couldn’t see how those words could be a deception. They were a stated fact, a damning condemnation that shook the very core of what was left of him. Asra couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t comprehend much less react when the Devil chuckled like he’d already won.

“Despite what you think of me, I am a being of reason. I see that you need some time to consider.”

It was with a triumphant air that the Devil turned away, casting a final glance over his shoulder. “Seek me out in my realm when you’ve seen the truth. I will leave the path open to you.”

A swirling portal yawned open in front of the Devil, colored with shades of blood and fire. In the next step he passed through and it sealed as quickly as it had formed, leaving Asra alone in the oasis.

Time stretched on yet Asra stood frozen, shaken and paralyzed to his core. His vision blurred and his chest tightened, breaths coming in shallow, frantic gasps laden with pain as the jagged edges of his sundered heart shredded him from the inside.

He’d thought they had all the time in the world. He’d believed with everything he had that they would eventually find a way. Now that illusion shattered around him, and he could do nothing but stand and watch, could do nothing as horrific truths compiled atop his shoulders and crushed him into stardust.

Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing always nothing—

Why was he always left with nothing?

An anguished cry wrenched from him as he disbanded his magic, letting it explode with the force of his fury and heartbreak. He dropped to his knees and the earth shuddered beneath him, the glowing colors of the oasis tinging dark and stormy. Pain flared in his legs once he hit the ground, but he barely felt it in comparison to the desolation and misery that thrummed through his veins with every heartbeat.

Tears pooled in violet eyes and spilled over, leaving streaks down his cheeks. He curled in on himself, pressing his arms to his stomach in a desperate, futile attempt to hold himself together. He hadn’t even accepted the Devil’s deal, and yet Asra already felt empty; he ached down to his core, the hollow of his chest stewing vacant in the wake of his remaining heart stopping in response to the fear, the anger, the misery—

He didn’t know how long it took him to come back together after falling apart. He heaved and shook and sobbed, until finally the scorching pain from his injuries broke through. With effort he straightened his legs, hissing between his teeth as he carefully rolled up his pants to reveal the burns. His hands trembled where they hovered over angry, blistered skin, his thoughts circling each other like a pack of wolves as healing magic streamed from his palms.

Soothing waves encircled the wounds and he closed his eyes, his sobs slowly tapering off as he lost himself in the ebb and flow, letting his awareness drift and meld with the familiar magic of the oasis. After a time his breaths evened and his panic faded, dispersing into the fathomless cosmos above.

He knew that hysteria was exactly the reaction that the Devil wanted. If he gave into his despair he’d only be playing right into the Devil’s hands.

No—if Asra did pay the Devil’s price, he’d at least do it with a clear head and no room for doubt.

If what the Devil had said about Aaravos’ fate was true, Asra would give anything to save him. He wouldn’t let what happened to Trinity happen to Aaravos. He wouldn’t fail someone else he loved.

He couldn’t lose anyone else.

Eventually Asra heaved himself to his feet. The pain had lessened, the crisscrossing burns healed from open and raw to faded, angry red, but the remaining damage required more time and power to heal than he could spare. He winced and staggered a few steps when he stood straight, but the strength in his limbs held, and that was all the go-ahead he needed. He swallowed down the lingering tendrils of panic, shoved aside his feelings so he could think rationally.

He couldn’t believe the Devil’s words until he heard Aaravos’ fate from the source. He’d never been to Death’s realm, didn’t know the path or what to expect along the way, but it didn’t matter.

He’d travel to the end of the endless void if he had to, drew in a single, stunted breath to steel himself against the very real possibility. A hand disappeared into his bag and emerged clutching a gold-plated compass as if it were a lifeline, white-knuckled fingers trembling around its familiar shape. As soon as the lid flipped open, the arrow jolted and froze without a wobble, magnetized to his heart’s desire.

As he started walking, taking slow, painful steps and desperately ignoring the lingering ache in his heart, the oasis brightened in stilted fractions. Despair brightened to determination. Determination brightened into love, so powerful that the ground glowed beneath every footfall.

He’d vowed to free Aaravos. No matter the time. No matter the effort.

If it was the last thing he did...

Whatever he had to give...

No matter the cost.

[hellsbells91]

Misgivings for Infinity War...

Having read a few theories and turned my brain over trying to figure if the trailers are a massive red herring or not, I guess what i’m most afraid for Infinity War at the moment, aside all the death, is that they’re going to undo all of Thor: Ragnarok’s fine work. So obvious declaration, I really liked the movie. 

We see Thor’s more vulnerable and happy-go-lucky side, he becomes so much more than this kind of stoic and stuck-up God just there in the background to bash things with Mjolnir. Confession: So before Ragnarok for me personally Thor was a character who was just kind of there - Loki was always a much more compelling character to watch. But Ragnarok changed that - things actually hurt Thor - and it’s not even necessarily physically. He loses his father, his hammer, his cape and his hair. So we’re seeing Thor without the pomp, seeing his journey trying to negotiate this new world where his identity and autonomy have been stripped from him.

We get more development on Bruce and the Hulk, and how it hurts Hulk to think that humans don’t like him and that he’s not wanted on Earth. We see a Hulk who remains in control, is self-reflexive and an almost child-like glee to him - he speaks, he has emotions, Hulk and Bruce share the same insecurity that they’re not as loved as the other half, or that they’re not as valued as the other Avengers. 

Loki as well begins to explore ‘turning over a new leaf’ as it were, to consider the possibility that if he wants to he can, as Thor says, be more - and that maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Take the one scene in the lift where we see actual emotion from him, that when faced with the prospect of being let go and never seeing Thor again, it saddens him. Loki finishes the film by Thor’s side - still the God of Mischief and a little shit, but with the opportunity for a new beginning, even when that means returning to Earth.

And finally after all their trials Asgardians are left as a refugee camp searching for a new home - but it doesn’t matter where they are, Asgard is a people with Thor as King and with friends/family by his side. Ragnarok is a film with an incredibly hopeful ending.

So now what I am terribly afraid Infinity War is going to do is just shit on Ragnarok within the first five minutes of the film by killing all of the Asgardians - probably along with the wonderful Valkyrie and Heimdall (who I’ll miss sorely) - rendering them pretty much extinct. Loki seems to be either dying straight away after one bold choice or just doing a 180 out of nowhere and allying with the enemy (perhaps worse), meanwhile allowing Thor to return to a more serious, stuffy and godly character.

I do hope I’m wrong, if that happened it would be like a massive kick in the teeth. 

[gazzhowie]

My Top 25 Movies of 2017.

Yes, it is indeed that time of year again where I blow the annual cobwebs off my Tumblr account to post my Top 25 movies of the year. And yes, I am indeed late by a few weeks in getting this up online... but I was celebrating this being the TENTH anniversary of this makeshift column thing. It started out as a regular on one website, moved to another and now it’s its own Tumblr ‘thing’. So... yay! Happy tenth anniversary. Or something.

Anyway, you frequent visitors know the score by now. I throw down a big long mournful special mention to all the films that I wish I could’ve included but couldn’t make them fit but think they deserve a shout out regardless and then I get stuck in to what I think are the 25 best films of the year.

As always, films listed are based on their UK release date. Without further ado...

In relation to the year’s dramas, I thoroughly enjoyed T2 Trainspotting and in a lot of ways the ‘long wait’ for a sequel we never really needed didn’t seem to hurt it at all. However, unlike the original, this felt like confection in the sense that once it was finished it didn’t really leave any lasting impression. I really liked Bleed For This and whilst familiar with the true story that it was dramatising I felt that for a lot of people they’d STILL find it completely incredulous. It was a well-directed, solidly acted little film that deserved more love. In an age when Jackie Chan films are so wildly all over the shop in terms of quality it was quite the delight to get two legitimately brilliant efforts from the legend. The first was Railroad Tigers which somehow managed to be part history lesson, part caper and part atypical Jackie Chan action extravanza without ever being annoying. Russia’s Panfilov's 28 (turigidly retitled Battle For Moscow here) was a great ‘stacked-odds’ war movie that rewarded the long wait to get itself into gear with some terrific tank-on-solider action set-pieces and high-stakes tension. 

Keeping with dramas, Anne Hathaway successfully rebirthed from having her cinematic abilities ruined by her obnoxious celebrity personality with Colossal, a terrific study of addiction and responsibility – somehow presented through the purview of a Kaiju movie! The Wall, Doug Liman’s second of two movies this year (after the likeable but disposable American Made), was the better one – playing out as one of those high concept ‘one location’ thrillers that keeps you suitably gripped… before sadly fizzling out in the final stretch. James Gray’s The Lost City of Z was a gorgeous-looking, wonderfully directed movie of a fascinating story sadly undone by last minute “that’ll do” casting that saw Charlie Hunnam completely derail a film that had every chance of being an instant classic. Jeff Nichol continued his pathway to becoming my generation’s Spielberg with Loving, the true life story of an American interracial marriage that challenged the law. Scorsese finally made his passion project, Silence, and it was a heavily flawed film that still some how felt like a sumptuous work of art at the same time. Finally, there was The Age of Shadows which was Korea’s attempt at gung-ho action-heavy, cat-and-mouse, double-agent espionage thriller that narrowly missed out on a place in the final Top 25.

In terms of blockbusters, Kong: Skull Island was tremendous fun with some of the best FX designs and action set-pieces you’d find in a Summer blockbuster in 2017. Only third act issues and a terrible Tom Hiddleston performance stopped it from being one of the year’s best. Fast & Furious 8 was a crushing disappointment that absolutely confirmed my worst fears after the death of Paul Walker – namely that this franchise would become utterly unmoored by Vin Diesel’s ego and his belief that HE himself is what the audience for these movies care about most. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was as much of a delight as you were probably hoping it would be and I loved it a great deal, but it completely lost my interest by its climax with its cavalcade of CGI smashing into CGI incoherently. 

Alien Covenant was a vast improvement on Prometheus (soon to be retitled Alien: Prometheus if rumours are to be believed!) but it still leaves you questioning why Ridley Scott is obviously trying to sandwich other sci-fi intentions he has into a pre-existing franchise that doesn’t quite accommodate them. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (I’m not calling it by that bizarre inexplicable UK title!) was… pleasantly surprising in the fact that it was not awful! Wonder Woman was legitimately jaw-dropping in terms of just how great it was (who’d have thunk it?) but, just like with Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the minute it leaned back on clattering CGI and nonsensical reveals it lost me entirely. The two biggest surprises of all though in terms of blockbusters was Life – which was a better Alien movie than Alien: Covenant with a humdinger of an ending that due to poor box office we’ll never see developed as intended – and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which somehow managed to be the best teen movie of the year and the best video game movie (for a video game that doesn’t exist!) AND one of the best sequels of the year too!

Not a huge amount of horror movies greatly impressed this year but M. Night Shymalan’s Split worked effectively for me and The Autopsy of Jane Doe stood out as one of the year’s best horror movies with some fantastic jump-scares and lead performances that fully commit to selling the concept. However, one that did really impress was Gerald’s Game. Mike Flanagan continued his own pathway to becoming my generation’s maestro of horror with an adaption of Stephen King’s novel that proved to be an engrossing, sickening, improbably excellent adaptation. Carla Cugino’s performance in it is one of the best of the year.

Whilst we’re talking great performances of the year special mention most definitely has to go to Theresa Palmer for her work in the uncompromising, upsetting indie thriller, Berlin Syndrome. 

For comedies, Don't Think Twice was a lovely watch and seemed to work past just how incredibly niche and “inside-y” it was through the hardwork of its thoroughly likeable cast. Goon: Last of the Enforcers was every bit this year’s underrated gem as its predecessor was when it was released years back. Then there was The Big Sick which managed the commendable balancing act of being incredibly lovely, moving, dramatic, hilarious and really rather wonderful all at the same time.

For action B-movies, it was a surprisingly great year in 2017. The team behind The Raid gave us Headshot which kick-for-punch gave us some of the best fight sequences of the year. Sleepless, a totally unrequired remake of the French classic Sleepless Night, ended up being a really fun, gritty ride full of entertaining shoot-outs and improbable fight sequences with Michelle Monaghan committing to the material with more gusto than it probably deserved and the film being all the better for it. The second best of the three cinematic attempts by Mel Gibson to be redeemed by his industry was Blood Father, a down-and-dirty gun-and-run action shoot ‘em up that would have been nothing without Gibson’s throwing-it-all-down performance. John Wick Chapter 2 was extravagant excellence that at times I felt unworthy of being exposed to. Jeremy Rush’s debut, Wheelman, took all the clichés of “the good criminal on a bad job gone wrong” subgenre and - thanks to Frank Grillo’s performance – made a better movie than the similar but one-note and overly acclaimed Baby Driver. 

Shockwave Tunnel was a dependably solid Andy Lau actioner that played like Die Hard meets Daylight – all the overblown, enthralling action you’d expect from a Hong Kong mid-level blockbuster with all the overwrought emotionally manipulative dramatics too! Finally there was Martin Campbell’s The Foreigner, the second of those brilliant Jackie Chan movies in 2017, which was part political revenge movie, part First Blood homage, part commercial for Chan being considered for actual serious acting awards and part ‘Is Pierce Brosnan doing Gerry Adams?’ think-piece.

It was another stellar year for documentaries too with Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press being the biggest jaw-dropper of the lot as Hulk Hogan, backed by a billionaire with nefarious intent, destroyed a website for reporting on his sex tape – and set a dangerous precedent in the process! Bright Lights, the candid documentary on Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, landed on UK shores early in 2017 and proved to be every bit as heartbreaking as you’d expect in light of Fisher’s death. Probably one of the biggest, bizarre curios this year was Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, a candid and unfiltered look behind Jim Carrey’s “process” in making Man on the Moon many years back and which gave way to finally turning many a long-held rumour to fact. Spielberg was an out-and-out delight for any fan of cinema, delivering an enormous amount of access to the master of cinema himself as he and his colleagues took us through his career and his life. Finally there was the magnificent and majestic epic OJ: Made In America which makes these ‘mentions’ as an eight hour documentary in the same way Twin Peaks Season 3 is allowed to be considered as one of “the films of the year” too. It is an accomplished, thorough and engrossing study not just of a miscarriage of justice but of race in America, celebrity and human toxicity.

I did not catch a lot of animation in 2017 but the two standouts worthy of mention were The Lego Batman Movie, which managed to keep the delightful ball bouncing that The Lego Movie itself threw up in the air by way of pacey and inventive plotting/design and a very, very clever and knowing script. Then there was Seoul Station, the animated prequel to last year’s sublime Train to Busan. It deserves a shout-out not because it is particularly stunning as an animated film (it isn’t!) or that it works particularly brilliantly as a prequel (it doesn’t!) but as an animated zombie contagion movie in its own right it is very much entertaining and proves to be quite the thrill-ride with a gut-punch denouement.

And now to the Top 25 movies of the year themselves:

 25. It Comes At Night

Badly mismarketed - according to some - as some sort of zombie/creature feature that saw an immense audience backlash, this is actually a brilliant study in dread and human frailty told on an intimate scale with yet another dependably excellent performance from Joel Edgerton.

24. Spider-Man: Homecoming

I’m as big an MCU ‘junkie’ as most but I went into this cynical and with my arms dismissively folded across my chest. I was burnt out on Spider-Man and the Civil War cameo, whilst ‘fun’, didn’t give me any feeling it would work as another feature. I thought the Sam Raimi trilogy was badly cast and over-rated fare and I actually went against the populous on the Andrew Garfield movies by finding them entertaining clusterfucks that worked in spite of the committee filmmaking approach. I just didn’t want another round – but Homecoming gets Spider-Man entirely right for the first time, for me. It moves like a bullet without an inch of fat on it (a rarity for a lot of MCU movies!), it’s wonderfully cast and, best of all, it manages to be exciting and funny in equal measures like the best MCU movies and no other Spider-Man movie has before!

23. Manchester By The Sea

This is not your recommended Friday or Saturday night ‘easy entertainment’ and for many its quality has been blighted by the revelations about Casey Affleck but this is an uncomfortably honest and heartbreaking mediative study on grief, loss and loneliness. Affleck is superb and Michelle Williams once again shows that she is the greatest actress of my generation by an easy mile.

22. Super Dark Times

I was lauded like the hero I rightfully should be considered as for labelling this movie on Twitter as “Stand by Me meets American Psycho” and the description really works. Go in knowing as little as possible and just let it play out. It’s dark, grimy and captivating and it works as tremendously as it does because it never once feels anything less than completely real. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

21. Patriots Day

Mark Wahlberg is one of the worst mainstream actors (and, lest we forget, human beings!) in the movie business today. And here he’s playing (badly) an unnecessarily and inexplicably invented “composite” character in an otherwise authentic dramatic recreation of the Boston Bombing and the hunt for the culprits. When Peter Berg sticks to the facts and procedurally works through the events and the investigation, you’re gifted an exemplary thriller that delivers – with the Watertown shoot-out – one of the year’s best sequences. When you’re put in the hands of Wahlberg, it’s painful. I was able to forcibly separate the former from the latter. Many couldn’t. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

20. Hacksaw Ridge

I’m keeping my opinion on Mel Gibson absent for once (everyone knows I’m big on cutting the guy some slack, frankly!) but I was delighted to see this received the way it was. Not everything in it works (Andrew Garfield does his typical “swing for the back” unsubtle performance, its first hour works more as an outright homage to 1950s dramas than it does in its own right!) but, man alive, does it serve to remind us all what an absoloutely outstanding filmmaker Gibson is. He’s delivered one of the greatest war movies of the modern age, telling an outstanding true story in the process and refusing to skimp when it comes to brutality, octane or high drama in the process. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

19. La La Land

I really don’t understand the backlash to this movie at all. Not one bit. A talented director has taken two of the best working actors in the industry right now and made an ode to movie musicals of yesteryear with all the aplomb and appeal you’d expect – and it’s delightful. It really is. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

18. Atomic Blonde

Someone somewhere thought a tribute to Roger Donaldson’s No Way Out but starring Charlize Theron and made in the style of John Wick should be made and that person should be applauded and carried through the streets on a throne! This is not a perfect movie. Hell, it’s not even a movie that is anywhere near as clever as it thinks it is. But as a piece of action entertainment, it really is terrific fun – stupendously well directed with energy to spare, a cool as hell soundtrack and Theron is excellent! That “one take” hallway/apartment/car fight is absolutely audacious - and brilliant just for watching Eddie Marsan, the modern day Yoda of character actors, try to just... “not get in the way”.

17. Thor: Ragnorak

Everyone had a right to be cautious about this one – on the one hand anyone familiar with Taika Waititi knew that he’d never made a bad movie and was becoming one of the strongest voices in cinematic comedy. But on the other hand Thor was proving to be one of the weakest characters in the MCU and his previous movies had been less than great. So you can chalk this one up as one of the biggest and best surprise blockbusters of 2017. It delivered on the action and spectacle in all the ways you’d expect from a Marvel movie but it was also one of the best comedies of the year too.

16. Blade Runner 2049

Who would have thought for one second that this was going to work let alone work as well as it did? A direct sequel, decades after the fact, to a box office failure that has aged into an inarguable masterpiece? It is almost too bittersweet then that its sequel would be critically adored but also fail at the box office as well. Blade Runner 2049 is not a film for the casual cinema-goer. It’s certainly not for someone who hasn’t seen or truly appreciated Ridley Scott’s original classic. It’s a reward dressed up as a film for people who like beautiful cinema, technical audaciousness, strong performances and intricate, mature plotting all wrapped up into one.

15. The Handmaiden

Park Chan-Wook’s adaptation of the novel ‘Fingersmith’ is a sumptuous cavalcade of deception, erotica, dark obsession, greed and romance. You watch it waiting for one of the cogs to break and for the whole thing to come undone because it’s hard to get your head around how all of these elements are kept in motion so seamlessly and so enthrallingly. The cogs never break. It really is just that excellent.

14. Okja

I went into this as one of the rare few who find Tilda Swinton abrasive, who’d heard terrible things about what Jake Gyllenhaal was doing in this movie and was getting caught up in mixed word-of-mouth about what the film itself was actually about. But when you’ve made Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer, and Mother you get to buy a lot of good faith from a viewer, frankly. So in Bong Joon-Ho we trust and boy did that trust pay off! This is the only funny, harrowing, thrilling, moving, thought-provoking caper / thriller / drama / “message” movie you’re going to see this year. It is, of course, on Netflix now to view.

13. Detroit

It sort of annoyed me that I was so ignorant to the facts prior to watching Kathryn Bigelow’s searing drama set during the 1967 Detroit riots, in which a group of rogue police officers respond to a complaint with retribution rather than justice on their minds. I felt I should have been better educated on the grave injustice and inhumane horrors of this incident. It’s testament to Bigelow that she manages to educate the unknowledgeable on the context needed, the geography and the peole without ever making you feel like you’re being lectured. The film struggles to stay afloat as we decompress from the horrors of the extended second act set-piece into what is ostensibly the cover-up but it’s testament to all involved that it manages to nonetheless.

12. Brawl in Cell Block 99

Craig Zahler’s follow-up to Bone Tomahawk is an astounding homage to the 70s/early 80s exploitation movies that cluttered up the bottom two shelves of many a local video shop. It’s got that C-grade exploitation movie type plot but what Zahler does is expand it in a way to give it time to breathe in ways an ‘original’ exploitation movie couldn’t. We get to spend time with the characters and get a feel for predicaments and locations so when the “hell” does break loose we are in it alongside them. Vince Vaughn uses this movie as a farewell to every safe, easy, shitty studio romcom his reputation stalled on and reinvents himself as a lanky Charles Bronson type for a modern age. It gets horrifying and grim and then keeps going and does so with a sense of zeal and pride that is really rather admirable.

11. Logan

We know that James Mangold is one of the great American filmmakers very rarely put to use by studios the way he should be (i.e. give him money and get out of his way) but he still manages to insert moments of brilliance in otherwise throwaway films (Identity, Knight & Day and The Wolverine all have moments in them that make them better than you’ve probably heard!). Somehow he managed to convince Fox to let him take one of the most iconic but problematic runs in comic book history and make a third solo Wolverine after two previous fatally bad/uneven attempts – but make it as a futuristic western farewell to the character itself and, oh, he won’t be pandering to any of the inter-universe stuff either... And in the process Mangold essentially made the UNFORGIVEN of the comic book movie genre. Like with that movie, it now feels like the door's been closed on this particular genre of movies (the MCU movies feel like their own unstoppable beast at this point) rather definitively. Everything needing said or done within the genre is right there in LOGAN. This works because it has something to say and an actor with a point to prove - It's not out to stake its claim as the best 'comic book movie' (it is one of them though!) but it is very interested in making sure it is a great movie. Not only does it achieve that, but it sort of lands as its own instant masterpiece of sorts too. Hugh Jackman's doing work here that is utterly terrific and if you'd said last year that some of the best performances you'll find in cinema in 2017 would be in "the third WOLVERINE movie" you'd have been drowned in laughter. Yet here we are. If you were to recalibrate the 'limitations' of the past, present and future of the western genre, then with COPLAND, 3:10 TO YUMA and this James Mangold has made three of the best in modern cinema.

10. The Villainess

This is a movie that is so absolutely chockfull of full on "HOLY SHIT!" moments and action sequences that you’re still sat muttering "How the hell did they do that?!?" days after you’ve experienced it. Its story is muddled in its delivery and it does take a little bit to bed down with what is going on, where they're going and what story they're trying to tell but... maaaan... when it lights up it fires off like a nuclear friggin missile. Controversial as it's going to sound, it's a rarity in that as a homage to a source material (NIKITA in this instance) it surpassed the source in my opinion! You will invariably see stories get better told this year - but you're not going to see a film with better action sequences! Fact!

9. War For The Planet of the Apes 

Enter into this movie with a broad mind and in return you'll be rewarded with an astoundingly good time full of great direction, terrific visual effects, wonderful performances and fantastic set-pieces! I just REALLY hope that this is the closing chapter of a particular trilogy but not necessarily the franchise as a whole - To develop this textured a 'history', pay it off in this manner and NOT take it now into themore pointed direction of the original Charlton Heston movie seems like an awful waste! Any failings WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES has is not in the film itself but in the marketing - There's going to be a boatload of folk expecting to see helicopters and tanks, commanded by Woody Harrelson, panning out over snowy terrain to blast away at an army of apes in what is all pay off to the build-up of the last two movies. This isn't THAT movie! The movie it IS though is a tremendous achievement both on a technical level and as a piece of storytelling. It's a beautifully realised, rich revenge Western dressed up as a prison escape movie - but with apes! And in marketing it the studio really didn't seem to want you to know that Matt Reeves has essentially remade APOCALYPSE NOW and THE GREAT ESCAPE at the same time, in the same movie - but with apes!

8. IT: Chapter One

I was one hundred percent blown away by Andy Muschietti's adaption of IT. I was hoping it would be good but... Jesus... this was actually astounding! Seriously! It's not just a great horror movie. It's a great movie, full stop. And possibly one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel ever made. Shit thee not. It absolutely works on every conceivable level. It is legitimately scary (downright terrifying in parts!), completely enthralling and so incredibly well crafted. The key to adapting King has always been in accepting that the man is a wildly uneven and incredibly ill-disciplined author and a great adaption needs to fight against his worst excesses. Which often means being willing to cull away at the source material with brutal confidence. That's why STAND BY ME, THE SHANKSHANK REDEMPTION, MISERY, THE MIST, CARRIE, THE GREEN MILE and especially THE SHINING are tremendous... and why the likes of UNDER THE DOME and every movie Mick Garris touches is flat out awful and barely watchable! The casting is utterly sublime - Finn Wolfhard from STRANGER THINGS is a delight, Jeremy Ray Taylor was so moving he broke my heart and Sophia Lillis is just jaw-droppingly brilliant. She gives such an assured performance for someone so young and, in the process, delivers one of my favourite performances of the year. And Bill Skarsgård? HOLY SHIT!! I can't rave about this movie enough, frankly. By moving it to the 80s it hit my 'nostalgia button' just perfectly and the scares were so expertly executed.

7. Dunkirk

Nolan has proven time and again that he is a master craftsman in the field of modern cinema, whether through populist fare like THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy, playing opulently in the sci-fi sandbox with INTERSTELLAR, gunning for hire on police procedurals with INSOMNIA or delivering his trifecta of inarguable cinematic masterpieces with THE PRESTIGE, MEMENTO and INCEPTION. This moves like a fuckin rocket-ship, just non-stop propulsion from the first frame to the last drawing exhilaration and exhaustion from you at every step. The non-linear format is a masterstroke in that it rather exquisitely uses the agonising wait that comes with time pushed right up against the race against the very same thing. It's so intricately developed. Harry Styles doesn't do enough to make an impression but nor is he given enough to offend. He's just there. Hans Zimmer reinvents himself musically once again. And Nolan clarifies once more that there is still a place for old-school movie majesty in the modern age - the push wherever possible to avoid CGI aerial battles and painted-in boats shows a determination and dedication that deserves kudos. With the stripped back dialogue, the never-ending series of jaw-dropping and nerve-shredding set-pieces and a gorgeous, old-fashioned execution, this is a ready-made masterpiece!

6. Get Out

What's getting lost in all of the critical plaudits for this film is that it is possibly one of the most assured and successful directorial debuts in cinema history! This is an absolute humdinger of a movie, reconfiguring what you think of cinema as social commentary, what makes a horror movie scary and what you think of Allison Williams (no joke!). So much fun and more importantly thought-provoking! KEY & PEELE was some majestic shit – but, between this and KEANU, Jordan Peele has proven worthy of being followed wherever he wants to go with his film ideas!

5. Free Fire

I urge you to believe the hype - FREE FIRE is *that* good! Kinetic, original, hilarious and exhilarating. It's a legitimately great time, doing for the shoot-out in 2017 what MAD MAX: FURY ROAD did for the car chase in 2015. It is quite literally everything that everyone is overstating BABY DRIVER to be - an inventive recalibration of a frequented cinematic form! Everything said and overhyped about Edgar Wright (a director far more interested in his own celebrity than making gimmick-free films) is wholly true of Ben Wheatley who, film by film, seems to repeatedly reinvent himself and has never delivered something less than excellent. FREE FIRE is what would happen if Florent Emilio Siri's NID DE GUEPES made a baby with BOOGIE NIGHTS! It's ridiculous how well Ben Wheatley manages to choreograph this thing... a ninety-odd minute, one location, non-stop shoot-out... with such clean geography where you're always aware of what's going on and where every character is. And, honestly, let's reiterate it again now - In terms of great Oscar injustices, Sharlto Copley not winning in 2018 for his work in this will be one of the all-time travesties!

4. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

This is a quirky, grim, funny, gripping gem of a movie that I saw early on in 2017 and it stayed with me right the way throughout the year. Macon Blair has went from being the driving force (BLUE RUIN) and supporting foundation (GREEN ROOM) in straight-out-the-gate modern masterpieces to delivering a directorial debut that immediately lands as one of the films of 2017! If only there was some way we could go live in a world where Trump wasn't president and Blair, Elijah Wood, the never less than excellent Jane Levy and the utterly outstanding Melanie Lynskey were taking home ALL the awards for this! Who'd have thunk Lynskey would go from bit-player in an awful sitcom to the best actress of our generation? Maybe The Duplass Brothers’ Togetherness that y’all didn’t watch was the goddamn clue, huh? For me, Melanie Lynskey delivers THE best actress performance of the year. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

3. Jawbone

I was absolutely blown away by what is easily one of the best British films made in a long time! And on top of all THAT, in time it'll come to stand as one of the best boxing movies of all time too. It absolutely captures the level of boxing I know of - that whole subculture of what rises up from when Golden Gloves contendership ends but no pro-journey materialises. On top of THAT, it's a tremendously well executed study of the pain that manifests from addiction, grief and loneliness. Seek this out. I urge you. It’s the anti-Rocky and there's not a single false-note in the whole film. It’s now on Netflix here in the UK.

2. Wind River

I jested from the minute the trailer dropped that all involved had inexplicably and unnecessarily remade my beloved Deadly Pursuit. How wrong could I be? For me, in his directorial debut, Taylor Sheridan has absolutely nailed it as a director what he did twice over the previous years as a writer with Sicario and Hell or High Water - delivering a mature, harrowing, enthralling thriller that has something to say. Awards season seems to have forgotten it already but Sheridan's debut direction and Jeremy Renner's performance are more than worthy of consideration.

1. Good Time

Robert Pattinson, an actor I have never been able to stand in anything (and that includes his Cronenberg rebirth period stuff too!), captivates completely in what is the most kinetic, captivating and energetic film of the year. Pattinson plays Connie Nikas, a scumbag low-level criminal who, after a heist goes awry, has to spend one long night trying to free his brother with learning disabilities from custody in the notorious Riker's Island prison. What follows is a relentless foot-chase through the streets, tenements and shitholes of New York City that plays out as a non-stop living nightmare. I heard of Good Time’s directors, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie, as being announced for the remake of 48hrs before I’d seen this, their debut feature. And I spent a great deal of time whining about how 48hrs doesn’t need touched and who did these Safdie brothers think they were, etc. Now? Having seen this movie and adored it as much as I have, I’m legitimately excited to see what their version of a modern day 48hrs could be! Good Time is now on Netflix here in the UK.