#but aside from the MCU I’m not that big on movies unless it’s related to a show I like

[crimsonmonsoon]

gonna start saying I don't like movies cause I don't like the mcu so it's easier to say I just don't like movies

I love marvel tho

Gloomy put you up to this didn’t they

[thehollowprince]

Okay. Another Endgame semi rant: You've sorta talked about this on your blog, but those Steve fans who like Steve's ending ( or least their trying to make the best out of it god bless 'em) and chastise other who didn't like Steve's for being salty shippers ( and that's a legitimate gripe- like no-one thought Stucky was going to be A THING, but we all hoped that their deep bond, which goes all the way to when they were like SIX- okay fine *9* would be honoured and respected) are clinging so 1/?

so hard to the idea that Steve created an alternate timeline, where he can do *anything*. Like rescuing Bucky and that timeline's Steve, and stopping Hydra from infiltrating SHIELD. When the intention of the Russos and the writers was quite clearly for him to retire and have life and not be a soldier anymore. (I swear the Russos said that before the backlash became overwhelming ) Like they put him back in the fight when the intention was for Steve to stop fighting, so they'll write passive 2/?

Passive aggressive asides - (sorry lost my train of thought) about how if we don't understand that it's a different timeline, and of course he's not just going to sit back or whatever- and it's like "GUYS. You ALMOST GET IT it's because the idea of Steve sitting back and doing nothing in the main timeline- and almost certainly not getting back in the fight in the alt timeline- because again, The Russos were like "LOL He & Peggy are going to make baby," before Joe was like "He can do anything" 3/

(Okay tumblr conked out so I don't know if you got my last ask) so as I was saying: "We just didn't want our favouite character to be destroyed?" (Well he was in my eyes at least) Anyway sorry for filling up you inbox with asks, I just, had enough of reading those posts and needed to vent you know?

____________________________________________________

Okay... sorry it took me so long to get to this but I wanted to make sure I was awake and ready to tackle the whole thing. These caught me at a bad time but now I'm all rested and ready to dig into the meat of it.

To start off with, I have never had an issue with people who liked (or tried to see the silver lining) in Steve's ending. We live in a very big world and it would be rather dull if everyone shared the same opinion on everything, but I wasn't aware of how big the divide was growing until almost a month after I saw the movie. I was upset at Steve's ending and I made a joke about it, and before you know it I have people that are making passive-aggressive posts or even calling you out for not being "a true Steve fan."

And I gotta say, seeing that made me immediately take a step back from the fandom. Like, woah! When did the pro-Steve side become the new Tony stans? Because that's exactly the mentality we were mocking and pointing out for years now, how Tony stans didn't care about anything else except their favorite character's happiness, even of it completely contradicted all of the canon that came before it.

But once I started seeing it, I started seeing it everywhere. Blogs that had been inactive for months started waking up and spreading this idea that you weren't a real fan if you didn't love the ending that Steve got. And while they've changed the way they phrase it, the idea persists. Now it's usually just something along the lines of "wow, look at the character they really like", which is usually pulled out if you try and mention Steve's relationship to Sam or Bucky or Wanda or whomever. And I k ow I've said this before, but that's part of the reason I loved the MCU version of Steve so much. He was more than just him. Steve was Steve because of those around him, how he related to them, how he helped them and how they believed in and followed him despite overwhelming odds. So to just cut all that off, despite that being one of the cornerstones of Steve's fandom and claim that people don't really like Steve unless it involves X character is super disingenuous.

To make matters worse is the actuality of Steve's ending. If you've accepted that Steve did that at the end of ENDGAME, then you have to try and wrap your head around the actuality of what happened. Did he open a new timeline or was he always Peggy's husband in this timeline? If he did open a new timeline, did he prevent a whole bunch of horrible things from happening or did he just sit back and relax and ignore it all? Did he awaken frozen Steve and have him do all the fighting or did he just let everything play out the way it did originally? No one knows because even the writers and directors, the idiots who came up with this idea, can't agree on what happened! It's a clusterfuck of a situation that only gets worse when you apply it to fandom.

I shouldn't have to dig into the whole Steve/Peggy situation, because I've done it before, but just for the sake of completion I'll mention again how nothing ever actually happened between Steve and Peggy aside from that one kiss. They could have been something epic but they missed their window and the fact that the four morons behind Steve's journey couldn't remember that is infuriating. The new thing now, of course, is to mock people who point that out by saying that "Steve and Peggy knew each other for years during the war and just because it's not shown doesn't mean it didn't happen", but them completely miss the irony in stating that something that we have no concrete proof of is canon. It's a godamn unsatisfactory bitch of a situation.

There was even one blog who came out of hibernation that accused me of being "fake woke" for mentioning the negative impact of having arguably the MCU's most political character played by one of their more vocal actors go back to the "good ol' days".

At the end of the day, would I have loved for Stucky to happen? Of course I would have! As has been stated multiple times now, I am severely underrepresented in the MCU and I latched onto anything that could be construed as representation in any capacity, but I also never expected it to happen. This is Disney! I just find it disheartening that our concerns and opinions are considered less then because we turn to these friendships and so on as to why Steve should have stayed, especially because he's one of the few male protagonists that is more than just his physicality but also his emotional connection to people.

I maintain, to this day, that Steve should have just retired in the modern world (or as he called it - Home), because not only would it have made sense for his character arc, but it would have opened up the doorway for a potential return for the next big Team-up movie. Just imagine Steve swooping in and saving Sam with a "Captain America needed my help" line.

When all's said and done, we all have our own opinions on that ending, and the MCU in general, and I've found that it's only a few that are diehard about supporting Steve's ending. I have several mutuals that liked Steve's ending even though I and others didn't, and I wouldn't get rid of them for anything.

[quu-kii]

Jake Gyllenhaal Filmography Ranking

My personal ranking of all Jake Gyllenhaal movies from October Sky onwards with some brief thoughts on each of the movies. Honestly the exact number ranking of these movies is probably not super accurate and could be liable to changes, but I tried my best with the ordering.  

Amazing Tier (My favorites)

1. Brokeback Mountain - This is such an emotional and heartbreaking movie. I knew it was going to have a sad ending going into it, but still I was not prepared for how strongly it hit me in the feels. And it’s not just the ending that is sad; you can tell that the love between the two leads is doomed from less than the midpoint of the movie, and it keeps going downhill from there. Overall, I think the movie is a perfect tragic love story. As well, there’s this very subtle and natural feeling to the whole movie that is difficult to describe but works really well. There’s just something truly special about this movie that makes me want to place it as the #1 best of Jake’s movies.

2. Nightcrawler - A highly suspenseful movie with an amazing lead performance by Jake as the sociopathic lead character Lou Bloom. Jake is really a big part of what makes the movie great, as he is such a strong focus of it. Lou acts so off, but it’s just impossible to take your eyes off him, and he is so interesting to watch since you keep wondering what he will do next. The other part of what makes this movie great is the writing and dialogue. There are just so many memorable and great lines, especially for Lou. Along with these factors, the subject matter of the movie, that of the career of selling violent news footage to news stations, is pretty unique, and there are some interesting ideas and themes in the movie as well relating to success and the news media. Overall I really love this movie. If there’s one thing I would say I might not like about the movie, it is the music. It can have an uplifting and hopeful vibe in dark scenes, which lessens the tense mood of some scenes. But I understand that the music was made to reflect Lou’s mood in the scene, which is a very interesting decision in itself and helps add to Lou’s character, since you can notice the contrast between how disturbing the scenarios he is in are and how Lou himself feels in such scenarios. So I at least admire the music for this aspect.

3. Enemy - A tense and psychological movie. I really love the heavy and surreal atmosphere of this movie, added to by the yellowish filter which is present throughout the whole movie as well as the score, which is ominous and used to amazing effect in the movie to enhance the dark mood. Also, I think this movie is both enjoyable when taken in at face value, being about a man who finds that there is a doppelganger of himself, and when looking deeper at what the “real” story is, taking into account the symbolism and various small details placed throughout the movie. It’s an interesting movie to think about due to its openness to interpretation. And lastly, Jake does a great job playing the two lead characters in the movie; despite the characters looking the same, they give off quite a very different vibe.

4. Spider-Man: Far from Home - My favorite MCU movie. I love so many things about this movie: how it deals with the aftermath of the Blip in a light way, how it deals with Peter Parker’s character after Endgame and his desire to just be able to have a normal life, the overall story, the setting being Europe and having this fresh vacation feeling, the fight scenes, and of course Mysterio. Along with this, it has great music (especially Mysterio’s theme) and probably the best mid credits and post credits scenes in the MCU due to their plot relevance. All of the characters are very likeable too, from Peter and all his classmates and teachers to others like Nick Fury and Mysterio, which is important to me since likable characters is one of the most important aspects to me in any kind of story. This movie was such a pleasant surprise after Endgame, which was a great disappointment to me. Also, this movie is special to me because it’s how I discovered the awesomeness of Jake and thus indirectly the reason why I watched all his movies and made this list in the first place. I’m not sure if a future MCU movie can top this for me, but who knows.

 Great Tier

5. Nocturnal Animals - A harsh movie with an interesting structure of having two main stories, with one of the stories being a story within the main story (I will call this story the 2nd story for brevity). I think the 2nd story is where the movie really shines. This story was so tense and much more interesting to follow compared to the main story, and Jake portrayed the emotions of anguish and despair so well in it. It’s also interesting to think about how the 2nd story links with the main story, which gives more depth to the overall story of the movie. I find this and Brokeback Mountain to be the most emotionally harrowing of Jake’s movies, which is definitely a compliment since I admire when a work is able to make me feel so strongly. Also, I have to note that I disliked that there was a random jumpscare in the middle of the movie. It doesn’t lower my opinion of the movie, but I really don’t like jumpscares and did not expect one in this movie.

6. Source Code - A really solid sci-fi movie about Jake’s character repeating through a time loop. It is the only Jake movie to make me cry due to me being a sucker for tragic scenarios involving time loops/parallel worlds. It was just a very engaging movie to watch due to the intriguing premise and the very good execution of said premise.

7. Zodiac - I didn’t know that this movie was based off true events until almost the end of it. So the whole time, I was expecting there to be a conclusive ending when there was no way this would be the case, since the Zodiac killer case to this day hasn’t been solved. Because of this, I felt initially disappointed about this movie from a story perspective, since all the clues from the movie seemed to lead to nothing. This is my biggest “flaw” about the movie (and it’s not really the movie’s fault), but this factor aside I really liked this movie. Jake, RDJ, and Mark Ruffalo are all great in it, and I love murder mysteries so much, so the story had me hooked on this alone. It’s so interesting to watch the characters piece together clues for the case and try to unravel the mystery, as well as seeing how the case progresses (or well, doesn’t progress at times) over the years. Also, this movie just feels really good to watch; as in, the scenes and shots flow together so well. It’s a great movie overall I think.

8. The Sisters Brothers - A western with a kind of laid back feel to it. Also supposedly it is a comedy, but I found it not funny at all. It’s not that I see the movie attempting jokes and find that they don’t work; it’s more like I don’t see the attempt at humor at all, unless maybe it’s kind of a weird dark humor thing. Anyways, I really like this movie, and it’s mostly because I really like the main four characters and their dynamics with each other. Jake does a great job playing his character John Morris and has an accent which is pleasant to my ears, though I was sad that he (as well as Riz Ahmed) wasn’t in the movie more. Even though I was watching the movie for Jake, I found myself liking John C. Reilly’s and Joaquin Phoenix’s characters, the two leads, a lot as well. It’s a movie that shines because of the characters for me.

Very Good Tier

9. Donnie Darko - A pretty unique coming of age story with sci-fi elements. I’m still not sure what to think of this movie, though I think I liked it. Some of my favorite scenes are where Donnie goes off on these rants about what he believes to be the truth. These scenes are amazing to me.

10. Prisoners - I actually find the story of this movie to be not that great. However, what elevates the movie is Hugh Jackman and Jake and their amazing performances. Funnily enough, I found myself siding with Hugh’s character and against Jake’s as they both simultaneously tried to solve the case. Also, this movie is just really exciting and engaging to watch and is maybe one of the easiest to recommend movies on this list due to these factors.

11. The Day After Tomorrow - This isn’t a very deep movie or anything, but it’s a really solid disaster flick in my opinion. I love the visuals, and Jake is such a cutie in this movie, a factor that really elevates it for me.

12. The Good Girl - It looked like a comedy or something from the outside, but actually this is a rather bleak movie. It’s one of the duology of the Jake-being-into-older-married-women movies (and the much better of the two for me). I find this movie pretty underrated.

13. October Sky - It’s an uplifting and inspiring movie, and I love how Homer’s relationship with his father is portrayed here.

14. Okja - I love the stylized vibe of this movie. Jake isn’t in the movie that much, but I really like every time he shows up. He goes full wacky here and it’s fun to watch.

15. Brothers - Tobey Maguire is the real star here. I think he was great in the movie and I could really feel the emotions of his character, especially after he comes back from the war and is in a troubled state of mind.

16. Stronger - A good based on real life movie about a survivor of the Boston Marathon Bombing. Jake does a great job as usual, and I think the emotions of the story came through well.

17. Wildlife - A really simple and subdued story about a family, but I think it works well in the movie. It has a very quiet and natural feeling to it.

Ok Tier

18. Demolition - A quirky feeling movie about a guy trying to deal with the death of his wife. The scene with Jake dancing in the city is my favorite part. Also I thought Jake’s friendship with the kid in the movie was a highlight.

19. Bubble Boy - It's kind of a dumb movie with some maybe offensive humor, but I thought it was pretty enjoyable regardless. Jake is so adorable as the main character Jimmy, and it was fun to follow his journey across the country and seeing all the interesting characters he meets.

20. Proof - I thought it was pretty good, but then the movie ended just when I thought it was starting to ramp up the story to the conclusion. This factor brought the movie down for me.

21. Life - The monster design for this movie was pretty cool, and I liked the ending and the general space horror vibe. However, I didn’t feel much for any of the characters.

22. Everest - It was ok, but I wasn’t really into any of the characters here.

23. Southpaw - I think this movie is very impressive for Jake’s resume, considering how he trained a lot and learned boxing for it. However as a movie itself, I didn’t really feel much for it and felt like it wasn’t doing much special in the story department. I liked some of the parts in the earlier half though.

24. End of Watch - I just wasn’t feeling this movie. Maybe it was the found footage style or something. I feel a bit sad about not digging this movie since I see it is generally one of the more well liked ones in Jake’s filmography.

25. Jarhead - I really don’t like the vulgar tone throughout this movie, but I do like the general story and message. Also the movie looks really good.

Not That Great Tier

26. Velvet Buzzsaw - I love Jake’s character Morf so much as well as the general premise. However the movie itself wasn’t too great: I found most of the characters besides Jake’s to be unlikable, and also the movie felt cheap. It’s very disappointing since the concept for the movie (horror in an art gallery) seems so promising.

27. Prince of Persia - This was the first Jake movie I saw back in the day around the time of its theater release. I have to say I find this to be Jake’s weakest acting performance out of all his movies. For me, good acting is when the actor feels very natural as the character and is somehow magnetizing to watch. But for some reason I did not get a very natural vibe from Jake as Dastan in this movie. I do think he looks very beautiful in this movie though with his long hair, so that’s a big plus. The story of this movie feels pretty cliché and kind of lifeless in a way, but I still liked it alright.

28. Highway - I don’t really like the sleazy tone of this movie. However, I think Jake is very adorable in this movie and has this pure wide-eyed vibe about him (despite him being a drug dealer and sleeping with prostitutes and such).

29. Rendition - I found this movie to be aggressively boring for the most part. There’s this subplot which I was unsure why I should even care about until a reveal near the end of the movie, when it was too late to start caring at all. However Jake in a bloody shirt towards the beginning of the movie makes for some good screencaps and gifs, and I learned about the term extraordinary rendition through searching about it after the movie.

30. Moonlight Mile - I guess this movie might be considered technically good because it tells the story it sets out to do fairly well, but I just found it very boring. There is a part towards the end with Jake’s character being very emotional which I really liked.

31. Lovely & Amazing - It's actually decent, but really not my type of movie. It’s the 2nd of the duology of the Jake-being-into-older-married-women movies.

 Just No Tier

32. Accidental Love - I actually enjoyed the beginning parts of this movie (though what’s with the constant dutch angles in the earlier parts?), and ironically it is around the point of the introduction of Jake’s character where I felt like it started to nosedive. I felt my soul slipping away and my IQ dropping by the end of the movie.

33. Love & Other Drugs – I really, really don’t like this kind of raunchy sex comedy movie. That’s all.

[jesterlady]

Rise of Skywalker review

After Watching Episode IX for the second time, I feel like it’s finally time to make my feelings known regarding the sequel trilogy and to vent some of the negativity by getting it down in somewhat rational fashion.

If any one recalls the 6k I wrote on Avengers Endgame, you’ll know what to expect.

Now it’s been a while since I saw either Ep VII or VIII, so my memory is likely rusty on details.

 My feelings on this trilogy in general have been extremely negative.  It’s interesting, but after I saw Force Awakens, I actually had a very positive reaction at first.  It felt like a Star Wars movie (following the New Hope formula).  But after a while, even before Last Jedi came, I realized that I actually was disappointed, not necessarily in the movie as a movie or the new characters, but the direction the whole trilogy was likely to go.

 I must confess a great deal of this feeling probably arose from watching Clone Wars and Rebels in the meantime and becoming very caught up in those time periods and what they represent for Star Wars.  And that’s just it…the sequel trilogy takes what came before, what those people bled and died for, and basically said it didn’t matter.  They didn’t actually save the galaxy.  The victory at Endor has become incredibly cheapened by the First Order’s existence…and it doesn’t even matter that apparently it was Palpatine all along so it’s suddenly very connected in a haphazard fashion.

 They could have told a much more interesting story about the struggles of rebuilding a galaxy. They could have had the same characters, they could have had the same arcs (terrible ones mostly), and the galaxy could still be in danger.  But starting off with a brand new evil empire like destroying the old one didn’t even matter, not even letting Han and Leia stay together…like, that’s just creating drama for the sake of drama.  We have to destroy everything that was built before, because we’re really unoriginal and don’t know how to create new stories or build on top of a good foundation.

 Say what you like about the prequels (I am a fan in general) they had a very cohesive story, building toward a single point.  The sequels…did not.

 Now, we must all acknowledge the elephant in the room.  That of the atrocious planning and divided directional control that went into making these movies.  I don’t know what Disney was thinking!  The MCU for all its faults is a cohesive whole.  With a franchise infinitely more popular and lucrative and with a fraction less of the movies, you couldn’t pull off having a story that makes sense?

 And I’ll just say that even if JJ didn’t like what Rian did with TLJ, basically completely doing a 180 and trying to go the other direction, was selfish.  It destroyed further rather than fixed the problem.  I don’t have anything else to say, other than the lack of unity is probably the ultimate problem after the initial direction in the first place.  I didn’t really approve of TLJ.  The Rey/Ben parts…sure, but the slowest chase scene known to man and completely superfluous side ventures to a gambling planet were utter drivel.  So it’s not that I’m a Rian vs JJ person.  I think the lack of unity and that they both screwed with each other’s narratives is the problem.

 Anyway, we’re here to talk about TROS.  (And how about that, coming up with a title that is super confusing since we already have Revenge of the Sith.  I guess that’s ROTS…but come on!

 So…this will be fairly chronological but as I get deeper into character arcs and plot points, it will delve all over the place.

 The intro of a Star Wars movie is usually fairly jarring.  We’re dropped into the middle of a situation and all we know is three paragraphs long, to tell us what’s going on and what happened.  But this felt even more jarring than usual.

 Suddenly knowing Palps is alive in the credit titles is so off course.  Knowing he was alive at the end of TLJ would have been preferable, leaving us time to stew over how he was still alive and giving them time to come up with something more coherent than the absolute zero explanation we were given.  The return of an essential character/villain like that deserves way more gravitas and planning than the shock value we were presented with.  The idea of him being alive is not so shocking to those familiar with the EU, but that was explained and explained well, whereas how long he’s been planning this, Snoke, the ships, how…it’s all completely ignored and I guess we can come up with explanations on our own.  So…is Snoke his clone?  Or a part of him?  How many Snokes were there?  There are so many questions regarding their relationship…how it relates to Kylo/Ben, how it relates to Rey, how it relates to their bond, but I’ll get more into that later.  And more on those ships.

 Pretty sure a blow no one can be faulted with is Carrie’s death.  If she had been alive, I have to believe so many things would have been better.  She uttered the only sensible line in the movie…never underestimate a droid. Something everyone else went on to ignore even though droids made the whole movie possible.  Ugh.  I do think it’s funny that since TFA we’ve all been told to call her the General now…no more princess cause princesses are apparently weak, but she was suddenly a princess again this movie.

 The Jedi texts, I’d like to know more about that.  Very plot device-y really, if you think about it.  All this info about new and improved powers and places and things and considering how much lore we know as an audience who actually have been exposed to when the Jedi were still around, opposed to Luke onward…it’s just an excuse for story. Same thing with the Sith wayfinders and that dagger.  I guess you could make the argument for Palps having them made after ROTJ, but…that makes no sense.  But it’s the only thing that makes sense since how could anyone make a dagger the exact shape of a crashed Death Star before it crashed?  But the Jedi texts…super old texts…reference the wayfinders. And it was already in the vault of the crashed DS.  All I’m saying is that doesn’t make a lot of logical sense and someone needs to explain it to me.  And to stop making mysterious keys and clues to things.  It makes sense the Sith loyalist would have it since he needed to go back to Exegol to deliver Rey, (though he had clearly already left Jakku and killed her parents, so was he just going back to say, oops, I messed up? Palps clearly got the message somehow) but maybe it would have been better for them to keep all the Oracle stuff in and explained all this stuff properly.  Like I’m confused about Palpatine’s plan and he’s usually the master of strategy.

 Okay…Poe is so unlikable in this movie.  And he really doesn’t have an arc.  Maybe a little one, struggling with the burden of leadership.  But he mostly seems to be there to argue with people and be rude to Threepio.  This is a waste of a good character.  He was barely in TFA, he was a total mess in TLJ, and here he’s just a jerk.  I got nothing good to say for him.  Which is a shame because he could have been awesome.

 We will talk about Rose and her complete lack of presence.  Up front, I never cared for Rose in TLJ…didn’t see the point of her. She brought nothing to the story in my opinion and whether she was supposed to be a love interest for Finn or to symbolize hope or just be representative of WOC, I don’t know.  But her being shifted to the sidelines of this story is a blatant statement of disrespect.  The actress has been very publicly discriminated against online and instead of taking care of her, the director and studio pretty much stated they agreed with that by what they did with her character.  Aside from that…makes zero sense for someone who was so built up and had such a big part in TLJ to be so downplayed and have her story just stop in the middle.  It’s bad storytelling.  Especially while you’re bringing in a troop of new female characters to do…what? Basically things Rose could have accomplished and would have made more sense doing.  

 Along the lines of pointless things…what is the point of the Knights of Ren?  They were so built up…such an ooh, scary prospect and they play zero role in this.  They have no point.  They have no purpose.  We know nothing about them unless we hunt for backstory in comics and things like that. But you shouldn’t have to do that to understand the point of someone in a movie.  I’d also just like to point out, if they’re really Force sensitives who were Jedis in training…maybe?  Then they should be a lot harder to defeat and why don’t they have light sabers? And…why are they the Knights of Ren if there isn’t at least a discussion about what their leader is doing when he comes to Exegol.  Like they’re just trying to kill him from the second he enters.  I’d be like…hi, boss, so why aren’t we killing the girl…or something like that.  And if they’re the Knights of Ren, his…family for lack of a better term, people who trained with him since boys, I’d like to think he at least would have some compunction of striking them down…would try to reason with them first.  They might still be brainwashed like he was, but he would know that better than anyone.  I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s my knee jerk reaction. A waste of possibilities.

 Want to talk about another waste?  Hux! Never liked him and his Hitler youth attitude, but really he was not important in this trilogy, like at all. DG is too good an actor to not have his talents used better.  He, Phasma, and Kylo were built up as this villain trilogy to stand against the Rey, Poe, Finn good guy trilogy, and basically none of them got any kind of development other than Kylo.  I knew Hux was the spy and I believe it is funny that he is the spy solely because he hates Kylo so much, but other than that…he was a waste of space.   Better to have him finally rise and become the commander he’d always wanted to be instead of Pryde suddenly being there and being all evil and competent for some reason.  Having him be significant for having followed Palpatine before would only actually be significant if we had seen him serve Palpatine before.  It’s just another instance of this brand new character suddenly taking the place of an established one for no reason.

 We can talk about Finn now.  Finn, who also suffered from lack of actual character arc and purpose in the movie other than running after everyone and being worried about them.  The whole Force sensitive thing is old news…we all knew about it a long time ago.  And this way of revealing it…such poor methods!  As far as I know the only reason you’d start thrashing around and declaring you never told someone something is because it is going to be a declaration of love or like a super big confession of guilt.  I mean, that’s what they wanted us to think by keeping it in suspense for so much of the movie and it’s just…not that big of a deal. Like it’s not a surprise, it’s not a death confession topic.  It was just stupid.  

 As for the idea that he only left the First Order because of the Force, well, that just implies that only Force sensitive people know right from wrong and can make moral decisions…it’s just not a good message.  Now whether Jannah’s whole platoon is Force sensitive is not clear, but it’s strongly implied.  And the fact that it’s what he wants to have told Rey is also not clear.  Like you have to figure that out (possibly with online help), it’s not inherent in the narrative.  Also…could have been told to Rose, Jannah not needed.  In fact, this whole storyline would have actually made much more sense and been better if it’s something Finn had been dealing with in TLJ and perhaps came with an army of defectors or been out convincing people this whole time.  Potential storyline wasted.  Plus…for someone who’s an ex Stormtrooper, watching Finn run down hallways and strike down troopers is pretty insensitive and OOC if you ask me.  Just a super bad way to take the character.  And he really didn’t do that much else other than be the main person who does the thing that destroys the thing so everyone else can do the main thing they’re there to do.

 Wow, and can we talk about Threepio’s treatment in general and in this trilogy in particular? I will be the first to admit that Han and Leia especially weren’t all that great to him all the time.  But it was how they would have treated anyone, I think.  Poe particularly just laid into him all the time for no reason, even after he sacrificed himself for them.  Like…just really made me mad at Poe and really mad at everyone the whole movie. It appears that Threepio, one of the two original droids of the whole franchise, gets the least respect out of any of them.  With all the fanservice going on, you’d think he’d be treated better.  I love the HISHE part where he talks about taking a last look at his friends and it certainly ain’t none of this trio!  You want to talk about underestimating a droid!  I know he’s not everybody’s favorite and I’m probably biased, but if we’re ranking droids in the SW universe, which we all do, Threepio’s not at the top for me either.  That spot belongs to Chopper.  But I’m still going to accord Threepio the respect and dignity he deserves for seniority if nothing else.  Because he tries so hard and no one ever thanks him for it.  I like BB8 and all, but he goes under Threepio and R2 both in ranking!  And let’s not forget if not for a droid’s knowledge of Exegeol (so convenient) and the way to get there, you resistance jerks are all toast, so respect!

 Zorii, Zorii, Zorii, frankly another superfluous new character.  But I liked her best out of all of them.  I can see that little something something with her and Poe and I think it would be cool for it to flourish now that the war’s over and they can put the really convenient past and betrayal behind them.  Poe being a spice runner isn’t bad but isn’t good either. It’s just convenient, because they suddenly needed black market stuff.  Also…like how’d she survive?  Really. Because it’s such a big deal for her to have gotten that thingamajig and it’s not like people have warning when the bad guys blow up your planet.  There is no evacuation time.

 I’ve mentioned her a bit so Jannah, again, other than it’s cool there are more women in the galaxy, just took up screen time for other characters to develop.  Were they trying to insinuate she could be Lando’s daughter, because that makes zero sense!  And why all of a sudden he’s champion of finding the lost families of the galaxy is super weird.  Also, it was cool to see him flying the Falcon and all, but did he really add anything other than gravitas from the original trilogy?  I’m usually a huge fan of fanservice, but I didn’t really feel like a fan being serviced.  I felt like someone constantly having nice things thrown at me so I won’t notice the murder being done in the other room.  A nice shot of Wedge, too.

 So many extra resistance people always there.  Like I love Dom, but why was he there?

 But talking of other people really who the heck is Maz?  I mean she just shows up out of nowhere and knows everything about the Force and the Jedi and people’s pasts and what their decisions are and we don’t have a clue why.  Like who is she?  How does she know these things?  Where does she even come from?  Like why does she talk about Leia trying to reach Ben and why does she smile when Leia dies, what does she know that we don’t and why?

 I guess now for the really hard stuff.  Rey and Ben.

 They were the only ones who really got developed and even then, I think Ben got robbed out of his ending.

 So Rey’s heritage. Being a Palpatine, very disappointing. If there’s one good thing I liked about TLJ it was the idea that you didn’t have to be part of some great bloodline to be special in the Force.  The Force doesn’t care who your parents are.  Most of the great Force users we know have literally nothing to do with who their parents are.  If anything, it has more to do with their lineage of training.  So JJ basically saying screw that idea and forcing Rey into that was very disappointing. And apparently electricity is very genetic…Dooku aside, of course!  It also implies the Dark side in her is because of the Palpatine heritage.  But the Dark Side of the Force exists for a reason, for balance, and provides something important to the galaxy.  It’s already proven even the Lightest of users and bloodlines have that pull.  

 Rey has been alone and searching for family this whole time.  Having someone to belong to was important to her.  But…the message of her finding a family and joining one, I think is a lot more important than her finding out her past and heritage.  Just being Rey at the end instead of having to say she was Rey Skywalker or Rey Solo would have made more sense!  Of course���I also think Solo makes more sense for her anyway given her connection with Han, her training with Leia, and her bond with Ben. She did train under Luke as well, granted, but she had more Solo connection than Skywalker.  They just wanted the cool name.  But also doesn’t make sense since Palps calls Ben the last Skywalker in the movie as well.  But whatever, I don’t really care.

 Let’s talk about this whole dyad in the Force thing and the grand plan.  Because I can’t logically reason it out myself.

 So Palps apparently has a plan to bring Rey to him as a girl so he can have her kill him and his spirit can go into her body and he can reign through her because his old body is like super fried and the clone thing ain’t working so hot.  Doesn’t happen, but he’s also working on his other plans to corrupt Ben and bring him to the Dark side, under the influence of Snoke, to do what?  Like what is his plan there apart from just general evil and revenge and nasty stuff? But all along there’s apparently been this Dark prophecy against Ben (and we all know Palps is the manipulator of the Dark).  Luke said Leia gave up her Jedi training because she sensed that at the end of that journey was her son’s death.  You’d think then they’d honor that sacrifice by not killing him, but whatever.

 Palps created or controlled or was at the back of Snoke (however he was at the back of Snoke) and so he’s pulling the strings during TLJ.  He knows everything Snoke knows.  So if Snoke created the bond between Rey and Ben, then he’d be very aware of that.  So how does the whole dyad thing work?  Because it’s made very clear Palps doesn’t know about the dyad, otherwise he likely wouldn’t have tried to do the dark ritual/strike me down plan first when it would have been so much easier to get them both together to drain them.

 So…have they always been a dyad from birth?  Was the dyad created separate from the bond when Snoke created the bond?  A Light balance to the Dark bond?  Regardless of how, clearly they are one soul and connected more powerfully than anyone else in generations.

 But Palps and his plan…he tells Ben to kill Rey.  What was he actually trying to do since it’s clear he didn’t want Rey dead?

 My only thought is that he thought Rey would actually kill Ben and thus give in to her Dark side and be more ready to be Empress…

 But Leia’s sacrifice and all of that still confuses me.  Palps said that Leia interfered with his plans.  

 Now in that fight Rey was the instigator, was the one trying to wreak damage (freaked out by her vision and revelations, I’m sure) and Ben was the one winning that fight. Like he was going to win until Leia stopped him.  But was he going to kill her?  Because I think it’s pretty clear that Ben has never wanted to kill Rey even if he was trying at first before the bond really started.  Either way, Leia stops him from doing something and Rey stabs him instead. Then Leia dies and snaps Rey out of it. Was it the reaching out to Ben or the death that Palps was talking about interfering with his plans?  Because again…he didn’t want Rey dead at that point.

 I don’t know. Having a fleet full of ships hidden for how long, when did those weapons go into place, who’s manning the ships? Because apparently there’s the regular First Order fleet still out there conveniently being taken down by the rest of the galaxy after this fleet burns, so have these recruits just been sitting out there, chilling at Exegol for years, waiting for this order and attack? Total side tangent and question really, but it all makes no sense.

 Leia’s death…so much speculation on why her body didn’t vanish until Ben died.  There has to be something significant there and I’d really love to know if it’s a future plan or if it was part of the original end of the movie since clearly it was changed.  Maz smiles, remember.  Also…is she somehow giving her life for Ben’s to bring him back?  She’s clearly a Force Ghost at the end of the movie.

 Okay…so Han memory.  I did like that and I did like that Ben could get absolution from his dad and have that be the final thing that turns him from Kylo to Ben.  I wasn’t sure I could forgive Ben ever after TFA.  I cried so much and I was so mad.  That’s Han Solo, y’all.  HAN FRIKKING SOLO.  I mean how do you even kill Han Solo?

 Granted, I think we were all robbed of a story where Han and Leia are a united front raising their kid and trying to protect him from danger, but that’s just me.  I mean we could have had The Mummy 2 in space, guys. ROBBED!  Someone write that AU, please.

 And can we just talk about Adam Driver’s acting for a moment?  I mean, the boy is phenomenal.  He goes from being one person to being a completely different one effortlessly.  From the moment he throws the light saber in the sea, his mannerisms and physicality is so different.  It’s amazing. Kudos to him.  Absolutely.  Oscar worthy! He does it without having any lines whatsoever apart from ‘ow.’  And I like Ben Solo and I’m sad we didn’t get to see more of him.  He’s so Han’s boy, so Han’s boy.  Love that!  He’s an awesome character in his good boy sweater.  (Love the sweater and while we’re on the subject, could him and Chris Evans have a sweater off with the good boy sweater and the white knit sweater please?)

 Hey, Luke got to raise a X Wing finally.  That’s the kind of fan service I’m talking about.

 One of my favorite parts of the movie actually was the whole Jedi from the past bit.  Mostly because I saw my boy Kanan getting his recognition and rightful spot as one of the great Jedi, up there with Obi Wan and Anakin and Ahsoka!  I also loved Ahsoka being there and the other Clone Wars greats.  Really cool.  I do kind of wish they had included Ezra, too, but that’s just me loving on my Space Blueberry!  And wishing James Arnold Taylor who put so much into Obi Wan could have at least done Plo Koon since Ewan took his place as Obi Wan.  Either way, that was the only homage and respect paid to the other two trilogies and the Star Wars legend in general.  The only acknowledgement of how much sacrifice and history went into this franchise before now.

 Now…can Rey kill Palps now and not have his spirit go into her because he’d already made himself revitalized with their dyad energy or was it because no ritual had been done?  Just wondering.  Or was it a loophole since all she did was defend herself and his own lightning killed him?

 There’s a lot about energy and healing and the Force in this and so you can speculate all over the place about what the rules are.  (You’d think in the Clone Wars healing each other would have been a thing!) And since we’ve never deal with a dyad before, we don’t know how it works.  But it really kind of feels like even with how drained both of them were after Palps took their bond…it either should have been returned to them when he died or their combined energy should have been able to keep both of them alive. Or something.  Two in one means connection and honestly, I feel like both of them should have died or both of them should have lived.

 I know a lot of people think it was the perfect end for Ben because he redeemed himself (like Anakin) and there would have been no place for him in the galaxy after all the evil Kylo had done.  (Much less if you read the comics!)  But I’m a sucker for a redemption story and I think the hardest punishment always is to face your past and work through what you’ve done instead of taking the easy way out of death (not having to actually atone).  I think it’s a beautiful potential for forgiveness and grace and realizing none of us can really save ourselves.

 And whatever you think of Kylo/Ben or his ending, it’s clear something was changed at the last minute.  There’s a whole lot of editing done on that last scene when he revives her and they kiss and on Tattoine.  There are apparently screen tests people swear they saw where he didn’t die.  I won’t go into the scene analysis some Reylos have, but jaw moving and talking on Rey shots that were cut, it looking more natural for her to have been pulling him back up rather than him falling down, it looks like his hand is the one in the burying lightsaber scene…  He was obviously supposed to live at some point and why they changed their minds, I don’t know.  He is one of the most popular characters and they lost a cash cow when they killed him off.  Silly idiots.

 As far as Rey goes, I also think that’s terribly unfair, to give her the connection she’s been yearning for her whole life and instead of giving her a future, you stick her back on a sand infested planet, sliding down in a parallel to TFA, and burying the past sabers, and being alone.  I know she’s still got friends and stuff but I think she won’t know her new place in all of this and she’s going to feel very lonely.  

 Also, where did the yellow saber come from?  Did she cleanse Ben’s saber?  Did she find a new kyber crystal of her own?  Come on now…don’t be mysterious and weird.  Normally I can take mysteries being unsolved if great care is taken to resolve relationships and characters and this trilogy and story did neither, so no love from me.

 As for shipping them.  I didn’t really through the first two movies.  I was curious to see what would happen, but I could have gone either way. I did ship them after this one.  I do love two broken people finding solace in each other.  And I think there is such potential there for these characters and as a relationship that could have been done so much better and wasn’t and that’s what is the saddest thing of all.

 I really have an urge to write an AU…Luke Skywalkers’ Academy for Sensitive Younglings (title patent pending) and rewrite the whole stupid thing.  I fear I have neither the time nor inspiration for that. But I would dearly love to see awkward teenage versions of these characters growing up and learning and being stupid and given a chance to become the best versions of themselves. My vision of the future.

 Probably in another 30 years there will be a fully formed, all ready to go evil Empire that no one has done anything to stop anyway…

 So there we go. I probably have more to say but that’s all I got and that’s with taking notes!

[khentkawes]

Warning: long, slighty ranty post about Marvel’s future.

Oh boy. It’s possible that Kevin Feige is currently doing some high-level back-room wheeling and dealing as we speak, and that this could all be reversed in the next six months (because let’s be honest, that is the kind of miracle that Feige has pulled off before. He got out from Perlmutter’s thumb, and he got James Gunn back in spite of the very public “we will never re-hire James Gunn” talk from Disney. So he may still be able to pull this off too...and while I’ve been writing this, some people on twitter are backpedaling and saying this might not be a done deal...translation: Feige is playing hardball and someone leaked this info because they needed to cause a firestorm to use as leverage)... but if Feige doesn’t pull off a deal... then, guys, this would be a major sign that Marvel Studios is in for a rocky several years. Most franchises go through a rough patch, and Marvel Studios has avoided that so far. But it looks like their smooth sailing days are over...at least for a while.

I’ve said all along that the MCU would find it more difficult to recover from RDJ’s loss then they expected. This is the beginning of that. Because look...Marvel and Feige did everything they could to ensure that Spider-man was so closely tied to their other characters that Sony couldn’t take him back without it causing them a major headache (and don’t get me wrong, I think Sony is in for some hard times now too). People criticized Spider-man: Homecoming for relying too much on Tony Stark and Iron Man, and people criticized Feige for paying RDJ somewhere between $10-15 million (and criticized RDJ for “demanding” that kind of pay). But you know why they did that? To try to ensure that this didn’t happen. It was more than worth it to pay RDJ $15 million (that’s the highest estimate I’ve heard) to ensure the movie was a financial success and to tie Spider-man irrevocably to the rest of the MCU. The more closely they could tie Spider-man to Iron Man and the Avengers, the harder it would be for Sony to take Spider-man back. That’s why they played up all of the tributes to Iron Man in Spider-man: Far From Home too. It wasn’t because Marvel Studios loves Tony Stark as much as all of us fans do (well, actually, Feige might love him almost as much as we do. It’s the people Fegie keeps hiring that I have doubts about). It was to keep their hold over Spider-man. That’s probably why we had Nick Fury and Happy Hogan and so many other Avengers references as well. Feige basically said: let’s make it clear that Spider-man is so connected to the other characters so that, if Sony tries to severe that connection, it will feel like a ham-fisted reboot that will piss off the fans.

And that’s where we are now. Because Sony did it anyway (again, unless Feige is working some magic behind the scenes).

But assuming this goes through, it is a blow for Marvel Studios too. And they can’t handle that now...

...not when they have retired or crippled so many of their franchise characters and when their upcoming slate produced such mixed reactions. Yes, the fanboys and fangirls raved over the Comic Con announcement, but the general audience’s reactions seem more tepid, largely because there are a lot of unknown or barely established properties. After all, almost all of the established characters were either:

retired / killed (Iron Man, Captain America, Thanos)

relegated to a one-off prequel that is a hard sell for a dead character (Black Widow)

have movies that are delayed or not officially announced yet (Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel)

won’t show up until the end of Phase 4 (Doctor Strange, Thor)

underwent major shifts in character development that made them more comic and less like their original Avengers-era personas (Thor, Nick Fury)

are demoted to Disney+ shows (Loki, Wanda and Vision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, possibly War Machine but who knows because that hasn’t been officially announced either).

Now, I know Marvel Studios is trying to sell the Disney+ shows as big “must see” “events” that are closely tied to the movies. That will likely work for many die-hard fans. But there are some problems for general audiences and more mainstream fans. First...that’s a lot of content to try to keep track of! Can the general audience be expected to keep track of that many movies and shows across that many different platforms...without getting burned out? Franchise fatigue is real (just ask the host of other seemingly unbeatable franchises that experienced a slump). How is Marvel going to promote this so that general audiences, who don’t closely follow comic con announcements, remember to watch these Disney+ shows when they come out? I have friends who are huge comics fans and they wouldn’t know anything about the Disney+ shows at all if I hadn’t told them because they don’t hang out in online fandom spaces. And that’s the key here: people who don’t spend a fair amount of time in online fandom can get easily lost with this business model. And even if the marketing is so good that this isn’t a problem, the market is saturated with streaming services. Disney+ is doing a good job of positioning itself to be one of the successful streaming services, but it is still just “one of,” which means it’s still competing with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and a host of smaller streaming services that are cropping up. People are getting fed up with it. So Disney+ has an uphill battle there. Again, I think they will beat out services like CBS All Access, but there will still be some consumers who just go, “eh, another streaming service? Pass. I don’t have money for yet another one of these dang things.”

So that means that the movies still need to be the most successful part of the franchise. And even then, some of the announced movies are by no means a sure success, particularly for characters like Doctor Strange who aren’t as “big” as some of the older others. GotG v3 may or may not run into fallout from the James Gunn stuff. Thor: Love and Thunder may be a huge success...but it still has a lot of detractors as well. Natalie Portman was never popular and making her the new Thor is a controversial move. So those movies are all a bit of a risk. Captain Marvel is a bit risky too--it was a guaranteed success due to its positioning between two Avengers movies, but the second film has no such guarantee...and yeah, most of the Captain Marvel haters were angry dude-bros, but there were also some legitimate criticisms of it as a relatively generic film. So...who knows? Of the bunch, Black Panther is probably the most sure bet. But that’s it. I personally think that Doctor Strange 2 and GotG v3 will be winners too (and despite my reservations, I think Captain Marvel will do fine). But like I said...it’s not a sure thing.

And with many of the established characters hampered by this host of potential difficulties, that leaves the new characters and properties to carry the load. But Marvel is leading with relatively unknown properties like Shang-Chi and The Eternals. I mean, sure, the MCU started by gambling on a B-list character like Iron Man, but now we’re digging deep into like, the C-list characters, aren’t we? I’m not a comics expert, but these guys are less well-known than Ant-Man...which was also a huge gamble and not one of the most successful MCU films. Yeah, people point to the Guaridans of hte Galaxy to prove that Marvel can take unknown characters and make them successful. But...they can’t do that every time? Like one surprising success doesn’t mean that every single upcoming movie will also be a smash hit. It’s a gamble, that’s all I’m saying. Marvel Studios is rolling the dice and gambling that the it will come up in their favor every time. But that’s a big gamble.

In this whole situation, Black Panther and Spider-man seem like the two tried-and-true almost-guaranteed successes in the MCU’s stables. And now they just lost one of them (probably).

And that’s where the loss of RDJ comes into this. Because the reason RDJ was in Civil War (aside from comics-related reasons) and the reason why he was in Spider-man: Homecoming was because RDJ was as close to a sure thing as you get in the movie business. He was proven. Even the controversial-with-comics-fans Iron Man 3 broke a billion dollars back in 2013. In 2013!

Basically, all I’m saying is that Marvel Studios does not have a single sure-thing left in their up-coming slate of projects and maybe not in their universe at all. They have no Iron Man and no RDJ. They have no Avengers. They’ve given no official announcement or date on Black Panther or a future avengers-type movie. And now they have no Spider-man. Heck, even if they do get Spider-man back, I still think there will be in some rough seas ahead. But without Spider-man...they’re in a world of hurt. They’ve been successful and consistent for 11 years. But past success is not a guarantee of future successes. This will be the first real test to see if they can overcome a rough patch, and I’ll be interested to see how Feige and co. weather the next several years.

[smokedcapybara]

looks like my exhausted rambling isn’t over yet but this time I’m gonna talk about Tony Stark and why I hate the direction the MCU went (aside from Black Panther, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, and Ragnarok - but why they’re exceptions might also be touched on)

so, a long while ago I talked about how Young Justice and Teen Titans has been exactly what I needed when I first moved to Bellevue - I would imagine the heroes watching over me, making sure I was safe, or coming to whisk me away so I could join them and become a hero myself

I started watching the MCU movies around the end of middle school/beginning of high school and Iron Man, for me, couldn’t have come into my life at a better time

firstly, my first introduction to superhero movies was the Batman Beyond trilogy which was exactly the opposite of what I needed and almost enough to turn me off superhero movies entirely

and then I saw Iron Man, which was so completely different - it was funny and hopeful and bright - but also... well

around that time I’d constructed a mask to hide all my negative emotions - all my pain and anger and fear, everything caused by the abuse I’d suffered in Texas and my mom and brother starting to lash out more and more - and this mask, well to me it looked an awful lot like Tony Stark’s

and that was what I needed, I needed to see myself in him, to have the reassurance that I could move on from my past and become a better person, that I could have happiness, that no matter what others might think or see neither my mask and what was under it made me an irredeemable person

for the whole first half of the MCU I latched on to Tony, him and Loki were my favorite characters because they represented the two possibilities of what I could become - the positive and the negative, and even the negative didn’t look all that bad once you scaled it down to a small, disabled human from the powerful, magically talented god

(I also liked Loki because it was like they’d taken all my own family issues and lain them out in a way that anywhere I looked in the fandom I’d see people indirectly supporting me through their support of him)

I also liked Bruce, Clint, and Natasha, and all the side characters, they were all relatable in small human ways that I was very fond of

Thor and Steve I struggled with though

for about three years - the three years I lived in Texas - my mother was married to a bodybuilder name James, he was abusive and because of this I was traumatized and spent up until recently automatically scared of any large muscular man

sort of a ‘they have to prove they’re not to be scared of instead of the other way around’ kinda thing, and unfortunately Steve and Thor did not do that in those first few movies

so I projected heavily on Tony and tried not to let my trauma color my opinion of Steve and Thor too much and trusted that Marvel would handle their main characters as well as I was used to from things like, for example, Teen Titans or Young Justice

Age of Ultron was difficult but it had some good Clint moments and the ‘language!’ running joke was fun - I was torn up at the loss of Jarvis, of course

and then Civil War came out

they took the character I projected on and one of the characters my trauma made me somewhat distrustful of and pitted them against each other and somehow, miraculously, I sided with Steve

of course I sided more with healthy communication and talking things out amongst themselves before they take sides and start splitting up but unfortunately there wouldn’t have been much of a movie if they’d done that, would there?

and then

and then, Steve admitted to knowing who killed Tony’s parents and not telling him sooner and got upset at him for being upset

I’d managed to get past my trauma enough to recognize that he was mostly dedicated to being a good person, I’d even managed to get past it enough to side with him over Tony for the better part of that movie

but watching that fight, especially the end where Tony was laying there defenseless, was almost like being retraumatized - having the association of large muscular men as violent and dangerous rebranded into my brain - and the letter he sent at the end pulled up all the less physical aspects of James’s abuse

and so Steve was firmly associated in my head with all of that stuff from my past, and it made it so hard to participate in fandom where suddenly everyone was picking a side and declaring one or the other completely in the wrong

and those who like Steve or believed his side was right decided anyone who liked Tony, or disapproved of how Steve handled the whole situation with Tony’s parents having been murdered, was a terrible person and should be torn down for liking him, they reduced Tony to his mask and declared that he’d never be able to make up for his past - called him heartless and more

and those who supported Tony were just as bad

and there was no room for someone who supported Steve’s argument against the accords but was against his actions in the Hydra base(I don’t remember where it was, I watched the movie once and refused to ever watch it again cause it was too triggering for me)

and while the rift in the fandom has softened, its still there - everyone seems to either hate Tony or hate Steve

and those who dislike Tony have had more and more good reason to as the series has gone on and it hurts

because at some point he stopped being a beacon of hope for me while still being too connected to me

in fact, it’s almost like him and Loki switched places with Ragnarok and everything

(here’s where we touch on why Ragnarok is so much better than most of the rest of the MCU, and is in fact my #1 favorite MCU movie)

by the time Ragnarok came out I had lost my main fictional source of hope for myself - I’d only ever found two characters I related to in that way and on that level: Tony and Loki (there have been many other fictional characters I’ve related to but all either on much smaller scale or just in wildly different directions)

and Tony was quickly becoming worse than what Loki had represented for me, my hope turned sour, my mask indistinguishable from the truth, I was a little lost

I distanced myself somewhat from the MCU fandom, I just couldn’t handle it, it hurt too much

and then I watched Ragnarok

Thor was goofy and ridiculous and silly and a definite hero but in an almost washed up way - like his time had come and gone and come again and he was gonna grab it with both hands while it was there but not take it too seriously this time cause he knew better, y’know?

and that was exactly what I needed to get past the ‘big muscular man’ trigger to see him as a whole Good Person and absolutely love him

and him and Loki’s interactions were exactly what I needed right at the cusp of a change for the better in my relationship with my own brother

and by the end of the movie Loki was happy and accepted and understood (and gay, can’t forget the gay subtext) - while still being himself - and that was definitely what I needed

and then Infinity War and Endgame came out and I still haven’t watched either of them yet but I don’t need to and I don’t want to because I’ve had enough spoiled for me to know that nothing good would come of it

and it makes me so sad and angry

Marvel took this series, these characters, that was so important to me at such a difficult part of my life, that I was so dedicated to for so long, and essentially threw it all away, trashed it, ran it into the ground so thoroughly that I decided not to watch any more unless it’s, like, a Black Panther sequel - and that mostly because black superhero movies need to be supported so more will get made cause they’re important (and because Black Panther was good but, I mean, I feel like the rest of this post does a good job explaining that one movie being good doesn’t mean it’s sequel will be or that you should watch the sequel so the representation aspect makes more of a difference for me rn)

and all because... what?... cause they decided drama and conflict was more important than their main team being a team? cause they didn’t want any spoilers leaked so they lied to their actors? because they were more motivated by making money than telling a satisfying story? cause they forgot not all their watchers are cookie cutter carbon copies of each other and all relate to different aspects of different characters for different reasons?

because they forgot that because this series might be a child’s first introduction to the concept of superheroes they have a responsibility to protect and nurture that child’s faith in the world? that’s the responsibility you take upon yourself when working with those characters, any superhero characters unless your story is undeniably adult oriented, and you need to remember that

superheroes are supposed to be our hope that maybe things can be better, maybe we can make a difference, that’s what got Marvel and DC big and they need to do better to remember it

(I liked Black Panther because it was very emotionally impactful and visually stunning and had great characters and representation - so many different important woman characters as well as most the characters being black! - and just overall was, like, the ideal movie)

(I liked Guardians of the Galaxy 1&2 because it was easily separated from the rest of the MCU in my head and it was fun and funny and leaned very heavily into found family which is my jam and it had an A+ soundtrack and Groot was adorable and amazing and Drax was very autistic coded in a Good way, also Gamora and Nebula gave me similar sibling feels to Thor and Loki which is important to me)

[metalgearkong]

Avengers: Endgame - Review

5/6/19 **SPOILERS**

Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo (Marvel Studios/Disney)

The original Iron Man came out a year after I turned 18 and graduated high school. Effectively, the Marvel Cinematic Universe began as soon as I started my adult life, each film acting like 2 or 3 checkpoints every year, always giving me something to look forward to. While I haven’t loved or liked every movie so far, the MCU has been incredibly consistent, slowly increasing in quality on average as time goes on, not to mention having that sentimental factor of facing the world along side it. Scale has also increased in these films over time, seeing more and more team-up movies with larger and larger casts crammed on screen. Endgame is the biggest super hero movie of all time, and not just based on box office earnings, but based on fan expectations, concluding such an incredible saga.

The Russo brothers have been a godsend to the MCU, directing what are most of the top tier entries so far, including The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and now Endgame. While Infinity War was essentially Thanos’ story, Endgame shifts perspective back to the heroes, picking up the pieces and desperately trying to undo what Thanos accomplished. Endgame is sometimes overwhelming (in a good way), with several instances catching myself holding my breath. One of the best things about this film is the level of pay-off it gives for those who have followed the series since the beginning. While I don’t think I enjoyed it more than Infinity War, Endgame is certainly one of the biggest super hero movies of all time, but sometimes the logic of the story detracts from the emotion and memorable moments of the film.

The movie picks up 5 years after Thanos’ genocide. The remaining Avengers discover a possibility to use the quantum realm (Ant-Man’s shrinking machines) to go back in time and collect the infinity jewels before Thanos does. While this is a “time travel” movie, I like the explanation that Bruce Banner gives that you simply cannot just go back to an earlier time and change the current present; going back in time is like visiting an alternate dimension where what you do does affect that timeline, but yours when you go back continues as its been. This essentially takes care of the “grandfather paradox” of why you couldn’t just go to the past, kill Hitler, changing history for the better. You could tell the writers of this film anticipated question most theater-goers would ask, like “why not just go back and kill Thanos as a baby?” and things like that. 

After being rescued from space by Captain Marvel, Tony Stark has officially retired from being an Avenger. He understandably has lost the battle, and resides to live his life with Pepper Potts and their 5 year old Morgan. Tony’s home life and dynamics with his daughter are some of my favorite moments in the movie, as it further humanizes Tony, and offers even more deconstruction of super heroes this series is known for. When the other Avengers think of a possible way to fix everything, I actively wanted them to leave Tony alone and let him have his earned life of peace, even if half the universe was killed off. But, being the guilty genius he is, he can’t fully let it go, and works with quantum tech to make a time machine for the heroes to use. Quickly, they develop a plan to split off and go to different teams and time periods, and retrieve the infinity jewels from their original known locations.

Seeing the current Avengers physically revisit famous scenes from prior movies was incredibly satisfying and felt like an appropriate use of fan service. Some of the best scenes of the entire movie are current heroes accidentally meeting up with themselves in the past, or accidentally coming across people they miss dearly. One of the scenes that come to mind are Steve Rogers meeting his younger self during the events of The Avengers (2012), and the ensuing duel. It instantly reminded me of playing a fighting game with your friend, but you’ve both picked the same character. It was one of the most and creative and clever moments of the movie. The other best time travel moment easily goes to Tony revisiting the 1940′s and having a hear to heart with his unwitting father, getting closure and a feeling for full circle his character didn’t even know he needed.

One one the complaints I do have about the story is that Thanos is no longer the same Thanos from Infinity War. When problems emerge during Nebula’s trip to the past, Thanos from that time period learns that someday he is successful in using the infinity jewels to wipe out half the universe. Through convoluted events, he is able to travel to the future (Endgame’s present) where he faces the Avengers head-on for trying to spoil his plans. This means the Thanos of this film (B) isn’t the same Thanos as in Infinity War (A), as he hasn’t done anything from those events yet, nor has any history with the heroes. Thanos B also seems to have a more malevolent and less complex attitude about using the infinity jewels, and comes off more as a typical bad guy, and less of a complex emotional psychopathic environmentalist, which is what made his character so interesting in the first place.

The other major issue I have with the film is its seemed to shoot itself in the foot with all the time travel multiverses. The movie feels like it breaks its own rules for the sake of the big emotional character scene at the very end. I’m of course referring to “Old Cap” and how he somehow went back to the past to live out his life with Peggy Carter, yet was able to show up back in Endgame’s timeline as an aged man to pass off his shield to Falcon. Once he went into the past, he, by this movie’s own rules, cannot appear back in the regular timeline because visiting the past is basically a parallel universe. What makes it doubly bad is that it’s not in Cap’s character to simply allow the world to go through the turmoil it did while standing aside through all of it. Don’t even get me started on how this would have affected Peggy’s life and the entire conception of SHIELD. If someone can explain to me how this was all possible, please do, otherwise, it felt like either a genuine mistake, or more likely, the movie bending its own rules for the sake of a payoff (which left me scratching my head and took the emotional impact completely out of the final scene of the movie).

However, I’m extremely happy with the rest of Captain America’s scenes. Aside from the scene mentioned earlier (Cap vs. Cap), his use of Thor’s hammer in the end battle was incredibly satisfying and cathartic. I’ve always felt that if anyone was “worthy” of being a good person and warrior, it was always Captain America. Why he could barely budge Thor’s hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron is beyond me (unless he was faking it to protect Thor’s feelings). Hell, if Vision could lift the hammer, why couldn’t Cap before now? Cap also gets a lot more time on screen in general, which was nice after barely having any lines or presence in Infinity War. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and other side characters also get their best moments of the entire series combined, and it was nice to see the regular people among the Avengers still have emotionally and plot poignant scenes as good as the super heroes.

Thor’s story arch could be seen as criticisms of the film as well. While the universe in its throws of coping with half of all life disintegrated, and how that would affect hugely every aspect of life, Thor meanwhile settles for comically getting fat and doing absolutely nothing. While I still found Thor in-character and funny in this film, upon further speculation, I really wish Thor continued the high he rode after passing what was his darkest chapter in Infinity War. I thought Thor finally settled into his own, and was confused why he regressed into a gag, even if I found it humorous at first. But, I was thankful certain other characters didn’t steal the limelight, especially Captain Marvel. I still find her way too powerful and her personality wildly unlikable and inconsistent. I tried to defend her character in her own movie back in March, but seeing Brie Larson once again strutting her ego made it impossible to root for a supposed underdog. One of my greatest fears of Endgame is she’d use her power to steal the show, and overshadow the legacy of the original characters in their fight against Thanos.

Summing up every great scene or character moment in this review is impossible, and they certainly outnumber the scenes or concepts I disliked. Almost every character gets some resolution or moment in the spotlight by the end of the movie. The final words of Tony Stark, “I am Iron Man,” was a triumphant moment as it capped off the entire series so far, further establishing Tony Stark as the heart and soul of the MCU. While Tony has never been my favorite Avenger, Endgame pays huge respects to him and his accomplishments, and I was a bigger fan of him than I ever was before. Its too bad that the plot raises so many questions in my mind, especially related to time travel and alternate dimensions. Endgame has too many conveniences for the sake of a big bombastic super hero climax, and I wish some of the logical issues with the plot or characters could have been executed differently. If you have any affinity for this series, you owe it to yourself to see Endgame, and while it has many moments of pay-off and awe, it isn’t the series’ most airtight film.

8/10

[doux-amer]

Thoughts on the different boroughs of nyc? Thoughts on christmas movies? Thoughts on into the spiderverse??

Oops. I rambled on in my response to the first question so I put that under a cut, and I’ll answer the next two here:

Christmas movies - I don’t have a strong feeling about them either way? I don’t hate them, but I don’t love them either although I guess around Christmastime, I do want to put on a Christmas movie and get in the mood. I have some favorites. Also, you need to include one or two movies at the very least that take place during or mention Christmas but don’t actually have anything to do with the holiday in your top Christmas movies list or else it’s invalid. Like…Die Hard (which I haven’t watched to this day. SORRY. I’m lazy)? Iron Man 3? KKBB? Something? 

Into the Spider-verse - SO GOOD. I’ve been waiting for it to come out ever since they released the trailer because I’ve never seen animation so fresh, innovative, and fun before. I love how much they pushed the boundaries and went to new places animation-wise, I loveeee the character designs, I love the colors, I love everything. I’m so happy we got a Miles movie because I wanted Miles to be in a movie and well, I wanted him to be in the MCU because did we need another white Peter Parker? NO. We literally had 3 in the past 15 years. At least make him not white. He’s not representative of a nerd from Queens anymore. Anyway. Miles. MY SON(SHINE). HE CAN BE FULL-OUT AFROLATINO? Not just black? Like????? AFROLATINOS EXIST. LOVE THAT REP. LOVE HIS PARENTS. His dad is a big goof and embarrasses his son, but I love that he can show feelings and cry. And I was ambivalent about Gwen showing up, but I loved her!! She felt like a real girl (ugh sorry, I have :/ feelings about Spider Gwen as a concept and I was afraid she’d be written in a “what a man thinks is a cool but relatable girl” way). I love the other spiders. I can’t believe I finally care about Peter Parker, but I got emo over blondie (did you know he was nicknamed RIPeter by the art team lol?) dying and I was so fond of Peanut Butter Parker. I mean, Peter B. Parker. But uh….I have a hugeee soft spot for reluctant mentor/dad/older brother figures who take young kids under their wing especially if they’re hot messes so this was a very unsurprising turn of events. REALLY enjoyed Doc Ock and Kingpin which is not…something I expected. I liked Spider Ham too which…same thing. I never cared for him before. I didn’t care for Peni Parker the way she was depicted in the movie. :////// Yay, Asian/anime stereotypes. Yikes. :/// She’s not even like that in the comics so it’s a puzzling decision. I’m looking forward to the trailer. OH, UNCLE AARON. :( Um. The music! SO GODDAMN GOOD OH MY GOD. The post-credits scene which made me laugh out loud, but this entire movie made me laugh out loud which is rare. Cute, heartfelt, and just. THE ANIMATION IS SO GODDAMN GOOD. I’M LOSING MY MIND.

Boroughs under the cut:

Bronx - no one goes to the Bronx if they’re not from the Bronx unless they’re going to the zoo or Yankee Stadium, they work in the food/produce business, or want seafood in the boroughs. Also, the Bronx has gotten safer over the past few decades, but to be honest, one of the first things that’ll come to a native’s mind when they think of the Bronx aside from the zoo and the Yankees is crime/safety lol. :x Like…all us kids who grew up in the boroughs, especially before the 2000s/2010s (idk what Gen Z kids think of the Bronx? But this is 100% the case with older generations) think of it as the dangerous/shady borough if we had to pick one. But idk, mainly you think of it as that borough that’s far away that you don’t go to except for the reasons stated above and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I know a bunch of people who live/grew up/work there.”

Brooklyn - Damn, I don’t remember what my thoughts on Brooklyn were as a kid because now it’s like “GENTRIFICATION!!!! GENTRIFICATION!!! HIPSTERS! WHITE PEOPLE DISPLACING EVERYONE!” The place where everyone in their 20s live when they move here or move out of their parents’ house. Where the parties are at, I guess, except I don’t go. That or “the place where all my friends who are POC are from if they’re not from Queens” lol. I get too lazy to go deep into Brooklyn, but there are some good places to go to! I just haven’t explored it much. Oh, Steve Rogers now. That’s been a thing for years because I’m Steve trash. :))))

Manhattan - Dirty, stinky, nasty, and rat- and pigeon-infested, but it’s home. So much stuff to do, see, and go to! So many great restaurants! So many museums! If you’re a cinephile and bookworm, you’re happy. Whatever you’re in the mood for, there’ll always be a place that’ll fit your mood. Peaceful, airy areas? Busy, lively ones? Historic places? Skyscrapers everywhere? Every neighborhood has its own personality. I lovelovelove all the architecture. It tells the history of the city, and there are just all these different styles from different eras next to each other. Every time I leave, I’m wowed by how quiet and chill it is and don’t miss it and then I come back, as soon as I see a glimpse of the city or I set foot in it, I’m like “OH MY GOD???? I MISSED YOU.” There are a few things that I think of when I think of what the city means to me, and this is one of them; it captures the essence of what it means and feels like to be a New Yorker (and I’m not afraid to admit that I cried reading it, but that might also have been because I read it on 9/11 a few years back and yesyesyes, it explains everything).

Queens - Home! Birthplace. HM OKAY, I’M REVEALING TOO MUCH. But yes, this is absolutely unsurprising considering I’m Asian lmao. Where the Asians are at. Where the best Asian food is at because eh lol Manhattan’s food ranges from whatever to good with some stellar restaurants, but there’s a plethora of cheap authentic eats in Queens. White Peter Parker makes me mad as a Queens native even if it makes sense for Forest Hills fdofidhfioshf. I ranted about it a few years ago on here along with some facts about Queens’s diversity because fun fact: it’s the most diverse place in the world per capita!!! You have no idea how many non-English speakers Queens has and the sheer number of foreign languages represented here. The number of immigrants!!!! “UGLY” BUT I LOVE IT BECAUSE THAT MEANS TRANSPLANTS FORGET QUEENS EXISTS AND I’D LIKE TO KEEP IT THAT WAY (also, transplants have weird thoughts about Queens unless they’re Asian themselves and sometimes even if they are). GET AWAY. I’m mad about Amazon. GTFO. 

Staten Island - dumpster of NY. That’s legit the first thing that pops into any New Yorker’s mind both in a literal and figurative sense because that’s literally where the world’s largest landfill was located until several years ago. Figurative because uh…sorry, but who goes to Staten Island? I try not to go there and I don’t even remember the times I’ve been there. People who live there know Staten Island is trash lmao. Also, this is the whitest borough and I mean that literally too. Also the borough that votes Republican all the goddamn time and voted for Trump although we switched it to blue during the midterms (wow????). FEHIFHWOHFIWEA everyone from the other boroughs looks down on Staten Island a lot and that’s nevah gonna change!

[makeste]

Top 10 Fictional Spouses

*a wild meme appears!*

Stolen from @rikudera. Tagging anyone else who wants to do it because why not! Also I did it as a countdown and also rambled a bit NOPE, a LOT about why I love them and want to marry them because I can’t shut up, but this is not a requirement or anything.

10. Jon Snow (Game of Thrones)

It took 8 fucking seasons for this little shit to get his act together, but yes, I finally do want to fucking marry him and his perfect undead ass. If only he wasn’t currently boning his aunt. Haha GoT am I right.

9. Diana Prince (Wonder Woman)

I have trouble putting into words what I love so much about Diana (and the WW film in general). Like, I feel like it would have been so easy to screw her up, but they didn’t. It would have been so easy to fuck up that balance between her being a loving, caring, kindhearted person and a badass person who gets shit done. But they got it right. They could have leaned in way too much on the romance between her and Steve, and made the movie way too chick-flicky, but that, too, they managed to get just right. She just has this energy that I can’t describe. She’s not a masculine hero that happens to be a woman; she is a very feminine hero but she is just as strong because why wouldn’t she be? But it’s different from everything we’ve had before IMO and I want more of it so bad. And yeah I’d marry her in a heartbeat.

8. Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy / MCU)

I. Love. Everything about her. Especially from Guardians Vol. 2 and onward, when she seems to have relaxed a little bit now that she’s found her place with the rest of the Guardians. I love how she’s so serious and mature and eye-rolling-at-everything all the time, but she also feels Thor’s biceps, and lip syncs along to “Rubberband Man”, and totally lets her guard down around Peter because she trusts him so much. THANOS DID HER SO FUCKING DIRTY OMG but I know she’s still hanging around in that Soul Stone so it’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to bring her back and I can’t fucking wait.

7. TYL!Ryohei (KHR)

TYL!Ryohei is a fucking gift to the world. We don’t deserve him. Somehow over the course of those ten years, he matured in ways I wouldn’t have believed were possible. Like, he’s still passionate and fired up and shit, but he’s also so much more level-headed and sensible now, and he’s a mentor and he’s in a (presumably) happy, healthy, and stable relationship, and just, damn. Like I would put him in a list of top ten anime guys who probably have great credit. I feel safe with TYL!Ryohei, and his great TYL!hair.

6. T’Challa (Black Panther / MCU)

There are a lot of male fictional characters that I love, but very few I’d want to marry. T’Challa is one of them because IMO he’s one of the only male characters in media right now that doesn’t adhere to all the same-old-same-old super masculine hero tropes all the time. How do I explain this without using the fucking phrase “big dick energy” ugh... Like, he doesn’t have to be in control of everything all the fucking time. He’s strong and stubborn when he needs to be, but not overbearing. He doesn’t think he’s the only be-all-end-all authority on morality (even though he actually does have a pretty good grip on it). He acknowledges when he’s fucked something up, and he tries to learn from it. He’s surrounded by strong women and he respects the shit out of them and gets showed up by them on occasion and doesn’t bat an eye because why would he? And I wish more characters were like this, but right now I can only think of three including him. There are probably more, though, and hopefully we’ll continue to see more.

5. Okoye (Black Panther / MCU)

Do I even need to explain this? Are there people out there who don’t want to marry Okoye? Nah I don’t believe you. The way she side-eyes T’Challa when he’s all “I never freeze” and then saves his ass and makes fun of it later but she also still loves and respects the shit out of him. The way she loves her husband(...? or boyfriend? wait I’m not sure) without making a big thing out of it, but then also during the film’s climax, when he tries to make it like “me or Wakanda though??”, she’s like “OF COURSE IT WOULD BE WAKANDA WHAT DO YOU FUCKING THINK” because she is the loyalest bitch. And how she tries to fall in line with Killmonger because it’s her duty, but also she helps Ramonda and Nakia and pals escape, and then later when T’Challa is back and all “I WAS ONLY MOSTLY DEAD,” she immediately jumps back aboard that train and she’s so happy. She’s so loyal and so dedicated to her duty but also has the best sense of humor and even when all the lines are blurred she doesn’t waver and she does what she thinks is right.

4. Jake Peralta (Brooklyn 99)

Hey so yeah Jake is one of the other two aforementioned Woke Male Characters Who’ve Gotten Over Their Egos and Are Better For It that I mentioned in the T’Challa part above. (The third is Steve Trevor. Like I said, there are probably more... at least I hope?? But I don’t watch enough new shit these days to really know.) I love everything about Jake. How he tries so hard at everything, how he goes out of his way to be such a good friend to everyone, how he’s somehow an idiot and yet also perfectly intelligent and good with computers and the fucking best at solving crimes. I love his sense of humor. I’m so weak for guys with a good sense of humor it’s not even funny. 500% bonus if they specialize in self-deprecating humor. Basically just marry me already Jake.

3. Sanji (One Piece)

SANJI. I could rant for days. I love him so much it’s almost intimidating to have to boil it down into one inadequate little paragraph. Just. He has THE WORST PAST EVER with a childhood so abusive and miserable I can’t even find the words for it, and yet in spite of all that he grew up to be so incredibly kind and loving and always wanting to make sure everyone’s needs are met. Not to mention he’s a complete badass? And also smart as hell (and Oda really needs to give us some more of that because I’ve been missing his saves-the-day-behind-the-scenes antics. I was hoping we might get some in WCI but we didn’t, and that’s okay but WANO IS COMING NOW SO LET’S DO THIS PLEASE). The only reason he’s not #1 on the list is because of the love cook nonsense, because it’s Japan and they have some issues. But if I’m honest, I’m totally willing to overlook it because aside from that quirk he is fucking perfect.

2. Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn 99)

My favorite thing about Rosa is that she’s super private and reserved, without actually being shy or antisocial. I feel like this is pretty rare in fiction. She doesn’t freak out or get anxious whenever she has to speak in public or meet new people or anything, but she also values her privacy and her personal space very highly and goes to great lengths to maintain it. She cares about her friends deeply, but she also isn’t afraid to tell them when they need to back the fuck off. And I can relate so much to that.

And oh yes, my other favorite thing about Rosa is that she is canon fucking bisexual, with a coming-out episode and everything, and I never knew how badly I needed to see that until it happened and I was like almost in tears? So yes. Rosa Diaz. She’s so cool and I want to be her wife.

1. TYL!Yamamoto Takeshi (KHR)

AS IF THERE COULD BE ANYONE ELSE HERE AT THE TOP. Yamamoto Takeshi. God’s Perfect Idiot. The pinnacle of human evolution. Confident without being arrogant. Loyal till the end of the fucking world. Sense of humor that’s fucking unrivaled. Flawless, strongest, and invincible. Literally the best laugh in the history of human existence. Seriously, that’s a fact. Oh, and also, the most handsome man who ever lived, probably. We’ll never know for certain unless you could time travel or something, but I feel like it’s pretty safe to assume. You can probably put money on that. But if you said it to his face, he would probably just laugh and say, “Ha ha, you think so?” with his hand behind his head all boyishly, because he’s so fucking modest on top of everything else, and excuse me but I have to go cry now because he doesn’t actually fucking exist, fuck my life.

Anyway, so this was fun but now I remembered why I stopped doing memes, because I don’t have a fucking off switch jesus christ. BUT THEY’RE SO FUN, THOUGH. Agh. Dammit.

[queensofthekastle]

ANGST PREDICTIONS WITH STELLAR TIME DON’T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT ANXIETY BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT I GAVE MYSELF

Let it be known that I’m hinging all of my predictions on a single assertion: season one will resist any truly definitive ending for any plot thread you could name, and the story will reflect that, and we are all going to cry, either for Punisher canon consistency, or Karen’s well-being.

Why?

Well, first and foremost, that what happens with that Disney streaming thing will be the make or break for any future seasons of Punisher and thus, Netflix will probably hold off on adding anything too final in case they don’t get to keep it. Aside from that, there is also the cardinal rule of comic canon: nothing is permanent and everything can be written over. People die, come back to life, hook up, break up, create magic babies out of demons souls which disappear but then come back later with their own series, Johnny Blaze’s head is still on fire but fuck us all if anyone can cite one definitive reason why, etc. etc. etc. So, the option of finality is there, but can’t be trusted to hold, and what’s more, stringing us along is the usual MO anyway. UNLESS they’re going to lose an opportunity due to actor age, etc. and have to jump now which, presumably, isn’t a problem Punisher has since Disney could surely pay the fuck out of the cast if they took it over. If. That’s the big if. 

Then again, there’s also the character to consider. Let’s just get this out right now: no one is going to dare give Frank Castle a happy ending, here. Even if doing so wouldn’t wreck future plots, it’s just not in keeping with the character. People write Frank two ways: undiluted badass killing machine, and broken man doomed to walk the same path until it kills him. The one exception is your Year One period stuff, which Netflix does dabble in. They’re pulling from other eras of Frank’s life with Micro (though FBI lady, Dinah, I suspect will mirror one or another of two ladies from Ennis runs, for shipping’s sake and the anxiety it will give me, hopefully not O’Brien, though I have to say I like her overall plot and personality more than Molly’s but ANYWAY) but they’d be able to fudge some of that Year One uncertainty. 

If, that is, they want to trample their FLAWLESS ENDING LAST SEASON with DD which I am hoping they have the sense not to do. Well--ok, they could play with uncertainty, with Frank’s path not being decided, but they’ll have to be careful. And that brings me to my actual prediction here, feel free to take bets on whether I have any idea wtf I’m talking about:

The whole theme of this season, what with the truth and all that, will be about  Frank’s last chance. Not the Punisher’s--Frank’s. This will be the season where we stretch him way past one confrontation in the woods and determine once and for all what kind of war MCU Frank is going to be fighting. At first, it will be a war against the military. but at the last second? Something will happen to make it bigger than that. And that something will be Karen.

Here’s the deal, in DD2, Frank was out to find piece by punishing those who killed his family, who were responsible. His greatest fear? That dolling that punishment out wouldn’t make all of his pain stop. At the end of the season, he’s offered the real culprit at last, and he’s faced with a choice: kill the bastard, or legal recourse. Karen favors the latter, because we all know that killing the fuck is a cop-out, a way not to have to face the truth that there’s more to what happened and that no number of dead criminals will ever be enough to take a chunk out of the people actually responsible. But, that killing helps. It’s the war he needs, and in the end, he blows up his old home and the clear message is that he’s chosen this. He’s the Punisher now. Frank is dead. 

What mattered to Frank is dead.

Which is the right way to go if you just want to tell a Punisher story in the most traditional, War Journal sense, from here on out.

But Netflix seems to have gone “hmmm, I don’t think we can get enough of a plot out of that yet.” Which, fair enough. So here’s what they’re going to do: they’re throwing the truth back at Frank on a level where killing one asshole in a shed won’t be enough, and Frank is going to be faced with the prospect of bringing the real perps to justice, err, punishment, his own government, military, etc. (Which is a fascinating game to play in broader Punisher canon tbh I’m scared and hyped.) When he talks about finding a way out? He means that defeating these people, the real criminals, is a cause he could still get behind, a reason to exist, to be human, to have memories, to leave his war on crime.

basically, the same choice he had at the end of last season. Which is the one thing that makes me nervous--how won’t this get redundant? There a couple ways I can see that going, based on the assumption that we are not going to have our hearts ripped out:

1) his focus becomes not petty crime, but specifically criminals protected from the system like political insiders. Very different flavor for Frank, not one we’ve seen before like... ever. Successfully, anyway. (In fact Ennis pretty much already wrote what a more established Punisher would say to such an opportunity but different canon, so . . .??? Put it this way, he was not receptive.) This is an option that means Karen has a long future with him whether it makes him nervous or not. Open ended to future seasons, everyone has a role they could play, it’s just an unusual take. 2) the entire point of the season becomes that he learns nothing. He chooses not to care. He does what he does and then picks the next available fight. All the things that could get him out, that matter? They’ll get sidelined or shut out. That means Karen. At least, however, it allows for lots of violent future series.

If they want to go full traditional Punisher, they’ll go with number two.  We’ll get a whole season of hope and then he’ll walk away again, shut Karen out again, everything. Which, frankly, is a waste of the end of last season because it’s redundant.

Which is why what I really fear is option 3, the one in which tearing hearts out is a distinct possibility.

3) Frank’s something that matters is the truth. It’s almost enough to save him, it doesn’t. Frank’s something that matters is Karen--

do you see where I’m going with this?

If you were a writer on Punisher who didn’t want to turn it into a Bourne movie, you’d have to meet one basic requirement: no happy ending, and so Frank continues his war on crime--regular. street. crime. Not government conspiracy. Which means you’d have to connect the meta military plot set up by last season and the colonel to the war he was trying to fight all along. First, you’d have to tear Frank back into the gov. conspiracy fold from the end of last season, then you’d have to let him resolve it to a degree where he wouldn’t want to pursue it further and would go back to street crime and the mob and what have you. And then? You’d have to give him a reason to break. A reason not to get better. To fall right off the murder wagon.

One not directly related to his now avenged family.

And what better reason than Karen getting hurt or killed?

I leaned away from this prediction for a long while. But I’m thinking about the prevalence of her in the trailers. About the protection theme. And now? I’m worried. Everybody buckle in, of options 1, 2, and 3, I’m ruling out 2. And if they really respect Punisher canon, that will rule out 1.

On the plus side, remember that bit about finality in comic media? I don’t think, because of the benefits of keeping her alive for future plots, shipping, etc., that they’d kill her off entirely. 

But hurt her, put her out of commission so he can go on the war path? Oh, definitely. And man, oh man, will they make all of that hurt.

[cryptoriawebb]

A, B, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, N, O, Q, R, W, X, Y, Z

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)Honestly, my top ships kinda stay the same XD; I haven’t had a new one in a while that I’ve been super obsessed with.Charles Xavier/Erik LehnsherrKiara/KovuDraculaura/CupidNinth Doctor/Jack/Rose

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mindUmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmClark Kent/Bruce Wayne XD; and I blame BvS and our cute domestic verse entirely. 

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, whatI KNOW I have over the years, I just can’t remember what or for which fandom ^^;OH WAIT… KYORANGE

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandomPRobably the X-men. I’ve loved them since I was a kid, over half my life, now. I’ve grown up with various versions of them–primarily tv and movies–and they’re very close to my heart.

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in itHm…I don’t know…I remember one big one from junior high but I don’t think it was my first. Maybe Kiara/Kovu? I adored them and I still do. 

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)8′D the X-men movies. Ahh mostly live-action movies, to be honest. And I guess western (especially girly) cartoons lol. Although to a lesser degree. Note, this has changed over the years. I was a big ol’ anime shipper (as I’m sure you remember) back in the day. 

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and whyIt’s made me avoid fandoms I’m not into. Otherwise I don’t think so…I’ve become aware of certain sects in my fandoms that I steer clear from but beyond that, not really. Most of my bad experiences occurred on other sites.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblrVikings. Haven’t watched the show, probably won’t watch the show but I admit gifsets and fandom talk intrigue me. 

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)In any fandom? I guess I’ll choose My Little Pony. I’m not really into the fandom, I prefer Equestria Girls, but I’ve watched the show for years so why not. Rainbow Dash isn’t high on my favorites list but I love her nerdy streak and devotion to both A.K. Yearling and Daring Do. Heck knows that’s how I feel about certain series (books or otherwise.) It’s a nice contrast to her otherwise cocky and athletic personality. 

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)I guesssss I’ll do Monster High? I don’t really have one main fandom…although if it isn’t this, it’s X-men.1) More Cupid/Draculauraaaaaa! Come on guys!2) More people aware and obsessed with all the little Universal monster references in gen 1. Heck, more references to that stuff in general. There used to be such strong ties to it! That’s what really made me fall in love with Monster High. I wish I saw more people touch on or explore it. 3) I…can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’d love to see other fans explore and entertain the world set up in the anime shorts. I think it has a lot of intriguing potential. Characterizations aside. 

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you ofWell I have this song stuck in my head. Honestly it could probably fit a couple of ships, if you want to go the angsty route…but I tend to associate the Killers with Cherik XD; Although this totally works for Clark/Bruce too~ before they learn the other’s identity, I mean. 

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and whyMost of my MLP ships. Because I learned a long time ago certain fandoms lack a broad imagination. They’re linear and can only see the forest for the trees. Or something like that.I also grew out of most of my Naruto ships…apart from NaruHina, the only one I really like is from that collaborative AU headcanon ten years or so ago…damn I’m old. 

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else shipsFrankie Stein/Gooliope Jellington, Faybelle Thorn/Poppy O’Hair, there’s one X-men ship I’ve explored but I think it would be considered taboo (which is precisely why I like exploring it. Changing angles, trying to look at things from perspectives I haven’t seen before. Keeps the creativity fresh.) 

W - 5 favorite shipssOf all time? Well XD I listed three of them (Cherik, Kovara, Nine/Rose/Jack) but let me think…the last two…Honestly I’m not sure I have another two. Nothing that’s completely cemented unless you count that au Naruto ship but I haven’t touched that fandom in years. I’d have to think more carefully about this… 

X - top 5-10 characters who are YOUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEMCHARLES XAVIERKiara ElsaClark KentFrankie SteinDraculauraFaybelle Thorn although I wouldn’t call her my precious baby so much as fabulous fae-bae~Sunset ShimmerPinkie PieSally Acorn

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)DCAU for sure XDSailor Moon although I’d love to get into it properlyPokemon MCU/Avengers Harry PotterPolitics *shot* I AM KIDDING.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)Ahahahhahahaaa wellllllll most of the stuff I’ve been rambling about lately is my own creative world but you know all about that lol. I guess like hmmmm I’m lame but I’ve been seriously thinking about purchasing a moderately affordable and sized Monster High playset because I’m tired of taking photos against a white background and a playset would come with a variety of accessories and furniture and just dress everything up.Plus cuuuute cuddly OTP photos I was going to say something else too but I can’t remember what it was. 

[furederiko]

I've sort of lost track of holidays and festives since the year began, but today's Good Friday!!! Meaning it's a good friday to post a Random News Digest as well... Ahahahaha!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The quest for young Albus Dumbledore has come to a close. Warner Bros has entrusted the iconic role to... none other than Jude Law. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the Brit actor's long history with the studio, from the "Sherlock Holmes" series to the upcoming "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword". Personally, I still think Rafe Spall would make a better Albus, but perhaps the movie needs more of Law's... star power considering the first "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" wasn't exactly the big "Harry Potter" hit that WB expected. Beside, Law also suits the "younger man and quite a troubled man" criteria better than Spall.

The down side of this casting, is the general assumption that the sequels will put more focus on the bromancing frenemy between his Dumbledore and Johnny Depp's Gellert Grindelwald. It has been hinted that the two characters have shared a rather 'close' relationship in the past, perhaps even something that was somewhat romantically inclined. Okay, let me correct that. J.K. Rowling has said it herself that "Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.", so it's more than just mere speculation. Thus, it IS going to be interesting to see how Law and Depp come to blow with one another, which is what many "Harry Potter" fans should be dying to see. Then why do I call it a 'down side'? Because at least for me, it's Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander...'s magical ZOO that was the prime highlight of the first movie. Those creatures, with the chemistry between Alison Sudol's Queenie and Dan Fogler's Jacob Kowalski coming hot in second place, are the part that I found to be delightful. These three characters, alongside Katherine Waterston's Tina, have all been confirmed to return, so one would easily wonder how these New Yorkers are going to fit in the story that takes place in Paris and Watford, England. Admittedly, Tina and even Newt himself, were pretty dull and boring for a lead. But it would feel like such a crime if they are put aside to the corner, as the spotlight is stolen by Law and Depp instead.

It is currently unclear whether the next movie will once again feature two separate storylines going in parallel with one another. But that's exactly what's currently generating the concern for some people. David Yates will be returning to helm the second movie, so let's just hope he'll find a way to make the sequel feel more... balanced and evenly focused. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2", a tentative title for now because I'm not even sure if it will be accurate to the story anymore, is set to be released next year on November 16th, 2018. That's when we'll see whether this will turn out to be a magical Brokeback Mountain between Law and Depp, or another adventure of Newt & Co.

DC Films

Pray tell, why are we getting another poster for "The Justice League"? The popular notion is that WB is launching one as preparation for that last trailer debuting in theaters alongside "The Fate of the Furious". Yet when you look at the timing, somehow it just feels rather inappropriate. I mean, why not release it alongside those character posters and teasers last month? Can't remember? Those ones that oddly arrived on the same week to Spider-Man's posters and trailer. Sounds dejavu? Because Marvel Studios had just debuted the trailer and first poster for their upcoming Thor movie as well! You know, the one that will premiere just two weeks ahead of "The Justice League"!

Aaaah yes, THAT is the reason why calling this as coincidence is hokey at best. As if WB is trying to convince audience that... yes, despite the muted colors and the joyless forced humor, their grand ensemble movie is as colorful and fun. Now I can't help but wonder if this is a direct answer to that hillarious FANMADE video that's casually making fun of Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne and Gal Gadot's Diana Prince... LOL. Anyway, my point is... hogging on another movie's spotlight is acceptable, since many studios have been doing this since the Hollywood's dinosaur age. But I do really wish WB would stop being so dickish, while at the same time, being utterly obvious about it. Stop positioning themselves as the angry envious rival, subtly but blatantly creating flame wars with Marvel, because it does them no good. Acting all offensive in a non-existent competition is the wrong thing to do, because it makes them look BAD instead!

"Wonder Woman" also made news because the movie is said to be tracking for a $83 million opening. Eventhough it is unfortunately lower than DC Films' previous two movies, it sure didn't stop fans from turning into bragging mode and stuff. After all, that's how the internet works, and sorry to say, precisely the way 'DC fans' tend to overreact with things both good and bad. Meanwhile, another outlandish rumor hit the internet, claiming that WB will release not one, not two, but FOUR Batman-related movies in the year 2019. Yeah, judging from the studio's track record on announcing DC projects, only to end up losing directors or getting back to first page rewrites... over and over again, that sounds too good to be true, right? Despite all that, just imagine the headlines and numerous thinkpieces immediately run by various entertainment, and fansites. Well, at least until WB's producer Jon Berg and DC Entertainment's President Geoff Johns themselves shot down this report in their own hillarious way. I don't know about you, but THAT is what I call FUN.

Last but not least, Dolph Lundgren has joined "Aquaman" to play merman(?) King Nereus of Xebel. Making him the third antagonist after Patrick Wilson's Orm, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Black Manta. That's not counting the likelihood of Willem Dafoe's Dr. Vulko turning evil, of course. Director James Wan has confirmed this casting himself, and Lundgren will likely join production when it begins on May in Hawaii. Although having the former Punisher sounds good, once again, this casting felt a little toooo obvious to be a coincidence. After all, we just got a hot rumor surrounding Sylvester Stallone's important role in the upcoming Guardians movie. And when you start remembering that Lundgren used to play as Stallone's rival/opponent in "Rocky IV" before teaming up in "The Expendables" series? Aaaaaah, it's another act of spite, right there! Oh WB, when will you ever learn...

Transformers

Have you seen the latest trailer for "Transformers: The Last Knight"? I certainly haven't, because I'm totally not looking forward to see this movie anytime soon. But I heard it was great, and well... probably the best one this movie has released so far. Honestly, after the lackluster tragedy that was "Transformers: Age of Extinction", I never would've thought that we're going to get a 5th movie of this winding-down franchise. And this is just the beginning of another array of sequels, because director Michael Bay himself has explicitly stated to MTV that... "There are fourteen stories written. And there’s good stuff. So, I would like to do one of them, though.". 14? SERIOUSLY?!! Dang it, for a guy who thought "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" was meant to be the last, this statement felt like an offensive mockery. Anyways, this 5th movie is set to arrive on June 23rd. I'm personally more curious about whether it will rake as much money as the previous one. Somehow I suspect it won't, but general audience seems to love this franchise... so, we'll see.

SONY Marvel Universe

SONY Pictures has found its Miles Morales! What for? That animated "Spider-Man" movie that is set to be released on December 21st, 2018. Yes, the same date that recently has been occupied by "Aquaman". The young actor privileged to lend his voice for the animated Miles is none other than Shameik Moore. Fans might argue that Morales is half black, half latino in the comics, whereas Moore is not. But this is an animated movie, which only requires his voice, so I don't think it should be a problem. The actor himself shot to fame following his debut in Rick Famuyiwa's "Dope", later starred in the Netflix drama "The Get Down", and will next be seen in "The Pretenders". Speaking of "Dope", who would've guessed that it was such a good movie, eh? I mean, most of its main cast has gotten big comic book roles now. Tony Revolori is soon to be seen as Flash in MCU's Spider-Man. Kiersey Clemons is Iris West in DC's who-knows-when Flash movie, a feature that was almost directed by Famuyiwa. Zoe Kravitz was in "X-Men: First Class". And now Moore. Should we expect anyone else from that movie?

Aside from Moore, another cast who has joined the movie is Liev Schreiber. Schreiber portrayed Sabretooth in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", and is currently well known as the lead actor of "Ray Donovan". According to the same report, Schreiber will be voicing the movie's antagonist/supervillain, though his character is being kept a secret for now. If I didn't know better, I have a feeling that Schreiber is going to voice Otto Octavius, or more popularly known as Dock Ock. Unless he's being assigned to voice Kraven the Hunter, which might also work when you put into account his previous ferocious comic book role. Then again, just like Moore, only his voice will be utilized, so he can practically play anyone. LOL. Hollywood's favorite duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller are writing and producing this movie, while Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey will co-direct the movie. Considering this is an animated movie, shouldn't they start working from now? I mean, animation is unlike live action movie, because it needs to be done at least 2 years in advance to achieve the highest quality. Let's just hope that this movie will be able to stand against the rising tide of "Aquaman" when it arrives next year. Otherwise, this might spell trouble for SONY's ambitious universe.

X-Men Universe

In a very surprising (but seriously pleasant) announcement, "Deadpool 2" has discovered its future-mutant Cable. And my oh my, it's Mad Titan Thanos himself, Josh Brolin!!! Yes, scoring his second Marvel role, Brolin's Cable will be featured in not one, nor two, but FOUR future X-Men movies. Popular speculation says that his next movie will be "X-Force", if not "New Mutants" as well. He's joining Ryan Reynolds who is returning to produce and star as lead character Wade Wilson, as well as Zazie Beets who will portray Domino. Interestingly, Brolin has played a comic book character before, as the titular character in the critically and financially failed DC movie "Jonah Hex". Which means, he and Reynolds are fated kindred spirits from the get go! That's nothing but true fact, no matter how Reynolds openly 'complains' about it... LOL.

No offense to David Harbour, Brad Pitt, or Michael Shannon, but Brolin sounds too perfect for this role. Not just in terms of looks, but also in the actor's ability to play the straight-faced man with a penchant to infuse his character with various kinds of intensity. "Old Boy", and "Sicario" are great examples of this. Created by Rob Liefeld and writer Louise Simonson, Cable is the complete opposite personality to the obnoxious, oddball, and foul-mouthed Deadpool. He's a tough, no-nonsense mutant whose gruff attitude and mysterious aura didn't waste time to attract a great number of fans. He has also been paired with Deadpool ever since. Suffice to say, it's a character that is right up on Brolin's alley, with "Men in Black 3" as its easiest example. With this sequel expected to arrive in 2018, production for the David Leitch feature is set to have a June start in Vancouver. Brolin is currently filming his Thanos role with Marvel Studios in Atlanta, and might even have completed his motion-capture part already. So rest assured, scheduling issue is not even a thing. Interestingly, both movies will be released next year, which means, 2018 would be a truly Marvel-ous year for Brolin!

Marvel Studios

Have you seen the mindblowing first teaser of "Thor: Ragnarok"? The long awaited teaser was simply rock and roll AWESOME, wasn't it! Not only director Taika Waititi delivered a Thor Odinson's movie that already felt distinctly different to his previous solo features, he also imbued it with his signature quirky fun but gorgeous colorful style. It felt like this least-favored franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally embraced its funky Asgardian glory and cosmic side, eh? As if that's not enough to please us, it has already scored an amazing achievement by being the most-watched trailer that both Disney and Marvel Studios ever released! Is this a good sign? Most definitely. In fact, this was such a splendid teaser, I'm actually hoping that Marvel Studios won't be releasing anything else after this. This one's more than enough to grab audience's attention.

The official poster that came afterwards, though? Perhaps it didn't quite leave a similar impression, but arguably still emitted a strong promise of colors and style. Especially with all those Rainbow-Bridge-tone illuminating the titular character. Just look all those gorgeous colors, right? Chris Hemsworth is looking cool with that new haircut, and of course, don't forget the absence of Thor's beloved Mjolnir. Seriously, this movie is going to be strangely fun but epic! November 3rd, 2017 can't come soon enough.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves too soon. "Ragnarok" is still 7 months away, and there's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" that we need to anticipate first! With all three releases of the year looking equally fun and colorful, it would be a mistake to skip any one of them, right? HUGE mistake. And we can expect the first screenings reactions from "Vol 2" pretty soon. Why? Director James Gunn, along with stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Dave Bautista have kicked off the sequel's worldwide promotional tour in Tokyo, Japan last week. Not surprising, because it is set to hit theatres in Australia, Southeast Asia, and other international countries theatres starting on April 25.

As for the North American region, if I'm not mistaken, some of the press members are going to be the first to see it, just a few days from now. I bet early social media reviews and responses will arrive pretty much the same day. That's also the same reason why it's going to get harder and harder to avoid spoilers spreading throughout the internet. Even interviews and press roundup have slowly reveal details about the movie, much earlier than we expected. For example, Kurt Russell has spoken to Total Film (via Flickering Myth) on whether we'll be seeing a "Tango and Cash" reunion in this movie between his Ego the Living Planet, and Sylvester Stallone's mysterious character. Nah... I won't spoil anything about it, just go ahead and read the article if you're up with a little spoiler.

For the time being, "Vol 2" is tracking for a $150 million domestic debut. This is considerably close to the opening of "Captain America: Civil War", and also a solid improvement to the $94,3 million debut of the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" back in 2014. It's hard to predict whether this opening estimation is on point or not, because even "Beauty and the Beast" have magnificently surpassed its initial tracking number (and has broken the $1 billion mark yesterday). There's always a chance that the same accomplishment will occur with "Vol 2", considering the franchise is now sitting on everyone's top 5 most favorite among the MCU. Not to mention, "Vol 2" is the first movie that will kick start the 2017 Summer Movie season in the US. I guess we'll have to wait and see, and hope the best for the sequel. Because if it's good, then I bet Gunn would not shy away from returning to create a "Vol 3".

As for "Homecoming", several rather spoilery details of the movie might have landed online as well. In this case, regarding the "Daily Bugle" existence in the MCU, several scene descriptions from an event held in Tokyo, the possible appearance of other Avengers beside Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, as well as actress Angourie Rice's true role in the movie. Hailing down from a Tom Holland's fanbase account on Twitter, these reports felt... a little hard to fully believe, because it could very well be a subjective assumption on their part. So do take them with a huge grain of salt.

Finally, remember that candid photos of Elizabeth Olsen filming an action scene for "Avengers: Infinity War" in Edinburgh? There's a video version of it now, and one that looks rather... dire and serious. This scene once again hinting that Olsen's Scarlet Witch and likely Paul Bettany's Vision will come into blow with a CGed henchmen, presumably the Black Order members. If you're curious, then go ahead and check it on Youtube. Assuming it hasn't been taken down, of course. Inline with the casting announcement from FOX, it seems Josh Brolin would have concluded his part as Thanos in May so that he can join the production for "Deadpool 2" in Vancouver. Which is probably why the "Infinity War" production will then proceed with his Black Order members instead.

Netflix

This might sound surprising, but it's the last category for today! Yes, because I have no topics for the game section. LOL.

It wasn't long ago that we heard Marvel's "The Defenders" has wrapped its production, to pave way for the second season of Marvel's "Jessica Jones". Looks like Marvel's "The Punisher" has followed suit as well with its completion. A Twitter fanbase account for lead actor Jon Bernthal, reported that the cast has thrown away a wrap party for the production that began on October 2016. Judging from this, it's safe to assume that the series will in fact arrive later this year instead of next year. It's a little suspicious though, that it wrapped just a few weeks after "The Defenders" eventhough they started at relatively the same time. Considering the mini series only has 8 episodes, does this mean "The Punisher" might be a more compact/shorter series than those previous four? I sure hope so, because forcing these serialized shows into a 13 episodes with materials enough for maybe 10 at most, certainly didn't work charm. Said sentiment has even become one of the loudest talked-about criticism thrown at them. Here's hoping Netflix will realize this issue and solve it accordingly, because seriously, watching Marvel's "Iron Fist" alone has already worn me out.

Meanwhile, Netflix is reminding its audience that the 2nd season of "Sense8" will arrive in May 5th, by launching an official trailer. Which is highly necessary, because even I have forgotten that I've written about this fact before! YIKES!!! The inability of Netflix to set a fixed annual release date is admittedly troublesome, as it tends to wore out its devoted audience due to uncertainty of when to expect any continuations. "Sense8" and "Voltron Legendary Defender", as well as their uncertain delays are good examples of this particular issue.

IMHO, "Sense8" is a show that would have benefitted from having its second season arriving as soon as possible, preferably in mere months apart (just like the Network side, perhaps?). The first season was undoubtedly slow if not poorly paced, and the story only got interesting and intense in the last two-to-three episodes. It undeniably felt like an extended intro for the real story, thus forcing viewers to wait too long (remember, first season was launched in 2015!) to see what's next (one that hopefully explores the REAL intrigue behind them), simply doesn't do any good. Sure, there was a "Sense8: Christmas Special" on December 23rd last year, but I doubt many even knew it existed nor have watched it. I sure haven't, because even I only remember about it just now, FOUR months later. LOL. And to be honest, although I'm probably among the few who DID enjoy the first season, I've realized I'm not that anxious to see the second. Why? I have forgotten whatever was happening in it, so seeing this new trailer only succeeded in making me scratch my head in confusion. That is NOT good...

Thankfully, Netflix's bingewatch functionality helps to counter this problem. After all, unlike movies that come and go, we can view any of their original shows anytime we want. So those who haven't seen the first, can plan their start later by watching both seasons all at once. Trust me, I believe that would be more effective for this series. So right now, I'm patiently waiting for the critics' reviews first before actually checking the second season. While at the same time, re-watching the first season one by one, which might be a challenge because sadly this show doesn't have a strong rewatchability. My only hope is, I won't end up forgetting about this plan in just a few weeks after release. LOL.

[asagimeta]

Jumping on the Skrull related bandwagon...

I know everyone has heard the Skrull theories by now but I was typing up this email to my mom and it got long so I decided why the hell not? I might as well post it (Warning: *Because* it's an email to my mom I didn't exactly take care in wording or add screencaps or .. you know... refrain from rehashing the information everyone already knows, so take with a spoon of understanding before reading)

So, we have some important MCU related news, Captain Marvel (wich will come out in November 2018) is going to introduce the Skrulls to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, wich means there's a more than likely chance that someone we know in Marvel- one of our heros- is a Skrull, these things are the main villains of Captain Marvel, wich takes place in the 1990s and before Nick Fury lost one of his eyes, we have a bit of a Wonder Woman thing going on here, because why was Captain Marvel around fighting in the 90s but yet hasn't made an appearance so far in all of these big battles? Where has she been? Unless they give her "We fucked up" logic like poor Wonder Woman and decide to make her sit out by choice for the last thirty or so years, the only explanation is that something happened to her, wich means that either the Captain Marvel the movie introduces is going to be the Skrull (wich ... for Marvel's first female lead superhero movie... would be the most gigantic kick in the nuts you could imagine and I don't think Marvel is really THAT stupid) or, much more likely, someone we know and love is the Skrull agent that defeated her and is responsible for locking her up/holding her captive somewhere.... until the upcoming films when she assumingly breaks free or gets released to help out in Infinity Wars Part 2, here's what we know (or atleast, what we think we know)

Infinity Wars Part 1 will be released in May of 2018- this is when Thanos goes crush-crush on all of our heros and possibly kills someone (who might just be the Skrull, wouldn't THAT be something? We get this big, emotional death scene, everyone crowds around the body and oh look it's a green alien! Where has the REAL hero been for the last thirty years!?)

Antman And The Wasp will be released in July of 2018- As Antman isn't *properly* an Avenger yet and we don't actually have confirmation that he'll be in Infinity Wars to my recollection, this could be something of a side story explaining where he is and how he gets into Infinity Wars part 2

Captain Marvel will be released in November of 2018- This is when the Skrulls will be the main antagonists, wich would fit in almost perfectly with Infinity Wars in terms of pace and timing (you know, if you sort of sweep Antman under the rug, get it?? ANTman under the rug? Nevermind) This would be the perfect time to explain why one of our heros was revealed in Infinity Wars part 1 to be a Skrull.... or..... could reveal them as a Skrull here, during a flash-forward in Captain Marvel (much like how Wonder Woman flashed forward from the 1900s to present day at the end, wow, Captain Marvel is really licking up to Wonder Woman isn't it?) wich could reveal Captain Marvel escaping/being released from her imprisonment and identifying the Skrull either by name or flat-out unmasking them, leading into....

Infinity Wars Part 2, wich will be released in May of 2019- There has to be a reason Marvel is skipping their 2019 winter film (Marvel usually releases Febuarary/March - May - July - November and repeat every year, yet in 2019 we go straight from November to May with no winter release, why? We know there won't be one, Phase Three is set, the next movies in line are listed as "Phase 4" wich starts in July 2019 with Spiderman's sequel) Most likely they want the Skrull reveal to lead straight into Infinity Wars Part 2, meaning the Skrulls will be another enemy to fight along with Thanos

Here's the thing, Infinity Wars Part 2 rounds out Marvel's "Phase 3", and is "The end of the Marvel universe as we know it" according to Marvel themselves, everyone has been assuming that that's because someone big like Iron Man or Captain America will die because in the comic books they do- in the comic books everyone dies ... and ... most of them are brought back to life but that's not the point- alot of MCU actors end their contracts with Infinity Wars, including but not limited to:

Captain America Iron Man Thor Loki Hawkeye

Now this doesn't mean that all of these guys are going to dissappear- Robert Downey Jr. has upped his contract TWICE already, for example, and it doesn't mean that the others are safe, Scarlett Johanson's contract is one of the loosest of all of them because she keeps "upping her contract" without letting it rest like the others do, apparently going more movie-by-movie than solid blocks at a time, for example, but this is still relevant to note; people like The Winter Soldier, The Hulk, and all of the Guardians from Guardians Of The Galaxy *are*, however, locked in for movies post Infinity Wars and are thus pretty much safe

Two things are possible with a potential Skrull agent hiding in plain sight:

1. The perfect fake-out death; one of our heros is killed by Thanos as we all suspect they will be, we're left to chew on that until Captain Marvel when it's revealed that they were actually a Skrull all along and the REAL hero has been in a Skrull prison all this time, this would be a "great" way to trick audiences with someone like Captain America who's contract DOES end with Infinity Wars Part 1 and is top of the list of suspected deaths, this could be Marvel playing on our suspicions and renewing Chris Evans' contract secretly until after Captain Marvel is released, whereby Captain America will be "renewed" and essentially confirms himself to come back in future films

2. The perfect way to release an actor without killing the charector; let's keep using Cap for our example because he's easiest to work with, if they reveal Captain America to have been a Skrull all this time (a now very dead Skrull) they leave the door open for one of two things: 1. A recasting, letting Chris Evans out of his contract wile not killing Steve Rogers and setting up something of a Captain America reboot with a new actor where the goal is for Cap's besties (Winter Soldier, Falcon, Black Widow, and possibly Iron Man because he's in everything) to search for the REAL Cap, or 2. A looser contract that still keeps Chris Evans as Captain America but allows him some time off to pursue the other projects he wants to do, having the "Where is the real Cap?" mystery for the majority of Phase 4 would allow Chris to take a break and do some other projects without actually releasing him from the sheild and finding the real Captain America could be a subplot during Phase 4, leading to the last film in the set (some cheesy named "Captain America: Rise Of The First Avenger" or whatever) to reintroduce Cap into the MCU after a roughly 2-3 year long abscence, this new Cap would KEEP Chris' contract loose because he would have the excuse of recovering from his Skrull-related experiences to not tag along in some of the Avengers related adventures during Phase 5 as well, by the time  Phase 5 is done it's highly possible that the majority of the Avengers will have to be recast due to age anyhow, or Chris will have settled down, slowed his roll a little, and decided to committ more strongly to Captain America as he'll be older and might not be looking to pursue as many new opportunities- or they might just sideline alot of the original Avengers and keep ALL of their contracts to something like one movie every two years or some such because of all the new blood we're getting right now with folks like Doctor Strange and Antman to concentrate on

Here's the thing, the Skrull could be ANYONE- and I do mean anyone, it could be Ironman, it could be Captain Marvel, Nick Fury, even lil' Spiderman, that's just what Skrulls *do*, the ONLY ones who I think are more or less off the board for possible Skrullness are Thor and Loki, Loki is already a shapeshifting trickster who's faked his death twice (and surely will a third time in Thor: Ragnarok because it's almost a tradition by now) and to make him a Skrull would be the absolute ultimate in cheap, lazy, and stupid, because there's absolutely no benefit to it, why make that a thing when Loki is just a better, prettier, more powerfull and fun-time version of a Skrull anyway in terms of powers? And he's a villain, wich would make the reveal not only useless but... well... double useless, the idea is shock and emotion, revealing a villain to be.... another villain is just senseless, Thor *could* be in the same sense that the neighbor's dog *could* be, it'd certainly be a surprise but it wouldn't make much sense because, again, of Loki, it would just feel cheap to make one half of a trickster duo another trickster, it wouldn't make much sense for Ragnarok (why would a Skrull continue to impersonate Thor on a war planet instead of, you know, escaping?) and it would just be ... odd, Thor fell ass backwards into the Avengers in the first place, there'd be virtually no advantage to impersonating him and given that he was sent to Earth as punishment from Odin to begin with the only way for it to even KIND OF make sense is if the Skrull started impersonating him during The Dark World wich, again, due to Loki, would feel incredibly cheap and useless- as an aside, I feel kind of certain that Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth will renew their contracts, they don't have to fill as many commitments as, say, Ironman and Captain America, and they both seem to love their roles dearly, I'm not too worried about them

Our most likely Skrull agents in my opinion are people intimately involved with the S.H.E.I.L.D. organization such as Ironman, Nick Fury, Captain America, Agent Carter (Peggy's granddaughter, Emily Vancamp's charector), Captain America, Hawkeye, maaaaaybe Black Widow although I still feel that one is unlikely, etc etc, because a Skrull would have the most to gain from impersonating these people and infiltrating a massive government organization that often has international ties, I actually would kind of like if it was Peggy's granddaughter, that would be really out of the blue and shocking, not very heart-wrenching, but shocking all the same, and it'd make considerable sense, we don't know much about her but because she's Peggy's granddaughter we (and Cap) instantly trust her, she works inside S.H.E.I.L.D and gets along with the Avengers, especially Cap himself.... it's a nice, clean, fit but I think they might be shooting for someone higher on the food chain, I don't have a solid guess in all honesty because I can find a bunch of reasons for and against pretty much everyone in The Avengers besides Thor and Loki, but it's something to keep an eye out for

When Infinity Wars begins, don't just fear for the LIVES of your favorite heros, fear for their IDENTITIES as well....

[chrismaverickdotcom]

So They Guarded the Galaxy... again (no spoilers)

When the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out, I wasn’t expect much. I’m not really much of a fan of the comic. It’s fine. I didn’t think it would suck or anything. It just looked like “oh, a movie with Rocket Raccoon. That ought to be fun maybe.” I was very pleasantly surprised by it. I wasn’t writing up movie reviews regularly back then, but if I was, I probably would have glowed about it. I was expecting a dumb but fun popcorn movie… a space opera romp… maybe some solid quips… some neat looking CGI and an explosion or two. I thought it would be good. It was more than that. It was great. The fun of the first film was that it ended up being so much more than that. It had a lot of heart to it and that was a pleasant surprise. And maybe a bad one. Because it made me want more out of the sequel and that isn’t really fair.

Was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 a great movie? No. But it was a good one. It was a dumb but fun popcorn movie… a space opera romp… some solid quips… some neat looking CGI and an explosion or two. I enjoyed myself.

But it made me start thinking about where the superhero genre film is going. What even constitutes a good superhero movie anymore? One of the things that made the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies notable is that they went out of their way to not just be superhero movies. They were movies… about stuff… that happened to have superheroes in them. That has been the key to the MCU. Rather than trying to make a good superhero movie or twenty, they made a spy movie and a heist movie and a war movie, etc. and just put superheroes in them. The first GoTG movie was a space opera with superheroes. But more than that, it was a character driven buddy film. A bunch of quirky outsiders learning to set aside their idiosyncrasies and become a family. In a way, it succeeded for the same reason that the Fast and Furious movies or the Hangover movies – as ridiculous as they both are – succeed. The relationships between the outcasts who have to learn to band together to survive is charming and sort of gives hope to the viewer. It’s nice.

This movie wasn’t that. It was still fine. I still liked it. But it didn’t quite sing to me the same way and it took me a while to kind of figure that out. And now I have it. The problem is that Guardians *IS* Fast & Furious. And not just because they both have Vin Diesel. It’s the same premise. And those movies are about family. Vin even says it every few seconds in either film, “It’s about family… It’s about family… I am Groot… It’s about family.” And that was true here. But where the first film was all about building the family… coming together. This was just sort of about… being a family. They just were. And in a few ways I was kind of annoyed with how they hadn’t quite grown as a family.

See, in the first film, the specifics of threat of Ronin are superfluous. They don’t matter. He’s a miscellaneous bad guy, and all that really matters is that everyone has team up and stand together in order to beat him. And they sort of learn that lesson. Stronger together. Without getting into spoilers for the new movie… they seem to have forgotten that lesson. It’s like there was a sitcom reset. They had to learn it all over again. And I mean a complete reset. In particular, the three main leads (Peter, Gamora and Rocket) seem to have completely forgotten every way their characters progressed in the first film. There’s no explanation. They’ve just reset to where they were at the beginning of the second act of the first movie… just so they can learn the exact same lessons again.

Of course you’re not supposed to notice that. So to distract you, the movie fills time with cameos! So many cameos! Some fun cameos. Some expected cameos. One very much unexpected cameo that bordered on the ridiculous, but turned out to be kind of awesome. Some cameos that are so cameo that you won’t even notice them unless you’re an uber comics fan. I’m actually ok with those. They did a good job of not being distracting. It’s kinda great i you’re a comic fan and you can say “holy shit! It’s Charlie-27! Awesome!” And unlike the cameos that I hated in Rogue One, they did that in a subtle enough way that it’s not distracting to anyone who doesn’t know things. Of course, it did make me go “hey, where the fuck is Nikki?!?! You tossed in Mainframe and Krugarr and I couldn’t have my darling Nikki? Fucking Krugarr beats out Nikki? Are you shitting me? What the fuck Gunn?” There… see how distracting and annoying cameos can be when obtrusive and forced and you don’t know what I’m talking about? THAT is why you don’t force cameos.

Anyway, the cameos were fun, but not enough to make me forget the problems.

I liked the villain in this film. I thought it was well thought out for what it was. And if Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 had never happened, the final battle would have been a cool climactic scene to build to. But GotG Vol. 1 did happen. And it was really really good. Quite simply… it was better than Vol. 2. So a lot of what happened here just seemed derivative. This could have been avoided by having the characters struggle with the family being ripped apart by external forces (something that would have been quite simple with a couple minor plot tweaks) rather than having them struggling to come together as a family again. I hate to say it… but this movie really needed to learn a lesson from the later Fast and the Furious films. *shudder*

Anyway, the villain was fun, but not enough to make me forget the problems,

That doesn’t mean this was bad. It wasn’t. It was fine. And that’s what really got me thinking. I’ve been saying that about a lot of superhero movies lately. It was fine. It was a movie. I enjoyed myself. And really, that’s mostly what you want when you go to the movies. Entertainment. But I also want more. A lot of why I want more is that Marvel has sort of been conditioning me to want more. At least they were. But now, what I think they’re actually doing is conditioning me to want less.

I’ve referenced the book The Revolution was Televised by Alan Sepinwall before. Sepinwall argues that the last couple decades have seen a reinvention of television so as to compete with film. Rather than being episodic and resetting over and over, Sepinwall says that now TV is serialized. So now rather than each episode standing on their own, we have complex longform narratives that are engaging because we can tell 20+ hour stories that film just can’t handle. And Marvel is as good at this as anyone with their Netflix shows.

My biggest complaint about the DC films is that they’ve been more concerned with telling the serialized story than they are at having a cohesive narrative in the singular film itself. Defenders of Batman v. Superman argue that this is a good thing. BvS didn’t need to make sense alone because it was just chapter 1 of a long story. I called bullshit on that. If I’m paying $15 to sit in a theater, I want a complete experience. If it also fits into a larger experience, that’s great.

But now in the post-franchise cinematic universe world, it feels like the MCU’s main goal is essentially going the other way training its fans to pay for episodic television. Or at least semi-episodic. And this is something they’ve learned from their comic books. For the last twenty years or so, Marvel (and DC) have relied on big mega event series. The entire Marvel Universe must band together to take on PLOT DEVICE (Civil War, Skrull Invasion, Secret Empire, Secret War). It seems that MCU wants the Avengers movies to be that storyline. Everything they’ve done these last few years has been building to Avengers: Infinity War. But in order to make these stories feel bigger, the comics publishers often force tie-in comics into the other series that nebulously are related to the overall mega event, but if you miss them, they don’t really matter. If you skip the series you don’t care about, you can follow the mega event just fine. And that’s where this movie fits.

At the end of movie, I realized that the overall story of the MCU had not progressed AT ALL. Nothing in this film really mattered. Marvel has announced that the Guardians are going to be in Avengers: Infinity War. This film introduced a couple new characters that I assume are going to be along for the ride. But if you don’t go see this movie… you won’t care at all. You won’t have missed anything. You’ll just watch the next movie and you’ll say, oh… the Guardians now have a new member… good to know… and you’ll be fine. And that’s weird. This movie feels very… optional.

And that would be completely fine if it weren’t for the fact that within the context of the film, I felt like things were kind of optional too. It was an interesting story but the stakes felt lower than their first adventure AND the characters felt like they had more or less reset in development to where they were at the beginning of that film too. It’s like they said “that first movie was good. Let’s do it again.” and they did… just not quite as well. It was Hangover 2... and I actually liked Hangover 2. But it wasn’t Hangover.

But really. It’s fine. And I’m wondering if that’s what they’re going for. Because right now, a superhero movie that’s “fine” is better than anything DC can do at all (I actually liked Suicide Squad about as much as I liked this, but this is technically a better movie. In fact, Suicide Squad may even be slightly more fun. Suicide Squad was just very fun in its dumbness. But it has a lot more problems. So, like dumb fun vs. slight technical superiority… it’s like this is an eighth of a point better). And that’s one of the reasons I want DC (and other people) to start making better movies in the genre. Marvel needs better stuff to compete with. There’s a bit out there. Logan was amazing for instance. But I think the best way I can really state my problems with this movie is that objectively… the Iron Fist TV show is better than this is. Not a whole lot. But it is better. Iron Fist took a lot of shit. Some deserved and some not… mostly because of the race controversy… but also because it isn’t as good as the other Netflix series (or Legion. Are you watching Legion? You totally should be! Legion is really good). But you know what, it’s a fuck-ton better than Gotham. And it’s better than Smallville. And it’s sure as fuck better than Constantine was… and the internet cried when they cancelled Constantine. Media needs competing media in order to drive it to excel. Marvel doesn’t have that right now. And in a world where you’re competing against BvS and Suicide Squad… “fine” is good enough. And that’s the world they were working with when they filmed it (they probably didn’t know Logan would be good).

There’s nothing wrong with just entertaining me. Thank you for that Marvel. But you’ve gotten to the point where I’m judging you at a higher level than your competition. I’d rather see you strive to meet that… and drag the competition with you. Don’t lower the bar so that they can catch up easier.

So yeah… go see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It’s fine.

★★★⅛☆ (3.125 out of 5 stars — that’s right… an eighth of a star… my ratings are precise dammit).

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So They Guarded the Galaxy… again (no spoilers) was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom