#no shade to Rupert Sanders but... yes.

[corvuserpens]

Alright girlies, I just came back from watching The Crow (2024) and

I'm sorry babes, but it's better than Wicked Prayer. Not better than the 1994 original -- but better than Wicked Prayer. This is your obligatory 🚨🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨🚨 don't say I didn't warn you.

To everyone who recently followed me for Black Sails, we'll get back to that soon, just lemme dump my thoughts on this movie bc The Crow was a game changer for little nine-year-old me back in the good ol' 90's. It's the movie that turned me into a baby bat.

So first things first: the cinematography. Gorgeous. Nice sets, great lighting. Mood always on point. Aesthetics to die for.

Second of all: score. AWESOME. They had Joy Division's Disorder playing while Eric and Shelly were escaping the rehab center and when that first beat started playing, I almost screamed in the mostly empty theater and started tapping along to it. Immediate B- for the movie just for that. But the rest of the music was just as good imo, it slapped so hard that now I have to look it up and play it non-stop. Surprising amount of goth and darkly-inclined music in there, which I was not expecting given the overall appearance of the lead characters.

The story, as I already expressed in a previous post, was generic but at least it had some themes to it that I found interesting. I couldn't really relate to the lifestyle these characters were leading, and honestly, the whole "oh they had a fucked up childhood and it led them into a life of crime/bohemian lifestyle that will be their end", y'know, "live fast, die young," is kinda old for me. I've seen it too many times for it to be edgy anymore. I get this is a reality for many people and I feel or them, obviously. I just don't think it's original anymore. Or maybe it's just not my kind of tea, which is fine. If it is for someone else, more power to them!

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. Themes. I may not relate to the lifestyle, but I do relate to the whole "loving someone so much you can't imagine yourself living without them" which is what spurs on the whole conflict. From the very beginning, the movie doesn't hesitate to tell us "these two are doomed by the narrative so all the happy times they have won't last." And I will say, FKA Twigs and Bill Skarsgard have insane chemistry. Eric and Shelly's story is very brief and their relationship is only a speck in each of their lifetimes... but they sell the genuine love between them SO well, which lends an extra bit of flavor to the whole tragedy. They only knew each other for such a short amount of time, but the love was there. The connection was there. The threads of a future were just beginning to weave together, and then they were all cut away in the blink of an eye.

In the original movie, the tragedy of Eric Draven and Shelly Webster mirrored James O'Barr's own loss: they had their entire future set up in front of them, all these plans. They were on the eve of their wedding, and then they were brutally murdered. The tragic element in the new movie isn't lessened. It's just different. And I enjoyed that.

One thing I didn't really enjoy was the whole hell premise and the villain who made a bargain with the devil for eternal life in exchange for innocent souls. First of all, that's not how Satan works and this is slander of the highest order. No, I'm not a Satanist, but I respect the guy. Second of all, it's another tired old trope that needs to be put to rest. I find it much more interesting when human characters do evil shit because they act upon their evil impulses, which we all have, NOT because "the devil made them do it." Just... ugh. No, I loved Top Dollar in the 1994 movie because he was some fucked up little dude who lived for mayhem and death and had impeccable taste in Victorian fashion, who happened to dab in the occult along with his half-sister whom he liked to fuck. He was theatrical and extremely Edgy for the time and that's why he's so iconic and memorable. I don't need a villain who sold his soul for eternal life. Let him be evil for evil's sake, you don't need to sell your soul for that, damn. Not to mention Roeg felt flat and uninteresting. The connection to predatory men in high positions of power who prey on the dreams of young women artists was there, but they made it so on-the-nose that it sucked the interest out of it. Eh.

Now. The whole abandoned train station as a liminal space between life and death and the mysterious man who may or may not be an angel (or the skeletal cowboy from the comic book). There's an interesting concept. And the whole using puddles of dirty water, and rivers or other bodies full of liquid (a tub at some point) as a portal to and from that space? Simple, yet effective. Reminds me a little too much of the meme of the girl on the swing who jumps off into a puddle and disappears through it, but regardless. I think Eric jumps to and from there a bit too often and it breaks the mysticism a bit, but whatever.

I did enjoy the fact that Eric doesn't get his full powers immediately after dying, and I DID like the detail that, as long as his love for Shelly remains pure, his body will always heal because, as the Mysterious Man points out, the death/corruption/undoing of love (can't remember his exact words) isn't hate; it's doubt. As the story progresses and Eric finds out Shelly's Big Dark Secret™, his love for her falters, so his body begins to fail. It ties perfectly to the end of act one, when Shelly asks him to promise that when she becomes hard to love, to love her harder.

Which brings me to Shelly's backstory. It wasn't bad. I can understand the whole "your mom pushed you too hard when you showed signs of great artistic potential and it led her to manipulate you, abuse you and expose you to things a young girl shouldn't be exposed to" so she had to escape from her clutches, but the things she saw fucked her up and she turned to drugs and alcohol to cope.

But at this point, when she reveals she has this Big Dark Secret™ that she can't tell Eric about or else he wouldn't love her anymore, we already know that the villain made a bargain with the devil, so he has the ability to reach into the darkest parts of a person's soul and force them to act on it. And that kinda spoils the moment when it's revealed that Shelly killed someone. Because y'know, her soul is Pure and Good and she would never actually kill anyone because if she did, then she'd really deserve going to hell! Just... No. That's not how women work. That's not even how people work! People are imperfect, that's what makes us human. It would have been so much more interesting if Shelly had in fact killed that random girl, like, I dunno, over money, over drugs, over blackmail or something random and stupid that made her act out and then had it haunt her for the rest of her life, I don't fucking know! But no. She killed her because Roeg made her, exempting her from the blame and the consequences instantly. Boring. Let Eric learn all the fucked up things Shelly did and love her anyway. Let her get a little redemption for her bad choices by earning his full, unconditional love because that's all any of us wants, isn't it? To have someone see how rotten we are and say we are enough for them despite it all. Goddamn.

Okay, what else. The comedic timing. The stupid pun when they first meet, the opera music playing over Eric going ballistic in the hall, the fact he got stabbed with his katana in the back, but two minutes later, somehow the katana flipped around so Eric can pull it out of his front?? That was such a 2000's era movie mistake, lmao. Very charming.

No officer Albrecht or Sarah as a human stand-in for Eric's moral compass or to remind him of Shelly or all the other people they loved and who he will have to leave behind when all's said and done? Bad.

For a movie titled The Crow, there was a sad lack of crow influence in the movie. Eric isn't connected to his crow in any way. No more whole "you kill the crow, you kill the man" anymore, which is bullshit. Bill Skarsgard doesn't even get to have a crow perching on his shoulder??? What is this??????????? Big boo. The crow was the central focus of all the other movies bc it was the protagonist's link to the land of the living. It was a constant presence to remind us that, when all the wrong things have been set right, the crow would lead him back to the land of the dead to rest. As it were, in this installment, the crow was a prop and nothing more. If it hadn't been there, the story wouldn't be affected in the slightest. This is where this film fails to be a The Crow movie to me: one of them is still alive by the end when that's not what The Crow as a franchise is about.

The original comic book was an expression of tremendous grief and loss over a loved one, by how untimely and unfair it was. In the end, the protagonist, whomever they may be, dies so that they can be with that person they lost and they can be at peace in whatever comes after life. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty compelling to have Eric learn Shelly is going to hell and offers to trade his soul for hers, and it is okay that in the end, Shelly is brought back to life while Eric remains dead. I mean, the whole bit with the mysterious man being a first responder and telling Shelly that Eric fought hard over her? Heart-wrenching. In a different movie, I would be all about it, but this is supposedly a The Crow movie and it broke the precedent imposed by the previous installments, both in comic book and movie format. So... Yeah, that's a no from me. Themes of grief and loss? Never heard of her.

To wrap this post up 'cause it's getting too long: I liked that the Marion character seemed to have a thing going on with her body-guard or wtv he was? You know, the one who killed Shelly? That was a nice little side detail I noticed. The themes were nicely established, but didn't tie up too well, I think. Too many loose ends or things left unexplored. I was glad we didn't get the schmuck happy ending in which the Universe or Entity or what have you deemed Eric's love for Shelly pure enough that he wouldn't go to hell in her stead and they were both brought back to life and lived happily ever after. But we also didn't get to see Eric getting dragged to hell in the end either, that was a missed opportunity to really let the consequences of his choices sink into the audience and make us all leave the room completely horrified. Would make for a much more impactful credit roll. Or maybe I'm just fucked in the head, idk.

The defeat of the villain felt unsatisfying. Did like the whole "you corrupted her (into killing that girl)" "you can't corrupt what's not in there already" thing, but if at the end of the fight Eric had gotten a little monologue about how "it's not about whether the corruption is in there or not, it's your choices not to act on it that really matters" before shoving Roeg into the jaws of hell, that would have helped matters along, me thinks. Hate that the movie has to hand-hold the audience through making connections between what's said at the beginning of the story and when later the characters mirror it with actions. I get we went through covid and all our memory and attention span got royally scrambled for it, but come on. We're not little kids. Let the setup/payoff ratio stand on its own, I promise people will remember.

All in all, hour and half well spent, I wasn't bored and my eyes had a feast with the visuals. I'll give it a 6/10👍 Would have been better as a stand-alone action flick instead of being advertised as a new The Crow installment (and really, it's trying to be a more faithful adaptation of the comic book? Even Donald fucking Trump couldn't make up a lie this blatant), but I enjoyed myself and that's what matters.

[plentyofshade]

Kristen Stewart has admitted in a recent interview with 'The Howard Stern Show,' that if her ex-boyfriend Robert Pattinson would had proposed to her, she would have said yes. _______________________________ When Howard Stern asked Stewart whether she would have married Pattinson had he proposed, she said: "I wanted to... yeah," She added: "I don't know, I'm not a super-duper traditionalist, but at the same time, every relationship I've ever been in, I thought that was it. I've never really been the most casual person." _______________________________ Kristen Stewart also said that Robert Pattinson was her first love and the "best." _______________________________ The Twilight stars ended their relationship in 2012 after Kristen's alleged affair with movie director Rupert Sanders got leaked to the news and made headlines. Robert and Kristen did give their relationship a last chance, despite the cheating scandal, ultimately to call it quits the following year. _______________________________ The actress is currently dating screenwriter Dylan Meyer and Pattinson is also in a relationship. (📸: koimoi.com composite/Getty Images) . . . . . . . . #Actress #twilight #KristenStewart #Plentyofshade #Gossip #entertainment #Shade #tea #Plentyofnews #Drama #RobertPattinson #DylanMeyer #hollywood #Relationship https://www.instagram.com/p/B4psVSWF2Ln/?igshid=10oa1hgpfxxo

[stgeorgesmovielover-blog]

Review: Ghost In The Shell, 1

The long-awaited release of Japanese cultural phenomenon, Ghost in the Shell has released as a futuristic, neon-clad explosion of all things science-fiction, dystopian and AI (Artificial Intelligence). In the ever-expanding universe of the Japanese Anime, the United States of America is a failed state, a (no longer) united nation that has, in a desperate ploy to regain its lost glory, resorted to militant imperialism and surprise, surprise: its first target is Mexico.

The landscape of this new world is not only prescient (let's not forget, for those in the know, that the original Manga started way back in 1989. Yep- I was 1!), but like all the best dystopian and science-fiction diegeses, it is shockingly so! It's one thing to simply present a detailed, complex world so remarkably well- and the Japanese franchise does this so well- but it is quite another to showcase a fantastical scenario and ensure that it never quite becomes unbelievable, but rather always remains uncomfortably close to the edge of becoming a reality!

No surprises, then, to learn that the Wachowski brothers, have sited Ghost in the Shell as one of their biggest inspirations and influences for the utterly brilliant masterpiece: The Matrix (the first one, before things did become a little too far-fetched and insane)! But where this remake of Ghost in the Shell differs from The Matrix is in its depth. Like Major (played by Scarlett Johansson), the highly skilled, cybernetic soldier- and our Protagonist, whose human memories (the ghosts) are enveloped inside a synthetic body (the shell), this Blockbuster remake is clearly fascinated by, and drawn to, the compelling concepts of the original; however, the reboot only manages to skim the surface in much the same way that you or I might have a gander at the Religion or Philosophy sections in an old bookshop: with interest, but nowhere near enough conviction! We've all been there, when we want to read-up and educate ourselves so that we sounds smart and intellectual, but we can't really be bothered to do the research.What we have instead, with Ghost in the Shell, is a film that (in a fairly reasonable way, given that it is a $100 million US production), casually bypasses the lone person perusing through the pages of Arthur Koestler's, 'The Ghost in the Machine', hidden in and amongst the dusty psychology and philosophy shelves, and makes a beeline for the 'Bestsellers' section, with towers of thrillers, spy and espionage actions, graphic novels and science fiction. It is definitely a shame that Director, Rupert Sanders, seems to have been more preoccupied and seduced by the cheap thrills and highlights, instead of the darker, cerebral concepts that the original is known for.

But beneath the surface of its vibrant, gorgeous, larger-than-life visuals, and stunningly designed diegesis (take the toxicity of Blade Runner's LA, and cross it with the almost fetishised neon canvases and cultural stylings of downtown Tokyo/Hong Kong), there is a story about privacy, immigration, the notion of consent and finding humanity in a world that is silently and increasingly moving further and further away from what it means to be human. It is normal for the inhabitants of this world to rely on technology, daily. It is basically almost a given that everyone has some form of technology enhancing or extending their lives, so much so, that it is rare to find someone that doesn't have, say, x-ray eyes, a highly powerful artificial limb, or highly sensitive hearing, for example. One of my favourite moments of the film is when Major sits opposite a fully human woman and is fascinated by her natural beauty and the softness of her face, all while she tries to remember what it must be like to be human, in a human body.

The Major is the first of her kind. She is told that her family were killed in a terrorist attack and that only she survived, but that her body was too damaged beyond repair and so it was salvaged and replaced by Hanka Robotics, the world’s leading manufacturer of this new normal. But instead of inserting an Artificial Intelligence, her human brain is the one part of her body that has remained intact. She is their experimental weapon, a highly skilled, highly intelligent fighting machine, designed to take down the same cyber-terrorists who made her into what she is. One year later, an enigmatic new threat known only as Kuze, hacks into several geisha robots and uses them to stage and facilitate an assassination attempt on the first of Hanka Robotics’ leading figures and researchers. Major and her team manage to save them, but as a result, instigate a police procedural that descends into a surprisingly stoic film noir plot of corporate misdeeds, underworld gangsters, and morally grey characters.

Speaking of hard-to-pin-down characters, Major is as grey-shaded as they come. Johansson brings a subtle humanity to a role that is basically a robot and, as a result, she is utterly compelling and keeps us engaged throughout (even when the commodity of the aesthetics starts to fade). Yes, it's safe to say that this is another quietly groundbreaking role for Ms. Johansson, who never seems to shy away from taking on lesser-known/surreal characters and bringing them into the mainstream for all of us to see. She is bold, yet understated, nuanced yet detached, human yet robotic. She is excellent in the role! So even when perpetual gawking at the cinematography seems a little stale, Johansson brings a story of self-discovery as the duality of her being is ever present: the Ghost versus the Shell.

Unfortunately, there is still a 'but'. If this screenplay were written better- illustrating more confidence in us: the audience (because seriously, we actually do have brains), and had a more talented filmmaker at the helm, one who doesn't simply employ the stylistic use of visuals to make his film look cooler whilst sacrificing the actual narrative (I'm sorry Sanders, but Snow White and the Huntsman was just plain awful!),

Ghost in the Shell could have been a much better film, one that would easily (and impressively) start off the Summer Blockbuster season with a bang, all whilst not shying away from the bigger concepts, issues and questions at hand.

On the plus side, it is very hard to shield my excitement over the sight of the great 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano (the man, known mostly outside of Japan as the don behind some of the most infamous Yakuza films), gunning down thugs in a beautifully shot, dank alleyway, dripping in neon hues! Yes, please! The legend lives on, and what an awesome presence he has on screen.

Ghost in the Shell is deserving of a watch; at the very least the film will wow you with its stunning visuals and Scarlett Johansson's ease of navigation through the not-quite-human, but emotively empathic landscape of a character in-between. And if you are a fan of the original Japanese Anime, then this should add to your imagined reality of Major's world, even if it does fall just short of expectations.

3/5