#dragon ball super review

[askmovieslate]

You know how when you are not into something, but you want to do it properly because you don't wanna annoy anyone?

Yeah, I guess that's what I'm trying to do here. I'm not into Dragon Ball, but it's perhaps the most popular anime ever made. I can't mess this one up.

I should check this one out, shouldn't I?

[guitar-ijiri-house]

'Master Frieza is a knob reincarnated! uxcell Whole Knob 10 pcs Purple [26th Cheap Guitar Knob Selection Meeting].

For the 26th edition of the Cheap Guitar Knob Selection Conference, we nominate the uxcell 10-piece Purple Whole Knob to be the strongest in the universe! The knob style with its shining purple top is just like the king of the universe, Frieza himself! The world of cheap guitar knobs will be shaken up by the unexpected entry of a super big-name alien!

[timaeuslover001]

Why I HATE DBS Broly Film:

Other than the disjointed story telling ….

It dehumanized the tragedy of the saiyan life under Freiza.

The original had a lot or be desired too but at least he did love his son, but he ants cruel to him when he WAS controllable .

His son had two personalities and his carzy side was growing more and more uncomfortable as he got older.all of this was brother form Trauma.

Instead he just has anger burgers and has a shock collar to “control” him which makes his situation less empathetic and sadder than a man who has no clue what’s going on and has an alternate personality.

I wish instead of King VEGETA it was Frieza who ordered it because that seemed much more likely because Frieza already was threatened and hated The Saiyans.

Only logical reason King Vegeta may have ordered it if it came from Frieza! But I highly doubt he’d stomach to do that to the babies.

Cuz what sense would a King do that to his own peopel and have them NOT revolt?!? Cuz imagine if he was successful to Get rid of Frieza?! King Vegeta would be GONE.

Hence prob why Freiza picked the planets the babies they got sent to.

But villainizing the father complex is the type of disrespectful storytelling I hate, Paraguay wasn’t perfect but he didn’t have the heart to kill his own KID!

I’m sure none of them , even Goku would have an easy time doing that.

How I would do the movie:

paragus losing control of broly, Broly attacks ANOTHER planet and some rouge survivor lives and that begs for Goku and Vegeta Help.

They help, realize how strong he is, they help but transport to another planet/moon/ with no people to avoid more damage.

Realize how strong he is , Paragus shows up and tries to control him but struggles because the head band isn’t working.

He even fights Goku and Vegeta when he sees them hitting his son. But they convince him that he needs to let him go and that Broly isn’t the same anymore.

They struggle some more and he even proves to be too run for them.

They do a lot of damage to the moon/planet thing .

Goku and Vegeta manage to knock Broly out and as the planet/moon self destructs and Paragus stays behind with his fallen son and they both die together , because all he wanted was peace for his son and now they can BOTH have it.

Cuz having him kill his son is too cruel and heartbreaking, but In a Tragic way they can both be together.

And mabey the spirit of broly can appear back to Goku at the end as a spirit as his normal self and whispers a soft spoken “Thank you”

Mabey Vegeta and Goku can even talk about it. Vegeta seemingly unsympathetic to Broly situation.

Goku goes home and gives a big bear hug to Gohan.

End.

I mean no one had to be the “villian”

They’re both victims of Freiza cruel Reign on his people.

And even in the DBZ film version Paragus wasn’t a “villian” yea he was seeking revenge and using him but his son was ALIVE and he kept him close to him he could have let him loose AGES ago and cause havoc on the cosmos alone but he didn’t, he wanted him to be close to him.

Broly can still be sweet and soft spoken and gentle when not crazy but don’t make his father be the cause of it. 🙄 Freiza is a terrible enough person to be the cause of anyone suffering.

I think Broly is way too OP anyway, but I love the tragedy a of the situation and how his trauma as a child made him what he is and have him this alternate personality.( in mo way do people with D.I.D. Have a nurderous personality trait that’s a possibility , that never happens in real life but for fantasy purposes I’ll allow it )

ngI don’t know how their going to keep his trauma childhood🤔 cuz Broly almost got killed at night time in the movie and planet Vegeta exploded RIGHT during the assasination attempt. Which contradicts the Bardock film when planet Vegeta exploded during the DAY.

Ugh….akira Toyinama🤦‍♀️ bad memory strikes again ….

not to mention diminishes Goku specialness of being a super saiyan.

And Living distant other than Goku and Vegeta is always nice to see too.

[mastacell]

FINALLY Watched Freakin DragonBall?!!

[movieanimex]

Checkout Dragon Ball New Anime Called "Dragon Ball Daima" Teaser Trailer Breakdown On MovieAnimeX:-

[misakialter]

Ok but am I about to Rant?

...You know what? Fuck it.

Why not, I'm gonna end the year talking about something nobody really cares but I certainly do for whatever reason: Dragon Ball Super, babyyyyyy.

Specifically the Granolah Arc.

(In advance, thank you for reading.)

Genuinely, I have like a lot to criticize about it but for those who need a refresh or have no idea what I'm about to say but still wanna read my thoughts anyways lemme do a quick summary for you.

The story continues from the resolution of the prior arc, as a power copying enemy known as Seventhree is salvaged by it's creator. Before this guy could do anything though, the titular Granolah trounces and steals the Android.

We find out he's the last of his race, and had his planet wiped out by Saiyans working under Frieza back then. He's serving a faction known as the Heeters, they sell planets but work under intel over force, now holding their own monopoly after Frieza's first death.

Keyword: FIRST. Now that he's back, they are in trouble and tell as much to Granolah, whose trauma kicks in and wants nothing but vengeance, but of course, he's too weak. Though the Heeters start to carefully plot around this development thanks to SevenThree's memory helping them get caught up with last arc's development and our heroes.

Granolah returns to his planet and the topic comes out with his caretaker, a namekian elder. Reminded of their set of 2 Dragon Balls and with the finding of the missing one, Granolah wishes to become the strongest (At a cost) and demands to see Frieza.

The Heeters, of course, tell him to stay put and set in motion their plan: Get rid of Granolah before he destroys the empire they wanna overtale by tricking Goku and Vegeta into coming, while they wish their toughest member, Gas, to be THE strongest to then kill Frieza.

After a long brawl between our heroes trying to talk Granolah down, the elder is forced to reveal some truths: A Saiyan (Bardock) saved them and the Heeters killed his mom actually, he couldn't reveal it prior as Granolah was put to work with them in exchange for their safety.

Thus, Gas turns into the strongest and faces the now teamed up trio who are vastly outmatched as he continues to grow, little by little wearing him down until Frieza's surprising arrival, who wipes out Gas in one clean sweep and leaves Goku and Vegeta with the bitter feeling of being left behind powerwise.

With Granolah now giving up on his vengeance, Goku finding out more about his father and adapting Ultra Instinct in his own way, and Vegeta fueling his newfound Ultra Ego form with his feelings on the Saiyan's past, the gang says their goodbyes and set off.

People with familiarity on the arc will notice me describing the entire second half of it in three paragraphs. And this is for sure not a mistake: This IS the relevant information of that section. So you know, we'll be here for a while when I get there. :)

So like, was the arc bad from the start?

No. Much like the grand majority of DBS, I think it's got one of, if not the most promising start so far, because as it stands, the arc set in motion a very character centric narrative over something with a bigger plot in motion. This is actually the most enjoyable part of it which we hardly get in this series at all, so it feels fucking good when people come to blows because we have so much baggage on each side the clash gets hype, much like how DBS: Broly toyed with (Or you know, how Battle Shonen that go hard do it).

Granolah is an interesting character, despite having his arc rushed at the very end and with some missed out chances. Already having seen a similar concept with Baby from GT, we know the idea of a surviving race member of a wipeout from the Saiyans writes itself. Not to mention his unique aspects such as his trauma or his combat quirks help him stand out beyond the cool design. He's also integrated into the world with as much grace as the new group, the Heeters, who serve as our "people to punch" this arc.

From the duo of Maki and Oil proving to be a little more comedic than threatening but still effective, and the cunning Elec being modestly entertaining, they don't feel out of place in the world of DB. Gas in particular I'm going to put off for now, but know that his interactions with Elec is what make the latter vastly more unique in terms of narrative role. Commander Red comes to mind but if he was played entirely straight. I think they serve the narrative pretty damn fine without the need to go beyond as characters, Gas nonwithstanding.

When it comes to Goku and Vegeta's role in the story, the latter gets the most out of it. His training with Beerus, his theraphy session with Granolah, his showcase of the Ultra Ego to an extent and him getting to interact with the Saiyan's past in a fresh way. They have never fucking fumbled Vegeta since the "doing the same thing as before but worse" allegations from prior arcs, which is a strong positive for his fans, but yeah, he doesn't get any Ws lmao.

With Goku, we have... Things happening for sure, of varying qualities, but the praises are getting short on that end, so I'm going to save it for later. On paper, I do appreciate the attempt to do more with this character and he still is not the weakest part of the character centric narrative.

In general, the central core of said narrative is one of the more interesting and cool so far. It makes the entire portion of the fight against Granolah all the better, not to mention that section having bouts of good coreography and action. I love having an enemy worth punching in a series where punching people happens so much they can be souless bricks to punch, especially if the bricks aren't interesting unlike, say, Frieza.

Speaking of, he turned out the be the funniest, most shocking element in this arc. Like not even as a joke, his presence is a legit highlight from the sheer absurdity of his impact. He barely gets foreshadowed at the first half, with the asumption it's the character who is most commonly tied to everybody what makes you think of him at all times, and isn't even used until the very last minute. But when he DOES show up, he ONE SHOTS GAS, VEGETA AND GOKU, claims to have been OUT OF RANGE for the "make me the strongest" wish to account for him, found a HYPERBOLIC TIME CHAMBER in space and proceedes to brag that he knew what's up and that got a brand new form only to LEAVE.

It's truly a chaotic shock to the system which matches the ridicolousness of Dragon Ball Heroes whipping out a new Broly out of nowhere every anniversary or so, but in an oddly positive way. Like you could've done more with the concept but honestly I can't truly be mad with the sheer boldness in display. But that's because... Well...

So like, is the second half bad or what?

I can certainly say the ending woke me up. But it's kinda fucked up how once Granolah stopped being the opponent everything else kinda crumbles into fighting a boring nothing character with no connection to the heroes and progression being constantly halted JUST so we can attempt to give this opponent some fluff.

Let's be fair: Gas holds his own with Granolah padding and brick personality aside, there is some setup to their rivalry and the backstory works, albeit motion is wasted to highlight aspects that only come out now instead of beforehand: The fact that he was envious, the stubborn devotion to his own techniques, Granolah feeling anything beyond towards him, etc. Still works fine, still patched up now.

There's also his relationship with Elec as a highlight, the former manipulating him and hyping him up in spite of Gas doubting himself, showing devotion and loyalty back to Elec and even being grateful he made him strong as he is, which is kinda tragic once he realizes what he becomes.

But I can't fucking caaaaare.

I believe the core problem with Gas is that they waited too fucking long to start showing his development and choosing the very distracting battle that HALTS ALL PROGRESSION to try and do something with him.

This is also after the big break which was the Bardock flashback, we'll get to that, but since the goal became his defeat and he has no one to bounce from naturally, the second Goku steps up as the main opponent (After the fight has had MANY twists and he powered up several times) everything resets completely harder than when each form turned the tides. Because Goku still had no internal change, he doesn't remember Bardock yet, and the story didn't think of bringing Gas along to recruit Goku and Vegeta and build THEIR personal rivalry outside of Bardock's impact on Gas after defeating him so it feels limp without the connective tissue.

So what we have is a scene which deadass could've played like this:

Their goal is to kill Frieza. They did not want to waste time. They literally just believed they killed Granolah and incapacitated both Goku and Vegeta. What are they gonna fucking do? Defend Frieza? They don't fucking care if he dies again, maybe they wanna fight them, but it would provide a fucking change of scenery which hasn't happened since the start of all the fighting. Gas too, like, sure, he would want to kill them for knowing too much but at this point NO ONE is a threat.

As a result the jawdropping moment of Ultra Ego and Ultra Instinct together feels wasted on a very lame opponent. The revelation Goku has to use Ultra Instinct his own way is just kinda there because Gas is the least important part of said development. The epic struggle to take him down feels done already.

It's tiring. Really tiring. No matter how fancy the techniques, the core character is being built as we speak in a narrative that SOLELY focused on characters on the last minute. And I can't care as a result.

Speaking of breaking progression and being tiring, we also need to talk about a little something.

This is another joke page, dw.

But uh, anyone feels like the first flashback would've been enough? Technically, they could skim on HOW Bardock defeated Gas interrupting an already glacial paced conflict, especially not without any substantial information to the characters, Goku's development aside.

Bardock doesn't feel entirely realized either. I appreciate the fact they are trying to bridge the gap between Minus and Z Bardock to make it look like it's mostly the same character but it's not until he's fighting where this seems to be at play.

He feels like he's on autopilot on his own plot thread. There's feeling his actions are arbitrary (To the point of needing a flashback within one for justification) as him being conveniently set up to be there, rather than let his character flow naturally. His impact is felt across the characters but "just so happens to be there" is not the card they play. This isn't a rando — Nonono, this is Goku's Dad™, therefore he MUST be important... Which goes against the core idea of making Minus Bardock and Z Bardock the same character, but topic for another time.

Point is: When the story could've chosen to use the Saiyans as a positive influence (A loaded statement but yet another topic for some other time), they really chose to tell this story in a rather clunky way, contradicting the core idea of a typical Saiyan without exploring Bardock's uniqueness regarding it (If he has it) when we need it to buy into it. We're coming off from the character from Minus, you HAVE to expand on it because that one had ALSO next to nothing going for him.

So yeah, I may be beating this aspect way too much but in hindsight, if the story decided it should be focused heavily for breaks between fight while also having a half that is meandering just to trigger Goku's memories, then maybe they should've thought about it a little more when telling this story.

Which leads us to perhaps the biggest weakness of writing for DB: Getting Goku involved in the plot without him feeling less like a problem solving plot device they are forced to keep out the action. He's active, sure, but he has no connection to anybody, so what do?

His arc this time around is Ultra Instinct being a technique Goku needs to improve on despite everyone in the fandom swearing that the one we were calling MASTERED Ultra Instinct for years wasn't really it. As such, he has to find a path to use it on his own, which obviously means "dodge on your base form" but there's more to it: He has to learn and stop mimicking Whis when doing so.

The solution is simple and it works in every aspect but to make UI less impactful, but asuming we saw that coming and we don't mind, this leaves Goku accepting his emotions instead of repressing them while using UI, thus getting the most out of the Sign form.

...And it's kinda disconnected to everything? They tacked in Bardock's sole focus on his drive to win as a catalyst which is why they used the second flashback, and that kinda gets a little lost when this still doesn't tie him to Gas and with how little that statement says on it's own. "He has the same determined look" doesn't work and the Sign reveal loses a lot of impact, so what we're left is with what feels like a very random power up.

This scene of Goku recovering his memories is used as a superficial aspect as a result, because the memories themselves don't make for anything beyond one disconnected touching moment. It's even lacking impact on Goku as a character because he sure knows the thing which never mattered to his core identity at all save for being a fighting freak, it would be nice if this was important as it wants to be. But that's it. Him being positively in touch with his Saiyan side internally has always been a thing, he's supposed to be the opposite of the stereotypical one, so yeah, sure. It's not awfully offensive but it sure feels wasted.

Wait, that's it? Those are your takes?

Listen, you probably expected me to go off over the new set of DBs making the story lame with how anyone can wish for strength or what I think about the new forms and how I think they are either ugly or cool, but like, I feel there was a bigger urge to talk about the core narrative problems and less about the window dressing of the action. The balls have always been in a downward spiral to becoming too convenient already, and forms as punctuations for progression is like, tiring but it works visually, it's not a specific problem to the arc but the series as a whole.

Overral, I just feel uneven about it. The character driven conflict is obviously gonna leave you with a lot of holes if you don't keep it PERSONAL so the failure to do something so cool with DB hurts a lot. Undeniably though it's first half was the best part of this entire Manga on setup alone.

The second half is an atrocity however that makes me call the arc trash without the hesitation that I should be having. The fighting? Drags on with a nothing opponent. The opponent? Boring us to death as momentum has to stop to develop them. The developments? Tied to Bardock between breaks in a couple of flashbacks, used sloppily with a protagonist that feels uneven. Our actual protagonist? Hardly there.

Frieza coming back to end the arc feels cathartic on top of hilarious as a result. It's a spit to the face to the whole of it. And it's not horrendous as the Future Trunks Arc's ending thanks to at least having promises for the upcoming stories and ultimately being more interesting too.

o(-(

I don't know. This especially sucks because we were going so hard on something amazing like always but DBS just has a mystifying way to fuck things up for literally no reason. But you've heard me ramble enough. I still enjoy the series for that alone: I can't stop peeking no matter if it's a trainwreck with thousand dead. It's easy to pick apart the pieces.

Thank you for reading this if you did. I really appreciate it.

Take care! <3

[lowder-the-koopa]

Lowder Reviews: Long Running Animation

[roy-dcm2]

DBZ Fusion Reborn Reaction

I had never seen Fusion Reborn.

[This poster might be better than the movie. Like, I wish there was a "widescreen version"of this poster where we get to see more badguys and the landscape of hell.]

Overall, it feels like so much wasted potential. Like, they had a premise, Goku and Vegeta doing Fusion, and really not much else. It starts with pretty good potential… Goku teaming up with Pikkon to take on this new bad guy, but then Pikkon gets sidetracked and it’s just Goku taking on Jenemba. Then, as this is happening, all the bad guys have escaped from hell and are attacking the Earth, but it feels like they hardly spend any time with that. You could probably edit out all the stuff with Goten and Trunks and not miss a thing… which is what I heard they did in some places.

Jenemba only borders on being mildly interesting. He’s one in the line of DBZ movie villains that is briefly Kaiju sized. (Lord Slug, Metal Cooler [sorta], Bio Broly, and Hildergarn) At first, he acts like a completely innocent child that doesn’t know his own strength… like the DBZ version of Godzuky. Then, he randomly turns serious, and he basically doesn’t talk AT ALL. The only thing he’s got going for him is that he is absurdly strong, like at the level of Majin Buu.

Gee… I wonder if this is the most bullshit DBZ villain ever? Like all this liquid evil boils over and explodes on to some kid and turns into a Majin Buu level threat. Keeping in mind that Majin Buu could turn planets into dust and perform actual genocide. All the other guys were mutants, aliens or robots, this is the first one that is pretty much Magic. Can liquid good be extracted and turn someone into a Holy Warrior?

Then there’s the timeline placement. It clearly takes place after Majin Buu, but both Goku and Vegeta are dead… so that doesn’t make any sense. If they were both alive, then it could fit, but… how would Vegeta get to Hell to do the fusion?

It was my experience that this was the one movie with the most hype and worst pay off, and I’m gonna give DBGT a heck of a lot more credit for taking these ideas and doing something worthwhile with it.

7/10 - I mean, the spectacle is still pretty good.

[In this one, they really are just time wasters. You can tell they were superfluous, because they colored them with that thick outline style. I almost expect Arale to join them for this movie.]

[rangerzath]

My new video is out! I hope you enjoy watching my Spring 2023 manga haul!

[a-guy-named-aus]

Sorry I've been gone for 5 months. I genuinely forgot I had a Tumblr again.

Anyway, here are all my reviews for DB episodes to come out since June.

Hercules vs. Sun Wukong: 9/10, a great episode with a great fight animation and not too many bad jokes.

Boba Fett vs. Predator: 8.5/10, a good episode, though I could understand why some people could find it boring.

James Bond vs. John Wick: 8/10, a little boring at the start, but picks up half way through, with 2 good analyses to boot.

Black Adam vs. Apocalypse: 8.5/10, a great episode with a fight that balances both characters well.

Trunks vs. Silver: 10/10, the biggest banger of the entire season, with an excellent animation and a banger track.

SpongeBob vs. Super Friends!Aquaman: 8/10, a bit disrespectful at some points, but the animation more than makes up for the faults to me.

Jason Voorhees vs. Michael Myers: 7/10, a good episode, but the fight is a bit underwhelming to me.

[imperotenebre]

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 PS5 gameplay 4K - prime impressioni

Proviamo l'upgrade PS5

[ticketmastersince2k4]

Easter Monday Special!

Happy Easter, Ticketholders!

But it's also April Fool's Day! And AniMonday! So who knows what I have in store for you‽

Enjoy!

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Movies Pt 2

No longer promising consistent posts. From now on, these come out "bi-weekly," which means whatever I want it to, and written by your weekly bi. I am the only person to have ever thought of that joke.

Robin Hood (2010)

This is the one with Russell Crowe. I honestly don't know how I finished this one. I guess because my dad wanted to watch it. This is supposed to be a gritty, realistic take on the classic Robin Hood story. Or at least, I think that's what they were going for, it feels like the director can't decide between gritty realism and the goofiness that comes with the concept of the Merry Men. They're constantly cracking off one-liners and stealing from rich people with goofy disguises that feel more like pranks, but there's also an entire bloody battle scene between "Robin of the Hood" and King Richard that I cannot for the life of me remember the context nor conclusion of. I guess you could say it has both elements wrapped in one neat package, but it doesn't do either of those aspects really well.

Two most memorable scenes for me involve a blind man kicking surprising amount of ass in a sword fight, though ultimately unsuccessfully, and Little John clarifying to the bee-keeping Friar Tuck that NO! He does NOT have a "Little John." (as in small penie). The cast is kind of stacked in this movie, (Cate Blanchett as Lady Marianne, Oscar Isaac as King Richard, the Crow-man as The Hood) and they all give great performances, if that's what you're after, but overall it's kind of forgettable.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

The rest of this entry's list follows a second movie marathon I had with some friends as we prepared for a showing of "Across the Spider-verse" we were watching the morning after. Why does that mean two anime movies and a classic Eddie Murphy comedy? I don't know! It was fun though. And that's all I can really say about this movie. It was fun! Nothing amazing. The plot follows the tertiary return of the Red Ribbon army, who are once again on that robot shit, and Piccolo trying to get his foster son, Gohan, to stop being a nerd (having a secure, well-paying career as an entomologist? Apparently?) and be a martial artist again. He does this by constantly putting his foster son's daughter (foster granddaughter?) in mortal peril to make Gohan snap and break stuff like he did in the old days. This is, hilariously, played as a uncritically good deed and that Piccolo was right to do this. I love Piccolo though, so he can do whatever he wants, Pan seems like she's having a great time being in peril.

The animation is fantastic, as per usual with high-budget anime movies these days. They opted for a 3D style that blends in nicely with the artstyle they've been using for Super. The fight scenes are choreographed in a way that reminds me of the Dragon Ball games they've put out in recent years, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Fighterz team worked on this. Oh wait, I have the power of the Internet in my Grasp.

...

WOW! Trying to find a comprehensive list of animators is hard as fuck! Cool! I ended up pausing through a video of the credits for both pieces of media. God I wish I could ctrl+f on a video. There may have been some overlapping names I overlooked, but I guess it wasn't largely the same people, oh well! If anyone knows a better way to find this information, please let me know!

Jujutsu Kaisen Zero

Our second anime movie of the night had a bit more depth to it. My watch through of Jujutsu Kaisen season one was bombastic, beautiful, and well-executed. It felt like a modern, more competent rewrite of the dynamics found in Naruto, though since I haven't read any of the manga that may be presumptuous of me. This movie didn't feel like Naruto. This movie felt more like Uzumaki (okay I haven't read Uzumaki yet, but I could resist the pun lol). A more straight-forward animated horror film that only leans into its shonen side towards the final act. You don't need to have read or watched any of Jujutsu Kaisen to appreciate this. In fact, I guess you could start with it, since it acts somewhat as a prequel.

The plot follows a boy possessed by the ghost of a woman he witnessed die in a car accident when he was a young kid. She was very close to him while he was alive, and in death she is an obsessive, over protective monster who maims anyone who might come close to her liege. It comes to light that her possession was actually (spoilers) the result of the boy's own psychic abilities, who brought her back from the grave on accident while distressing her death. It's an interesting statement on grief. An emotion can be so powerful as to tear open the fabric of the pale, and holding onto the negativity of that emotion for years only serving to hurt oneself and everyone around them. And then making peace with that grief so you can *checks notes* use your dead loved one to kick ass in a cool anime fight sequence. This movie NEEDS to be in schools./j

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

Modern media has been a bit over-saturated with Multiverse stories as of late. Its a pretty common story trope in science fiction, done to death in Star Trek, DC comics, the comic this movie was based on, the video-game that comic was inspidered by, among other things. Rick and Morty's entire premise is basically built on the back of that concept, but I think we can trace its recent burst in usage to the success of this movie.

I love Spider-Man. I love Peter Parker. I think his story has such a strong foundation that nearly every adaptation I've seen has been compelling in one way or another. I love most of the Avengers super-heroes, but I can't really say their characters are as relatable, funny, or impactful as our arachnid enhanced boy. There's a reason when Sony was offered the entire Marvel ensemble, they opted to just take the wall-crawler at a discounted price. This movie uses the Multiverse to deconstruct the Spider-Hero narrative and show exactly why this character premise is so compelling.

Miles Morales is not Peter Parker, but he is Petersimilar. A nerdy kid who loves science and wants to be liked and most imporantly: wants to help, no, needs to help others. Because great power + conscience = responsibility. The same is consistent with the rest of the cast. It's a cheesy formula at this point, maybe, which is why its so effective when they play it so straight-forward with all six members of the cast. Different backgrounds, different histories, different universes, but all have seen what their inaction can affect, and all of them have the heart to keep going, to help people even when it gets tough. Miles is a particularly effective introduction to this Super-Hero for younger kids, being relatively less known and thus a fresher narrative than Peter, not to mention more black representation in popular media. It makes me smile when I see kids excitedly bring a stack of Miles Morales easy readers to the check-out desk. He's definitely The Spider of the next generation.

The Nutty Professor

This movie is. Definitely something. Still not sure why we ended our marathon on it. For those unaware, this is an Eddie Murphy comedy about an obese biology professor who concocts A Serum that makes him not only thin for short periods of time, but extremely charismatic. The thin version of himself essentially acts as a second personality who's kind of an asshole, and his coworker ends up caught in a love triangle between Fat Murphy and Thin Murphy.

This, naturally, comes with an endless cavalcade of fatphobic jabs typical of the 90s, but ultimately has a somewhat half-hearted message about toxic masculinity and body positivity. A lot of the jokes that aren't aimed at "haha fat people" do land with relative frequency, because well, Eddie Murphy Is Kind Of A Funny Guy, but for the first time I noticed a structural similarity in his comedy and Adam Sandler's. Remember Chuck and Larry, where the writing is extremely homophobic for the majority of its runtime, and ends with Sandler saying, "Don't be a homophobe"? No? No one has thought of that movie in 10,000 years? Well, this movie feels like that but with fat people, to slightly less offensive degree. But a low effort Murphy movie is still better than a mid-effort Sandler flick, I guess.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse

I already ranted about how much I love Spider-Man earlier, and how the original deconstructs him as a concept, so I won't do that again, but I do want to draw attention to the inherent meta-fiction in Multiverse stories. It is, by its very nature, a story discussing storytelling. By showing different universes you are showing the audience how a story could have gone differently, how characterization can fundamentally alter a narrative. Multiverse stories that understand and recognize this principle tend to lead to a more cohesive and engaging plot. AtSV understand this principle, and follows more closely the original Edge of Spider-verse comic run, reintroducing Spider-Staples like Spider-Punk and Pavitr Prabhakar.

I like that Miguel O'Hara takes center-stage as the antagonist in this film, as he is largely left out of the Spider-verse stuff in the comics, and also I love Spider-Man 2099. One of my friends is obsessed with him. It is his recognition of the patterns in the Spider-Man narrative that drives the conflict in the second act, and it is him who decides those patterns are Fundamental to the Structure of All Things, which not only fits with his character, but provides a much better explanation for the existence of Spider-Society compared to the Spider Gods and Fate Totems from the comics. Miles is once again trapped in a typical Spider-Man conflict, but ironically has his status as Spider-Man called into question. All of existence is collapsing, a science experiment gone wrong turned a scientist into a monster, his dad is in peril, and all of it is getting in the way of asking out the girl of his dreams. Can none of the 100,000 Peter Parker's sympathize? Well yes, they can, but most still hold O'Hara's goal as the larger responsibility.

Speaking of the girl of his dreams, I adore Spider-Gwen. She is the comic book character I will follow to the ends of the earth, even though most of her comics lately suck ass. This film does a beautiful job bringing Robbie Rodriguez's artstyle to life in our brief time in Earth 65. The colors... THE COLORS!!! This animation team once again changed the landscape of animated films, but sadly this came at the cost of some pretty gross labor violations. This is extra damning as AtSV is apparently the fourth longest animated movie ever and doesn't even have a conclusion. All that abuse for an incomplete story? They clearly could have taken their time with this, and not every scene needed to make it to the final cut. This is why we have deleted scenes! So a studio doesn't lock a bunch of animators in a box and force them to work an unreasonable amount in record time. I hope the next movie has more union reps and give everyone as much time and space as they need to make something good. I want movies with people paid more to do less, dammit!

Okay, my soap box has been discarded. I've placed it neatly in the drawer with my toothpaste and hairbrush. I have one more list of movies to get through, but rn I'm moving onto the latter half of my reading list, since with my track record I probably won't finish anything else before the end of the year.

[the-fellow]

Dragon Ball Super 19