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maxwell-grant · 3 years ago

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other than Godzilla, Mothra, and the creatures from Lovecraft, are there any iconic monsters and beasties from the pulps?

I do want to give a more thorough answer someday since monsters are much more of an area of interest of mine than pulps are, but for the time being, I'll name 10.

1: The Thing

A monster so iconic that most are not aware it was actually originated in a pulp story, titled "Who Goes There?", first published in Astounding Science Fiction before becoming a novel, then a movie, and then the John Carpenter remake. The Thing's popularity really speaks for itself. I could probably include other John Carpenter monsters here since I've talked before on how much of pulps came through in his films, but I'll leave it to just The Thing as it.

2: Bug-Eyed Monsters

Not so much a specific monster as a general category of pulp sci-fi monsters, usually predatory in nature, grotesquely oversized and described as bug-eyed, which were prevalent enough not just to become a stock archetype that's seen very popular usage outside of pulps, like Invader Zim, but to even be the name of horror anthology magazines

3: The Giant Woman

The almost literal poster girl for 50s pulp sci-fi/horror and all the hokeyness and parody that's usually afforded them nowadays, it's hard to think of the giant woman trope played straight for horror instead of a parody of the idea, or just as a fetish thing, and it's hard to think of them as much of a monster in the first place. Still, it's undeniably iconic, and it's a category of monster in it's own right, if only because of the sheer popularity of the poster for Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

4: Brain in a Jar

Another type of monster generally associated with 50s sci-fi, the Brain in a Jar actually did come to life primarily on pulp magazines, enough times for it to practically constitute a character type in it's own right, showing up in stories written by Olaf Stapledon, Lovecraft, Gustave le Rouge and Otto Binder, and the rogues galleries of characters like Captain Future and Tom Shark, even being the protagonists of a couple of stories, usually as villains or tragic victims wanting to die.

5: Dinosaurs

Yup, dinosaurs as monsters is something that took off in the pulps, not surprisingly. While dinosaurs had been discovered as early as 1812-1820, it wasn't until the very late 1890s and the early 1910s that dinosaurs began taking off as great monsters of fiction, in works like Beyond the Great South Wall in 1901 which marks the first explicitly villainous dinosaur, Panic in Paris in 1910 which seems to be first on the works of fiction to feature scenes of dinosaurs rampaging through streets, and A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder from 1888 which is a "lost world" story that predates Doyle's by over two decades, and might have been considered the progenitor of the fantasy novel had it not debuted a year after H.Rider Haggard's She and King Solomon's Mines.

6: The Phantom of the Opera

I'm gonna avoid including human villains, but The Phantom's essentially become a sub-category of monster in it's own right, and he's definitely iconic enough to merit inclusion. My reasoning for him being grouped alongside pulp characters is because the original story by Gaston Leroux was actually published in serialized format as a feuilleton in newspaper Le Galouis, and as I've established before, feuilletons were France's pulp fiction, one of the very earliest examples of pulp even before the Americans got on it. It's hardly that surprising that Erik would be grouped among the villains and monsters of pulp fiction, considering the similarities between him and a certain shadowy avenger with a similar flair for theatrics.

7: Killer Robots/Cyborgs

Kind of self-explanatory, as they were practically the bread and butter of most sci-fi pulps pending towards horror. Although mentions of automata date from before the pulps, it was in their time that this rose to such pop culture prominence. The Nick Carter novels had what is considered the first cyborg in fiction. The term "robot" was coined by Karel Čapek, who became a pulp magazine writer. Robots and aliens were among the premier monsters of most pulp sci-fi stories, even if not necessarily their main villains usually. And speaking of aliens,

8: UFOs

While they predate pulps, the general idea of aliens as stock pop culture monsters first took life in pulp magazines. Murray Leinster’s First Contact, while it's aliens are not evil, coined the term "first contact" and provided a template for every story based around the idea ever since. The Martian Chronicles by Rad Bradbury is often credited by sci-fi historians as a pivotal event in the genre’s growing respectability and mainstream success. More famously, you had writers like Robert Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Olaf Stapledon and Francis Flagg all striking several different speculations regarding aliens, a variety that ultimately ensured the alien's popularity as a new monster archetype.

9: The Headless Mule

Included here because I make it a point to reference one figure from Brazil's history, as cordel literature is our local equivalent to pulp, and the Headless Mule is one of the most famous monsters of our folklore and one of the most prominent stories across cordel. As cordel tends to revolve around folk poems, songs, tales and novels, monsters from Brazilian folklore tend to show up in those, and I intend on writing more extensively about them soon. The Headless Mule is one of the most popular and I'll paste a short description of her below:

The headless mule is, in fact, a woman, cursed after having sexual relations with a priest (regardless of whether or not she consents), who suffers a similar fate to the werewolf. On nights from Thursday to Friday, she turns into a dark-haired mule, with either a head shrouded in flames, or a perpetual flame for a skull.

She goes out riding quickly through villages, seven, to be exact, causing damage wherever she goes by either running over people and trampling and tearing them with sharp hooves, or burning any who approaches it's fire.

There is one way to free the woman from the curse: It carries a glowing iron curb in its mouth. If someone is brave enough to pull it out, the mule will transform back into a woman, never to change again.

10: King Kong

Proof of how irrevelant it is whether or not a pulp character was ever part of a pulp magazine. While Kong didn't start out in pulp magazines, nor was he published in one like Godzilla as far as I can recall, it's pretty indisputable that Kong and Skull Island have been extremely influential in much of pop culture's perception of pulp jungle adventures and giant monsters, influencing the creation of Godzilla and Mothra and the kaiju genre. Kong and Skull Island have had so, so many crossovers with pulp heroes that I'd be incredibly remiss not to include him, and so he's here as my final inclusion.

#replies tag #the thing #john carpenter #attack of the fifty foot woman #giant woman #brain in a jar #dinosaurs #pulp fiction #pulp villains #pulp monsters #phantom of the opera #gaston leroux #king kong #ufo #skull island

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wickedgamesoyaoya · 4 years ago

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Rather than intertwine your fingers with his, you reached out and slapped your palm against his in a high-five. The action stunned each of the males around you, although Suna was the first to comprehend what occurred, instantly stifling back laughter at how wide Osamu’s eyes had become. Their reactions did not phase you one bit, a fact that was illustrated by the confident smile plastered against your face.

“It’s going to take more than flowers to earn my forgiveness, gremlin,” Once you were stood on the step below the paralyzed male, you directed your hand to slip through your hair to the back of your neck, before ushering the strands to collide with his face. The cook pinched his eyelids together, then turned away from you to lessen the impact. “But I guess it’s a start.” Lifting your shoulders into a nonchalant shrug, you descended down the remaining steps until your platforms connected with the unpaved road.

Waiting for him was a curtsey you were not interested in bestowing upon him. Instead, you commenced down the pathway on your own, leaving him to arrive at his own leisure. For the one minute you were alone with the creatures of the night, you ventured to label the emotions ripping apart the lining of your stomach.

Raising your hand to the light, the diamond on your finger shinned with a brilliance that resembled the love you once shared. A love that no longer held the spark it did years ago. But seeing him tonight, knowing that he abandoned his selfish desires for you – a little seed of hope was planted. The question was, would he tend to the seed? Would he provide it the sunshine it required to bloom? Or would he destroy it with the icy indifference you were forced to become accustomed to?

The sound of another’s footsteps escorted your thoughts back to reality, and instinctively your hand was lowered back to its post. Osamu matched your pace with ease once he caught up, but he was slightly surprised by the bounce on your heel – you were walking like someone who had somewhere to be. He was certainly thankful that he left the flowers at the car, as you were clearly in no mood to receive them.

“You sure walk fast for someone with short legs.” A light chuckle accompanied his words, sending your heart rate back into a frenzy. Sometimes you pondered if your heart and mind were on completely different pages on the subject of love. Your heart would accept him, without any reservations. Your mind, on the other hand, was warning you against overstaying your welcome.

If your relationship was fated to expire – what would you do?

“Not everyone can be a giraffe. If you wanted someone taller you should have dated Ushijima.” The retort was drained of any audible emotion with your mind consumed by the anxieties of disobeying your destiny.

“Out of everyone in the world, why did you think of that guy?” Osamu dragged a hand through his hair, unintentionally adding a little fluff. He was a little confused why everyone was so damn obsessed with the guy ever since high school.

“Is he not tall?” Pausing, you allowed your gazes to meet, only to convey your disinterest in continuing the conversation.

“Yeah…” He almost felt like cowering under the intensity of your stare, it was a miracle he was able to choke out a response.

“Point made.” Maintaining eye-contact was far too strenuous with the weight of your emotions smothering you, and yet you were unable to rip your scrutiny away. How badly did you want his arms around you? Was it more than the desire to run away?

“Okay… But I wasn’t insulting you.” The emptiness glazing over your y/e/c irises sunk a wedge into his chest. Desperate to draw out the love you were suppressing, he closed the gap between you, slipping his arms around your waist. You titled your head as he nuzzled into your neck. His fluttering eyelashes brushed against the sensitive spot behind your ear, causing you to shiver unwillingly. “You know that I love your legs.” Sliding his hand from your waist to the small of your back, he applied a tender kiss to your neck.

“Do I know that?”

The hoarseness in your throat sent his blood rushing to his lower body, generating a haze that blurred the thoughts in his head. He knew you were seeking vulnerability; pure sentiments that he starved you of.

“You should, and I’m the worst for not telling you it more often.” He was not quite done with your neck, but he vowed to return after satisfying your needs. After pressing another peck against your flesh, he lifted his head to align your forehead with his for a brief moment.

“I love you, y/n. I knew I loved you when we were sixteen, making out when our friends were fighting in the gym.” Overwhelmed by his own confessions, his breaths became far more spaced out and heavy. “I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you when we were eighteen, and you told my mother without any hesitation that you would be giving her grandbabies.” The memory of his mother’s expression kindled a comforting warmth inside you. At first, she was flabbergasted, but ten minutes later she was planning a baby-shower. Funny enough, it was the older twin who shattered everyone’s fantasy by reminding them that you two were too young for children. Needless to say, the twin’s mother was quite upset for the remainder of the evening.

“Oi. I’m not done.” Osamu stole a kiss on the tip of your nose, aiming to draw your attention back to him. He knew that you would likely be reminiscing, and he needed you to hear what came next. “I lost track of what’s important, y/n. But I won’t again. You are my priority. I don’t care about anything else. I can’t be happy without you. The day I proposed to you was the happiest of my life.” Allowing his eyelids to shut, his mouth hovered over yours, searching for your approval. “I know you said you wanted space, but before that... Will you let me remind you of our love?”

Each inch of your skin burned in the ardor stemming from the entrancing words dripping from his lips. Both of your hands found refuge on his cheeks as you connected your mouth with his, aggressively. Using the hand on your back, he neatly framed your body against his then titled his head, providing you complete access to his mouth. He was in no mood to fight your desires; he would allow you to do what you pleased... to an extent. Removing a hand from his face, your fingers tugged at the bottom of his shirt, a simple action that drew a disapproving groan to vibrate in his throat.

“Baby, we’re in the open.” He did not stop you though, instead he began peppering open-mouthed kisses along your neck, battling the urge to leave a mark.

“Mhmm. Fine. If you don’t want me…” Trailing your tongue against your bottom lip, you attempted to fight your lustful urges by wiggling out of his grip. But he immediately shot down your efforts, keeping your body directly against his.

“Yeah right. You’re not leaving me. Sorry. You’re stuck to me forever.” An artificial frown crept upon his lips as he squished you playfully.

“This is not the human centipede, ‘Samu. I need space!” With his hands hovering around your sides, you knew trouble was brewing.

“You did not just compare hugging me to whatever occurred in that disgusting film.” Grunting, he began tickling your skin in revenge, forcing uncomfortable laughter to erupt from inside you. “Apologize.”

“Okay, okay!! I’m sorry.” Flailing around aimlessly, tears formed at your waterline as your failed to escape the lethal stimulation. “I’m sorry that you’re a punk ass bitch!”

Scoffing at the half-assed apology, he dropped a noisy and sloppy kiss to your cheek. “You’re marrying me, so I guess that makes you Ms. Punk Ass Bitch then.” While he may have been attempting to disgust you, the action filled your heart with a joy that brightened your features.

“Hmmm. I guess it does.”

Let’s do it again, shall we - human centipede

Masterlist - Previous - Next

A/N: ok, this was KINDA cute, right?????

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#osamu x you #osamu scenario #osamu smau #hq osamu #osamu x reader #osamu x y/n #osamu miya #osamu fluff #haikyuu osamu #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu smau #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu #haikyuu!!

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clydesgod · 4 years ago

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‘the 9th layer’

Feat. Richard, and, another person

(A more relaxed drabble now, featuring Richard’s favourite bar and his favourite barkeep.)

TW: Alcohol, light sexual themes

——————————————–

Trodding along the wet pavement, Richard hobbled through the street and made a turn towards a little alleyway. The alleyway wasn’t inhabited. In fact, there were a few small shops and bars thrown about. He kept moving on though, not really caring about them. It wasn’t like he went to those ones at all anyway. He had only one place on his mind, after all.

‘The 9th layer’, the most decent bar in this city.

Upon entering the little room, Richard took off his leather jacket and hung it up on the wide array of hooks in front of him. Looked like it was just him today. Good, he sorta liked it that way when it wasn’t loud. He made his way past a small curtain and into the main area of the bar where there were cushioned stools lined up against the main bar area, with little seating areas being them in case you didn’t at all fancy sitting so close to there. It was amazing how well this place was doing despite the lack of space.

Richard took a seat near the bar, pulling the chair out and dragging it across the floor to indicate to the bartender that he was in and waiting for a drink. A little bit rude, sure, but Richie knew how much Mattias didn’t like being yelled at.

Swiftly, a latch opened up from behind the bar, and a skinny, but tall figure came out of it. He was climbing on a ladder, and struggled a bit upon getting out. Nothing to worry about though, it happened a lot to him.

Whilst Richard was gray, Mattias was almost entirely purple. Some parts of his face and body had patches that were lighter than the rest. His ears were long and pointed and his eyes were black, except for his irises, which were red. He was wearing a nice white shirt, with a dated but stylish waistcoat and striped pants. He was probably wearing suspenders under there too. Upon leaving the hatch and closing it, he stood all the way up without bending his back forward. He had to be at least 7’4’, though his horns made him look 4 inches taller. He had some hair, though it was rather short and slicked back. He had a very tiny goatee as well, one that looked barely noticeable if you were looking at him from afar.

“The usual please, Matti.” Richard asked, resting his elbows and forearms against the bar as he leaned on over. He looked at the wide array of spirits he had on display too. He began to wonder if anyone actually asked for those, he never saw Mattias turn around to take one from it’s slot. Was it just for decoration?

Mattias made a noise of agreement and got to work, taking out a clean glass from below, spinning it so the open end was on the top, and placed it against a tap that was labeled ‘Asahi’. He began to pour, not making any noise as he stared straight into the golden, frothy liquid that was pouring out.

Richard stared along at it too, loving the way he poured drinks. Was there even a style to that? He didn’t really consider if bartenders and mixologists had their own way of pouring stuff.

“Y’know,” Richard began, readjusting himself on his stool as he spoke. “I was thinking about getting into mixology myself. Seems fun to do.”

“...very good.” Mattias replied, eyes hardly connecting with Richard’s as he turned off the tap and placed the beer right in front of Richard, making sure it was on a coaster provided so it wouldn’t ruin the bar he had just cleaned.

Richard wasted no time, reaching for it and promptly taking a casual first sip. It was refreshing, especially after a long day at work. ‘Must’ve been hard to Mattias,’ he wondered. Mainly because he hardly ever saw Mattias outside of his work place, except for bumping into him in the local store. He was calm, a man of few words.

“Aaaah. Lovely pint as always. My compliments to the barkeep.”

“...thank you.”

...Maybe a man of too few words. Things got awkward pretty quick. He took a rag and started to clean an empty glass to pass the time, he didn’t like leaving customers alone.

Richard took another swig, tapping a finger on the bar.

“So...you er, done anything fun today?”

“...not really.”

“Seen any new films?”

“...no.”

“...err...has Vitalis been in here today? I haven’t seen him.”

“...apologies, I have not.”

“...Y’know, I met a guy wayyyyyyyyy taller than you recently. Dude was like, 9 foot something. He was cool.”

“...very interesting mr Clydesgod.”

“...”

“...So how’s your lady friend Nessa then?”

Mattias froze, almost dropping his glass as a light pink hue appeared on his face. He looked over at Richard, his calm demeanour ceasing to exist.

“We-She is NOT my lady friend,” He replied, his accent finally revealing itself. He sounded Eastern European, from the Baltics if Richard remembered correctly. “She is just a customer who visits and runs her mouth a bit. She pays well, unlike you.”

“By running her mouth do you mean she’s helping you out?~ Common is she under there or somethin’?” Richard asked, attempting to lean over to view under the bar until Mattias pushed Richard’s shoulders back down, firmly onto the stool.

“You little...ugh, why do you always have to come here and act like such a twerp? I’ve dealt with annoying teens before but you’re somehow just, worse.” Mattias went back to cleaning his glass, placing it down below by simply squatting.

“It’s just nice to hear your voice after all. It’s so deep, no wonder the ladies go CRAZY for it.” He laughed, taking a rather bigger swig this time. “Man. Why do you gotta be so scared of milfs all the time?”

“Stop. Saying. That damn word!” The purple demon replied, gritting his teeth as he resisted the urge to throw a glass at him. “It’s not my fault people come here to pay attention to me! I’m only here to provide drinks and let the customers have their own fun. Not to get dragged into dates. Not like I can go on any. Work takes too much time.”

Richard scoffed.

“Hire someone then. Go get, like, 2 bartenders, so you can go out on the town and score some points with the hot older ladies,” He took another big swig, almost finishing his drink already. “What are you scared of anyway? Most ladies here seem to take a shine to you anyway, they leave the most tips!”

“It’s...complicated you lollakas,” He replied, turning around to make sure all the spirits and hard liquors were well organized. “I’ve got the bar to manage, little Uno to feed, taxes to do, myself to feed, a bunch of other stuff I cannot care less for. I don’t have enough time to get into a silly little relationship at the current moment.”

“...At the current moment?~” Richard asked, an eyebrow rising. Mattias’ blush simply grew bigger.

“S-shut-you. Ugh. Sa tapad mu,” He muttered, going back to organizing everything before he closes up. He looked behind, seeing Richard finishing his glass. “Don’t bother asking for another, you need to pay for this week and, besides, I’m closing up for the night.”

“Why’d you think I came then?” Richard replied, reaching behind and taking out a wallet. He rummaged around for a bit, taking out quite a lot of money and holding it out towards him. Mattias gave Richard a strange look, but took the money anyway. He counted it all, flicking through each note rapidly and taking a mental note of the total sum. Once worked out, he began to take some of the notes away.

“Hey, keep the change,” Richard replied, getting off of the stool and stretching. “Oof, that was a fine glass. I’ll see you around tomorrow Matti.” He started to walk off, waving behind at his favourite barkeep.

Mattias said nothing, simply staring and huffing before moving to the register and depositing the cash inside of it. There went his favorite patron. Well, maybe not his most favourite. There was Nessa-

He shook his head, taking Richard’s glass and placing it into a glass washer nearby. He checked his watch, it was Uno’s feeding time in a bit. Poor tortoise. He wondered if he could even realize how much work he did so the poor creature wouldn’t starve.

He sighed, turning on the glass washer and stretching his arms to the sides as to not knock anything over.

...Maybe he’d give Nessa a call tonight...

#{lore}#{dyn gafr🐐 : Richard Clydesgod}#{man of many words🍺 : Mattias Pärn}#// :3c #// tw: alcohol #{nsfw implied cw}

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fanbun · 4 years ago

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Seuss Tales: From Page To Screen

Below the cut is an essay I wrote about Dr. Seuss adaptations after I was inspired by watching Green Eggs and Ham on Netflix. In the essay I examine the changes that adaptations have made to the original stories and how they have evolved over time. If you’re interested, please give it a read! :D

The tone of a Dr. Seuss book has proven particularly difficult to reproduce in any lengthened retelling. It is much like attempting to expand a poem into a novel. Somewhere during development, the original form will fall away to fit the new medium. And while artifacts of the original may still be present in the final product, such as a line or two, it is likely that those artifacts will feel disconnected from the product as a whole. In terms of Seuss, this is usually classic rhymes from the original stories that the audience expects to be included in the adaptation. Even if an audience member has had little exposure to the source material, they can usually identify these moments when a character starts rhyming for no particular reason. Of course, it must be said that some adaptations mimic the original tone better than others, and in those cases the product feels much more cohesive.

Since it is so difficult to expand a short story, the safest decision when making an adaptation is simply to be faithful. In the past, Seuss adaptations stuck much closer to the source material. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) set the standard for the many Seuss TV specials that came after it. These specials utilized a narrator that would read the book nearly word-for-word and had an animation style that stuck as close to the original illustrations as possible. Where padding was necessary to extend the run-time, it was usually done by including songs and extra animation sequences. This form of padding didn’t typically disrupt the flow of the story since the songs featured rhyming in them as well, and the added animations were used to bring Seuss’s world to life. Dr. Seuss himself even wrote the lyrics to many of the songs. Thus these first Seuss TV specials were as close to direct adaptations as the public was ever given.

So when did the trend change? Well Seuss died in 1991 and in the year 2000, a live action comedy film starring Jim Carrey was released based off of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Ironically, the very same title that started the initial animated Seuss renaissance. It was not only the first feature length film based on a Dr. Seuss property, but it was also a major financial success as it offered a new take on the familiar story. After all, the original animated special was already so beloved. The producers had to try something new to entice people to go see it. So what was created was a movie about the character of the Grinch, that followed the general story of the Grinch, but was entirely divorced from the classic tone and presentation of a Dr. Seuss book. Additionally, it made alterations to the characters and plot in an attempt to add depth and expand upon the story. This live action Seuss trend didn’t last for long, however, and it came to an end after The Cat in The Hat (2003) left a poor taste in the public’s mouth.

Jim Carrey would later return to voice the quirky titular elephant of Blue Sky’s Horton Hears a Who in 2008. This time animation was back in the form of trendy CG. The humor was modern but not quite as edgy as in the live action movies, and the trailers promised a more authentic Seuss experience for the youth at the time. Though the age of CG animated movies was an attempt to return to form, they couldn’t escape the adaptational dilemma of trying to stretch short stories into full movies. Horton Hears a Who (2008) remained faithful to the book’s plot but was padded with plenty of gags that tended to outstay their welcome. In contrast, Illumination’s The Lorax (2012) padded its run-time by expanding on the Onceler’s character and introducing new characters, including an all new antagonist. This, although showing clear ambition, ended up being a controversial decision as many viewed it as obscuring the book’s intended message.

Interestingly, Netflix’s Green Eggs and Ham series (2019) is mostly padding. In fact, there is hardly anything in the show that resembles the original book aside from the two main characters, Sam-I-Am and “Guy”, and the aforementioned Sam’s affinity for green eggs and ham. And yet it manages to feel more like a Seuss story than many of the adaptations that have come before it. No doubt this is partly due to its traditional 2D animation style, though the inclusion of many Seussian creatures and contraptions should not be overlooked as an important factor. It is terrible as a direct adaptation, but as an expanded retelling it is brilliant. The writers were given a book so simplistic, with such a straightforward moral, that they only needed to follow it loosely to deliver on its message. They took a couple characters, a handful of words, and rewrote it almost entirely. And really, that was the only smart choice for a series that spans 6 1/2 hours in total.

One of the most drastic departures from the book was the decision to make the plot revolve around Guy and Sam smuggling an exotic animal (named Mr. Jenkins) in a briefcase to return it to the wild. This concept alone turns it into a completely different story. So much so that I’d argue the title of “Green Eggs and Ham” hardly fits as a descriptor. Still, the theme of animal protection is entirely in line with the types of morals found in Dr. Seuss books. This recurring message is made even more evident since the villains work for a serial animal abuser who keeps live animals on display as status symbols. I could have easily imagined that a separate Dr. Seuss story existed with this same plot.

But what is perhaps most interesting to me about the rewrite is that, along with convincingly portraying a story based on Dr. Seuss, it also adds its own modern sensibilities into the mix. Not merely by way of adding humor and references like some adaptations before it, but through the story’s structure itself. First of all, it is a multi-episode animated series with emphasis on continuity. Secondly, it fleshes out the personalities and backstories of the characters over time. And thirdly, it at once represents and transforms the source material in something of a metatextual exercise. The narrator’s tendency of breaking the fourth wall is a perfect example of this. He even acts as an audience stand-in at times, commenting that he wasn’t expecting to see the events that occur during the opening scene from a Seuss adaptation. Or at another point humorously asking “Was this in the book?” This brand of meta comedy made me take note of the more daring writing choices like the shocking reveals about Sam and the B.A.D.G.U.Y.S. toward the end of the season. Once again, the writers deliberately added complexity where there was originally very little.

Crucially for fans of the book, the rewrite doesn’t betray the original moral of Green Eggs and Ham. Rather it adds a layer of depth to that moral’s execution. In the book, the plate of green eggs and ham represents the characters’ willingness to try new things. It is the same in the series, however the unexpected journey the two leads embark on is what is given the most narrative focus. After leaving his comfort zone, Guy’s emotional attachment to Sam is what makes him finally try the green eggs and ham. It is a symbolic gesture of how far his character has come from the beginning of the show. He initially wanted nothing to do with Sam or Mr. Jenkins, but then he got to know them and discovered how much he cared.

So although it is risky to create an adaptation that changes much of the source material, it can absolutely be worth the risk. There is boundless creative potential to be found in transformative works, and that potential may be realized if given the right amount of passion and dedication. Sure, it might upset the purist in us, but the original already exists. Why not make something new out of it? Cut up pieces of the poem. Rearrange the words and add a new perspective. Some people will always consider doing so to be ruining a classic, but others might view it as a masterpiece all on its own. In the end it is up to personal opinion whether an adaptation is good or not, but nonetheless I think we should celebrate the cultural significance of these stories that leads us to recreate and retell them time and time again.

#Dr Seuss #Green Eggs and Ham #geah #The Lorax #The Grinch #dr. seuss #analysis #essay #my writing

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grigori77 · 5 years ago

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Movies of 2020 - My Pre-Summer Favourites (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

10. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Justin Kurzel has been on my directors-to-watch list for a while now, each of his offerings impressing me more than the last (his home-grown Aussie debut, Snowtown, was a low key wallow in Outback nastiness, while his follow up, Macbeth, quickly became one of my favourite Shakespeare flicks, and I seem to be one of the frustrated few who actually genuinely loved his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, considering it to be one the very best video game movies out there), and his latest is no exception – returning to his native Australia, he’s brought his trademark punky grit and fever-dream edginess to bear in his quest to bring his country’s most famous outlaw to the big screen in a biopic truly worthy of his name. Two actors bring infamous 19th Century bushranger Ned Kelly to life here, and they’re both exceptional – the earlier half of the film sees newcomer Orlando Schwerdt explode onto the screen as the child Ned, all righteous indignation and fiery stubbornness as he rails against the positions his family’s poverty continues to put him in, then George MacKay (Sunshine On Leith, Captain Fantastic) delivers the best performance of his career in the second half, a barely restrained beast as Ned grown, his mercurial turn bringing the man’s inherent unpredictability to the fore. The Babadook’s Essie Davis, meanwhile, frequently steals the film from under both of them as Ellen, the fearsome matriarch of the Kelly clan, and Nicholas Hoult is similarly impressive as Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned’s slimily duplicitous friend/nemesis, while there are quality supporting turns from Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe as two of the most important men of Ned’s formative years. In Kurzel’s hands, this account of Australia’s greatest true-life crime saga becomes one of the ultimate marmite movies – its glacial pace, grubby intensity and frequent brutality will turn some viewers off, but fans of more “alternative” cinema will find much to enjoy here. There’s a blasted beauty to its imagery (this is BY FAR the bleakest the Outback’s ever looked on film), while the screenplay from relative unknown Shaun Grant (adapting Peter Carey’s bestselling novel) is STRONG, delivering rich character development and sublime dialogue, and Kurzel delivers some brilliantly offbeat and inventive action beats in the latter half that are well worth the wait. Evocative, intense and undeniable, this has just the kind of irreverent punk aesthetic that I’m sure the real life Ned Kelly would have approved of …

9. JUST MERCY – more true-life cinema, this time presenting an altogether classier account of two idealists’ struggle to overturn horrific racial injustices in Alabama. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) brings heart, passion and honest nobility to the story of fresh-faced young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his personal crusade to free Walter “Johnny D” McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. His only ally is altruistic young paralegal Eva Ansley (Cretton’s regular screen muse Brie Larson), while the opposition arrayed against them is MAMMOTH – not only do they face the cruelly racist might of the Alabama legal system circa 1989, but a corrupt local police force determined to circumvent his efforts at every turn and a thoroughly disinterested prosecutor, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), who’s far too concerned with his own personal political ambitions to be any help. The cast are uniformly excellent, Jordan and Foxx particularly impressing with career best performances that sear themselves deep into the memory, while there’s a truly harrowing supporting turn from Rob Morgan as Johnny D’s fellow Death Row inmate Herbert, whose own execution date is fast approaching. This is courtroom drama at its most gripping, Cretton keeping the inherent tension cranked up tight while tugging hard on our heartstrings for maximum effect, and the result is a timely, racially-charged throat-lumper of considerable power and emotional heft that guarantees there won’t be a single dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll. Further proof, then, that Destin Daniel Cretton is one of those rare talents of his generation – next up is his tour of duty in the MCU with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and if this seems like a strange leftfield turn given his previous track record, I nevertheless have the utmost confidence in him after seeing this …

8. UNDERWATER – at first glance, this probably seems like a strange choice for the year’s current Top Ten – a much-maligned, commercially underperforming glorified B-movie creature-feature headlined by the former star of the Twilight franchise, there’s no way that could be any good, surely? Well hold your horses, folks, because not only is this very much worth your time and a comprehensive suspension of your low expectations, but I can’t even consider this a guilty pleasure – as far as I’m concerned this is a GENUINELY GREAT FILM, without reservation. The man behind the camera is William Eubank, a director whose career I’ve been following with great interest since his feature debut Love (a decidedly oddball but strangely beautiful little space movie) and its more high profile but still unapologetically INDIE follow-up The Signal, and this is the one where he finally delivers wholeheartedly on all that wonderful sci-fi potential. The plot is deceptively simple – an industrial conglomerate has established an instillation drilling right down to the very bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in our Earth’s oceans, only for an unknown disaster to leave six survivors from the operation’s permanent crew stranded miles below the surface with very few escape options left – but Eubank and writers Brian Duffield (Jane Got a Gun, Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan) wring all the possible suspense and fraught, claustrophobic terror out of the premise to deliver a piano wire-tense horror thriller that grips from its sudden start to a wonderfully cathartic climax. The small but potent cast are all on top form, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick (Netflix’ Iron Fist) and John Gallagher Jr. (Hush, 10 Cloverfield Lane) particularly impressing, and even the decidedly hit-and-miss T.J. Miller delivers a surprisingly likeable turn here, but it’s that Twilight alumnus who REALLY sticks in your memory here – Kristen Stewart’s been doing a pretty good job lately distancing herself from the role that, unfortunately, both made her name and turned her into an object of (rather unfair) derision for many years, but in my opinion THIS is the performance that REALLY separates her from Bella effing-Swan. Mechanical engineer Norah Price is tough, ingenious and fiercely determined, but with the right amount of vulnerability that we really root for her, and Stewart acts her little heart out in a turn sure to win over her strongest detractors. The creature effects are impressive too, the ultimate threat proving some of the nastiest, most repulsively icky creations I’ve seen committed to film, and the inspired design work and strong visual effects easily belie the film’s B-movie leanings. Those made uneasy by deep, dark open water or tight, enclosed spaces should take heed that this can be a tough watch, but anyone who likes being scared should find plenty to enjoy here. Altogether a MUCH better film than its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating makes it out to be …

7. ONWARD – Disney and Pixar’s latest digitally animated family feature clearly has a love of tabletop fantasy roleplay games like Dungeons & Dragons, its quirky modern-day AU take populated by fantastical races and creatures seemingly tailor-made for the geek crowd … needless to say, me and many of my friends absolutely loved it. That doesn’t mean that the classic Disney ideals of love, family and believing in yourself have been sidelined in favour of fan-service – this is as heartfelt, affecting and tearful as their previous standouts, albeit with plenty of literal magic added to the metaphorical kind. The central premise is a clever one – once upon a time, magic was commonplace, but over the years technology came along to make life easier, so that in the present day the various races (elves, centaurs, fauns, pixies, goblins and trolls among others) get along fine without it. Then timid elf Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland) receives a wizard’s staff for his sixteenth birthday, a bequeathed gift from his father, who died before he was born, with instructions for a spell that could bring him back to life for one whole day. Encouraged by his brash, over-confident wannabe adventurer elder brother Barley (Chris Pratt), Ian tries it out, only for the spell to backfire, leaving them with the animated bottom half of their father and just 24 hours to find a means to restore the rest of him before time runs out. Cue an “epic quest” … needless to say, this is another top-notch offering from the original masters of the craft, a fun, affecting and thoroughly infectious family-friendly romp with a winning sense of humour and inspired, flawless world-building. Holland and Pratt are both fantastic, their odd-couple chemistry effortlessly driving the story through its ingenious paces, and the ensuing emotional fireworks are hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure, while there’s typically excellent support from Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine from Seinfeld) as Ian and Barley’s put-upon but supportive mum, Laurel, Octavia Spencer as once-mighty adventurer-turned-restaurateur “Corey” the Manticore and Mel Rodriguez (Getting On, The Last Man On Earth) as overbearing centaur cop (and Laurel’s new boyfriend) Colt Bronco. The film marks the sophomore feature gig for Dan Scanlon, who debuted with 2013’s sequel Monsters University, and while that was enjoyable enough I ultimately found it non-essential – no such verdict can be levelled against THIS film, the writer-director delivering magnificently in all categories, while the animation team have outdone themselves in every scene, from the exquisite world-building and character/creature designs to some fantastic (and frequently delightfully bonkers) set-pieces, while there’s a veritable riot of brilliant RPG in-jokes to delight geekier viewers (gelatinous cube! XD). Massive, unadulterated fun, frequently hilarious and absolutely BURSTING with Disney’s trademark heart, this is currently (and deservedly) my animated feature of the year. It’s certainly gonna be a tough one to beat …

6. THE GENTLEMEN – Guy Ritchie’s been having a rough time with his last few movies (The Man From UNCLE didn’t do too bad but it wasn’t exactly a hit and was largely overlooked or simply ignored critically, while intended franchise-starter King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was largely derided and suffered badly on release, dying a quick death financially – it’s a shame on both counts, because I really liked them), so it’s nice to see him having some proper success with his latest, even if he has basically reverted to type to do it. Still, when his newest London gangster flick is THIS GOOD it seems churlish to quibble – this really is what he does best, bringing together a collection of colourful geezers and shaking up their status quo, then standing back and letting us enjoy the bloody, expletive-riddled results. This particularly motley crew is another winning selection, led by Matthew McConaughey as ruthlessly successful cannabis baron Mickey Pearson, who’s looking to retire from the game by selling off his massive and highly lucrative enterprise for a most tidy sum (some $400,000,000 to be precise) to up-and-coming fellow American ex-pat Matthew Berger (Succession’s Jeremy Strong, oozing sleazy charm), only for local Chinese triad Dry Eye (Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding, chewing the scenery with enthusiasm) to start throwing spanners into the works with the intention of nabbing the deal for himself for a significant discount. Needless to say Mickey’s not about to let that happen … McConaughey is ON FIRE here, the best he’s been since Dallas Buyers Club in my opinion, clearly having great fun sinking his teeth into this rich character and Ritchie’s typically sparkling, razor-witted dialogue, and he’s ably supported by a uniformly excellent ensemble cast, particularly co-star Charlie Hunnam as Mickey’s ice-cold, steel-nerved right-hand-man Raymond Smith, Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery as his classy, strong-willed wife Rosalind, Colin Farrell as a wise-cracking, quietly exasperated MMA trainer and small-time hood simply known as the Coach (who gets many of the film’s best lines), and, most notably, Hugh Grant as the film’s nominal narrator, thoroughly morally bankrupt private investigator Fletcher, who consistently steals the film. This is Guy Ritchie at his very best – a twisty rug-puller of a plot that constantly leaves you guessing, brilliantly observed and richly drawn characters you can’t help loving in spite of the fact there’s not a single hero among them, a deliciously unapologetic, politically incorrect sense of humour and a killer soundtrack. It got the cinematic year off to a cracking start, and looks set to stay high in the running for the remainder – it’s EASILY Ritchie’s best film since Sherlock Holmes, and a strong call-back to the heady days of Snatch (STILL my favourite) and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Here’s hoping he’s on a roll again, eh?

5. THE INVISIBLE MAN – looks like third time’s a charm for Leigh Whannell, writer-director of my current horror movie of the year – while he’s had immense success as a horror writer over the years (co-creator of both the Saw and Insidious franchises), as a director his first two features haven’t exactly set the world alight, with debut Insidious: Chapter III garnering similar takes to the rest of the series but ultimately turning out to be a bit of a damp squib quality-wise, while his second feature Upgrade was a stone-cold masterpiece that was (rightly) EXTREMELY well received critically, but ultimately snuck in under the radar and has remained a stubbornly hidden gem since. No such problems with his third feature, though – his latest collaboration with producer Jason Blum and his insanely lucrative Blumhouse Pictures has proven a massive hit both financially AND with reviewers, and deservedly so. Having given up on trying to create a shared cinematic universe inhabited by their classic monsters, Universal have resolved to concentrate on standalones to showcase their elite properties, and their first try is a rousing success, Whannell bringing HG Wells’ dark and devious human monster smack into the 21st Century as only he can. The result is a surprisingly subtle piece of work, much more a lethally precise exercise in cinematic sleight of hand and extraordinary acting than flashy visual effects, very much adhering to the Blumhouse credo of maximum returns for minimum bucks as the story is stripped right back to its bare essentials and allowed to play out without any unnecessary weight. The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elizabeth Moss once again confirms what a masterful actress she is as she brings all her performing weapons to bear in the role of Cecelia “Cee” Kass, the cloistered wife of affluent but monstrously abusive optics pioneer Aidan Griffin (Netflix’ The Haunting of Hill House’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who escapes his clutches in the furiously tense opening sequence and goes to ground with the help of her closest childhood friend, San Francisco cop James Lanier (Leverage’s Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (A Wrinkle in Time’s Storm Reid). Two weeks later, Aidan commits suicide, leaving Cee with a fortune to start her life over (with the proviso that she’s never ruled mentally incompetent), but as she tries to find her way in the world again little things start going wrong for her, and she begins to question if there might be something insidious going on. As her nerves start to unravel, she begins to suspect that Aidan is still alive, still very much in her life, fiendishly toying with her and her friends, but no-one can see him. Whannell plays her paranoia up for all it’s worth, skilfully teasing out the scares so that, just like her friends, we begin to wonder if it might all in her head after all, before a spectacular mid-movie reveal throws the switch into high gear and the true threat becomes clear. The lion’s share of the film’s immense success must of course go to Moss – her performance is BEYOND a revelation, a truly blistering career best turn that totally powers the whole enterprise, and it almost goes without saying that she’s the best thing in this. Even so, she has sterling support from Hodge and Reid, as well as Love Child’s Harriet Dyer as Cee’s estranged big sister Emily and Wonderland’s Michael Dorman as Adrian’s slimy, spineless lawyer brother Tom, and, while he doesn’t have much actual (ahem) “screen time”, Jackson-Cohen delivers a fantastically icy, subtly malevolent turn which casts a large “shadow” over the film. This is one of my very favourite Blumhouse films, a pitch-perfect psychological chiller that keeps the tension cranked up unbearably tight and never lets go, Whannell once again displaying uncanny skill with expert jump-scares, knuckle-whitening chills and a truly astounding standout set-piece that looks set to go down as one of the year’s top action sequences. Undoubtedly the best version of Wells’ story to date, this goes a long way in repairing the damage of Universal’s abortive “Dark Universe” efforts, as well as showcasing a filmmaking master at the very height of his talents.

4. EXTRACTION – the Coronavirus certainly has thrown a massive spanner in the works of this year’s cinematic calendar – the new A Quiet Place sequel should have been setting the big screen alight for almost two months now, while the latest (and most long-awaited) MCU movie, Black Widow, should have just opened to further record-breaking box office success, but instead the theatres are all closed and virtually all the big blockbusters have been pushed back or shelved indefinitely. Thank God, then, for the streaming services, particularly Hulu, Amazon and Netflix, the latter of which provided a perfect movie for us to see through the key transition from spring to the summer blockbuster season, an explosively flashy big budget action thriller ushered in by MCU alumni the Russo Brothers (who produced and co-wrote this adaptation of Ciudad, a graphic novel that Joe Russo co-created with Ande Parks and Fernando Leon Gonzalez) and barely able to contain the sheer star-power wattage of its lead, Thor himself. Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a former Australian SAS operative who hires out his services to an extraction operation, under the command of mercenary Nik Khan (The Patience Stone’s Golshifteh Farahani), brought in to liberate Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal in his first major role), the pre-teen son of incarcerated Indian crime lord Ovi Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi), who has been abducted by Bangladeshi rival Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). The rescue itself goes perfectly, but when the time comes for the hand-off the team is double-crossed and Tyler is left stranded in the middle of Dhaka with no choice but to keep Ovi alive as every corrupt cop and street gang in the city closes in around them. This is the feature debut of Sam Hargrave, the latest stuntman to try his hand at directing, so he certainly knows his way around an action sequence, and the result is a thoroughly breathless adrenaline rush of a film, bursting at the seams with spectacular fights, gun battles and car chases, dominated by a stunning sustained action sequence that plays out in one long shot, guaranteed to leave jaws lying on the floor. Not that there should be any surprise – Hargrave cut his teeth as a stunt coordinator for the Russos on Captain America: Civil War and their Avengers films. That said, he displays strong talent for the quieter disciplines of filmmaking too, delivering quality character development and drawing out consistently noteworthy performances from his cast. Of course, Hemsworth can do the action stuff in his sleep, but there’s a lot more to Tyler than just his muscle, the MCU veteran investing him with real wounded vulnerability and a tragic fatalism which colours his every scene, while Jaiswal is exceptional throughout, showing plenty of promise for the future, and there’s strong support from Farahani and Painyuli, as well as Stranger Things’s David Harbour as world-weary retired merc Gaspard, and a particularly impressive, muscular turn from Randeep Hooda (Once Upon a Time in Mumbai) as Saju, a former Para and Ovi’s bodyguard, who’s determined to take possession of the boy himself, even if he has to go through Tyler to get him. This is action cinema that really deserves to be seen on the big screen – I watched it twice in a week and would happily have paid for two trips to the cinema for it if I could have. As we look down the barrel of a summer season largely devoid of big blockbuster fare, I can’t recommend this film enough. Thank the gods for Netflix …

3. PARASITE – I’ve been a fan of master Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho ever since I stumbled across his deeply weird but also thoroughly brilliant breakthrough feature The Host, and it’s a love that’s deepened since thanks to the truly magnificent sci-fi actioner Snowpiercer, so I was looking forward to his latest feature as much as any movie geek, but even I wasn’t prepared for just what a runaway juggernaut of a hit this one turned out to be, from the insane box office to all that award-season glory (especially that undeniable clean-sweep at the Oscars). I’ll just come out and say it, this film deserves it all. It’s EASILY Bong’s best film to date (which is really saying something), a masterful social satire and jet black comedy that raises some genuinely intriguing questions before delivering some deeply troubling answers. Straddling the ever-widening gulf between a disaffected idle rich upper class and impoverished, struggling lower class in modern-day Seoul, it tells the story of the Kim family – father Ki-taek (Bong’s veritable good luck charm Song Kang-ho), mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Ki-woo (Train to Busan’s Choi Woo-shik) and daughter Ki-jung (The Silenced’s Park So-dam) – a poor family living in a run-down basement apartment who live hand-to-mouth in minimum wage jobs and can barely rub two cents together, until they’re presented with an intriguing opportunity. Through happy chance, Ki-woon is hired as an English tutor for Park Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), the daughter of a wealthy family, which offers him the chance to recommend Ki-jung as an art tutor to the Parks’ troubled young son, Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun). Soon the rest of the Kims are getting in on the act, the young Kims contriving opportunities for their father to replace Mr Park’s chauffeur and their mother to oust the family’s long-serving housekeeper, Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun), and before long their situation has improved dramatically. But as they two families become more deeply entwined, cracks begin to show in their supposed blissful harmony as the natural prejudices of their respective classes start to take hold, and as events spiral out of control a terrible confrontation looms on the horizon. This is social commentary at its most scathing, Bong drawing on personal experiences from his youth to inform the razor-sharp script (co-written by his production assistant Han Jin-won), while he weaves a palpable atmosphere of knife-edged tension throughout to add spice to the perfectly observed dark humour of the situation, all the while throwing intriguing twists and turns at us before suddenly dropping such a massive jaw-dropper of a gear-change that the film completely turns on its head, to stunning effect. The cast are all thoroughly astounding, Song once again dominating the film with a turn which is at once sloppy and dishevelled but also poignant and heartfelt, while there are particularly noteworthy turns from Lee Sun-kyun as the Parks’ self-absorbed patriarch Dong-ik and Choi Yeo-jeong (The Concubine) as his flighty, easily-led wife Choi Yeon-gyo, as well as a fantastically weird appearance in the latter half from Park Myung-hoon. This is heady stuff, dangerously seductive even as it becomes increasingly uncomfortable viewing, so that even as the screws tighten and everything goes to hell it’s simply impossible to look away. Bong Joon-ho really has surpassed himself this time, delivering an existential mind-scrambler that lingers long after the credits have rolled and might even have you questioning your place in society once you’ve thought about it some. It deserves every single award and every ounce of praise it’s been lavished with so far, and looks set to go down as one of the true cinematic greats of this new decade. Trust me, if this was a purely critical best-of list it’d be RIGHT AT THE TOP …

2. 1917 – it’s a rare thing for a film to leave me truly shell-shocked by its sheer awesomeness, for me to walk out of a cinema in a genuine daze, unable to talk or even really think about much of anything for a few hours because I’m simply marvelling at what I’ve just witnessed. Needless to say, when I do find a film like that (Fight Club, Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road) it usually earns a place very close to my heart indeed. The latest tour-de-force from Sam Mendes is one of those films – an epic World War I thriller that plays out ENTIRELY in one shot, which doesn’t simply feel like a glorified gimmick or stunt but instead is a genuine MASTERPIECE of a film, a mesmerising journey of emotion and imagination in a shockingly real environment that it’s impossible to tear your eyes away from. Sure, Mendes has impressed us before – his first film, American Beauty, is a GREAT movie, one of the most impressive feature debuts of the 2000s, while Skyfall is, in my opinion, quite simply THE BEST BOND FILM EVER MADE – but this is in a whole other league. It’s an astounding achievement, made all the more impressive when you realise that there’s very little trickery at play here, no clever digital magic (just some augmentation here and there), it’s all real locations and sets, filmed in long, elaborately choreographed takes blended together with clever edits to make it as seamless as possible – it’s not the first film to try to do this (remember Birdman? Bushwick?), but I’ve never seen it done better, or with greater skill. But it’s not just a clever cinematic exercise, there’s a genuine story here, told with guts and urgency, and populated by real flesh and blood characters – the heart of the film is George MacKay and Dean Chapman (probably best known as Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones) as Lance Corporals Will Schofield and Tom Blake, the two young tommies sent out across enemy territory on a desperate mission to stop a British regiment from rushing headlong into a German trap (Tom himself has a personal stake in this because his brother is an officer in the attack). They’re a likeable pair, very human and relatable throughout, brave and true but never so overly heroic that they stretch credibility, so when tragedy strikes along the way it’s particularly devastating; both deliver exceptional performances that effortlessly carry us through the film, and they’re given sterling support from a selection of top-drawer British talent, from Sherlock stars Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch to Mark Strong and Colin Firth, each delivering magnificently in small but potent cameos. That said, the cinematography and art department are the BIGGEST stars here, masterful veteran DoP Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner 2049 and pretty much the Coen Brothers’ entire back catalogue among MANY others) making every frame sing with beauty, horror, tension or tragedy as the need arises, and the environments are SO REAL it feels less like production design than that someone simply sent the cast and crew back in time to film in the real Northern France circa 1917 – from a nightmarish trek across No Man’s Land to a desperate chase through a ruined French village lit only by dancing flare-light in the darkness before dawn, every scene is totally immersive and simply STUNNING. I don’t think it’s possible for Mendes to make a film better than this, but I sure hope he gives it a go all the same. Either way, this is the most incredible, exhausting, truly AWESOME experience I’ve had at the cinema this year (so far) – it’s a film that DESERVES to be seen on the big screen, and I feel truly sorry for those who missed the chance …

1. BIRDS OF PREY & THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN – the only reason 1917 isn’t at number one right now is because Warner Bros.’ cinematic DC Extended Universe project FINALLY got round to bringing my favourite DC Comics title to the big screen. It’s been the biggest pleasure of my cinematic year so far getting to see my top DC superheroines brought to life on the big screen, and it’s been done in high style, in my opinion THE BEST of the DCEU films to date (yup, I loved it EVEN MORE than Wonder Woman). It was also great seeing Harley Quinn return after her show-stealing turn in David Ayer’s clunky but ultimately still hugely enjoyable Suicide Squad, better still that this time round they got her SPOT ON this time – this is the Harley I’ve always loved in the comics, unpredictable, irreverent and entirely without regard for what anyone else thinks of her, as well as one hell of a talented psychiatrist. Margot Robbie once more excels in the role she was basically BORN to play, clearly relishing the chance to finally do Harley justice, and she’s a total riot from start to finish, infectiously lovable no matter what crazy, sometimes downright REPRIHENSIBLE antics she gets up to. Needless to say she’s the nominal star here, her latest ill-advised adventure driving the story – finally done with the Joker and itching to make her emancipation official, Harley publicly announces their breakup by blowing up Ace Chemicals (their love spot, basically), inadvertently painting a target on her back in the process since she’s no longer under the supposed protection of Gotham’s feared Clown Prince of Crime – but that doesn’t mean she eclipses the other main players the movie’s REALLY supposed to be about. Each member of the Birds of Prey is beautifully written and brought to vivid, arse-kicking life by what has to be the year’s most exciting cast – Helena Bertinelli, aka the Huntress, is the perfect character for Mary Elizabeth Winstead to finally pay off on that action heroine potential she showed in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but this is a MUCH more enjoyable role outside of the fight choreography because while Helena may be a world-class dark avenger, socially she’s a total dork, which just makes her thoroughly adorable; Rosie Perez is similarly perfect casting as Renee Montoya, the uncompromising pint-sized Gotham PD detective who kicks against the corrupt system no matter what kind of trouble it gets her into, and just gets angrier all the time, paradoxically making us like her even more; and then there’s the film’s major controversy, at least as far as the fans are concerned, namely one Cassandra Cain. Sure, this take is VERY different from the comics’ version (a nearly mute master assassin who went on to become the second woman to wear the mask of Batgirl before assuming her own crime-fighting mantle as Black Bat and now Orphan), but personally I like to think this is simply Cass at THE VERY START of her origin story, leaving plenty of time for her to discovery her warrior origins when the DCEU gets around to introducing Lady Shiva (personally I want Michelle Yeoh to play her, but that’s just me) – anyways, here she’s a skilled child pickpocket whose latest theft inadvertently sets off the larger central plot, and newcomer Ella Jay Basco brings a fantastic pre-teen irreverence and spiky charm to the role, beautifully playing against Robbie’s mercurial energy. My favourite here BY FAR, however, is Dinah Lance, aka the Black Canary (not only my favourite Bird of Prey but my very favourite DC superheroine PERIOD), the choice of up-and-comer Jurnee Smollet-Bell (Friday Night Lights, Underground) proving to be the film’s most truly inspired casting – a club singer with the metahuman ability to emit piercing supersonic screams, she’s also a truly ferocious martial artist (in the comics she’s one of the very best fighters IN THE WORLD), as well as a wonderfully pure soul you just can’t help loving, and it made me SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY that they got my Canary EXACTLY RIGHT. Altogether they’re a fantastic bunch, basically my perfect superhero team, and the way they’re all brought together (along with Harley, of course) is beautifully thought out and perfectly executed … they’ve also got one hell of a threat to overcome, namely Gotham crime boss Roman Sionis, aka the Black Mask, one of the Joker’s chief rivals – Ewan McGregor brings his A-game in a frustratingly rare villainous turn (currently my number one bad guy for the movie year), a monstrously narcissistic, woman-hating control freak with a penchant for peeling off the faces of those who displease him, sharing some exquisitely creepy chemistry with Chris Messina (The Mindy Project) as Sionis’ nihilistic lieutenant Victor Zsasz. This is about as good as superhero cinema gets, a perfect example of the sheer brilliance you get when you switch up the formula to create something new, an ultra-violent, unapologetically R-rated middle finger to the classic tropes, a fantastic black comedy thrill ride that’s got to be the most full-on feminist blockbuster yet – it’s helmed by a woman (Dead Pigs director Cathy Yan), written by a woman (Bumblebee’s Christina Hodson), produced by more women and ABOUT a bunch of badass women magnificently triumphing over toxic masculinity in all its forms. It’s also simply BRILLIANT – the cast are all clearly having a blast, the action sequences are first rate (the spectacular GCPD evidence room fight in which Harley gets to REALLY cut loose is the undisputable highlight), it has a gleefully anarchic sense of humour and is simply BURSTING with phenomenal homages, references and in-jokes for the fans (Bruce the hyena! Stuffed beaver! Roller derby!). It’s also got a killer soundtrack, populated almost exclusively by numbers from female artists. Altogether, then, this is the VERY BEST the DCEU has to offer to date (Wonder Woman 1984 has got a MAJOR job ahead of it beating this one), and my absolute FAVOURITE film of 2020 (so far). Give it all the love you can, it sure as hell deserves it.

#movies 2020 #true history of the kelly gang #just mercy #underwater #onward #the gentlemen #the invisible man #extraction #parasite #1917 #Birds of Prey #birds of prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn #awesome sauce

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lambychop · 5 years ago

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Ultimate Horror Flick List

I know this isn’t usually my style, but 🎵it’s the most wonderful time of the year🎵

That’s right: it’s the spoopy month! Which means SPOOPY MOVIES

So I present to you:

IRONICENIGMA’S ULTIMATE HORROR FLICK LIST FOR ALL TYPES OF FILM LOVERS

1) For the Gore Hounds

•Saw series- the classic films for the guys who just wanna see some people get ripped to shreads (honestly, after the second one, they go downhill)

•Jigsaw- the more recent edition to the Saw series (this ones actually pretty good and FULL of gore)

•Hostel- Saw Studies Abroad (TM)

•Final Destination series- kinda a dumb one. The movies can be kinda dumb, but the kills are INSANE. Fun movies to watch with the gang

•Texas Chainsaw Massacre- you know it, you love it, I don’t gotta explain it

•Cannibal Holocaust- seriously messed up. Banned in multiple countries. It’s something special.

•The Midnight Meat Train- lesser known, kinda weird, super bloody

•Cabin Fever- gross disease makes you loose your skin. Nasty

•Wrong Turn- basically The Hills Have Eyes but with funner kills

2) The Classic Slashers

•Scream series- one of my faves. Classic story of small town teens with a killer on the loose. Lots of fun

•Friday the Thirteenth- do I have to tell you why this is here?

•Nightmare on Elm Street- Johnny Depp getting turned into a volcano of blood? I’m in.

•Halloween- can’t have Halloween without the movie that took the name, right?

•My Bloody Valentine (the original one)- one of my all time favorite movies. Creepy killer, great group of characters, great time

•Sleepaway Camp- infamous for its batshit ending. Kinda weird ngl, but a classic

•The Town That Dreaded Sundown- Based on a real killer. Oldie, but goodie

•Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon- different take on the slasher genre. Fun look into the life of a movie slasher

•You’re Next- badass female lead? Check. Masked murderers? Check. Family bonding? Uh sure okay

•I Know What You Did Last Summer- secrets are bad. Roll credits

3) Supernatural (demons, ghosts, etc)

•The Conjuring- it’s pretty popular, you know it

•Insidious- also popular. Moral: your body is a ghost hotel

•Sinister- classic demon: likes kids, likes brutal deaths, likes to appear in the background of pictures

•The Exorcist- obviously

•Lights Out- ghosts are scared of light, that’s all you need to know

•The Sixth Sense- not really scary. Actually pretty wholesome. In an “I see dead people” kinda way

•The Rite- priest Anthony Hopkins coughs up nails

•The Omen- aka don’t trust kids

•1408- haunted hotel room. Someone call the ghoul bois

•The Amityville Horror- based on true events. Well at least we know the murders were real and the house is creepy

•The Skeleton Key- Old People+Voodoo= bad time

•Haunting In Connecticut- also a “true” story. Don’t buy a house that used to be a morgue

•The Autopsy Of Jane Doe- boy bonds with dad over dead teenage girl

•Mama- moths are gross, ghosts are worse. Dead Mom from Beetlejuice, but now a movie

•Rosemary’s Baby- dont trust thy neighbor

•The Shinning- classic. That’s all I’ve got to say

•The Orphanage- again: creepy kids

•Stir Of Echos- Kevin Bacon sees ghosts. Must I say more?

•The Others- haunted house story with a twist ending

4) Creature Features

•Trick ‘r Treat- classic Halloween film. Fun, creepy, iconic

•The Ritual- camping trip turns bad. Monster looks really cool

•A Quiet Place- you’ve probably seen it. Jim from the office speaks sign language

•The Babadook- children’s storybook is not kid friendly

•Backcountry- bears are dangerous

•Alien- you’ve seen this already but it needs to be here

•The Descent- dont watch if your claustrophobic

•An American Werewolf In London- also a fave. Best werewolf movie ever made

•The Monster- lesser know, actually pretty good

•The Thing- classic. Super good. Based on a short story. No one can be trusted because you don’t know if they’re even them

5) Horror Comedies

•Zombieland- hysterical. Bloody. Great cast

•Cabin In The Woods- this movie is insane. Combine every horror monster ever, the Illuminati, and the Office- that’s this movie

•Shaun of the Dead- the classic horror comedy

•Scary Movie series- less horror, ridiculous comedy

•This Is The End- again, like no horror, but one of the funniest films ever

6)Found Footage (not a great genre, but some can be pretty entertaining)

•The Blair Witch Project- basically the king of the found footage films. You’ve seen it

•The Conspiracy- the Illuminati is real and they don’t like to be filmed

•Paranormal Activity series- kinda annoying to horror fans. Relies on jump scares and the characters are idiots. But if I’m doing a section on foud footage, this has to be here

•Creep- okay this movie actually really disturbed me. People are absolutely insane. Don’t meet up with people from Craigslist

•V/H/S series- basically a anthology of short horror films. Kinda fun

•Apollo 18- the government faked the moon landing because they found some crazy shit

•The Sacrament- Jonestown caught on camera

•As Above So Below- Paris Catacombs are wack

•Grave Encounters- what if Ghost Adventures actually found ghosts

•Unfriended Dark Web- lets be honest: the first one sucked. Second one is actually not bad. Take away the ghosts, add the black market

•The Poughkeepsie Tapes- lesser know, can be hard to find. Really disturbing. Basically watching a serial killer tape his crimes

•Cold Ground- Set up to look just like it’s out of the seventies. It’s pretty fun

•The Last Exorcism- priests are liers

•Quarantine- English version of [REC]. I wouldn’t say it’s great, but it’s something

•Hell House LLC.- kids set up a haunted house. People die

•The Houses October Built- again with the haunted houses. Don’t trust em

•The Bay- Cabin Fever but found footage-y

•Willow Creek- y’all gotta leave Bigfoot alone

•Lake Mungo- girl drowns, family sees her ghost. No jump scares with this one, like most found footage. Mostly just a family in mourning

•The Tunnel- if the government says to stay out, STAY OUT

•The Taking Of Deborah Logan- alzheimers itself is awful to go through, but let’s add some more spooks

•The Possession Of Michael King- another possession film? Yep they just keep comin

•The Last Broadcast- suspicious murder of tv hosts

6) Family Fun

•Hocus Pocus- okay obviously

•Beetlejuice- dark humor in a “kids” film. Most of the comedy caters to adults, but it’s an awesome film

•Corpse Bride- guy accidentally marries dead girl. Wholesome family fun

•The Nightmare Before Christmas- my fave Disney film. Super cute

•Frankenweenie- dead dog=goodest boy

•Paranorman- sixth sense but now for kids+zombies

•Coraline- Might scar some small children, but I loved it when it came out when I was 8

7) Psychological

•Midsommar- happy cult family holds a festival

•Funny Games- home invasion movie done well. No cheap thrills, just some sadistic shit

•The Strangers- dont answer the door for people wearing masks when it’s not Halloween are you crazy

•The Perfection- artistic, bloody, absolute mind fuck

•Gerald’s Game- sexy time turns not good

•Unsane- imagine being stalked and no one believes you. That’s the premise

•Triangle- ummmmmmmm wtf is happening what time is it??

•It Comes At Night- trust is bad. Paranoia is good.

•The Silence of the Lambs- my personal favorite film. Serial killer helps rookie detective find another serial killer

•Jacob’s Ladder- Vietnam vet struggles with EXTREMELY terrifying visions

AND THERE YOU GO. I have seen plenty more, so if you don’t see one you’d like on this list, hit me up with what kinda movie you’re lookin for and I’ll hook you up amigo

#halloween #horror #movies #movie recommendation #horror movies

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aelaer · 5 years ago

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Whumptober 27: Alt #15 - Field Medicine

Finally filling my Wong space for the @stephenstrangebingo (oh hey third bingo). I've not really written from Wong's POV before, either, so this'll be fun. Card at the end.

I sort of have 2000 words of build-up before I actually get to the Whumptober prompt itself, but it is present! I just uh, well, I guess it wanted story first. So that comes first.

Warnings: Uh, by the time we get to the prompt, lots of blood and a mix of magical and mundane healing/emergency field medicine. I don't think it's graphic, but… tell me if it seems on the more graphic side? I'm a horrible judge at such things when it comes to my writing. Oh, also, big alien scarab bugs. Lots of bugs.

27. Alt #15: Field Medicine / Wong

Ever since The Situation With Thanos, Stephen Strange was on retainer with the Avengers to consult on more mystical artifacts and, on rare occasion, to help out with threats. When these threats came, the Master of the New York Sanctum was called in as last-minute backup, wherever they were in the world. His ability to be anywhere in an instant made him perfect for the job.

Wong warned him about getting too embroiled in these mundane affairs. Unfortunately, Stephen had a very stubborn streak of "if I do nothing and people die, that's my fault" embedded within him that the head librarian wasn't able to quash.

When the agreement was first made, not long after the Decimated came back into being, Wong was honestly worried that they would use him as an easy solution for every terrorist group, every new so-called supervillain, and cleanup projects that would eat up all of Stephen's time. And Stephen, guilt-ridden for every life he wasn't able to save, would have done every single one without complaint.

Thankfully the Avengers weren't being complete idiots and calling him in for every so-called emergency. Since the agreement was made, he was called for two scheduled, non-emergency consultations and only one nasty invasion of something that was alien in nature and going to quickly eat everything, living or not, in the city of Houston without immediate intervention. That was fine, and Wong began to relax at the new norm of occasionally crossing paths with these so-called superheroes.

The second time Stephen was called in for an emergency, Wong was with him. They were in the library at Kamar-Taj when, in the quiet of the room, even he could hear the buzzing from a pocket on Stephen's robes.

Stephen shot him an apologetic look and left the library to take the call. When he returned, his expression was grim. "I have to cut this short, Wong. Remember Houston?"

"How could I forget?" He wasn't there, but he saw the footage. Those alien things were… unpleasant. Seemed more inter-dimensional than alien, but they were definitely from their dimension, just very, very foreign to Earth.

"Yeah, they're back, but this time in Mérida, Mexico."

Wong raised his brows. "The Avengers want you to go to Mexico?"

"The Mexican government has already called the Avengers to Mexico, but by the time they get there from New York, Mérida will be half-gone." Stephen was carefully pecking out the name 'Mérida' on Google Image Search on his phone for a reference. "Apparently they've evacuated the area of all civilians. Also, I don't know if Mexico has any enhanced people in that area, so it might just be local law enforcement and whatever people in the army they've managed to get there. Those things are vicious, so I'm going in."

"I'll go with you." Stephen looked at him in surprise, and Wong continued, "As you said, they are vicious. And someone needs to watch your back."

"The Cloak does that," Stephen retorted, but he didn't argue otherwise and, a moment later, created a portal into the heart of Mérida.

Wong had a particular fondness for movies that explored the occult and supernatural in completely inaccurate ways. One of those films was 1999's The Mummy. While its interpretation of ancient Egyptian powers was laughably wrong (oh, if only Hollywood knew), the movie was genuinely funny and enjoyable.

He realized that, as he and Stephen stepped through the portal and he saw the two-foot-long, insectoid alien creatures for the first time in person, that they reminded him very much of the fictional variety of scarabs that featured heavily within the movie. Only instead of just flesh, these things were eating concrete, trees, and… yes, that was definitely a bicycle wheel in that one's mouth. It looked like the area had been evacuated, at least.

At the smell of their fresh blood, however, a good two dozen several yards away abandoned their lifeless meals to charge right at them.

Wong immediately threw a Flames of the Faltine at the first wave of the beasts coming at them. "Please tell me your oath doesn't cover these things," he told Stephen.

"It definitely doesn't cover these things," Stephen affirmed, bringing down the Bolts of Balthakk upon another wave of them. "They lack any sort of ability to reason, and transporting them to another dimension would simply doom that dimension."

That's what he thought. He swiveled about and quickly blew away several with the Winds of Watoomb that were getting entirely too close for comfort.

A loud scream came from a building just down the street, and Wong sighed. "I thought you said they evacuated everyone."

"Clearly not!" Stephen said, his own frustration leaking through his tone. "Can you handle this for a minute?"

Wong only replied, "Yes," and there Stephen went. A minute would definitely be doable.

Two minutes later, Stephen's astral form appeared out of the ether. Wong raised his brows at him.

"So, bad news," said Stephen. "By 'evacuated everyone', it appears they meant 'evacuated everyone that wasn't within half a mile of the hatching spot because we couldn't reach those that didn't immediately run'. They just weren't able to get to some people, and it appears most left behind have barricaded themselves indoors— though who knows how long that will last."

"Not long enough," Wong said.

Stephen nodded. "Cloak's keeping my body up in the air and I'm going to scout through the buildings and get everyone remaining out."

"What about this so-called hatching spot?" he asked as he fried another wave with the Bolts of Balthakk.

"It's like a nest of some sort," he answered. "At least, there was one in Houston. They don't know the exact location here, but it'll be in this general area. Try to see where the bugs are coming from."

"All directions, currently," he retorted, and blasted another row away with the Winds, just to give himself some breathing room (and watch a handful of them splatter against corners, which was useful). "How did you kill the nest?"

Stephen grimaced. "I didn't. There was an enhanced human in Houston who could kill things with touch. I cleared the immediate area and she just touched the inside and rotted everything within it. Useful, if not completely terrifying." He looked over his shoulder. "Gotta go, Wong. Good luck."

"Mmm," he replied in turn, and Stephen disappeared.

Right. Time to find the nest. Flying, while possible, would simply expend too much energy with using magic alone, so walking it was. He called upon the Flames of Faltine again to clear his immediate radius of about ten feet, then set a Shield of the Seraphim about himself and began to walk northward, where quite a few of the alien insectoids seemed to be coming from.

Thankfully, these aliens' ability to eat through anything physical did not extend into the mystical and the shield remained intact as he pushed the aliens bugs off his path. They began to crawl around and then over the shield, attempting to dig through with little success; when they fell off, they'd just get right in the back of the very large crowd of alien bugs following him. Whenever they crowded his view too much, he'd spin in a quick circle to shake them off, then continue walking once more.

By the time Wong found the nest about ten minutes later, he had an impressive collection of ravenous aliens all about his shield. He shook them off again, then approached the nest to get a better look.

It reminded him of a termite mound, the large, bumpy stick of rock and dirt that had burst through the ground and ripped a hole through the street. It probably went rather deep, too; a quick check for life below him confirmed that.

Right. If this was going to work, he was going to have to be creative. He walked around the perimeter of the alien nest, again felt the general distance the amount of life underground went in its depth and width, and considered what spells he might use.

Wong pressed his lips together at a thought. Yes, that might work. It would take everything out of him, but he was certain he could manage it. He looked up at the alien mound and hoisted himself up on one of its lumps; better to be on top of the source for this next feat.

Ignoring the large bugs still scrambling all about his shield and gnawing unsuccessfully at it, he started beginning the movement and internal chanting needed to invoke the Seven Suns of Cinnibus, which would blast his immediate area and "all dark places" connected to the mound's entrance with burning light, ensuring that it would go through every tunnel dug through the city. Midway, he brought in the incantations necessary for the Flames of the Faltine, weaving it within the primary spell to turn the bright light into a searing heat specifically targeting these alien bugs. A bit like blasting the area with a selective microwave, if he had to explain how he cleared out the nest to some Avenger (though honestly, he was more than happy to leave all that to Stephen).

The two spells were woven together and in one swift movement, Wong dropped the shield and slammed his palm into the ground. The searing light combined with the fire-strength heat incinerated the bugs all around him and blast through the tunnels within the earth, moving at a speed faster than rushing water.

Wong held it for about five seconds before he fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

Well, he was completely out of magic. But that should have gotten everything within a mile radius around the nest, alongside every dark crevice within the tunnel system below.

He lowered himself off the mound and grimaced. Now he needed to find Stephen, because there was no way he was going to be drawing any dimensional gateways for a good twenty-four hours. Wong rubbed at the light headache starting to form at his temples, then started walking in the direction he had come from.

About ten minutes later, somewhere near where they had portalled in and near the border of the mile radius his spell managed, Wong discovered, much to his chagrin, that two of the bugs had wandered away a little bit farther than a mile from the nest. And now they were very much interested in having him as food, and he couldn't weave so much as a shield at the moment.

Wong looked around his immediate area and saw an abandoned broom outside of a half-open shop door. He grabbed it, twisted off the broom end and chucked it at one of the approaching alien bugs, then immediately used it to fend them back, giving them sharp hits across their hard shells and swinging the stick to whack them away. He could possibly eventually kill them this way, but in all honesty, he was just biding his time until Stephen came from wherever the hell he was and took care of them in a more efficient manner so they could get back to Kamar-Taj.

Rather annoying, though. There was a reason he rarely used such spells; having nothing left in reserve was hardly an ideal situation. And if Wong was going to be completely honest with himself, the spell had drained him physically as well and he could not keep this up forever.

Unfortunately, it turned out he may have overestimated his remaining physical strength and underestimated how much the spell had drained him. Wong was able to keep them away for about two minutes before misstepping on a piece of uneven, cracked roadway. He quickly corrected himself and moved to block one of the bugs jumping at him, but he just missed and it latched onto his left arm and bit through the sleeve.

Shouting in anger and pain, Wong rushed to the nearest wall and slammed the alien bug into the concrete wall even as he used the stick to keep the other one away from him. The one on his arm finally detached after five hits as its shell cracked and its head was smashed in. Wong went to reposition himself defensively against the remaining bug, but a sudden wave of dizziness hit him and he had to lean against the wall. After whacking away the insectoid again, he spared his arm a glance.

That was a lot of blood. That was too much blood.

He hit the bug again, then grimaced and tried to use the wall behind him to apply pressure. He wasn't sure how long he could keep standing, but he knew it wasn't going to be for long, not with how his head was feeling.

Another hit, and he lowered himself to one knee. Wong could not help but be a bit annoyed; out of all the things to die from, an alien bug bite was really unexpected and unfortunate.

This was very, very unfortunate.

As the alien bug charged at him again and he prepared to whack it back once more, it suddenly burst into flames. Wong fell to his other knee even as Stephen landed just behind the burnt thing.

"Wong, where are you hurt?" Stephen asked as he knelt beside him.

"Arm," he grunted, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes. "No energy."

Stephen didn't ask any questions as he positioned himself beside his arm. The Cloak was suddenly against him, applying pressure to the bite and he felt his friend place a hand on his head and the feeling of energy course through his body. He knew this spell; he was trying to encourage the heart to slow down a little, to pump flood a little less quickly, and while he did that he was sure Stephen was looking at the damage.

"Brachial artery. No time," he said lowly, though Wong wasn't entirely sure what he meant. He then heard something plop onto the sidewalk and when he opened his eyes, he saw a medical bag, of all things.

Stephen wrenched it open and grabbed a tourniquet. "You've lost too much blood already," he said even as he wrapped it over his left arm to secure it, before he began twisting. "Mundane will work better, now."

Wong had no idea. Wong wasn't a doctor, so he was more than happy to allow the other sorcerer to take over here. But… "Where'd the bag…?" he asked, and found himself vaguely annoyed as the rest of his words slurred away. This was incredibly annoying.

"Personal pocket dimension," Stephen answered. "Less magic than a portal, which still confounds me."

"Space," he said.

"No, I know the theory and the theory makes sense, but at the same time it still doesn't make sense." He finished applying the tourniquet and pressed his lips together. "The Cloak's completely wrapped around your arm and I don't want to remove it. I'm going to levitate you into the healing wing and see you situated, then take care of anything remaining here."

Wong usually would rather not be levitated, but at the moment he was too tired to be bothered about the circumstances. He closed his eyes and felt himself being carefully lifted off the ground and positioned to recline more, and then the atmosphere completely changed to the smells and sounds that he well knew around Kamar-Taj.

Knowing he didn't need to keep his guard up any further, Wong let himself drift off.

((See, I am actually capable of beating up characters that aren’t Stephen.))

#whumptober2019 #altno.15 #field medicine #stephenstrangebingo #stephen strange #wong #doctor strange #tw: blood #tw: bugs #alien bugs #doctor strange fanfic #my writing #my fanfiction

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alexanderessexmediaroles · 5 years ago

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Day 6 - Tippet Studios/ Phill Tippet

Having briefly touched upon Tippet Studios within my blog post as well as the presentation slide we presented for our story-telling project, I thought I would do some further research into the company and how might they relate to the job roles of stop-motion animator and model maker as potential career options for me in the future.

When I first researched Tippet Studios, I didn’t realise at the time how large the company was as I had only watched videos relating to ‘Mad God’ project not the company as a whole as the studio is this large visual effects and 3D animation company that creates creatures and effects for big movies and marketing for companies. Whilst I should have known this at the beginning, it definitely gives me a larger perspective and a large appreciation of the ‘Mad God’ project through how much dedication Phil has put into it is being the founder of the company. As well as this, Tippet Studios might be something I would like to research more into the 3D side of the ‘Media Roles’ project to help me get a better understanding of the two roles I chose to look at or maybe open me up to a new career choice in 3D.

‘Mad God’ itself has always been a passion project of Phil Tippet as he’s been working on the project for about 30 years now collecting and making sets and puppets for the project as it consists of many different short films that help narrate the world that his characters face. Making his puppets consists of finding scrap pieces of material that Phill is inspired by which he proceeds to use ball and socket rigging for the puppet that’s wrapped around in foam and then latex skin to complete the aesthetic of the character. Watching how he creates his puppets in the ‘ Great Big Story’ video reminded me how similar the process was when we made the puppets in the previous project and Phill’s demonstration was more of an enhancement to that process. It was really great to watch as wanting to be both a stop-motion animator and model maker, it gave me a lot of insight to how proper stop-motion puppets are made for productions from someone that has worked so much in the industry. In addition to the ‘Great Big Story’, the video below it features an interview with Phill discussing his process on ‘Mad God’ with how he just likes to collect random and interesting objects which he uses for ideas immediately or keeps it for storage when hes stuck for ideas. This really hit me wanting to be a model maker as its similar to how I work through finding interesting objects and how I can re-animate it into something else that’s totally unique.

Building Stop-Motion Masterpieces by Hand

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Stopmotion legend, Phil Tippett

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Going back to the theme of story-telling for the group project, there’s a video on Youtube where Phil is interviewed at his studio in Berkerly, CA which he goes into his vision of the project, how he makes the stuff you see on screen as well as how he communicates the events that happen in the film in addition to how he plans it all out in the long run. To summarise, he discusses how there isn’t really isn’t a straight forward narrative within the shorts he creates in the ‘Mad God’ universe as they are more set pieces that build up to a much larger multi-verse almost like a collage. This way he can introduce and create lots of different ideas in a scene the potentially lead to another narrative that Phil might of not realised at the time. This means he’s always adding to the world as he’s making the scenes go by in the film. In addition to this, the materials and junk he collects around him also help to pave the narrative along the way as it almost dictates to what he make s for the film rather than having the intention of making something from scratch. In an interesting way, Phill more so acts as a facilitator to the project rather than him coming up with the ideas as the materials almost speaks to him to what he has to do hence how he came up with the name ‘Mad God’. All of this information was really useful towards both of the stop-motion roles I’ve been looking as well as it was really inspiring to see how both the animation and model making side contribute to the story-telling aspect so much more than you would expect to see with a role like story-boarding.

Meet Phil Tippett and his Mad God

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One of the last pieces of research that I looked at was this 20 minute documentary on his journey from making mini stop-motion projects in his room to where he is now with his own company and studios. The doc was really interesting and inspiring to watch as it shows how much Phil has had to adapt over the years being a stop-motion animator as well as rivaling against visual and 3D animation when it was first being introduced to film making which he soon later learned as a supervisor.

My Life In Monsters: Meet the Animator Behind Star Wars and Jurassic Park

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Overall from researching Phil, his work and the mad god project, he’s become such a large inspiration for me as an animator through his dedication and passion to the craft as well as his showcasing the hardships and highs of being both a animator and model maker in the film industry. In addition to this, it’s really gotten me considering a potential new role I would want to research into for the project that being directing as Phil’s interview was really inspiring to hear how a director thinks as well as adapting to the industry of 3D despite never doing it before. Also not to forget, his work when it comes to both a animtor and a model maker is just as inpsiring to me as I’m in love with his creatures and their perfromacnes as I would love to have a simillar immagination when it comes to the roles.

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fandomdancer · 5 years ago

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1, 7, 22, 30, 40, 46, 49

Original post below so you can see the list. I am answering these questions but if you are interested in hearing more, I can answer more!

1: What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded?

I have two OCs right now I could answer this for, so I’ll actually answer for both.

My first OC is Talia Talbot. I was brainstorming names and just wanted something fun and carefree-sounding. The first thing that popped into my head was ‘Tabby’ with ‘Tabitha’ as the full name. My brain just decided it didn’t want the ‘kitty cat’ subtext and I started thinking of names with the same rhythm. ‘Tally’ came next, with ‘Talia’ as the full name, and I got stuck on it. As for ‘Talbot’ as the last name, I was literally just thinking of last names that felt right and and ‘Talbot’ just sort of popped out of my mouth. So really - ‘Tally’ was kind of a random name that had the right rhythm and it stuck. ‘Talia’ itself means ‘gentle dew from heaven/by the water’ which is a soft and beautiful meaning and kind of fits her personality. She is the steady person in her relationships, the listener, the supporter.

The second OC is Roslyn and to be honest I haven’t decided on her last name yet. My original idea for the character was a rich girl with an aristocratic name. I asked my girlfriend for help and she replied: “Roslyn” without hesitation. I don’t usually choose the first name that comes to mind but it sounded so absolutely perfect, the only thing I asked was: “Roslyn or Rosalyn?” She said: “Roslyn” and that was that. So...I don’t have her maiden name, but that is how I got Roslyn Thawne (yep...you read that right). The meaning of her name is ‘gentle horse/rose’ and while I know the story she is involved in, I’m not sure if the meaning of her name fits.

7: Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)?

Tally tries to keep her swearing down. How does she do it? Usually by muttering: “For the love of....” without actually finishing the sentence. Her frustration level can be determined by how loud, soft, fast, or slow she says it!

Roslyn is a big fan of asking questions without actually asking them. She’ll flatten the end of a sentence so she isn’t actually making a questioning sound, but usually the sound that comes out is pretty sarcastic. “Really...” is something she’ll say, usually to let someone know they’re going too far, or doing something completely ridiculous.

22: What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have?

Tally and her best friend Ren (short for Renault...but only she can call him that ;) ) have matching tattoos. I know they have but honestly I don’t know what they are yet haha. (They’re both still in development)

Roslyn is even less developed so I’m not sure of any distinguishing characteristics. I know she has a smattering of freckles on her face and her significant other (Eobard) does like to kiss them when he feels affectionate.

30: When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like?

Tally loves music. She listens to most kinds from all decades, from Billie Holiday and Kay Starr to Elvis Presley and The Runaways, to the Bangles and the Backstreet Boys. She does prefer songs with lyrics and doesn’t spend a lot of time in the classical or smooth jazz range. She does have a solid appreciation for movie scores. She has a tendency to annoy the Wells (EoWells and Harry both) by blasting classic rock when she’s burying herself in work, but Cisco will often drop by for an impromptu dance party. Film wise - she gets along like a house on fire with Cisco Ramon so the two of them share their love of classic - and not-so-classic - films. She’ll quote scenes from Die Hard with him over the course of a day, and then flop down with Buster Keaton and a bowl of popcorn in her off hours. She isn’t big on going to the theatre for plays but will sneak over if it’s a musical or a dance show (like Riverdance).

Roslyn received piano lessons at a young age (which she eventually traded for violin lessons), and is definitely quieter than Tally when it comes to musical tastes. She enjoys film scores, orchestral or symphonic music, and even band music when she can get to it. She considers opera to be an impressive vocal achievement but doesn’t listen to it on a regular basis (unless Eobard’s listening and letting it play in the house). Roslyn doesn’t quite enjoy sitting and watching many films or plays or television but will do it occasionally. She prefers to be outside, enjoying what nature she can.

40: Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others?

I actually can answer this for Ren, not Tally or Roslyn (because I just don’t know yet). Ren’s guilty pleasure is comedies. He was a more casual fellow before the catastrophe that ripped him and Tally apart, but later he comes off as very grumpy and dark. No one would suspect his favorite actor is Dan Aykroyd and he secretly loves to watch Addams Family and Get Smart and Max Headroom.

46: What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover?

Tally will blow kisses at Ren randomly. She doesn’t do it during serious moments like when they’re at work, but relaxing, or even at a dinner party, she’ll send one when she thinks no one is looking (however, someone often sees).

Roslyn knows Eobard isn’t huge on contact so she adapts the Vulcan affectionate gesture between Sarek and Amanda, and usually keeps two fingers in contact with a part of him when there is need for support or when her heart is full. Eobard will at times be more comfortable with contact, and instead of letting her rest her fingers on him he’ll take her hand or place his hand on her opposite waist. When the two of them are truly alone they are in much more prolonged contact with each other but in most situations it’s just the two fingers.

49: What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood?

Tally consistently dreams about the final moments of her Earth - Earth-15. As she spends more time on Earth-1, the dreams are less frequent but they still happen. They heavily affect her mood at first but again, over time, the effect lessens. She never truly stops being affected by them and they never truly stop. Sometime she dreams about what actually happened, and sometimes her mind makes up alternate. She has woken with a start, woken normally but disturbed, woken screaming, woken crying. In a few short hours, she lost everyone and everything but the clothes on her back, and she is scarred from that for the rest of her life.

Roslyn doesn’t start to really have nightmares until she sees how far Eobard is falling into his obsession with The Flash. She dreams often of him turning on them, or leaving them. Little does she know their daughter Melody also dreams of him killing them. This is an additional strain on her marriage to him, particularly when he begins to say and do things she thought she had only dreamed. She is watching her husband and the love of her life descend into madness and she is helpless to stop it.

Original Post:

Get to know my character

Reblog this so your followers can spam your ask box. Have fun! ♥

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded? 02. What is one of your character’s biggest insecurities? Are they able to hide it easily or can others easily exploit this weakness? 03. What would be their favorite physical trait about themselves? 04. What are their favorite traits about their lover? (one psychological and one physical) 05. Are they sexually confident or more of the shy type? 06. Do they have any hobbies that their lover finds unusual, odd, or otherwise annoying? 07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)? 08. What is, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it? 09. Do they have a favorite season? What about a favorite holiday? 10. Is your character more feminine or masculine? 11. What is something that would make your character fly into a rage? 12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up? 13. What are your character’s sleeping habits? Heavy or light sleeper? Blanket stealer? One that always rolls onto the floor? Pushes their lover onto the floor? Sleep talker or walker? 14. Do they live alone or with family? How do they feel about their family/roommates? 15. Is there a certain person in this world that they cannot stand? The very mention of this person’s name makes them tremble with anger or fear. 16. Is your character the athletic type or more of a couch potato? What are some sports/games that they like? 17. Does your character have dreams of getting married and/or having children? 18. What kind of home would they want to live in? Where would they place this abode? 19. Would your character be the kind to get into fights? (physical or verbal) Would they be a good fighter or cave in rather easily? 20. Does your character like animals? What are some of their favorite animals? Would they want pets? What about mythological creatures? 21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear? 22. What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have? 23. What is your character like when it comes to school? What subjects are they good/bad at? Do they get in trouble a lot or are well behaved? 24. In their own words, how would your character describe what their lover is like? 25. Is there something traumatic from your character’s past that greatly affects them even to this day? 26. What is their lover like sexually? How do they feel about their lover’s quirks, needs, etc? 27. If your character was going to get arrested, what would be the most likely reason for it? 28. If your character became a celebrity, what would they be famous for? 29. What is one of the most courageous things your character has ever done for a loved one? 30. When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like? 31. Would your character be the kind capable of killing? Would they enjoy killing or only use it when necessary or, perhaps, refuse to kill no matter what? 32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do? 33. If your character wanted to be alone, where would they go? 34. Does your character have favorite foods? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, etc) 35. Is your character afraid of death? If they got to choose how to die, how would they want to go? 36. Does your character have any medical conditions? Are they serious or minor? Do they affect their day to day life? 37. What are some of your character’s pet peeves? What are some things that annoy them or disgust them? 38. What kind of weather does your character like? Cloudy skies, rainy days, sunshine, etc? 39. When people look at your character, is there some assumption they might make about them just by appearance? Is that assumption correct? 40. Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others? 41. Does your character’s family affect your character in any way? 42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change? 43. Does your character have a switch that changes aspects of their personality whether they are around friends, family, etc. Is there someone who gets to see their true self? 44. Is there a particular event that would emotionally devastate your character? 45. Is your character the kind to hide their true emotions or do they wear their heart on their sleeve?

46. What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover? 47. Is your character outgoing? Would they be the leader of the friend group, or the quiet one that gets dragged along? 48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious? 49. What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood? 50. If your character confessed love to their crush, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc, what would they say?

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ohmygoodnessgraciouss · 5 years ago

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Hello there! 😀 Can I request a Steve Rogers one-shot, where he wants to propose to Stark!Daughter!Reader? They've been together since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and after Endgame, Steve realizes that he can't wait any longer (after the wedding, the R gets pregnant with twin girls). Steve is so in love with R that he completely moves on from Peggy and even replaces her photo with R's in his compass. Also: R is a super-soldier and an enhanced + with a genius intellect.

Hello!! I figured I’d post it here as well without tags! A big part of my account is my writing anyway, and I was the dummy that forgot to post about requests on my writing account, oops! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and thanks for sending in a request! <3

Words: 2224

Bucky Barnes had not seen his best friend this happy since Peggy Carter. In fact, he seemed happier than ever. Bucky was surprised by this, especially since it had only been a year since the final battle that destroyed the Avengers Compound. With the death of Tony Stark, Steve was left to cope with the idea of a world without Tony as well as helping his girlfriend, Y/N Stark, recover. Y/N was Tony’s daughter and Morgan’s half-sister. Although Y/N did not know Tony all her life, she was still closely tied with the playboy and loved him.

She was involved in the final battle along with everyone else due to her powers. Being a super-soldier like Steve and an enhanced like Wanda, she was a powerful asset to the Avengers. She helped Clint distract Thanos when the Mad Titan nearly grabbed the gauntlet. If it wasn’t for her, the world may have been destroyed. Either way, she knew she had to prepare for the worst. She knew Tony would die for this cause as soon as he figured out how time travel worked, but she couldn’t prepare herself for when it happened.

That’s where Steve came in. Steve, her boyfriend of several years, comforted and helped her through it all along with Pepper and Morgan. He knew exactly what to do considering the two stayed in touch after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D, and quickly started dating. They were the other’s support for five years after the snap occurred. Steve thought that he could never love someone as much as he loved Peggy, but he learned with Y/N that he was completely wrong. She was everything to him. She helped him see that there’s always hope, that the world is still the same as it was 75 years ago, and that maybe someone can have more than one true love.

Shortly after the funeral, Steve had thrown the compass with Peggy’s picture into a box and up in the closet of his shared bedroom with Y/N. It was a box filled with items either from the 1940s or objects that reminded him of it. Amongst other things, a pack of Captain America trading cards was inside. Steve decided that he didn’t want to hold onto the past or what it could’ve been any longer, so he tucked it away. It was time to face the future. A future with his best friends and loved ones, and more importantly, with Y/N.

When a year had passed and everything seemed to be going back to normal, Steve knew that he wanted to propose to Y/N. He was only mad at himself for not doing it sooner. He wanted to be able to ask for Tony’s permission. He may have adjusted to the 21st century, but he still wanted to keep some of his old-fashioned traditions. Y/N agreed with him on that tradition, believing that it was sweet that he’d want to do that anyway.

With the help of the Avengers, Steve was able to plan a proposal. The perfect proposal. It may have been simplistic, it may have been considered cheap, but he knew it wouldn’t matter to Y/N as long as he asked the question. It took only a few days to set up, and Pepper chipped in a little as well. She even went as far as pulling Steve aside to tell him that Tony would’ve said yes.

Y/N and Steve were going on a date that night of the proposal. It was going to be a fancy dinner and catching the latest movie in the theater. Y/N loved the idea and agreed to it immediately. She was excited considering it had been so long since the two of them had had a date. With missions going on by the newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D, it seemed impossible for the couple to catch a break. She was grateful for the small moments the two had before catching a plane to somewhere far away.

Tonight it’d be so much different. Steve and Y/N caught up, explaining some of the funny moments that happened in their missions. Steve told her the story of Sam’s wings malfunctioning while he was trying to fly up to a vantage point while Bucky made fun of him. Y/N told him about the story of Stephen going off on a rant about how the mystic arts should be taken seriously while Peter was playing with his cape. When the stories ran out, the two super-soldiers admitted to missing each other so much for the past few weeks. It wasn’t unusual for them to do so, which is why Bucky and Peter stayed far away when they were together. They lost track of time and didn’t realize how late it was getting until dessert came around, where the couple shared a chocolate lava cake that was on the house.

The next part of the evening involved a movie. It wasn’t your typical movie night, however, as Steve was able to find an old drive-in theater nearby. They were playing a classic horror film night, which they called a “creature double feature.” Y/N was excited to watch as she found a love for drive-ins when they saw it on a travel brochure once, and Steve was pleased that he could find something that played movies close to his time.

What they weren’t expecting was for a pop-up thunderstorm to boom in during the end of the second movie. The thunderstorm disrupted the entire theater and caused them to shut down shortly after it started. The cracks of thunder and the bolts were striking the ground nearby. It didn’t take long for the power to go out because of it.

This wasn’t on Steve’s itinerary at all. He was supposed to take Y/N home and show her the dimly-lit room, scattering pictures and memories across the sitting room whose furniture had been moved out of the way. Towards the end of the line of pictures, there would be a single frame holding the picture of you two kissing on a “Good-Luck Bridge” as the national park called it, with a single note that asked her to marry him. While she was distracted, he’d get down on one knee and hold the ring behind her.

Things don’t always end up the way they were supposed to. Honestly, Steve was more than frustrated by it. He had the entire evening planned out and it still failed. He couldn’t wait any longer to become engaged to his girlfriend.

When he opened the door to the apartment, he was ready to explain everything. The two were using their flashlights on their phones to make sure they didn’t trip over anything. It didn’t look like it’d work out for him tonight. He was hoping maybe explaining things would still end up with an engagement tonight, but then he received a text from Pepper, who was apparently watching the hallway camera.

The single text read:

“Don’t worry about anything, Steve. There’s a transmitter that Peter and I made in case anything went wrong. Take care of her for Tony.”

Inside the room, several candles were lined up across the shelves on the wall. They were lit, casting enough light in the room to be able to see some of the pictures here and there. Right in the center laid a small plate-like computer. "What’s this all about?“ Y/N asked Steve, knowing something was up.

"Just turn it on,” He smiled at her, allowing her to walk up to it and click on the button. It started up a hologram on the wall, casting the pictures on the plaster instead of being in the frames.

From pictures to working in S.H.I.E.L.D to pictures from their first date to the very present, there had to be dozens of photos lined up in the presentation. Y/N smiled at the display, tears springing to her eyes as memories started to replay in her mind. The final picture had the question written below the bridge, on top of the water. The girl gasped and turned around to see Steve on his knee.

He couldn’t even ask the question himself before he was kissed.

The wedding quickly happened after that. News spread around like wildfire that the two were engaged, and everyone could see it coming anyway. It became known to the world that Captain America was finally marrying someone. Fury couldn’t believe it when he heard it, but he was happy for the two despite showing it. Everyone was invited to the wedding from the Starks to the Avengers. Some from S.H.I.E.L.D came along as well. Bucky was Steve’s best man while Pepper walked Y/N down the aisle. Morgan was the flower girl while Peter had to be the ring bearer.

The wedding would be considered the wedding of the century for more than a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons being how simplistically extravagant it was. Decorated with purple flowers and ribbons, the wedding gave beautiful a new definition. Especially because of the love shared between the bride and groom.

It was clear to all that those two shared a love that people dreamt of finding in their lives. They were only lucky enough to find it. Steve couldn’t even imagine picturing Peggy in Y/N’s place. The only thing that mattered was Y/N.

When they approached their first anniversary as a married couple, Y/N knew she had the best gift to tell him. They were trying to start a family for so long, but now was the time to reveal the perfect news.

Right as Steve came home from a tough mission over in Budapest, Y/N finished preparing everything. She had the papers from a doctor to confirm it because she was worried that the at-home pregnancy tests were wrong. Steve would be pleasantly surprised by it.

He wasn’t pleasantly surprised by it actually. He was elated, excited, and could barely keep his cool for more than a minute. All Steve wanted to do was hug his currently pregnant wife and tell the world that they would be parents.

A few short months later they found out that they were going to have children. Not just a child, but children. The doctor told them that Y/N was pregnant with twin girls. They nearly cried that day from happiness. The next day, due to her hormones, Y/N cried from fear.

She realized that she had no idea what it’d be like to be a parent, even if Pepper assured her that she’d be able to help. Y/N’s big problem though was that she and Steve were moving that day. They decided that the apartment would be too small for their family. They were able to find an affordable home in upstate New York, and quickly took the advantage and bought it. Moving day was rough because Y/N was starting to have some trouble picking up boxes off the ground. Her bump was becoming more noticeable and she’d start to have problems with leaning down. Steve didn’t mind at all and had a few of their friends come over to help them out. Y/N made sure to thank them all later that day.

While moving, Steve and Y/N were cleaning out the closet a little bit. Besides the clothes, they kept a few boxes in there, and one of those boxes included Steve’s box of the 1940s. Y/N didn’t know what exactly was in there, but she left it to Steve to go through and decide if he wanted to keep it. She trusted him and didn’t feel the need to go through it, which is why she walked back in to see him pick up his compass with Peggy’s picture at one point.

Steve looked at it for only a single moment, but Y/N was intrigued about what he’d do. Some days the woman wondered whether or not he still loved Peggy despite it being years ago. Those thoughts would disappear completely today.

Steve opened the glass door that kept Peggy’s picture inside. Pulling it out, he stared at her picture before placing it aside in a bin that was being used for trash. Then, he pulled a small picture of Y/N out of his pocket. It was one of his favorites. She looked beautiful in the photo, especially with one of her favorite outfits on.

He placed the picture in carefully, shutting the glass door and locking it into place. He was proud of it after that. The compass kept him grounded, reminding him of the time period he once lived in. The picture reminded him of what he has now, and the compass connected with her by always showing him that he can find his way to her no matter what.

Y/N walked over to him with a smile on her face. "Steve, are you sure you want to get rid of the picture?“ She asked him, wanting to make sure he wasn’t making a mistake.

Steve looked up at her and smiled slightly. "I’m positive. There’s no need for it anymore.”

Steve stood up to turn and look at Y/N, shutting the compass in the process. He snaked his arms around his wife’s waist, bringing her closer to him. She smiled back at him and glanced at his lips.

“I love you, Steve Rogers,” She said as she gave him a peck on the lips.

“I love you too, Y/N Rogers.”

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mushroomhedgehog · 6 years ago

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Update on Universal Orlando’s potential third park.

One of the big things I love is theme parks, especially those with heavy themes based on some really great films and TV shows. So it’s no surprise that I’m heavily anticipating the potential third park (fourth if you include the Volcano Bay water park) at Universal Orlando Resort. This has been rumored ever since Universal Parks and Resorts was reported to have acquired some more land near the resort not too long ago. Orlando Park Stop has been providing multiple leaks, which began with this first one last month at the end of January. It’s an image featuring a prominent character and confirms that Super Nintendo World is coming to this third park:

Of course, the image also shows that the third park will be called Universal’s Fantastic Worlds. Based on the name, it sounds like this park will take a similar approach to Islands of Adventure, with a focus of immersing guests within the worlds of various characters and franchises. A second leak was recently revealed earlier today, and claims that the Universal Monsters, specifically those from the 1930s such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolfman, and The Mummy, will be featured in their own themed area. The leak supporting this is the image below, which features what appears to be Dracula’s castle:

Having found this report from Orlando Park Stop as well, I looked back at the article of the previous leak, which had a few more images. OPS was even kind enough to combine the photos the best they could to piece together as much information as they could. Here’s what they came up with:

Take note of the copyrights section at the very bottom of this image. A lot of notable franchises are mentioned, including Jurassic World, Scooby-Doo, Beetlejuice, Fantastic Beasts (indicated by a fragment of the word “Grindelwald”), and as the previous leaks have mentioned, Nintendo and the Universal Monsters. It’s very possible that these could be hints of what is planned for Fantastic Worlds. However, it’s also possible they were merely mentioned in the document and had to be credited to their respective owners, and nothing more. However, there’s some factors I’d like to point out in regards to each of them.

First off, Beetlejuice and the main characters of Scooby-Doo are featured at Universal Studios Florida (the resort’s primary park) as meet-and-greet characters. They were featured in previous attractions that have since been closed, but unlike Beetlejuice, Scooby-Doo was not in a starring role in said attraction. I highly doubt those franchises were mentioned merely for the photo opportunities associated with them. Another major argument to consider is that Beetlejuice used to be the star of the Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue stage show, which featured the Universal Monsters. In short, I think it’s possible this show could return at the Universal Monsters area of Fantastic Worlds. As for Scooby-Doo, there’s a lot of possibilities for what could happen with that franchise. Maybe the meet-and-greet will also be moved over to the same area, as Scooby-Doo is heavily involved with monsters and supernatural much like Beetlejuice is, despite both being owned by Warner Bros. rather than Universal. Personally, I would love if Scooby-Doo recieved a new shooting ride similar to Men in Black: Alien Attack at the Fantastic Worlds. Various shooting rides themed to Scooby-Doo previously existed at numerous Six Flags and Paramount Parks, the latter of which are now owned by Cedar Fair. Following Cedar Fair’s acquisition, Scooby-Doo was removed from those rides, while the Six Flags parks later replaced their rides with new ones. If Universal were to make their own version of this ride with better tech due to a larger budget, it would be amazing.

In regards to Jurassic World, elements of those films are already featured at Universal Orlando. In the Jurassic Park area of Islands of Adventure, Owen Grady’s raptor Blue is featured as the star of the Raptor Encounter attraction, where she meets guests and poses for photos with them. That’s the only attraction with emphasis on the Jurassic World films though. It’s possible that Universal was aware that fans would be upset at Universal Studios Hollywood retheming Jurassic Park: The Ride to a Jurassic World update, and expected similar backlash would occur if the area at Islands of Adventure would receive a similar update. Building a separate area at Fantastic Worlds would not only allow for different kinds of attractions, but also keep the existing Jurassic Park open without a long wait to refurbish it. For instance, I would love a ride based on the geospheres, hopefully with animatronic dinosaurs rather than projected images of them. Furthermore, once this park is complete, perhaps Universal could still allow guests to experience the Jurassic Park franchise at Fantastic Worlds while they perform some maintenance on the Islands of Adventure area. Some of the animatronics could use a technical upgrade, and having a separate area themed to Jurassic World would be a great way to provide guests that happen to visit when the other area is down. Finally, much like the Hogwarts Express connected Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley at the two current parks, perhaps a monorail based on that in the first JW film could be featured to connect the Jurassic World area of Fantastic Worlds to the Jurassic Park area of Islands of Adventure.

Finally, we have Fantastic Beasts. As of right now, Fantastic Beasts has not been featured much even in the gift shops of either Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. That is, until recently. In addition to the replica wands of Harry, Dumbledore, and other characters, replica wands of Newt, Tina, and Grindelwald have been available for purchase. But other than that, there’s been little presence of the franchise, compared to how much attention to Jurassic World was given in the Jurassic Park area of Islands of Adventure. This may be due to Jurassic Park being one of Universal’s own properties, as Harry Potter is a franchise licensed from Warner Bros, and the agreement did not include Fantastic Beasts. I would imagine this area would feature at least one thrill ride similar to those at the current areas based on The Wizarding World but with Newt, Tina, and others facing off against Grindelwald. I’d also expect a gentle ride involving a tour through Newt Scamander’s suitcase of creatures, complete with animatronics of various wacky characters.

At the end of the day though, all of this is speculation. Universal hasn’t even officially announced the park, so all we can go off of is speculation and any leaked information if we’re lucky. I would expect this park to open sometime before 2025 at the very least. But based on the fact that it took Universal two and a half years after announcing they would be building Hogsmeade back in 2007, and it opened in 2010, that means this park could take possibly more than twice than that long to build. And with other projects like Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure set to replace the Dragon Challenge later this year at Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure, and another unannounced (but teased on social media) coaster for the Jurassic Park area of the same park, it’s not clear when construction will begin or an announcement will be made on this park. Hopefully one of those two will be soon, as we’ve already had a bit of a wait for Super Nintendo World after that was announced, and the first incarnation of that is scheduled to open next year at Universal Studios Japan. Either way, we’ll probably be waiting a while before we hear more information, especially if said information is confirming anything, rather than being speculation or rumors.

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rplayford02 · 3 years ago

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Critical Reflection: Bodies of Water

Synopsis: An experiential film about wild swimming, specifically Sonia Theilen’s relationship to the water. The film deals with the concept of water as a safe space for women where they don’t have to feel self conscious or uncomfortable. It also touches upon water as a place of solace. Overall, the film explores Sonia’s experience of being in the water.

The main theme of the film is water and the Sonia’s feelings towards wild swimming. Although, saying this I think our film maybe needed slightly more of a focus. We filmed Sonia and her friends getting ready on the beach, swimming in the water (filmed with a GoPro), as well as more abstract shots of the water itself. These shots of the water are some of my favourites from the whole film (and make up my favourite section of the film, informally named ‘texture mush’). As much as I love the rest of the film, I think it would be really interesting to see a version of the film that’s led by these abstract shots, making the film an immersive experience; showing the audience how Sonia feels in the water rather than telling them with interview audio.

I was co-cinematographer alongside Katie and Peer. Filming for this project was so much fun! But also quite nerve-wracking (taking expensive cameras so close to water) and very cold (the March breeze is still freezing in even when it looks sunny). As usual the most rewarding aspect of making the film was working with this group. Filmmaking is always a collaborative process but I find documentary to be more collaborative than other projects on this course. Roles are slightly more fluid - for instance we shared cinematography between three people; our group also initially decided to share producing, before Aisa came on board.

Although I feel like I fulfilled my role as cinematographer I know I didn’t put as much into this project as some other members of the group, namely Peer. As director, this project was his baby, and I hope he’s as proud of himself as I am. I’m pretty proud of the finished film, however I think an even shorter edit (below the 5min requirement for this module) might work even better.

If we to return to this project I’d like to prepare some form of shot list with the director before each shoot to make sure we got the footage we needed and were less rushed on the actual day. And then perhaps the shots would be slightly longer (in terms of duration) and we’d have more to work with in the edit. This seemed to be one of the problems with the footage we got: all the shots were too short. Despite this, as it turned out, we were still able to create quite a slow paced edit and achieved the film we set out to make!

Participation: B

Teamwork: A

———

Reading and writing about documentary film helped me build an understanding of how documentary practices have changed over the years. My essay ‘Beauty and Violence: The Human Relationship With Marine Life in Documentaries of the 20th and 21st Centuries’, explored just that, by comparing the damning portrayal of human cruelty in ‘Blackfish’ and the harmful practices in the name of conservation featured in ‘The Silent World’. In Blackfish I examined the use of specific storytelling devices such as interviews, as well as the use of anthropomorphism to encourage the audience to empathise with the mistreated orcas. On the other hand my analysis of The Silent World was based much more around how cinematography is used to portray the marine life as a spectacle rather than living creatures, and how Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s research methods would be considered harmful in a modern day context. Overall the focus was largely on representation.

Speaking frankly I didn’t take any specific ideas forward from my theoretical to my practical work, and still feel as though I’m slightly in the dark about the academic side of filmmaking. Whilst researching for the essay I became interested in what I was writing about, however it didn’t really impact the way I approached our film.

#documentaryfilm

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inurear786 · 3 years ago

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HOME FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES, TOP 10 LIST THE WORLDS MOST MYSTERIOUS PICTURES EVER TAKEN!

UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES

The worlds most mysterious pictures ever taken!

March 1, 2014 | A Strange Mystery | Films & Documentaries, Top 10 List

The unexplained pictures

St Augustine Lighthouse,

This picture remains unexplained – it reportedly shows a ghost on the top of the light house and has been seen on a number of occasions

Nobody believed Doris Bither. She was a constantly drunk mother who abused her children because she herself was once abused. However, everything changed when several paranormal investigators decided to sit in a room to watch her struggle with the “entities” she claimed haunted her.

When Doris asked a few paranormal investigators to observe her, they were skeptical at first but eventually agreed. Sure enough, Doris suddenly began cursing at three unseen entities. Suddenly auras began forming around her. A mysterious green mist began swirling around Doris. One of the investigators fainted. No one knows exactly what happened.

The Martian Spherules

In 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity had already detected curious blueberry-shaped microscopic formations in the martian soil…but a much stranger picture was taken by Opportunity at the end of 2012, depicting bigger spherules in larger numbers.

Suggested to be made of hematite – a possible sign of the past presence of water…scientists are still uncertain of what these things might be.

The Babushka Lady

Babushka Lady is a nickname for an unknown woman present during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy who might have photographed the events.

She was seen to be holding a camera and was also seen in film accounts of the assassination. Even though the shooting had already taken place and most of her surrounding witnesses took cover, she can be seen still standing with the camera. She never came forward. The police and the FBI did not find her, and the film shot from her position never turned up.

The Hessdalen Lights

The Hessdalen Light is an unexplained light usually seen in the Hessdalen valley in Norway.

In 2007, a group of teachers, students and scientists established a science camp in Norway to study the phenomenon.

On a clear night, Bjorn G. Hauge managed to take this pic using an exposure time of 30 seconds.

The analysis of the spectrum reveals the object to be made of silicium, iron, titanium and scandium.

Pyramid on the Moon

This photo was taken by Apollo 17 near the Geophone Rock, during the last flight to the moon, and it was listed as a “blank” in the Apollo 17 photographic index.

The photo certainly suffers from extreme light exposure and noise issues. But it’s in fact not completely blank, as adjusting the contrast reveals pyramid-like structures.

The Solway Firth Spaceman

May, 1964

On 23 May 1964, Jim Templeton, a firefighter from Carlisle, Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), took three photographs of his five-year-old daughter while on a day trip to Burgh Marsh.

Templeton said the only other people on the marshes that day were a couple of old ladies sitting in a car at the far end of the marsh. In a letter to the Daily Mail in 2002, Templeton stated, “I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose – and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background.”

Templeton insists that he did not see the figure until after his photographs were developed, and analysts at Kodak confirmed that the photograph was genuine.

The Hook Island Sea Monster

People nowadays assume that this image is a photoshop job unique to the digital age, whereas in fact it’s a classic, much-reproduced image, widely discussed in the cryptozoological literature, and first appearing in print in March 1965 (together with others). It’s Robert Le Serrec’s photo of a huge, tadpole-like creature encountered in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland.

The Mysterious Hinterkaifeck Murders

The story:

“In Germany, 1922, the murders of six people at the Hinterkaifeck Farmstead shocked the nation. This wasn’t just because of the gruesome nature of the case, but also because the case was so incredibly weird, and it remains unsolved to this day. Over 100 people were interviewed in the murder, but no one was ever arrested. No motive was ever established as to explain the murders.

“The previous maid had left 6 months earlier, saying the home was haunted. The new maid arrived only hours before the murders. It is believed that the perpetrator(s) remained at the farm for several days – someone had fed the cattle, and eaten food in the kitchen: the neighbours had also seen smoke from the chimney during the weekend. This photo depicts one of the victims as he lay in the house barn.

Possible explanation:

The photo really isn’t unexplained, the events did happen and the photo taken you see above is authentic…. What’s unexplained is the events that led up to it, and how it all went down.

The movie!

The short film shows the most mysterious and unexplained pictures ever taken.