#great mix of comedy and just overall great movie stuff

[sugared-bones]

Taken longer than what I wanted, but guess who’s finally watching Across the Spiderverse

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Best Movies of 2023

This was NOT a great year for blockbusters, huh? This was probably Disney's worst in years, multiple flops including what was meant to be their centennial anniversary film. It looked remarkably by the numbers, but think of the conglomerate's losses... Anyway, this to me was a pretty great year for films. Like 2022, I'm amazed at the variety we got that says more about the shifting tides of people's interest in movies. It was the most times I've been to the theater. We got a big worker's strike over the summer, especially large push back against degenerates trying to push AI to do more than just shitposting. And it was enough for me to know Adam Sandler, Godzilla, and Hayao Miyazaki could get the better of Disney. With this said, let this be a first for Good Stuff and count down my favorites of this year.

12. Renfield

My suspicions were on the money and I'm glad I gave this a shot in the theaters. Cage was the best Dracula I could've asked for in what you might say was an Adult Swim-esque dark comedy. It definitely has that style of gruesomeness and humor given Robert Kirkman and the Writer/Director behind Moral Orel made this. Unfortunately, Ben Schwartz stuck out like a sore thumb even if he fulfills his purpose in this, reminding me of Christopher Mintz-Plasse in KickAss; I feel he or Jason Schwartzman would've been better suited. Plus it can feel all over the place, an identity crisis that you can't even grasp after it finishes. Then again, I just had fun watching and would gladly rewatch for Cage and Hoult who are the highlights of this.

11. Migration

Call it blasphemous, but I enjoyed this more than the Mario movie. It's essentially Rio mixed with National Lampoon's Vacation, with a lovable cast, solid animation, and an eazy breezy road trip story. I've always looked to Illumination for simple enjoyable romps and I got what I expected here. Gave me Amphibia vibes in a way, replace frogs with birds. Everything surrounding the villain is my only real issue, he was an obvious and very nothing bad guy, but it's overall better paced than Super Mario Bros where it felt like you watched an eternity in 3 minutes. Still don't get the air of folk looking down on this for just being serviceable when it's honestly become my favorite Illumination movie next to the first Despicable Me.

10. Killers of the Flower Moon

Sad to say this is the weakest Scorsese movie for me, mainly because it felt like we're following the wrong main character. Lily Gladstone is incredible in this, among the other great performers, but she felt sidelined in favor of DeCaprio and De Niro's perspectives. It's like if in 1995's Casino, we just follow Ginger throughout the moment Sam introduces her. I liked the turmoil Leo's character goes through, but it paled in comparison to Mollie who was more affected by his and Hale's actions. That does not mean it's all bad. This can be a beautiful, dynamic, and ruthless movie that just made me feel bad for watching it; running with the words "harsh reality" throughout the 3 and a half hour runtime.

9. Good Burger 2

I watched Good Burger 1 & 2 this Thanksgiving weekend, and just had a blast. These are the kind of movies that are charmingly stupid but not insultingly so. Kel Mitchell's Ed is emblematic of how much dumb fun this duology is where he's actively comical but not smoothbrained to ruin your time. This I say is like Home Alone 2 where it is just beat for beat the 1st movie with minor developments but that doesn't really matter when it's just as well put together. It never feels like Kenan nor Kel missed a beat and the drama not overstaying its welcome. It is just "Good Burger Again" without it feeling like diminishing returns compared to other rehashing sequels.

8. Leo

Can you believe this got better publicity than Disney's Wish? Even YMS could appreciate this movie, that's how you know Sandler has his recognizable game when you least expect it. But Leo is a surprisingly good comedy that has actually sincere moments. Being Happy Madison's 2nd ever animation, it's like Adam waited to refine the production as opposed to putting a cash grab together like one would expect. It's not all good, especially trying to be a musical, but seeing it once you'd be impressed how much good it does with the risks it takes.

7. Nimona

Like Migration, everything surrounding the villain is the one big issue I have with this, especially when it comes to affecting the film's message. At the same time, she pales in comparison to the dynamic pairing of Ballister Blackheart and the titular shapeshifter. Nimona is my favorite character of 2023, her energy and confidence matched by the struggle she bears existing alone and the facade made to band-aid it. Her and Ballister's journey alone made me glad this got out of development hell, being Blue Sky's final production posthumous. To me it wasn't about being a take that to Disney, it was about the fact a movie like Nimona got to exist as great as it did. Hoping Stevenson is satisfied with their adaptation, because it definitely earned its flowers.

6. Emesis Blue

Offhand, it openly sucks that Letterboxd refuses to let this stay on the site to log, but it can't be overstated how much of a marvel this was. Repurposing not just the characters, but the lore and mechanics of Team Fortress 2 into a feature length horror thriller. The animation's top notch where it can have godly framing that was on par with the known legends of horror film making. SFM animations can be beautiful on their own, shitpost or otherwise, but Emesis Blue goes a step beyond by having a compelling story fitting for the universe on top of, again, every frame being a painting.

5. Shin Kamen Rider

I've never really saw any Tokusatsu shows. Not that I hate the genre, just could never get into it while recognizing the glorious looking chaos found in clips. Knowing Hideaki Anno directed was what got me into seeing this film and it opened my mind quite a bit. This was the legacy film that definitely had Anno's touch in both the action and drama. While the climax can notably drag, you never feel left out of what was essentially the original Kamen Rider's origin story. It doesn't have the complex VFX of stuff like Marvel, but the costumes and fight scenes makes me wish we got more of this in America beyond Power Rangers.

4. TMNT Mutant Mayhem

Advertising before release really didn't make this appear like a promising film. If there's anything I learned from this year though, appearances can be deceiving. Like Nimona was for her movie, the creative choices for this made it the TMNT movie I never knew I wanted. To me this felt akin to the Lego Batman movie where it's not only a good love letter of the franchise for more than its fanservice, but this spin on the characters is able to have a new sincere view of them without overhauling everything about the TMNT. That and it has the greatest needle drops I've had in a long while like how do insert He-Man Fabulous Secret Powers and expect me to hate this?

3. Godzilla Minus One

I call this a great year for films because it marks the first time I got to see a Toho produced Godzilla, with subtitles, in an real movie theater. Needless to say, it felt like I got to enjoy the 1954 film again anew. Not a remake mind you, but the parallels were uncanny and this spins here work just as well, if not more here than with the original in a couple places. Both are still strong movies nonetheless. Minus One is a refurbish that dishes out what people always wanted and uniquely giving a little more while never sacrificing why the OG is that timeless. With it getting more than a limited release, I'm glad this got to be more than a niche celebration of the kaijuu king.

2. Oppenheimer

This film's been meme'd to heaven, hell you could say it got meme'd to success thanks to its dual release with Barbie, but it didn't undermine getting hooked to watching this anyways. This really has become my favorite Nolan film, a compelling biopic that doesn't exactly herald its titular lead in the best light thanks to the paradoxical storytelling. Oppenheimer gives us the largest ensemble I know, and delivers in the most breathtaking moments I never knew I could get. Cillian killed it among the many who made the three hours of people sitting and talking in rooms actually tense and intriguing to thread. Plus it gave us the beauty of Josh Peck being the guy to detonate the test bomb like cherry on top of this cinematic cake.

1. The Holdovers

I remember watching Alexander Payne's Sideways with Paul Giamatti as a high schooler but couldn't appreciate it until rewatching this year. It's one of the best mid-life crisis comedies you could see, still fresh in its easy going presentation and music. The same can be said for this film, made to feel like it came from the late 70s or 80s with the old opening logos that I didn't think you could do in these times. Out the gate, this was the holiday story I was shocked would be as relatable as it was, with the trio of Giamatti, Randolph, and Sessa each having their story that resonated with me strongly. With the right amount of time, Payne offers an remarkably cozy, down to earth movie where from reserved to outgoing, it did a lot for me emotionally. Like Netflix's Klaus, I kinda want this to be a traditional rewatch for the holiday seasons. One that everyone should try at least once, especially if they feel the disillusionment of the season where this might lift their spirits one way or another.

If there's anything to learn from this year, it's that the meta has definitely shifted. Even when the many on my list didn't make billions like the Avatar films, the variety and risks made spoke more than the big dogs like Disney and WB putting out unprofitable blockbusters that ranged from very by the numbers to you don't need to see The Flash to know how god awful it just was. More people are & should branch out beyond the major mainstream names. Not that the big dogs aren't ever gonna make great films in the coming years, but we should appreciate more than the big budget features you can tell are playing it safe. Time can be patient for great cinema, sleeper hits or not, so take advantage while you're young.

[dailycharacteroption]

Okayo Corsair (Swashbuckler Archetype)

Have you ever sat down and watched martial arts movies? Not just the ones that get big advertisements in the west, but even a cursory deep dive into them? That shit get zany as heck, maybe not Bollywood levels, but still pretty wacky stuff, and it’s awesome.

We’re talking things like a young inventor coming home to his village to bring the wonders of progress but realizing how estranged he’s become to his own culture and how ruthless his new big-city ‘friends’ are, as well as comedy stories about an apartment complex where everyone is a secret martial artist, including the crabby landlady. There’s so much mixing and matching of genres and setpieces and some truly stellar fight choreography.

I bring all this up because today’s subject smacks a little bit of such things, given we’re talking about swashbuckling pirates from a nation in Tian Xia that pick up on some of the martial arts of the continent and even emulate some of their mystic arts.

Now, there’s a decent amount of evidence here and there that the ki used by monks and ninjas and the grit/panache used by gunslingers and swashbucklers are different applications of the same force, and nowhere is that more expressed than in these corsairs, in an archetype that is, stripped of setting context, a hybridization of swashbuckler and monk.

In-context, the style arose among pirates of the Dragon Empires, and has since spread as far as that Mecca of piracy in the Inner Sea Region known as the Shackles.

The result is a swashbuckler, whom may or may not actually sail at your discretion, that has some neat monk tricks in their arsenal, so let’s have a look!

Unsurprisingly, these swashbucklers demonstrate incredible finesse when wielding monk weapons, and their charisma can serve for those combat feats with wisdom requirements in addition to those that require intellect.

They can also use their panache for some very monk-like deeds, starting with the ability to use ki to enhance their attack speed, movement speed, or reaction speed.

They also gain other staples like using walls to slow their fall, using panache to leap high, and even do a short-range teleport, though that last one is a bit costly.

Finally, they also train to be able to utilize fighter and monk techniques with their combat training.

This archetype trades out some of your deeds and alters your key abilities so they work with monk feats and the like, but overall you’re still going to be playing them the way you would any swashbuckler, though you don’t get to do things like purposefully miss to get a feint next turn and the like. As such, I would highly suggest looking up the feats that require monk levels as a prerequisite and see how you can blend the two.

It is interesting to see more acknowledgement of the connection between ki, grit, and panache, but this also begs the question about how characters in the setting react to it. How to monasteries and martial arts academies feel about some pirates stealing their styles and better yet, manifesting expressions of ki without any formal training or discipline. I’d imagine that a decent percentage aren’t too happy about it, could be very useful for conflict between characters and in the story itself.

While researching at a local library, the party stumbles upon an account from a dashing and spiritually-empowered pirate captain that stumbled upon a strange island, where they found ruins tied to some lost civilization of insectile people. However, they also found it rife with a monstrous fungus that reanimated the giant insects of the island as spore zombies. Recognizing the danger, they quickly fled, and destroyed anything which might have harbored the spores. However, with the right protection, perhaps another group could learn more of this lost civilization?

Where other peoples boast great power, humanity often has to make do with innovation and creativity. Such is the case with the sailors and pirates of the Singing Sea. Many cultures of aquatic peoples jockey for control of those waters, and many see those sailing on the surface as useful sources of supplies or thralls. However, humanity adapts, and many such sailors learn Sea Dragon’s Blade, a style of martial arts adapted from the dragon style founded inland to include weapons and the daring acrobatics of ship combat.

Scuttlebutt in the port town taverns says that there is a new pirate crew running the nearby waters. Very little is known about the captain of this vessel, but they say he leaps and runs as if striding on air and wields a curious weapon resembling a heavy spherical weight on the end of a rope. If nothing else, they seem to be quite competent as a sailor as well as a combatant.

[jasbaklonbri]

My issues with the Avatar Live action show. (Spoilers)

before I get on with this… rant I guess, I want to stress that I do not “Hate” this adaptation, I actually think it’s pretty…. decent. Mixed in terms of being an adaptation but as its own thing i do think it actually is good. If a newcomer gets introduced to the franchise through this show, I’d mostly be okay with that (though would still stress to watch the original, especially hinting about the rest of the story if they’re really invested) before I go into my biggest problems I should quickly list its positives.

The characters, for the most part, are done well, they meet the core criteria of what made the original characters so beloved. The acting, for the most part, is good, overall the cast does a really good job at their respective roles. Costumes are amazing, sets, while not exactly 1:1, are still overall awesome. soundtrack is really REALLY good, stellar work all round. The action is not only great, it’s BRUTAL AS FUCK, it does not shy away from the themes of war and death and I love that 😈 some of the expanded editions to the lore are really interesting, big shoutout especially to the inclusion that zuko’s crew is also the battalion he defends in the war room, that was actually brilliant 👌 on top of that, references and inclusions of stuff from expanded material I mostly really liked, from the comics, to legend of Korra to even the kyoshi novels. As for the writing and story…. I can accept no adaptation is perfect and there will be changes, I think it follows the moments of the show decently and that the writing is… adequate. overall rating for me is a decent… 6/10… almost was a 7 but… no.

okay now for the stuff that sucked!

The Characters that weren’t good:

Aang is not bad in this, character wise and acting is overall good, Gordon Cormier does a good job, he looks and sounds the part. My issues are how the character is written. Ill get into more about his biggest issues later on as it mostly has to do with writing and a few particular scenes, but for now I’ll harp on how repetitive and annoying his dialogue can be sometimes, way too many times has the character had the same “guilt scene” which hits the exact same beats: he sees devastation, he says “this is my fault”, he’s reassured it’s not. Again and again.

sokka is awful in this. And to be honest it’s not really the writings fault, Ian Ousleys portrayal does not do it for me, his line delivery is too monotone-ish, his emotional delivery is lacking, he has the same blank facial expression throughout the show. He has a decent one liner here and there, but the comedy and character is MILES away from the over expressive, hilarious and badass original.

zukos actor is decent just enough, and honestly it’s a little unfair to compare Dallas Liu to Dante Bascos performance, but admittedly I felt he was comparatively more underwhelming at times. Though if anything I was more annoyed at the look of his Scar. Don’t get me wrong, its leagues more noticeable than it was in the god awful movie adaptation… but it’s still not great. Remember how grotesque his scar is in the animated show, even at a distance, his skin is shrivelled, he can hardly open his eye, even his ear is half burnt off, they could of gone all out in showcasing his disfigurement, the greatest source of his self shame and most brutal showcase of his fathers cruelty and abuse… but no it’s just a dark red patch around his eye, it’s not even ugly to look at. Disappointing.

Bumi, while acted and portrayed really well by Utkarsh Ambudkar, is written very badly. His motivations have completely changed from the original, and no it is no where near as good, unlike in the show were he “toys” with Aang to teach him lessons about the journey ahead of him, offering wisdom and compassion to his old friend, keeping his identity a secret allowing Aang to realise who he is, making an emotional reunion when he realises another piece of his lost past is still alive: here Aang finds out immediately it’s him, and Bumi instead is pissed and petty that Aang left to the point HE TRIES TO KILL HIM, completely disregarding the point of the message and character from the original show. Oh and not to mention the ending scene with him, but again I’ll get to that scene later.

finally, biggest problem I’ll harp on the characters themselves is the diminishing, lack of focus and editing of the three protagonists flaws. Aangs childish immaturity, kataras inexperience, Sokkas rudeness and distrust. There are reasons why the show took these out or didn’t focus on them, but in my opinion this was a huge mistake to do. Character flaws are integral to character growth, throughout the original show we see the characters learn and grow with and out of said flaws to become more rounded and stronger characters, Aangs journey to embrace his destiny and responsibilities, Kataras growing wisdom and strength, Sokka accepting his wrongdoings becoming more open minded and accepting. Diminishing these ultimately take away a lot from these characters and it does them and the fans a huge disservice to outright ignore them at times.

Aang and Kataras bond is there… but it’s Seriously lacking!

I’m a Kataang shipper. Before I go into detail with this I think it’s important to point out a certain bias I might have with this, but regardless of any opinions about the original shows romantic themes, I’d still argue that Aang and Kataras relationship is one of the core and integral bonds of the original show (the others being Katara and Sokka, Zuko and Iroh, Aang and Zuko and Zuko and Azula (book 2 onwards) so getting this right is in my opinion important to any adaptation. Overall their relationship is fine in this iteration, but MAN it’s just not as good.

Imagine my utmost disappointment When in this version: Katara is not the first person Aang sees when he wakes up! Now I know that seems like a petty thing to harp on but really think back to the original show, how beautifully written their friendship was, how they constantly support and empathise with each other, how Aang is a source of Kataras hope, how Katara is an emotional rock for Aang when coming to terms with his loss and grief. All of it starts with the foundation of their first meeting in that first episode. After a hundred years of sleep, Katara accidentally discovers Aang (with Sokka) and rushes to save him, the first person Aang sees as he opens his eyes is her, he immediately, and essentially asks her out. Katara introduces him to her village, she’s enamoured by his playful attitude and abilities, there are hints of a blooming crush between them (mostly from Aang) they promise to explore the world together, they go penguin sledding, until finally, when Katara realises and breaks the truth about Aangs 100 year absence and slow realisation that everything and everyone he knew is likely gone, Katara tries to reassure him mentioning there may be a bright side: Aang responds with “I did get to meet you”. all of that build up and setup of the friendship (and budding romance) of our two leads is masterfully established in one, 23 minute long episode. Really think about that. It takes the original show 1 episode to set the core points of the two lead’s relationship in what takes this show AN ENTIRE SERIES TO PROPERLY ESTABLISH! Not only is all of that practically absent in this iteration, but plenty of scenes and moments are either missing or lessened, Such as when Katara calms Aang out of the Avatar state, or how they begin to train and learn their waterbending together (more on THAT later), cave of two lovers is now given to Katara and Sokka?? (really missed the point of that episode) or how about the mutual understanding of each others grief through their own grief, oh yeah that’s another thing, in this version Katara, nor Sokka for that matter, ever mention to Aang that their mother is dead?! Not once. I don’t even think he ever knows, or maybe he finds out off screen? Big thing to not mention guys??

Now there are plenty of scenes in the show that do help build up their friendship here, but by missing core scenes, especially those from the first episodes, it just makes it harder for the show to establish that bond towards an audience, and again just pales in comparison.

No statue room???

I’ll be a little more brief here, but the fact that this moment is completely missing infuriates me. You have the quintessential moment where Aang is in full view of the scope of his legacy, a monument to hundreds of all the past avatars, a moment for our characters and the audience to visually realise the weight and burden that Aang Carries upon his shoulders… and you completely take it out??? What the actual FUCK???

Kyoshis premonition almost ruins the show! as awesome and badass as Avatar Kyoshi was in this version, this one tidbit is by far not just a weird addition, it’s arguably one of the biggest fundamental flaws of the show, not as an adaptation, but the show in of it self. The idea apparently (according to behind the scenes comments) is that kyoshis premonition to Aang of the northern watertribes destruction is to give him more of an assentive to head “straight to the point”, removing the unnecessary detours and filler of the original. The problem with that is even for that reason, this addition is completely pointless, because Aang already has enough assentive to head to the north: LEARN WATERBENDING!!!

In the original show after Katara and Sokka save Aang from zukos ship in the 2nd episode, they establish that they must find Aang a water bending master so he can begin his first step in becoming the avatar, in fact rewatching the first few episodes, AANG MAKES THE SUGGESTION FIRST TO KATARA SO SHE CAN MASTER HER WATERBENDING! Even the god awful movie understood that that was enough reason to head north! And if you really want more reason and imperative for them to get there as soon as, why not just reiterate that there is a WAR GOING ON! The attack on the south, the genocide of the air nomads, accidentally bringing an invasion to Kyoshi island, these are all good enough reminders for the Gaang to showcase the need for Aang to head to the known one place in the world where Aang can possibly master an art integral to achieving his destiny. But even worse than that, this addition seriously hurts the show going foward, because now, after Aang has been shown the impending doom destined for the north, he STILL detours from it, not once but twice! (And according to one gossiping bartender, possibly a few more times!!) in an attempt to try to showcase his nobility and compassion to always help those in need, every time he decides to stop to help a new problem, HE IS LITERALLY RISKING THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE CIVILISATION!!! Priorities dude!!! It’s not like he’s given a time frame, for all he knows this premonition could happen at anytime, it could be already happening??? It is by far one of the biggest, if not THE BIGGEST flaw of the show.

Muddying the rules of the spirits and spirit realm

Aside from kyoshis future sight, too many instances does this show, in an attempt to expand ideas of worlds spirituality, often just make things more confusing. Another example is when Aang accidentally drags Katara and Sokka into the spirit world, which even with the reasoning they give it makes no sense whatsoever and it only serves an excuse to combine moments from other episodes into one. Or how about when wan shi tong… for some reason… explains that spirits can only talk to the avatar and only they can communicate with and talk to spirits… except that rule is completely ignored when Katara and Sokka can clearly hear what koh is saying? ooops???

Hai Bai has no agency or resolution in his inclusion here, he’s not even the central threat despite HIS forest being burnt. Instead of going on a full rampage against humanity for their destruction, he’s now just really angry about being wounded? Instead of hai bai kidnapping people, it’s now Koh, who while still really creepy in this version, his abilities are now greatly diminished. Instead of his lightning quick speed to remove the faces of anyone who show any ounce of emotion in his presence, here he can only prey on negative emotions, and is never shown to be especially fast (except the two jump scares). again it just pales in comparison to the intensity of the original scene.

Kuruk should know why his advice is horseshit!

while I like the inclusion of some details of the lore outside the original show, using it during Aangs scene with Kuruk significantly hurts his first scene, because now we have the writers completely miss the point and lessons of Kuruks life. Kuruks advice to “walk the path alone” to “distance himself from his friends” is not just obviously poor advice on its own, but considering that the past avatars are aware of events after their death, it especially doesn’t make sense coming from Kuruk! Avatar Kuruk HAD friends! the kyoshi novels go into detail about his closest companions as well as his secret deeds of hunting dark spirits. Yes Kuruk did it in secret and inadvertently and purposely distanced himself from the people he loved so that he could in his mind protect them, and that’s excusable because Avatars never have hindsight about some of the consequences of their actions, in fact past avatars often use their mistakes and their consequences as advice and warnings to the current avatar. KURUK SHOULD BE ADVISING THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!!

One of the major consequences of pushing his friends and keeping secrets was that when he eventually died mysteriously at a young age, his companions felt they had failed in their mission to serve and protect their friend, pushing one of them, Jianzhu, to fall into a path of political meddling and corruption, and being consumed with keeping his power and influence through back handed tactics like kidnapping, torture, intimidation and murder, eventually becoming Kyoshi’s earliest nemesis and one of her greatest enemies (highly recommend reading the Kyoshi novels 😍) Not to mention that Kuruks “advice” leads to an incredibly forced scene and trope where our hero attempts to push Katara away and “nobly distances himself to protect his friend”, only for the advice to be immediately ignored a few minutes later, making it entirely pointless.

AANG NEVER LEARNS WATERBENDING???

yes, through the entirety of BOOK 1 WATER, Aang never learns waterbending! Katara offers to show him some techniques she knows in one scene, but for some reason he’s hesitant to take her offer, which would have been interesting to explore, except they never really address it?? Worse even when they finally reach Pakku in the north, all that happens is that he’s kind of scolded for not starting his training, but not once is it seen or mentioned by pakku that he’ll teach him ANYTHING. If there’s enough time to have Katara shown water healing lessons as well as arguing and fighting Pakku to teach her combative techniques, WHY THEN DOES EVERYONE IGNORE TRAINING THE GOD DAMN AVATAR!!! The fate of the world rests on Aang learning the 4 elements, but for some reason they completely leave it out?

Now Katara is mentioned to teach him in the future like in the original, but the problem now in this version is that while Katara is gifted and talented, unlike the original show she’s never formally trained (outside of healing lessons) by Pakku or a master to warrant her to become Aangs official waterbending teacher. They are literally leaving the training of the most important person of their time to an AMATEUR!!!

a baffling diversion?!?!

Finally my last big problem with the show is the handling of the ending scene. Take in mind that the fire nation sends an entire fleet, no, hundreds upon hundreds of ships to invade, subjugate and snuff out an entire civilisation, and to take out the avatar, once and for all. Also consider the sheer loss of life and devastation that was unleashed by the ocean spirit upon them when zhao murdered the moon spirit, they got hit back hard and then some, honestly it was spectacular to watch! The problem, according to Ozai: “it was all according to plan”…..

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK?!?!?!

apparently it’s revealed that the North Pole wasn’t the “real target”, but instead a “clever ploy” to instead… invade Omashu?? First of all, who are you creating a diversion for??? We don’t see earth kingdom soldiers coming to assist the fight in Agna Q’ela? It’s not like we ever see waterbenders helping to defend Omashu when we were there earlier, it’s not like anyone outside the protagonists was aware of Aangs premonition (oh by the way why didn’t Kyoshi warn Aang it was a “diversion”??) WHO ARE FUCKING TALKING ABOUT???

and again, just to reiterate, you are saying you sacrificed an ENTIRE INVASION FORCE, big enough to destroy a whole society, which led to a huge loss of life and ships which YOU CLAIM was “to be expected”…. In order for you to take one city???? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING JOKING??? That’s not just bad writing, that is beyond STUPID!!! Oh and just to add, unlike in the show where Bumi willingly surrenders to avoid the destruction of Omashu, instead opting to wait for the right opportunity to free it later, saving his people doing so, here we see him bruised and bloodied after a siege! Yeah, one of the most powerful earth-benders in the world is taken out offscreen!!! CHRIST ALL BLOODY MIGHTY!!!

okay… rant over… 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[piduai]

Thanks for answering my ask before. If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

they're all fictional stories but i perceive ones that come with a visual element (manga/moving picture) and ones that lack it (books) in very different ways so i cannot really mix them since they fulfill different roles

top 10 anime/manga

golden kamuy (manga), there's nothing else like it and it excels in both story and character writing, with good and polished visuals. it took tremendous effort to create and it paid off... one in a million work

fullmetal alchemist, it's been around since forever there's not much i can say at this point. the golden standard really

saraiya goyou, phenomenal ost, pleasant story, unique visuals, overall a favorite work of mine due to its production and atmosphere. very slept on but it's ok... watching it is like chewing kinoko mochi

shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu, has its faults but it's undeniably a masterpiece. great story, good visuals, good character writing, good ost

berserk (up to golden age arc only), again it's ancient so i don't really have much to say. it's a classic for a reason

hoozuki no reitetsu, it's everything a comedy needs to be. funny and enjoyable but has its own twist on what it's trying to present, and the setting is rather uncommon. very pleasant visually, fun character designs. also slept on but ig it's a west issue bc it was popular in jp at its peak

shigurui, very edgy and #problematic but i enjoyed it a lot. it's very atmospherically heavy but i love the kind of drama it engages and i love the pacing & the kabuki-esque mood

trigun (og anime), a childhood favorite of mine i don't have much to say i just love it a lot because it made me sad

michiko to hatchin, it's a good story and very enjoyable. setting unusual for an anime. feels like watching an action movie...

dorohedoro, it's just very fun and pleasant it's a good watch. very likeable characters

books

ningen shikkaku by dazai osamu, i don't have much to say it's been obscenely popular with emo losers since forever. i read it at 16 for the first time and was like wow this is really the i'm a creep i'm a weirdo manifesto #relatable #letsjumptherope

of human bondage by somerset maugham, it's a long boring book and i read it in my teens too but i just love it... the journey of going through mc's life since childhood into late adulthood is just so charming i like this kind of stuff

all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque, i like war stories and it's a sad read

i forgor the rest 😭 there's a lot of books i read and many i liked but they usually don't really stay with me at all it's more of a 👍👎 thing

for movies i only like park chan-wook's vengeance trilogy + the handmaiden i don't really go there. and i don't watch tv shows

[montyterrible]

Miller’s Actually-She’s-Eighteen

Pithy Letterboxd-style review (read: attempted virality): They finally made a movie adaptation of the YA-obsessed adult’s idea of what adult literature is.

You might get the impression a movie about an inappropriate student-teacher relationship that opens with the line “What is an adult?” and ends with Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” is some kind of self-aware parody or satire. While Jade Halley Bartlett’s Miller’s Girl (2024) certainly has moments of what might generously be called “clarity” (re. subjects like writing and sexual dynamics)—more tortuously: “quasi-didactic”—it feels more or less like a straightforward, even predictable telling of this kind of story. (Or, in an era of excessive self-awareness—“He’s Right Behind Me, Isn’t He?”—maybe this is the radical approach.) I found the film’s tone fascinating, however. There are fleeting notes of horror in the visuals and soundscape, and then there’s stuff that feels artlessly moving or wistful or romantic. It strikes me as, overall, not at all the “slick” sort of movie where I should be seeing pop-ups highlighting messages from people’s cellphones, but there they are.

Similarly, the dialogue is a mix of the sort of awkward, “unrealistic,” strained, “literary” style that I personally enjoy with an occasional frankness or even crassness that borders on parody again by virtue of its extreme contrast. Here are several examples, all taken from throughout the same scene:

“I’m smokin’ now. No plans for it to define me yet.”

“It becomes a conversation about achieving emancipation from your inherited beliefs about sex and age.”

“We’re like the fuckin’ American wet dream. Young girls with ambivalent sexuality.”

“I don’t wanna drop it for some rando jock-twat whose sexual standards are mandated by the shit porn he downloads. That’s deli meat.”

“No, you’re being… Shut up.”

The highest compliment I can pay Miller’s Girl is that I did pause it early on to Google and find out if it was based on a book. I also think it’s risky to write a movie about writing and then have a bunch of characters’ writing shared in it, as the danger is that the audience won’t agree that the work is actually that great. This is obviously a matter of personal taste. As I mentioned before, I… liked it, but the writing uniformly has a tendency toward being “verbose” more than anything else, coming off like the characters are constantly deep-throating a thesaurus. It’s what a lot of people could (justifiably) call pretentious.

Obviously, there’s the question of the movie’s Content: As someone who has worked in education, I always respond negatively to bad teachers in art more or less as a matter of reflex. I recently finished re-watching season one of the 2015 comedy-horror series Scream Queens, for example, and one of the characters has a father who teaches a truly abysmal film class in certain episodes, which seems to consist of him just showing the students movies and then lecturing for a few minutes afterward. In Miller’s Girl, the issue is less how Martin Freeman’s titular Miller teaches and more about the mistakes he makes in handling Jenna Ortega’s precocious Cairo Sweet. It’s a necessary conceit of such stories that the teacher behaves in a way that lets those boundaries ultimately get crossed, but it’s hard not to watch those “slips” happen and not feel like this guy is just terrible at his job, with no sense of propriety whatsoever. Although, obviously this does happen for real. I went to school with someone who ended up crossing that line as a teacher, in fact.

The resonance I feel with stories like this one and also with the way weirdos on the internet talk about girls/women, the age of consent, fertility, birth rates, and so on is just how young people this age actually look. In contrast to the famously skeevy line from Dazed and Confused (1993), teenagers don’t “stay the same age”—I keep getting older, and they keep getting younger. I didn’t know how young I actually was at eighteen when I was eighteen. This here is meant to be a Heightened reality, where predatory teenagers who rattle around alone in their Southern Gothic houses emerge from the mist of the spooky woods to seduce you, but it’s hard for me not to see this Cairo as a flimsy phantasm, this schemer who seduces and then ruins her teacher so that she can write a really bangin’ application essay for Yale about the experience. She’s a sort of mythological figure in a Culture War, MGTOW, incel-ian mode—handled here with a certain ambivalence and enthralling grace even as the film technically panders to boring, old cishet male fears of entrapment and exploitation and degradation at the hands of wily Females.

It's another area where the film threatens to fall into parody—that and how it’s not just Cairo, but also her friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon) doing this. They’re both seducing teachers, but Winnie maybe genuinely likes hers and ends up falling out with Cairo in the end over it. The whiplash of Winnie’s transformation from short-skirted bisexual seductress to frumpy, teary-eyed defeat is also pretty comedic. Meanwhile, the mirrored pairing of Mr. Miller and his friend Boris (Bashir Salahuddin), Winnie’s target, further feeds into that sense of ridiculous excess. Boris’ ultimate rationalization of his own behavior is perhaps frustratingly brief, though intriguing for its moral ambiguity. Again, though, the fact that this is happening twice in the same school, simultaneously, with people this closely connected to one another, feels almost like unintentional comedy.

I’m sure Seth Rogen is a consummate professional, but knowing that he was a producer on this movie made me really want a commentary track from him, or to be a fly on the wall when he read the script. Like, I can just imagine his reaction to the scene where Mr. Miller is whackin’ it to Cairo’s midterm short story in what amounts to a shed. I thought it was pretty funny! I partly blame the “Peterotica” episode of Family Guy for me having this impression, however: You could just not take your shirt off while driving! You could simply not jork it to your student’s writing! That these reactions seem so… involuntary is part of what makes me laugh. Miller dramatically cranking hog does strike an ok balance between eroticism and thrills, I feel, and I don’t want to only disparage it. This is probably the stylistic—erotic and thrilling—high point of the movie. One criticism that could be levied against Miller’s Girl is that there isn’t actually enough of this sort of thing. It’s a real “Yes, and what else?” sort of deal.

Miller’s more successful writer wife, Beatrice (Dagmara Domińczyk), is a frustrating element of the story because of just how off-putting she is. She’s often demeaning toward her husband and only seems more drunk and belligerent as the story goes on. She’s meant to contrast with Cairo, obviously: The younger girl is sweet, whereas Beatrice is not. She lounges around the house in sexy sleepwear, and she’s not not into the story Cairo wrote when Miller shares it with her, which is… problematic. While Cairo is clearly antagonistic after a point and isn’t meant to represent a real option for several reasons (her age, her sort-of madness), the film doesn’t make staying with Beatrice feel like much of a viable choice either. It reminded me of a similar issue that I had with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011). The fiancée in that film is so obviously a bad match (and person) that there’s not much tension where the question of staying with her is concerned. I think if Beatrice was just a skosh less aggressively dismissive of Miller, then it would make this situation more thrilling.

The film is perhaps surprisingly slight: Not much really happens, and I think it could have afforded to go a bit bigger and darker (embrace more of the grotesque potential of the tentative gothic flourishes), though the slightness of it all might add a smidgeon of verisimilitude or else at least make it feel that bit more Literary. In that sense, Bartlett may understand something about writing that Cairo did not—the value of doing less, in more than one sense.

[skullsmuldon]

So David is out with his sugarbaby and I am hearing Gillian is back with the royal fanfiction fishstick? is that true? I am really so over the both of them. Their acting also hasn't been great the last couple years. And sorry the emmy or golden globe doesn't mean you can act it just means someone paid the most money for you... I still think Gillian is the better actor but she is lacking projects that show off her skills

I think she has been back with him for a while now but has kept him out of the spotlight in connection with their rekindled relationship because that doesn’t fit with her independent, feminist “I take not shit” persona she is selling to her fan/stan base. I always said GA imo isn’t that strong independent woman when it comes to her relationships in general. She always adapted to her partner and change to fit his needs and interests. And I think lots of ppl mix up her brand persona and her private persona.

I didn’t like any of the stuff either of them did the last years. And to me GA is doing way too much period dramas and historical characters. I liked The Great not because of her but for the overall comedy. As for David I mean what is there left to say other than he has become the typical Hollywood geezer cliche 🤷🏽‍♀️ BFD will tank like house of D imo and then he’ll go off do some more roles to keep busy. And if nothing comes along he can always write more or pay for his own indie movies to get produced. And last but not least he can always do another tour because you’ll always find 400-500 ppl wanting to see Mulder or Hank and wanna have a good time with friends out and about. Maybe he’ll do a Duett with MP 😂 I mean at this point nothing seems off the table with GA DD MP and PM. And if you asking me if I think their partners will stick - I say No.

[markcampbells]

~9 People You'd Like to Know Better <3

Thank you so much for tagging me @lenievi!

last song: "Sedated" by Hozier, which is on my "On Repeat" playlist on Spotify. (Spotify classed me as a Comfort Listener last year because I like to listen to the same things over and over. #john mulaney "and we were like we know but hey!!") At the moment I'm actually listening to the most recent episode of The Flop House, my favorite podcast.

favourite colour: Literally everyone I know has NEVER been able to pin this down for me, so I guess I give off mixed vibes, but I will say purple if pressed, with blue a close second. People close to me have also thought pink, so you know, just say the bi flag and we'll call it a day.

currently watching: I've been procrastinating on watching the last two episodes of Trigun Stampede because I know the emotions that lie ahead of me. I also recently started watching The Clone Wars because I'd like to make my way through it eventually. I haven't really been in a TV mood of late? So not too much. I do hope to watch the Netflix One Piece soon just to give it a try.

last movie: I saw Bottoms in theaters on Tuesday! It was the one of the most unhinged comedies I had ever seen, LOL. I really liked it overall and the bloopers at the end were particularly funny.

currently reading: I'm towards the end of The Lookback Window by Kyle Dillon Hertz, and for Sapphic September, I'm reading Tess Sharpe's 6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did), which is a play on five times and slow burn fics. The former is very heavy content-wise and the latter unfortunately deals heavily with some triggering stuff for me, so I've been working through them slowly. I'm also working my way through Trigun Maximum and a DC Comics compilation about Poison Ivy.

sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet! I do like savory stuff like sausage, meat pies, etc., as well, but I don't like mixing flavor profiles. I'm too white to really appreciate spicy, LOL.

relationship status: Very, very, very single. I'd like to be in a relationship within the next few years but right now my anxiety hasn't been dealing so great with the prospect.

current obsession: An unholy mix of Final Fantasy VII and Trigun, which I later learned from Lizard was a common pipeline. :p

last thing i googled: A drawing tutorial, and a sidequest page for Fallout: New Vegas, one of the games I'm playing at the moment.

currently working on: I've been absolutely awful at consistently working on a WIP lately, but I've been working on a piece for my OCs where three of them have traveled back to one of their hometowns for a funeral. Cheery, right?

Absolutely no pressure tagging @mrsmunsons @excavatinglizard @weethreequarter @lokilenchen @thank-god-and-you and anyone else who'd like to do it, feel free to snag it!

[shut-up-rabert]

Welcome back is the worst sequel ever for several reasons but the one that irks me the most is that they took a movie like welcome, whose charm lied in the fact that these were people in bizzare situation acting just the right mix of normal and weird that seemed appropriate yet funny, to an over the top caricaturish just another watch and forget bad movies that John has lately made a name for.

I mean, firstly they go and replace the MC . Yes, I know the most memorable ones of the movie were Nana and Anil, but I think people forgot that the MC was still Rajeev, the guy who was the link tying the normalcy and fear of Ghungru to the incredible mafia life of his BILs, he was still the normal guy holding his ground perfectly in such a flambouyant situation (and Kudos to Akshay for playing the role so brilliantly that even though he was the underdog of the film, he still made his mark as the MC with what he was given) and while that might have seemed a given at first, when welcome back introduces Ajju bhai (yuck) you realise all over that Rajeev truly was one of the main components of the film, neatly joining the mundane with outlandish. Same with Sanjana tbh. I won't go out and say Katrina is a great actress, but the way she portrayed a sweet and somewhat light headed Sanjana despite the circumstances that surrounded her, that is memorable still. I mean, if Katrina seems like a better actress than Shruti Hassan, you know you doing shit wrong😶‍🌫️

And I mean, this argument can be used overall all the replaced characters. Feroz Khan as a gullible don seemed lot more funny than the tried and repeated formula of an Idiot , dramatic don portrayed by Nasruddin. Shiney Ahuja instead of Lucky was an eyesore tbh. The girl who took over Malika's role seemed to lack the wit and charm with which Ishika duped everyone, her scheming was shown a lot more often to be actually as smooth as Isha's.

All in all, bad character replacement. In case of Rajeev to Ajay, bad actor replacement aswell.

Secondly, its the script itself. It sucks, the scenes suck, the dialogues suck, the idea itself sucks. All the good scenes I remember were all references , fucking references either to welcome 1 or other Nana's and Anil's movies. Imagine making a movie so bad that Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Nasruddin Shah, Rajpal Yadav TOGETHER cannot save it and then going ahead and removing Akshay Kumar aswell💀

Just look at the stuff. Lucky’s replacement is more one dimensional than lucky despite having more scenes, Ajay and Anjana’s Chemistry is so bleh when you compare it to how cute and wholesome Rajeev and Sanjana were, Uday and Majnu are stupid enough to fight over the same girl for a second fucking time. Uday and Majnu don’t feel like Uday and Majnu; both were gullible enough and shown powerful, here they are SCARED OF HIDING A DEAD BODY YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING GANGSTERS HELLO?!?!

Thirdly and finally, expanding on the script thingie, the acting that it required from the actors is not what welcome was about.

Like I pointed out, Welcome was a comedy that was absolutely absurd, but what made the charm for me was how rationally everyone was overreacting (how is that any making sense? Lmao). It was how Nana laughed after Majnu got insulted on call, my man looking much less angry than someone who threw someone off a yatch, ready to punch Rajeev after Lucky was presumably killed. Anil Kapoor hogging a road on gunpoint and painting like, idk, a normal person? A don that doesn’t give a fuck? That ek tang nakli guy just being there for plays and it Nana Patekar just keeping him being so funny? Akshay Kumar being rightfully frustrated in situations so, so funky that it feels so wrong yet so right at the same time.

Basically, you get the point, right? The comedic sounds and overracting was limited, they let the comedy sink in and never forced it (example, the ghode gadhe waali painting) The movie was not off the hinges, just barely holding onto them. People acting weird with body language but sane with speaking (mostly), ya must be getting it I hope

Now replace that with a generic off the hinges over acting film, where the comedy is so forced that you just cannot laugh because its that unfunny. The actors are phenomenal, well ‘cept John and Shiney, so and made the last movie so good. Welcome back relied and was banking on Welcome so bad but it lacked the movie’s very essence. Who will like it? What were they thinking making it? Why?

So yeah, tldr: Welcome back sucks and Welcome has no sequel.

This post was made by Welcome is my favourite movie ever gang

*poster for extra feels*

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the tag @pinkie-satan!

-last song: 0 - LMYK (English version)

-song stuck in head: 勇者/Yuusha/Hero - yoasobi (it's the frieren op)

-fav colors: purples, especially when they're down the blue end.

-currently watching: ah okay. so. I'm watching anime seasonals this time for some reason? Kinda surprised I'm keeping up with them as well as I am honestly. so anime-wise: frieren, spy x family s2, my new boss is goofy, deranged detective, tearmoon, I'm in love with the villainess. kdrama: move to heaven (I am genuinely enjoying it but there aren't many episodes so I think I keep delaying to make it last longer). don't think there's anything else I'm forgetting rn (but there probably is). I have a few other shows I want to check out like scavengers reign but probably when I'm less overloaded with my current lot.

-currently reading: does it count if I technically read it all yesterday? uh, ima say yes because I was probably sleep-deprived and so may give it a reread when I'm less so. latest murderbot book: system collapse. really good. there were a couple of parts I wish had been pushed further but overall it was exactly what I wanted out of a murderbot book so I can't complain (for context: murderbot is sci-fi and a mix of hurt/comfort, comedy, and intense relatability courtesy of the main character). other than that, it's mainly dungeon meshi. finished up volume 1 earlier today after getting distracted for ages and the fake biology aspects are so fun. (also have ongoing stuff in terms of manga and fics but I'll spare the details of those as there're a lot)

-currently craving: hot chocolate (brb)

-last movie: the marvels. was kinda disjointed but I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it actually was given the reception to it. also I know cats are probably expensive to deal with on film sets but did they really have to cg them to that extent? pls. I want real cattos. real alien cattos. whatever

-sweet, spicy or savory: usually sweet but occasionally spice

-relationship status: single, which personally I'm happy with, but people can be weird about it sometimes.

-current obsession: still in my link click era, trying to resist getting back into murderbot or nirvana in fire or stranger/secret forest.

-three fav foods: hmm, bolognese, gyoza, fior di latte gelato

-last thing googled: showings for anatomy of a fall. (unfortunately there aren't many which is a shame. I'd like to watch it but not really planning to go out of my way for it)

-dream trip: going to be boring and say the same here but japan fr. I'd want to actually have a vague sense of the language before even considering it though because what I have rn is just an assortment of words vaguely to do with murder mysteries

-anything you want right now: my original answer to this was depressing so I'm just gonna say the motivation to actually sort out a new laptop because rn I'm probably going to beat out my record for how long it took me to transfer over to my new phone after getting it (around a month iirc). I haven't even started figuring out what I want to prioritise in terms of specs or how much money I'm willing to spend and it's so much easier to do this kind of thing *on* a laptop (that isn't broken :V)

Tagging in anyone who wants to join in. I know especially I have some newish mutuals/followers and I'm not great at interacting directly but feel free to have a go ^^

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Haunted Mansion (2023)”

Haunted Mansion is Disney's second attempt at making a movie based on the titled ride. The 2003 version starring Eddie Murphy was critically not well received and flopped at the box office. However, it has a cult following nowadays and honestly, it's a decently fun movie. Does this second attempt deliver more or is it just another failed attempt at turning another ride into the next Pirates of the Caribbean?

One of the biggest things you will get out of this film is how amazing Lakeith Stanfield is as the main lead. He delivers a standout performance with some genuinely strong emotional performance from him. This is thanks to how his character is written. It is surprising to see Disney have an adult character dealing with loss and still grieving from it. He is also an introverted character with anxiety issues which is not something you see a lot from main characters in big IPs. His character is the heart and most engaging element. His character development is a wonderful thing to watch. The exploration of grief is well-done and it's a meaningful theme to explore in a family film.

The cast also all have decent chemistry. Owen Wilson just steals a lot of the scene with his charisma. Danny Devito is a bundle of joy as usual. Tiffany Haddish is good during the more serious and emotional stuff but her comedy is a mixed bag. Rosario Dawson is mostly serious but it works fine. It is at its most enjoyable when the cast is bouncing off each other. Jamie Lee Curtis has a minor role as Madame Leota but she does great with her small screen time. The first act started strong with some decent horror and tension. Some of the scares are pretty surprising for a movie that is also aimed at kids. There are also some great visual sequences. For example, the door opening to a sea or the hallways becoming longer or the pictures starting to move behind the character's back.

Unfortunately, it becomes pretty bland after the initial strong start. The second and third act start ditching any of the horror energy and becomes an adventure movie. It becomes reliant on jump scares but none of them are really that effective. The plot is also very standard and forgettable. There isn't any interesting character development for other characters nor is there any great twist or revelations in the plot. It doesn't help that this movie tries to be a PG13 horror but also a comedy and is not good at either. There are so many silly jokes and dialogue that just don't land. It didn't even give me a chuckle.

The movie is 2 hours and that is too long. There are many moments where the pacing is just slow or where scenes drag on longer than necessary or there is a pointless padding scene. 20 minutes could have been easily cut out of this film which would no doubt help the pacing. I'm also saddened by how reliant this movie is on CGI. A lot of the ghosts are CGI and the effects are CGI, all of which are very noticeable. It's a shame as most of these could have been done practically and look way better for it. It baffles me that the main antagonist is CGI. Could they not get Jared Leto in prosthetics or something? Also, there are so many noticeable product placements as well. There are so many dialogues where characters randomly mention products for no reason. For example, a character mentions getting a mansion from Zillow or getting stuff from Costco. The biggest offender was during a serious moment and the character mentions Baskin Robbins which took me out of the moment.

Overall, Haunted Mansion 2023 is a decent second attempt. It's not amazing or that memorable and it's not better or worse than the 2003 version. It's an okay movie but I definitely expected better from a movie with Disney money. I do want to see what ride they adapt into a movie next, Expedition Everest perhaps?

For more reviews like this visit: https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[nintendroid]

This is some kind of record. I can't recall the last time I went to the theater twice in one year. I saw the Mario Bros movie a month or so ago and tonight I saw The Flash. I had mixed expectations and its safe to say it was what I thought it was going to be (possible spoilers).

Ezra Miller carries the movie. The rest of the cast is good too but Miller really put his best foot forward. If this is his last movie as Barry Allen/Flash, he gave a heck of a send off.

There was fear that Michael Keaton's Batman return was an overexposed cameo and I'm glad to say its not. He's in a good chunk of the film, so if you're here for Keaton, you get your money's worth.

For better or worse, this is DC's "Marvel" movie. A big-budget summer blockbuster with lots of comedy and action. Don't expect Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The CGI is downright awful. Borderline unacceptable at times and it really took me out of the movie. Take Bella and Edward's baby in Twilight and times that by 10.

Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne is fun but it sorely needed Tim Burton's direction. It's missing the dreary-ness and tone of the Burton Batman movies and something about it just never fully clicked.

Some great cameos and I'll leave it at that.

When we get into the more grounded issues of the film, its great stuff, but there's not enough of it. Its clear DC wants the Marvel audience and wants the comedy almost front and center at all times.

OK, I think that's all I have to say about The Flash. Its a fun popcorn movie and while I'm disappointed they've abandoned Zack Snyder's DC vision, The Flash is ok for what it is. I have no interest in James Gunn's interpretation of the DC "universe" so this is probably the last DC movie I'll see. I left happy, overall and thankful for a night at the movies where I can turn my brain off for two hours.

2.5 of 5 Lanky Kongs

[certified-bi]

I saw Aladin both on the Disney Wish, and the traveling Broadway tour. Here are my thoughts.

(I structured these using the Aristotle elements of tragedy. Yes I know that they aren't meant to apply to a comedy as a rule. I also am aware that I didn't use them in the way Aristotle did. That's on purpose. My theatre history/dramaturgy professor loves using these six areas as a way to break down western theatre plays. So it's my default. And I'm on vacation so I'm not going to use them in the proper scholar way. Not sorry)

Cruise:

Plot - Highlights. This show was a cut version and was more an abridged music show.

Character - The characters didn't really move the Plot. They felt very simple but still relatable and fun.

Theme(thought) - The theme of staying true to yourself honestly shined the most in this one only because the genie, carpet, and Aladin relationship was very well built into the story. Made it stick.

Language(diction) - Very casual. Light air.

Rhythm(song/music) - For its shortness it still flowed well and felt pretty good in terms of story beats.

Spectacle - Excellent. They had one puppet for Iago. Limited set but they let that budget go to props and costumes which felt nice if a bit cartoonie. They had those not fireworks during genie's song which was great. The carpet was like a scissor lift for the flying scene. Very cool. Actually all of the Genie song was great and the costumes for Prince Alli were great with the back up dancers as the peacocks.

Extra stuff -

This show had the carpet as an acrobat in a onesie like outfit. His nonverbal expressions were outstanding and he did trick the entire time. Like I cannot express how much joy he brought me. I'd watch a full length play or movie about the character. His actor was that good.

The relationship between Jasmine and Aladin was... fine. It wasn't for a lack of chemistry or acting but they had limited time. Although the genie Aladin and carpet Trio was great. Top tier.

Aladin's prince costume ripped off when Jafar exposed him. This was a nice call back that I really liked to the movie. Keeping the magic with practice effects.

Also the lamp peddler was a different character than genie and they cast a woman(she played Ursla the night before for little mermaid) so she did the intro and had cameos throughout. Mainly this was because the genie was blue, unlike in the Broadway version, so it had to be two different people. But it worked and she did magnificent job. The entire cast did to be honest.

Broadway

Plot - It was pretty alright. Stayed mostly true to the movie while changing things. The action flowed nicely and made sense. Nothing felt jarring.

Character - The characters definitely pushed the plot more. Abu and the carpet were replaced by three guys... and I have mixed feelings. They weren't bad, but they also didn't need to be there. I think having to devolp three sidekicks took more time from the show than it was worth personally. That being said they were fun characters.

Theme(thought) - More developed on Aladin's part, but it struggled with being torn between focus.

Language(diction) - Much more dignified than the cruise if that makes sense. Less casual outside of the market place.

Rhythm(song/music) - The story flowed well and besides a few songs dragging this area had great marks.

Spectacle - They leaned less flashy pizzazz in parts. Still a Spectacle I promise, just a little more focused on glitter than effects. The magic tricks were cool but simplistic. Felt a little lacking. Like the costumes were amazing but it felt like a focus was put on finery in that area and not overall effect. A great time just a bit whelming.

Extra thoughts -

The sultan was fun in this version. He had some great lines and his dynamic with Jasmine was well done.

Proud of your boy was actually a top tier moment and I liked the depth it added to Aladin's character. Him being stuck being the disappointment and not wanting to disappoint Jassmine like he had his mom added some nice layers to why he did what he did. I think it helped emphasize how he wasn't a bad person but a kid(he felt younger than the movie. More like 17-18) out of his depth in a bad financial situation. His love for his mom and later Jasmine and how they make him want to be better both for them and himself, contrasting with the harsh reality of being poor and feeling like he has to lie. Very good build up.

Iago being human didn't bother me actually. It made sense to not bring a puppet on the road and he was a fun character.

Jasmine wearing pink at the end was dumb. Her dress should have leaned blue and Aladin's red, instead of him wearing the blue. For context they both wore whites with hints of color at the end. The decision to put her in pink didn't feel like anything but gendered nonsense. And I don't care that the creepy Jafar scene had her in red in the movie.

Jafar's costume changes were cool. To sultan and then genie.

Friend like me went on for too long. I get it has to be longer for the musical but it dragged a bit.

The green member of the trio.. liked food... and was heavier. It was overdone and my mom said she could feel my internal sighs. It just was not funny and kept pulling attention.

The genie was the opening person in this version. This version had the entire ensemble performing the Arabian nights(I think the cruise version just had the merchant sing it and then transitioned into one jump). Then the characters were introduced. Aladin and Jasmine posing on rolling carts with Jafar, Iago, and the sultan on the floor. Very nice stage picture. Made my theatre brain very happy.

The dancing in the show was top notch. The fighting was fun. But the dancing was the highlight. Would recommend it on that alone.

Aladin didn't get stripped of his princely attire by Jafar. Yes this bothered me. No it wasn't a big deal. I feel like Him sitting in his street clothes in defeat is an important element purely based on the fact I like the picture it paints in the story.

Final thoughts -

Both shows cut the underwater scene for obvious reasons. With Jafar interrupting being the fall from grace or arresting him depending on the show. Not noteworthy really just on the brain.

Overall I actually think the cruise one was better. I notice a trend with the Broadway shows shying away from magic a bit. And for Anastasia that made sense. Less so for Aladin.

I think cutting the carpet entirely and genie scene time was a mistake. I also thought the genie songs were less dazzling on broadway. The costumes and sets were higher quality and detail in broadway, with the cruise still having good quality but less extra umph. Instead the cruise leaned into the cartoony feel. Which they pulled off splendidly. The broadway show had less of that rough and tumble feel. Less cartoon like.The Broadway show had deeper characters, but less spontaneity and less moments that were just comedic moments like you'd get in the cartoon movie.

Overall Broadyway felt more like a traditional musical whereas the cruise show was more improv with almost concert music vibes. Both very good but entirely different experiences. The Broadway version delivered on the story and plot, and the cruise on lighthearted and comedic fun. Just very different goals and outcomes. I'd recommend both.

My perfect version would be a mix. Keep the Trio and carpet both(sorry abu). I like leaning into the magic being a suprise to the characters. I think the Trio reacting to the carpet would have been a fun moment. I liked the carpet flying scene in both but lean more towards the Broadway due to fewer projections.

The cruise version had Jasmine bring up how she's trained to rule since she was born. I think this would be a lovely way to push her forward as sultan with Aladin as her husband and advisor(house husband let's be honest) instead of the two ruling together(as in Aladin being thrust into equal partnership on reigning with no experience, not him not having a say).

I'd also keep the sultan from the Broadway show. I felt he was his most three dimensional in that version. Honestly I'd like to see it expanded on a bit. His struggle with tradition and love for his daughter. It'd add some tension and build their relationship.

[signalwatch]

Super Watch: Superman - The Movie (1978 - theatrical cut)

Watched:  01/06/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  1,000,000th

Director:  Richard Donner

Superman: The Movie (1978) is the movie I've seen most of any film, enough so that I have it pretty well memorized.  At this point, I'd hesitate to say how many times I've seen the movie, but it's dozens and dozens of times.  At least 7 in the theater.  Intentionally, I haven't watched it much the past few years.  I mean, I'm trying to watch new-to-me movies, I can replay any scene in my head any time, I know the beats and jokes, and cool elements and emotions in every scene.  But I also know the plot holes, the mistakes, the dated issues with the film, where that's-a-doll, that's-how-that-shot-was-done, etc...  I even look for where extras were at a difference walking pace in various shots.  

What's probably most notable to modern film audiences is that a movie that plays it mostly straight for an hour has a hard jump in the second half to a far wackier vision of the world it establishes, moving from sci-fi epic to American Rockwell-esque pastoral to a cosmic sci-fi fantasy.  And then...  Metropolis, with hustling big-city folk, fast talking journalists, and Otis bumbling along.  And for the next 90 minutes, the movie is a mix of romance, screwball, camp and heroism.  There's something oddly Broadway-ish about that back 90 minutes - I mean, doesn't Miss Tessmacher seem like she needs an "I Want" song?  Because Lois gets one in spoken-word.

And god help us, almost everyone is doing a bit, from Perry White to the crook in the alley to the cops in the station talking about "big red boots".  We are not done yet with superheroes needing an absurd world around them for an audience to digest them, even after we just spent an hour with tragedy and heartbreak on planetary and personal scales.  

What that first hour accomplishes, though, is reminding us that Superman himself is not an absurdity.  He's the child of unspeakable tragedy, a product of America's heartland and humanity's most sincere beliefs of fair play and decency, but he is also an orphan in search of an identity.  And with the identity resolved, when he joins humanity in the guise of Clark Kent, he's fitting in while also being the space-god with laser eyes and a knowledge of the human heart and the 28 known galaxies.  He's not just some fop in a funny suit. 

But I'd also point out - Marvel has always known they need to wink a bit where DC has struggled with the idea since Snyder took over, and even Birds of Prey with Harley at the center doesn't quite get how to make this funny.  YMMV on Gunn's take, but he may have the best notion of how to balance comedy and tragedy, realism vs absurdism (or, at least, one with internal logic).   

I don't think any of this makes Superman: The Movie a failure or less-than, but I do get how it will make the film harder for newer audiences to access the movie.  Why is everyone acting weird, like an old-timey movie?  Cinema verite this ain't.  For a movie that shouts at the audience "this ain't your 1950's Superman, this is a modern Superman" with it's opening salvo, it's terribly dated to its period of release with fashion alone, and FX 15 years before a dinosaur would amble across a screen.

And, of course, it fails the nerd test of repeated viewings.  There's clearly stuff in the film that just doesn't make sense, like Lex telling Superman "You were great in your day, Superman. But it just stands to reason, when it came time to cash in your chips, this old… diseased… maniac would be your banker."  Well... no.  Superman has never met Lex, and he just showed up.  This is the speech a legacy villain gives Superman.  Superman's day is just now happening.  What draft of the script did this come from?  

But these were things we didn't notice as much in ye olde days of only seeing movies in the theater.  And certainly echoes the assumption that between radio and TV series, 40 years of comics, and overall pop culture saturation, Superman was already a known commodity, a pre-existing IP that would automatically fill in gaps for the audience even when things make no sense (why on earth would Lex think Kryptonite would be radioactive to Superman?).  

That's comic book stuff, and I'm not shocked it's given little attention - because what director Richard Donner cares about is the human side to Superman, the one that he devotes a whole sky-dance sequence to.  I'll be honest - I'm beyond judging the film for containing this sequence, but it is... weird.  It's not 1000% necessary to move the story forward, and I've spent a couple of decades now watching older movies to figure out if Donner took inspiration from somewhere for this sequence, but nothing has ever really presented itself.  From a story-telling logic, I 100% get it.  Lois needs to experience the wonder of Superman up close, feel she can trust him, understand he'll be there to protect her if she slips...  But.  Man.  For a 2-minute bit in a long, long film, it feels like the longest two minutes to a lot of folks.

I can talk about the stuff I like about this film all day, and have.  To anyone who would listen.  For decades.  So don't think I've turned on it.  But I also have the relationship with the movie you only have with a movie you've seen so many times, you've  known the names of the two cops who pursue Otis.  But I don't think it hurts to be honest about the movie.  I may love it and I'll defend it, but if you watch a movie this many times and you don't notice the rough spots, are you really loving something?  

Anyway, it was great to revisit for the first time in a while.  Especially post Superheroes Everyday's journey through the film.    

We'll rewatch eventually and say all the nice things you've come to expect, but this is not that post.  We'll do one on John Ratzenberger's characters in Superman 1 and 2 and try to figure out if this more than one character or a set of hard-luck twins.

https://ift.tt/3rDaiKm

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/S4UpyxE

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

This would be such a long list! But I gathered a few favs and some possibly lesser known films to recommend:

Fade to Black (1980) - watched this about a year ago and I adore this movie. Its sorta a slasher, but not quite. Like a mix between slasher and psychological I think

Boys in the Trees (2016) - I will recommend this movie every single time, it changed me I think. Its not a fun movie and is more serious, but it is so good and so underrated

Lake Mungo - another more serious one and it's not quite a traditional type horror film, but it really is such an experience

Haunt (2019) - this one's set on Halloween and is honestly a more recent fav. It does the whole "horror attraction is actually all real" thing and personally I think it executes it the best. I do wish there were more horror movies that did that concept well

Memento Mori (1999) - this is a Korean film and its not like super horror-y but it has lesbians and something about it just kinda hit. It doesn't have a happy ending, but I think it's worth a watch overall

The Black Phone - another more recent one that I think is overall executed so so well

The Descent (2005) - if you haven't seen this one, you absolutely need to! Also one of my favs and its just so well done

1408 - paranormal movie that I actually need to rewatch myself, but I loved it when I first watched it

Killer Klowns from Outer Space - the most ridiculous and fun movie ever. Has cartoony gore and kills, but also incredible effects. One of my fav movies of all time!

Kristy (2014) - more modern day slasher. I think overall its really good and really tense a lot of times. My one criticism of this movie is that there are a lot of scenes that are just way too dark. Like you can't really tell what's going on at times. It doesn't ruin the movie completely imo, but it is a bit frustrating

The Loved Ones - I'm kind of obsessed with this movie honestly. Don't watch this if you don't like/can't handle gore and torture stuff. If you can, this is so good. The side story is a bit weaker imo, but the actual horror stuff is horrifying. I love this movie!

The Stepfather (1987) - this one's sometimes called a slasher movie, but imo that doesn't quite fit. I haven't seen the remake or any other movie in this franchise, but I was really surprised by just how good this first one is. Highly recommend!

Totally Killer (2023) - very recent slasher movie and so so much fun!!!!

Frankenhooker (1990) - I watched this one very recently and it absolutely slayed my world. The last like 20 minutes of this are so ridiculous and fun. I mean, the entire movie is ridiculous and fun, but especially so at the end!

Creepshow (1982) - I've only seen this first one in the Creepshow franchise, but this movie is so incredible! It's probably my fav horror anthology, it's got so many iconic horror people working on it and the result is amazing

Misery - based off a Stephen King novel. I haven't read the book myself (yet) but the movie is great! The performances especially are unforgettable

Autopsy of Jane Doe - another one I've been meaning to rewatch. I was so into it the first time I watched this. It all mostly takes place in one location and is executed incredibly

Ginger Snaps - more like Ginger Slays. Another one I need to rewatch, but I think it changed something in me when I first watched it

Motel Hell - it's a comedy horror, but weirdly horrifying for a comedy horror. Kinda texas chainsaw massacre vibes on this one

and since I've just mentioned it, I gotta recommend Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) if you haven't seen it. It's my favourite movie of all time and I think it's the best horror film ever made. The 2003 remake is also pretty good, but not quite on the same level as the original. The 2022 one however is terrible

The Lodge (2019) - psychological horror that personally I thought was really good

Dead End (2003) - this one takes place on Christmas eve so technically could wait until Christmas time to watch it. Anyway, something about this movie really got to me and I need to recommend it every time

Night of the Creeps (1986) - another one thats just loads of fun to watch. And I love watching the special effects of older movies because they're more likely to be practical effects! They still hold up pretty well overall so I love this movie and movies like this

Fresh (2022) - horrifying. Highly recommend

The Blob (1988) - again, practical effects my beloved!!!! This movie slayed so hard

The Children (2008) - if you don't mind horror with kids in it, well this one is really good and kinda horrifying as well

Re-animator (1985) - another one of my favourites and also great practical effects! Also Herbert West is a freak (affectionate)

Spree (2020) - I kinda genuinely love horror that tries to use the internet/modern day tech for its horror. Unfortunately most movies don't quite succeed but Spree is an exception, and is a very fun and good movie!!!!

The Hitcher (1986) - the atmosphere in this movie alone makes it an incredible watch imo, but also its quite homoerotic and horrifying at times. Another movie I'm kinda obsessed with

In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - this is a John Carpenter film and I highly recommend this one too. I see this one talked about less than some of his other films, but personally I think this is one of my favourites of his!

I feel like this list is getting too long so I'm gonna cut it here because I could go on for way too long. I tried recommending ones that aren't talked about as much (so stuff like Scream, Saw, etc I didn't mention). There are still some well known ones, but either way I hope you find something here that you watch and like!

Its October now which means it's Halloween and horror season and like if anyone would like any horror movie recommendations, I know this really cool, horror obsessed lesbian who really enjoys giving people horror recs

[danwhobrowses]

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero - Quick Review

So, I couldn't quite wait. I've heard good things from it so I had to see it for myself

Super Hero is Dragon Ball Super's second movie and yet another push in a different animation style, so I'm gonna go through what I thought was good and what was bad.

Spoilers for the Movie

So I liked the movie, I have to preface that because the negatives may seem to be longer than the positives, so to clarify, some of them are small gripes in the greater scheme of things.

Let's start with the negatives though

What I didn't like

So let's get it out the way; Final Gohan and Orange Piccolo. In concept it was great, but the designs were overkill. Piccolo with the SSJ3 brow that still doesn't work and Gohan with the oversized and overjagged hair. Orange Piccolo as a name is uninspired too, and I don't think Final Gohan actually needed a form change

I also don't approve of the method, Orange Piccolo is only possible thanks to Shenron adding 'a little bonus' to unleashing his potential, and Gohan goes Final Gohan having seen Piccolo almost die...compared to all the previous times Gohan has seen Piccolo almost die and Goku actually die, so it's a tad weak.

I know 'power scaling' is a bane of many an anime and especially Dragon Ball, but it does feel weird that 1 billion zeni is enough to create an android that's a physical match for Mystic Gohan. And that Shenron is capable of power boosting Piccolo to be above that level - since Orange Piccolo bitch slapped Gamma 2 while Gohan struggled against Gamma 1. It does render Supreme Kai's potential unleashed weak compared to simply wishing for more power, and by that matter renders training quite redundant.

Also why hasn't Dende upgraded Shenron to be the most powerful it can be? Surely we would need such upgrades for dire situations?

I don't understand why we wrote Beerus to have a crush on Cheelai, it feels weird, especially since she's only playing along to keep his hospitality

If you didn't know that Oreos were sponsoring the movie by god do you get it told, lots of Oreo overkill in this

Unfortunately 90% of the film does feel rather stakeless, just Red Ribbon Army back to their bullshit and Piccolo and Pan basically pranking Gohan into being more committed to acknowledging threats without leaning back on Goku and Vegeta - who are always off-world anyway.

Sadly this also means Krillin, 18, Goten and Trunks' inclusion is weak, they're just there for padding numbers and comedy. Krillin being gutless to start and all of the Gotenks stuff didn't land with me. Feel like we could've replaced Gotenks at least with Videl, who is blissfully unaware that Piccolo had staged her daughter being kidnapped. Also Tien could've filled Krillin's role to complete the set of non-Goku fighters who fought Cell before, I mean Krillin uses the Solar Flare so they could've swapped them out, even a mention outside the Cell saga montage would've sufficed

I don't know how to feel about Hedo, he's a lot older than he looks for one and though he seems fun and sympathetic he's also naive and murderous. It's not surprising that DB characters forgive murderers of course but he didn't seem like he repented that activity. His conclusion was weird too, if cosmetics were his calling it would've made more sense but it seemed more like a way to write him out even though he could be a valuable resource. Also how did he not know that Red Ribbon were evil when making Cell, he would've been old enough to remember Cell threatening to blow up the world.

And...Cell Max. That was an awful kaiju surprise villain, utilising the worst of the Cell designs and mixing it with Shin Godzilla. It was heavily meh and could've been done better.

Overall this did feel like a 'meme movie', leaning more onto pop culture perceptions (most of which guided by the Abridged Series) such as Piccolo being the responsible parent, Goku being the absolute moron, Krillin being the joke fighter, and even giving Vegeta a 'win' over Goku in the post credits scene, it might be considered fanservice but it does play more to the jokes than the canon.

It didn't quite help either that this followed a similar structure to the Broly movie but without the fleshing of the new character. We introduced the misguided villain, who is approached by actual villains to target the heroes, Bulma wants the Dragon Balls for something trivial and superficial, we swap around some fights until we reach the rage monster, Piccolo helps guide the fighters to a new form, new form wins, slightly villainous characters become allies. Nothing wrong with a formula, but you have to make it less glaring.

What I did like

The new art style was hit and miss at times, especially for the out of focus characters, but overall it was quite successful. You don't really get hit with the uncanny valley and for a first try it was pretty good. I'd probably still prefer the old Broly style but this was still good.

It was very refreshing that the movie was more of a Piccolo and Gohan movie than a Goku and Vegeta movie. Because it does make the world feel more lived in. Granted we could've used a bit more fleshing out of the other characters to validate their appearance but it was a nice change of pace, we could do more of these for the other Z Fighters.

Though a little unnecessary, I did like that we don't just forget about the Broly stuff, he's learning to control his power and from it Goku's getting stronger and Vegeta's learning to be more efficient with his power, this is positive signs too for Super's next season if they intend to use Broly more.

Like Broly last movie, Toriyama has put in the work to fix Pan as a character. The girl who was annoying and hated in GT is charming and adorable in Super Hero, so yeah all the Pan stuff was surprisingly great.

The Gammas were also pretty enjoyable, fun misguided villains who make the U-Turn when answering to reason. Gamma 2's sacrifice was earned for being the more exposed Gamma, but they still have room to use Gamma 1 more, even if it's on the smaller scale of helping Earth-scale threats with Mr Satan or teaming up with the Great Saiyaman.

I can see people finding Bulma making extremely minor wishes (most of which to make her look younger) on the Dragon Balls - as a means to prevent Resurrection F again - as a negative, but I'm holding onto a small bit of hope that it may lead to something. Perhaps another Super movie this time trying to fix GT's brighter spot of the Shadow Dragons. One hopes at least...

And there we have it, it was an enjoyable movie full of some fanservice stuff. It has its flaws and the main villain's rather weak, but that's not too different to a lot of Dragon Ball films. The less you dissect it the more you'll probably enjoy it.