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ithoughtthiswastwitterbutfr · 4 years ago

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Shang Chi Spoilers

Feel like I’ve waited long enough to post my Shang Chi movie ramblings cause I took notes during it. Idk how to do read more on mobile so just scroll down fast sorry

“No wifi so I’m doing this in my notes app rn

There’s a Eternals trailer now I think cause it’s marvel

Oh yeah they just said it.

They were talking about Thanos and they’re asking why they didn’t help

God I remember reading about them for something I was writing

So ready to see them in a movie

Angelia Jolie is so pretty

ITS STARTING AHHH

ima take notes and kinda just scream about it here until my phone dies and I only have 27%

Normal Marvel into not the what if one

Okay backstory or a legend of the ten rings

Power hungry man owns them sounds about right

That was 10s of thousands of years ago tho

OH wait he’s immortal

Killer Trees cool

Wanna look up who write and directed this but again the wifi sucks

This girl is badass tho one in the green dress

This is stating to feel romancey

Yep it was they fell in love and had a baby

Shang Chi

Feels like the moms gonna die but Shang Chi is like 10 here

But it’s a marvel movie she’s dying

I HAVE NO WIFI SO I CANT SCAN THE COOL PRESENT DAY SONG

Katy is so cool

They’re bringing up the Blip again I know it was huge but im annoyed

EW OLD TOWN ROAD MADE A CAMEO

Katy lives with her mom

Ooo they have in California

THE TRAILER FIGHT

AHHHH

There’s a one arm guy

Or one wrist ig

ITS a knife now cool

aaakakak They bus drivers going s fast

Did laptop girl get to save her research paper

Shang driving the bus now

Okay Jatys driving now

Bus is sepersting

THEY TOOK HIS PENDANT

they’re going after his sister

His dad is still evil and power hungry

He’s going to find his sister

Yep te mom died and he’s still 10

Okay he’s being trained and I think his sister is training on her own shes probably like the rightful owner of the rings or smth idk

Katy is a ride or die

Bus video went viral AHHH hes bus boY WORLD STAR

They’re making

HOLY SHIT ITS WONG

HES FIGHTING A MONSTER THINH

HE CHOPPED HIS HAND OFF

God I love him I missed him

San fransisco say hi to Cassie for me

ITS GONNA BE HIS SISTER

THE FIGHTER

I KNEW IT

she’s made at him for leaving I bet.

Kicked him in the balls

She told him he shouldn’t have come back

Aww young her misses mom

She’s asking him not to leave awww

He said he’ll be back

Liar 🤔🤔🤣🤣😭😭😩😩🥺🥺🙄

She didn’t send the post card

20%

They gotta leave out the window that building is so tall and she looked down

Shang is so cool

AJAJAKAK KATY IS SINGING HIGHWAY TO HELL

NOO SHES FALLINH

HIS SISTER CAUGHT HER THANK GOD

NOW THEY FIGHTING TOGETHER AWW

Marvel loves this sibling rivalry things

THE GUY THAT TRAINED SHANG IS HERE

both pendants are gone know

HIS DAD IS HERE

ANAJAJKA my alarm just went off embarrassing

Xia is building her own empire

Family dinner scene Black Widow parallels

Story of a name hmm

Their wedding pictures are so pretty

They looked like a cute family while the mom was still there

He said their mother is still there in Ta Lo

They need to save her.

Idk if he’s lying or not.

Immortal guy is a true narcissist blaming a village on his actions and being a shitty dad.

THEYRE PENDANTS ARE MAGICAL

Liverpool Trevor oh from BRO ITS THE GUY FROM IRON MAN the one who played the mandarin terrorist was that iron 3 or two? I missed his hobo sell. But I hated the iron man and first two Thor movies so

Maurice can take them monster guy magical

Xia broke them out

Fancy car

Made it through the killer trees good job Katy

Whoa the CGI is so cool oh my god

Tai Loa is beautiful

AWWW MAURICE IS HOME HIS FAMILY

THE DRAGON HORSES THINGYS AWW

GIANT LION DRAGON?? Idk what those are. The villagers are all standing “guard” idk maybe.

Okay moms name is Ying Lu

Magic weapons

THEIR AUNT aww she’s hugging them.

Keepers of dark gate he’s tryna open the gate

There’s an evil behind it and the rings want him to open it???

Dweller of Darkness ima look that up

A dragon is the great protector

Dragon Scales are used as armor

They’re being lured by a voice soul eaters.

The magic animals are so cute

KARY HAS A FANNY PACK

She’s so adorable

“If yiu aim at nothing you hit nothing”

SHANG’s armor from the trailer they just got it. AWW XIA GETS TO TRAIN

You go Katy almost getting a bullseye

You got a cool ass auntie Shang

They have to know who they are for the magic to work.

Must face both light and darkness to know yourself

She’s sending her kids away to be self sacrificial to the iron gang

NOO SHANG IS GONNA WATCH

She just made a perfect circle with her foot

Shang is crying my her body noooo

He’s comforting Xia

“A blood death has to be paid by blood”

HE KILLED THE GUY

HE LIED

I BET HE DID

I KNEW IT

I KNEW IT AHHHHH

He’s gonna kill he’s dad

Yep

All of his sentences are so predictable

They’re fighting the dads army now

Gotta feeling Katy is gonna do smth to save the day

I bet the dads gonna succeeded just to mess up the multiverse even more darkness is gonna give it.

Wow he just “killed” his son

Okay The Dad is at the dark gate

THE DARK BATS ARE OUT

I KNEW HE WAS GONNA OPEN IT

The bat is gonna kill him

EW IT TOOK HIS SOUL

They regenerate they’re so ugly

They’re stealing souls okay.

Yeah Katy goes to help

He knows himself while his drowning idk

Remember Katy “you aim at nothing you hit nothing”

The scene where he’s sinking is beautiful

Think he found a tunnel

Nvm he found his moms dragon

YAY it’s eating those ugly bats

I think Shang is speaking to it

He did his moms circle foot thing ima look up what that’s called later

aww he knows himself now he’s like figntninh with his mom too.

The Mandarin was playing dead and Maurice was checking on him aww

THE THINHS ARE FLOATING AROUND SHANG

HE HAS THE TIGHT TO THEM NOW.

HE FOUND HIS CENTER AND HIMSELF FR FR NOW

WAIT NO

HE HAS HIS OWN RINGD

HE MADE THEM I THINK

the dad punched the ground and now the theater is shaking.

The dad lost his rings

Shang is badass doing all this after just learning about it.

He didn’t kill his dad he threw the rings on the floor.

He decided he’s not worth it.

THE DWELLER IS ALMOST OUT

NVM IY IS OUT

ITS SO UGLY

UT TOOK AND ATE THE DADS SOUL

must’ve tasted nasty

HE GAVE SHANG THE RINGS

AHAJAJAKAK

Shang folded that mf and Xialing is riding a dragon

Cool

The dragon did smth and the water is swallowing it

NOO

it got more souls it’s stronger

I think it’s almost Katy’s time to shine

HER MENTOD DEAD NOOO

is it just me or have directors had no qualms about killing and introducing characters in the same moving

KATY DID IT

SHE HAD HER MOMENT

AHHHHH she shot the throat. You go girl

He put the rings in the dweller in the whirlpool thing and he’s destroying them I think.

Yep it exploded

Nasty

Dragon got Shang

It was very refreshing to not have the main character have a romance plot.

They’re telling the story and their friends think they’re insane

No one believes them

WONG

WONG IS BEHIND THEM

AWWW MY BABY

HAHA here present

Katy and Shang are being recruited

. Katy always had such cool pants”

#shang chi #shang chi spoilers

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renstair · 6 years ago

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My ranking of all 11 Star Wars films in order.

Disclaimer: I actually like all the SW films in some way except my least favorite. But there are definitely some that have more that I dislike about them. Also my opinions are 100% the only opinions one can have, and if this list offends you, it was meant to offend you personally.

11: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I have watched this movie twice, once in the theater and once during a marathon. I also have never seen this movie in it's entirety because I cannot focus on it. It bores me so much that I keep blanking out and daydreaming. I cannot tell you anyone's name except the main character and the main imperial officer. I just could not get into this movie, but I will say if nothing else, it had the best Darth Vader scene ever.

10: Star Wars 9: Rise of Skywalker

It took me days to figure out if I liked this movie or not. There are actually a lot of things that I like, but the things I didn't like I REALLY didn't like. So much so, that this movie actually really hurt me to think about. And apart from a movie being boring, it shouldn't feel like personal stab to what matters to you. I liked Palpatine (pointless as that plot was), Kylo Ren and Rey's amazing acting, and seeing old friends again. This movie also had good humor. The bad things are too many to count, but mainly this film was poorly directed, full of 3 films worth of plot that make no sense, and the worst offender is that it felt like the director (JJ Abrams) did not care about these characters at all. I had fallen so in love with pretty much everyone in the ST, and to see almost all of them sidelined, stereotyped, and departing from any previous character development just hurt. This film made me cry, and not in a good way.

9: Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace

I don't hate this movie. In fact when it first came out, I enjoyed it. Sure I was a dumb little kid, but I rewatched it a lot. Sadly, as an adult I see now all the issues with it, none I have to really get into since everyone knows at this point. The parts I enjoy are Darth Maul (hell yea), the podrace, and this film also probably has the best score of the entire series.

8: Solo: A Star Wars story

This one was good, it just wasn't great. The actor's portrayal of Han Solo was perfect, Lando was perfect, I loved seeing places that you only hear about in passing in the films. Freakin Darth Maul (hell yea). The not so good was this movie had a very generic heist plot, it felt incomplete, and I didn't really connect with anyone besides Han and Lando.

7: Star Wars 6: Return of the Jedi

This one also falls into the 'just okay' category. There's no real plot except a recycled one from episode 4, Luke has no personality in it, Leia is sidelined. The goods are that Vader's sacrifice to save his son was so unexpected and beautifully done (at least in the original cut), the Jabba Palace scene is one of my favorite parts of the entire series, and the rebel characters in this movie are super fun (Ackbar, Lando, ect). Also the ghosts at the end was a very nice touch.

6: Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones

I HATED this movie when it first came out. I only saw it once and not again until last year when my friend insisted we marathon the SW movies. Now I love this movie, because it's the good kind of bad. The whole thing is just a meme, with some of the worst dialogue of the entire series. However, the characters are all super fun. Rewatching it years later, I was pleasantly surprised that I now love Hayden's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. His character is by far the best part of the movie. He brought so much energy to the character, and I actually really connected and felt for him. I always loved Kamino, and I think it's very creative. The effects were also a lot better. The bad is the poor directing, horrible dialogue (sand), and that this movie killed Boba Fett for me.

5: Star Wars 4: A New Hope

These next three are hard for me to rank. Episode 4 is fun, creative, makes you feel like a kid again, has effects that were so groundbreaking that they held up for 40 years, changed filmmaking itself, introduced us all to a universe that has touched so many lives around the world. I am convinced that the Lightsaber sound is the best sound design in history. All the characters are likeable, the score is the best in all of cinema, and there is such a sense of satisfaction when this movie ends. It's hard to find faults with this movie, but of course our dear Mr. Lucas had to change this movie that was perfect, so now it's full of ugly cgi. That added Jabba scene is so dumb.

4: Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith

I loved this movie when it came out and I am still very fond of it. When it came out we all thought it was going to be the last SW (lol) and I was determined to enjoy it as much as I could. It has the best effects of the prequels, all the characters are well acted, there's so much emotion and heart in it, and it has some of the coolest planets and settings in it. I LOVE the opening scene, I still can't watch it without my jaw dropping a little. There was a lot of hype leading up to it, and I grew really fond of General Grievous and was disappointed to see him barely used. It also suffered from the bad dialogue issues that plague Lucas films. Despite the good acting, there were awkward moments that I feel were a case of bad directing. Padme dying from a 'broken heart' despite now having babies makes me feel that Lucas doesn't understand people.

3: Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens

This movie is very special to me for personal reasons - I almost didn't live to see it. But it was well worth staying alive for and gave me a new reason to live. It introduced me to Rey, a nobody who has had to deal with being alone for so long. Something that I can relate to. And it also introduced me to Kylo Ren, the angry and also very alone character that quickly became my favorite character of all time. I even legally changed my name to Ren. Finn, Poe, BB-8, Hux, Phasma... so many characters that I all love and have spent hours talking about, roleplaying, reading about, drawing, and just enjoying. My complaint is the plot, which is simply a remake of episode 4. I also am not the biggest fan of JJ Abrams directing style, as I feel he can make movies very well, but he's not a very creative storyteller and is infamous for simply repolishing things other people have done. Also Rey's theme is my favorite song in the entire SW score.

2: Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Before the ST, I had watched this one more than all the others. Hoth, the battles, Yoda, the asteroid field, cloud city, Vader, Lando, I am your father moment, Leia being force sensitive, the list goes on. Also this movie gave us the BEST bad guy theme (until dual of the fates that is). This movie felt a lot cleaner than the one before it and the one after it. It also had good dialogue, character development, and depth that's missing when Lucas is directing. It was less fanservice and more just a good film. However I never understood the tree scene (wtf was that). And it always bothered me that Lando allowed them to hurt his friend, granted it wasn't what he originally thought was going to happen.

1: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi

I went to this movie 10 times in the theater and have seen it countless times since it came out. I LOVE everything about this movie. It's creative, full of new ideas and concepts, has so many emotions, beautiful art direction, and deepened every single character in it. Rarely does a movie come along where every character develops and is different at the end. Rarely do we get a movie in a huge series that focuses on being a good movie rather than fanservice. I could not predict this movie, and was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing wondering what in the world was going to happen next. The director, Rian, is clearly a fantastic storyteller who can also do subtlety. The first 4-5 times I saw this movie I was still seeing new things. It revived a love of Star Wars in me and I dreaded what would come after because I doubt anything will ever be this good again. I certainly hope we get something as good or maybe better one day. This movie solidified Rey as my favorite SW protagonist.

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lunawings · 6 years ago

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King of Prism SSS Episode 12 commentary (FINAL!)

Crunchyroll was awesome this time!

No significant complaints on the subs!

You guys were awesome this time!

So many people stuck around for the late viewing in the stream and even after just to chat!

Now on to the actual episode.

Once again sorry this is so long. But with this being the last one, can you really blame me.....?

.....As much I love this episode, this scene was just so painful. Worse than Shine’s show. Worse than that whole last episode combined.

A lot of my predictions about Part 4 were wrong (will discuss later) but I was absolutely sure of one thing. I knew no matter what happened in Part 4 just one thing was FOR CERTAIN. And that was... I was going to have to see Shin cry. This precious boy who deserves nothing but love is going to suffer. And I tried to prepare myself. I tried.

But somehow. Even though I knew. EVEN THOUGH I KNEW... It was way worse than I could have ever imagined.

I always assumed he would cry because he found out about something terrible about the past. But instead HE NEVER KNOWS THE TRUTH and we get him sobbing over something entirely NOT HIS FAULT... in front of everyone.... HOW.... HOW COULD THEY.... DO THIS... TO.... HI...M................

This scene upsets me so much I don’t know if I have ever even seen the whole thing. I always end up turning away at some point, or just curling up into a ball.....

Did anyone else feel like they were watching a totally different anime for a few seconds here? I’m having trouble telling if the style actually changed or if I.... just am not used to seeing Shin make expressions like this............. ba.....by..............

Leo always cries when anyone else is crying.

Even though everyone claps for him at the theater at cheering shows, it doesn’t make me feel better. AT ALL. Because Shin never knows the truth. NONE OF THEM DO. Okay we’ll talk about this more later but just..... gah it hurts........................................ So much that it actually hindered my enjoyment of what amazing thing comes next......

Back in the first movie era, the idea of a full CGI show of the Edel Rose boys with Shin as center was something that I could not imagine coming true even in my wildest dreams. And I love this show. I just wish it wasn’t proceeded by so much suffering.

Shin being their center was something they decided at the Christmas live (before performing Dramatic Love for the first time) BTW. While it seems obvious to us that Shin would be center, it wouldn’t necessarily be as such in-universe. They had to decide at some point! And I’m glad it was a part of that story.

I LOVE THESE OUTFITS.

THEYRE PERFECT. The rainbows, the stars, the colors. Everyone looks AMAZING. And I know the rainbows are probably an homage to Over the Rainbow... BUT..

its just so gay

Prism stone beam???

This is orange I guess? It looks more yellow to me. A lot of the hand colors are kinda vague and I’m just like... WHO DID YOU TOUCH

For anyone who read my I THINK I MARRIED ALL THE EDEL ROSE BOYS. OR THEY MARRIED EACH OTHER. ANYWAY EVERYONE IS MARRIED NOW shitty out of context spoiler I wrote in a comment obviously it was this ahahaha

I really do love this show, and like with the new Shuffle’s show last week I’m so glad I can finally watch it without the.... suffering.

The first time I saw this in theaters, this exact frame right here was when I first started feeling any semblance of better after all that had happened. He looks so confident and gallant and his eyes are shining and he just.... Shin............... I love you so much....................................................................

Also this is a good spot to talk about their feathers I guess. So these are different from the other (male?) wings Shine had. Why? What does that mean?

*throws hands in the air*

So, some folks may not be aware of this but the feathers from Rainbow Live were a feature of the arcade game.

You could unlock them by raising the PairTomos, and even the night dream feathers look like they were available at one time during an event it seems?? I am not entirely sure how it all worked since I never played the game back in the heyday. (You can no longer obtain all the feathers now even if you bring a memory card to a currently running Pretty Rhythm machine since some just aren’t available anymore.)

But anyway, the actual point I was trying to make is that the feathers had a set structure within Rainbow Live since it was grounded by the arcade game. But in King of Prism...... that just kinda do what they want.... s....o.............

The first time I went to cheering for this it was the premiere date, and it was also the first time I ever did cheering the same day. In between the morning/midnight showing a whole bunch of people had the idea to go to the 100 yen shop and get glowstick rings just for this scene. I was like daaaamn.

But then...

Our first official non-Crunchyroll translation of prism no kirameki?

Even the Juuouin group worships “the prism”.

And I can’t help laugh at the irony that Crunchyroll abandoned using “the prism” but also just ignored the translation ALREADY ON SCREEN

I can’t take his scream here. It’s just like.... HE WAS ALREADY DYING, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO SPEED UP THE PROCESS.

LOUIS.

LOUIS NOOOOOOOOO.

Even as late as it is, I am really, really grateful how they took a few seconds to establish for the new audience exactly how much of their shows are powered by prism sparkle.

Note that they did not change out of their costumes though. But my headcanon on this is that Leo just prefers to make the real thing because he can.

Singing at cheering shows is also everything I have ever wanted.

I feel bad though since I pretty much always get tongue tied here every time. It’s hard to just sing acapella to a song you’re not that familiar with. Especially with the sparkely lyrics appearing and disappearing like this. I actually don’t hear that many other people singing in the theater, perhaps for that reason? But I always try my best.

And now that this is finally out, I can finally practice at home and nail this down with confidence just in time for...... SSS to leave theaters..... um............ ye....ah........

I also mess this up like every single time ahaha. It’s just slightly too fast for me to read.

Someday I will succeed in properly marrying all of the Edel Rose boys. Someday.

(Also I don’t think this was rainbow-colored in the theatrical version.)

So Edel Rose and all their fans just up and created a prism goddess so we don’t need the prism gods anymore. Can they do that? Can we do that? I guess we can!

WE DID IT GUYS

It’s oddly fitting that Hijiri is kind of an ugly crier. I mean, he’s just so beautiful the rest of the time. It’s only right.

So let’s unpack this for a sec. Unbeknownst to them, because the Edel Rose boys all married each other they put a new seal on Shine. But this seal is entirely dependent on their marriage their bond with each other.

How literal is that I wonder?

Because like.... Edel Rose won’t last forever. Kakeru, Minato, and Yukinojo are gonna be going to college in a year and a half.... ahah ha.....

I just imagine like. A couple of them meeting on the street in the distant future being like “Oh man I haven’t seen you in forever!” “Yeah! We really lost touch! Hey, have you heard from Shin lately?” “No, you?” And behind them is like a TV report of Shin become Shine destroying a city or something.

.....................Reminder again that this commentary is coming from the place where I am after having a couple months to let this all sink in and get to the point where I am comfortable joking about it.... ahah ha........

This is one of my coping mechanisms for dealing with the idea that my favorite character basically has the devil living inside of him trying to take over at any moment.....

Another one is thinking back to older King of Prism media and wondering what Shine was doing at that time. Like, I imagine him floating there inside Shin all bored and pissed off making sarcastic comments at whatever the Edel Rose boys are doing. And I find this hilarious for some reason. I’d make a webcomic about it if I could draw.

ANYWAY

So my understanding of this scene (which may or may not be totally correct) is: The Edel Rose boys’ rings put a seal on Shine which drags him down back into the depths of where Rinne first plunged him. But before he goes, he installs(?) his powers into Shin so that Shin is free to use Shine’s powers on his own now. (Up until now he was just like borrowing them?)

If you also briefly wondered how they could have gotten a perfect score after failing a jump, my guess is the Prism System just wasn’t recording at that time due to the lack of prism sparkle ahah ha.

They absolutely mopped the floor with the new Shuffle, and it did not matter.

What makes this so nuts to me is that even before I saw Part 4, like way back after I first saw episode 5 I was already comparing Joji to a twisted Hiro. (Elaborated on this in my episode 5 post.) And then this aha.

So in the theatrical version I swear the crowd here has light blue lights. And I wondered if it was on purpose to be like inverted Hiro (who goes from light blue -> yellow in the Prism King Cup, so Joji went yellow -> light blue?) but nope, I guess somebody just forgot Joji’s theme color is yellow ahaha. In the TV version they just made it multi-colored.

So to add more context to some things, you may remember I mentioned before that Part 4 premiered in Japanese theaters in the gap between when Taiga and Kakeru’s episodes aired on TV. So by the time Joji’s episode aired on TV... I already knew this was gonna happen. I already knew we were watching the number one prism show. THE CHAMP. The only 2D prism show.... SO MUCH IRONY.

But you know what. Despite his show being what it was..... After all the time to let it sink in.. After all the dust has settled.... the one solo song which is my clear favorite..... The only one which has gotten stuck in my head WAY MORE than ANY other.... is Joji’s.

(Well, Ace’s. But still.)

So.

Congrats Prism Champ.

Never thought I’d say this but poor Jin. Even when he ACTUALLY TRIES to do something fair for once...... still......

(Goddammit Shine.)

Poor Joji? Or not. It’s hard to feel bad for him when he’s THE PRISM CHAMP ahaha. Like. He made it. He has everything he ever strived to obtain. On the surface anyway.

How Nori-kun feels about this though, who knows. Will we ever?

DOES IT REALLY NOT? Haha I really don’t understand this at all. Like. Was it really political pressure? Did Jin fold since he didn’t win in the way that he wanted to? Did Kakeru pull some strings behind the scenes again?

*throws hands in the air*

AND THIS

It’s framed to be this super significant scene but

WHAT DOES IT MEANNNNNNNN

I have already touched on this in separate posts, and this post is so long already that I’m going to kind of leave it hanging here but I consider Kakeru’s plot in SSS to be a loose end. He was the only boy who did not have a plot with some kind of resolution about himself. Instead Kakeru’s plot was only about other people.....

FINALLY, the ultimate conclusion to the infamous curry plot of Pride the Hero.

AND FINALLY

YOU

GUYS

I WAS SO MAD

The official King of Prism Twitter and such were actually pretty good at hiding Dorachi before Alexander’s episode aired. But Torachi was just EVERYWHERE and I was like COME... ON. REALLY.

So you may have noticed this but he was added to the opening too. For us seeing SSS in the theaters, we only get one OP per showing. So this means Japan actually got this spoiled before episode 10.

But I didn’t. I didn’t even notice because I just wasn’t thinking to look for it. (Also I guess sitting in a terrible seat to the far right twisting my neck at an angle may have had something to do with it but.) When I first saw the reveal of Torachi in episode 12 it was TOTAL SURPRISE for me......

But as much as I love Taiga though, Dorachi is my clear favorite. My Dorachi merch collection will start as soon as I can get my hands on ANYTHING

Also I wonder at what point Alexander figured out that DJ COO was Rei, because he sure knows now ahah.

But anyway, speaking of spoilers....

I know I said at one point Nikkanen and the twins didn’t have any significant appearances in SSS, but that was before Part 4 and I just decided not to correct that and let you guys be surprised AHAHAH you’ll just have to hate me *BLASTS OFF INTO THE SUNSET*

(I’m so glad they seem to have cleaned up Nikkanen’s face a little. He looked so weird in the theater. Or like.... weirder at least.)

(If you don’t know these boys they are already established characters introduced on the Prism Rush mobile game.)

And what do THESE feathers mean.....

LOUIS ISN’T DYING ANYMORE DONT CARE *NYOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

By the way I can’t believe the prism sparkle disappearing and Louis becoming the protector of the world WAS FORESHADOWED IN ROAD TO SSS 9. That’s why I reblogged this post the other day.

It’s so funny how much of Road to SSS didn’t matter. Then you get to event 9 and LITERALLY EVERYTHING MATTERS.

And again.... speaking of spoilers............

The week before Yu’s episode aired I AGONIZED about whether to put in some kind of vague hint that the Edel Rose boys new unit name was revealed in that episode (as part of Yu’s prism jump). Ultimately I decided not to. Because even though I didn’t figure it out at the time, I think with even a vague hint I probably would have. Because even when I saw it back then I was like.... “...... huh........”

So you’re just gonna hafta haaaaaaaaate ahahaahah ha sorry

But anyway! Now I can finally stop referring to our seven stars as the “Edel Rose boys” and from now on call them SeptEntrion! Since calling them just the “Edel Rose boys” isn’t really accurate anymore since it would also include the twins and Nikkanen, etc. I’m happy that the main seven finally have a good name to distinguish them.

(Now I need to learn to remember how to spell SeptEntrion....)

Also

You guys in the livestream ruined this for me so I’m ruining it for everyone too.

Look at the red letters.

Then flip over your desk and storm out of the room like I almost did when I noticed.

WHY

THERE IS NO WAY THAT IS NOT ON PURPOSE

WHY

So, a few weeks ago I was in Tokyo and I decided to stop by the Yotsuya station area.

I found the site of the supposed Yotsuya Credit union (which is actually a lottery ticket stand) and the KPO KFC almost immediately.

I also found out there is a Catholic university in the area, and although it doesn’t look anything like Edel Rose that seems like not a coincidence.

So I started to walk around that area, but try as I might I could not find any little shopping streets like the one in the anime. The area didn’t look like it would have that sort of place at all. Also it was POURING RAIN, I was just at Aqours 5th live the previous day, I had at least 6 hours to get home, and I was anxious to make it there with plenty of time for the stream of Alexander’s episode which we were doing that night. I decided to give up and head to the KFC to console myself over chicken, coleslaw, and biscuits before beginning the journey home when LOW AND BEHOLD

RIGHT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE KFC

WAS THIS

IT DOES EXIST

And there is not nearly enough room for SeptEntrion to perform here ahaha.

I can’t help but notice that while they used Prism One performance snapshots for all the other boys, Shin is in his old Over the Sunshine outfit. Well I mean. OF COURSE HE IS. But.....

But I really can’t help but wonder what the boys are thinking nowadays in retrospect about what happened.

I mean, not that they shouldn’t love and trust Shin. Of course they should.

But if my friend turned to pure evil for a solid 15 minutes I would be.... CONCERNED for him? ?? To say the least.

The fact that THEY DONT KNOW AND MAY NEVER KNOW really just eats at me

I suppose Louis or June could tell them. But I don’t think Louis ever will since he just wants to protect Shin, and June..... where would she even start.

Not to mention what does Yamada-san think about how Shin just BECAME Wataru Hibiki like I.... I just have several questions but......

The cheering audience for the half second we can see Torachi here: “..............................................................AHHHHH!..................................................”

I wondered for weeks what the TV ED would be for this episode, and as soon as Boy Meets Girl started playing I was like...... OF. COURSE.

Hahah I’m glad though. So far the only SeptEntrion version Boy Meets Girl we’ve had was live (at MRS) and I often thought of ripping the audio from the DVD just to have it, but now I won’t have to. The TV audience never got to hear the theatrical ending 366 Love Diary though, which is kind of a shame. That song is such a big part of SSS to me.

So when we do the livestreams, I often have the live episode playing on my actual TV with the sound off. The stream is delayed by a few minutes so it’s been great for cues to help prepare stuff to type into the chat about things coming up.

While you guys were still in the meat of this episode, I casually glanced over my shoulder and saw THIS on my TV

Shin in the outfit Leo originally made him for the Prism One.

And just started having a seizure that lasted until the credits ended BECAUSE THEN THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE.

Playing to the left is the theatrical weekly video we got in the third week of Part 4.

(It has actual dialogue in the theaters, but here they just muted it and laid it over the credits. I went to the theater yesterday JUST to take notes on this for you guys ahaha. Glad I didn’t need to though.)

But like. When I first saw this in the theaters...

I was so SO sure this was a joke. I mean Prism 2!?! Seriously!?

But now I don’t know WHAT to think.

ESPECIALLY ABOUT THIS

But um. Someone tell me the anime references I’m missing here:

And which of these are newly revealed YMT29 boys ahah:

And..... that’s it....

This is Louis’ coded way of telling Shin he’ll love him forever I guess.

Aw man

you guys

we made it

ROUND OF APPLAUSE

Ahhhhhhhhhh

ITS BEEN A JOURNEY

So Part 4 turned out way differently than I predicted. When the episodes were first announced and episode 12 was “Unknown”, my immediate thought was “it’s gonna be Shine.” Especially since the quote for Shin’s episode was something like “what have I done,” I assumed he would gain some memories of the past in episode 11 and was talking about something he/Shine did in the past. Then I thought Shine would perform in episode 12 and cause a bad end. Even though we knew Edel Rose was scheduled for a unit performance, I was skeptical if it would actually happen or not as I doubted Shin would be in any condition to perform in episode 12. (I also wondered if maybe we already HAD already seen their unit show in the OP and thus wouldn’t be getting a new song.)

But when the CDs were announced and I saw the last one said “unit song” I was like.... ohhh.... I guess they will perform as a unit after all? That’s good?

Turns out I was right at least in predicting that Shine would get a show, but not that he would STEAL SHIN’S SHOW, and that Shin’s “what have I done” quote was about THE PRESENT DAY and something that Shin DID NOT DO. AHHH THE PAIN.

Although it really cuts me deep that Shin never learns the truth, I am grateful we got that unit show and a happy ending.

But....

OR IS IT?

says a voice in my head.

Shine’s coming back someday. And we can’t kill him without blanking Shin. Hghkhgkdhlkdh.

If I didn’t know any better I’d say the grand endgame climax of King of Prism would be SeptEntrion teaching Shine to love. But we already know from director spoilers that supposedly the grand climax is about saving Jin. I have a sinking suspicion Shine and Jin may be connected in some way though.

Who fucking knows where we’re going from now.

Other than WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON with Jin, another one of my big questions is does the Prism King Cup even matter anymore? Since the Prism One was supposed to replace it, but that didn’t go so well. HAHAH are we REALLY doing the Prism Two come on now..........

But anyway. I suppose there is no point in drawing this out it any further

for now

this is THE END

Thank you all SO MUCH for coming on this journey with me

It’s been such a joy sharing all this with you

And I hope to see you around

SHINY SEVEN STARS FOREVER

EDEL ROSE SPARKING

#king of prism #king of prism sss #shiny seven stars #king of prism shiny seven stars #kinpri

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thefilmsnob · 6 years ago

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Joker: **** out of 5

It’s hard to believe it’s been 11 years since the late Heath Ledger painted his face, donned a purple suit, abandoned all vanity and gave us one of the greatest performances of all time as the Joker in The Dark Knight. So, naturally, some newcomer punk wants to outdo him in a movie no one asked for. Actually, it’s Joaquin Phoenix, quite possibly the finest actor working today following Daniel Day-Lewis’s unfortunate retirement, and we’re asking for the new film Joker specifically because he’s involved.

If you’ve seen Phoenix’s stellar work in films like The Master and You Were Never Really Here, you know he can completely transform himself into a chillingly intense force of nature. Few actors can match his level of dedication to a character. When you combine these factors with his willingness to shed a few dozen pounds, you get the perfect candidate to play the psychotic Clown Prince of Crime.

Phoenix is in his element. Co-writer/director Todd Phillips is not. This movie is a far cry away from the slacker comedies he’s used to making. Inspired infinitely more by the works of Martin Scorsese like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Phillips’s work is a comic book movie in name alone and showcases his previously untapped ability to create a work of art so utterly dark and twisted. Yes, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) works as a clown, dreams of doing stand-up and laughs uncontrollably, but these details are anything but humorous.

As there have been several versions of Joker’s backstory in various media—part of the character’s mystique—fans can, or should, excuse the filmmakers for giving their own unique take on the subject. Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver were afforded a great deal of creative freedom since they weren’t beholden to other versions or extended universes to tell their story yet still found a way to connect some dots effectively without filling the screen with capes. Besides, in a movie this raw and grounded that simply wouldn’t work.

The movie takes place in Gotham City in 1981, though it might as well be the New York City of that era which was just as rife with crime and poverty. Arthur barely gets by as a party clown and lives with his physically and mentally ill mother, Penny (Frances Conroy), in a small, dingy apartment. Arthur also suffers from mental illness, one of which makes him laugh uncontrollably and at inappropriate times, a trait Phoenix handles masterfully, showing us a man who’s at once creepy yet tragically distressed. Barely keeping his behaviour in check are his visits to a therapist and the pills she prescribes. He also develops a relationship with his neighbor, Sophie (Zazie Beetz), an improbable union with a neat twist.

This isn’t merely a story of a man turning to drugs or crime to solve his problems, though. This is a story about how Arthur Fleck becomes Joker. It’s more than just the aforementioned problems or the fact that people either ignore or bully him. The man’s attacked by thugs while promoting a business. He’s fired from his clown gig after a gun falls out of his pocket while entertaining children at a hospital. He’s accosted by three drunk Wayne Enterprises businessmen on the subway. Social services funding is cut in Gotham, leaving Arthur without his meds. His idol, late-night talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), mocks Arthur on his show after Arthur bombs during a stand-up routine. And he even learns life-changing news about his family and its ties to Thomas Wayne, father of Bruce.

Apologies for the laundry list, but there’s a lot working against this guy. In any other film it would be overkill, but this is one of the most twisted super villain psychopaths in comic book history. You need a gauntlet of torture to explain something like the Joker. Perhaps the impeccably synchronized timing of everything is hard to swallow, but, hey, it’s a 2-hour film.

More importantly, though, it all acts as a counterargument to those berating the film for its perceived negative view of mental illness. Joker isn’t just a film about a mentally ill person who starts committing horrific acts. The film makers consider Arthur’s dreadful environment as well and point fingers at a multitude of factors that influence his dark journey into madness. It’s a perfect storm of nature and nurture, a concept society must embrace.

The more pervasive criticism is that the film could incite violence in real life. To be fair, this might be the most disturbing comic book movie ever made. The violence, although sparse, is bloody, visceral and shocking. It’s shown up close and unobstructed by a CGI facade. Phoenix also gives a sinister performance that makes our skin crawl as his emaciated body and fragile mind spiral out of control. It’s an Oscar-worthy performance and fascinating character, but he’s clearly no role model, especially since his violent acts inspire a gang of clown mask-wearing anarchists to idolize him and take their anger out on the wealthy elite.

But, you can’t tell me this is the movie that’s gone too far. It’s unexpected and unorthodox, yes, but not unprecedented. Perhaps a mainstream audience accustomed to four or five blockbuster outings a year isn’t ready for something like this. Of course, Joker is rated-R, so viewers should anticipate graphic content and a film in no way suitable for children. It’s true that we’re facing a volatile sociopolitical climate in which people are wary of adding fuel to the fire. But, if our anxieties about the influence of art become so pronounced that we censor it, perhaps we’ve truly lost and those like Trump who revel in the chaos come away victorious.

Joker is a rare comic book movie (once again) meant for adults. Anchored by Phoenix’s masterful performance and Phillips’s direction that darkens the mood at every turn, this is an incredibly timely and important story that should be seen by as many as possible. There’s some hypocrisy at work from those who criticize the genre for being safe and predictable yet fail to see Joker as the audacious film it is. It even eschews the obligatory climactic battle and dares to show the ugly reality of death instead of the bloodless and inconsequential massacres in the other PG flicks. This movie, too, is guilty of sensationalism at times in lieu of a completely realistic depiction of our world, but keep in mind: it’s still a comic book movie. And, even then, it’s been released at a time when our world feels more and more like a comic book every day.

#joker #movie review #DC Universe #dc #joaquin phoenix #todd phillips

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rose-lighters · 6 years ago

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Time to rank every MCU film

Yes I am doing that oh so original thing of ranking every marvel film from worst to best. Criticisms and debates are welcome. (Disclaimer: I like all these films unless stated otherwise)

X. Incredible Hulk - I haven’t seen it. Sorry.

21. Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - I can honestly say I hated this film. The only likeable part of the whole film was the soundtrack and the first few minutes with Groot dancing. Beyond that it was dull, cringy and oh so predictable. The second that Ego (???) appeared and said he was Quill’s dad I was just like “Oh so this guy’s the villain then” and noped out of there. I never saw past that point and don’t intend to.

20. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - People praise this film till kingdom come and I for one do not get it at all. Many say that it is unique in moving away from the typical superhero film and towards the spy genre. Maybe I just don’t like spy films but it is in no means a great Marvel film. I liked it enough but it’s so forgettable I had to google the plot for this review. I liked the characters and all but it just never stuck with me as anything special.

19. Guardians Of the Galaxy - Maybe I just don’t like the guardians??? I don’t know but this was another film that just didn’t stick with me. I like Rocket and Groot but beyond that the Guardians themselves hold no interest with me. I don’t care for the humor particularly and whilst the music is great that really shouldn’t be the best part of a film unless it’s a musical.

18. Avengers: Age of Ultron - People hate this film, I however do not. It’s an okay Marvel film, I don’t care for it enough to hate it. I like that scene where they’re all trying to lift mjolnir and I think I liked the ending (I watched it like two years ago so I don’t remember that well) but I have to agree with a lot of the criticism of white washing the Maximoffs (despite how much I love Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor Johnson, it was still shady). I didn’t hate the ‘giving Hawkeye a family’ like a lot of people did because the already made it clear he wasn’t like comic Clint.

17. Thor: The Dark World - Now we’re moving into films I do like (I love Marvel films more than I dislike them, it's literally just GOTG2 that I don’t like). This was a good film from what I can remember (as I said it's been a while since I’ve seen a lot of these films). I liked the story arcs, I liked that it was set in places other than America and space (ok, so I’m from England, sue me), I loved Tom Hiddleston in this film and I like Darcy. All in all it was an enjoyable viewing, a little dull at times but generally harmless.

16. Doctor Strange - This would be further up if it wasn’t for how dull the first half hour or so is. I had to go back and watch this months after I had first tried just because the start was so boring. Once I moved past it however it was a great origin film. I liked the humour in it and I have always had a soft spot for magic so it was a brilliant film. The effects were absolutely stunning and on aesthetics alone it would place as the second or third best marvel film. I loved the good guys and was genuinely rooting for them despite Strange being a bit of a snarky arsehole.

15. Iron Man - Is this a very important film? Yes. Is it a great film? Also yes. Do I remember it? Not at all. Okay, so I remember some stuff and what I do remember was great but to say its a film that sticks out would be a lie. It’s THE origin story in as much as it’s a formulaic one: flawed character is traumatised and realises their flaws in the process, is influenced by important person, becomes a hero and is betrayed. It works though. That’s the thing, it works so damn well that its almost not in the formula. It's a great watch and honestly RDJ looks great in it (so not the point but I digress). That bit with Stane ripping out the arc reactor made me feel betrayed and I kinda knew it was coming. ( https://tonynatashas.tumblr.com/post/184375713429/that-scene-in-iron-man-where-obadiah-stane-is this post explains why this scene is so great important)

14. Captain America: The First Avenger - Another (enjoyable) origin story. If Sebastian Stan wasn’t in it it would probably be three places down but hey I have a type. No but seriously this was a great film because not only did it show off the brilliance of Roger’s transformation and gave us an idea of who he was and what motivates him but it also then gives us details of his waking in the 21st century and begins to expose his issues with this time travel (for want of a better phrase). This film shows you what you’re gonna get whilst still having pretty good effects, a good, solid storyline and a pretty badass comic book villain. The serum guy creeps me out though and there are so many ethical issues of that level of human experimentation on a person whose only friend went off to war, had Steve died they chose someone no one would really miss which is so concerning.

13. Captain Marvel - A lot of people may have a criticism of this film being so far down but for me it needs to be. I like superhero films where the main character overcomes a flaw and amnesia is not a character flaw. This is a good origin story but it is not a great marvel film. I like Carol but I don’t love her. I love the fact that we have a superhero film with a female main character and i liked that scene where she talks with biker guy but it felt like Samuel L Jackson was a more interesting character at times. I often rate characters on humor so there’s that. It was a good film but I’m mostly looking forward to what will be done with the character as she has so much potential.

12. Spiderman: Homecoming - This is a weird one for me. It’s the only marvel film I own on DVD and it’s the only one I like where I skip scenes. I can not deal with cringy humour so I skip 80% of the jokes and awkward moments in this film however it’s a really good film. It’s funny and the music is great, I love Zendaya and Jacob Batalon probably more than Tom Holland, their roles are great and the film’s emphasis on friendship is one of the elements from the Iron Man and Captain America films that I love just further amplified. The references to Ferris Bueller and the fact that it is, at its core, a teen flick makes it a brilliant film. The vulture twist was also amazing.

11. Ant-man and the Wasp - I feel like it isn’t talked about enough but I really bloody love Scott Lang. He is one superhero that I can really get behind because above all else he is just the nicest guy. He is probably one of the most human seeming characters in the MCU and it always makes for such an enjoyable viewing. This could probably draw with ant-man in terms of great films. I loved Ava Starr so much and my heart really went out to her and that FBI guy was a total joy to watch. The Ant man films are so funny and light hearted that they don’t have that sort of weariness that other MCU films have. If only Luis told more stories in the MCU.

10. Ant-man - Honestly just look above. Also I love Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne so much. The villain was kind of eh but I loved the heist aspect.

9. Black Panther - I watched this film for Shuri and to an extent because I felt obligated to so I had low expectations. People were talking about it for the significance of fighting for equality (which I am all for, don’t worry) so I was expecting it to not live up to the hype and it didn’t. That being said it was a bloody great movie. The movie was beautiful, the use of colour and the CGI tech was so damn pretty. The plot was brilliant and for a while I wanted Erik Killmonger to win, he put forward a good argument and I like a ‘baddy’ so to speak. The fights were great and I was so here for their version of going under cover finally not being a hoodie and cap. Was it over hyped? Hell yeah. Was it still a great film? 100%

8. Iron Man 3 - This gets a hell of a load more crap than it deserves, mostly from comic book fans who can’t stand that their precious mandarin was a hoax but honestly I respect the fuck out of marvel for that. Rather than having a stereotypically asian terrorist they turned that stereotype on its head and made the white guy the actual terrorist. Ben Kingsley is one of my favourite actors and he was amazing. I, obviously, also loved the representation of PTSD as a serious issue and how it was displayed in all of its real ugliness. For once it didn’t just show a damaged person who was fixed with romance. So yeah, this film was a masterpiece.

7. Captain America: Civil War - Zemo may just be my favourite MCU villain to date, why? Because he fucking won. This was a film about a man who knew his victims and rather than stupidly trying to attack the big scary strong guys he exposed them and made the best of circumstance. He got under Captain America’s skin and played him like a puppet. This was more than just a villain, this was finally a smart villain. Not to mention that this film had some of the best action sequences and heart breaking moments whilst still having time for a laugh. It’s also the first film (in my opinion) that called out Steve’s morals and his obsession with the past. Bucky was hot used against him and it showed that above all else, even the little people, Steve’s loyalties are with his past.

6. Thor - Most people would disagree and rate this film far lower however for me this was the start. I didn’t grow up watching superhero films because I didn’t like watching TV as a kid so it wasn’t till I was 13 that I saw a superhero film and this was it. I honestly watched it because my friend had it on DVD and I thought Tom Hiddleston looked hot but from what I can remember this was one of the best films I ever saw. I wasn’t too bothered by Jane Foster but I absolutely loved Darcy, Loki and Thor. Whilst I’m not adopted I do know what it is like to be the younger and smarter sibling with an older thuggish brother who is still the favourite so I loved Loki with a passion and was so upset when he fell.

5. Iron Man 2 - This was the film that made me realise that I liked girls, Scarlet Johansson in a black cat suit and red ringlets was an amazing thing to little 13 year old me. Beyond that it was just a solid film, it had spies and daddy issues and sass and Samuel L Jackson. What more can you want?

4. Thor: Ragnarok - This is the peak of Thor, I’m calling it now. Never had a director before been able to capture the absolute chaos of Loki and the sweetheart-ness of Thor so brilliantly. As far as representations of characters this, Captain Marvel and Iron Man 3 may just be the best of all the MCU. This is the full completion of Thor’s arc, this is the film that the first Thor set up. Finally Thor is ready to be King. This film had so much humour but still set it all up so perfectly that it was more than just a comedy. Jeff Goldblum was amazing and honestly Taika Waititi should direct the whole of the MCU. He knows the characters better than anybody.

3. Avengers: Endgame - I cried three times. That scene with the portals was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed and whilst many criticize much of the plot I don’t have too much I’d change, though in fairness I did like the cursed child so maybe I just have a soft spot for all things time travel. Dynamic timelines are not used in cinema enough and the three alternate timelines create have all sorts of implications for future films in the MCU. If Thor is not fat in the next film this may go down to 20th though.

2. Avengers Assemble - This is the film that I believe best represents what the MCU has to offer. It’s a light hearted superhero film with all the characters that were needed at this point in time. For its time it was ambitious and honestly it shows. I loved the dynamics between the characters, the plot was engaging and not overly complex and even if you haven’t seen any other MCU films it makes perfect sense. In some respects it probably is the best the MCU has to offer.

1. Avengers: Infinity War - Oh boy do I love this film. This isn’t just a film, this is the film. Did it have the same emotional impact as Endgame? Fuck no but it didn’t need to. It was serious. It was funny. It had just the right amount of just the right characters and may I just say that is the best that Captain America has ever looked in the MCU. I (controversially) really loved Gamora dying and most of the Guardians being dusted. The memes were great.This was the most ambitious cross over event since Wizards of deck with Hannah Montana. One thing that I can’t get out of my head though is Bruce’s comment of “broke up like the beatles?”. Does that make Bucky Yoko Ono?

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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News of the World Review: Tom Hanks Western Has Rugged Warmth

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Cynthia Ann Parker was about nine years old when she was taken by Comanche warriors during an attack on her family’s settlement. She lived with the Native American tribe for 24 years, married into it, and eventually had Comanche children. When she was finally “saved” by Texas Rangers, she hardly recognized her old way of life or the culture she was thrust back into. Her fate was a tragedy, but her story became the stuff of legend, even inspiring one of the greatest Westerns ever made, John Ford’s The Searchers.

The legacy of Ford’s epic, as well as the real Cynthia, weighs heavily on Paul Greengrass’ News of the World, an unexpectedly tender and affectionate drama about a “rescuer” and the European child he’s discovered some years after she was taken and assimilated into a Kiowa tribe.

But whereas Ford’s movie culminates in the rescue—and John Wayne’s choice to spare young Natalie Wood’s life, even as he abandons her to strangers in a strange house—that is only the beginning of News of the World. In truth, this is an inviting road movie that’s often as gingerly paced as Paper Moon with its newspaper man and Civil War veteran, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, getting to know the child he discovered in the wilderness.

Technically speaking, Tom Hanks’ genial and soft-spoken Kidd is barely a newsman by the film’s start. He was before the war and his service in the Confederacy. But after the first great conflict for America’s soul ended, he was left with nothing other than his intelligence and intuition for how to tell a good story: Which he does by riding around Texas, mid-Reconstruction, carrying newspapers and their revelations to enraptured small towns. Similarly, Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel) is no longer in the wild when Kidd discovers her along a desolate road in 1870.

She’s already been twice rescued (and twice orphaned) by the border wars between settlers and American Indians, and now she finds herself abandoned again by the ugliness of man. Her Black escort, who was being paid to take her to her aunt and uncle on the other side of the Texas panhandle, was ambushed and lynched. And Kidd, who’s never had a child of his own, is wary to take her burden on and complete the journey. Yet just like his need to spread the news to a wild land, he is compelled to protect this wild girl from unruly forces in all directions.

For a film that is essentially a two-hander for Hanks and Zengel, News of the World’s emphasis on journalism, right down to making it the movie’s title, is intriguing. There’s no way when Greengrass shot the film in 2019 that he and his collaborators could know about the horrors 2020 would unleash. Yet even as a 19th century aggregator of human interest stories, Hanks personifies an almost Capra-esque commitment to the desperate need for facts here.

Strikingly, the movie begins with Hanks reading from a small community’s pulpit about a nearby outbreak of meningitis taking 90 souls off to Jesus. And not one of Kidd’s congregation doubts the validity of what he reads. In fact, by focusing on the human interests of the day Kidd intentionally brings a sense of connectivity to a nation that is still deeply divided, as underscored by the U.S. Army soldiers keeping the peace at gunpoint five years after the war.

To note this story, set 150 years ago, mirrors our world today is an understatement. But one of the great strengths of News of the World is its desire to see the commonality and humanity of people, even in a moment of its arguably cruelest division.

Kidd fought for the Confederacy and a losing, grotesque cause that cost him his wife and career. Yet he clings to the news of the day, and the comfort of facts, to rebuild a sense of community. Similarly, the murkier realities of frontier violence between settlers and Native Americans is written on the face of Johanna. Divorced from the sweeping generalizations of broad statements about the past, here is a child derived from two cultures, and a victim of both which has left her bereft of family or community twice over.

Greengrass handles these elements with a delicate hand. A quieter film than most of his action-heavy output, News of the World is a character study that plays out pretty much how you might expect. But as Kidd might sense, the pleasure in that comes in its telling. And in the case of this film that is anchored by two remarkable performances.

Hanks is reliably steady and noble as Kidd, a man who’s seen great loss but has adapted with the times, and even created a peculiar career path for himself in the rough-hewn days of Reconstruction. Zengel is the revelation though as a young girl who speaks Kiowa, handfuls of German, and a smaller spattering of English. Eschewing the typical “feral child” clichés, Zengel makes for a compelling counterpart to Hanks as they embark on an odyssey of misadventures and self-discoveries.

The obstacles they encounter along the way are where Greengrass’ usual telltale signs appear. One sequence particularly, where Kidd and Johanna are pursued by the nastiest side of man, tenses with the spectacular dread Greengrass imbued throughout his and Hanks’ last collaboration, Captain Phillips. Elsewhere the director avoids the pat depiction of sleepy Old West living, instead choosing to bask in the chaos and vitality of life in a cattle town as Kidd and Johanna ride in beside a thousand steers.

The authentic world-building, especially in the rarely glimpsed setting of this country patching itself back together, makes News of the World’s tendencies to follow a predictable path a little disappointing. Additionally, the dueling themes of an unlikely, discovered family and spreading the good word of truth sometimes collide awkwardly, such as when Kidd picks a fight with one town’s local authority while trying to keep a low profile. The occasional CGI also leaves something to be desired.

Nevertheless, the journey it takes is so satisfying, one doesn’t mind if News of the World visits all the old familiar places. The film even makes time to reappraise them, like finding out what would’ve happened if John Wayne didn’t just walk away from Natalie Wood’s doorway, and if the Cynthia Parker legend didn’t have to be just another sad story from somewhere else out in the world.

News of the World opens on Christmas Day in the U.S. and on Netflix in the UK in 2021.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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deepdarkwaters · 8 years ago

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Got back from the Kingsman double bill a bit ago and am trying to put my brain into words even though I'm very tired and a bit numb and I smuggled five hours' worth of gin into the cinema in an Evian bottle so I'm as drunk as Harry at breakfast time.

OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW

Watching them back to back like this was interesting because it highlighted so clearly how much better the first one is than this fumbly ridiculous sequel. Not saying it's not good or not worth watching or whatever because it absolutely is worth watching for several reasons I will babble after another teacup of gin, but holy god is this really the best they could come up with? REALLY? A 100% true fact that I believe with my entire heart: YOU reading this, you are a better writer than people being paid obscene money to write films. I could easily name thirty fic writers off the top of my head right now who have an infinitely better grasp on pacing and plot and characterisation and dialogue than the people responsible for this stuff. I've not read any press or fan reviews but I imagine there's going to be a hell of a lot of backlash over so much in this from every angle because it's just so incredibly lazy and sometimes ugly and absolutely cannot stand up to its own hype.

Really good things:

* SPECTACULAR, EH!

* Eggsy/Harry and Eggsy/Merlin shippers, goddamn we have a lot of new stuff to work with. Chemistry through the roof, especially Eggsy/Harry (including possibly the best clingy desperate hug I have ever seen on film in my entire life WE HAVE WAITED SO LONG AND IT'S HERE AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL). That was the heart and backbone of the first film, I'm so relieved that it's not only survived but evolved into something fiercer and often messier. So so good to watch. Pretty sure I've got Harry/Merlin written down the inside of my heart like the words in a stick of rock, and though it's not romantic you get much more of a sense of their friendship here and it's all just a bit shattering and gorgeous.

* Pretty much everything to do with Harry's memory loss and Eggsy and Merlin trying to shock him into remembering was great, Y E S P L E A S E. And Harry's matter of fact comments about his loneliness, fuckkk. Angst writers, go forth with all this new information and break my heart some more! Fluff writers, fix him!

* Lots of beautiful intricate fight choreography which is literally all I need in my action films, so even if I did think the rest was complete balls (which I don't entirely) then I'd still be happy. Nothing comes near the vivid glorious gutpunch of the church scene as a standalone set piece, BUT there's so much Harry & Eggsy teamwork and please just inject this directly into my veins, it's amazing. Prepare for several years of me writing many more elaborate fight scenes than I already do.

* Part B to the above: Whiskey is a lot of fun and his fighting style is full on hardcore pornography to me.

* Merlin in a flawless Kingsman suit, RIP me.

* One of my Bespoke WIPs is about Merlin and Eggsy getting into the habit of going to the pub together sometimes and rolling home completely drunk with a kebab in each hand then trying to get in the house really quietly because Harry's asleep but they end up waking him because they think it'll be really nice to cook him breakfast in bed and Harry comes stomping downstairs in his dressing gown like "it's four o'fucking clock, put those frying pans away and drink some water!" while Merlin and Eggsy side eye each other and try not to giggle. So maudlin singing drunk Merlin was very nice to see :P

* Eggsy and Roxy bromance. There’s such lovely chemistry between them as well, it feels so natural and real, and it’s so good (and miserably rare) to see platonic friendships that aren’t shoehorned into some shitty boring love triangle.

* Eggsy and Tilde were seriously adorable. It ended up not at all satisfying as a romance plot arc because it was like CUTE - fight - marriage, it needed so much more screen time. Like all the important stuff was there, but it was just so abrupt. Include a satisfying romance or don't include one at all, fuck your lazy bullet points. But it started so well and I hope there's a ton of fic that treats them better than the script did. I appreciate the anti-Bond-ness of it all, that Eggsy's genuinely in love and wants to settle and is figuring out how that and his job can possibly fit together, especially with the complications of marrying into royalty. Interested to see where they take that if there's another film. Until then, soo much scope for fic.

* I'm shipping Harry/Elton like burning.

* Poppy was terrifying in a vaguely Umbridge-ish way. That sort of characterisation is always freaky, Julianne was great. So glossy and cheerful but absolutely dead in the eyes. And I'm ambivalent on Charlie, but I ABSOLUTELY want lots of brutal older woman villain/pathetic younger male minion smut. Please provide asap.

* T H E M Y T H I C A L B R E A K F A S T S C E N E I S R E A L

Really bad things: well where the merry fuck do I start haha.

* I will never ever understand why they thought it was a good idea to wipe out all the locations and almost all the existing characters at the very beginning. It's lazy shitty writing. If you feel like you need to shake up your fictional world you don't just knock it all down and start over. It's cheap and very shallow angst.

* I only have two middle fingers but I need about seventeen million to even begin to profess my disgust at them killing Roxy. I knew it was going to happen, it was the only spoiler I asked someone for ahead of time and it was not at all a surprise to find out for sure. Still utterly infuriating. The way people responded so positively to her in the first one is a real indication of how ridiculously low the bar is for female characters in action films ("good at something" and "not the hero's love interest" are literally the only two requirements), and JG/MV didn't even think enough of her to follow through on the absolute base level achievement they made before. Fuck everyarse involved in this decision.

* Absolutely revolting honeypot mission scene. Not really the fact that it exists, just the entire way it was handled and shot - so predictably male-gazey and laddishly "waheyyy!" that it kind of turned my stomach. Horrible and completely unnecessary.

* A million new characters and not enough time spent on any of them to care. Tequila was barely more than a cameo. Champ and Ginger hardly had anything to do. All the Statesmen (except Whiskey) were completely two dimensional and it's such a jarring contrast to the obvious care taken over Eggsy, Merlin, and Harry. It's not even because we already know them, I don't think? It's weird to try and explain. The Statesman characters just feel so rushed and shallow, there's no substance to any of them. Kill off Roxy and replace her with paper cut-outs, ok that makes loads of sense!!! Whiskey’s a level up from the others because he gets loads more screen time and some beautiful fight scenes, but his ~emotional plot twist fell completely flat. I don’t know what it was, the pacing or a boring cliche backstory or what. It was just dull as fuck. WE HAVE HEARD THIS EXACT STORY FIVE MILLION TIMES.

A bad thing that's somehow not really a bad thing even though I'm fucking numb and want a hug:

* I've been raving for ages to people about Roxy being killed off and trying to figure out a way to satisfactorily explain how I feel about a character dying for a reason and a character dying because a writer is a lazy bastard who wants some quick angst. Merlin's death was an A+ wonderful death along the lines of my dear fictional boyfrends Quincey Morris and Lee Scoresby and a million others. Maybe it comes from all the swashbuckly historical adventure stories I grew up loving, but I'm a desperate sucker for a good noble death. Characters brave and self-aware enough to look at the bigger picture of an impossible situation and realise that their death means a better outcome for the people they love? This is ABSOLUTE CATNIP to me. Characters who go down fighting to the very end. If a character I love with my entire soul has to die, this is how I want it to happen. Give them some agency and a proper goodbye.

I mean I fully expect him to be magically resurrected with fancy prosthetic legs if there's another film because we saw those wedding set photos of him in the nice neon green cgi stockings, so really I should be saying "death". I totally reject this one. (I reject Roxy and JB's deaths as well, but the big difference is I really can't see the filmmakers bringing them back. Eyeroll.) Maybe that's what's making it easier to deal with? A not-real noble courageous self-sacrificing death. That's about as good as it gets. All three of them get Oscars for this whole sequence.

Anyway the tl;dr of it is:

This film is a very beautiful, very patchy mess. The good stuff is absolutely gloriously perfectly incredibly wonderful. Most of said good stuff is the interaction between Eggsy, Merlin, and Harry, which is written and performed with real care and heart. Nearly everything else is relatively lacklustre filler, misogyny, and shitty nonsensical decisions. These people cannot write women.

I liked it? I will definitely see it 900 more times, mainly for wet terrified Harry and gorgeous fight scenes. But ffs, how can it possibly be this difficult to pinpoint the reasons why people loved your extremely successful creation and consider including them in future plans?

I'm feeling fairly zen about everything. I kind of trained myself ages ago to think of sequels as just another bit of fanfic, so it's going to make absolutely no difference to the cheerful fluff porn and fight scenes I like to write. What I'm annoyed about isn't so much to do with ~new canon~ limiting what we're allowed to create for ourselves now, because that's just silly. It's more about being pissed off at the shoddy state of action films, particularly women in action films, when it seems like it should be SO EASY to take these astronomical budgets and create something groundbreaking. I'm so tired of this unimaginative lazy narrow-minded bullshit.

#kingsman #kingsman 2 #kingsman spoilers #kingsman: the golden circle #kingsman: the golden circle spoilers #tgc spoilers #is this enough spoiler tags haha

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theantisocialcritic · 5 years ago

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Archive Project - April 2, 2014 - Avengers Confidential

Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher, 2014. Kenichi Shimizu, Studio Madhouse 83 Minutes Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KVnRR5QIus ————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————— So I watched Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore over spring break, and honestly I was not impressed. The best thing it had going for it was that it was made by Studio Madhouse, creator of Hellsing Ultimate, my favorite anime of all time (they also did Deathnote, Animatrix, Last Order FF7 and Trigun, as well as contributions to several Studio Ghibli Films and Marvel Anime productions but I haven't seen any of them yet….)!!! Usually their combination of traditional hand drawn anime and CGI animation flows together pretty well, but when its sloppily done its very easy to tell and Iron Man had that going on. The story, though high minded was a bit sloppy and predictable. Though making it as an anime was probably the best way to approach the material! I'm not a fan of the Marvel Knights Animations AT ALL!!! I think they look ugly and come across as lazy, given that they only do the moving graphic novel… thing… Approaching a Comic Book adaption as a anime works really well because the aesthetics of both genres complement each other and, generally speaking, I imagine a lot of Avengers fans would be anime fans! The style is also a good style to compete with Warner Brother Animation's approach; an aesthetic mix of Anime and Western animation that works really well for productions like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Flashpoint Paradox. Avengers Confidential is, or at least appears to be, a sequel to Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore. This movie focuses no the characters of Black Widow and Punisher (obviously). Both had big roles in the last movie and I think its implied that this is continuing their story. In the story, "<a>Punisher</a> is taken into <a>S.H.I.E.L.D.</a> custody after interfering in a top secret mission. In exchange for release, Punisher and the <a>Black Widow</a> are teamed up to take down the terrorist arms dealing organization <a>Leviathan</a> who plan to auction stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology" (wikipedia). How good is it? Well compared to Iron Man, much better!! I had a lot of fun with this one! Avengers Confidential was much better executed. The writing for this one was a step up from the last movie. All of the characters felt more fleshed out and interesting. Only The Avengers themselves felt one note, and I will get back to that. The narrative was a little more ambitious! While the first one appeared at glance to be challenging, it resolved all of it's plot threads up in a little bow so that the status quo was unchanged by the end of the movie. This felt riskier and had more of an edge to it. The animation was really good too! It complimented the action scenes well. It still had the problem with the CGI and Anime not meshing as well, but it was used much less this time and was kinda overshadowed by the scenes it was used it, and how cool they were. I will say though that a few dialog scenes looked a bit clunky. Now of course this is AVENGERS Confidential, not just Black Widow and Punishor. So naturally, as was teased on the box art and commercial, The Avengers show up! Honestly though thats a spoiler and I wish I could deny it because their introduction into the movie was really creative and fun! For most of the movie we never see them, they are just teased repeated as this larger than life thing that is looming in the distance, ready to join the fight at any point. All the nods to them build unto the final action scene. This is where the CGI takes over a bit, but its easy to get caught up in how awesome the scene it though! All the characters do "their thing" and it's awesome to see!! Hulk Smashes! Iron Man does his Iron Man thing! Thor "for midgard!!"'s! Its just a wonderful moment! It payed off the rest of the movie really well! I can point to this as a good example of pacing as well as setup and payoff. If your a fan of the Avengers movies i'd recommend you check this one out! It's no lasting film for the ages, but its a lot of fun for fans of this series! I might even go buy at after the next price drop! Its only like $15.00 right now, but hey I'm cheap :P ————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————— Avengers Confidential is now available on DVD and Blu-ray! Thank you for reading! Live long and prosper! Sources: "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher." Wikipedia. N.p., 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

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rickrakontoys · 8 years ago

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Justice League Very VERY flawed, with numerous problems, but it has enough entertainment value to make it worth a watch. 6.75/10 ***SPOILER TALK*** The Good: - The cast works very well together, and for the most part are all likeable. - Despite the little screentime spent to establish them, Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg mesh naturally into this world. The decision to make Aquaman this hard-drinking dudebro type helps make him stand out from the others. Flash being made much younger here gives him an interesting contrast to the more experienced warriors of the team. Cyborg wrestles with his own existence and his ties to alien technology. I would watch movies about any of these characters! - Wonder Woman is still great here, and they try to explain why she was out of action for so long after WW1. Steve Trevor is her Bucky (what pushes her buttons... Bruce gets called an asshole for using Steve to chastise Diana) - Superman finally gets some good moments to be... Superman here, though they are few. Most of his scenes are memorable and fun, escpecially with the Flash. His whole engagement with the League after his resurrection was great. - The added levity here helps to break up the dreary look of the film. Though some of the quippiness was off-putting, for the most part it works. - This was a marked improvement upon Batman v Superman. But oddly, it could have used a longer runtime to fill in the numerous gaps in the story and help the movie flow more. The Bad: - The plot in general is garbage. Just... awful. There is only a bare minimum of a story here to get the League together. - Steppenwolf... sucks. He is Malekith from Thor 2 bad. He looks awful. His design and dialogue generic as hell. His motivation is mere cartoon villainy. It is at least somewhat satisfying to see the entire League beat the shit out of him. Superman and Wonder Woman pummel him good at the end. But he leaves no impression at all. Why did he have to be fully CGI??? What is with the DCEU and big, grey, CGI monster men as the final boss battle (Doomsday, Ares, whatever the fuck that thing in Suicide Squad was)??? - The beginning of the movie is incoherent, disjointed, and hard to follow. Much of the movie consists of just... scenes of stuff happening without a solid throughline or flow. The opening of the movie is a scene with Batman that immediatley devolves into Synder's incoherent numbing action. Wonder Woman gets a nice action scene fighting terrorists, but it is completely detached from the rest of the movie and serves no purpose. - They just sorta show Atlantis without much setup, expecting us to just know what is happening and who Mera is... She is just... there. No establishing scene or shot. Feels like a lot is missing. - Themyscira is shown again. Still bad green screening like in Wonder Woman. Now with more metal bikini armor... there is a scene of Steppenwolf attacking the Amazons for the Mother Box they have that goes on too long. - The Mother Boxes... more power cubes/boxes acting as McGuffins??? Nothing about them was explained very well. They were just... powerful evil things Steppenwolf wants. Cyborg can interact with them. They terraform worlds into Apokalips... yawn. Didn't Zod already do the terraforming villain plot? Only... better??? - The way the League resurrects Superman was... baffling. Batman just guesses the Mother box can bring him back? He and Wonder Woman start ranting about "ethics"??? Predictably, this revival invalidates his death in BvS. Also, they show everyone mourning Superman at the start. Nothing in the movies show that he inspired any hope at all. BvS showed everyone fearing him or distrusting him. They are relying solely on the audience's familiarity with his character's real world legacy to elicit sympathy. -To revice Supes, they have to do this elaborate procedure of dropping the box into the kryptonian fluid pool with Flash zapping it as it touches the fluid, but don't explain why they have to do it like that... why do they need to drop it?! They just leave their mother box unattended after Superman revives just so Steppenwolf can just steal it immediately??? Where did Cyborg even hide the third box where he could just pop up suddenly with it in his hands in the first place? If they are so important, why did the Atlanteans and Themysira just leave their boxes out in the freakin open in big rooms instead of... deeeeep underground in a damn vault in a bigger box surrounded by death traps and fire and lava and shit??? - Steppenwolf sets up base in Russia or some old soviet country. And the movie keeps showing this random russian family for some reason throughout (reminded me of Sokovia in Age of Ultron, but here it was done very sloppily). Also, this giant apokalips dome thing is built there and no one in any other country notices??? - Danny Elfman's score is forgettable save for two instances... when he calls back to his old 89 batman theme, and when he plays a few notes from the John Williams Superman theme... these callbacks are pointless, and serve only to remind you of better movies from a bygone era. - Good god... Superman's CGI mouth. It is in the FIRST SCENE of the movie. It looks terrible. It looks expensive. It looks unnatural. A fake mustache for Henry Cavill woulda saved them time and money. - The flashback scene explaining the three mother boxes felt like the Lord of the Rings prologue. A green lantern was shown... cuz fan service. - The entire action finale was more numbing Snyder bullshit full of bright explosions, gunfire, and single color theme (red in this case). There is no style or wit here. Just CGI overload. It gets better once the team confront Steppenwolf directly. - The movie looks kinda... ugly in general. - Lois again has little to do, but i guess its ok since this is a League movie and she's a glorified cameo. - Batman was pretty useless here. He gets his ass handed to him quite often. Suppose that is the point since his power is "I'm rich". Plus he's old now and doesnt move quite as fast. I still like Affleck as Batman. - ok, i gotta stop. Sounds like I'm being harsh on the movie but that is only because the Justice League deserves AMAZING rather then just "passable". This reeks of too many hands in the pot, and the result is a mess... but at least it is a fun mess. I would watch it again, unlike BvS or Suicide Squad, which i can barely sit through 10 minutes of anymore...

#justice league #movie review

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dramaclover · 6 years ago

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Justice Bao: The First Year - A Rant

This drama was not a fun ride. AT ALL. I watched it for the cast and by the cast -specifically Nancy Wu & Raymond Cho, along with the case guests Zoie Tam, Roxanne Tong, Katy Kung. This drama took like 5 months to film, with them travelling to China to shoot outdoor scenes. It is by all means considered a big production.... so I was caught off guard by how badly it turned out.

The Bad

The cinematography was beautiful unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing done right. The sets that were filmed in the studio looked very fake. In fact some of the sets looks like they just reused from a 80s ancient drama. There were also times where you can tell they were standing in front of a green screen. CGI effect was waaaay off. The makeup on Justice Bao - the main character was so very blotchy. You could tell that wasn’t his natural colour. I don’t get how they managed to make that error? They should be able to tell just by looking at him, that’s how uneven the make up was. Angles and lighting has nothing to do with that. The clothing for the main characters were boring. Of course it’s not gonna be as pretty and elaborate of other dramas but it’s like they didn’t even try. Especially the case with Fuk Lan played by Grace Chan had the most cheap looking outfit. She literally looks like she’s wearing a dress bought from a Halloween store. It looks like the fabric could be ripped easily. I know she’s a guest star so maybe tvb just didn’t bother making her a good quality costume? I guess I can’t blame them on that end.

The Ugly

Actors & actresses are very crucial. Ranging from acting skills to straight out popularity and of course the dreaded favouritism. And because of TVB choosing who to push, some ended up getting miscast. I think we can all agree Owen Cheung as Chin Chiu was the ultimate miscast over here. His built was very small and that’s not his fault. Unfortunately when he stands or even sits next to Justice Bao played by Shaun Tam & Gong Sun Ce played by Raymond Cho, he just looks tiny. It doesn’t look like he is capable of protecting them. If anything it looks like they need to protect him back. Owen just does not have that ‘hero’ feel, he’s just small. He’s not bad looking, he’s acting isn’t bad but physically he doesn’t suit the role. And I’m pretty sure he garnered more haters due to this. Dumb part on TVBs end considering Matt Yeung was the first choice to play Chin Chiu before they decided to go with Owen instead. Elaine Yiu as Gei Nim Nim, now acting wise she’s good. Elaine has always been stable when it comes to acting, especially her crying scenes. What went wrong here, is that she portrays a young maid. A maid of a princess that is obviously years younger than her - by a lot. With Elaine’s age she should be a nanny to the princess or in charge of some department. It just felt awkward to have her portray someone that’s supposed to be that much younger. It’s even weirder cause she’s supposed to be the personal maid of the princess. (Personal maids tend to be younger or same age as them) I felt uncomfortable and it didn’t help the princess was so young looking.

The Terrible

I start thinking - okay maybe the cases will be so good you look past all the other bad stuff. Well I was wrong. The cases ranged from predictable to boring to straight up confusion. It’s like they thought hmmm “Let’s not make fantasy cases” to “never mind”. All the cases were by all means caused by other humans. Except Fuk Lans case went down the make belief road. Fuk Lan is a princess of a tribe and she can live forever. She also holds a flower that once is eaten, they can never die. She basically experiments with people and have them drink concoctions that turns them into zombies accidentally. This is the part I don’t get. Why all of a sudden add a fiction element to a straight laced drama? And honestly that arc was boring and I’m still hella confused on what happened to Fuk Lan in the end. Like did she see a mirage? Did she die in the end? But how can she die if she’s supposed to live forever? Was that village real? So she experimented on innocent people that caused deaths & she gets away scot free? Like what on earth is going on. I was pissed that its never talked about again. They literally moved onto a different case and pretended all this fantasy stuff never happened. What a waste of my time on that arc. Whatever moving on. Tam Wai Guk played by Susan Tse is a miracle doctor that saved countless lives with her medical skills. What did she do wrong? She helped someone die aka Euthanasia. The one who passed away was bind to a wheel chair and basically became ‘worthless’ & his father is basically torturing him by having him stay alive. The doctor understood and agreed to help him with death. In this case they went around in circles choosing between letting her live or having her die. In the end Justice Bao was fiercely against having her live - to him killing is killing doesn’t matter even if it’s what the other person wanted. So she gets killed off. Okay no problem. Euthanasia has always been a touchy subject and heavily debated upon even today. The problem is Justice Bao is an idiot. His wife Gei Nim Nim turns out to be an assassin sent to be by his side. Throughout the story she has killed countless of people even an innocent little boy. What does he do after he finds out his wife is a cold blooded murderer? He just accepts it. Like ladeedada my wife is a killer BUT she has her reasons. She was threatened. She didn’t mean to hurt those people. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU. You literally just chopped the doctors head off cause she did a mercy killing. ONE mercy killing where the victim knew what he was getting into. Never mind the doctor has SAVED so many people. Never mind so many people were against the doctors death. She had to die. While your wife killed so many but let’s pretend that didn’t happen. Anyways Justice Bao tries to save her and protect her. Despite him going on a spiel about murder is murder in the previous case. So dumb. And I’m disgusted with Justice Baos actions. I know this was supposed to be a sentimental love story about his undying love for his wife. His wife that he thought was kind and caring. But actually is a ruthless killer. But I was not feeling it. Maybe if the doctor arc never happened I wouldn’t feel this way. Other cases I didn’t mention means it was too predictable or it was so boring I forgot what even happened. I only remembered these 2 so clearly cause it pissed me off and was so ridiculously written.

The Horrible

What kind of stupid ending was that? Pong Zik played by Lee Shing Cheong was a villain. He did a lot of evil deeds and was just not a nice person. He gets accused of killing his wife played by Strawberry Yeung, but that gets resolved. So what, cause he’s not the killer, he’s allowed to go back to being the great chancellor? He doesn’t even like his wife, so with her death - he’s literally roaming free. Like with Fuk Lan the bad person gets away free. He’s still a chancellor so he’s still rich and living a comfortable life in the palace. What happened to punishing those who do wrong? Because that’s not what happened here clearly in 2 DIFFERENT CASES. The Emperor is a literal piece of shit that should be dethroned. He’s a puppet to the Empress Dowager & all he cares about is being the Emperor. Like your consort that you basically begged to marry you, died along with your child. Not only do you not try to get revenge you try to play it out like everything is fine. You are just a horny good for nothing person that only became the Emperor cause of your stupidity. Ugh he’s literally the worst character in the drama. Tong Hui San played by Kelly Fu deserved better than this lustful Emperor. One minute he says he loves her & she’s her one and only, next thing she crowns another concubine behind her back. I know. I know he’s the Emperor. No way is he just gonna have have one wife. Well then don’t make empty promises & then go behind her back. She only entered the palace cause she believed you really loved her. Instead she just suffered there. The last 15 minutes of the last episode made ZERO SENSE. What were the writers smoking when they wrote that? I’m not even exaggerating. I can’t even explain the ending cause I don’t even know what happened. I know what they were trying to do. They were trying to aim for a sequel that will NEVER EVER HAPPEN cause this was a failure of a drama. I gotta give props to them though cause it got people talking. Cause people like us are trying to make sense of what happened. Ugh I don’t even know. I’m wasting my time being so frustrated with this crappy ending. Usually open endings makes me want a sequel just so it can resolve the questions... but for this NOPE. I DONT WANT IT. I’m just gonna pretend I’ve never watched that. I can live not knowing what the eff happened.

The Only Silver Lining

Only interesting case was about Wan Chin Yu played by Nancy Wu, her Father played by KK Cheung and her adopted sister Tong Hui San. But their case unfortunately plays out throughout the drama, so you cannot just skip episodes or you’ll be heavily confused or you just won’t be as invested. I do admit that the last few episodes featuring the 3 of them were very good. It was gripping. When you find out that the Father was evil all along and killed Hui San. It was shocking - I really believed he loved them both despite them being adopted. He was always so attentive and supportive. To find out he was using both of them the whole time and just discarded them when he no longer needed them shocked me. Hui Sans death was so sad. She was so innocent & didn’t even understand what was happening. This arc, the cinematography, stellar acting by KK Cheung & Raymond Cho were the only saving grace in this drama. But even with these good points it’s still a drama not worth watching.

Final Thoughts

DONT EVER WATCH THIS DRAMA. The writers literally stuck up the middle finger to the viewers hoping to see a NORMAL ending. SKIP THIS DRAMA. You are not missing out. Waste of the actresses & actors used in this. Waste of the viewers time. Also tarnished the Justice Bao name. Excuse me while I go bleach my brain.

#Justice Bao: The First Year #Justice Bao #TVB #TVB Drama

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cripplinganxietyflix · 8 years ago

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I saw Alien: Covenant.

I’m starting to notice a trend in a few of my reviews where I tend to clarify something about myself or my expectations in relation to the film I’m talking about. I guess I do this in an effort to illuminate certain things about why I like something or why I hate it in a way that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be evident from my words.

So let me start off by saying I’m a pretty devoted fan of the Alien franchise. I have Xenomorphs all over my office, I’ve owned several HR Giger yearly calendars and artbooks. My husband and I will likely name our firstborn in honor of Ellen Ripley.

And as of quite recently, I’ve never seen an Alien film I didn’t, at the very least, enjoy watching. I would prioritize the original Alien as the best film (as I assume most do). Aliens and Prometheus come in second place- in that I enjoy Aliens and think it’s a fine film, and that I greatly enjoy Prometheus as something I accept I have to turn off all critical thinking facilities in order to fully appreciate. I rank Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection on the same level; as films that I didn’t hate and can actually watch to gain some minor degree of pleasure, but also acknowledge their glaring flaws. I’ll even go so far as to say that I liked what David Fincher was trying to do with Alien 3. It had the guts to try something totally new like Aliens did, and had the balls to give the audience a giant, veiny middle finger right in the first few minutes. Admittedly, I haven’t seen Alien vs Predator or Alien vs Predator: Requiem since seeing Alien and Predator maul, disfigure and murder each other would feel like watching a full length film of dogs being kicked- and yes, I realize this is an issue that is likely unique to me. I truly haven’t seen an Alien feature that I didn’t like.

Until now.

What the fuck, Alien: Covenant? What the fuck, Ridley Scott? What the fuck was going on here?

I’m gonna start talking about the plot, so prepare your anus for spoilers. If you’re doubting the fortitude of your sphincter, skip past the next image. The basic premise of this film is that there’s a ship with couple dozen people as crew schlepping 2000 colonists out into deep space to start terra-forming a new planet. The crew consists of a lot of sexual partners and I assume that they are planning to help populate, but I can’t recall if that was addressed at all. Maybe in the future, spaceship crews are allowed to bring out the wife. Whatever. Anyway, an android named Not-David Michael Fassbender accidentally fucks the ship up and wipes out a little chunk of the crew. This fuck-up results in Captain James Franco getting incinerated in front of his wife inside a stasis capsule, before he ever has a chance to deliver a line.

In fact, had I not watched the promotional material beforehand (which features a scene that I assume precedes the one I’m talking about and also clarifies it better than the movie gave a shit to attempt), I don’t think I would have even known the schmuck getting torched by explosive oxygen in the capsule was James Franco. Nice.

This leaves the ship with a new captain, Passive Billy Crudup, who they mention a few times is a Christian, just like Dr. Shaw in Prometheus. The inclusion of his religion is even more stupid and pointless in this new iteration. He is also fairly incapable, which makes me wonder who put this booger-eater as second in line. This whole fuck up by Not-David Michael Fassbender is just a plot vehicle to get Danny fucking McBride outside the ship on a repair mission, where he receives a mysterious distorted transmission of a woman singing a John Denver song. The source of the transmission is traced back to a planet which happens not to be the planet that the crew is headed to to terraform.

Obviously, the crew decides to divert to the planet from which the signal came from instead of the planet that they are supposed to travel to, because why the hell not?

Like the idiots in Prometheus, the idiots in Alien: Covenant decide not to wear oxygen-fed helmets or PPE because who ever heard of aspirating deadly microbes and bacteria? However, this time, that’s addressed, and predictably two of the crew members manage to get infected by the flora on this planet within 5-10 minutes of setting foot on land. They become sickened and spew white baby Xenomorphs (not chestbusters, for whatever reason). Then the crew is dispatched unceremoniously as a pack of CGI Xenomorphs whip the shit outta them in ways that will be too fast to actually see. But aren’t you happy with 0.9 seconds of digital blood?

The remaining survivors are rescued just in time by a cloaked Actual David, who leads them back to his lair. Let me just say that Actual David confirms to one of the crew members that this lair is safe a few short minutes before a deformed Xenomorph casually enters and decapitates someone. Actual David pretends to be a bro, then makes it very clear he is NOT in fact a bro, and he carries on fucking up everyone’s shit until the end of the film, in a final twist that most viewers will see coming about 20 minutes in advance.

This installment of the series is a colossal pile of shit, and it really pains me as an Alien fan to lay it out like this.

The first issue I became painfully aware of is that there is no main character. Is the plucky captain’s widow the protagonist? Is it Danny McBride? Is it Actual David? Not only is there no attempt to establish a protagonist, there is little effort in place to ensure that you know the names of any of these people. How the fuck am I supposed to be horrified, disgusted and invested when these people are dismembered if I don’t even have a name to pair them with? I actually had to check the IMDb page to recall that Plucky Captain’s Widow’s name is Daniels. Nobody matters and I didn’t give a shit about anyone. I barely gave one for Danny McBride, who seems like a likable crew member but makes some really piss-poor risk/benefit analyses.

Because of the way Actual David’s underlying prerogatives were portrayed, I wish they hadn’t included him or anything from Prometheus. It’s become readily apparent that the only reason why this film ties into Prometheus or includes Actual David is because they couldn’t think up a fucking decent plot device to get these new people killed by an alien threat. Actual David’s story made me feel like I was watching an excruciatingly dull Star Trek: TNG three-parter where Data has some banal interaction with Noonien Soong because half the cast was on vacation that week. It felt cheap and like the screenwriters really had to push themselves over a massive hump to even write this trash. Instead of being a flawed and curious creation of sociopathic humans, Actual David becomes just another bad guy. There’s a really dumb scene where he’s trying to become friends with a Not Xenomorph that is given almost no explanation into. Did he kill all the engineers on the planet because he was mad at them for making the humans, and now he wants to be an engineer by creating inbred Xenomorphs? If they explained this, I wasn’t paying attention because I was bored to tears every time Actual David was explaining things to other characters.

After producing something like Prometheus, which I would argue has some of the best modern visual effects for its time, I can’t imagine how anyone thought Alien: Covenant was an acceptable final product. The Xenomorphs/creatures looked incredibly fake and were shown far too often. The digital blood and gore effects were wholly unsatisfying: not particularly graphic and shown only very briefly- maybe because they realized too late that CGI gore is completely unimpactful? People were screaming in disgust during the cesarean scene in Prometheus. I don’t think I heard a solitary gasp at any of the featured gore effects. I’ve read other reviews claiming “the gorehound will be sated” but I can’t imagine that unless the gorehound’s a 12-year-old with limited experience. The suits are ugly, the ship is unremarkable, and the CGI looked cheap and slapped together into the film by people who seemed to be generally unfamiliar with the franchise. I mean for fuck’s sake, if you’re going to give me a CG Xenomorph it better knock my pants off with a firm stream of shit.

I came out of this one feeling like I’d seen some cheaply-made bullshit teen-demo weekend matinee flick from the mid-2000s, like a Final Destination or an Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid. You know what I mean, the type of movie you go see and completely forget about after a week. This film wasn’t scary, it never gave me cause to feel invested. It was utterly inconsequential, whereas Prometheus felt like it was trying to build something new, fresh and mythical. In fact, my anxiety spiked as I was leaving the theater because I remembered that Ridley Scott took a fairly active role in the production of Blade Runner 2049. That fucking movie is going to have sexy, smoldering Ryan Gosling starring and extremely competent and capable Denis Villeneuve directing and this fucking orphanage fire of a movie has me WORRIED about it. If that doesn’t discourage you from watching Alien: Covenant, I don’t know what will. I can’t even recommend it as So Bad it’s Good because it is so monumentally boring. I could write a book of all the things I would have done entirely differently. Don’t pay any more than Wednesday matinee prices for this foul, backstabbing tripe. If you told me I’d be scoring this movie an entire half a star lower than the Ghost in the Shell movie I would have shat right in your mouth. You know what? This is what we get for electing Donald Trump.

★ ½

#alien #ridley scott #xenomorph #alien:covenant #film #review #movies

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