One of my favorite visual details of a story is when a character's eyes are vacant because they're this shell of what they used to be and then something happens that enlightens them and makes them happy again. 😭
the exchange between ya & chongyue was soooo facking good though it gave me everything uh shb didnt in regards to the whole idea. though the stakes and dynamic are a bit different the core of it is the same. love the sui siblings…it is it. i am i
some whiteboard art! all of these were done with only a trackpad so im really quite happy with how they turned out considering that
i love how the colors + composition on the pebbles and sos one came out,,, considering properly painting them at somepoint if i have time,,
I haven't reached the chapters with the Roger Pirates' backstory + Buggy talking about his relationship with Shanks yet, but I've gotten little spoilers here and there and I have some thoughts. This could be very obvious but I just connected the two dots lol.
It seems to be implied that Roger favored Shanks at least slightly more than Buggy and it didn't go unnoticed by him. Like, the fact that Shanks was the one holding the hat already says a lot. It seems like Roger had a lot of expectations for Shanks and his future. And this is also why Buggy was so disappointed in Shanks even temporarily abandoning his main ambitions and why he chose to not continue piracy alongside him. Anyway, that's not the main thing that I want to talk about.
There is this panel of someone asking Roger who he thinks is going to find the one piece to which he answers something like: my son, of course! And the other person mentions that he has no son.
I personally took this at face value and thought this was referring to Ace, and Roger's plan to have a son before dying who would follow his legacy and find his treasure and would also be someone who would be carrying the will of D. But maybe the whole thing with Rouge was a coincidence that happened after Roger disbanded his crew and left. Roger seemed to have loved babies, so maybe he just fell in love with Rouge and chose to have a child with for the sake of his own happiness before he died.
And here is something I noticed and it could be nothing or even a translation thing. But the few times that Roger mentions Ace he never refers to him as his son, but his child. He even chose two names and didn't seem to be favoring one outcome.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is, what if this was never referring to Ace and was always about Shanks. Roger basically raised him and Buggy as his sons since they were babies...
If Buggy ends up being the first one who reaches the one piece, this will also end up being ironic.
Am I reaching or was I an idiot for thinking the other way around before asdfghj
Ok, in Batman Return of the Joker, they had two versions of his death in the movie, both of the deaths were both pretty dark, but I want to see what other fans think and what they’d preferred…
I have a passing knowledge of Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle from the character's appearance on SMALLVILLE, BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and these panels.
Milagro, you are so real for this.
And this is where my true knowledge about Blue Beetle comes from - Ted Kord's Blue Beetle and his friendship with Booster Gold.
Blue & Gold Forever.
So with only knowing the bare minimum about Jaime I was able to watch BLUE BEETLE with no expectations. It's an incredibly vibrant, fun and heartfelt film. I'm concerned at its low box-office showing, but films with bigger leads and bigger budgets have also failed at the box office, or at the very least, didn't recoup it's budget and marketing. There has never been anything that was a guaranteed box office success. I would rather it tried to get eyes in theaters than get lost on HBO Max where it was originally slated for release. Here's hoping National Cinema Day on Aug 27th (where theaters are selling tickets for $4 for all formats) will bring more people to the tent.
Too true.
My thoughts on BLUE BEETLE
Nothing but SPOILERS.
THE GOOD
Xolo Maridueña (COBRA KAI) is a great Jaime. If you have seen Maridueña across these five seasons of COBRA KAI, it's not surprising. He has shown consistently that he can play humour, dutifulness, vulnerable and excel at action.
Big up to COBRA KAI's annual blow-out fight sequence.
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Oddly enough, at the end of the film I didn't think we got to know Jaime beyond a cursory level, but I'm sure if they did a deep dive on him I would complain about that too as my issue with origin story films is that so much real estate is given to building up the history of the character, that the plot and action seems relegated to the final act. But I guess BLUE BEETLE gave us all we need to know about Jaime.
Good egg, duty bound, gets hard from hugs (and kudos to this film for actually having a character who gets horny. Comic book films are nearly always a sexless thing, but my guy Jaime pulling his shirt down to cover his crotch after Jenny's (Bruna Marquezine) tale of woe was refreshing.)
-Really liked Jenny Kord. She wasn't the typical damsel in distress. She's formidable in her own right. She and Jaime doesn't feel rushed or shoehorned in. I especially loved the fact that they didn't just make her the love interest,
Though she and Xolo are great together,
but also gave her - in the Reyes - a new family. If she and Jaime were to go pear-shaped we can just know that Jenny still has a place within the Reyes clan.
-We have not one, but two new members to the Legion of Great DCEU Family Members. Joining the mom and dad of SHAZAM, AQUAMAN's dad, THE FLASH's mom is BLUE BEETLE's Alberto Reyes (Damián Alcázar) and Nana Reyes (the Oscar nominated Adriana Barraza).
Still waters run deep and Nana proved that. She's not just up in her room sewing and watching reruns of "María la del Barrio". She is sitting back waiting to showcase her experiene while fighting in the revolution.
And Alberto Reyes! He was this film's King T'Chaka. Always with a wise word, strong, caring. I hate that he had to die and I think it's a worn out trope that a hero has to suffer loss in order to come into their greatness, but it worked. Long Live Alberto Reyes!
Just enough George Lopez to not be annoying. He's funny, but only in small doses IMO so he was just good enough and used well enough that it wasn't eye-rolling. I really loved that he wasn't just there for the obvious comic relief, instead Uncle Rudy is a brain.
The opening along had me hyped. It set the tone and it lent to idea of the scarab being from space, but the inclusion of a classic Blue Beetle comic sketch just ::chef's kiss:
-Director Ángel Manuel Soto listed which stories he pulled from for this film,
but I see a lot of BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle" in the bits where they go to Ted Kord's home/lab.
-The way they took OMAC/Kevin Kho backstory and merged it with Carapex's. In the comics OMAC was a Cambodian child of war, in this film Ignacio/Carapex was left an orphan and trained by the School of the Americas (rebranded Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) whose training manuals advocated tortuing and blackmailing civilians. Using Kord Industries as not just a amorphous shady big tech corp, BLUE BEETLE's writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and Soto tied Kord Industries to the realties of what big corporations are doing globally.
This ties into another thing I loved about the film - it had a strong cultural identity. From Nana using Vivaporú (Vicks Vapor Rub) as smelling salts to rouse Jamie, to El Chapulín Colorado(!!!).
The idea of gentrification that affects people across colour lines and specifically targets people of lower income.
The full integration of Jaime and Khaji-Da being exemplified by Khaji-Da (voiced by singer/actor Becky G) speaking Spanish.
THE BAD
-Is there someone with less screen prescence than Susan Sarandon? I don't know how she was ever a thing. I guess they needed a "name" but there several other actors like Anjelica Huston or Sigourney Weaver who would have done something more with that role. Carla Gugino. Anyone else!
-The establishing CGI of Kord Entrerprises was basura. There was a tangible change in F/X as if mid way through post-production they found out WB-Discovery was moving it to theatrical release and they effects crew got a cash infusion.
-While I came around on the character towards the end, I wasn't a fan of Milagro. Glad they aged her up but she fell into the trope of annoying movie sibling and it grated.
THE REST
-Harvey Guillen's character died in the film (good!) and he appears to be dead again on HARLEY QUINN (not good. There is no way Nightwing's death sticks).
-Soto and James Gunn says that Jaime has a future in the DCU. While an interview snippet is making the rounds where Soto says he would like Jason Sudeikis (TED LASSO) to play Ted Kord, I don't really believe that is true as the source is from an online site I'm not familiar with and people lie for clicks.
Yes, Buster. All. The. Time.
-While comics! Jaime lives in El Paso, Texas, film! Jaime lives in Palmera City - on El Paso St. - which was created for the film (and appeared in the comics months ahead in a tie-in). Soto found inspiration in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. But I wonder what Palmera City's real-world city will be when James Gunn finishes the DC Map that he say is being redone. Maybe because over the years Metropolis has been Chicago/Delaware/New York.
How did that surgeon (and Bishop, tangentially) pick up on the fact that Donnie's autistic? I was a bit surprised that they connected the dots to the term itself, since a prison-like environment with constant escape attempts seems like a sub-optimal setting for gauging what’s typical for a person anyway vs. defiant captive behavior, even if a professional had the prior experience for picking up on signs.
They have psychiatrists and psychologists on staff, a lot of psychologists. Admittedly, it would be iffy to diagnose someone in this kind of environment, and while they do have other behavior from mutants to measure against... the thing is, they don't care if they get it wrong.
Ougughjg my god but seriously this ep has so much closure for everything and I love it. Jimmy having more narrative focus than (what I’m assuming) is typical for his character and that specifically being woven into the narrative as his place in their friend group … Clark admitting that he kept his secret out of fear that his friends would treat him differently or even reject him….Lois and Jimmy saying what I knew they fucking would since ep 5!!!! That they don’t care what Clark is, they love him for who he is and just want him to trust them enough to be open with them!! Just like i fuckin said before I second-planed my first blog!!!!!!
Oh my god and Clark jumping in front of the robot to shield Lois. “How did you know you’d be bulletproof?” “I didn’t, I just knew you weren’t.” GOFDDDD I can taste every organ at once I love them so fucking much they are so horrendously in love and beautiful. And the exchange between Brain and Clark about the world not being so forgiving or accepting of things that are different….. GOODDDDDDDDDD I’m going to fucking throw up. I know textually it’s because they’re a hyper intelligent ape and a disembodied brain cyborg but also you will have to rip the queerness of that statement out from my cold lifeless stage 8 of decay hands. Clark responding that he has to hope the world can be better and accepting and that he can help it get there …….
I have so many things to say but I need to make another more organized post I am just in absolute shambles rn.