#also due to having seen some book spoilers i already know what role paul will likely play

[sunnenfinster]

for those of you who dont know yet we got new cast members

their names appeared on the new poster we got yesterday (the small writing in black)

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "What If...Captain Carter was the First Avenger" from Marvel Studios' What If...

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Back when Marvel Studios announced the new lineup of films and shows, I was admittingly underwhelmed. Nothing we've seen so far has been poorly written, far from it, but during the announcement, nothing really popped out at me as worth getting excited for. That is, except for one series: Marvel Studios' What If... An animated series that changes the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all through the simple question. The question being, "What if this happened instead of that."

From the get-go, I was sold on this idea. I'm a sucker for hypothetical scenarios, thinking up all the ways of how some of my favorite stories in fiction could be drastically different thanks to one tiny change. Some might call that "Fanfiction the Series," and while you're not wrong, I fail to see how that's a criticism. Because fanfiction can be fun...just as long as you ignore the sick freaks, sure, but it still can be fun! So whether Marvel Studio's What If... is fanfiction or not, it still didn't change how excited I was to watch it. Was it all worth the hype? Well, to answer that question requires spoilers, so keep that in mind as we dive deep into Marvel's most ambitious project yet.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

The Watcher: Gonna get the generals out of the way before I talk about what I specifically like about this episode. Ok? Ok.

Now, using the Watcher as the narrator for this series is just perfect. What If... already has a similar energy to The Twilight Zone: An anthology series that takes viewers to new and mysterious realities all through the guidance of an omniscient narrator. And using the Watcher as that type of narrator might just be the second-best choice...number one would be Stan Lee, obviously, but...he's dead now. May he rest in peace.

I haven't read that many comics, so there's not much that I know about the Watcher's character aside from a ten-second Google search. But something tells me that a character described as a celestial being that observes and records the events surrounding the galaxy sounds like the exact type of omniscience to guide us through the unknown. All added with Jeffrey Wright's performance, who really does convey a character that sounds like he's as old as time and wise beyond his years. Plus, it's pretty cool that such a seemingly odd character now technically plays a major role in the MCU canon. Comics are weird, and if the Watcher proves anything, it's better to embrace that weirdness than deny it.

The Animation: Looks like someone watched Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.

That really is the feeling I got when watching this. What If... doesn't look as good as Spiderverse (Nothing can be as good as Spiderverse), but the idea is still there as it combines primarily CGI animation with a few hand-drawn elements. It makes certain scenes just pop and, at times, even makes specific shots look like they're straight from panels in a comic book. Besides, while Spiderverse still looks better, that doesn't mean the animation isn't phenomenal in What If... The scenery looks gorgeous, the CGI models moderately match their live-action counterparts, the expressions are fantastic, and movements are as smooth as butter. There was definitely some money that went into this series to make it look as good as it did, and my eyeballs were more than grateful because of it. Especially when it comes to--

The Action: Holy s**t, was it a good thing that this series was animated!

The MCU has had its fair share of great fight scenes in the past, but it always felt restricted to what the big superhero fights could be due to everything needing to look "realistic." That all changes in What If... Because now that this series is animated, we can finally chuck realism out the window and allow these characters to be as epic as they were in the comics. The movements are swift, the blows look like they hurt, and best of all, you actually get to see characters fighting each other! There are no random cuts to hide the stunt doubles or weird camera angles to avoid audiences seeing how ugly the CGIed replacements are. We get to see all of the action with zero restraint, thanks to the fact that animation is limitless and allows writers to get away with literally anything. And shows like this make me wonder, "Why the hell isn't the MCU animated?"

Peggy as Captain Carter: It's here that we get into the specifics, and by golly, do I love me some Peggy Carter making a return. And what a return she made!

Seeing Peggy kick Nazi ass as Captain Carter is as awesome as it sounds as she gives a new definition of a "Strong, independent woman." She took s**t from no one and was more than willing to destroy anybody who said differently. It's a ton of fun for fans (the ones who aren't sexist, at least) and even fun for Peggy as well now that she gets a chance to wreck shop. However, that in itself could cause problems. If you watched Agent Carter (a great show, by the way), then you'll know that Peggy doesn't act as...somewhat meatheaded as she does here. As she said it herself, she's "usually more covert than this." And she is, as she was pretty much the first superspy in the MCU, who's impressive through how she effortlessly infiltrates her way to winning the day with diminutive requirements for fighting. So stripping that away gets rid of a core part of what makes her character so interesting. Although, in fairness, you could blame the fact that the reason she's acting like this is that the super-soldier serum is messing with her brain a bit. We've seen through U.S. Agent the reciprocations of the wrong person taking the serum, and while Peggy is far from the worst pick, there are hints of why Steve Rodgers was the best choice. Still, even though it's not the same Peggy Carter, that doesn't mean Captain Carter is a poor addition to the hero roster in the MCU. She's cool in all the right ways, even though they're drastically different from what made her compelling, to begin with.

Howard Stark: Another character I'm more than happy to see again!

Howard didn't leave that much of a grand of an impression in Captain America: The First Avenger, but in Agent Carter (Seriously, great show), he was a blast. You can just tell he was Tony Stark's father through all the ways he fast-talks in and out of problems and brilliantly comes up with solutions thanks to being tech-savvy. The main difference between Howard and Tony, however, is that Howard prefers to stay on the sidelines, where Tony learned to be more proactive. You get a sense of that in this episode. Because even though he goes to save the day, you can tell that he would rather be anywhere else. And, as a bonus, Howard's just funny. Probably not up there as one of the funniest characters in the franchise (Paul Rudd's Ant-Man reigns supreme), but he still cracks me up more times than not. Howard may be nothing more than a side character, but he'll always win me over no matter how small of a role he has.

Steve Rodgers in the Hydra Stomper: Don't mind me. Just admiring the fact that despite being crippled and skinny, Steve Rodgers still finds a way to fight the good fight, which is who Steve is to me. One of the best things about The First Avenger is that it fully understands the hero that is Captain America. Serum or not, he will do all he can to do the right thing and won't give up despite how many times others tell him he should. So if Steve's going to fly around in a suped-up Iron Man suit that's appropriately named "The Hydra Stomper," then Steve'll f**king soar. Because he is a gosh dang superhero, no matter what name he takes at the end of the day.

Fast-Forwarding Through Events: Some fans might take issues with this. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see all the little changes that Captain Carter makes to the story, but realistically that's not the best choice to make. Let's be honest, there's not that much to show other than what this episode did, and doing a full-on rewrite of Captain America: The First Avenger would have rubbed some fans the wrong way. Besides, from what I can tell, most of the What If... comics are one-shots that very rarely branch out into longer arcs. The primary goal is less to write this large-scale story and more of this self-contained narrative that does what it precisely delivers: Show fans a glimpse of what would happen if this happened instead of that. That's what we were given, and I can't really complain that much. I would have loved to have seen more, but I can learn to be happy with what I got.

Colonel Flynn Taking Credit: This guy is sexist and an idiot, and that's why I hate him...but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't at least chuckle when he said everything was his idea. It's such a scumbag move that I couldn't help but find the humor in it.

(Like, what even was that scene where Peggy was pissed at Steve kissing a girl. THEY WEREN'T EVEN DATING !)nd Steve falling in love inThe First Avenger, which certainly wasn't helped by how they had these dumbass misunderstandings of each thinking the other was dating someone else. Here, they at least get to interact, confiding in one another about their insecurities and offer support when needed. And while it may be a little rushed, I'm more willing to believe their romance in under thirty minutes than I did in over two hours. It could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse.

(Like, what even was that scene where Peggy was pissed at Steve kissing a girl. THEY WEREN'T EVEN DATING AT THE TIME!)

“I won’t tell you anything.”/”He told me everything.”: That's the Peggy Carter I know and love! Added with a solid joke, too.

Steve’s Pratfall: It's nice to know that no matter what universe we see, Marvel is still funny.

Peggy’s Sacrifice: Much like Peggy and Steve's romance, I buy Peggy's sacrifice way more than Steve's. Several fans already pointed out how it makes no sense for Steve to crash the plane into the icy waters when it seemed like he had enough control to land it or could have easily jumped out after aiming for the crash landing. Here, there's a more legitimate reason why Peggy sacrifices herself. The monster was undefeatable, and the only way to stop it was to push it back through the portal. Peggy, being the only one strong enough to do so at the moment, was the only option, and there was no way where she didn't end up going through with the monster. Even her return makes more sense, as I think her being lost to time and space sounds more believable than Steve surviving being frozen in ice. Something no mortal man should live through. Peggy's sacrifice proves that while the MCU can't change its cannon past, the writers learn from their mistakes and make something better.

WHAT I DISLIKED

The Reasoning Behind Peggy Becoming Captain Carter: So, the idea that one small change can greatly alter the story we knew is a great one, and it's one of the main reasons why I was excited about this series...but how does Peggy staying in the room cause the Hydra agent to detonate the bomb early? I understand the ripples that come from the Butterfly Effect, but I feel like that's too big of a leap to reason how Peggy ends up taking the serum instead.

Colonel Flynn: How is it possible that this guy is somehow even more of a pain in the ass than the general he replaced? At least Chester Phillips had the decency to respect Agent Carter!

Red Skull is Still on the Dull Side: Red Skull isn't an awful villain, but he wasn't really a great one. It's the same here, as he's just as forgettable and wooden an episode of television as he was in a full-length movie. But at least he had a cooler death this time.

Sebastian Stan is Not a Great Voice Actor: He's not awful, but his talent really doesn't shine in this regard. Some people think that being an actor and a voice actor is the same thing, but it's not always the case. Through live-action, actors are given a chance to express emotion through their expressions, movement, and voice. With voice acting, actors still have to convey emotions, but strictly through their voice. Meaning that actors like Sebastian Stan are limited to what they're used to and can stumble a bit when trying to perform in a field of acting they're unfamiliar with. You can tell he was trying his best, but this type of thing can take far more practice for others to perfect.

“Whew. Thanks. You almost ripped my arm off.”: ...hhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHA! HA HA! Ah...oh man...I, uh...I felt the internal bleeding with that one. Wow. Just...wow.

Bucky Leaving After Steve “Died”: Ok, now that's the biggest bout of bulls**t I've ever heard. BUCKY WOULD BE WITH STEVE 'TILL THE END OF THE LINE AND WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT THAT QUICKLY!

...This episode did Bucky dirty, didn't it?

IN CONCLUSION

I'd say that "What If...Captain Carter was the First Avenger" is an A-. It's still a solid start of what I can already tell will be a great series, but some elements could have used some polishing out. I loved it, but it wasn't as bloody brilliant as it could have been.

(And I meant it: WATCH AGENT CARTER! It's pleasantly surprising!)

[midnight-aether]

Why Vox by Christina Dalcher is not a good novel: Review & Analysis

The premise of this novel is incredibly interesting, don’t get me wrong: Vox (2018) is about a dystopian future, in which US American women are only allowed to speak 100 words per day and must wear a bracelet that shocks them if they go over that limit. Women also aren’t allowed to write, read or use sign language. The main character is a genius linguist called Jean who hates every man in her life, including her husband Patrick and her own sons.

The first sentence already tells us three things about this novel: (1) it’s told from a first-person perspective, which means the reader will be aware of the protagonist’s every thought, (2) the oppressive regime in the novel goes by the name of Pure Movement, so it’s probably going to have something to do with religion, and (3) the action takes place in the span of a week, which I feel like it’s a huge spoiler for the fact that I won’t care for any of the characters at the end of the book, since there’s only so much character development that can happen in that time.

If anyone told me I could bring down the President, and the Pure Movement, and that incompetent little shit Morgan LeBron in a week’s time, I wouldn’t believe them.

There will be spoilers from this point on.

The Setting and the Protagonist

The main character in Vox, Dr. Jean McClellan, is a specialist researcher in the field of aphasia, that is, according to Wikipedia, “an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions”. At some point in the novel we are made aware that a colleague of Jean’s, with her help, has discovered a cure for aphasia, even though they are both linguists and neither a chemist nor a medical researcher. However, she was unable to publish this discovery, due to the conveniently timed sexist apocalypse that stripped her of all her academic titles, as the reader is often reminded.

Jean is married to her husband Patrick and has four children with him:  three boys and a girl. Jean evidently resents every man in her family,  especially Patrick and their 17-year-old son, Steven. Apparently they’ve  all been very quickly indoctrinated to believe women shouldn’t be  allowed to speak, so they treat Jean and Sonia, the daughter,  accordingly.

There is a whole subplot about Steven, but it’s so plain and uninteresting that there isn’t much to say about it. Basically, he is all for the Pure Movement and their ideals of purity for women, but then still sleeps with his high school girlfriend and proceeds to tattle on her. When she is taken away to a camp, he realizes his mistake a leaves to save her. At some point he is captured by the Movement and ridiculed on TV. Jean doesn’t really care that he’s gone, but is pleasantly surprised when he reappears at the end safe and sound.

At this point, the Pure Movement has only been in power for less  than a year and a half. This movement is very overtly described as a Christian uprising that originated within the bible belt  and had spread to the entirety of the USA. The followers of the  Movement also adopt overly conservative views on gender roles, marriage  and sex, leaving very little doubt about the roots of the oppressive regime in Vox.

The Plot

The main intrigue in Vox begins when the brother of the US president starts suffering from aphasia after a “skiing accident” and the government comes to Jean for help, despite her being a woman in a society that literally won’t let women speak. Why do they come to her instead of going to any other male scientist? Because apparently Jean is the best linguist in the whole country... even though, as far as the government (and the reader) knows, she’s only been researching aphasia for a couple of years and hasn’t found a cure yet. Well, the author herself has a doctorate in linguistics (not in the field of aphasia), which brings me to my first problem with this novel: the blatant and, quite frankly conceited, self-insert.

You may have noticed that I wrote “skiing accident” in quotation marks on the last paragraph. That’s because it’s hinted a couple of times throughout the novel that the president’s brother was actually injured on purpose by the government, but this turns out to be false. Later it seems like he was never even injured in the first place, but this is never clearly resolved, as the character himself never appears “onscreen”; however, it’s not a cliffhanger that perpetually haunts the reader.

Back to the story: Jean agrees to help because, by taking the job, she and her daughter get to remove the shock bracelets for the duration of the research. The government then proceeds to give Jean one week (remember the novel’s first sentence) to produce a cure that, to the best of their knowledge, hasn’t even been found yet. If that sounds like a stretch, they even let her work with her old research team of three people, which is supposed to fully convince the reader that a week is a completely plausible time frame to discover, produce, test and approve a cure for an illness.

The Side Characters

This team is composed of Jean, her former colleagues Lin and Lorenzo, and their supervisor Morgan, who you might remember from the novel’s opening sentence. Morgan is apparently an idiot linguist who is very unfit for his position, which is supposed to show how twisted the society in Vox is, as they put the dumb people in charge just because they’re men, and silence the smart women. What it actually does is show that this version of the USA apparently only has a handful of linguists and no other skilled scientists.

This is the novel’s description of Lin:

Lin Kwan is a small woman. I often told Patrick she could fit in one of my pant legs – and I’m only five and a half feet and 120 soaking wet, thanks to the stress diet I’ve been on for the past several months. Everything about her is small: her voice, her almond eyes, the sleek bob that barely reaches below her ears. Lin’s breasts and ass make me look like a Peter Paul Rubens model. But her brain – her brain is a leviathan of gray matter. It would have to be; MIT doesn’t hand out dual PhDs for nothing.

Here we learn that Lin is small, not conventionally attractive (read: small boobs and ass), and finally that she is incredibly intelligent. For some reason, Jean finds it important to describe Lin’s curves, as well as her own, before mentioning Lin’s intelligence. No, this novel was not written by Michael Bay. Also, for representation’s sake, Lin is Asian and a lesbian, yet every other major character in this novel is a white straight person.

Well, there is another lesbian in this story, actually. Jean’s old college roommate, Jackie Juarez, who Jean hasn’t seen since before the machocalypse. We get to know Jackie through flashbacks: the novel tries to portray her as this loud, over-the-top feminist who often tries to make Jean join the rallies and protests against the growing Pure Movement. Alas, Jean chooses to focus on school instead of going to protests and forever regrets this, thinking that if only she had fought, she might have changed history.

I don’t know how to feel about this novel’s depiction of Jackie. She is made out to be a stereotypical feminist lesbian, who actively protests against the uprising of the Pure Movement, and yet whose efforts are in vain. Here is an excerpt that characterizes how Jean sees Jackie, and therefore how the reader is supposed to see her:

“You have to vote, Jean,” [Jackie] said, throwing down the stack of campaign leaflets she’d been running around campus with while I was prepping for what I knew would be a monster of an oral exam. “You have to.”

“The only things I have to do are pay taxes and die,” I said, not holding back the sneer in my voice. That semester was the beginning of the end for Jackie an me. I’d started dating Patrick and preferred our nightly discussions about cognitive processes to Jackie’s rants about whatever new thing she had found to protest.

Here you can see that Jean clearly dismisses Jackie and “whatever new thing she had found to protest”, and instead muses about what an intellectual she is. I understand that this is a flashback, and it’s supposed to show that Jean was wrong not to care about protesting the Pure Movement, but this is told from present Jean’s perspective, so it’s clear she still rolls her eyes at Jackie’s activism in general. It feels like Vox is trying to say that actively expressing your ideas and concerns is useless, since Jean eventually overthrows the government with science and not through activism – and it even takes her no longer than a week to do it, as we learn at the beginning of this novel. There is a lot to unpack here,  but I still wouldn’t recommend thinking too hard about the ideas in this book.  

Jackie only becomes relevant to the plot towards the end. At some point she is held hostage by the government, so that Jean is forced to finish her work. Why the government chose to kidnap Jean’s old college roommate who she hasn’t seen or spoken about in years instead of, say, her daughter, we will never know. In the end, Jackie is only there so that Jean can save her and “redeem” herself for not having been there for Jackie in the past.

Lorenzo, the last member of the team, is Jean’s love affair since way before the Pure Movement effectively took over. The novel likes to remind the reader that Jean is with the Italian hunk Lorenzo because she despises her husband Patrick, so that makes cheating okay. Eventually we learn that Jean is pregnant with Lorenzo’s child, so he offers to let her escape with him to Italy as his wife. Yet Jean can’t allow herself to leave without her daughter Sonia – she’s fine with never seeing any of her sons again, though. She considers this for a while as she works on the cure for aphasia.

The Ending

At some point during the week, Lin disappears (we later learn she was imprisoned due to big gay activity). Jean and Lorenzo announce that they’ve discovered the cure and even test the serum on a random neighbour of Jean’s who happens to have aphasia as well. Also, Jean’s mother had an aneurysm earlier that week and also started suffering from aphasia. The government is pleased with the results and take the serum away.

Later, Morgan, the supervisor, takes Jean and Lorenzo to a strange lab underground to have them further develop the cure. There they walk through a hallway full of chimpanzees in cages, and there is a bizarre scene in which Jean gets too close to a cage and is attacked by a chimpanzee. There is no purpose to this scene other than to shock the reader, honestly. Here, the novel briefly, yet disrespectfully brings up a very real woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee in 2009 and managed to survive (Wikipedia link, no pictures), by having Jean think something along the lines of “oh no, I don’t want to end up like her!” during the attack.

Jean is fine, obviously. We’re over 200 pages in and nearing the end of the novel when the first interesting development happens in the form of a plot twist: the government has been using their cure in order to create an anti-serum that gives people aphasia. Their plan is to create a more effective means to silence women, of course, since they  wouldn’t be able to comprehend or formulate language any more. When Jean discovers this, she wants to quit, but is forced to stay when they reveal they’ve been keeping Jackie, Lin and Lin’s girlfriend hostage in the same building for this very occasion. And maybe also Steven back at that camp, but we don’t even care about him at this point.

The climax of the story arrives, and everything happens so quickly the reader doesn’t have time to digest it. I had to reread what actually happened at the end, because I couldn’t remeber it anymore. I’ll try to recreate the pacing of the ending in the following paragraph, so you can understand what I mean:

Jean and Lorenzo save the lesbians (who are the only likeable characters, so that made me happy), Morgan dies, I think, and they escape with the anti-serum. Patrick appears and decides to help, so they send him to the White House with an anti-serum bomb that suceeds, giving the president and all evil politicians aphasia. Patrick is killed during this, freeing Jean from their marriage and allowing her to escape with Lorenzo and all of her children, whom she suddenly stopped resenting. The Pure Movement collapses and all is well, thanks to... well, thanks to Patrick and Lorenzo.

Conclusion

Vox is a mess of a novel. The characters are unlikeable, the plot is badly paced and the ending is too sudden. I really didn’t care about what happened to any character at any point, which is incredibly disappointing. Additionally, there are many things wrong with the political message in Vox, namely the idea that all religious people are inherently evil and that men generally wish to control and silence women. The premise was good, the writing was fine, but the performance was terrible, unfortunately. Vox feels like it was rushed to come out in time for the dystopian fiction craze of 2017-18 caused by the release of The Handmaid’s Tale TV series. Hopefully we’ll see better work from the author in the future.

Blog | Goodreads

[bog-o-bones]

Kaiju Media Forecast 2020

The kaiju fandom has certainly seen a gigantic upswing in content since the last time I did one of these “year going forward” reviews. Let’s take a look at some of the major movies, events, merchandise and more that kaiju fans have to look forward to in the coming year!

Movies

Every year since at least 2013, the kaiju fandom has had one “tentpole” film event of the year, usually the most highly anticipated feature coming out that year that most media and merchandise hype will surround. This year’s choice is the latest (and possibly last?) of the Legendary MonsterVerse which just last year introduced us to the first American incarnations of Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. Later this year, the King of the Monsters will once again take on the King of Skull Island in a rematch nearly 60 years in the making with Godzilla vs. Kong. The only snippet of footage we’ve seen is featured in the screenshot above and recently leaked toy fair displays have quite a lot in store for the big crossover event of the MonsterVerse. Godzilla vs. Kong drops November 20th.

According to your definition, the first kaiju film of 2020 launched two weeks ago with Underwater. The Kristen Stewart-helmed deep-sea monster movie isn’t really making the splash it was looking for box office-wise and most people who have seen it say that it’s okay at worst. Regardless, if you like big monsters and quasi-Cloverfield type films, you can give it a shot in theaters now or in a few months when it hits home media.

Godzilla’s sole big screen appearance won’t just be limited to the big crossover with Kong as a snow-covered cameo role will land him a spot in the new Shinkalion movie. From a clip posted on Yahoo Japan (refresh the page if it doesn’t work) Godzilla briefly faces Hatsune Miku piloting a giant train-based mecha (I tried pinching myself, believe me) at the very end. This role is likely going to be very short but nonetheless, it’s always satisfying to see Godzilla pop up in the most unexpected places.

Again, stretching the definition of “kaiju” here, but also apparently the Monster Hunter movie still exists and is coming out later this year in September? I don’t know much about the franchise, but I do know it’s probably going to be butchered with a Paul W.S. Anderson directed schlock fest. Who knows, maybe the monster scenes will make up for it?

As is tradition, the Ultraman franchise hits us once again with an annual theatrical movie based off the previous year’s show. Ultraman Taiga The Movie: New Generation Climax will be out in March and judging by the title, will feature a climactic event featuring the New Generation assortment of Ultraman heroes. I still have yet to see Taiga but hopefully this provides a fun conclusion to the show.

Famed director Hideaki Anno returns to the world of his most famous creation with Evangelion 3.0+1.0, the highly anticipated final installment in the Rebuild series to be released this June. I have not seen any of the Rebuild movies myself but this is sure to be a wild and crazy ride for Evangelion fans.

Finally, the oddball of the bunch. Kadokawa rises from it’s dusty grave with a brand new monster film focused on the unproduced predecessor to Gamera: Nezura 1964. Featuring giant rat monsters and a cast comprised of many Daiei/Kadokawa favorites, it’ll be interesting to see if this film can capitalize on the recent kaiju craze and be successful enough to possibly give our old turtle friend the revival he truly deserves. Nezura 1964 is due out in December in Japan.

Television

Not much on the television docket this year. It’s far too early to speculate about Tsuburaya’s next Ultra series, leaving us with little to discuss. Studio Trigger is supposedly making some kind of new series related to it’s Gridman show from last year (another item I have yet to see). Titled SSSS.DYNAZENON, nobody knows when it’s due out so for all I know this could be a rather outdated entry.

What we do know for sure is coming is something not particularly kaiju but still related via the tokusatsu connection is the continuation of Kamen Rider Zero-One, the first Rider series in Japan’s newly named Reiwa period. This isn’t really related to the year 2020 but honestly I’d rather have something in this TV section to talk about than just the Gridman sequel.

Merchandise

Last year was one of the greatest years in the history of the American Ultraman fandom with the officially sanctioned releases of Ultra Q, Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Orb and Ultraman Geed to Blu-Ray in the West for the very first time. In this new year, Mill Creek will continue to satiate the needs of Western Ultra fans with releases of previously unseen-on-western-disc series Return of Ultraman, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman X, and the Ultraman Orb Origin Saga. A schedule flyer released online also teases many other entries in the franchise making the continuous release of these beloved shows a treat to look forward to. You can pre-order the four releases discussed above on Amazon.

American toy company Playmates acquired the license for the Godzilla vs. Kong toyline last year and in early January, a few figures from their non-film focused toylines showed up at Walmarts across the country. They’re uh...well, let’s be honest: they’re not great. Leaked images of the Godzilla vs. Kong toyline were also shared around social media but I’ll avoid talking about them here for spoiler purposes. Let’s just say the line is looking mighty juicy for kaiju fans and it will be interesting to see if they’re promoted come New York Toy Fair.

Bandai’s Movie Monsters Series line will likely continue to issue newly reissued/remolded monsters in the Godzilla line (as well as produce new figures for Godzilla vs. Kong) but coming out in March is a sight for sore eyes: a brand new sculpt of the 1995 Gamera design for the 25th anniversary of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. Hopefully a Super Gyaos is not far behind!

The S.H. MonsterArts line had a fairly predictable and underwhelming list of releases last year. Great figures for the most part, but obvious choices without much surprise. This being a movie year, I don’t expect much to change and we’ll likely see Godzilla vs. Kong figures soon enough. What is confirmed and releasing in May is their take on the Burning Godzilla design featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters last year. Originally a Tamashii WebShop exclusive, it’s being released in America by Bluefin around June.

Media company SRS Cinema continues to throw unexpected independent kaiju films our way with releases of Deep Sea Monster Reigo and Deep Sea Monster Raiga last year on limited Blu-Ray and wide-release DVD. They’ll continue the assortment this year with Attack of the Giant Teacher and Raiga vs. Ohga. The films likely won’t be much to look at, but more independent kaiju films seeing a western release is never a bad thing. Here’s hoping Daikaiju Eiga G or Gehara see a release soon.

In an almost perfect repeat of Daiei and Toho’s box office bout sixty years ago, boutique label Arrow Video has reportedly secured the rights to the Gamera franchise and are planning a box set that could rival Criterion’s late 2019 release of the entire Showa Godzilla series. Arrow Video puts out sublime products and kaiju fans will likely want to keep their eyes peeled for this set, even if they’ve already secured Mill Creek’s rather dull bargain sets from years past.

While not on the docket for tie-ins to Godzilla vs. Kong (yet), NECA will likely be continuing to pump out new figures in their Classic Godzilla line. No brand new sculpts are known at the moment, but fans can look forward to a blue, poster-styled repaint of their KOTM Mothra figure and some reissues of their older molds in new box-styled, poster-featuring packaging. Some, like the 1985 Godzilla, might even feature newly molded details.

In rather shocking news, Media Blasters has seemingly propped one of its kaiju films up from the depths of licensing hell with an announcement of a Blu-Ray release of Gappa the Triphibian Monsters scheduled for a February release. The out-of-nowhere circumstances surrounding this release as well as a proclaimed inclusion of an “uncut” Japanese release (despite the International version containing more footage than the Japanese version) and Media Blasters rather spotty history regarding kaiju Blu-Rays should have folks taking this with a grain of salt until the actual discs are in collectors’ hands.

Events

As per usual, the kaiju fan’s Woodstock G-FEST will be continuing it’s annual celebration of all things giant monster from July 10-12 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL. No guest announcements at this time, but fans looking to go should register and book a hotel immediately as attendance will continue to spike and rooms in the convention’s hotel are already sold out.

As is tradition, the San Diego Comic Con will take place this summer a week after G-FEST is over and will likely bring with it new information on Godzilla vs. Kong and many other kaiju-related media. NECA will possibly show off new figures and we may even see some post-2020 information on the MonsterVerse.

Not necessarily guaranteed, but kaiju fans may also want to look out for this year’s New York ToyFair taking place in February. ToyFair has pretty much become the SDCC for toy collectors with many companies showing off their new products for the new year. Kaiju collectors will possibly get a glimpse at the Playmates Godzilla vs. Kong assortment as well as a few other possible surprise reveals from other companies like NECA or Diamond Select.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2020 is looking to be a monstrous year for kaiju fans. Hopefully the fandom will enjoy everything to come from our favorite franchises.

Here’s to a happy 2020!

[fluffmugger]

introspectivenavelgazer said: I’m curious about your thoughts OH HOLD ON BB I GOT OPINIONS. ITS BAD. 

sabacc said: ah, the disturbing things bingo movie oh no. nononoo. Make no mistake. This was not a “nooope” situation.  There was precisely one moment in a teaser that actually triggered me, and that was so fucking poorly done in the end product I ACTUALLY ENDED UP LAUGHING. I’m  not exaggerating, check the post. First time I saw that it pulled a very hard visceral cord, and when the Kersh scene came up in the movie, I was huddled up in my chair, hoodie on, ear blocking ready to ride out that wave of programmed fear.   Instead, I fucking laughed because the whole thing was so fucking ridiculous. What was a deft, vicious piece of editing got completely fucking wrecked.  And that’s pretty much what happened to the story, that film was a hot mess of absolute bullshit.  It not only completely fucked up the overarching themes of the original story, it made no fcking narrative sense in and of itself as a movie verse Lo, there be spoilers...

While some parts I can understand for expediency - such as sidelining Audra and shifting Bill’s obsessive run to IT being based on a local child that he ultimately fails to save, why the fuck have Audra in it in the first place? A five second appearance so ...wha, you can make a running joke on Bill sucking at writing endings that’s just an endless sledge against King? What was the fucking point of that?     Likewise the inclusion of Silver, stripped down to a single cameo that only got vaguely saved because it put him in the place where he could meet aforementioned kid (now living in Bill’s old house in a most contrived of plot points but I will allow it because it works) and form an emotional connection. The whole reason for them standing to face IT is shifted from the pact they formed - the childhood vow they could never break - to Beverley instead somehow magically seeing the future while trapped in the deadlights, and realising that if they didn’t finish IT once and for all, even after the cycle they would all eventually take their own lives like Stan did, unable to live with the taint.  While this could be a interesting take in and of itself - if you do not face the demons of your childhood, they will destroy you one way or another - it completely shifts the core motivation to one of self interest.    Initially the Losers (especially Bill) did actually take on IT from a position of self interest (and young Bill actually has a moment of self agony over it, is he only leading  his friends into a deadly crusade because he wants vengeance for Georgie? Does he have that right? Is he nothing but a “selfish little shit waving a tin sword”), but it became so much more, and these children became monster slayers.   It’s the hero’s journey.   And shifting that makes it a corruption, not into a subversion.   It was also so damned messily handled - it could have been interesting , the idealism of childhood shifting to pragmatism of adulthood, but it was reduced to a handwave threat, and they didn’t need to be threatened.  The original story had a whole intertwined creep that was fucking beautiful, this veneer of adults in control of their own lives and destiny being stripped away in thin layers, with the Losers gradually beginning to dimly perceive they are simply parts  of some great cosmic machinery and their illusions of control and indeed  their entire lives are all just that - illusions. The undermining of reality and stripping of power were great Adult Fears that played fucking beautifully in the book.  The silent unspoken Imposter Syndrome, hinted at, but never directly addressed, that all their successes were simply due to being touched by IT.  In the movie? Oh man we’re all gonna kill ourselves if we don’t fix this and it means ...nothing to the characters. Seriously. They all still walk anyway.  And   way too much fucking time is wasted on characters abruptly deciding to leave only to Not At The Last Second.   It’s just a big fat clumsy mess.

They completely chunked out Bowers taking Mike out of the final battle, yet still included him in the film - Why? what was the fucking purpose?  They also intimated that IT was responsible for killing his father - ironically the one fucking murder Bowers did commit -   and adult Bowers was delightfully played, but he served  no fucking purpose whatsoever. Not to drop them to the lesser number of power (5 as opposed to 7), not to drive them into the sewers, what was the fucking purpose of having him there? He shows up, doesn’t even break Eddie’s arm (so there’s your other purpose of resetting the gameboard to the positions of the last confrontation) gets stabbed, gets killed, and they go on la de da.

Michael’s story is absolutely fucked into unrecognisability.  I’ve already ranted about killing off his parents - it’s a dumb fucking decision and I will never fucking excuse it. William Hanlon is a key player in the books, inadvertently preparing his son for his role of watchman.  This is completely lost to the most basic of fucking racial stereotypes.   Holy shit they actually refer to his parents as fucking crack heads  at one point (although this is later revealed to be a fake out by Pennywise), but what does it serve?   While you can argue that removing him is what destabilises Mikes character THERE IS NO FUCKING REASON TO HAVE AN UNSTABLE MIKE.   In the sequel, Mike is clinging to sanity by less than the skin of his teeth, drugging Bill against his will at one point, actively leading everyone into danger with a false promise of victory and generally acting like a desperate fucking madman. Why take a dignified black character and turn him into an unstable Kassandra?  You don’t need a fucking unstable Kassandra, the very nature of what IT is, and its horrific, aeons-long parasitic relationship with Derry is so fucking unbelievable in and of itself it does that for you.   

Likewise Eddie’s adult career  is suddenly changed to being a ...investment? insurance? boring person thing? what the shit? Why not have him own the goddamn largest fleet private chauffeurs? Why change? that one tied back into his navigation skills at least, and there’s serious coin in that shit.   And fucking hell do not get me started on fucking Myra fucking hell if you want to touch a complex and fucked up relationship like that, you don’t handwave it. His entire rampant hypochondria is shifted to  something closer to ...smart arse with some small neuroses?  Ok, but you’re telling me this..why? what is the purpose of this?

Completely out of left field, Richie is heavily intimated to be Queer. Ok.     But they then go on to jam in additional homophobia (and this is on top of Mellon’s death that to be fucking honest is shot way too fucking far on the side of “lookit the smartmouth gay get stomped”)  and Pennywise threatening to reveal Richies Great Secret to the point I literally leaned over and asked His Lordship “The script writer does know this is set in the fucking 21st century, right?”   It could have been a fascinating side story of a man whose trauma keeps himself in a cage even when he doesn’t have to, but it’s not. It’s a hot mess of what the fuck let’s throw a gay (but not too obviously gay we’ll do it so we can claim he’s not so it still sells in china and we have plausible deniability hide your queers, hide your queers!)  in just so we can kill the object of his affection.  YOU DON’T NEED TO AMP UP THE ANGST OVER EDDIES DEATH. WE ALL KNOW ITS COMING. AND IT HURTS.    You know what woulda been ground breaking? You’ve laid the groundwork with Beverley already, have Richie in the deadlights as he is, have Eddie do his Big Damn Hero Save, and then have richie see what’s coming and shove eddie out of the way.  Having Richie die instead of Eddie? Holy crap, no one would have seen that coming. It would have blown up fucking everyone, film, telemovie and book fans alike.   (Also holy shit adult richie, far from being the smart, funny man we all know is a wanker. His comments at the chinese dinner party have none of the genuine humour of the book or even the  Curry adaptation, he comes across as a mean spirited bullying dickhead that you’d all go to the toilet at the same time and climb out the window to avoid. In a kid it’s funny. Kids have no filters. From an adult, it’s fucking poison)  

We also have all these elements of childhood coming back, but there is no purpose to them in the film.  In the book, it’s the wheel turning, the gameboard sliding back to where it was last time they faced IT, a very real embodiment of unfinished business and an inability to escape your childhood - a fact the characters are very well aware of and in varying ways horrified by their own regressions -  but in the film it’s just leaving the audience wondering why are they doing that? why’s that there. what the fuck man. why have bill stutter? So you connect the adults to the kids by using the broadest fucking flanderised tropes possible?  It doesn’t even stand on its own two feet, it relies on way too much back knowledge from other sources. And it reeks as it they bolted on large chunks of some other horror movie script that was presented to the studio and changed the names.  There’s no psychological implications, there’s no deftness, hell there’s no fucking chemistry with any of the fucking actors.  It’s reduced to a jumpscare gore fest. It doesn't even compare to the first half.  It got so bad that by the second act I was literally pointing at the screen and BAM right on cue, there was the jumpscare. That’s how fucking predictable it is.   The CGI was shithouse (I actually burst out laughing during the Paul Bunyan scene as well as the Kersh one it was so fucking bad) the ending is..my god they literally prance around him screaming “fucking clown” until he shrinks, they pluck his heart and crush it. Fuck me, the Curry adaptation had its problems but the savage, ritualistic destruction of IT as they all fell to their knees around and tore it apart with their bare hands had fucking balls at least.  And BTW, it’s only the caverns and the house on neibolt street that get destroyed, the rest of the town is just fuckin’ dandy and it’s like DUDE THE TOWN WAS LITERALLY BUILT ON IT. DERRY CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT IT.  IT’S A PARALLEL FOR THE HORRIFIC CANKER  AT THE HEART OF EVERY “LOVELY” AMERICAN SMALL TOWN. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH.  and then, THEN they end it with a letter from Stan. See, Stan didn’t kill himself because in one brief, horrific instant he remembered everything, and even as a child knew he couldn’t face it again and bailed, no... he knew he was going to buckle and killed himself so..he wouldn’t die they wouldn’t all die what. the fuck. was the purpose. of THAT.

In short, it was a phoned in, badly written, badly edited piece of shit, completely purposeless and not even worthy of its predecessor. 

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #165 - Inkheart

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Generally.

Do I remember it: Generally.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: No.

Format: Blu-ray

1) I never read the books. Blasphemy, I know, but I tried the first one when I was younger and couldn’t get too far into it. I love the concepts in this film though so I might have to revisit it.

2) Brendan Fraser as Mo.

Brendan Fraser was author Cornelia Funke’s inspiration for the character of Mo in the novels, dedicating the second novel in the trilogy to him and sending him a signed copy. The filmmakers wanted a bigger star to play the part but Funke fought for him and I honestly think Fraser is a standout aspect of this film.

There is a subtle sorrow to Fraser’s performance which permeates everything he does. It’s so fundamentally different from his more famous roles like Rick O’Connell from The Mummy or any of his screwball comedy roles like George of the Jungle. There is this constant heartbreak to the character, a care and empathy in everything he does that makes you fall in love with him. The film I think is largely ineffective in a lot of ways (not necessarily bad, but ineffective), however I think one thing it does very well is Brendan Fraser as Mo.

3) Eliza Bennett as Meggie.

I like her. I haven’t seen Bennett in much else (apparently she was in “Broadchurch” which I did not realize) but I think she brings a nice sincerity to Meggie. Her relationship/chemistry with Fraser’s Mo is honest and a strong aspect of the film. But the fact that’s really all I have to say about the character/actress in this movie gets to the film’s larger problem as a whole: it feels half done.

4) Paul Bettany as Dustfinger.

Bettany is one of the strongest character actors there is and gives a delightful performance as Dustfinger. While I believe Fraser is great in this film and (as stated above) a standout element, I think Bettany is the best part. He is compelling as Dustfinger, interesting. There’s a lot of humor and fun we can see in the part that I don’t always get to see from Bettany and I think it’s great. It’s great to see him play a character who is fundamentally a bit more selfish and cowardly, it’s great to see his empathy, it’s great to see him struggle with his flaws in an attempt to overcome them, it’s fun seeing him just REACT to certain thing. I love Bettany in this film and if I remember one thing better than anything else it’s him.

5) I mentioned before that this film feels half-done, and I think that largely relates to issues of pacing. The novel is about 534 pages, longer than the first Harry Potter novel. Yet the film is just short of two hours and I think the pacing suffers from that as well. It very much can feel at times “go from A to B to C to D” etc instead of an organic way to move through the world with these characters. Since we take very little time to understand a lot of these characters, their motivations, or this world (specifically with Capricorn, although I do love Andy Serkis) nothing leaves much of an impact. This movie is not a bad one, I don’t think. I think it’s a middling one and I think it’s greatest misfortune is that it isn’t very effective. I mean I saw this in theaters when it first came out and I remember very little of what actually happens until it is happening.

6) Helen Mirren as Elinor.

I think one of the key reasons this film isn’t a disaster, persay, is because of the acting talent. There’s not a weak performer in the bunch and that includes Mirren. She is able to make Meggie’s Great Aunt Elinor immediately strongly. You understand who she is and what’s valuable to her within five minutes of meeting her. She comes off as kind of a prick but not an irredeemable one. And - like Dustfinger - she develops sort of nicely throughout the film. I just wish we had a bit more time to explore how she goes from, “I’m a shut in bookworm,” to, “I’m going to save my family of my own volition,” other than just sort of seeing her start and end in those places (if that makes sense).

7) I know WHY Mo is telling Meggie not to do this, but the very concept of the line makes me uncomfortable.

Mo: “You make up stories? Meggie, you know I don’t want you doing that.”

8) The nicest peek into Meggie’s character is when she’s around books. Well, a book initially. How she is able to identify Elinor’s “Persian manuscript”. There is this overwhelmingly strong sense in the beginning of the film of love for books and storytelling in general. Elinor’s quote above (in the GIF I used) gets to that. Meggie’s feeling of safety in the library too. Unfortunately I feel we lose that a little as the film goes on. We lose the fantasy and wonder books can have as we progress. Which is unfortunate, because it’s a great part of the film.

9) I have to say, although I think the pacing of the film is off, the atmosphere is something I am very found of. It is romantic, fantastic, mysterious, and grounded in a sense of reality. This is a world I can feel which is alive and exists and shows great care on the filmmakers (specifically the cinematographer and production design team) to craft the world of Inkheart.

10) So Capricorn’s mean burn books. In big stock piles like it’s freaking WW2. This pisses me off in 2017 way more than it should.

11) I’m Meggie in this situation.

Mo [to Meggie, after being captured by Capricorn]: “Children always escape in books.”

Meggie: “No they don’t. Remember the little match girl?”

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

12) Andy Serkis as Capricorn.

Andy Serkis is one of the finest actors working today who very rarely gets the recognition he deserves due to his focus in motion capture work. But here in a live action role Serkis is just as dedicated to the part as he would be to Caesar or Gollum. It’s unfortunate that the script can’t develop Capricorn past the stereotypical Lex-Luthor-type who wants to take over the world just because. But Serkis still makes him a fun character to watch, delightfully evil despite (or perhaps because) of this fact. He’s also got some surprising humor to him.

Capricorn: “What’s that sticky stuff called?”

Basta: “Duct tape?”

Capricorn: “Yes. Duct tape. I LOVE duct tape!”

13) Remember how I said this film is largely ineffective? Well, the fact that Meggie’s lost mom/Mo’s lost wife is a mute maid imprisoned by Capricorn should be very memorable to me. And I totally forgot about that until watching this film.

They’re able to give Resa a strong personality/flavor to her from the start, despite the fact she spends most of the film unable to use her primary means of communication. But through her choices and physicality she comes across clearly. Also is it me, or does she look like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale?

14) Okay, question: is Farid from the book?

Because even though I think the actor does a really nice job, in the film the character feels a little extra. He adds a nice bit of levity and forms a surprisingly fun relationship with Dustfinger, but beyond that? Does the movie really need him?

15) Jennifer Connelly cameo!

Connelly is the wife of Paul Bettany (the actor who plays Dustfinger) and gets to appear as his wife in brief flashbacks in the film. Fantasy fans will be aware that this isn’t the first time she’s played in a fairytale world...

16) One of the most interesting things about Dustfinger is his internal conflict. Specifically, the conflict he feels over being fictional. He doesn’t LIKE being selfish, he doesn’t like being a coward, and he doesn’t like that his ending is so plainly written out for him.

Dustfinger: “Do you know the end of your story, Meggie?”

He wants to define himself but he doesn’t know if he has it in him as someone else wrote who he is.

17) Jim Broadbent as the in-world author of Inkheart, Fenoglio.

I love how damn giddy he is to meet Dustfinger, if a little naive about it.

Fenoglio: “This must be what it feels like to give birth.”

(GIF originally posted by @superheroinejewel)

But he also shows a common idea among author’s: death is a plot device. He says he killed of Dustfinger because, “they can’t all have happy endings,” and that the story needed tension.

How many times has your favorite character died as a way to, “add tension?” How many times has it felt cheap and not a fitting end to that character’s story?

There are authors out there who put plot before character, and while I understand that I disagree with it. Because if you do that then character’s will do things which are out of character or that don’t make sense just because the plot needs them to. I personally prefer to create characters first and develop the plot around them and their choices.

18) The next few notes I made about this are just quotes that were strong for me but I already talked about why for each one (Dustfinger’s character, Fenoglio’s joy over meeting his characters, etc.). So I’m just going to move on.

19) Oh dear god. I just realized how applicable this is to Brendan Fraser’s character in the film.

(GIF originally posted by @pladpuss)

20) So when Capricorn has Meggie reading from him we see things she read out of the book like Cinderella’s slipper and the Sword in the Stone. One thing that caught me by surprise was Ebenezer’s Scrooge headstone, largely because it looks almost EXACTLY like the one my school used when we did A Christmas Carol a few years back. But that’s mostly a personal thing.

21) As someone who hopes to be a published writer someday, this line is very striking for me.

It’s very true, of most authors actually. People read as a way to escape well writers write as a way to escape. That’s why so many of us are not the most social of beings. I almost wish the film didn’t end with Fenoglio being read into his own book though. It would’ve been much more powerful for me to see him work to try and live in the real world. I think that would’ve been better but also it makes sense for his character to want to do that.

22) For me the whole film has lost so much steam by the final climax. I’m sort of bored by it and I think it ties into the fact that I don’t really care. I don’t care about Capricorn’s plans or The Shadow. I care that Mo gets his wife back and that Dustfinger gets to go home, that’s it. But this giant generically designed ash monster? Not really.

23) I know want to see a Lord of the Rings film where Helen Mirren gets to play Gandalf. Why?

24) That’s about it. Good guys win. Meggie gets her mom back. Dustfinger gets to go home. And “My Declaration” sung by Eliza Bennett (a sweet song that I have powerful nostalgia for) plays over the end credits.

Inkheart is fine, it’s okay. It has a number of strong performances to it (with Fraser, Bettany, and Serkis as the standouts) but it is sort of messily written. I mean it’s not BAD it’s just not very memorable. The world is nice, the pacing is off. If you want to watch it, go for it. Otherwise I don’t really think you’re missing anything, personally.

[reviews-by-high]

Review: Blackkklansman

Caution: Light Spoilers Ahead.

If no one's ever told you: there’s movies, and there’s movies when you’re high. Then let me tell you that the adage is 100% true, and in the case of my stoned experience with BlaKkKlansman (10 August 2018, dir Spike Lee), the film is powerful. Now I’m not going to spend a lot of time focusing on the racial politics at play with the movie because what this film does well is make its message clear. Any reader who has seen the film will know that amongst the dialogue this film is creating, one more internet-white-dudes words and opinions on the matter of racial politics aren’t needed. Not that the voices and opinions aren’t valued or don’t belong in conversation, but that another voice to the left leaning internet-white-dudes representation isn’t really any more useful than one less internet-white-dudes voice and opinion on racial politics in media at this point. Now with that said, it’s pretty difficult to review this movie ― even as subjectively as this review is ― without having some mention of racial politics. It also should be said that this review contains light spoilers. I’ll be covering some scenes, specifically the three speech scenes, as well as addressing other included media in the film and performances in the film. However, I’ll be doing it as best I can to an extent that is sufficient without giving away then entire scene. Even if you read this review before seeing the movie I would encourage you to still go see the film in theaters.

The first powerful scene happens right away when director Spike Lee opens with a very famous scene from the American Racial Melodrama Gone With the Wind. Gone With the Wind was a huge hit in America at the time of its distribution (17 January 1940, dir Victor Fleming), much of this is due to its over sentimentalization and romantic view of the American South. The scene that Lee inducts from the American Racial Melodrama ends with a massive scope of wounded confederate soldiers all laying in the dirt while a tattered Confederate flag flaps in the wind. If you’re a film major there is a fuck ton of meaning to be unpacked in that one scene of Gone With the Wind. However, what I got out of seeing that scene again ― only this time in the frame of BlacKkKlansman ― after about 32 milligrams of an edible, was the  Southern way of life for the God Bless’d White America is under attack and it needs protectors. And who better than the Ku Klux Klan to be the ghostly white knights that aggressively protect that racially oppressive way of life. What a great fucking message (sarcasm). Then switch to resident “soul brother” and protagonist Ron Stallworth played by John David Washington. The quick cut from an old American racial melodramatic blockbuster to BlacKkKlansman’s Ron Stallworth isn’t going to be the last time the film makes very effective use of juxtaposition. In fact Lee uses scenes from previous American blockbuster movies again later in the film when the KKK is having a cult ritual movie-night party. The boys in white are all seated in front of a projector screen eating popcorn watching yet again, another American Racial Melodrama Epic, Birth of a Nation (released 3 March 1915, dir. D. W. Griffith). Now, Birth of a Nation is a film that, if an individual at any point of watching that film thinks something along the lines of “hmm ya know what, this film is pretty good!” Then that individual should definitely rethink how he or she views other people, specifically people whose skin color and ancestral homeland differ from their own. Because Birth of a Nation is nothing shy from a Ku Klux Klan hero story wrapped up in, again, an old time American Racial Melodrama. This time however, while the film plays and we see the faces of Ku Klux Klan members in BlacKkKlansman watching the film, Lee also does periodic cuts to both Stallworth’s face having to watch the racist film from a window outside the cult room, and cuts to Jerome Turner, an African American speaker sharing his stories of tragedy and violent persecution, with the black college student union. For this reason, Lee’s use of juxtaposition is powerful because it contrasts the God-Bless-White-America KKK narrative ideas to the lives of black individuals and the persecution of the black community here in America at the hands of racially fueled violence.

The film’s power however doesn’t stop at complex juxtaposition, there are three speech scenes where the audience is greeted to powerful monologues from three different individuals: Kwame Ture played by Corey Hawkins, Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard played by Alec Baldwin, and Jerome Turner played by famed musician and Civil Rights Movement activist Harry Belafonte. I already previously mentioned how Turner talks to the black student union about the horrors he saw and experienced at the behest of racially motivated violence so I won’t discuss his speech scene more, though I do HIGHLY encourage you and everyone else to discuss Turner’s speech with their friends and other viewers of the film. Adversely, the speech scene featuring Alec Baldwin’s Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard was equally powerful, but not for its recount of racially fueled violence, or its inspiration to the black community, but because in what may be Alec Baldwin’s most convincing performance that I’ve ever seen, we get to see the very process of a man degrade down a scary spiral into racial hate and bitter bigotry. What’s so compelling about Baldwin’s performance is that even if you watched the movie on mute, by facial expression, posture, body language, and mannerisms alone the progression seen in Dr. Beauregard is not only extremely powerful but speaks for itself. The speech embodied a call for keeping America pure and white like the country should be — according to Dr. Beauregard — either by “sending them back,” or through violent alternatives. What struck me more was that in combination of the fear I felt sitting in my seat during this scene, was that the whole performance looked almost as if Alex Jones himself (controversial I know) had gotten up in front of the movie theater and did a two hour segment where he falls down a slippery slope into yelling some terrifyingly prejudice shit into a camera lens and ultimately ends on “God Bless (white) America.” I couldn’t tell you exactly why it is, but my high ass was legitimately feeling fear. Lastly, I want to commend Corey Hawkins for his performance as Kwame Ture. Hawkins who is no stranger to playing biopic roles, having previously done an exceptional job as Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton (14 August 2015, dir F. Gary Gray), absolutely fucking delivers on his speech as Ture. It’s a speech that everyone should see, black or otherwise, because to be completely honest it’s pretty damn inspiring. It left me feeling energized and good, and I’m not even black. Though all speech scenes tend to suffer from heavy-handedness at some point, Hawkin’s performance and the structure of the speech is absolutely gripping. So gripping that as early on as the speech was — within the first fourth of the movie I’d say — it sets the tone for just how viscerally powerful the movie is.

Lastly, the performances in the film were phenomenal. John David Washington takes the trope of a “soul brother,” and the trope of a determined black cop (think Denzel Washington in Inside Man 24 March 2016, Spike Lee) and masterfully blends them together. Not only that but he plays a character who is performing whiteness over the phone, a possible call back (no pun intended) to Sorry To Bother You (6 July 2018, dir Boots Riley) as well as an actual recount of the events that happened in real life Ron Stallworth’s book Black Klansman: A Memoir (16 January 2014 Police and Fire Publishing, Ron Stallworth). In another multilayered performance, Adam Driver as Flip Zimmerman absolutely nails it as well. I will preface by saying that from Girls (15 April 2012, created by Lena Dunham) and This Is Where I Leave You (19 September 2014, Shawn Levy), to now BlacKkKlansman and even his role as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars films, I’m a fan of Adam Driver. Adam Driver’s performance as a more experienced undercover Jewish (albeit non-practicing) cop faking as a Ku Klux Klan member while having to impersonate Ron Stallworth’s voice to the best of his abilities, is so well done I’m nothing shy of utterly impressed once again by the actor. As for the rest of the rest of the Klansman, Felix, Ivanhoe, and Walter Breachway, actors Jasper Pääkkönen, Paul Walter Houser, and Ryan Eggold absolutely convinced me they were bitter, angry men with nothing but utter contempt for black Americans and Jewish peoples. The kind of guys who would join and adopt the ideology of the KKK. These actors gave a scary realistic portrayal of their characters. However, with that said, I’ll admit that Topher Grace as David Duke left me thinking only one thing, “How the fuck did Eric Foreman get into the KKK?” Because let’s be honest... I don’t think Topher Grace will ever do a more iconic role. Yet having Foreman as the leader of the KKK does fit nicely with the idea of Ron Stallworth putting his foot up the Klan’s ass. On an ending note I also want to acknowledge Laura Harrier’s performance as black activist, student leader, and love interest Patrice. She plays a vital representative role as a powerful individual and courageous black woman in a leadership role providing a platform for the black demographic in the films Colorado Springs setting. (I would talk more about setting is a character in this film but this post is already pretty lengthy, just know that Colorado Springs is historically far right-wing conservative.) What’s more is the importance in the dialogue between Patrice — who fights for black activism and fair treatment through speech, platform, and protest — and Stallworth who is fighting for the same cause but from within the system. The conversation and dichotomy between these two in the film is an important discussion on different methods to similar means.

Now I know there are A LOT of things this review didn’t cover, however it wasn’t really my aim to comprehensively cover BlacKkKlansman. More so it was to provide maybe a different perspective of thoughts and experience watching the film from what other more rudimentary reviews might say. Most importantly though, what this review is above all, is nothing more than me getting stoned, watching a cool movie, and then writing some words about it.

With that said, the last bit I want to leave you all with is there are a lot of small easter eggs in the film. Obviously there is the footage from Gone With the Wind and Birth of a Nation, but also the soundtrack uses the same theme — Steve Switcharoo by composer Terence Blanchard — as another famous Spike Lee movie, Inside Man. There are many more in the film and I’m sure I didn’t catch all of them, after all I was pretty baked.

As far as ratings go, Rotten Tomatoes gives BlacKkKlansman a 96%, Metacritic a 76%, and IMDb rates the film at 7.8/10. For those not familiar with my rating system, I use a system akin to John Oliver’s arbitrary and absurdist rating system. Therefore, with all said and done, between having-your-campsite-raided-by-bears-while-you’re-not-looking, and sky-diving-into-a-ball-pit-the-size-of-Lake-Erie, I give BlacKkKlansman a having-pizza-on-Sunday.

PM

p.s. I now want more buddy-cop thriller with John David Washington and Adam Driver.

[aion-rsa]

X-POSITION: All-New Wolverine’s Tom Taylor Teases ResurrXion & Reunions

Wolverine just survived one major battle — and now she’s wasted no time jumping into a new one. With “Enemy of the State II” concluded, the star of “All-New Wolverine” has a major new problem to deal with in the title’s new “Immune” storyline. Not only does “All-New Wolverine” kick off a new storyline from writer Tom Taylor and new series artist Leonard Kirk, it also brings Laura Kinney into ResurrXion — a bold new era for Marvel’s mutants!

RELATED: After 12 Years, The All-New Wolverine Finally Overcomes [SPOILER]

This week in X-POSITION, “All-New X-Men” writer Tom Taylor returns and answers all of your questions about “Immune,” ResurrXion and more.

CBR News: Welcome back to X-POSITION, Tom! Let’s start with a question from Greg about Laura’s team membership.

With Old Man Logan now appearing in four X-books and (to the best of my knowledge) Laura only appearing in her own book, do you know of any plans for Laura to join an X-team as Wolverine in the not-too-distant future? It feels weird that she claimed the mantle of Wolverine but isn’t interacting with the X-Men.

The Immune storyline keeps Laura separate from the X-Teams in the immediate future as you’ll understand when you read it. But there are certainly some other mutants coming to our book very soon. And some more guest stars. For now, Laura won’t be part of any X-team, but who knows what the future holds.

“All-New Wolverine” #20 variant cover by Helen Chen

Ambaryerno has a question about Laura’s long lost family and their role in the book.

At long last Laura has finally gotten to reunite with her remaining family. Are we going to get to see more of Megan and Debbie in the future?

I really hope so. I wanted to give them a bit more at the end of “Enemy of the State II,” but there was a lot to pack in. Our original plan was to give them some time together straight away, but the “Immune” storyline has thrust us forward very quickly. I am very happy we’re able to have Megan and Debbie come out of hiding though, and provide some more family for Laura and Gabby… and Jonathan.

I will say Laura has other family in her life who may be appearing soon.

On the topic of upcoming guest stars, Ambaryerno has another Q.

Are there any other reunions we can look forward to? In particular the New X-Men, who she hasn’t really interacted with since “Second Coming.” She especially had close friendships with Mercury and Dust, but only briefly spoke with Dust after “AvX,” and hasn’t really shared panel time with Cessily at all since “New X-Men” ended. And of course the inevitable will we ever get to see Laura and Julian at least mend their friendship?

There are no plans just yet. I think I mentioned in another interview that the messiness of Laura and Julian’s break-up meant that, if they do come back together, it needs to not be a throwaway thing. If Hellion reappears in her life, it needs to be important.

Next, Valamist wonders how you balance “All-New Wolverine’s” tone.

One of the things I love about your book is the mixture of serious drama, claw-popping action and character humor. Is it hard to balance that out?

Honestly, I kind of do it naturally. I was professional juggler, fire-eater and street performer for a lot of years when I was younger, and I approach my writing the same way. First and foremost, I want to entertain people. That means shocks, emotion and humor.

“All-New Wolverine” #20 variant cover by Leonard Kirk

Marvel also has a storyline called “Generations” coming up soon, and Chad wonders how it might impact “All-New Wolverine.”

Will “All-New Wolverine” show any of the impact of the upcoming “Generations” story? I read that Logan and Laura would be teaming up. Any chance to see that in your book?

I’m in the middle of writing Laura and Logan in our “Generations” story. I can’t say too much at this stage, but I’m really looking forward to it. There may be ninjas. Though, I guess you can say that about any story, because Ninjas are pretty good at hiding.

There’s another wolverine that people are curious about, and his name is Jonathan. Here’s a question from Paul about Wolverine’s pet Wolverine.

Will there be any spotlight moments for Jonathan? He is the cutest addition to Marvel Comics in recent years and a small spotlight story would be fun to see. I know that he had an origin story that was taken out of the annual. Will that story ever see print?

Never say never. I’m glad Jonathan the Actual Wolverine has such a following. He won’t be seen for a few issues, but look for him in #22.

Beaubier has a question about the fallout from “Enemy of the State II.”

Will we see some of the emotional fallout from Laura breaking her no-kill rule to finish Kimura for good? Or is that story over and done with?

I think that’s done and dusted. Kimura had enough of a hold on Laura for so long, that I think she’s due for some headspace without her. There are still elements of her past, which will always be part of her, her time on the streets, etc. However, Kimura and the Trigger scent, both of which were a constant threat, are finally gone.

“All-New Wolverine’s” getting a new artist for “Immune,” and MiddlePegasus wants to know what it’s like working with Leonard Kirk.

So excited for the ResurrXion direction. What can you tell us about your new collaborator, Leonard Kirk? What has he brought to “All-New Wolverine” that you’re excited for us to see?

Leonard is fantastic. I loved his art on “Agents of Atlas,” and I was damn happy when I heard we’d snagged him for “All-New Wolverine.” As soon as I saw his first sketches, and saw how much character he was bringing to Laura and Gabby, I knew we were in for something special. For a writer, working with a storyteller of his caliber is a joy.

“All-New Wolverine” #20 cover by Adam Kubert

And we’ll close out this week with a few questions from healed1337.

Although I thought the end of the Laura/Kimura conflict was dramatically effective, it does kind of leave Laura without a dedicated rival or villain. Any chance we’ll see the rise of someone else to take her place, even if it won’t be quite the same?

It’s possible that’s exactly what we will see soon.

With both James Mangold and Dafne keen interested in continuing X-23’s story in the movies (not to mention the very positive reception for X-23 in “Logan”), what do you hope to see for Laura’s on-screen counterpart in the future?

I was pretty worried going into “Logan,” but I can happily say it floored me. I was already emotionally close to the character, having spent two years in Laura’s head, and seeing her so well realized in the film I knew people would be screaming for more. I truly hope she takes over from Logan and becomes the All-New Wolverine on screen as well.

However, I think the name X-23 needs to be rethought. She’s left the name behind in the comics. X-23 was the name given to her by the facility who created and tortured her. She’s more than a successful experiment. She’s more than a letter and a number.

Special thanks to Tom Taylor for taking on this week’s questions! “All-New Wolverine” #19 arrives in stores on April 5.

Next week, “X-Men Gold” writer Marc Guggenheim returns to X-POSITION to answer your questions! Have a question for Marc? Go ahead and send ’em in via e-mail with the subject line “X-Position”. But get ’em in quickly, because the deadline’s Friday. Make it happen!

The post X-POSITION: All-New Wolverine’s Tom Taylor Teases ResurrXion & Reunions appeared first on CBR.

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