#a single second of; the entire trilogy (and various follow ups) passed me by. i still felt like i was coming into this knowing it beat for

[mariocki]

The Evil Dead (1981)

"Why have you disturbed our sleep, awakened us from our ancient slumber? You will die! Like the others before you, one by one, we will take you."

[pyllymursu]

An essay on shame in Ape Escape 3, a character psychoanalysis on Dr. Tomouki

Over a decade has passed and I still love Ape Escape 3 as much as I loved it on the day I finished it, and the most major reason for that is one of the two villains of the game: Dr. Tomouki, a character who is still my most favorite singular character I’ve seen in fiction, and that is for a reason

He is not an often talked about character whenever someone brings up the Ape Escape series, despite being one of the deepest, if not the singular most deep character in the trilogy and the game series - not only because of the lore he offers to the game series as a whole, but the themes of shame and humiliation that are handled in his backstory

Full analysis under the cut - be aware that this will contain spoilers

Before I deep-dive into this character psychoanalysis, let me give you a brief synopsis of the game series, which is info that will come into play later:

Ape Escape is a 3D platformer video game series, that has 3 main games. The main idea of each game is that a group of apes have gotten access to intelligence-enhancing helmets, and are now led by a monkey called Specter, who has a different world-dominating plot depending on the game, and each time a different protagonist must defeat him and his army of primates

In the third installment, two twins, Satoru and Sayaka, with the help of their scientist aunt Aki, must stop Specter once again, but this time with a twist - this time around he has a human ally, and said human is the one and only Dr. Tomouki, whose character and themes we will dissect in this essay

I will use the EU translation of the game as a basis since it is more faithful to the original script, but the US translation of the game does follow a very similar premise

While Tomouki is teased as a new character and a villain in the very first cutscene of the game, he gets a proper introduction in the cutscene that follows after the first boss of the game. He is introduced as an over-the-top narcissist from the get-go, with him telling various info about him (like the fact that he is single, his weigth and heigth including afro, etc), and he is then adorned by roses. All of this is soon interrupted by Aki, and Tomouki is suddenly really humbled and surprised upon meeting her. This will come into play much later

From this cutscene forwards, the game is a fairly standard ride plot-wise, defeating a boss after boss and seeing the two man villains after each defeat with not much new lore to either character. I do want to note the cutscene after the third boss though, where the only dialogue is from Specter since Tomouki is too busy looking at his own reflection, which adds more to his narcissistic nature introduced earlier, and as a side-note, is comedy gold

Then we enter the second last stage in the game, Tomouki City, and if the game was an enjoyable ride this far, this is where things actually get really interesting

First I want to point out the enviromental storytelling in the stage - his previously established narcissism is amplified in his stage with the entire city having named after him, and his face plastered all over. There are posters of his face, there are golden statues all around, most of the catchable monkeys in the stage have afros, there stands an entire freaking tower modeled after him in the middle of the city, to name a few examples. You can almost touch his ego. And as a side-note here, I want to say that his aesthetics are on-point with the gold-purple-white palettes, heavenly-looking enviroments and roses

We get one more glimpse of this when we reach him in his boss chambers, the so-called Den of Splendor, where you can see pastiches of old paintings, but modified in his image. Then we enter his boss fight, where he fights in a mech that - you guessed it - is modeled after his face

After we jam to some Bach Invention 13 and completely obliterate his ass, this is where the real deal begins

After he is defeat, we learn of his background story - he was part of the group that created the series staple monkey helmets to begin with, with said group featuring Aki and a character simply called Professor, who is THE character behind the helmets, and a series staple character who has been featured in each main series game

Tomouki's role in the creation of the helmets was to be a test subject to the helmets, which then lead to an accident where one would be permanently stuck on his head (which we are actually teased in his introduction cutscene, where he flexes with his IQ if 1300) This drastic change in appearance led to him being a subject of ridicule by his peers and everyone around him, leading him to his current villainy

And this here, where the theme of shame and humiliation comes into full play. While on the surface level, the game and the series as a whole is still a very light experience, this moment here adds some surprising depth in a place no-one would expect it, that is a 2006 PS2 platformer aimed at children

So, let's now deep dive into the psychoanalysis here

Everything we have learned of the character falls so far falls into place in this very cutscene - we learn that his ego and narcissism wasn't played simply for laughs, but it is indeed a broken man's way to cope and re-build whatever strips of self-love he has left. We don't know whether he is trying to prove others or himself of his self-worth, so that is up to speculation, but the reason for his narcissistic tendencies is clear

It is not easily distinguished whether or not he is intentionally hilarious in his narcissistic presentation or not, but I can still safely say that if he wants to be hilarious, he wants to be hilarious in his own terms. He (and I'd dare to say, literally everyone else on this planet) doesn't want to be ridiculed by other people by a thing he cannot control, he doesn't want to be ridiculed against his will, which is in this case, is his permanent change in appearance

Speaking of appearance, usually when a character has a physical mark left of their past trauma, it is usually something like having a scar on their face, but even then that is usually integrated as a cool feature in the character's design Tomouki's case here, on the other hand, is like a slap to the face - you, as a player, have to face it, and he, as a character has too. There is nothing cool or aesthetically appealing in his current state of being. Shame is such an universal, such a human emotion (which is fitting coming from a game series that features a human vs primate conflict thorough it), and yet we don't see it handled that much in fiction, except - like I stated before - in this surprising place

After the reveal of the aforementioned lore, he is inviting Satoru and Sayaka to laugh at him like the rest, showing a glimpse of the spirit of a broken man. He tried to fight against fate one more time by joining forces with Specter, but even that attempt was futile, and he now greets defeat one more time.

While Satoru and Sayaka are still processing what is going on, Specter joins the invitation instead, only to be told off by Satoru about it, and upon seeing various people experience this part, their reactions have fallen mostly to these two categories - either to Specter's ridicule, or Satoru's sympathy. Specter then proceeds to put this plan into full action, with the specifics of said plan still being unclear to the main characters and the player. The main characters are now left to wonder how to stop this.

While abrupt, but fitting to the game's pace and narrative, Tomouki now offers to help the children instead After this small, simple act of kindness and sympathy, this man was actually set to the path of healing his faith in humanity, and helps the main characters to Specter's real hideout

From this moment on, he takes a backseat until the defeat of the final boss Again, spoilers ahead:

While Tomouki not present, it is revealed right before the final boss that the villains' plan was to split the earth in two for the two of them to rule each half. This sounds really extra spelled out loud, but is right at home in a game series as silly and insane as Ape Escape. After this, the protagonists point out that not even the apes will have a place to live if Specter decides to proceed with this plan

This bit goes to theory territory, but I am almost 100% sure that Tomouki's real intention with this plan was to indeed to end all of, well, everything. Perhaps partially as an act of revenge, partially of having serious depression (we will get here in a bit) and he somehow convinced Specter of this actually working

Fast forward to post-final boss, Tomouki appears once again before the main characters, advicing them to leave the villain's headquarters and let him stop the aforementioned plan. It is then soon revealed, that in order to stop the plan, the entire place needs to be blown up, with him along with it

But right before that, my previous statement about him having depression comes back into play here - Tomouki states that he has not been this high on life for ages, and while not spelling it out loud, this does heavily imply the character had long ago fell into depression due to the reasons stated above. After this, he thanks the protagonists, hugs his now-introduced robot friend, and ends it all

...Or so I would say, if this wasn't a game with children as its main audience - in the ending credits, it is revealed that he somehow survived all of that, and the last time we see him in the game and the series as a whole is in a photo featuring Satoru, Sayaka, Aki and various other characters from the series. Where he heads in life after this is unknown, but we are given hope that despite this man's past trauma, he now has a new direction in life with his faith in humanity restored

While the character (and the entire game) has maybe 30 minutes worth of cutscenes, there is so much lore and depth squeezed into it, whether intentional or not. While Ape Escape 3 is the only official piece of media Tomouki has appeared in to this day, his character arc in this game is such a neatly tied package, that he doesn't really need anything more, even if I am personally craving for more of that sweet Tomouki content

He goes through an insane character arc in such a short period of time, and all of it unfolds so naturally There is also a lot of lore to be found outside the cutscenes too, with the designs of the Teleborgs, the real-life trends of 2006, things lost in translation and such, but those are something to handle another time

So, TL;DR : Dr. Tomouki Ape Escape 3 is one of the most important if not THE most important in the Ape Escape lore, and he has surprising depth to his character handling very overall unhandled themes like shame and humiliation in an enviroment fairly light on story elements

Or maybe I am just overthinking as a helpless simp. Maybe.

I just think Dr. Tomouki Ape Escape 3 is neat

[blackkudos]

Donna Summer

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), widely known by her stage name based on her married name Donna Summer, was an American singer, songwriter and actress. She gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.

While influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, Summer became the lead singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she left New York and spent several years living, acting and singing in Europe, where she met music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte in Munich, where they recorded influential disco hits such as "Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love", marking her breakthrough into an international career. Summer returned to the United States in 1975, and other hits such as "Last Dance", "MacArthur Park", "Heaven Knows", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (duet with Barbra Streisand) and "On the Radio" followed.

Summer earned a total of 42 hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 in her lifetime, with 14 of those reaching the top-ten. She claimed a top 40 hit every year between 1975 and 1984, and from her first top-ten hit in 1976, to the end of 1982, she had 12 top-ten hits (10 were top-five hits), more than any other act during that time period. She returned to the Hot 100's top-five in 1983, and claimed her final top-ten hit in 1989 with "This Time I Know It's for Real". She was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and charted four number-one singles in the US within a 12-month period. She also charted two number-one singles on the R&B Singles chart in the US and a number-one single in the United Kingdom. Her most recent Hot 100 hit came in 1999 with "I Will Go with You (Con Te Partiro)". While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned through those decades, Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart over her entire career.

Summer died on May 17, 2012, from lung cancer, at her home in Naples, Florida. She sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She won five Grammy Awards. In her obituary in The Times, she was described as the "undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom" who reached the status of "one of the world's leading female singers." Giorgio Moroder described Summer's work with them on the song "I Feel Love" as "really the start of electronic dance" music. In 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In December 2016, Billboard ranked her at No. 6 on its list of the Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists .

Early life

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born on December 31, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Andrew and Mary Gaines, and was third of seven children. She was raised in the Boston neighborhood of Mission Hill. Her father was a butcher, and her mother was a schoolteacher.

Summer's performance debut occurred at church when she was ten years old, replacing a vocalist who failed to appear. She attended Boston's Jeremiah E. Burke High School where she performed in school musicals and was considered popular. In 1967, just weeks before graduation, Summer left for New York City, where she joined the blues rock band Crow. After a record label passed on signing the group since it was only interested in the band's lead singer, the group agreed to dissolve.

Summer stayed in New York and auditioned for a role in the counterculture musical, Hair. She landed the part of Sheila and agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show, moving there after getting her parents' reluctant approval. She eventually became fluent in German, singing various songs in that language, and participated in the musicals Ich bin ich (the German version of The Me Nobody Knows), Godspell, and Show Boat. Within three years, she moved to Vienna, Austria, and joined the Vienna Volksoper. She briefly toured with an ensemble vocal group called FamilyTree, the creation of producer Günter "Yogi" Lauke.

In 1968, Summer released (as Donna Gaines) on Polydor her first single, a German version of the title "Aquarius" from the musical Hair, followed in 1971 by a second single, a remake of the Jaynetts' 1963 hit, "Sally Go 'Round the Roses", from a one-off European deal with Decca Records. In 1969, she issued the single "If You Walkin' Alone" on Philips Records.

She married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer in 1973, and gave birth to their daughter (called Mimi) Natalia Pia Melanie Sommer, the same year. She provided backing vocals for producer-keyboardist Veit Marvos on his Ariola Records release Nice to See You, credited as "Gayn Pierre". Several subsequent singles included Donna performing with the group, and the name "Gayn Pierre" was used while performing in Godspell with Helmuth Sommer during 1972.

Music career

1974–1979: Initial success

While working as a model part-time and back up singer in Munich, Summer met German-based producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte during a recording session for Three Dog Night at Musicland Studios. The trio forged a working partnership, and Donna was signed to their Oasis label in 1974. A demo tape of Summer's work with Moroder and Bellotte led to a deal with the European-distributed label Groovy Records. Due to an error on the record cover, Donna Sommer became Donna Summer; the name stuck. Summer's first album was Lady of the Night. It became a hit in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Belgium on the strength of two songs, "The Hostage" and the title track "Lady of the Night". "The Hostage" reached the top of the charts in France, but was removed from radio playlists in Germany because of the song's subject matter; a high ranking politician that had recently been kidnapped and held for ransom. One of her first TV appearances was in the television show, Van Oekel's Discohoek, which started the breakthrough of "The Hostage", and in which she gracefully went along with the scripted absurdity and chaos in the show.

In 1975, Summer passed on an idea for a song to Moroder who was working with another artist; a song that would be called "Love to Love You". Summer and Moroder wrote the song together, and together they worked on a demo version with Summer singing the song. Moroder decided that Summer's version should be released. Seeking an American release for the song, it was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart. Bogart played the song at one of his extravagant industry parties, where it was so popular with the crowd, they insisted that it be played over and over, each time it ended. Bogart requested that Moroder produce a longer version for discothèques. Moroder, Bellotte, and Summer returned with a 17-minute version. Bogart tweaked the title to "Love to Love You Baby", and Casablanca signed Summer, releasing the single in November 1975. The shorter 7" version of the single was promoted by radio stations, while clubs regularly played the 17 minute version (the longer version would also appear on the album).

By early 1976, "Love to Love You Baby" had reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and had become a Gold single, while the album had sold over a million copies. The song generated controversy due to Summer's moans and groans, and some American stations, like those in Europe with the initial release, refused to play it. Despite this, "Love to Love You Baby" found chart success in several European countries, and made the Top 5 in the United Kingdom despite the BBC ban. Casablanca wasted no time releasing the album A Love Trilogy, featuring "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" No. 80 and Summer's remarkable rendition of Barry Manilow's "Could It Be Magic" No. 52, which was followed by Four Seasons of Love, which spawned the singles "Spring Affair" No. 58 and "Winter Melody", No. 43. Both albums went Gold.

In 1977, Summer released the concept album I Remember Yesterday. The song "I Feel Love", reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 chart. and No. 1 in the UK. She received her first American Music Award nomination for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. The single would attain Gold status and the album went Platinum in the U.S. Another concept album, also released in 1977, was Once Upon a Time, a double album which told of a modern-day Cinderella "rags to riches" story. This album would attain Gold status. Summer recorded the song "Down Deep Inside" as the theme song for the 1977 film The Deep. In 1978, Summer acted in the film Thank God It's Friday, the film met with modest success; the song "Last Dance", reached No. 3 on the Hot 100. The soundtrack and single both went Gold and resulted in Summer winning her first Grammy Award, for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Its writer, Paul Jabara, won both an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for the composition. Summer also had "With Your Love" and "Je t'aime... moi non plus", on the soundtrack. Her version of the Jimmy Webb ballad, "MacArthur Park", became her first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 chart. It was also the only No. 1 hit for songwriter Jimmy Webb; the single went Gold and topped the charts for three weeks. She received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The song was featured on Summer's first live album, Live and More, which also became her first album to hit number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and went double-Platinum, selling over 2 million copies. The week of November 11, 1978, Summer became the first female artist of the modern rock era to have the No. 1 single on the Hot 100 and album on the Billboard 200 charts, simultaneously. The song "Heaven Knows", which featured Brooklyn Dreams singer Joe "Bean" Esposito; reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 and became another Gold single.

In 1979, Summer won three American Music Awards for Single, Album and Female Artist, in the Disco category at the awards held in January. Summer performed at the world-televised Music for UNICEF Concert, joining contemporaries such as ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Rod Stewart, John Denver, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson for a TV special that raised funds and awareness for the world's children. Artists donated royalties of certain songs, some in perpetuity, to benefit the cause. Summer began work on her next project with Moroder and Bellotte, Bad Girls. Mororder brought in Harold Faltermeyer, with whom he had collaborated on the soundtrack of film Midnight Express, to be the album's arranger. Faltermeyer's role would significantly increase from arranger, as he played keyboards and wrote songs with Summer.

The album went triple-Platinum, spawning the number-one hits "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls", that went Platinum, and the number-two "Dim All the Lights" which went Gold. The week of June 16, 1979, Summer would again have the number-one single on the Hot 100 chart, and the number-one album on the Billboard 200 chart; when "Hot Stuff" regained the top spot on the Hot 100 chart. The following week, "Bad Girls" would be on top of the U.S. Top R&B albums chart, "Hot Stuff" remained at No. 1, and "Bad Girls", the single, would climb into the top five on the Hot 100. The following week, Summer was the first solo artist to have two songs in the Hot 100 top three at the same time. In July 1979, Summer topped the Hot 100 singles chart, and the Billboard 200 albums chart, and the Soul singles chart simultaneously. In the week of November 10, 1979, "Dim All the Lights" peaked at No. 2 for two weeks; the following week "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" would get to No. 3; and once again Summer would have two songs in the top 3, on the Hot 100. One week later, "No More Tears" climbed to No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart, and "Dim All the Lights" went to No. 4; she again had two songs in the top 5 of the Hot 100 chart. In the span of eight months, Summer had topped both the singles and albums charts simultaneously, three times. She became the first Female Artist to have three number-one singles in a calendar year. With "Mac Arthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", and the Barbra Streisand-duet "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)", Summer achieved four number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart within a 12-month period. Including "Heaven Knows" and "Dim All the Lights" she had achieved six top 4 singles on the Hot 100 chart in the same 12-month period. Those songs, along with "Last Dance", "On the Radio", and "The Wanderer", would give her nine Top 5 singles on the Hot 100 chart in just over a two-year period. The single, "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" would sell over 2 million copies becoming a Platinum success. "Hot Stuff" won her a Grammy Award in the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, the first time the category was included. She was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and both Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, as well as Best Disco Recording. That year, Summer played eight sold-out nights at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

Casablanca then released On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II, her first (international) greatest hits set, in 1979. The album was mixed differently than the original songs issued on it, with each song segueing into the next, and included two new songs "On the Radio" and "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)". It would be the first time that such an album package would be made. The album went No. 1, her third consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and gained double-Platinum status. "On the Radio", reached No. 5, selling over a million copies in the U.S. alone, making it a Gold single. Summer would again receive a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

1980–1985

Summer received four nominations for the 7th Annual American Music Awards in January 1980, and took home awards for Female Pop/Rock and Female Soul/R&B Artist; and well as Pop/Rock single for "Bad Girls". Just over a week after the awards, Summer had her own nationally televised special, The Donna Summer Special, which aired on ABC network on January 27, 1980. After the release of the On the Radio album, Summer wanted to branch out into other musical styles, which led to tensions between her and Casablanca Records. Casablanca wanted her to continue to record disco only. Summer was upset with President Neil Bogart over the early release of the single "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)"; she had penned "Dim All the Lights" alone, and was hoping for a number-one hit as a songwriter. Not waiting until "Dim All the Lights" had peaked, or at least another month as promised; Summer felt it had detracted from the singles chart momentum. Summer and the label parted ways in 1980, and she signed with Geffen Records, the new label started by David Geffen. Summer had filed a $10 million lawsuit against Casablanca; the label counter-sued. In the end, she did not receive any money, but won the rights to her own lucrative song publishing.

Summer's first Geffen album, The Wanderer, featured an eclectic mixture of sounds, bringing elements of rock, rockabilly, new wave and gospel music. The Wanderer was rushed to market. The producers of the album wanted more production time. The album continued Summer's streak of Gold albums with the title track peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 chart. Its follow-up singles were, "Cold Love" No.33 and "Who Do You Think You're Foolin'", No.40. Summer was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Cold Love", and Best Inspirational Performance for "I Believe in Jesus" at the 1981 Grammy Awards.

She would soon be working on her next album. It was to be another double album set. When David Geffen stopped by the studio for a preview, he was warned that it was a work in progress, but it was almost done. That was a mistake, because only a few tracks had been finished, and most of them were in demo phase. He heard enough to tell producers that it was not good enough; the project was canceled. It would be released years later in 1996, under the title I'm a Rainbow. Over the years, a few of the tracks would be released. The song "Highway Runner" appears on the soundtrack for the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. "Romeo" appears on the Flashdance soundtrack. Both, "I'm a Rainbow" and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" would be on her 1993 Anthology album.

David Geffen hired top R&B and pop producer Quincy Jones to produce Summer's next album, the eponymously titled Donna Summer. The album took over six months to record as Summer, who was pregnant at the time, found it hard to sing. During the recording of the project, Neil Bogart died of cancer in May 1982 at age 39. Summer would sing at his funeral. The album included the top ten hit "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)"; for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Summer was also nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Protection", penned for her by Bruce Springsteen. Other singles included a cover of the Jon and Vangelis song "State of Independence" (No. 41 pop) and "The Woman in Me" (No. 33 pop).

By then Geffen Records was notified by Polygram Records, who now owned Casablanca, that Summer still needed to deliver them one more album to fulfill her contract with them. Summer had her biggest success in the 1980s while on Geffen's roster with her next album She Works Hard for the Money and its title song — which were released by Mercury Records in a one-off arrangement to settle Summer's split with the soon-to-be-defunct Casablanca Records, whose catalogue now resided with Mercury and Casablanca's parent company PolyGram.

Summer recorded and delivered the album She Works Hard for the Money and Polygram released it on its Mercury imprint in 1983. The title song became a major hit, reaching No. 3 on the US Hot 100, as well as No. 1 on Billboard's R&B chart for three weeks. It also garnered Summer another Grammy nomination, for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. "Unconditional Love", which featured the British group Musical Youth, and "Love Has a Mind of Its Own" did not crack the top 40. The album itself was certified Gold, and climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart; the highest chart position of any female artist in male-dominated 1983. The song "He's a Rebel" would win Summer her third Grammy Award, this time for Best Inspirational Performance.

British director Brian Grant was hired to direct Summer's video for "She Works Hard for the Money". The video was a success, being nominated for Best Female Video and Best Choreography at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards; Summer became one of the first African-American artists, and the first African-American female artist to have her video played in heavy rotation on MTV. Grant would also be hired to direct Summer's Costa Mesa HBO concert special, A Hot Summers Night. Grant who was a fan of the song State of Independence had an idea for a grand finale. He wanted a large chorus of children to join Summer on stage at the ending of the song. His team looked for local school children in Orange County, to create a chorus of 500 students. On the final day of rehearsals, the kids turned up and they had a full rehearsal. According to Grant, "It looked and sounded amazing. It was a very emotional, very tearful experience for everyone who was there." He thought if this was that kind of reaction in rehearsal, then what an impact it would have in the concert. After the rehearsal Grant was informed that he could not use the kids because the concert would end after 10 pm; children could not be licensed to be on stage at such a late hour (California had strict child labor laws in 1983). "It's a moment that I regret immensely: a grand finale concept I came up with that couldn't be filmed in the end". When the final sequence was filmed, Summer's daughter Mimi and her family members joined her on stage for "State of Independence".

In late 1983, David Geffen enlisted She Works Hard for the Money's producer Michael Omartian to produce Cats Without Claws. Summer was happy that Geffen and his executives stayed out of the studio during the recording and thanked him in the album's liner notes, but her request for the lead single would be rejected. The album failed to attain Gold status in the U.S., her first album not to do so. It was first album not to yield a top ten hit, since 1977's Once Upon a Time. The Drifters cover "There Goes My Baby" reached No. 21 and "Supernatural Love" went to No. 75. She would win another Grammy for Best Inspirational Performance for the song "Forgive Me".

On January 19, 1985, she sang at the nationally televised 50th Presidential Inaugural Gala the day before the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan.

1986–1989

In 1986, Harold Faltermeyer wrote the title song for a German ski movie called Fire and Ice, and thought Summer would be ideal to sing the song. He decided to reach out to Summer and, although she was not interested in singing the song, she was very much interested in working with Faltermeyer again. After a meeting with David Geffen he was on board with the project. Summer's main objective for the album was that it have stronger R&B influences; Faltermeyer who had just finished doing the soundtracks to Top Gun and Fletch, was after a tough FM-oriented sound. On completion, Geffen liked what he heard, but his executives did not think there were enough songs that could be deemed singles. They wanted Faltermeyer to produce "Dinner with Gershwin", but he was already busy with another project, so another producer was found. They also substituted a previous recording called "Bad Reputation", songs like "Fascination", fell by the wayside. Geffen had shared the vision of moving Summer into the R&B market as a veteran artist, but these expectations were not met. Faltermeyer, in a 2012 interview with Daeida Magazine, said, "She was an older artist by then and the label's priority may have been on the youth market. The decision was made afterward by executives who were looking for a radio hit for 1987 and not something that would perhaps last beyond then." The label's President Ed Rosenblatt would later admit: "The company never intended to focus on established superstars". The album All Systems Go, did not achieve Gold status. The single "Dinner with Gershwin" (written by Brenda Russell) stalled at 48 in the US, though it became a hit in the UK, peaking at No. 13. The album's title track, "All Systems Go", was released only in the UK, where it peaked at No. 54.

For Summer's next album, Geffen Records hired the British hit production team of Stock Aitken Waterman (or SAW), who enjoyed incredible success writing and producing for such acts as Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, and Rick Astley, among others. The "SAW" team describe the working experience as a labour of love, and said it was their favourite album of all that they had recorded. Geffen decided not to release the album Another Place and Time, and Summer and Geffen Records parted ways in 1988. The album was released in Europe in March 1989 on Warner Bros. Records, which had been Summer's label in Europe since 1982. The single "This Time I Know It's for Real" became a top ten hit in several countries in Europe, prompting Warner Bros.' sister company, Atlantic Records, to sign Summer in the U.S. The single peaked at No. 7 on the US Hot 100 and became her 12th Gold single in America. She scored two more UK hits from the album, "I Don't Wanna Get Hurt" (UK No. 7) and "Love's About to Change My Heart" (UK No. 20).

In 1989, Summer and her husband, Bruce Sudano, had been in talks to do a new kind of reality-based sitcom. It would be based on their own hectic household. At the time, they lived with their children Amanda, Brooklyn and Mimi, two sets of in-laws, and a maid. The television network started changing the premise of the show, making it less funny, says Sudano, "And because we were an interracial couple, they didn't want us to be married anymore". In 1989, this was "an issue. So with that mentality we just backed out of it."

1990–1999: Mistaken Identity, acting, and Live & More Encore

In 1990, a Warner compilation, The Best of Donna Summer, was released (No U.S. issue). The album went Gold in the UK after the song "State of Independence" was re-released there to promote the album. The following year, Summer worked with producer Keith Diamond emerged with the album Mistaken Identity, which included elements of R&B as well as new jack swing. "When Love Cries" continued her success on the R&B charts, reaching No. 18. In 1992, Summer embarked on a world tour and later that year received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She reunited with Giorgio Moroder, for the song "Carry On", which was included on the 1993, Polygram issued The Donna Summer Anthology, it contained 34 tracks of Summer's material with Casablanca and Mercury Records, and from her tenures with Atlantic and Geffen.

Summer signed with Mercury/Polygram that same year, and in 1994 she re-teamed with producer Michael Omartian to record a Christmas album, Christmas Spirit, which included classic Christmas songs such as "O Holy Night" and "White Christmas" and three Summer-penned songs,"Christmas is Here", "Lamb of God" and the album's title track. Summer was accompanied by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Another hits collection, Endless Summer: Greatest Hits, was released featuring eighteen songs. There were two new tracks "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)" and "Any Way at All". In 1994, she also contributed to the Tribute To Edith Piaf album, singing La Vie En Rose. In 1995, "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)" went No. 1 on the US dance charts, and No. 21 in the UK. In 1996, Summer recorded a duet with Bruce Roberts, Whenever There Is Love, which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Daylight (1996 film). In 1996, Summer also recorded Does He Love You with Liza Minnelli, which appeared Minnelli's Gently (album).

During this time, Summer had role on the sitcom Family Matters as Steve Urkel's (Jaleel White) Aunt Oona. She made a few appearances in 1997. In 1998, Summer received the first Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, after a remixed version of her 1992 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, "Carry On", was released in 1997. In 1999, Summer was asked to do the Divas 2 concert, but when she went in and met with the producers, it was decided that they would do Donna in concert by herself. Summer taped a live television special for VH1 titled Donna Summer – Live & More Encore, producing the second highest ratings for the network that year, after their annual Divas special. A CD of the event was released by Epic Records and featured two studio recordings, "I Will Go with You (Con te partirò)" and "Love Is the Healer", both of which reached No. 1 on the U.S. dance charts.

2000–2009: Later recordings and Crayons

In 2000, Summer participated in VH1's third annual Divas special, dedicated to Diana Ross, she sang the Supreme's hit Reflections, and her own material for the show. "The Power of One" is a theme song for the movie Pokémon: The Movie 2000. The dramatic ballad was produced by David Foster and dance remixes were also issued to DJs and became another dance floor success for Summer, peaking at No. 2 on the same chart in 2000. In 2003, Summer issued her autobiography, Ordinary Girl: The Journey, and released a best-of set titled The Journey: The Very Best of Donna Summer. In 2004, Summer was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame as an artist, alongside the Bee Gees and Barry Gibb. Her classic song, "I Feel Love", was inducted that night as well. In 2004 and 2005, Summer's success on the dance charts continued with the songs "You're So Beautiful" and "I Got Your Love". In 2004, Summer re-recorded the track with the Irish pop band Westlife (with a live performance) for the compilation album, Discomania.

In 2008, Summer released her first studio album of fully original material in 17 years, entitled Crayons. Released on the Sony BMG label Burgundy Records, it peaked at No. 17 on the U.S. Top 200 Album Chart, her highest placing on the chart since 1983. The songs I'm a Fire, Stamp Your Feet and Fame (The Game) all reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart. The ballad Sand on My Feet was released to adult contemporary stations and reached No. 30 on that chart. Summer said, "I wanted this album to have a lot of different directions on it. I did not want it to be any one baby. I just wanted it to be a sampler of flavors and influences from all over the world. There's a touch of this, a little smidgeon of that, a dash of something else, like when you're cooking."

2010–2013: Final recordings

On July 29, 2010, Summer gave an interview with Allvoices.com wherein she was asked if she would consider doing an album of standards. She said, "I actually am, probably in September. I will begin work on a standards album. I will probably do an all-out dance album and a standards album. I'm going to do both and we will release them however we're going to release them. We are not sure which is going first."

In August 2010, Summer released the single "To Paris With Love", co-written with Bruce Roberts and produced by Peter Stengaard. The single went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart in October 2010. That month, Summer also appeared on the PBS television special Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends. In it, Summer performed with Seal on a medley of the songs "Un-Break My Heart / Crazy / On the Radio" before closing the show with "Last Dance".

On September 15, 2010, Summer appeared as a guest celebrity, singing alongside contestant Prince Poppycock, on the television show America's Got Talent.

On June 6, 2011, Summer was a guest judge on the show Platinum Hit, in an episode entitled "Dance Floor Royalty". In July of that same year, Summer was working at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles with her nephew, the rapper and producer O'Mega Red. Together they worked on a track titled "Angel".

On December 11, 2012, after four prior nominations, Summer was posthumously announced to be one of the 2013 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame., and was inducted on April 18, 2013, at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.

A remix album titled Love to Love You Donna, containing new remixes of some of Summer's classics, was released in October 2013. "MacArthur Park" was remixed by Laidback Luke for the remix collection; it was also remixed by Ralphi Rosario, which version was released to dance clubs all over America and successfully peaked at No. 1, giving Summer her first posthumous number-one single, and her twentieth number-one on the charts.

Controversy

In the mid-1980s, Summer was embroiled in a controversy. She allegedly had made anti-gay remarks regarding the then-relatively new disease, AIDS. Summer publicly denied that she had ever made any such comments, and in a letter to the AIDS campaign group ACT UP in 1989 said it was "a terrible misunderstanding." In explaining why she did not respond to ACT UP sooner, Summer stated "I was unknowingly protected by those around me from the bad press and hate letters. If I have caused you pain, forgive me." She closed her letter with Bible quotes (from Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians).

Also in 1989, Summer told The Advocate magazine that "a couple of the people I write with are gay, and they have been ever since I met them. What people want to do with their bodies is their personal preference." A couple of years later, she filed a lawsuit against New York magazine when it printed an old story about the rumors as fact, just as she was about to release her album Mistaken Identity in 1991. According to a Biography television program dedicated to Summer in which she participated in 1995, the lawsuit was settled out of court, though neither side was able to divulge any details.

Personal life

Summer was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She married the Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer in 1973 and gave birth to their daughter Natalia Pia Melanie Sommer (called Mimi) the same year. The couple divorced in 1976, but Summer kept the anglicized version of her ex-husband's surname as her stage name.

Summer married Brooklyn Dreams singer Bruce Sudano on July 16, 1980. On January 5, 1981, she gave birth to their daughter Brooklyn Sudano (who is now an actress, singer and dancer), and on August 11, 1982 she gave birth to their daughter Amanda Sudano (who in 2005 became one half of the musical duo Johnnyswim alongside Abner Ramirez). In Los Angeles, Summer was also one of the founding members of Oasis Church.

Summer and her family moved from the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee, in1995, where she took time off from show business to focus on painting, a hobby she had begun back in the 1980s.

In 1995, Summer's mother died of pancreatic cancer. Her father died of natural causes in December 2004.

Death

Summer died on May 17, 2012 at her home in Naples, Florida, aged 63, from lung cancer. A nonsmoker, Summer theorized that her cancer was caused by inhaling toxic fumes and dust from the September 11 attacks in New York City. However some reports have instead attributed the cancer to Summer's smoking during her younger years, her continued exposure to second-hand smoking while performing in clubs well after she had herself quit, and a predisposition to this disease in the family. Summer was survived by her husband, Bruce Sudano, and her daughters Mimi (with ex-husband Helmut Sommer), Brooklyn Sudano, and Amanda Sudano.

Summer's funeral service was held in Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, on the afternoon of May 23, 2012. The exact location and time of the service were kept secret. Several hundred of Summer's friends and relatives appeared at the funeral, according to CNN. The funeral was a private ceremony, and cameras were not allowed inside the church. She was interred in the Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens cemetery in Nashville.

Reaction

Singers and music industry professionals around the world reacted to Summer's death. Gloria Gaynor said she was "deeply saddened" and that Summer was "a fine lady and human being". Liza Minnelli said, "She was a queen, The Queen Of Disco, and we will be dancing to her music forever." She said that her "thoughts and prayers are with her family always." Dolly Parton said, "Donna, like Whitney, was one of the greatest voices ever. I loved her records. She was the disco queen and will remain so. I knew her and found her to be one of the most likable and fun people ever. She will be missed and remembered." Janet Jackson wrote that Summer "changed the world of music with her beautiful voice and incredible talent." Barbra Streisand wrote, "I loved doing the duet with her. She had an amazing voice and was so talented. It's so sad." Quincy Jones wrote that Summer's voice was "the heartbeat and soundtrack of a generation." Aretha Franklin said, "It's so shocking to hear about the passing of Donna Summer. In the 1970s, she reigned over the disco era and kept the disco jumping. Who will forget 'Last Dance'? A fine performer and a very nice person." Chaka Khan said, "Donna and I had a friendship for over 30 years. She is one of the few black women I could speak German with and she is one of the few friends I had in this business." Gloria Estefan averred that "It's the end of an era", and posted a photo of herself with Summer. Mary J. Blige tweeted "RIP Donna Summer !!!!!!!! You were truly a game changer !!!" Lenny Kravitz wrote "Rest in peace Donna, You are a pioneer and you have paved the way for so many of us. You transcended race and genre. Respect.. Lenny".

Beyoncé penned a personal note: "Donna Summer made music that moved me both emotionally and physically to get up and dance. You could always hear the deep passion in her voice. She was so much more than the queen of disco she became known for, she was an honest and gifted singer with flawless vocal talent. I've always been a huge fan and was honored to sample one of her songs. She touched many generations and will be sadly missed. My love goes out to her family during this difficult time. Love, B".

David Foster said, "My wife and I are in shock and truly devastated. Donna changed the face of pop culture forever. There is no doubt that music would sound different today if she had never graced us with her talent. She was a super-diva and a true superstar who never compromised when it came to her career or her family. She always did it with class, dignity, grace and zero attitude. She lived in rare air ... She was the most spectacular, considerate, constant, giving, generous and loving friend of 35 years. I am at a total loss trying to process this tragic news."

U.S. President Barack Obama said, "Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Donna Summer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Donna truly was the 'Queen of Disco.' Her voice was unforgettable and the music industry has lost a legend far too soon. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Donna's family and her dedicated fans."

Summer was honored at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards ceremony. Singer Natasha Bedingfield honored Summer, calling her "a remarkable woman who brought so much light and who inspired many women, including myself, through her music. And if we can remember her through her music, this will never really be the last dance." After her statement, she began to sing "Last Dance", Summer's Academy Award-winning song. As she sang the song, photos of Summer were displayed on a screen overhead.

Fans paid tribute to Summer by leaving flowers and memorabilia on her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A few days after her death, her album sales increased by 3,277 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Billboard Magazine reported that the week before she died, Summer sold about 1,000 albums. After her death that number increased to 26,000.

Legacy

According to singer Marc Almond, Summer's collaboration with producer Giorgio Moroder "changed the face of music". Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 on Billboard's album chart: Live and More, Bad Girls and On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. She became a cultural icon and her prominence on the dance charts, for which she was referred to as the Queen of Disco, made her not just one of the defining voices of that era, but also an influence on pop artists from Madonna to Beyoncé. Unlike some other stars of disco who faded as the music became less popular in the early 1980s, Summer was able to grow beyond the genre and segued to a pop-rock sound. She had one of her biggest hits in the 1980s with "She Works Hard For the Money", which became another anthem, this time for women's rights. Summer was the first black woman to be nominated for an MTV Video Music Award. Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart throughout her career and notched 19 number one singles. Her last studio album, 2008's Crayons, spun off three No. 1 dance/club hits with "I'm a Fire", "Stamp Your Feet" and "Fame (The Game)". In May 2012, it was announced that "I Feel Love" was included in the list of preserved recordings at the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. Her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame page listed Summer as "the Diva De Tutte Dive, the first true diva of the modern pop era".

Keri Hilson portrayed Donna Summer in her 2010 music video for "Pretty Girl Rock." In 2018, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, a biographical musical featuring Summer's songs, began performances on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, following a 2017 world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

[the-desolated-quill]

Toy Story: Why I Love Chucky - Quill’s Scribbles

Yes! Yes! Yes! I know you’re waiting impatiently for me to continue reviewing Doctor Who and I will get back to it, I promise. But the trailer for Orion Pictures Child’s Play reboot was released yesterday and I want to take a moment to talk about quite possibly one of the weirdest horror franchises ever made.

My long term followers will know that I’m not really a fan of gory horror films due to the fact that I’m a grade A wuss whose backbone went on holiday to Barcelona in 1996 and never returned. However, as squeamish as I am at the sight of blood, I don’t mind gore so much if it’s in a comedic context. It’s why I don’t find the gore in Deadpool frightening. It’s cartoony and over the top, knowingly poking fun at other violent superheroes like Wolverine and the Punisher. The same is true of the Evil Dead films. Yes they’re violent, but there’s also a camp silliness to them that relieves the tension. The Child’s Play franchise is different in that the first three films (the first Child’s Play in particular) are intended to be straightforward horror films. A serial killer transferring his soul into a child’s toy and killing people. And yes, that is really scary... but... it’s a child’s toy.

It was this that allowed me to get into the Child’s Play movies. Yes it’s gory. Yes it’s often frightening. But it’s also downright hilarious.

I mean just listen to the premise. A serial killer called Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky, uses a voodoo spell he just happens to have learnt to transfer his soul into a doll in order to escape from the cops. Then rather than do something sensible like keep a low profile, he instead chooses to start killing the family who bought him. Then, weirder still, he tries to transfer his soul into Andy Barclay, the boy who owns the doll, and that’s his motive for each subsequent movie because Andy is the first person to learn the secret of Chucky and therefore is the only eligible body Chucky can possess. Oh yeah, and if Chucky doesn’t possess Andy, then the doll will become more human and his soul will be trapped in it forever.

I mean... what can you possibly say to that? It’s so odd and random, it practically borders on self parody. Which is fortunate because that’s EXACTLY what the franchise ends up doing!

After Child’s Play 3, the next two films in the franchise, Bride Of Chucky and Seed Of Chucky, veer heavily into horror comedy territory. We’re introduced to Chucky’s girlfriend Tiffany, played by Jennifer Tilly, who also gets her soul transferred into a doll and the two try to possess the bodies of an eloping couple. Then at one point in the film, the two dolls have sex... somehow... and at the end Tiffany gives birth to a ventriloquist dummy called Glen. 

But wait. That’s just Bride Of Chucky. Seed Of Chucky is even weirder.

So Glen reunites with Chucky and Tiffany in Hollywood and the three of them try to possess, I shit you not, Jennifer Tilly. Yes. The actual Jennifer Tilly. They also kidnap her chauffeur for Chucky and for Glen they need a baby to possess, so Tiffany gets Chucky to masturbate and then inseminates Jennifer Tilly with a turkey baster. 

Oh, and then it turns out Glen has a split personality called Glenda who has inherited all of Chucky’s murderous impulses because this film isn’t weird enough already. The plan completely falls apart however when Chucky refuses to give up being a serial killer in order to raise a family, wanting to now stay as a doll forever, Tiffany dies and Glen kills Chucky. Five years later, Jennifer Tilly gives birth to twins, Glen and Glenda, and she then kills the nanny, revealing that Tiffany managed to transfer her soul into Jennifer’s body after all. So Jennifer Tilly is playing Tiffany playing Jennifer Tilly.

Yes, I know. It’s stupid. It’s crazy. It’s convoluted as fuck. These films make absolutely no sense whatsoever... and I LOVE them!

I know there are die hard Child’s Play fans who really don’t like Bride and Seed, but I personally adore them. They are just so unashamedly daft, it’s hard not to enjoy yourself watching them. I think what helps is that the central premise itself is inherently silly, so it makes sense to dive headfirst into the ridiculous comedy of it all, and Bride and Seed seem to take the Gremlins 2 route of being satires of horror sequels rather than being actual horror sequels. Hell, Chucky basically gives up his quest to find a human body and chooses to stay as a doll simply because it’s a good marketing gimmick. How can you not love that kind of tongue in cheek self awareness?

Bride and Seed are canon by the way. I’m not even joking. The next two movies have narrative ties to them. Tiffany even shows up in Curse Of Chucky, still in Jennifer Tilly’s body, and the writer Don Mancini has said that Glen/Glenda will be coming back too.

After Seed Of Chucky, Child’s Play went the straight to DVD route, but unlike most straight to DVD movies, Curse Of Chucky and Cult Of Chucky were actually surprisingly good. These films go back to the original Child’s Play’s darker horror roots, but manage to maintain the self aware humour of Bride and Seed. They’re not as funny as those films, but they’re still really entertaining and really suspenseful, as well as adding interesting lore to the franchise. In Curse Of Chucky, the family he’s terrorising turn out to have been old friends of his until he killed them and severely injured a heavily pregnant Sarah, which caused the main character Nica to be a paraplegic and is actually the crime Chucky was running away from in the first film before transferring his soul into the doll. After that, in Cult Of Chucky, we see a now grown up Andy Barclay return and we’re introduced to the idea that Chucky somehow managed to transfer his soul into multiple dolls. I haven’t the faintest idea how that works, but it honestly leads to some of the funniest scenes in the movie, so I’m not complaining. It’s also nice to see a horror film set in a mental hospital that doesn’t make mentally ill people the bad guys. Oh and Kyle, Andy’s step sister from the second film, comes back in a post credits scene to torture the original Chucky doll, so that should be interesting.

And that’s the original Child’s Play movies. They’re intense, frightening, silly, farcical and utterly enjoyable. I’m not in any way suggesting they’re groundbreaking movies, but they’re unique in that they’re a real oddity in the slasher genre and have managed to carve a nice little niche for themselves.

In my opinion, two things contribute to Child’s Play’s success. The first is Brad Dourif as Chucky. He’s amazing. A maniacal, charismatic performance that’s both frightening and hysterical in equal measure. Like Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, Dourif has become intrinsically linked to the character. You can’t imagine anyone else playing him. The second is the franchise’s creator Don Mancini. Unlike the vast majority of horror franchises that are often ripped away from their original creators and become little more than shallow cash cows for movie studios, Don Mancini has managed to keep hold of the rights to Chucky. He has written every single movie and directed Seed, Curse and Cult. He’s like the Doug Naylor of horror movies. He created this franchise, he loves this franchise, he got the franchise through its various rough patches and when he became sick of studio interference, he just went ‘fuck it’ and decided to make his own Chucky films instead. So there is a consistent narrative voice throughout all the films, which is rare not just for horror films, but films in general. Films, especially sequels, are often passed from screenwriter to screenwriter before being approved for production, so to have a franchise authored entirely by one person makes Chucky stand out. It’s what made the bizarre comedy in Bride and Seed feel less alien to the much darker Child’s Play trilogy and the straight to DVD movies. They’re clearly written by the same person and use a similar foundation to build off of. It’s this that also makes the films unique. Franchises, especially horror franchises, tend to grow stale as they end up just rehashing the same material over and over. Child’s Play looked like it was going in that direction, but then Bride Of Chucky came out and the franchise took a complete left turn, taking both the story and the audience in a new direction we weren’t expecting. It’s Don Mancini’s willingness to experiment and try new things and take risks that has allowed the franchise to continue this long and maintained people’s interest. We want to know what happens next. We want to see what the next weird thing is going to be.

Speaking of which...

Yes, not even Chucky could escape from Hollywood’s obsession with rebooting 80′s movies rather than coming up with their own ideas. Yesterday we got our first look at the new Child’s Play movie, which... Yeah.... Looks okay, I guess.... So lets talk about it.

For starters, there’s some confusion as to how this movie even exists. Just to be clear, this film isn’t canon to the original movies and Don Mancini’s version of Chucky is still going to continue. In fact this is the first Chucky film where Mancini isn’t involved, which should tell you everything you need to know about this movie in and of itself. I’ve been looking into how all this works. Apparently MGM hold the rights for Child’s Play, but Mancini holds the rights for Chucky. So Mancini can still make Chucky films. He just can’t call them Child’s Play. And MGM can still make Child’s Play films. They just can’t use all the voodoo magic stuff. (I think that’s how it works. If someone wants to correct me, feel free).

So the new Child’s Play doesn’t have a serial killer trying to transfer his soul into a little boy. Instead we have a rogue AI terrorising a family whose son looks far too old to be playing with dolls anyway. 

This does not feel like Child’s Play... and yet, strangely, it is.

When Mancini first came up with the idea for Chucky, he envisioned it as a satire on commercialism. How the modern world has become obsessed with objects and possessions, using Chucky to represent our own materialist culture attacking us. Obviously that’s not what the films ended up being, but just like how the the Nightmare On Elm Street remake resurrected Wes Craven’s original idea of Freddy Krueger being a paedophile as opposed to a child killer, the Child’s Play reboot seems to be playing around with this idea too. You could argue there is a commentary to be made about how dependant we’ve gotten not just on commercialism, but smart AI as well. And no, I’m not talking Skynet or the Terminator. I’m talking about something on a more intimate scale. In this digital age we live in, nearly everything is connected to the internet. Our TVs, our phones, our computers, our cars, our electricity meters and, yes, even our children’s toys. Giving Chucky power over the wifi, making him representative of our dependency on technology and how much AI has become entrenched into our society, could be a really scary idea to explore and it gives this reboot some real legitimacy.

But here’s the thing. The idea of smart technology running amok as a way of commenting on our over-reliance on it is a great idea for a horror movie in and of itself. But does it really need Chucky? Or are they just using brand recognition to get bums on seats?

Earlier I said that Hollywood prefers to reboot old movies rather than come up with their own ideas. The truth is there are plenty of new ideas in Hollywood. They just don’t want to take a risk on a new IP. So they’ll take an existing brand and tie it into the new idea in the hopes that it’ll get people interested, rather than trusting in both the creative team behind the idea and the audience to go and watch the bloody thing. It’s a really annoying trend that needs to stop. Once upon a time, Chucky was an original idea that someone took a risk on. Now it’s a profitable franchise in its own right and it’s still going strong. The same is true of Star Wars and Harry Potter and many other popular franchises. We can’t keep returning to the same well. If we do, the industry will become stagnant and audiences will eventually get bored. Studios need to take risks in order to find the next Star Wars. The next Harry Potter. The next Chucky.

I’ll still go and see the reboot. Mark Hamill is no Brad Dourif, but he’s an amazing voice actor in his own right and I’m sure he’ll be good in the role. And who knows? Maybe the film will be really good and reinvent the wheel. I just don’t understand why this needs to be associated with Chucky when it’s premise would work just as well, if not better, without him.

Fortunately, regardless of what happens with this reboot, the original Chucky will continue. A TV series is currently in development as well as a sequel to Cult Of Chucky and plans for a crossover with Nightmare On Elm Street tentatively called Child’s Play On Elm Street (I confess I haven’t seen any of the Elm Street films, but having watching the Chucky movies and from what I know of Freddy Krueger, that just seems like a match made in heaven. I can’t wait to see it). Don Mancini will be continuing to write for the franchise for the foreseeable future and I’m excited to see what’s in store for Chucky. It may not be the greatest horror franchise ever made, but it’s definitely the most unique and creative.

[evercelle]

tag games

I got tagged by @octoberswimmer​ and @ellehletoile​ for two diff tag games (sup fam!!) Putting it under the cut for length bc this is still not art-related and possibly much more than yall ever wanted to know about me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Name: ---

Nickname: ever

Zodiac: leo

Height: 5'3"

Orientation: 

Favorite fruit: apple

Favorite season: summer

Favorite book series:  D I S C W O R L D! I discovered Prachett summer two years ago and tore through almost the entire Discworld bibliography in three months, they’re so wonderful. Close runner up is Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, specifically the Live Ship Traders trilogy. (if you like: multiple interesting and varied female protagonists, dragons, pirate tales, and/or sentient watercraft, you will do yourself a favor immediately and check out that series.)

Favorite flower: hydrangea

Favorite color: toss up between black or seafoam

Favorite animal: literally every single bird. that is not hyperbole

Coffee/tea/cocoa: tea

Average sleep hours: ever since stormblood launched it's been about 5.5 to 6 hrs a night. don't get into bad sleeping habits, kids. then you wind up staying up til 3 am on a sunday night before work and reeeeeally feeling the poor life decisions the next day.

Cat or dog person: bird

Favorite fictional character: Three way match up between Sam Vimes, Jonathan Strange and Oikawa Tooru (<-- lol bet no one saw that coming)

Blog created: my personal blog... 6+ years ago, I don't remember the exact year. this sideblog was march this year I think.

Number of followers: just bumped over 1800 today. what up y’all!!

What I define as amazing followers: the ones who read my inane tag comments and then respond to said inane tag comments with their own tags lol. （˶′◡‵˶）if you write/reply/reblog comments I will generally think warm thoughts about you. but I'm happy and still pleasantly surprised that any of you are here, irrespective of engagement level.

annd here’s the other one courtesy of @octoberswimmer​:

5 things on my bed right now:

god I wish I were

lots of pillows

a tuxedo sam plushie the bf won for me at the county fair by valiantly defeating a small child at a carnival game

comforter 

phone charger 

5 things in my backpack:

retractable card holder shaped like a cat eating donuts for the suica card I currently cannot use, on account of not being in japan

bf's inhaler(s)

kiiroitori zip pouch stuffed with various USBs/wires

two changes of clothes (I'm visiting my parents this weekend lol)

surface tablet + alienware comp (these are also not normal bag contents)

5 songs i last listened to:

yuna - decorate

nujabes - luv(sic) [ft. shing02] (all parts)

mr. scruff - honeydew

boyce avenue - fast car (tracey chapman cover) [ft. kinna grannis]

bump of chicken - hello, world

5 things that made me happy last week:

took monday off work and had poutine for lunch

hung out with my irl/ffxiv crew for my birthday and had kbbq :9

cleared O1S-O3S again with my ffxiv crew this week

quasi-scripted and thumbnailed a 15~ish page short comic for the spellbound!iwaoi au (the happiness departs when I have to get down to actually doing the sketch LOL)

saw this video come up on my dash, watched it like twenty times lol 

(I realize belatedly that these are all things that happened within this week, not last week... oops. close enough)

5 places i want to go in this life:

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

The Tiger's Nest, Bhutan

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

toss up between Finland for aurora viewing and Kawachi Fuji Garden, Japan for wisteria season

5 favourite movies

Spirited Away

Princess Mononoke

The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain

I'm having trouble remembering other ones. I guess there's a lot of movies I enjoy watching at the time, but those three are the stand out ones that I really remember...?

WAIT honorable mention to Toy Story 3 bc I keep my childhood stuffed animals and I cried like a bitch at the end

5 random facts about me:

my hair is currently longer than it has ever been at any point in my life and it is desperately in need of a trim

my favorite color combos are black+gold and red+blue

my ideal weekend is staying at home with the bf and playing video games, reading, or drawing until I pass out

I’m a career healer in every single MMO I’ve played

my favorite yt channel is Great Big Story, from which one can learn many interesting things. (for example: did you know that the British government conducts a royal census of the nation's swans each year?) my second favorite channel is Game Grumps, which is entertainment of a wildly different nature lol.

5 people i’m tagging: I’ll just pick names I see a lot in my notes haha. don’t feel like you have to do both or any of these, though! @cappara @vylhunter @wulfrann @procopiiooo @lysambre-j​

[jasonmcgathey]

Riots Of Passage

  Well, like everything else, this book has taken much longer than expected. But Riots Of Passage is finally complete, and now available for Kindle. A paperback version will soon follow at all of your favorite retailers. So though it always feels tremendously awkward, I’m forcing myself to insert a little self-promotion here – although considering it documents a year of living on OSU campus, this book counts as legitimate Columbus history, and so might a little bit about its creation, too.

I finally got around to getting this in shape for publication in December 2017. The first draft was finished clear back in the fall of 1998 and the second in the summer of 2003. More than fourteen years would pass, then, before I even looked at this stuff again. Most of the delay was due to working on other projects, but any time I would think about this book, I was having a tough time mentally sorting out the length and the structure.

For eons I’ve been telling everyone that the campus years would be a trilogy (the first installment, One Hundred Virgins, was published in 2006). But I could never quite figure out a division point that felt right between two and three, so Riots Of Passage ended up being both. The most natural seeming break occurs after coming home from the New Year’s party, and that was always the plan, except I didn’t like where this meant starting off the last book. It would kind of leave the middle book as one long preamble, as just about all of the payoffs seem to happen in the last half of this finished project.

The major cuts all came with this third draft I began in 2017. That second draft from 2003 clocked in at over 900 full size (8 1/2 x 11″, that is) pages, something like 940, whereas the third one came in at exactly 500. So I wound up cutting out or condensing nearly half of the material. But even throughout this process, which took a year and a half almost to the day, I was still kind of stalling on the decision whether to split this into two books or not, telling myself I would know the answer and could make that call when the draft was complete.

But the truth is, you’re never entirely certain you made the right call on anything. In this instance, it felt too short for a pair of books yet too long for just one. It helps considerably with the editing process, though, that I would say – somewhat unexpectedly – that I really don’t care about any of the personal dramas now, stuff which seemed so important at the time. This is one advantage of taking so long to put something together, I suppose. In some instances entire people got the axe, along with subplots which dragged on for a month. The only consideration was whether or not it seemed essential to this central story, and if not, it got the heave ho.

Some of the decisions were pure pacing ones. In the beginning and the end especially, I was going for more of a breezy clip, therefore condensing was unavoidable. This meant that often highly interesting occasions were reduced to single sentences, or maybe even deleted altogether. In two instances I can think of, complete paragraphs which were among my top five favorites, I had to conclude didn’t fit, however painfully, and got rid of them. It sucks, but you can always console yourself with the knowledge that they might find use in other projects down the road.

These decisions, though, make you realize that you can’t really term anything the “definitive” history of an era or a subject. This is just one minuscule slice of history from that time and place. For a while, and this was true of the first book as well, this whole notion of cutting out people completely was bothering me. It feels like you’re trying to alter history based on personal preferences. Except one day I had an epiphany of sorts – I happened to be reading a Civil War book at the time, though it could have been anything – that, you know, they couldn’t possibly mention every single soldier who fought in a war, in the course of the narrative. Attempting to shoehorn in every name even if you have nothing interesting to say would make it clunky and unreadable. This doesn’t make it untrue, or mean that you are attempting to alter history.

One great example of this would occur near the end of this third draft, when I realized that an extremely entertaining cook we worked with at Damon’s hadn’t been mentioned at all. His name just hadn’t come up in any of my writings. Some of his specific episodes I had in my head the whole time, and kept thinking they were going to crop up at some point – after this many years, it’s hard to remember what you included and what you left out of a previous draft – but they never did. Instead of backtracking, though, and attempting to figure out where they belonged, I took this as a sign that these detours probably weren’t needed. And nothing personal against the guy, they just weren’t essential to these particular chapters.

Other times the opposite policy applies, where you figure, you know, I’ve got fifteen scenes at Woody’s in here, or whatever, and these are the ones which felt most crucial. There’s no reason to mention every trip you made to the bar for a solid year. In this sense, some of the lengthier scenes were paradoxically easier to cut out entirely, or categories where I was able to make some kind of broad editorial decision – so for the most part, major concerts, sporting events, and movies attended were easily gotten rid of. Writing sex scenes, too, has always been awkward, and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanted to read about these icky details either.

So it is that, paradoxically, smaller decisions somehow become the most agonizing. These open up philosophical angles that are often unexpected and fascinating. Though this admission might seem monstrous, I can honestly say that while some of the things I did in these pages should bother me, none of it does. Instead what proves cringe inducing is to look back upon what music you were listening to, the dumb stuff you were talking about, and your inane sense of humor at the time.

Somehow we have all grown accustomed to the notion that our clothing and hair choices of the past were usually questionable, and this we are okay with, dismissing them with wry, morbid humor as a fitting commentary on those hilarious times. Other details prove trickier to navigate, however, and among these I would count a) things you no longer find funny, as well as b) things you no longer believe, and c) things you said, but turned out to not be true.

To leave out these sorts of things, you are then wrestling with the notion that you’re trying to make yourself and your friends seem smoother than you actually were at the time. But I think our various personalities are well established and accurate. Omitting some of the goofier, poorly aged wisecracks or whatever isn’t distorting anything. Also, to include them produces the thought, why would I intentionally write a bad book? Sometimes, particularly with point B up above, you can maybe weave around this by explaining, “here’s what I thought at the time, but I now believe this.” Unless this insight actually occurred during the period in question, though, this is also technically assigning yourself a wisdom you didn’t have.

Thornier still are questions of how you’re going to handle behavior and/or remarks which let’s just say haven’t aged so well, yet they are important if you want to be truthful about these times. You can’t just delete them and pretend they never happened…even though including such makes it seem as though you’re endorsing them. I think you just have to try and keep yourself in the mindset of that time frame as much as possible. It always bugs me when you’re watching something that’s supposedly set in an earlier era, but they’re using slang and catchphrases which didn’t exist back then. I tried to avoid that as much as possible, true, but also more importantly to avoid putting a current spin on these old situations. It’s probably not entirely possible, but I really don’t want to ascribe what I (or anyone else) thinks about these episodes now, only what we actually thought about them back then.

Even so, of course, you end up agonizing over specific words. Some of these sentences remain intact as-is from the late 90s, but there are others, I can tell you, I was still tinkering around with yesterday. Some were bugging me as I went to sleep last night. But at some point you have to tell yourself, good enough. Let it go.

But what really has you in knots most of all, is how you say anything negative whatsoever about your friends. You’re trying to write your interpretation of events, which everyone might not agree with. You don’t want to be unnecessarily mean, but at the same time, if you’re going to excise every negative, then it’s whitewashed and toothless and no longer accurate. It’s easy to fall down additional rabbit holes from there and begin thinking, hey, maybe I’ll just leave in unflattering comments if the person in question was a jerk to me, and on the flipside, delete everything less positive if they were cool. Of course, once you start rationalizing like this, you are doomed. Maybe it’s a tie breaker, if someone is in your good graces, determining how hard you try to paint them favorably, but you cannot just start wiping out every unkind comment about your friends.

Basically I think you just have to ask yourself, is this fair? And is this a necessary reference, or can I cut it out? Have I said this as tactfully as I can manage? It does help that, by this point, hopefully everyone understands this stuff falls in the good natured ribbing department, anyway – as mentioned earlier, I don’t actually “care” about this material on a personal level after this many years, none of it. The only question is if it’s important to this book, this little slice of history I’m covering.

In many of these cases, it’s often an accidental blessing to have not captured a ton of concrete information. Sometimes I am being deliberately vague for dramatic purposes within the structure of the book, other times as some kind of strategic decision I’ve stumbled onto in the real world. But far more common are the instances where I just don’t have the details at this point. You can’t exactly Wikipedia who was at some campus keg party, or what was said at the Out-R-Inn on such and such night from 1998. Work schedules are for the most part toast or would never be made available to you, especially if canned from a place, and you can’t trust memory all that well after this many years.

One thing you may notice is that I do have slightly greater detail as the book progresses. This actually did occur to me at the time, and was an unintended benefit of buying a computer about halfway through this epoch. The whole mindset for acquiring one was that it would help me type up my first novel, yet it would soon turn out that detail and speed in future projects like this were of far greater importance. I was doing an okay job handwriting various facts in my journal, what we did and where we went on such and such day. It helped, too, that I had a job – waiting tables – where standing around scribbling things into a tiny notepad was totally normal. I just often wasn’t writing what they might have expected. But the level of detail is missing beyond this, until able to type it up and capture it quickly with a decent word processing program. And the biggie here is actual quotes, real life soundbites from people, which are somewhat lacking early on.

So if I don’t really care about any of these piddly dramas at this point, beyond their structural purpose in my history, what I do find fascinating now is specific details about anything whatsoever from the distant past. Things said, yes, but also prices, menu items, songs on a band’s set list. Which business existed at a certain address. It does make me lament my focus and choices at times, that I hadn’t concentrated more in certain areas and less in others, but there’s really nothing you can do about that.

Ultimately, this is what a book like this ends up being about: the city itself. Although by the nature of this project forced to insert myself into the middle (fun fact: I did try writing this campus period as a novel with invented character names at one point, many years ago. It didn’t work), it helps considerably to recognize that I am not the story. These experiences on the personal level are for the most part anonymous and commonplace. Though some of this weird behavior I guess is sort of amusing in sports, for the most part, I’m just melting into the background – and that’s exactly as it should be. So while it’s easy for all of us to trick ourselves into thinking, which we probably all have at times, “wow, I’m kinda like the Forrest Gump of this scene or something, all this wild stuff seems to happen when I’m around!” that’s not really not how it is at all. It’s more accurate to realize, well, I was present for 100% of the stuff I was present for. That’s why it seems amazing. But there were a million equally crazy things happening all over the place, which I missed. And this swirl of activity, this flood of information and colliding personalities, mixed in with the era and the locale itself, this is really what all such stories are about.

In the end, all you can really control is making a historical record as accurate as possible. Try to make it match what that period felt like as best as you are able to, and move on. The first time around, with One Hundred Virgins, this manifested itself in me thinking I wanted to get the timing right on a typical day. As I was working on that project, it’s true that there were almost no hard decisions whatsoever, as the pacing and flow and questions about which scenes to include almost seemed to be snapping themselves into place, in a way that hasn’t happened before or sense with anything I’ve written. But the one area I made a determined effort to focus upon then was to not include only the fireworks, to deliberately insert some boring stretches because this was more realistic. I do regret some of the florid language used in that book – to read some passages now, even I have no clue what I was trying to say there – but otherwise think it accurately captured, you know, that we weren’t partying nonstop, that there were nights I’d sit at the kitchen table alone for hours with the radio and a crossword puzzle.

The period covered in this second volume, however, is completely different. There is much less information about what else is going on around the city, because our lives have gotten more action packed, and I’m also not exactly sitting around reading article after article about Angsto The Clown or whatever, as I had been in our earlier days. Here I think the length of the book is actually more beneficial and accurate, and if I’ve decided to focus less this time around on making every sentence as artfully complex as possible, I do believe that some situational confusion serves it well, because this is how it was to live it. Therefore if you think it’s a bit brain scrambling that there are five or six Carries in this book and most of them have dark hair but no last name, are often explained away as a coworker, well, trust me, this neatly matches our experience. If sometimes you can’t quite decipher what happened or what’s really going on, yeah…welcome to the club.

Even so, I’ve never been nearly this nervous about anything else I’ve written. There are conversations I’ve successfully avoided having for over twenty years now and am dreading to some degree, once a couple of these episodes are revealed. The reception itself otherwise seems almost not nearly as important – as any of you other writers out there know, though you feel compelled to crank this stuff out for some reason, there are always conflicting emotions about it anyway. Am I hoping that nobody reads it? Of course not. Am I hoping that people do read it? I think so…yet it’s still kind of a terrifying prospect to actually sit around and ponder. I mostly try to block out that thought, too.

That last “S” fell off: original cover for “Similar Shapes” as it looks now.

Regarding the title, and the picture above, it’s true that I’ve been wrestling off and on with these names for over two decades. At one point, I intended to call that first book Similar Shapes. There are still times I wish I had. But somewhere along the line that name began to seem too generic to me, and I also became enthralled with this idea, based around this running joke that Robert Smith (from The Cure, not the legendary OSU running back) always had, whenever asked about the title of their next album: he would say One Million Virgins, though they never wound up calling any of them that. When still intending this as a trilogy, I planned to run with that concept in tying them all together, starting with Hundred and then Thousand, finally Million. 

Though loosely based upon discussions we were actually having at the time, this numbering pattern eventually lost its luster. True, I could always pull an Agatha Christie and rename that first book. But really, I think I’m saving Similar Shapes for a day down the road, when I might decide to combine these two projects and issue them as one. Half the time I think that will probably happen at some point. It actually makes the most sense of all, and kind of comes full circle to that maroon binder full of pages.

Anyway, if you’re really worked up into a mad fervor and can’t wait to get your claws into a copy, as I mentioned, the Kindle version is now available on Amazon for 99 cents. I basically plan on jacking up the price by a dollar every week, as some sort of cheap stunt to inspire you to order a copy right now.  So here is the link for that:

Riots Of Passage 

Let me know if you spot any errors, of course. If caught early enough I might be able to squeak in corrections before the paperback version goes live. Otherwise, I guess they will wait for the inevitable revised edition. As always, thanks for reading this or anything else that pops into my head. It still seems amazing to me that anyone would do so, and I hope to never lose sight of that.

            The post Riots Of Passage appeared first on Love Letter To Columbus.

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[abroxus-blog]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoiler Discussion

         This isn’t so much a review as it is a discussion of some of the film’s core themes. Overall, I thought the film was excellent. It’s one of my favorite installments in the franchise. Go see it. And once you have, feel free to read this, since I’m going to get into some spoilers.

10/10

           SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI

           The thing that really struck me about the Last Jedi was how thematically rich it was in comparison to previous Star Wars films. While the series has always had a specific formula, with a binary morality system, The Last Jedi blows that up. This is a film that is fundamentally about deconstructing these symbols and asking what they mean today. I think a lot of the divisiveness about the film amongst fans (although not all of it, there are plenty of valid arguments you can make against it), comes down to either frustration that they are being expected to do that, or a disinterest in the exercise as a whole. 

           I have trouble seeing eye to eye with that perspective. I’ve seen arguments stating that the characters are fundamentally in the same place at the end of the film, or that various strands don’t go anywhere, but I think that ignores a lot of what the film is doing. If Star Wars movies have always been about underdogs achieving success against great odds, Last Jedi is fundamentally about failure. This is not just me intellectualizing by the way, the film clearly states that intention, repeatedly, in every one of its storylines. So let’s go through this film narrative strand by narrative strand, and examine what it’s doing here.

           I’m going to start with the film’s most criticized thread, Finn’s journey to Canto Bight in search of the code breaker. When we first meet Finn this time around, he’s acting very much like he did in the first film. He wants to flee from the rebellion ship, not out of disloyalty, but rather fatalism. To Finn, the Rebellion is doomed, and has always been doomed. Even his heroism last film was less about saving the Rebels base, and more about rescuing Rey. Finn sees the merits of individuals, but not of an organization or concept. The film proceeds to pair him with Rose not out of a desire to just include a new love interest, but to place him next to a true believer, someone he would connect with on an empathic level (her own wounds after the death of her sister, portrayed in one of the film’s greatest action beats, make her as much of a wounded soul as Finn himself). Their journey takes them to the Las Vegas of the stars, a tantalizing world of glossy imagery and beautiful looking prosthetic aliens (the most prosthetic creatures in any single set in the history of the franchise).

           Finn is instantly enraptured by the place. Rose, in contrast sees what it really is, a source of oppression and suffering. The horse races hide the torture of sentient animals. Children and slaves are forced to work under the lash to keep up the façade. All of this while the rich gamble away more money in a day than most families will see in a lifetime. Most movies would turn around and look at this and merely state “this is evil”, but this film, wisely, refuses to do even that. When Finn decides to place his revelation into a new binary equation, one which merely condemns the wealthy as villains, Benicio Del Toro’s codebreaker character refuses to play into that illusion. Sure, the gamblers may make money selling arms to The New Order, Rose is right that’s an evil thing to do, but they also supply and in some cases fund the Rebellion. Canto Bight is not the dark side, it is merely opportunism personified. The codebreaker demonstrates that same opportunism when he gives up Finn. Finn meanwhile demonstrated it himself when he attempted to steal an escape pod at the outset. 

           To all the people who say Finn’s arc leads nowhere, that it’s simply a side-adventure intended for little but to provide the character something to do; I point you at the moments when they infiltrate the New Order’s fleet. When the Code Breaker gives them away and Finn yells that he’s wrong that none of this matters, that’s a change! In fact, it’s a complete reversal of who he was at the start. And yet, the film isn’t even done with his arc! We don’t simply go from “opportunistic Han Solo type” to Rebel; the film then asks us what kind of rebel Finn is going to be. When he finally kills Phasma, in a moment of firm rejection of his own past, he returns to the front and instantly uses Poe as a model for his own behavior. His kamikaze attack on the Walker is a clear echo of the bomber run at the start, and Rose’s rescue of him is a completion of her own arc. For them both, it’s realization that one’s role in the rebellion needs to be tempered through interpersonal relationships. Both motivations have to co-exist. The rebellion isn’t simply about destroying the New Order, nor is it about enforcing good. It’s about empathy towards the people around us, whether it’s the horses on Canto Bight, or the enslaved children in need of a symbol of hope, or the rebels fighting to survive against overwhelming odds. It’s not about heroism for the sake of heroism, it’s about protection. In this way, the entire symbol of the Rebellion, what that insignia means exactly, is deconstructed, and reconstructed, so in the end, when the child holds up the ring, it means something new, something bigger and deeper.

           If Finn’s narrative forces that character’s growth through an examination of what the Resistance actually means, than Poe’s is a firm rebuke of the type of heroism Star Wars has always reveled in through a simple, but surprisingly elegant, little character arc. To Poe, heroism is about individualistic action. In the film’s opening segment, Poe is told by his commanding officer to abandon an attack on a battleship, but refuses to do so. Instead, he orders a bombing run on a battle cruiser, an attack that results in the destruction of five crafts but also destroys their target. To Poe, this is a sacrifice, but also a successful moment of heroism. It’s telling that the movie refuses to make the sacrificed soldiers faceless, instead keeping us locked in one of the doomed crafts. It’s a sad but in the end, rousing moment, which is undercut by Leia’s brutal disappointment in Poe’s action. To Leia, five less bombers for future actions, and while the Imperial ship was destroyed, the enemy likely has many more like it. More of those doubtlessly exist than Rebellion bombers.

           When Leia is nearly killed and Holdo takes command, we’re left to expect a very traditional film narrative. In more blockbusters than I can name, our hotshot young lead will break the incompetent chain of command to make the final strike which will turn the tides of war. With the fleet under near constant duress in a lengthy space chase which brilliantly creates a ticking clock around the fact that the Rebellion is underfunded, Poe chooses to send Finn off in an attempt to infiltrate the Star Destroyer and save the day. This places him head to head with Holdo, who, as a viewer primed by dozens of action films, we immediately write off as an overly dismissive empty shirt without a plan. When Poe calls her a traitor, and perpetrates a coup, it’s a rousing moment with our ragtag leads desperately fighting to save the day.

           Instead, the plan fails. Finn is caught and Poe’s coup is taken out, by Leia of all people, one of our original ragtag rebels. It’s easy to go “what was the point of all that”, and well the point is failure. In one of the film’s greatest moments, we just have Leia and Holdo talk about what it means to be a woman and a leader, and we realize that our stuffed shirt had a plan all along, one she kept close to the vest in case the issue was not an electronic tracker, but rather a traitor. Oh, and Poe’s failure not only led to the capture of Rose and Finn, but in turn, leads to the discovery of Holdo’s plan, and the death of nearly half the remaining rebels. And Holdo, who we are primed to believe doesn’t believe in individual heroism, sacrifices herself in one of the film’s most striking shots, not to achieve victory, but to give her people the time they need to escape. It’s a cruel calculus, but as Holdo tells Leia, the need for sacrifice should not be an easy or quick decision, but is sometimes necessary. That’s a lesson they’ve had to learn.  

           Think about what the film is doing for a second. Everything a Star Wars movie has primed us for in the past, a tidy narrative thread, an easy plot progression and a warm embrace of individualistic heroism as a means to win not just a battle, but a WAR, have been rejected. The film has dismissed tidy plotting in favor of thematic questioning and deeper character arcs. The narrative forces Poe to confront his own failure, and in turn, he learns from it. It’s a lesson Leia clearly learned between that initial trilogy and this one, that leadership sometimes involves heroic self-sacrifice, but it can also mean sending off someone to die in order to crawl away, or realizing that the deck is stacked against you. Poe, in turn echoes Leia at the end, ordering Finn not to do what he himself had done at the start before calling a retreat, an escape to reorganize and fight another day. The passing of the baton is codified in his final scene with Leia, when he gives the order to leave, the men look at her, and she says to follow his orders.

           If Finn’s arc led to a re-evaluation of the rebellion, and a personal transformation into a real “rebel”, than Poe’s arc asks us to question our view of heroism, and how these films portray them. The conclusion appears to be that individual heroism is in some contexts important, Holdo’s sacrifice, and later Luke’s MATTER, but that it can’t be at the expense of grander strategy, or of the collective. Losing a dozen lives and five ships in a bombing run to merely take out a target that can be replaced is a waste, as much as we might enjoy the space battle, or the epic action. Losing one to give them the time to escape, that’s real heroism, a willingness to sacrifice oneself not for victory, but for the future. That’s what hope is.

           This takes us to Rey, and the final major story strand of the film, and by far the most complex and interesting. Rey begins this film as a lost and dejected student, but also as someone we as the audience are meant to believe has a grand and dynastic destiny. Many of us believed at the end of the Force Awakens that she was clearly a Skywalker, and that this trilogy will clearly end with her redeeming Kylo Ren and killing Snoke in an echo of the finale of the Return of the Jedi. But first, we thought, she must seek the help of Luke, who will clearly teach her the ways of the force like Yoda did.

           Instead the film pivots to the side in an incredible rebuke of the franchise as a whole, one that doubtlessly infuriated some fans, when Luke takes this symbol of the franchise, his lightsaber from everyone’s two favorite installments, and tosses it over his shoulder and walks away. We later learn that Rey, who we assume must be connected to the characters we know and love, came from nothing. She’s just… Rey. Rian Johnson proceeds to fundamentally dismantle the notion that the Force can be understood as a fight between Good and Evil, with the Jedi on one side and the Sith on the other. In one of the film’s greatest moments, he has Luke deconstruct the entire notion of the Jedi. If there is a force that connects all things, one that requires a balance of the light and the dark, and you were lucky enough to be able to feel it inside of you, understand it deep in your soul, and put out your mind and touch it, what hubris is required for you to think that you should control it and bend it to your will in order to do anything, whether good or evil. It’s so much bigger than any Jedi or any Sith, and the temptation to abuse it is to strong.

          In fact, Rey, upon seeing the dark force hole beneath the ground, is instantly tempted towards it, not out of evil, but curiosity. This terrifies Luke, who urges her not to explore it, ignoring that his own evolution required him to confront the dark within his own soul. Rey, in turn, is changed by confronting the Dark side, but also by doing so, is able to see it for what it is.

          The film de-exoticizes the dark side. In the Prequels the Dark Side is a fountain of youth, and that power is corrupting. In this, more interestingly, it is a false salve for broken souls. The Last Jedi asks if being a Jedi should be more than abstinence from the Dark and in turn, contrition, but rather should involve confronting it, exploring it, and through that process recognizing that it’s empty. That the Dark Side is portrayed as a mirror which reflects only what Rey puts into it is a striking metaphor. The endless reflection seems to promise that at the end there is meaning, but when she wills herself to see the front of the line, it is just another mirror. There is no deeper meaning there, only an endless and selfish self-examination. In the end, its emptiness will only leave you disappointed and broken, like it has left Kylo Ren. For me, that seems a particularly strong symbol for the uselessness of rage and petty vindictiveness. Frankly, it also works really well as a metaphor for substance abuse. 

          The Dark Side as a salve ties into the scenes where Kylo and Rey are connected. Those bits are charged with anger and rage, but also a sexual energy that hasn’t really been visible in the series before. That their plot culminates in a moment with the two of them, sweaty, back to back, swinging phallic blades in a vaginal red room in a desperate effort to free themselves of darkness is so on the nose that Freud would probably orgasm watching it.

          For Rey, the dark side is tempting, but she chooses to reject it because of her need to protect others and live outside of herself. Kylo, in turn, is provided the same choice as Vader had at the end of Return of the Jedi, and chooses the opposite path, embracing the Dark Side. I think a lot of why that is comes down to motivation. For Vader, the Dark side was a path towards a power that he believed could help others, but it provided no such ability, only further self-deterioration. His transformation was a gradual path into sin, one that provided him with no rewards but empty power. Kylo Ren, in contrast, is a product of abuse, his embrace of the Dark Side comes from an internal rage and emptiness that are inherently part of his being, one that has likely always existed, but was perpetuated when he believed that his own trusted father figure had both rejected and considered killing him. The Dark Side, to Kylo Ren, provides a sense of meaning, an ability to violently erase the past and create a new future. He sees himself as the forest fire that will burn down the trees and leave the soil ripe to grow something new. In truth, as much as he claims he wants to “kill the past”, he is completely stuck in it.

           This is a very different view of the Dark and Light side than we’ve seen before. It’s much less attuned to some religious binary of good and evil, and more in line frankly with what leads to real heroism and abuse. That the dark side and systemic abuse is linked in this film with violence against animals is in line with that. The light-side requires co-existence, as we see with Luke as he lives alongside the caregivers and drinks milk from the cow creatures who willing share it. He fishes yes, but only to eat what he requires. The Porg meanwhile co-exist in every crevice as urban animals, ones who can create their home on the Millennium Falcon, nestled in little nests in the nooks and crannies. To Rian Johnson, they are not pests to be eliminated, but the same life the Force represents.

           Let’s talk about Luke, possibly the most divisive aspect of this film. It would be easy to say that Luke has become the “dejected martial arts master” trope, and there is some truth to that, but his reason for being that way are more interesting than the traditional model. It’s true that trope is built on the idea that your first apprentice turned evil and that in turn you are unwilling to train a new one, BUT, and this is a big but, in the traditional narrative the Master is, in the end, innocent of any transgression except ignoring the warning signs. One can look at Obi-Wan’s failure to notice Anakin’s fall in the prequels as a traditional example of that narrative. Luke initially pitches that version of Kylo’s origins to Rey, but we later learn that Luke had a “do you kill baby Hitler” moment where he considered murdering his newphew, a lapse in judgment which led to Ben’s rejection of his master and embrace of the dark side. The rise of the First Order and Han’s death are, by extension, partially his fault. It is that failure, more than any other lesson, which teaches Rey what she needs to know.

          Yoda and Luke’s conversation about failure and the need to step aside for the next generation is a distillation of what this arc is about. The next generation has the capacity to outgrow you and learn from your mistakes. Rey can be a great Jedi Master because, in the end, Luke was both a great and a flawed one. She learns that even the Jedi are imperfect individuals who contain both light and dark. In the end though, the light side contains hope, and the dark side cynicism and nihilism. Kylo Ren has no hope that people can change or become something more than their origins, Rey, who came from nothing, but has become someone powerful, knows that’s untrue. To Rey, there is always hope. That hope is, as Poe says, the spark that lights the rebellion.

           A lot of people don’t like how this arc plays out since they feel it cancels out Luke’s heroism from the original trilogy, or believe that Rian Johnson is rejecting what the Jedi are supposed to mean. I think, in contrast, the director just sees good and evil as more complicated concepts. To him, a cackling villain like Snoke is a dull one, and his off-handed killing of what we assumed was the big-bad is a rejection of that mustache-twirling concept. In turn, he refuses to portray his heroes as paragons.

         Luke, as flawed as he is, is still a hero. Rian Johnson knows that the audience wants to see him use the force to destroy all of those walkers, or beat down Kylo Ren. Instead he portrays the opposite. Luke merely gives the rebellion a chance to escape by talking to Kylo and trying to teach his student a final lesson. He tells his nephew the truth, that his actions will only ever cause him pain while the hope that lives on in the Rebellion and is visible in Rey is more powerful than his rage. You can’t squelch that hope. The spark will always light. The Jedi will always continue. The film does this in a moment that codifies Luke Skywalker as a legend. He finds victory by admitting his failure, by apologizing and by embracing the future at the expense of himself. And that acceptance, allows him to pull off the most incredible piece of Force-use in the franchise, a “galaxy-spanning feat of astral projection that exemplifies his power”. It’s a soaring moment of character vindication, an impossible act that uses up so much of his spirit that it erases him from existence, although you can see a final moment of hope in his face and a sad recognition of where he came from as he sees the twin moons of tatooine set in his mind’s eye. I found his goodbye, and what it says about the franchise and where it’s going from here, surprisingly moving.

           The Last Jedi is a near-perfect film thematically and from a character perspective. It has flaws otherwise. Like most of the films in the series it relies on a heavy use of coincidence. Some of the jokes don’t hit. It can be clumsy from a plotting perspective. There are moments of cheese in here that are either going to work for you or won’t. Leia’s reflexive use of the force to fly to safety struck me as especially problematic. It’s also a long film, and jumps between its three narratives so frequently that at times it can appear narratively disjointed, even if the various threads are on-track. This is partially because the order in which we watch events are clearly not the order in which they happen. Finn’s entire story takes place in about 20 hours in a single day, while Rey’s, in comparison, takes place over nearly a week. The cross-cutting is a narrative device, not a temporal one. I also think the film’s refusal to accede to narrative convention, and desire to really examine what the Jedi, heroism and Rebellion mean today, can also be deeply jarring to people who expected a more traditional follow-up to the crowd pleasing Force Awakens.

           I see some issues in the film, and can nitpick various aspects to death, but the first time through, all I felt was joyous. I was so happy that Rian Johnson took these myths seriously. I felt ecstatic that he felt the desire to make sure that all four of our principal characters were given their due, while still fleshing out the universe in new and surprising ways. I like that the movie expanded the worlds, made them feel larger, and added stuff at the periphery that can be explored in the future by other writers and directors. Most importantly, I found the film to be a whole lot of fun. 

           It left me, for the first time since I was a child, deeply invested in this universe and where it goes. While I’m interested to know whether Solo will be any good, and feel excited to see what JJ does with Episode 9, I’m far more enthusiastic to see what Rian Johnson will do with his new blank-slate trilogy going forwards. That all three are coming up soon in the next few years, and are exciting in such different ways, is a terrific place to be as a fan.

[thejohncamp3ablog]

Is the DCEU in trouble, i don't think so by looking at the stats!

Contrary to popular belief, i think all in all DCEU will emerge as the winner in the long run !

A few things based on some hard facts and numbers rather than opinion and of course, I do point some speculation, which can be perceived as my own opinion in regards to the success of the DCEU or DC Films.

We have all been witness to internet false news, scoops that don’t turn out true, negative articles towards the DC Extended Universe. So far it sounds like a bunch of old man that do not want to see Super hero movies with a deeper script than punch, get punched, fight back!

It started with Man of Steel back in 2013, which critics call divisive, but monetary the movie is the biggest Superman solo grossing movie, now in terms of sold seats Superman 1978 might take the crown, but back in 1978 we didn’t also have piracy on the internet, BluRay/DVD sales, streaming etc. , so let’s just assume that a movie did what it did and then VHS sales were hard to track due to the lack of internet, tracking sites and tools for us mortals to use and find how much it generated after being released on home entertainment. I am sure that someone at Warner’s knows how much it did in VHS sales, but I personally don’t have this info. Basically, coming to the conclusion that both movies did fairly good in their respective times and conditions of release.

Man of Steel finished it’s run at 668 Million USD worldwide and added another 67 Million in DVD sales, that’s it not including the money it made from streaming and TV rights to various giants like Netflix. Now with all that being said, a Rotten Tomatoes score of 55 % is a bit of a head scratcher to me, since this movie has great and complex story, amazing visuals and one of the best musical scores out there for a superhero movie, along with TDK trilogy, Superman 78, Spider-man original trilogy, Batman 89 etc. You can like it or hate it, still the movie launched the DCEU and made many people that laughed at the idea of a Superman movie in 2013, after Superman Returns performed not especially high for WB, watch out for his next movies.

Now Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad the next movies in line to come out from the DCEU were bashed critically by the same RT reviewers, even worse than MOS, again the movies both performed very good in the Box Office, enough so that combined with Wonder Woman, it gave them enough money to go past the critically beloved MCU both domestically and internationally on average gross per movie. Have in mind that Marvel the teacher’s pet and favorite, is now a franchise associated with success on critical and financial terms, where there is turmoil just as much as any studio, directors leave, writers leave, people get replaced in parts without re-boots etc., but lacks the same negative press 24/7.

What I look at today is the more facts versus hear say, facts are that currently, the DCEU is doing the following average numbers per movie domestically $339,513,662 Million and internationally $776.500.000 Million, compared to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe $291,576,450 Million domestic average per movie gross and $743.700.000 Million. So, all said and done, if DC keeps on giving in the same financial aspect, we can expect the average gross per movie to remain in DC’s favor, I don’t see how Justice League doesn’t do 850 M plus or much more ( 1 Billion is the magic number) and I from what we have seen and heard about Aquaman, I think it is safe to say it will be really easy to reach that 800 M mark, which is all it needs for the trend to continue in 5 movies, reaching a good 5 Billion in 6 movies. For comparison, MCU’s first 6 generated around 3.8 Billion and they all were highly praised.

Now here is where things get interesting, we are waiting for a Batman movie by Matt Reeves, who made an Ape franchise profitable and this is something that we have seen lately, where anything non superhero related tanking at the BO, so expect The Batman to be a smash for WB. It’s possible that he gets back to his Billion dollar days as seen previously with Nolan’s last two movies, and as reported WB/DC are looking to do a trilogy. So we might be looking at a 3 Billion franchise there alone, something no Marvel solo character has done so far. Also, coming up is a Suicide Squad 2, a movie which in the hands of a great director like Gavin O'Connor could overperform the first one (made 745 M USD worldwide without China). So with a critically loved sequel, a better script and a great villain, this is another contender for the 800 M + club. Then we have Wonder Woman 2, the first movie is now closing in at 819 M worldwide gross, which we already know the sequel will beat as internationally people didn’t know the character as well as they do other properties from the 90s. We know superheroes can move pass 400 M USD worldwide once they are established to the local audience, so with WW2, i personally expect a 850 M + worldwide gross or more.

Then we have the Flash movie that will feature a Flashpoint story, and probably will feature some additional characters like Wonder Woman and others, so you know with the popularity of the TV show we are in for a winner here, another possible 800 M + movie is a no brainer. Batgirl by Joss, I would say, based on female lead action movies resurgence and adding the fact that DCEU fans will turn up to see it, it’s possible that this will be a 600 M + movie or least have this to be its finish number worldwide. Joker origin movie with Martin S. producing, that could be huge, depending on who they cast and the look and feel of the movie, Nightwing is another movie that by associating itself with the Bat world is a 650 M + optionally, Gotham City Sirens with a brand new Catwoman another one that can easily do 650 M +. Black Adam and Shazam, based on the fact one has the Rock and the other will be a more fun kid oriented flick, both can overperform, but at their lowest we are looking at 600 M +, then we have a Green Lantern Corps movie, which if done right can be a contender for those upper 800-900 M + BO numbers, if done right! So, with the DCEU ranking in good money, and possible sequels for Justice League and Batman, Wonder Woman fighting for that billion spot, I am definitely not worried for them.

On the other hand, Marvel are still protected by the fake news media, and their whole YouTube movie talk family, taking it easy on all their movies by default. But facts are Spider-man Homecoming (who’s profit went to Sony not Disney just FYI) is considered a success, but all I see is a Spider-man movie featuring the biggest seller in the Marvel family Iron Man that is still behind Spider-man 3 which was terrible! Also let’s not forget that Spider-man’s IP (Intellectual Property -all rights to merch and games etc.) is 3 times more valuable than Superman and Batman combined, so when MCU fans attack Batman V Superman for underperforming at 832 Million, then considering popularity, a single Spider-man movie should be easily a 1.5 + Billion dollar movie following that logic right?

I see Inhumans (already cancelled by ABC for a 2nd season) and Iron Fist holding the records for lowest rated superhero shows and movies with 7% and 17 % and I see a Defenders show in Netflix that didn’t perform better than any of the solo stuff on Netflix in terms of streaming numbers. Also, all MCU movies featuring the Avengers like: Marvel’s the Avengers, Age of Ultron and Civil War have performed with a 100 Million or more less in the BO over time, so if Infinity War doesn’t manage to rake in more than the original movie back in 2012, then the budget of the movie will kill it financially. People try to compare it to how Star Wars The Force Awakens performed in the BO* (BO- Box office), but that movie was 40 years in the making since the first original hit cinemas in 1977, and no one considers the prequels (episode 1 to 3) as successful and they didn’t really feature the original cast. So with that being said, with MCU giving people 2-3 movies per year, I think their audience has been solid but, not really taking them past a billion very often, so lets say this movie is a bigger event that The Avengers back in 2012, should be able to make 1.6-1.8 Billion right? Well, the only thing we haven’t seen from them is a full cast assembly and a good villain, the first is promised, the second is very doubtful for now. Anyway, I don’t think Infinity War will win general audience, with a plot about magic stones as much as MCU fans think, and I don’t think a pink giant will be a villain that will have regular movie goers running to the cinema, but it might catch up to the original, or do a “Iron Man 3” numbers 1.3 B USD. It is not easy doing Avatar or Star Wars numbers, Avatar at the time it came out, had a first ever 3D movie experience feel to it, not a lot of people went because they like sci fi as much, but more or less to see an event, this feel is now gone and I don’t expect the follow ups to score this pay day again.

You have each individual star in that movie from the entire MCU line up, plus additional actors for villains and supporting cast showing up, and we know RDJR charges a minimum of 15 M just to show up, not mentioning the backend, then we have Chris Evans who might have gotten 300,000 USD for the first Captain America movie, but since Winter Soldier I doubt that he gets paid even close to that number, he is getting  around the 10 Million for sure, and you can assume Scarlet, Mark, Chris H. etc., are not far away as numbers, so a movie that is spending close to 200 + Million on salaries and another 200 M on the movie itself or more, should be aiming for a 1.6 B at least.

This year Marvel escaped the long stick of the critics, since they all love them so much, but we know GOTG Vol 2 was just not good at all, Spider-man was not the best movie of the franchise, it managed to save itself with the MCU origin story and Iron Man crammed in it, but was pretty basic Spider-man storytelling and Thor 3 is up with a movie advertising itself as a Thor vs Hulk scenario, which from the trailers we already know, will not happen for more than 10 minutes.

So while you little bloggers point to the downfall of DCEU and call it as such, all i see is its rise and the decrease in attention for MCU movies slowly and effectively by general audiences, even FOX are doing more interesting things with X Force, New Mutants and Deadpool 2. Even with critics pretending that movies coming from the MCU in the style and quality of the Incredible Hulk, Thor 2, Iron Man 2, Hulk (which is only referred to as non MCU, but actually continues the story in TIH as it left off with different actors), Ant-man and other super basic movies that have 0 re-watch appeal, I can tell, that if Marvel/Disney don’t start putting 110 % effort in their solo movies and stop relying on their team up’s to carry water for their other movies, they will lose the box office very soon. Not to mention that Avengers 3 and 4 have 1 year time in between them and will most likely leave audiences waiting for the full conclusion, which might leave some people pissed off.

All in all, they might perform good, considering it will be an all-out war and someone in the MCU might die for real this time, and I don’t mind if they perform good, not at all. Still I just don’t see how people would come and see your movies for over 10 years when you don’t evolve with them (your audience). Most of the fans of the MCU are young guys (of course not only, it’s all ages and genders, but they do have a lot of kids as fans as well) and they haven’t stopped growing, just because Marvel has at some point. When they reach that 25 + age range, these films will lose some of their appeal to them.

See you in all in cinemas across the world on November 17th for the first ever DC shared universe event that has the entire League united!

Geek on!