#rudderless movie review

[kacic1]

A todos, boa noite!

Depois de minha crítica do filme Apenas Uma Vez, é hora de revisitar outro ótimo drama musical que figura dentre meus filmes favoritos. Convido vocês a visitarem Os Filmes do Kacic, para conferir minha nova crítica sobre este comovente drama protagonizado por Billy Crudup e o falecido Anton Yelchin, e que se encontra disponível no catálogo do Prime Video. Imperdível para os f��s do gênero!

Crítica: FORÇA PARA VIVER (RUDDERLESS) | 2014

🎬🎞🎥📽📺

[bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews]

Rudderless (2014): Grieving to a beat.

Manoj Mistry reviews "Rudderless" (2014). A tale of working through grief with music starring Billy Crudup. 4/5.

A review of “Rudderless” (2014): a guest review on One Mann’s Movies by Manoj Mistry. Dr Bob: This is the first time I’ve welcomed a guest reviewer to include an article on this site, but Manoj expressed an interest in writing retrospective reviews for older films. (If anyone else out there would like to write a review – in this standard prescribed format – for submission then please enquire at…

[avoutput]

Final Fantasy VII Legacy || Nomura, Complex?

This is the 3rd out of 3 articles. Find the second here.

It’s time to get down to mythril tacks. At this point, I have talked about what this game meant to me when it was released and how it’s newest installment fared as a game. Finally, it’s time to talk about the impact the Remake has on what has unexpectedly become a robust and diverse universe. What does this mean for us at large, the players? This is a no-holds-barred SPOILER frenzy about anything and everything in the Squaresoft/Square-Enix pantheon. This means not just the games in the orbit of Final Fantasy VII, but the entire catalog at Square-Enix. To be honest, this is just the introduction, I don’t know if I even have an intent of going so far beyond the purview of the Remake, but in the spirit of the Final Fantasy gatekeeper, Tetsuya Nomura, I refuse to limit myself.

It’s been almost exactly a month since I started writing this article. It took so long to come back to this because I kept finding more and more content related to Final Fantasy 7 that I either forgot about or didn’t even know existed. On my own shelf sits Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. I decided to watch Advent Children immediately after beating Remake. As a movie fan and amateur critic, the film is littered with terrible film decisions and was clearly the work of people who spend much of their time penning and creating video game stories. It’s a series of cutscenes without a controller attached and at a certain point, you realize Advent Children was never meant for film fans, but for fans of the game. Specifically for fans desiring an epilogue and more directly fans of Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth. The story is almost unintelligible because there is tons of connective tissue left to be assumed by the viewer. It is at once too far removed from FF7 in both linear real time and in-game universe time to be recognizable, and simultaneously inexplicable in what has transpired and why. It takes a crack at explaining it from moment to moment, but largely, it looks like they were looking for excuses to push the characters to act. I am not trying to review the film but rather my intent is to create a modus opendai for the gatekeeper, Mr. Nomura. The more I learned about the world of FF7 that was being created over the years, the more it seemed to lean on the stylings of this one man. In a way, Nomura launched Squaresoft and himself into a whole new stratosphere of fame and broke all expectations. In my first article, I mentioned that for a certain generation of fans, it was the perfect storm, but I would later find out the cause of the storm was Nomura breaking open lightning in a bottle, releasing his brand of design on the world with a multi-million dollar international company backing him.

If I may, let me take a parallel series by the same creator infested by the meta of his own other original creations, namely Kingdom Hearts. In its inception, it looks like two producers at Square were trying to make a 3-D adventure platformer game with characters as popular as Mario, but only the biggest brand on earth, Disney, could possibly beat the king of platformers. Nomura was… walking by and pushed himself into the conversation, and they decided if they could do it, they would let him direct. (Read more here) Yada yada yada, Kingdom Hearts was created. While I can’t seem to find (and didn’t look too hard to find) proof, I can only imagine that with KH having a tenuous new relationship with big-corp Disney, they focused more on a simple game that was straightforward. KH is very much a disney product with a little bit of artificial Nomura sweetener. With its unbridled success, Nomura was unleashed. Kingdom Hearts 2 would go on to be, in my opinion, one of the most unintelligible video game stories ever inscribed to plastic discs. But the power of Nomura’s story-telling is that we all understand it differently. He creates bedrocks, little story islands of unshakable facts that are connected via a salty sea of undefinable liquid moments. Cast out to sea, rudderless and deprived, you try to bring to your mouth this brine only to be dehydrated faster than if you had just sailed the sea and died in the sun between fact islands or lived long enough to tell the tale. And that metaphor is my tribute to Nomura. Long, winding, hard to remember, and just clear enough that you think you got it, but you still have problems with its construction.

It has now been over two months since I have last visited this article. What is keeping me from continuing? The incomplete nature of my knowledge of Final Fantasy VII lore. Unlike the Kingdom Hearts sea, VII is like a series of interconnected caves, and the more you unearth the more you learn. And therein lies the problem. The Nomura-verse is composed of both his methods and his circumstances. His methods, we have discussed, but his circumstance is game development. Unlike movies or books, games obviously have an interactive capability, but they also have a variable development cycle. Some titles come out quickly, others span decades. They also consist of different teams, story writers, directors, and a myriad of producers. This in turn can make it much harder to make a solid universe, especially when new additions start off in a place where a continuous story was never meant to exist. Nomura is at once hindered and strengthened by his circumstances. He can’t tell a better story because the development cycle of his vision is variable, and success is based on sales and popularity. Without success, he can’t create a new addition, and often in games, the end is meant to tie the whole thing up. Were there to be a sequel, a whole new story is thought up and tacked on wherever it fits. Gamers are pretty forgiving of this concept. Still, at the same time, Nomura probably wouldn’t make a concise story because it's not his style. For comparison, see the Dark Souls series. A game that both has deep lore and an involving story, but at the same time, the game doesn’t require you to know a single point to continue moving forward. This is almost the antithesis of Nomura’s style. In Souls, they let the player decide to explore its story caves, but doesn’t confront them with it to continue advancing. This is a strength of  video games. A strength that Nomura keeps using to his disadvantage.

Yet, Final Fantasy VII still excelled to unparalleled heights. It engages you in the same way all of the previous games in the series have, but with a slight departure on the strict fantasy theme, instead a merger with steampunk or semi-future. The series was changed forever, and so was gaming. Instead of doing the Dragon Quest method, expanding on the same universe design with different stories, Final Fantasy was emboldened to try completely random approaches with vector entries like VIII and X. For longtime fans, or fans of their original design, Every future title, MMO or Single Player, would go on to be successful, but not fully realized in their original context. Even the return to form in IX was much more playful than any of the original six entries. Gaming franchises have since become playgrounds for developers. Once they are accepted by fans, developers are emboldened and experiment with what would normally be a new IP, but instead use the financial shield of the famous namesake to move forward with new ideas. And in the case of Final Fantasy, when this concept of change works, it means that every numbered game becomes a wildcard. It’s a double edged sword for a gaming franchise that dates back to the 8-bit era. It has fans over 40 years old by this point and they may be willing to buy anything new. But this isn’t new to you and it isn’t a revelation for me. Final Fantasy VII Remake causes me to reckon with these demons I had buried years ago. It rips off a scab I thought had healed. I had given up on the past, a past where I was excited for a singular story, contained in a single universe, in a single title. I had given up on the glory years of Final Fantasy, but the Remake took me back and said, what if we told you everything you remember about the original was true, and everything we added after that was also true, even though you probably didn’t play it or even know it existed. Even if you do your very best, you probably won’t be able to track the story or interconnected characters if you aren’t in the know. It’s like joining a group of long time friends that are constantly referencing inside jokes, all of them just winking at each other, nudging you in the ribs and asking, “Do ya get it?” Truly, the Remake series thus far makes me feel lost at sea when what I wanted to feel like was coming home.

This retrospective has left me feeling broken. Based on the end of the FFVIIR, I sought out to reconcile all of the loose ends to all the connected media. However, spending time with the prequel Crisis Core for over around 40 hours, I realized this was a crapshoot. None of it mattered. It didn’t enrich the characters, it only made the story longer. It just added wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey “facts” to an otherwise complete(ish) origin point. The FFVII universe can’t handle the weight that is put on it. It’s a faulty bridge over a treacherous pass. On the other hand, that same bridge for some is a point of excitement. You tread the boards, one by one, testing your weight, hoping to get to the other side intact. And I think that is why we keep trying these games and why they keep getting made. We don’t want the fun to end, despite the fact that it has nothing left for us to be excited by. It’s a closed loop that we keep looking for something new in. By the end of the Remake, we are somewhere between ⅓ or ½ way across the faulty bridge, dangling between where we have been and where it is taking us. At this point, I am too mentally exhausted from trying to make sense of it all. Yet I am incapable of not enjoying it, the mental somersaults one does to understand the interconnected mess that is Final Fantasy VII. It’s too dear to me. I got on the bridge for so many reasons, but the biggest one is to be on the other side with all of the other fans who dared to play and dared to complete the game. To be in the know, to wink across the room. I want to be in that hyper-critical utopia where we all have one thing in common: We played Final Fantasy VII in 1997. And we all have something to say about it.

[militant-holy-knight]

Netflix's 'Messiah' Demonizes Muslims, Critics Allege

New series about all-powerful, mysterious figure with possible holy powers draws outrage 

Netflix’s "Messiah" isn’t even two weeks old and it’s already generated plenty of controversy to carry the premium streaming service for the rest of the year. The series, which is about how the world reacts to a mysterious all-powerful figure, has drawn ire among Arabs and Iranians for its portrayal of the series' main character.

Muslims suspect the main character, Al-Masih (played by Mehdi Dehbi), is supposed to represent Dajjal or the anti-Christ, but the series suggests that this holy figure might actually be a state-sponsored antichrist. Al-Masih captures the attention of the CIA and the Mossad when he attempts to smuggle thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria to Israel.

A scathing review from the Middle East Eye, for example, did not mince words: “Messiah's script is so badly disjointed, it’s enough to make you lose whatever faith you might have in religion." The review goes on to slam the series for relying on "tired tropes, boorish acting and a rudderless plot." Ouch.

The author also accuses the show of attempting to depict Western characters in a nuanced way, while painting Palestinians and Syrian refugees as primitive terrorists.

"By linking Palestinian rights for freedom to an ambiguous and ambivalent character, who may or not be a messiah, the series attempts to fictionalize a people’s ambition," he continues.

As The Raw Story notes, "the show advances a clear and dangerous geopolitical narrative that panders to the Christian Right: America must team up with Israel to defeat Iranian terrorists whose influence permeates the Middle East."

Similarly, American Christian comedian Jeremy McLellan, said: "Watching The Messiah on Netflix and it’s painfully obvious right off the bat that he’s actually the Dajjal or anti-Christ. Clues include his name being al-Masih, being from Iran (which is bad now), references to an eye, and not being white like the original Jesus."

It is no surprise, then, that Iran New Now decried the series as a full-on "right-wing claptrap."

And if there’s one truism in Hollywood it’s this: there’s no pleasing everyone when depicting holy figures or events. Noah sparked outrage with Muslims over its portrayal of the prophet and was banned in Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Jews were livid when Mel Gibson came out with The Passion of the Christ, and accused the film of promoting anti-Semitism.

The creator of the show, which revolves around a mysterious religious leader in the Middle East who is being investigated by the CIA, knows the film is provocative. "Yes it’s provocative – the show is provocative," Michael Petroni told the AFP. "But provocative isn’t offensive. It’s not like I’m welcoming backlash," he added. "We expect that there’s going to be a lot of noise around the show, and a lot of debate. I’m hoping for debate."

But, naturally, controversy has already erupted before the movie has even premiered, while Change.org has launched a petition against it, calling it Islamophobic. The series doesn’t reveal the holy figure’s authenticity right off the bat, rather it lets the mystery unfold and allows viewers to come to their own conclusions.

"It was such an audacious concept, you know?" Petroni said. "You read the pilot, this guy is going to march 2,000 Palestinian Syrians across the border of Israel."

Filmed in both the United States and Jordan, the production spared no expense in depicting one of the holiest sites in the world and recreated a scale replica of part of Jerusalem's Temple Mount compound for a key scene.

"Obviously historically they don’t meet up happily. But that is where they all meet up. And so to me as a location to a story that’s about politics and religion, it was so symbolic," he said, explaining the reason behind using a location holy to all three Abrahamic faiths. The multicultural cast and filming locations is also reflected in the dialogue, as characters speak in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.

[theechudar]

Dejavu Movie Review: Logic goes for a toss in this rudderless thriller- Cinema express

Dejavu Movie Review: Logic goes for a toss in this rudderless thriller- Cinema express

Debutant Arvindh Srinivasan’s Dejavu has an impressive start. A drunk novelist with supposed ESP (Extra Sensory Power) to predict crime scenes, pens a page describing a young girl’s kidnap and his fiction turns out to be reality the next day. His predictions are so accurate that he even gets the vehicle numbers of the suspects right, even before they board into one. Though the writer’s prediction…

[comicweek]

5 Thoughts on Daredevil “Resurrection”

“Resurrection” was directed by Marc Jobst and written by Erik Oleso

1. Theme as Structure

As an episode, by Netflix standards, “Resurrection” is an overall success and decent indication of what new showrunner Erik Oleson (writer/producer Arrow and The Man in the High Castle) will be doing. It still has that Netflix Original feel of being maybe 5 minutes too long, but giving the episode a motif (resurrection) to bind everything together brought a sense of coherence. Where these shows tend to run into problems is when their episodes lack some binding agent to demarcate a narrative boundary and are instead fueled by plot (not storytelling) which inevitably exacerbates the series porous episodic boundaries and viewers are left questioning when things occurred or feel dramatically unsatisfied.

In the wake of The Defenders just about everyone is looking to start over and be like the phoenix. Matt Murdoch is left rudderless and in hell in the wake of Midland Circle. Wilson Fisk continually plots his way out of prison. Karen and Foggy, supporting characters with no one to support, are stuck in an untenable charade.(Karen as a character has already pulled off her own resurrection and much better for.) FBI Agent Ray Nadeem searches for promotion. “Resurrection” is a succession of scenes of people trying to change, they haven’t achieved it yet but it is a good starting point.

The investigation of mutable identity as an operational theme is one Oleson should know well after writing on the third season of Arrow. It is also the one at the core Daredevil as a series, as it continually investigates the personalities played by Charlie Cox. That single thread is this show in a nutshell and helps make for one of the more fulfilling episodes in the Marvel-Netflix franchise. It isn’t a ground breaking artistic achievement, but more than adequately sets everything up without dryly pushing everything around the board.

2. Self-Delusion/Self-Knowledge 3. Defenders Fallout 4. Holy Imagery Daredevil! (or What Would Zack and Larry Do?)

Thought Experiment: Imagine what a Zack Snyder-Larry Fong Daredevil movie/tv series would look like. Pushing the prior film aside, it would likely look a lot like this but turned up to 11 in the way that duo does. The opening quasi surrealist answer to just how Matt made it out of Midland Circle is chocked full of heaven and hell, and it isn’t like this show is a parody of Catholic guilt. Would Snyder and Fong even make it to the 4 minute mark without some obvious and strong reference to Christian art? Because it’s four minutes in, we haven’t even gotten the credits yet, and Olsen with director Marc Jobst are giving us a Pietà.

We also get an homage to the cover of ‘Guardian Devil’ #3 by Joe Quesada.

These are interesting moments for the series, since it has by an largely eschewed such visual echoes of itself and others. Marvel-Netflix in general has tried to distance itself from visual homage beyond the accoutrement that make their heroes iconic.

5. Sound Design

Read Full Review @ MultiversityComics.com

[aion-rsa]

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 1 Review – Chapter 77: Climax

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This RIVERDALE review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 1

“Clearly our last two weeks of high school are going to be fraught…”

Friends, on this day we find this country starting a new chapter, one that is full of hope and excitement for the future.

I am of course referring to the airing of Riverdale‘s season premiere, a somewhat wheel-spinning, melodramatic affair that feels more like the closing pages of a book than the start of another story.

And that’s because it is precisely that. This episode was a leftover from last year, filmed but not completed production until the pandemic lockdown was over. As such it thrusts us into the start of the endgame of last season’s storylines — namely the fallout of the Betty and Archie kiss, Mr. Lodge’s illness and how he is using vigilantism to cope with it, the mysterious (and suitably anachronistic videotapes) arriving at the doorsteps of Riverdale residents, and the gang prepping for their imminent post-high school lives.

There’s a lot to be told here until the show finishes telling this specific story. Writers Ace Hasan and Greg Murray handle this arguably thankless task with aplomb, squeezing out the necessary exposition needed to push the plot points towards their approaching conclusion while shoehorning in a (now unfortunate) Katy Keene tie-in. To be fair, it’s a solid episode. Just one that, through no fault of its own, doesn’t really work as a season premiere.

That minor gripe aside, there’s a lot to enjoy here. First and foremost are Archie’s struggles. It was wise for the showrunners to make the character realize that he is a bit of a rudderless dolt. Addressing this most obvious of character flaws makes our oft-shirtless protagonist that much more of a likable guy. He’s discovered that while he has some options — running the gym is his best bet — he also needs to clear his head, and getting out of Riverdale would help with that greatly.

Now that the Navy isn’t an option, and he’s questioning his whole life. This results in his destroying his relationship with Veronica by telling her about his illicit kiss with Betty. One, it should be mentioned, that made Betty feel super uncomfortable…although that could’ve just been the terrible song Archie wrote for her.

The deception is enough to blow apart the pair’s “endgame” status…at least until after the upcoming time jump and their old flame is inevitably rekindled. (Even though we know that Veronica will be married to the jerky Chad Gekko, another Katy Keene character climbing aboard the Riverdale express). Much drama will ensue, but in the show’s now, they are done. What’s the over/under until we see Veronica performing “Bittersweet Symphony” at La Bonne Nuit?

Elsewhere, the Choni ship (I am in my forties and just wrote those words!) is threaten by the ghost of the greatest thing to ever happen on Riverdale: The Blossom family’s Maple Syrup Blood Feud. It’s not that Toni’s Nana has an issue with her granddaughter’s sexuality — although she kinda does — but more that Toni is dating a sworn enemy of the Lopez family. As much as I love me some Shakespeareian motifs, these characters regularly deal with serial killers and cult members. So the family drama here isn’t really very compelling, you know?

The most interesting thing happening on Riverdale right now is also its most frustrating, the saga of The Auteur. Betty didn’t tell Jughead about Archie’s shitty song or the kiss because in her mind, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a sort of awkward thing that happened in the moment that isn’t worth blowing up her life over. Adult decision making at its finest! Whether or not this choice impacts her relationship with Jughead, and I bet it does, will be revealed soon. Right now though they are doing what they love the most, investigating a mystery. One that really needs to ramp up the excitement and fast.

David seems to be too obvious of a choice to be the identity of the Auteur. It also goes against the show’s habit of making the protagonist someone we already know. Episodes from last season have shown us Charles and Chip plotting together for a yet to be revealed reason. To a lesser degree, Evelyn Evernever is a possibility too. But this episode raises the most intriguing potential suspect yet.

Jellybean Jones.

Think about it. She is a cipher of a character, one who would have had access to Jughead’s stories and knows about almost every aspect of his life. Perhaps she is making these videos because she is scared about him going away to school. Maybe they are some sort of bizarre revenge plot cooked up by Jellybean and Gladys Jones against Jughead and FP? By making Jellybean the auteur this creates more drama for the ever-complicated Jughead and gives him a personal tragedy that mirrors what Betty experienced with her father. I truly feel that Jellybean being at David’s film fest/rave by herself (we never see her friends she is supposedly with) is much more than a red herring. Time will tell. But we need to see some clarity on what the motives behind these tapes are, ASAP.

And so Riverdale is back. While we are watching the blending of the programs fourth and fifth seasons unfold due to real-life production concerns, it remains the most welcome of escapes.

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Riverdale Rundown

• This episode was filmed before production on the series was shut down due to Covid-19. As such, the next few installments will cover the gang’s final weeks at Riverdale High before jumping ahead seven years — which will occur in what was originally intended to be last year’s season finale. And you thought Doctor Who was timey wimey.

• The above explanation also explains why a character from a cancelled CW series — K.O. Kelly from Katy Keene — plays such a crucial role in tonight’s proceedings.

• Speaking of Katy Keene, that show took place during the time period that Riverdale is about to jump ahead to — one in which Hiram Lodge has completely recovered from his mystery disease.

• Did anyone else find Archie’s constant referring to K.O. as bro endearing? And OF COURSE these two characters were given a shirtless workout montage/steam room scene. Besides, what’s an episode of Riverdale without plenty of gratuitous objectification?

• Archie really did himself no favors by neglecting to mention to Veronica how Betty shut him down after his attempt to woo her. Communication is the key to a solid, healthy relationship, fam!

• Ashleigh Murray’s Josie McCoy was a main character on Katy Keene, yet as of this writing it is unclear if she will return to Riverdale or not this season. (And for the record, Archieverse showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa hasn’t permanently shut the door on some sort of Katy Keene revival either).

• The cancelled fifth season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would have been a major crossover with Riverdale. Although we were denied that magic, if the above official key art is to be believed, it does seem that we will be getting some major supernatural happenings is season. Afterlife with Archie anyone?

• Archie’s scars from his bear attack really come and go, don’t they?

• Kett Turton returns tonight as David, the owner of the Blue Velvet video store. His perfect recreation of David Lynch’s cadence and mannerisms combined with the costume department seemingly raiding the Twin Peaks mastermind’s wardrobe is a perfect illustration of how Riverdale commits to its goofiness 100%.

• I’m not sure, but I think the Black Hood movie being shown in room 317 is a very subtle reference to the Miss Saigon song that also takes place in that location.

• In a nice callback, some of the tickling videos like the ones Kevin and Fangs made are being shown at the film party/rave. (Along with snippets of exploitation/art flicks clearly inspired by the works of Kenneth Anger and Herschell Gordon Lewis).

• “You had me at snuff film.” Here’s hoping Kevin Keller never changes.

• Cheryl is at her most Cheryl tonight, melodramatically spewing lines like “perhaps your camera will capture the sublime tragedy of my life” with an effortlessness that would make Bette Davis proud.

• Putting Fizzle Rocks in the punchbowl, classic Reggie Mantle.

• Further evidence of how this show is, to quote The Tragically Hip, chronologically fucked up, the songs played at the prom were Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me,” BoDeans’ “Closer to Free” (itself the theme song to another popular teen show, Party of Five), Collective Soul’s “The World I Know,” Mazzy Star’s timeless “Fade Into You,” and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” Would any of these songs actually be played at a prom taking place in whatever year in the 2010’s this series is set in? Your guess is as good as mine.

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[nightmareonfilmstreet]

[Review] Shudder’s DOWNRANGE is Morbid, Mean, and Mostly Great

Some movies are just going to be gross. You look at the director or the source material the film is based on and you just know that it is going to make you cover your mouth and squirm. Sometimes, even with that beforehand knowledge in our pocket, we encounter a film that still finds a way to shock us into submission. Ryuhei Kitamura, director of The Midnight Meat Train, brings us exactly that type of film with his newest outing, Downrange.

The film starts off with a bang (see what I did there?). It opens on a SUV full of college-age folks as a tire blows and the vehicle skids to the side of the road. If you have seen a trailer or heard anything about this film, you know exactly what is coming next. The group, which consists of couple Sara (Alexa Yeames) and Todd (Rod Hernandez), military brat Keren (Stephanie Pearson), hunky-hunk from Hunkville Jeff (Jason Tobias), soft-spoken nice-guy Eric (Anthony Kirlew) and a young lady just trying to get home to her sister’s sweet-16 party Jodi (Kelly Connaire).

    We know all of these things because they tell us within the first 10 minutes of the movie. Usually, exposition like this is annoying and lazy, but Kitamura gets around it by making this a carpool-situation where these people are all strangers going into this little road trip. It’s understandable, then, that they would introduce themselves to one another, and to the audience.

As you can probably guess, they have no cell signal and it is blazing hot outside. They spread out in the shade and try to pass the time by chit-chatting one another about their plans. Hunk Jeff takes over the changing of the spare tire when he sees what it was that caused the blowout in the first place. There laying on the ground next to the deflated tire is a bullet, and that’s when things really start to get interesting.

  “The film is filled […] with some of the best gore and body destruction I have seen since Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead re-make.”

  The group in terrorized by a sniper in the trees, making them cower behind engine blocks and fallen tree stumps, picking them off one-by-one as they peek their head out to see what is going on. This is where Downrange really shines. The film is filled from this point until the end with some of the best gore and body destruction I have seen since Fede Álvarez‘s Evil Dead re-make. We see bullets tear through skulls, eyes, hands, arms, legs, shoulders, chests and throats. Literally no part of your body is safe from this killer’s aim. As the young people scream and bleed and die, we see this killer drink from his water bottle and methodically eat jerky. This is fun to him, and he can wait forever for them to try to make a run for it.

The highlight of the entire film comes when another car finally drives toward the wrecked SUV, bringing with it hope for rescue from the remaining carpoolers. The sniper takes a shot at the driver, causing the car to swerve and flip, resulting in one of the most gruesome, kinetic, and blood-splutteringly cool car crashes that I have seen in a long time. It reminded me a lot of the crash in Death Proof, only turned up to eleven when you realize that there 1) is a child in the car and 2) there are bodies already baking in the street where the car is about to land.

    The gore and splatter are amazing in Downrange and they definitely deserve a watch when it is released exclusively on Shudder April 26th, but that note is really the only one that this film can hit. It suffers from a cast that is earnest, but obviously inexperienced. In The Midnight Meat Train, Kitamura was able to compliment the gore with performances from Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb and Vinnie Jones that brought extra urgency and emotion into their roles through sheer talent. Downrange does not benefit from this level of acting. They all do well, and they are obviously trying to bring more to their role than “be afraid then bleed”, but it doesn’t land.

Rod Hernandez’s Todd is the bright spot in this group of actors, with a poignant scene in the middle of the road after all hope for survival had been drained from his body. It was the only moment of tenderness that the film managed to successfully display, so it was definitely memorable. The ending of the film, however, seemed rudderless and out-of-place. It was an effective twist that you need to see, but it left me feeling a little let down after the previous 90 minutes of mayhem.

  “Downrange is shocking and brutal in its depiction of senseless gun violence”

  No creator of horror content goes into a project with no plan in place. They don’t just “wing it” until they see something that might scares some folks. They have spent months, sometimes years nailing down exactly what is going to scare the audience in their work. They use current events, folklore, myths and cultural anxieties to create a web of tension that we, as the participants, must find a way out of. Sometimes, however, current events will cause the cultural anxieties to shift since the beginning of the project. This creates a horror film that will terrify you for a reason the director and writers didn’t expect.

Downrange, I believe, is both the beneficiary and the victim of this phenomenon. I feel like the goal of Kitamura and his co-writer Joey O’Bryan with this film was to scare us because this type of shooting rampage could happen in real life. Instead, the movie scares us because it does happen in real life. This psychopathic killer, in the span of the film’s 90 minute runtime, manages to terrorize and kill twelve people. On October 1st, 2017, a 64 year-old piece of shit from Nevada opened fire on a country music concert, killing 58 and wounding 851 more in the span of 10 minutes. We’ve seen this movie before. It plays every time we gather with a crowd, whether it be for a basketball game, a concert, or for church. It plays when we leave the bar at night and when we head to work in the morning. Downrange is shocking and brutal in its depiction of senseless gun violence, but, unfortunately for those of us living in the United States, we get the same feelings just by turning on the news.

    Be sure to check out this bloody, brutal treat of a film as it premiers exclusively on Shudder this Thursday, April 26th. Although there are some points in the film that are just not quite great, Downrange is definitely worth a watch this weekend.

2.5/4 eberts

Downrange held it’s world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was also an official selection of the 2018 Overlook Film Festival. Bookmark our homepage at Nightmare on Film Street to catch all the hottest horror news and reviews. While you’re at it, join our Facebook Group, Horror Fiends of Nightmare on Film Street and let us know what you think about Downrange!

  The post [Review] Shudder’s DOWNRANGE is Morbid, Mean, and Mostly Great appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[gokul2181]

‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’ movie review: A sketchy pay-per-view film

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‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’ movie review: A sketchy pay-per-view film

Its rudderless and painfully long narrative aside, the Aishwarya Rajessh-starrer is still a sharp commentary on the shortcomings of a functional democracy

It was an anticipated debut: a Tamil film releasing directly on a newly launched pay-per-view (PPV) platform.

But of course, Ka Pae Ranasingam did not arrive without hiccups. The film is available to view via the PPV service Zee Plex (for customers of DTH platforms), as well as the streaming platform ZEE5. Except it cannot be viewed using the OTT platform’s mobile app, at least not yet.

‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’

Cast: Aishwarya Rajessh, Vijay Sethupathy, Bhavani Sre, Vela Ramamoorthy, Rangaraj Pandey, Abhishek, Munishkanth

Director: P Virumandi

Storyline: A woman fights State apathy to bring back the body of her dead husband from abroad

Viewing Ka Pae Ranasingam via ZEE5 website was an experience, and not of the good kind. Exacerbating the displeasure of a stop-start viewing experience (slow streaming and sudden failure to support Google Chrome as a browser, to name a few) was the film’s runtime: 2 hours and 57 minutes.

It is the kind of time the Stanley Kubricks and Alfred Hitchcocks of the world didn’t need, but for some reason Tamil filmmakers seem to. Perhaps, it was director Virumandi’s way of giving maximum movie for the rental paid (₹199) that the editor’s role was deemed unnecessary.

Vijay Sethupathi and Aishwarya Rajessh in ‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

To put it simply, Ka Pae Ranasingam is painfully long. We are introduced to Ariyanachi (Aishwarya Rajessh) from a village in Ramanathapuram district. She is married to Ranasingam (Vijay Sethupathi), who is working on an off-shore oil plant in Dubai. One day, she gets the news that he is killed, and she is told a false reason for his death.

The future of PPV

There are other things of note that PPV platforms must keep in mind while fixing the rental price for a film. Movie buffs in Tamil Nadu are used to paying the price quoted by Zee Plex for Ka Pae Ranasingam for a complete theatrical experience. That means: watching the film on a computer browser and watching it on the big screen with air-conditioning and Dolby Atmos sound effects are two different things.

Also, relative to the pricing, the rental duration ought to be extended. Zee Plex affords only six hours to view the film once the play button is pressed, which, for a movie with nearly three-hour runtime, is both inadequate and illogical. If PPV services cannot afford the same luxury as an OTT platform (especially, the option of resuming playback at a later time), then its purpose will be deemed defeated.

The other major concern is power disruptions. PPV services operating in the West don’t need to account for unplanned power outages because they are almost unheard of, unlike in our country. What if you are two hours into a movie and then the power supply in your neighbourhood fails for the next four hours? Will there be a refund?

These questions are as yet unanswered, and these are besides issues like slow streaming. If PPV is to survive its initial interest phase, more relaxation in terms of rental fee, duration and playback time should be considered. Otherwise, PPV services will run into the brick walls fast being built by OTT platforms.

A distraught Ariyanachi then recounts her meeting Ranasingam, the water diviner, prior to their marriage. The screenplay adopts a non-linear narrative, and weaves together flashbacks and present-day happenings to give us a picture of Ranasingam — a man who leads from the front the villagers’ years-long fight to secure drinking water from the State.

Gradually, Ranasingam finds that the resistance he strived to build is fading, and so to secure the future of his family, he, too, heads abroad but never returns.

Back to the present day, and we see Ariyanachi made to run from pillar to post to bring back her dead husband: her journey takes her all the way to the Prime Minister of India; the filmmaker builds his screenplay by grabbing incidents that made headlines in the past few years and then turning them into scenes.

Due credit to Virumandi, the debutant filmmaker, for his writing (dialogues) is razor sharp in places.

There is also a touch of simplicity in the manner his scenes are crafted, an appreciable quality since most debut filmmakers fall for the trappings of Tamil cinema and try to go overboard with the drama quotient.

State apathy doesn’t hit you hard — or slap you across the face, if you will — like in a Shankar film. It happens, it is usual and there is nothing you can do to change it. There is no feeling of helplessness or desperation that these scenes leave in you. It doesn’t move you, at all, and that there is how reality sans fiction feels like. Think of the injustice that happened in Hathras days ago, and think of the nationwide outrage that followed… oh no, that was a dream!

Aishwarya Rajessh aces her role as Ariyanachi; hers is not a nuanced performance but it is a character she portrays with effortless ease. Maybe, affording your lead actor more screen time (or close-ups) could have helped.

This is the biggest gripe one is likely to have with Ka Pae Ranasingam. Vijay Sethupathi is, on paper, playing a cameo. But the spectre of Ranasingam looms large on the canvas of a film that should have instead been all about Ariyanachi. It is also a sign of how things work in Tamil cinema.

So long as this industry has more male-sponsored narratives of the female perspective of things, even the so-called ‘female-centric’ films will not permit its female lead to stamp their authority.

A tip of the hat to actor Abhishek, who despite the limited scope of his character (a Government official), was one of only three or four actors in the film who delivers a close-to-believable performance.

Despite its flaws, Ka Pae Ranasingam offers interesting commentary on State apathy. If you can gather enough patience to last its runtime in one sitting, and can also look past the shortcomings of its PPV host, Ka Pae Ranasingam can indeed be some experience.

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[newszada]

‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’ film assessment: A sketchy pay-per-view moviehttps://www.newszada.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/‘Ka-Pae-Ranasingam-movie-review-A-sketchy-pay-per-view-film.jpeg Its rudderless and painfully lengthy n...https://www.newszada.com/ka-pae-ranasingam-film-assessment-a-sketchy-pay-per-view-movie/?feed_id=469294&_unique_id=5f7850c807fdc

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Blackbird

(Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, Courtesy of Screen Media)

BLACKBIRD— 3 STARS

Quite quickly into Roger Michell’s Blackbird, Susan Sarandon stamps exactly what kind of terminally ill character this film intends to portray. You may see the Academy Award winner’s aged luminosity but, let me tell you, this is far from a retread of her beloved 1998 film Stepmom. Her Lily is tired of the pretend pleasantries as she summons her extended family to her and husband’s beachfront homestead. She is done with the constant “who are you” questions, “are you OK” observation checks, and her own cordiality to retort with “glad you’re here.” 

Her curtness speaks volumes. She is dying of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The debilitation of ALS has increased and she feels it getting worse. All of the wait-and-see “soons” and “whens” have been exhausted. She knows it. Her doctor husband Paul, played by a sage Sam Neill, knows it. It’s time and she wants to share one more rewarding weekend. 

LESSON #1: OWN YOUR OWN TERMS— Rather than prolong matters and helplessly watch her body become more ravaged and dependent on painful, undignified care, Lily is not willing to prolong such a descent. She has enlisted an understanding and willing Paul to assist her in euthanasia after this final weekend. Legality and morality be damned, this is her unwavering and adamant choice.

Needless to say, her two very different adult daughters Jennifer (fellow Oscar winner Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska) are not entirely ready for the method or finality of that decision. Jennifer is your typical successful, prudish, and tightly-wound control freak married to the squarish and boorish trivia boob Michael (Rainn Wilson). They share a soulful-yet-distant son named Jonathan (Crawl and 1917 up-and-comer Anson Boon). The younger Anna is the family screw-up opposite, a rudderless and career-less gypsy of sorts with her non-binary partner Chris (TV star Bex Taylor-Klaus) in tow. 

Those five visitors join Lily and Paul’s oldest friend Elizabeth, a fellow former hippy played by stage great Lindsay Duncan, for this assembly of familial closure. Her thankless role is that of confidante and mediator. The discomfort of the looming decision elevates stresses and sharpens new and old prickles of broken internal relationships that have been fractured for years. Each character present confronts their respective weaknesses and fears.

LESSON #2: IF YOU COULD CHOOSE YOUR ENDING— Lily’s curtness and sense of urgency has created a grave clarity within her. She has determined her own fate and chosen when, where, and how to go out. The matriarch implores her family that she is of sound mind and wishes for them to let her do what she wants. Blackbird presents that extremely challenging ethical crisis with straight-forward grace rooted in love.

That strength comes from Susan Sarandon. When given the right role, she reminds us of her unlimited appeal and talent. Little doses of gallows humor bring forth Susan’s perfect smile yet create catalysts for that same smile to wither with the weight of the moment. Without words, Sarandon never overplays her character’s medical condition. Sarandon’s eyes and gestures are always moving and always telling a story. Like Jack Nicholson, she is a master of physical ambiance and unspoken ticks.

Michell (Notting Hill, Hyde Park on the Hudson) runs with that in little extended transition beats of background action in this remake of the 2014 Bille August Danish film Silent Heart. The line-delivering and mark-hitting script will turn off for a shared dinner or a game night gathering. Peter Gregson’s musical score plays over most of the kibitzing and you simply watch how the performers respond and carry on from Susan’s energy level and lead. It’s a beautiful effect.

The fragile person dying ends up being the wisest person and performance in the room next to fellow heavyweights like Winslet, Neil, and Duncan. Her shared moments with her fellow veterans are as compelling as one would expect, yet it’s the conversations and wavelengths shared with the younger Boon and Taylor-Kraus that truly resonate. Youths dodge their emotions less than closed-off adults and it shows. Their lenses are far more fascinating for social commentary. 

LESSON #3: DYING SATISFIED— This conclusion echoes Lesson #2. When you think about it, how many of us will ever get to have planning or say with our deaths? This creates a classic “what would you do” consternation. Some folks wouldn’t dare approach that kind of decision while others would entertain that morbidity with willingness. In Blackbird, it’s about the satisfied descriptors of the final action. Dying is dying, but dying “alive,” dying “happy, or dying “satisfied.” are the greater desires.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#907)

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[zeddfrost]

Inhumans Review

Inhumans was just....so disappointing.  It felt rushed, sloppy, and utterly rudderless.  It would have felt more at home as a SyFy movie of the week than as a headlining Marvel TV show.

The most egregious sin was the utter lack of Kirby aesthetics.   Dr. Strange didn't get that 100% right, but there was at least a respectable attempt of capturing that kind of Ditko-esque trippy aesthetic.  Not so here.  Attilan looks like a government building...and all the royal quarters look like extended stay hotels.  So much has already been said about Medusa's hair, but Gorgon's hooves are even worse.  They looked so obviously fake and the obvious cheat of never showing the actor clearly with those legs.

AND the writing. GEEZUS that was awful.  The characters just felt so off.  None of the main characters were compelling, and some were downright icky.  Gorgon is rendered as some kind of bro-y tough guy while Karnak comes off a nihilistic asshole, which is just wrong.  Crystal gets relegated to being a damsel distress, despite being one of the most powerful member of the royal family. Characters also incessantly data dumped at the audience...a sign of a script that's lost all direction.  The pacing was off, and there was never any compelling reason given as to why anything that was happening was happening.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm a big Inhumans detractor ever since Marvel decided to make them the mutant-lite replacement for the X-Men. But dear god, they deserve far, far better than this.

[apocalypticmovierp]

‘The Mandalorian’ Enters Epic Territory With The First Female ‘Star Wars’ Director [Episode 3 Review]

So far, while not everyone agrees with whether or not “The Mandalorian” is a great show (especially in this era of Peak TV), it has been a blast watching brand-new live-action “Star Wars” content delivered each and every week. The first episode is a bold introduction to the world and its broken-down, politically and morally rudderless landscape (following the events of ‘Return of the Jedi‘) and that distinct world’s lead character, a faceless bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) tasked with retrieving some very special cargo.

Continue reading ‘The Mandalorian’ Enters Epic Territory With The First Female ‘Star Wars’ Director [Episode 3 Review] at The Playlist.

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[sicklylittlesnowflake]

i cant tell if u like all snez or just sick snez, but if ur interested in allergy prompts u could write jughead having a fit because of dust on the film reels at the drive in?

( all snz is good snz anon..I live for allergies..this one is on the shorter side because this is snz with no plot lmao..here’s more j\ug snz, which I’m enjoying writing a little shh..very slight mess warning, more spray than actual mess)

Cinema was one of Jughead’s prime passions, this magical art form that felt like home. A home where his family, on their very few good days, could turn to, through the likes of the Twilight Drive In where his family could be a family. Here he could lose himself in the magic of ET, feeling happy for once with his whole family finally together at peace.

Cinema was also his home away from home. It had always been such, serving as his escape when his parents would start fighting and he would just pop in Star Wars for the hundredth time and pretend he was with Luke and friends, and not in this shitty world.

When he’d gotten older Jughead had began to appreciate cinema in a finer, more artistic level, analysing shot compositions and musical scores, the usage of colour and the certain beats in the acting. It had become a beautiful source of art that taught him much about the world, and about himself, that he could also turn to when things took a turn for the worse.

The cinema once again became a home to him, and this time a literal home, when things in his family turned for the worst and he was forced to live in one. It wasn’t the worst situation, he could be sleeping on park benches or underneath bridges, here he had a bed and an albeit shitty, but still did the job radiator, money, and of course free access to the cinema. However some days, the Drive In wasn’t too kind to Jughead.

It had all started when he headed to the Drive In after school, where and as he made his way to the entrance he was caught by his boss.

“Jughead!” He called out.

“Hey,” Jughead greeted.

“Just want to give ya the schedule for tonight,” He announced, giving him a list, and then pulled out a ten dollar bill out of his pocket, handing it to a very confused Jughead.

“It’s a long night tonight Jug, go buy yourself some snacks,” His boss told him before leaving.

Jughead gave him a thankful smile and made his way over to the food stand where he bought himself a large soda, a large bag of chips, a hot dog and fries, bringing them all back to the little projection booth he called home.

Setting down what he had been holding on a little table, he pulled out the list given to him by his boss and reviewed the schedule for tonight. Shattered Glass for the 6 o clock movie, Rudderless for the 8 o clock movie and finally Night of the Hunter for the 10 o clock movie.

Jughead blinked, while these movies were great, they were very uncommon. They weren’t the typical new releases or art house indies or classic cinema that usually came up on the itinerary, which Jughead found himself excited for.

That was until he realised he would have to handle the dusting pile of reels rather than the clean pile of reels that were set to their own pile because they were used more often or the new pile of reels they had gotten from companies.

It was no secret Jughead had quite a sensitive nose, wondering what it was like for people like Archie who could go days and sometimes weeks without sneezing, when he was sneezed at least every few hours each day. Many things set his nose off, but nothing more so than dust.

Jughead grimaced, breathing out as he braced himself for what was to come, knowing this was practically inevitable.  He inhaled sharply, seeing if he could get through this without breathing and approached one pile of the dusty reels, lifting some to see what they were titled to attempt and locate the reels he needed. As he did the dust shook off, flying out into the air around him.

Jughead pulled his head back away from the cloud of dust, scrunching his nose to try and stop the particles from entering his nose, but to no avail the little flecks began to tickle the insides of his nose, rummaging around and irritating the already quite sensitive lining.

His breath immediately began to hitch, as he put down the dusty Once reel down, his nostrils quivering with irritation as he backed off from the dusty corner, cupping his hands around his nose and mouth in preparation for the coming sneezes. What Jughead forgot was the fact that his hands were coated in dust, causing the turning point in his battle against the tickle.

“hhahhhiiIITTSSHHOOO!! hehh..hhIISSHHHOOO! oh Jesus fuck, hahhSHHHIEWW!”

Jughead groaned tiredly, rubbing irritably at his nose. He scrunched it to try and force the irritation out of there, but to no avail. He sniffled wetly, the tickle still there, out of his reach, lingering. His eyes watered, breath hitching slightly with a staccato rhythm, nose twitching every so often but not allowing him to sneeze, leaving him in this dreadful limbo of a buildup.

Jughead continued to rummage through the likes of movie reels, eyes watering more and more as he did so. A few irritated tears managed to escape his reddened eyes, dropping down his cheek as he awkwardly tried to wipe them away. His hat had started to collect with dust, so he yanked the grey object off his hair and tossed it towards his bed. He let out a huge sigh of relief as he located Shattered Glass, pulling the reel out, but effectively causing it to spew out yet another cloud of dust, heading straight towards his face.

Jughead gasped as this dust cloud practically viciously attacked him, desperately fanning at his face as the burning, tickling sensation filled his sinuses and caused his eyes to produce more irritated tears that fell down his face. His nostrils flared, a slight sheen of mess lining them, as he hitched desperately, the tickle so intense that he was mentally begging for the sneeze to just happen. Finally, his body allowed him to as he pitched forward and bent at the waist.

“..hh..hhRRSSCHHHOOO! ..hahh..hehh..hahh!!…hehhhtSCHHIIEWWWW!! HhaaSSSHOOO! hehhEEEHHSHOOOO! Oh mby god..”

A fine mist of spray lightly coated the reel he had been holding, causing him to cringe and wipe away at it with his hat, and proceeded to settle the reel down at the table.

Just as he felt a wave of relief, he suddenly realised that he still had to go looking for two other reels for the night. He groaned softly as he took in his fate, taking note of his available options as he sat down on the bed. He could give his poor nose a break for now, go looking for the other reel towards the third act of this movie and then do the same for the next movie, but suffer three different fits, or he could find them all now at the cost of one, but intense and overpowering fit that will take a while to recover from.

Jughead sucked in a breath, braving himself and opting to go for the latter. He got up, eyeing the pile of dusty reels and exhaled, mentally trying to prepare himself.

He took a look at one higher up shelf, noticing a pattern in which there were quite a few music movies stacked together. Jughead figured that maybe he would be able to find Rudderless amongst these reels, and reached up, lifting to try and find the film he was looking for, at the expense of causing dust and little dust bunnies to fall from the shelf, practically right into his face and thus his suffering nostrils.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Jug–hehh!! hahhTSCHHIEWWW! fuck..hehhtssSSSCHOOO! hahhRRRSHHH! hahhEETSCHH! hAAHHIISHHH!!”

Jughead pulled a reel out, and to his delight it was in fact, Rudderless. Letting out a sigh of relief, he blew the dust away from it which made his nose twitch yet again. Rolling his eyes with annoyance, he sneezed into his shoulder, “hheehhhEETSCCHH!!”

“I hate mby life,” Jughead groaned as he sniffled wetly, reaching for a some toilet paper he had stolen from the bathroom for his makeshift home and blew, exhausted and drained. He wiped at the irritated tears streaming down his face, finding it hard to keep his eyes open now that they were so tired of crying. He rubbed aggressively at his itchy nose, sucking in a breath and mentally preparing for the final reel.

Jughead began to aggressively search for the Night of the Hunter, hoping doing so would get it over with faster but only proceeded in throwing more dust into the air at an alarming rate.

“hehh..oh fuck,” Jughead cursed with irritation, the little particles of dust dancing around in his nostrils, tickling the lining as they flared with irritation. “..hhh..HEHHTTSHHHIEWW! oh Jesus..hahhtTTTSCHHIEWWWW!!”

Jughead groaned loudly as he ferociously scrubbed his face as it began to itch, wiping away agitated tears as he did so, nose dripping and sore. He continued to search, coughing ticklishly as dust continued to assault him, desperately swatting the air around his face with one hand while the other continued to search.

Once the pile had been searched, he moved on to the next, praying that it was the one. Jughead’s breath hitched mercilessly, entire body convulsing as he did so, tears clouding his vision. He found himself tilting his head backwards, taking in a sharp inhale as he pitched forward.

“hhEETSSSCHHOOOO! hahhTTTSCHHHIEWWW! ehhhtHHTSHHHHH!! hhh..hhhRSSSH!!” He sneezed powerfully, the pile becoming lightly coated in a mist. Then, his fingers came into contact with one reel, pulling it outwards, pushing dust with it. A feeling of euphoria washed over his body as the reel labelled “The Night of the Hunter” and he literally wanted to cry with happiness.

Jughead yanked the reel out, his battle ending with one huge finish, through the medium of a large puff of dust flying into his face.

“HahhhEEETTTTSCHHH! HhhRRRRSSCHHH!! hehhhTTTTTSCCHHHHH!” Jughead sneezed violently, head bobbing forward as his breath continued to hitch, taking in more dust.

“hhahhhRRRRSCHHH!! TTSSSCHHH!! Fuck..” He moved out of the dusty corner, retreating towards his bed and sitting down exhaustedly, nostrils reddened and quivering still, as well as his hitching breath.

“HhhEEETTSSCHOOO! HahhhRRRSSSCHHOOOO! hhhehh..hehhh..hahhhhh..”

The sneeze was just out of his reach, his nose tickling so badly, and he knew this one. The one that would finally win against the tickle, and he desperately yearned for it. He tilted his head back, nostrils quivering in anticipation as his mouth parted, breath hitching intensely. Jughead reached for the toilet roll, ripping a piece out as he quickly rolled the piece into a sharp point and stuck it up his left nostril, and the sneeze came out instantaneously.

“HhhhhaAAAAAATTSSCHHHOO!”

Jughead let out a moan of relief, lying back as he recovered himself. He panted, completely drained from this exhausting fit.

“Jesus Christ,” He whispered to himself, glad that it was over.

Suddenly, his boss was knocking and letting himself in to see the sight of Jughead exhausted, pale and nose a deep shade of rest, allergic tears running down his face.

“Oh,” His boss commented, a little stunned. Clearing his throat he continued, “Just wanted to give you the heads up you can set up the film now and start whenever it’s ready..uh..you okay?”

Jughead grinned sheepishly, “Yeah, just a little bit of dust.”

[xb-squaredx]

The Life and Times of Ben 10: A Retrospective

As a fan of both superheroes and animation, it should come as no surprise that I was quite a big fan of Ben 10 back in the day. One of Cartoon Network’s more popular series, it told the story of Ben Tennyson, and how his life changed forever when an alien device, the Omnitrix, becomes attached to his wrist and he finds he can use it to turn into various alien forms. So naturally he does what any ten year old would do in that situation and becomes a super hero. Perhaps one of the more “toyetic” franchises Cartoon Network has ever had, it was extremely profitable and featured several sequel series, TV movies and specials, having the distinction of being Cartoon Network’s longest running original series. It’s back now with a reboot, and it seems timely enough to evaluate the ups and downs the franchise has had, and speculate as to where it might go next. So slap on your watch. It’s hero time!

The series that started it all, and the only series helmed by Man of Action studios (until the reboot anyway), the premise is simple. Ben accidentally acquires the Omnitrix and spends summer vacation on a cross-country road trip with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, saving the day and occasionally causing problems with his alien heroes. Throughout the four seasons, the show builds up an impressive rogue’s gallery for Ben to combat. From the mad scientist Doctor Animo, to the secret anti-alien society of the Forever Knights, Ben clashes with threats both alien and closer to home. Most of the series is Villain of the Week, Ben and his family dealing with a given threat at a new location on their vacation, with some villains becoming more of a recurring problem. Chiefly, there is Vilgax, a galactic warmonger who aims to make the Omnitrix his and proves to be incredibly dangerous in battle, as well as Kevin 11, a mutant around Ben’s age who can absorb energy, and when he absorbs energy from the Omnitrix, alien forms as well. Ben slowly learns more about the Omnitrix with his time with it, as well as the secret history of The Plumbers, a group that has kept people safe from alien attacks for decades, with his Grandpa Max serving as one of their ranks.

The series had a finale of sorts with the TV movie, “Secret of the Omnitrix.” It detailed Ben traveling across the cosmos in search of the Omnitrix’s creator, in order to abort a self-destruct protocol that was accidentally triggered. Outside of that, there was also a live action movie, “Race Against Time” that also seemed to take place after the series had ended, as well as a later CGI animated film, “Destroy All Aliens” that aired several years after the original series had ended, for whatever reason.

On the whole, the original series had a good balance of humor and action, and while the vast majority of the episodes were self-contained, the continuity grew stronger as time went on. Max’s Plumber status was subtly hinted at early on, as was the build up to one of Ben’s alien forms, Ghostfreak, being sentient, with it eventually escaping the watch and becoming a major antagonist. That said, the show’s weak link was probably Gwen early on. Depicted as the more responsible of the two kids, she was a constant voice of reason, but she came off as a bit of a nag. Her and Ben’s relationship was so antagonistic, it makes one question why she was even on the road trip in the first place. The fact that she largely couldn’t contribute to the greater threats at first didn’t help, but she eventually gains knowledge of magic and is able to contribute greater. The show’s greatest strength was its overall simplicity and plenty of room for expansion if they so desired. The “Secret of the Omnitrix” TV movie was a great potential sendoff for the series, and while the final season of the show had some rough spots and felt a little rudderless, it had a good run. But that was merely the beginning…

Man of Action went on to develop a new show, Generator Rex and left the responsibility of making a sequel series in the hands of Dwayne McDuffie, a renowned comic book and television writer, known for the creation of the comic book character Static, and his work on comic book TV shows like Teen Titans, Justice League and Static Shock. It seemed like a good fit, taking the show in a bold new direction, but this direction was not without its critics.

Alien Force took place five years later, featuring an older, wiser and more mature Ben, who must once again don the Omnitrix to take on greater alien threats. This time around he’s joined by Gwen and a reformed Kevin, with Grandpa Max acting as a mentor, but not quite as active as he used to be. The show took on a darker tone, having far greater continuity and exploring various facets of the show’s overall mythology, to mixed reviews overall. Running for three seasons, the show had a variety of new antagonists introduced, as well as new allies. From the Highbreed race that served as the first two season’s antagonists, to Albedo, an assistant to Azmuth, the Omnitrix’s creator, characters new and old came into conflict with Ben. Fans were split on the darker tone and the treatment of certain characters. This incarnation of Vilgax is often contested, for one, and certain plot points in the series directly retconned and contradicted previously established canon. Gwen’s powers were stated to not be magic, stating that magic didn’t exist and her powers were the results of being part alien (though later, confusingly, magic was confirmed to exist and Gwen would occasionally cast spells again). Meanwhile, Kevin’s power set dramatically shifted from absorbing energy to being able to absorb the properties of solid matter, coating himself in a thin armor of whatever he touched, and rather than being a mutant, his powers are also shown to be from alien heritage. Kevin in general underwent a major overhaul in character, and despite being a major foe for Ben in the past, he is almost instantly inducted into their team with little friction.

Season three attempted to “recapture” bits of the original series after all of the backlash, causing Ben to suddenly lose his maturity and more comedy was injected into the series, albeit unevenly. A trend would start from season three of Alien Force on to recapture the spark of the original series. More characters from the original series made a return, most notably Vilgax, before building up to the finale. Albedo returns with a new Omnitrix, known as the Ultimatrix, which allows him to evolve his alien forms into a stronger “ultimate” form. Albedo teams up with Vilgax, and Ben is forced to use the Ultimatrix himself to defeat them, which gives us a segue to the next series.

One year after the end of Alien Force, Ben is still adjusting to the Ultimatrix, as well as newfound fame and distrust when his true identity is leaked to the world. Truth be told, it was around the end of season one of Ultimate Alien that I started falling out with the show, and while fans continued to be split on the direction the show was going, it still lasted three seasons.

Season one focused on Aggregor, a villainous member of Kevin’s alien species and his goal of absorbing the powers of five special aliens to gain access to something powerful enough to reshape the universe into his image. Despite their efforts, he proves too strong to defeat, and Kevin sacrifices his sanity by absorbing energy from the Ultimatrix, once again taking on a monstrous form to take Aggregor down. The end of the season highlights how Kevin changed drastically from the original series up until that point, before he is eventually saved. Season two is mostly made up of one-off stories, though begins planting seeds that would blossom forth in the third season. The final season sees Ben and his friends learning more about the anti-alien organization, The Forever Knights, as an ancient, transdimentional being attempts to conquer Earth. The finale has Azmuth return and present Ben with a new Omnitrix, one that is apparently “perfect,” feeling Ben has proved himself more than worthy.

Ultimate Alien gets points for attempting to connect multiple dots in the greater Ben 10 mythos, managing to explain how Kevin reformed, why Ben trusted him so readily in Alien Force and even attempted to tie in the Race Against Time live-action movie, as well as Alien Force’s own live-action movie, Ben 10: Alien Swarm. Ben also had a crossover episode with Man of Action’s Generator Rex during the Ultimate Alien series, which most would agree wound up being awesome for fans of both.

Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, while successful, made the show’s continuity more complicated and its darker tone seemed to affect its global popularity. Higher-ups at Cartoon Network had already attempted to inject some more lightheartedness and simplicity back into the series at various points to mixed success, and as a result I feel that both sequel series have some serious tonal issues. Ben at times is incredibly goofy and carefree, like his old self, but spends the latter part of Ultimate Alien’s first season dead-set on killing Kevin, believing he can’t be saved. We have lighthearted adversaries like the hillbilly Vreedle family, alongside Dagon, essentially alien Cthulhu. It was clear there were arguments in the writer’s room about just where to take the series, considering the various retcons and drastic changes in personality or motive for some characters. The villain Charmcaster went back and forth on whether or not she wanted to reform, and there are multiple points where Azmuth seems to change his mind on just what he made the Omnitrix for in the first place. Matters grew more complicated with the unfortunate passing of series’ producer Dwayne McDuffie near the end of the series, and new showrunners taking over as the series took on its greatest change yet.

With Alien Force and Ultimate Alien somewhat struggling globally, a major overhaul of the show was proposed moving forward. Derrick J. Wyatt, famous for his designs on shows like Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated and Transformers: Animated took over as art director for the show, resulting in a more simplistic, cartoony style that seemed to homage the original series as best it could. New showrunner Matt Youngberg had been a fan of the series back in the day (and was a writer on the previous series), alongside Wyatt, and the two were quite eager to create a series that felt more like the original and blatantly ignored or changed aspects from the two sequel series that went against that.

And so, Ben 10 Omniverse was created with an interesting premise. Taking place just months after the end of Ultimate Alien, Ben still fights alien threats, though at times the series will flash back to Ben at age 11, and showcased previously unseen adventures that would occasionally tie back into the present. In this series, Gwen is off to college with Kevin accompanying her, so Ben is paired with Rook, a talented Plumber that nonetheless rubs Ben the wrong way. Ben also sees another character overhaul, acting far more immature, like his ten year old self. This series is chock-full of references to the original series, as well as the sequel series and in some respects can be considered a celebration of the Ben 10 universe.

Going on for a staggering 80 episodes, the series is composed of eight main-story arcs of varying length, each season seeing a new threat. We start off with the villainous Khyber, who uses a device known as the Nemetrix to transform his hunting dog into feral aliens that are natural predators of Ben’s Omnitrix aliens, which later connects to Malware, a villain from Ben’s past. Later arcs would involve many past foes (like Vilgax, Albedo and Ghostfreak), culminating with the final arc, the “Time War” which saw the entirety of creation put at stake, ending with Ben and Rook witnessing the rebirth of the universe. Ben proposes an intergalactic road trip to explore the new world, and the series at last concludes.

Omniverse furthered the rift that had developed between fans ever since the original series had concluded. Some were split on the tone once again harkening back to the original series, while ignoring aspects of the older shows that they might have liked. Gwen and Kevin suddenly being excised from the show was controversial, as was the art style. Fans also grew tired of Ben’s growing harem of love interests, despite the fact that several episodes taking place in the far future already showed the person Ben would end up with, rending all of the “will they or won’t they” pointless. The “Rooters” story arc also received backlash, as it once again retconned Kevin’s origins, and really only brought up more questions than it answered.

Studio mandates also plague Omniverse, from decreasing the amount of new aliens Ben would acquire, to introducing the character Skurd, who would allow Ben to use the powers of two aliens at once, who was brought forth by Bandai, the series’ toy maker, likely as a way to sell more merchandise. Near the end of its life, Omniverse found itself low-priority for Cartoon Network. Its final seasons received little to no promotion and were placed in bad timeslots, the series being burned off quickly in the last few months of 2014. Toy sales had fallen and despite the show’s overall success in ratings, this spelled doom for the brand…

…for a time.

In 2016, hot off the heels of the successful (if contested) reboots, Teen Titans Go! and The Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon Network rebooted the Ben 10 series, though it didn’t premiere in its country of origin until mid-2017. The series once again focuses on a ten year old Ben Tennyson, who travels with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, getting involved in all kinds of alien hijinks. In addition to being produced by Man of Action once more, the reboot takes on a new cartoony style that isn’t as extreme as Omniverse, looking similar to other current CN series, as well as adopting a lighthearted tone and leaving the half-hour episodes behind in favor of a two-shorts format.

Again, the series is simplified to a Villain of the Week format, with many villains new and old appearing here, pulled from the various ­Ben 10 series that came before it. As of this writing, season one has concluded with a second season in the works, though over half of these episodes have yet to air in the United States, the United Kingdom receiving the series over half a year early (due to its popularity overseas, likely). The season is content to leave continuity loose, with no major story arcs developing, or if they are, they develop slowly. However, the season one finale, split up into four episodes, details the grand introduction of Vilgax back into the series, with Ben also finding a way to “upgrade” his Omnitrix as a bid to defeat the villain. The season concludes with the Plumbers being introduced (though Max isn’t mentioned being among them), and Ben discovering a new alien form on the watch. While the show will likely start doing more with its later seasons, with over forty of these 11 minute episodes produced, there’s more than enough to evaluate as of now.

Generally speaking, the show seems to be doing well. CN promotes it heavily, alongside its toys, and with a second season ordered, they clearly have faith in it. Fans of the old series remain split (which seems to be inevitable with this fandom); though many feel the season one finale might lead to bigger and better things. As for me, I’m of two minds about it.

The fact that it is a reboot means that it has lost the novelty of the original series, and even with the changes made to characters this time around (such as Vilgax’s origins) there’s a real feeling of déjà vu. There’s little there to surprise me at this point and time will tell if the series can stand on its own without constantly referencing its past. The tone being lighthearted and the continuity being lax aren’t inherently bad, but I can’t shake the feeling that the series is being quite lazy.

Animation mistakes crop up quite often, and the backgrounds in a lot of episodes have little going on, often just a mess of color and basic shapes. All of Ben’s more monstrous and complex alien forms have either been redesigned (as is the case with Stinkfly) or removed entirely (Ghostfreak, Wildmutt and Ripjaws), resulting in a roster of aliens that, while fine on their own, make it hard to ignore that they’re ALL humanoid, missing out on that inhuman “alien” appeal. Many episodes shamelessly regurgitate plots from past series, while the continuity is very spotty. Ben knows the name of the Omnitrix right off the bat when there’s no reason he would, while some villains are introduced with Ben and the family having already run into them, and yet other villains get proper introduction episodes. While I’m thankful the humor isn’t overloaded with memes or relies on turning the characters into crude caricatures of themselves (like two OTHER reboots on the channel), I don’t find much of it very inspired.

I find myself cautious about the series from this point forward. I’d love to see it make a return to form, and considering how shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe might have started out episodic before adopting strong continuity and took more narrative risks, Ben 10 might find a way to marry the two narrative styles in due time. One thing’s clear though, no matter what the series goes through, weather Ben has 10 aliens of 10,000, this is one series that doesn’t quit. And with superheroes as hot as they are now, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Until next time.

-B