Dumb Positivity

I’m somewhat infamous among people who know me for …

Well, probably a bunch of things. But if I weren’t infamous for all of those, I might be infamous for liking enough stuff to the point where there’s not really any room for stuff to hate.

Which apparently isn’t the standard way of things? I don’t know. I’m never great at the standard way of things.

But recently, I’ve noticed an increscent amount of space for vindication of my naive enjoyment of things that are not widely hailed masterpieces. As a kid with no memory of not knowing Vader’s true identity, I was ready for more Star Wars long before “The Phantom Menace” came out, and “Attack of the Clones” is still my favourite film in the entire saga. While I can generally agree with everyone that Chris Evans is wonderful in the role of Steve Rogers, I’ve also said that there are other actors who could capture that kind of energy, but Chris’s Johnny Storm was inimitable. And the rest of the cast worked for me too!

And of course these are just a small sampling of the opinions that were vociferously contradicted by the voice of the populace for years.

But in recent years, more people are constantly rising up to agree with this sort of positivity. I noticed it to a high degree with the Star Wars prequels, though I’m sure some would write that off as a response to sequel discomfort. But now people are even coming out in support of the early 2000s Fantastic Four films, which for years seemed to be the most execrable superhero movies of the modern era to the point that scores of unimaginative cynics claimed they proved that the property was unadaptable long before the 2015 outing?

Such turnarounds warm my heart. Maybe any dumb positive opinion just has to live long enough to become smart.

Bonus Question!

Best clone?

Stryfe!

Probably not actually. But it’s fun to say.

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

Bro-nward

I’ve got to say. I’m often up for a weird road movie, and “Onward” clinched it by also being about two brothers, including a daydreaming man-child and a responsible one with a more reasonable outlook on life. I relate to that dynamic. And they’re elves. I also relate to that.

And the spirit of their father lingers in their hearts to inspire them in different ways.

Honestly, the one part I might relate to less is the driving. It’s been a while since I’ve taken up that responsibility.

But still! Awesome movie. One of my favourite cartoons in a while.

Bonus Question!

Best elf brothers?

The Stormrages.

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.

Actually Though

Over the summer, I started watching that new “Four Weddings and a Funeral” series just for the sake of it, but I eventually came to realise that, despite its name, it’s essentially an amalgam of the greatest hits from the guy who did the original film. And that includes “Love Actually”, which introduced me to that director, Richard Curtis, around this time of year a decade ago. I was in hospital at the end of summer vacation, and watching that movie endlessly on the hospital’s DVD player in my room on bed rest did a lot to brighten my spirits. I didn’t know that it was a Christmas movie before I saw it, and now it’s basically in my mind as a summer movie. So yeah. Cheers for releasing this new mishmash of a show at the right time for me. I feel the love, which is, actually, all around us.

Bonus Question!

Favourite “Love Actually” subplot?

Probably the Bill Nighy one. Maybe Hugh Grant though?

Nazi Rabbits

I just saw "Jojo Rabbit". I'd only heard enough about it over the last year to think that it sounded interesting and believe that it was about a kid with a stuffed rabbit that was inhabited by the soul of Adolf Hitler. I don't even remember if I ever knew that Taika Waititi was involved.

Anyway, I was wrong about most of the second part, which wasn't surprising, but I was right about the part where I thought I'd like it. That wasn't a surprise either. In addition to being eminently enjoyable, it also did a good job of showing that the occasional jerk can be taught to stop being one. And hey. Statistically? A lot can't. But some can. And that's one manifestation of the movie's main message of hope.

Also. Neither Taika Waititi nor Adolf Hitler look like Jon Hamm. But when I saw Taika Waititi in Adolf Hitler costume, I couldn’t help thinking that he looked vaguely similar to Jon Hamm.

Bonus Question!

Favourite part?

The whole thing was exquisite, but I took the greatest visceral pleasure from Sam Rockwell's performance. That happens sometimes. Once it even happened with a dude who turned out to not be Sam Rockwell.

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?

Toy Story 4

Finally saw “Toy Story 4”. I fell in love with the first one when it came out in early childhood, and I saw the rest, but I don’t carry that vibrant flame for the franchise that many of my generation do. But I have to say that this new entry in the series captures more for that generation than mere nostalgia. The mood of the nebulously young adults who grew up with the early movies is one that does its best to laugh off the near nihilistic sense of meaningless and futility that tints their view of the modern world. The main new character in “Toy Story 4” is one who keeps saying that he’s trash as he excitedly tries to dispose of himself, which definitely feels like a valid encapsulation of the millennial zeitgeist.

But I just liked the movie. Personally, I preferred it to the last.

Bonus Question!

Best toy?

Cuddly.

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 . . .

Forgetful Detecting

I kept forgetting Bill Nighy was in "Detective Pikachu" before I finally saw it. But he is. And it was.

Awesome. It was awesome.

I'd heard people say that it was weak outside of seeing live Pokemon, but I might tend towards the inverse. It was a fun adventure film outside of the visuals, which are never my main draw to a movie. The Pokemon looked good, but they didn't seem miraculously realistic. They just had an overall design that brought their level of detail up, but I'd still say Jar-Jar and company looked more natural in a real world than anything here. That's no knock against the film. I liked how it maintained a bit of the cartoony feel of the franchise, but my experience was at odds with a lot of what I'd heard about the film.

Anyway, it's a fun time. And the ending was an adorable surprise.

Best Eevee?

Sylveon. Because fairies.

ImpulSilver

I’ve been reading Peter David’s old Young Justice series from the 90s, and one of the things that sticks out is Impulse’s resemblance to the X-Men movie version of Quicksilver, who bears little resemblance to the comics version. Although he was also written to great effect by David in the 90s. Did someone in the production room for “Days of Future Past” just finish reading David’s X-Men stuff and say “You know who we need in this movie? That speedy dude Peter David made so awesome two decades ago!”? And the writers just assumed he was talking about Impulse instead of Quicksilver and wrote the script accordingly. Which actually worked out pretty well.

Bonus Question!

Worst Quicksilver?

If Quickstrike and Silverbolt from “Beast Wars” ever became a celebrity couple.

Batadict Cumberbat

Been hearing about this Batman casting. I don’t need to tell you that Pattinson’ll be fine. Everyone basically knows. Putting aside my personal affection for the Twilight franchise, I can still say he’s a skillful actor beyond the confines of that role he harbours open distaste for. But at least it gives clear precedent for his portrayal of a moody nocturnal rich dude. With bat symbolism.

Anyway, if that doesn’t work out for whatever reason, I’ve got another suggestion inspired by hearing that one of the villains for the film is supposed to be the Penguin.

Benedict Cumberbatch! Another tall dude with dark hair who looks as though he could come from money. Maybe he doesn’t quite have the chin for it? But whatever. Really, I just want to hear him pronounce “penguin” again. That was a highlight of that Madagascar film he was in.

He needs a name though. We just had Batfleck, and people are trying to decide on one for Robert. I’ve heard “Robert Batinson” and “Robat Pattinson” at least. Maybe “Batadict Cumberbatch” or “Benedict Cumberbatman”? We can work on it.

Bonus Question!

Best penguin?

Probably Memphis. He’s an incarnation of Elvis played by Hugh Jackman. That’s a potent mix.

Spoils of Infinity War

“Endgame” just came out. “Game of Thrones” is ramping up to its finale. Talk about spoilers and the ethics thereof has not been more prevalent in recent memory.

Now, I remember hearing about some study a few years ago where scientists claimed to prove that spoilers can enhance the consumption of a story because humans subconsciously enjoy putting together a puzzle when they know the end result. Which is fine for some people.

But in recent weeks, I’ve heard that study cited far too much by all sorts of people who hold it up to be some sort of universal truth. But humanity’s not a hive mind, and it’s insane to claim that someone who avoids spoilers actually just doesn’t know that they secretly want them.

I’m not the most fervent opponent of spoilers. Its a personal decision. Like everything, people bear some responsibility for avoiding what they don’t want in their lives, but they also have the right to be annoyed at those who ruin their fun. People generally understand themselves enough to know what they want, and no study is going to trump individual taste. It’s not like vaccination. That stuff doesn’t care if you like needles. It’ll help you anyway. Not the same deal here.

Bonus Question!

Best needle?

Gun.