#in a setting sort of defined by supervillains and the damage they choose not to do it's interesting that the most dangerous villain is just

[seaalgae]

i’m rereading worm and i’ve gotta say. big fan of the simurgh singlehandedly turning things into psychological horror for an entire arc by virtue of being just evil causality

[briangroth27]

Incredibles 2 Review

I absolutely loved Incredibles 2! It's a great time at the movies and definitely worth the 14-year wait. I was initially skeptical of it picking up seconds after the original, but I think the story threads here—particularly Jack-Jack's (Eli Fucile, Nick Bird) development and the Anti-Super laws—needed to be dealt with onscreen rather than off.  I liked that they reversed the structure of the first movie and had Helen (Holly Hunter) go off on the adventures while Bob (Craig T. Nelson) stayed at home to watch the kids. Even better, this switch was rooted in statistical facts that Elastigirl was the most effective and efficient hero between herself, Bob, and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). Since so much of her Elastigirl persona was left in the past in the original movie because she’d moved on in life while Bob hadn’t really, showing Helen truly loving her work and being great at it was a perfect moment that let us see a whole new side to her. Seeing Helen so overjoyed at getting to be a hero again—and being great at it, with no collateral casualties—was excellent! It was also nice to see that she had detective skills; a good contrast to Bob smashing his way through problems (and which have probably have helped her deduce what her kids are up to over the years!). That her heroic competence was truly valued outside her family circle and by the people who wanted to use her to push their politics Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener) was a genuine and welcome surprise; I'd love to see more female heroes respected and revered the way Elastigirl is here. Bob playing Mr. Mom was a lot of fun, even if I’m more than ready for a competent parenting duo instead of the always-effective mom and the cliché overwhelmed dad. That said, Bob’s battle with Dash's (Huck Milner) new math, Violet's (Sarah Vowell) teenage angst, and Jack-Jack's terrible toddling was extremely relatable and a great change from the superhero midlife crisis we saw in the original. I enjoyed Bob’s playful ego about being the better hero in his marriage and loved that it was balanced by genuinely caring that Helen had the space to do what she needed to do. That sort of loving/selfish balance is an extremely difficult line to walk but the writing and acting totally pull it off without making him unlikable (and it's not even hinted or implied that Helen is in any way selfish either). It was especially sweet of Bob not to tell Helen what was going on with the family not because he didn't want to come off as incompetent, but because he knew she'd stop her mission. Yes, he benefits from her completing it, but I fully believe that he also wants the better future for his kids that Helen can secure. I would've liked to see more of Dash and Violet in general, and particularly their school lives. Dash has homework trouble and Tony (Michael Bird), the boy Violet made a date with, forgets her (a cool example of superhero lives wreaking havoc on civilian ones as well as the law affecting the Parrs in an unexpected way), but the Anti-Super laws would've been stronger if we'd seen the kids’ lack of choice Bob talks about. Violet wanting to be normal and Dash being "defined as a person" by heroism does play out that choice, but we don't really get to see consequences of the laws in terms of impacts on the kids. Does having to come in second place in track rankle Dash? And if he's defined by being a hero, how does he feel about having to hide at school?  Is anyone suspicious of his speed? Does Dash have to fight to control himself when confronted by bullies that openly hate Supers? By teachers who preach that Supers are bad and should be illegal? Playing up the questionable aspects of the first movie's ending—is he cheating by using his speed, even for second place? How is not living up to his potential affecting his development?—would've built up a lot more pressure on the need to make Supers legal again. Violet hating being a Super made her a good proponent for not being legalized, though I would’ve liked more of that as well. How much of her tragic love life is really angst about not being able to be herself? Maybe she could’ve gotten involved with a student organization to keep Supers illegal, pitting her against her mom’s efforts. What if she discovered another Super kid at school and was forced to choose between outing them or letting them stay hidden? Might she find that pretending to be normal at school is simply boring or stifling her in ways she doesn’t want to admit? That said, I loved what we did get from Dash and Violet and absolutely dug Jack-Jack's awakening powers! The idea that Super babies often have multiple abilities is a very cool metaphor for kids having unlimited potential and it also made for a lot of fun, varied action scenes. His battle with a raccoon was highly entertaining and his unexpected bond with Edna Mode (Brad Bird) was a brilliant twist! Edna discovering a role as a loving aunt was as hilarious as it was heartwarming and a great way to reveal a new dimension of her character. Frozone is always a welcome addition and it was great to see more of him here, both as a "rebel" with Bob and Helen trying to get the Anti-Super law reversed, as a protective uncle to the Parr kids, and finally a hypnotized enemy. I’d like to finally meet his wife Honey (Kimberly Adair Clark) though. It's beyond time she was more than just a nagging influence taking the joy out of his superheroics (though I like that she knows her worth!). I really hope she’s also a retired Super so we can see what the two of them are like outside of their home. Or, it would’ve been easy to make her a Lois Lane-type figure, so she could cover Helen’s return to prominence and at least get a moment of bonding with her. Either of those options would be great and I’d like to see their relationship explored somewhere. I knew who Screenslaver (Bill Wise) was almost immediately, but that didn’t lessen my love for this character at all. The hypnotism was a spooky and old-fashioned angle that felt totally fresh and fit the retro-futurist world of The Incredibles perfectly! Screenslaver also managed to comment on modern concerns about social media obsession, which was a nice bit of relatability (just like Bob and Dash's struggle with new math) while remaining rooted in the films’ era, when TVs were the hip new thing everyone was obsessed with. Screenslaver was a creepy, cool villain who topped Syndrome for me. I just wish his argument—that people were getting lazy and becoming too dependent on Supers—was more explored with examples of people being "less" because of superheroes (beyond hearing about a death caused by waiting on one). Maybe Screenslaver should’ve been saved for a movie set after the law against Supers was lifted, but slightly clearer examples of his point here would’ve worked just as well. I feel like his argument would be stronger if we got to see Supers making things too easy or if more people were put in peril because they waited for Supers to fix their problems instead of the big argument against heroes being the collateral damage their fights cause. That said, I absolutely loved this villain and would definitely be down for a Screenslaver return! Underminer (John Ratzenberger) was also a cool, second-tier villain that felt like a classic comic book bad guy. He's clearly patterned off of Mole Man, but that didn't matter to me; it was kinda refreshing (and appropriately old-school, given these movies’ time period) to see a villain who just wanted to rob banks. He also provided a good way to reintroduce the family's heroic dynamic and to showcase Bob and Helen's different fighting styles while complicating their lives further, building off the end of the first movie brilliantly. I liked that it became a strike against the heroes that he was forgotten in the scramble to stop his drills and that he actually got away. The new Supers that were introduced didn't make the biggest impression, but I preferred this to more focus on a bunch of random new people who would take screentime from the Parrs. I did like Voyd (Sophia Bush) a lot; her fangirl attitude toward Elastigirl was fun and she was a nice answer to Syndrome's toxic fandom. I hope she returns in a sequel! Krushauer (Phil LaMarr) was a solid threat and got some good and funny lines in, while Screech playing up his full animalistic nature was creepy and something I hope Daredevil does with Owl Jr. These wannabe Supers did bring a variety of challenges to the final battle, so as secondary adversaries go, they worked perfectly. All the fight scenes contained very clever uses of everyone’s powers and were choreographed with an insane amount of fun and imagination! The numerous powers on display also made for battles that were never uninteresting. Even Bob's Incredibile got a nice showcase here as a display of the retro tech in this universe. I love the design of this world in general, but classic spy and superhero aesthetics like that are my favorite parts; I wish more superhero franchises would embrace stylized elements like this to carve out their own identities. Speaking of classic aesthetics, I loved that Bob, Helen, and Lucius had their own old-timey superhero theme songs! Michael Giacchino’s music was great as always, but those themes were great surprises! Brad Bird's direction was crisp and the writing emotionally resonate, bringing the heart of the first movie back at full force.  I can't wait to see what comes next from this world! I hope we don't have to wait another 14 years for Incredibles 3 (and I didn't need the apology/”trust us the wait was worth it” video that played at the beginning of this one; it only made us wait longer!), but I definitely want to see more adventures in this universe. Now that Supers are allowed again, I’d love for the next movie to introduce Dash and Violet's trouble-making cousins as wannabe supervillain bad influences. Cousins would bring aunts and uncles who have differing parenting styles from Bob and Helen, as well as Bob and Helen’s in-laws, who have their own opinions on how to “correctly” be heroes as well as parents. I'm thinking Christmas Vacation with superheroes, but whatever the next film is, I'll be in line to see it! While we wait, you should see Incredibles 2! It's among Pixar's best and definitely worth seeing on the big screen!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[theconservativebrief]

I spend a lot of time thinking about Captain America. I think about how, after six Marvel Studios films featuring Chris Evans in the role, we’ve gotten to the point where it’s impossible to trace where Evans ends and where Cap begins. I think about how he’s evolved from a character whose duty was to serve his country into a character whose country let him down. I think about how he bicep-curled a helicopter.

And after seeing Avengers: Infinity War, and after seeing Evans tweeting about his character’s presumed cinematic end, I’ve thought a lot about what happens when Captain America dies.

“We don’t trade lives,” Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Cap, tells Vision around Infinity War’s midpoint, explaining that the Avengers leave no men, women, or any other forms of life behind. But as we see half the world’s population (including some of our favorite Avengers) decimated at the movie’s end, it’s not hard to foresee an outcome in next year’s Avengers 4 where Cap is put in the position of trading his life for others.

It’s been eight years since Evans donned the stars and stripes for Captain America: The First Avenger. In that time, he’s evolved from a selfless patriot to a man out of time to a prodigal son. Now, with the future of the universe at stake, the table is set for what could be the biggest moment in the character’s cinematic life.

Given Cap’s character arc, which has always been underscored by his selflessness, and how much Infinity War emphasized his stance on “trading lives,” it certainly seems like a noble sacrifice to save the universe lies in his future. And even if it somehow doesn’t come to that, he’s already cemented his legacy as Earth’s most enduring Avenger.

Cap in Infinity War. Marvel Studios

One of the biggest revelations in Infinity War is Thanos’s motivations for culling the universe: He believes that in order to sustain life, we have to reduce it by half. Resources are finite, and life is a burden on those resources. Eliminate life to an ideal degree (roughly half, according to Thanos’s math), and both life and resources reach an optimal level.

In other words, Thanos believes in trading lives.

The ultimate example of his willingness to trade is his choice to throw his adopted daughter Gamora off a cliff in order to obtain the Soul Stone. His sights are set on completing the Infinity Gauntlet and using it to create his vision of a utopia. Killing his daughter, whom he seems to genuinely love, is the price he’s willing to pay.

Steve Rogers and everything he stands for — and, by extension, the standard for what superheroes in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe strive to be — are the antithesis to Thanos. When faced with the choice between ripping the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead and killing him, or protecting Vision and risking the fate of half the universe, Rogers refuses to trade a single life in the name of preserving his and countless others’. He’d rather die fighting than sacrifice an innocent to avoid the fight.

This stance is remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, Vision is an AI — Tony Stark’s computer program upgraded with the power of an Infinity Stone — which raises the question of whether Vision is even “alive” to begin with. Also, in contrast to Gamora and Thanos, Vision isn’t someone with a particularly distinct relationship to Steve Rogers. But despite this, Cap doesn’t hesitate in choosing to save Vision at all costs, risking the lives of Avengers and Wakandans alike to protect him.

When Avengers 4 unfolds next year it will most likely involve the resurrection of its vaporized heroes (especially those with confirmed sequels on the schedule). Because of this, I’d expect there to be a continued emphasis on Steve’s “we don’t trade lives” mantra — it’s one of the few lines he’s given in Infinity War, and it’s repeated — in contrast to Thanos’s worldview. There’s just too much symmetry and thematic opportunity there for Marvel to ignore it.

It wouldn’t surprise me if in Avengers 4, in order to undo Thanos’s massive cull, Steve Rogers would have to sacrifice himself to undo the damage of not trading Vision’s life — that he would be faced with having to “trade lives” to get back all the lives that were lost. And the only life Cap would be fine with trading would be his own. (It also wouldn’t surprise me if some sort of Soul Stone mythology leads to a confrontation between Cap and Red Skull, the supervillain from Captain America: The First Avenger who’s revealed to be the keeper of the Soul Stone in Infinity War.)

Cap sacrificing himself for the greater good would feel like the ultimate inverse of Thanos’s decimation: giving his life to save the people he loves, instead of killing someone he loves in the name of a greater good. It’s a sacrifice that only Cap could make.

Find you someone who looks at you the way Cap looks at everyone. Marvel Studios

Back in 2008, Marvel found itself a hero in Iron Man’s Tony Stark, who was sardonic, quippy, and smarter and cockier than his peers. Compared to other relatively earnest cinematic superheroes of the time, like the X-Men and Spider-Man, Tony Stark was the “cool” superhero we needed.

“It takes about two minutes of watching Robert Downey Jr. in action in Iron Man 3 — in any of his appearances as the armored Tony Stark, in fact — to realize what the other Avengers are lacking: Charisma,” Graeme McMillan wrote in Time in 2013, bemoaning the Cap’s stiffness and earnestness in comparison to the Avengers’ other leader.

But a lot changes in five years.

With the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe has since shaken out, with Tony Stark at fault for creating Ultron and ripping apart the Avengers in Civil War, Downey’s portrayal of an artisanal tech jerk hasn’t aged particularly well. (And while I don’t blame Marvel or Downey for this, I can’t see Elon Musk without thinking of the smarminess of Tony Stark, and vice versa.) Tony Stark’s cocksure genius has gone from being an asset to a liability, for the character and the franchise alike. And in those same five years, Cap has become the more endearing hero.

Ever since his first appearance in 2011’s The First Avenger, Steve Rogers has been defined by his spirit — it’s the reason he, in spite of his physical deficiencies, was chosen for the super soldier experiment. In 2012’s The Avengers, he’s a thawed-out man out of time; he has all the powers of a super soldier, but beneath his superhero surface is that scrawny guy who’s a grandpa among his peers. He’s a relic of America’s golden age, and his earnestness and selflessness feel like relics as well: too good and sweet to be of our contemporary time and place, and directly at odds with the modern sensibilities of Tony Stark.

But Cap’s evolution into the heart of the modern MCU begins with the surreal revelation in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier that the country and the government he believed in and fought for has spoiled since he left it, forcing him to redefine his heroism in relationship to the government that first made him a hero. Then in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, he’s completely at odds with the government, defying orders to save and protect his friends and the greater good, while Tony Stark aligns the remaining Avengers with the government in the name of atoning for the damage he caused by creating Ultron.

Clashing with Tony’s contemporary sarcasm, Steve’s earnestness becomes timeless. His heroism isn’t undertaken out of duty like Tony’s, but rather woven into the fabric of his being. Tony Stark’s goodness saves him from himself, while Steve’s goodness is quantified in saving others.

Infinity War ends with a cliffhanger and a twist. Thanos eliminates half of the universe — and half of the Avengers — as the movie fades to black. But in a post-credits scene, Nick Fury is seen sending a distress call to someone he believes can save the day: Captain Marvel.

We know very little about the upcoming 2019 Captain Marvel film other than that it’s set in the 1990s and that its titular superhero, Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, is an Air Force pilot caught in the middle of a war between two alien races, probably the Kree and the Skrulls. Setting the movie in the 1990s, and then possibly sending the character into space to deal with cosmic threats, could help explain why Captain Marvel hasn’t already appeared on Earth at some point in the MCU’s 10-year history.

But with the Avengers and the universe in tatters, the table is set for Captain Marvel to make her debut and rally the troops. It also feels like the time when the original core Avengers will pass the torch to the next generation of Marvel heroes.

Evans hasn’t detailed the specifics of his Captan America contract, but he told Good Morning America during the Infinity War press tour: “I don’t know what’s next — but by 2019, that’s it.” And this week he tweeted about how grateful he was for the memories and the experiences of playing (in past tense) the character.

Officially wrapped on Avengers 4. It was an emotional day to say the least. Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful.

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) October 4, 2018

Assuming Evans isn’t bluffing, there will be a storytelling opportunity for Captain America to pass his leadership of the team to another captain who happens to share many of his defining qualities (time displacement, an outsider to the core group, a US service member). It would make sense that Cap would sacrifice himself, but also that he would see to it that the Avengers are left in capable, caring, and responsible hands.

There’s thematic precedence for this in the comics that Avengers 4 could easily draw on for this scenario. In Captain Marvel No. 1, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and drawn by Dexter Soy, Carol and Cap have a strikingly pertinent discussion about her taking the name “Captain Marvel” and leading the team. It’s primarily a conversation about legacy: Carol doesn’t want the title because she doesn’t want to be seen as stealing or besmirching the original Captain Marvel’s good name.

Cap and Carol in Captain Marvel No. 1. Marvel/Dexter Soy

Reading over that scene made me think about the title of Captain America as it stands in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel has, over the past seven years, created a humanity in Captain America. In taking up that mantle, Steve Rogers has become one of the most beloved characters in pop culture, and the defining spirit of the first generation of Avengers. Should Avengers 4 be his last hurrah, it will also necessarily be a celebration of his legacy.

Original Source -> Avengers: Infinity War is the beginning of a goodbye to Captain America

via The Conservative Brief