#hating on a fun superhero movie for no reason other than 'iTs dC!!' like boy shut up

[allpromarlo]

measuring a movie's quality by box office success is such a clown move lmao

[about-faces]

The director Joel Schumacher has passed away, and everyone's reactions have boiled down to two topics: 1.) "He was the guy who made the bad Batman films," and 2.) "Hey, he did lots of great films besides the bad Batman films!"

Thing is... I get it. I remember being a teenage comic fan in the 90's. Not just any comics: especially Batman! But ESPECIALLY Bart especially Two-Face. I remember how "Joel Schumacher" was a name that could invoke white-hot rage in myself and everyone in the fandom. He was our modern equivalent of Dr. Fredrick Wertham, the boogyman who had (far as we were concerned) single-handedly destroyed the mainstream credibility of superheroes.

Look at that picture, and try to imagine that this was the face so loathed and mocked by Batman fanboys in the 90′s.

Never mind that Schumacher didn't WRITE the Batman films. The main credit for that goes to Akiva Goldsman, who has gone on to win an Oscar and continues to find A-list success despite ruining other geek properties like Jonah Hex and Dark Tower. Never mind that Schumacher was at the mercy of producers who wanted the movies to be nothing more than merchandise machines and toy commercials. No, Schumacher was the only name associated with the films, and he was cast at the villain.

The fact that he was openly gay played no small part in making him an easy target.

One year after the disastrous release of the infamous Batman & Robin, the beloved fan-favorite cartoon Batman: The Animated Series (then rebranded as The New Batman Adventures on the WB network) produced an episode that featured a pointed jab at Schumacher. The episode was titled "Legends of the Dark Knight," a reworking of a classic 70's Batman tale where a group of kids share their own ideas of what the mysterious Batman is really like.

Halfway through the episode, the kids are overheard by another kid, who shares his own ideas about Batman. The kid, whose name is Joel, has long dirty-blond hair, and works in front of a store which bear the sign "Shoemaker," despite clearly being a department store. He waxes dreamily about the reasons he loves Batman: "All those muscles, the tight rubber armor and that flashy car. I heard it can drive up walls!"

This last line--a reference to a silly bit in Batman Forever--he says as he flamboyantly tosses a pink fur stole around his neck. To drive home the joke, one of the kids dismisses, "Yeah, sure, Joel."

At the time, it seemed like a cathartic joke for us REAL Batman fans. Now, it's clearly just cheap and gross. Instead of any actual criticism about the films, Joel Schumacher was just seen--even if just subconsciously--as the fruit who ruined Batman.

Over time, the hatred for Schumacher lessened. Starting with Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, on through to Batman Begins, Iron Man, and onward, superhero movies became huge mainstream successes, with greater fidelity to the source material than most adaptations we saw up to the time that Schumacher "killed" the superhero movie. There was no point in hating him anymore, if there ever was (again, Goldsman more deserves that ire, if you're gonna be angry about anyone. Why does he still get work?! WHY IS HE NOW WRITING FOR STAR TREK?!?!).

But even still, especially among Millennial and Gen-X fans, Schumacher is still--at best--considered a low point for fandom. Even though the same generations have come to appreciate and love some of his other films, such as The Lost Boys, Phone Booth, and the chillingly-prescient Falling Down, there's still this need for people to dismiss the Batman films as embarrassments that are best forgotten in favor of Schumacher's better films. And if they're to be remembered at all, it's to trash them all over again in a tone suggesting that the films are objectively, irredeemably bad.

Except they're not. Oh sure, if you go in looking for a grim and gritty capital-M "Mature" take on Batman, of course you'll hate them, just like you probably also hate the Adam West Batman show. Remember, that show also used to be hated by decades of Batman fans because of how it didn't take the comics seriously.

... except it did. The show was VERY faithful to the Batman comics of the 50's, which often out-weirded and out-sillied its TV counterpart. If anything, the show made some of those stories even more entertaining with camp value and jokes that added different levels of enjoyment to the adults watching. Comic fans resented how Batman became a pop culture joke, and increasingly fought against anything that was colorful and campy (which makes me wonder if this might also be related to latent homophobia). Whether or not they admitted/realized it, the Batman fans of the 70's and 80's carried a chip on their shoulder about a show that DARED to make Batman FUN.

And really... how is that any different than Schumacher's two films?

You don't have to agree, but I think Schumacher's films are fun. I think Batman Forever is highly entertaining, that Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey are bringing their hammy A-games as much respected actors like Burgess Meredith and Caesar Romero brought to their roles. Same goes for Arnold and especially Uma in Batman and Robin. They KNOW what movies they're in, and they're all having a blast.

(How many of us remember the exact line Eddie says at this moment? I bet you probably do too, which should tell you something about how memorable this movie is)

Now, BF and particularly B&A are by no means GOOD movies, but you can't tell me that you couldn't have a blast putting the latter on at a party and riffing it with friends. It's not a pretentious, ponderous, self-serious slog like, say, the shit Zack Snyder cranked out (apologies to the one or two cool Snyder fans here, I just find his films interminable). Even besides the many things I could say to defend Schumacher's Batman films (that's a whole other essay), you can't say they were boring. They were entertaining, even if on a level of making fun of the film, and that is NOT as easy as it looks.

Let me put it to you this way: Batman Forever has, objectively, one of the worst takes on Two-Face I've ever seen. He's one-note, he's kind of a rehash of Nicholson's Joker, he gets completely overshadowed by the Riddler, he gets killed by Batman in a way that completely betrays the whole “DON’T KILL HARVEY” arc with Robin, and worst of all, he CHEATS on the coin toss. That alone would be enough for me to condemn this depiction in any other Two-Face story.

And yet, even I--the most passionate, opinionated, and picky Two-Face fan you will EVER know--still have a soft spot for Tommy Lee Jones' take on ol' Harv. He’s just too fun, too flamboyant, too damn extra not to love. If only all bad takes on Two-Face could be this fun!

But that’s the thing: it’s not because the script was good. Oh god no. I've read the script, and if it were put on the page like a comic, I would have hated it just like any other bad Two-Face comic. I have to imagine that, as director, Joel Schumacher deserves the bulk of the credit for pushing the restrained and laconic Tommy Lee Jones into that oversized performance, and making it a delight to watch despite everything it does wrong.

I'm rare for my generation to have learned how to stop worrying and love Schumacher's Batman. But the younger generation, the up-and-coming Gen-Zs getting into Batman, don't share the same grudges we did. There's a genuine, shame-free enjoyment of those films among The Kids, many of whom are LGBTQA+, who love the jokes, the silliness, the camp, the Freeze puns, the swag of Uma Thurman, and the homoerotic subtext between Two-Face and the Riddler. Maybe it's just a reaction to so much GRIM, SERIOUS shit that DC and their fanboys are trying desperately to push even today.

But comics--especially Batman--have a long history of colorful, stupid, fun shit. Schumacher's films carried on in that tradition, and they should be appreciated on their own merits by those of us who aren't limited by narrow ideas of what Batman "should" be, and who still remember how to have fun.

Schumacher's Batman films should no longer be seen as embarrassments. They didn't ruin superheroes. They didn't ruin Batman. They didn't even ruin Two-Face. Nor should they be disregarded in favor of Falling Down, like losers in a respectability competition. They're fun. They're entertaining. And they didn't pretend to be anything else.

And if you still think they're bad... I mean, objectively, you're not wrong! But be mindful of the reasons WHY you think they're bad, because on another subjective level, you may not be right either. And it's certainly not worth holding a geek-grudge over after twenty-five years.

[ty-talks-comics]

The Boys Season 1 Review and Comparison

This was so cathartic.

In an age where we’re inundated with superhero media on all fronts with their bright colors, cheery jokes and positive outlooks, it’s easy to slowly become sick of it, feel the “superhero fatigue” as it were. Where Marvel ruins some stories with far too many jokes (looking at you Thor: Ragnarok) and DC is far too dreary and serious for its own good with a lack of levity, where can one turn to for a GOOD happy medium?

Well, in comes Seth Rogan and Evan Gold, the brilliant minds behind the amazing adaptation of Preacher with yet another brutal and slightly more cynical series. The Boys absolutely stuns not only by being a genuinely compelling series, but also by being one of the few adaptations that improves on the original medium in a few aspects.

Story

The story centers around Hughie Campbell and the titular Boys as they work to expose the horrific deeds of The Seven, a collective of the world's greatest superheroes, and the company that sponsors them, Vought American.

In this world, superheroes are everywhere. They're on breakfast cereals, TV shows, movies, pretty much every piece of media and entertainment imaginable while also protecting America from crime. Sounds familiar, huh? The kicker here is that, much like every asshole celebrity that lets the fame and fortune go to their heads, these heroes are massive cunts. They take performance enhancing drugs, routinely cause accidents that hurt or kill people, sexually harass people left and right and just lie to their adoring public like they’re children.

Unlike the books, however, The Boys team isn’t the well oiled machine that’s been taking down and blackmailing superheroes for years and the first four episodes are spent introducing the different team members.This is likely due to wanting to give people time to care about them individually and the limited number of episodes in the season. This definitely works in also retooling the characters themselves for TV since they may not have seventy-two issues of character development ahead of them

For the most part, the show follows the initial story beats of the comics with a few select differences before splintering off in an entirely new direction. Hughie’s girlfriend still gets blown apart by A-Train, he denies Vought America’s hush money which draws the attention of Billy Butcher and Starlight joins the Seven after the “death” of the hero Lamplighter. 

This also means that there's less time to focus on smaller plotlines and teams that are referenced to in passing dialogue like the Teenage Kix, a pastiche on the Teen Titans, or Payback, the number two group of superheroes to The Seven. While seeing the team take these guys down on the small screen would have been fun, I like the idea of keeping the plot focused on just the core group of antagonists. This way, we don’t have to slog through three or four seasons of small fry and get the big bads in the last few.

After the first half, fans of the comic may start to feel a little bit of the familiar, but then things start to take a drastic turn when Billy's pride and the rest of the teams sloppiness gets them all burned and branded wanted criminals. This never happens in the books because The Boys are funded and protected by the CIA, but here they’re just another group of concerned citizens that are completely in over their heads, adding to the tension and keeping everyone guessing as to what will happen for the rest of the season and in Season 2.

Themes

The original series was written during the latter years of the Bush Administration. Tensions were high and America was still embroiled in the Iraq War. The president was a simpering fool and companies were fucking people over left and right in the name of patriotism. Reality TV and the awful personalities on our screens were on nearly every channel and all of this only fueled the anger that is Garth Ennis’ pen and Darick Robertson’s pencils. It was a product of its time and it was perfect.

We’re now in the Information Age where superheroes and social media are the only things that matter in everyone’s mind, where women’s empowerment is stronger than ever and our leaders speak bombastically with shit eating grins full of lies. Rogen and Goldberg have kept the series modern and take everything to task.

Media. Marvel and DC are everywhere nowadays with some indie companies managing to scrape up their own part of the pie. The Boys makes fun of the seemingly endless cycle of sequels and the goody-two-shoes images of America’s favorite heroes. Everything is carefully managed and curated by a media team, similar to how Disney micromanages even the smallest details of their properties to make everything so sickeningly squeaky clean. 

Not only do the heroes stop crime, but they star in their own movies about themselves as well, some have sponsorships for shoes and have to compete with each other for everything. Almost everything is done for the cameras, even intimate moments whenever Vought can find a way to make it work. The heroes are never too far from the spotlight even when they want to be and oftentimes their acts can go viral without them knowing.

Sexual Assault. In the comics, Starlight is sexually assaulted by Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train in a gross scene to establish that there’s nothing good in that world. It was good for its time in its own dark way, but today there are absolutely consequences to such things as there should have been back then. In the show, Starlight is assaulted by The Deep, her childhood crush, alone. 

It’s dark and makes use of the imbalance of power as The Deep threatens to have her kicked off of the team. Soon after, Starlight comes forward with what happens to her, not allowing herself to let what happened stand and unlike in the books, The Deep gets his comeuppance. Though this also unfortunately leading to him getting assaulted as well. It’s powerful and allows for Starlight to move what could have been an image of weakness, though Vought uses this to their advantage as well, painting her a feminist icon. Best for business right?

Politics. While not everything has to be an allegory for Trump, it’s hard to say that Homelander isn’t just that. He’s what the president thinks he is, a strong, blonde haired man that the entire country loves. Homelander has the people eating out of the palm of his hands and he’s only feeding them shit. He hates the common man and will just as easily let many die if it can somehow serve his interests. He’s not above a little sexual harassment himself and he is just an evil bastard.

There’s also a subplot of military application of superheroes that I feel mirrors the discussion on the use of drones in war. Drones are absolutely deadly and have caused the deaths of hundreds, even innocents when things have gone really wrong. Even President Obama was criticized for how reckless and dangerous their use could be. The world could only imagine the hell that would rain down if superheroes were allowed to duke it out over national security.

Characters

The Boys as a comic series was an unrepentantly cynical take on the superhero genre in an established universe of heroes. The creator, Garth Ennis, didn’t grow up with many superheroes and actually felt disrespected by a few of them, like Captain America. He brought on the amazing Darick Robertson and other artists to realize this horrid world of drugs, hardcore sex and brutal violence. Many of the stories are fun and hilarious, but with the unfortunate feeling of a lot of them feeling one note due to the one dimensional nature of a lot of the “heroes” and the ever escalating level of black humor to the point of being cartoonish.

Our main character cast is absolutely fantastic. Jack Quiad’s Hughie is much like his comic counterpart, aside from being like six feet tall and not Scottish. He’s surprisingly smart with a lot of awkwardness about him. He has a good heart and doesn’t see ALL superheroes as being evil, but does have a slight sense of justice that wants to see The Seven and Vought taken down. 

Karl Urban’s Butcher was the absolute perfect casting choice. He’s got that wry British wit, the fury to capture Butcher’s rage against supes and can play a manipulator like nobody's business. His character arc is one of the few regressions that I can actually appreciate for how it's done, especially as things become more fucked because of him and how he chooses to blame everyone else.

Everyone else is a slight bit of an improvement over the comics versions. The Frenchman, played by Tomer Capon, is similar to his comics counterpart, but we’re given reason to care about him and The Female. In the comics, Frenchie and the Female knew each other prior, but I don’t think it’s ever revealed how they met or became close. In the show Frenchie frees The Female, played by Karen Fukuhara, from thugs that had been keeping her prisoner and he slowly gains her trust over the course of the next few episodes after her introduction. We see their friendship grow, learn a little bit of her backstory and get a better understanding of what she wants versus just following Frenchie around and being terrifyingly adorable.

Annie January aka Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, is probably the second best change in character in the series. She starts out as a bright eyed, bushy tailed hero looking to do good, but after being sexually assaulted on her first day in The Seven, decides that it will never happen again. In the comics, Annie stays around in The Seven and takes the abuse for a little while before speaking out and fighting back against the rest of them. What makes things even better, not only does she challenge her uber Christian beliefs during an event sponsored by Vought, but she does so while also getting Vought to force her abuser into giving a public apology at the mere thought of her causing their stock prices to crash.

Consequently, Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso, one of the most layered characters in the comics isn’t made better, but the more ridiculous aspects of is character have been toned down. We don’t hear of his disabled mother and his addiction to her breast milk that fuels his own superpowers, nor is his wife a crack addict that makes pornos with their daughter. He’s simply a reliable member of the team that loves his wife and will give Butcher the truth when he’s acting like an asshole.

The series actually brings a lot of grey to most of these characters. A-Train never once shows remorse for his actions in the books, but in the show he's painted as kind of sympathetic, while still being seen as a monster for what he does and the reasons behind them. The Deep could go either way after his actions with a redemption arc or a full turn to villain, but is shown to be knowingly aware of how little regard there is for him. He calls himself a "diversity hire" and acknowledges his own ineptitude, but he's still an absolutely terrible person.

Queen Maeve may be one of my favorite changes that manages to be even more sympathetic than her already pretty great comic counterpart. She, much like Starlight, did want to change the world, but she let the apathy and jaded nature of the job take her over. She's an alcoholic that sees a bit of herself in Starlight. The change comes in how she reacts to what I think might be Homelander's most heinous act in the show. She shows far more remorse and guilt over what happens than she does in the comic, showing us a side of her makes you want to root for her and to see her get better.

The best character… dear Lord, is Homelander, played by Anthony Starr. Homelander is a bastard. The worst thing imaginable because of his sheer strength and power. He’s a sociopath with all of the powers of Superman and none of the goodness. In the comics he’s simply just another asshole. 

He’s the most powerful of the Seven and absolutely revels in the hedonistic lifestyle that he’s accustomed to while also hating being under the rule of Vought. In the show, he’s shown as being supportive to Vought, especially it’s current Senior VP of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell. He has something of a mommy fetish as shown with his interactions with her and later in the series actually expresses emotions over learning of his own tragedies, but instead of trying to change for the better, he doubles down on his hatred and anger to become an even bigger monster than before. 

In the comic he just wants all of the superheroes to conquer the world, but here, he just wants to hurt everyone who hurts him. He plays games like a child, threatening and revealing secrets to toy with people before absolutely breaking them. He's horrible in a very personal way and his sneering smile only makes him so much more hateable. He knows there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop him and he revels in that fact, I love it.

Pacing and Direction

Coming in at an hour for each episode, the first two to three can feel a bit slow. Getting all of the story elements to sit just right can take time, especially as new things are introduced every few minutes. This slow burn approach easily helps to build the tension before things get really crazy by episode four. By that point, the story is unfolding at a perfect rhythm, the team is mostly together, they’ve made their plans of action and it’s all so smooth.

Thankfully each episode is directed by different people to avoid each feeling so similar. The common humor and tone is kept the same, but some episodes are very hopeful almost before being met with one that absolutely makes you hate certain characters and the actions that they take. In particular, the episode where Hughie and Butcher visit a group therapy session and Butcher flies off into a rage about the weakness of the attendees as they basically lick the balls of the heroes that have maimed them was amazing. The director pulls so much emotion out of that scene and continues on as the episode moves along in a far more dramatic fashion than some of the others.

Some others lean heavier on the debauchery such as the episode where Hughie and Butcher venture into a superhero sex club and watch as these guys do some pretty amazing feats with their abilities in some really gross ways. There’s a good balance of levity and drama that makes neither feel too overwhelming.

Overall

With a great cast, impeccable acting and an unpredictability that I actually enjoyed, The Boys absolutely blew me away. I was wholly prepared to rip it apart if I felt like it didn’t do the story justice, but Rogen and Goldberg are fans and knew what we all wanted. It’s unabashedly a comic book show, but still has enough to it that people who have never heard of the series will be floored by how much they can find to enjoy.

It’s for the nihilistic and jaded comic book fan. It’s for the casual watcher who’s gotten enough of Marvel’s colorful displays of happiness and it’s absolutely for the happy person who just wants to have some fun with what they watch. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Boys. So much so that I’m aching with anticipation to re-read the comic series in preparation for Season Two. It’s unlikely that it’ll follow the plot much, if at all after the ending, but with Stormfront (as a woman) being announced as the new Hero joining the Seven in the next season, I’m excited as to who else they might pull. This first season absolutely earns a high recommendation from me.

[lunchador]

Don't mind me but I'm rambling. I'm gonna yell about this here cuz it is my fandom blog and that's what it's for.

Man, The Boys is the perfect example of seeing a comic, seeing the potential, and gutting it for something better. I used to be a fan of Garth Ennis, I used to say he was the kind of writer that could balance edgy in a fun way that wasn't too much, but after revisiting his work I'm like....very unimpressed. And I feel as he keeps releasing series they keep getting worse 😬 I can't say this on FB because some of my male friends hold it in high regards(lots of them read it as angry edgy teens) but Preacher? Kinda a super shit comic. I genuinely think the show was attempting something better by polishing up the core concept (also the casting? Chefs kiss). I liked The Boys. I own The Boys. But the show is a fantastic example of how a comic adaptation does not need to be faithful. I think they made the characters a lot more engaging, they kept the graphic violence but I'm not rolling my eyes at it, and made the overall plot more of an arc versus the previous baddie hero of the week style that made it feel disjointed. And it's nice not to be able to expect what is going to happen next, not like how some shows throw it in a new direction solely to fuck with you versus genuinely interesting. They still sprinkle tons of comic stuff nicely in the show (my friend and I screamed at love sausage). I think the timing of the show is excellent in both that there is a corporate superhero burnout with so many movies and shows being churned out (often playing it too safe where money > interesting) and also reflecting irl events in an eerie but clever way. The whole comic and show is assholes, and I'm thrilled to love to hate them. I couldn't even do much of a reread because it's just not that good to me anymore. Absolutely crazy that Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg read those two comics by Ennis and were like yeah, let's do this.

I feel the same way about Mark Millar though. I cannot stand his comics, I feel like he's pretty good with coming up with a concept but someone always executes it better on his behalf. Kingsman? Kick ass? Wanted? All superior to the comics. I think red son and jupiter's legacy are ones I did like, but I am very interested to see how netflix (?) Does jupiter's legacy in the wake of the boys. Not quite the same, but an edgy superhero series I highly expect people to make a comparison. It's about children of superheros that are struggling to live in their shadows. Drugs, sex, violence, drama.

On the other hand, I am screaming about the Invincible adaptation. IM SO FUCKING EXCITED. Invincible is in my top favorite comics, it got me INTO comics, and I always thought it was vastly superior to Kirkmans famous work Walking Dead. This I do hope sticks close to the comics (though maybe slightly better writing for women characters haha). I already know exactly what they're doing for the first arc and I really really hope we can get further than that because the series gets so fucking WILD. Insane all of the merch and now a show we are getting after the series ends. It's also super long for a western comic series at like 26 trades I think. I hope the show is a success for multiple reasons.

With the old guards success, I hope amazon finally does something with the rights they bought to Lazarus a few years ago. Greg Rucka is truly one of the best comic writers out there and that series is perfect for tv. Which reminds me I need to watch stumptown cuz I just bought the comic to reread and it's so good!!!!

And y the last man finally has its feet on the ground after being in development hell for like 10 years. Brian k vaughn writes the most human characters out there. And also paper girls is gonna be a series!!!! Fucking hell yeah!!! Hopefully it catches people attention as stranger things did. It's gonna be fun. And I hope saga never gets adapted. I truly think nothing will be able to capture it. Leave it as is.

And I'm still sad Chew ended up falling into development hell. Originally showtime wanted to use to to replace Dexter as that ended as their new bloody crime show, then it fell to an animated series which is better imo to pair with how weird it is and showcase the art style but I think the last I heard of it it was pretty much not happening. Especially since iZombie got surprising amount of traction and I guess they expected it to be too similar.

I'm also still bitter about Deadly Class's cancellation. I had a lot of potential. Great cast, good cinematography. It's such a fun tragic comic.

Locke&key was alright, it's such a good horror comic but I wouldn't be able to tell you what would have made the show better. Something didn't quite click for me.

I'm kinda really burnt out on marvel/dc. I don't think either is impressing me lately besides scattered things. I don't think I'm excited for any of the disney+ shows besides falcon+winter soldier and even then expectations are tentatively low. Maybe wandavision? I didn't give a shit about them in the movies but it's heavily based on a run of comics I did enjoy so I'm wary. I know only care about Hawkeye for Kate and she-hulk for the actress. Though I've been having a surprising amount of fun watching Doom Patrol and I enjoyed swamp thing. It's weird. It embraces that weird. There's something I feel like Umbrella Academy is missing it could learn from doom Patrol. Like ua still feels like it played it a bit safe. Idk. Haven't finished it because I'm not as motivated to.

And Faith?? Is gonna get a movie??? A plus size hero??? AHHHH. I have my first issue signed by the author I met at comic con a few years ago.

And watchmen of course.

And outcast, and happy, and powers! And I kill giants was turned into such a good movie!!! So many image comics!!

I just read nailbiter is gonna be a series so that's gonna be bloody and violent and full of serial killers lmao. The ending of that comic got a little ??? For me but I own the whole series so i guess that says something.

What a time to be a comics fan!!! We are so fucking spoiled lmao and there's still sooo many untapped series. I think Criminal would make a fantastic live action drama show. Who does like Intricate crimes and heists and overlapping stories And wic+div would make a stellar show especially if they really had fun with the music. And so many comics I like would make amazing animated series like pretty deadly, or chew, rocket girl. Haunt is another Kirkmans series that has potential to be a fun gritty superhero violent adaptation. Except the ectoplasma attacks haunt has looks like violent jizz sometimes. Idk. Like, URGHHHHHHH. Gimme gimme gimme more comic stuff.

And there's so many good things I'm not even aware it was a comic initially.

And there's so many things I hear good things I have yet to touch like black lightning, runaways ( I love the comics!!, Cloak and dagger (also great comics )

Old comic shit is good too. I've been rewatching the Spawn series. Adult animated superhero stuff is seriously underrated. The tank girl movie is FUN. ROCKETEEEEER!!!!! Disney was supposed to do a remake with a black girl. What happened to that?

I dislike all the cw shows though lmao too cheesy. Also why I can't get into agents of shield though I tried for Robbie.

So many THINGS

[culturejunkies]

Birds of Prey

By Kenshiro

Going into this film, I went in with an open mind.  Sure, I wasn’t a huge fan of the trailer, or the posters, or the character depictions.  Fact is, I had a LOT of problems with the way this film was being presented.  A film titled “Birds of Prey” in my mind, should be focused ON said Birds of Prey.  A badass female superhero team originally consisting of Oracle, Black Canary and (eventually) Huntress.  The original run, written beautifully by longtime award-winning comic author Gail Simone is quite fondly remembered by many fans.  However, none of that was being represented in this film.

Fans were ticked for a couple of valid reasons: 1. No Barbara Gordon, Oracle, Batgirl or otherwise; 2. Cassandra Cain a mouthy pickpocket???? 3. An old Renee Montoya? 4. and this is a big one…HARLEY WAS NEVER A BIRD.  Okay so that’s more than a couple, but it was a new take, and new takes rarely go over well with comic fans.  They are tied up in their fondness for what they remembered, so how in the heck did this movie have a chance.  Well, it didn’t get off on the right foot with them, or me…yet despite that I always go in willing to judge it for what it is. Glad I did. Because I REALLY enjoyed myself.  More than I ever expected to.

DO NOT DOUBT MARGOT ROBBIE.  PERIOD.

Lets put something to rest here: Margot Robbie GETS Harley.  You thought she was good in Suicide Squad?  Nah…she’s EXCELLENT as Harley.  You may as well pencil her in as right up there with Arlene Sorkin and Tara Strong (Harley’s original and successor VAs).  She personifies Harley much like Christopher Reeve is Superman or RDJ is Tony Stark/Iron Man. She owns it.  End of Story.  This is the Harley leapt right from the pages of her monthly.  She clearly did her research and she’s not playing a token version of Harley.  She was everything any Harley fan could’ve hoped for.  She’s worth the price of admission alone.

Which is good really when you think about it because that nagging thing about the film’s name will keep bugging you.  Had they named it The Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn it would’ve been way more on the money.  It’s Harley’s story to tell clearly, and she tells it so freaking well!

IF YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT BLACK MASK…DON’T BE

Much has also been made of Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of Black Mask/Roman Sionis.  Mostly because of the apparent homosexual overtones.  While certainly some of the more insecure males in society will cringe at some moments, there’s absolutely nothing to be concerned for.  McGregor nails it.  Roman is, putting it bluntly, an unhinged individual.  McGregor certainly plays that up, dynamically shifting from cultured mafia boss to raging mafia boss on the drop of a dime.  The guy you loved seeing in Batman: Under The Red Hood?  Yeah, he’s in there for sure.

Some may feel some kind of way about Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, the seasoned GCPD Detective. Despite her not being the age range many fans were hoping for, she definitely handles herself well.  Huntress/Helena Bertinelli, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead features prominently in the story and I quite liked her take on Huntress, even if its not exactly what I expected.  Jurnee Smollet-Bell as Black Canary? Yeah, she was great in the role.  She was kickass when she definitely needed to be, and I have zero issue with her being cast.  Some may get their panties twisted about her ethnicity, but it doesn’t bother me none.  The writers did an overall great job weaving the story elements together but there’s still that one nagging thing about it.

CASSANDRA CAIN….WHY?

Okay, many fans are most upset with Cassandra Cain, and with good reason.  The character’s classic origin is that of a girl born from the genes of two of the deadliest assassin’s in the DC Universe’s Earth, David Cain and Lady Shiva.  Lady Shiva, being THE mistress of martial arts. She could hand Batman his ass without little trouble at all.  This was her daughter and boy did she earn her rep as the best martial artist in Batman’s related family.  So one can emptathize with the dissapointment that you were not going to get that.  Sorry to say, your fears are warranted.  Unfortunately, even though her character moves things along and is certainly a central cog, she could’ve been named literally anyone other than Cassandra Cain and it would’ve mattered nothing at all.

Similar to my feelings on Joker, there is little point in bringing this character to the screen if you’re not making them in essence who the fans would recognize.  So if there’s a flaw in the armor of this story, its certainly her.  Taking nothing away from Ella Jay Basco, the young lady who played Cassandra, but I would’ve like to see her be anyone OTHER than a kid named Cassandra Cain.  No, that’s not a small gripe either.  There’s so much potential that could’ve been had, that is now absolutely squandered here.

Photographer Selects; Cassandra Cain-ELLA JAY BASCO; Dinah Lance/Black Canary-JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL; Harley Quinn-MARGOT ROBBIE; Helena Bertinelli/Huntress-MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD; Renee Montoya-ROSIE PEREZ

FINAL THOUGHTS

So if you have any reservations about seeing this film, unless you’re just predisposed to hate it, you shouldn’t.  This film is a TON of fun.  It’s funny, its comically violent, and is easily one of the best DC films released recently.  Oh, and if you’re wondering if this does take place in the DCEU, pay really close attention to Harley’s recounting of her history in the first act of the film.  It’s all right there for you to interpret for yourself.  My money is YES it does.  By the end of the film, you’ll be satisfied with the end point both the Birds of Prey are established, and Harley is fully striking out on her own.  You’re going to have a great time at the movies this weekend.  Its definitely worth seeing in the theater.

[captainshazamerica]

Yeah it's the same anon 💜 dude my apologies for the amount of crap I've spewed in your ask box but in my defense no one I know gives a shit about batfam or gotham rogues or Alfred (I've gushed here about alfreds fabulousness too opps) anndd I partly blame you for me falling back into the titans trap cuz s1 was meh I forgot I even watched s2 😅 then I seen some titans stuff on your blog and boom my brain latched onto it and now here I am experiencing maternal fear for my son jason 😢you are 1000% right this jason is PERFECTION as robin like actual perfection I dunno why but I thought this robin was like 16? So I was thinkin how tf is 16/17 yo supposed to be redhood!? It work in comics/cartoon but live action 16 y/o redhood seems meh I kinda want the lazarus pit just I freakin want TALIA but I don't think that's gonna happen I dunno

Tbh (this may be biased) but I think the Gotham tv show is literally the best dc comics adaptation of anything ever! it is superior to all thier shows movies animations and the arrowverse at least in my books lol

Tumblr is my only form of 'social media' and I don't keep up with updates or anything about shows cuz I like to pretend the fiction is real and I don't want reality wrecking that for me like hahahaa so I had no clue about timmy or babs but I'm so happy

DUDE YES this is literally the only time I can see bruce ever killing the joker on screen aww please I want it so bad I mean they probably won't but they should cuz this is the only capacity in which batman can kill the joker live action like if down the line somewhere on another show/movie bruce killed joker he prob wouldn't be dead dead or they'd bring him back some way so the kill wouldn't even matter but old bruce killing the joker because he's finally had enough he's old now, jasons death finished him and he's not gonna be batman anymore it's a nice end for batman and the joker, it's the only way we'll ever get this end cuz like you said they'll never have the balls to permanently kill joker any other way in live action everything is aligning perfectly for this to happen so dang dc just freakin let it happen c'mon

Yo whose your first fav rogue? Is it riddler? I feel like mines riddler haven't really thought much about whose my fav gotham rogue but I'd probably say riddler, I prefer the central city rogues but the Gotham rogues are just pure chaos and I'm living for that hahaa

I'd rather superheros/vigilantes/villians in live action not have relationship drama just put them in a relationship or dont like I came for the action and weird super shit not the ordinary relationship drama thankfully titans seem to be doing okay in this aspect I do quite like dickkory a lot but I mean in the supergirl show ughhh I was like I came here for the flying and the dope laser eyes I don't give a shit about her getting a boyfriend like seriously whyyy

My brain decides to jump about obsessing over characters like one week Kory is my wife next week detective grayson is my husband and I AM NIGHTWING then my brain is like no Barbara kean is wifey just basically fictionally I'm married to everyone 😅

Yikes this was so long sorry girl

Omg, pls don't apologize! I get so dang excited whenever i get an ask, yours always make my day, you don't even know! Like same about no one i know caring about dc/batfam! And talking to someone about it is so much better than yelling into the wind here on a text post that no one reads xD Don't stop sending your asks whenever you wanna dump your feels/talk about dc/batfam omg.

And Im so proud I got you into this Titans spiral xD My work here is done hahahaha. But yes, I feel like his looking so young for red hood over shadows how great his jason robin performance was! Love seeing him get that recognition! But yeah, the age is def off, like I cant remember how old they said he was in the show, maybe 16? but too young for red hood in live action form. Like its hard cause in reality 16 year olds and 19 year old boys typically don't look too different, for the most part, while comics you can get get away with it more. Huh, yeah, it doesn't seem like Talia is gonna happen, maybe just maybe a cameo or something? Cause we also weren't expecting joker but here we are(tho it almost looks like he wont be a big plot point/even see him much, it almost looks like it is just showing how brutal gotham is? But like its just the trailer and doesnt always give the full picture so who knows!)

Omg YES about Gotham! I 1000% agree! Im also biased cause its what got me into batman, again like exactly a year ago! It got me into the world like no other media of dc had before!(well, Shazam did, i guess tech thats the start of my interest in dc/first time i read the comics, but gotham is what really got me into this spiral). I hate how much hate it gets, like yeah its not perfect and they took creative liberties obviously, but i 100% agree that its the best adoption of DC yet! 100%! Its so nice to see the characters and rogues fleshed out more. I feel like it successfully did what Nolan tried to do in terms of making it dark and realistic, but in a way that was more accurate and true to the comics! I wish it wasn’t canceled so early and thus the last season had to be so rushed :(

thats smart, i typically dont look for spoilers and stuff anymore but I just got so hyper focused that I had to look at least what the stars were putting out on social media, but yeah, i use to get so caught up in all that that it took the fun out of seeing it live.

Oh my gosh, that would seriously be the PERFECT end to batman and joker story in this universe omg. Amen about all that! And like it would hopefully show Jason how much he cares? So maybe Bruce would kill him after red hood emerges? It will be interesting to see hat causes Jason to be so dang pissed in this version.

ahaha yes riddler is my fav! (my header gave it away didn’t it xD) I love most Riddlers but ESPECIALLY gotham riddler, Ed is like one of my fav character of all time. Oooh, I don’t know central city rogues all that well(well, way more than Metropolis rogues, I know so little about superman world), like I know some from the first 3 and a half seasons of the flash (I watched a couple years ago but got busy with school and couldn’t keep up and just never caught up/didnt have motivation to finish(plus i forgot so much id have to rewatch everything again), but I saw they finally just introduced Bart Allen, so I have have to randomly jump back in for a bit cause Bart is one of my favsss), and the ones in the cartoons and stuff

Ha! true, i dont mind it when its for character development or if I happen to be super into the ship(like Nygmakins in Gotham omg, I know they are super unpopular but they are like one of my OTPs omg), I feel like it has to be balanced right/not too much focus on the drama of the relationship over everything else. Like a minor subplot is good but don’t make it the focus of the show. And yeah , supergirl never appealed to me cause of that reason! i like drama and not JUST action (I like psychological drama, as long as there is comfort to follow xD) but yea i get what u mean by too much relationship focus . I think, for the most part, Gotham did that pretty well.

omg i love the disaster bi vibes you are giving off xD But omg I feel the jumping around thing so much ahaha. Like right now the 4 robins are constantly on rotation on who I’m obsessing over at the moment tbh xD

Omg mine responses are just as long, don’t apologize!!!! <333333333333333

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic: Interconnect (ao3 link) - Chapter 5 Fandom: Flash, DC Legends of Tomorrow Pairing: Mick Rory/Leonard Snart

Summary: Fate has decided that Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are soulmates.

Yeah, okay, they’re good with that.

(for @coldwaveweek2017)

A/N: Instead of doing different fics for coldwave week, I decided to do one with multiple chapters, each based on the various days.

Chapter 5: Hurt/Comfort

—————————————————————————————–

"Just a bit longer now, Lenny," Mick says. His hands are clammy and his knuckles are white where he clutches at Len, Len notes absently. "We're almost there."

Len's not sure where they're going.

He's not sure about - well, a lot of things. Not since they put him in the room.

He feels his gut twist at the mere thought of it, the nausea rising in the back of his throat.

"Not far," Mick says encouragingly. His voice is scratchy and rough, almost like he's been shouting for a long time.

Len reaches out and touches Mick's throat.

Mick makes a small, strangled noise. "Yeah, don't worry about that," he says. "You always did worry about the damnedest things."

Len suddenly notices that his other arm is draped over Mick's shoulders, and they're walking - well, staggering - somewhere through a forest. And he's not being helpful.

"I can walk," he says, or tries. It comes out a bit slurred.

"What?"

Make that very slurred.

"I can walk," Len enunciates.

"Don't even try," Mick says immediately. "Just keep helping me."

"Where we going?"

"Somewhere safe," Mick says.

Len thinks about himself - barely walking, slurring, scarcely feeling Mick's warmth pressed by his side - and asks, "Shot?"

"What?"

"I get shot? Stabbed? What?"

Mick gives him an incredulous look.

"Shock," Len points out, defense and rationale both.

"You're bleeding pretty bad," Mick confirms. "I bandaged you up, though, a while back; you didn't notice. That ain't the issue, though, or not most of it. It was the room."

Len shudders.

"Heard about that fucking room," Mick says savagely. "They used to use that sort of thing for medical experiments. Volunteers didn't last four days in there. Anyone left in longer just broke. Made them barely human."

That sounds about right.

It was such a simple room for such horror. A simple room with nothing in it.

But that was the worst of it. The walls were carefully padded, neither firm nor soft, and deadened all noise; there was no light, no sound, no feeling, nothing.

Absolutely nothing and, worse than that, no one.

"Why," Len manages to ask.

He's a thief, yes, and even sometimes a murderer, but that - that was too much. Far too much. For anyone.

"The curse," Mick says. "Fucking neo-Salemist Doc wanted to know if we'd last longer, what with our connection."

We? Len clutches at Mick. They couldn't have gotten Mick. Len won't know how to deal with it, if they did. He'd have to kill them all. No, worse. He'd -

"He didn't get me," Mick assures him. "Just you, but it was bad enough. No objects around, nothing for you to grab onto."

That sounded terrible.

"I could talk to you, but you couldn't perceive anything but yourself in the room," Mick continues. He makes a face. "I spoke to you, but you only screamed."

"Sorry," Len says apologetically.

Mick rolls his eyes, but his face is strained. "Don't. Just - don't."

"Where are we going?" Len asks, belatedly realizing he hadn't asked.

"You're in shock, you're bleeding, you keep going in and out of consciousness, and we've had a version of this conversation three times now," Mick says sharply. "We are going to a goddamn doctor."

Len squints. They are, as far as he can tell, in the middle of nowhere, with forest all around.

"...when?"

"Oh, shut up," Mick grumbles. "It's not as far as it looks."

Good, because it looks pretty damn far.

Except, of course, Mick is right and it isn't, because when they get to the next clearing, a familiar figure in red is there.

"Oh, crap," he says when he sees Len.

Eloquent as always, Barry, Len thinks fondly. Finding out that the kid they'd met at what Len always liked to call the Group Therapy of the Cursed had grown up to be a superhero had definitely been a fun trip.

Not as much of a surprise as it should've been, of course. Barry Allen is afflicted with the most ancient of curses, after all.

'You will live in interesting times.'

Now that's a proper curse.

Of course, Len and Mick also had what people thought of as a 'proper' curse, or they did after that movie about a soulmate curse gone horribly wrong won an Oscar. That's probably why they got paired with Barry by the court therapists.

Len hadn't ever really thought much of the court-mandated therapy sessions, but Mick really liked them - he loved Sung-hui, but he had a tendency to shop around that didn't surprise anyone. After all, Mick had no choice about one of the biggest decisions in his life - namely, Len - unless he wanted to break the curse once and for all, which he obviously didn't (most of the time), so he liked some ability to choose the rest of the time.

Even Mick was surprised when they were assigned to be Barry Allen's mentors for that short time. Maybe they thought they'd be able to bond over visiting Iron Heights a lot, albeit through very different methods...?

Len abruptly realizes that Mick and Barry have been talking while he's been lost in memory.

"- yeah, of course," Barry is saying. "I'm just sorry I can't run you both at the same time."

Wait. He's going to separate them?!

Len must make some sort of distressed noise, because Mick turns to him right away. "I'll be there in under a minute," he promises. "But you need a doc, boss."

Len doesn't want to go. He knows it's childish, but...

"Please, Lenny."

Mick sounds legitimately distressed.

Sung-hui says that Len - who isn't always the best at reading emotions, and Mick, who isn't the best at showing them - should really make an effort to give in when Mick is that upset.

"Fine," Len sighs.

A heartbeat later, he's moving through lightning.

Len keeps his hands grasped tightly on Barry's shoulders and his mouth firmly shut. If he doesn't ask for Mick, he won't have to deal with no one answering. Like in the room. He's not in the room.

He's not in the room -

They're at STAR Labs, and Len's in a hospital bed, hooked up to half a dozen things.

He's not sure if it's a result of Flash speed or if he passed out, and he doesn't really want to know.

"Mick," he croaks. His throat is dry. Has he been screaming again?

"I'm here," Mick says immediately, and so he is, in the chair right by Len's bed.

“What happened?”

Mick pauses.

“I remember the woods,” Len clarifies. “And the Flash. And the room. But – before that…?”

Mick sighs and rubs at his face. “Some asshole neo-Salemists,” he says. “Doctors. Fifty percent ‘witchcraft is just unexplained science’, fifty percent ‘the Christian God when mistranslated says you shouldn’t suffer a witch to live so I won’t’ and one hundred fucking percent bullshit. They’ve been working with General Eiling, you remember him –”

Oh, boy, does Len ever remember him. He kept trying to kidnap Barry under the pretenses that he needed to be kept away from other people for their own safety, but Len broke into his office and planted bugs, and they’d figured out that Eiling was hoping that taking Barry to various troubled parts of the world would result in the ‘interesting times’ curse striking there and starting wars that Eiling hoped to benefit from.

Asshole.

Somehow Len’s unsurprised that he was willing to affiliate himself with the neo-Salemists.

“– and, anyway, you don’t want to hear the whole stupid story,” Mick says. “They got the jump on you, threatening Lisa –”

As a child, Len convinced Brittany, Lisa’s mom, to take her to a witch, even though Brittany didn’t believe in any of that. It’d been mostly lying about the odds of getting a good spell because the world felt it had to balance out Len’s never-specified-around-his-dad curse, which he’d totally made up, but maybe the world did work out that way because Lisa got the gift of grace: perfect balance, agility, and the ability to swan into a room and have everyone stare in awe.

Maybe the last one was just Lisa.

“Anyway, you paused for just long enough for them to hit you with some sort of knock-out gas –”

“I remember that,” Len says. He hadn’t been expecting them to use it on themselves and counting on their allies outside to do the collection job.

“And that’s all she wrote,” Mick concludes.

“What happened to the doc?” Len asks. He has vague memories of faces, of sterile rooms, of the room, but not much. But he knows his Mick.

“Flash got me in,” Mick says. “And I made him crispy.”

“Bet Barry didn’t like that,” Len muses.

“He saw you in the room and helped pull you out,” Mick says grimly. “He knew what it was, told me about all the studies that’d been done and what it did to people, told me exactly how illegal it was and how it gave all scientists a bad name. And then he went for a walk.”

Len’s eyebrows go up. That’s – severe.

“You were in there a week,” Mick says. “Barry says the only reason your brain is still intact is because you were aware of me in some way, thanks to the curse.”

Okay, yes, that’ll do it.

“It was just for science?” Len asks, going back to a far less disturbing subject than Central City’s superhero’s somewhat-greyer-than-most-people-think moral system.

“Not just,” Mick says. “Neo-Salemist scientist. Hates witches, but damn would he like to utilize its benefits.”

“Benefits?” Len echoes, confused.

“Wanted to figure out how to apply the curse to other people,” Mick clarifies.

“But it’s a curse.”

Len loves Mick, it’s not that he doesn’t, but never being able to escape the man for a single moment is sometimes a bit much. You can love someone and still want to shoot them in the face (albeit non-permanently).

Not that the room was better.

Mick squeezes Len's hand. "I got you," he says.

It's a meaningless statement, but it makes Len feel better anyway.

"Doc thought being able to communicate over long distances would be useful," Mick says, his voice still gentle. "Probably thought he could eliminate the bits where it's only one person, you can't pick who it is, and you can't turn it off."

Len nods. He can see the benefit, but the way they went about it...

"I'm here," Mick says again, probably in reaction to Len's face. "I got you."

Again, meaningless. Again, remarkably efficient at making Len feel better.

"So, the bleeding?" Len asks, swallowing a little in order to wet his suddenly dry throat. He's not one for overly long touchy-feely moments, and neither is Mick, who gratefully sits up straight again. "How long's that gonna take to fix?"

"It's stitched up, so a few weeks at least. Also, I called Sung-hui and she's agreed to make house calls."

"To STAR Labs?" Len asks skeptically.

"She arrived a while back," Mick says dryly. "She's already ushered Barry into a private room for one-on-one therapy. He just came out to get her a glass of water, and he looks like he got hit in the head with a two-by-four. In a good way."

Len smirks. "And are the others next on the list?"

"You know how Sung-hui is about people who feel like they can't get therapy because of their terrible law-breaking secrets," Mick replies, which Len takes as a sign that Team Flash will be finally seeing to its mental health needs from now on.

"What about the city?" Len asks, the question occurring to him. He's got a good reputation, a scary one, occasional punctuated with absences, but a long one followed by a hospital stay? The Families will capitalize on that to expand back into the areas he'd cleaned them out of. And he can't rely on the Flash for cover - Barry couldn't be seen actually allying with a crime lord, not for the crime lord side of the business, and anyway he wouldn't really strike the right vibe.

"Lisa's covered," Mick says. "And I'll be backing her, now that I know you're safe."

Len's hand clenches involuntarily. Just because he sometimes wants to shoot Mick doesn't mean he wants him to leave.

"No help for it," Mick says regretfully. "Not till Lisa's established herself, though she's on her way."

Len understands the necessity. It doesn't mean he likes it.

"In the meantime," Mick says, leaning over to grab something from the floor, "I got you something that'll help."

Len frowns. He's not sure what could possibly help. Really, he's out of the room, that ought to be enough for him. He's a grown man. He has a soulmate. He's in a hospital bed, surrounded by useful objects he can use to talk to him, his presence all around. All is well. He might be irrationally unhappy with the fact that his soulmate is leaving, but he can get over it, and at any rate, nothing will help for it.

Mick straightens up and proudly presents Len with –

Mick.

Not the living one, his stubborn, infuriating, wonderful soulmate; but rather the stupid shaggy plush animal that Len had loved the stuffing out of as a child, before he'd fully realized that Mick was Mick and not the dog. It even had the singe marks from Lewis' little lessons-by-proxy.

"You're joking," Len says, his lips twitching uncontrollably. "I thought I lost that."

"We've been raiding your dad's stashes," Mick says. "Him being dead now and all. Lisa found him, said she remembered being jealous of all the time you spent with him before your dad took him away, then she just felt bad."

He offers the plush to Len.

"I'm a grown man," Len protests. "In a public place - in front of our sometimes-enemies!"

Mick doesn't say anything, just keeps holding it out.

Len looks at that ridiculous snarl, the one that he always thought tried so hard to be ferocious but only came off as protective.

"Oh, fine," he says, and snatches Mick away from Mick, settling him comfortably into his arms.

It's not quite the same as having the living Mick in his arms, but it'll do.

Mick grins.

"I'm getting you a polar bear from the zoo," Len warns.

"The brand I got isn't being made anymore," Mick shoots back, knowing exactly what Len's referring to.

"Yeah, yeah," Len says. "Ever heard of eBay?"

Mick blinks.

Len smirks.

One terrifying arsonist-slash-supervillain carting around a polar bear plushie, coming right up.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND May 25, 2019  - ALADDIN, BOOKSMART, BRIGHTBURN

It’s the Memorial Day weekend of one-word-titled movies, because yes, “Booksmart” and “Brightburn” are indeed single words, as much as I want to make them two words each. Sadly, I’m still running behind on stuff, and I’ve only seen a few movies, so we’ll see how I do this week. (Sadly, it’s looking more and more like this column is going to have to be put on hiatus so I can focus on paying work.)

Hey, look, it’s another Disney movie I haven’t seen yet for reasons I won’t get into. Anyway, I have a ticket to see Guy Ritchie’s ALADDIN (Walt Disney Pictures) on Friday, not because I necessarily need to see Will Smith as the Genie. In fact, I’ve never even seen the original animated movie or the musical, but I am a fan of Ritchie and his work and want to give it a look.

Fortunately, I have seen Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, the raunchy R-rated comedy BOOKSMART, being released by U.A. Releasing moderately wide, and I have to say that it’s pretty effin’ funny with a really talented young cast, led by Beanie Feldstein (Ladybird) and Kaitlyn Dever (Detroit), who could very well be the Jonah Hill and Michael Cera for a new generation. While I hate to outright call the movie Superbad for women, it’s definitely a movie in that vein but this one from a teen girl’s point of view. It also has some amazing side characters, particularly the one played by Billie Lourde, who is quite hilarious (and isn’t even in any of the trailers!). While I saw the movie too long ago to write a full-on review, this is the movie of the weekend I recommend more than any other movie, regardless of your age and gender. Its 99% on Rotten Tomatoes is no fluke!

Lastly, there’s Screen Gems’ BRIGHTBURN, which is a dark take on superheroes from one of James Gunn’s brothers and one of his cousins, and of course, James Gunn produced it. It’s directed by David Yarovesky, who has done some shorts and music videos, and it stars Gunn regular Elizabeth Banks, who appeared in Slitherway back in the day, as well as David Denman, plus Jackson Dunn as Brandon Breyer, the young kid with superpowers. Since I’ve seen this one more recently, here’s my….

MINI-REVIEW: Anyone who reads a lot of comics might be aware of the concept of “Elseworlds,” essentially DC’s version of a “What If?.” If you consider yourself a connoisseur of good comics than you probably have read Alan Moore’s “Miracleman” comics. The general idea was to look at what happens when someone with superpowers allows the powers to go to their head, and they use those powers for evil purposes. It’s even more interesting when said person is still a child without the maturity needed to handle having such power.

In that sense, Brightburn isn’t a completely original idea, though it is for the world movies where there haven’t been that many alternate superhero films, let alone ones treated like horror.  It takes the mythos of DC Comics’ Superman, of a baby from another alien taken in by a kindly Kansas couple, then twists it into a gory horror movie. It also deals with something I’ve always found interesting in what a kid might do if they discover they have superpowers and whether they would use them to get revenge on their oppressors, even if it’s their parents. Going by this film written by James Gunn’s brother and cousin, then the answer is “Yes.”

Brightburn begins with Elizabeth Banks and David Denman as a young couple trying to have a kid when a meteor lands nearby. We then see a montage of young Brandon Breyer growing from a baby to a pre-teen boy, and we see that he’s been having difficulty adjusting to school and life in Kansas

The results aren’t perfect and some of my issues might be due to how much is given away in the trailers, but in terms of combining things I like – superheroes and creepy kids who go on a wanton killing spree – it’s a high concept that keeps you entertained for all 90 minutes without a dull moment. That has much to do with David Yarovesky’s direction, as he has all the faculties needed to make a solid horror film, including some highly disturbing gory scenes, but also his small but capable cast.

Kind of the ultimate Richard Donner mash-up – part-Superman,part-The Omen– Brightburn isn’t perfect, but it’s a conceit that actually works to create a fun and gory time that’s more horror than superheroics.

RATING:7/10

You can read what I think of the above’s box office prospects over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

I wish I could say that I’ve seen more of this weekend’s limited release, but I’ve only watched a couple of them.

Opening at the Metrograph Friday is Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt’s surrealist comedy DIAMANTINO (Kino Lorber), an odd Portugal-set film about a world-famous soccer superstar, Carloto Cotta, who gets caught up in a controversy over statements made about refugees. He has some evil twin sisters who like glomming onto their brother’s fame and fortune, as well as a government conspiracy. It’s a rather amusing and entertaining film for sure, which reminded me of some of the stranger films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Terry Gilliam, but it won’t be for everyone.

Opening on Wednesday i.e. today is Noble Jones’ THE TOMORROW MAN (Bleecker Street), starring John Lithgow as a cranky survivalist Ed Hemsler who meets Blythe Danner’s Ronnie Meisner, who he sees as a like-minded individual. This is another boring romance movie geared towards the over-50s (that me)that doesn’t really go anywhere, and I couldn’t even enjoy it for the performances by the two leads because the material just wasn’t up to snuff.

Jill Magid’s doc THE PROPOSAL (Oscilloscope) is about architect Luis Barragan, whose work was locked away in a Swiss bunker on his death in 1988, which the filmmaker has tried to bring to light as she negotiates with those keeping charge of it. Opening in L.A. at the Landmark as well as the Quad Cinemathis weekend is Frédéric Tcheng’s doc HALSTON (1091) about designer Roy Halston Frowick, who rose to fame in the ‘70s.

Next up is a trio of music docs beginning with the one I’ve seen, Barak Goodman’s Woodstock: Three Days That Defined A Generation (PBS Distribution / American Experience FIlms), which premiered at Tribeca and will get a nominal theatrical release before airing on PBS.  (It will be celebrating is 50thAnniversary in August, too!) As someone who admired the more famous 1970 Woodstock concert film by Michael Wadleigh – it even won the Oscar for documentary that year! – but Goodman’s movie finds new avenues into the 1969 music and art festlval by showing its development and the lead-up to the festival as well as all the problems it faced along the way. Probably the more interesting aspect of the movie is Wavy Gravy’s contribution to the festival security with his commune of artists who actually end up saving the day more than once.  (This doc will also premiere at the Quad this weekend with special guests.)

Having special shows across the country tonight and again on May 29 is Tom Jones’Asbury Park: Riot, Redemption, Rock n’ Roll (Trafalgar Releasing) about how the power of music and musicians like Steven Van Zandt, Southside Johnny Lyon, and of course, Bruce Springsteen, helped save the troubled Jersey town.  You can get tickets for these special shows at the official site.

Another neighborhood music community is being honored in Andrew Slater’s Echo in the Canyon (Greenwich), which celebrates the music coming out of Laurel Canyon in the mid-60s including the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Sprinfield and the Mamas and the Papes aka the California Sound.It opens in L.A. Friday and then in New York on May 31.

If you happened to see Paul Rudd in the film The Catcher Was a Spy last year, then you might be interested in learning more about his character Moe Berg, Aviva Kempner’s’s doc The Spy Behind Home Plate, which opens in Washington, DC this Friday and then In New York, Philly and other markets on May 31.

Gotta start wrapping up here but there’s also Rob Heydon’s thriller Isabelle (Vertical Entertainment), starring Adam Brody and Amanda Crew; as well as the Scott Adkins action-thriller Avengement (Samuel Goldwyn), directed by Jesse V. Johnson.

STREAMING AND CABLE

The movie I’m most excited about this weekend is for people to see Richard Shepard’s THE PERFECTION, streaming on Netflix Friday. It stars Allison Williams from Get Outand Logan Browning (Dear White People), and I’m not really sure what I can say about it, since I don’t want to spoil your experience. I can say that Williams plays a cello prodigy who has been off the circuit for a few years. When she returns, Browning’s character has kind of taken her place, but the two become close… and then stuff happens. Crazy stuff… stuff that you’re not going to forget anytime soon. But if you liked Get Out and Us and last year’s Hereditary, you’re probably going to like this movie that premiered at Fantastic Fest, as well.  I’ve loved Shepard’s dark sense of humor from movies like The Matador and Dom Hemingway, and he has two terrific stars in this one, who seem to be up for whatever is thrown their way… and a LOT is thrown their way. I also got to interview Richard for the fourth time recently, which you can read over at The Beat.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

This year’s 26th New York African Film Festival begins on Thursday at the BAMCinematek in Brooklyn with FilmAfrica, a series of fairly recent films from a continent that just doesn’t get enough attention in the cinematic world. The opening night of the BAM leg is Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’sSew the Winter to my Sky, a Western-inspired heist film about South African bandit John Kepe. On Saturday, you can see Raoul (I Am Not Your Negro) Peck’s 2005 film Sometimes in April starring Idris Elba about the Rwandan genocide. The movie will then move next week to Film at Lincon Center, as the program continues through June 4, so I’ll write more about their offerings next week. The festival wraps up its last few days from June 5 to June 9 at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem. I honestly wish I had more time to see some of this series because it looks fantastic and many of the films may never get U.S. distribution, but I just have too much on my plate right now.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This weekend’s Late Nites at Metrograph is Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira  (1988) while the Playtime: Family Matinees is Jacques Perrin award-winning doc Winged Migration  (2001) on Saturday and Sunday morning. New York Times critic Glenn Kenny is presenting Elia Kazan’s 1969 film The Arrangement, starring Kirk Douglas and Fay Dunaway, on Saturday while poet and novelist Barry Gifford is showing a double feature of Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street (1953) and Jack Garfein’s The Strange One  (1957) on Sunday.

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Tarantino is in Cannes presenting his new movie (to absolute raves) but his rep theater is showing Vincente Minnelli’s 1953 film The Band Wagon starring Fred Astaire on Weds. afternoon. The week’s upcoming double features are Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (1983) and Crossing Delancey (1988) on Weds and Thurs., Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) and Somewhere (2010) on Friday/Saturday, and Honor Among Lovers (1931), Craig’s Wife (1936) and Sarah and Son (1930) in a Dorothy Arzner triple feature Sunday and Monday. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is the Tom Hanks-Penny Marshall movie Big (1988) and the midnight movies are the doc Full-Tilt Boogie (about the making of From Dusk til Dawn)on Friday and once again, The Love Witch, on Saturday. Next Monday’s matinee is the ensemble drama Now and Then  (1995) and then Tuesday’s GRINDHOUSE double feature is Kao Pao-Shu’s Blood of the Dragon  (1971) and The Master Strikes (1980).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own (1992), also starring Tom Hanks. Film Forum is also starting a new three-week 40-film (!) series called The Hour of Liberation: Decolonizing Cinema, 1966 – 1981, which includes screenings of The Battle of Algiers  (1966), Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl  (1966) and other films imported from “Third World” countries with support from the Academ of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Concurrently, Film Forum is kicking off The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema, which begins this weekend with the 1937 film The Dybbuk with a few other films running through June.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Cassavetes/Scorsese: Love is Strangecontinues with After Hours (1985) with Rosanna Arquette (!) and Gloria (1983) on Thursday and  Raging Bull (1980) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) on Friday. Personally, I wish I could be in L.A. Saturday for a six-film Godzilla-Thon that includes some of my favorite films from Toho including the original 1954 Gojira. Then Sunday, there’s a double feature of the Uganda-set Bad Black  (2016) and Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010).

AERO  (LA):

Not to be outdone by the Egyptian, the AERO presents a Memorial Day in 70mm with Hook (1991) on Thursday, a double feature of The Thing and Starmanon Friday, 2001: A Space Odyssey on Saturday and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on Sunday. Have I mentioned how I’d love to live in L.A. this weekend?

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Back in New York, Fighting Mad: German Genre Films from the Marginscontinues through Thursday as well as the doc Doomed Love: A Journey Through German Genre Film.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

This week, the Roxy is showing Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette(2006) in 35mm, as well as a screening of Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition(2013). They’re also showing Patrick Wang’s recent A Bread Factory, Part One (Friday) and Part Two (Saturday).

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: Parental Guidance screens Rosemary’s Baby and Serial Mom on Memorial Day weekend, while Weekend Classics: LoveMom and Dad  shows Ozu’s Late Spring (1949) and Late Night Favorites: Spring continues withDavid Fincher’sFight Club, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

FILM OF LINCOLN CENTER(NYC):

This weekend, Lincoln Center begins its own Czech New Wave series with Ester Krumbachova: Unknown Master of the Czechoslovakia New Wave, running from May 24 through May 29. I still don’t know anything about the Czech New Wave then I knew a few months back, although apparently, she was a writer, director and costume designer and the series includes examples of all three.

MOMA (NYC):

It looks like Abel Ferrara: Unrated will run for the rest of the month, and this week, we get R’ Xmas  (2001) on Wednesday, The Funeral (1996) on Thursday, 1989’s Cat Chaser on Friday and Saturday as well as Napoli (2009) on Saturday. Sunday sees Mary (2005) and Crime Story (1986). The Jean-Claude Carrière series continues with Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom of Liberty (1974) on Thursday, Milos Forman’s Valmont (1989) on Friday and Saturday, Cyrano de Bergerac on Friday and Sunday as well as Andrzej Wajda’s Danton  (1983) plus more over the weekend. Basically, lots of interesting movie options.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

See It Big! Action is going full-throttle on Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series, showing ALL SIX movies between Friday and Sunday. What a perfect Memorial Day treat! I wish I lived closer to Astoria, Queens.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This Friday’s Midnight Movie is Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo(1958).

I also want to quickly add that the Maysles Cinema is having a Manfred Kirschheimer retrospective of sorts, in that it’s premiering his new movie Dream of a City, showing it with some of his earlier documentary works, both short and long format. Just another example of the amazing cinema that you can see in New York on any given day of the week.

[geekade]

Zwia Reviews: Justice League aka At Least it's Better than Batman V Superman

Right up front, here are some things I want to make clear for this review.

Justice League is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination.

I personally LOVED it, and will be spending much of this review explaining why it was bad but also why I can’t wait to see it again.

To get into A LOT of what I liked about it, there is at least one big (and super obvious) spoiler, so I will have a section dedicated to those thoughts at the end of the the review. 

Anyway, THE REVIEW!

Let's talk about all the bad parts. First of all, the dialogue is cheesy. It’s just... it’s bad. It also doesn’t help that the plot is basically the plot from The Avengers. Now, I get it. Building a superhero team-up movie isn’t the easiest thing, and you’re naturally going to have some similarities between Justice League and The Avengers… but it’s too similar, right down to the magical Earth-destroying boxes they have to find. At least with Marvel, the characters are fleshed out in their own movies, so The Avengers feels way more like a celebration after taking all the time it took to get there. Justice League, on the other hand, is largely rushed and forgettable. Going their own non-Marvel way, the DCEU went ahead and put all these multi-faceted, interesting characters together without delving into most of them with their own movies. That decision didn’t do Justice League any favors. The backstory to each of the new characters is instead established through off-topic jokes. They try their best to connect with the audience by being almost comically over-the-top in their “personalities,” and the first half hour of the movie with Batman and Wonder Woman trying to get the team together is just the choppiest piece of editing I’ve seen in theaters since Suicide Squad. Literally the minute you get almost kinda connected to one of the recruitment stories, it just jumps without warning, to a whole other character. If there was ANY movie in the DCEU that should have been more than two hours, it’s this one. Instead, they squeezed as much as they could in every scene EVER, and the movie is worse off for it.

There were a lot decisions made in this movie that you could probably gather were a direct result from the outcry of people upset about Batman V Superman. Justice League is shorter than BVS. The writing has a different tone, and there's cheesy comedy strewn about. The big change that stood out to me, though? The visuals. This movie has color. The reds are red. The blues are blue. The grass is… radioactive looking? This is a movie that was very clearly designed in pre production to still be all dark and gritty looking, but was lightened up afterwards. As such, some of the colors looks VERY off. This decision to lighten things up is also probably why the special effects look RIDICULOUSLY bad. Like, bad for a cheap indie film-level bad. That is HORRIBLE for how much money went into this.

As you can see in everything from pre production to post production, there are huge amounts of glaring issues all over this movie. Even the acting, which I praised in Batman V Superman, isn’t quite up to par here. Affleck, who I still think is an incredible Batman, just seems a little off at times. Gal Gadot, I’m starting to think, isn’t really a great actress but simply has a lot of interesting weight to her words because of her accent. (You know, kinda like how British people still sound super smart all the time even if they are saying something dumb.) And then the rest of the League, well, are just comically over-the-top in their “personalities.” But the characters are actually where we get into why I love this movie. These characters ARE the Justice League. Maybe its because the characterization for DC has been so poor in the past that I just have low expectations, but when I sat in the theater I was giddy because THIS IS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE. THESE ARE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS TO A T! This is a Batman who isn’t killing people left and right, who goes out of his way to be self-sacrificing and smart, rather than the toughest guy in the room. I especially adore how many times he realizes he can’t fight and just runs to some Bat-Vehicle. This is a Wonder Woman that... okay she was perfect in her own movie too. I don’t really have to sing the praises of Gadot’s Wonder Woman. She’s noble and fierce and one of the big guns, as she should be. This Aquaman? I mean, he’s not accurate to the comics at all, but damn he’s a comic book character if I ever saw one. Plus, Aquaman does occasionally have a pretty stubborn streak, so I’ll take it. This Cyborg? Sure, maybe he’s the super loner of the group, but this is early Cyborg. I can accept him having some struggles and learning to get comfortable in his… skin. Cyborg has always had those underlying difficulties, and it was great when Cyborg didn’t think about his differences and had times to shine.

Then we have this Flash. Okay, this is NOT Barry Allen, AT ALL. Barry Allen is nice to a fault, and boring as hell because of it. He’s the type of guy who would wear bow ties to work every day at a place that allows jeans. This is NOT Barry Allen. But God help me, he’s a speedster through and through. Ezra’s performance is much more in line with some other fan favorites like Wally West or Bart Allen. You know, the playful, sometimes distracted, but well meaning Flashes. I think he’s the farthest thing there is to Barry Allen, but Barry is kinda lame so I am totally okay with the movie adopting some of the other Speedsters' qualities here.

And honestly, at the end of the day, this is why I liked the movie. The characters. This movie felt like a longer episode of the Justice League cartoon. It was largely forgettable, not deep or complex, but the characters were all themselves and it was a lot of fun to watch. Sometimes that's all you need. By no means am I going to tell you to go watch it. It’s a pointless movie. But if you love DC and their characters as much as I do, you might enjoy it. Finally, the biggest reason I enjoyed it is in the Spoilers section. Read it at your own risk. Its a huge spoiler, but its nothing that you won’t see coming. SPOILERS BELOW

FUCKING SUPERMAN. Okay, so Superman historically is a character that I usually write off as boring. To me, if Superman is your favorite character in DC, I always figured you either didn’t know enough about the character, or were a fool. Lately, much like my similar growing love for Captain America, I’ve learned to appreciate this big blue boy scout and I think I can, in an odd, sick way, thank Batman V Superman for that. See, Superman IS a symbol for hope in comics. When Superman shows up to help in other character’s stories, there's usually a feeling that things will be okay. It’s why Superman going evil is such a big thing for DC to do, since it really shatters those hopeful expectations of the character. He is someone who, when he isn’t around or when he’s fallen from grace, it's a rough experience for everyone. And when he is there, you know that no matter how tough, he’ll always take time for the little guy and be as supportive and kind as he can.

This movie franchise has not had that Superman. This Superman is an angsty, whiny, brooding boy, who abuses his power and portrays himself as a God more than a friend. I’ve enjoyed these movies, but I have hated how Superman was portrayed because it disrespected everything I expect from Superman. Superman is someone who would always find a way and always be able to lighten the mood. Well, then Superman died. And then he came back. And suddenly, after he got done fighting the Justice League, he got himself together and finally became the Superman I’ve been waiting for. (Also real quick, Superman and Flash during that fight? THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING) Superman spent the entire finale helping the other heroes. He would be the big gun when he needed to be, but he also would just be moral support, or assist Cyborg, or assure Cyborg that everything would be okay, or assist Flash with saving people and giving him work he knew was in his ability. Superman was just a kind, fun guy the entire fight, who never showed an ounce of doubt in his trust that everything would be okay. That fight had stakes, but you didn’t feel them BECAUSE Superman let you know everything would be okay. (Also because of the entire town of people that were in danger we only saw one tiny family… so… yeah) I just really loved Superman in this movie and I NEVER thought I would say that.

Also that end credits scene where Superman and Flash race for fun??? LIKE COME ON!!! HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THAT???? I honestly still think we should expect better from DC, because seriously… these characters can do SO MUCH BETTER. But this is a small victory in the right direction, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.

[talkingwithburritospodcast]

Wonder Woman: Dont' Put Swords Down Dresses - TWB

Save Streaming Data Is Wonder Woman as much a triumph for women within the Hollywood industry is it just a much-needed victory for Warner Bros. and the DCEU universe? Unlike the movies from its cinematic predecessors, Wonder Woman opened the weekend to prescreening praise and that highly sought after Rotten Tomatoes score. With so much animosity over the validity of critics these days and the effect they have on a film's opening at the box office, one can indeed argue that good word of mouth can and will influence how a film is received by potential ticket buyers. Failures of titles like Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman placed a stigma on all future releases within this franchise, but is it fair to judge one movie based on the success of a franchise? As much bad wrap as those films received, they have a good return on investment, and isn't that ultimately consider a success? As the word of the critic word really that important, and if so are sites like Rotten Tomatoes inadvertently controlling the industry by proxy?  

Before She Was Wonder Woman, She Was Diana

I found myself at odds with wanting to like this movie as much as everyone else LOVED this movie. I mean, it got a 94% percent on Rotten Tomatoes so I should like it right… right? That’s the odd nature of criticism and human behavior. It’s our nature to not want to be at odds with the masses-- to just accept whatever is popular instead of forming our own opinion or being truthful to our own opinion. A movie gets a horrible rating and automatically it's cemented in your mind that the aforementioned movie is a film you would rather not spend money to go and see. Access to such information has taken the risk out of watching movies. Whether you hate or love a movie, isn’t it more of the experience we seek to obtain? Or is it that we would rather save our money than take a chance on a film that may disappoint us? I was excited by the idea that Wonder Woman would be the best movie of the summer — even better than Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. That last scene in B vs V left me wanting more of the Amazonian warrior who faced off with Doomsday as Superman moped and Batman hid. However, it just didn’t rock my world as it apparently rocked for other people. All those positive reviews and movie was just okay. Sorry, status quo. When asked, “So what did you think?” I bit my tongue a little, I admit. Why? Because I believed my feelings towards this movie were maybe too subjective to really debate whether or not this iteration of Wonder Woman met my criteria as the Wonder Woman film I wanted to watch. Bre, a contributor to If three by space and friend, shared the same sentiment. Finally!, Someone else who thought the movie was meh. I’m usually very candid about my reactions towards a film, never really holding my tongue. I even waited to hear Bre's reaction before I could truthfully respond to her about whether I liked the movie. To my surprise, she too did not share in the hoopla that is Wonder Woman Praise Mania. Instead of disseminating my negative thoughts onto you. I wanted to understand why it is that I did not share the same sentiment about this take on the iconic 1/3 of the Superhero Trinity. Wonder Woman isn’t exactly an innovative film, especially within this overly saturated market of comic book inspired movies. Sure, it’s the first movie helmed by a female director featuring a female comic book character to gross over $100 million dollars. The accomplishment should be heralded as much as celebrated by every director and actor in the industry. However, we can’t focus on the success of this film as a solitary achievement that will change the nature of the film culture. The truth remains that this is just one film about a superhero that took many years to make primarily because studios didn’t want to take a risk. Only after her appearance in B vs S were they finally convinced that they could make money off of this character. Within the current narrative of the DC Universe movie, a stand-alone Wonder Woman film is just a life preserver floating atop an empty ocean. It doesn’t fit within the current narrative which began with Superman and continued into B vs S and should have just gone on with The Justice League. Opposite of Marvel, they would have to introduce the character after the debut of the ensemble team. However, WW was riding a wave of excitement and it was a smart business move to make a standalone film now instead of later when the fervor subsides. So, stop with the praise that this is a home run for female artists in the film industry. The numbers say it all and as of 2016, women comprised just 7 percent of all directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. Wonder Woman was poised to do well at the box office. Maybe not 100 million opening well but as with all the movies before it, Jenkins would have eventually obtained this title of a person who made a movie for a studio that grossed a lot of money. Consider the Fate of the Furious as a perfect example: There was this brief celebration of F. Gary Gray becoming the first black $1billion director. Kudos goes to the work he put in to make the film what it became but his efforts weren’t all that pushed this film to its incumbent success. The Furious franchise is eight films in and continues to perform no matter who is in the director's chair. Wonder Woman will eventually make a bazillion dollars but let’s not focus on solely on numbers, that’s studio mumbo jumbo, but rather the time and effort and vision of Patty Jenkins who never directed an action movie and her muse Gal Gadot who had some big red boots to fill; they deserve more respect for their efforts than an entrance into the all boys 100 million dollar club. Much of what other people liked about the movie or continue to blab on about, I did not particularly find impressive enough to consider an indifference to mainstream movie fandom. And as I tried to reason with myself about the supposed greatness of this film, I realized that it was all haberdashery; dressing up my opinion of the film to appeal to the overall consensus.

Wonder Woman: The Good, The Bad, The Cheesy

Wonder Woman wasn’t that great of a movie, however, I was interested in why I do not hold the same opinions as others. So, I read a few reviews and talked with a few people who also watched the movie and pulled from those resources and conversations good and bad aspects of the film that might help me form a different opinion of Wonder Woman on a second viewing. I am a firm believer that it takes more than one viewing to fully appreciate a film and with that, I am willing to sway my own opinion based on further insight into why people like this movie so much. Here, I debate a view arguments and positives about the film that struck as the more important conversational starters. DC Enters the Light Yes, Wonder Woman had endearing flirtatiousness with her naiveté fish out of water story beat. The scene on the boat with her and Trevor talking about sex was kinda funny until you listen to the dialog and realize Trevor the gentleman is really just a horny man dog. I didn’t necessarily need them to showcase their sexual attraction so openly. Diana had a mission and her mission was to destroy Ares. This flirty school girl/ guy routine was only a way to exploit Diana’s innocence for a joke. There was this wardrobe changing scene that was funny and more along the joke spectrum I consider effective enough to represent Diana’s adverse emersion into regular society. Using common stereotypes and customs that defined women during the 1930’s and 1940’s (and today) was a fun way to show not only Diana’s ignorance but strongly rooted Amazonian female roots and female empowerment. Female Empowerment Gadot handled herself quite impressively in the scenes where the omnipresence of men conflicted with her beliefs, and it was those vulnerable moments that identified with Diana’s key character trait; empathy. Diana Meet Steve: The Cheesy Rom-Com Y’know what’s sexier than a sex scene? Not having a sex scene. I mean c’mon, Diana just met Trevor and sure, in the heat of battle things can get a little hot and heavy but why does it have to end with her beckoning Trevor with a longing gaze as he closes the bedroom door. I would think any woman involved with this script would be like: "What? No… eww/" But I guess when the director renounces cheesy as a word, you get a scene like that. It’s like when Kevin and Winnie’s first kiss, and yes this is a Wonder Years analogy but it applies to all romantic comedies where two people in love want to be together but extenuating circumstances keep them apart. Ex. Felicity and Scott Speedman, Diane and Sam, Buffy and Angel. With all those examples, those couples had to endure many setbacks before they became a couple. The kiss between Winnie and Kevin only happens after Winnie disses him over and over again. The longing builds up the tension for the final moment or season ending episode when Kevin finds Winnie in a clearing sitting on a rock gazing off into nowhere. He drapes his jacket over Winne’s shoulders and holds her close with one arm around her shoulders. Slowly she’s drawn to him and their lips meet for that first kiss as When a Man Loves a Woman plays over the soundtrack. Picture the final moment of Wonder Woman with such a longing looming over Diana and Steve. One kiss and boom that’s all the sex those two needed — their relationship would transcend into something more, and that’s love, that’s a great scene. [x_blockquote cite="Rick, Casablanca 1942" type="center"]Here’s looking at you kid. [/x_blockquote] It’s not that the supposed sex scene in Wonder Woman was cheesy, it just wasn’t necessary. Empathy and strength in the presence of adversity. The Origin Story Mashup: What works best towards the Wonder Woman narrative is all about how much you know.

Diana is a princess, check.

She was molded from clay, check.

Zeus is her father, check.

Trevor crashes onto the island of Thermasyoiuoiu, check.

Diana fights in disguise to win an opportunity to join Trevor on a mission to the US, not checked.

Diana loves Trevor, check.

Wonder Woman didn’t come to save mankind, Diana was in love. The hero thing came after and the movie attempts to mold these ideas together to sculpt an imperfect god-like figure who could as easily destroy man and succumb to him just the same. George Perez created the Ares narrative in the first issue of the 1986 reboot of the series in which Wonder Woman doesn’t leave the island to chase after Steve Trevor but she leaves to fight Ares. As with all comic book movies, they usually pick and choose which storylines work the best for their project then find a way to tell a version of a story that appeals to the premise of selling tickets. Henceforth, why the plots of X-men, Suicide Squad, Spider-man 3, fail to work as a fully developed story ideas. Writers are usually asked to put too much into a two-hour movie and when doing so they add too much or leaving out a very crucial parts to a storyline that spanned my ten to twenty issues. No Man’s Land Arguably the best scene in the movie almost did not make it into the film. Here’s Patty Jenkins: It’s my favorite scene in the movie and it’s the most important scene in the movie. It’s also the scene that made the least sense to other people going in, which is why it’s a wonderful victory for me. I think that in superhero movies, they fight other people, they fight villains. So when I started to really hunker in on the significance of No Man’s Land, there were a couple people who were deeply confused, wondering, like, ‘Well, what is she going to do? How many bullets can she fight?’ And I kept saying, ‘It’s not about that. This is a different scene than that. This is a scene about her becoming Wonder Woman.’ I agree with her every word. When thinking subjectively about why something does or does not work we tend to not take into consideration the art of creating a moment like this. It’s not about how much sense it makes -- we all know there was no mystic Amazon warrior fighting battles in WWI. The No Man’s Land scene was more about the atrocities of war and sanctimony of battle. Diana would conquer the unconquerable, a stretch of land littered with hundreds of dead soldiers for the morally good, and not just to kill an enemy but to save the people. This particular fight was bigger than even Ares himself as in that moment Diana wore her heart outside of her chest fighting for the greater good and not the purpose of war.

[x_feature_headline type="left" level="h1" looks_like="h1" icon="cutlery"]Scoop Du Jour[/x_feature_headline] 

One of the better stories about Wonder Woman stems from the origins of the comic book character and her creator Dr. William H. Marston. Jill Lepore, the author of the book The Secret History of Wonder Woman wrote an article for The Smithsonian which describes the scandalous beginnings of Wonder Woman and DC Comics. Marston was a jack of all trades, a psychologist, scientist, and lawyer who started his work with DC Comics in 1941. As a move to help curtail the onslaught of criticism from the media and watchdog groups, Maxwell Charles Gaines creator of DC Comics, took to an idea from Marston to create a female character who among the likes of Superman and Batman would help to soften the violence and sexual nature of the current pulp comic narrative. Little did Gaines know that Wonder Woman would bring him more attention than he so desired. The debut of the Diana from the mystic Amazonian Paradise Island was immediately met with overall disdain. The number one complaint: They didn’t like the way she was dressed. Too much skin, they shouted as they burned images of Wonder Woman clothed in nothing but a tight red top, underwear, a lasso, and boots. Burn the witch! Okay, it’s wasn’t that dramatic but isn’t the same type of anger expressed whenever a woman come outs against the status quo? Past the cover and onto page one clothing just the tip of the anger-berg. Images of bondage and not-so-subtle feminist messaging throughout the comic caused for a plea that the comic be remove from the shelves and restricted from children! Such vile content would warp the minds of the adolescence and cause them to commit horrible acts of debauchery in the future. Luckily Gaines, a physiologist, could defend Wonder Woman in reality as she defended herself on the page, but it was not easy. In this article, Lepore touches upon Marston and his relationship with his wife Elizabeth Holloway, and live in love affair, Olive Byrne. Their love story had nothing to do with Wonder Woman per say. The trio would manage to keep their polyamorous living situation a secret going so far as to introduce Byrne as a widowed cousin who needed a place to stay.  Labels and stereotypes are used to keep people shackled to an idea of conformity, so instead of wearing a ring, Olive Byrne wore two bracelets. Marston, Byrne, and Holloway all had ties to the feminist Suffrage movement and when you consider this history, Wonder Woman the character — her meaning— takes a different shape as she may have been a character birthed from idea but she molded into a model of female empowerment that exemplifies struggle, strength, and overall empathy towards mankind. If you watched the movie, and happen to see the trailer, Professor M; that is this story made into film starring Luke Evans. Check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv-GrUKgRGk

This, That, and Other News

Teens rescued after spending three days in the catacombs beneath France. Sounds like a movie right? As Above, So Below is a found footage movie released back in 2014 about a couple of cataphiles who get lost in the maze that of the freaky underground tombs of Paris, France. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/europe/paris-catacombs-rescue/?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottommedium Weekly Flavor Text: “Great girdle of Aphrodite!” she cries at one point. “Am I tired of being tied up!” Links: Better yet, by the book. https://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-History-Wonder-Woman/dp/0385354045/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592408702&linkCode=as2&tag=smithsonianco-20&linkId=K2QLHC6725SQQ3QO Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/origin-story-wonder-woman-180952710/#5ohitvsa3uyQAlIG.99 https://filmschoolrejects.com/wonder-woman-review/ https://filmschoolrejects.com/wonder-woman-champion-empathy/ https://www.wired.com/2017/06/wonder-woman-origin-story/ http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-wonder-woman-movie-understands-why-superheroes-exis-1795826527 http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/how-wonder-woman-tackles-superhero-movies-greatest-foe-sexism-w485184 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/wonder-woman-is-a-milestone-but-shouldnt-be-1010023  

Talking With Burritos Presents A New Episode!

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Let it be known here and now that Patty Jenkins is a brilliant director. She’s brilliant when directing indies like Monster which won Charlize Theron Best Actress, and she’s brilliant directing television (DGA winner for The Killing) where she’s mostly been relegated ever since. We now know she’s brilliant when directing a massive feature film wedged in a genre dominated by men and boys. Wonder Woman must, by its nature, leave us awed and breathless. It also must, thanks to the recent trend in films like these, take its subject seriously. Jenkins, being the first woman to direct a superhero film, had additional pressure to deliver big on that opening weekend, without name-brand stars. Jenkins delivers on all three demands.

It’s funny and strange and weird that Big Hollywood has never trusted a movie of this size to a woman … like, ever … and it’s even weirder that no one took a chance like this on Jenkins before. With Wonder Woman, easily one of the best films of this year, Jenkins proves that not only can she direct a superhero film but she takes the genre itself to new heights — heights never really seen since Christopher Nolan got hold of Batman. Who knew a superhero movie could be this good?

What happened to strong women in the action film genre between Raiders of the Lost Ark and now? Fanboy culture happened. And with them came a target demographic that strangled Hollywood for a few decades, aiming their products almost exclusively at teenage boys and young men fastened in extended adolescence, while giving female moviegoers nothing more to identify with than the sidekick or love interest role. Over time, the discussion about the absence of women behind and in front of the camera boiled over. What was the hangup? Money. Since the only woman ever allowed to helm a $100 million summer action feature fell short of turning a profit (Kathryn Bigelow, K-19: The Widowmaker), it seemed that no woman should ever again be trusted to mount a $100 million film. Unlike their infinitely forgivable male counterparts, women have to prove themselves again and again, and constantly risk being shunned from the film industry at the first sign of trouble. One strike and you’re out.

You might not expect the message to go as deep as this Wonder Woman does — or to delight in so much ethereal visual magic with Jenkins’ assured hand. She doesn’t try to direct like a man, nor does she try to season her story to make it easier on male viewers. And to the film’s credit, it refuses to score points at the expense of the male ego, as some might predict it would. What it mostly does is flip the narrative to a kind of storytelling we don’t expect. Wonder Woman’s origin story sets us up for more of the tough and charismatic Gal Gadot as the Amazon warrior tasked with saving the world from the god of war. We know that going in. We also know she’ll have Captain America’s Chris Pine as her co-star, the biggest name in the film (at least before Gadot becomes a household name, which she will soon enough, like, immediately). But to say any more would be to spoil the fun. Yes, Wonder Woman is enormous fun. It’s also a surprisingly moving and refreshing change to what we’ve seen again and again where men and men alone save the day.

Written by Allan Heinberg, Wonder Woman never sells out its heroine, even when a male character enters the story. She’s never dumb, never foolish. She makes her own decisions (shocking, I know) and saves the world in a way that so many of us so desperately need to see right now. This is still in the realm of comics and fantasy so to dissect its plot too strenuously would be a mistake (although it surely provides fertile ground for anyone who chooses to do so). Chris Pine is one of the best things about the film, in addition to the other rich supporting cast like Robin Wright and David Thewlis. But the film ultimately belongs to Gadot, who makes us believe and makes us forget and makes us never want the movie to end. It is partly the astonishing physicality — the high flying Amazons and their arrows and swords. But Gadot handles the emotional scenes just as well. There aren’t many women who can carry an entire film as she does — but she does it.

Most films now, summer blockbuster or otherwise, revolve around “one special boy.” But this is especially true with the superhero genre. Women are meant to sit politely and not care that no one has ever said they matter enough to make a whole movie about them, even though comic books have always had dynamic female characters at their center. In the DC universe, Black Widow would make a great singular stand-alone character and yet, for some unknown reason, that’s never materialized. It was an experiment, this film – to see how many men would go along with it. Some haven’t. Some have swollen into marshmallowy crybabies, bitching because they got excluded from a screening or two out in Austin, Texas, where a marketing campaign came up with the idea to put wall-to-wall women in the Alamo Drafthouse to see how this history-making movie might feel for a crowd like that. There will be some guys who just won’t see it, feeling that their hallowed territory is being encroached upon. Or maybe they just like being able to turn off their frontal lobes and project themselves into a world where they can kill bad guys, lift cars with one hand, and always end up with the girl. Funny thing about that, though, lots of different kinds of people like to vibe that fantasy — women, and people whose gender and ethnicity is never represented. It’s just that this market has been cornered for nearly three decades by a false perception of ticket-buyer identity. Audiences buying tickets in America are no longer just white males (nor have they ever been) and Hollywood is slowly remembering this fact.

Wonder Woman is a movie about a human nature.  To defend us one has to understand us. With our ugly inclination to kill one another and destroy the world we’re easy to hate. How quickly so much of us have turned one another this past year, forming tribes that point fingers, sling insults, pull triggers. We’re living through seemingly hopeless times. All the more reason to step back and remember that there are still things about humanity still worth saving.

Art has the power to transform, to heal and show us the way. Humans need art. We always have. Our experience of life can’t just be screaming at each other on social networks. We need our stories, too. We need to see the ideals represented, even if it’s “only a movie.” Even if no one believes it could ever or would ever happen. Art is not here to show us reality. It is here to show us the unreality, to light our way through the murky darkness to reveal the gods, the goddesses, and the wonder women — weightless and fierce, and never hesitating to take on the fight for a better world.

3 June 2017 | 3:23 am

Sasha Stone

Source : Awards Daily

>>>Click Here To View Original Press Release>>>

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