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twistedastrology · 13 days

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🌊my take on neptune🌊

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LOOK at that gorgeous fucking planet man-

i wanna start this with a little tiny disclaimer that my take on neptune is very different from the usual and kinda flips a lot of shit on its head so my bad if this makes no sense to u but i wouldn't be uranus ruled if i didnt do shit crazy different would i 💔💔

THAT BEING SAID!!!!!! LETS GET INTO IT BABEY!!!!

let's start with what I'm dismantling-

in modern astrology, neptune is often considered the higher octave of venus and is known as the planet of spirituality or higher love. ive seen a lot of ppl say that neptune is associated with hollywood, which makes no fucking sense to me but whatever yknow to each their own-

neptune is also known as the ruler of pisces, and is exalted in cancer, the sign the moon rules.

I am about to flip a Whole fuckton on its head here so strap in and give me ur brain for a second 💔💔

neptune, the god, is the roman counterpart to poseidon, and poseidon rules over the sea, storms and earthquakes- generally very chaotic stuff-

poseidon's egyptian equivalent would be Seth, or Set. Seth was the god of chaos, storms, earthquakes, generally very chaotic stuff again.

Seth was also a trickster and, in egyptian mythology, overall kind of an asshole (since he literally chopped up Osiris into like a billion pieces and then scattered him across the earth so- idk kind of a dick move ngl)

but that's what he did!! that was his thing!!! he was the god of chaos!!!! gods of chaos are gonna be kinda assholes!!!!

But what does this mean for neptune- well this means that Neptune would be Seth (and neptune is known for it's deceptive qualities)

now keep that in ur brain as i go off on another tangent that will eventually circle back around to this one-

another proposal i have that may be shocking is that to me, Neptune is the one that rules Cancer, and the moon is the one that rules Pisces.

stay with me here hold on hear me out 💔

since ive been quite literally twisting the fuck out of astrology in my head and debunking cancer myth after cancer myth, I've come to find that cancers are a much more volatile sign than we give them credit for- or at least Can be-

they're not crybabies by any sense of the imagination, and like i said in my post abt cancers and rage, they feel anger more heavily than anything. they can also be very chaotic because they're cardinal water (think tsunamis).

now they're not all bad, dont think im tryna paint em as villains dawg i am literally a cancer rising/mars- but they have a distinct dark side to them that is Not to be fucked with.

cancers are often considered the "mothers" of the zodiac, but that has been watered down to "they're good with kids and probably want kids"- when cancers were Initially considered the mothers of the zodiac, they were talking abt cancers are the Guardians of the Zodiac.

not the galaxy-

now i will say, if a cancer has children, they will be VERY protective of them, but not in a helicopter-y way. more like in a "if you say something bad about their children or threaten to harm their children in any way, they will most likely punch you in the face and knock you out."

they wont bitch at you or be polite about it, they will probably break your face- BREAK YOUR FUCKIN FACE TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

now, where do cancers get that rage from? who around here borders on being or Is a god of chaos in the zodiac................. seth.

neptune is a much darker, more volatile planet than we give it credit for, just like cancers can be the same- But at the same time, they can both be very pleasant entities-

cancers can easily be some of the nicest people you've ever met, they're incredibly loyal and would probably go to war for you if you meant a lot to them, and they can be VERY and often times Are creative and artistic in some way.

neptune can be a very rewarding planet to work with, it can be incredibly creative because of the depth it represents, and it can put you and guide you on your path to and through spirituality.

neptune ruling cardinal water makes much more sense in this light than it ruling mutable water in my opinion. a planet as potentially volatile as neptune would NOT be mutable.

all of this also comes partially from my slightly different idea of what higher octaves really are- ive seen people say they're the "large scale influence" planets, but i think they're quite literally just the more powerful versions of the planets they're the higher octaves of (so they can and do affect the large scale, but that's not ALL they are).

so the moon in this case would deal with our conscious emotions, our humanity, that level of stuff- which makes more sense for pisces in my opinion- the moon would be more along the lines of the emotions we Think we should feel (mutable) and therefore do- the moon is how we may have Learned to feel, among many other things.

whereas neptune is our deep, inner self. our subconscious emotions, the feelings that penetrate our very soul. neptune is our shadow self, but it's also our higher self. just as the moon has a dark side, neptune has one too, but neptune's dark side is infinitely more painful.

this role switch also makes much more sense at least in my chart, because when looking at the moon as being my chart ruler, my co-ascendant would be pisces, which never made any sense to me- so i chalked it up to "oh well my moon is 1° pisces so it's basically aquarius i guess" which DID make sense

but my moon is still in pisces. My neptune, however, is firmly in aquarius, which explains perfectly why i feel so much more aquarius coded than anything else.

im also like 99% outer planet ruled, mercury being the only inner planet that dominates my chart- my most active planets are mercury, saturn, uranus, neptune and pluto 😮‍💨

HOWVEVEVR!!!!!!

i wanna say that whenever i switch everything up like this, i still find value in normal astrology and often combine it with my twisted version to get the most accuracy possible- so while my neptune and uranus are in mutual reception (aquarius/pisces) but i believe that neptune rules cancer, i still feel that mutual reception but i also still feel the neptune/cancer influence, especially since my ascendant literally starts in the neptune decan of cancer.

and this makes my chart make a lot more sense in terms of neptune too-

if this makes absolutely no fucking sense at all to you then that's fine!!! this is just my personal view on neptune and i honestly still associate a lot of My View of neptune's traits with the moon, which is why i incorporate a multitude of different perspectives into how i interpret everything and it gives me accurate meanings so i see no problem with it-

once it stops being accurate, then there's a problem, but we're not there yet so it's ok 🙏🙏

ultimately u can kinda just take this as food for thought if nothing else!! and if u read this far into my yapping session, god bless fr 😮‍💨 (i am not religious. HAHAHHAA)

#astrology #astrologer #astro observations #astro community #outer planets #my take #neptune #neptune astrology #zodiac signs #cancer zodiac #pisces

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ordinaryschmuck · 1 year

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 made me cry three times.

Hey, that’s one per movie...Yeah, this movie’s awesome.

If you couldn’t tell, this is a very emotional film for sure, and a part of why that works so well is because it’s these characters. The Guardians are some of the most likable characters in the MCU, so seeing them go through a lot of hard stuff in this movie hits ya where it hurts because of how much you care about them. Especially Rocket, who I might not see the same way again after this movie due to his crazy tragic backstory.

Speaking of which, shit gets DARK with Volume 3! Do you like animals? Then maybe don’t watch this one, because there are scenes where animals get tortured, mutilated, mutated, and even killed throughout the film. You don’t see the REAL brutal stuff, but the implications that James Gunn puts in might actually be worse than SHOWING us. But don’t let that make you think we DON’T see any gruesome stuff in this. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is one of the few MCU projects that EARNS its PG-13 rating, having some VIOLENT imagery and deaths. For example, there’s a moment where you see what a character really looks like, and it might just be the goriest thing the MCU has ever had, which is the biggest compliment I can give.

But despite all that, it’s still funny! Like, REALLY funny! And the jokes don’t spoil and dramatic or serious moment in the film, either...Well, except for maybe one or two scenes, but that’s NOTHING compared to films where the jokes completely harm the final product like Thor: Love and Thunder. Here, the jokes are perfectly placed, are rarely forced in, and are ACTUALLY funny. Me and everyone in the theater were cackling with laughter a LOT throughout the movie. I could barely restrain myself from belting out a laugh or two half the time.

And the action. Holy SHIT, the action! These “trilogies” in the MCU really know how to save the cool stuff for the third movies. Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now THIS FILM all feature some of the most epic, creative, and fun action scenes and set-pieces in the MCU. There’s a hallway fight that might just top Daredevil’s due to how violent and creative it is with these characters, their powers, and how they kill people. It really does feel like James Gunn wanted to give the fans a few final cool battles before leaving the MCU forever.

Which brings me to another thing about what makes this movie awesome: It is a clear send-off for James Gunn and the Guardians. The movie makes it VERY clear that this will be the last time all these characters will be together. Hell, the credits features pictures of the Guardians throughout their journies and adventures in the MCU. The most we’ll PROBABLY get are cameos, but other than that, this is the end for most of these characters. And WHAT an end it was.

If there’s anything to complain about, there’s two problems.

#1, Adam Warlock. The character isn’t...bad and Will Poulter nails the voice I always pictured this character having. But he doesn’t really nail who Warlock is in the comics and, overall, he’s kind of...pointless. You can easily write him out of the movie and make a few extra tweaks NOTHING would be missing. Honestly, it feels like the only reason why he’s here is because Volume 2 teased his appearance and James Gunn had no choice but to...bring him in for this last ride. Also, Warlock has the worst costume in the MCU. I mean, look at this:

What even is this?

Which brings me to #2--Which is my most nitpickiest complaint: Star Lord doesn’t wear his mask. Ever. Throughout all two hours and a half hours of this film. It’s part of a bigger complain I have where characters don’t mask up as much as they should in these movies, but it doesn’t stop how distracting it is. I don’t want see Chrisp Ratt’s stupid face in this. I want to see STAR LORD.

THIS! I want to see THIS! And the crazy thing is that Volume 3 finally gives the Guardians their comic accurate uniforms, but don’t go all the way in giving us Star Lord’s mask. Not even the original one they made for these movies. Part of the fun of superheroes are their cool and iconic costumes so it sucks that we don’t get to see enough of that. Imagine if Spider-Man: No Way Home or Captain America: Civil War didn’t have Peter and Steve wear their masks for the big and epic fights, including the finale battles. It wouldn’t be great, would it? Seeing Tom Holland and Chris Evans fight instead of Spider-Man and Captain America.

LET YOUR HEROES WEAR MASKS, YOU COWARDS!

...But other than that, this movie’s a near perfect 9/10 for me.

Now, does this mean Marvel’s back on their game and they’ll be making good movies again?

...We’ll see.

For now, I’ll remain hopeful. Because while the MCU is going through a bit of a rough patch with its films and recent shows, there’s still some fun to be had. I’ll always keep an eye out for what they have next, even if it’s not always as good as it could be, it’ll always lead me to seeing...

A fun, nostalgic thrill-ride that honors Spider-Man and what makes him so awesome.

A touching tribute to Chadwick Boseman and how much he and the character he portrayed meant to others.

And this final ride that’s fun, tragic, and complete in all the right ways.

#marvel cinematic universe #mcu #mcu reviews #guardians of the galaxy #guardians of the galaxy vol 3 #rocket raccoon #star lord #adam warlock #quick thoughts #what i thought about

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afro-hispwriter · 2 years

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Impressed(Will Poulter)

Will Poulter x actress!reader

Summary- Will is just worried his performance as Adam Warlock wont impress you

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When Will got casted as Adam Warlock for the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you were so overjoyed for him. Not just because you were now going to be in a movie together but also he’s going to get the recognition he deserves. You took him out to dinner that night which ended in celebratory sex.

Now Will was also excited by the news but he couldn’t feel anything but nerves. He just joined one of the biggest cinematic universes, he’s going to act along actors and actresses who knew how it was going to go. He was going to be on the big screen with you, someone who’s been on marvel since she was 16, its been 10 years now. He just wanted to do his best to impress everyone and not let anyone down, especially you.

He never shared this with you. And was doing a damn good job at hiding it. Eventually he did calm down and loosened him up to everything. But after watching you work in front of him he still felt like he didn’t do his best.

It was comic con now, filming for Vol. 3 finished a few months ago. There were so many interviews to do, you were nervous but Will was by your side the whole time. They pulled you away for separate small interviews but you were still in earshot so you heard him.

“Ya I was super nervous joining this project, joining this universe and working with all these amazing actors and actresses especially my beautiful talented girlfriend Y/n.” Will said and you smiled but kept your eyes on your interviewer.

“How was it working with her?”

“Super fun but I will admit I was quite scared to act with her, I just really wanted to impress her so I really hope when this film comes out and we get to see how it looks I’ve done that.” Your interview had concluded and you waited for Will to say his goodbyes. He walked towards you with a smile.

“Ready to go.” You asked and he nodded and wrapped an arm around your shoulders. You took some pictures with fans outside but eventually hopped into your rental car. You hoped into the drivers seat(since Will can’t drive) and Will slid in next to you.

“That was exciting.” He sighed and you smiled. You pulled out if the parking space and made your way out if the convention center.

“Hey Will?”

“Hmm?”

“I heard you in the interview. Why would you ever think id not be impressed with you?” You ask him and he closed his eyes.

“I just wanted you to be proud of me.” He admitted and you pulled to the side of the road and stopped.

“Baby look at me.” You say and grab his hand. He turned to look at. “You’ve come so far in your career and im so fucking proud of you, id be a fucking idiot not to be. I love you so much.” You then pushed your lips against his and he felt his heart swell. He brought his hand up to your face and you swiped your tongue over his lips but he pulled back and rested his forehead against yours.

“I love you too darling.” He raised his head and kissed your forehead.

“We should probably get back to the hotel, so then I would show you how proud I am.” you whispered into his ear. His face turned red and instead of his heart swelling, something else did.

A/n- im so sorry for that cringy ending

#will poulter #will poulter x reader

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ginger-snap-talkin-nonsense · 8 months

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Hi everyone! A few days ago I posted my rankings for all the films in the Infinity War Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having never seen any of these movies in full before this moment outside of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy, this was a very fresh experience and one I can now thoroughly say I really enjoyed! It may have had its ups and downs, but overall this part of the MCU left us with some incredible movies, characters, chemistry, and scenes that will likely inspire creators for decades to come just as their comic book counterparts inspired their own creation. I am really glad I started and finished this project and while I’ll be taking a hiatus before continuing onward, I can safely say I am now a certified MCU fan.

BUT LETS BE REAL Y’ALL WANNA SEE ME BE A HATER SO LETS GET INTO IT WITH OUR BOTTOM 5 SHIT LIST:

1. Dr. Strange

Interestingly enough the at top of this list is the worst superhero in the Infinity Saga. Dr. Strange is a terribly boring slog wherein Benedict Cumberbatch plays the character that Tony Stark haters think Tony Stark is. Annoyingly smug, terrible chemistry with everyone around him, an absolute bore, and a morally questionable at best protagonist. Throughout this whole movie I’m really meant to care that he’s slowly getting over his hands never being able to work the same again, but because this man is nothing but boring and insufferable every time he opens his mouth I could honestly care less what happens to him.

Tilda Swinton is here giving the least with her performance as Sorcerer Supreme but I can hardly blame her because this movie has no idea what to do with her. Same with Wong, who feels like he’s supposed to be the funny sidekick but gets such little to do and say that you forget he’s in the film at all.

The plot is barebones and devoid of engaging character interactions or cool and endearing scenes of Dr. Strange doing cool shit. Instead we focus on some CGI mirrorverse shit which isn’t cool enough to save a 2 hour spiral of muck.

The only thing keeping this at the top of the shitpile and not further down is the final fight scene being pretty clever and the final talk Tilda has with Stephen being pretty okay. It’s no Frigga and Loki or Frigga and Thor but it’ll do in a pinch. Still doesn’t salvage a movie so boring that Nathan and I spent the latter half of it pretending that Dr. Strange was writing letters to Santa Claus to keep our spirits up.

2. Thor

You know Thor: Dark World gets a lot of shit hurled its way and don’t get me wrong it’s entirely deserved shit that movie is needlessly grey and edgy and lame and everything else that’s already been said. But at the end of all things I can still tell you that the scene of Loki being a total mess in his prison cell after realizing that he got his mother killed is genuinely well written and the only time Loki has been a boon for this franchise.

I can’t say the same thing about Thor which was so forgettable and had such little going on that I don’t remember a single scene from it. Thor is boring, Loki is boring, the Frost Giants are lame looking and barely in it, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three are so nothing that I think they legit forgot Lady Sif was part of them by the time they reached Ragnarok, and the plot is so blah that the only thing people remember is a one off gag about Thor breaking a coffee cup. And I say one off because “God learns how Earth works” gets to be a fun idea for that scene and never again.

And now, a series of disjointed musings

Why make Jane a scientist instead of a nurse in this version if you’re going to contrive a older white man scientist who actually does all the science?

Did you know Hawkeye gets introduced in this movie? He has about as much significance as he does in the first half of The Avengers so I wouldn’t be surprised if you forgot.

Dr. Selvig being such an important character to this series is so ironically funny I think I might actually be mad at Endgame for not having him appear through one of the portals.

Kat Dennings doesn’t even get to show cleavage.

Boy Loki sure gets to do less than nothing and be boring and annoying. Hope this isn’t a trend that continues because if it does then fans were really stupid for hyping him up.

This movie is lame.

3. Ant-Man and the Wasp

This one is actually really simple. The first Ant-Man is an incredibly sweet little flick where Paul Rudd gets to charm bomb us into loving Scott Lang and Michael Penya’s silly antics and Scott’s earnest love for his daughter carry us the rest of the way.

In this movie Hank Pym and Hope Pym will mercilessly attempt to ruin Scott’s life by getting him near put away for 20 years where he’ll never see his daughter again because (lemme check my notes) the grown adult is sad that her parent disappeared as a kid and wants her back…we gonna do anything with the Pym’s being selfish towards Scott and near putting his daughter through the same thing Hope went through for their own family with no regard for his feelings while sporting a callous attitude the whole time? No? They’re supposedly justified because Scott Lang got arrested in the Ant-Man suit for helping Captain America? The correct decision by Marvels standpoint? Hm. Interesting.

Oh also this movie has a villain…I think her name was Ghost.

Moving on!

4. Spider-Man: Far From Home

Maaaaaan I hate when I gotta dislike shit I was rooting for.

I’ll be honest, I have mixed feelings about the MCUs Spider-Man. On the one hand Tom Holland is a great casting pick, I love the younger age, and Homecoming has a lot of great stand out moments. I even like some of the Tony stuff-Tony being Peter’s Uncle Ben is genuinely creative and lends a lot more emotion to his relationship with Peter. On the other this franchise doesn’t wanna let Peter cross a street without pondering for 20 minutes about what Tony would do and every villain he ever fights revolves around Tony and Tony Tony Tony Tony.

I want this Peter to be able to stand as strongly on his own as the other Spider-Man’s of the past, but the MCU refuses to let him off the training wheels and just give him his own movie.

Case in point: Tony is dead and this movie is somehow more about Tony than any other Spider-Man thus far. And when we’re not talking about Peter “being Tony Jr. or maybe not or maybe yes and no” we’re quirking an eyebrow at the fans of the series and scoffing about how they dared hope that Mysterio was gonna be fuckin Mysterio. I’m not a comic or spider-man cartoon person and I found it obnoxious.

The final fight is boring and all the drones feel like their made of glass and there’s just an infinite amount of them and Jake Gyllenhaal is a charm vacuum and there’s a weird joke about Peter hiring a prostitute that makes me uncomfortable and the more I sit on it the more I’m just disappointed that Peter Parker played by Tom Holland has not had a single movie where he can just be Spider-Man on his own. It’s insecure and sad. Just like every attempt this movie makes at going “Come on guys! How laaaaaame would it be if the villain was just magic? Multiverse? Cringe! Am I right, youths?”. I’ll get into more in the next entry, but false confidence masking major insecurity is the fastest way to dump a movie at the bottom of my list.

Luckily for this movie it still has enough good will with Tom Holland being charmingly awkward and Nick Fury (even if not the real Nick Fury) having an appearance that it narrowly escapes the bottom.

Well

That and the other thing.

5. Thor: Ragnarok

So this is the one that a majority of people are surprised about.

“Oh my gosh how is this so low? How is this below Thor: Dark World? This is so your kind of movie!”

Taste is a tricky thing for people. It feels so basic and easy to understand, but tastes are more complicated than we care to admit and that means they’re easy to fuck up and misunderstand. Everything on the surface of Thor: Ragnarok feels like something I SHOULD really like. It’s bright, it’s got a BIPOC lesbian, Thor is silly, we’re having a goofy time with the villains, there’s an interesting theme about family and finding yourself. Hell the movie is directed by Mr. What We Do in the Shadows which I notoriously adore (the TV adaptation of)

But here’s the thing: It’s all fake. It’s an unbridled fake confidence hiding indecision and insecurity. I’ll be honest, I was looking forward to this one. After being let down time and time again by Thor being so miserably uncompelling as a protagonist, and his villains being boring and forgettable, and his plots being threadbare and constantly retreading old ground-this should have been my thing.

I mean, I loved the Team Thor shorts they released! They were funny and delightful and very Taika! So why isn’t this movie?

Every joke that feels Taika is shot like it wants to be anything else (which as fans of Taika’s work know the camerawork and shots are what makes the typical joke of his), Thor is just as bland as ever but has a one off gag or two that were Ad libbed or actively fed to him by a make a wish kid so he’s “quirky” now, Hulk is here but they still have no fucking clue what they wanna do with him or Bruce so he’s just kind of taking up screen time.

I want Tessa Thompson to be so fucking cool and instead she’s barely given anything to fucking do except be an alcoholic with trauma. I want Kate Blanchett to be a awesome villain and instead she’s so fucking boring the only thing I can remember is that she does that dumb little hair fade to helmet shit like 9 times. The Warriors Three are all just kinda murked off and they cared so little they don’t even bring up Lady Sif and in fact the way Thor talks about Valkyrie implies that she doesn’t exist! They want to so hard to forget all the previous Thor movies but have nothing to add in a way that matters.

It wants to be important. But it wants to be forgettable. It wants to be bright. But it wants to be washed out. It wants to have deep characters. It doesn’t want you to think about the characters too hard. To paraphrase The Phantom Tollbooth: “When it’s someplace, it wishes it were someplace else. And when it’s someplace else, it’d rather not be there.”

It’s so focused on what it’s not that it never becomes anything.

People say Thor: Ragnarok is bright-but it’s colors are still just as washed out as any other Thor movie. The only difference is it’s a white smear over the lens instead of a black one. Just like the rest of this movie. Just as smudged and flawed and awful to sit through, but with a slightly different filter of terrible.

At least the first Thor was early. It was before they knew what worked. At least Dark World tried. It did terrible but it wanted to make amends for the first Thor being boring as sin. This movie is more than happy to dance around like it’s the golden child of three very unfortunate triplets, and it smirks with confidence as it stumbles just as badly as they did but without the excuses and while smacking it’s brothers for their blunders. I don’t have patience for false confidence.

HOWEVER,

All of this! All. Of. This. I could also say I felt about Far From Home. In fact, I should arguably hate it more because I love Spider-Man and honestly don’t have strong feelings about Thor. So why this and not Far From Home at the bottom?

I sat through:

Thor

Avengers

Thor: Dark World

Thor: Ragnarok

Four movies. Four appearances of this character. A character I was routinely told was sooooooo good and soooo fun and soooooo babygirl.

And every. Single. Appearance. Is the same fucking thing.

Tom Hiddleston does his best to be charming when he can’t be, and begs the audience to think he’s nuanced as he flits back and forth between hero and villain.

“I betrayed my family. Actually I changed my mind. Actually changed my mind again. Oops killed my mom. Sad now. I’m gonna be a good guy and try to fix this. Changed my mind I’m an asshole. Now I’m a hero. Now I’m a villain. Now I’m a hero. Now I’m a-“ until the moment Thanos crushes his windpipe in Infinity War.

I was more than sick of it by Thor: Dark World, but thought that after having that really good scene where he realizes that only he is to blame for his moms death and how much he does, in fact, care about his brother, that finally I would get to see this great character everyone creamed over during these movies release. That after this terrible excuse for “development” this character might finally be worth his time on screen!

And then Ragnarok came out.

And that’s why this is the worst one! Goodnight everybody!

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 5 months

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I have jumbled thoughts on WISH looking to fall short of industry projections, its low CinemaScore grade, its low chances at scoring a great multiplier that helps it climb, and Disney's overall bad film year - on their centennial no less.

The success of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, the excellent legs ELEMENTAL scored after such a poor opening weekend, and how well THE LITTLE MERMAID did domestically tells me everything I need to know, I feel.

GUARDIANS VOL. 3 had a solid opening for an MCU sequel, down a bit from what VOL. 2 pulled in back in 2017, but still good. Legs carried it past $350m+ domestically, and it made over $845m worldwide. It's probably my favorite MCU movie in a while, and it resonated for a lot of other people, too. Can't say the same about MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, LOVE AND THUNDER, QUANTUMANIA, and THE MARVELS. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now a mess of rushed movies that are either homework or you have to do homework in order to keep up with them, GUARDIANS VOL. 3 not so much. I extend this to last autumn's BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER as well.

ELEMENTAL, like most of the recent films overseen by current Pixar leader Pete Docter, told a personal story in a fun, appealing, and visually stunning way. Despite existing next to other family films in a crowded June/July, ELEMENTAL grew some serious legs and did really good overseas. I'm confident LUCA and TURNING RED, had they been released theatrically in a world where COVID-19 never happened, would've done pretty darn well. LIGHTYEAR is the anomaly here, the rare Pixar film that audiences just didn't take a liking to. But I can't hold it against Pixar, Docter lets these filmmakers make the movie they see fit, and sometimes in the world of the arts... It's not going to sit well with everybody. Luckily, ELEMENTAL had a real rebound and nearly made 2 1/2x its posted budget.

THE LITTLE MERMAID got by on being almost beat for beat a redo of a beloved animated feature in Disney's library, and it also helps that some of the actors did a pretty solid job. (I haven't seen the film, only bits and pieces at my movie theater job. I'm not into these remakes.) While this movie couldn't cover its costs worldwide, as it had a hard time in certain large markets, it still did pretty great here.

But I think Marvel, Disney Studios (as in the end that does all the live-action and CG tech demo movies), and Walt Disney Animation Studios are in need of some course correction. I get the sense that the latter two arms of Disney's massive film machine aren't really letting filmmakers make the movies they want to make... But rather making the films for them, and someone steps in to do the job. That's also pretty much the case with Marvel, but sometimes they let a director do what they want. Sometimes. James Gunn got more freedom on VOL. 3, and Ryan Coogler got a lot of say on WAKANDA FOREVER.

Pixar feels the most free of the divisions to me, outside of 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. I feel their recent animated offerings have more of a voice and a personality, they feel like their filmmakers' own creations. Everything from LUCA to ELEMENTAL, all these post-Lasseter movies. I'm not really getting this kind of thing from the Disney Animation films made under Jennifer Lee's leadership, and given how audiences reacted to STRANGE WORLD and WISH (as in, those who actually saw them), I suspect audiences aren't, either. Are their movies being noted to death by upper management? That FROZEN II documentary did reveal that these films are test screened for toddlers, and then stuff is cut out to make things less intense. As if they are sanding off the edges of a perfectly fine piece of furniture.

Maybe it's not villains and such that people missed in Disney animated films of late. Maybe they weren't upset at twists or whatever...

... but rather, they were not too fond of writing that feels like it got doctored relentlessly into being FROZEN 6.0, and also the lack of bite and that classic sense of danger that complimented the magic and "warm fuzzies" quite nicely in the more beloved Disney animated movies. You think Walt Disney gave two craps about the angry letters he got from parents over the frightening moments in SNOW WHITE and PINOCCHIO? If a Disney film has to be a little scary and intense, it should be. I don't understand this new thing where they hold back. Look at how warmly received DreamWorks' PUSS IN BOOTS sequel was last year; a good helping of some scary stuff for the kids in the audience should only help it do better, so long as everything else adds up.

(Note: "Warm fuzzies" was something a friend of mine, a fellow Disney enthusiast named Jim Miles came up with, and I use that phrasing quite a lot!)

The horizon for both studios is curious. Pixar's next is a guaranteed hit with INSIDE OUT 2, it's ELIO that's the more curious one. It'll be Pixar's 2nd-ever post-outbreak theatrical release of an original animated movie. WDAS' next is unknown, and they have ZOOTOPIA 2 and FROZEN III on the horizon, both of which sure to cover any recent losses. Maybe WDAS-2024 shows a change in direction, maybe it's another round of what STRANGE WORLD and WISH had to offer. Maybe it'll be taken back and retooled if WISH comes up short? There will likely be a much needed strike for animation when the Animation Guild can make that happen in mid-2024, so maybe we won't be seeing that very film next year. Stuff will likely be pushed back again, for a strike that NEEDED to happen. Maybe some self-reflection and strikes will do this studio good, they seem to be in a funk.

And in live-action land, you would think a new HAUNTED MANSION movie with that kind of cast (well, except for Jared Leto, yuck) and a rare-for-Disney PG-13 rating would be an all-timer, right? Big flop. Massive budget, probably noted to death, too. If not, then... Decisions were made, and audiences just didn't care for them unfortunately. The remakes, even the ones that make good money at the box office, are largely agreed to be stinkers. Audiences may have flocked to most of them, but if they weren't based on beloved movies... How would they have done? And what's next? A LION KING prequel that I'm certain won't make much of a stir, a delayed and iffy-looking SNOW WHITE remake that I feel will also have trouble at the box office... And more animated movie-based pictures, and some theme park ones maybe. They've run out of classics to remake, so now they're trying theme parks again. They keep trying to get this TRON-in-name-only movie off the ground that's not a sequel to TRON: LEGACY and doesn't involve anyone from the previous two films. And they're doing sequels/prequels to the remakes. But as we saw with ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS and MALEFICENT 2, that's not a guarantee. People came to see the car they loved with a new coat of paint, not a similar car made afterwards.

So, I think Marvel, Disney Studios, and WDAS are at a similar point to where the Disney enterprise was in the early-to-mid 1970s. Maybe even into the early 1980s...

youtube

Above: This logo, for the enterprise's 50th anniversary in 1973, would show up before the films released that year... Presumably, the Buena Vista distribution title card would follow. It does not appear on home video editions of the Disney films released that year. i.e. ROBIN HOOD, CHARLEY AND THE ANGEL, etc.

I think this is all telling me that some audiences aren't necessarily upset at what kinds of stories Disney is choosing to tell, but are instead a bit unsatisfied with the way they are telling those stories. That merely the reliance on brand names and what worked a decade ago is not enough anymore:

I think about where Disney was by around 1975-76, inching up on a decade without Walt Disney, and a few years after Roy O. Disney's passing... And it looks as if Walt Disney Productions at the time were delivering what was guaranteed to be successful... In 1965...

You had cheaply-made kid-friendly comedies starring TV mainstays and often times they co-starred an animal (THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE, MILLION DOLLAR DUCK, GUS, take your pick), you had standard adventure movies (such as TREASURE OF MATECUMBE and THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD), you had the occasional long live-action musical with animated scenes in them (BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, PETE'S DRAGON), and the occasional animated feature film that was always directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and had that same lazy vibe that he'd been employing since THE SWORD IN THE STONE a decade ago...

You look at what Disney had to offer on the movie front from around 1969-1976, and it's like backwash from the early 1960s, and what worked back then... Interestingly, it was the animated movies that continued to do well during that period, contrary to popular belief. But nothing was a massive blockbuster domestically, on the level of 101 DALMATIANS or THE JUNGLE BOOK...

So, again, I think of Disney's output roughly 1967-1979... And I see what's coming out now as backwash from 2013-16. Guaranteed smash hit movies - Marvel superhero spectacles, remakes of animated classics, FROZEN-esque family movies... no longer foolproof. Pixar looks to be weathering this just fine, even if this timeline did not see LUCA and TURNING RED hit theaters nationwide. I still reckon those would've been big, big hits in a not-COVID world. How ELEMENTAL did tells me everything.

There was one lucky arm of Disney that somewhat avoided all of this... STAR WARS...

STAR WARS is largely just streaming shows now. There hasn't been a feature film since THE RISE OF SKYWALKER back in 2019. SOLO was the first movie in the whole franchise to actually lose money at the box office, the lowest-grossing film remains that very cheap CLONE WARS theatrical pilot movie. I feel SOLO lost money simply because the director change and subsequent refilming of almost the whole damn thing ballooned the budget, and there's only so many people you can drag to a Han Solo origin movie when a Wikipedia article is right there. Releasing it so soon after THE LAST JEDI didn't help, either. STAR WARS movies aren't MCU movies, I think you kinda need to let those sit for a little while. SOLO, I think, would've probably done better if it had been a Christmas 2018 release. Not the May right after LAST JEDI's December 2017 bow. Disney plans to release two new STAR WARS features in 2026, and well... Good luck with that. The new STAR WARS movies will be a test, to see if audiences will keep showing up for these movies. They aren't even entries in a new trilogy, so there's that.

Lucasfilm did do a new INDIANA JONES movie that did disastrously. Maybe audiences just weren't down for another adventure with Indy, maybe the market was a little too crowded, maybe those who saw it just didn't take to a Spielberg-less Indy movie. (Not a dig on James Mangold, but maybe audiences felt his absence?) Maybe it just cost too fucking much... Lucasfilm seems to just be "Star Wars Studios" now. They lost the rights to the book CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, which they were supposed to adapt. They've barely made any live-action movies that *aren't* STAR WARS or INDIANA JONES on a consistent basis since RADIOLAND MURDERS all the way back in 1994. Like, what did they make between '94 and now that wasn't part of those huge franchises? RED TAILS, and an animated movie called STRANGE MAGIC. Both of which bombed... But I will be fair to Lucasfilm, a good chunk of the not-SW/Indy movies of the late '80s/early '90s also flopped.

Speaking of that... I also feel that Disney should probably invest in lower budget movies again? Not necessarily "cheap" stuff, but lower budget stuff that's more experimental and more creative? Not the kinds of movies that they can send straight to streaming, but small little movies that do okay in theaters and sorta help build a back catalogue for them. Why wasn't something like CRATER a theatrical release?

One of Disney's biggest live-action successes, a looooong time ago, was HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. Produced for $18m, grossed over $200m worldwide and spawned some sequels. Did you know that movie actually outgrossed THE LITTLE MERMAID that same year? That's right, in 1989, HONEY made more money than MERMAID... Which film do you think is better remembered?

Anyways, what ended up happening after Disney's weird era after Walt's passing? In the late '70s and early '80s, they genuinely tried to experiment and redefine what a "Disney movie" could be, but a lot of it went south. TRON was probably the most successful of these experiments, but even that didn't measure up to expectations. Touchstone was set up, and they hit the ground running with SPLASH in 1984, and had quite a few successes into the late '80s... Films like THREE MEN AND A BABY and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM. But that was Touchstone... Mainline Disney was where things needed to be happenin'...

And they weren't really... THE BLACK CAULDRON, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS, they were all coming up short. The little bit of respite came from efforts like FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, smaller-budget productions that made their money back.

Eventually, the tides changed, and it was time to make movies that took the audience by surprise.

While it was released under the Touchstone banner in 1988, I'd say WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was the movie that really got the ball rolling... And then that would be followed by OLIVER & COMPANY, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, etc. All of which reversed course for the studio's film output. You couldn't convince anyone over the age of 12 to check out a "Disney" movie in theaters five years earlier in 1983, but by the beginning of the '90s, you had all the demographics showing up to some of their films...

Maybe that's what Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will discover again in this weird post-outbreak, post-streaming world. They've hit this wall before, and they've gotten over it...

Maybe it's time for them to take a daring leap and make a proverbial new ROGER RABBIT-type movie that makes a Disney movie neat and worth checking out in the theaters again...

AND ALSO, TO TREAT THEIR FILMMAKERS AND STAFF BETTER, but that's another story.

#Youtube

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icyfox17 · 2 months

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3, 4, 9, 11, 15, 20, and 21 :D!!

3. three songs you were recently obsessed with -fucked up by racoma -car lights by james marriott -iris by goo goo dolls

OUGHOGUHGOGHOGHOGUHOGUHOGGHOUGHOGUH i have been looping these three SO MUCH LATELY along with allez les blues by los camps

fucked up jumpscares me bc theres swearing in the literal title and it sounds so intense and i mean the bridge aka my fav part of the song IS intense bUT ITS SOOOO GOOD AND SOSOSOO PRETTY AND I CANNOTTT GET OVERRR IT RAHHSHSHDFJSDK

car lights is a funny one bc the first like 3 years of me listening to james' music i never got into it for some reason?? i always loved grapes and gold n stuff but then tommy covered it during his karaoke stream and HOLYSHITT i was like wtf this is so good? and then i listened to the original and went HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO GOOD??? its now been like 2-3 months and i still. am looping this shit constantly like BRO BR O BRO BRO BRO BRO ITS SO GOODDFDOWEJFIAWFEJAWFELJAWEFIJWEFLWE I LOVE CAR LIGHTS SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHH

iris is one of my long time fav songssss, i grew up on 90s alt rock so anything from that era is just soo <333 fkjdsdjflsj EPXLODES !!! but like the last two years ive gone in and out with listening to it. i'll listen to 90s for like a month and then go back to modern music. but yeah january i started megaaaa listening to 90s alt rock again and i remembered how much i love iris so that shit has been on loop as well. it is genuinely one of my top five fav songs of all time. also extra fun fact for you !! my mom used to loop it while she was pregnant with me <3 so it is just kinda like. my song lmao ever since before i was born lmaooooo

okay gonna provide a cut bc this will be a long one ^-^

4 i already answered and i would answer w diff ones but this ones gonna be long so i'll skip it for now eheh

9. three songs that get you in the Christmas Mood -Auld Lang Syne by Andrew Bird -Carol of the Bells from the Home Alone soundtrackkk -Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee

the first album is such a lovely one grgrgrkjrjgk i have nice memories of listening to it while sitting in front of the (real wood !!) fireplace and drinking tea and just enjoying my family's company during xmas time <333

i just fucking love carol of the bells so much i have like five billion diff versions of it saved ONE OF MY FAVS BEING A MANDALORIAN THEME SONG CROSSED WITH IT ITS LITERALLY THE BEST THING EVER CREATED IN EXISTENCE LIKEEEE MY TWO FAV SONGS EVER BEING COMBINED??? YES PLEASEKEKGHRGJKHRKJ

and the last one is just a classic:D also reminds me of home alone which is ofc my fav xmas movie ever (way better than elf FIGHT MEEE)

11. three favourite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack (i think this means like soundtrack so regular songs rather than ost but if u wanna know my three fav ostsss pls send and i will tell !!! i love film osts so much omg 😭😭😭) -Heroes by David Bowie [Perks of Being A Wallflower] -Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah [Guardians of the Galaxy] -Spirits by The Strumbellas [Middle School Worst Years of My Life]

goddd this movie changed my life honestly and the scene this song is from genuinely is just. it rewired my brain chemistry. i want to feel infinite man its soooooo i love this movie sosososooso much and this song is just so lovely and just RAHSHSFJDKSKJFKLAKJS i cannot english properly lmao i think im losing steam but just. yes. this song + movie are both. yes

I LOVE GOTG SOUNDTRACK SO MUCH IT IS PEAK EVERY SONG IS FUCKING AMAZINGGGGG but this is one of the songs that i found from this movie and idk !! i think it's underrated it's so vibey it makes me feel so happy:))))

this is another movie that literally changed my life. like. it's such a silly movie? but it genuinely makes me cry everytime and and this songggg this is the beginning of me looking into my own taste of music that's not just generic top 60 from the radio or my family's taste. i found this song from this movie and found the rest of the band's music and and and it was one of the first steps of me finding out who i am. it's a really big part of my personality (both the movie and the song) and i just :(( this band makes me sooo emotional. they helped me out during my first bout of mental health issues and i just got to see them in concert a couple months ago and sobsobsobsosbsobosbsobsososbsobsobsossbososssssssss SORRY i'll start rambling now i just GODDD the strumbellas mean so much to me :(

15. three songs you want to dance with your love to -Come on Eileen by Dexy Midnight Runners -Coming Home by Leon Bridges -Starting Over by Chris Stapleton

the first two are just CLASSICSSSS you have to dance to themmm and i have in the past and its literally the greatest feeling in the world. literally nothing compares. the last one is more targeted towards my partner:))) she's from tennesse LMAOO and loves country music buuuuttt besides that i also just like. my dad and his wife listen to country music a lot and it's soooo?? it's so lovely idk this style of country music is just pure vibes. but yeah the lyrics r also super lovely and just remind me of my partner so badly grjgkjrgkjrg i need to listen to alllll the country and soul (heh pun unintended) music with them. this song in particular is so comforting i just feel like it'd be nice to dance in the kitchen to <3

20. three songs that remind you of the person who sends this one -Morning Rain by Adam Torres -Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson -Home Is by Kanaya

you just give me very soft pretty rainy day vibes <333 ur a very kind person and you hold so much positivity. these songs are all so very comforting and i just !! think they suit u very well ^-^

21. three songs of your childhood -Upside Down by Jack Johnson -Could You Be Loved by Bob Marley -Clocks by Coldplay

goddddd this songgg this song is nostalgia in a nutshell. used to love the movie but also my mom and i used to dogsit for this one person and they had 3 cds. jack johnson, barenaked ladies, and adele. i used to play those and just run around the house acting out the songs. so all of those are very nostalgic but upside down takes the cake bc it just. sounds nostalgic. idk its such happy vibes and its so innocent and wholesome and i justtttt sobsss its so lovely

my half-siblings' dad had a record player before it was cool and the two records he used to play all the time were bob marley and michael jackson. bob marley reminds me more of my childhood though. its just !! its bob marley man. certified classic and good vibes. i love this song so much <3 i love all of his music a lot but this one just ??? makes me feel super intense emotions

this one is NOSTALGIA KING i dont know if there's any other song that sounds like nostalgia like this one does. it was always on the radio in the car and its also in several movies and just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa its so gorgeous i love this song so much <3333

#foxieasks #grace tag #ask games #song ask game #OOOHHH GRACIE TYSM THESE WERE SUCH GOOD ONES TO ANSWER WOOO #WOWEIE that took a long time lmao #i am so sleepy #that was fun though #<333 #love u gracie !!

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planet4546b · 7 months

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2, 7, 9, 24 for wolf :)

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

i think people often assume that her actions are in general being made with much more malicious intent than they are. its easy to think of her killing the traveler as a tactical move specifically to target the guardians+vanguard, a deliberate undermining of their power, but its not. its a response to a personal betrayl!!! wolf is twisting this entire universe up on itself and changing the way the very mechanics of it function because she was hurt badly and now shes not letting anyone else get out. yikes!!!!

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

originally wolf au was called disciple au, and wolf was mechanically much more similar to one of the witness' disciples (you can still see this in aspects of her design i think!! the au started bc i thought 'hey its neat that disciples have similar aspects in their designs, what would my own oc look like within that design framework') but when i tried to answer the question of why wolf would follow the witness i couldnt come up with anything compelling. so instead she kills that clown and is doing her own thing. fuck being a disciple

9. Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

ozzy making direct eye contact you will understand me if i assign wolf a homestuck song. but leviathan the girl phemiec. IS SUCH A WOLF SONG.

"I am the beast, I am the light, I am the blighted being cursed with sight/ I am the god who created a world, I am leviathan, the girl"

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

so. in my head i have i think 5? possible endings for where june's story ends up, dependent partially on how tfs ends up going and how i feel about it, of which wolf is only one of those 5. the one MOST opposed to wolf is where june, after the conflict in the sol system is 'done' (ie. as soon as her responsibility to it is somehow removed) is able to get her hands on a ship with transolar warp and just books it out of there and ends up spending the rest of her time just exploring and experiencing as much of the galaxy as possible. no real goal in mind. just seeing whats out there!!

#asks #night-dark-woods #every time i start thinking of wolf i get soooo upset my poor darling....she gets her narrative due for what shes doing #and its upsetting to me bc i love her......#also levithan the girl is especially fitting becuase the topic of wolf + june + gender is complicated ina way i think a lot about #june is not out except to i think 2 people in universe everyone uses they/them for june #and its only me from an out of universe standpoint that uses she/her all the time #wolf however does in fact use she/her in universe. everyone who only knows june as they/them #uses she/her for wolf. she is leviathan the girl!!! she can only be seen as she is #in the framework of the universe she lives in by completely and violently turning her back on everyone she knows #that framework must be broken entirely. and then she is seen as she is but she is also a monster yk!!!!!#ah wolf. my darling.#wolfposting

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renyen808 · 1 year

Text

A Week Later, I Cannot Stop Thinking About…

Hey everyone! Let’s talk about the newest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, directed by James Gunn. I’ll let you know when I get to the spoiler section of my post.

(Credit: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Wikipedia Page)

Ever since Avengers Endgame, I don’t think I cried as much in another movie besides this one. Maybe Black Panther last November, but there were only certain places that brought me to tears. From beginning to end, this movie sent me on a roller coaster of laughter and (or with) tears.

I do agree that this film is more on the emotionally intense side, with the animal abuse situations and the dark themes shown throughout the movie, but I enjoyed the film nonetheless. Just note, if you have not watched the film yet, be prepared for scenes of animal abuse and very minor gore (Some may disagree with the gore, but it caught me off guard).

(Credit: Duniaku Article)

I loved every scene, and although I had issues with the pacing at first, I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. From the get go, this movie draws the viewers in and doesn’t let go until the very end, showing that this is indeed the last ride. Guardians Vol. 1 stole the hearts of audiences with its infectious chemistry, engaging story, and loveable characters, but fell short when it came to the villain (love Lee Pace though). Guardians Vol. 2 upped the ante and gave us a fantastic villain, built off the already amazing chemistry, gave us many laughs, and showed to not only meet, but surpassed its predecessor in terms of likeability and quality. Vol. 3 builds off of what 2 established and gave us the ending that not only the Guardians, but that we deserve.

When it comes to movie reviews, I rate things on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the absolute best, and 1 being the absolute worst. I don’t do 1 to 5 because I am afraid I will do some dumb rating like 3.3 out of 5. So, for consistency, I will only use whole numbers to rate things.

(Credit: Deadline Article)

For me, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gets a 9 out of 10. Although there were some criticisms and pacing issues, this film showcases why we all love the MCU to begin with. I cannot gush enough about this movie. Gunn’s direction and writing is perfect for this final ride, choosing to subvert expectations and take viewers on what looked to be a predictable journey, but instead gave us a story we didn’t think we needed. The seasoned actors performed at the top of their game, and invited new characters with open arms. So, now I am going to go in depth with the movie, basically a summary of what happened, which means the SPOILER WARNING is now in effect! I will have a border for the next section, and will have spacing so that people who don’t want to see it have the choice to not. With that, it is the end of my review! If this is where you are leaving us, thank you for taking the time to read my post! If you enjoyed reading it, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldn’t be attacked because of them. If you want to hear audio versions of these articles, you can find them on my YouTube channel ‘Screen and Joystick’. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Hello to everyone who has read this far! So here is a quick rundown on how the spoiler section will go. If you’re familiar with the Dead Meat Channel, for movie review podcast episodes, they go over a quick summary of the movie and share their thoughts along the way. This will be similar to that, where I will go through each section of the movie and share my thoughts and insights.

So, the movie starts with baby raccoons (trash pandas) all in a cage, and immediately I’m in the feels. I mean, it’s a bunch of baby animals in a cage. Innocent animals. When the cage is opened, the babies scatter, but one looks on to the being with curiosity. This curious one is our beloved Rocket.

(Credit: Brick Fanatics)

Before we move on, I need to commend Bradley Cooper for the amazing voice acting and Sean Gunn for the amazing motion capture for Rocket. He CARRIES this movie, and although people may think that StarLord or Gamora are the main protagonists, Rocket is the main protagonist and this is proven in this movie. It’s Rocket’s world and we’re just living in it.

We cut to the present day, where Rocket is sitting on Knowhere, minding his own business. Then, the opening credits play with Radiohead’s Creep as he walks throughout Knowehere. Although at first, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of action during this part, I have grown quite fond of why Gunn chose to do it this way. In Vol 1, we see Quill dancing to Redbone’s Come and Get Your Love, an iconic scene where he is dancing on Morag trying to get the Orb, and also where a 2023 Rhodey proceeds to call him an idiot for dancing and singing. In Vol 2, we follow Baby Groot as he dances to Electric Night Orchestra’s Mr. Blue Sky as the other Guardians fight off an Abilisk, which is the weird tentacle monster thing. Each Guardian interacts or ends up in frame with Groot as he dances, but it is cut short when Drac is thrown into the speaker, ending the song and dance abruptly. In the Holiday Special, a band, played by the Old 97’s, in Knowhere sings an original song titled I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime is Here). Although the people of Knowhere don’t dance, Groot excitedly dances in the background. Here, no one is dancing. We follow Rocket as he is walking around Knowhere, where he passes by all the Guardians at one point or another. It ends with Nebula carrying a passed out Quill walking with the other Guardians in slow motion and the title card appears. With this, it establishes the solemn tone that is prominent throughout the whole movie, and it also establishes the fact that this is Rocket’s story. Rocket then retires to his room as Nebula puts a drunk Quill to bed. Kraglin is trying to use the arrow and Cosmo shows him up with her telekinesis, which ends with Kraglin calling her a ‘bad dog’. Everything seems calm at first, but then, shit hits the fan when Adam shows up.

(Credit: Quora)

We were teased about Adam Warlock in the post credit scene to Vol 2. He was currently being created in his cocoon. We were just given his first name, so we all knew who it was: Adam Warlock. It was rumored that he was going to play a big role in Infinity War and Endgame, but, as we all know, that didn’t happen. So, Gunn had Adam all set up, and he wasn’t used for the one thing Kevin Fiege asked him for. So, here we are now, where we meet Adam Warlock in the MCU for the first time and I really enjoyed what Gunn and Will Poulter did with him. Although people just saw him as a man child, that’s exactly the point. I get that Adam is supposed to be this strong, all powerful character, but he is just a baby here, a child even, so I forgive him for being the way that he is.

So, Adam Warlock breaks through the wall of Rocket’s room and attacks him. Rocket initially gets away and Nebula begins attacking Adam with her new arm and Groot tries to fight him as well, but in the scuffle, Rocket is fatally wounded, and they cannot revive him due to an internal kill switch placed in Rocket by his creator, the High Evolutionary. They find out that the company that sponsors him, Orgocorp, made the code for the kill switch, so they leave Knowhere, leaving Cosmo and Kraglin in charge, and travel to Orgocorp on the Bowie.

Now, this is the start when I thought the pacing was a bit slow for me. During this part, we have a funny scene involving Quill, Mantis, and Drax talking about humans and life on Earth as they infiltrate the shields of Orgocorp. They are then boarded by the Ravagers, led by Gamora, who was Nebula’s contact. Quill is initially upset about Nebula hiding the fact that she kept in contact with her sister and chose to not tell him. They figure out that they need to get into the planet and retrieve Rocket’s old file, since it must have a reverse to the kill switch. Quill, Mantis, Drax, Nebula, and Gamora leave the Bowie in these suits that reminded me more of Among Us than 2001: A Space Odyssey. Once they made it to the planet, there is this tiny spot where Quill and Gamora talk, and she calls him Quinn. There is another joke where Mantis and Drax discuss the private channels as Nebula creates an opening.

(Credit: TL;DR Movie Reviews and Analysis)

They make it inside and this is just James Gunn cameo central. First, the main woman controlling the security is Jennifer Holland, an actress that Gunn worked with on Peacemaker and his wife, whom he married in 2022. Secondly, the main security guard wearing the ridiculously large orange suit is Nathan Fillion, a long time friend of Gunn’s who has been in many of his projects, which includes the first two Guardians and Gunn’s directorial debut Slither. The woman that Gamora takes hostage inside is played by Daniela Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2 in Gunn’s Suicide Squad.

So, they are inside and get their disguises on, but in a panic, accidentally send their Among Us space suits into…space. They split up inside with Mantis and Drax trying to find a way to get Groot to come in or a ship for them to take, while Quill, Nebula, and Gamora go and get Rocket’s file. Drax and Mantis make it inside, thanks to Mantis’ little joke that makes the gatekeeper fall in love with Drax. The other three were able to retrieve the file, but got themselves caught and this is the first of many instances where we were tricked into thinking a Guardian was going to die. Drax is shot multiple times in the chest, and it does not let up until Quill uses a trick he learned from Rocket during their prison escape in Vol 1: turning off the artificial gravity used in their enemies suits. Drax is revealed to be okay and Groot comes in with the Bowie to save them. They watch Rocket’s torture on the file, which makes all of the Guardians angry and discover that the kill switch reversal had been removed, which leads Quill to believe it was a guy he passed in Orgocorp.

Now, I just brushed through this part because this is the part that felt extremely slow to me. I mean, I was happy that everyone got a chance to see what the High Evolutionary did to Rocket (more on that in a bit), but all this stuff felt a bit slow to me, like the bland soup before the beef wellington prepared by Gordon Ramsay himself. The only things that it achieved to do was 1. Give them a chance to see what happened to Rocket, and 2. Gives Quill an idea of who wiped the code from his file. I really enjoyed seeing people I recognized and will never pass up on humor, but it kind of pulled me out a bit with how slow and how recognizable some of the cast were, not that using your friends and family in movies is a bad thing. I believe that you are able to choose whoever the hell you want for your movies, doesn’t mean I won’t complain about it when I have an opinion on it.

So, after deciding to chase that guy, Gamora and Quill have a spat, which ends in her throwing him into a panel and rushing to call who she believes is a Ravager awaiting her signal to be picked up. What she doesn’t know is the one that was supposed to pick her up was accidentally killed thanks to a misunderstanding from Adam. The ravager was kidnapped and about to be interrogated, but Adam wasn’t sure what to do to intimidate him, so he killed him. So, Ayesha and Adam follow the Bowie as the others suit up to go to Counter Earth, a planet created by the High Evolutionary.

(Credit: Inverse)

Now, I haven’t really talked that much about Rocket and the High Evolutionary’s scenes, so I am going to take the time now to discuss it. Rocket’s name when he was in captivity was ‘89P13’. He was part of batch 89, which includes his friends. Lylla, an otter with mechanical arms. Floor, a rabbit with robotic legs and voice, and Teefs, a walrus in a wheelchair. When Rocket first meets them, he is unable to stand or speak at first, before just muttering “Hurts”, and this broke my heart. This poor thing’s first word was about the pain he was experiencing. Throughout Rocket’s torture there, his intelligence actually surpassed the High Evolutionary’s own, with Rocket discovering an error the High Evolutionary overlooked in his experiment for ‘a perfect society’. Rocket and his friends were all under the impression that they will soon join this perfect world, but the High Evolutionary, with no remorse, states that he and his imperfect friends weren’t invited to the new world, but rather they will be killed. In a state of desperation, Rocket creates a key that opens the doors to their cages, freeing them all. He and Lylla embrace for the first time, having been separated in two different cages, and this is the most unexpected death. I thought that Lylla would at least survive, but she dies right as she is freed by the High Evolutionary by a gunshot. Rocket cries in agony as Teefs stays quiet and Floor cries out “Rocket, Floor, Teefs go now!” She is screaming this in fear because her best friend was just killed. Rage soon overtakes Rocket as he brutally attacks his creator. In the ensuing chaos, shots were fired towards Rocket and his friends, so Rocket returned fire. When the attackers are reprimanded, he turns and sees that Floor and Teefs were shot and killed as well. Heartbroken, Rocket flees and escapes on a ship, flying away into the forever and beautiful sky.

These scenes were sprinkled through the previous section with the Orgocorp stuff and it made me so upset to see Rocket and what happened to him, which is why I believe that the High Evolutionary is the MCU’s best villain in this new era. I loved some previous ones after Endgame, like Shang Chi’s Wenwu and Black Panther’s Namor, but something about the High Evolutionary being pure evil with no redeeming qualities is something fresh, after having so many sympathetic villains. Now, there is nothing wrong with a sympathetic villain, majority of my favorite MCU characters were sympathetic villains before (Loki, Wenwu, Killmonger among a few), but ever since Endgame, everyone is trying to recreate that same magic that Josh Brolin did with Thanos. Ever since Endgame, we have had sympathetic villains from Shang Chi (Wenwu), No Way Home (Norman, Otto), Multiverse of Madness (Wanda), Love and Thunder (Gorr), Wakanda Forever (Namor), and just recently, Quantumania (Kang). This is way more than Pre-Endgame MCU, where the only sympathetic ones were one every phase. Here, the High Evolutionary, played perfectly and brilliantly by Chukwudi Iwuji, is an evil mastermind who is trying to create what he believes is the perfect society, using Rocket and his other experiments as mere stepping stones in his path to greatness. One line that he said that I will mention later is not only one of the best lines Gunn ever wrote, it is probably the best thing a villain has ever said since Thanos. Iwuiji did a perfect job playing a villain that I not only hated, I despised.

(Credit: Digital Spy)

Now, the Guardians are making their way to Counter Earth, where they are surrounded by human animal hybrids. They are able to befriend a bat woman (side note: did not know she was a bat in the movie, had no idea what it was), who helps point them in the right direction on where to find the High Evolutionary and the guy they are looking for. So, Drax and Mantis were told to stay with Rocket as Quill, Groot, and Nebula went to confront the High Evolutionary. This is when the first ‘F***’ in the MCU is placed. Now, they make their way through different neighborhoods and see how they live here on Counter Earth. They make it to the High Evolutionary’s base, built in a pyramid like shape. Nebula is not allowed inside thanks to her arm, so Quill and Groot enter while Nebula waits outside. Quill sees the High Evolutionary with his own eyes and the rage and fury behind them is unmistakable. He sees the other Guardians as his family, and the fact that this guy tortured someone in his family, it made him so upset.

Before continuing, I just wanted to say that I do not blame Quill for everything he has done. We have seen throughout his time in the MCU that he is an emotional individual, I mean, hell, he hasn’t found a healthy way to cope with the loss of his mother, because the mere mention of her death, he is sent into a fury filled fit. Quill has been running his entire life, running from these feelings and as a way to continue running, you retaliate. In this case, he retaliates with anger. Since a lot of people blame him for hitting Thanos since he killed Gamora, I just think that this is exactly how he would react, since everyone near and dear to him has been killed (his mom, his girlfriend, his father figure). I mean, if someone killed any one that I loved, I would not even begin to explain the emotions I would feel and what would happen to the person that did me wrong. Although it is wrong that he did punch him, I feel it reflects him as a character, and sure you can hate and blame him, but it had to happen, according to Strange.

So, Quill confronts the guy he saw, which catches the attention of the High Evolutionary, who at this point told him to wait. They talk for a bit before Groot reveals that inside his torso was a bunch of guns, including Quill’s guns. They attempt to kill everyone inside and Quill tackles the guy out of the building, mind you, where they were, it was around 1,000 feet in the air. He is airlifted by Groot to safety and they successfully retrieve the device.

Now, while this is happening, Drax steals a motorcycle and he and Mantis go towards the pyramid, which is starting to rise into the air. Them, along with Nebula, board the ship and are nearly killed thanks to the ship going into space before Drax opens the door to get inside. Meanwhile, Gamora is back at the Bowie, and finds herself trying to protect Rocket from Adam, who is seeking to kidnap him for the High Evolutionary. Just as all of this is happening, the HIgh Evolutionary is blowing Counter Earth up, starting over again. This is interesting, because in that moment in the theater, I had turned to the people I was with and said, “He is playing God,” much like how many believe He threw the asteroid that killed the Dinosaurs (I am not saying I believe in this, I do not, but I find the similarities between the two). As the planet is blowing up, that is when Drax, Mantis, and Nebula board the ship. Gamora is trying to drive the Bowie (although very poorly) and saves Quill and Groot. Meanwhile, Ayesha is killed in the explosions as Adam tries to save her. He ends up on the Bowie and they all fly off the planet.

(Credit: Quora)

Quill begins trying to save Rocket, but Rocket begins to hallucinate his friends in the afterlife, Lylla being the first to see him. He laments how apologetic he was for letting them down, and Lylla explains that he did not. He asks to join them and she agrees, which is when he begins to flatline and Quill and Groot begin to panic. Quill is yelling in anger as he frantically tries to resuscitate him. Meanwhile, Rocket begins walking to his friends, but Lylla stops him. She explains that it is not his time yet. They ‘kiss’ and she calls him her raccoon before sending him back, with him saying “I’m not a raccoon.” He is sent back to his physical body, where he desperately gasps for air. Quill and Gamora are able to heal him and the three guys embrace, Gamora happy that he is okay.

Nebula, Drax, and Mantis are able to communicate with the others on the Bowie, and they are all relieved to hear Rocket (especially Nebula). The three on the ship are captured and they all go to save them. Meanwhile, prior to being captured, the trio find themselves surrounded by caged children. Nebula and Mantis tried to talk to them, but they were unsuccessful. They freed some of them, but then, that is when Quill is able to talk to him. Once they are captured, Drax shows he is able to communicate with the children, which irritates Nebula. They are then lowered into an arena, surrounded by three Abilisk, the battery eating creatures from Vol 2. To everyone’s shock, Mantis is able to befriend the creatures, allowing them to escape.

Meanwhile, the others, including Rocket, board the ship and decide to save them, but they are all reunited thanks to Mantis. They were going to leave, but the trio told them about the children, and the ship is beginning to blow up (More on that in a bit). Rocket lets out that he is “done running” and turns back to save them. Groot, not even thinking about it, follows Rocket, and slowly, every Guardian, including Gamora turns out and they go back to fight the High Evolutionary.

(Credit: Nerdist)

Now, I want to discuss what happened. The High Evolutionary wants to restart his entire experiment, starting a new colony with Rocket’s brain once he captures him. This starts a mutiny on the ship, and this is when he drops the line I mentioned earlier. He says, “There is no God, so I stepped in.” and this solidifies my stance that he is an evil mastermind and the best MCU villain in a while. Just as this is happening, Kraglin and Cosmo brought Knowhere to the ship and began firing at it. In response to this and the mutiny, the High Evolutionary expands a blast of energy, ending everyone’s lives quickly inside that room.

Quill and the others, before freeing the children, have to fight through a hallway. I wish I could go into depth and explain it, but I want to shout out Ryan Arey on ScreenCrush who made a full breakdown video on it. Please go and watch it, he has a frame by frame explanation on how amazing this shot was. I will share the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHevly-Nz_M

Quill and the others free the children as Cosmo creates a link that allows the children to run to safety. As they were evacuating, Rocket finds himself in the animal area of the ship, and finds a similar cage that he found himself in when he was younger. He opens it and sees all the babies looking at him. He looks up at the paper and shows that these are in fact ‘Racoons’. He attempts to grab and save them, picking up the ones he dropped and looks around in sadness at all the other animals before the High Evolutionary comes to attack him. He attacks Rocket and ends with him calling him “89P13” before Rocket corrects him by saying “The name’s Rocket. Rocket…Racoon.” He finally admits he is a racoon and fires at him, blasting the High Evolutionary back. The High Evolutionary gets back up and charges at Rocket, but Groot pushes him back into the arms of Drax who throws him over his shoulder and bodies him. Drax then throws him into the air as Quill fires his gun at him. Mantis attacks him, followed by Nebula blasting him into Gamora, who fatally stabs him and proceeds to peel his face off. They look at him as Rocket chooses to spare him, since he is “a fricken Guardian of the Galaxy”.

They save the children and all the animals and Cosmo barely hangs on before fainting. Everyone but Quill makes it over, since Quill went back for his Zune that he dropped. He attempts to make it out and uses the blast’s momentum from the ship exploding to blast himself towards Knowhere, but is unable to make it back, earning a heart wrenching scream from Mantis. Groot attempts to rescue him, but is unsuccessful. Just then, Adam saves Quill after Groot saved him from the ship blowing up, bringing him to Knowhere and he survives, ending up in a group hug with everyone except Gamora.

(Credit: Men’s Health)

Quill catches Gamora before she returns to the Ravagers, explaining how he is finally ready to move on and let her go, truly coming to terms that the Gamora he grew and fell in love with was gone for good. She laments that they must have been great before they parted their separate ways and I really loved how this ended for them. Quill and Gamora’s romantic relationship was one that I thought was the most natural throughout the movies, and seeing it finally come to fruition in Infinity War was great, but it did not last long, and this just shows that even though she was a big part of who he was as a new person, he is finally ready to move on from that chapter in his life and into a new one, which flows right into the next part.

Quill shares to everyone that he is going to return to Earth, having been moved by Rocket’s mantra. He is going back to Earth to see his grandfather. Mantis decides to also leave, not really knowing anything about herself, since she has always done what Ego and the Guardians wanted. Drax volunteers to go with her, but Nebula reminds him that she needs help on Knowhere. He reluctantly agrees, and Rocket is devastated to know the Guardians are ‘over’. However, Quill tells him that the Galaxy needs it’s Guardians, and hands leadership of them over to Rocket, all of them giving Rocket a Ravager salute. It ends with Groot being the last one to do his salute as he says “I love you guys,” and at this moment, I whispered, “Oh my god,” as I began to bawl my eyes out. I have always loved Groot and Rocket throughout the course of the films, and I always tried to figure out what Groot is trying to say, so to finally hear him say something else, and the audience finally being a part of the Guardians made me feel not only sad that it was over for this team, but heartwarming because of how much love they all have for one another. It is truly an amazing job by James Gunn for creating a team with such infectious chemistry.

So as Florence + The Machines The Dog Days Are Over begins to play, we see everyone gets a bittersweet ending. Rocket and Groot dance with each other on Knowhere as Father and Son. In the mid-credit scene, Rocket is leading a new team which includes Kraglin and his arrow, Adam Warlock, Cosmo, one of the children whose name is Phyla, Adam’s pet Blurp, and Groot, who has grown way past his predecessor. Quill returns to Missouri, where he is reunited with his grandpa. Mantis and Drax part ways as she and her friends the Abilisks travel with her on her journey of self discovery. At the climax of the second part of the chorus, Drax finally dances, having been able to go back to becoming a father thanks to the children he saved. Him and Nebula dance with the children as they stay behind to raise them and rule Knowhere, Nebula explaining that she can give them everything she never had growing up. The movie ends with everyone howling into the sky, and it ends with Rocket howling, finally happy. Also, in the post credit scene, it explains that Star Lord will return, so we will see what that brings us.

(Credit: IGN)

Before we end, I wanted to share that I really did enjoy how things ended here for the Guardians. Every single one of their endings played into their character so well, so much so that I was upset that I haven’t even thought of it myself. I touched on Quill and him constantly running earlier in the post, but the fact that he is finally ready to return to Earth for the sole purpose of being there for his Grandpa shows he has grown so much over his time with the Guardians. Gamora returning to the Ravagers and not staying fits perfectly with this version of Gamora, since she has no personal ties to the team besides Nebula. She found a new family with them, the Guardians aren’t her family. Drax, I feel, had the most rewarding ending ever. After fighting all his life, wanting revenge on the ones that wronged him, he was never able to do one thing because his family was gone: become a father. Now, thanks to all the children, he is able to live that part of him. He seems truly happy to be a father, and I know he still misses his wife and daughter, that part will never leave him, but the fact that now he can continue on and raise these kids, giving him back the chance that he lost, makes me feel so happy for him, and it is the perfect sendoff for Drax. Nebula has also been wronged her entire life. Taken away from her family at a young age, constantly put in a sibling rivalry with Gamora, losing everyone but Rocket in Infinity War and Endgame, and gaining it all back and learning to move on from her trauma. She is now able to give back and raise these kids the way that she wished she was. Rocket and Groot are still Guardians of the Galaxy and I am so happy that Rocket made it through. He is the heart of the Guardians and without him, nothing would be the same.

(Credit: Fandango)

With that, it is the end of my explanation and I thank you for reading this far! If you enjoyed reading my stuff, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldn’t be attacked because of them. If you want to hear audio versions of these articles, you can find them on my YouTube channel ‘Screen and Joystick’. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!

#gotg #gotg review #gotg3 #gotg3 spoilers #rocket raccoon

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signalwatch · 11 months

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Marvel Watch: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Watched: 05/21/2023

Format: Theater!

Viewing: First

Director: James Gunn

On Friday night I watched the mostly panned Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, and on Saturday spent an ungodly amount of time discussing the film with Danny for the Superheroes Every Day podcast. Spoiler: it wasn't my favorite movie. And so it was that here, deep in Marvel Phase 5, that I finally saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

You'd have to listen to the podcast and read between the lines on other posts to know how I feel about Marvel these days. It's an affection, but one that knows where we're at in the scheme of creation and the realization that what always worked will not always work, and that they're now on to properties that have always struggled within the Marvel portfolio, while still not dishing up a Fantastic Four movie that we all know is coming.

As has been largely agreed upon, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy solidified the lessons of Iron Man (and to a lesser extent, Thor) and re-positioned how Marvel designed its films into action-comedies with heart. GotG somehow, against all odds, managed to make you care about a tree with one line of dialog, an asshole space-raccoon, a manchild with knives, a mass-murderer, and a slacker with delusions of grandeur. Plus a redneck pirate! The heart part was a bit surprising as we watched our leads kill a ship full of pirates, etc... Not the usual side of superheroes.

Bit, dammit, if I wasn't weepy at the end when Groot did his thing. And in the second one when we all worked through whatever we call found family and family. And who didn't like the Christmas special?

When I was 12 and getting into comics (circa 1987), I picked up a bundled four-pack of the 1986 Rocket Raccoon mini-series from a spinner rack at my local comic shop (and still my shop!), Austin Books and Comics. I was wildly enthusiastic about what I read, but also understood - apparently this series was not popular and I was going to have to love Rocket alone.

In truth, Rocket was deeply changed by the time he got to the GotG films. In the original series he was a gold-hearted law-man in an insane world (literally), with an otter girlfriend and a Walrus uncle. They'd been placed there to help keep an eye on "the loonies", crazy humans who needed looking after. The series is bonkers and has nothing to do with anything that would come up later in the comics or movies featuring the now gruff and ready-to-rumble Rocket. Over time, these things happen in comics.

I was also very aware of the High Evolutionary from late 1980's/ early 1990's comics, and in-particular a really fun summer event called "The Evolutionary War"* that gave me insight into his whole deal. He's a Grade A villain, but I wasn't sure how one would use him in a Marvel film. But here we are.

SPOILERS

Full stop - it was nice to see Marvel firing on all cylinders again. They're taking too long between sequels and re-appearances of fan-favorite characters as they litter the MCU with new characters, but mostly it's been 6 years since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Snippets of them in in big crossover films is nice, or doing some day work on Thor is cool, but... come on.

Luckily it doesn't feel like anyone missed a beat. Even if the audience who saw the last one in middle school is potentially now in college (that's too long, Marvel).

After multiple movies of Rocket being a bit rough around the edges, we get his origin story - even if the Guardians don't. And that's okay. But after being wounded in a fight with the newly hatched Adam Warlock by the Sovereign, Rocket is injured and its discovered his cybernetics include a kill-switch, which in turn points to the legitimate and illegitimate affairs of the MCU-space-freighting High Evolutionary.

Turns out this movie is about vivisection and animal testing, and puts a face to the whole affair, while creating Ani-Men along the way.

It's clear Gunn read and appreciated the groundbreaking comic We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, a three-issue story about a dog, cat and rabbit given cybernetic enhancements as a military experiment. Set free by their keeper when she realizes the military is going to euthanize them, things get very dark, very fast, but it's also an emotional rollercoaster. (Talk about the comics that live in your head. It's still one of my favorite comics of all time.)

Pretty clearly Gunn took the characters from the whimsical 1986 comics, overlaying them on ideas and concepts seen in We3, creating something new and utterly heartbreaking in ways I was not expecting.

Meanwhile, Peter Quill is working through his grief at living in a world where his new Gamorra has rejected him, Nebula is trying to make the best of her situation and move forward, Mantis is coming into her own and Drax is... Drax.

Our villain this outing is the aforementioned High Evolutionary, recast here as a galactic-level type, played with tremendous effect by Chukwudi Iwuji - a "visionary" who is endlessly working his way to building a utopian society by trying to create new species through an endless parade of grotesquries. But maybe he doesn't know what he's doing? And/ or is more into the process itself than the end goal? And who jealously sees a true, inherent genius in his creation of Rocket that he, himself, lacks.

I can't say how remarkable it is that Gunn works in multiple arcs across multiple characters, and, arguably, those arcs all work. It's possible the overall story that's an excuse for spending time with his characters is a little messy - but I didn't really think so. Gunn is mostly responsible for his own scripts, and he manages to keep things tight. But nothing sacrifices the journeys we've been on since the first film - the characters continue to grow, reflect, refract and change.

And this is Gunn. He absolutely knows how to push the buttons to make you laugh, cry, sit on the edge of your seat, make you love a character instantly and care about them in ways that few other filmmakers can do. All of this is wrapped up in one of the more violent corners of the MCU where life really is cheap, and the devastation of whole planets is something that happens along the way. Characters we just met meet swift and terrible ends.

But violence isn't the point. Unlike many-a-superhero movie, GotG doesn't reduce itself to a slog of equally matched foes making a light show. Here in Volume 3, we have a finale during which the last 1/3rd isn't just when things get crazy, it's also when character arcs come to a head and work through to completion. And not just "if I beat that guy, I can go home". It's all fairly legitimate third act resolution, which is really something when you consider it's also the 9th to 15th act we've had for some of these characters.

Gunn creates amazing scenes. It's worth noting that he does use practical sets when he can (Knowhere's business area is one massive set), and he doesn't rely on dark or haze to cover up what he wants to show. His characters are buyable in their insane spaces - making our own world and reasonable facsimiles of it - look like the alien thing on screen. And he knows that intersplicing events is the real action in many action movies (thanks, Star Wars, for that lesson!). But he's also not above an astounding but reasonably paced hallways fight giving our re-teamed heroes their moment.

And, of course, Gunn's soundtrack was typically on point. I assume Gunn and I must be within a few graduating classes of each other, because I see him.

This was the first movie since probably February of 2020 that Jamie and I have seen together in a theater, and the first for me in an Alamo since, I believe, Birds of Prey. So of course I'm almost predisposed to like this one on principle of the cinematic experience. And, sure, I am certain I missed an error or ten. I am sure the anthropomorphization and cruelty shown to Rocket and his friends was disliked, or seen as manipulative or sentimental. On that we'll have to part ways and ponder the very nature of fictional narratives.

As with all of Gunn's output from the past decade-plus, the rollercoaster of experiences and emotional whiplash - while maintaining a coherent story - is mind-boggling. For comparison/ contrast, one need only turn their eye on the recent-to-Disney+ Quantumania, which just keeps hitting the same notes over and over.

I don't mind that Gunn essentially killed characters I'd hoped to see on screen one day since the appearance of Rocket. In a way, I'm disappointed, but I do feel it's earned. I may actually be more cheesed that this eliminates the possibility for a We3 movie, but that was never going to happen properly, anyway. And I am delighted that Rocket did get so much spotlight this film, and that the story felt meaningful.

I have no idea what will become of Marvel Studios over the next five to ten years. Not all signs point to another twenty years of non-stop success, and some bad choices have been made here and there in a way that seemed impossible once Marvel started firing on all cylinders. But it's great to send off at least this little corner of the MCU with a sequel worthy of the goodwill.

Sunday afternoon I was asked what I thought of Gunn on Superman: Legacy, and while I won't get into why, specifically, watching a non-Suicide Squad film settled for me that he's the right person of the job at this moment. I think he's got it.

*I've always held this up as "how comics cross-over events should be handled". There's a main story and the individual summer annuals tie-in, and you can opt in or out, and it gives everyone time to mention that it happened later in the year in their ongoing titles.

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#Guardians of the Galaxy #Rocket Raccoon #marvel #mcu

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moonstrider9904 · 2 years

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Failed Reunion

Chapter 17 of Moonwalker: The Batch

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Summary: The boys have their inhibitor chips out, and it seems like Sarah can finally catch a break, but the arrival of imperial ships on Bracca will force a heartbreaking reunion on her and the batch.

Word count: 5.5k

Tags/warnings: Mature. Still pretty angsty, some fluff, hurt with some comfort, polyamory, mentions of broken bones, allusions to sex and masturbation, mention of burns.

A/N: Hmhmhmhmhmh self indulgence time

Songs: long reach, ended up drowning

Rex’s last words to Sarah bounced back and forth in her mind, words she wouldn’t forget.

“Remember, Sarah. You can save him if you go about it right. It’s worth it, but you already know that.”

Standing between Hunter and Tech, staring into the endless sea of rust and debris of Bracca, a sight made unexpectedly peaceful with the deep blue sky in its final gleams of twilight. With her arm still wrapped in a cast and resting on the cloth Tech fixed for her, she thought about how in the universe she was supposed to go about it right.

She’d proven that going alone to save Crosshair from the Empire wasn’t an option. Logically, an attempt would be made to go as a group, but the whole squad, even with Rex’s help, had barely survived against Wrecker when his chip activated.

How would they ever survive Crosshair under the chip’s command?

A gentle bump on her shoulder snapped Sarah out of her daze, and she turned to see Hunter and Tech looking at her, eyes softened with concern, until a gentle stroking on her arms drew her attention onto her Guardian.

“What’s the matter?” He asked her.

Sarah sighed. “Just thinking too much over something Rex said.”

“What was it?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” she rubbed her eyes.

Hunter’s features dropped. “Sarah, how long has it been since you’ve slept?”

“Too long,” she looked up at him. “I’m fine, okay? I’m just tired and on painkillers.”

She pressed herself up to Hunter, her head resting on his chest, and without a second thought, Hunter wrapped his arms around her.

“Just hug me,” Sarah said quietly.

Hunter gave a light chuckle before kissing the top of her head. “That I can do.”

If she had just let herself drift off for a bit, Sarah would have fallen asleep in his embrace, feeling warm and protected. She thought back to when they were on Jedha, the way he held her close as they were both asleep, how it felt to wake up engulfed in his warmth.

Maybe that was all Sarah needed; some time to recover, to be in the arms of her Guardian, for once feeling like everything was okay, like she was safe, like she hadn’t let anyone down, and like her mistakes didn’t matter or define her.

But she couldn’t quite forget everything and set it aside for the sake of peace, rendering her doomed to face everything head on, if only for a while longer. Perhaps her team was always ready for anything, or at least it seemed that way, but while Sarah attempted to keep a strong front, all she could think of at that moment was how small she felt. She felt tiny in a huge galaxy that had managed to slap her in the face constantly for months.

She didn’t know how to go about anything at that moment, but she didn’t want to. All she wanted at that moment was to curl into a ball and sob while someone hugged and comforted her.

But while she wasn’t necessarily curled into a ball and in a blanket, Sarah was being hugged by someone, someone who loved her unconditionally, who would protect her even at the cost of his own life. Someone who, for the life of him, would never blame her for the mistakes she made, would always seek out her well-being, who would prefer to hug and comfort her before smacking her for her stupidity even if she deserved it.

With a shaky breath, a single tear rolled down her cheek before more and more came, and quiet as she was, she could feel Hunter’s embrace tightening.

Echo and Wrecker finished bringing their haul of stunned scrappers, accompanied by Omega, who curiously hopped behind them. As they set them down next to one of the walls on that makeshift balcony, Sarah stepped out of Hunter’s embrace, her gaze now drifted to Tech, whose gaze was yet again buried in the holopad he always carried, looking up who knows what.

He looked different. The inhibitor chip removal had forced him and Hunter to shave off parts of their hair, and while Hunter could easily cover it with his bandana—he would never cut the luscious curls off, that much was obvious—Tech embraced the new look and shaved off the sides of his head, giving him a soft sort of mohawk that somehow made the brown curls on his head look more graceful.

It suited him, and Sarah would lie if she said he didn’t look handsome.

“Remind me what we’re still doing here,” Echo spoke up. “We can’t have many more close calls.”

“We need the money, and there’s a lot that we can loot here,” Hunter told him.

“Rex offered us to go with him,” Echo argued. “We could have left with him and forgotten about our debt with Cid in the first place.”

“That’s not how it works, Echo,” Sarah spoke, calmly. “If you owe someone anything, especially credits, you get hunted down. If you get lucky, you get a warning, but it’s better to pay up and be on good terms.”

“I suppose that’s your pirate past speaking,” Echo couldn’t help but smirk.

“Yeah, which means it’s better if you trust me,” Sarah answered.

“Hunter and Sarah are correct,” Tech intervened. “My scans not only indicate a large amount of weapons and equipment that we could definitely profit from, but also the possibility of intel stored in the cruiser’s central control system. If I can get my hands on that intel, we could sell that alone for worth far more than any weapon.”

“Alright,” Hunter said. “Head to the bridge and see what you can find. The rest of us will go to the armory and load up on whatever we can get our hands on.”

“Try to get something for us to use too,” Sarah suggested. “Wrecker will know what.”

“Hell yeah, I will,” Wrecker grinned with confidence as he and Omega pranced off into the ship.

Before they left, Sarah knudged Hunter’s elbow.

“Mind if I go with Tech to the bridge?” She said. “I can’t do much carrying, anyway.”

“Since when do you ask me for permission?” Hunter smiled at her. “Go.”

“Oh, I’m not asking for permission so much as for an opinion,” Sarah grinned deviously. “You know I do whatever I want.”

“I’m familiar with that,” Hunter gently kissed her forehead. “Now go.”

Tech had put his helmet on before he and Sarah made their way to the bridge. At times, he had to hold her to help her through the rough areas within the old, corroded hallways of the cruiser, all of them eerily dark. For comfort, Sarah looked around them and tried to imagine them brightly lit, gleaming in full glory like they would in the old days.

“Were you guys frequently on cruisers?” Sarah asked Tech.

“Almost never,” he replied in his easy-going tone. “We pretty much got around on the Marauder since the start of the war. I’m guessing you had your fair share of times traveling aboard a Jedi cruiser.”

“I sure did,” Sarah replied, nostalgia bathing her voice. “Anytime we were deployed on missions, we took gunships that always flew from cruisers. We’d be briefed in the hangars, wish each other luck before stepping in the gunships; sometimes it was light-hearted, other times we were all terrified of the battle ahead. General Skywalker would usually be on one gunship with Rex, and normally I’d take another one with Ahsoka and the rest of Torrent Company.”

Just as she finished reminiscing, she and Tech had arrived at the bridge, far sooner than she’d expected.

“Alright, let me get the power back on,” Tech began to crouch.

“You can do that from here?” She asked him.

Tech shot her an are you kidding me? glance from the ground, to which she could only chuckle. He finally went underneath the ship’s main panel, lying on his back as he fidgeted with the controls.

“Would you please hold a lantern up for me in the meantime?” Tech asked. “You only need one hand for that.”

“Yes, sir,” Sarah teased.

“Come, now,” Tech spoke with an audible smile. “I asked nicely.”

She sat and held the lantern while Tech worked on getting the power back on, and their conversation at times made the two of them laugh. Sarah thought of how she always got on so well with Tech, how natural and easy and simple it was to be around him, never mind his incredible intelligence. Being with Tech was simply a matter of reciprocating the art of listening.

Unsurprisingly, Tech succeeded in getting the cruiser’s power back on, bringing another smile on Sarah’s features.

“Now what can I do?” She said as she powered the lantern off and hooked it on her belt.

“Sit,” Tech told her. “I’d rather you don’t exert force that may injure you further.”

“It’s fine,” she persuaded, glancing at her broken wrist. “You did a great job with it.”

“Of course I did,” Tech answered. “Even so, I’ve already performed all the operations I’d like on your wrist. The rest is a matter of you keeping it still so that your bones can regenerate.”

Sarah smiled. “Fine.”

Sarah couldn’t help but stare at the engineer as he lay on his back, doing what he did best. The angle gave her an obscene view of his legs, bent and slightly parted as he worked, his focus unwavered. His physique, alongside Crosshair’s, was often overlooked when compared to his two brothers, both more muscularly built, expected to use their strength to succeed. But while Tech’s intelligence was his key asset, anything regarding his physical capabilities was not meant to be underestimated.

After a moment, Tech emerged from below the control panel and took his holopad, sitting on the ground with his gaze glued to it.

“How do you feel?” He broke the silence.

While it wasn’t the first question she’d expected to hear from Tech, Sarah recognized how loaded it was.

“Woozy with painkillers,” she answered. “I really just want to sleep.”

“You know what I mean,” Tech momentarily lifted his gaze from the holopad and found hers.

Sarah sighed, turning away, suddenly unable to meet his own gorgeous eyes.

“Do not evade me, Sarah,” Tech said. “I know Rex got you thinking about Crosshair again, as I’m sure the removal of our inhibitor chips did as well.”

“It sometimes feels like I’m the only one around here who still thinks of him,” she went to sit on the ground, cross-legged, in front of Tech.

“You are not,” Tech replied. “I do, and Wrecker does too. Before you and Echo came along, he and Crosshair were by far the closest—but I’m certain you noticed that before the war ended. I believe Hunter is the only one who won’t allow himself to admit he misses Crosshair, especially not after…” Tech’s gaze went to Sarah’s chest. “That incident.”

Sarah exhaled. “Rex said that if we do it right, we can save Crosshair too. I only wish I knew what the right way was.”

“Well,” Tech lied down under the panel again, “you are someone who always sees opportunities, and you have quite the amount of gut feelings to help you in your decisions. I’m certain you’ll know when to take the chance.”

Her insecurities manifested in silence, bringing Tech’s attention to her once more. He left the panel alone and sat closer to her, expectant of what she had to say.

“I don’t doubt that the Force tells me what’s right,” her voice went quiet. “But maybe I misinterpret it.”

“You do not,” Tech said.

“Then how else have I screwed up so badly?” Her eyes began to gleam. “Supposedly, I know how to do things. Supposedly, I know how to keep myself and others safe, and yet, nothing I’ve done has gone right since the war ended. I always fuck up one way or another, and it’s all on me.”

“Sarah,” Tech placed a hand on hers, quieting her down. “You insist on doing things alone. You don’t have to. And whatever you choose to do, mistakes will always happen. There is a margin of error for every endeavor that the human mind sets out on, one that is bound to manifest. It is not your fault, it is the nature of things. The error is not as important as what you do to solve it afterwards.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “Tech…”

“Try not to go alone next time,” Tech continued. “You can count on me, you always will.”

She smiled softly at him. “I never thought I’d hear you being so emotional.”

“I meant you will need someone to see all the technicalities of your mission,” Tech removed his helmet and adjusted his goggles, giving a sigh. “Sarah, you are a beautiful person who is incredibly capable of figuring things out, all you need to do is get back up.”

Her cheeks reddened, and her skin under his hand began to feel warm.

“Did you just call me beautiful?” She smiled.

Tech reciprocated with a hint of a chuckle. “Everything I say is intentional.”

“Even if your overall sentence had nothing to do with my beauty?” She raised a brow.

“I have to make it known somehow,” Tech smirked. “If Hunter had his shot, maybe I could too.”

“You made your feelings very clear back on Ord Mantell, genius,” Sarah laughed. “You still have the bra, by the way?”

“It does wonders,” Tech grinned.

Sarah playfully rolled her eyes and gave him a gentle smack on the shin.

“You know,” Tech continued. “We could always run away together and forget about the other two.”

Sarah openly laughed. “Watch what you say, Tech. I still have one good hand that I could smack you with.”

Tech let go of her hand, laughing softly. “I would thank you for that, princess.” He then reached for his comm. “Omega, I need you on the bridge.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to have her wed us,” Sarah teased.

“Sadly, no,” Tech said as he reached for the holopad. “I need to copy the master drive of the ship’s informational storage, but that is a task that requires two hands.”

“Oh, Tech,” she purred. “You’d be surprised at how much I can do with just one hand.”

For all his sly comments, Tech was left staring blankly at her, cornered by her remark.

Sarah shrugged innocently. “You started it.”

Tech’s shock turned into another laugh. “Very well, you win. However, Omega is on her way. We should probably tone it down.”

“We definitely should,” she agreed.

Tech resumed his work on the panel, leaving Sarah to stand and gaze at the scenery outside. For a moment, her mind lingered on what Tech had said, even if, for the moment, part of it had been a joke. What if she were to run away with someone she hadn’t had any drama with? What if they could just leave, and forget all that had been weighing them down?

But, once again, Sarah was reminded it wasn’t possible, and that real life was what was in front of her: waiting with a broken wrist while her squad scavenged for intel and weapons to clear off a debt, after which they’d continue to work as mercenaries.

And then, just as Omega paddled happily onto the bridge, eager to be of help, Sarah couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge those big, starry eyes. A shudder overcame her while she felt a disturbance in the Force, bringing her gaze back up to the scenery of Bracca as night fell on the planet.

Just as the shudder cleared from her chest, she saw piercing brown eyes flashing in her mind.

It’s him.

A red light on the ship’s controls began beeping on and off, sounding an alarm, and the shuddering returned to her.

“Tech?” Her voice broke with nerves.

He immediately went over to her along with Omega, flanking Sarah’s sides. The engineer stared at the beeping light for a moment, his hand hovering over it. “It’s the proximity sensor, but it must be glitched. It should only activate when there is a vessel nearby—”

“Tech, that’s just it,” she began to pant. “He’s here.”

His eyes widened, knowing what Sarah meant. Just then, the whirring of engines sounded above them, and through the bridge’s windshields, they could see three imperial shuttles flying just above the cruiser, landing in front of it.

Sarah’s comm bepped.

“What is it?” Hunter’s voice came in. “Sarah, what’s wrong?”

Of course he’d sense her distress and the pain that overcame her at the idea of seeing him again, of not having prepared enough to actually have a chance of saving him, of meeting him only to surely lose him again.

Slowly, Sarah pulled her comm up to her mouth, watching as the shuttle in the center opened its door.

“Crosshair’s here,” she declared.

Upon hearing the words come out of her, Hunter and the rest of the squad rushed to the bridge. As soon as they arrived, Hunter gently squeezed Sarah’s hand before taking the binoculars Tech handed to him. By that point, the troopers who were in the shuttles had already exited them and taken their formation, leaving the final, dark-armored elite squadron to be the last ones setting foot on the planet’s ground.

“It’s him, alright,” Hunter said lowly.

“Im jamming their transmissions now,” Tech spoke.

“That won’t stop him,” Hunter put the binoculars down and held tighter to Sarah. “We have to move.”

“We might have to hide,” Sarah said. “He’s going to find the Marauder and lock it down.”

“That might only entrap us more,” Tech said. “I’d rather we hurry back to the Marauder while he looks for us in the cruiser, that is, if we won’t make the attempt to get him to the medical bay.”

The room fell quiet.

“What if we bait him there?” Sarah suggested.

“It’s too big of a risk,” Hunter said. “We’ll be outnumbered and cornered. I’d like our chances more if we encountered him on more open ground before taking him there.”

A rush passed through Sarah’s body, and she feared once again it would be stupidity rather than confidence.

“Should we try it?” She asked.

Hunter looked at her, worried, nostalgic, but wanting more than anything to support her, hard as it may have been for him.

“You decide,” Hunter told her with utmost trust.

But Sarah felt she’d break. What if she was wrong again? What if her decision cost them dearly again, perhaps more this time? She’d seen how they’d struggled against Wrecker, and she knew firsthand that Crosshair probably wouldn’t fight the chip for long enough to not hurt any of them, not with his programming being enhanced. What was more, back on Kamino, Crosshair hadn’t had nearly as many troops backing him up as he did now. Facing three attack shuttles’ worth of troopers would be difficult even for her and her squad.

Running away seemed like the only sensible option.

But if they left, if they ran away and safely returned to Ord Mantell, where would that leave Crosshair? The imprint was still there, Sarah could still feel him. Could she ever forgive herself if she left Bracca, and in those last seconds, felt Crosshair watching the ship fly away? How could she possibly talk of wanting to save him from the Empire if she turned her back on him now?

Whether they left or if they tried to bait Crosshair to the med bay wasn’t clear, all she knew was that they had to leave the bridge.

“Let’s go toward the hangar,” she said.

They walked down the dark hallways only to find that Crosshair had predicted their movements, and they opted for heading towards the artillery deck instead. Just as they were arriving, Hunter reached Sarah and stopped her, gazing at each other in the darkness, while she tried to make out his expression underneath his helmet.

“What is it?” She asked him.

Hunter hesitated. “I don’t want him to see you. Not yet.”

“He won’t hurt me—”

“We don’t know that,” Hunter’s voice broke. “Sarah, if he sees you’re alive, he’ll either rejoice or finish the order he was given. I can’t risk that again.”

Sarah sighed; he made a good point, one she couldn’t afford to ignore.

“Alright,” she said. “I’ll stay hidden.”

As they made it into the rusty artillery deck, its structure on the brink of falling apart, Sarah felt a brief hunch warning her of the incoming squads. As though on cue, Hunter reached for her and helped her crouch behind one of the cannons, allowing her to remain unseen as the soldiers ran inside. The squad watched as they were surrounded by endless troopers in white armor, void of any detail and personality, until finally, when they looked toward their north flank, they saw him.

He was already aiming his rifle at them, backed by the rest of his new squad, all of them donning armor as dark as his.

Silence crushed the artillery deck, with tension only rising as brother watched brother, the barrier of their helmets raised as they aimed their blasters. Crosshair facing off his former squad, and his former squad facing off against the one who was taken from them, the one who’d been left behind.

“Crosshair,” Hunter spoke, his tone riddled with nostalgia and with an underlying grudge. “Brother…”

“You became predictable after the war ended, Hunter,” Crosshair spoke.

Sarah could feel how clouded by grief and anger Crosshair was, his usually smooth, monotonous voice sounding strained.

“Why come after us?” Hunter inquired.

“You’re all traitors,” Crosshair answered.

“No,” Hunter took a step forward, still aiming the blaster. “That’s your inhibitor chip talking. It’s controlling you, Crosshair. We can help you, just lower your weapon.”

“I don’t want your help, Hunter,” Crosshair said. “I’m past it. I only want to complete my mission, but I’m leaving it up to you if you want to come with me or if I’ll have to fire at you too.”

“You don’t want to do that,” Hunter said. “The same way I know you didn’t want to shoot Sarah.”

“Don’t speak her name!” Crosshair yelled.

It became clear to Sarah that Crosshair’s own turmoil had clouded him from being able to sense her, and if he had sensed her, he’d deemed it a hallucination. But it was time. She got up from behind the ruined cannon and walked up behind Hunter and Omega, as much of a risk as it was, she had to see him and try to get to him, and she’d listen to the voice inside of her telling her Crosshair wouldn’t hurt her again.

“Crosshair,” she said.

He flinched when she spoke his name, lowering the rifle in an instant. He stared at her, and after a few tense seconds, Crosshair surprised everyone by removing his helmet, his eyes wide with sorrow and shock with a hint of relief, but most of all, guilt, as he looked at her.

“You’re alive,” he said quietly, gradually raising his volume. “How are you alive?! I—I shot you, I saw you die! You were dead!”

He stumbled, falling to his knees as tears rolled down him. “I killed you…”

Sarah let out the sob she was holding in, shaking her head slowly as she held out her good hand. “You couldn’t, Crosshair. You never could.”

Crosshair shook, still looking at her, finding it within himself to stand up again. He stared at her hand, extended, offered to him, before looking back into her eyes.

“Come,” she said. “Come back to me.”

One of his troopers leaned over beside him, getting his attention once more. Slowly, Crosshair reached for his rifle and his helmet again, putting it back on as he stood up, prompting Hunter to stand in front of Sarah and shield her from him.

She’d failed again.

Before anyone could fire the first blast, the cannons of the artillery deck began firing without warning, rattling the fragile place to a point of destruction. The thick tension had now broken into an outburst of chaos, one Sarah caught herself in the middle of.

She’d lost sight of Crosshair in the middle of the firefight, and as she looked for him, she felt Hunter reaching for her and taking her with him, running after Tech and the others who had taken advantage of the mayhem to find an improvised way out.

Sarah was still trying to get over the image of Crosshair crying on his knees as she walked behind Hunter, and by the time she got a grip of her surroundings, Sarah noticed they’d wound up in the ion engine chamber—crazy as it was for an exit, it would be the safest bet. It was huge, dark, and it still smelled of oil and blast primer coating; they walked carefully along the edges, making their way down, with Hunter remaining close to her the whole time, helping her down the tougher heights.

Once they were all lower and nearly at the final edge of the engine, a blast suddenly hit one of the engine’s beams, nearly knocking Tech off balance from how close it had been to hitting him, and Sarah’s mind raced.

Crosshair fired that as a warning rather than to hurt Tech, because as they all were painfully aware of, he never missed.

“How did he know we’d come out through the engine?” Wrecker said.

“Beats me,” Hunter answered, “but we need to find a different way out now.”

“We could always try the bottom part of the engine,” Tech said. “These chambers have trapdoors for repairs, I simply didn’t choose them from the beginning because we’ll land onto more debris.”

“I think that’s true for any corner we choose,” Hunter said. “But if there are less troopers, it’s worth a shot. Lead the way, Tech.”

“You got it,” Tech answered.

Just as they began to follow Tech, a loud, booming rumble filled the engines followed by the terrifying sound of it powering up. When they looked up, they saw the engine’s center begin to flow with light blue, freshly-ignited plasma.

“Tech?” Hunter said, frightened. “Can the engines be powered on?”

Tech looked at all of them; even he seemed scared. “Yes. I reactivated general power on the ship.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Sarah comforted him.

“But…” Omega said. “Crosshair wouldn’t. He wouldn’t!”

“We can’t afford to stay and find out, we need to move out of here, now!” Hunter said.

“The explosives,” Wrecker spoke up. “We can use them to break away from the engine!”

“Everybody grab one!” Hunter ordered.

Sarah did the best she could, lining the lower part of the engine with explosives while the others did the jumping and climbing, until at last, the engine’s inner circumference was lined with a detonator every few radians. They all regrouped at the bottom, pressing themselves to the ground as they waited for the explosives to go off, and in the desperate waiting, Sarah felt Hunter’s hand squeezing hers tighter than ever while he held onto Omega with his other arm.

Then, it all happened fast. The loud boom of the engine engulfed the area as well as the various explosions from the thermal detonators. The cone that they were at rumbled and creaked loudly, and soon, they felt its force overpower them as it fell with a loud crash, splitting in two parts in the process.

Sarah rolled as she fell and lost sight of whoever was nearby, but before she hit the debris on the ground, she caught a small glimpse of Tech, Echo, and Wrecker rolling down considerably far from her. The worry of being separated from them was washed over by the overwhelming pain of having landed on her broken wrist, wincing when she shifted to put her good hand on the ground. Alas, she had expected to land on earth to heal, and instead, it was all metal.

Solid, rusty old metal on the brink of decay wouldn’t help her heal.

“Is everyone okay?!” Hunter called through the comms.

“I’m alive,” Sarah confirmed, strained with pain.

“We’re all good,” Tech replied on behalf of him, Wrecker, and Echo.

“Meet back at the Marauder!” Hunter told them.

Sarah was about to head towards the ship when her marks began going warm, and she turned in the direction they told her. Something, or rather someone was far closer than she’d expected him to be, and she wouldn’t leave him now.

It took a lot of climbing, a difficult and agonizing effort, but by the gods, Sarah would reach Crosshair even if she had to do it in pieces. Eventually, she reached the point where he’d been sniping from, and after looking around for him, she noticed Crosshair bent over more debris, breathing heavily, looking weaker than ever.

She ran to him, quick to grasp his shoulder, her voice shaking as she noticed his injuries. The right side of his head had been burned, and some of it had extended onto his body; she panicked, knowing he looked far more injured than he had back in the cave on Kashyyyk, when he’d risked himself to save her.

And suddenly, Crosshair’s breathing became faster when he opened his eyes and realized she was with him.

“Sarah…” His voice was nearly a sob. “You’re alive…”

“Of course I am…” her eyes began to well with tears.

Weakly, Crosshair reached a hand out to caress her cheek, his finger trailing over the new additions of her now blue marks.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.

She forced herself not to cry yet, taking his hand as she leaned into his palm. “Come on,” she was about to take him in his arms, but he stopped her.

“You have to leave,” Crosshair grunted. “They’re on their way.”

“Then we have to hurry,” Sarah resolved.

“No,” he said, applying more force to his touch, making him strain. “Sarah, leave… please.”

He stopped all of her movement and, with his head tilted away from her so that she could only see the left side of his face, the side that hadn’t been burned by the engine’s thrust, he looked her in the eyes. Sarah didn’t know if he was pushing her away due to pride, spite, warning, or if he was trying to protect her too.

But if Sarah had to guess, she’d say he didn’t want the Empire to find her there, because while they would help him heal, they would certainly try to hurt her.

She wanted to believe that he was protecting her, and the warmth on her marks as he touched her only helped her confirm it, but it only made tears fall from her as she squeezed his hand.

“I can’t leave you again,” she whimpered.

“We don’t have time,” he began, only to be compelled to shake his head, his usual response to the chip taking over his emotions. “Please, leave, Sarah. They won’t be kind to you.”

Sniffling, Sarah’s gaze jerked up in the direction she could hear comm chatter from, only to feel Crosshair squeezing her hand with resolve.

“Now,” he said, his eyes pained at having to push her away, even though he desperately wanted and needed her there.

Sarah wouldn’t let it all be in vain, and once she knew she’d have to leave him there, she leaned in and sealed her intent with a tender kiss on his lips. As they kissed, Crosshair felt soft, he felt warm, like a home to her heart, and when she tried to part, Crosshair shifted forward despite the pain he felt, chasing her lips to kiss her again.

They kissed for as long as they could until a shuttle’s engine could be heard in the distance—Sarah had to leave, or she wouldn’t make it. With a soft gaze, she looked Crosshair in the eyes.

“I will go back for you, somehow,” she said, and then, unable to look out of there, she went down the way she came. Not long after she disappeared from his sight, a shuttle flew up next to Crosshair for a medic to retrieve him while Sarah watched, hidden in the debris.

He’d kissed her. He’d begged her to leave and showed relief that she was alive. Perhaps it was the injury, but the real Crosshair was shining through the chip more than before, and Sarah allowed herself to feel hope.

“I’ll go back for you,” she whispered into the night as her final promise before she began making her way back to the Marauder.

But the sorrow of leaving Crosshair was quickly shadowed by the sudden, terrible feeling that Hunter was hurt. With her marks going cold, Sarah rushed through the debris, following where their bond told her Hunter would be.

Taglist: @zoeykallus @rexandechosandwich @nunanuggets @sageislostinspring @dangerousstrawberrypie @salaminus @ladykatakuri @whore4rex @seriowan @kimageddon @rain-on-kamino @prozacspice @eyecandyeoz

Thanks for reading!

#moonstrider writes #the moonwalker series #oc sarah adhara #tbb fanfic #tbb fanfiction #tbb hunter x oc #sergeant hunter x oc #tbb hunter #tbb tech #tbb tech x oc #clone force 99 #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #tbb crosshair x oc

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rycbarmerlin · 8 months

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A collection of Ed x Stede song lyrics for your consideration, all beautifully provided by Rufus Wainwright:

Pretty things, so what if I like pretty things. Pretty lies, so what if I like pretty lies

From where you are, to where I am now, I need these pretty things, around the planets of my face, everything's a sign of my astrology

From where you are, to where I am now Is its own galaxy. Be a star and fall down somewhere next to me

And all these pretty things, and don't say you don't notice them

(Pretty Things)

I also present these other Rufus Wainwright lyrics:

Why'd you have to break all my heart? Couldn't you have left a little bit of it? Why'd you have to break all my heart? Couldn't you have saved a minor part? (14th Street)

I'm a romantical man, tonight the ship will set sail from the sand (Romantical Man)

Sometimes I feel like my head turns to dust,unfollow the rules, unswallow the trust.... don't give me what I want, give me what i'm needing (Unfollow the Rules)

Remember wild the roses bloom best in ruins forever after....And I pray your face is the last I see on a peaceful afternoon (Peaceful Afternoon)

Ed's heartbreak song:

Thank you for this bitter knowledge guardian angels who left me stranded. It was worth it, feeling abandoned, makes one hardened, but what has happened to love?

You got me writing lyrics on postcards, then in the evenings looking at the stars(...)

(Go or Go Ahead)

I don't want to hold you and feel so helpless. I don't want to smell you and feel so hopeless. And smile in slow motion with eyes in love. I twist like a corkscrew, the sweetness rising. I drink from the bottle, weeping, why won't you last? Why can't you last?

So I will walk without care, beat my snare. Look like a man who means business. Go to all the poshest places with their familiar faces, terminate all signs of weakness. Oh, all for the sake, all for the sake of a foolish love.

(Foolish Love)

And finally, a Modern AU vibes:

He asked us what our favourite work of art was, but never could I tell him, it was him - Oh I wish I could have told him.

I looked at the Ruebens and Rembrandt's, I liked the John Singer Sargeants. He told me he liked Turner. Never have I turned since then. No, never have I turned to any other man.

(The Art Teacher)

#ofmd #our flag means death #ed x stede #edward teach #stede bonnet #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #rufus wainwright #basically his lyrics are stunning and felt very ed x stede coded

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hellcatinnc · 9 months

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Super Mario Brothers Movie (2023)Review

Includes Spoilers Be Aware!

So first off I usually do more game reviews however I plan to do movie reviews if I feel its worthy enough to but it will always be listed under movie reviews if anyone wants to read back on them where my games will always be under just reviews. That being said on with the review.

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I grew up with Mario games from the Nintendo on out and I still play them to this day. I loved the Super Mario Bros: The Movie that came out in the 90's so wasn't sure how to feel about this one but I can happily say it did not tarnish the live action one I got from the 90's and for that I am grateful because I loved it. If you not seen the one from the 90's try to get a hold of it and watch it for its time it was worth it.

Anyways on to the review of the newest Mario Brothers movie that was animated. So first had some good cast member voices like the funny guy Jack Black as bowser I love that man he makes everything funnier and more fun. Then you got Chris Pratt although I prefer him in Guardians Of The Galaxy he voices Mario and does a great job doing so. There are a few others that I'm not going to mention that make the cast pretty good.

The fact that Bowser wants a fairytale wedding at any cost or he will destroy the world just WOW didn't see that coming. In the world of Otome, Bowser is a Yandere crazy as ever but loves a woman and if he can't have her no one will. That sums up bowser completely. Its so funny you never think about how many characters fall into a yandere, or tsundere until you get into otome games. Don't get me wrong I know there is more than those 2 architect personalities but thats all I'm going to name for now. It had me and my husband laughing through out and OMG the cutest thing ever is this little sadistic flame but he made it so much funnier that he was happy about dying.

Princess Peach was no damsel in destress she held her own probably better than the brothers did. To me at times it felt like it was more a movie about her than them. I do wish Daisey had been in it but was glad they summer up why Peach lives in a world full of men mushrooms when she is human. Also I have never been a huge fan of toad but boy won me over with his badass IDGAF attitude and he will save the princess like seriously while all the other mushroom people run away like little bitches.

Then you got to talk about Donkey Kong first off the blonde guard monkey I need to give props to him and his super cool self looking even cooler on the big screen.

Donkey Kong was also pretty interesting and true to the games for sure. He was rather funny with the banter back and fourth to Mario. All in all I am happy I saw the movie and with Yoshi in the end I look forward to hopefully singing another one with him in it could be interesting since he is in the real world.

#super mario #super mario brothers #mario movie #movie review #movies #movie #Super Mario Bros: The Movie #jack black #chris pratt #yoshi #bowser #funky kong #donkey kong

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theuntitledblog · 2 years

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RANKING TOP 10 VILLAINS

10. EGO - (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)

A slightly different choice perhaps but one that I personally feel is justified. When it comes to the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, there was really just one thing missing that would've allowed that film to soar even higher than it did; a compelling villain. Now Ego isn't a villain who's had far reaching consequences for the MCU but what he does do is elevate Guardians Vol. 2 and a large part of that comes down to casting. On first viewing it, it lulled me into a false sense of security when you consider how charming and seemingly genuine Kurt Russell's Ego was. It was a false sense of security that was helped when you consider that Taserface, Nebula and the Sovereign were also players on the board at the same time. Now while Ego's lasting impact on the grand scheme of things for the MCU is pretty much throwaway, he succeeds in helping to raise Guardians Vol. 2 above the first. Not all villains need to be judged on their lasting impact, some villains just need to do the job well enough just once.

9. MYSTERIO - (Spider-Man: Far From Home)

This is a spot that frankly could've been Vulture and Green Goblin instead of Mysterio and either would've been fair choices but I didn't want to cheat and decided to go with my gut and my gut said Mysterio. His effectiveness as villain depends heavily on how much you know about the character from the comics. Those familiar, like myself, would've seen through the deception of Quentin Beck from the off. Others would've fallen hook, line and sinker and be caught by surprise and that's no small thinks to Jake Gyllenhaal's excellent performance as Quentin Beck. Gyllenhaal's Beck is convincing for a fairly decent stretch as a friend/mentor to Tom Holland's conflicted Peter Parker. The reveal itself is played well and one of the oldest comic book villains with, lets face it, a silly design is worked perfectly into the modern MCU by the blending of Stark Tech and holographics to realize the illusion based threat of Mysterio. These are excellent mind boggling sequences. The Spider-Man MCU Trilogy is a rarity in that it nails all of its villains but it is the consequence of Mysterio's actions that have lingered the longest and cemented his place on this list.

8. ULTRON - (Avengers: Age of Ultron & What If?)

Of all the villains that the Avengers have come across, James Spader's Ultron is the one who isn't remembered with the same degree of fondness as say Loki. But I also feel that is a bit of a disservice to a villain who does makes enough of an impact to stand above many of the other villains in the MCU who haven't delivered. The visual effects are superb and Spader brings a lot of personality to a villain who gets a lot of screen time and action sequences against most of the Avengers. In hindsight yes, this a villain who required maybe a little more build up or development to be considered a lasting threat; take a look at the terrifying take of Ultron in What If? to see what potential is there. But Age of Ultron lays plenty of storytelling foundations and is more of a companion piece to the then upcoming Civil War. But Spader and director Joss Whedon manage to pull off a villain that is much better than most others in the MCU and in fact had/has more potential than most to be a lasting player.

7. ZEMO - (Captain America: Civil War)

While not the most extravagant, charismatic or powerful of foes the Avengers have faced, Zemo is by and large one of the darkest, coldest and most successful villains they've come across. Motivated by revenge but grounded in his practical understanding and acceptance that he's just a single man going up against Gods. Daniel Bruhl's quiet, calculating and it must be said brutal Zemo may not have the most memorable lines or grandest moments but he is elevated in that his revenge is understandable and there is, dare I say it, empthathy for him. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't do the character too many favours by retconning his background, but Zemo deserves his place on this list as villain of one of the absolute best films of the MCU.

6. THE SCARLET WITCH - (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

The biggest surprise of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for me was the revelation that Wanda was the villain and initially I was ... disappointed. WandaVision had shown that the character was capable of villainous acts but it went to great lengths to provide context and backstory that elevated Wanda as a character. When you also consider Wanda's journey as a whole from Age of Ultron, then actually this does work. Rather than an outright villain as such, Wanda is a grieving being whose corruption by the Darkhold book of spells have pushed her down a dark path. Elizabeth Olsen steals the movie from right under Benedict Cumberbatch as she builds on her impressive performance in WandaVision to deliver a villainous turn that is relentless and terrifying but also compelling from a character perspective. The pain and grief Olsen is able to convey is extraordinary and makes it impossible for us as the audience to not feel totally unsympathetic to her plight.

5. XU WENWU - (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten is very mid tier Marvel and is also a movie of two halves. Featuring stunning fight choreography with a style and tone that feels different, Shang-Chi is elevated further by Tony Leung Chiu-wai's villainous turn as Xu Wenwu. First hinted in Iron Man 3, Wenwu is essentially the real version of the Mandarin that was expected in that film. Wenwu is another villain who is given as much screen time as the hero so that we may come to understand them. His treatment here much like Loki in Thor, ensures he is one of the more interesting villains and it was delightfully unexpected. The action sequences are superb but his relationship with Simu Liu's Shang-Chi is what carries the story through. A very good villain of whom I wish we had got to spend more time with.

4. KILLMONGER - (Black Panther)

Very few villains on this list can be empathized with to the extent that Erik Killmonger is in Black Panther. Orphaned and abandoned by his Uncle to then have that anger fueled by racial injustice have created a current and memorable villain. There is a painful truth to Killmonger's motivation that can't be overlooked but the brutality he is willing to inflict such as the cold way he betrays Klaue and the extreme methods he is willing to go keep him high up on this list. The only regret is that it seems unlikely that the character will return.

3. THE WINTER SOLDIER - (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

As someone who wasn't particularly impressed by Captain America: The First Avenger, I was blown away when the Winter Soldier came along. It was so different from the former with the political conspiracy story feeling refreshing at a time when there was a risk of the MCU becoming too formulaic. The film itself features a number of memorable characters and moments and chief among them is the Winter Solder himself. A skillful and silent killer whose presence is only amplified by his successful hits on Nick Fury and Black Widow. The Steve and Soldier showdown carries weight because he is established as a credible threat and they don't rush to a confrontation too early. The Steve/Bucky relationship was always under-developed but as a villain, The Winter Soldier more than lives up to his billing within this specific film and within this specific story.

2. LOKI - (Thor & The Avengers)

What more can be said about the MCU's first genuinely outstanding villain? Tom Hiddleston stole the show in 2011's Thor and his presence went along way to make The Avengers the success that it was. While I think it's fair to say that there's been little doubt of the threat Loki has posed over the years, he is a character that has endured none the less. Villains in the MCU tend to be more effective when the writers actually seem to take notice that the villain needs time too. All the villains on this list received that kind of time to the point that we understand what's driving them and it all started with Loki. Charismatic, funny, complex and also unpredictable. The arrival of 2021's Loki show on Disney Plus is further proof that there's still life in the character even if he's begun to move away from a position of outright villainy. It's an impressive feat for one of the original characters of the MCU, and a villain no less, to still be as popular and fresh now as he was back then.

1. THANOS - (Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame)

No villain in the MCU was awaited longer than Josh Brolin's Thanos. Avengers: Infinity War is the biggest and best film in the MCU and a significant reason for that is Thanos. A CG goliath who looks totally convincing but it's his powerful introduction and subsequent conviction in his ideals that stand out most. In the course of Infinity War, Thanos defeats the Hulk, kills Heimdall, Loki, Gamora, Vision and defeats the Avengers all before successfully wiping out half of the Universe. It's fair to say that no other villain has posed such a credible threat to the point that you feel any character is at risk when he's present. But what Infinity War does best of all for Thanos is given him screen time and development as a character. His subsequent defeat in Avengers: Endgame rings all the more sweeter because of the threat he poses and for me it is of no question that Thanos is the best villain of the MCU.

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year

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SUPERHERO CHOOSINESS

It’s strongly being suggested that the superhero movie bubble is bursting…

There’s the more mixed critical reception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s remarkably stuffed but hasty Phase Four, and then there’s the equally fast Phases Five and Six… whose ending feature AVENGERS: SECRET WARS is still set to open in the summer of 2026… Meaning that this Multiverse Saga only will last five years, compared to the eleven year span from IRON MAN to SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME… Like, wow!

And not only are there a lot of movies, but there were plenty of shows. So many from 2021-2022 alone: WANDAVISION, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER, LOKI Season One, WHAT IF…? Season One, HAWKEYE, MOON KNIGHT, MS. MARVEL, and SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW. In addition to those, you had the “Special Presentation” featurettes WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL.

For me, it was starting to become homework to keep up with what was going on. And this is coming from someone who has seen all but two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a theater. The two that I missed were THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.

Then of course you have the DC movie-verse, which is being hard-reset in a few years under the new leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Prior to that, it was an always-changing mess of visions and intentions. Faithfuls kept up with the series, some left afterwards because of these changes, general audiences seemed to stick around for most of the movies. It’s a clustercuss of its own, and further discussing that will likely get me into hot waters… But what happened with The Rock and his apparent strong-arming of the DC movie-verse with his BLACK ADAM project and plans really shows just what kind of directionless mess the whole thing was for ten years…

So we’re now left with a few movies that were locked and ready to go before the Gunn/Safran take-over, the first of which, SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS… Opened with roughly $30m. A pretty blah take, and well below the $53m take the first SHAZAM! took in back in 2019. It’s been said before, but the whole “these won’t matter in the long run” attitude has probably deflated attendance… But many other things do as well… People being choosier with movies, ticket and concession prices being absurdly high… A statistic in 2014 stated that the average American family hits the flicks four times a year. I believe it. I’ve been working at a movie theater since August of 2015, and I see what I charge my customers… Both movies and for snacks… Yeah, I do not wonder why… Especially in the pandemic era, that people are choosier with movies. I feel we see the same thing with animated movies as well. Those are also usually four-quadrant family titles... And then around the corner, them being on streaming. Be it Disney+ for an MCU movie, or HBO Max for a DCU movie.

A month earlier, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA opened pretty great with $106m. That was way above ANT-MAN AND THE WASP’s mid-70s opening weekend haul, and an overall fine opening for an MCU movie... but the legs? Abysmal so far. It looks to barely score a 2x multiplier, which is pretty bad… It might be the first MCU movie to completely miss that. I don't even know if I'll make time for it, myself. (I've missed a lot of movies in theaters lately because of other lifestuff going on at the moment.)

What does this all tell me?

Is it truly superhero movie fatigue? Are audiences catching on to the perceived problems of these big budget shared universe movies?

Here’s what I think is happening…

Choosiness...

I, in true form, am going to relate this to animated movies… And I mean “animated movies”, because let’s face it… There’s lots of animation in your average MCU or DCU movie. QUANTUMANIA, from the looks of it, is an animated movie with some real people in it. Much like GRAVITY, AVATAR and its sequel, Jon Favreau’s THE JUNGLE BOOK, LIFE OF PI, etc. etc.

Once upon a time... $100m at the domestic box office was a magic number for an animated feature film. And I mean a $100m gross on the film's first ever theatrical release, not $100m via the original release and added theatrical re-issue totals (like classic pre-Renaissance Disney films, like SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS and 101 DALMATIANS)...

Only Disney scored $100m domestic totals for their animated movies. Hybrid WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, released through Disney's Touchstone banner, broke the barrier first and grossed $156m in the summer of 1988. Then, an all-animated movie broke the barrier nearly four years later in early 1992... That was Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, which got to its high total through strong word-of-mouth and legs throughout the holiday and post-holiday season. It was slow to start in November 1991, because back then... Theater-to-video release windows were longer. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was released in American movie theaters in November 1991, and the videocassette and LaserDisc release wouldn't be until... October 1992!

So, an unreachable number for everyone else. Don Bluth, former Disney animator and hot competitor, seemingly peaked with AN AMERICAN TAIL and THE LAND BEFORE TIME, both of which collected in the upper-40s at the domestic box office. His last box office hurrah, the 20th Century Fox-released ANASTASIA (now owned by Disney), grossed $57m by the end of its run in early 1998. Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes hybrid movie SPACE JAM came very close with $90m, two years prior. BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA put up a decent fight, with over $60m in 1996/97. That was a record high for a TV-to-movie animated adaptation back then, beating out A GOOFY MOVIE, JETSON: THE MOVIE, DUCKTALES - THE MOVIE: TREASURE OF THE LOST LAMP, and plenty of others.

In fact, Disney *themselves* missed $100m on occasion. HERCULES, made up at Feature Animation, the mainline studio, just missed it with a $99m domestic gross in 1997/98. The Disney MovieToons GOOF TROOP movie, A GOOFY MOVIE, made less than $40m stateside. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS made an impressive $50m back in the day, and became a massive cult classic through video and TV. Hybrid JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, which was also a Henry Selick-Tim Burton Skellington Productions joint, missed $30m.

Then there was a little movie called TOY STORY... The first-ever all-digital animated feature film.

By the end of its theatrical run in early 1996, TOY STORY grossed $191m domestically... No doubt helped by being a Disney release and being the first of its kind, and a genuinely really good movie that audiences loved. So in a way, the only movies to make $100m domestically *before* TOY STORY were Disney Feature Animation movies (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, and POCAHONTAS), and a hybrid movie made by Amblin and Richard Williams Animation but released by Disney...

So Disney still had $100m under lock and key, and TOY STORY was their first non-Feature Animation endeavor since ROGER RABBIT to get it...

Believe it or not, the first-ever animated movie that was a NOT a Disney release, to score $100m domestically... Was... THE RUGRATS MOVIE. No doubt getting there off of the show's sheer popularity at the time. Despite first airing on Nickelodeon in 1991, some seven years earlier, RUGRATS seemed to be at the peak of its popularity in the late 1990s, after the show was renewed for more seasons following highly successful re-runs and the few specials that Nick and studio Klasky-Csupo did after the show's early seasons. I was there. I was 6 when THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out, and I felt the hype. Everybody I knew back then watched and liked the show, I watched it frequently with my sister back in the day. RUGRATS was one of those cartoons that everyone knew and everyone watched. Almost as ubiquitous as THE SIMPSONS, I'd argue. Paramount released THE RUGRATS MOVIE, and it broke that barrier, in addition to being the highest grossing TV-to-movie adaptation animated movie... By a country kilometer.

THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out in November 1998, just one month before DreamWorks rolled out THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the second animated movie to cross $100m domestically... Two months prior... ANTZ came out, and grossed an impressive $90m. Pixar's sophomore feature A BUG'S LIFE opened, infamously, amidst this four-movie fall shakedown, and won the race with $163m.

So two not-Disneys made $100m domestically, and two not-Disney Feature Animation movies made $100m domestically... This was a turning point in theatrical feature animation, and it would come to benefit - for a brief while - all CGI animated movies.

We'll focus on those now...

1999 saw the release of Pixar's TOY STORY 2, which broke $245m. That was above every Disney animated movie *except* THE LION KING. Wow!

In 2000, Disney released their hybrid live-action/CG feature DINOSAUR, which has been counted as a Walt Disney Animation Studios canon movie since 2008... While that movie didn't make enough money to justify a sequel or to keep the collaboration studio behind it (The Secret Lab) alive, it still broke $100m domestically.

2001... DreamWorks' SHREK and Pixar's MONSTERS, INC. break past $250m domestically. Paramount/Nickelodeon's pilot movie JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS takes in a respectable $80m. 2002... Newcomer Blue Sky's ICE AGE makes over $175m domestically. By this point in time, several hand-drawn animated movies... From all the studios: Disney, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, etc. Largely losing money theatrically, with few exceptions in between. Many of them are missing the titan $100m threshold. For context, only Disney Feature's LILO & STITCH broke that barrier in mid-2002. CGI movies seemed foolproof. Guaranteed blockbusters...

2003 brought Pixar's FINDING NEMO, which became the highest grossing animated movie of all-time, unseating THE LION KING... Then SHREK 2 came out the year after, made that record look like nothing, becoming the first animated movie to break **$400m** domestically. In addition to SHREK 2, 2004 saw the release of DreamWorks' other CG hit SHARK TALE ($160m+), Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES ($260m+), and Warner Bros.' motion-capture pic THE POLAR EXPRESS ($160m+). In 2005, DreamWorks' MADAGASCAR came super-close to $200m, Blue Sky's ROBOTS cleared $120m...

So, unstoppable, right?

The one exception seemed to be the 2001 release FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN, a mocap feature based on the game series of the same name. That one puttered out at $32m domestically, and fell well below its hefty budget with all the worldwide take factored in... But this seemed like an anomaly more so than anything. You also had a few super-limited releases of foreign CG films, like KAENA: THE PROPHECY, which was a French film.

2005 was when it all seemed to be up... VALIANT, a British animated movie distributed stateside by Disney, performed quite badly... Despite it being a CGI movie and touting "producer of SHREK" cred. Disney Feature's first all-CG feature, CHICKEN LITTLE, managed to make more than $100m domestically, but its worldwide total didn't measure up to the budget. HOODWINKED!, an independent venture that only cost $8m to make, was released by The Weinstein Co. at the end of 2005. It made less than $60m domestically.

Then... 2006 happened...

The features that crossed $200m domestically: Pixar's CARS, and only CARS. ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN and Warner Bros.' HAPPT FEET came very close. ICE AGE 2 won the race worldwide.

The features that crossed $100m domestically: DreamWorks' OVER THE HEDGE.

Everything else... Missed $100m. Some movies got by on being lower budget, like Sony Animation's debut picture OPEN SEASON, and the Nickelodeon TV show launcher BARNYARD. But some of the big flops included DreamWorks/Aardman's FLUSHED AWAY, the Disney-released Canadian feature THE WILD, and Warner Bros.' THE ANT BULLY. CGI and celebrity casts and talky scripts couldn't save them. Then you had movies that just did abysmally, like Fox's EVERYONE'S HERO, and DOOGAL: the Weinsteinized version of THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT.

For a little while, computer animated movies were a novelty for audiences. No one had seen anything like TOY STORY when it first came out in Thanksgiving 1995. Like, this wasn't an episode of REBOOT or a glossy production company ident... This was over 70 minutes of fully animated 3D characters in convincing 3D environments, that stayed watchable the whole time, and on top of that... It was really well-written! Lots of people tend to make remarks about TOY STORY's more, dated, visual qualities... But it remains a classic because of the passion that went into it. And despite some of the aspects that didn't age well, it still *looks* appealing and watchable. Woody and Buzz and the rest of the gang have pretty much kept the same designs over the sequels and shorts/specials, only the human characters have seen slight design changes that matched the much-better rendering over time. (It's already a big difference with Andy and his mum from TOY STORY 1 to 2.)

But enough about that. My point is, audiences ate CGI up circa 1995-2005. Big time. It was the future, it was the **way** to make animated movies. Even with CG incorporated into them, hand-drawn movies failed to keep up. Whether the movies did actually appeal to audiences (TARZAN, LILO & STITCH) or not (TITAN A.E., TREASURE PLANET)... It just wasn't enough. $171m from TARZAN just didn't compare to, say, SHREK's $267m haul. When even your best isn't enough...

Capitalism, ya know?

But soon, audiences began choosing what computer-animated family movies they'd go to see, not seeing all of them each and every calendar year. In 2007, for every RATATOUILLE, there was a HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER. Even a good film like SURF'S UP that year had trouble. Release that movie in 2002, it would've made **bank**... In 2007, it had a hard time appealing to audiences. Let's apply this to 2008 as well. WALL-E and KUNG FU PANDA do great, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX - a book adaptation - makes $50m and fails to double its budget. So every year, there are the family-friendly CGI movies that do pretty great! And then the ones that lose money.

And eventually, it caught to everybody. Even the heavies.

Pixar saw their first money-loser in 2015 with THE GOOD DINOSAUR, breaking an astounding 15-film hit streak.

Disney Feature Animation's CHICKEN LITTLE did so-so, MEET THE ROBINSONS two years later outright lost money. BOLT did so-so as well. They wouldn't have a genuine CGI flop until STRANGE WORLD, because we gotta mulligan RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON and ENCANTO. Ya know, COVID and release strategies and such.

DreamWorks suffered badly in the mid-2010s, with money-losers like RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, TURBO, and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN... It was to the point where it seemed like the lights would go out.

Blue Sky's final film, SPIES IN DISGUISE, lost money. After a streak of successes (the ICE AGE sequels) and respectable hits (FERDINAND). That likely played a big part in its shuttering, after Disney had bought 21st Century Fox's film and TV assets.

Sony Pictures Animation had some financial losses, too. The aforementioned SURF'S UP was one such flop, and there was also their Aardman collaboration ARTHUR CHRISTMAS.

So much, like a good hand-drawn animated movie, a competently-made CG film wasn't gonna cut it every single time... Even from a big studio. That's why many of those studios got smart with budgets... Especially Sony Animation and DreamWorks.

Now... Superhero movies...

Superhero movies have been around for a while. Serials, yes, all the way back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Max Fleischer's SUPERMAN cartoons from 1941-42, every modern superhero movie owes it to those in particular. Long-form superhero movies, I believe, really got their start with the 1978 SUPERMAN movie... But you'd get a big superhero movie every once in a while, or a comic book action hero movie if you will. In the 1980s, you had SUPERMAN II - starting off the decade, and then Tim Burton's BATMAN ending the decade with a blockbuster gross. A big phenomenon. What else was in-between? Well, there was Lucasfilm's infamous adaptation of Marvel's HOWARD THE DUCK that tanked hard. You did see a brief boom in this kind of movie in the 1990s because of BATMAN '89, but plenty of those movies actually went belly-up. DC adaptation STEEL did poorly, movies like THE PHANTOM didn't make much of a mark, but you did have the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie doing quite well, ditto BATMAN RETURNS and BATMAN FOREVER. BATMAN & ROBIN's not-so-great performance in 1997 put the Caped Crusader's theatrical future in limbo. SUPERMAN puttered out back in 1987 with a badly-received fourth movie. So, this was a bit of a false start, if you will? Batman, Ninja Turtles, maybe something else that did okay-ish at best... That was about it, circa 1999.

Then along came BLADE in 1998, which would be the first Marvel movie to do pretty well. HOWARD THE DUCK bombed back in 1986, and the 1989 PUNISHER and 1990 CAPAIN AMERICA went straight to video in the states.

Then, X-MEN came out in 2000, that did even better.

Then, SPIDER-MAN came out in 2002, made a **gargantuan** amount of money...

After the release of X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN, both Marvel adaptations, you saw **some** action going on. More Marvel movies came along. HULK, an ambitious film from Ang Lee, opened big in summer 2003 but had trouble staying afloat. FANTASTIC FOUR did okay in 2005 despite poor reception. GHOST RIDER did okay in 2007. SPIDER-MAN 2 and SPIDER-MAN 3 made biiiig money, and there was also a FANTASTIC FOUR sequel that also did okay. The next Batman-inspired DC movie, CATWOMAN, came about in 2004 and bombed quite badly. The year after CATWOMAN came BATMAN BEGINS, Christopher Nolan's then-bold new take on the Caped Crusader *and* the superhero movie in general. It did pretty well, a sleeper hit that relied on strong word-of-mouth. Then in 2006, a year later, you had an attempt to reboot SUPERMAN with SUPERMAN RETURNS. While it made money, it wasn't enough to cover its then-titanic budget, so it seemed like a non-starter. The other DC adaptation released amidst this was CONSTANTINE, whch did pretty well (and is finally getting a sequel after all these years). Funnily enough, amidst these Marvel and DC movies, you had Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES... A then *rare* animated superhero movie, and it did great business. There was also HELLBOY, too. Non-Marvels and non-DCs had their time to do pretty okay, too. So, superheroes had a healthier time in the early-to-mid 2000s...

But where it really all took off was in 2008...

IRON MAN started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a BANG! in May of that year, and BATMAN BEGINS sequel THE DARK KNIGHT - no doubt accelerated by the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, who gave his iconic performance as The Joker - was **massive**. It was the first movie since TITANIC to clear $500m at the domestic box office, and make the then-magic $1b worldwide... Only TITANIC, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST made that amount of money... Nowadays, it seems like there's one billion-dollar smash every year, excepting 2020 of course... Back in 2008, though? Magic number. Very few movies did **that** well...

And from there... Lots of hits. The MCU had barely a stumble, and their highest highs at the box office went very high. They had no trouble getting audiences to come out in big numbers for... Checks notes... Movies based on THOR, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and ANT-MAN. Warner Bros. had tried very hard to keep a consistently successful DC movie-verse going, but despite the valleys (JUSTICE LEAGUE, BIRDS OF PREY), they too saw some big peaks: WONDER WOMAN and AQUAMAN. BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and SUICIDE SQUAD made a lot of money, too, despite not meeting particular expectations. Animated superheroes brought home bacon, too! BIG HERO 6, INCREDIBLES 2, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, need I say more? Sony's own Spider-Man villain movies VENOM and its sequel did very well, too! Almost everybody was winning the superhero sweepstakes post-2008, with very few actual losers in-between.

But now... Well, with so many of them around, and both cinematic universes from the heavies... Again, Marvel and DC. Known commodities... We don't see any movie-verse for, say, Image Comics, no do we? Well, again, money is tight, theater visits are costly, and the movies aren't always delivering satisfying experiences when other endeavors are next door...

Last year, we saw TOP GUN: MAVERICK, a legacy sequel to a 1986 blockbuster that isn't a superhero movie in any way, mop the floor - domestically and even worldwide - with both Marvel and DC's most anticipated movies. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER was in second place domestically, top dog worldwide. We're starting to see other movies have a say again, and smaller movies are having their fun again, too. ELVIS and NOPE did very well, as did BULLET TRAIN and THE LOST CITY. Bread-n-butter movies that used to fill up the yearly box office charts quite nicely. We see that nowadays in the form of things like WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, THE BLACK PHONE, THE WOMAN KING, TICKET TO PARADISE, BARBARIAN, SMILE, VIOLENT NIGHT, A MAN CALLED OTTO, M3GAN, CREED III, etc.

So... With QUANTUMANIA and SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS past us... Here's what I think... Much like in 2006, where some computer animated family movies did great and others not-so-much... That'll happen with this year's crop of superhero movies.

I think the guaranteed hits are GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE. The former? Well, those two movies functioned well as a standalone story not connected to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like you had some things here and there, like an Infinity Stone or the presence of Thanos, but they're both self-contained, VOL 2 even more-so. They're genuinely good space adventure movies that audiences actually quite dig, the characters are so likeable, and the movies have director James Gunn's authorship all over them. That's a night and day difference from many of the other MCUs... SPIDER-VERSE... Need I say more? The original is beloved, it was a passion project for everyone involved. It was not just a great Marvel or great superhero movie, it was a great movie, period. Rian Johnson himself described it as "The Velvet Underground of superhero movies." That is *high praise*.

Those are both poised, I feel, to make beaucoup bucks.

Everything else? Well... The DC movies coming out this year are much like FURY OF THE GODS. They don't really matter, because the hard reset is coming up with SUPERMAN: LEGACY two years from now. I suppose THE FLASH could do well because of Michael Keaton **and** Ben Affleck's Batman returning, in a sort of NO WAY HOME-esque manner. I don't think much of the general public is in tune with star Ezra Miller's controversies and wrongdoing, so I think this one's appeal hinges on whether fans/audiences see it as pointless or not. I think the novelty of both Batmen being back, alongside some other DC faces (such as Michael Shannon's go at General Zod from MAN OF STEEL), could help it a bit. BLUE BEETLE? I couldn't tell ya, it'll probably come and go. AQUAMAN made over a billion back in 2018/19, and is the highest-earning DC film ever... But will fans and audiences be back for, again, a movie that seems pointless in the long run? Also at the end of the year comes the MCU film THE MARVELS, the sequel to CAPTAIN MARVEL and also a follow-up to the MS. MARVEL TV series... Plus you have Monica Rambeau in it as well, who - as an adult - was a major character in WANDAVISION. That all could help it, but I'm starting to think it falls quite short of CAPTAIN MARVEL's impressive take in 2019. CAPTAIN MARVEL had the benefit of opening right before AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the penultimate episode to the big climactic event... THE MARVELS is just, well, the sequel... With two other faces. I think it'll do pretty well, but not excellently. Disney and Marvel Studios were smart to delay the film from July to November after the CEO-switcheroo with Bob Iger this past autumn. I can only hope they delay all of the other movies, too. Like, two a year is fine, guys. AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY and AVENGERS: SECRET WARS can wait. They don't need to come out in 2-3 years from now, in addition to like 10 other movies and 10-20 other Disney+ shows...

And next year, I think, will show as well where this is all going... Like, I don't see the likes of CAPTAIN AMERICA 4, THUNDERBOLTS, DEADPOOL 3, and BLADE hogging up the top slots anymore. I forgot to point out that these movies seem a lot more frontloaded. Big fans and those who were always going to be there *will* be there on opening weekend, but it collapses after that, as OTHER audiences save their money for other things that they'd rather see... Maybe the JOKER sequel, not really a superhero movie but still based on a DC villain that's tied to one of their most well-known superheroes, could repeat the massive surprise success of the original. Maybe not. BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE should do pretty great... I think other biggies are what's gonna surprise this year and next year, and take the Top 3 slots... A new INDIANA JONES movie, a MARIO movie, a two-part MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE epic, AVATAR 3, maybe even something like GLADIATOR 2. 2025 is when the DC hard-reset comes, so it'll be interesting to see how SUPERMAN: LEGACY does, in addition to whatever Marvel movies end up coming out that year. KANG DYNASTY or no KANG DYNASTY...

If anything, the budgeting should be smarter from here on out. Then these movies can come and go, make adequate amounts of money, give *other* kinds of movies the Top 3-5 for once, and then the wheels will spin. Something new will come along and spam up the top slots, even. Maybe we're in for an area of legacy-quels following TOP GUN 2's massive success. I really do think INDY 5 has the chance to somewhat repeat that, and GLADIATOR 2 even. How long till, say, another sequel to a beloved '80s or '90s movie drops? And then too many of those happen and they get tiresome?

All a cycle in Hollywood...

But yeah, I do see the parallels between superhero movies now and CG animated family movies circa 2006...

#box office #superheroes #marvel #dc #comic book movies #animation #animated movies #opinions

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