#i hope this is the last mcu movie i have to watch. it left a sweet taste on my tongue | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popculturebuffet · 1 year ago

Text

It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage Finale: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy archelogists and welcome to the final installment of my Indiana Jones Retrospective, It's Not the Years, It's the Milleage. For those just joining us for the epic conculsion, i've covered all four previous Indy films over the past few months, from the good with great action set pieces, iconic lines, and deft character work, to the bad with the uncomfortable amount of brown face, temple of dooms theme park version of india and support of colonolisim, and Crystal Skulls sterotpyical 'savage tribesman", to the just plain weird with aborted ideas such as a haunting in scottland, a chess game to the death, sun wukong vs indiana jones, and an out and out alien invasion which Indy makes out during suprising no one.

IT's been one long, LONG journey and today.. it ends, as does the film franchise. With Dial of Destiny. Dial is the main reason we did this: a fresh fim with ford, with a fresh director in Logan maestro James Mangold, a final chapter for the ages.. and it has been recived with a resounding

Yeah while there was some hype for this film from Fans of Mangold or Indy (Of which i'm now both) it's now gotten to the point Wikipedia has out and out labeled it a box office bomb and Naturally the failure of this film has been taken with grace and restraint by the internet

It hasn't helped that Indy has come out in a summer with plummeting box office from usual money makers, so people are only more on their "Why aren't people seeing these films" kick. When really the reasons aren't new. We have "Doing the same shit a diffrent day instead of going with what was new and working " (Transformers rise of the beasts), "Another film outboxing it" (Elemental), "The company behind it simply not promoting it at all" (Ruby Gilman, which I intend to review at some point), " or "Oopsie we hired a pedophile as our leading actor, have no idea where we were taking this franchise when we started this film, and our company is ran by an evil overlord no one likes whose actively made the media landscape worse ever since he took over, better hope our promotoinal tactics work..."

The issues aren't new, their simply finding hitting people over the head.. and that's what happened here. Indy had an uphill battle: I was only invested at first because James Mangold was directing it and Logan is still one of the best superhero movies ever made. I got more invested thanks to this retrospective. Given Disney's slipshod treamant of star wars and terrible treatment of last jedi as well as the mcu being a mess right now, it's not a huge leap that many audiences really didn't want to gamble on ANOTHER disney live action movie that just looked okay, no matter how much Phoebe Waller Bridge or Antonio Bandareas it had. While it's sad as I honestly don't think the film deserved THIS much of a bomb.. I can't blame audiences for waiting for Disney Plus. We simply live in an era now where most people have tons of streamers or will get one for a month to watch one movie and anything else they've caught up on. We're simply entering an era where having a big brand name isn't a guarantee and in this case can be a curse if that name is disney. Big franchises can work, see Spider-Verse and Scream VI making great money, but you have to have something to offer.

So come with me under the cut as we see if Indy has just that or is best left in the past

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHOYHOY

When I'm Gone, He's Gone

As you'd expect, Lucas still wanted to make a 5th film after Skull, with Speilberg and Ford on board as always. This time though..

Lucas himself went to the press saying he wanted to do something new and Speilberg was stuck in the past... which I translate as Lucas once again went kinda nuts on the premise while , much like after Temple of Doom, Speilberg wanted something a tad more grounded to avoid making the same mistake twice. It comes off as the two just could never quite agree on what to do and eventually.. decided to let the franchise move on without him, selling it and the rest of Lucasfilm to Disney. Disney naturally wanted an indy film right away and after getting the distribution rights one year later in 2023.. it took them a decade.

Yeahhh while we got the sequel trilogy pretty fast in hollywood time it took a good decade for Indy to put his hat on. At first there were rumors floated about about recasting, then it was settled on ford, then Speilberg was set to direct and the film proceded to go through a ton of writers, from Crystal Skull's david koepp

And even Dan Fogelman of This is Us royalty was floated as one of the writers. The film also got delayed thanks to Speilbergs work on Ready Player One and the Post, before he eventually stepped off all together. He claimed it was to pass it on to a fresh director, but it really feels like his heart wasn't in it anymore, and it was best someone whose heart was took the lead.

Enter James Mangold, director of The Wolverine, Logan and Kicker of ass. Mangold was a solid choice and my book and along with his usual co-writers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, who I assure you are real people but cannot assure you aren't old timey prospectors sent forward in time, hashed out the script.

Casting went smoothly, as did filiming, with the only hiccup being production's start being delayed because of COVID. They shot in morocco, england, ireland and spain, along with the us as you'd expect. Speilberg wasn't entirely detached as he still advised and watched dalies, ultimately loving the final product. So now we can actually look at that product let's start with how it writes Indy himself. The Mileage Adds Up

One of the things that made me not really enjoy Doom or Crystal.. was a lack of character work. Indy was about the same as when he started the adventure in contrast to Raiders and Last Crusade taking him on a wonderful character journey, in the former getting his passion back and in the later reconcliing with his dad. Dial of Destiny dosen't reach those highs, but I still think it does a decent job. The opening.. is okay detailing Indy having an adventures in the last day sof the third reich, setting up both Helna's Dad and our big bad, as well as Archimedes Dial, basied on the real life Antyhkiera Mechanism. I really do love the dial as a plot device as it's a departure, being the only one of the five to not involve a god of some sort, and yes the alien counts. It's just a time machine a famous philospher made. It's still fucking neat, I mean IT'S A TIME MACHINE A FAMOUS PHILSOPHER MADE, but it's a bit more grounded while still being pretty damn nifty.

So while the intro is mostly.. eh for me, what it does really well... is contrast the indy we know.. with where he is in 1969: Unlike Crystal Skull, which glossed over the massive amount of time passed, here were with an indy who feels both his age.. and that he's been left behind by the world. That time has taken everything from him: his friends, his father, his marriage.. and his son. He's left to yell at the neighbors, go to a class that dosen't pay attention and have a retirment party he clearly dosen't want. Granted his retirment does feel like a missed opportunity as wikipedia mentioned it pre-release as being forced out due to speaking out against operation paper clip, something that I either missed.. or more likely simply ISN'T in the film. It's a real shame, the idea is great it's just not present. This creates a really intriguing Parallel: Indy at the start of the last adventure of his we'll see is a broken down man whose years of adventuering have left a mark on him, who is estranged from Marion, has not a ton to live for, and is clearly only loosely holding it together. And the Indy we met in Raiders.. is a broken down man whose years of adventuring left a mark on him, is estranged from marion, has not a ton to live for and is clearly only loosely holding it together. The diffrence is how tired Indy is. In his late 30's he's beaten a bit and reduced to graverobbing.. but the minute he gets a real assignemnt int he grail, he jumps to it. He has his job, he has his friendship with marcus, and he's able to fix things with marion. He's not completely gone, he's just lost. Indy in Dial... has watched all his friends and his son, more on that in a minute, die, his marriage fall apart, and his job slip out under him. Without his job.. he's a man without a purpose.

This also ironically creates another Scrooge McDuck parallel, another bit of symmetry and one I didn't plan on till I started writing this and thought of the story: Indy reminds me a lot of Scrooge in the final part of Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Both are seasoned adventueres who have either pushed away anyone they have left or lost them and feel they just have nothing left but to slowly rot away.

And like Scrooge it takes a bolt of inspiration from the new generation after him to get Indy back in the game. In this case it's the highlight of the film, Helena Shaw, played by the wonderful, funderful fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. WB likely dosen't need any introduction but just in case she was showrunner of the successful and inventive stage show turned amazon prime show fleabag, showran killing eve and in general is pretty delightful. So it's no huge suprise she's great as Helena Shaw, daughter of Marcus Indy's sidekick for the intro who became obessed with our titular macguffin, Archemedis Dial, which can travel through time some time, though not to the end of all man kind. Helena is a neat character in that they managed to make her distinct while still giving her enough similarties to indy to serve well as his shadow, his ghost of sins past, him in his prime. She's also a brilliant archelogist, has a kid sidekick like indy did in temple of doom with Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidoore), sells priceless artifacts for a profit, has a messy love life, kicks plenty of ass, and tries to command every room she's in. What helps seperate them is their demeanor: Indy is gruff, snarky and surly. While Helena can snark with the best of them, she's fast talking, fast thinking, and tends to use charm as much as the old Indy Guile both heroes posses. The main diffrence is rather than sell to museums, she sells to private collectors...

Okay the REAL difference is that she's only in it for the money while Indy at least, on some level, cared about the history even at his lowest. Helena just sees all her father could do and all she learned from being around him before his passing as a way to get. Once again like Indy.. she had a father who cared more about some big treasure than her child.. and a godfather who cared more about what was going on in his life than ever checking up on her. She's a person whose been left to her own devices and feels she's doing just fine.. but honestly could be putting her talents to better use. Maybe not in a school like indy, but she could help return artifacts to their countries... probably still for a pretty penny, but not just to some random asshole to sit in his den.

You can tell dealing with her just makes Indy feel even more tired, which is somehow possible after all he's been through. He's once again seeing a ghost of his past and this time can't seem to get it through her head. When she celebrates shortly after his friend Renaldo dies, he has to sharply remind her. Nothing seems to get through to her.. till we get to THAT scene. Probably the best scene of the film. The climax is awesome.. but it's this one moment. On a boat at night, Helena asks Indy what he'd do with the dial, clearly thinking some grand adventure.. instead Indy: I'd stop my son from enlisting Helena: And how would you do that? Indy: I would tell him that he would die, that his mother would be overcome with a grief so intense that his father would be unable to console her, and that it would end their marriage. The sheer PAIN Ford conveys during that monologue.. may be the finest acting he's ever done. You can just FEEL Indy's loss; his son is gone, his marriage is torn, and he blames himself for both. It gives a horrible pathos to why he's so broken down. Both developments.. coudl've been really cheap. With how much everyone but me seems to hate mutt, and how rightly no one can stand shia suprise these days, most were expecting..

Instead Mutt's death is used as the catalyst for Indy's slow spiral into dispair. He would've been happy in retirment.. but he lost his son, his wife.. he's a man truly with nothing left he feels. And while he gets some old spark back unlike Scrooge.. he's fighting it every step. He dosen't want an adventure, he dose'nt want anything but his son back, and he knows damn well that even if the dial could... the sad truth is it likely has some horrible cost to it. The grail gave eternal life but bound you to a spot. The Skull gave you the knowledge of an unknowable alien god, but drove you mad. The arc killed anyone who looked. If the Dial even works... he knows it can't bring his son back, and he's only going after it because it's better in a museum than in the hands of Nazis. We also see a change in Helena. She goes from following Indy's lead out of nececity, to seeing his point, to seeing the beauty of the world instead of just the dollar signs. She still wants the money.. but she starts to see the beauty in history instead of the dollar. I also like that this isn't easy on Teddy, who sees her postive changes as coming between him and his surrogate mom, when really she fully intends to stick with Teddy no matter what and shows nothing but loyalty.. and in the end.. they dont' really finish that arc

I like Teddy a lot, and I wish this had more of a bow on it, though we do get him taking down a nazi and trapping him to drown and later getting into a dogfight. Teddy slaps is what i'ms aying> He dosen't have a ton of deep character to explore, but he's fucking great.

This all really cumulates in the climax.. which is so great i'd rather save it for after we cover one last major character, our antagonist. Our big bad is Mads Mikkelsen as Jurgen Voller, a thereoticain who wants the dial. At first Indy assumes, as most of the audience would that Voller simply wants the dial, which he's shown to obess over to win the war for hitler. Turns out Voller's plan is more complex. We see in the intro how Voller is the ONLY one who both sees the dial's value among the nazi's and the writing on the wall: Hitler is almost gone, he fucked them over. It's over. And thus the horror of Voller isn't like with Thot , at the giant horrifying nazi machine and all their power, and more at evil allowed to hide in plain sight. At a society who forgives horrible people because their useful. Voller got a free pass thanks to operation paperclip.. and the film shows while that idea got us tons of advances including space flight.. it came at the cost of giving horrible people real power and influence. The president is outright giving voller a MEDAL. And he hasn't changed: a truly chilling bit has him talking to a black bellhop delivering meal and asking where he came from.. and dismissing him saying he came from america. Voller is every bit the white supremacist monster he ever was, he's completely loyal to the idea of the nazi's. .just not to hitler. Voller's whole plan isn't to help hitler.. but to take him out, replace him and have someone compitent win. And he only gets as fara s he does because the goverment willingly works with him, gives him agents, goes after Helena and the dial. They know what he his but fully aid and abet him. Sure they eventually realize he's gone rogue, that his pet agent is entirely in his pocket.. but they don't turn on him till far too late and with one of their great agents dead. Concidentaly I feel Agent Mason is wasted: she's the calm rational agent.. but she's also the only major black character in the film and gets killed by a nazi. That's.. entirely fucked up and while I suspect inteitonally fucked up it just dosen't work for me.

Voller is also once again, much like with Belloc, an evil mirror of indy: Both are geniuses who adore history.. but one's a good person despite being gruff while one seems harmless when we first meat him but is actually a total monster. Mads does a great job showing just how evil the guy is without going over the top. Voller is determind to change history... and he does.. just not how he wanted to.

This Ain't 1933!

The climax.. is fucking awesome. Like Crystal Skull it goes beyond what the series had done before, if not more so. It's arguably even MORE over the top. But it works. For those who haven't seen the film... INDY GOES BACK IN TIME. The dial DOES indeed work.... but it's set up to ONLY go back to this point. Helena points out the idea of "loaded decks' earlier.. and realizes the dial is one. Archimedes only left it behind to create a stable time loop.

Indy going back into actual history is nuts, entirely and my jaw dropped at it.. but it's so damn fun. Our heroes not only have to escape the plain and get the dial back after it drops onto the coast, but survive the Siege of Syracuse, the roman invasion that eventaully resulted in Archimedes end. So we have two planes flying overhead, arrows everywhere and nazis versus romans. It's over the top but not in a way that really undermines the franchise, and frankly as what's intended to be the final act of indy ever, it's a fitting finale: the man whose explored history in the present.. gets to LITERALLY go to the past for his final adventure. I do get how not everyone will agree, and it won't work for everybody, this may be a bit tooo over the top, but I love it and feel it nicely ties up everyone's character arcs.

For Voller he gets to join history.. but instead of "fixing" it like he wanted he dies horribly and is forgotten to history only the "dragon" (his palne" is left.. and cleverly foreshadowed earlier when Teddy watches a puppet show. His nazi's all die and it's glorious to watch nazi after nazi go down from arrows or our two heroes escaping the plane while teddy takes the rest down with the help of a hapless pilot.

We then get the payoff for both Helena and Indy, as Indy gives the dial to archimedes.. and plans to stay. After all we established he's lost everything... why would he go back? He'll die soon.. but he's cconvinced he'll die soon back in the present. It's Helena who'se ultimately changed realizing both the value of history.. and ultimately the movie's moral: you can't change the past, but you can live for today. Helena can't change her awful upbringing or the things she's done.. but she can be better. And Indy can't save his son from death, save archimedes from death or be a better husband to marion during the greving process.. but he can be better to her and still live now. He still has so much to offer. He taught helena to love history and to try and be better. He gave his son a better life even if it was sadly cut short. He can be better. And when he can't be convinced the easy way she proves she's fully earned her way to being indy's succesor and just clubs him and takes him back (the dial has to go back with them as archimedes needs to make his own). The end scene also mostly works for me: Indy is back at his apartment.. but finds he's not alone as when he woke up there last time: Not only has Helena forgiven him, having realized much like Indy himself that warts and all, he's family, but Sallah, who I haven't gotten to talk about is here. Sallah is great in this film, not only helping Indy when he needs to lay low but enocuraging his friend it's not over. It's also nice to see Indy helped him and his family immigrate and that he's teaching his grand kids egyptian. It's also a nice way to still have davies play the roll.. but have him get a bit more depth and make up for a white guy playing the roll.

And last but not least.. Marion returns, and the two reconcile. I thought it was a bit easy when I frist saw it.. but I see now i'ts more the idea they have a long road ahead.. but both are willing to see it together.. Indy admits he was wrong and Marion is willing to give him another shot. For the third time but at least this time it's likely she just needed some psace to realize he wasn't being callous he just wasn't processing his grief.. and now he's ready to.. maybe they have a shot. It's a nice way to close out the films: Indy's life isn't over, he's got friends, he's got his wife.. and there's always another rainbow.

Assorted Other Stuff: The action set pieces as usual are fucking great, my faviorites easily being the climax and the diving adventure. The latter reminded me a lot of Tin Tin, Red Rackam's Treasure. Antonio Banderas is great as Reynaldo and I only wihs he had a bigger part.. and survived. It's not a huge suprise, saying Antonio Banderas is great. While I LIKED the finale with Marion, I'm with Karen Allen. They could've used her more. She deserves better dammit. WHy is it with the sequels they just can NEVER get bringing her back right?

Last but not least.. ther'es this weird subplot only brought up in the first two acts where the government frames indy for Murder that just.. never gets resolved? Like they never adressed it and as far as I can tell there's no resolution. Now granted I still think Indy isn't going to be arrested: He's clearly been unconcious for a week and Helena did have to get him back into the US, so it's likely the goverment found out about voller, got a debrief from helena.. and agreed to clear her and indy's record and absolve him of murder in exchange for never talking about this to anyone, as a Nazi escaping and killing one of their agents , after they pardoned the guy wouldn't look good. But we needed a line. It's easily the most baffling decision in otherwise a really godo film.

So finally we're , like indy back where we started.. was the film that bad?

When writing the reviews for Crystal Skull and Temple, I honestly hated the films MORE the more I thought abotu them, the more I found wrong, the more I realized how little they did. With this film. it's the opposite. The more I examine dial, the more I find to like. The character arcs, the action, the payoff. It's not perfect, again Indy is still kinda wanted for murder among other little plot gaffes, but I do think Dial is a solid entry in the series and better than both temple and skull at capturing what made the series graet. It dosen't nail it perfectly.. but it's still a fun ride with some really good character work and phenominal performances. Really indy failed.. because no one cares outside of fans of the franchise. As my brother put it when talking about this very film recently, kids don't know indy. It's not the big hit with kids star wars was and is. Star Wars will likekly rebound someday because Kids still dig it and kids will grow up with the sequels the way I grew up with the prequels, warts and all. Disney just assumed Indy was enough to carry it and he wasn't. I'm sad at it because not only is this a good film, but I was hoping for more pulp adventure films. But i'm also happy at what we got and to have done this journey. I saw the good, and the bad. And I saw a franchise I ended up really loving. In the end I got what I needed out of this franchise

#Indiana jones and the dial of destiny #dial of destiny #phoebe waller bridge #harrison ford #indiana jones #helena shaw #marion ravenwood #jurgen voller #disney

18 notes · View notes

snowflakesnsundry · 1 year ago

Text

Okay listen up nerds

i am so fuckin sorry ive been gone so goddamn long I've been a bit of a mess. I ended up losing my job but weirdly it's kinda been the best thing to happen to me in a while. It had gotten really unhealthy for me-which isnt the point of this post but...

I have just finished Loki seaon 2 and I gotta talk about it right now and in unreasonable depth

STARTING with the end.

Firstly, for any of you who have not read Jason Aaron's "King Thor" series. I reccommend you do right now.

When i started my fic I read every single Thor/ Loki comic i could get my grubby little hands on- and out of all of them, there was just one that tore my fucking heart in half- Aaron's King Thor run.

And I am not kidding when I say it's beautifully written- but I am also not kidding when I say this is exactly where our season 2 ending came from- just.... well.... look-

In the story, the God Butcher has swallowed the universe until only one singular star remains; dying and soon to flicker out. It can survive if there is something to re-start it. Something, or someone to provide it with power

FUCKING LOOK AT THE VISUAL PARALELLS IN THAT LAST PANNEL EVEN???

Honestly when the God Butcher showed up in Thor: Love and Thunder it made me nervous because of this ending, because it is heartbreaking and beautiful particularly within the context of the story-

-begin brief tangent-

-because heres the thing.

The Loki in the comics is not as kind and fuzzy as the one in the TV show and movies- the newer comic loki has taken a lot of ques from Hiddleston's Loki, but thats sort of the exception to the rule. In the comics he is constantly lashing out at thor with hate and anger and rage- its an inescapable centuries long cycle for them.

But even as Loki has betrayed Thor to the God Butcher, even as the universe is breathing its last breaths and fading into darkness... we get this:

These two brothers, enemies for countless lifetimes... in their last moments, they reach for one another until there is nothing left and i was INCONSOLABLE.

If you haven't read the Thor or the Loki comics, you dont have to read them all- but I do encourage you to at least read this one run. It's 4 "books" (and contains a lot from Aaron's run as a writer for Thor as this was his last series before moving on) but its worth it for this moment- particularly as it relates to the TV series

-end brief tangent-

Regardless, I think we have all heard about Hiddleston chasing Owen Wilson down to tell him every last thing about the Loki lore so I swear to god he knows about this and the fucking writers did this on purpose stg.

Anyway- the use of this particular plot was beautifully exicuted and we love the comics being blended into the MCU in such a lovely way.

I have more thoughts overall but this has been clawing at me all goddamn night and I had to share it with you all.

Watching has gotten me back to writing, and I hope to be back fully very soon.

#loki (marvel)#loki marvel #loki season 2 #loki season two #loki season 2 spoilers #loki season two spoilers #loki comics #on a personal note what the fuck was that crown

12 notes · View notes

ordinaryschmuck · 5 months ago

Text

Alright, let's go in order...

I'm intrigued by what Doomsday could be. I'm still not a fan of the fact that they chose RDJ for Doctor Doom when an Romani actor would be much more appropriate. Still, I think SOME kind of good story can come out of it if treated right. It's just a matter of waiting and seeing.

Secret Wars...should NOT be a movie. I tried reading the event comic, and it's way too interesting of a concept to make up a movie. The BOLD choice would be for it to take up a whole saga, showing each section of Doom's land before taking him on in a final battle with all these Avenger variants. That could be exciting, but it's likely what we WON'T see, instead favoring a quick movie showing off small bits of the land as a group of Avengers fight through it. Which would be fun, but a missed potential for what Secret Wars is.

I'm STILL intrigued by what Fantastic Four: First Steps could be. I've seen the first look, and I think this is the right direction to take these characters in and it could be the most unique movie the MCU has ever made...Just PLEASE delay it so you can let it cook. You don't NEED this to compete with James Gunn's Superman, a movie that's already wrapped up on filming and going into post production while this movie just started filming days ago. Give the Fantastic Four the time they need to be good because the world doesn't need a FOURTH bad Fantastic Four movie.

Spider-Man 4 NEEDS to be good. No Way Home had such a great ending that if you really NEED to continue things after that, the film needs to justify its existence with a worthy script that carries the emotional weight that the last movie left on. PLEASE don't undo everything Peter did right away. Let the consequences STICK and give him his happy ending in another movie.

Still not watching Captain America: Brave New World. I don't care how interesting it looks, I'm sticking to my morals on this one. Maybe I'll watch it through special means one day, but that's about it.

I'm hopeful for Shang-Chi 2. I'm one of the few who actually LOVED the first movie and I really want to see this character again. It's just a shame that he got sidelined for a whole bunch of other new characters that the MCU hasn't done ANYTHING with either.

I'm not going to be the asshole who'll go, "Who ASKED for a Wonder Man show?" If we started asking questions like that, we wouldn't HAVE the MCU. No one was begging for an Iron Man movie in 2008, and it was still the biggest spark that launched a dozen projects despite no one really wanting it. HOWEVER, I'm going to instead be that asshole who points out that the MCU kind of lost faith in introducing new characters because of how faulty of a job they've been doing. I WANT to be excited, but I can't be anymore. Especially since I'm not really a Wonder Man fan. He's so...not interesting.

The production hell Blade has gone through and continues to go through, it'll take a fucking MIRACLE for this movie to not only come out but to be GOOD.

I'm curious of what Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man could be at this point. At first it was meant to be the origin story behind MCU Peter Parker, but now it's become more it's own thing as a semi-original series and I'm curious to see what comes of it. I'm always keeping my eye out for Spider-Man stuff, as a loyal fan would, but I'm gonna need to see more of a trailer to determine if it'll be good.

Still do not have high hopes for Thunderbolts.

STILL on my hands and knees PRAYING for Daredevil: Born Again to be good! PLEASE LET IT BE GOOD!

Ironheart...Still trying to think of a way Ironheart could be good...

Armor Wars COULD be fun. I THINK they're making it a movie instead of a series, which I'm for. Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Secret Invasion didn't really NEED to be stretched out into a mini-series when making a movie might have worked better in their favor by cutting out the fluff and making things go by a lot faster. And this is from a guy who LIKES Falcon and the Winter Soldier...Secret Invasion however can go to hell. And I REALLY hope that Armor Wars doesn't confirm that War Machine has been a Skrull since Civil War. That's NOT A GOOD IDEA!

I like the idea behind Marvel Zombies, I'm intrigued by what an TV-MA animated mini-series of survivors surviving a superhero zombie apocalypse can be. Just...maybe cut out the jokes that took up too much time in the What If episode.

Not sure what Eyes of Wakanda could be, but I'm not complaining yet. Always interested in Wakanda stuff.

Saw the trailer for Agatha All Along, and, son of a bitch, it might just be good. IF DONE RIGHT. That's an important distinction. This show could be good if done RIGHT. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm excited for What If Season Three because I still really like What If. It's my favorite dumb fun show. I don't WANT it to be the last season because...that's a show with endless possibilities. Don't limit it to three seasons when you could go on for, like, eight before things get stale. Just PLEASE keep it going.

Okoye...Is she getting a series or a movie. I hope it's a movie because WHAT could Okoye do that justifies her having a TV show?

Not sure what Sidewinder is but...maybe it'll be good? Honestly, it depends on...whatever the fuck it is. What is it?!

I'm EXCITED for X-Men Season Two! LOVED the first season and I can't wait for more! Season Three is where I get a little wary because that's the season where the showrunner of What If takes the reigns because the last guy got fired for...reasons. And as much as I like What If...X-Men 97 is TEN TIMES better, being the best X-Men content fans got in YEARS (if you ignore the comics). If you're going to replace the showrunner, you need someone who can match their talent.

I'm not sure what the live-action Wakanda series could be and how that's different from Eyes of Wakanda...but I want it to be good. MAKE IT GOOD!

Hey! We're finally getting an answer to what the fuck Vision has been up to since WandaVision. That only took...way too long.

Nova. Nova, Nova, Nova...What could they even do with Nova at this point?

And I'm grateful for getting a Marvel Special Presentation. They're short and fun and easy to get into. A lot more than I can say about other shows on Disney+

And that's everything...I'm barely excited for ANY of this. I'm cautiously optimistic about a lot of projects here and vaguely curious about some of them all while BEGGING for each project to be good. I WANT them to be good. I want the MCU to IMPROVE instead of continuing on its decline since Endgame. Just PLEASE let it improve, that's all I'm asking for.

5 notes · View notes

notasapleasure · 1 year ago

Text

Tagged by @stripedroseandsketchpads to post my comfort shows, but I have posted those already (though thanks to tumblr search I can't find the post on mobile. They were, uh.... The Terror; Utopia; Ghosts; Futurama; Detectorists; Atla; Ripper Street; Garrow's Law; Lupin...? Something like that)

So I will do another meme I saw doing the rounds, the recent media meme!

Currently reading: just today I finished Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein, as far as I can recall, the third book I've managed to finish this year. It was...compelling is the word I keep returning to. Many of the strands fascinated me: unreliable narrator filled with self-deprecation despite her clear skills and accomplishments, unspoken history of personal and intergenerational (particularly antisemitic) trauma, folkloric omens and a growing, sinister atmosphere with incestuous overtones...but ultimately it was too opaque for me. I wanted the strands to come together, or at least for the scenes with the villagers to be contextualised somehow.

Fic I'm currently reading: well, I keep going over @distressednoise 's Magaluf AU hoping there will be more :') and I really must make myself have a Lymond day and catch up with @stripedroseandsketchpads 's fic file! Also I must get on and educate myself further in @r0b0tb0y 's archive

Last song: introducing my dad to the joy of Half Man Half Biscuit - Asparagus Next Left, because there was a layby seller of holly wreaths near our new house just before Christmas, and since they ran out of wreaths they took most of the hand-written signs down so now there's just one mildly sinister arrow and the sign reading 'layby'.

Currently watching: just finished S1 of Loki, which was fun! (apart from the predictably wanky acceleration up its own MCU fundament of the Kang scenes in the last episode, now delightfully combined with the knowledge that Jonathan Majors was so bad even Marvel let him go). But I was pleasantly surprised overall, and I love Mobius. Mobius describing Loki/Sylvie for what it is was my favourite moment, because none of Mobius's pronouncements seem judgemental, just thrilled by the variety of existence, in a very Owen Wilson way :))

Though literally currently watching The Lion in Winter, which was chosen as the family NYE movie over The Green Knight.

Next on my watchlist: when I get my own telly watching schedule back I can't wait to watch Blue Eye Samurai. I should also finish Castlevania...

Current obsession: Brasso. Cassian. Brassian. I'm sorry to everyone else who is being lovely and wonderful and passionate about other fandoms and other fics in my inboxes, but they are my home right now. I've been mulling saga AU pt 2 and another canon-verse one shot today and it's made me very happy :)

Consider yourself tagged if you're reading this and want to do a meme! Say I tagged you and I will delight in reading your answers :)

#memes

4 notes · View notes

georgiapeach30513 · 11 months ago

Note

Hi Peach! Mrs. Pasta checking in <3

Oh silly silly Justin Timberlake. You know, I grew up with NSYNC and always for some reason did not like JT. All the girls in my grade were obsessed with him but I was actually team JC.

I don't care enough about the man to have any hate for him but I do think...his ego clearly cannot deal and it's finally catching up to him though it should have caught up back when he left Janet Jackson out to dry all those years ago. She was embarrassed and disgraced and he got to go on and be Mr. Sexyback. I'm glad BRITNEY of all people gets to serve him his humble pie. YAS Queen!

Sidenote: Jessica Biel Timberlake. I used to watch this woman in her prime during 7th Heaven and then her solo movie career days. Ironically I never knew she dated Ramen for that long but she was THEE It girl back then. Wow. And now....damn. She must really love this noodle haired nasal voiced man child that much to be still up his ass after all that's happened. Anyone remember the Alisha Wainwright drama? Ride or die I guess...SMH

Lastly, I'm actually really glad Ramen eventually got famous on his own and without the help from his much more famous gf at the time. GOOD for him! It took him quite some time because my first ideation of him was in 2004 in FF and then I forgot he existed until 2019. And then boom - he was suddenly everywhere. For someone who did not follow the MCU - he never really made it on my radar so even though I was always aware he played Cap I continuously forgot about him. Sorry Ramen! I was actually surprised he appeared to blow up after he stopped being Steve - for the general public. Between 2019-2022 it was something else. That and counting his own (at the time) extremely passionate fanbase, it really felt cool to see someone come up this far. A friend of mine actually mentioned last year "he got so much hotter now, way more than he used to be." I feel like he's a late bloomer in Hollywood terms. Contrary to some naysayers and "tarot readers" I don't think a resurgence is out of the question. And I DO hope he gets more work.

I wish him - and you and your followers - the best! Stay safe y'all!

Hey, Mrs. Pasta! Glad you ventured back here.

I gotta tell you, I’m tired of Mr. JT. I was a huge NSYNC fan and he was my top favorite. That shine faded quickly after his debut album, and with the second album he was still singing about what Britney did. That man has just always wanted attention and he didn’t mind which woman he stepped on as a rung on that ladder.

As far as top Ramen goes, we know he can act and act well and get praise outside of Marvel, Knives Out. But it’s a shame to see him deduced to a meathead action star and a husband that never smiles unless he’s alone. But I digress, that’s neither here nor there. It was refreshing to see him laugh, be goofy, and even walk with his head held high with politicians, even the President. Guess he wasn’t too afraid of meanies to meet with fans.

I’m very happy about Honey Don’t, and I’m excited to see what else is in store for him. I have a feeling he’s going to have a very busy year. And he started off January with a movie announcement and working back with ASP. It’s good to see him in his element and not to see him so stern or miserable.

#Mrs. Pasta

2 notes · View notes

adamwatchesmovies · 1 year ago

Text

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a disappointing 31st entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Why? I'm having difficulty pinpointing that. The setting is pretty incredible, with loads of geography and characters that look unlike anything we’ve seen before. That's saying something considering some of the places the Guardians of the Galaxy have taken us. Paul Rudd once again proves himself a charismatic everyman, the action scenes are exciting and occasionally go in some pretty wild places thanks to the shrinking/growing abilities of the lead character… but something feels off.

When Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), girlfriend Hope van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), her father Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) get sucked into the Quantum Realm, they discover it isn’t empty at all; it’s filled with inhabitants, all of whom live in fear of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

The film’s issue is the story. This is a wild departure from the previous Ant-Man films. It’s closer to a space adventure than anything else, complete with crazy aliens, spaceships, armies of robots (at least I think they were robots) and talks about other dimensions & multiverses. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it just doesn’t feel Ant-Man-like. Aside from his team-ups with the Avengers, none of Scott's adventures have been world-threatening; he’s always felt like “the little guy”, complete with serious, down-to-earth problems like being an ex-con, having trouble finding a job and being estranged from his daughter. This is closer to Guardians territory. The scale of everything encountered in Quantumania should have a much bigger impact on our heroic family. They take it in such strides that there isn't much opportunity for our characters to grow or learn things - except for Cassie, who struggles with some fighting moves. This means the movie is only about two things: the adventure and the villain.

I’ve heard Kang described as a top-tier villain, the one that’s supposed to fill the hole left by Thanos. I don’t know about that. Kang is certainly powerful… but I mean, if they’re pitting him against Ant-Man (no offense), how strong can he REALLY be? I like Jonathan Majors in the role. He brings extra dimension to his character and we see enough of Kang to want more but against a guy that can grow and shrink, he's an ill-fit. It's almost like Ant-Man is a B- to C-tier character that didn't have a great rogues gallery, so they slotted in someone else for the Phase's sake…

There’s another villain in the film: the “I don’t know how we’re going to make this guy work in live-action” M.O.D.O.K. Some of what they do with the Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing is inventive. What ultimately happens to the character, however, just doesn’t work. Generally, the comedy in the film is amusing but it’ll give you severe emotional whiplash more than once and when director Peyton Reed and/or writer Jeff Loveness use M.O.D.O.K. humorously, it lands with a resounding "thud".

I’ve been pretty harsh on Ant-Man 3 so far, which makes me a little sad. I was never bored watching it. The climactic battle is fun and Kang's slew of powerful abilities means the stakes are high. The cast is great, with the family dynamics between the in-laws and between Scott & Cassie being the highlights. The picture teems with unique sights, which makes it fun to just watch. You’ve always got a crazy alien, some weird animal, bizarre architecture or something else moving somewhere and their designs show a lot of inventiveness.

I wasn’t crazy about Ant-Man and the Wasp. I’m not crazy about this follow-up either. Actually, this is a step up from the last one. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. This third chapter introduces important concepts and characters to the MCU. There are enough moments that work to make it worth seeing as part of a subscription package, for the price of a rental or even if a discounted ticket at the cinema. When you do, stay through the credits to see what's coming next. (August 11, 2023)

2 notes · View notes

tgarrett26 · 1 year ago

Note

Oh this might be sweet and comforting where Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and MCU series/movie teen actress! Reader visits Jeremy Renner in the hospital after the snow plow incident

AN: I love this idea! I’m sorry this came out so late. I didn’t know how to complete, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. It’s a work of dedication from me, of empathy with Renner’s family. I hope you like it though

Never Too Much Hope

“You alright?” Chris checks on our way to the building

“Yeah, just nervous for some reason.”

“It’s just Jeremy and his mom, maybe his sister. Nobody you haven’t met before.” Scarlett reasons

“You’re one to talk, you’re his best friend. I only started working with him so many years ago.”

“Almost ten years, Sweetie..you’ve been working with him. And it’s okay.”

You smile to yourself forcefully as you get closer to the hospital doors, wondering if you’re even allowed to go into his room since you’re underage. Before your nerves can get too bad, Scarlett uses her intuition from motherhood and walks around Chris to be by your side.

When you get to reception, they step up to give our names and who we’re here to see. Once they clear you to visit him (since he’s out of intensive care), your peers guide you to the floor and the room where a smiling middle-aged friend is waiting to see you.

“Darlin!! You came! I never thought they’d be able to convince you to visit.” Jeremy expresses

“It didn’t take as much of convincing me as it did my parents, you need to be more careful next time.” you joke when you see he’s relaxed

Must be the pain relief they’re providing.

“You know why I did it. But I’m glad it doesn’t take you much to come see me. Why don’t y’all sit? There’s plenty of chairs thanks to mom.” he adds

Evans and yourself slightly chuckle while a look of concern on Scarlett’s features is as tight as a vice grip, one worth shaking from if you weren’t already gripping the arm of a Jeremy’s bed. Though, it doesn’t take nerves to be more evident from the situation to his state.

“I’m alright, Darlin. The neighbors got to me in time.” he assures

“You can’t be right, you always cheer others at your own expense, you always have. Please don’t lie.” you whisper

“If I was lying, I wouldn’t be out of ICU. I’m gonna be alright. It’s gonna take some time to where I’m better than I am-stably-but I’ll be doing better and I won’t be so dependent on others eventually.”

This elicits a smile, just a small release of tension within yourself at his constant reassurance and the fact that his body language is still yet calm.

“Here-come here.” he decides

“O..kay..?”

You get up and walk over to his left bedside where his left arm is stretched with a cast and his left shoulder is wrapped.

“Watch my fingers.” he instructs

“Why have me come over here for this?”

“Because you can be sure it’s happening from here, from there it just looks like your mind is making it up. Watch my fingers.”

You look down by your left side, only to see him slightly bending the first/second knuckle and down of his left index finger and thumb.

“See? I’m getting better, I can even grip stuff with my pinky a little bit; the nurse let me hold a cotton ball with it a few days ago-don’t tell the doctor.” he whispers the last part

“I can’t even give you a hug.” you murmur sadly

“It’s okay, you will be able to soon. You can hold my other hand, that one won’t break as easy.”

You find yourself smiling even just a little more at the fact that he will make it out of here in clothes that aren’t for his funeral.

“I’ll tell ya though, after that first operation on my hands, I felt like Doctor Strange or somethin.” he jokes

“I’ll call Benedict if I have to, I want you better. I just want you better enough to have good quality of life after this.” you whisper while tears take up your waterline

“Darlin, once you’ve lived in a hospital over the holidays, anything other than some white walls and sanitation procedures is good quality of life.”

“Well, you can never have too much hope.”

2 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year ago

Text

Physical media lovers rejoice...

This week, we got some rather bombshell news from Disney's home entertainment division...

First up is PREY, the Dan Trachtenberg-directed PREDATOR film, getting a 4K and Blu-ray in October. That's *big*. PREY was one of the movies that Disney sent straight to streaming last year, among many other fellow 20th Century Studios titles like THE PRINCESS and ROSALINE. PREY had actually had actually tested very well before release, and many were puzzled as to why it never got a theatrical release... and why it seemingly had no future as a title outside of Hulu.

Even some recent theatrical 20th Century/Searchlight titles - confusingly - never made it to disc, like BARBARIAN - a surprise favorite of mine last year - and SEE HOW THEY RUN. The former was also thought to be a Hulu-only exclusive, but great test results bumped it to theatrical. And thankfully so, that was a movie - what with its one or two hard-left turns - worth experiencing in a theater. I certainly hope those movies come to 4K/Blu-ray very, very soon.

But even better... More physical media of streaming-exclusive stuff! Disney is now putting three Disney+ shows on physical media, on 4K and Blu-ray. WANDAVISION, LOKI's first season, and THE MANDALORIAN's two seasons... Obvious that they'd go with the MCU shows and the STAR WARS content, but it's a start... And it was strongly implied for quite some time that Disney+ was going to be the *only* place where you could watch the Marvel shows...

Well, demand can be quite a persuasive thing to these companies... Being loud works!

I don't know if this will lead to any other shows or movies getting the disc treatment. Disney heads had sort of implied that they'd put a greater emphasis on physical media releases in North America (meanwhile, pulling the plug on physical media releases in Australia, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 being the final title) post-Chapek... But I can easily see this being applied to popular stuff and not everything that's been released.

My hope is that all those 20th Century films eventually make it to disc, along with the Disney+ original movies and shows. HOWARD, in particular, is at the top of my wish list. Especially the ones they inexplicably removed, too, like CRATER. No work should be erased and unavailable to see. Like, ever. When something's made and released, and I don't care how good or bad it is, it's the public's from there on out. It should always be available, especially in a post-Disney Vault world.

It's funny because Disney themselves, back when the home media division was called "Walt Disney Home Video", released a truck-TON of various live-action movies on video and DVD over the years...

In the early 1980s, 90% of what was available on video from Disney was live-action stuff, due to the company's hesitance to release the majority of the animated features on video. So you had almost all the live-action movies, from well-known films like MARY POPPINS and THE LOVE BUG to things like... THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, SNOWBALL EXPRESS, GUS, etc. By the late 1980s, several other films made it to video, such as 2-parter movies that were aired on Disney's anthology program... Ever hear of SMOKE? BLACK ARROW? MY DOG, THE THIEF? Even some of the first-ever Disney Channel movies saw video releases back then, such as TIGER TOWN and GONE ARE THE DAYES.

Disney was even pretty good with putting a lot of these on DVD in the 2000s, although some didn't make it past videocassettes. And I have to say, when Disney+ launched, I was quite astounded at how many titles they had on there... Outside of greed and corporations being dinguses, I see no reason for the stuff not to be on there. I get licensing/rights stuff concerning catalogue 20th Century titles... But Disney-made titles? C'moooon...

So, this news gives me a spot of hope regarding physical media and the availability of certain films/shows.

3 notes · View notes

thebossestunicycle · 2 years ago

Text

Final Flash Update: an actual review

The DCEU has always been very hit or miss for me, but it has a special place in my heart. When Man of Steel came out, my dad was OBSESSED with it (still is), and it became the first superhero movie I ever watched. Despite the mediocre scores internet-wide (and how the terraforming scared the shit out of me as a kid), I cannot help but love that film to death. It really sparked my interest with superheroes and just ‘nerdier’ stuff in general.

While the DCEU opened me up to the whole world of superheroes, it also became part of what made me so weary of comic book movies. While there were good movies like Wonder Woman (2017) and (hot take) Black Adam, and great ones like the Snydercut, there were also huge disappointments that left me feeling pissed off when the theater lights turned back on. It’s not like all of these movies are downright horrible in every way (exception being 2016’s Suicide Squad), but each seemed to have its own form of kryptonite. The Justice League (2017)’s being its lack of character development; Wonder Woman 1984’s forgettable plot; and of course, Batman v. Superman’s Martha scene.

With the DCEU’s track record, the over saturation of superhero media, and with Ezra Miller being… Ezra Miller, my hopes for this movie were extremely low. But I actually left the theater feeling pretty.. decent?

Here are my main takeaways. Spoilers ahead:

Plot + Characters

As of now, I haven’t noticed any critical plot holes, which is pretty great, especially considering it’s a multiverse movie and all. Everything that blew up in Barry’s face was tied up nicely. But I am sorta curious to see how moving the tomato can caused Ben Affleck to become George Clooney.

The time mechanics were also pretty neat, like how a new future creates a new past.

I kinda like Barry a lot. He’s wicked awkward but it’s funny to watch.

Younger Barry too! He was such an airhead in the beginning that I was shocked to find out he was the guy that our Barry kept seeing when he time travelled.

I found Keaton’s Batman entertaining too. But the whole time Keaton didn’t really seem like he was trying to act. He just looked happy to be Batman again, which I can’t blame him for. On that note, I wish Bale’s Batman made a cameo somehow.

I was underwhelmed with the Zod plot. I was ready to watch him totally kick Flash’s ass. I didn’t mind Kara, but again she was a bit underwhelming too.

I got excited when Zod mentioned discovering Clark in his pod somewhere in space. I was like “Oh shit, did they take him in and train him to fight for them?” Seeing an evil Superman would’ve been crazy, but nah, they just killed him instead. Lame-os.

Effects / CGI

Oh man, I did not enjoy some of the choices made here.

First of all, the deep fake cameos. And also, deepfaking people like Adam West and all, who are dead, is a little odd. However Nicholas Cage showing up was very funny.

Then there was the CGI in the Speedverse (?? correct me if that’s the wrong name). It was video-game level. I felt like I was watching a skyrim-inspired acid trip.

Even outside of speedverse, the quality was really spotty.

Action

Oh my god, it’s so refreshing when there’s even the tiniest ounce of creativity in fight scenes (Looking at you, MCU).

Diving deeper into Barry’s powers was cool and seeing him fight with (and then against) himself was neat!

Then there was also pretty standard Batman stuff that I’m a sucker for

NEEDED a better Kara v. Zod fight. I wanted lasers. I wanted them to go to space. ANYTHING

Overall Emotional Reaction

Both Barrys hit hard a few times. The desperation to fix everything. Having to let go of their mom and accept their fate(s?). The scene when he said goodbye to her for the last time was pretty sad.

The themes were simple: accept your past; pain makes us who we are; etc etc. But there’s nothing really wrong with that.

The jokes landed! I laughed with, not at, most things

…Okay, I did laugh out loud at some things, like the deepfakes and when the Barrys phased for the first time.

But yeah, it was really enjoyable to watch. The runtime wasn’t an issue at all. Dull moments were rare (though I didn’t give a single shit about Barry’s dating life at all)

Final Score:

Characters: 7/10

Plot: 7/10

CGI: 4/10

Action: 7/10

6.3 / 10

If I had to rank: above Black Adam, below Wonder Woman

but seriously can they just recast flash already. I wish ezra miller all the best on rehabbing themselves, and they really do a great job with the character, but it’s like they’re trying to get a jail sentence with everything they’ve done

#the flash #dceu #g rambles-#I MEAN #g reviews

4 notes · View notes

astromechs · 2 years ago

Note

I'm so glad I found your blog because I can't stop crying after watching vol 3 last night and I thought I was going to be in another Endgame situation where everyone was all "best movie ever" and I couldn't take that. I'm glad at least one person felt Gamora should have had a better story. I know fictional characters aren't real but I do believe what they represent to the public matters. Gamora's abuse survivor arc meant so much to me. As did her relationship with Nebula. I had so much hope that vol 3 would let them heal together after Endgame and they would both get to be guardians and part of the family together. Gamora worked so hard to get where she was by Infinity War and there wouldn't have been a family without her influence. None of this got acknowledged and so many characters got to benefit from that family at the end except her. I knew one movie couldn't do all the things with her but come on. It's like no one had any vision for her life beyond tossing her off a cliff.

💕

gamora as a character means so much to me for all these reasons, and it's because of those that i'm left wanting based on what we got. not only is her wider story in the mcu really muddled, but it's just... there was an abuse survivor who was murdered by her abuser and stripped of her agency in the process before she was; that doesn't sit right, and it's still true, that version of the character still died brutally and horrifically — and it really just. as you said, characters represent something to real people, gamora represents something to people, too, and what that story did with regard to that left a bad taste in my mouth.

it would've been a tall order for one movie to resolve anything about that (and the iw death shouldn't have happened like that in the first place, but that's another rant), but yeah. i do wish this gamora had gotten a more fleshed out story in this movie. as it stands, she died horribly, a version of her was brought back from another timeline — and then barely anything was done with her. i wish we spent more time with her to really seize on bringing her back instead of just making her an afterthought, you know. there are so many things you could do with her experiences to make a compelling arc, and no one chose to do it.

i liked a lot of what was in the movie! (i even gave it four stars on letterboxd; it was fun, competently made, and i had a great time) but this gamora stuff definitely overshadows things for me, so i totally feel you. i stand with you in solidarity.

#asks #anonymous #gotg spoilers

5 notes · View notes

britesparc · 4 months ago

Text

Weekend Top Ten #651

Top Ten DCEU Performances

There's no rhyme or reason to this list; no particular milestone to celebrate or new release to tie into. Nope; it’s just something I wanted to do, and having finally seen Blue Beetle, I feel sufficiently equipped to deal with it at last.

So. The DCEU, eh? Remember that? The incredibly variable and ill-starred shared universe featuring DC Comics characters? It started with a bang, and that bang was tens of thousands of people dying as Metropolis was levelled by a bunch of evil Kryptonians, and then a snap when Superman discovered that killing is bad by killing someone.

This teenage boy-level of supposed “complexity” (cough) defined the universe for a long time, as did the particular sensibilities of one Z. Snyder Esq. I’m going to try to avoid outlining the many ways I disagree with his view of these characters, and how so many of these films are therefore hamstrung by hewing to that view; but I can’t promise a little bit of snark won’t creep in somewhere along the line. Because I have to admit, one thing he did well right from the off was casting; almost from the off, these are films where cool people play cool superheroes and it just feels right.

The quality of the casting across these films is remarkable because a lot of it feels slightly against-type, or at least not the person who feels most comics-accurate. And yet, almost universally, as soon as they were announced I felt like they were going to be excellent in the role. A fresh take for a fresh universe, a universe that had to represent the comic – obviously, as an adaptation – but be its own thing; and also its own thing when set against the pre-existing juggernaut that was the MCU (and this was before Juggernaut was part of the MCU! Oh, I kill me). There was a sense of it being a little bit more representative, a little bit more inclusive, a little bit more rooted in the real world. This continued through the castings of films such as Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey – films of widely varying quality, but equally great casts.

As the whole kit and kaboodle has now ground to a halt – or, rather, fizzled and farted away to nothingness like a punctured balloon – we’re left looking at what’s left and wondering if we’ll ever see it reinflated (why am I wedded to this metaphor?). There’s a new Superman in town next year; certainly a new Batman too, and I’d be somewhat surprised if any of the old Justice League return. But some of the old guard are sticking around in James Gunn’s new DCU; and who can blame him for wanting to hold onto some of these casting choices?

Marvel may very well be the best there is at what they do, to paraphrase a moderately-successful character of theirs. But if one of the things you’re supposed to do as the overseer of a shared universe of superheroes is cast those heroes well, well… even when the films sucked, their Distinguished Competition still gave them a run for their money in that department at least. Imagine what they could do if the films were, y’know… good.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad, 2016): I don’t know for certain, but it feels like maybe the producers of Suicide Squad watched The Wolf of Wall Street and went, “hey, that blond Australian can do a good Noo Yoik accent”. Anyway, the very basic elements she nails, naturally; she does the Arleen Sorkin voice pretty well, she filters the manic and crazy, she has the physicality. But – and this is evident from the off but really comes to the fore later films – she also has heart and pathos, elements of Harley that have been embellished and reinforced throughout the years. Plus she just has that massive movie star charisma going for her; like Jackman’s Logan or Downey’s Stark, you root for her constantly and remain fixed to the screen. She’s utterly perfect casting and I really, really hope she carries on.

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016): a relative unknown at the time of her casting, she very much blew everyone away when we got to see her in action. Carrying herself like a movie star, she exuded a sense of wisdom and confidence above her two male co-stars; and, crucially in a film as relentlessly dour as this, was the only one who seemed to have any fun. This was reinforced in her solo film, which gave her a cool origin story and terrific love interest, as well as a couple of badass action scenes. Sadly other films haven’t been able to harness her joie de vivre or make good on her action chops, and I doubt we’ll see her again.

Viola Davis as Amanda Waller (Suicide Squad, 2016): is it cheating if you cast one of the greatest actors of their generation? Davis has an EGOT! So obviously she’s going to be good. But she’s absolutely terrific, and in another life her Davis could have been the dark counterpart to Nick Fury, meddling behind the scenes, building teams, but from a more nefarious place. Across several films she’s exuded quiet menace and utter confidence, going up against phenomenally powerful beings but always feeling like the most powerful. And she’s brought shade, nuance, and pathos to the role, especially as her character developed in the likes of Peacemaker.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016): totally, utterly going against the conventional comic book casting, Momoa brought his own, well, Momoa-ness to the role. His Arthur Curry is more of a laid-back surfer type, big-hearted and righteous but also a wild force unto himself. He gives off charm in waves and is an immensely fun screen presence. It’ll be interesting, given all the rumours, to see if he sticks around at all, even if it’s a different role.

John Cena as Peacemaker (The Suicide Squad, 2021): I’m probably not alone in not having heard of Peacemaker before this film, but this interpretation is both hilarious, tragic, and – ultimately – weirdly heroic. As a parody of far-right patriotism he works as an antagonist, but Cena brings charm and pathos to the role, and this is deepened and expanded incredibly in the fantastic Peacemaker series, which really shows Cena’s talents and makes the character utterly adorable, even if he’s still a bit of a dopey cock-up.

Will Smith as Deadshot (Suicide Squad, 2016): Smith brings a lot of Smith-i-ness to Deadshot, making him perhaps a chattier and wittier character than the comics – but he also channels a good deal of grit and badassery. He’s believable as a mercenary, as a leader, and also as a father, bringing empathy and warmth to the character, as well a lot of humour. His chemsitry with Robbie is strong and it would have been good to see more of him.

Jurnee Smollett as Black Canary (Birds of Prey, 2020): Smollett was perhaps the strongest of the Birds of Prey to feature in this film (although they were all good; Mary Elizabeth Winstead a droll and deadpan Huntress, Rosie Perez a suitably grumpy Montoya). She handled the tough, damaged part of Dinah very well, but also showed the more joyous, more heroic side; and she looked the part when beating up dudes. Should have been a star-making turn, but then this film should have been a much bigger hit than it was. It was the best superhero film of the year!

Amy Adams as Lois Lane (Man of Steel, 2014): a sort of double-whammy casting-against-type, in the sense that Lois herself was reconfigured to be more of a grungy war reporter (“I don’t feel comfortable unless I’m in a flak jacket”) and also because Adams wasn’t necessarily the first person you’d think of to play a grungy war reporter. But she’s great, incredibly smart, totally empathetic; a very down-to-earth performance in a movie full of histrionics and melodrama.

David Dastmalchian as Polka Dot Man (The Suicide Squad, 2021): it’s hard to know where Dastmalchian sits in terms of Polka Dot Man portrayals, as the character is largely unknown, forgotten, or ridiculed. But reimagining his power as a terrible alien curse – giving it a whole heap of body-horror – is a masterstroke, and Dastmalchian makes him a supremely tragic yet heroic figure, representing in microcosm the themes of the movie overall (there’s a parallel to be drawn between him and Starro, arguably). Between this and his two roles in the MCU, he’s becoming a superhero MVP.

Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle (Blue Beetle, 2023): there's an infectious, youthful energy to Maridueña in this film; it evokes Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel, especially with the focus on the immigrant experience and tightness of the central family. Maridueña brings not only heart and exuberance, but also a righteous anger and sense of justice, which suggests he can handle bigger things. It's good to know he’s going to get to continue in the role.

#top ten #films #movies #dc #dc comics #dcu #dceu #snyderverse #man of steel #justice league #birds of prey #suicide squad

0 notes