#its all cgi so i guess not really

[lockerlungs]

Godzilla Minus One was so good man

Id kiss it on the mouth if I could but movies don't have mouths

[sonknuxadow]

potential sonic 3 spoilers incoming if anyone cares. anyway . apparently there was an official survey about the knuckles show/scu in general and one of the questions was about what name you would use for an eggman/shadow/gerald teamup. which is a weirdly specific question. and also one of the name options was team dark …….. ?? even though rouge isnt mentioned in the question and theres no sign of her being in the next movie in general ? i was willing to accept amy being introduced a little after knuckles and tails but between there still being no sign of her being in the next movie and now this if they actually have gerald time travel or something and have him be the third member of the dark story trio instead of rouge then i will be fully convinced that theyre going out of their way to exclude as many already existing girl characters as possible. like i get cgi is expensive which could be part of the reason rouge might not have made the cut. but damn . assuming this is real anyway it could just be another fake leak but idk

[neganium]

While Rockman.EXE has a pretty solid design all around, I've kind of always disliked how his design lacked visible eyebrows 90% of the time. It's not that he doesn't have any, but you just can't see them due to the shape of his helmet. You can't really see his hair, either, other than what little pokes out the back.

[animentality]

deadpool is sort of the last movie I would've expected to draw back the old marvel charm, and remind you why its movies were so successful in the first place.

it has all the foundations, you know.

cameos based on pure nostalgia, self aware humor, the big epic action set pieces, and endless CGI.

things that got ruined in all of the other mediocre movies that plagued phase 4, and damaged the brand's reputation with audiences.

but deadpool being the movie to bring back that special feeling, of like, seeing a movie that's both good AND fits into a multiverse, but without being completely dragged into it...

it's just nuts that it was DEADPOOL of all things to do it.

Deadpool's not kid friendly, which is basically Disney's entire brand, especially when it comes to Marvel. He's openly pansexual, a concept that terrifies the Russo brothers and Disney execs.

It also married nostalgia to its main plot, AND played up the nostalgia of the Fox version of the X-men, as an homage/farewell to Fox.

Which I really wasn't expecting. Like Disney is trying to bury the old X men.

Writing them a love letter, and still making fun of them, was just so out of left field.

I guess it's just surprising that it was Deadpool and Wolverine to bring back classic Marvel, because it was this underdog, that no one expected to be popular from the very beginning.

It coming back to save the MCU...

Yeah.

Deadpool being Marvel Jesus...fitting in more ways than one.

Well done, Deadpool.

You did get the last laugh...didn't you?

[firespirited]

Robbie Williams has always been aware of the fourth wall. He has that Bo Burnham sixth sense of the audience. He's been so self aware since his mid twenties that he talks like he can pre-hear his words filtered back at him by an editor happy with a money shot moment, by the tabloids cherry picking the quotes, an uncomfortable smirk on his face as each word lands as he expected it to like he's hearing echoes.

The man has a beyond choreographed, over-thought, over-media-savvy demeanour forged by being so incredibly visible and having to orchestrate his image. The very careful rascal pushing at the boundaries without losing your attention or affection.

It makes sense for him to be played by a CGI chimp, Robbie Williams has been a construct of a construct of authenticity since he was a kid. Which is not to say that Williams isn't real just that he's existed in a hall of mirrors so long he knows how to make eye contact with them all and it's uncanny.

The monkey forces a remove and brings back the human essense of this biopic. It makes us reconsider the overly exposed man.

I don't like musicals much and really don't like biopics that force a hero's journey framework on to lives that aren't at all that linear.

However, Better Man finds it's 'rise and fall and rise again' story by doing 1990-2001* and not his still eventful career and personal life in the past twenty years.

*there are songs from after 2001 used to score the film and likewise the Knebworth concerts were in 2003 but the film's arc ends with the Swing When You're Winning era.

The conceit of the monkey works: it feels authentic, it winks at itself. It knows that it's a mix and match jukebox film that's slightly out of order on events and very out of order for what songs were written when

... but it makes emotional sense. It makes more emotional sense than a straight documentary where where any interview with Robbie has five layers of irony and fame-meta bouncing off him.

It works whether you know him or not because it feels honest in its artifice. The core story is real.

The film has realistic scenes of drug use, self harm, suicidal ideation and some gruesome metaphorical-made-real fight scenes.

I get the sense that RW has been able to be so raw about this time in his life and still seem open despite being a very private person because this is a part of his life that hasn't belonged to him for a while, played out by a facet of himself. In many ways he's not even the same man.

It's hard to explain. Like, most biopics and documentaries about British celebs have a whole section about the shock of fame and the shock of the tabloids.

RW doesn't. He wanted fame for sure, and he saw the tabloids and their narratives coming. It was even part of his self harm to see himself in print being a mess. His relationship to himself partly played out in what he let the press, the music and the fandom reflect of him. I guess I *hope* he's not the same man and has a self that's entirely separate with his wife and kids that's none of our business.

Monkey film is worth watching as a human story and maybe as a warning to avoid chasing views, likes, etc instead of enjoying your craft.

[windmill-for-the-land]

Finished the Netflix Devil May Cry show a couple hours ago and i think i've finally collected my thoughts about it (Spoiler Warning and a kinda long post)

TL;DR Pretty good but the second season is going to either make or break this show, it depends on it to flesh out its characters, and fix the concerns raised up by its cliffhanger ending.

To start, i think the show is a fair 7/10, I really enjoyed it, the action scenes and animations were great(even if the cgi got pretty bad on a few of them, specially on Agni and Rudra at certain moments),the songs always fit in very well with the scene, and the licensed music choices were really good, the story and voice acting were pretty nice too, they got Dante's character pretty well in the show which is great and the 6th episode was simply beautiful!(even if what it depicted didn't feel very devil may cry but we'll get to it)

But the show has a fair bit problems(most of which i think can and will be solved in season 2 but we'll see) that hold it back from being REALLY good instead of pretty good or okay.

One of the biggest problems being Lady's adaptation in the anime.

When i saw that she was going to take a very important role in the anime i was HYPED, she is easily one of my favourites, constantly fighting with Nero over who is my number three favourite. Unfortunately, her character in the netflix show ended up being pretty shallow for the most part while also barely feeling like the character she is supposed to be. They did a good job on her backstory in the shows universe(plus arkham is totally alive since he didn't die on screen in her flashback, which is great because it means there could be a possible take on the dmc 3 plotline in one of the seasons that would develop her as character), my problem with her is the way she acts throught the main story, her swearing like a sailor is already pretty disappointing, something i like about dmc is that the characters rarely ever use profanitys, making it so that a line like nero's fuck you in dmc 5 actually feels impactful and cool, meanwhile in the show, she says either fuck or shit in every sentence and it felt ridiculous, not like her at all, i was already so sick of it by episode 4 or 5, it felt like a forced attempt to try make her sound cooler and justify this show being for adults(much like castlevania).

But more importantly, her arc in the show feels unsatisfying, i understand that her arc is clearly not complete, it is certantly going to continue in season 2 with her leaving darkcom, throwing that ugly-ass armor away and rescuing dante, and that's fine, i dont think every character should have their entire arc in only 8 episodes, but the main focus of the first season was on Lady (I'd say 60% Lady 40% Dante, which sucks because this is a pretty good version of Dante that NEEDED more screentime), and she barely changes by the end of it. She starts out blindly following darkcoms orders and being a dick to dante, and ends still following their orders and hurting Dante, but being slightly remorceful and unsure about it now, the only major change is that she doesnt hate every single demon anymore after her encounter with the hellIrefugees, and that she actually likes Dante and feels bad for doing that to him, although with season 2 hopefully finishing her arc, i think season 1 will become a little better retroactively.

Speaking of the hell refugees(i forgot their name sorry)

they were fine? I guess??

I get what they wanted to do, they wanted to add some moral greyness to Sparda's actions and flash out the demon world so that not everyone except Sparda is evil, therefore building on the theme of there being humans as wicked as any devil, and devils as kind as a human.

But since literally every demon in the show was working on the goal of freeing the weak devils from the demon world so they can have a better life, YOU END UP WITHOUT ANY ACTUALLY EVIL DEVILS IN DEVIL MAY CRY, which of course, isn't very good for an adaptation of a series based on slaying hundreds of demons every game. I think this is another complaint that can be remedied by season 2, if they show that the refugees are the exception, not the rule, and that the underworld is still packed full of stronger demons working for Mundus that willfully perpetuate the misery of the weaker ones, it would solve one of the most consistent complaints i hear about the show, that it humanizes the demons way too much, by answering these complaints with "Actually, these are just a portion of the demons, there a LOT classic 100% evil devil may cry demons, you just didnt get to see them in season 1!!"(also i think the demon world looks too much like an alien planet instead of the underworld, which i get that's what they're going for, but it really doesnt feel right in an adaptation of one of the best visual depictions of the underworld in videogames, specially in Dmc3, some of those sections look gorgeous, and the show is severely lacking in that gothic architecture.)

Also the U.S.A invading the demon world and DROPPING NUKES on the weak demon refugees in a analogy to real world US actions while American Idiot by Green Day plays in the background felt so on the nose and unfitting for dmc I couldn't take it very seriously, they went too hard on the "humans are the real monsters" side with little to no nuance, since they are depicted as more evil and malicious than any of the actual demons, plus it makes the regular humans have too much control, the demons in dmc should absolutely destroy the army, like in 5's opening scenes, with their only hopes being our protagonists, i REALLY hope that when season 2 drops they start with Vergil and Mundus' forces absolutely destroying the humans forces, to show that, sure they can arrest and bomb a bunch of weak demons who can barely survive on their own land, but when the powerful ones show up, they're out of their depth and are forced to rely on Dante and Lady.

Now,moving on to the storm shaped elephant in the room, Vergil.

He's got a total of like, a minute of screen time, but it was enough for a huge size of the fanbase to go up in flames about it, and honestly? i understand why, i don't agree with the assumptions that Vergils is absolutely be like that in this adaptation, but i get it, having Vergil on screen basically saying that he is voluntarely serving Mundus sounds sound insane and like a huge character assasination.

Buuuuuut, i think that's the point, its to make us question what is going on with Vergil, since at no point in time would he ever willingly work for Mundus. My theory is that instead of unlocking his devil trigger and escaping the attack on their home, in the show's universe, Vergil is captured and brought to hell as a child, likely being tortured or brainwashed by Mundus to align with him and make him blame Sparda and the human world, so it would basically make it so that Dmc1's corrupted Vergil shows up before anything else.

I really hope im right and this is the direction they're taking Vergil, because if he really is willingly serving Mundus and his Devil trigger is Nelo Angelo, it would be soooooo fucking bad that i could not defend the show anymore, it would be such a huuge character assasination and would turn Vergil from a hurt and tragic character, that copes with his feeling of powerlessness and guilt from not being able to protect his mother, brother and himself by becoming as powerful as possible to make sure he is NEVER in a situation like that again, no matter what and who it takes, into the stereotypical EVIL TWIN that simply does bad things, alongside the person who killed his mother and probably his father, and it would absolutely not fit with Dante and Vergil's dynamic AT ALL.

also before i get to my closing thoughs i just wanna say dante felt a little weak in it and that i feel like he didn't get enough spotlight in HIS OWN SHOW, like i know that he's waaay less experienced than any version of Dante from the games but omg he spent the entire show post episode 2 getting his ass kicked by lady and almost every single demon, even with devil trigger(speaking of which, having devil trigger from dmc5 playing during his devil trigger transformation while cool on concept, really doesnt fit since that song is VERY personal to Nero and doesnt fit Dante as well, plus i honestly didnt like the cover of the song used tbh but its not that big of a complaint.

In the end i really did enjoy the first season of Devil May Cry, and i am very hopeful and excited for the second season, the highs were really high, the animation was pretty amazing, loved the opening and every single one of the endings, and dante felt great, but I cant help but be worried for the future of this show, if the second season doesnt address some of these issues, SPECIALLY LADY AND VERGIL, it will really be like the castlevania netflix show, fun in isolation and with no knowledge of the source material, with a decent plot and some nice visuals and songs, but lacking severely in the core elements of the series they are adapting, making it that i cant help but dislike it a little, i really hope it turns out well since i want to really, REALLY LOVE this show, not to JUST like it or even dislike it.

[tsintotwo]

Comic-con Tom is back!

Quick recap: Tom showed up in a fit we've seen before cuz that's just who he is (and I respect that). Host was giving kind of a weird energy ('she's asking if you'd like to be punished'???), but okay, no harm done and we don't have to shit on random dudes.

He got asked some of the same questions from earlier cons and some new ones. In summary: Sandman s2 is halfway through filming, the helmet is real and you can see through the eyes, eternal waking is a worse punishment than eternal sleeping, he loved doing Sea Wall, he likes dark Belgian chocolate, he got into acting through Punk Rock, his main inspiration in portraying Dream was the the novels (rather than something external to them), a fav scene to act was the dinner table scene with all siblings in upcoming s2, he'd like to be Destiny so he can live alone in a garden and read, main characteristic of s1 Dream was Dream finding his connection to humanity, fav line is I Am Hope, he's excited to watch Dead Boy Detectives, embodying Dream had its challenges, little to no CGI was used in creating the other versions of Morpheus (iykyk), he tried meeting Morpheus in his dreams, working with Neil was wonderful, he wants to work with great creators (people 'cleverer than him' as he always puts it), he's done a lot of dark roles and if it's happening this many times, he guesses there must be a kinship between those and his personal self (mmhmmm?), for filming he wakes up/starts for the studio around 4 a.m. and starts giving shots around 9 a.m.- time between that is hair+makeup and getting into character, and last and definitely the least, he got asked to do the Dream voice yet AGAIN (please don't do this, people).

It was really, really good to see him. Watch the full video at Klara Himmel's channel.

[booksandabeer]

Thunderbolts Ramblings

Hi hey hello, I am back after a short self-imposed hiatus. Can I interest you in 2500 words of chaotic ramblings about the Thunderbolts movie? Fair warning: I only just saw it for the first time last night, so I'm still sorting through all my many, many thoughts. This is not a review or meta or anything really. I guess this is what people call A Reaction Post? Ew.

Maybe it's a little bit of everything.

First things first: I really enjoyed watching this movie. Yes, it is flawed. Yes, there are things that I would change, but it is a coherent and cohesive creative work that actually has ideas, features great performances, and that was obviously made with love and care—and that alone makes it easily the best thing the MCU has put out in years, and I'm glad I decided to go and see it in theaters.

(I will put the rest under a 'keep reading' for length and spoiler reasons)

TB is a good, very competently made movie that manages to be incredibly entertaining and funny, and at the same time takes its themes and characters seriously. It has great pacing and momentum, is tightly plotted (a lean 2 hours runtime; imagine that!), finds smart and organic ways to deliver exposition, and all the actors have great chemistry with each other. The score by Son Lux fucking slaps! Practical effects and stunts! Real locations! No 30-minute CGI slop battle at the end where the majority of the audience checks out after ten minutes and starts looking at their phones!

I have to say that for all the promo noise that was made in advance about how the movie was basically made by an all-star team of A24 below-the-line people, it is not able to shake the ugly-ass Marvel “house style” completely, but we get a sleeker, more stylish version of that dreaded flat grey aesthetic and it does actually work here because it makes sense within the context of the film’s plot and more importantly as a visual representation of its themes. The effect of the void looks extremely cool and scary—people actually gasped out loud in my theater when it took the little girl. (Honestly this was horrifying in the very best way because it interrupts a scene at the exact moment when I started to roll my eyes at the cheesiness of it all…and then it did THAT and HOLY SHIT.)   

Like I said above, this is a very funny film. It’s also a very sad one. It’s about sad, broken, lonely people and it deals with depression, isolation, and suicidal ideation in a way that is surprisingly nuanced. Could it be more nuanced? Of course. Is it at all subtle about its central metaphor? Absolutely not. But maybe let’s all calm the fuck down for a second here and remember that this is still a superhero movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and there are limits to what they can and are allowed to do within the narrative and commercial restraints of that world.

And honestly? The world is on fire right now and we are going through a real bleak fucking moment in time (to put it mildly), so I cannot find it in me to be a cynical asshole about a movie in which the Power of Friendship saves the day and evil is defeated via the most dramatic group hug in the history of ever. That said, while I loved this as the climax of the movie and the solution to the Bob/Void conflict, I wasn’t fully convinced as to how all of the characters actually got there. Yelena, sure. But that’s because they did some excellent character work to establish her connection with Bob, and it’s similarly very understandable why Alexei would follow her into the void immediately. But Ava? Walker?? And least of all, Bucky who has never even met Bob and just knows him as that weird Sentry dude with a bad bleach job and a suit that even Homelander would deem too tacky, and who, oh yeah, almost killed him literally five minutes ago? I don’t buy it.

And speaking of my pal, my buddy, my Bucky…I don’t really know what to say here, so let’s just get it over with. He’s barely in the movie. Seriously, it’s a CA:CW situation all over again. If you’ve watched the trailers then you’ve already seen 95% of his scenes. The remaining 5% of his screen time he pretty much spends standing around in the background making reaction faces. Look, I had no great hopes or expectations, so I’m not mad or even surprised at all, but I am still a little disappointed and, frankly, just confused as to what the thought process is here. I simply don’t understand what’s the deal with Mr. Baseball Cap and his Marvel Parliament (cannot believe I just typed that out, what a truly ridiculous & self-important name) continuing to refuse to give Bucky anything of substance to do in these projects. Just…why? You have this widely beloved character with so much juicy narrative potential, so much fascinating backstory to explore, whose own harrowingly traumatic journey makes him uniquely suited to the very story you’re trying to tell with this movie, AND you have a very popular and incredibly charismatic performer playing him who also just so happens to be riding an absolute career high at the moment…and you give him almost nothing meaningful to say or do? Why???

That said, every time he shows up and he actually gets A Moment? He’s fucking electric. I of all people shouldn’t be surprised by Sebastian Stan anymore and admittedly I am very biased—I’m not that far gone down the fangirl rabbit hole not to realize that—but it is truly wild how every time the camera is actually on him it’s like oh ok, hello, the movie star is here now, everybody else can shut up and melt into the background please. Every other actor just looks small by comparison (with Pugh being the only real exception). He brings both a razzle-dazzle and a gravitas to the role that feels completely at odds with the ridiculously little narrative weight that is afforded to his character. What a waste. No wonder Sebastian has seemed monosyllabic and quiet at best and listless and lowkey shady at worst during interviews. Because what really is there to talk about for him? Not much, really.

Let's just run through the other characters quickly because this already getting so long.

Yelena: Florence Pugh is the undisputed lead, and Yelena the beating heart of the movie. I love that she got such a central role here and got to show so many different facets of her character. She’s on fire. I don’t care how fucking cool and how checked out of the MCU you are (while simultaneously talking about nothing else and seeing this on opening weekend, lol), but if you seriously want to tell me that you don’t feel anything at all when she says “But I have so many [regrets]!” in a devastatingly tear-choked voice, then I think you’re either a liar or dead inside. I would also like to once again express my gratitude that they are dressing her in clothes that she can actually move and breathe and fight in. And guess what? She still looks unbelievably fucking hot. 

Ava: I’m not a big Ant-Man person (I’ve only seen the first two movies once and the little interest I had in the third one died the moment I saw that disastrous trailer), so I barely remembered her and therefore had no great expectations, but I liked her, I thought she was really interesting and a great counterweight to the more impulsive and abrasive Yelena. Hannah John-Kamen seems to be a graduate of that very particularly British School of Jaw-Acting. You know that kind of jaw-forward type of performing…very jaw-y…jaw-based? See also: Keira K., Hayley A., etc., you know the exact type of actress that people on this website keep insisting is somehow both uniquely and universally appealing to all bisexual women…and I just cannot confirm that. Sorry. Anyway, H J-K is good in the movie, I look forward to seeing her again and also congratulations to her agent for negotiating that special “with” billing in the end credits because…what. How? But hey, good for her.    

Bob: This is maybe unfair to the character, which is quite well-written, and to Lewis Pullman, who does a great job portraying the wildly different personalities (?) of Bob/Sentry/The Void and yet manages to hold on to an emotional throughline AND be endearingly funny at the same time, but all I could think about while watching this was that this guy is tailor-made (or, you know, genetically engineered…ha!) for the tumblr/AO3 whump girlies. The fanfic is going to be wild. Good character, good performance, GREAT decision to immediately depower him and therefore set him up for an “learning to control/balance your abilities with the darkness inside of you” arc in the next movie(s). Still, I will always wonder about what could've been if my beloved Steven Yeun hadn't had to drop out of the role.  

Alexei: I have very complicated feelings about this character. Objectively, he is an awful, awful person who has done terrible things to people—including the ones that he claims to love. Thanks to David Harbour, he’s also got a big boisterous personality, a striking physicality, and he’s legitimately and wildly hilarious. He made me laugh out loud multiple times! And yet, I cannot help but be very skeptical about this #GirlDadification of a character that literally trafficked human beings and was ultimately fine with handing his “daughters” over to an organization that enslaved them, mentally and physically abused them, groomed them to be child soldiers, forcibly sterilized them, and had them kill other little girls when, again, they were still children themselves. Idk, kind of makes the bile rise up in your throat while you’re still laughing at cute jokes about Wheaties boxes and pee wee soccer teams.      

Walker: Speaking of complicated characters…I have to say, I enjoyed him immensely in this movie. Which, mind you, is very much not the same as liking him. There’s already a lot of heated discourse about the character and if he deserves a redemption arc and whether or not he’s actually given one in this movie. I honestly neither understand the Walker stans who truly think he’s a poor little meow meow with a heart of gold and is really just misunderstood good guy nor his haters who are up in arms because they seem to think that the movie also genuinely believes that and portrays him as such. I think they’re both wrong and that the movie actually does a great job of showing that he’s a pathetic little asshole who blames everybody but himself for his failures and takes out his insecurities on other people that he perceives as weaker than him, while also not forgetting that he is still a human being worthy of some empathy. And bless Wyatt Russell for leaving behind any vanity and throwing himself into portraying this character as a deeply, deeply unpleasant person. Even his fighting style is ugly—all brute force and no finesse. The fact that any of the team members can stand to be in a room with this insufferable man for even just a few minutes without throwing a punch at him says much more about their humanity and innate goodness than it says about him and his supposed redeemability.        

Valentina: I realize that I’m probably the only person in the world who thinks so, but both Valentina as a character and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as an actor, were the weak links for me in this movie. Despite having seen her appear in one tv show and two movies now, I still do not understand Valentina’s motivations in the slightest—there’s never any explanation given for why she does what she does or what she ultimately hopes to achieve with it (see also her assistant Mel, a complete non-character, whose reasons for working for her evil boss—and continuing to work for her even after she clearly recognizes her as evil and sort of kind of but not really "betrays" her to Bucky et al—are even more opaque). Valentina's shame-room scene only makes her less legible as a person and a villain, and except for one brief moment, she herself doesn’t seem to be bothered or affected by it at all, so I don’t even know why it was included. JLD did not work for me here, not because she isn’t a very talented actress, but because she’s simply miscast and/or misdirected. She clearly has a lot of fun dialing it up to eleven playing the hubristic comic book villain, but since all the other actors give performances that are at least to a certain degree grounded in an approximation of realism, she just comes across as tonally off and like she’s in a different movie than everyone else.    

Sidenote: I have to say that it did amuse me endlessly to see this awful woman who carelessly uses and abuses enhanced humans like they are little more than glorified dolls for her to play with under the guise of wanting to “protect the world” (lol) standing behind the bar of Avengers Tower pouring herself champagne in the very spot where a certain someone mixed his cocktails and monologued about his own greatness. Was this intentional? Honest-to-god lèse-majesté in an MCU movie? Please be serious, that’s never going to happen. But my god, did it make me cackle with glee!

Stray thoughts because omg this is so long:

If I was a Taskmaster/Antonia fan, I would be rioting in the streets right now. Why even bring her back if this is what you're going to do with her? I know the MCU iteration of the character wasn't exactly popular, but wow, to give her such an unceremonious and meaningless death was just mean, bordering on cruelty.

I was pleasantly surprised that aside from the dishwasher joke, the "disarming" Bucky scenes were handled sensitively and seriously. Yeah, sorry I just do not find disability jokes funny. Bonus points to Ava for immediately picking up Bucky's arm to return it to him.

I'm not going to touch the final end credits scene with a ten foot pole because the discourse about what happens in it and how a certain character is referenced/talked about is already absolutely bonkers unhinged in many different ways and I have no desire to wade into that. Folks are being real normal about it, that's for sure, and I would remind them that these are fictional characters, who cannot be blamed for stupid things they say or do or don't say or do. Blame the writers, directors, producers, executives, who are the ones who actually have agency and authority over what is shown and said on screen.

Ok, one thing about that scene because I was so distracted by it that I almost missed everything else: WHAT in the everloving 90s bodice ripper cover model hell is THAT HAIR??? I mean he looks good, because he always looks good, but wow. Yes, yes, I know most of you like that hair. It's fine. The new suit is badass though.

I have so many more things to say, but I will stop now. I'm not even sure if anybody will read this far, but hey thanks if you did and let me know what you thought of the movie.

Just to reiterate, in case this wasn't clear: I liked the movie. I liked it a lot, even. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to go shout from the rooftops that Marvel is so back!!! or something like that. But. This is a giant step in the right direction. More of this please.

[oatmealdoodles]

I promise I’ll make Murder Drones art but let me get this out of my system

GUYS I AM READY TO MAKE THIS MOVIE MY WHOLE PERSONALITY

Going in I was a bit weary since I did in fact watch the original on broadway, and honestly, it didnt really click for me. Don’t get me wrong I LOVED the story and characters but I just never felt emerged, either due to the theater setting or its break-neck pacing. Luckily this movie works WAY better for me, and thats mostly due to them extending the runtime of act 1 to nearly double its length. We really get to breathe and be with these characters, and surprisingly I never once felt bored it was all so well made and paced.

The biggest concern I had though was that they were going to play down the charm of the original to make it “less broadway” and appeal to broader audiences. Mostly because I watched the new Mean Girls movie be so ashamed of being a musical that it got me worried for the whole genera. Luckily they didn’t they turned the campy charm up to 11, with full group choreography and some insanely creative set designs (Dancing Through Life). Like these are the EXACT VIBES I wanted from this movie.

One of my favorite parts of this movie is actually the production. Specifically the set design and filming, where they actual made almost all of the sets irl. They planted thousands of poppies just for the opening number, they actually made Munchkinland and Shiz, it’s all real. This movie also just looks great (ignoring some lighting) like the colors were POPING OFF the screen colorful especially in the beginning of “What is This Feeling” this movie is a visual treat. They really kept CGI to a minimum (obviously the animals but whatever) in order to pay homage to its theater roots. And it looks absolutely PHENOMINAL huge props to the team on that. Secondly they filmed the singing in direct, meaning no voice overs. And that weirdly didn't sound off at all the singing quality was amazing

that reminds me Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were SO GOOD. They ate, they slayed, they Cooked, they every-other-gen-alpha-term-of-praise-I-can-think-of. Their casting just fits the roles so well with a 110% commitment coming from both of them. Cynthia’s Elpheba might actual be my favorite interpretation of the character I’ve seen. Also the part they added with the original actresses (Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth) interacting with the new ones was maybe the most fan-service thing in this whole movie and I was here for it I gasped in the theater along with my friends.

Like I can’t overstate enough how much I ENJOYED this movie (I guess an essay long Tumblr rant will do) theres just an infectious enthusiasm and passion radiating off the screen. It really feels like a movie made with love, like everyone making this wanted to make it.

I can’t recommend enough that you go watch it if your a fan of musicals or broadway you'll have a ball with this one. 9/10.

[lizardsfromspace]

Okay, Matrix plagiarism case postscript

One thing I didn't answer is how she got the Wachowski's timeline wrong. I still don't know, but it appears she essentially shifted their lives back a decade

She says less than a decade ago they were running a construction business, but actually, working at a construction company is what they were doing in 1986. In 1976 Lana and Lilly were eleven and nine years old respectively. I can't explain why she messed this up, beyond having to age them up a decade for the story to work

But this screencap also brings up another thing she mentions repeatedly that I didn't mention - the smoking gun in her claim is that...the Matrix ripped off her words verbatim for its opening crawl. The opening crawl...to The Matrix.

Huh?

So her story is - and unsurprisingly the timeline here is jumbled, for instance, citing production interviews from 1997 when the film wouldn't enter production until 1998 - the original version of The Matrix contained a Star Wars-style opening crawl, and this was the most directly plagiarized part of the film.

She claims this opening crawl was, in fact, in the theatrical release of The Matrix and only removed when it came to home media, because she. Because she called the FBI on the Wachowskis for stealing the idea of opening crawls from her

The theatrical cut does differ from later versions slightly - most infamously the Wachowskis made the green color filter much more green in the second DVD release, to make it consistent with the style of the sequels - but if there was a opening crawl mandated by the studio, nobody but her has mentioned it, and I find it hard to believe critics wouldn't mention it.

Because this is Dark City. She's clearly confused The Matrix with stories about the studio's meddling with the 1998 film Dark City.

Dark City was the dystopian sci-fi film that had a opening narration explaining the whole plot foisted on it by the studio, and critics mentioned it. Basically every review mentioned it (some even suggest covering your ears or muting the film the first time you see it, at least until the Director's Cut removed it). Meanwhile, reviews of The Matrix praised its opening from the very beginning: how it drops you right into things and lets you find out about its world as Neo does. It's just not possible that the theatrical release has a opening crawl no one mentioned when I can pull up full comparisons of theatrical vs first DVD vs second DVD vs Bluray. Whatever story she read either was about Dark City, or was a Wachowski saying in passing "yeah the studio wanted us to add one but we didn't".

Another thing I didn't touch on is just how much it hypes her up as a untouchable genius of cinema. For instance, she claims to have come up with the effects of The Matrix in 1983 too

(one funny part is how little she brings up The Terminator at all? She just threw it in as a bonus I guess)

I looked up how they did the bullet time effect in particular and...it would have been impossible in 1983. It's not just high speed photography; it's entire banks of cameras, placed in the right place by computer previsualization, their sequence programmed, and with all the elements composited together by CGI. Even stylistically - the true creator of the effects cited Akira as a influence, and Akira the movie didn't exist in 1983. Neither did the type of Hong Kong action film that heavily influenced it. I guess it would be possible to write down "someone goes really fast and we depict it like they slowed down time", concepts of a plan etc

But like.

She's destined to be one of the most profound master writers of the 21st century. This is a book proving she's never written anything. It has a pitch for The Third Eye, it has a second film treatment tacked on at the end, and it has copyright registrations for her sequels to Terminator and The Matrix. M. Night Shyamalan's character in Lady in the Water was destined to be a great writer too, but he actually wrote a book. He didn't put out a book with a decades-old synposis that was never finished & reams of legal documents and a bio saying, I'm one of the greatest authors of all time. Because who needs writing when you have destiny, God, and the ancient superrace living in the Pyramids on your side?

This is my for real last post on this since I ended up just depressed about it in the end. I think the worst part is, she knows she lost. But she still goes to the press telling a story she knows isn't true, and people believe her. Some of it is transphobic - "stop saying it's a trans allegory when they stole it"; some of it runs with the Christian oppression narrative (full disclosure, I was inspired to look for her book again bc while looking up another crank, I saw an interview with her in the sidebar of a religious website); but a lot of it is just people who innocently want it to be true.

One of the few pieces debunking her story is on a website called Black Excellence - it doesn't even have a byline - said this:

"There are many people, especially Black people, who wanted the story to be true. It symbolized a Black person, especially a Black woman, finally winning against the system. When Sophia Stewart spoke about how mainstream media would not give her the time of day because almost all of them were owned by Warner Brothers, some Black media embraced her. Blogs spread her story, especially the initial story on Globe that contained errors about the case.

"But the story is not true. Sophia Stewart did not become the richest Black person in the country. But that did not deter her from going on several shows and publications to tell her story."

She took advantage of people's urge to root for the underdog against a corporation - and seized on a lack of mainstream coverage to claim her story was being suppressed. But it just isn't true. Also yeah she ridiculously claims that Warner Bros owns every news website and newspaper and that's kind of funny I guess. Well, that's it. I'm never doing this again

[coimbrabertone]

Offtopic Offseason #3 - Clone Wars Rewatch Thoughts: Part I.

We're deep in the motorsports offseason and I've been on a Clone Wars rewatch for the past week or so. I'm in early season three right now, still before the timeskip, but I've been enjoying it a lot and it's gotten me thinking about Star Wars again, so I wanted to yap about it in a blogpost.

I think I'll even do a part two once I'm done rewatching the whole thing.

For now though, I'm going to talk about what I've watched so far, so seasons one and two, and the first couple of episodes of season three.

So...Clone Wars starts out pretty rough, I'm not gonna lie. The first few episodes are just a bit cringeworthy with annoying battle droid dialogue, the voice actors still finding their footing, and the animation is pretty spotty - I'll talk more about that in a moment - and of course the classic complaints of "Snips" and "Skyguy" and all that.

All of these problems started in the movie - which I most recently watched in 2023 but skipped this time because, well, it sucks unfortunately - but they are still apparent in the early episodes of season one.

The early episodes still have their moments.

The Malevolence arc is pretty competent, Rookies is probably the first legitimately good episode of the show, Cloak of Darkness and especially Lair of Grievous are good, and then from Trespass onwards the show really comes into its own.

That being said, I think season two is better than season one. Season three is another step forward, and from the timeskip onwards I think the show really hits its stride, especially because the updated designs look a lot better and fit with the animation bump.

That being said, already in season two I noticed the animation is getting better.

Season one has that classic CGI cartoon problem where the environments are rather drab, and they can't have too many characters on screen at once since it's expensive to do - and Clone Wars was an infamously expensive show - which led to a lot of battles consisting of...two Jedi and like three clone troopers against five battle droids with two super battle droids in the background. It's an understandable error, and they get much better about it as the show goes on, but it's pretty noticeable in season one.

That's a problem for a lot of CGI cartoons though. Watch Beware the Batman, Transformers Prime, or Jimmy Neutron and you'll notice a lot of these same traits.

Even some of the Barbie cartoons have those problems and it's really noticeable because it's like these blondes in bright pink colors against like a flat brown background. It's pretty trippy.

Alright, enough about the flaws of early 2010s CGI animation.

Here's a two-parter I didn't really pay all that much attention to the first two times I watched it - the first time back when it aired on Cartoon Network, the second time when I rewatched the whole series on Disney+ ahead of season seven - the Zillo Beast episodes.

Before I always just saw them as a pretty basic Godzilla homage - they awaken this giant monster on the Malastare battlefield, they eventually subdue it, but Palpatine wants to study it on Coruscant, it inevitably breaks out, and they have to stop it - but this time, it hit for me for whatever reason.

First there's the electro-proton bomb, and the nuke parallels there - they're obvious enough that I must've picked up on them before but I guess I didn't come to appreciate it - but then even when they wake the Zillo Beast, it never actually tries to leave the hole.

In fact, it doesn't until the Dugs force it out with the toxic gas.

Then the beast is clearly suffering when the shock tanks bring it down.

So, this giant, hurt animal gets sent to Coruscant in the laboratory, and Palpatine wants it killed so he can study its indestructible scales more quickly.

Only then does the Zillo Beast break out and go on its rampage, and even then, the rampage is focused directly on Palpatine.

Then they kill it with the gas bombs, and you can see it suffer as it dies, and the Jedi are so clearly disturbed by all this.

Palpatine, however, immediately tasks the scientist with cloning another one - and apparently that story is followed up on in Bad Batch season two which has unironically given me more motivation to actually watch the rest of Bad Batch than anything else I've heard about that show.

Anyway, the reason why I think this episode clicked with me this time is because this plan has Sidious written all over it, but he's forced to maneuver it as Palpatine.

He keeps trying to justify the Zillo Beast experiments but eventually his patience wears thin, and he just starts threatening the scientist to do his bidding, despite the fact he's supposed to be the kindly old Chancellor here.

Moreover, when the Zillo Beast is after him, it's probably the only time in the whole show that Sidious is in real danger, but he's with Anakin, Padme, and the droid so he can't do anything about it.

The whole show Palpatine is pulling the strings, controlling both the Republic and the Separatists, ensuring no side gets the upper hand.

Except for here, because the Zillo Beast wants to kill him, and he can't do anything about it.

He needs the Jedi and the Clones to kill the Zillo Beast for him, and once its dead, all he can do is task his scientists to clone a new one so he can try again.

It's such a cool thing to do with Palpatine/Sidious and there's a karmic justice to it all because it's entirely his fault too.

So yeah, I used to just dismiss these episodes as "oh I guess Filoni wanted to do a monster episode" but no, there's some substance here and it's pretty great.

It also goes to show that, even before the timeskip, Clone Wars was a really, really great Star Wars show. After the timeskip, it becomes the best as far as I'm concerned.

I'm excited for more Mandalore episodes, I'm excited for the Savage Opress arc - even if his name is even more on the nose than playing the Imperial March whenever Anakin does something evil - I'm excited for the Citadel, and Umbara, and the undercover Obi-Wan episodes.

I'm excited for Maul, for the Sabotage arc, for the Order 66 arc in season six, and I can't wait to finish strong on the Siege of Mandalore which is probably some of the best Star Wars content, period.

That's not even all of it. There's so much good stuff.

I love Clone Wars, it makes me happy.

[starrysturnz]

where the love light gleams

pairing. vampire!matt sturniolo x human!reader

summary. matt hasn’t celebrated a holiday in decades. a lonely, unfulfilling existence is nothing to be cheerful about, in his book. but there’s something different about this particular christmas— he’s not quite so lonely anymore.

warnings. mention of the death of a parent, an unserious joke about domestic violence, somewhat sensual toward the end?? angst if you smear this fic on a glass slide and look at it through a microscope.

word count. 1k

author’s note. OKAY SO i apologize for the fact that the only fic from this countdown that was posted on time was the first one… 20% success rate :D basically i’ve learned to pre-write anything i plan to release on a specific date lol. anyways i was traveling and then i got sick sooo not ideal conditions to focus on writing. thanks for sticking with me on this tho! i hope u like this one as much as i do!! kisses :3

masterlist | taglist | starrysturnz’s christmas countdown

© starrysturnz. all rights reserved. dividers by @cafekitsune.

it was the perfect evening. firewood crackling in its hearth, the smell of half-baked cookies wafting in from the kitchen, and polar express playing on the tv as y/n lay cuddled up under her favorite fuzzy blanket with her boyfriend, matt.

his fingers toyed lazily with her (admittedly, ugly) sweater as she laid her temple against his shoulder. tilting her head up to admire his face— his strong jaw, his striking eyes— she said, “i can’t believe you’ve never seen this movie before. it’s a classic.”

his head turned slowly to face her, eyes lagging behind on the screen for a second before speaking, “just never really been into christmas movies, i guess.”

there was a hint of something hidden in his voice… amusement, maybe? like he knew something she didn’t. y/n got that vibe from him occasionally— like she was on the receiving end of an inside joke that she wasn’t a part of— but she mostly chose to ignore it. today, however, the urge to pry won her over.

“how come? your family didn’t celebrate holidays growing up or something?”

it was an innocent question, matt knew. he’d expected she might be intrigued by his utter lack of knowledge regarding common christmas traditions. this was their first big holiday together, and she was entitled to some curiosity. but he couldn’t tell her the truth… yet. it wasn’t exactly the time.

besides, the honest answer was a real mood killer— how could he tell her he’d spent the better part of the last century avoiding holiday festivities at all costs? that he didn’t see any reason to celebrate his miserable, cursed existence? way too much explaining, so not enough time. plus, it made him seem all dark and self-loathing, and while yeah, that might’ve been the case, he felt it was far too accurate to edward from the twilight franchise… and being compared to that idiot in any capacity made him want to stake himself.

so instead, he offered her his prepared answer: “no, no, it’s not that. just, i dunno… my mom passed around the holidays when i was young, and it sort of overshadowed the magic of it all, y’know?”

it was the perfect fib— just dark enough to be believable without leaving room for any follow-up questions. and it’s not like it was a total lie; matt’s mother really had died around christmas when he was a boy, and it did put a damper on his holiday spirit.

y/n’s expression softened into one of genuine empathy, and she mustered her best comforting smile. “’m sorry. that must’ve been really difficult.”

“’s okay, that was a long time ago. besides, now i get to experience all your creepy CGI movies for the first time right next to you, so it all worked ou— hey!”

matt rubbed the assaulted spot on his arm as if her little swat had actually hurt at all. (truthfully, he suspected that not even a human would’ve been bothered by her attack.)

“i’ll have you know this movie is a staple from my childhood,” she stated matter-of-factly. “so be nice, or else next halloween i’m making you watch monster house.”

⁺⁎˚

“the cookies should be ready by now, don’t y’think, love?” matt asked, nudging his girlfriend ever so gently in the ribs, making her giggle. “i might not be a christmas expert, but santa can’t visit if the place has burned down, can he?”

“yeah, yeah. i’ll go get them, you stay here,” she ordered.

moments later, y/n was padding back into the living room on her bare tiptoes— the only part her leg warmers didn’t cover— with a decorative reindeer plate full of warm strawberry jam cookies, lightly dusted with powdered sugar. she situated herself back under the blanket, setting the plate on her lap.

matt, eager to try one of the delicacies, reached for the one on the top, only to have his hand smacked away by an irritated y/n.

“ah! do i need to call the cops on you for domestic violence? because you just love hitting me today, hm?”

“only when you do stupid stuff. hands to yourself, silly.”

“but then how am i supposed to…”

his words trailed off as she lifted a cookie between two fingers, raising a brow at him expectantly.

“oh,” he grinned cutely, opening his mouth. his eyes fell shut of their own accord as the treat pushed past his lips, and he found himself savoring the taste. matt never really believed in love as an ingredient in baked goods, but he had to admit, he could taste it in y/n’s food every time.

“so?”

“they’re incredible, darling. really delicious, seriously.” his smile widened at her pleased expression, clearly happy with herself for having impressed him. not that she had to try very hard. “if i grab one of these, are you gonna hit me again?”

“mm. i guess not.”

matt’s hands reached into her lap, snagging the plate from her entirely, setting it atop his own legs.

“hey, wha—”

“sh,” he quieted her protests with a whisper, grabbing a cookie and admiring the adorable heart-shaped design for a second before his eyes flitted up to her face. the corners of his lips quirked up just barely, and then his free hand was softly gripping her jaw. “open up.”

y/n obeyed almost immediately, save for the half-second she spent processing what had just happened. then, she was chewing on the warm pastry, practically melting in matt’s grasp as his thumb swiped at the edge of her mouth to clean the powdered sugar there.

“good?” he asked after a beat. she swallowed.

“mhm.”

“told you,” he teased, now setting the plate on the coffee table and pulling the girl into his lap instead. he heard her heartbeat pick up in her chest, and he placed a soft kiss against her cheek just to hear it skip once. the movie on the tv had been long forgotten.

y/n’s arms wrapped around his shoulders securely, a happy sigh escaping her lips.

“merry christmas, matt.”

for the first time in many years, matt found himself smiling at those words. he held her tightly against his chest.

“merry christmas, darling.”

taglist: @toslayy @stylessuperwhore @sofieeeeex

[susandsnell]

i saw wicked today too and loved it! what did you think? (was i the only one who went "oh shit" out loud in the theater when That Cameo happened?)

well i may or may not have just gotten out of my second viewing of it in three days some fourish hours ago, so that should be some indication!

hiya bestie! sorry for the delays on this, things have been thinging and life has been lifing. I'll admit that as early as February I was not looking forward to this movie or its promised follow-up. Splitting it into parts confused me, I was dubious over some of the casting, the visuals, the lighting, and the use of CG, and was being a bit of a hater over the trailers. However, every hater worth their salt should eat crow when they're wrong, and wow was I ever wrong. I couldn't have been more wrong, actually, because I'll go so far as to say (though I have high high hopes for Nosferatu later this month)! that Wicked Part One was my favourite movie of 2024. Extended (gushing) quasi-organized thoughts under the cut, because like Elphaba, no I never stop talking.

Bit of background, I've been lucky enough to see the show live twice, plus countless bootlegs/the cast album being the soundtrack to my life since I was nine. I know the script, the score, and the lyrics back to front. So you can imagine how shocked/pleased I was to find that the movie retained just about everything! I know people are giving mixed reviews about the extended scenes/runtime, but honestly the Oz they gave us (which I'll get to momentarily) was so wonderful and the cast so wholly inhabiting of their roles that I could not get enough of the world and these characters. I also thought they fixed several plotholes/added depth and stakes to a lot of arcs from the musical with their changes, especially with respect to the villains.

Visually, the film is an absolute treat; the colour grading/lighting does have the unfortunate modern fantasy film vibe to it, but the sets, practical props/effects, and costumes more than make up for it. That rotating library portico set? Let me live there! The Wizard's invitation?? The choreography was fantastic and every dancing scene was shot so so beautifully. My only complaint really is the CGI; the animals looked really fakey and goofy, particularly poor Dr. Dillamond, to the point that my entire theater was cracking up when his little goat ears wilted at the blackboard scene during my first viewing. Which is...not really the reaction you want to go for with a scene that's supposed to be depicting a hate crime.

The costumes in particular were a standout; Paul Tazewell's work is so stunning (Morrible's gowns, the revised Popular dress, and Elphaba's little pirate academia number when she gets her Emerald City invite) that I feel comfortable saying with the exception of Glinda's Junon-takeoff bubble dress (because it's just so iconic), they vastly outdo the stage version's costumes. He needs an Oscar for this yesterday and I'm not kidding.

The performances!!! Oh my gosh! Everyone sounding great and there being good mixing?? in a musical movie made after 2007??? Who'd've thought!!! My only complaint musically was, unfortunately, during Defying Gravity. In the stage show there's like 2 pauses in the song for plot to happen (Morrible's call-out and making the broom fly), and through that iirc they keep the instrumental going. Today, at my second viewing, I counted like....6-7 pauses where the song just outright stops, including two instances where they play different sad piano music altogether and give Elphaba this big suit-up superhero moment because book cover nod I guess, and healing her inner child, and it was kind of a pain because part of what makes Defying Gravity such a memorable piece is its momentum and when you stop the song to do something else, the momentum really dies. With that said, all eight parts of Defying Gravity were, in each pocket, performed to perfection.

I had high hopes for Cynthia Erivo vocally, but was dubious about an apparently more earnest, innocent Act 1 Elphaba as opposed to the stage version which I'm more used to, where she's a lot more of a Daria type. However, I was so pleased to find that she deepened the aching tragedy of the character with this take, especially opposite a more sinister and insidious Wizard + Morrible, and her takes on these songs, her vocal choices, her runs...heavenly. Ariana Grande pleasantly surprised me as being much cuter and funnier than I expected, and her surprise option ups during Popular were an absolute treat. Jonathan Bailey was as charming and talented as any Fiyero worth his salt (also loved how casually they made him bisexual?), Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard killed me (especially since they played him as simultaneously more of a huckster conman and an Evil Walt Disney, and it worked), but the show-stealer was Michelle Yeoh as Morrible for my money.

From the moment Morrible swoops in to smoothly cover for Elphaba's power explosion, knowing what it would mean to her to be spared social ruin, I was on the edge of my seat with such a different take on what's usually just kind of a comic relief diva character. Michelle Yeoh's effortless grace and elegance command screen presence. But the slow creep of her goading Elphaba into intensifying her powers while playing the sympathetic ear/mother figure/mentor only to make the betrayal hit that much harder (I genuinely choked up during the cut to Elphie's face when she hears her saying that her skin is a manifestation of her twisted nature), to say nothing of dangling her approval over Glinda until becoming the shoulder for her to cry on at the end of Defying Gravity...my god. chills. Forget Gelphie, shoutout to all the teenage sapphics with something deeply, deeply wrong with them who are going to have an awakening over this chillingly manipulative milfy sorceress who presents herself as a twisted maternal figure and intellectual colleague.

On the note of Gelphie -- oh my god??? A homoerotic swordfight during What Is This Feeling - are you KIDDING???? They amped it up from the stage show if anything; the Ozdust sequence brought me to tears, and then ended with them joining hands and running off together and leaving Fiyero behind like???? The amount of times they fell over each other? Glinda's thousand-yard stare during No One Mourns The Wicked, Elphaba's longing/fond glances....the love note, are you kidding me. They were baby's first yuri for me so seeing them on the big screen played with such natural chemistry by Cynthia and Ariana warmed my heart and got me super emotional. Sidenote, okay, not to be the boss baby guy about Carrie, but with the changes/additions, Elphaba is kind of Carrie White now and I'm here for it? From the visions to the explosions to baby Elphie already having her powers in the flashbacks...and then you get to the Ozdust scene, and the extended cruelty towards her plays very much as Elphaba's They're All Gonna Laugh At You Moment...only for Glinda to swoop in and dance with her as the Sue Snell, so yeah, we now have fantasy CarrieSue in Oz. We won so hard.

Last bit, to address your point about the cameos -- I really was worried that I'd be cringing at all the lore tie-ins with the '39 Wizard of Oz or the Broadway cameos or any of the other fanservice, but it all tied in and flowed so smoothly at most I was rolling my eyes affectionately rather than in exasperation (the Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead tie-in to No One Mourns The Wicked was shockingly seamless). Stephen Schwartz being the one to invite them to see the wizard got me properly emotional!! Idina and Kristin were hilarious and 10/10 diva legends as always, and the extended Wiz-O-Mania propaganda play/Grimmerie Lore Dump is both a visual and auditory treat. The original Glinda showing up to tell Ari to shut the fuck up during her song got maybe the biggest laugh of the movie out of me, but then they had Idina doing her end of defying gravity 'aaaaaaah ah ahhhh' Elphaba War cry riff as a heehe gag just like...20ish minutes before Cynthia!Elphaba is going to do it for real. Which had me in stitches because it plays then as either subversion of the wizard's propaganda in finding her voice, or Elphaba's a theatre kid and said yeah that was a sick riff I heard 2 hours ago, I'm going to incorporate it into my political loudmouthing after nearly being assassinated 20 times. Fuck you, Oz man, I'm stealing your propaganda riff!

What an ending. What a movie. Can't wait for part 2.

Thanks for asking! <3 hope you're well.

[year2000electronics]

do u watch the sonic movies just for agent stone and robotnik

i mean... originally i was going to, yeah! the exact moment the first ever trailer dropped (april 30, 2019) i was already enamored with jim carrey robotnik, and ready to accept that even if sonic's design didn't get changed (which, come on, this is hollywood... usually if an adaptation sucks then it sucks til the bitter end. some of us certainly didnt see the redesign coming), this movie would be my cult classic. flop or no flop. ugly or pretty sonic.

i guess because... i saw a lot of myself in the spin jim was putting on the character! eggman had always been the sonic character that fascinated me the most as i played all the mario & sonic crossover games as a kid, but the particular interpretation of this robotnik- flowing black coats with red trim, someone who grew up as a very lonely kid and so now compensates with leaning into the "lone wolf of evil" aesthetic, someone who has a hard time emoting and feels more like machine than a person so compensates with BIG, LOUD THEATRICS, and a BOMBASTIC TONE OF VOICE! i looked at him and i saw me. i know it sounds a little silly and a lot of jimbotnik's traits come from the fact that that's just jim carrey's style of humour and slapstick but he's just always been kinda special to me even from the beginning.

but yknow, then sonic's design gets fixed! exciting! and february 2020 rolls around, the EXCITEMENT is in the AIR. me i was always going to be fine, nothing about rob needed to be fixed, but now people are actually EXCITED for the movie! YAY!! i head into the movie, and robotnik is everything i could have ever wanted and more. he's silly. he's COOL. he has his own DANCE SCENE. but then i keep getting flashbanged by these SCENES where robotnik keeps getting like, really handsy with his little assistant he has? like he's putting his hands in his mouth and telling him to pin himself against the wall? and then this emotionally-constipated MESS of a man shouts "I LOVE THE WAY YOU MAKE THEM???" WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WAIT WE'RE JUST MOVING ON? ARE WE GONNA GO BACK? NO?! OKAY!!

so obviously im in love with them. with that aspect of the movie. this improvised relationship where both actors asked themselves the question "wait, if robotnik hates humans, why does he keep this one around?" and that question would stick with me for all these 3 movies. it's just so interesting to think about. not to mention how well stone and robotnik just work together as an onscreen duo

but, y'know, then i started really liking the movie's strange, wacky style of storytelling and jokes- i had never seen a cgi animal movie that took the human characters THIS seriously yknow? and by that i mean characters like tom are goofy ofc but it feels like in movies like smurfs they almost want you to not care about the humans, but here, you have stone going from Figurehead for Robotnik's Parade of Black Suits to Guy Who Genuinely Has An Emotional B-Plot In Sonic 3, because of the love fans showed for the character and for how jim carrey and lee majdoub played off each other. even characters like maddie get more in movie 2 because of how tika sumpter said she wanted her character to do more LIKE... LIKE?!

the humour really gets me too, its so strange in a fun way i love. if i was just watching it for rob and stone i wouldnt be watching the knuckles show. ive grown to ADORE the world of the sonic movies, and the actual superpowered animals are cute too! i like their designs, and yknow, this love i have for the sonic movies HAS inspired me to check out more of the games, the shows, the comics, not only to see more of my beloved robotnik (who, yes, i love EVERY version of now. no version of the eggman can escape my love. he is the perfect man) but also to see the other parts of sonic lore because even if it's not like sonic is my fav of all time... i like the storytelling now!!

but stuff like that- my entire lil rant- i think it's why i try not to get gatekeepy when it comes to fandom. because for every series you were there for in the beginning and have an encyclopedic knowledge of, you will have another one where you're only there for a small part or only have a casual enjoyment of. i like to afford other people that kindness because there come times and places when i will be a casual enjoyer of something, and hopefully people will afford that kindness back to me. because even if i do explore other parts of sonic lore and diligently appreciate all parts of the movie, maybe the fact that i'm so robotnik-&-stone centric is still being too much of a casual for some people. maybe i'm only a fairweather fan. even so- even if people think i'm only watching these movies for rob & stone-

i'm having fun!

[where-fading-princesses-live]

Thoughts on WICKED (2024)

So I finally saw WICKED after procrastinating after its opening weekend. I wanted to wait a bit longer (as excited as I was to see it) because I knew the theaters were going to be packed (they were) and my friend and I got tickets at the last minute before they sold out for that day’s showing. I’ve been a fan of the musical since childhood and I loved the books as a teen and I knew they were making a movie (or talking about it) since I was in middle school. Well it was worth the wait.

I admit the first teaser trailer did not impress me (it looked too much like a spectacle and some of the CGI effects looked over the top and corny). I was going to see it anyway but my initial expectations were low. but the later trailers were better and I was getting more excited to see it. Well the movie did not disappoint. Though I’m a big fan of WICKED, the movie was better than I expected. I definitely want to see it again (preferably at home with less people even tho the movie was made for the big screen, especially with all the tiny details I didn’t notice before when viewing TV spots and clips on my phone and laptop… ) I’d rather watch it on the big screen BUT.

My enjoyment of the movie was almost completely ruined because of the people… no one sang along, thank God, but there were so many distractions and now I remember why I haven’t been to a movie theatre in years. not only did so many people come in late and have to climb over you to get to their seats, but the person sitting next to me whipped out their phone in the middle of the movie and started texting, plus their bright ass screen was so distracting (rude much?). Worst of all, one person thought it was a good idea to drag along their noisy toddlers who kept asking over and over ‘’when’s the movie going to start’’ during the previews, and even when the movie DID start, the kids could not sit still throughout the movie and kept loudly asking their parents for ‘’skittles’’ like I wanted to turn around and tell them to keep their kids quiet or leave. FINALLY they got up and left for good before the Emerald city part, like goddamn if your kids aren’t mature enough to sit through a 2 ½ movie, don’t ruin it for the rest of us. >_<

That being said, I still enjoyed the movie, and you bet your sweet Oz there was a round of applause after it was over, I mean it was THAT good. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a movie where the audience clapped at the end. I think maybe ‘’The Artist’’ back in 2011… which won Best Picture at the Oscars that year. That was a damn good movie, prolly the last one I saw in theaters. I knew WICKED was going to be a big; it’s one of the longest-running shows on Broadway with almost daily record box office sales; its fan base is like Harry Potter-levels huge, so I guess it’s impact was long overdue. Better late than never.

here’s some quick thoughts (I literally have not stopped thinking about it and I saw it about a week ago… suffice to say, I’m obsessed):

The Costumes!!!

So at first I hated Glinda’s bubble dress. I thought it looked cheap compared to the Broadway costume (my dream dress btw) but overtime the design grew on me…

I have no issues with the dress being pink (after all, the non-replica Brazil production did a pink gown).

I still think the Broadway bubble dress is prettier (esp. the way it sparkles and glitters in the stage lighting and I love the blue color… Susan Hilferty was very original with her designs) but I do like the movie costume being a slight nod to the 1939 Wizard of Oz, plus it looks like a quinceañera dress.

I would’ve preferred the dress with puff sleeves, or off the shoulder cap sleeves for modesty, but one detail I really love that is not noticeable unless you’re watching on the big screen is that Glinda has butterfly gems on her shoulders (literally the first time I noticed it was in the movie theatre).

It’s such a nice detail because butterflies seem to be her theme, as a nod to the butterfly choker necklace Billie Burke wears as Glinda.

I actually do like Paul Tazewell as a costume designer. He also did the costumes for ‘’Death Becomes Her’’ on Broadway; his designs are very unusual and elaborate and I loved his visions for Oz.

That being said, I pretty much love Galinda’s whole wardrobe at Shiz (some people complained that they ‘’Barbie-fied Galinda’’ because her style lacks variety esp. when she wears the same color scheme throughout the whole movie) and tho it’s true I’d like to see her in different colors (we will in PART 2), I do think the pink was a nice symbolism. Her Ozdust ballroom dress is esp. unique. (I do like how the dress in the stage show was originally blue to hint at her becoming Glinda the Good Witch; basically she and Elphaba looked like mini versions of their future Witches counterparts… then they changed the dress to pink, so the symbolism was lost).

and it was nice the movie went back to that. So now it makes sense that the bubble dress is pink.

My only complaint is Elphaba’s costumes. Don’t get me wrong—they’re gorgeous—but I’m not sure the designs really reflect her character arc. Costumes aren’t just meant to be pretty… they are literally telling a story, and illustrating the growth of a character. Sometimes characters have to be dressed in something more appropriate for the purpose of the setting and where they’re at in the narrative even if it isn’t the prettiest garment off the rack… it’s not just about looking their best, and I think Paul Tazwell missed this mark. He clearly wanted Elphaba to be a fashion queen—but that’s not her character.

In the musical, Elphaba appears semi-frumpy on purpose. She’s beautiful but insecure due to her skin color and so she covers up in a bulky blazer, she braids her long hair, and wears a cap over her head, as though she is attempting to draw the least bit of attention to herself.

No one recognizes her inner beauty because she lacks the self-confidence to be herself. In the movie, she first appears to us in a beautiful black corset dress with puff sleeves and buttons (Cynthia is absolutely stunning and kills this look) but I’m not sure if Elphaba should look so drop-dead gorgeous when we first meet her (plus she’s fixing her hair in the first shot and it seems so OOC for her… I know Cynthia’s version is softer and more vulnerable than the Broadway version, who’s a bit bold and sarcastic and self-defensive… but Elphie fixing her braid? Not that it’s vain but her hair is the least of her worries in the stage show). And the dress… like I said… much too pretty. I do love her glasses tho.. and I do like the Gothic fashion... it reminds me of A Series of Unfortunate Events... the first dress is just too pretty for a character introduction. I'd like to see her wear this later in the film...

Maybe it wasn’t the intent… the dress is old-fashioned and could be ‘’spinsterish’’ to some, but she looks far from frumpy. Elphaba is already naturally beautiful, but in the stage version she doesn’t undergo an outward physical transformation until after the Ozdust ballroom scene. In the movie, she’s dressed fashionably all the time… and looks beautiful outside and inside. her Shiz uniforms are not Galinda, oh, sure, but she looks incredible in these form-fitting pinstripe suits with these flamboyant shoulder pads, and I feel it doesn’t match Elphaba’s story at all… she’s supposed to be hiding at the beginning of the story (I don’t think you’d catch Broadway Elphaba dead in pinstripes and shoulder pads). Galinda in the show helps bring her out of her shell. But even her Ozdust dress in the movie is a knock out… with the black lace and everything. In the musical, she just wears her plain uniform frock to the dance because she has nothing else.

The movie doesn’t have to copy the stage show exactly, but yeah… I wanted to see Elphaba go through a transformation in her fashions. I wanted to see her start dressing prettier towards the end of the movie, after ‘’Popular’’… like, see, her inner beauty was always there, and it makes her beautiful on the outside too! but she was already dressing pretty and fashionable before that, so it lessens the impact it’s supposed to have as the other students slowly begin to accept her. and after ‘’Popular’’, Elphaba is seen wearing this outfit she wears earlier in the film. Only difference being her hair is not braided, so she really doesn’t look ‘’Galinda-fied’’ to me as the line suggests (she was already ''Galinda-fied'').

In the musical it’s more apparent when she goes to looking like this (something she’s never worn before and doesn’t fit her typical style):

Again, it’s just a minor gripe I had. They probably wanted Elphie’s ‘’make over’’ to be more subtle which is fine… like Elphaba is ALWAYS beautiful… but still.

Nessarose’s Ozdust dress was actually one of my faves in the whole movie. She truly looked like the Belle of the Ball. I love that she’s wearing a poppy necklace…

And those big doe eye of hers... I'M DEAD

If Galinda is butterflies, Nessa’s whole theme seems to be poppies. AND THESE SHOES ARE FIRE I want them and I want the dress. There I said it.

Also her dance with Boq is my favorite scene in the whole movie. It was always my favorite part in ''Dancing Through Life'' and it's so wholesome... knowing how tragic this ends for them both (the rehearsal footage was admittedly better but they both ate and left no crumbs)... give the choreographer all the awards.

As for the other characters, I like the Shiz uniforms and that they maintained the variety and individualisms from the stage show. I kind of wish Fiyero was dressed in something that stood out more. He doesn’t wear his Shiz uniform until after ‘’Popular’’ in the stage version. We first meet him in a riding outfit (he kind of wears a riding outfit when he runs into Elphaba in the movie… but not a bold red one… and red seems to be Fiyero’s color… it fits him better than blue but that's just my opinion).

If it was my choice, I would’ve dressed all the main characters in different outfits and/or colors that stand out from the rest. In the stage version, Galinda and Elphie are technically still dressed in uniforms, but they wear a solid color—Galinda in all cream/ white and Elphie in all navy blue—so they stand out.

I like that they kept this in the movie (only Galinda being in pastel pink tones and Elphie in all black).

Fiyero, Boq, and Nessa should’ve been color coded too. Yes, Boq and Nessa in the stage show wear similar uniforms to everyone else, but they have little details that make them stand out (for instance, Nessa has this headband, and Boq has this little red hat that later productions added… it didn’t exist in the original production, but the costumes kind of evolved over time). I still like Boq’s uniform in the movie (esp. the shoes). I do kind of miss his white boots from the stage show, tho (RIP Boq’s cute white boots).

Unfortunately in the movie they had so many people dressed like Boq that he disappeared into the background, but maybe that was for a reason? Boq is a wallflower; we're not supposed to notice him. I get it. He still should've had something to signify him... a hat, maybe. These sweater vests are sick tho... where can I get one?

The Cast!!!

Ariana and Cynthia of course nailed it. I was skeptical of the casting when it was first announced but they proved me wrong and they were the perfect choices. No one could have played Galinda and Elphaba better. I usually don’t like pop stars in musical movies… I prefer classically trained theatre actors, but since Ari does have a musical theatre background, she ended up surprising me more than anyone else in the cast (esp. where it concerns her operatic notes. I say that because tho I’m familiar with her on 13! the musical, she was terribly miscast as Penny in Hairspray Live! She did not disappear into the role… she was basically playing herself) and I was deathly afraid she would popify the hell out of Galinda. Well, she understood the assignment, she really became Galinda. So props to her.

Not gonna lie. The whole cast was phenomenal but Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage) was my favorite part in the whole movie. I love the scene where Elphaba takes him by the hoof. She was so compassionate and you really feel her heartbreak when he's arrested. Yeah the CGI goat was the best actor I just loved him.

😭😭😭

Fiyero is the Arjiki prince (who was a very minor character in the book and, in my humble opinion, is the least interesting character in the book and the musical), made that much worse when he's traditionally whitewashed… because he was a dark-skinned black man in the book… sure some black actors have played him on stage but I had a feeling they’d cast a white actor in the movie… part of me wished they casted a black actor... well, at least he gets a cool song. HOWEVER I really did love Jonathan Bailey’s portrayal. He wasn’t bland like some of the other actors who’ve played him, and though he’s prince charming good looking, he’s also incredibly funny. I was not expecting to laugh so much at his entrance. Yeah, I liked Fiyero more in the movie. He’s still not my favorite character but hopefully he gets a big meaty part in PART 2. Is it wrong I never shipped Fiyero/ Elphaba? I always thought their chemistry was so boring and forced. Wicked was always a love story between two women anyway. I totally ship Elphaba and Galinda (it’s canon in the book anyway). I loved the scene where Galinda and Elphaba run out of the ozdust ballroom together hand-in-hand and literally leave Fiyero biting the dust.

----

(SPOILER ALERT: That’s how the story should have ended. Who needs a man right? Let the witches be lesbians… a house falls on Nessa, so Boq could end up with Fiyero (since the women they love are in love with each other) let Fiyero be bisexual (Jonathan’s Fiyero already radiates bisexual energy because all the women AND men were falling in love with him). Let him be bi and hit on Boq (Tincrow fans come get your food… you can’t convince me they’re straight). Elphie and Glinda get their happy ending. Problem solved. Everyone’s happy.)

--

Nessa was awesome. She’s a character everyone loves to hate, but yeah, I wish she was in the movie more. Marissa Bode ATE

---

(SPOILER ALERT: In Part 2, she will becomes more Wicked when she assumes the position of the tyrannical Eminence of Munchkinland. Owing to her brutal religious persecution, we'll do well to remember her as the infamous ''Wicked Witch of the East.'' I love me a badass female villain).

---

Speaking of badass female villains, Michelle Yeoh absolutely COOKED as Madame Morrible, and her costumes were more beautiful on the big screen. Part of me wanted Kristin Chenoweth to play Madame Morrible… she slayed as Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray Live! Her rendition of ‘’(The Legend Of) Miss Baltimore Crabs’’ was seriously gas. She plays a very convincing villain, but then they’d have to write her a villain song (not that I’m complaining). Michelle may not be a singer, but she was so quietly sinister as Madame Morrible… I loved her.

I personally wanted more Bowen Yang in the supporting cast (specifically flirting with Fiyero).

Despite the haters (and say what you will), but Ethan Slater was perfectly cast as Boq Woodsman aka the Munchkin Boy. Despite unpopular opinion, I wish he was in the movie more. When I read the book, he looks almost exactly like how I pictured him (mop of curly hair, freckles…). Boq was blonde in the book if I remember correctly, and he wore glasses… so my vision of him was a blonde Daniel Radcliffe… but honestly, the red hair works so well (even better than blonde). And I love that they ended up basing the Munchkins’ look off of Ethan. They all had red curly hair. That was a cool detail.

Boq the Munchkin Boy was actually a major character in the book but the musical shifts Boq's prominence to Fiyero for some reason and this always bothered me. Yeah, Fiyero unapologetically steals Boq's thunder (and I will never forgive the musical for that unnecessary change...) and apparently the movie was going to flesh him out more and make him friends with Elphaba like in the book… they were really close friends and Boq actually played a bigger role than Galinda... in fact, Galinda was very minor in the book compared to her role in the musical.

You wish your squad was this dope.

It seemed like they were going to add more things from the book. Unfortunately, a lot of his scenes got axed (I would watch a full five hours with all the deleted scenes). But Ethan Slater was still good with what he had to work with. Okay, maybe they had to delete his scenes with Elphaba. But I personally wanted more scenes with him and Fiyero… it seems like something was going on between them in ‘’Dancing Through Life’’ (not in that way; Ethan explained in interviews his Boq looked up to Fiyero and tried to emulate him and that makes sense) like a parallel storyline to Elphie and Galinda’s budding friendship. Boq seemed to come out of his shell more around Fiyero, kind of like Elphie gaining confidence around Galinda. I would’ve have minded a scene with Fiyero rooming with Boq and seeing the boys get ready for the dance.

In fact, we just needed more scenes with the Charmed Circle hanging out together in general. They teased us with these scenes for months leading up to the film’s release… only to delete them!!! WE WERE ROBBED

A two-part movie and they still had to sacrifice so much for time constraints.

That was my only other gripe with the film. The lack of development in the friendships of the characters…

This is why the movie really needed to be a TV series spanning multiple seasons, and they could have added so much from the books. Everyone would watch the living crap out of it, and we could have had more character development and world building. Someday I’d love to see an animated tv series based on the books (minus the smex). With all the lovely fanart coming out of this fanbase, think of the cool possibilities for character designs. Yeah a tv series based on the books are in order. (Probably couldn’t get the movie cast but I think Ethan Slater should reprise his role as Boq because he just sounded so much like how I pictured him from the book… he probably fits my vision the most out of everyone who was casted.)

A funny thing happened after the movie… my friend said, ''Why is Boq taller than Glinda?'' And I was like, ''out of the whole 2 1/2 hour movie THAT'S what you got out of it???'' (Anyway most of the actors who played Boq on stage were taller than Glinda by a head or two. He's a ''tall munchkin'' and they should've kept this line in the movie so people wouldn't be confusified.)

Anyway, yeah, despite the minor things, the movie is a solid 11/ 10 stars for me.

They had ONE job. And they nailed it.

[bikananjarrus]

okay, now that i've slept on it, and rewatched the scene, i wanted to dive into a few of the issues i had with that opening of daredevil born again, in particular the fight.

(but putting this all under a cut because spoilers and also because it got a little long oops)

first things first, the elephant in the room: foggy's death. i am not surprised that they killed him (probably killed. i'll come back to this). i guessed this was coming before the show aired, so i felt a bit prepared for this. it sucks and i'm sad, but i'm also not mad about it, namely because i can't wait to see how this drives the other characters, matt in particular.

that being said, if he is dead-dead, i'm waiting until the end of the season to see how it all plays out. i hope if they decide to leave him dead, there's a good reason for it, and we see this arc play out for matt in a well-executed, meaningful way. and if he is permanently dead, again, not mad at it, so long as it means something by the end. but if they decide to go the route of this being based off the comics where foggy is presumed dead for quite some time, but is actually alive and in witness protection, i won't be mad at that either!

regardless if foggy is permanently dead or temporarily dead, in my opinion, i thought the opening scene did lose a bit of its emotional punch, primarily because of how the action and fight scenes played out. (and while i was hoping for at least a full episode with foggy before they killed him, i understand them wanting to dive into the story and matt's darker headspace right away). so i guess i'll do a little breakdown of my thoughts on the fight:

to start, the choppy bits of cgi we got really yanked me out of the moment. the first choppy bit being when we see matt swinging up on the fire escape, and then up onto the roof and running across the rooftops to get to foggy's apartment where benny is stashed. there's a still shot of matt on the fire escape that is definitely charlie, but when we see the wider shots of matt swinging around and even running on the roofs, it's definitely cgi, and it does not look clean. it almost seems like he's running faster than the environment is moving, so it almost looks like he's running in place. and when he's swinging around with his billy clubs, the movements are jerky.

and then when matt and dex are up on the roof of josie's together, and it's the wider shot again, it also looks like cgi versions of them. the movements don't flow very naturally, and the punches look almost fake.

it's only these wide rooftop shots that the cgi is really apparent, because the close up shots look just fine. and i don't know that much about cgi, but what i'm used to seeing in recent disney productions (primarily marvel & star wars) is you have the actors at the forefront and they're usually on the infinity stage, and the entire environment behind them is cgi. with the wide shots of matt and then matt & dex on the rooftops, it almost looked flipped. so the actors weren't real, but the environment was. (i don't actually know if those were real buildings + real rooftops they did some of those shots on, but there were definitely shots where the characters looked like cgi).

all this to say, the bad cgi really took me out of the scene, which is the last thing you want when you're starting up your episode with something this major.

on top of the cgi, i thought the use of the one-shot fight for the majority of the fight was a poor choice. it seemed like they really wanted to say "look! we have really cool fights, too, just like the previous daredevil show! and look we can even choreograph and direct a cool one-shot fight!" But the fight itself should not have been the focus of this scene. the focus of the scene was (or should have been) foggy's death.

i think by keeping the camera on dex and matt for so long actually broke the tension with foggy dying. aside from the one bit of sound editing we got where matt is hearing karen tell foggy to hold on, the fight and foggy dying out on the street almost feel like separate scenes. there's just something about the fight that felt so distant from everything else: foggy, karen, cherry, all the other civilians in danger. daredevil has done some incredible emotional fights in the past, where it's not just about the fight itself, but the emotions carrying that fight (look at the final fight between fisk and matt at the end of s3). there was a weight present in previous fights that i don't think was present here, at least not until the end. and this should have been one of the most emotional, heavy fights of matt's life.

i think it would've worked better if it had focused on matt realizing this was a trap, on matt realizing that foggy has been hurt badly, and we should have gotten more closeups of him, we should have focused more on his desperation to stop dex so he can get to foggy, and stopping dex from hurting anyone else. the one-shot fight made everything feel much more distant (while, imo, being shot in a weirdly claustrophobic way).

but to circle back to the end of the fight, which i thought was the best part of this whole scene. i think a big part of that was that it benefitted from just having traditional directing and changing shots between foggy and karen on the ground, and matt and dex up on the roof. i thought the use of sound design, and hearing the last beat of foggy's heart was excellent! and charlie cox and deborah ann woll absolutely knocked this scene out of the park!! phenomenal job on both their parts! especially when karen heard the body hit the pavement behind her, and for a moment she thought she'd lost both foggy and matt on the same night. that was excellent. that was so well done.

and i just wish the rest of the scene had kept up the tension and the emotion that was present in that last minute or so. but for me, at least, i thought this was really poor placement of a one-shot fight, and between that and the bad cgi, i was really taken out of the scene a couple times. the actors carried the scene, but it would have been really amazing to see the emotional gut punch of foggy's death if it had just been directed a bit differently.