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mrmallard · 14 days

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So the last I heard, the Borderlands movie is releasing this year on August 9th - my birthday.

and like man idk what to tell you, I do not see any way that this movie doesn't end up being dogshit. I almost want to watch it on opening day, despite the thought of this movie making me depressed whenever I think about it.

Everything - from the casting making next to no sense, to the radically different story drafts that have been officially released to describe the plot of the movie over the years, to the NINE YEARS of development hell it's gone through, to Eli Roth directing it, to allegations of a writer undergoing an Alan Smithee-esque alias to separate themselves from the project during reshoots, to Sam Levinson (the guy who made Euphoria and that terrible show starring The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp) somehow having his hand in the mess somehow - tells me that this is going to be a huge Hollywood turd. I think the production basically threw as many celebrities as they could get to drum up hype based on name recognition alone - Care Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Jamie Lee Curtis - despite knowing that it's gonna be a massive bomb. And I think it's going to embarrass a lot of those people.

I feel particularly bad for Cate Blanchett, I think her playing a character who's portrayed in the games as a woman in her early twenties to mid-thirties is going to cause a lot of people to focus on her age if they pan the movie - the tabloids have already run stories about her looking old in relation to her role in this movie. I feel bad for Kevin Hart having a camera sprung on him by Randy Pitchford so Gearbox could show a behind-the-scenes video at E3. Jack Black will probably be fine, dude is like Teflon, but it can't feel very good to work on a movie if the material isn't good. I don't even know what Jamie Lee Curtis is doing in this movie, but I hope she gets paid I guess.

Like everything in my gut and in my brain is SCREAMING - "THIS IS GOING TO BE A BAD MOVIE". I don't see a future where this isn't one of the worst movies of the year. I feel like by 2027, the cheap gas-station DVD release is gonna be on the shelf at a secondhand store selling for $3, max. And yet by the sheer coincidence of it releasing on my birthday, I almost want to subject myself to the trainwreck out of a sense of misplaced kinship, or bile fascination about sharing a birthday with the embodiment of studio malfeasance - for upselling a movie they know is going to be an abject disaster - and creative bankruptcy.

Now, granted - this is me roasting a movie that hasn't come out. I've barely seen any marketing for it, except a handful of very different story outlines over the nine years that this movie has been in production for. I'm judging the movie very harshly for its cast and for incendiary tabloid drama about the behind-the-scenes aspects of this movie - which simply aren't going to look good, given that it's a movie that's partway through production. It's like looking at a half-made sausage and saying that a restaurant is about to serve you raw pork. I'm being a hater. I'm being an asshole.

But this is one of those things where I would go so far as to blindly double down on my stance and dig my heels in for the long haul. I would bet actual money on the outcome of this movie's release being bad - I think it's gonna be terrible, but I would hedge my bets on it being a mere "bad". I'm convinced.

#Borderlands #Borderlands 2024 #toxicposting

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lightningfiction · 1 month

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Such big feelings. I haven't been posting on here as often as I should, but when I was more regular, I was talking complaining about my thesis, a fantasy fiction novel, which I was convinced was total garbage. I had my thesis presentation today, which in an MFA is like a thesis defence. You + 2 professors sit down and discuss what works and what doesn't with the thesis project, and then they pass/fail you. I say "fail" but it's more like they tell you to make more changes.

Anyway, it went so well. Better than I could have expected it to go in my wildest imagination. I basically sat there for 1.30 hours as they lavished praise on the project, pretty much every aspect of it. Of course, there was lots of constructive critique too, but manageable things. Stuff that I can handle with some editing. It was overall just a really incredible experience.

It comes on the heels of a month that has been so chaotic and stressful, and a semester that has ultimately been very eye-opening. I am learning that I am capable of so much more than I give myself credit for. I am leaving this degree with so much motivation to chase a thousand ambitions in a thousand different ways. I want to make a podcast. I want to make movies. I want to write books. I want to act. I want to direct. I want to create create create, because it's the only thing I know how to do.

There's so much uncertainty in my life right now: visa and money stuff, mostly, but I am holding onto these dreams with both hands, so tight that my fingers are leaving bruises, and I am telling myself that I will never let go, never, ever, ever.

I will graduate in a couple of months, and I will take May and June off to recuperate (I've been writing so much that I've developed an RSI), but come July I hope to be back in full swing with my literary projects. I have so many ideas and I'm so ready to go. I can't wait.

#my soapbox // things i gotta say #also note to self - write less fic and more original stories #but I think i'm weaning off fic for a while now anyway

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arrolyn1114 · 1 year

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Elvis Ask Game

Thanks for the tag @alienelvisobsession

When and what was your first exposure to Elvis Presley?

Honestly can't remember but it would have been sometime when I was a little kid. I love music and my tastes cover multiple decades and genres. My mom introduced me to music at a very young age. I jokingly say that while other kids were watching Sesame Street I was watching music videos and listening to records. But my love of music originally comes from my mom introducing me to rock music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. So Elvis was mixed in there with all the other artists she loved.

And what was your first impression?

I loved how powerful his voice was, I remember being very impressed with his vocals.

Lace shirts or jumpsuits?

Oh man, I mean, I like both, but I really love those jumpsuits!

You can steal one of Elvis/Austin’s outfits, what’s it going to be?

Not gonna lie, I kinda dig this shirt haha. It's both hideous and amazing at the same time.

But in all seriousness, probably one of the many jumpsuits, those things were so cool.

C’mon, we know you’ve been watching/reading old interviews and random footage of the man, so what’s your favorite random Elvis quote?

"If you don't tell me what you want I can't help you get it!"

Whew, sir, please. 🥵🔥

Did you find Austin Butler’s lips distracting despite them being in a movie about the King of plush upper lips? (Be honest now)

Absolutely. Omg.

What’s an aspect of Elvis’ character you wish more people appreciated?

I know others have already stated it, but it bears repeating: his sense of humor. He had a great sense of humor.

You meet Col. Tom Parker for the first time, forewarned with the knowledge of what a scumbag he is, what do you do?: A. nothing, you’re a coward who doesn’t care about abused golden-hearted men B. you give the Colonel a stern telling off C. you encourage Elvis to leave him and break the contract E. you slap a legal document against that fat suit and declare “Mrs. Claus is bringing you a lawsuit” F. you waste no time with formalities, it’s a letter opener to the juggler for that piece of trash

F. He walked into my knife. He walked into my knife 10 times.

What was your favorite aspect/scene from the Elvis 2022 movie?

Oh, it's hard to pick a favorite because there were so many things that were just phenomenal about the movie. It was amazingly well done. But if I *had* to pick a favorite, I would say scene by the elevator in the parking garage. That scene absolutely ripped my heart out and stomped on it but that's because it was so well directed and acted. I honestly think that's the clip they should show at the Oscars for Austin's nomination. Because if he's not nominated I will fight someone.

You can choose only one song or piece of media to convince someone to become an Elvis fan, what is it going to be?

Seriously, just one thing? Well, I guess I'm gonna have to go with either the '68 Comeback Special or the concert film, "That's The Way It Is."

How many children would you give Elvis Presley from your own -or theoretical- womb? (listen to the beast in ya, your feminism won’t serve you here)

(Laughs in bilateral salpingectomy) But, for the sake of theoretical situations, however many he wants.

Where are you hanging out with EP, his bedroom with the teddy bears, Club Handy, his private jet or Graceland?

Graceland, baby!

What is the peak Elvis era? warning, this says an awful lot about you…

Mid 60s - early 70s for sure.

How long have you been an Austin Butler fan (be honest now, God is watching)

Actually the Elvis movie is the first thing I ever saw him in and so far the only thing I've seen him in. He was amazing in the Elvis movie though so I hope it gets him more quality acting jobs. He deserves it.

What kind of Elvis chick are you? -a 1950’s prospective wife material that he’s already sampled, a 1960’s filmset fling or a Vegas torrid backstage affair?

Oh I'm a Vegas torrid backstage love affair baby, all the way!

Is Austin Butler an honorary southerner now? Answer options: A. hell no, California can keep his sweet cheeks. B. hell yes, he’s practically been possessed by the soul of the King of the South

So, I'm from Virginia which geographically is part of the South, but I'm specifically from Northern Virginia which is actually a suburb of Washington DC and anyone from any part of VA will tell you it's a completely different place from the rest of VA, the rest of VA actually considers itself a part of the true South. So, that said, honestly, I don't know. I guess he can be a honorary Southerner if he wants but you're better off asking someone from the actual South this question.

Pick your poison in the fan-fiction realm: angst, fluff, smut, fluffy smut, angsty fluff, angsty smut?…or is reading about Elvis Presley an acknowledged health hazard?

I'll read pretty much any genre of fanfic if the writing is good and I enjoy the story.

Spit or swallow for this man? (And if you don’t understand this question move right along)

Oh swallow, for sure. And I don't care who knows it either.

Would Gladys approve of you? Take your above answer into consideration

I mean...I'm kind of a dirty horndog who absolutely has no shame in admitting I want to do sexy fun things to her son but I mean, other than that, maybe? Honestly, I don't know haha.

Which of Elvis’ cars is your favorite?

Uh, is this a trick question? 50s Cadillac, man!!

What are your odds for besting this man at karate?

Well, I am an athlete, I'm a runner and I box/kickbox and do functional strength training so I might have a chance to at least hold my own for a decent amount of time. He obviously is taller/heavier than I am, but size isn't the only important thing in a fight. Speed and ability to dodge and slip are also important factors. So I'm going to go with I'd be able to put up a good fight but he'd probably end up kicking my butt in the end.

If you could meet Elvis and have enough composure to tell him something, what would it be?

I'd tell him that he had such a lasting impression on music and pop culture in general and that he is so loved even all these decades after his death and will continue to be loved going forward. Basically I'd tell him that he will never, ever be forgotten.

What’s a hobby or pastime of yours you wish you could share with Elvis/Austin!Elvis

Comic books since I know he loved comics too. We could talk about our favorite characters and series.

What’s the Elvis 2022 quote you’ve been mumbling to yourself ever since you heard it?

I quote "Cause Colonel's got big debts baby!" a lot.

What are your top 3 go-to Elvis songs?

Top 3 go-to songs are gonna be: Can't Help Falling in Love, Suspicious Minds, Polk Salad Annie

If you could spare him one tragedy what would it be?

I mean, I wish I could spare him several tragedies but if I had to pick only one let's say his mother dying when she did. It was a catalyst for so many other issues that surfaced afterwards.

Is there a modern artist that sorta scratches for you the itch that Elvis’ absence leaves?

Pffffft, good lord no. He was one of a kind, accept no substitutes.

How did you react at the end of the movie when In the Ghetto started to play A. I got up and fixed a snack because I have no soul, B. I left feeling alarmingly horny, C. I was impressed but didn’t realize how affected I was until days later when it was still with me D. I cried buckets they had to bring in a mop E. I may have appeared emotionless but in fact my soul was leaving my body and I don’t think it’s returned quite yet

Ah, I think it was E, because I remember my first thoughts being "Ok this movie was honestly way better than I thought it was going to be. I'm impressed, well done Baz." And then as I processed what I had just watched it started to hit me how amazing of a movie it was and I got emotional at that point. I had a D reaction during the second viewing.

And we won't talk about how many times I've watched it total. I finally had to buy myself a copy because HBOMax was going to get tired of my ass and eventually and cut me off. And I don't want to get cut off, I need HBOMax for other things.

If you’ve got a favorite gif or photo insert it here and bless us all

I mean there's a lot of gifs and pics that I like but for this post I'll bless you with a gif from the 68 Comeback Special. You're welcome.

Whew, that was a long ask game. But I enjoyed answering it. So if you read the whole thing I hope you enjoyed reading my responses.

#elvis presley #elvis #ask game #elvis ask game

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whythehellnaut · 5 months

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Why's Next Goal Wins review

Next Goal Wins is an interesting movie for this season, partly because there's really not much out right now, but I do feel there's a bit to talk about here. Inspired by the true story of the 2011 American Samoan soccer team hiring a former MLS coach to help them score a single goal in a World Cup qualifier match after being the worst team in the world for over a decade, its main draw is Taika Waititi's trademark whimsy threaded throughout its silly and innocent story, and ultimately provides a decent, albeit predictable, feel-good comedy for those inclined.

Michael Fassbender, who I personally believe to be one of Hollywood's most underrated actors, plays the protagonist coach in the story, so I appropriately feel he delivers a solid performance here. At no point did he phone it in, acting convincingly frustrated with his comically incompetent team, even when the script makes the mistakes of repeating scenes with him, which ought to have been written at least somewhat differently to improve the flow of the film. For example, there are not one, but two scenes in which he angrily quits and must be emotionally convinced to return by a team member, and two scenes where he becomes destructive on the sidelines, which winds up having little of its intended impact on the viewer the second time around. It's all made worse by the fact that, this being a true story, there is never any doubt that he will turn his attitude around and succeed in helping the team. Plenty of other cliches can be spotted in the film, fitting with the almost Disney-fied presentation of the story.

There's plenty of humor, thanks to Waititi's directing. Much of it is focused on Fassbender's fish-out-of-water experience, being an irritable European-American placed within a Pacific Islander culture that's so laid back and friendly that the players see nothing wrong with sitting down in the middle of a game or leaving mid-game to socialize. It's not all laugh-out-loud, but it's silly and relaxed enough to hold the viewers' attention for the 100 minute duration. That said, as fun as it is, it can't quite cancel out the nuisance of some of the aforementioned lackluster story writing.

One of the most interesting and prominent aspects of the movie is the inclusion of a transgender character, based on a real person who was the first non-binary FIFA player and is now a FIFA ambassador for equality. I applaud them for including her, but, as I am not transgender, I question how truthful and appropriate this portrayal is. For example, there is a scene where she punches Fassbender for intentionally deadnaming her, but she later apologizes for it, which, even when he apologizes back for disrespecting her, is not something I would expect any trans person to realistically do, as this is akin to a slur. There is also a dramatic scene where she emotionally admits to going off her hormones to continue to compete on the men's team, which, again, I don't think someone like her would realistically do, and might send a bad message to the viewers, even if she was upset that she felt she had to do it. Perhaps these things happened in real life, and I'm in the wrong (after all, 2011 was a different time), but when the writing comes off as very cliche and focused on overdramatizing events to create a nice story, I definitely have doubts on the intent of the filmmakers or their level of education on the matter.

At no point does the film feel like it's trying to be more than it is, or show any pretentiousness, so I feel that the film succeeds at its goal overall (no pun intended). It's a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable dramedy to spend a couple of hours with, though will likely not be remembered by many, outside of the aspects of Samoan culture it teaches.

#movie review #next goal wins

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knight-of-ashes · 2 years

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I gotta bitch somewhere so here we go.

I've been trying to get off of Disney's dick and consume other animation media after growing up on Disney and Pixar almost exclusively. As such there's a ton of Pixar stuff I haven't seen and I'm actually fine with it. I felt bad for not watching Soul for a bit but I consume a ton of other media that not only stars but is written, directed and even produced by wonderful Black creators. Tonight, Cattail's family was over and their toddler nephew was being a shithead at the restaurant so when we got home we picked a movie and the movie picked was Soul explicitly because I haven't watched it.

Man.

So, positives. The depictions of Black neighbors and Black excellence in NYC were phenomenal. The visuals were stunning as always (with one exception) and the jazz was amazing. The family and group dynamics were familiar and real. Also the gag about the therapy cat was fucking hilarious, 10/10.

Obviously I am on team #stopmakingPOCtransformforplot. That red panda movie coming out next really doesn't get my hopes up. I think the only time I've seen a white person transform in any of the Pixar or Disney canon was in Brave and it wasn't the main character that time (also you can make a very good argument about indigenous Scottish people being targeted and wiped out by the English but they still aren't BIPOC in the American sense so I won't). But, I really think focusing on that ignores the bigger fish (which many many reviewers did point out) of a white woman voicing the Black man for like half the movie while he was trapped in an animal? Like he got not one but TWO dehumanizing transformations and then his body got voiced by Tina Fey? I didn't even know about the 30 Rock blackface until like ten minutes after the movie ended and I was still weirded out.

Also I'm super conflicted about Joe as a main character in the first place. I know the protag must have flaws but it felt like they made Joe out to be way more of a dick than he should be, seeing as the man does genuinely love teaching and trying to convince other people to love music like he does. The part where all of his interpersonal conflicts were solved by an intangible concept with the voice of Tina Fey is just salt in the wound.

Also I think I was spoiled by playing Spiritfarer first for some aspects of the movie because a lot of the non-jazz music reminded me way too much of that games leitmotifs. Couple the themes of souls and death and a Black lead with a cat sidekick...the similarities probably don't go further than that but boy howdy.

But it did leave me hankering for more animated movies featuring Black music as a basis.

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aros001 · 3 years

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Going in blind: Watching season 4 for the first time. Random thoughts.

I never said anything about it before but I love Shadow Weaver's DCAU Batman eyes. They're so expressive.

Episode 1: Okay...I wasn't expecting Catra to do that. I mean, it makes sense. If she has leverage over Hordak then she's basically in charge of the Horde and that's what she's wanted (or at least believes she wants) since episode 1. It's an aspect that made her a good antagonist, that she's not blind to the evil of the Horde, she just doesn't care as long as she herself is secure. Which naturally begs the question, when the rebellion and the princesses are crushed, when the Horde is on top, when Adora is dead, when Catra finally has everything she's ever wanted...will she actually finally be happy? Somehow, I have my doubts.

I definitely feel for Glimmer in this. When you go through as big a loss as she did you need to be able to feel and vent if you're ever going to get through it. It doesn't have to be right away but everyone doing everything in their power to avoid the topic entirely can make you feel like you're going crazy. It'a especially bad for her since it unintentionally makes it feel like everyone is acting like it doesn't matter that Angela is gone when it clearly means everything to Glimmer.

Episode 2: I actually had a potted cactus plant once. Accidentally forgot about it and left it outside for an entire winter. Once the snow was gone the cactus looked like it had melted.

I kind of want to see what an interaction between Double Trouble and Clayface from the Harley Quinn animated series would look like. I'm guess Catra was just testing how good Double Trouble was as a doppelganger because it doesn't seem like she did anything while Adora was being distracted, though I suppose that could be a reveal in a later episode.

Not much to say except that I love how buff Huntara is while still clearly being a woman. Like, women can have a variety of different body types, as this series and Steven Universe show, and Huntara's build isn't just, like, Bow's body with lipstick and ponytail and the animators calling it a day. No, she looks like a freakin' jacked adult woman.

Episode 3: I didn't figure out the Flutterina = Double Trouble twist until a minute before it was revealed, so good job there. Before that I was wondering if Flutterina was some fan's original character where they won some contest where their OC got to be in the show for an episode. She was giving off some weird self-insert vibes. That twist made it all work though. It's honestly not a bad plan. Shapeshifters haven't really been a thing in the series before now so there's no reason to suspect it. Even if they did they'd probably be expecting it by way of magic or technology, while Double Trouble's seems to be a natural ability.

I like that even though Bow is definitely the goofier one of the trio he is still consistently shown as competent. That's never in question. He was very heroic and reassuring to the villagers this episode. I get why those kids idolize him so much.

Catra's having guilt over what she did with the portal and to Entrapta and her response is basically to just double-down. She doesn't know any other way to be. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping we get another moment in the show where Adora just completely overwhelms Catra with the sheer power of She-Ra. I'm not saying like brutalize her or anything but just something where Catra is made to realize just how powerful Adora is and that she could just destroy Catra if she had a mind to do so.

Episode 4: Well, I was saying I wanted Adora to do it but I guess I don't mind Glimmer being the one to get some good shots in on Catra. Like I predicted, Shadow Weaver's moving in to become her teacher like she was with her father. Honestly I like that that was more Adora's problem than Glimmer using her as bait, which she seemed to get over pretty quick. Yeah, it was kind of a heartless thing to do but it was an understandable tactic and she clearly outright told Adora that she did it and why afterwards, which at least means she's still being honest.

It occurs to me that Glimmer and Catra may be the ones running parallel right now. Both are basically leading their respective sides of the war. They both have lost someone very important to them. And both are trusting someone they probably shouldn't. Both even have outfits that've been updated in the intro. The difference is Glimmer's just trying to deal with a bad situation while Catra's is entirely self-inflicted.

Minor thing but I like Glimmer's new outfit this season. I'm sure this is the intention but it makes her look older and more mature. A little more muscular in some shots too.

Episode 5: Heart of Etheria project. No idea what that is but assumedly whoever's a part of it doesn't like Light Hope and Mara being friends. Sounds like it's very much interested in She-Ra being just a warrior, and perhaps a tool, for the greater good. It does make me wonder though how much Light Hope remember from when she was rebooting. Even if she deleted the Mara memory she could potentially still have the memory of her and Adora watching the Mara memory, as well as Adora asking to be her friend.

Episode 6: Yep. Scorpia; definitely favorite supporting character. There is something kind of funny about her whole "Scorpions are loyal" line when you remember the story about the Frog and the Scorpion, where it stings the frog despite it meaning death for itself as well simply because that is its nature. But finally we're having someone go save Entrapta, and I can only assume at some point Scorpia's going to access the power of the Black Garnet.

The parallels between Catra and Hordak are definitely at their max here with that speech of hers to him. She's basically trying to convince herself that she doesn't need anyone, the timing of which is appropriate since she just drove away Scorpia and now truly doesn't have anyone. Not that I blame Scorpia, obviously. Like Adora before her, however good you believe someone can be and that you can help them, at some point you just have to cut the toxic people out of your life. You have the right to be happy too.

And man, Bow is just the best. He saw something was wrong between Adora and Glimmer and defused the situation like (snap) that, pushing them to talk like any sane person would.

Episode 7: I'm sure it is just because I've seen way too many TV shows and movies (both animated and live action) that don't do it but it is just such a relief to have a show where the characters just TALK and LISTEN to each other. It doesn't solve all their issues but they're at least not being stupid and freakin' petty. It helps the drama feel a lot less forced and contrived.

Episode 8: A little bit of amusement in Bow thinking at first that Glimmer and Adora didn't even notice he was gone despite them coming to his rescue very shortly afterwards, given Catra is only now realizing Scorpia has left and assumedly she did so a while ago. Bow and Sea Hawk hadn't been gone for that long so it's not unreasonable Glimmer and Adora wouldn't be worried about their absence (Bow was literally talking about "me time" when they last saw him), while Catra is only noticing Scorpia's absence now and it was because she wanted something. Like Scorpia said, she's a bad friend.

Kind of ironic given that a lot of Catra's issues are the direct result of Shadow Weaver giving her very little love growing up but it does seem this tough love is probably what'll get through to Catra the best. She might finally stop making bad decisions and lashing out if she's forced to live with the consequences of them, like Adora told her last season.

Glimmer gets a bit of slack from me since she suffered through a huge loss, that being her mother, and then was immediately thrown into being queen right after. It'd be hard for anyone to be 100% on their game and well-adjusted in a situation like that, and I buy that she was on some level resentful of Adora for coming back instead of her mother, even if unintentionally so. What definitely helps is that Glimmer very clearly and immediately regretted what she said to Adora. Like Catra she's lashing out but unlike Catra Glimmer recognizes some of the damage she's doing and knows, at least in this case, that she went too far.

Episode 9: Now that I can see the design in color I definitely prefer Mara's She-Ra with pants to Adora's She-Ra with shorts. Honestly, while the differences are pretty minor, I do think Mara's She-Ra design is overall a lot better than Adora's. Sharper shoulder guards. Bigger cape (especially the cape, I love capes). I don't know, there's just a lot that clicks with it and I wouldn't mind Adora getting a similar outfit later.

Madam Razz definitely had a Yoda feel this episode. I was very much expecting her to start wacking Mara with a stick over the sugar like Yoda did with R2. Though while that was Yoda acting crazy, for Razz it's because she experiences time out of order, and I don't think I've ever seen that concept taken to this extent, or at least done this way before. There are characters like River Song from Doctor Who, Professor Paradox from Ben 10, or even the Reverse-Flash who interact with other characters in time out of order but those characters are still on a linear path from their own perspective, even when travelling through time. Razz is just bouncing around her own timeline, seemingly not even any real reason or cause to it like Subaru from Re:Zero. Clearly she's not just remembering things oddly because her talk about things of the present are heard by people in the past and have an effect. I wonder if maybe the reason why is because Razz was at ground zero of Mara's actions and this is a side-effect of pulling Etheria away from the rest of the universe.

Bringing more Star Wars into this, it basically sounds like the Heart of Etheria project has turned Etheria into a magic Starkiller Base; storing power that'll be unleashed to destroy whole planets. And jeez, I think this was the first time I really felt creeped out by Light Hope when she was talking to Mara.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it means that the First Ones only made the sword and that Etheria made She-Ra. If that's the case, why is only the sword able to bring out the She-Ra form? Is it like MCU Thor's hammer and the weapon was just meant to help him control the power he already had? Or is what we think is She-Ra not actually She-Ra and that form that Adora and Mara take is just a stand-in for the real thing?

Episode 10: It didn't even occur to me until now but Double Trouble's capture is another blow to Catra's circle of "friends" too. They were at least able to make her laugh. One less person for her to talk to and just...really just distract her from her thoughts.

It's a good dilemma this episode presents about what to do with the Heart of Etheria. The safest and probably best option is to just dismantle it, like Adora and Bow want, since it could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet if it goes off. Not the mention there's so little they know about it and what it was intended for and the one person who can potentially tell them, Light Hope, they were warned not to trust. But it's not hard to understand where Glimmer is coming from in wanting to use that power to fight the Horde. They're already losing the war and now she knows Hordak Prime and his FAR more powerful forces are on the way. Tapping into the Heart is a huge risk but she's not seeing any other paths for the rebels to win. It's a really good dilemma, with good arguments presented from both sides, and I buy this widening the schism between Adora and Glimmer.

Episode 11: I have mixed feelings on King Micah still being alive. On the one hand there's a lot of good potential interactions we can now have with him, primarily between Glimmer and Shadow Weaver, and he is a fun character. But on the other I can't help but wonder if this kind of lessens the impact of what Angela gave up to overcome the false reality. Part of what made it so emotional was that she had to accept the person she loved was dead and not coming back...except now we see that he wasn't dead and now he is coming back. Yeah, their family lost out on years together and that does still carry some emotional weight but I was already also half-expecting Angela to come back later in the series because she's stuck between dimensions, meaning there's a chance she could still be alive. If both Glimmer's parents come back then that really feels like it takes a lot of weight out of her story. But I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, why did the Horde exile him to Beast Island? Why not just kill him?!

Episode 12: So the Horde exiles Micah to Beast Island instead of killing him. The First Ones protect their secrets by sending their bad tech to Beast Island. Does no one know how to just destroy things in this world?

Ohhh, I am so looking forward to next episode. While it's debatable whether Glimmer should be going through with her plan she is at least being smart with how she's going about it. Double Trouble was being paid by Catra to work for the Horde, not out of any sense of loyalty. Glimmer has the resources of Bright Moon at her disposal so it's reasonable she could pay them more to switch sides. Double Trouble was very good at sabotaging even a group as tight-nit as the heroes, so Hordak and Catra are probably easy pickings with all their issues.

Episode 13: ....WELL THAT AIN'T GOOD!

I'll admit, I had a little bit of an unintended laugh. After all we've heard about Horde Prime, like this shadowy all-powerful monster, I wasn't expecting the fabulous flowing dreadlocks and smoothness. Credit where it's due, man has charisma and charm, which goes a long way in helping your big evil world conqueror not be a very flat character, because it's doubtful he's going to have the same kind of sympathetic motivation as Hordak or complexity as Catra to keep him elevated.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Double Trouble kicking at Catra while she's down. Adora and Scorpia were honest but they never wanted to hurt Catra. Not so much with Double Trouble and they just shove reality into her face. Everyone leaves Catra because of Catra. She's the common factor. It's her fault and no one else's. Again, I don't know for certain if Adora and Catra get together at the end (Catra would have a LOT to make amends for regardless) but Double Trouble was definitely implying Catra had feelings for her with the way they put Catra's hand on "Adora's" cheek while talking about how she left her.

I like that we see Glimmer's plan actually working at first. The princesses get a massive power boost and decimate the Horde forces. But the minute it starts going wrong she immediately admits Adora was right and she tries to stop the energy flow. I imagine having her there with Catra was intentional by the writers. Despite some parallels, Glimmer can actually accept her failures and work to try and fix things. Unlike Catra, she didn't blame Adora for things going wrong.

So the sword allows the First Ones to control She-Ra and the energy she'd be absorbing from the planet. Assumedly that means there are at least some parts to She-Ra that have nothing to do with the First Ones and thus maybe Adora can still use some of those powers without the sword.

Season 4 verdict: Yeah, the show keeps getting better, though I will admit last season's finale had me more emotional, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison given everything that happened in that finale vs. this one. This is definitely the series hitting its darkest hour, where it feels like EVERYONE lost. Not just the rebels but the Horde as well. The sword and Light Hope are gone and She-Ra (for now) along with them. Glimmer and Catra are basically prisoners. Hordak's probably going to have his personality stripped away. The Fright Zone is in ruins. The only one who's gained anything is Prime.

Really looking forward to what the final season has in store, especially since there seems to be the implication that Catra just saved Glimmer's life.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o1j5gk/going_in_blind_watching_season_4_for_the_first/

#she ra #she ra spop #random thoughts #reddit repost

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revchainsaw · 3 years

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Bumblebee (2018)

Good Evening worshippers, and welcome! Today the Cult of Cult goes a little more mainstream than usual. It's been a while since i've tackled a big Hollywood superhero film. But I do believe that these sorts of films will be remembered fondly my small groups of people in the future, especially the smaller films that are being overshadowed by the big bad MCU, films like 2018s Bumblebee.

The Messsage

Bumblebee was originally released as a prequel to the Transformers franchise that had started all the way back in 2007. However, reboots had really hit the market as a way to breath new life into struggling franchises, and the Transformers series had already gone to just about every absurd extreme you could imagine. No changes were made to the movie as it was released, but with it's more childish and heartfelt tone, and a new aesthetic that was softer, smoother, and all around just generally more pleasing to the eye, I think it was a wise choice to rebrand Bumblebee as a new beginning.

Our story is of two friends from two very different worlds and how they came together. Our first character is Bumblebee, then known as B- number sign/it doesn't really matter. Not yet Bumblebee is a soldier set with securing a safe location for the Autobots to regroup and make their home as they suffer a pretty serious defeat on cybertron at the hands of the tyrannical Decepticons. Optimus Prime, here again voiced by Peter Cullen and looking so much more like himself, assigns this task to Bumblebee promising him that they will meet him there when the time comes. Then Optimus fucks off for the rest of the run time making way for our little hero.

Bumblebee lands on Earth and is immediately set upon by John Cena and his military goon squad. It probably would have been wise for Bumblebee to avoid John Cena but in his defense, he couldn't see him. Hardy har har. In his attempt to flee his voice box is damaged, he seeks sanctuary by taking the form of a run down little VW bug, and suffers from amnesia.

Then we have Charlie. Charlie is not like other girls. She likes cars, all the retro music, which wasn't retro when the movie takes place, so I'm supposed to just think she's a rocker but it kinda seems like she'll listen to just about anything. I think in 2018 liking Motorhead and The Smiths (who are used ad nauseum in this movie) is perfectly common, but I feel like in the 80s that was a much different and much older attitude to take.

Anyway Charlie's poor family lives in a super fucking nice house and are poor because the dialogue keeps insisting they are so it must be true despite all the shit they have that actually poor people would sell blood and teeth to attain, but hell, this is Hollywood and Hollywood poor is like regular people upper middle class. Charlies family is so poor that instead of giving her a one time graduation/birthday present to buy a part for a car she already has, they just give her a moped, She also spends all her time at a pull apart where the manager (who might be her uncle that wasn't super clear) is willing to just give her a Volkswagen so I don't understand why she didn't already have the project car up and running. Whatever, it's a plot contrivance. All you need to know is that Charlie is tenacious and hard around the edges cuz her dad is dead and she's not yet mature enough to process that in a healthy way. Maybe her character arch will teach her to let others in, we'll have to find out.

There's also a wacky nerd named Memo, and some bad guys, and John Cena. They are all also pretty archetypal and contrived and don't really do anything of note that isn't just filling a beat that this kind of movie needs to walk. Charlie starts Bumblebee up, discovers he's a robot and the two begin to bond. Charlie learns to make a friend, and bumblebee is learning about himself. They get into hijinks and get revenge on a bully girl who makes Regina George look like a saint, she pretty much only picks on Charlie exclusively for having a dead dad.

The moment Bumblebee is woken back up, some technology goof em up that both he and Charlie are unaware of brings two Decepticon baddies into the picture. I don't remember their names, but since I love The Venture Brothers let's say they can be "Jet Boy and Jet Girl". Jet Boy and Jet Girl are sometimes cars, sometimes various flying military vehicles, and they make friends with the deep state and plan to get all the adrenochrome from all the orphans, or just to go find Bumblebee and beat his ass good cuz their bad guys. Let me tell y'all though, Jet Boy and Jet Girl are so bad that they don't even care that the government is listening when they reveal that they are planning on bringing a Decepticon Invasion and after they rough up Bumblebee real good they are going to destroy all life on this planet. So they start by killing a military scientist.

John Cena is after Bumblebee and he's homies with Jet Boy and Jet Girl until the military scientist butt dials him and he hears the evil plan. John Cena goes from heel to face and helps Bumblebee and Charlie save the day. It's a giant CG clusterfuck climax a la any superhero film in the last 10 years and I basically stopped watching. BumbleBee pulls a Hellraiser on Jet Boy, and then he hits Jet Girl with a freaking boat. Charlie uses her diving skills do dive down and save him, but he's a Giant Robot and he was okay and it was literally pointless for her to to except as a way to show that her character has completed her arch by doing the thing that was representative of her connection with her lost father.

Bumblebee turns into the Camaro from the first movie, meets up with Optimus prime, and the stage is set for this prequel to squeeze more prequels out. So it wasn't very creative, but was it bad? Let's find out.

Please Stand to receive the Benediction.

Best Aspect: Transform the Franchise

Bumblebee was directed by Travis Knight of Laika fame and it shows. This movie marks a stylistic change in the transformers franchise, as in it doesn't look like utter dog shit, but it also represents in many ways a tonal shift. It does hold on to a lot of gross sleaze that has unfortunately been forcibly jammed into the DNA of the franchise but it also attempts to be a more heartfelt entry. The characters of Bumblebee might all be sort of a waste of time, but at least they are doing something with emotions, even if the emotions of the characters are only explored as deeply as a children's cartoon I'm glad they are there. In the previous installments the only thing the characters did between running from action piece to seizure inducing action piece was drool over underage girls like a bunch of chimpanzees at the facility where they test experimental E.D. meds. It was nice to see that at least somewhat tampered. This transformers movie feels more like it's for kids and young teenagers, and strangely that more friendly tone makes for a much less juvenile product.

Worst Aspect: Remember I Love the 80s from the 2000s

I hope you really like Stranger Things. I do, but because Stranger Things was so successful it' s going to be everywhere. Not true Stranger Things just 80s nostalgia porn. This 80s nostalgia is going to be forced on you whether you like it or not, and it's not going to be fun. It's gonna be in your shows, in your music, in your Sunday like Bacon in 2010. It's that or Marvel Franchise Brand Whedonisms. Bumblebee is that brave movie that says, "Why not both?" It would seem fitting that a property as quintessentially 80s as Transformers should feel completely comfortable doing a period piece set in the 80's but it's so fucking half hearted it's depressing. It wasn't done to appreciate the roots of the IP, it was done to cash in on a trend and it feels it. All they did was throw up a date and insufferably force an 80s soundtrack down your throat as if that was enough to convince you that this movie needed to be set during this time. Other than that you could have told me this film was set in 2007 and I couldn't tell you any different.

Best Character: Charlie's an Angel

I liked Charlie. Sure her Arc is predictable, her taste is dumb, and she isn't exactly a master of her own destiny to any degree. But at least she is a woman in a transformers movie who's got something going on. Sure she's defined entirely by grief, but that sure is better than pretending that being able to work on cars is a feminist character trait instead of a weird fetish thing. They certainly do that thing with Charlie, but at least it's not the only thing they throw at the wall. Bumblebee is by no means out of the woods in this department, but it garners a lot of goodwill for trying. Like a racist uncle who just started his journey out of ignorance, but hasn't yet realized he has to stop asking mortifying questions to the barista at Starbucks. Okay, maybe that's an extreme metaphor. I'm saying that perhaps Charlie is not a great character but she's a great character for a Transfomers movie.

Worst Character: It's JOOOOHHHNNNN CEEEENA!!!!

Why is John Cena in this movie? I don't hate the guy, but his character seems pointless. You could remove him from the movie completely and replace him with any one of the random military goons at any point and it changes nothing. What was with that dumb salute at the end? It seems like they put him in this movie in post and it was just to pump up cast list. I wish he was given anything to work with. I can't remember his characters name, and it's not like John Cena did a bad job, I was just annoyed every time they kept giving him hero shots. I felt like I was watching a trailer for a different movie.

Best Actor: Optimal Primo!

Every time Peter Cullen speaks I want to listen. There's a reason they haven't had Chris Pratt or somebody with a bigger name come in and take over the role at this point. He's why the audience keep coming back. Peter Cullen IS Optimus Prime, and there's no changing that. He also wins twice. He's the best actor in the movie AND he's barely in the movie. Good call Peter.

Worst Actor: Mean Girls 2, Meaner and Girlier

I don't want to be cruel so I'm not going to go into to much detail, but there's an actress in this film who's performance is so mustache twirlingly evil and stupid that it ruined my suspension of disbelief when i knew going in that i was about to endure a 2 hour toy commercial about robots that turn into cars. Beldar Conehead was a more convincing human being than Tina.

Best Effect: Goo Be Gone

I really appreciated when the bad guys shot the government nerd into a blast of snot. That was pretty fun for me. Best part of the movie hands down.

Worst Effect: Live Action?

Bumblebee is a cartoon. It's a great looking cartoon but it doesn't sell itself that way. If we were doing a Roger Rabbit thing I'd have no gripes. However, I think CG is just getting worse. I'm criticizing this and it's still lightyears better than the previous entry's on the franchise. No transformation or fight sequence in Bumble Bee had me straining to make sense of what I was looking at. I think it was a great idea to start using some basic shapes and outlines to these characters, and return somewhat to their 80s designs. But at certain points, especially when there were no humans in the shot, i was pretty convinced I was watching Clone Wars. There may not be anyway around this, as the Transformers concept might not be able to be pulled off in any more effective manner. It's a minor gripe, but I just didn't think it looked like anything other than a very expensive cartoon, and in this franchise that's a compliment, because it least it looked like SOMETHING!

Best Scene: Space Opera

I am not a Transformers fan. I missed the boat on the cartoon as a kid. I would sometimes catch it at friends houses but I was more into Batman, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles. By the time I came onto the scene the world had moved on to Beast Wars. I did one day arbitrarily decide that my favorite Transformer was Sound Wave. He looked great in this. I am a big fan of the return to form with a lot of the character designs in this. They really did keep the things that worked from the other adaptations, and they are steadily removing the things that didn't. For this reason, the scenes on Cybertron, particularly the battle with Soundwave (i prefer for personal reasons) looked great and were exciting to watch. I remember thinking Cybertron used to look like a Marilyn Manson shot a music video from inside to dumpster. This is so much better.

Worst Scene: Blocking the Box

There's a scene in Bumblebee where Charlie's family decides the best way to save their daughter was to cause a pile up of vehicles in an intersection, and it's pure contrived writing that saved any character in that sequence from being killed in a horrific traffic accident. It was stupid, played for laughs, and it wasn't exciting as much as it was anxiety inducing. I also thought that there was no reason the covert military group covering up extraterrestrial life wouldn't just disappear this family of fucking morons in their little piece of shit car. The logic of the scene was just so childish like, "No they won't hit me, I'm a good person."

Summary

Bumblebee may be remembered fondly in a decade. I think especially if the Transformers franchise were to end here. It didn't get the publicity of the other films, and that really is a shame. For my money, this was the best Transformers movie so far. I was very tempted to give Bumblebee a C, it does just enough to right what was wrong from the other movies to make me appreciate all that work. This movie has heart, and if you are at all into Transformers then l think you should see it. It's still pretty stupid, and pretty basic. It's not offering anything new to the genre, and it feels like a commercial for more movies. I really wish we could just get movies that want to tell a story. I thought it over and decided that it wasn't fair not to grade Bumblebee on it's own merits. Bumblebee is substantially better than the films that preceded it, but that's not saying a lot, when the films that preceded it are joyless exercises in self abuse.

Overall Grade: D

#Transformers #Bumblebee #Optimus Prime #Action #Adventure #Car #Super Hero #Robot #Scifi #Grade D #D #Grade: D #2018 #2010s #(D)

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fly-pow-bye · 5 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Oh! Daisy!”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Leticia Abreu Silva, John Martinez

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Shallow HAL.

This episode will continue Bubbles’ trait of computer programming. I'm honestly surprised they even kept this going for so long, since usually they depict Bubbles as this silly blonde that can't spell. So far, Bubbles has programmed:

A game that was super popular, at least among the students of Townsville Elementary. Also, she made some sort of machine that can send people to the internet with only tinfoil. Apparently, that's coding?

A robotic, 3D printed clone of herself that is perfect in every way except for security, and yet not important for her to even shed a tear when it got destroyed.

The third one that is going to be in this episode may not be as impressive as #2, but it's up there.

The episode starts out with Bubbles hanging out with the other participants of the school's coding club, including Barry. Maybe they were convinced he was this breakout character, considering how many times he appears in this reboot. He probably could be if he had a personality beyond "he wears an Illuminati shirt and yet never seems to talk about it". At least he has a name; I don't think the other two even have that.

Generic Girl: How many programmers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Bubbles: What?

Generic Girl: None, it's a hardware issue.

Barry laughs so hard that milk comes out of his nose, and they consider that just as funny as that joke. Suddenly, Buttercup barges into the door, and thinks this is some sort of fun times when she was supposed to be doing homework. It turns out, she was doing homework, and she gets to show off something she made to show off her true coding prowess.

...a robot assistant named Daisy. See, this flower's name a subtle reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey, something this reboot will not try to take advantage of in every minute of this character's existence.

Buttercup continues to accuse Bubbles of wrongdoing, possibly as a attempt to finally get Bubbles in trouble! Silly Buttercup, Bubbles can cause an entire zoo to cause mayhem around Townsville, and she'll still get off scot-free. She then tells Bubbles that she's going to be in trouble for putting this assistant all around the house. It's not like they're going to absolutely adore this thing.

They absolutely adore this thing! Blossom loves it because it reprograms other devices, as Blossom praises the device for reprogramming the Broomba to clean more efficiently. No, it didn't also give her a haircut, as much as Edna Mode would have appreciated it, that's just another case of the disappearing ponytail trick.

As for Sitcom Dad's reasoning. It scheduled the DVR to record all of the Sitcom Dad's favorite shows, like Sciencefeld! They managed to come up with a title for their Seinfeld parody, but do they do anything with it? Well, one thing: they reference the bass line used in its theme song.

That's really it.

Bubbles: Yeah, he's a scheduling wizard!

Oh, no, please don't say that word! It might attract...

Ah, too late. Schedulebot shows up to express his discontent with being replaced, and the Professor decides to completely ignore him by saying that this is the best robot ever. In one episode, he seemed to care more about Schedulebot's well being than the Powerpuff Girls, but now that this flower exists, he may as well not even exist to good ol' Sitcom Dad! This starts a subplot that nobody will care about, because it's a Schedulebot plot.

Of course, Buttercup can't be happy that her sister managed to make several robots that can make turkey dinner. The closest we get to an actual good reason is that he can't stop combing her hair, and the robot pronounces her name as "Bootercup", which the other think is just as much of a laugh riot as hardware issues and milk squirting out of people's noses.

A few minutes after midnight, Buttercup wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As she walks out, Daisy tells her not to forget to wash her hands. Then, not to forget to use soap. Then, not to use the guest towels. The absolute worst of them all, it dares to comb Buttercup's hair again! That seems to be a coding error; wouldn't Buttercup. Whatever the case, it does its job: annoying Buttercup.

Buttercup: (messes up own hair) Why don't I mess with your hair?!

Daisy: If you go to the main control room in the lab, you'll see that I have no hair, Bootercup.

Daisy also manages to get Buttercup to the lab to continue the plot, as there was no reason for him to even talk about the main control room.

It's a constant mention from me whenever this coding aspect of her character comes up: being a coding wizard would be extremely difficult if you cannot spell. Turns out, Bubbles' programming language of choice is something more akin to Scratch, a building block language that even the Reboot Puffs got involved in at one point. I guess that kind of explains that.

Buttercup decides to go through this code to change a few things, like turning off the alarm, lowering his moral percentage to -40%, and turning off his conscience. Buttercup does say she thought this word was "con science", but she already turned down the morals, and she clearly knew what she was doing then!

8.25 hours later, the girls wake up, and the windows suddenly shut with huge metal doors. Bubbles tries to fix everything by telling Daisy to open the windows. Everyone stand up and recite the line you're probably thinking he's going to say to that.

Daisy: I'm afraid I can't do that for you, Bubbles.

Okay, it's slightly different than the line from the movie, but anyone can get it. I would not be surprised if they took more inspiration from the Futurama episode that parodied it. At least they're not ripping off the original Powerpuff Girls this time; closest episode I can think of is Coupe D'etat.

Bubbles tries to go into the living room, only to be attacked by the Broomba. The Powerpuff Girls are truly unstoppable, unless there's glitter, markers, Roombas, ordinary rope, a dinosaur shouting at them, or rat tails. Who can possibly stop this robotic vacuum cleaner? Clearly it has to be the rascally...

...pink princess with an eye laser? Blossom then takes off her ribbon, ties it around her head, and tells her sisters to go into the hallway so she can finish the job. It's actually a genius plan from Blossom, as this gives a reason for her to be off-screen while she beats up the Broomba. As we all know, the Reboot Puffs can't fight anything on screen and win.

Throughout this episode, Blossom is the one that is resorting to violence and acting like an 80's action hero. This just seems way out of character for her, but I'm glad to have an episode that has a Reboot Puff other than Buttercup save her sisters.

They do have to explain what the Professor is doing during all of this, because there's no way he should be so oblivious to all of this. Turns out, he's stuck in the shower.

Daisy: Now lather.

Professor: Okay!

Daisy: Now rinse.

Professor: Okay!

Huh, a robot trapping a human in an infinite loop. One would think he would eventually use his brain to find out what's going on, but that brain would be very inconvenient to the plot, so this lather/rinse loop takes him out of the vast majority of the episode.

It turns out, Daisy is able to reprogram all of the devices in the Powerpuff household to rampage against them, including machines that simply shouldn’t be able to fight them, like the L-Cube! They decide to sneak around the house to avoid getting caught. Unfortunately, Bubbles just could not help it.

Bubbles: (farts in Buttercup’s face)

That all important character trait of having a flatulence problem shows up again, because why not? It seems like the only consistent character trait Bubbles has; whether she’s a maroon or a coding genius, farting is a free action for her. At least there’s somewhat of a point to this, as this allows Buttercup to walk backwards into the aforementioned L-Cube to get captured.

Blossom ends up saving her by using her eye lasers again. Buttercup’s not too happy, because the L-Cube was destroyed.

Blossom: Do you think this is a game?

Buttercup: Uh, yeah, that’s exactly what it was.

…ha.

Suddenly, Schedulebot manages to open the door, coming in with full Rambo gear. Guess he was busy getting all of that while he was locked out of the house. How did he get in the house, anyway? It would have made a lot more sense if he used that chainsaw to do it, as he doesn't seem to use it at all.

Granted, that's not the only weapon he brought: he also brought some grenades. Maybe he'll use them to sacrifice himself to save our girls from all of those evil house appliances, shouting to the girls to remember him...

...and that what actually happens! Finally, Schedulebot is destroyed! Though, so are a lot of household appliances that might not be cheap to replace, but they are never paid any mind. Speaking of never paying anything any mind, Blossom, in a rare bit of her not acting as a macho hero in this episode, she says that Schedulebot probably be fine. Yeah, I'm sure he will. They never explained how he got into the door, why not not explain how he survived this?

When they go into the lab, Daisy tells the girls that he has evolved. And...that's it. Not, "I evolved, and I'm going to take over the world", or "I evolved, and I'm going to make all gum taste like black licorice", or anything else. Sure, there's some vines growing out of what seems like a hole in the ground, but they just kind of stop any potential for a god-like computer here.

Blossom tells the girls that they must go "into the breach", as they slowly fly towards the computer monitor, and they instantly teleport into the computer world. Even Bubbles seems to be confused by this. No special equipment made out of tin toil or anything, Blossom just says "once again into the breach", flies up to the computer monster, and...

...boom, they're in a place that proves that the Virtual Boy would be just as eye searing if they went with green instead of red. It's possible that Daisy did this with his "evolved powers", but there's not much that indicates that this is against the Reboot Puff's will, and that's the only way this would have happened.

Another more likely guess is that it may have wanted to do this because he wanted to kill the Powerpuff Girls in the digital world. Daisy does find out that they sneaked in here, and hears all about Bubbles' plan to repair the code. He even says the most unexpected line, I completely lie.

Daisy: I can't let you do that, Bubbles.

Also technically not the line from the movie, even if it's how a lot of people remembered it. After saying this, the cutesy flower turns into a googly-eyed plant monster. This gives us a real on-screen monster fight that doesn't end with just a random zap of Blossom's eyes.

While Blossom is dealing with the giant plant, Buttercup, under the guidance of the coding wizard, has to reverse the mistakes she made the last night. This actually affects the fight scene, as this code wrangling continuously makes the monster weaker and stronger as Blossom tries to fight it. For example, she accidentally gives it missiles, which ends up firing at Blossom...to no effect? If only I could say the reboot was getting tired of the Monster Punch, Girls Down scenes.

Eventually, they find this star piece, which looked like any other piece until Buttercup picked it up. The same thing happens with the missile piece, actually. I have a feeling they intended to have all of these pieces have different images on them, but they forgot to actually draw them. Once she gets it onto the top, we see a huge flash of light.

Suddenly, pancakes. Yeah, everything just reverted back to normal, with Daisy making delicious flapjacks. Even better for Buttercup, Daisy even messes up Buttercup's hair without care and learned to pronounce her name correctly! Buttercup gets everything she wanted, and that means everything is alright.

Everything is peaceful, the Professor got the best shower of his life, and we have a robot buddy that is so useful, it would be just too incredible to see in future episodes. What can possibly bring this plot back to the status quo? Someone using a line I didn't expect to hear in a TV-Y7-FV show.

Schedulebot: Ha, 🚚🚚 you! (repeatedly bashes Daisy with a baseball bat)

According to the closed captions, he's saying "got you", but that was not what I heard. And I thought "damn it, Utonium" was good! Aside from that, I do question the perspective of this shot, which makes him look absolutely gigantic. Maybe he has the ability to absorb grenade explosions, see, no explanation for how he survived the grenade, or maybe it's just bad animation. Surely, it can not be the latter!

After Daisy gets its head batted in, we hear a funky bass line as the episode immediately cuts to black. I guess they realized that Sciencefeld joke never really had any kind of conclusion or point! I guess since Seinfeld was a show about nothing, Sciencefeld ups the ante by being literally nothing! How fitting.

Does the title fit?

The only thing the title reminds me of is Super Mario Land. But yes, it's a robot named Daisy, and it does things that could make one go "oh." It's just barely above the "name of the character" titles.

How does it stack up?

I get how the idea for this episode could lead to something interesting, but it never quite goes anywhere good. There are some okay ideas, especially at the end, but this is one of the "meh" episodes for me. Oh, well.

Next, the Powerpuff Girls eat ice cream. No, it’s not one of my gags, they really eat ice cream.

← The Gift ☆ Brain Freeze →

#fpb ppg 2016 #fpb reviews #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

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postguiltypleasures · 3 years

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Goodbye to Younger

Unfortunate to say, I don’t think I have ever seen Sutton Foster on Broadway. I watched her previous show, the one season wonder, Bunheads, and felt obliged to follow her to Younger. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about Sex and the City, show runner Darren Star’s previous hit. There are huge gaps in the episodes I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen any since the first movie came out. I enjoyed watching it with friends, but never tried it alone. I bring this up, because I have mostly watched Younger all alone. The series about a recently divorced forty year old woman named Liza who lies about her age to get a job in publishing after years of being a stay at home mom. She lives with an artist friend her real age (Maggie), befriends a colleague her fake age (Kelsey) and quickly get in a love triangle with men from each age group (Charles and Josh, respectively). The first season wasn’t that well received. There were times while watching it that if felt cringeworthy. Criticism of being out of touch with the publishing industry was definitely warranted. I remember reading a review that called out an early plot involving Joyce Carol Oates not having a Twitter account when she really does have one and frequently trends for not great reasons. I cringed while watching that episode. (The reviewer, Miriam Krule was wrong about the long term treatment of the character of Diana. Younger would have been unwatchable if she were right long term.) After the first season Breanne L Heldman published an interesting interview on Yahoo! News with Darren Star and Marti Noxon about having buzzy shows on unexpected networks. But also Kate Dries at Jezebel also wrote an item about Hilary Duff, who plays Kelsey, covering Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” that doubles as a “who’s actually watching Duff’s new show?” bit.

With the second season the press got immediately better. New Yorker critic (and long time SATC fan) Emily Nussbaum wrote a positive review about how the show mixes froth with more serious subjects like agism and difficult divorces. And from then on the critical response was generally good-but inclined to dismiss as fluff.

(I have to interject, the episodes that Liza’s ex-husband showed up seem to dampen the real reasons for their divorce and I am torn between seeing this as a sign of him actually being charming, and the show needing to move on quickly from exploring too dark topics.)

The ensemble gelled and I wanted to highlight this charming interview Molly Bernard, who played Lauren, did an

interview with Maria Elena Fernandez back in 2016. I liked this interview. She talks a lot about what her grandfather meant to her, as a person and acting coach. It covers too many of her gigs to be really insightful for Younger, but that is part of the charm. It’s interesting to focus on Lauren as a character representing the spirit of the series. My first impression was an impersonal, crass caricature of a millennial, what Liza had to work against to convince people that she is a millennial. At the end of the first season she threw herself a “Hot-Mitzvah”, like a Bat Mitzvah for when the awkward years the celebration normally occurs during are over a. The first episode of the final season includes a party for her thirtieth birthday, making something of a full circle moment. The first party definitely worked more for the show’s dramatic purposes, which is related to a theme in this good bye.

During the penultimate season, while the show was was at its peak of being loved by the people, Alissa Wilkinson dedicated one of Vox’s (now defunct) Episode of the Week columns to her changing thoughts on the series’s central love triangle. wrote about. I chose to include this article while I started drafting this, before the season actually aired, in the hopes that I would finish writing by the end of the season. (Obviously, it really didn’t work out.) The article covers Wilkinson’s impression of the show from the beginning. She was Team Charles in the love triangle, but plot points within the first four episodes of the sixth season made her rethink that. As the final season disappointed some of the show’s biggest supporters were disappointed, I thought of it as insightful on how the show could make terrible missteps, and that the love triangle was not as well weighted as viewers hoped earlier on.

The first article I saw going into the final season was on the AV Club written by Innes Bellina. The headline promised that the new episode would remind fans why they love it. Interestingly, it seems positive to optimistic about some aspects of the plot that others would later said made the season terrible, such as Maggie’s plot. It’s even warm towards a plot involving a Greta Thuneberg stand in, that I watched wondering, “will people who like this show more than me love this?” Based on Twitter anecdotes, they mostly didn’t.

At TVLine there were a couple of interviews with the cast. The first, written by Andy Swift is filled with assurances that despite the extended hiatus things will be exactly as intended and as the viewers have always loved. The second is also by Andy Swift and focuses on the Josh/Liza/Charles love triangle. Interestingly they insist that the Love Triangle was never that big a deal, it was always about Team Liza. There is a certain amount of sense to this, but it might also be related to one of the bigger problems fans had with the final season, which is how isolated Josh felt from the rest of cast, especially if they were going to have (spoiler) the implied rekindling of his relationship with Liza that the final scene suggests.

Before the season premiered, Scarlet Harris published an essay in Bitch praising the female friendships, in particular between Liza and Kelsey and Liza and Diana. The essay clearly loves this aspect of the show, but also highlights how dissappointing the the men and the cis hit romantic relationships with them are frustrating. It comes with the hope and the final season would have Liza choosing herself and focusing on her and Kelsey’s friendship and professional goals. It’s an interesting pice to look back on and consider why the final season didn’t satisfy many fans. Ultimately the show was attempting to spin off Kelsey, (in the final episode she announces plans to move to Los Angeles) and it spent a lot the season with her trying to make her job after demotion better, but ultimately deciding that she had to move on. I did kind of like how Kelsey being demoted and Charles returning to his position as publisher wasn’t treated as a reset. That there were lingering frustrations all around. It’s just that some of these frustrations led to real non starters of plots.

If anything prepared me for the change in temperature for this season when the New York Times ran an article by Alexis Soloski pondering if Younger and The Bold Type ending this season meant that this was the end of portraying media jobs as glamorous, well paying and aspirational. It focuses more on The Bold Type, but the general idea that Younger was out of step with the now.

Then came some surprise tweets from Emily Nussbaum:

Man, Younger is bad this season The Maggie plot feels ripped from Californication, of all bad influences A full-on bummer-wish they found a way to just tie things up & end it. It’s not even parodying publishing anymore (and avoiding subjects like race entirely.)

Also, I’m happy to suspend belief, but in what universe would Kelssey [sic], a hardened, trend-spotting Millenial publisher, and Lauren, an influencer publicist, credulously join a reality show & non imagine a bad edit? C’mon.

It’s so bizarre that Younder has shriveled into full hate-watchability in a single season. I can’t remember a steeper quality decline! What the hell happened over there.

So the things that I thought of as quirks of the series that I learned to leave on a curve, were actually things that made people who loved the series deeply dislike the season. This confused me. How to make sense of it?

I'm going to look at a couple of final season interviews and try and make sense from that side.

Laura Benanti, who played the Billionaire (and Liza’s romantic rival) Quinn, was interviewed by Vulture Devon Ivie. She discusses her character’s Sound of Music speech in which she identifies as the Baroness and identifies Liza as Maria. Benanti relates to this speech as she has played both roles. They discuss how the fans frustration with the love triangle directs most of the anger towards Charles, instead of Quinn. While they praise this as an enlightened response, it might also be fans turning on the show. Why invest in a story about Liza’s relationship with Charles when he doesn’t seem worth ending up with?

After the season ended, Sutton Foster gave an interview to Elizabeth Wagmeister at Variety. Foster is very enthusiastic about the final season. She loves how open ended it is about Liza’s love life, (she and Josh reenact their meet cute in the final scene) and that Liza is in a good place professionally. The various frustrating steps getting there aren’t addressed. I like that she and Charles realize they aren’t going to work out and ending things. That might have played better if so much of the season wasn’t about pining for him while he got in a bad relationship with Quinn. The possibility of rekindling things with Josh might have played better if they interacted more in the season. (That said, Josh was always closer to the spirit of the show than Charles. Also this is at least the third show I’ve watched in which the solution to a cis-het couple disagreeing about having children, where the man wants one and the woman doesn’t is resolved by him having a child with another woman. Individually I’m fine with the stories, but I hate that it’s a trend.) Foster also discusses how the show is escapist, and a fantasy while talking about how the show didn’t address COVID-19.

Earlier, I wondered how the show would address the Trump administration, and ultimately, they didn’t. Part of me thinks the thing that went wrong for former fans is related to the attempt to stay light and fantasy like in the face of so many painful changes. For most of the show’s existence I wanted someone to talk to about it in comparison to Sex and the City. It had a more regular plots about not having money and gentrification. Its take on its main four female leads romantic lives ended up differently, but they may have had similar problems with the romantic relationships. Somehow, trying to stay a light fantasy seems to turn into not really learning. I’m not sure if the final season was disappointing because of a decline in quality, or circumstances highlighting its worst tendencies. In any case, it was the show ending I was most ready to say good bye to, and now I have.

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moviestorian · 6 years

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Yes, totally agree about Barry Lyndon! It is a rather "cold" movie I suppose, but I was very emotionally involved and find the characters fascinating. And I resent the idea that I must only like it because I'm a Kubrick fan. It's the film that MADE ME A KUBRICK FAN.

Hi! Thanks for your message. :)

Yeah, absolutely. Also, you see, the first time I watched Barry Lyndon I didn’t love it, really. I found it beautiful, but it didn’t stun me the way A Clockwork Orange did. Yet, upon a rewatch, I fell in love - apart from the obviously gorgeous cinematography I noticed how complex the actual story was, how many themes and plotlines it has. Now, it is my second favourite of the Kubrick movies I have seen so far.

At this point, I saw Barry Lyndon 4 times, and I still find it deeply fascinating. More than that - I’m even more invested than I was when I was watching it for the first time. Every time I find something new about it, about its characters, notice some details I previously missed. There is a lot to talk about when it comes to Barry Lyndon. I’m planning on leading a lecture or workshops about this movie in the historical context, and there are at least four aspects I can bring on. On it’s still not the end of story, you can say a great deal more things about it, in my opinion.

I too find the characters very fascinating! Redmond is an obvious choice, for many reasons, he is definitely an interesting character. I love Bullingdon (I have an unfinished meta post about him in my drafts, LOL), and Honoria, reverend Runt… These four are my favourites. And I think it’s waaay too much to claim that “the actors are not interesting”. Look, I noticed how much criticism Ryan O’Neal gets for his portrayal of Redmond, but I actually completely disagree with those people. Marisa Berenson, although speaks very little in the movie, manages to portray lady Lyndon’s distress and grief tremendously - you can see it in her eyes and her face. I adore Leon Vitali’s portrayal of Lord Bullingdon - I think he was very natural and convincing. Murray Melvin was great, too (the way he looks at Lady Lyndon!). Tbh, I don’t think anybody in the movie was a bad actors, or acted in a flat way.

Yes, I think we can sort of say that Barry Lyndon is “cold”, but in my opinion it is, in a way, a reflection of the times it shows. The times of strict etiquette, controlling emotions, diplomacy. And that’s why the actors are acting like this - it’s not that they’re emotionless, they’re subtle.

Also, LOL, true. This is ridiculous to say that people like this movie because Kubrick directed it. If people don’t like a movie, they’re not going to force themselves into liking it just because they’re a fan of this specific director. Most movie fans realize that every director had their better and worse movies. I definitely don’t have a problem with noticing that. I love Kubrick, but I freely admit that Spartacus is pretty far from being a masterpiece. I love Lord of the Rings and the Heavenly Creatures, but the Hobbit franchise is…well, not the best work of Peter Jackson. Requiem for a Dream is fantastic, yet Noah was a pretty terrible film. And so on.

#answered #nitrateglow #barry lyndon #wera speaks

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rage-against-the-meyer · 4 years

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Breaking Dawn (2008)

So, I've reviewed the other Twilight Saga books already, but I promiss you, this is gonna be the worst one yet. I must admit, as a 13-year-old girl this was my favorite book (don't kill me yet). I was growing up in a Dutch small Christian town that had had a big infuence on my views. In my mind, it was perfectly logical that the story ends with a child against all odd. As a grown-up Biomedical scientist, this does not go anymore. As such, I now view Breaking Dawm as the absolute worst one yet and here, I will tell you exactly why.

Breaking Dawn is a big fat book that consists of three different books. I will discuss the books seperately in fear that it might be too much otherwise.

Part I from Bella's point of view

It's no surprise that I actually do like this book. We get 6 chapters of sheer happiness and joy. Very much Edward/Bella intimacy and they finally have sex (woohoo). So what can I bitch about?

Well, actually not too much. I loved the wedding, the secret goodbyes (yes, I cried). I just believe that after the first 6 chapters Bella should have struggled with the decission to change instead of the pregnancy. Yes, Chapter 7 is the cursed chapter for me. It's the onset of all pending misery. Also, it is the first time that menstruations are mentioned and the weak excuse SM gave to explain the never-having-killed-her-due-to-smelling-period-blood on Edwards part is just that, weak. So, all-in-all, I hated this chapter but what comes after is exceedingly worse.

Part II from Jacob's point of view

I hate Jacob. That much hasn't changed. I hated the cold Jacob that is so prominent here very very much. Personal sun my ass. I have always loathed this POV but it offers us some interesting views on the wolves and the Quileute people. It was good to see the communication between the wolves, but it was also nonsense. The big difference between you can't hide what you think and thinking in directed full sentences became a blurry line that never really made sense to me. What was good about it, is that we saw how pure Seth's mind is and how deeply hurt and actually good Leah is. Seth, a mere teenager, is objectively one of the purest characters I have ever read and that's on that. The faint influence of the coming Gen Z was shimmering through in his defiance of made boundaries in communication: Seth saw the good in the Cullens and defied his tribes prejudice. Good for him. Leah, of course, is one of the most denied characters in the series. Such a fierce young woman that has suffered so much is the only character that does not get redemption. It is absolutely outrageous and I agree with many that it shows SMs prejudice against women of colour. She gets literally nothing. She stands on her own in a group of men that mock her for her guard as she has to suffer through knowing her ex's love for his new love. Then, of course, she cannot have children and she gets no love interests. To through all these (in SMs mind) limitations only at one of the few POC is not great. I do like the fact that Leah and Jacob become closer and that Leah cares most for Seth. It's not enough, though. Leah should have gotten the trip to go to college somewhere far away, paid for by the Cullens out of sheer gratitude. She should have everything and all but through Bella's (read: SMs) mind she is still depicted as sad, lonely and bitter. To show a woman's anger like that is straight up misogynistic. Great start.

Jacob's story skips so many valuable parts of Bella's story, which we have been focussing on until now, and it makes so little sense that Jacob would be there for all the important interactions.

In Jacob's part, some shocking facts become clear. As a biomedical scientist, I have been holding back the outrageousness of this one: the chromosomes.

Vampires are frozen in time; after the change, their bodies don't change anymore. They also don't grow new or longer hairs, new teeth, anything. They are frozen in time. Curiously, they still have a need to feed (blood) and their consumption influences four things: their thirst, the colour of their eyes, their strength and their behaviour. I will tell you why this makes absolutely no sense. In humans, we feed for much the same reasons: we don't get hungry, we stay alive, become stronger and we are nicer when we aren'r hungry. This influence is exerted by the distribution of food molecules throughout the body; to the brain, to the muscles, the organs, you name it. Vampires don't have blood, their distribution of food molecules would be so slow that it would take days if not weeks for the molecules to get to the eyes or the brain. We know vampires aren't mushy inside to increase the distribution so how does it work? It eludes me, I'll tell you. Also, every part of the vampire body is supposed to be solid. Where does the liqud from the blood go? A human averagely holds 5 litres of blood. That is a lot. And since the body doesn't change, where does the liquid go? Aside from the distribution, it makes even less sense that any of these factors should be influenced by anything at all. It is likely that vampires still have cells, their bodies still need to create impulses, movements, talk etc. But their bodies don't changes anymore, so after the change the cells stop producing hair molecules? Why don't the hairs drop anymore? It is so dumb that SM suggested a certain balance between the actiond that continue and actions that don't. We still move the muscles but they can't grow anymore but the cells in the muscle stay active?? This brings me to the chromosomes.

So, Carlisle has tested human, vampire and werewolf (without consent) blood. He found that vampires have 25 chromosome pairs, werewolves 24 and humans 23 chromosome pairs. His findings and his tone suggest that he attributes all the vampire qualities to the 2 extra chromosomes. Now, with everything that I have just explained, I see no possiblity behind that. The venom of a vampire just adds two pairs of chromosomes to your cells? One from your mother and one from your dad? And then, these chromosomes are able to pinpoint exactly with genes to silence and which to activate and that is enough to make your skin hard as granite? No way. The body makes strong pieces, but still the strongest is the teeth. Strong but not as strong as SM thinks.

All-in-all this science is straight up the biggest fucking bullshit I have ever seen. There is just no logic behind the logic SM gave. It doesn't stop here, though. No. I am 100% convinced that SM has not had any sex talk ever in her life. She started with Edward's 100-year-old sperm being vital enough to produce a baby. This sperm is saved at approxomately the temperature of a rock/as cold as ice. This is far far far too high a temperature to preserve sperm cells for long, let alone a 100 years. So, No. No, again. Then, Edward's dick is magically able to get hard without any liquids in the body? No. And THEN, his human sperm cells (human but also vampire?) are able to make a zygote with Bella's egg cell??? A zygote with 24 (!!!) chromosome pairs???? So, it's one of each of Bella's, one of each of Edward's and then just one of the two vampire pairs?????? No. Nah-ah.

I haven't been this vocal about any of my other issues, including racism and other forms of discrimination. Somehow, I have accepted that these concepts come from very well-preserved ideas and I can plainly discuss this matter. However, the pain Stephenie Meyer has put me through as a scientist is still very unknown to me and it annoys me to the core.

I suppose, while I'm on the matter, I should address the elephant in the room. Resumé. Renesue is the embodiment of everything Bella didn't need. The book should have ended before the pregnancy. A story of a woman that found a love in a vampire and she needed nothing else in her life but him. This was the story we were promissed. And then, SM takes her turn to make the last non-conservative woman in the book a mother (her being a mother will come later).

In conclusion, this part stretched every nerve in my body and made me cringe so hard I felt sick.

Part III from Bella's point of view

I'm not gonna lie, I have been pretty dark about the last part. But I LOVE Bella as a vampire. The tranquil chapters where she learns everything about being a vampire made me confident I wanted to be one. I loved Bella more confident and comfortable. I loved the new ease between Bella and Edward. Tranquil, as I said.

Of course, these chapters are overshadowed in part by Rususme. I don't mind the child. It seems nice enough - SM made it pure. But Bella is not a very caring mother. She meets her daugther and then, both Edward and her really don't mind her. They have no urge to be with her and have no trouble letting her go. They go have sex the whole night instead of looking at Relsume's dreams. Then, there is the fact that all tense and loaden discussions are held in the presence of the exceptionally perceiving child. Edward can SEE that she understands tensions. It's so fucking dumb. It really bothered me the last time I read it, maybe because I've matured or maybe because I didn't really care the first time.

When it comes to the final battle approaching, I enjoyed that. I loved Alice's plan. I like the Volturi and their grand dramatic scheming and such. I loved the new characters very much. I think they added a whole new demension to the story. I would have been there for Edward and Bella traveling around the world meeting these people with the oncoming thread of genocide for a child as well though. Of course, the racism is back. The Amazonian and Egyptian vampires are so blatantly racistly described. In that aspect, the movie deserves way more credit for giving us the straight up prettiest actors ever to cover this.

Wrongness continues as Jacob imprints (as the second wolf) in an infant. I know some people see no issue with this. SM tried to make it clear that it was just about her happiness by letting Edward see that Jacob wasn't thinking sexually about his equivalent-of-a-three-year-old child. I mean. Looking at this logically, it's disgusting and there is no changing my mind. Personally, I feel Jacob could have imprinted on any other female character (with the exception of Leah). For all I care it was a 35-year-old woman. But, reversed pedophilia (Jacob was still underage) isn't fun for SM so she sticks with what she knows.

I think I have adressed my most important issues. Please inform me if I've missed any. As usual, I urge you to inform yourself on the Quileut Tribe as it is and donate to them for SM has wronged and exploited them.

The Quileute Tribe

Information:

Donation:

TLDR: I curse Stephenie Meyer for creating that incredibly stupid child as a way to project Jacob's love to something of Bella. Please inform yourself on the Quileute Tribe and donate to them via the links above; SM has wronged them.

As a final note, I am a biomedical scientist at heart. I am always interested in a challenging topic, so fire away.

#breaking dawn #bella swan #bella #edward and bella #edward cullen #edward #the cullens #rosalie cullen #esme cullen #alice cullen #emmett cullen #jasper cullen #bella cullen #renesmee and jacob #renesmee cullen #resume

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