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cantsayidont · 11 months ago

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August 1984. This won't change anyone's feelings about cult movie perennial THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI: ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION one way or the other, but if you're wondering what the hell the deal is supposed to be with Buckaroo Banzai and his team, the answer is, "It's an obvious pastiche of the pulp hero Doc Savage."

Launched in 1933, Doc Savage was one of the leading adventure heroes of the pulp magazines. Doc (whose full name was Clark Savage Jr.) was scientifically trained from childhood to the peak of human perfection, singularly adept in everything from mechanical engineering to medicine to martial arts. He had a secret headquarters called the Fortress of Solitude and a whole array of specially designed vehicles and equipment, but he was also a public figure, with offices in the Empire State Building. Doc had a team of eccentric, highly specialized aides — Monk Mayfair, Ham Brooks, Renny Renwick, Long Tom Roberts, and Johnny Littlejohn — who each had a particular skill and a couple of distinctive personality traits (for instance, Monk was a skilled industrial chemist, but also an "ape-like" brute with a ferocious temper). They were sometimes aided by Doc's cousin, Pat Savage, who was almost as capable as Doc, although he tried to keep her out of the fray because she was (gasp) a girl.

This was a fairly common pattern for pulp heroes. For instance, the pulp version of the Shadow (who was distinctly different from the radio incarnation) relied on a whole network of agents, some appearing only once or twice, some recurring across many of his published adventures. From a narrative standpoint, the agents and assistants had two principal purposes: The first was to offset the rather overpowered heroes — pulp heroes didn't necessarily have superhuman powers, but even those who didn't tended to be preternaturally skilled at nearly everything, so it was convenient to limit their direct involvement in an adventure to crucial moments, and let the assistants (who could be much more fallible) do much of the legwork. The second object was to beef up the characterization. Doc Savage was morally irreproachable as well as absurdly multi-talented, so there wasn't a lot to be done with him character-wise, while maintaining the mystique of a character like the Shadow required him to remain a fairly closed book.

Although the pulp heroes were a huge influence on early comic book superheroes like Superman and Batman, some of these conventions didn't translate well to other media: In a 13-page comic book story or half-hour radio episode, having too many characters was cumbersome (and expensive, where it meant hiring extra actors), and comic book readers normally expected to follow their four-color heroes quite closely, even before the breathless internal monologue became a genre staple. So, Superman inherited Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude, but not his "Fabulous Five" assistants, while heroes like Batman and Captain America generally stuck with a single sidekick rather than a team of aides. Even the late Doc Savage pulp adventures (which ended in 1949) de-emphasized the assistants to keep the focus more on Doc himself. Ultimately, the pulp heroes didn't really have the right narrative center of gravity for visual media, which is why they've become relatively obscure, despite repeated revival attempts. The 1975 Doc Savage movie with Ron Ely, for instance, was a notorious commercial flop, and elements like Doc's childishly bickering assistants seemed odd and dated, even taking into account the film's nostalgia-bait '30s period setting.

What BUCKAROO BANZAI tried to do was to bring that old pulp hero formula into the modern era with a big infusion of '80s style and humor. Like Doc Savage, Buckaroo is a wildly gifted polymath (in the opening scenes, he rushes from performing brain surgery to test-driving his Jet Car through a mountain), so famous and important a personage that he puts the president of the United States on hold, and he surrounds himself with an array of brilliant, eccentric aides with silly nicknames who play in his rock band when they're not fighting crime or doing advanced scientific experiments.

Alas, judging by the poor box office returns, general audiences were no more amenable to the '80s version of this formula than they had been to DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE nine years earlier, even with the 1984 film's extraordinary cast and memorably witty dialogue. Granted, even many of the movie's most diehard fans are baffled by the convoluted plot — a crucial expository scene where the leader of the Black Lectroids (Rosalind Cash) explains much of what's going on is nigh-incomprehensible without subtitles or closed captioning — but beyond that, THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI is essentially an extended riff on a particular slice of pop culture that had long since dropped out of the public consciousness, which is both part of its charm and also its commercial undoing, at least as mainstream entertainment.

(Also, if you're wondering, yes, the TOM STRONG series by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse is also an obvious Doc Savage pastiche, although at least some of its plot and character concepts were probably retoolings of unused ideas from Moore's earlier Maximum Press/Awesome Comics SUPREME series, which was an extended pastiche of the pre-Crisis Superman.)

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kitkatt0430 · 9 months ago

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Anyway because I'm in a sci fi mood right now (and rewatched the film recently) and you mentioned that you loved the film - I would love to know about your more detailed thoughts on Independence Day!!

It is absolutely a silly, feel good film to me. I love so much about it. Brent Spiner's delivery of all his lines before the alien autopsy gone wrong, Will Smith dragging an alien through the desert while bitching at it (he deserves to), Judd Hirsch and Jeff Goldblum's excellent chemistry as a father and son duo... even the music choice at the start of the movie - I can't hear R.E.M.'s It's the End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) without thinking of this movie and it fits the overall theme of the movie soooo well.

I like the President character - not surprising, I generally like Bill Pullman's character acting - and he works well as someone trying hard to keep it together and do the right thing despite grieving his personal loss of his wife during the first act of the movie.

(Apparently they reused the White House set from The American President, which amuses me trivia wise since that's another movie I enjoy. And if I watch one right after the other, I can pretend Thomas Whitmore was elected after Andrew Shepherd's second term and then contemplate how the Shepherd family and their secret security agents fared the aliens.)

But Steven Hiller is probably my favorite character, though, because he's just fun. He's relaxed and confident in his relationships in a way that says he's comfortable both with who he is and who they are, even if others are more judgemental about it.

That said, I do really enjoy David a lot - an MIT grad who is overqualified for his job and his father doesn't seem to understand why he won't/can't get a better job, though it's rooted in love and wanting his son to be happier. I see a lot of mental health struggles in David that are relatable, even if they're not similar to my own issues.

I always feel so bad for the alien groupies at the start of the movie. Yeah, we're supposed to see them as being kinda idiots, but they're just excited and hopeful and it's sad that they die for being willing to hope that maybe the aliens come in peace and want to hang out or party. They just wanted to believe in a better future and that's really not so bad.

The end of the movie comes together really well. Despite it being a bit ridiculous that David can create a virus that can propagate to every alien ship from the mothership and kill their shielding after being totally unfamiliar with the alien tech just days earlier... it's somehow just plausible enough that I can suspend disbelief and just enjoy David and Steven having their infiltration mission. And the Independence Day speech that Whitmore gives before the world wide attack on the alien ships always gets to me. It's cheesy but it gets to me.

#kitkatt0430 answers #independence day (ID4)#kitkatt0430 rambles #fandom meta #thanks for asking

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spaceorphan18 · 2 years ago

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Marvel Movie Night: Thor Ragnarök

*blows dust off movie reviews*

It's been a while! And I stopped just as the movies were starting to really get good. Looking at the list, we're kind of moving into when Marvel hits the heights of its power.

So, I'm going to be honest, I don't have a whole lot to say about this film. It's good. It's solidly good. It's before Taika Waititi goes off the rails a bit, and when the MCU allowed itself to stray a bit from its own convention. It's fun and wacky and stills know when to put in the heart. And as we all know, Thor needed some much needed lightning to really elevate the character, who struggled on his own. It works, I feel like I can't really add to what's already been said a hundred times over.

I'm going to just bullet point the few thoughts that I do have...

Thor and Loki's sibling relationship is really the heart of this one. While Loki can seem to be on his own, I feel like one thing missing from Thor's fourth movie was Loki.

Doctor Strange is fantastic in this movie. I kind of wish we got this version of the character more often.

All the bright colors! It's a nice homage to the drug induced insanity of 70s comics.

Most of the comedy in this film really lands. Though there are a few things, here and there, that don't. I don't think the opening bit is that amusing, but it definitely sets the tone.

There are some really beautiful sequences in here - like Odin's death and the death of the Valkyries. The film is grounded when it needs to be, and that's a nice touch.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tessa Thompson is great in this film. I don't more to elaborate on, but the character is a good addition.

All the Korg stuff is perfect.

I'm not usually a big Hulk fan, but I think he's used to great affect here. I feel like Marvel should do more team-up movies like this.

Every time Thor brought up his weird dreams, it made me think about how much Age of Ultron was really just a set up movie for this.

I'm a little torn about Hela. Cate Blanchett seems to be enjoying herself a lot, and I appreciate the camp of her not taking herself too seriously. But they really didn't do much with her since she was away from the action for so much of the film. She feels a little flat because of it.

There are a few things that don't quite land - the disposal of the Warriors Three just feels gratuitously mean. Sure, I didn't think they worked in the films either, but I felt like there could have been a more respectful way to send them off. Also, everything with Idris Elba feels like it's from some other fantasy movie.

Jeff Goldblum is a comedic genius. 'Yay, us!'

When Thanos shows up after the credits, it feels uncomfortably dark. It felt a little bittersweet that this is the last Thor and Loki adventure (possibly - it's the MCU so who really knows).

Final Verdict: It's a good film! The one thing I couldn't help feeling when watching this one is how, yes, the MCU does have a bit of same-ness to everything it does. But at least this movie has a ton of fun doing it.

Next Up: Black Panther! For which I have no pity comment.

#mcu #marvel movie nights #thor #thor ragnarok #movie review

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gayregis · 4 years ago

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Do you like Regis' design in tw3 ? Have any actor headcanons who could play him in twn ?

omg no i hate him 😭😭 im so glad you asked though

here’s a quick rundown of the specific things i hate about regis’s design by cdpr:

the biggest issues to me are the following: ( and @ everyone reading... don’t try and excuse any of these with “but he was recovering from regeneration / healing / he was tired / stressed / upset” because cdpr could have just written a better plotline then):

he doesn’t smile very much in b&w. like... very much at all. and in the books, every time he is mentioned, he smiles with pursed lips, as is his custom. he kind of has this air of being amused by geralt in bof, smiling with pursed lips and then proceeds to be a true friend to him in tos and lotl, smiling with teeth on occassion. i consider this to be part of his character design because for characters like dandelion and regis, their smile is just an essential part of their visual description as a character.

the hairline..... i hate this count olaf pennywise motherfucker. cdpr tries to make their main characters look insanely different from every npc and that, to me, is not good character design. they should design for how the character is described and how the character feels, what visual elements do they think embodies the character.

regis should not stand out. the entire point of him is that he looks just like a regular normal human guy. for this reason, the claws and teeth annoy me (not to mention regis is described as having just regular fangs and not all pointed teeth, not to even breach the topic of his having all pointed teeth the same shape/length would be difficult for animals to live with, look at the skulls of mammalian apex predators and you will find variation in their teeth).

where is his apron. it’s almost akin to twn removing jaskier’s plum bonnet with an egret/heron feather. it not only symbolizes his profession as a surgeon, but also his domestic qualities and general approachableness. it makes him look kinder, imo. he may heal you or he may bake you bread... either works

where is his cloak. a nice black cape i think is ESSENTIAL for a powerful vampire to have.

he wears some fancy and expensive-looking items. doctors in medieval times were not treated like they are today, regis is not living on a $150,000K+ annual salary, and nor do i think he wants to... he is a humble and sincere man, he spends 1/3 of his year living in the wildnerness. he wouldn’t care so much about fancy clothes unless the occassion called for it, like in beauclair, and then he would wear a nice fancy black velvet jacket that makes him look like a vampire. i think just giving him a simple black coat would suffice, maybe a linen shirt instead of a highly embroidered and decorated one. one key element about regis is that even though he tends to lecture, he never intends to make others feel inferior to him, i feel his outfit in b&w represents someone who is formal and would use their status to demean others...

fingerless gloves. i like the fingerless gloves but they are incredibly impractical for a medic to wear... i think just no gloves would suffice (in bof, regis asks geralt to hurriedly pour a solution over his hands so he can perform surgery immediately, i feel that having to take off your gloves would waste valuable time.

regis should look kind, humble, run-of-the-mill skinny guy chilling in a cemetery at midnight, approachable, yet also a little ... off? it’s in the way he smiles maybe, hiding something...

also (god im so negative, anon i sincerely apologize because you came here just asking questions and im like NO >:( I HAVE HATE IN MY HEART, i want to reiterate that i really appreciate this question because i love talking about the subject of character designs, the books vs the games, and regis as well) but also, i do hate twn, and i hope they skip him entirely or bastardize him so hard that there will be no resemblance and that no one in the fandom will ever care about him, because his character in the books has so much nuance and twn could never.

i don’t really... have fancasts... because i don’t watch very many movies or tv shows... (also because i don’t think live action is the way to adapt the witcher!! we need a 2D animated series in a very beautiful unique style that becomes a cult classic!!!!) but as a joke one time i proposed jeff goldblum bc of the way he speaks and acts and also since he’s tall, skinny, and salt-n-pepper-y, and i had a good laugh, and then i started to consider and was like hm ok actually yeah sure why not. but i don’t really know him as an individual, and i think he did some shit, or was involved in a scandal, as all actors in hollywood do...

tbh im not horribly picky when it comes to casting because i feel like acting and writing is more important than casting. but they should you know also fit the description of the character. im still kinda bitter about jaskier and yennefer’s hair in twn, and twn also requiring cavill to beef up for the role of geralt even though geralt in the books literally starves nightly... ok lol... but yeah as long as the actor is some middle aged skinny (tall, thats my headcanon) guy with salt and pepper/greying hair, preferably a long haircut, no beard but maybe stubbly, and has dark eyes and kind of a pretty face, a little bit angular but not sharp features, and sincere kindness in the eyes, then i’m good i don’t really care much about casts... just act good please....

#regis #tw3 #the witcher netflix #anon #ask

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itsrahulpradeepposts · 4 years ago

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All You Need to Know About Deepfake AI

Technology has transformed the world at a rapidThe introduction of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence across various platforms and industries has impacted human existence with both sets of positives and negatives. In this article, we’ll talk about a new technology that is making heads turn: Deepfake.

What is Deepfake AI?

Famously called AI that deceives, deepfake technology takes its name from deep learning, which is a form of AI. In deepfake AI, deep learning algorithms that teach themselves how to solve problems with large data sets, are used to swap faces in videos, images, and other digital content to make the fake appear real.

Deepfake content is created by using two algorithms that compete with one another. One is called a generator and the other one is called a discriminator. The generator creates the fake digital content and asks the discriminator to find out if the content is real or artificial. Each time the discriminator correctly identifies the content as real or fake, it passes on that information to the generator so as to improve the next deepfake.

When clubbed together, these two algorithms form a generative adversarial network called GAN. It uses a set of algorithms to train itself to recognize patterns which help it in learning the real characteristics needed to produce fake images.

What is the Use of a Deepfake?

Deepfake is majorly used for entertainment purposes. For example, the famous deepfake roundtable that featured some super-famous faces like Tom Cruise, George Lucas, Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Goldblum. This roundtable was the way of streaming services to grab your attention as it showed these superstars discussing streaming and the future of cinema in an amusing video.

The main purpose of deepfake is to influence viewers and listeners to believe something that did not happen. This is why it is mostly used in movies for a creative effect when the entertainers are not available themselves. Another popular example is in the Star Wars series when deepfake was used to show characters as they appeared in their youth or replace characters who had died. In fact, there are times when online retailers have used this technology to allow customers to try clothes and accessories virtually.

But the examples given till now were solely used for entertainment. Things get nefarious when people use this technology to spread false information from an otherwise reliable source, perform financial fraud, data breaching, phishing scams and automated disinformation attacks.

How Can You Spot a Deepfake?

Now, here comes the big question. How do you spot deepfake videos?

Here are some of the things to look for while identifying deepfake videos:

Awkward facial positioning

If the person’s face is pointing one way and their nose is pointing the other way

Unnatural body movement

When someone looks distorted or their movements are not smooth and disjointed

Unnatural coloring

Discoloration, misplaced shadows and abnormal skin tone are signs that you are watching a deepfake

Misalignment

When the visuals are misaligned or blurry

Images that look unnatural as you zoom in or slow down

If you watch a video on a larger screen and zoom in, you can pay more heed to things like bad lip-syncing

Inconsistent audio

Deepfakes spend more time on video images than fixing the audio. Look out for strange word pronunciation, digital background noise or even for that matter, the absence of noise

Absence of blinking

You can see someone’s face and tell if they are saying something without batting an eyelid. That’s a very good sign to detect a deepfake

How to Combat Deepfakes with Technology?

Several organizations have come together to ensure that AI is used for good and deepfakes do not ruin lives. Here they are:

Google works on text to speech conversion tools to verify speakers

Deeptrace is a startup based out of Amsterdam that is developing deepfake AI detection tools: just like a deepake antivirus

US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding research to create automated screening of deepfake using a program called MediFor or Medical Forensics

Adobe’s system allows you to attach some signature to your content to specify the details of creation

Twitter and Facebook have officially banned the use of malicious deepfakes

Sensity has developed a detection platform that alerts users through e-mail when they are watching something deepfake

Using AI Sensibly

In the vase of deepfakes, AI is being pitted against AI. But just like every coin has two sides, we should remember that the right use of technology is the only ethical practice. Now AI tools are being built to fight deepfake.

Awareness amongst individuals is extremely important to detect and demote false AI. But how can we know something is false if we don’t know about it at all?

That’s why Great Learning brings you The Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence.

#artificial intelligence #machine learning #best artificial intelligence course #Greatlearing AI course

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birdlord · 4 years ago

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Everything I Watched in 2020

We’ll start with movies. The number in parentheses is the year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. Here’s 2019’s list.

01 Little Women (19)

02 The Post (17)

03 Molly’s Game (17)

04 * Doctor No (62)

05 Groundhog Day (93)

06 *Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (86)

07 Knives Out (19) My last theatre experience (sob)

08 Professor Marston and his Wonder Women (17)

09 Les Miserables (98)

10 Midsommar (19) I’m not sure how *good* it is, but it does stick in the ol’ brain

11 *Manhattan Murder Mystery (93)

12 Marriage Story (19)

13 Kramer vs Kramer (79)

14 Jojo Rabbit (19)

15 J’ai perdu mon corps (19) a cute animated film about a hand detached from its body!

16 1917 (19)

17 Married to the Mob (88)

18 Klaus (19)

19 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (19) If Little Women made me want to wear a scarf criss-crossed around my torso, this one made me want to wear a cloak

20 The Last Black Man in San Francisco (19)

21 *Lawrence of Arabia (62)

22 Gone With the Wind (39)

23 Kiss Me Deadly (55)

24 Dredd (12)

25 Heartburn (86) heard a bunch about this one in the Blank Check series on Nora Ephron, sadly after I’d watched it

26 The Long Shot (19)

27 Out of Africa (85)

28 King Kong (46)

29 *Johnny Mnemonic (95)

30 Knocked Up (07)

31 Collateral (04)

32 Bird on a Wire (90)

33 The Black Dahlia (05)

34 Long Time Running (17)

35 *Magic Mike (12)

36 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (07)

37 Cold War (18)

38 *Kramer Vs Kramer (79) yes I watched this a few months before! This was a pandemic friend group co-watch.

39 *Burn After Reading (08)

40 Last Holiday (50)

41 Fly Away Home (96)

42 *Moneyball (11) I’m sure I watch this every two years, at most??

43 Last Holiday (06) the Queen Latifah version of the 1950 movie above, lacking, of course, the brutal “poor people don’t deserve anything good” ending

44 *Safe (95)

45 Gimme Shelter (70)

46 The Daytrippers (96)

47 Experiment in Terror (62)

48 Tucker: The Man and His Dream (88)

49 My Brilliant Career (79) one of the salvations of 2020 was watching movies��“with” friends. Our usual method was to video chat before the movie, sync our streaming services, and text-chat while the movie was on.

50 Divorce Italian Style (61)

51 *Gosford Park (01) another classic comfort watch, fuck I love a G. Park

52 Hopscotch (80)

53 Brief Encounter (45)

54 Hud (63)

55 Ocean’s 8 (18)

56 *Beverly Hills Cop (84)

57 Blow the Man Down (19)

58 Constantine (05)

59 The Report (19) maddening!! How are people so consistently terrible to one another!

60 Everyday People (04)

61 Anatomy of a Murder (58)

62 Spiderman: Homecoming (17)

63 *To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (95) Of the 90s drag road movies, Priscilla is more visually striking, but this has its moments.

64 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (92)

65 *The Truman Show (98)

66 Mona Lisa (86)

67 The Blob (58)

68 The Guard (11)

69 *Waiting for Guffman (96) RIP Fred Willard

70 Rocketman (19)

71 Outside In (18)

72 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (08) how strange to see a movie that you have known the premise for, but no details of, for over a decade

73 *Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (91)

74 The Reader (08)

75 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (19) This was fine until it VERY MUCH WAS NOT FINE

76 The End of the Affair (99) you try to watch a fun little romp about infidelity during the Blitz, and Graham Greene can’t help but shoehorn in a friggin crisis of religious faith

77 Must Love Dogs (05) barely any dog content, where are the dogs at

78 The Rainmaker (97)

79 *Batman & Robin (97)

80 National Lampoon’s Vacation (83) Never seen any of the non-xmas Vacations, didn’t realize the children are totally different, not just actors but ages! Also, this one is blatantly racist!

81 *Mystic Pizza (88)

82 Funny Girl (68)

83 The Sons of Katie Elder (65)

84 *Knives Out (19) another re-watch within the same year!! How does this keep happening??

85 *Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (10) a real I-just-moved-away-from-Toronto nostalgia watch

86 Canadian Bacon (92) vividly recall this VHS at the video store, but I never saw it til 2020

87 *Blood Simple (85)

88 Brittany Runs a Marathon (19)

89 The Accidental Tourist (88)

90 August Osage County (13) MELO-DRAMA!!

91 Appaloosa (08)

92 The Firm (93) Feeling good about how many iconic 80s/90s video store stalwarts I watched in 2020

93 *Almost Famous (00)

94 Whisper of the Heart (95)

95 Da 5 Bloods (20)

96 Rain Man (88)

97 True Stories (86)

98 *Risky Business (83) It’s not about what you think it’s about! It never was!

99 *The Big Chill (83)

100 The Way We Were (73)

101 Safety Last (23) It’s getting so that I might have to add the first two digits to my dates...not that I watch THAT many movies from the 1920s...

102 Phantasm (79)

103 The Burrowers (08)

104 New Jack City (91)

105 The Vanishing (88)

106 Sisters (72)

107 Puberty Blues (81) Little Aussie cinema theme, here

108 Elevator to the Gallows (58)

109 Les Diaboliques (55)

110 House (77) haha WHAT no really W H A T

111 Death Line (72)

112 Cranes are Flying (57)

113 Holes (03)

114 *Lady Vengeance (05)

115 Long Weekend (78)

116 Body Double (84)

117 The Crazies (73) I love that Romero shows the utter confusion that would no doubt reign in the case of any kind of disaster. Things fall apart.

118 Waterlilies (07)

119 *You’re Next (11)

120 Event Horizon (97)

121 Venom (18) I liked it, guys, way more than most superhero fare. Has a real sense of place and the place ISN’T New York!

122 Under the Silver Lake (18) RIP Night Call

123 *Blade Runner (82)

124 *The Birds (62) interesting to see now that I’ve read the story it came from

125 *28 Days Later (02) hits REAL FUCKIN’ DIFFERENT in a pandemic

126 Life is Sweet (90)

127 *So I Married an Axe Murderer (93) find me a more 90s movie, I dare you (it’s not possible)

128 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (67)

129 The Pelican Brief (93) 90s thrillers continue!

130 Dick Johnston is Dead (20)

131 The Bridges of Madison County (95)

132 Earth Girls are Easy (88) Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum are so hot in this movie, no wonder they got married

133 Better Watch Out (16)

134 Drowning Mona (00) trying for something like the Coen bros and not getting there

135 Au Revoir Les Enfants (87)

136 *Chasing Amy (97) Affleck is the least alluring movie lead...ever? I also think I gave Joey Lauren Adams’ character short shrift in my memory of the movie. It’s not good, but she’s more complicated than I recalled.

137 Blackkklansman (18)

138 Being Frank (19)

139 Kiki’s Delivery Service (89)

140 Uncle Frank (20) why so many FRANKS

141 *National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89) watching with pals (virtually) made it so much more fun than the usual yearly watch!

142 Half Baked (98) another, more secret Toronto nostalgia pic - RC Harris water filtration plant as a prison!

143 We’re the Millers (13)

144 All is Bright (13)

145 Defending Your Life (91)

146 Christmas Chronicles (18) I maintain that most new xmas movies are terrible, particularly now that Netflix churns them out like eggnog every year.

147 Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse (18)

148 Reindeer Games (00) what did I say about Affleck??!? WHAT DID I SAY

149 Palm Springs (20)

150 Happiest Season (20)

151 *Metropolitan (90) it’s definitely a Christmas movie

152 Black Christmas (74)

THEATRE:HOME - 2:150 (thanks pandemic)

I usually separate out docs and fiction, but I watched almost no documentaries this year (with the exception of Dick Johnston). Reality is real enough.

TV Series

01 - BoJack Horseman (final season) - Pretty damned poignant finish to the show, replete with actual consequences for our reformed bad boy protagonist (which is more than you can say for most antiheroes of Peak TV).

02 - *Hello Ladies - I enjoy the pure awkwardness of seeing Stephen Merchant try to perform being a Regular Person, but ultimately this show tips him too far towards a nasty, Ricky Gervais-lite sort of persona. Perhaps he was always best as a cameo appearance, or lip synching with wild eyes while Chrissy Teigen giggles?

03 - Olive Kittredge - a rough watch by times. I read the book as well, later in the year. Frances Mcdormand was the best, possibly the only, casting option for the flinty lead. One episode tips into thriller territory, which is a shock.

04 - *The Wire S3, S4, S5 - lockdown culture! It was interesting to rewatch this, then a few months later go through an enormous, culture-level reappraisal of cop-centred narratives.

05 - Forever - a Maya Rudolph/Fred Armisen joint that coasts on the charm of its leads. The premise is OK, but I wasn’t left wanting any more at the end.

06 - *Catastrophe - a rewatch when my partner decided he wanted to see it, too!

07 - Red Oak - resolutely “OK” steaming dramedy, relied heavily on some pretty obvious cues to get across its 1980s setting.

08 - Little Fires Everywhere - gulped this one down while in 14-day isolation, delicious! Every 90s suburban mom had that SUV, but not all of them had the requisite **secrets**

09 - The Great - fun historical comedy/drama! Costumes: lush. Actors: amusing. Race-blind casting: refreshing!

10 - The Crown S4 - this is the season everyone lost their everloving shit for, since it’s finally recent enough history that a fair chunk of the viewing audience is liable to recall it happening.

11 - Ted Lasso - we resisted this one for a while (thought I did enjoy the ad campaign for NBC sports (!!) that it was based on). My view is that its best point was the comfort that the men on the show have (or develop, throughout the season) with the acknowledgement and sharing of their own feelings. Masculinity redux.

12 - Moonbase 8 - Goodnatured in a way that makes you certain they will be crushed.

13 - The Good Lord Bird - Ethan Hawke is really aging into the character actor we always hoped he would be!

14 - Hollywood - frothy wish-fulfillment alternate history. I think the show would have been improved immeasurably by skipping the final episode.

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ranger-report · 4 years ago

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Opinion: JURASSIC WORLD Learned Nothing From JURASSIC PARK

Twenty-seven years ago (god, can you believe it?) a sci-fi blockbuster with Things To Say exploded into cinemas. Tackling the subject of science, control, and whether or not man should play God, it also featured state-of-the-art special effects, intense sequences of dinosaur action, and just enough human heart to win audiences over. Of course we’re talking about Jurassic Park. It’s a monumental film that still holds up today, even as the effects are finally starting to show their age. It’s a deep shame that the sequel series, Jurassic World, has learned nothing from it. If anything, World is very much a reaction to Park...and not in a good way.

The first three films in the Park series all dealt with questions of science and progress, and what responsibility man has to the things he creates. Sure, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III weren’t nearly as deft in the handling of these themes as the first film, but they maintained the same spirit. Jurassic Park asked whether or not mankind had the right to resurrect a dead species for their amusement; The Lost World carried this over, asking how much responsibility man should have in maintaining this resurrected species’s existence; Jurassic Park III insinuated that man could still finds things to learn from these science-born dinosaurs even if they weren’t the real deal. Science was the forefront in these stories, perhaps to diminishing results, but at least Science maintained a consistent role of moral gray area. Park III is considered the low point of the series, a brisk hour-and-a-half of rollercoaster excitement with goofy moments and lightweight human drama, but even that film conjures impressive moments of dinosaur action and awe, including a river sequence where Dr. Alan Grant, finding himself returned to this world he vowed to disavow, discovers he still has reverence for the giant beasts that roam this island, and maybe doesn’t hate them as much as he lays claim. The scene in the aviary with the pterodactyls is particularly effective, using shadow and light and fog and height to add tension and terror. No, it’s no masterpiece, and if you detest the film, I don’t blame you. But detesting that film is what led to the existence of Jurassic World, which claims to hold the same ideals as the first series, but none of the actual heft.

Jurassic World starts off with an interesting premise: what if Jurassic Park had actually opened to the public and was a success? This is a great hook, sure, but with everything that has come before in the first three movies, this isn’t something that should have ever come to pass. But, movie needs to movie. We have questions of whether or not science should be creating these creatures, whether or not they have the right to experiment with DNA and create “new” dinosaurs that are bigger meaner and badder than regular dinosaurs, questions of corporate influence. As with the first Park, World plays the same beats: everything is great, people are coming to visit and inspect certain aspects, everything goes wrong, dinosaurs get loose, people start dying. World turns the scale up to 11 since now we have an entire amusement park full of people instead of a small group of survivors, meaning bigger thrills, bigger sequences, bigger dinosaurs. Everything is bigger, including the science, but while it’s bigger it’s also hollow. Nostalgia and references to past films can’t fill the void that the film builds around this premise we’ve seen before. I admit that when I walked out of the theater the first time, I was happy. After the letdown of Park III, World felt exciting and invigorating and fresh. Then I watched it a few more times, and the sheen began to vanish. Stilted dialogue, characters with little charm, obvious setups, contrived danger, and an obvious sequel bait ending revealed the true corporate influence of the film: franchising. Meanwhile, Science and Nature were still adversaries in this new series of dino-centric films, but Science became less of a gray area, less of a “How much right do we have?” and dialed into a “Science Is Evil And Scientists Do Evil Things For Money.” Meanwhile, Nature, which is true neutral in the first three films (just don’t fuck around with Nature and you won’t get bit), has become the True Good Guy, and instead of seeing the fear of messing with Nature, now we see how Nature is being oppressed by Science, and so we should begin to empathize with our friendly dinosaur foes.

And what about those sequels? Both The Lost World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom start with the premise that Something Has Survived and opens with dire situations. One involves a family on a beach who stumble across dinosaurs, the other involves corporate espionage gone horribly awry when they underestimate the prehistoric menace around them. Both are tense, well-shot, and arguably Kingdom’s sequence is the best opening scene in the series. And both films move forward from there, revealing the dinosaurs are still alive (Lost World explains a second island called Site B, Fallen Kingdom simply continues the tale), getting Jeff Goldblum involved, and asking what responsibility the creators have for their creations. But the key difference between the films is that Fallen Kingdom asks the audience to have empathy and sympathy for the dinosaurs of the island -- most of them, in fact, excepting the genetic mutations crafted and grown by the park scientists. Blue, a raptor introduced in the first World, is the reason Chris Pratt’s Owen goes back to the island to help rescue the creatures from imminent death. He formed a bond with the raptor from birth, and the dinosaur -- of a species that once was the scariest goddamn thing in cinema -- is reduced to little more than a pet with big teeth and claws. The Lost World shows us that Nature is scary, and when Science believes that it can control Nature then Life Will Find A Way (remember that line?). Dinosaurs in the first three Park films are forces of Nature, and if left alone will leave you alone. But Nature doesn’t take kindly to intruders: see literally every scene in The Lost World. Even the big leaf-eaters are dangerous and scary when uncaged and scared. Fallen Kingdom makes the big ask of the audience to see the dinosaurs as on-par with the human characters, to have empathy for them. And while, to an extent, we should have empathy for Living Things, Fallen Kingdom goes so far as to spare the lives of dinosaurs brought to the mainland rather than let them die so they don’t get released into the world of humans. Which, if you’ve seen The Lost World, is kind of a bad thing. Many people reacted poorly to the T-Rex roaming through San Diego searching for its young, and Fallen Kingdom decides to not only go with that same premise, but ups the ante by unleashing several species out into the human world, this time a cliffhanger. In fact, the upcoming third film, Jurassic World: Dominion rests entirely on this premise, and will no doubt focus on attempting to contain the prehistoric creatures roaming through suburbia. But how can we, the audience, even take this seriously when we’ve been asked to have empathy with the dinosaurs now? If these creatures are now characters, toys to be sold and displayed on children’s coloring books, exactly how deadly can they -- or will they -- be?

Dominion already appears to be making similar decisions as Jurassic Park III, by including Sam Neill and Laura Dern as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler respectively. And in continuing to funhouse-mirror the previous trilogy, now instead of a dinosaur island that is strictly off-limits to humans we have dinosaurs in the human world. Both sequels were primed as rollercoasters, introducing new creatures and thrills, and no doubt Dominion will make the same mistakes as Park III and the other World films. But Park III at least remembered that the focus of the show is the big bad dinos, how uncontrollable they are, how scary they are, and how Nature is a force unto itself. Alan Grant learned by the end of Park III that the raptors he was researching in his studies were similar enough to the raptors of Site B that he could find a way to communicate with them to a degree of saving everyone’s lives. He had turned his nose at the Science of the creations, not recognizing the Nature that still existed in their modified DNA. What will he learn -- or unlearn -- in Dominion?

The Jurassic Park films were all about asking questions. “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should,” Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm says in the first film, to great effect. Meanwhile, Jurassic World’s tagline could be summed up as “The scientists never should and they are still doing it.” Where we were asked to think in the first films, now we can sit back and be told the moral. We can just watch the onscreen drama as Things Happen and People Get Eaten. Jurassic World learned the wrong things from Jurassic Park, and to that effect, perhaps the filmmakers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could make a new Jurassic film that they didn’t stop to think if they should.

#jurassic park #the lost world #jurassic park iii #jurassic world #fallen kingdom #dominion #steven spielberg #colin trevorrow #dinosaurs #film #opinion #universal pictures #ck burch #rubyranger #ranger report

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winterisakiller · 5 years ago

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Get Better - Chapter Two

Title: Get Better

Chapter: 2/18

Character: Tom Hiddleston/Cath Richardson (OFC)

Genre: Romance

Rating: Teen and up

Summary: Love. Companionship. Family. These are all of the things Tom Hiddleston desperately wanted. But his life and his choices left that a distant and unlikely prospect. So he did his best to move on and live his life as is. When an opportunity to return to the theater arises, he jumps at the chance and along the way finds that maybe, just maybe, those distant and unlikely prospects are closer than he could have imagined. Sequel to Brave Face.

Authors Notes/Warnings: So as I was writing Brave Face I knew that Tom’s story wasn’t over, even if that particular part of it was. And while I knew, more or less, what the overall ending to the story would be, its taken me a while to figure out the time in between. Thanks to @redfoxwritesstuff for letting me continually throw ideas off and at you. I still can’t fathom why you put up with it, but I am eternally grateful you do. This story will update on Thursdays.

Tag list: @tinchentitri @theheartofpenelope @nonsensicalobsessions @blacksuitofdoom @noplacelikehome77 @messy-insomniac-bookgirl @wolfsmom1 @just-the-hiddles @theoneanna

Previous Chapter

CHAPTER TWO

The heat of August gradually cooled into early September. It was with a twinge of nostalgia that Tom found himself sitting around with Joanna Hogg, Mary Roscoe, and Kathryn Worth discussing Unrelated. It had been his first film and therefore quite the learning experience. But one that he remembered fondly. Later that same week he’d found himself on a red carpet and then on a stage presenting an award to a man he’d first seen on a big screen in a film he adored, and feared, as a young boy. The same man he later had the pleasure of working with in another film in Australia of all places. Funny thing time, he thought smiling as he stood beside Jeff Goldblum, chatting about life and film and the world. It still brought him up short the chances and opportunities he’d been blessed with in his career. Funny, sometimes painful, but wonderful all the same.

And now he found himself once again waiting on the side of another stage, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He chatted amicably with his fellow actors and readers, waiting for the signal from the now closed double doors. He could clearly hear the excited murmurings of the crowded auditorium and felt the familiar nervous energy bubbling in his gut. It was the same feeling he got anytime he’d prepared to walk onto a stage or a set. It was an old friend at this juncture and one he both missed and dreaded.

When he’d been approached with this project two months back, he had all but jumped at the chance. Getting not only to read but debate with fellow actors and writers over literature he’d loved for years, to be able to perform and share that love with others. It would a nice testing of the waters, so to speak. He hadn’t been on stage in a performer sense in over a year, and hadn’t done something of this nature since school. It had seemed like an interesting challenge and one he couldn’t see turning down. Rehearsals had been full of laughter and amusement.

Tom was sharing the stage with several talented actors; amongst them an actress in talks to join him in the Pinter production he was very much looking forward to in the New Year. Zawe Ashton was her name and while he’d seen bits and pieces of her work in the past, she was not someone he’d had the pleasure of working with beforehand. He found her funny and a delight to play off of. She had a wicked sense of humor that went very much along the lines of his own. And what was best was she hadn’t seemed to give a toss who he was. Yes, she’d known his name and was familiar with his work, but none of that seemed to matter to her. He could very easily see them getting along quite well during a grueling show run. If things went well tonight and the following week at the gala, then schedule permitting she would be a shoe-in for the role of Emma.

Beyond the doors, a hush fell over the crowd and he could see the lights begin to dim. Not long now. He could feel the tension and excitement running through their small group as the talked and laughed amongst themselves.

“Alright, places,” the woman manning the door called. Tom took a deep breath and walked through the doors and onto to the stage.

The debate itself seemed to fly by and Tom found that he had enjoyed himself immensely. His competitive nature was certainly getting its chance to shine and he was absolutely delighted when his team, the correct team as far as he’d been concerned, won. They’d taken their respective bows and headed off stage in ones and twos. “That was absolutely fantastic,” Zawe breathed, smiling as she turned back to face Tom.

“Oh completely. I haven’t had that much fun in longer than I care to admit.”

Zawe laughed in earnest. “Same.”

They were ushered around the auditorium and handed collection buckets before being let loose to collect as much money for charity as they could. Tom had smiled, laughed, and talked with as many people as he could; never fully able to turn off the ‘public Tom’ persona he’d worn for so many years now. It was him, in a way, but more like a perfectly sculpted mask. Something he could slip in and out of depending on the place and the company he kept. In the past he’d been more open, more playful and less guarded with how he spoke and acted, but time and experience had taught him to pull back. To keep a respectable distance between who he was and who he was expected to be. To still be warm and engaging, but to never cross that line. It had been a difficult lesson to learn.

It was with a grateful sigh that Tom folded himself into the backseat of the black cab, leaning his head back against the seat rest. He watched with half lidded eyes as the brightly lit streets of London flitted past. He loved the city; loved its hustle and history. It was one of the main reasons he still lived in the converted terrace he’d owned for several years now when he could so easily have moved to California like so many others had before him. London held his heart in a way very few other places had.

He blinked in momentary confusion as the cab slowed to a stop. It took far longer than he cared to admit to realize that he was, in fact, home. With a warm smile, Tom paid his fare and lumbered slowly to the black gate surrounding his home. He absently entered the code, pushing the gate open and heading up the dimly lit walk to his door. From behind it, Tom could hear Bobby’s excited barking and smiled to himself. It wasn’t quite the welcome home he’d longed for, but it was nice to have someone waiting for him. He made quick work of the lock and slowly pushed the door open.

The spaniel’s barking increased in pitch and volume, jumping and wagging his tail as if his life depended on it. Tom sighed and shook his head. “Alright you heathen, let’s get you outside.” More excited barking followed as Tom padded through the hallway and into the kitchen towards the back door into the garden. While Bobby rummaged around outside, Tom filled his food bowl and topped off his water bowl. “Come on now, food’s ready!” he called out the door to little effect.

Tom let out a grunt of exasperation and headed out into the dimly lit back garden. Bobby was snuffling around the bushes at the far end of the garden, telltale small piles of dirt surrounding him. Tom grumbled under his breath and yelled for the dog again. Reluctantly, Bobby heeded his master’s call and trotted back up the yard and into the kitchen.

“You, my friend, are very lucky indeed that I am as fond of you as I am.” Bobby raised his head from his supper bowl and gave Tom an astonished look before returning to his meal. Tom merely shook his head and headed back through the house and towards the stair case to the upper level and bed. He stripped mechanically, making a brief stop in the bathroom to wash his face and clean his teeth, before falling into bed.

The next morning dawned bright and cool. Tom stretched his arms above his head, a jaw cracking yawn echoing through the sunlit room. Bobby, who had been curled up contentedly at the edge of the bed, raised his head. He’d tried, when the spaniel was younger, to keep him downstairs in his own crate overnight. It had lasted all of about the span of a week for the puppy’s pitiful cries to break Tom’s resolve and allow him into the bedroom. ‘Just for the night,’ he’d sworn. And now nearly a year later, it was quite clear Tom had lost that battle.

With determination, Tom pushed himself up and out of the bed, padding down the stairs and into the kitchen, Bobby quick on his heels. He opened the back garden door and let the spaniel out, turning his attention towards the coffee press and feeding his much needed caffeine addiction. He set to work boiling his kettle and gathering the bag of coffee from the cabinet above the sink. Tom took great pleasure in setting about brewing his morning coffee, loving the way the strong, warm scent filled the kitchen.

Once it had brewed he poured the steaming liquid into his mug; a green one with a chip in its lip, one that Amy had given him. The thought of her still stung, though the pain had lessened throughout the intervening years. He still missed the life they’d had…Still bitterly regretted the stupid and selfish choices he’d made that had broken them. But he had slowly begun to come to terms with them and, in turn, with himself. Little things still caught him off guard but he’d learned to accept them and to try to move on from them. It was a hard road but one he was beginning to believe he could navigate on his own.

Coffee doctored to his liking, Tom headed out into the back garden. He lowered himself into one of the wooden patio chairs and watched Bobby run around like mad chasing squirrels. It was a wonder any still dared to enter the garden with how valiantly Bobby guarded his territory. That dog was a menace and Tom loved him dearly for it. Closing his eyes, he savored the warmth the bloomed inside him as he sipped the gently steaming mug in his hands. There were many things he could make do without, coffee was most definitely not among them. He took his time, enjoying the sun on his face and the slowly dwindling coffee in his mug. His stomach grumbled, reminding him that man could not survive on coffee alone.

“Bobby!” He called, pushing himself to his feet. The spaniel, paused mid-bark and turned to face his master. “Come.” Tom laughed as the spaniel broke off into a mad dash towards the door, nearly knocking him off his feet. Apparently someone was wanting his breakfast as well. Once kibble was added to Bobby’s bowl, Tom turned his attention towards his own meal; a quick toast and egg would do. He’d glanced at the clock above the stove when he’d entered the kitchen and found it to be well after nine. He would need to get moving soon, especially if he wanted to get a decent run in before heading into town to meet Emma.

Not bothering with a shower, after all what would be the point if he was just going to end up a sweating mess again, Tom changed into his running kit and slipped into his trainers. He thundered down the stairs and towards the front door, grabbing Bobby’s lead from the key hook. Bobby, sensing walkies were afoot, was standing at the front door and began to twirl in tight little circles as Tom approached. He laughed and hooked the lead to the spaniel’s collar before leading them both out the door and into the crisp, late morning air.

Several circuits around the neighborhood and nearby park helped to clear his head and focus his mind. He loved running, loved being able to lose himself in the rhythm and peace of it. It was the one pastime he could do anywhere and had been a godsend on long and grueling shoots. Tom was, in fact, a sweating mess when he and Bobby pushed their way back inside the house. Unclipping Bobby, and patting him playfully on the back, Tom climbed the stairs two at a time, stripping his clothing as he went.

He showered quickly, enjoying the feel of the steaming water on his protesting muscles, and padded back into his bedroom to dry and dress. A quick glance at clock on the bedside table told him it was half eleven. With a grunt, he pulled on a pair of jeans and his well-loved blue jumper, which he noted with a fair bit of disdain was starting to get a hole in one of its sleeves. He ran a quick comb through his damp hair and shoved his feet into the grey boots he’d had for nearly as long as he could remember.

Another quick glance at the watch he’d fastened onto his left wrist as he pounded down the stairs told him he needed to leave, and quickly, if he had any hope of meeting Emma at the restaurant she’d chosen on time.

“Shit,” he cursed at himself, ushering Bobby into the back room and his kennel.

Things situated, Tom grabbed his wallet and keys from the hallway table and darted out the front door. He considered trying to cab it in, but all things being equal and knowing London traffic far too well, he dismissed the matter out of hand; the tube was often a great deal faster than the car.

Forty minutes later, Tom dashed into the warmth of the fairly busy café; woolen coat open and breathing heavy. He’d made a mad dash from the underground station once the train had finally come to a stop. He was late and Emma was sure to give him hell about it. He scanned the room, finally resting on her strawberry blonde head at a table in the corner.

She smiled up at him as he took the opened seat across from her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “I’m dreadfully sorry. I lost track of time and…”

Emma simply rolled her eyes and held up her hand. “Tom, the day you show up to a non-work event on time is the day I know the world’s ending.”

“Oh ha ha,” he retorted, shaking his head. “I’m only what, ten minutes late?”

She snorted, “Only…But I guess coming from you that is actually pretty decent. I was honestly expecting at least twenty minutes.”

Tom looked up at her, affronted. True he did tend to run slightly behind if not harassed, but surely not that badly and with such consistency? “I am not that bad.”

“My darling brother, unless you’ve got someone there to push and pester you, you are indeed that bad. Need I remind you of mum’s birthday last year…?” Emma quirked an eyebrow at her brother as if daring him to challenge her.

He scoffed. “That was once time…”

“And I can list at least a dozen others offhand, if you’d like. My wedding, Sarah’s wedding, last Christmas, the Christmas before…I could go on,” Emma countered. “But I don’t have all day. I left Jack minding Alice and while I love that husband of mine, our offspring has been cutting a new tooth and has frankly been crankier than you on a bad day.”

Tom narrowed his eyes in mock annoyance. “Why are you always such a brat, Brat?”

“Because someone needs to put you in your place, brother dear. And since I am here, I guess that leaves me.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief as they locked on Tom’s. “Lord knows you aren’t going to manage it yourself and Luke’s earned a break don’t you think?”

The teasing volleyed back and forth throughout their meal. It had been a good while since he had done anything with his baby sister, save for larger family gatherings. She’d been busy between the chaos of new motherhood balanced with local and national theatre work and he’d been in and out of the country with promotional work. He smiled as he watched her talk, the way her face lit up as she told him about the latest thing his tiny niece had done or the mishap she’d had with a prop during a sold out performance. It was difficult to reconcile the grown woman before him with the bratty little sister she’d always been in his eyes, but it was wonderful all the same.

“Oh,” Emma started, placing her half-drunk mug of coffee onto the table. “Have you talked with mum recently?”

Tom shook his head, “Not in the last week or so? Has something happened?” He leaned forward, anxiety clearly painted across his features.

“No. No, she’s fine. She’s just trying to get things sorted regarding Christmas.”

“Christmas? It’s barely October,” he countered.

“Which I tried telling her, but alas, she wants to get everyone together this year and with you and Sarah and your insane schedules, she figured starting sooner rather than later would make sense.”

Tom laughed and shook his head. He loved his mother, loved her dearly, but she was a planner. Had been his entire life. And the holidays were her weakness. They had always attempted to gather for Christmas, with varying success; between Tom’s own insane schedule over the last several years and Sarah and her family living and working in India, it was rare to have all three Hiddleston siblings under one roof. And as inane as it sounded, Tom could see the sense in her trying to plan so far in advance.

“…usual nonsense. And she is thinking of trying to have Amy and her family around on Boxing Day.”

Tom blinked in confusion as Emma’s words sank in. “What now?”

“Mum is talking about inviting Amy, Teddy, and their little one over for either lunch or dinner on Boxing Day.”

His heart clenched at the mention of Amy and her husband but slowly relaxed as he let out a breath.

“Is she now?”

While he’d run into both Amy and her husband on several occasions since the wedding, the idea of spending time with them in his mother’s home felt…strange. Not as unbearable as it would have been even a year ago, but still strange. ‘And their little one.’ He’d known they’d been expecting, Emma had mentioned it months back, but hadn’t really let himself think on the matter. He was…happy for her, for them both, even if they idea set uneasily in his gut. And it wasn’t the idea that it should have been him, he’d long since come to terms with that, more so a longing. Something he’d felt when he looked at Sophie as she held either of her and Ben’s sons. Stupid and selfish, but very much real.

Emma nodded. “Henry will be four months by then and mum is desperate to meet him.” She sighed, “You’d think she didn’t have any grandchildren of her own with the way she’s acting.”

Tom shrugged. “You know mum, she always had a soft spot for Amy…”

“That she did,” Emma echoed. “But still…The nerve of the woman.” They both chuckled at that. “So just be aware that she’s most likely going to call and pester you.”

“I don’t doubt that for a single moment,” Tom laughed. “Has Sarah said if they were coming yet?”

Emma took another sip of her coffee and nodded. “Yeah, they should be able to come. You are the wild card at the moment.”

Tom stroked his beard with his free hand. “I should be able to come…As of now I don’t think I have anything that would make that impossible. The con in Phoenix isn’t until the new year…I’ll double check with Michael and Luke to make sure.”

“I still cannot believe people pay actual money on purpose to meet my dork of a brother. Cannot wrap my head around it.”

He chuckled, “It’s still strange for me, Em.”

“I bet.” She paused and pulled her mobile from her purse, glancing at the screen. “And on that note, I have to run. It’s nearly three and I promised Jack I’d be home before four.” She reached for the bill their server had left on the edge of the table but Tom beat her to it, flashing her a warm smile.

“My treat,” he said in way of explanation.

Emma shot him a pointed glare, “You are a menace, you know that right?” She pushes her chair back and pulled on her coat.

Tom chuckled, climbing to his feet himself and pulling his sister into a warm hug. “Give Alice a kiss for me and give Jack my best.” Nodding, she slipped her bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. Tom followed behind, pausing to pay the bill before venturing into the chill of the late afternoon and home.

He spent much of the following week juggling the things he’d been putting off. He’d called and visited his mother; and she, as Emma had predicted, pestered him about his schedule around Christmas. He’d assured her, with back up from Luke, that he was indeed free and would most definitely be coming home this year. He’d also started sorting through his clothing and washing and packing for his trip to the states. He found himself both excited and wary for the trip. Conventions could be a thoroughly enjoyable experience; he’d had several wonderful ones and had enjoyed interacting with fans at the events. But just the same they could be draining and demanding. Sometimes it seemed, no matter what he did, it wasn’t enough. Tom hoped for the former this time around.

—

The evening of the gala celebrating the life and work of Harold Pinter arrived far sooner than Tom had anticipated. He was excited and anxious and terrified all at once. He’d been so wrapped up in trying to organize his life and make sure he had his lines memorized, that when the driver rang the bell on his gate he’d stood staring in complete confusion for several seconds before realization dawned. God, feared he’d lose his head if it weren’t attached. Tom had been approached for the event shortly after talks began regarding his involvement in reviving Betrayal in the West End. He’d agreed almost immediately, looking forward to sharing the stage with several talented actors and testing out the material on stage before fully committing to the play. The nervous energy had run off him in waves as he’d darted upstairs and dressed quickly. Thankfully, Luke had seen to having his suit pressed and waiting in his closet. Tom dressed in a mad dash before heading back down stairs and out to the waiting car.

It was half past five when Tom slid into the leather backseat, apologizing profusely for his tardiness. Luke would murder him if he were late. As the car started off, Tom pulled out his mobile, shooting his publicist a quick message that he was on his way. It most likely wasn’t necessary, but Tom knew Luke liked to be kept in the loop as much as possible. Shoving his mobile back into his pocket, he turned his attention back to the present. He made small talk with the driver as they moved along, chatting about the weather and later about the dismal amount of traffic they’d run into. They’d pulled aside the theatre half an hour later and once he’d climbed from the car, Tom was ushered inside and backstage. He chatted with Zawe and several other familiar faces as they waited for the theatre to fill and for the start of the evening.

Things had been going rather well, in Tom’s humble opinion until he’d gone to grab his folder and managed to slice his thumb open. He’d stared, dumbfounded, at the welling blood before he was rushed towards the side of the room and quickly patched up. “Score one for my dumb luck,” he joked as he once again picked up his folder, this time taking much greater care. His scene with Zawe had gone off splendidly. They played well off each other and he looked forward to working more with her, providing she was willing and able to commit to the run.

Bows taken, they were all rushed backstage and then quickly to their waiting cars to be driven to the Brasserie Zedel for the after party. Once arrived, Tom walked the short carpet and took his time talking with the various reporters encamped along it. He enjoyed talking about not only Harold Pinter and the fun he’d had that night but of theater and acting in general. He knew, without a doubt, that he was allowing his inner theatre and literature nerd run amuck, but couldn’t find it in him to care.

Tom mingled with the arriving guests. He caught sight of several familiar faces and did his best to talk with them all. As he allowed himself to scan the room once again, he found his eyes drawn to the short dark haired figure talking animatedly with Zawe. She was all of five foot nothing in her heels but commanded the attention of those around her as though she were much, much taller. Her dress was navy in color and came to mid-calf, clinging to her curves in ways that made Tom desperate to trace with his own hands. Her dark hair hung in a low, loose pony over one shoulder. She tossed her head back, laughing at something Zawe had said and the sound that echoed from her lips was captivating even from such a distance.

Stealing himself, Tom made to start for the both of them, wanting nothing more than to know just who this tiny, vivacious woman was. He just managed to work his way through the densely packed room when the announcement was made for all to begin to filter their way into the restaurant proper. He cursed under his breath and allowed himself to be moved with the crowd inside. He’d found his table easily enough and was quickly pulled into conversation. He caught glimpses of the mystery woman throughout the night but never quite managed to catch up with her.

He’d managed, however, to catch Zawe on her own and, despite feeling very much like a desperate twelve year-old, ask her about her earlier companion. Confusion flitted across Zawe’s features for a moment before understanding seemed to dawn. “Oh! That was Cath. She is a doll. Worked with her on a few projects a handful of years back.”

“Is she an actress then?”

Zawe shook her head, “Nah. She works behind the scenes; hair and make-up. Talented as hell, that woman is.” He tried then to arrange an introduction, ignoring the odd regency undertones such a thing invoked, but the woman, Cath, had been nowhere to be found.

Tom sighed, just as well then. He did his best to let the disappointment flow off his back and made a few more circuits around the room, smiling and talking with various guests before calling it a night. He had a flight to catch in the morning (an international one at that which tended to be a headache at the best of times), and while he could sleep just about anywhere, he wanted to have at least one last good night’s rest in his own bed. Hotel beds, and airplane seats for the matter, were never quite as comfortable as his own bed. A few moments later, Tom stepped out into the brisk October evening air and climbed once more into the backseat. He closed his eyes, resting his head back against the seat and allowed the hum of the car’s engine to lull him into a state of almost sleep.

Next Chapter

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston rpf #tom hiddleston x ofc #tom hiddleston x oc #tom hiddleston x original female character #tom hiddleston x orignal character #get better fic #Tom and Cath

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winterisakillerwrites · 5 years ago

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Get Better - Chapter Two

Title: Get Better

Chapter: 2/18

Character: Tom Hiddleston/Cath Richardson (OFC)

Genre: Romance

Rating: Teen and up

CHAPTER TWO

“Alright, places,” the woman manning the door called. Tom took a deep breath and walked through the doors and onto to the stage.

“Oh completely. I haven’t had that much fun in longer than I care to admit.”

Zawe laughed in earnest. “Same.”

“Shit,” he cursed at himself, ushering Bobby into the back room and his kennel.

She smiled up at him as he took the opened seat across from her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “I’m dreadfully sorry. I lost track of time and…”

Emma simply rolled her eyes and held up her hand. “Tom, the day you show up to a non-work event on time is the day I know the world’s ending.”

“Oh ha ha,” he retorted, shaking his head. “I’m only what, ten minutes late?”

She snorted, “Only…But I guess coming from you that is actually pretty decent. I was honestly expecting at least twenty minutes.”

Tom looked up at her, affronted. True he did tend to run slightly behind if not harassed, but surely not that badly and with such consistency? “I am not that bad.”

He scoffed. “That was once time…”

Tom narrowed his eyes in mock annoyance. “Why are you always such a brat, Brat?”

“Oh,” Emma started, placing her half-drunk mug of coffee onto the table. “Have you talked with mum recently?”

Tom shook his head, “Not in the last week or so? Has something happened?” He leaned forward, anxiety clearly painted across his features.

“No. No, she’s fine. She’s just trying to get things sorted regarding Christmas.”

“Christmas? It’s barely October,” he countered.

“…usual nonsense. And she is thinking of trying to have Amy and her family around on Boxing Day.”

Tom blinked in confusion as Emma’s words sank in. “What now?”

“Mum is talking about inviting Amy, Teddy, and their little one over for either lunch or dinner on Boxing Day.”

His heart clenched at the mention of Amy and her husband but slowly relaxed as he let out a breath.

“Is she now?”

Emma nodded. “Henry will be four months by then and mum is desperate to meet him.” She sighed, “You’d think she didn’t have any grandchildren of her own with the way she’s acting.”

Tom shrugged. “You know mum, she always had a soft spot for Amy…”

“That she did,” Emma echoed. “But still…The nerve of the woman.” They both chuckled at that. “So just be aware that she’s most likely going to call and pester you.”

“I don’t doubt that for a single moment,” Tom laughed. “Has Sarah said if they were coming yet?”

Emma took another sip of her coffee and nodded. “Yeah, they should be able to come. You are the wild card at the moment.”

“I still cannot believe people pay actual money on purpose to meet my dork of a brother. Cannot wrap my head around it.”

He chuckled, “It’s still strange for me, Em.”

“My treat,” he said in way of explanation.

Emma shot him a pointed glare, “You are a menace, you know that right?” She pushes her chair back and pulled on her coat.

—

“Is she an actress then?”

#Tom Hiddleston #Tom Hiddleston RPF #Tom Hiddleston x oc #Tom Hiddleston x ofc #Tom Hiddleston x original character #tom hiddleston x original female character #Tom & Cath #Get Better

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years ago

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Psycho Analysis: The Grandmaster

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

The Grandmaster is one of the MCU’s greatest antagonists, and it is for one very simple reason: he is literally just Jeff Goldblum as en evil alien Caligula. It’s really just as simple as that.

...Ok, while that’s the simple, short version, there’s actually a lot more to Grandmaster than you might think. He’s sort of the cosmic glue that holds Thor: Ragnarok together, and as famous Jeff Goldblum hater Doug Walker said in his Disneycember review of the film, this movie would “feel naked without him.”

Actor: Jeff Goldblum’s unique mannerisms really add a lot to the character. The way he talks, the way he moves, just the way Goldblum does everything really sells the eccentricity of the Grandmaster, as well as convinces you that the Grandmaster is just constantly stoned. The weirdness also helps to make the Grandmaster a bit unnerving; this wacky, laid-back party boy is a ruthless dictator who makes people fight to the death for his pleasure and nonchalantly melts a man alive right in front of Thor. I really don’t think any other actor could manage to seel nonchalantly melting someone as well as Jeff Goldblum. It really is just like this role was made specifically for him.

Motivation/Goals: The Grandmaster is very, very simple in what he wants: he wants to rule over all of Sakaar and also have people fight to the death for his amusement while he goes off and hosts extravagant parties and orgies. It’s short, sweet, to the point, and really comes across well in everything he does. It also shows that just because a villain is not incredibly complex with a super tragic backstory or some well-written and detailed motive, they can actually still be great and entertaining. He’s like the anti-Malekith, a villain who may not have deep motives but is fun, colorful, ecentric, and just oozing with personality. And speaking of...

Personality: The Grandmaster is easily one of the most chill, laid-back antagonists in all of fiction. Despite being the driving force of antagonism on the planet of Sakaar, seeing as he’s the one holding Thor hostage and making people fight to the death, he never really comes across as truly mean-spirited or evil, even when he is in the process of liquefying a guy for wronging him. He just always has this really nice, eccentric tone to his voice and would be a pretty cool and pleasant guy if he wasn’t a crazy despot who loves murder sports and slavery. And that’s ultimately what makes him great; as sweet as he seems, he’s still an utterly ruthless despot who makes people fight to the death and has crazy orgies aboard his ship. He’s completely bonkers, and it just works.

Final Fate: He’s either overthrown by the Sakaar natives after all his gladiators escape, with his ultimate fate being uncertain, or he moves in with Thor’s old roommate Darryl.

Best Scene: It’s really hard to narrow down one single moment where the Grandmaster shines, since every scene he’s in exudes fun, but perhaps his funniest appearance is the hologram of him aboard his party ship that plays his birthday song.

Best Quote: This exchange with his stoic, snarky sidekick Topaz:

Grandmaster: I love when you come to visit, 142. You keep bringing me just the best stuff. Whenever we get to talk to Topaz about Scrapper-142, what do I always say? She is, and it starts with a B.

Topaz: Trash.

Grandmaster: No. Not trash. Were you waiting to just call her that? It doesn't start with a B!

Final Thoughts & Score: The Grandmaster is just an absolute joy of a character. A big part of Ragnarok’s charm is the humor, and without Jeff Goldblum’s quirky performance there would be quite a void of comedy to fill. He manages to be threatening in a weirdly non-threatening way, mostly by the power he exudes. It may be a far cry from his power level in the comics, where the Grandmaster is pretty much just shy of a god, but I’m gonna be real, I’d take Goldblum over a god any day of the week.

I give the Grandmaster a 10/10. He’s one of the MCU’s absolute best, and he manages it without really doing much of anything. It is a villain solely carried by the performance of his actor and just the personality he exudes. Really, the only complaints I have is that there is some missed opportunity with him not getting to meet the Collector, his own brother (the Collector is seemingly dead as of Infinity War, but time will tell if that sticks), as well as his screentime in general mostly just involving him engaging in conversations, though frankly those are nitpicks at best.

I do think the fact he’s kind of dealt with entirely offscreen and disconnected from the plot is a bit disappointing, but really, even that doesn’t bother me too much; it frankly gives him a sort of Jabba the Hutt feel to him, where even if he isn’t directly tied into the major conflict, he’s still an important aspect of the story that things just wouldn’t be the same without. If Ragnarok is a delicious soup, Grandmaster is the spice that gives it its flavor; the film really would be a lot more bare without him.

#Psycho Analysis #The Grandmaster #Jeff Goldblum #Thor: Ragnarok

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chilliebean5 · 6 years ago

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Fictober Day 24: “You know this, you know this to be true.”

Rating: Teen and up

Fandom: Overwatch

Characters: Lúcio Correia dos Santos, Hana Song, Brigitte Lindholm, Genji Shimada, Reinhardt Wilhelm, Lena Oxton

Warnings: MekaMechanic, pre-Gencio--Lucio’s in love and pining hard!

Notes: I want to extend the biggest of thanks to not only @robo-cryptid for giving me the prompt to help with this one which left me stumped, but also @liquidlyrium and @midgetnazgul for spitballing, and @fightmemccree for the support <3

Words: 1454

"Titanic?"

"Boring," Hana sing-songs.

"The Sixth Sense?"

"No horror!" Brigitte yells.

A smile spreads on Lúcio's lips. "Jurassic Park." He looks at the both of them. "Can't go wrong with dinosaurs."

Hana's head whips around so fast, it's a miracle she doesn't end up with whiplash. "Yes! It's so good!"

"I guess," Genji replies offhandedly, picking at the bowl of popcorn, before looking at Brigitte. "Up to you."

"Well, I haven't seen it," Brigitte says, thoughtfully, before looking at Hana. "And you're sure it isn't scary?"

"No way! It's got dinosaurs. Please!" Hana pleads.

Brigitte smiles. "All right, then."

"Yes!" Hana exclaims, then looks at Lúcio. "Put it on!"

Lúcio nods, selecting the movie from Athena's database. They found the old folder containing movies grouped by the decade of their release, and are making their way from the earliest, where Jesse gets all his western movies from which they skipped because they have seen those movies enough for three lifetimes, right through to today's modern offerings. The 1990s, for whatever reason, is the one the most of them have seen movies from, making picking one a bit more of a task than normal, and making Jurassic Park the first movie they have watched so far where most of them have seen it, bending their rule of only watching movies no one has seen.

And honestly, Jurassic Park is just one of those movies everyone should see more than once in their life.

Lúcio starts the movie and settles into the couch beside Genji and grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl in Genji's lap. He notices Brigitte and Hana getting comfortable on the opposite couch, looking rather cosy under the blanket they're sharing, and he can't help but smile.

"Oh gosh!" Brigitte exclaims, covering her eyes with her hands, and when Lúcio looks at the TV, he just nods; it is the scene when the technician is pulled into the cage by the velociraptor.

"It's okay," Hana says, draping an arm over Brigitte's shoulders and pulling her in close. "It's not that bad." She looks at Lúcio, covers her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stifle her laughter.

"Some girlfriend she is," Genji murmurs.

"She's comforting her, it's cute." Lúcio's stomach flutters a little, as he looks from Genji back to the movie. Oh, how he wants that, someone to comfort, someone to cuddle up to—or someone to cuddle up to him. Genji, preferably, because Lúcio has a small crush on him. He's been thinking about making a move, asking Genji out over the last couple of weeks, but Lúcio's partly afraid of getting 'the talk' from Hanzo, and another small part of Lúcio is worried that he's misinterpreting the signals, considering Genji pretty much flirts with anything that moves.

So he swallows that down, because he is not about to make a move in this room and face rejection in front of an audience, and focuses on the movie instead. As the movie goes on, everyone hums the theme song when it's played—and when Lúcio says everyone, he means everyone, with Lena, Jesse and Reinhardt popping their heads in at various points and humming along with it. Lena and Reinhardt stay, while Jesse excuses himself, two cups of hot cocoa he made in his hands.

Brigitte seems to be handling it okay so far, Lúcio guesses the initial shock of the opener set the mood, and aside from the odd jump scare, gasp, or quiet murmur to Hana, she seems to be enjoying it.

In fact, everyone is enjoying it.

That is, until that open-shirt scene with Jeff Goldblum comes on.

"Shit, he's hot," Hana says, earning her a giggle from Brigitte.

"Yeah, he kind of is," Brigitte replies, barely audible over the sound of the movie. "I'm glad he's okay though!"

"Okay, no," Genji says, somewhat disapproving, but with that little hint of amusement in his voice that Lúcio's picked up on when he shit-stirs. "Nobody was ever attracted to Jeff Goldblum, that's stupid!"

"Speak for yourself!" Reinhardt says, voice booming over the movie. "This scene is a classic moment in cinema history!"

"Yeah dude," Lúcio adds, looking at Genji, "he's hot."

"No, he isn't," Genji retorts immediately, looking at Lúcio.

Lúcio smirks; Genji's definitely committed to this. "He is."

"No!"

"You know this, you know this to be true!"

"Sorry Genji," Lena says, "you're wrong. Even I'm a little attracted to the man."

"Then you all have shit taste," Genji says, plucking popcorn from the bowl and tossing it at Lena. It lands on her lap, she picks it up, pops it in her mouth and winks.

Lúcio glances at Genji again, sees the little smirk on his lips that he tries to hide it behind his glass as he takes a sip, and Lúcio's mostly sure he was just having a go at them.

Everyone is quiet after that. Brigitte watches the entire kitchen scene through her fingers, Hana holding her close throughout the entire sequence, and she and claps when it's done.

"That was so good," Brigitte says, turning to face them. "When can we watch the rest of them?"

"If it weren't for the mission in the morning, I'd suggest the second one now," Lúcio sighs. "I know most of you are on it and you should probably sleep."

"That's a good point," Lena says, standing up and stretching her arms over her head. "We put on the next one, it'll finish at one a.m. and we have to be out first thing--seven a.m. sharp."

"And I'm sure I don't need to lecture you all on why you need a full night's sleep," Lúcio says, turning off the TV.

"No," Genji groans, standing up and holding the empty popcorn bowl. "We're expected to be back in three days, we can do part two the night we get back."

"Sounds like a plan," Brigitte says, standing up and helping Hana to stand. "Thanks for the movie, it was enjoyable and scary, but mostly enjoyable!"

"Any time," Lúcio replies. "Good night!"

"Thanks, Lúc," Lena says, yawning. "Sleep well."

"You too."

"Good night," Reinhardt says, patting both Genji and Lúcio on the shoulder.

"Night, Rein." Lúcio turns to Genji when they're alone in the room.

"Good movie choice," Genji murmurs, looking at the tablet. "And we'll have a whole heap of them to keep us entertained for the next couple of weeks."

"Sure will," Lúcio says, giving the room a quick once-over before following Genji out and turning off the lights. He helps Genji with the dishes, tries to muster up the courage to say something, anything to turn his thoughts into actual words, to tell Genji that he enjoys his company, that he wants to spend some time with him in a relaxed setting listening to music and cuddling and kissing... But he just can't.

"I'd love to stay up," Genji says, and Lúcio looks at him, startled, hoping he wasn't just ignoring him. "But I'm on that mission tomorrow morning too and I should sleep."

"I know," Lúcio breathes, mentally kicking himself for not saying anything. After the mission, he tells himself, he will talk to Genji after the mission. "Walk you to your room? It's on the way to mine."

Genji smiles, and Lúcio can't help but smile back. "Sure," he says, nodding.

They walk in silence, much to Lúcio's mild annoyance with himself, considering he is struggling to find anything to talk about. He thinks over the events of tonight, going over in his head what he would do differently. Maybe he'd take Genji's hand, lean into him a bit more, seeing if he would take the bait, talking about his beef with Jeff Goldblum—

"Hey, you were joking about the Goldblum scene, right?" Lúcio asks.

"You really wanna know the truth?" Genji replies, stopping, and Lúcio nods eagerly. He leans in, close to Lúcio's ear, and Lúcio holds his breath. "I had that picture from that scene in a notebook when I was a kid," he whispers, before pulling away, smirking.

Lúcio looks into Genji's eyes, breathless, drawn in to kiss him, but he comes to his senses, blinking back the stupor and swallowing the lump in his throat. "I knew you were joking."

"Seriously, find me someone who doesn't think he's hot," he says, looking at the door he's standing in front of. "Anyway, this is me."

"It is," Lúcio breathes.

Genji looks at him, his smile softening. "Well... Good night."

"'Night," Lúcio replies, taking a step, then another, and for every step he takes, he hates it more and more.

When Genji gets back, he will tell him how he feels. He promises himself that at the very least.

#Fictober18 #Day 24: you know this; you know this to be true #Lúcio Correia dos Santos #Hana Song #D.Va #Brigitte Lindholm #Genji Shimada #Lena Oxton #Tracer #Reinhardt Wilhelm #Overwatch #Post-Recall #MekaMechanic #Gencio #Lucio's got a crush!#and if anyone's wondering #it was all robo's idea for Genji shitstirring about Jeff Goldblum #chilliebean writes #my fic

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xoruffitup · 6 years ago

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youtube

Just want to flail over Adam’s parts? People, I AM HERE FOR YOU. Here’s a time-stamped cheat sheet of Adam’s comments and generally precious moments. (Basically Round 2 of my overall flaily recap of this panel right after it happened.)

I start the video and my heart freaks out remembering when he first walked on stage. Get me a paper bag before I pass out... His little ‘Hello!’ and one-handed wave when he walked out I was already deceased.

1:35 - Everyone please just watch this adorable tall man awkwardly sit and fidget and bite his lip and make his oh god public attention face

11:25 - Adam makes no judgments about his character’s morality. He empathizes more with Ben Stiller’s character in the While We’re Young film than with his own, but recognizes that his own feelings about the character are irrelevant; as are his feelings about his own performance.

“It’s not about me feeling it, it’s about an audience feeling it.”

I’m constantly struck by his humility and maturity in always thinking of himself as only a small part in every film project, regardless of how large his role might be. He’s hyper-aware that none of it is about him, and becomes uncomfortable when people try to make it so. Although he explains here that he relates to the “debilitating” pressure to play a role correctly or authentically, and we know that he constantly over-thinks and scrutinizes his own work to the point of not being able to watch himself on film; He also recognizes his personal gratification with his performance comes second to the overall story being told. Internally, he might hold himself to high personal standards, but he never presumes those standards should be projected on anyone else. He finishes this answer with “Who am I to say if they’re right or wrong?” (If audiences respond to a less authentic version of a work.)

I would love to hear him answer this same question about Kylo’s character.

27:50 (One of the moments when I had to physically restrain myself from flailing in my seat because he’s so damn presh) - The moderator tried to “bring back Adam” because he’d hardly spoken so far, and Adam goes “I’m good, I’m good.” Ben Stiller interjected, “Can I just say something about acting with Adam?” and Adam immediately shakes his head and waves his hand in a silent “Please no”, but then very magnanimously tells Ben to go ahead, even while squirming in his seat a tiny bit while Ben talked about him.

29:00 - Adam says Noah’s writing is very “theatrical.” I did find it interesting how he talked here about a whole range of different potential meanings within the same words of a script, depending on how they’re delivered. I also love when he talks about working in theatre, just because I have a soft spot for stage actors.

(Watching this whole video back makes me realize Adam really did quite effortlessly and unconsciously charm the audience (not just me), even speaking so little compared to the other panelists. I remembered clearly when he had his ~showdown with the moderator towards the end the audience was 100% on his side, clapping for him, but generally there are so many audience laughs for the little self-deprecating jokes Adam mixes into all his answers.)

31:10 (Alert alert, fangirl moment) - Perfect capture of how he fiddles with his fingers and listens so attentively.

33:28 - THAT L A U G H

35:08 - My other favorite funny/presh moment! “There’s humor in doing the same things in life and still trying to make them more efficient... Like I still don’t think I’ve ever gotten into a car the right way.” (Confused audience laughter?) Then Adam gets serious with chagrin right away like “...that was a bad example...” (Audience continues laughing with him even though most people probably don’t get it.) He made a last-ditch effort to explain himself by saying “the Tesla” - but didn’t quite get to fully explain that he was referring to the uber-modern Tesla car that was driving him around the island over the weekend. Regardless, everyone found it amusing and I was there like I stan a man who can’t get into a car right WHAT A GEM

36:27 (Alert alert, another fangirl moment) - Everyone please just watch him take a drink of water. Why every single damn thing he did was totally mesmerizing to me I don’t know, but you’ll thank me later.

46:13 - The moderator mentions Paterson screened at the Nantucket Film Festival several years ago. Adorable moment where he goes to start listing all the famous people from Paterson and has to give up with “...and a bunch of other people I can’t remember right now.”

47:10 - Hilarious moment but first strike against the narrator. Ben Stiller had to ask Chris Matthews if Paterson was the first movie he’d seen Adam in because yeah, he’d kind of been neglecting Adam a bit (not that Adam minded, clearly), but Ben went “...he’s also in Star Wars,” and the whole place cracked up.

49:10 - Non-Adam moment, but I was really intrigued with Noah Baumbach’s comment here, talking about developing his dialogue and how “there’s communication, and then there’s talking.”

50:10 - THIS IS IT, FOLKS, THE GOLD MINE OF ADAM CHARM AND SASS. THE LEGENDARY MOMENT IS NEARING. Watch Adam’s life flashing before his eyes in a panic when the question “Who is the most influential person in your life” is suddenly thrown at him. He wasn’t ready for this!! (Although great question, Rea, so glad it was asked!) Then after he says he’ll pass on the question, you can see him basically flying to Mars in his head pondering. Then the cuteness and laughter when he announces he does have an answer!! He was 1000% the whole audience’s darling by this point. Then his answer is basically, “Listen to how insightful my wife is because she’s the best.” Then after boasting about his wife it’s right back to his modest self: “On to the next question and then I’ll finish this monologue...”

LOOK, okay he wasn’t even talking for that long! He’d given what, 3 answers before this during the whole hour-long panel?! The moderator himself blabbed at least twice as much. I was loving this monologue because it was the first time Adam was actually talking for an extended time. But apparently we can’t have nice things becomes here comes Mr. Rude-ass, Clueless Moderator...

(Also, Ben and Noah were 100% engaged with what Adam was saying so literally this was only the moderator’s problem...)

52:32 - The moderator audibly sighs into his microphone in the middle of Adam’s “monologue” and I’m SO glad Adam unpretentiously called him out: “.....Are you bored by my answer?” The whole audience laughed in sympathy with him because it was so weird and rude? Then Adam went on to be even more of a clever QT like: “You were thinking about another question? That’s what I was doing during your answers...” And the man is so straight-faced about it you genuinely can’t even tell if he purposefully meant that well-done, five-course ROAST.

I cringe so hard at this memory I can barely watch it back, but ughhhh queue the moderator interrupting Adam’s attempt to resume his answer, with some bullshit about Jeff Goldblum... What even? Jeff Goldblum was mentioned once in the panel previously, but wtf how does your mind go there when Adam Driver is giving a painfully earnest, precious, and over-thought monologue for you???

52:50 - “...SO STAR WARS.” BOOM. In three words Chris Matthews has been KO’d. omg look at the almost proud look on Noah’s face like yeah you tell him bb and Ben’s cracking up, and the whole audience flips out like DAMN, SAVAGE!!!

(Also for ~context reference, walking out from the auditorium afterwards, I remember overhearing two guys saying to each other “Chris Matthews was like one of those old guys who just blurts whatever’s going through his head.” “Yeah but you’d think when you’re talking to Adam Driver you’d be more respectful and reign it in.” and in my head I was like DAMN RIGHT. Watching this whole thing back, Matthews gets on my nerves basically the whole time. He seems to enjoy hearing himself talk so much that he forgot what a moderator’s actual job is.)

58:40 - Adam’s advice to aspiring filmmakers about the usefulness of going to school, getting a firm foundation in your craft, and having the insulated space to fail and build yourself.

Just so I can ~complete my revisiting of this whole experience~, I’ll add this photo taken by @wherethepastaat aka Rea aka https://twitter.com/cosmicreas in the parking lot outside after the event. I love her for asking the incredible question that gave us a world-class #SassybutClassy Adam moment, and also for snapping this A+ covert photo documenting the referenced Tesla car that caused Adam so much stress about how to get in it correctly. (Joanne’s getting in before him.)

I also owe her my firstborn because she inadvertently GOT ME IN THE PHOTO WITH ADAM!! That shoulder in the pink tank top directly behind him? THAT’S ME. THAT’S ME AND ADAM. IN THE SAME PHOTO. DEEP BREATHING, OKAY. Now I can always prove that I really was that close to him! (He came by even closer when he walked down the sidewalk. No, a month later I still have not gotten over it even .00001% percent.)

Admittedly, there have been brief moments where I berate myself like ‘ugh why didn’t you ask for a photo?!’ but A) I was frozen in awe for the 10 seconds he was in front of me (pretended to be on my phone so I wasn’t overtly staring, lol) and B) You can see in this photo that there were a bunch of people milling around. If I’d asked him to stop, he probably would have gotten stuck taking pics with lots of people. I did the right thing AND got to witness more wholesome Adam moments as he was leaving!

Once again, Rea I owe you a gift basket because I am SO glad I got to witness when you/your brother called ‘Bye!’ to Adam from your car and your dad called “Hi Kylo!” and ADAM RESPONDED, smiled and waved and said ‘Hi Thanks!’ back. IT WAS SO PURE I CRY AT THE MEMORY.

All in all, despite the fact that Adam didn’t actually talk that much on the panel, it was still a 100% Quality Event and I still think about it daily. :’) My Adam crush has morphed into an all-consuming real-life thing that I do my best to control but look, a girl can only do so much in the face of THIS. I AM ONLY HUMAN, ADAM.

#Adam Driver #Nantucket Film Festival #gettin hella fangirly once again #driverdaily

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ljones41 · 6 years ago

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"JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" (2018) Review

"JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" (2018) Review Following the release of "JURASSIC PARK III" in 2001, I had figured that was it for the JURASSIC PARK movie franchise. Boy, was I proven wrong. Fourteen years after the release of that third film, Universal Pictures and producer Frank Marshall presented a fourth movie for the franchise, "JURASSIC WORLD" in 2015, that proved to be a major hit. Following the success of that film, it was only natural that a fifth movie would be made.

Set three years after the events of the 2015 movie, "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" began with the United States Senate debating over whether to save the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar from an impending volcanic eruption from the island's volcano Mt. Sibo. Mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm testifies that the dinosaurs should be allowed to die in order to correct John Hammond's mistake of cloning them. Meanwhile, Jurassic World's former operations manager, Claire Dearing, has established the Dinosaur Protection Group to save the animals. When the Senate decides not to rescue the dinosaurs, Hammond's former partner, Benjamin Lockwood, summons Claire to his Northern California estate, where he and his aide Eli Mills reveal a plan to relocate the dinosaurs to a new island sanctuary. They need Claire to help reactivate the park's dinosaur tracking system in order to locate the animals - especially Blue, the last surviving Velociraptor. Despite being estranged from him, Claire recruits Jurassic World's former Velociraptor trainer and Blue's alpha, Owen Grady, to help capture her. Accompanying them would be the park's former technician Franklin Webb and paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez. Upon their arrival on Isla Nublar at the now defunct Jurassic World amusement part, Claire and Franklin work to reactivate the park's online tracking system. Meanwhile, Owe, Zia and a mercenary team led by Ken Wheatley search for Blue. When they find the velociraptor, one of Wheatley's men shoots Blue and Wheatley tranquilizes Owen. The mercenaries take Zia with them to treat Blue's injury. The mercenary ship, loaded with the captured dinosaurs, departs for the U.S. mainland, while the dinosaurs left behind die in the eruption. Meanwhile; Claire, Franklin, and Owen manage to escape the dying island and sneak aboard in time and assist Zia in transfusing Blue with Tyrannosaurus blood. The group now realizes that the captured dinosaurs were never being transported to a new island and have been captured for another purpose. And the latter has to do with a financial scheme being involving Eli Mills and Dr. Henry Wu, behind Lockwood's back. Despite earning over a billion dollars at the box office, "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" received very little positive reviews upon its release. In fact, it is regarded by some as a failure. Many critics and some film goers certainly regard it as inferior to the 2015 movie. How do I feel about "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM"? I had a few problems with it. Well . . . to be perfectly honest, I had two major problems with it. My first problem centered around Benjamin Lockwood's estate serving as the setting for the film's second half. I found this rather limiting and claustrophobic. And I found myself wondering if the film's budget was responsible for this decision to limit the setting to a California country estate. The longer the film remained on that estate - especially inside that house - the more I became frustrated. And I have a second complaint about "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" - namely the fate of Benjamin Lockwood's granddaughter, Maisie. Why did Owen Grady and Claire Dearing end up as her guardians at the end of the movie? What happened to Maisie's nanny, Iris, who had been with the family for years? I do not recall her being killed by a dinosaur. So what happened to her? Why did she not take care of Maisie, following the death of the latter's grandfather? Despite my complaints, I enjoyed "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM". In fact, I enjoyed it very much. Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow created a first-rate tale filled with tension, drama and especially comedy. I remember when the film first hit the theaters, many had complained about the movie's finale. They found it . . . illogical. Messy. I still find this complaint rather hard to swallow. The premise behind the JURASSIC PARK franchise can be considered illogical. Frankly, considering what happened in a period of twenty-five years and five movies, I thought it was only a matter of time that the franchise would reach this point. It almost did in 1997's "JURASSIC PARK: THE LOST WORLD". However, this film took it a step further with the release of several dinosaurs into the modern world. It was bound to happen. InGen and John Hammond had opened Pandora's Box a quarter of a century ago with the creation of dinosaurs, thousands of years after they naturally went extinct. I would almost equate the creations of these animals with that of nuclear energy and weaponry. Considering the occasional misuse and mishandling of nuclear energy throughout the years, I found it appropriate that a more disastrous scenario would finally befall in the JURASSIC PARK franchise than what happened in the previous films. "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" is also a popcorn summer film that depends upon a great deal of action. And it had its share of some first-rate action sequences. If I must be great, I enjoyed most of the action in the film's first half. I especially enjoyed the sequence featuring the natural destruction of Isla Nublar and Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and Franklin Webb's efforts to escape from the island after being abandoned by Ken Wheatley's team. For me, it was a breathtaking sequence as the trio raced to reach the boat conveying Wheatley's team and Zia Rodriguez (kidnapped and forced to treat the wounded Blue) to the United States. But there was an action sequence in the film's last hour that also impressed me. It featured the protagonists being hunted throughout the Lockwood mansion by Dr. Henry Wu's latest creation, the Indoraptor, a creation from the DNA of Indominus rex from the last film and Velociraptor - namely Blue. For me, those two sequences featured the best of some pretty damn good action scenes throughout the film. The movie did not feature as many breathtaking visual scenes as "JURASSIC WORLD". But there were a few that caught my eye, including scenes of those dinosaurs roaming the Earth:

But the one scene that produced a knot in my throat featured that last shot of Isla Nublar . . . and the death of the very brachiosaurus that Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and Malcolm Campbell first saw in 1993's "JURASSIC PARK". Director J.A. Bayona, cinematographer Óscar Faura and the visual effects team really knocked it out of the ballpark by capturing both the grandeur and the pathos of the scene:

If there is one thing I can guarantee from a JURASSIC PARK/WORLD movie, it is a first-rate cast featuring excellent performances. Jeff Goldblum returned to give a short, yet solid performance as Dr. Malcolm Campbell, one of the original visitors to Isla Nublar. "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM" featured the acting debut of Isabella Sermon, who gave an excellent performance as the young Maisie Lockwood. Trust this franchise to always hire naturally talented child actors. Ted Levine's performance as mercenary Ken Wheatley struck me as a gleeful portrayal of toxic masculinity. B.D. Wong's return as Dr. Henry Wu was somewhat briefer than it was in the 2015 movie. Yet, once again, the actor conveyed the convoluted egoism of Dr. Wu with great skill. I hope he will have a bigger role in the next film. Toby Jones gave an entertaining, yet slightly theatrical performance as the weasely auctioneer hired by Eli Mills to help sell those dinosaurs taken from Isla Nublar to potential buyers. James Cromwell struck me as emotional, yet dignified as Hammond's former partner, Benjamin Lockwood. Geraldine Chaplin gave a skillful performance as the Lockwoods' reliable employee Iris. Daniella Pineda was brash and entertaining as the sharp-tongued Dr. Zia Rodriguez. Justice Smith proved to be equally entertaining and quite hilarious as anxiety-ridden systems analyst Franklin Webb. Rafe Spall skillfully portrayed one of the most subtle and corrupt villains in the franchise, Eli Morrow. Chris Pratt returned as former Navy SEAL-turned-dinosaur trainer Owen Grady. I realized that many might not agree, but I enjoyed Pratt's first-rate portrayal of the no-nonsense Grady more than I did in the 2015 movie. I thought Pratt's performance was more subtle and best of all, his Grady seemed to have dropped that sanctimonious I had found slightly irritating in the previous film. Bryce Dallas Howard managed to skillfully take her character, former operations manager of Jurassic World, to the next level. In "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM", Claire's previous encounters with the dinosaurs had led her to develop an appreciation of them as sentient beings. This new Claire is a passionate animal rights activist who has dropped her arrogant disregard of the park's inhabitants. It is possible that this new passion may have slightly affected her common sense, especially during the film's last 10-15 minutes. But thanks to Howard's excellent performance, she managed to convey a sense of plausibility in the slight changes in Claire's personality. As I had earlier pointed out, the critics did not like "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM". In fact, some moviegoers had expressed dismay at the film's ending. I had at least two quibbles with the movie. But if I must be frank, I enjoyed it very much. More importantly, I found its ending very believable for a science-fiction tale. For once, the franchise was willing to face a consequence that its previous films managed to elude so far. The movie featured first-rate direction by J.A. Bayona; a well-written screenplay by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow; and an excellent cast led by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Good work guys!

#jurassic park franchise #jurassic world fallen kingdom #j.a. bayona #Chris Pratt #bryce dallas howard #rafe spall #isla nublar #daniella pineda #justice smith #james cromwell #geraldine chaplin #ted levine #toby jones #b.d. wong #jeff goldblum

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bewareofchris · 7 years ago

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@chamiryokuroi, i have so many feelings and so few of them are good that i almost don’t want to go into it on the internet. but,

(This turned into a dissertation) OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE INFINITY WAR SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT.

first off let me say that I walked into this movie with the expectation that marvel was going to behave in a predictable marvel way. and what exactly is a predictably marvel way to act?

Cap is the Hero, Tony tries but fails, Thor can’t understand that reference but he’s super powerful, for reasons unknown powers that worked yesterday fail today, a critical part of the plot hinges upon a relationship or a decision that the audience hasn’t had enough time to form a bond with and so the critical emotional peak of the movie falls flat

so what happened in Infinity War?

Lets get started by saying that I don’t honestly care if Loki dies, but I am 100% disappointed that he didn’t have a better plan, more action or a real shot at doing anything. I mean. This little shit is basically a cockroach that’s been alive forever and he’s done all kinds of shit in that time but the BEST IDEA he had was to try to stab Thanos right in his stupid face?

I see that the Bifrost works however it wants now. Good to know.

WOULD YOU FUCKING MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND ABOUT TONY FUCKING STARK’S GLOWING FUCKING CHEST MY DUDE.

Look, I don’t think its a leap for Tony to wear nanobots and a hoodie that turns into a suit. I think that’s 100% in character, but Marvel you’re a bunch of morons that took the shiny thing out of Tony’s chest several movies ago you can’t just show up now and act like that didn’t happen because he looks better with it. This is like 0% relative and 100% nitpicky but it’s part of a greater Marvel Realized That Was Silly So They Changed It and Acted LIke We Wouldn’t Notice issue.

Bruce exists in this movie basically as a cheap joke and a town crier. THANOS IS COMING, THANOS IS COMING. Its like someone in the group writer meeting was like: dude, the Hulk is too much. We’ve literally seen the Hulk take on everything. We’ve established he’s undefeatable. We can’t go back now. How are we going to deal with the Hulk being a thing? And the guy sitting next to him, balancing a pencil on his nose was like IDK what if we just like, inexplicably and for no reason we ever need to explain, make the Hulk not show up? What if the Hulk gets hurt or scared by Thanos? And he doesn’t show up? OH DUDE then Bruce can use an Iron Man suit and we’ll do the trailers and make it look like the whole group is there!

You know else is too fucking powerful to let loose too early in the movie? Thor. You know they did this in Age of Ultron too, they were like: lets give him a vision of Ragnorok and send him to a sparkle pool to take his shirt off and see things, so he could not be present when Cap was fighting Ultron. Here they send him off with a Rabbit (this genuinely amused me no lie) and Groot. And Thor speaks Groot. A language he learned in high school. He’s 1500 years old. How does he remember high school Groot? but that’s not important, what is important is that he’s off on a side quest waking up some dead star to forge some Thanos-killing weapon because as we see in the final battle as soon as Thor shows up looking hella fine, the show is basically over.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE SLAP THE FUCK OUT OF STEVE GOD DAMN ROGERS. Look, I understand that its upsetting when someone randomly suggests that killing themselves is the only way to save the planet but Rogers, if you aren’t the single most annoying hypocrite that ever walked the earth. (At least the movie did point this out. At least it did that.) “We don’t trade lives?” FUCK YOU STEVE. It was ONE FUCKING LIFE versus HALF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE. Everyone can do that math. One Life < Half the Universe. SEE, THE OPEN MOUTH GOES TOWARD TEH BIGGER NUMBER YOU SANCTIMONIOUS FUCK.

Honestly, Steve at the end, collapsing as he said ‘oh God’ is the only part of the entire MCU wherein Steve seems to sort of grasp that just because he wants the world to work a certain way doesn’t mean it will. I hate to be a petty bitch but I’m 100% okay with everyone dying because at least Captain Fucking Rogers was wrong AND THE STORY CANNOT DENY IT.

This is going out of order, I’m sorry.

Lets talk about Thanos. I actually liked Thanos. I bear him no ill will. He’s completely insane, but he’s doing what he thinks must be done for the greater good. (*COUGH* THE SAFEST HANDS ARE STILL OUR OWN */COUGH*) He is consistently insane which is nice.

but honestly. I mean, honestly, if this bastard was this set on doing this shit and this capable of it, why the fuck didn’t he show up earlier? Was it because he didn’t know where all the stones were? I feel like it’s been a couple of movies now that he should have known where most of them were? Why not collect them one at a time? Why not send out his assortment of assassins to collect them individually? He could have gotten all of the not-earth stones and then shown up to the party like HAHA BITCHES GUESS WHO THE FUCK I AM and 0 people would have known.

but this way is good too. I guess.

This plot hinges entire on a string of inconveniences. If not for bad timing, this series of events would not have unfolded in this way. I try not to get bitchy about conveniences because things happen in real life that would seem a lot like the cosmic writer whose dictating our lives never took a writing class, BUT if it progresses your story and makes things easier for you (the writer) to accomplish what the plot (and not necessarily the characters) needs/wants to happen next it’s lazy.

The iris mechanism breaking?

Thanos having already found the reality stone?

Gamora secretly being the only thing he loves?

Nebula only escaping after it’s too late?

Cap’s abilities being literally ‘whatever the story needs, is he mortal, is he not?’

Bruce and Hulk’s domestic issue

Dr. Strange apparently being able to not only tolerate 14 million alternate futures but also remember them with enough confidence to make decisions for everyone without consulting them

Everything that happened when Quill found out about Gamora

The end part where the axe to the chest didn’t stop Thanos

the convenient core-member survival of the Avengers

I truly believe in my heart that Marvel decided to kill Black Panther before they realized how popular that movie and character would be and fuck them.

While we’re at it. Fuck them for that whole thing. Like I get that T’Challa was leading his people, but the movie is framed in a way where he’s kind of an afterthought?

They definitely underestimated him, that’s all I’m saying. And Shuri.

THEY MISUSED THEM. THEY DID NOT TREAT THEM FAIRLY.

Look, I love Tony and I”m super happy that the MCU finally, finally stopped treating him like he was insane. Don’t get me wrong here, having Thanos show up and having Tony be like I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS is great.

What’s not great? Is the fact that Tony who literally has been waiting for this this whole time suddenly had very little back up plan? He had enough time to send Peter Parker a suit but he didn’t have a trove of alternate suits, or weapons, or anything that he could have sent along with it? I know he had a few minutes to think but ALIENS ARE INVADING IS LITERALLY THE THING HE’S BEEN FRETTING ABOUT SINCE AVENGERS 1.

I’m just saying, they could have had him be slightly more prepared.

Having said that, Tony was amazing.

One of the best parts of the movie is that twenty seconds where it looks like he’s having a stroke when he realizes he’s working with idiots.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU LET THEM GET THE GAUNTLET OFF IF YOU WERE JUST GOING TO HAVE QUILL FREAK OUT?

No I’ll tell you. Because it’s Marvel.

Honestly that fight V. Thanos in space was amazing. 10/10. Until Quill.

I have never been more furious about anything in my life than I was about Thanos trying to smash Steve Rogers into the ground and being unable to. Like, even his face seemed to be conveying some kind of ‘what is this bullshit happening before me’

(IS HE MORTAL? IS HE NOT?)

I also hated Steve’s shields, but I appreciate that they went with a pointy design so that he could more directly murder his helpless victims in combat. Someone needs to introduce Steve to Jeff Goldblum because I feel like he’d either invite Cap to join the harem or the gladiators or both and it would be glorious either way.

Gamora’s death shouldn’t have won the soul stone because Thanos is a piece of shit. He’s nuts. The Soul Stone should have just thrown her back up there while laughing hysterically something like “AHAHAHA MY MAN, YOU’RE A PSYCHO, HAHAHA, YOU DON’T LOVE ANYTHING.”

That moment when you realize that if even one thing had changed in this movie the entire sequence of events would collapse. That moment.

Also, how the living fuck did Tony live through getting impaled? How? HOW.

Dr. Strange: LET TONY LIVE Thanos: like, aren’t you a medical doctor? Dr. Strange: yes, but that’s not important Thanos: I’m not a medical doctor, like I’m just a crazy man, but he is definitely definitely dead. Dr. Strange: ok, yes, but. Thanos: no wait, I’m just--you’re really going to give up the time stone, a stone that as of this moment is basically impossible to get off you, just because you want Tony to live? He’s definitely going to die. I stuck this whole sharp thing through him. Dr. Strange: I KNOW IT SEEMS UNLIKELY BUT ROBERT DOWNEY JR SELLS MOVIES, OK. HE’S ADORABLE. Thanos: ...whatever dude. Give me the green glowy thing

NO HUMAN BEING CAN COMPREHEND 14 MILLION ANYTHINGS. This isn’t a number people can relate to. It’s meaningless. Why do all these movies have to overact? Lets blow up a whole planet, lets kill half the universe, lets act like a human mind can comprehend 14 million alternate timelines

The fanservice in this movie was incredible. Like, I’m now convinced there’s a whole team of interns at Marvel scouring the internet for more jokes.

“Hey boss, they seem to think Rocket trying to steal Bucky’s arm would be hilarious. So should we do that?” “GREG MY BOY WHAT A FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC IDEA.”

I loved Tony’s whole outfit. I loved the nano bots. I even loved at the end when he was running out and he had to redistribute them. It was amazing

“Home” says Steve Fucking Rogers, the international war criminal that was like ‘but he’s my friend’. BITCH THAT ISN’T YOUR HOME.

I’m actually 100% furious just at the fact that Rhodey who supported the accords immediately didn’t give one fuck about them as soon as it was convenient to want to be on Cap’s side instead. I’m FURIOUS that the Accords didn’t matter. They never did, but the fact that Rhodey was the last man standing that believed in them and he handwaved that shit away as soon as he laid eyes on Steve’s gruff unshaven face, its just like getting kicked in the nuts.

I just looked it up apparently Black Panther and Infinity War were filmed back to back which meant that Marvel had 0 idea how well Black Panther would do in theaters and honestly that must have been why they were like “ah yes you guys remember T’Challa? Well. basically he just gives Steve some shields and that’s fucking it.”

(I know he did more than that, but he was still treated like a convenient secondary character who had convenient abilities, like Groot who couldn’t be bothered to do anything until someone needed an axe handle.)

C O M M U N I C A T I O N. It really could have solved so many things. Dr. Strange: 14 million alternate futures Tony: cool. how many did we win? Dr. Strange: 1. Tony: wait what? TELL ME EXACTLY WHO DID WHAT Dr. Strange: I’m sorry I can’t just tell you the plot I’m not Mark Ruffalo.

Peter Parker did break my heart.

this is just personal preference but since I don’t find Chris Pratt funny at all, basically all the minutes that were put into his character were wasted on me

This movie cannot stand on it’s own. That’s not a negative. You don’t go see a movie like Infinity Wars if you haven’t already spent the last decade on the others leading up to it.

but, my dudes, you did not set up Wanda/Vision well enough. And so much emphasis was put on this. SO MUCH. She’ll have to destroy him, it’ll have to be her. Ok. Cool. So lets get to it.

I may be heartless.

Gamora crying when she though she’d killed Thanos felt more authentic than Wanda’s entire crisis about Vision.

But, hey, I’m sure in the next one they’ll do something stupid as fuck that’ll make the emotional punch of this movie completely fucking worthless.

#Infinity Wars #Avengers Infinity Wars #the american dreamsicle #whats bigger than an atomic clusterfuck? an infinite clusterfuck!

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atheistsensayer · 6 years ago

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The Needlessly Limited Imagination of the Jurassic World Franchise

Jurassic Park/World movies seem to be written around a single theme: hubris, capitalism and fascination with dinosaurs lead us to create circumstances where large dangerous monsters wreak havoc and endanger us.

But the movies also keep inserting really fascinating elements that could be pursued to expand and draw out the narrative in fascinating directions, but which they don’t even bother pretending to pursue. I am going to discuss four:

1) Jeff Goldblum: man of science/doomsday cultist

Goldblum’s character’s main throughline is using the veneer of science (chaos theory) to predict that things will go wrong. He usually turns out to be right. He is inordinately famous, in this universe, for a theoretical mathematician, especially one who could be replaced by a flowchart that says “don’t do dinosaur things” and a copy of the legend of Icarus. So, what is going on with his fans? Are they just enchanted with Goldblum because of how dreamy he is like we are here in the real world? Or have his accurate prognostications produced a zeal and fervor among a core contingent of followers who herald him as a prophet of the end times. So, make a movie where he is reluctantly heading up a doomsday cult. His fans want to know how they can accelerate the dino-geddon, and he tries in vain to explain that he’s a fatalist not actively promoting the death of humans.

2) Better Dino hybrids.

Since the very first movie, we knew that they had the technology to splice in frog genes into the Dinos. With unforeseen consequences. Subsequently they’ve been very excited to take one dinosaur, and another dinosaur, and cross breed them. Just stop. Stop mixing two different dinosaurs together. That’s the most boring gene splicing you could do. In high school, I spliced pglo into some bacteria so that the bacteria glew in the dark and that was way more exciting than “now this dinosaur has the claws of a different dinosaur”. Imagine if Greek mythological creatures were like “it has the head of a lion, the body of a tiger and the legs of a leopard”. No one would care. They aren’t even doing like, winged raptors or anything. So, here’s my proposal: DINO HUMAN HYBRIDS, OBVIOUSLY.

Splice that shit into humans. Some evil company took samples from the spitters, the raptors, the pterandons, and the ankylosaurus to create a black ops team of Dino-men.

How are there five movies and no Dino men?

3) civilization actually collapses

So, the Dinos get loose, commit to it. They breed, they wreck shit. It gets all mad max (mad rex? Rad rex?) and we are in some legend of the lost type setting. Rise of the planet of the dinosaurs. Society is crumbling, humans are trying to stick together. You can’t just keep making islands with dinos on them, if the whole theme is a Pandora’s box that you can’t keep shut. Maybe North America gets reclaimed by OG dinos but South America gets taken over by tactical dinos controlled by the former leader of a paramilitary organization. The protagonists are trying to figure out how to jumpstart civilization in a post Dino regime while General evil is trying to conquer the world atop a terrible thunder lizard.

4) fast forward to future

I know what you’re saying: we want to keep our famous cast in the films. But hear me out: you could have a movie with like 15 Bryce Dallas Howards in it, because the whole franchise is about cloning, so set it 2,000 years in the future and clone Chris Pratt and clone BDH are trying to escape from Human Island, the last refuge of humans. They were cloned by a future scientist because of the records of their success handling the especially vicious dinosaurs from JW:FK, and the hope that they would be able to save humanity. But of course, nature vs. nurture: clone Pratt doesn’t have the same personality, and clone Howard doesn’t have the same knowledge and skills. In fact, clone Howard winds up the badass tracker/trainer, and clone Pratt is the bleeding heart, and I don’t have the whole movie scripted but the point is it is way better than the screen writer finding out about saurophaganax and deciding that someone wants to crossbreed saurophaganax with a T. rex and make an amusement park where people pay to see it eat things but then it breaks free and eats people.

#jurassic world #jurassic park #great ideas

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oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch · 6 years ago

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“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Movie Review

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the direct sequel to 2015’s Jurassic World, as well as the fifth movie in the Jurassic Park franchise. Directing duties have shifted from Colin Trevorrow to A Monster Calls director J.A. Bayona, and this installment stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt once again as Claire (in a character shift from amusement park money-maker to dinosaur-rights activist) and Owen, the “action-hero-man” of the franchise whose character never shifts at all. Claire has been working tirelessly to save the dinosaurs from the active volcano island of Isla Nublar, arguing that they should be given the same rights as other animals due to their being living creatures. After the last film’s events, however, some of the world’s leading officials are not so sure this is a good idea, since each time mankind has attempted to control or interfere with the world’s natural order, disaster has struck (as evidenced by the failures of now two dinosaur parks). Eventually, both Claire and Owen are put on assignment to carry out a rescue mission to save the dinosaurs (Claire because she knows the park, Owen in order to rescue Blue, the raptor from the last movie). And, what we’re given here is what’s supposed to be a dumb, fun action movie that tries to be more than what it is and fails miserably at it, albeit with more style and grace in its failings than the previous installment.

I’m no keeper of secrets when it comes to movies I like or dislike despite any mass audience opinion to the contrary (love The Witch and Hereditary, dislike The Greatest Showman, Guardians of the Galaxy felt flat, etc.), so most people who have been following my reviews and general movie “thing” for a while know well enough that I didn’t really like the first Jurassic World. Sure, it was mindless entertainment and there were parts about it I enjoyed, but it seemed to take the “mindless” angle a little too much to heart, with a lazy script filled with lazy characters, an overabundance of filmmaking clichés, and what amounted to cardboard cutouts of villains, dialogue, plot progression, or basically anything that wasn’t purely spectacle-driven. In that vein, Fallen Kingdom has a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of drudging this series back up where it rested after its predecessor was barely on-par with, or better than, The Lost World, but also in establishing J.A. Bayona as a legit director. And, for the most part, it really, truly fails. Luckily, that didn’t bother me as much this time around.

If there’s one thing Bayona can do with the best of them, it’s style and scale. This guy kills it at bringing larger than life visual creatures to screen and legitimately making them, well, larger than life. The sheer scope in Fallen Kingdom (for like the 15 minutes of the first act that they’re on the island at least) is breathtaking, and Bayona’s visual flourishes don’t just paint the dinosaurs as massive, but also majestic. The director’s understanding of scene geography is something to be commended here as well, as it nearly saves the movie from being ultimately worse than the first one. The visual effects have also been much improved on both a wide and a close-up scale. Do they rival the effects in the original Jurassic Park? Well, not really, but they’ve come to closest since to capturing not only the awe these creatures inspire, but the terror as well. The design of the new dino for this one is entirely frightening, and really highlights the “monster” aspect of these animals. (Side note: there was a moment in this film where I did legitimately start to tear up near the end of the first act and you will too, so good job on that one, movie.)

The performances in this film have also improved since last time. Bryce Dallas Howard getting to play a character that’s much less a product of corporate cartoon-isms and more of an at least two-dimensional character with her own agency without having to wear heels the whole time is a good step up, especially since it gives the actress more to do in terms of informing the character. Chris Pratt is also back, and while I wouldn’t say the character improved, his performance did; stripped of all the generic action hero Chris Pratt-isms that informed much of his character in the last film, it’s a lot less annoying to follow him and Howard around, despite the fact that, again, neither of their characters goes through the slightest bit of a personal growth arc, despite legitimate plot points brought up by this installment’s main villain that could have informed that sort of change.

Unfortunately, though, that’s where the positives essentially stop cold. This particular installment may have better style and less ultimately clichés running around (though it keeps the same bad editing), but it swaps decisions that used to be purely annoying for decisions that are purely stupid or forgettable. During the course of the film, especially the first act, it’s posited again and again that if these animals aren’t saved, they’ll go re-extinct, and humanity shouldn’t let that happen (notwithstanding the ecological and societal destruction they’ve already wreaked on their own enclosures and would eventually wreak on the world at large if not kept in an enclosure). Yet despite the number of times this is brought up, no one thinks to address the fact that they can just make more dinosaurs, as was the entire premise for this franchise’s now two series-starting films. They have the technology, they have the know-how, and they’re smart enough the acquire the funding to make more, and this never comes up.

In addition to this, the characters being less annoying apparently also meant stripping them of anything resembling what makes a character in the first place. Yeah, I know I said the performances were better, but that doesn’t make the characters better. It’s as if the writers of the previous film made the clichés and cartoon-ish behavior these people once carried the entire point of the characters in the first place, and without all of that, the characters are left to be deflated versions of what they once were; less annoying, but more underdeveloped.

There’s also a solution reveal to the extinction problem that’s played for what ends up being an insanely predictable twist to the point where one wonders if the characters were deliberately ignoring it just so a movie could happen (the “twist” is in the last trailer but the thing that leads to it is not…for some reason they thought that was a good idea instead of the reverse), but it ends up not only ripping a gaping hole in this film’s plot but in the first Jurassic World’s plot as well. One starts to wonder why they didn’t just go that route in the first place, given what’s meant to at first be this movie’s central conflict.

A lot of this has much more to do with the writing of the film than the production of it post-script, but no one thought to stop and question these glaring plot holes not just within the franchise, but within this entry? It’s entirely lazy writing that’s focused on making dinosaurs this big, philosophical talking point in the beginning (forgetting that they don’t have to be because they’re dinosaurs – that’s cool enough), then just wanting them to be mindless, dumb monsters in the end only for the sake of having an action-oriented finale. Not only does it not ultimately decide what message it wants to send (does it want humanity to not mess with nature or does it want us to campaign for animals rights), I don’t even know if it knows what message it’s trying to send, as the script is so fuddled and messy that there’s no clear emotional thru-line to follow. Oh, and in case you were thinking “yes, we finally get to see Ian Malcolm back in a Jurassic Park movie,” Jeff Goldblum amounts to nothing more than a cameo with the most generic dialogue in the film and none of the humor he brought to his previous appearances in the franchise, for a total screen-time of about 2 minutes, maybe less.

I went into this film not expecting much, given that I didn’t enjoy Bayona’s previous film, nor the previous film in this franchise, and maybe that’s why I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t outright hate this movie. Sure, I wanted to like it, and I was hoping it would be good, but I wasn’t expecting that, so I was likely less disappointed than a lot of my fellow critics or audience members out there. Still, it can’t really be denied that while I personally enjoyed this film more, it is, on as objective of a level as art can be (which is not very, mind you), a worse film than the previous one, and worse than Bayona’s previous work as well. Sure, Jurassic World was mindless entertainment, but even though it did take the mindless part a little too seriously, it was still entertaining even after it was over. This one, while still entertaining (perhaps more so) and rid of the clichés that informed the first one (again, swapping them out for laziness), can’t be bothered to not rip apart at the seams once you’re done watching it. And even as unsurprising as that is, it’s still disappointing.

I’m giving “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” a 5.8/10

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