#and the prequel costumes were all really good and interesting

[lacewise]

We don’t talk enough about how good the lace adorning Amidala’s wedding outfit was. Like… that’s good lace (each type conveying something different), and the way it was used completely succeeds in instantly scrambling my “when/where is that from” radar, as intended.

[thedirtiwalkoniswet]

I finished the Obi Wan series and wow it is... not good.

I just watched the bad batch (actually solo inbetween but that was so bad I won't mention it further) and this show surprised me with how good it was. When these characters were introduced in season 7 of clone wars I was sure I wouldn't like the show, because they annoyed the hell out of me. But then I actually got to watching the show and it was good all the way through.

So Obi Wan was a whiplash. I have a lot of thoughts.

It's bad. It's so bad. For one, it looks cheap. The main reason I think is the lighting, half the time it is so painfully obvious it was filmed in a studio, and it takes any emergence that you could've had. They also could've color graded a little, it is boring to look at. Additionally is everything so stale, nothing in the background moves, there is 0 wind essentially in the show. The budget also definetly didn't went into make up and costume design, but that is so obvious it's barely worth noting and not the worst part.

The worst part, by far, is the dialog however. The actors are great, I know they are great, but they still struggle so hard to make the dialog sound normal and they can barely do that, because it is so, so bad. They just string random sentences together that don't make sense as a whole anymore. The actors can't react properly to the dialog, because in real life you'd look at them with the most confused face, like what the hell are you talking about bro. It is a shame that great actors are wasted on terrible dialog, that could have easily been better.

Additionally is the camera work quite odd. It can be decent occasionally, I think the scene were "Leia" gets dressed was nicely done and so are some other scenes. But then you get the scenes like when Reva was climbing on these buildings, which had terrible camerawork. Don't get me wrong, there is charm in the camera not being completely stiff, but they're just shaking it around whenever a fight scene comes up or any scene that isn't completely peaceful. It is jarring and makes the show look like a fan project, and not even a good one.

The action scenes also feel slow somehow. I know I can't compare it to a cartoon, obviously not. But I can compare it to action scenes from the prequels or Andor. In Obi Wan, it very much feels like the characters are holding back, when they clearly shouldn't be. Everyone is running and moving so slowly, it only makes me frustrated to see. I fear it might be because the actors weren't given enough time to rehearse or not enough care was put into choreographing/ editing. Even the fight between Vader and Obi Wan at the end was meh, and that was for most the best part. Yeah, it's cool he can use the force again, yeah it's sad that he has to accept that Anakin is not there anymore and Vader is all that's left. But... what else? This was what the entire show led up to and it could have been better. At least the location was extremely cool.

Tragically I'm still not done. Because another issue is that it is simply not a good experience. I'm not saying it has to be a happy one, but even tragic stories can make you engaged and riled up. It was a very bold desiscion to completely change Obi Wan, considering that in episode 3 and 4, he is extremely similar. So they had to change him just to bring him back to who we knew. Usually I LOVE angst, I think it is so interesting to see characters who you love go through hard times and evolve and change. But somehow it didn't work with him at all. I blame it mostly on the writing being so in your face, so bland and without nuance. Star wars was never known for good dialog, but usually that was George Lucas' fault and he wasn't really involved in the writing as far as I know.

There are good ideas sprinkled in. But it mostly felt like somebody said "you know what would be cool to see?" and then they wrote the plot around it to make it happen. (Like that pick up driver or whatever the space version would be)

Maybe I have so much to say because it is a huge shame. It could've been good, it could have been great. And yet it is genuinely terrible, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. To me this is some of the worst star wars media I have seen out of what I watched so far. Only Solo being worse (I fucking hate that movie). BUT I do think it's salvagable. They could make a fantastic season 2, it is very easily possible if they only put more effort in the writing and maybe fire Chung Chung-Hoon.

If you like it I am super happy for you, I know I ripped it apart, but please don't let me ruin something you like, despite all of this. My uncle loved this show and I can't talk to him about the show because I am not blinded by nostalgia bait. You can tangle any familiar character in front of him and he will most likely like it. (He liked Boba Fett and I haven't seen anyone liking it yet, but I haven't watched this one either so I don't have an opinion yet)

[naughtygirl286]

So we went to see the new Aliens movie Alien: Romulus. I can honestly can say I'm not a huge fan of the Alien(s) franchise I like them and I have seen them all and have some of them on disk and in the digital collection. I say I'm not a huge fan I just like Predator more. I think Predator is more interesting design/style wise and story wise nothing against H.R. Giger of course its just a preference as a fan thats all but yeah we went to see this new terrifying chapter. Also yes there was collectable goodies which you can see here.

Anyway about the movie I thought it was great I really liked it. I felt it was very reminiscent of the original 4 movies like they took aspects of them and put them into this even some stuff from the two prequel movies Prometheus and Covenant.

but I would have to say this movie drew more on the first 2 movies Alien and Aliens then any of the other ones. Also this is like a direct sequel to the original Alien being it takes place like 20 years after the events of that movie being they talk about in this.

the basic story for this a group of people are wanting to escape their lives working in the mines on a mining colony planet and discover what seems like an abandoned ship and they are going to use cryo pods to escape to another planet. So they go up to the ship and find out that it is a derelict space station which unknown to them had found the remains of the Alien Xenomorph from the first movie and were doing experiments on it. So while these people are looking for the cryo pods they inadvertently unleashed the aliens and now have to survive in order to get off the station.

I knew this was going to be good being it was directed and co written by blank who did both Don't Breath and the recent Evil Dead which were both amazing movies so I knew that this was going to be very good and being he is a horror director this movie played up the horror alot which i think this franchise should be. It did have some actiony bits to it but was as actiony as say Aliens which was good. like I said it should be a horror franchise.

The the visuals were of course impressive the production and set design were all really good and felt like the same time period as the first movie. also the creature effects were excellent. There was an amazing amount of of Facehugger action which was cool I think maybe this is the most you seen them scurrying around on screen? I'm not sure but you actually got to see them almost stalking the human characters. Also the character called the "Offspring" was crazy weird and creepy and its kind of hard to believe that the character is not CGI but an actual person in a suit with like prosthetics?!? That alone is a bit terrifying in itself I was shocked to find out that was a real person in a costume.

In the end the movie was great I enjoyed it alot and I think any fan of the Alien series would enjoy it being it brings the movies back to their horror roots.

[tytangfei]

Jina’s dramas awards 2023

It’s here! I feel like I say this every time, but truly, this year, I had less time to devote to dramas. Also, there were few dramas that held my full attention from beginning to end, so this year's list will be pretty short! (Check out my favs from 2020 , 2021, and from 2022.)

As usual, these are mostly Chinese historical/period romance dramas. I do have a category for modern dramas but I didn't watch any this year, so I'll be taking it off for this year. :)

Best Overall Drama

Lost You Forever (Season 1): A brilliant first episode played by talented kid actors who just drew you to this solemn, aching world of xiao yao and others. Technically, the drama isn't over, but my goodness, the characters are so good. The actors are chef's kiss.

Most Delightful/Fun Drama

The Starry Love: Knowing xianxia and wuxia genres, I expected this drama to have more angst, but I was laughing more than I was crying. A strong ensemble cast too that made everything more fun. I love this drama so much.

Most Impactful Drama

Lost You Forever: I still mull over certain scenes, cry over the characters' back stories and motivations and what gives them grief. I am still patiently waiting for season 2.

Drama with the Best Soundtrack

Circle of Love: Bangers after bangers. I still play it after all these months. The drama is such a wild intense ride, it was super entertaining.

Best Costume/Design/Set Drama

My Journey to You: Everything felt so elevated and elegant and sharp and mysterious and dangerous. Love it.

Best Short Drama

Butterflied Lover: This director never misses. Adore the two couples, even though the plot slowed down a little bit about 2/3 of the way. Beautifully shot, interesting storyline, happy ending. Nothing else I could ask for from a short drama.

Most Unexpected Drama (aka the Dark Horse) / Drama(s) I'm Enjoying Right Now But Have Not Finished

Mysterious Lotus Casebook, A Journey to Love, and The Last Immortal. For all three, I was surprised I enjoyed them so much. For MLC and AJTL, I know there are some major characters deaths, so I have yet the heart to finish it but I know that I've enjoyed a huge portion of it and I know their endings will not ruin that.

The Last Immortal is still airing and could have a disastrous end since they have to cut a lot to fit the 40-ep max limit, but I am surprised that I really like the characters. Unlike their prequel An Ancient Love Poetry where I did not care for the male lead's God self, for this drama, I care much about gu jin/yuan qi and a yin. I hope this drama ends on a good note.

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

That’s all for me! Did we share any favs? Which drama would you in what category? Feel free to let me know. :) Thanks, all! Here's to new and beloved dramas in 2024!

[jimmythejiver]

I don't have the citations and receipts to prove it, but I swear most creative decisions in the post-Eisner era of Disney has been fueled by the fact that their biggest rival Universal owned the rights to Wicked.

Think about the fact that they had Stephen Schwartz on Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame during the Renaissance and got him for their send up Enchanted with Idina Menzel in the cast) which like Tangled and Frozen would not be what they are without Wicked, from the stupid titling scheme to initially hiring Kristen Chenoweth as Rapunzel before replacing her with Mandy Moore and ultimately hiring Idina Menzel (again) for Elsa and deciding she ain't so bad after all and hell let's delete Kai and invent Anna the plucky contrast to her to really drive it home.

How about the fact that they bought and made a meh adaptation of Into The Woods, the original 'Kind is not Good' fairytale subversion broadway show. The okay that was a thing Maleficent movies where the king rips off her wings and Mal was misunderstood she was Briar Rose's real protector, see.

The fact that they sure love to market their villains, but boy do they not like to make new ones that aren't corrupted forces of nature that need their heart back to be good again or c.e.o.'s who gave us utopia only to find out he killing the planet oopsies or deceptive seemingly trustworthy Wizard-like authority figures who will stab you in the back in their best interest. A villain is either a twist to be subverted or is the hero you followed along, see. Something tells me the Mufasa movie is their half-apology or reasoning for why Scar is like that when the new Aladdin and Little Mermaid did shit for Jafar or Ursula but make them bland because they didn't have time to bake another uwu, babied misunderstood anti-villain so they made sure they can't chew the scenery or have too big of personalities to latch onto by children either, that be irresponsible.

Disney wants Elphaba and they're mad they don't have the special sauce that Broadway somehow wrangled out of a confusing book full of misdirection that pleased no one but the author and people who hate the Judy Garland film and would never read Frank L. Baum anyway to understand these characters are just different from that film and the shoes were not the Wicked Witch's birthright she wanted their power, it was not that deep, but so much of Maguire's decisions don't work once you account for Baum's that never accounted for the future MGM's art and costuming department, casting and script consolidations, but all Disney sees is, 'That Judy Garland movie should've been ours and fuck these people making sequels and prequels, those should've been ours.'

We see the root of this problem that existed before Eisner took over with Return to Oz under Ron Miller. As a company they've never forgiven anyone for having piece of the Oz pie. Oh, post-Eisner they swung their dick again and made that forgettable James Franco prequel, I almost forgot! A warning to Universal who guarded Wicked's movie rights for decades and the anger they have that Warner Bros. still owns the rights to the Judy Garland film while all of Baum's books are in the public domain before Eisner's lawyers could lobby with Senator Bono to extend copyright law in the 90's.

Eisner cooperated with Warner Bros. to license an Oz sequence with an advance for it's time Wicked Witch animatronic in the Great Movie Ride, in fact a majority of the films i. Thatbride came from WB's vault. Bob Iger let that ride get scrapped for Pirates of the Carribean's update for Red. You know what else Eisner didn't do that Bob Iger did? Not make a stupid Cruella prequel to explain why she's so misunderstood, just a straight live action remake of the cartoon and Jungle Book that was boring, and not a whole lot of these were as churned out in his era as there was bad sequels to the cartoons, but oops Iger's doing that too.

Real point is Wicked the musical premiered in 2003, Eisner stepped down in 2005. Eisner and his people couldn't figure out the Snow Queen as anything but a romantic comedy co-starring a villain love interest because he forgot Ariel existed as a misunderstood and manipulated hero who could have served as a template for another similar Andersen character. Under Iger's people they casted og Elphaba and decided halfway they needed to not make her a villain after all. Coincidence? I think not!

[backgroundagent3]

Have you seen the prequel movie? If yes🌹>>>

A. In your opinion, please rate TBOSAS movie with 1-10 scale.

(1 = I hate it, 10 = I love it.)

Things that you like :

Things that you don't like :

B. For people who also read the novel.

Your opinions about the difference between the book and the movie :

Thank you 🎼

@curiousnonny

Hi! I have seen the movie, but I haven't read the book yet. I'd rate it a 9/10.

I loved the costumes so much, especially the Capitol ones I thought were cool. Also liked the story, it was really interesting and not what I expected at all, but in a good way.

This is gonna sound really stupid but what I didn't like we're the snakes. Yes, I know they're literally in the title, but they still terrify me. I had to look away whenever they showed up, but other than that I loved the movie.

Thank you for the ask!

[battlestar-royco]

PLEASE tell us why you hate the dumb dragon prequel show??

Oh god, I've talked about it so much over on my main @ripley-stark that I forgot that I haven't really made my opinion known here. If you want the long answer, I've been posting voraciously under the #alicent hightower and #hotd tags since the show started airing.

Tl;dr, I really wanted to love this show! There are lots of good character concepts and... attempted... themes, and the acting, costume design etc is stellar. I think that's one of the reasons why it still occupies my thoughts to this extent and I haven't just moved on. I was extremely hesitant going in because I find the Targs incredibly boring and distasteful, but I was genuinely shocked to love 1.01-1.03. I had a few blissful weeks of thinking, Not me... liking the Targ show?

I should've known. After that point it started to become demonstrably clear that the writers were only interested in glorifying literally every action taken by Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Viserys at the cost of any other character, especially Alicent. No one has an arc. No one has a consistent personality that coheres with their actions/backstory. All POV scenes center around Rhaenyra. Anyone against Rhaenyra, Daemon, or Viserys is a villain--a misogynist in particular.

There is a blatant double standard between the behavior of these three and of any other character. Everyone on the show commits morally gray acts, but actions are portrayed as good or evil based on which character commits them. The characters don't drive the plot; they exist to exalt Rhaenyra through the events of the F&B story the show is based on. Rhaenyra has no flaws. Alicent has every flaw. Rhaenyra is always the victim and Alicent is at fault for every aspect of her own and Rhaenyra's circumstance. In fact the show goes out of its way to exemplify how Alicent is inferior to Rhaenyra in every way and has no valid reason to go against her besides her own internalized misogyny.

This is not a show about a woman rebelling against a sexist system. It's not even a show about two compelling women navigating the patriarchy and vying for power. This is a show about Rhaenyra being correct all the time, about Rhaenyra being the model of behavior for all women. Her and her family's objectively evil and oppressive actions along the way to her goal were all justified because her being queen is the ultimate achievement for all womankind. Despite the fact that she is literally the richest and most powerful woman on the planet with a dragon and her rapist/pedophile/colonizer father and uncle's favor, other women are somehow her worst oppressors and should act more like her to be better people. #feminism.

[soul-dwelling]

In the Soul Eater world, would stage magicians like Chris Angel, Penn and Teller, and David Copperfield be performing in "Witchface"?

...Huh. That's actually a good question I had not considered.

We know from the NOT manga that Kim found it awkward to dress up as a witch for Halloween, in a costume that Jackie made for her. On first look, I thought it was a rather typical Halloween witch costume: the hat, the shawl. However, it only went so far as Kim being a bit confused whether a "real witch" would ever dress up like that, and that's when I noticed the witch outfit had more of a punk aesthetic.

(It also was a witch costume not too far removed from what we have seen Angela, Eruka, and Mabaa wear...as well as that one witch from that one Soul Eater prequel [not Soul Eater NOT, the other one] that I'm not going to talk about because that series can piss off, but now I'm going on a diatribe...)

So, in canon, there doesn't seem to be much of a cultural taboo or evidence obvious to me yet that someone in a witch outfit would be considered imitating the culture and look of someone else. (Granted, I also think this exceeds Ohkubo's field of interest, seeing as he tends to sidestep how problematic details would be if taken to a more believable degree--but, again, after that prequel crap he put out [again, not Soul Eater NOT, the other one] where he just went off the rails and ruined the worldbuilding in Soul Eater, yeah, "Ohkubo didn't think this through" seems to be a common problem.)

That being said, given how irate certain witches like Medusa were with sorcerers like Noah, it's not a major leap to then think that imitating magic with stage magic a la Penn and Teller, etc, could be bothersome. If we saw more of the Soul Eater world in canon, maybe that could've been addressed easily as, "Well, that's just illusions, not real magic, Michael," and that avoids an argument that it's trying to make fun of witches.

So, to finally give some answer to your question: I would imagine, in Soul Eater, that enough people know a stage magician is not the same as a witch, so unless there is a magician actively taking on the attire (like Jackie's Halloween outfit for Kim), customs, iconography, and terminology of witches, people in that setting know enough that a stage magician is not witch-face...but that doesn't preclude that there are very likely some magicians who are taking on the aesthetics and customs of witches for the sake of aping them for laughs, cultural appropriation, and to perpetuate a propaganda campaign against witches, it's just all something we never got to see in Soul Eater.

I'll repeat, Ohkubo really didn't bother to take this to any logical conclusion, and that's a shame, because I can imagine a story where we see how Lord Death and others participate in a wider propaganda campaign than what we have seen yet in canon, where witches are not just accused of crimes we have seen but that it's exaggerated to the point of villainizing all of them, and then we're forced to wrestle with how that propaganda led to demonizing Kim until she doesn't feel welcome at the DWMA, or show how someone like Black Star may have fallen for that hype before confronting Angela. But this isn't the villains in My Hero Academia who get humanized, or Nimona where the "monster" gets humanized--this is Soul Eater, where these kind of complicated story ideas are left for fanfiction.

Instead, we just reduce the entire origin of witches in Soul Eater to some fink from Fire Force (THAT'S THE PREQUEL), dragging down what could have been an engrossing bit of worldbuilding into some pain in the ass who wanted Shinra to get her pregnant.

... ... ...

I wish, like a magician, I could make Fire Force disappear...

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Series Theories 3/?

Please Note: Before I get into my next theory, I wanted to warn you ahead of time that this theory will contain some spoilers for Mackenzi Lee’s novel, Loki: Where Mischief Lies, the post-credit scene of Ant-Man: Quantumania, and, obviously, for the Loki season one tv show. However, it will also spoil the entire “plot twist” (if you can call it that) for my fic on AO3 Choose Me. So if you have not read or seen one or several of these, and intend to, I would wait to read on unless you don’t mind spoilers. 

Okay, let’s get into it.

Mobius is Theo Bell (from Where Mischief Lies)

I mostly just want this to be canon because I love Loki and Theo and I think they’re really cute and I want Theo to be in Loki. And I think that Mobius and Loki are really cute and I think that they need them to be together, like yesterday, and I’m annoyed that they aren’t already together. 

Anyway, Mobius is Theo. The main points of this theory are, one: Mobius was once on the Timeline (presumably on Earth, but we don’t necessarily know that for sure). Mobius does not have a fucking clue who he was. As such, since he was once on the timeline, that means that he had a life. And what would be more interesting than if we knew what that life was? That he wasn’t just some guy, but someone that comic book fans or fans of Loki specifically would recognize. 

Specifically, a Victorian young man who walks with a cane, in a novel, called Where Mischief Lies, by Mackenzi Lee. (That everybody should read, because it’s a very good book, and is meant to serve as a prequel to the Loki from the MCU.) And Loki’s already been in love with him, so it wouldn’t take much more, especially if he’s already in love with Mobius. Then he wouldn’t have to choose between them. 

Theo does look different that Mobius. He has red hair and freckles, so he may have been older when the TVA took him and wiped his memories (and I don’t know if Owen Wilson has freckles). Or they may have just changed his hair color. And Theo walks with a cane and Mobius obviously does not. So I’m thinking the TVA might have some kind of technology that speeds up healing, like the Guardians do. However, I’m not sure if that works on permanently disabled limbs, since at the point that we meet Theo in the book, his leg has been hurt for years. But maybe it does. Or, maybe the technology can go back in time on just the limb to fix the limb like it was never broken, or some other technique. (Like how in that scene in Doctor Strange, when he changes time just on the apple. I think. It’s been awhile since I saw that movie.) Regardless, I don’t think we’ve seen all the technology that the TVA is able to use. Therefore, I think it’s possible that they have the technology to fix Theo’s leg.

Canon Likelihood: Mobius is Theo.......Unlikely

I think that the tape of Loki’s life in the TVA would have been a prime opportunity for them to reference the book, if they were going to set up a situation where Theo Bell is revealed to be Mobius or Theo Bell is going to show up at some point in the series. The tape is mostly clips of the MCU, but they also show the new clip of Loki being DB Cooper. While I don’t think they would have wanted to spend a lot of time in that scene introducing moments in Loki’s life that we haven’t seen before, I think if they were really determined to bring Theo in, they would have included it with this scene alongside DB Cooper. Since they didn’t do that, I don’t think they’re setting anything up to reveal Theo Bell as Mobius or at least his explicit existence in the MCU.

That being said, in the post-credit scene of Quantumania, when Loki and (we don’t know which) Mobius track Kang down, given the costuming, presumably they’re in Victorian something-or-other. Victorian where, I’m not sure, but Victorian England would be my guess. And it’s a scene that is somewhat reminiscent of things that happen in Where Mischief Lies (obviously Kang isn’t in that, but the atmosphere is similar). So I don’t think Mobius is Theo Bell (I think he should be, that’s why it’s still one of my theories, but I don’t think they’re setting it up that way canonically). Or even for Theo Bell to be a casted, credited part of the MCU. However, he might get an easter egg. The Sharp Society might show up on a sign or something that they pass during this episode. And that’s still exciting to me, and I’ll probably lose my mind if I see that. 

So I’m putting this specific theory in an Unlikely but hopeful category. The possibility of Theo Bell even coming up in the MCU, also in an Unlikely but hopeful category. The potential for Where Mischief Lies to be referenced in some capacity in season two, Likely. 

[magnorious]

The Winchesters is Unnecessarily Competent

I like to have TV on as background noise while I work and the other day, I put on The Winchesters because I thought it would be dumb and campy and I wouldn’t have to pay attention. I’d forgotten a Supernatural prequel series existed until scrolling past it on HBO Max. I had never seen a trailer or read any press about it, and I had no idea what I was walking into.

I’m halfway through episode 1 when I see John Winchester team up in a poorly choreographed fight against a demon with Mary Campbell and I start paying attention, waiting for something to swoop in and roofie John to next Thursday, and wipe his memory. But that doesn’t happen. This John knows exactly what demons are.

Having skipped seasons 8-15, save a few episodes here and there, of Supernatural, I missed most of the Men of Letters and Jack shenanigans. But I remember very clearly that a ton of drama in the earlier seasons came from the boys having no idea that their mother was a hunter, and came from a long line of hunters, until a reveal in season… 4, I believe. John never had any idea of his wife’s history, as shown through a couple time travel episodes.

This was a big deal to Sam and Dean. Earth-shattering revelations had all around.

So when The Winchesters decided to retcon that… morbid curiosity had me paying attention solely to find out if this would crash and burn spectacularly with how little the writers seemed to understand about the source material.

Only, The Winchesters didn’t crash and burn. It has solid acting, decent period-appropriate costuming and set design, fantastic characters with a lot of depth, a very Supernatural main antagonist, especially toward the later seasons, and a very clear love and respect for the source material.

And I’m… baffled?

The show was clearly designed for those who had seen Supernatural. The title credits are the same font and the title card has the same sound cues from Supernatural. There’s that old familiar classic rock soundtrack and tons of winks and nods to famous lines from the show, “Saving people, hunting things” being one of them, “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole,” as well.

When actors came to reprise their roles, the music swells upon the face reveal, there’s a big dramatic pause so fangirls can squeal and point at the screen like DiCaprio in that meme. Jensen Ackles reprised his role to narrate and eventually makes an appearance on screen. It’s a good time. It’s a fun time. They rely on familiar faces just enough to have a laugh, and let the main cast of this show have the spotlight, all the way to the end.

There’s some heavy character moments, like Carlos confronting Loki and really, confronting himself, and Lata finally opening up about her past. They also brought in some unique and interesting monsters of the week that felt like the old show. I did think the convenience of using CB radios in lieu of cell phones was a bit, well, convenient, but it never broke the immersion.

But it screws the canon up so badly that I was still baffled until the very last closing info dump explaining that (spoiler alert) this entire show is one big AU, explaining away why Loki (wink wink, nudge nudge) goes down the way he goes, why the actors look different than those from Supernatural playing John, Mary, and Samuel, why these Akrida are never mentioned in Supernatural even though they were a massive threat in this prequel.

At first, I thought that was a massive cop-out. Making this an AU removes any complications the writers would have to face trying to maintain continuity– none of what happens here matters in the main show and none of it adds any nuance because we’re not looking at the 1960s past of anyone we cared about in Supernatural. I’m also sick of multi-verses at this point and studios thinking “multi-verse” adds any sort of stakes to a story.

Then the credits rolled and I had some thoughts.

Now I will say, there is some weirdness. Team Free Will this time around is rounded out by Carlos, who’s gay and hispanic, and Lata, an Indian woman, and their Bobby stand-in, Ada, a black woman. And, the thorn in their side all season is a young, unmarried hispanic cop…. In Kansas. In 1960-something. Surrounded by white men.

All these characters are well-acted, well written, and well-developed, but given the time period, and the setting of middle-America… there’s no racism or homophobia? And, apparently, there’s a solid support system for vets suffering PTSD that totally, absolutely existed back then, for sure.

Weirdest nitpick to have, I know. I’m happy not having an obligatory racist or homophobe bullying these characters, but the script almost seems to ignore that it existed entirely. Maybe on this Alternate Earth, everyone was living in Candy Land, but something definitely felt too polished about how un-hateful the side characters were. Not even surly Samuel is racist. Unless I missed something, of course correct me, it was on in the background for some moments and I don’t remember every single scene after binging it all at once.

Dean’s ending expository monologue feels like an info-dump slap in the face, that can’t be ignored. The final fight ends and none of these characters know who he is, he’s there for the audience, so he’s talking and I believe only John and Mary even get to ask him questions. The other characters are awkwardly silent, standing off-screen.

Cas doesn’t exist. It would be weird to have him there when Sam never showed up, but given what happened with the Supernatural finale also pretending he doesn’t exist, it was a little disappointing not seeing an appearance of his character in another vessel, or any of the angels, back when he was his old, awkward, stick-in-the-ass self. Sam gets a name drop, Bobby comes back, Crowley isn’t mentioned by name, but there’s a wink and a nod there, and... no Cas. At all. 

But with all that said.

The Winchesters is just a fun romp in the past… and it knows it. It’s not burdened by the chains of continuity. It can make these characters do and be whatever it wants. And, watching it post-pandemic, when so much of TV is stripped and streamlined into one long movie with no room for filler or side-quests, seeing filler and side-quests was refreshing. (I recently watched season 1 of Gotham for the first time and that same nostalgia for old storytelling hit. Sometimes filler is a good thing, damn it). The Winchesters, for a prequel series to a show that ran 15 seasons into the ground and blew up with a spectacularly infamous finale, is unnecessarily competent.

[notebookmusical]

Aww that's so nice that you were watching a livestream while I was there. I'm so happy that I got to experience that and happy I got to go at all. It was really amazing and I already miss it. The thing with surprise songs is that it's really subjective..like a coworkers daughter apparently said she would have rather seen All of the Girls..which is also cool. I would've liked that too but it was better for me that Aaron was there cuz that doesn't happen every show. The only thing that could've possibly made it better is if she brought Hayley out too..lol. Anyway loved it so much and she did also wear the pink Folklore dress which is one I was hoping for. It was just so cool to even see the Folklore cabin in person too and the Vigilante chair dance.

Anyway..for my other ask..I usually don't read sequels or series. The only time I did was with HP or Twilight and that was when all the sequels were already out. But I totally get what you mean about cash grab and spinoffs. I'm interested in the new Hunger Games movie spinoff though! I think sometimes it's natural or it might be because readers want more. Like with this one, I think the book is like 10 years old and people have discovered it and seeing people like it inspired her to write more maybe? Also it works sometimes when you are writing a different characters perspective too..which is the case here apparently. If I did read series regularly, I would probably forget about it too though lol. Also..I loved the first season of Crazy Ex Girlfriend!!! I never got to finish it though cuz I stopped having Netflix..but I do like when a show is able to wrap up the story. I feel like that happens more often now actually..like when a show is based on a book so there is only one season. Then there's something like the new Sex and the City reboot show which seems kinda unnecessary but you still wanna watch for the characters lol. I did like how they updated part of it..like what it would be like for them now and in their 50s though..which made it seem a little fresh at least but it was just okay. I know people were unhappy with Gilmore Girls too..which idk how to feel about either. So I'm usually up for having more to a story or characters I love but sometimes it messes with what you already imagined in your head I guess. These two books do stand on their own though and you probably don't need to read the sequel either unless you want to and that's if you like it lol. I probably will though cuz I get curious and then I could let you know how it is. Also if you do end up reading Some Mistakes Were Made..you could let me know how it is, or I could start reading it again..or together maybe? I've taken a break from reading too this week since I was focused on Taylor but excited to get back to it. I hope you have an awesome trip in Chicago this week! 🩷

hi 🩷 friend!!!! i missed you while i was out of town 🤍 i hope you've been doin well! what have you been up to? have you read anything good lately? it is so, so interesting how people feel about surprise songs!! because to me i think they're just a bonus to the 43 songs that we're already incredibly lucky to hear, but i've seen people on tiktok/twitter/etc. genuinely upset and angry and claiming that their surprise songs like, ruined their experience or whatever and i'm like ... really? i just feel like the relationship "swifties" talk about taylor is ... very ... interesting, to say the least! my friends and i were so hopeful that hayley would be a surprise guest in seattle night 2, and they'd sing castles crumbling (we were also convinced that she'd acknowledge folklore though, and she didn't) because paramore was supposed to play in seattle the day after seattle night two but had to reschedule. and i'm SO happy you got the dress you wanted for folklore! i think the folklore outfits are just so, so pretty — they might be my favorite set of costumes for the whole show. i'm quite intrigued with the new hunger games prequel! i haven't read it yet (and i've actually only ever seen the first hunger games movie), but i really loved the trilogy when i was younger and have been thinking about finally sitting down and watching them (or maybe rereading, once i'm done with my current rereads). i do agree a prequel like this feels more natural, rather than say, shadowhunters, which has like 50 million books! if you ever get a chance to finish watching crazy ex girlfriend, i highly recommend it!! i also just love all the musical theatre references and i just think it's really well done. i haven't rewatched it since it aired, actually, but i do want to rewatch it soon! i am just very, very bad at watching tv! i'm currently watching the summer i turned pretty, and then when i'm caught up with that (or when i have a little more breathing room), i think i'll watch the second season of heartstopper! i was really excited about the new gossip girl (especially since a couple of theatre people are in it), but it just did not … work for me at all. and yes!! i would definitely be down for a buddy read of some mistakes were made if you'd like? i could start it next week if that works for you!! i just need to get my life together and hopefully finish one or two of my current reads first! i had a lovely time in chicago, thank you my dear 🤍 definitely dreading being back at work tomorrow!

[reviewsclown]

Tremors 4: the Legend Begins 2004

Definitely an interesting choice they went for a prequel in the late 1800s, I'm sure it'll be interesting though, ye olde Perfection with all the characters that're ancestors of the ones we know, it's a very fun setting. Hiram Gummer is the same actor as Burt Gummer, just dressed differently and a massive shithead, there's the Stony brothers or whatever they're called that were the 2 guys in the first movie. Plot's pretty good, they get trounced by graboids so they hire an old west evil gunslinger type guy to shoot the graboids because they're small and fast. Do gotta love the final stand-off they have with all the old-timey guns, revolvers and repeaters and shit, it's awesome.

It's been pointed out, that this movie does look better than the last ones, they've gotten better cameras and such, I imagine there was more budget for this movie in general because of the set design and costuming and such. I think the graboids continue to be CGI and not puppets in these ones? They introduced another new variant, one per movie, and it's small baby graboids that grow into the regular sized ones from there.

Final Review: Yeah this one was really good, I enjoyed it for sure. Definitely the best so far and worth watching, you only really need to watch the first one before it too if you want.

[mystiika]

just finished the new descendants movie & i have mixed feelings. i also saw that weird short story thing from 2018 supposedly set between d2 & d3. from what i understand it's something that was out of the books but its so weird because that plot point from the books doesn't even really match movie canon since mal wasn't supposed to have the button to open/close the barrier anyway. i own the books too maybe i should just set aside a day & just read them all ( minus book 5 at the moment anyway )

but new movie spoilers/thoughts beneath the cut

the production itself was great, i liked the costuming, & the music & choreography both were good. the casting for adult cinderella & prince charming being from cinderella ( 1997 ) was super cool & a really nice touch

but it felt like nothing really happened? it was too easy to accomplish the goal, we never saw the prank or the cotillion, i thought fairy godmother would be involved but you saw her once at the start from when they went back in time & then nothing else???

there were such high stakes because cinderella dies ( i think? ) but it never really felt like there was a climax to the overall story & it also felt like most of the new vk's were thrown in just to name drop the parent or to fill space & then you never saw them again either. like i saw morgie, son of morgana, who seemed like he had potential to be interesting but then after saying his name & dancing in the ensemble song that was just it

i dunno i just wanted... more i guess :(

i think in order to really feel like i have enough info on the characters from d4, i'll have to read book 5 when it comes out bc from what i can tell its a sort of prequel to d4 & gives a lot of background.

also i had no idea they killed off carlos ! i absolutely understand why ( rip cameron ) but it totally took me by surprise so i guess i need to make a new verse for him where he hasn't died

[frightnightt]

THE EXORCIST: BELIVER

★★

Year: 2023 Directed by: David Gordon Green Starring: Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Ann Dowd, Linda Blair, Ellen Burstys and Jennifer Nettles Genre: Horror Duration: 111 mins (1h 51 min) Production: Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions / Morgan Creek / Rough House Pictures

This sequel to the famous 1973 film "The Exorcist", has everything we wanted, some of the original cast and not one but two possessions, what could go wrong? A lot of things.

This film follows Victor and his daughter Angela’s story. After 12 agonising years of mourning his wife’s death, they almost seem like a normal family, but obviously something had to go wrong. One day Angela and her friend Katherine disappear into the woods and return three days later with no memory of what happened to them and acting really different from their usual behaviour. Their families try everything in their power to figure out a way to help their precious daughters but Chris MacNeil, the one person who witnessed things like this before, is the only one that can help them.

Directed and co-written by David Gordon Green, "The Exorcist: Believer" was probably one of the most anticipated films in 2023, given the success of the first “Exorcist” film in 1973. It was gore, bizarre and never seen before. The problem this film was facing, was the extensive number of exorcism films and the special effects we have nowadays. Everything you can think of is out there on the internet, so there’s a lot of competition.

Nevertheless despite all of the possession films ever made, visually it was great, equally creepy as the prequel. Warm toned contrasting with the cold and dark story.

The costume design was also really good, reviving the same possessed image, nothing new but it did the job.

Another positive thing was the acting, impeccable, and bringing back Ellen Burstyn was the best part. Not only was it a sequel, it linked characters from two different eras, using these and a few elements ,like the famous Tubular Bells, to make the audience remember the first film. But this particular thing was made purely to distract the audience from the lack of backstories, wasting a lot of potential.

What I think was the weak point, it’s the story, beginning with the main focus of the film which wasn’t the possession itself, it was the trauma and painful memories of Victor and her daughter.

There’s a thing with horror films nowadays, they always have some type of speech about how precious life is and how important it is to keep your family close but honestly I'm tired, I miss the time where horror films were just horror films, no drama, just pure gut wrenching creepy stories. Like some of the classics, take "Possession" for instance. This 1981 film cuts right into the chase, first the main characters are introduced, explaining a bit of their day to day routine, slowly building up tension with the wife’s weird behaviour. But once we know what’s really happening to her, the rest of the film still stays as pure suspense, trying to find a way to understand what’s happening. It allows the audience to make their own conclusions.

With this new exorcist approach, once we know Ellen Burstys’ character is the only one that can help them, all this build up tension disappears with her speech, explaining that the only thing that will sort them out is love, making the storyline predictable and of course a happy ending.

This film is full of clichés and cheesy lines, especially the climax. Victor assembles a team of “believers” (let’s call them that way) to defeat the demon by the power of friendship, apparently. Once they’re all together one of the most used lines in films starts “If anyone wants to leave, better leave now, because once we start, there’s no stopping”, making him the hero and losing half the audience interest because the climax didn’t even look like a climax.

Films nowadays startle the audience, which is a cheap and easy way to pump out a ton of sequels without having to come up with an original scary concept that's frightening on its own, but on this new exorcist film, they even failed to include scares.

[naughtygirl286]

So we went to see the somewhat beleaguered Madame Web. I'm very familiar with the character and she has been an important supporting character at times in the Spider-Man Mythos. Now I thought it was strange to be giving her a solo movie being I felt it would be like giving J. Jonah Jameson or Betty Brant a movie of their own. I do believe that a live action Madame Web would be interesting and should appear as a supporting character in a live action Spider-Man movie being we are now in the Multiverse Saga that would make more sense to me then her getting her own movie.

Now after watching it do I think it is as bad as people are saying it is? I didn't think it is. When we went to see it this week I was expecting to just see a handful of people there but the theater they were showing it in must have been about 45-50% full of people there to see this which I thought was great because I always say to go and see things for yourself and make up your own mind, don't listen to negative reviews or scores.

Now of course being that this is a movie her origin is changed to fit into this cinematic universe and that is what this movie is it is a somewhat origin story so gone is the familiar older woman in red and we have her at a much younger age I felt it was an interesting way to introduce this character, would it be the way I have done it? not it wouldn't have but like I said it was an interesting way to do it.

Now not only is this a origin story for the character of Madame Web but it also serves as a somewhat prequel to the Spider-Man story, where you meet a young Ben Parker (played by Adam Scott) who is a co-worker and friend of Dakota Johnson's Cassandra "Cass" Webb so that would tie her into the Spider-Man story in this universe.

another thing is I heard people say that the movie is "clunky" and disjointed I think that was due to how they displayed Dakota Johnson's character's powers its like this weird choppy/jerkily/Juddering type of visual effect which makes the scene look a bit disjointed when it happens I feel its a stylistic choice to show a displacement in time as she looks into the future

I did like seeing the Spider Women in their costumes you only get to see them in the costumes a few times in the movie and it is due to like quick glimpse of the future which kinda sucks because from what you see looks really cool I liked how they did Anya Corazon (played by Isabela Merced) aka Spider-Girl Mattie Franklin (played by Celeste O'Connor) Spider-Woman and especially the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman (played by Sydney Sweeney) or Julia Cornwall as they refer to her in the movie which I thought was weird. One problem I did have was with the introduction of Ezekiel at first I thought it was going to be cool and it would kinda open up the doors to a larger thing that involved Silk, Morlun and The Inheritors but he is just straight up the movies main villain. I just feel that the character was a bit wasted in this even though I did like Tahar Rahim as the character I felt they could have had some other bad guy and could have saved Ezekiel for something bigger.

Now of course I did like all the references that came with this one and especially what I could only assume was the live action version of The Web of Life and Destiny which I thought was really cool and you get to see it a few times in the movie and you get to see her use it around the end of the movie which was cool as well.

I know people complained about the acting but I didn't feel that that acting was bad and there was some good action moments I didn't find it overly actiony like I don't think I would call it an action movie but when they did do some fights and stunts and stuff like that it was pretty good.

but in the end like I said I don't think it was as bad as people are saying it is like I also said it was in interesting way to introduce this character but I probably would have done it that way if I was going to introduce a character such as Madame Web. So I can't say it was great and I can't say it was bad. Now if you are curious about the movie I would say give it a watch and see what you think yourself if you don't want to watch it then don't, but I don't believe it is as bad as people are making it out to be.

[canmom]

canmom: why are you all discoursing so hard on a 'because of woke' pun centrally-unplanned: we are bored on ! friday on tumblr dot com what else are we gonna do!! canmom lmao fair ok centrally-unplanned post your star wars prequels takes likes it 2010 you know want to :p

lol fine i'll take that bait

I think the most interesting analysis of the Star Wars sequels I've seen comes from a channel called Empire Wreckers on youtube. The guy works in the VFX industry and knows all about the technical ins and outs of how one of these films actually gets made, he's got a downright encyclopedic knowledge of production history, and he's got a good analytical eye as well.

so here for example he tells a very convincing story of how Rise of Skywalker went off the rails:

here's a very good technical VFX look at what was 'off' about the CGI in Attack of the Clones:

and here's a fascinating design analysis of all the various alien designs from across the entire span of the movies, really showing how the different eras of alien design in Star Wars came about:

But, three or four hours of video essay recs aside, what do I think of Star Wars? well here, the requested canmom takes, just for you ash :p

The 'prequels are at least interesting despite their flaws' view is pretty much the frame that works best imo, but what makes the prequels interesting is not their story (completely pants, a cartoon of a rise of fascism that attributes it to the overcomplicated machinations of evil wizards), but all the setpieces and designs they travel around along the way.

...I mean mostly, some of them are rubbish, who the fuck cares about 'lava planet'! But the prequels have a bunch of images that are both memorable and novel. The 'space chariot race' of podracing (even if people disliked that sequence), the watery palaces of the planet Naboo in the first film, the endless shiny towers of Coruscant, the general design language of the Republic's white-armoured soldiers (stormtrooper like but not quite) and their enemies the strange insectoid Battle Droids, the watery rainy planet where the clones are cloned, etc. etc.

The biggest strength of the original Star Wars was always its imagery, so this is crucial. The original films pulled on the visuals of French comics like L'incal (Jodorowsky and Moebius) - I'm not really sure if Jodo's Dune was really that much of an influence on it (Alien has a better case for the influence), but it definitely has that same kind of vibe. Star Wars lived on the work of really great set/prop designers and matte painters (Ralph McQuarrie in particular). Lots of creativity with limited resources, repurposing random monster masks from around the film studio. Nearly every location and spaceship design and even costume in the film ends up a memorable symbol (which will get reiterated over and over again across the hundreds of spinoffs, and also funded a very lucrative toy line lmao).

They managed to hit on a really strong aesthetic current! That 'used future' look, the strength of the mechanical design in general, a really memorable score: it all came together into something that felt a lot more 'substantial' than the Republic serials that inspired it.

The prequels came at a weird time in filmmaking history where they were basically the prototypes of a modern VFX-driven film which is mostly created in post. A lot of what they were attempting, the bluescreen sets and so on, rapidly became standard across the industry for all kinds of economic reasons. These days it is basically unthinkable to have a film without VFX - though there's plenty of incentive to lie about it because 'practical effects' are marketable (c.f. this series) - and Star Wars kind of kicked that door open (alongside Jackson's Lord of the Rings). Is that a good thing? I don't know lmao, it probably would have have happened anyway.

They also have the merit of being endlessly memeable - mostly because yes they're bad, but they're somehow bad in a memorable way. Even today you can get someone using AI voices to riff on 'the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise'...

...which has spun into an entire series, it's pretty funny. By comparison, the sequels have... what, 'live slug reaction', 'the sacred texts', that weird milk alien, not much else?

So the prequels are kind of weird movies - like any movie they're a cluster of elements and here they definitely don't work synergistically, the interesting settings are undermined by the bad direction etc. etc., but it feels particularly hard to assess them 'as a whole'. On some fronts they added to the series, expanding the range of things that you can see in Star Wars, or expanding on the characterisation of characters like Obi Wan (though more so in the animated series). On some fronts they detracted from it: in the original trilogy, Obi Wan portentiously mentions 'the Clone Wars' without explanation, leaving the audience to imagine whatever the hell they might think 'the Clone Wars' might entail - but the final canonical Clone Wars that we get are kind of stupid as hell and don't live up to Alec Guiness's delivery there.

The movies bring in interesting concepts (what if the good guys use an army of brainwashed clones, fucked up amirite) and then don't really do anything to explore the implications of that concept (which is left to late episodes of The Clone Wars, mostly due to Filoni). It tries to give Darth Vader, the iconic one-dimensional pantomime villain, a sympathetic backstory... and completely flubs it, but at the same time there is something endearing about the awkward story it tells. It's got some great soundtrack pieces like Duel of the Fates. It's just a big pile of stuff that could have been iconic in a better movie and just doesn't quite land as well as it could have.

Clone Wars (Tartakovsky) is fun in most of the same ways Samurai Jack was fun, and flawed in some of the same ones (long ass spirit quest - at least it largely avoids the classic Tartakovsky Racism lmao). It's good at episodic stories and Tartakovsky can definitely put over some memorable villains. The Clone Wars (Filoni) takes forever to get going so it's more miss than hit but it eventually manages to make some 'better than you'd expect for an American cartoon' stories - and also has a lot of entertainingly weird shit like whatever was going on with Jabba's son - but it's kind of like Avatar: The Last Airbender in that it's still fundamentally an American cartoon, with all the limitations that entails. Broadly the same goes for Rebels. There's a lot of better anime you could watch instead.

As for the sequels, what hasn't been said already? They're a haphazard mess, with different directors undercutting each other at every turn. Rian Johnson at least had some ambition to do anything but retread the original trilogy, but also John Boyega is completely thrown away from deuteragonist status to irrelevant sidequest for no fucking reason, Kelly Marie Tran is not even given a chance to be anything; the characterisation Poe, Rey and Kylo seems to change in every movie (Poe suffers particularly badly from this), they try to play around with whether they'd reprise the 'I am your father' moment and it's just exhausting, etc. etc.

The Last Jedi had the most potential, but its structure seems to have gotten lost in editing, so you get lines that call back to lines that were cut and so on. And then whatever it was that Johnson was trying to set up gets immediately discarded in one of the most hilariously badly structured movies I've ever seen in Rise. Overall it just seems like they muddled through the whole trilogy, and the result is a kludge. Abrams lacks ambition and undermines the 'substance' of the setting constantly; Johnson I respect a bit more, but he doesn't seem to have any idea of how to make his ideas fit into the overall arc of a trilogy, and a lot of the time the execution is more 'well I see what you were going for but...' than actually compelling.

But 'interesting visual ideas, flubbed execution' is kind of the Star Wars experience really!

And visually, returning to the design language of the original trilogy was refreshing at first, since we hadn't had much of that 70s/80s look in the Marvel era - but the lack of anything new and the boxy design of the new things they added kind of wore out their interest pretty fast, and a lot of what the sequels do ended up undermining the sense of 'substance' of the setting.

What ruins Abrams's films for me is that there is almost nothing particularly interesting to look at after they leave the 'destroyed Star Destroyers' desert planet Jakku. Johnson at least goes for some proper Images: the weird milk alien is some proper creature workshop shit, the Scottish Irish monastery with its space puffins is a fun location for Zizek!Luke to live in, the spaceship blasting through another spaceship at hyperspeed looks cool even if it raises way too many questions about how space wars work, but that's whatever this was never particularly well thought out lmao. The white-and-red sand planet with the skimmer ships comes way too late in a long film to really land as hard as it could, but it is a legit really cool spin on the Hoth setpiece in Empire.

So if you were to try and salvage something from one of these films, I feel like The Last Jedi gives you the most to work with. But it's not a good movie in its own right, it's more an arrow pointing at a better movie that could exist lmao

Weirdly the only successful offshoots seem to be ones which insert themselves into cracks in the original, something that you'd expect to lead to total banality - Rogue One is kind of entirely superfluous as a story, and yet somehow its inevitable tragedy kinda works really well, and then there's Andor which I haven't seen, but apparently it's basically The Battle of Algiers and everyone says it is way better than it has any right to be. So maybe Jedi are completely played out but there still seems to be some life in the 'space imperialism' facet of the franchise. I should probably watch Andor, I'm just pretty tired of Star Wars at this point.

OK that's my Star Wars takes, thanks for listening!!

It used to be that Star Wars villains made at least some modicum of sense, but not anymore. Because of Snoke.