Fatigue Fatigue

Superhero movies.

Among other things, this last year saw the finale to a storyline that began 11 years ago with the film that cemented the current cinematic superhero zeitgeist. “Iron Man” to “Endgame” and all the stuff that’s run alongside that stuff. And for something like half of that time period, people have been talking about the idea of “superhero fatigue”.

But does anyone else feel something closer to fatigue fatigue? Like . . . I could really live without hearing people whine about stuff they have no interest in. There are all kinds of things I don’t care about. I prefer to talk about the things I like. This blog should evince that quite well. I’ve never seen the point of arguing for the death of anything. Especially in this post-monoculture world where the mainstream’s been divided into innumerable tributaries that cater to all sorts of diverse tastes. Am I biased because I love the whole superhero mythos? Not really. I remember when those Hunger Games movies were huge. I never watched a single one, but it was still annoying to hear aspiring intellectuals dismiss them with lazy comparisons to “Battle Royale”. It was especially bad because most of them didn’t actually seem to know anything about “Battle Royale” beyond the fact that its basic plot was similar to that of the Hunger Games. It was just a reprise of all of those people that accused Rowling of copying Hogwarts from whatever magical school was foremost in their minds without any consideration for the possibility that broad ideas like child soldiery or mystic academia can be independently created and executed in myriads of equally valid directions.

I could also deal without people who drone on about constant adaptations and remakes. Like, dude. “Gone With the Wind” is one of the most deified movies of the golden age of cinema or whatever, and it was based on a book. Execution’s the only thing that matters. If someone has a take on something, they should be allowed to spin it out. Same with sequels. If people like a thing, let them have more of it. Especially since “Empire” is the Star Wars film that gets the most praise. No “Empire” in a world without sequels. And the good stuff’s always going to be worth letting the bad stuff pass through. Filtration’s futile.

But yeah. It’s much easier and more satisfying to concentrate on the things you love and leave everything else for the people who do love it. It’s really not that hard.

Bonus Question!

Best sequel?

“Rush Hour 2” is the one that sticks out in my mind because it came out during a formative time in my life and it actually has a 2 in the title.

B

The Heavyside Lair is Basically Cathalla

It's been around a decade since I became enamoured with Cats. I watched that officially recorded video of the stage show from the 90s and bought the soundtrack, which I still listen to. When I was 20, I did my final night of trick-or-treating as Rum Tum Tugger, which was followed by a night on the town that saw me walk into a bar for the lavatory and win their costume contest withouth actually entering it.

Anyway, I was primed for the movie version, and it triumphed. It really filled out the source material in wildly fantastical ways, and it clearly showed the wonders achievable by adapting stage musicals. I've long thought that more productions could be given that treatment. "Hamilton" is an obvious choice for sheer popularity, and I'd be intrigued at the prospect of a cinematic "Wicked". 

Basically, "moar plz."

Bonus Question!

Best cinematic musical?

"Moulin Rouge!"

Wingy Queens

So. I have watched all of "Game of Thrones", but I didn't care enough to pay real attention to the details about all the criticisms of its final season. But I did just see the new Maleficent movie.

And I've got to say, if your main complaint was in the fact that Daenerys was a queen who hung around with fantastical winged beasts instead of a queen who actually was a fantastical winged beast, I think "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" could wash away those Westeros woes.

It also has the actor who played the less bland version of Daario, and he's probably going to have a thing with the wingy queen lady in this too.

Bonus Question!

Best fantastical winged beast?

I've always felt an affinity for the phoenix.

I mean, yeah. There's the whole thing of always getting back up. But also they're shiny, flighty things, and I feel that deep.

Girlfriend in a Phone-a! I know! I know! It's Siri-ous

I just saw "Jexi". I didn't see "Her", but I assume that this was basically that but more dysfunctional. Which is why it's a comedy. And the fact that it was a comedy was all I knew beyond its main actor before I saw it. But yeah. Like “Her”, it’s a movie about a dude who gets far too intimate with a sentient digital assistant.
So. It was fun.
Will I see "Her"?
I doubt it. But I'm sure it's good too. But "Jexi" was what I saw.

Bonus Question!
Best sentient digital assistant?

J.A.R.V.I.S. In large part because Paul Bettany in Marvel is like chocolate in peanut butter soup.

Fun Run

Saw “Brittany Runs a Marathon”. I knew I recognised the lead actor, though I couldn’t place her intuitively. Then I discovered I didn’t even know her name. I’d just seen her in stuff.

But it was solid. She’s playing someone who’s reaching the end of her 20s with the realisation that her habits have begun to endanger her health. Her response is to throw herself into running in order to get better.

Honestly, I was reminded slightly of what I went through a little while ago, though for me it was the reverse. I’d been running habitually for a while, and that turned out to exacerbate the frailty I’d had for my whole life. But still, I related to that feeling of teetering on the precipice of infirmity and committing to the quest to improve.

Outside of that, it was still good.

Bonus Question!

Longest run?

There were two occasions on which I inadvertently ran half marathons because I didn’t want to stop.

Marvel Monster Mash

Monster month is fully swinging, and I've been thinking about the classic movie monsters. I noticed that they seem to map fairly well onto the members of the Defenders, Marvel's classic misfit team from the 70s, which happened to be a boom for the supernatural on the big screen while such things were largely forbidden in Marvel's pages by the officious rulings of the Comics Code.

Anyway.

Obviously, Frankenstein's monster was an admitted influence on the Hulk. Big brute who rampages around but really just wants to be left to himself.

The gill man? Namor, the king of the oceans.

Silver Surfer, like the mummy Imhotep, is an aloof displaced member of an ancient civilization imbued with mysterious power who wanders around and pines for his lost love.

And finally the big D's. Doctor Strange and Dracula. They love capes. They're relentlessly theatrical. And while they still measure up to their cohorts in terms of weirdness, they are occasionally able to muster up attempts to interact with society at large without making a complete mess.

Also, Strange was explicitly modelled on Vincent Price, who was involved in that whole monster mix too.

And Hulk's rival Talbot shares a surname with the wolf man. I don't know if that's significant.

Bonus Monster!

Some people like to include the Phantom of the Opera in this bunch, and the idea of a disgraced burn victim in a threatening mask who's obsessed with causing havoc for some dude he's pinned his misfortune on fits pretty well with Doctor Doom.

Yesterday Came Out Several Yesterdays Ago, But I Finally Saw It

Everyone knows I'm a big fan of Richard Curtis. Or they don't. But I am. "Love Actually" has a particular place in my heart after its introduction to me during a hospital stay at the end of one summer break led to endless viewings.

At the end of this summer, there was nothing in theatres I really wanted to see, which pushed me to finally give "Yesterday" a shot after I'd let it pass by for months. And then I realised it was written by Richard Curtis.

So. I thank you, September movie drought, for pushing me back into the warm embrace of Richard Curtis.

Bonus Question!

Favourite Beatle?

Paul. Dude just likes to be on. I feel that.

Dora's Gold

I was never a devout watcher of "Doea the Explorer", though I did catch an episode or two in high school, and that map song got stuck in my head. Not in an unpleasant way. It's still in there somewhere. But then this new movie came out with all those classic adventure tale trappings I love, and I obviously had to see it. For whatever reason, I wasn't really anticipating the inclusion of the anthropomorphised animals from the cartoon. But they're there. And one's Benicio del Toro. He’s a felonious fox. So hey. That's frosting.
And since that frosting is atop an Indiana Jones cake of archaeologic adventure that's mixed with Spider-Man-style teenage action hero pie, I'm satisfied.

Bonus Question!

Best felonious fox?

Tom Tingles

Alright. I know I've always said that Andrew Garfield was my favourite Spidey, and I still think he was a fresh breeze of cavalier air after the somewhat dour Tobey Maguire, who still wasn't really bad at his take, but "Far From Home" convinced me to join everyone else in 2016 and accept that Tom Holland is god tier Spidey. And that's even with my soft spot for the Ultimate Peter Garfield reminded me of. Tom even nails the aspects of that version. It's not really news to anyone but me. In some ways, it's not even news to me. But Tommy's a wondrous distillation of some kind of Platonic Spider-Ideal.

And the movie as a whole is my favourite Spider-Man film. Even its mix of high school jinks and rangy adventure brings to my mind the Ultimate comics that elevated

the character to new heights in my young mutant heart. Also, while I'm somewhat ambivalent about the direction of the credits scene, the character who steered it was a welcome surprise of the grandest order.

The fact that Mysterio's presented as a fusion of my two favourite Avengers doesn't hurt either.

Bonus Question!

Mysterio's described as a mix of Iron Man and Thor, just like Sigurd Stark, the Iron Hammer of the Infinity Warps event. Who wins?

Mysterio's extra stylish in the movie, but he's still just a trickster. Not even a trickster god. Iron Hammer's

got divine science magic. And a hammer. So . . .

Grimly Phoenix

Just saw "Dark Phoenix". Can't understand the hate. It was a fun X-Men film filled with classic X-Men nonsense. Like "Apocalypse". On a tonal level, I did prefer "Apocalypse", but that's  because it was more uplifting, and my own tastes might have liked that to be the end point. But I'm also the guy who used to end the Ziggy Stardust album on "Suffragette City" because "Suicide" seemed too dour to end on, and now that's one of my favourite songs.

But it's pretty rare for a dude to get a second chance at seeing his vision through without interference, and that's what Kinberg got for this after the complications of "Last Stand". He rose from the ashes of that and made his Phoenix play here.

I will say that the X-Men uniform popped better onscreen than I expected, though I still would have preferred the wilder costumes that were teased at the end of "Apocalypse". What else popped? Mystique's hair. That  coif was radical. It could have come from a bottle called "Radical Red". Pure comic book colour. Cheers for that. And cheers to Kinberg for managing to convince her to come back for endless hours of makeup application.

And I realise now that Tye Sheridan might have won the casting call in large part by virtue of his mouth. That blind pout is pure Cyclops. I loved Marsden in the old movies, but he might have almost been too stylish for the role. He might have made me like Scott more than I should have. But Tye's performance is incredibly honest.

Also. At one point, the X-Men are antagonised by the Mutant Control Unit or whatever, with big letters on their outfits that read "MCU", which seems appropriate after all the legal issues between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Fox's X-Men franchise.

And the ending reminded me of the epilogue to "Dark Knight Rises", which mainly had the effect of making me want to watch a conversation between Xavier and Michael Caine. It doesn't even have to be with Alfred. Any Michael Caine.

Bonus Question!

How was the last season of "Jessica Jones"?

She's not my favourite character of the Netflix Defenders, but for some reason, her show always goes down smoothest.

Nice and Accurate

I just watched "Good Omens", and I've got to say that Crowley is the best example since Alan Rickman's Snape of the ability of an adapted character's entire aesthetic to transcend that of the source material so wonderfully. Dude feels like an underworldly Ziggy Stardust. The book did not set my expectations for that.

Also, it's just good, man. And still true. I don't have any issue with the "American Gods" show, but it didn't do for me what the book did. Along with "Good Omens", I could probably fit it near the top of my favourites. The television series felt too different for my own tastes. But "Good Omens" recreated the novel's feel brilliantly, and I've got to cheer for that.

Bonus Question!

Best omen?

I don't know. Red skies at night? At least if you're a sailor.