#(recently was rewatching Doctor Who 2005 and it mostly holds up but also... there are the Slitheen episodes)

[thegirlwholied]

any chance you can describe the scene in bridgerton that has sparked all the debate? i see people argue about it but i just need like.. the most basic description to decide if i can/will watch it and you seem to know bridgerton things

OK. Deep breath. Because you asked, I will try? 

Without wading into debate... with some spoilers... and with the caveat that I’m always Team Extremely Enthusiastic Consent; this is one series I (clearly) both read & watched so the answer to can/will was yes for me but mileage will vary:

The two main characters have a very traditional romance-novel dynamic in one respect: the plenty-of-sexual-experience hero, and the so-innocent-she-doesn’t-even-know-how-sex-works virgin heroine. 

However consciously the book was playing off that trope, which is in so many romance novels, I’ve always read it as ‘when your entire sexual education relies on 1 guy & only what he shows you’...  that can go wrong. And it goes wrong. 

You may have seen some of the series’ sexcapades going by on Tumblr in gif form by now... That Scene is episode 6, of 8. 

Short version of the major driving plotline at this point: Daphne thinks her husband can’t have children when actually it’s a matter of won’t. Episode 6 is mostly filled with giddy honeymooning sexcapades... but with Simon using the pullout method, which goes right over Daphne’s head. And then she catches on. 

Basic show-version scene breakdown, from there: Daphne leads Simon into their bedroom, with things proceeding as laughing-honeymoon-ly as usual... until the point where he’d usually pull out, when he says “wait”, meaning to do so. And realizes, when she physically hangs on (on top), instead, something’s different this time. It’s intentionally filmed as a power shift. Immediate aftermath, Daphne gets up to leave, starting to head to her own bedroom for the first time in their marriage. The duke, still in bed, realizes what just happened.

From his reaction, her suspicions re: his lie of omission are confirmed. From her reaction, he knows she did this intentionally. His dawning hurt is the hardest part of the scene to watch, for me.

It plays out as a ‘how could you’/’how could you’ situation, with fallout & reconciliation over the following two episodes ~ 

~and whether the narrative sides too much with Daphne, whether there’s the right kind of fallout and reconciliation, whether this scene was integral to the plot or should have been changed more, how much casting changes how the scene feels... that’s then part of the debate. 

Which... oh no am I wading into debate? I do not have the energy to pull wellies on right now and that river runs deep... I do think the writers still could have done better especially in subsequent episodes, but sometimes characters’ actions are meant to be morally questionable and raise debate and sometimes it’s just a writing whoops (looking at Wonder Woman 1984, which I also watched on Christmas Day & which also managed to spark a consent debate, omg why, writers, when Steve could have just appeared). Bridgerton’s was an intentional writing choice - ‘murkiness’ is I think an apt word here - & I think the last paragraph of this article, and the articles it links to, speak well to overall context:

 “as the number of romance novel adaptations continues to rise in upcoming years, there will be ongoing debates about how many of these now-dated books — in which nonconsensual sex, sexual assault, and rape are not infrequent — will be best adapted for the screen. The good news is that the genre has largely moved away from depicting these types of sex scenes as romantic. The bad news, however, is that it's a lot harder to erase them from the industry's messy past.”

I’m glad romance novels are being adapted; I’m glad I discovered how smart & fun many of them are (it took me too long!). Many romance novels are also Not for Me, for the above-stated reasons. Bridgerton, books & show, I do enjoy... but there’s many things I don’t enjoy that other people do because something in it’s problematic in a way that gets to me, so completely get it if it’s Not For You.

 Whether you see the show as a success or failure on that front, I do think it’s trying to tell a story that reflects that sex is messy & complicated & has a learning curve & can be full of laughter & can make you feel deceived & helpless even when it is consensual especially when no one’s communicating clearly. Whether That Scene is/isn’t is the whole debate, but in writing I do think intent matters -especially as perception varies - and I do find it interesting the showrunner’s stated intent was to still evoke deception & helplessness without crossing the consent threshold. It becomes a a debate as part of the audience does see it that way! It’s also... fiction, as opposed to a how-to manual on consent. Since Bridgerton’s the first adaptation of its specific kind, there’s also a lot of extra attention/pressure on it. Can stories, romances especially, model consent? Yes; some do it brilliantly, and happily, more & more of them do! Do they have to...? Well... no. And when we start policing fiction we get a little Victorian & that’s not a good thing! That’s part of why AO3 exists, after all.

My personal take is, if Bridgerton was a fic on AO3, the writer would tag it as ‘dubcon’ not ‘noncon’. Some reviewers might disagree, but writers tag based on intent and to warn, I think that’s the warning they’d give. 

...And also, my take is that Netflix would be better with AO3-style tags. & so would romance novels. AO3-style tags on everything please, the better to choose wisely!

I hope this helps you decide whether you can/will watch!  

[ineffablefool]

What kind of shows do you watch on tv? Besides good omens and star trek?

I honestly watch nothing on TV, because we went cable-free for about 15 years after an Incident with a certain national cable company, and now we technically have it through our ISP but we’re way out of the habit.  But I watch stuff on Netflix and Crunchyroll and so on!  Here is some of it.

- Castlevania -- just finished season 3, have no idea how Ellis is going to top that ending for season 4.

- Thunderbolt Fantasy -- this is actually something I love but I never see people talk about and there’s going to be another season and I’m SO EXCITED.  It’s this sweeping high fantasy story set in Fantasy Asia instead of Fantasy Europe, and it’s got a So Tired Of All This Shit wandering samurai main character and a hilarious but also delightfully original Master Thief main character (and some other characters) and it’s gorgeous and it’s all done with puppets.  It’s models and puppets (and then post-processing for lighting and effects and stuff).  Here is the first scene of the show on YouTube.  THERE ARE GUYS HOLDING UP THOSE PUPPETS ON THEIR SHOULDERS RUNNING AROUND.  IF THE PUPPET IS IN THE AIR IT’S BECAUSE IT WAS YEETED.  The sheer fucking artistry makes my little heart explode.

- Various Gundam series on DVD and blu-ray -- we did G Gundam most recently.  We’ve got a couple more series ready to go whenever we feel like starting them, but I forget which.  And sometime I want to rewatch the original Gundam.  I would like to see if it is still my favorite. (I did like G Gundam a lot once it got past the first few episodes and really got properly ridiculous.) (My favorite thing about Gundam Wing is A) refusing to call Trowa by his name, he’s always “Mom Jeans” to me; and B) Treize.  Just everything about Treize.  His little trick where he gets one of his sets of enemies to obliterate the other set, all while he continues to wear his delicately lacey little cravat?  Chef’s kiss.)

- I’ve been mostly watching the Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who after having ragequit at a particular point during Peter Capaldi’s run.  It’s been okay.  A little bit “perfect-cinnamon-roll-of-a-historical-figure of the week”, but okay.  Hasn’t made me ragequit again, either.  (It was the first episode with Bill Potts.  I didn’t feel like giving my eyeballs to a show which took several minutes straight to reeeeally grind in the fact that their universe doesn’t come in my size.  Really, I don’t know how I got through some of the other post-2005 stuff -- I think I just have less tolerance for that shit in my old age.)

I think the last new thing we tried that isn’t any of the above was The Witcher.  We gave it... mmm, two episodes?  Three?  Neither of us really liked it, though.  The bard guy is kind of fun but I spent a lot of time waiting for the other people to get offscreen so he could come back on.

Someday I want to pick up Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-Kun again, if it’s even still on Crunchyroll.  I got like four episodes in like five years ago now, then got distracted.  But I liked how it seemed to enjoy playing with gender roles!

Thank you for this question which resulted in an entire essay of an answer!  ps everyone please watch that Thunderbolt Fantasy video it’s SO PRETTY

[martens-movie-reviews]

Released: June 13, 2008 Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

“Scientist Bruce Banner desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk. Cut off from his true love Betty Ross and forced to hide from his nemesis, Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, Banner soon comes face-to-face with a new threat: a supremely powerful enemy known as The Abomination.”

In honour of the latest movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe being released on November 3, 2017, I decided that I wanted to review all of the previous MCU films, and it was also a wonderful excuse to rewatch all the movies again. My girlfriend and I wanted to watch it with a group of friends, however there was no time that we could all agree on, and to space it all out didn’t work, so we watched the MCU movies during the month of September and October so that we would be ‘all caught up’ for Thor Ragnarok.

Marvel Cinematic Universe – Source – Marvel

You can find all of the reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the link here. At that link, you can also find the dates that the other reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted. My plan is to release one every single day, and because I’ve already reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 here, and Spider – Man: Homecoming here, they will not be included in the two weeks leading up to Thor Ragnarok.

As such, I will now move onto the actual review of the film, and I hope you enjoy!

Incredible Hulk Trailer – Source: Universal Pictures

Cast and Crew

The Incredible Hulk was helmed by French director Louis Leterrier, and written by American Zak Penn. Leterrier’s work as a director before this film was as an action oriented director in films such as ‘Transporter’ in 2002, ‘Unleashed’ and ‘Transporter 2’ in 2005, while they are feature a lot of action, there’s also dramatic elements in those films. He’s since worked films such as ‘Clash of the Titans’ in 2010, ‘Now You See Me’ in 2013, and 2016’s ‘The Brothers Grimsby’. He has since moved to television work, and was announced as a director for the upcoming 2018 show ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’ which will explore the world before the events that take place in the 1982 film.

Penn’s work before The Incredible Hulk includes other comic book characters such as ‘X-Men 2’ in 2003, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ in 2006, and ‘Elektra’ in 2005. He also wrote the story elements of video games such as ‘Last Action Hero’ in 1993, and the ‘Fantastic Four’ video game based on the movie in 2005. It’s very easy to see that he enjoys being a part of the comic book world, and has continued to do so after this film, having writing credits for ‘The Avengers’ in 2012, the ‘Lego Marvel’s Avengers’ video game, and has recently been brought in to write a treatment of ‘Suicide Squad 2.’ A new film of his to look out for, that is generating a lot of hype, is ‘Ready Player One’ that is set to release in March 2018.

Bruce Banner’s about to become the Hulk for the first time: Edward Norton – Source: Paramount Pictures

The Incredible Hulk’s cast includes Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Lou Ferrigno, Robert Downey Jr. and Stan Lee.

Review

Let’s get the big Hulk in the room out of the way first, this movie, while not a fantastic film, is miles ahead of the ‘Hulk’ movie that come out in 2003. This adaptation is a much better film in terms of quality, story, visual effects, and acting. I remember even as an 11 year old boy, I found the 2003 film to be bad, and ruined the Bruce Banner / Hulk character and storyline.

The casting in this movie was better in terms of picking actors that fit the characters of the story. Liv Tyler did a good job in portraying Betsy Ross, displaying the right kind and amount of emotion that was required for her character. I really hope that one day we get to see her interact with the new Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in a future film, even as a cameo, rather than the semi love interest that they explore in Age of Ultron, but I’ll get to that more in that review.

Edward Norton – Source: Paramount Pictures

Ty Burrell’s character was a waste in the film as well as a pointless character. Burrell’s acting was not a problem, however the character and his little story in the film had no point other than to give Betty Ross a short lived love interest and a story line that is completely glossed over for the remainder of the film. Yes he lets the General know that Banner was in town, but that could’ve been covered in a much better way. In the comics, Doctor Leonard Samson is known as Doc Samson, a psychiatrist turned superhuman being when his curiosity and wanting to be superpowered took some of the energy and radiation from the Hulk and turned it on himself, as pictured below.

Tim Nelson did a good job with what he was given in the role of Samuel Sterns, however the character itself was again wasted in this film, and set up horribly in the film. I feel like these last two characters characters’ inclusion in the film was moronic, and was simply sequel baiting. Samuel Sterns in the comic is also known as The Leader, a self given name after he is exposed to gamma radiation in different experiment by the government, increasing his intellect and his lust for knowledge. You can see him in the picture below.

#gallery-0-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The Leader – First actual appearance – Source: Marvel Comics – Tales to Astonish #63 (1964)

Doc Samson – First Appearance – Source: Marvel Comics – The Incredible Hulk #141 (1971)

I believe this film was trying too hard in including comic book characters for the sake of including them, in the hopes that the film would get a sequel, without giving them the time that the characters need to be portrayed properly on film.

Edward Norton – Source: Paramount Pictures

Casting William Hurt as General Ross was great, as he’s able to portray both the strict and worried father when it comes to his daughter, as well as the crazy and power obsessed general who’s trying to build an army of supersoldiers. Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky was a good choice as he’s able to be the cocky Ace and as well as the competitive man who wants to take down the Hulk, and risks his life in trying to get stronger, and eventually becomes the Abomination.

Edward Norton as Bruce Banner / Hulk was a good choice for the character, making him a scrawny scientist, who is able to be depicted as intelligent as well as having inner demons that he must contain, and I feel like he would have fit in quite nicely with the other Avengers if he would have stayed on, however I prefer him a million times more than Eric Bana in the role, I’ve grown to enjoy Ruffalo’s depiction of the character. I really enjoyed that the film briefly displayed Banner’s intelligence in the scene when he is trying to find a cure with the flowers at the beginning of the film. It’s an important part of his character that there’s a mild mannered genius behind the gigantic Hulk monster.

From Left to Right: Tim Roth & William Hurt- Source: Paramount Pictures

The action and early fight scenes really displayed how the Hulk is a one man army, and completely destroys the envoy that General Ross sends his way, and even breaks Blonsky into pieces after he had taken a dose of the ‘super soldier serum’ that they were trying to recreate.

The special effects in this movie mostly hold up to today’s standards. I feel like they did a good job in showing the horror of the transformation into the Hulk, and the Abomination.

Hulk & Emil Blonsky – Source: Paramount Pictures

I really enjoyed that even though making Hulk was almost considered a last minute addition to the Avengers and the MCU, they managed to put Stark Industries, the weapons manufacturer for the Sonic Tanks that they use against the Hulk in the scene depicted in the picture above.

The story elements in this film were pretty basic; guy had unimaginable power in hiding, stupid accident brings the army on his tail, guy escapes, runs into old lover, army gives similar power to cocky guy, guy beats up everyone, runs off with girl, tries to get rid of power, fails, gets taken in eventually, cocky guy gets more power and kills people, original guy beats up to save the day, and escapes once more. It’s not a very complex film, and there are a lot of mistakes, as mentioned above with the sequel hunting, and the misuse of characters, but the film had heart, and fun, and still managed to overcome the absolute terribleness of a film of the same character from 5 years prior.

From Left to Right: Liv Tyler & William Hurt – Source: Paramount Pictures

I feel like the music which was orchestrated by Craig Armstrong fit really well in this movie, as the soundtrack was erratic and all over the place, just like the titular character, and I enjoy the continuing theme throughout the MCU, where the music is well chosen and works within the film and fits the character in a really well done way. He previously ‘Moulin Rouge’ in 2001, ‘Ray’ in 2004, before working on The Incredible Hulk, and has since done ‘The Great Gatsby’ in 2013 and ‘In Time’ in 2011.

The Abomination – Source: Paramount Pictures

The climactic battle between the Abomination and the Hulk is something that people have been wanting from the Hulk, for him to go toe to toe with someone of equal or greater strength than him and they delivered. It was entertaining, while still hitting the beats of a helicopter getting stupidly close to the action when it had no reason to, endangering the lives of the General, the army personnel on the helicopter, and of course, the love interest. The Hulk won that fight even though he seemed to be outmatched, he won because of his use of the items around him, and the raw rage that comes with defending the person you love, while corny, it does fit the narrative of the character, and is much better than fighting some weird cloud / father hybrid.

The Hulk – Source: Paramount Pictures

The end credits scene was something that was rushed, and last minute, but it fit really well within the movie and connecting the movie with the grander MCU even more by having Robert Downey Jr. show up as Tony Stark, trying to recruit Abomination, while others originally thought it was the Hulk that he was trying to recruit, it was later revealed in the Marvel short – The Consultant, where S.H.I.E.L.D. purposely sends Stark to annoy General Ross to avoid having to work with the Abomination, since the World Security Council thought that he could be useful.

Overall, I feel like this movie deserves to be recognized as a good film, that still had the stink of the previous incarnation of the character. It’s place in the MCU would probably have been better remembered if Ed Norton would have reprised the role, but sadly that didn’t happen, which means that a lot of people might not associate the two films together, even if we have now seen General Ross portrayed by William Hurt in another MCU film (Captain America: Civil War). At the end of the day, the film was entertaining, music was as erratic as the main character, and the love story while corny and overdone, was adequate in giving the Hulk the proper motivation in defeating the Abomination at the end. There was problems as mentioned, but to me, this movie still deserves the score that is coming up, and that score would be 7.25/10.

Post Credit Scene: Tony Stark annoying Gen. Ross – Source: Paramount Pictures

What did you think of the film? Are you excited for Thor Ragnarok? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Alex Martens

  The Incredible Hulk Review Released: June 13, 2008 Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes "Scientist Bruce Banner desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk.