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freddieslater · 3 years

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could i be sending this on instagram? yes. am i sending it on here anyway for fun? also yes

currently on the season 5 finale and wow i forgot how much i hate the dumblebys. i’ve never wanted to murder a fictional character more. it’s bloody annoying that that shit goes on in real life too. fuck capitalism

tee implying candi-rose reminds her of carmen? iconic. those two deserved more screen time together… actually i really hope that the finale of this show, whenever it eventually ends, features every kid who ever lived in the dg since at least the start of tbr, plus mike, tracy, cam… everyone. if the finale is just 2 full hours of everyone swapping stories and reminiscing i will be happy

ok but actually i’m very upset about mission totally possible, i’d missed it in previous rewatches so my dumb ass watched that mindfuck of an episode for the first time ever at 2am and i think i lost braincells from it

honestly most of the latter half of s5 is very disorienting and oddly done. did anything between the wardrobe and where you belong even happen. i mean i know most of it did because charlie moved in but the tone is so odd and wrong. i’m very confused

i forget how much i love adult elektra, in both s5 and s8 she is i c o n i c. she really just said fuck the system huh. and got frank involved? beautiful.

the amount of scheming occurring this episode is absolutely astounding. i’m amazed liam isn’t involved

ryan being protective over all the younger kids is my new religion thank you and goodbye. you can just tell he would’ve been such a good brother to chloe if things had gone differently

floss may be a capitalist but apparently she’s also a feminist, honestly i can’t wait to see what she does when she leaves the dg (that’ll only be in a few years?? mad. she joined this show when she was six)

alex really thought he can steal roman relics from a museum alone, with about an hour of planning and wearing distinct clothes? fool. he could never get away with a heist as clean as the money one, im amazed anyone fell for dumbleby’s lie

wait hold on. why can’t they just move from house to house like they did from elm tree to ashdene?? that seems like b i g plot hole

oh god oh fuck i’m on season 6 oh no

I'm happy you're still sending your rambles on here because it means we get to force other people to see TDG content.

The dumbleby's really are some of the worst characters in TDG. Not badly written, but written well enough to make us despise them. And yeah, it really does suck that this is just real life, like, people fully will not care about disrupting these kids lives and giving them further trauma just to make some money.

I was so happy that Tee implied Candi-Rose reminds her of Carmen because they really are quite similar! You are galaxy-brained, that is exactly the finale we need. I don't even want a plot. I want raw emotion of all of these characters reminiscing and giving the actors a chance to show their love for each other and the show through their characters. I want to see characters that just missed each other finally interact. The older ones from the very start marvelling over how big the little ones who were there at their time now are, and how they've taken over their roles to the younger ones. I even want, if possible, a few cameos from TSOTB characters, specifically Crash, Jackie, Justine, and most unlikely, Ben. The finale better at least be more than a half hour, because I will never be satisfied with that.

I will give you that, mission totally impossible was... weird. I mean, it's one of my favourite episodes because it's mostly Jody centric, and has Jody/Tyler AND Ryan/Tyler content, so I really can't complain about that. But the actual plot was.... something else.

On that note, I really do not like most of season 5. Like you said, it's disorienting, all of the episodes feel like fillers but not in a good way - especially the wardrobe episode, I hate that one specifically with a passion because it's just so weird and feels completely wrong from the tone of the rest of the show. Season 5 was not one of their better seasons. Glad they've moved away from whatever they were trying to do there.

Adult Elektra! Iconic really is the only word to describe her. She's the same but more mature, with a better sense of what she wants and what she's doing, and a bit more responsibility, and I really love that look on her. And yes, her getting Frank involved was the cherry on top; she really can't stop roping him into her schemes, just like her first episode. I desperately wanted Liam to be involved in those episodes because he would have been a very useful and welcome addition to the scheme team, and he was still living with Frank, as far as I'm aware? We deserved adult Elektra/Frank/Liam team up. We need the scheme team back together!!

Ryan is my villain origin story and it's only strengthened when he interacts with the younger ones. That boy would have been the best big brother.

Floss being a feminist does make sense to me. And I love that for her! It's about the only thing I do love for her lmoafkajsksjhd but yeah, I actually kinda do wanna know what she plans to do when she leaves the dg, because we haven't heard much about that? She had an interest in dance and acting and some other things, and she's been quite determined recently to do whatever she can to make money, so I definitely see her being an entrepreneur of some sort. Either that or the scariest business woman alive.

Look, Alex is trying his best, okay? That boy has about two brain cells. And that's being generous. But I love his effort, at least. No thought and no plan, but A+ for effort.

Honestly, that is a big plot hole. The change in building from Elm Tree to Ashdene Ridge in general is a bit of a plot hole because they never actually discuss it within the show? Obviously at the wedding, Tracy says she knew the old one better, which at least kind of acknowledges that it's definitely not the same house, but it's so weird that they never even tried to explain within the show why they had to move and change the name. So, the fact that they made a big deal of possibly having to move building this time was definitely odd. Like... we KNOW they've already done it. They COULD do it again, potentially, if they had the money or whatever they need. I think the plot was just for the Drama and the Angst of nearly being separated, which I can appreciate, at least.

Oh no. Good luck to you, season 6 will destroy you again. It always kills me. That's why it's one of my favourites.

#ds-umbrella-manufacturing-co #ask away earthlings!#tdg #the dumping ground #candi-rose #carmen howle #tee taylor #elektra perkins #frank matthews #liam o'donovan #elektra x frank x liam #alex walker #ryan reeves

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years

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Weird q..but i really dont understand why most fans hate season 4, especially the last episode. Why? I think it gave us a deeper look on both sherlock and mycroft! I felt it tells a lot about mycroft how he had to step in and take control of things ever since he was a kid himself. Also he is not a robot or a killer. Also redbeard thing. It was an appropriate deep psychological trauma (cause most shows usually disappoint in that area). I am not trying to impose my opinion. Just want to understand

Hey Nonny!

It’s all good, and I totally respect your opinion and how you enjoyed S4! It’s totally okay! I know that there are quite a few who got a lot of of S4, and who genuinely enjoyed it.

Sadly, I am not one of those people, and I’ll try to be as diplomatic a possible in my response, but PLEASE know that I don’t think you’re “terrible” or “stupid” for liking S4 because I DO get passionate sometimes in my responses, and I’m just merely speaking as someone who studied the series very closely for quite a long time before S4 aired, and as someone who knows Day-One-ers (ie., people who watched Sherlock on its day one airdate) who also are a large majority of the people who did not like S4. This is just me simply stating why I didn’t like it, but it’s different for everyone.

Stating what I DO like: The acting and cinematography of the first two episodes were brilliant for what they had to work with, and I’ve never faulted any of the actors for the flaws of S4. And for TFP, they did the best with what they had to work with.

That’s… pretty much all I really liked about S4.

Now, here’s my problems with S4:

Nothing made a LICK of sense to the narrative that they were telling in Seasons prior.

This series was always based a bit in reality, and suddenly everything became comic-book rules: X-Men villains, shitty “redemption” arc, destroying favourite characters just for drama, ludicrous physics, explosions that only destroyed one small room in an apt where in previous episodes one explosion destroyed an entire block, etc.

Sherlock was OOC.

Mary was being built up to be a fantastic villain? Ah, nope, here’s the lacklustre twist where tee hee Mary’s just an assassin with a heart of gold that still emotionally abuses Sherlock and John and just won’t fucking stay dead.

And speaking of this, the DVD’s make NO LOGICAL SENSE unless she was planning to kill herself

AND she tries to make her death equatable to Sherlock’s??

Everyone was RIDICULOUSLY out of character in TFP, I’m so sorry: Mycroft is a bumbling coward for the most part, Sherlock disregards John when he gives the Vatican Cameos warning, the Holmes Parents are assholes because Mycroft COULDN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WHEN HE WAS 12?? ARE YOU SERIOUS???? And that creepy Moriarty / Eurus thing, and LITERALLY they’re implying that EVERYTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE EURUS DIDN’T GET A HUG. Like, I’m so sorry, but that’s lazy writing.

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of the entire character of Eurus. She LITERALLY had X-Men powers, and like… just nothing made sense. Her involvement in the entirety of S4 MADE NO SENSE. Why go back to prison if you can get out?? WHAT IS THE POINT?? AND I repeat: She did all this because she didn’t get a hug. Yes. I’m oversimplifying, but at the base level, that’s what it was, because she wanted Sherlock’s attention. Welcome to the club, kid, stand in line, everyone on the SHOW wants his attention.

The ENTIRE plot of the first 2 seasons got wiped out all because it wasn’t Moriarty who was interested in Sherlock, but Eurus?? What… What about Carl Powers?? Like…. the ENTIRETY of season one and TGG makes no sense now, because of that one 5 minute scene where Eurus “enlists” Moriarty. I… ugh.

The SUDDEN tonal switch from kind-of Sherlock to James Bond, for some fucking reason.

And on that note, how terribly lazy and cheap TFP looks in comparison to the other two episodes. The whole episode looks like it was filmed in a small house with 4 identical rooms.

EVERYTHING that was etablished in 2 episodes prior were COMPLETELY forgotten when Mary was “shot”.

The complete character assassination of one loyal blogger John H Watson in favour of Mary for some fucked up reason, even though AT HIS OWN WEDDING HE COULDN’T STAND BEING AROUND MARY. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one damned second that John would EVER forgive Mary for murdering his best friend after seeing what it did to him. That’s not love from her, and that’s NOT John’s character EVER in the ENTIRETY of the series.

And speaking of character assassinations, Molly’s character being devolved to S1E1 Molly, where instead of giving her agency like they were doing with her the ENTIRE series, so much so that Sherlock picked up on her dominance enough to give her a big role in his mind palace in HLV and TAB, only to make her a sad little self-insert Mary Sue pining for the main character, and in turn made Sherlock a TERRIBLE human being for MAKING HER say what she did. It’s gross.

AND speaking of Molly’s character, they’ve been setting up Mollstrade since as early as ASiB, but I guess that plot line got shafted. Look I LOVE Hopkins, and I am ANGRY they didn’t give her more than 3 fucking lines in the entirety of ONE episode after HEAVILY promoting her actress and character, but they essentially reduced her to a piece of ass for Lestrade to chase. AND THAT’S NOT HIS CHARACTER EITHER. EW GROSS.

The constant plot holes being gaped wide open, and the Chekov’s gun moments where they bring up shit but do nothing with it!!

TD-12? Nope, just a lame reference to a story we like.

John got shot at the end of TLD with a VERY REAL FUCKING GUN? Nope, it was a dart gun.

John not suddenly knowing how to be a doctor.

The TGG one I mentioned up above.

What was in the letter? And who was Anyone??

Moriarty essentially being erased as anything other than a hired thug and had no part whatsoever in Sherlock’s history.

Eurus… Just all of her character is asinine.

Everyone in T6T suddenly not knowing John’s the blogger, which is in direct contradiction to literally the entire series.

The AGRA plotline was ridiculous, in the end.

Baby? What baby? It was only there when convenient.

They dropped whatever plotline they were going to do for Mycroft: He was being set up as either dying, or the villain.

Redbeard. I’m sorry, I disagree with you on that. Mofftiss is trying to tell me that a little boy fell down a well and went missing, and that WASN’T the first place searchers / the police wouldn’t have looked? Sorry, no. And then. AND THEN his parents just… go along with this thing where Sherlock shuts down and they DON’T get him therapy? Yes, I agree the mind is a funny thing, and we can be traumatised into forgetting or dissociating from traumatic events. I GET IT. But… like I don’t believe the Holmes are so heartless as to just never grieve or have memories around about their supposedly dead daughter. It’s another OCC thing for me.

John’s cheating.

Disappearing and reappearing characters, like this scene, and the entirety of the aquarium scene.

Mary and John being terrible parents

OH GOD THIS FUCKING SCENE. That bomb SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE ENTIRE BUILDING.

What… who was this girl on the plane? What? Like I know WHO, but if she’s supposed to be Eurus talking to Sherlock, why don’t we see Eurus… talking to Sherlock? I … Ugh.

NORBURY.

The glass SUPER SECRET GOVERNMENT ROOM THAT NO ONE SHOULD SEE INTO in T6T.

Sloppy camera work that some believe was intentional, but if it wasn’t, jesus c’mon.

The RIDICULOUS amount of 4th Wall Breaking. Like… even the actors didn’t give a shit.

Essentially, everything on this list here and in this blog tag here.

And everything mentioned on these three posts:

T6T: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TLD: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TFP: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

There’s SO much more I can go into, but please go through my “something’s fucky” tag in that last link.

Notice how probably 90% of that has NOTHING to do with “johnlock not becoming canon” because the Johnlockers get MONSTROUS accusations as to THAT being why we didn’t like S4, even though it was, like critically panned by the GENERAL AUDIENCE who have NO investment in the series other than “I liked it in the past”.

Two of my fave YouTubers have interesting (not perfect, but still good) takes coming at the series as casual viewers:

‘The Day Sherlock Died’ by The Closer Look

‘Sherlock is Garbage, and Here’s Why’ by hbomberguy

So it’s NOT just Johnlockers. I’ve talked to Sher1011ies at 221B con who didn’t like S4 either, because most of them realized how shitty Molly was treated in the last episode. So yeah, a big middle finger to those who think I dislike S4 because of “no Johnlock”. No, I disliked it because I need my stories to make logical narrative sense. I disliked it because I love John and they ruined his character all for the sake of drama and because Moffat has a “hurting Ben” kink. I disliked it because Mary should NOT have been “redeemed” because she was an abuser. I disliked it because Moriarty was turned into a cartoon villain, even though he was already overused in the series. I disliked it because the core of the show – the FRIENDSHIP of Sherlock and John, and their solving mysteries together – did not exist at all. I disliked it because John got sidelined. I disliked it because TFP was a ridiculous episode that, if you replace ANY of the characters, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it didn’t feel like an episode of Sherlock. I disliked it because everyone was OOC.

Anyway. Sorry. One too many accusations my way over the past 1100+ days LOL.

As for your assessment of TFP, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There was no growth and actually it implies something far more sinister: That the Holmes are and were terrible parents that gave no shits about their daughter, their traumatized son, and expected their eldest to essentially be a parent. It implies that Mycroft, at 12 years old, orchestrated the ENTIRE Sherrinford thing… Look I can suspend my disbelief, but there’s limits, and this is one of them. A LITERAL CHILD. Perhaps Uncle Rudy had a hand in it somehow, but then why not shit on Uncle Rudy? Why is Mycroft blamed for it all?

Look, I don’t doubt Sherlock had a traumatic experience regarding “Redbeard”. But then why play into the fact that he was a dog? Why bring another character into the series just to have a gotcha moment? Because Mofftiss wanted a “Shyamalan twist”, that’s why. They threw EVERYTHING away for a twist ending either because they GENUINELY thought it was good, or they got tired of doing Sherlock. ALL of TFP is LITERALLY a really bad plot twist because reasons. TFP makes no sense to the ENTIRE narrative structure of the previous 12 episodes. It erased EVERYTHING from the previous episodes, and coated it with a gross closing by a character no one wanted in the series, and then tried to convince us that it’s a new beginning – “a journey they had to go through” – but it SOLVED NOTHING.

Anyway. I have big feels about S4, and the only way I can enjoy it is to watch it subtextually, but even then, I cannot sit through TFP without cringing.

That said, Lovelies, please do not attack Nonny for enjoying S4! I know you guys won’t, but Nonny came out with an olive branch and they just want to understand why the fandom is passionate about S4′s… whatever it was. We can have a civil discussion about it, and point out – without attacking – why S4 is universally panned. It’s okay to like things no one else does, and Nonny was respectful to me in this ask!

So with that, feel free, lovelies, to express why YOU didn’t enjoy the series, or why you did! I’m interested in both “sides” / pov’s whatever :)

#steph replies #long post #sherlock s4 #s4 shitposting #mofftiss #something's fucky #the mary problem #my thoughts #my meta #shitposting steph #sorry gang if you like the season #it's easier for me to enjoy it if i tinhat

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i-am-very-very-tired · 3 years

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In the wake of Tuesday’s shocking New Yorker exposé, several more actresses came forward with harrowing stories of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. One of these brave women was Angelina Jolie, who said the predatory studio executive had made unwanted advances to her in a hotel room around the release of 1998’s Playing by Heart, which was distributed by Weinstein-owned Miramax Films. “I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,” she told The New York Times. Another was Gwyneth Paltrow, who alleged that, prior to shooting what would prove to be her breakthrough role in 1996’s Emma, Weinstein approached the then-22-year-old actress in a Beverly Hills hotel suite, put his hands on her shoulders, and intimated that they move to the bedroom for “massages.” She immediately left, disgusted. “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she recalled to the Times. The testimonies of Jolie and Paltrow proved particularly disturbing because they proved that Weinstein had the power and influence to silence anyone—even Hollywood royalty. Jolie, after all, is the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, and Paltrow the progeny of director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, and the goddaughter of Steven Spielberg. Another thing these two talented women have in common is their proximity to the actor Brad Pitt. Paltrow dated Pitt from 1994-1997 before breaking off their engagement, while Jolie was Pitt’s partner from 2005-2016. Their divorce is still pending. In the Times piece, Paltrow said that she’d confided in Pitt about the Weinstein episode, and that the actor proceeded to confront Weinstein at a film premiere and warn him to never do anything like that to his girlfriend again. (Pitt confirmed as much to the Times.)“Brad threatened Harvey. He got right in his face, poked him in the chest, and said, ‘You will not ever do this to Gwyneth ever again,’” a source told People, adding that if Weinstein did try anything again, the Springfield native told the portly New Yorker he’d get a good “Missouri whooping.” Many online were quick to praise Pitt, then a rising star, for giving a studio bigwig like Weinstein the business—something that precious few Hollywood men felt compelled to do both during the mogul’s three-decade reign of terror and after the sickening revelations came to light. But why, then, did Pitt continue to work with Weinstein not once, but twice: on 2009’s Inglourious Basterds and 2012’s Killing Them Softly? The Weinstein allegations have led to a broader discussion of Hollywood complicity—the power brokers who were not only aware of his despicable behavior but may have helped facilitate his hotel liaisons with a bevy of up-and-coming actresses. Paltrow told the Times that her hotel “meeting” with Weinstein was listed “on a schedule from her agents,” while the actress Rose McGowan, who reportedly agreed to a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein after a 1997 hotel incident during the Sundance Film Festival, tweeted out an alleged email sent from an agent to the actress Lindsay Lohan requesting a hotel “meeting” with Weinstein at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, the site of many an alleged Weinstein attack, for a cameo in an unnamed Scream sequel. The tweet has since been deleted.

While a parade of agents, executives, producers, and assistants were no doubt aware) October 10, 2017 @benaffleck “GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT” you said that to my face. The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie.

George Clooney, a work friend of Pitt’s, claimed to The Daily Beast that he and many of his high-profile actor friends in Hollywood were unaware of Weinstein’s purported penchant for sexually harassing and assaulting women. “If you’re asking if I knew that someone who was very powerful had a tendency to hit on young, beautiful women, sure. But I had no idea that it had gone to the level of having to pay off eight women for their silence, and that these women were threatened and victimized,” he offered. But Brad Pitt knew. By his own admission, Paltrow informed him that Weinstein had sexually harassed her all the way back in 1996. While Paltrow explained to the Times how she felt she had to “suppress the experience” of being attacked by Weinstein, and, after being threatened by the exec, went on to act in several other Weinstein-shepherded films (including an Oscar-winning turn in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love), by the late-Aughts Pitt had the power to affect change. He was, as Clooney told Esquire, “the biggest movie star in the world… he’s bigger than me, bigger than DiCaprio.” He ran a successful production company in Plan B Entertainment, responsible for hits like The Departed. And yet, he opted to star in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, which was distributed by The Weinstein Company. A source close to Pitt confirms to The Daily Beast that Pitt knew of the Paltrow incident with Weinstein but that “Quentin went to him directly to bring him into the project, and Brad did it because of the relationship and the contact. Interaction with Harvey was very limited.” The source, however, went on to explain that since every Tarantino project has been distributed by Weinstein, Pitt understood that Inglourious would be as well. They could not confirm whether Pitt knew at the time of his then-girlfriend Jolie’s alleged incident with Weinstein, and representatives for Jolie and Pitt would not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. And, while Pitt’s interactions with Weinstein may have been limited, the exec’s involvement in the project was anything but. Weinstein, who’s earned the nickname “Harvey Scissorhands” for his tendency to demand film edits, usually shies away from meddling with Tarantino movies but was rumored to have demanded that its initial three-hour running time be cut down by at least a half-hour (its final running time: 153 minutes). Weinstein also launched aggressive Oscar campaigns for the film and Pitt, fresh off a Best Actor nod the previous year for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, doing interview after interview touting their credentials and flooding Academy voters with cheap, non-watermarked DVD screeners. You see, there was a lot riding on Inglourious Basterds. The Weinstein Company was in dire financial straits, having recently hired a high-powered financial advisory firm to restructure after incurring heavy debt. The film’s ultimate success, earning eight Academy Award nominations and grossing over $321 million worldwide, helped keep the company afloat. Following the release of Inglourious, Pitt agreed to star in and produce an adaptation of the book Cogan’s Trade, directed by Andrew Dominik and developed by Plan B. After a heated bidding war, the of Weinstein’s appalling behavior, it’s not entirely clear how many actors were—particularly big-name male actors who had, as Lena Dunham so eloquently wrote in the Times, “the least to lose and the most power to shift the narrative, and are probably not dealing with the same level of collective and personal trauma around these allegations.”

McGowan charged on Twitter that the actor/filmmaker Ben Affleck, who dated Paltrow from 1997-2000, knew full well about Weinstein’s reputation (McGowan starred alongside Affleck in Phantoms, released by Miramax one year after her alleged hotel incident with Weinstein). — rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan distribution rights to the film were sold to The Weinstein Company, who promised a $20 million ad spend. The film, ultimately titled Killing Them Softly, was released in 2012 by Pitt and Weinstein, earning a meager $15 million stateside. Our source in Pitt’s camp said that they were “unable to provide any context” about exactly why Pitt chose to collaborate with Weinstein again on the crime drama (and in a much more involved capacity) despite his ex-fiancée telling him that she’d been accosted by the exec, and that he’d allegedly—perhaps unbeknownst to Pitt, perhaps not—attacked his then-partner Jolie. The Harvey Weinstein sexual-assault scandal has not only underscored the remarkable courage of the women who chose to come forward, but the cowardice and complicity of the myriad men in power who didn’t. As Lena Dunham wrote, “Hollywood’s silence, particularly that of men who worked closely with Mr. Weinstein, only reinforces the culture that keeps women from speaking. When we stay silent, we gag the victims. When we stay silent, we condone behavior that none of us could possibly believe is O.K. (unless you do). When we stay silent, we stay on the same path that led us here. Making noise is making change. Making change is why we tell stories. We don’t want to have to tell stories like this one again and again. Speak louder.”

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qsdblogging · 3 years

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Top 10 TV Shows You Need To Watch Right Now

Now, I watch a lot of television. I always have and frankly, I’m much more of a binge watcher than a wait-around-for-a-week-for-the-next-episode kind of watcher.

And with everything the past few months, there wasn’t all that much to do other than start rewatching some of my favorite shows and some that I’ve never seen or haven’t seen in a while.

So, that’s what I did and here I am giving you some recommendations for shows to add to your own watching lists.

Warning, though, some of these don’t end the best way and may end up more as a disappointment. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

I. Fringe.

I cannot recommend this show enough to people. It’s got five full seasons (although the last could’ve been a little better, but it’s honestly not that bad of a final season) of high-risk scenarios revolving around almost unexplainable phenomena regarding a tear in the fabric of reality. It deals with experiments that gives superpowers (basically), advanced technology, and a parallel universe.

Plus, there’s a cow.

What more could you want from a show?

Some familiar faces that are in the main cast or show up at some point include John Noble, who you may recognize from Sleepy Hollow and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lance Reddick, who was in The Wire, White House Down, American Horror Story, and played Charon in the John Wick franchise, Leonard Nimoy, who you should know from the original Star Trek series, and Anna Torv from Mindhunter.

II. Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.

Now, if you know crime books, you may know exactly what this is based off of. If not, fear not, I am here to tell. This series (which, like a lot of the others down the list, unfortunately, got cancelled and won’t get to see a second season) was based off of The Bone Collector, a first in a series of novels by Jeffery Deaver.

If you like crime shows, you should definitely give this a shot. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one season stop you.

Things get pretty wild in just one season as it revolved around a retired forensic criminologist, who had been trying to catch the Bone Collector only to get injured, that gets back into the game three years later when an ambitious young detective is determined to help solve the case when a new body shows up.

You might even recognize a face or two, like Arielle Kebbel (the ambitious young detective) from her role as Lexi in The Vampire Diaries and Olivia Charity in Midnight, Texas, and Russell Hornsby (the retired forensic criminologist) from Grimm, The Hate U Give, Proven Innocent, and The Affair.

III. Manifest.

Luckily, this show is said to be getting a third season and so far, isn’t going to get cancelled. It focuses on passengers from Flight 828, who show up five years after their plane went missing. Some passengers start experiencing what they call ‘callings’ and try to figure out if they were chosen for some sort of duty that the callings led them too, but things get a little confusing when someone who wasn’t on a flight seems to have a year missing of their own life after being deemed missing.

Things get a little weird and dangerous along the way, and not everyone is happy about how things turn out.

It’s pretty interesting and I’m really looking forward to what else they come up with. There’s a few familiar faces that play a part in the show that includes Daryl Edwards, who you may recognize from the first season of Daredevil, Ellen Tamaki who is also in the reboot of Charmed, Athena Karkanis, who’s been in The Expanse and Lost Girl, and Josh Dallas, who one may recall playing Prince Charming in Once Upon a Time, and Fandral in Thor.

It’s a rather good show to get lost in and I definitely recommend giving it a go.

IV. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If you don’t have an idea as to what this show is, I don’t know what to say. The title kind of gives it away. It’s the only Marvel Show (as of now since none of the shows in production have come out as of yet) to technically be connected to the MCU itself.

That’s found in one of the main characters, Phil Coulson, who you’d recognize from Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Avengers. Plus, Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) both give a cameo in the show.

The show was rumored to have been set in a different, but similar, timeline to that of the MCU movies, but I don’t know for sure if it’s true or not.

It follows its own set of issues, including a deeper dive into the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., issues with HYDRA, and so on and so forth. The last season, which I honestly cried during, gives such good twists and callbacks to previous seasons and the MCU movies that you can’t help but enjoy how it’s handled.

As a show, it probably has one of the best final seasons possible and I highly recommend giving the full seven seasons a watch if you haven’t already.

V. Primeval.

Now, if you like dinosaurs, this is a show for you. It’s BBC, so obviously everyone has an accent. It gave a run of five seasons (which is kind of funny because I didn’t realize that until just now writing this as the show is listed as number five on the list) with different episode amounts.

The show centers around anomalies that seem to open up a window to the very distant past of Earth when dinosaurs still roamed the land. It causes a lot of issues, especially if one person has anything to do with it.

It’s pretty interesting and honestly has got some great characters (my personal favorite is Captain Becker, played by Ben Mansfield) and while it can get pretty serious, it’s also pretty entertaining. It’s one of the three shows on this list to get to end on a good-ish note. (AKA, no cliffhangers!)

Obviously, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s kind of the point of this list.

VI. Terra Nova.

Now, like Primeval, this show technically has to do with dinosaurs. Dinosaurs aren’t the main focus, but they do play a part in this one season (because cancellations) story.

Terra Nova is focused on both the future and the past. In the distant future (2149), the Earth is dying. A group of people, researchers, and military as well as some of their family members, are sent to the past (85 million years) to inhabit Terra Nova, a colony of humans given a second chance to build civilization.

So, obviously, dinosaurs are going to make an appearance now and then. And unfortunately, the show only got one season and ends on a cliffhanger. Which I hate, because I really enjoy this show and wish it had been able to at least get a second season.

Plus, there are some familiar faces amongst the cast. Jason O’Mara, who plays one of the main cast members, played Jeffrey Mace in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Christine Adams, who plays Lynn Pierce in Black Lightning. Allison Miller, who played Sonya in 13 Reasons Why. And Naomi Scott, who is known for her roles in Lemonade Mouth (one of my all-time favorite DCOMs) and Aladdin. And this was just to name a few of the cast members.

Shame it got cancelled, truly, but I recommend giving it a shot.

VII. MTV’s Scream.

I think you can figure out the basis of this show. While it doesn’t have anything to do directly with the movie franchise, it is kind of similar and a lot of the characters reflect those from the show. Neve Campbell even said that if the show did well, she would be willing to do a cameo.

It revolves (at least the first two seasons as season three is an entirely different set of cast and premise that I refuse to watch because of that) around Emma Duval and her group of friends as they’re picked off one by one by a serial killer going around town. Things get bloody and suspicions arise amongst the crew when things are revealed as the show continues, but things eventually work out in the end.

And personally, I really enjoyed the show even when the second season ended on a cliffhanger. I have theories about that cliffhanger, however, so watch out for a possible post regarding it.

I highly recommend giving it a chance if you haven’t seen it.

VIII. The Society.

Now, the title doesn’t give you much. A group of teenagers, who were sent off on a trip, suddenly are dropped back off in their town to find it completely empty aside from themselves. They have to form their own society to survive and figure things out.

Once you know that, it makes a little more sense.

It seems really similar to the Pied Piper tale, but it doesn’t seem like we’re going to really know for sure. Season 2 had been given a go-ahead, but not too long ago Netflix announced the cancellation of the show.

That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the first season like I do. Plus, if you’re a fan of Supernatural and the character of Claire Novak, Kathryn Newton plays one of the main roles in this show.

It’s a shame the show got cancelled, especially on a cliffhanger, but what can we do?

IX. The Mysteries of Laura.

Laura Diamond, a Homicide Detective, cracks case after case while trying to raise twin boys and locking horns with her less than helpful Police Detective ex-husband. At least, this is according to IMBD and frankly, it’s not really wrong.

For two seasons, it’s packed with comedy and crime. It’s more of the former, but it still gets pretty serious every now and then, and unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger.

However, some cast members may be familiar. Like Josh Lucas, who voices Home Depot commercials (and trust me, it made my family laugh when we first heard one after watching the show), Laz Alonso who plays MM in The Boys, and Debby Ryan, from Disney Channel.

If you like light-hearted crime shows (like Brooklyn-Nine-Nine) you should definitely give this a watch.

X. Warrior Nun.

As far as I know, this show has been renewed for a season two. I’m really hoping for it because it’s honestly kind of interesting. You can kind of tell by the title what it may be, but I’ll dive a little deeper.

After waking up in a morgue, Ava, an orphaned teen, discovered she now possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns. (Taken from IMDB). Interesting, right?

With characters like Shotgun Mary, Sister Beatrice, and Sister Lilith, you know the show’s going to be interesting. But the premise is pretty interesting on it’s own too.

There’s even a character called JC, who apparently has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, but I still like referring to him as such because it’d be pretty funny if that’s how it turns out. Also, someone gets beat up with a whole chicken at some point.

It’s only got the one season so far, but it’s pretty funny and action packed. Like everything on this list, I definitely think you should watch it and find out for yourself if you want to add it to your list if you haven’t already.

#tvshows #watchlist #warriornun #fringe #mtvscream #thesociety #primeval #terranova #themysteriesoflaura #aos #agentsofshield #manifest #lincolnrhyme #qsdblogging #qsdbloggingpopculture #qsdpopculture #findingqsd

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silent-era-of-cinema · 3 years

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Barbara La Marr (born Reatha Dale Watson; July 28, 1896 – January 30, 1926) was an American film actress and screenwriter who appeared in twenty-seven films during her career between 1920 and 1926. La Marr was also noted by the media for her beauty, dubbed as the "Girl Who Is Too Beautiful," as well as her tumultuous personal life.

Born in Yakima, Washington, La Marr spent her early life in the Pacific Northwest before relocating with her family to California when she was a teenager. After performing in vaudeville and working as a dancer in New York City, she moved to Los Angeles with her second husband and became a screenwriter for Fox Film Corporation, writing several successful films for the company. La Marr was finally "discovered" by Douglas Fairbanks, who gave her a prominent role in The Nut (1921), then cast her as Milady de Winter in his production of The Three Musketeers (1921). After two further career-boosting films with director Rex Ingram (The Prisoner of Zenda and Trifling Women, both with Ramon Novarro), La Marr signed with Arthur H. Sawyer to make several films for various studios, including The Hero (1923), Souls for Sale (1923), and The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924), the first and last of which she co-wrote.

During her career, La Marr became known as the pre-eminent vamp of the 1920s; she partied and drank heavily, once remarking to the press that she only slept two hours a night. In 1924, La Marr's health began to falter after a series of crash diets for comeback roles further affected her lifestyle, leading to her death from pulmonary tuberculosis and nephritis at age 29. She was posthumously honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry.

Barbara La Marr was born in 1896 as Reatha Dale Watson to William and Rosana "Rose" Watson in Yakima, Washington (La Marr later claimed she was born in Richmond, Virginia). Her father was an editor for a newspaper and her mother, a native of Corvallis, Oregon, already had one son, Henry, and a daughter, Violet, from a previous marriage. La Marr's parents had wed some time during 1884, and had a son, William Watson, Jr., born in June 1886, ten years before she was born. Through her mother, La Marr was of German and English descent.

In the 1920s, the elder Watson became a vaudeville comedian under the stage name of Billy Devore. The Watsons lived in various locations in Washington and Oregon during La Marr's formative years. By 1900, she was living with her parents in Portland, Oregon, with her brother William, her half-sister Violet Ross, and Violet's husband Arvel Ross. As a child, La Marr also performed as a dancer in vaudeville, and made her acting debut as Little Eva in a Tacoma stage production of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1904.

By 1910, La Marr was living in Fresno, California, with her parents. Some time after 1911, the family moved to Los Angeles, and La Marr worked at a department store. La Marr also appeared in burlesque shows. In January 1913, her half-sister, now going by the name of Violet Ake, took her 16-year-old sister on a three-day automobile excursion with a man named C.C. Boxley. They drove up to Santa Barbara, but after a few days, La Marr felt that they were not going to let her return home. Ake and Boxley finally let La Marr return to Los Angeles after they realized that warrants were issued for their arrests, accusing them of kidnapping. This episode was published in several newspapers, and La Marr even testified against her sister, but the case eventually was dropped. La Marr's name appeared frequently in newspaper headlines during the next few years. In November 1914, she came back to California from Arizona and announced that she was the newly widowed wife of a rancher named Jack Lytell and that they were supposedly married in Mexico. She also stated that she loathed the name Reatha and preferred to be called by the childhood nickname "Beth."

After marrying and moving in with her third husband, vaudevillian Ben Deely, La Marr, who at one time had aspirations of being a poet, found employment writing screenplays at Fox Film Corporation using the name Folly Lyell. She wrote numerous scenarios for studio shorts at Fox and United Artists, many of which she based on her life, earning over US$10,000 during her tenure at the studios. She was credited as writer Barbara La Marr Deely on the films The Mother of His Children, The Rose of Nome, Flame of Youth, The Little Grey Mouse, and The Land of Jazz (all released in 1920).

La Marr continued to write short screenplays for the studio and supported herself by dancing in various cities across the country, including New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, and at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco. La Marr's dance partners included Rudolph Valentino and Clifton Webb, and her dance routines attracted the attention of publisher William Randolph Hearst, who featured her and a dance partner in a series of articles published in the San Francisco Examiner around 1914.

While working in the writers' building at United Artists, La Marr was approached by Mary Pickford, who reportedly embraced her and said, "My dear, you are too beautiful to be behind a camera. Your vibrant magnetism should be shared by film audiences." La Marr's association with filmmakers led to her returning to Los Angeles and making her film debut in 1920 in Harriet and the Piper. Though a supporting part, the film garnered her attention from audiences. La Marr made the successful transition from writer to actress with her supporting role in The Nut (1921), playing a femme fatale. Later the same year, she was hired by Douglas Fairbanks to play the substantial part of Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers.

Over the next several years, La Marr acted frequently in films, and became known to the public as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after Adela Rogers St. Johns, a Hearst newspaper feature writer, saw a judge sending her home during a police beat in Los Angeles because she was "too beautiful and young to be on her own in the big city." This publicity did much to promote her career. Among La Marr's films are The Prisoner of Zenda and Trifling Women, both 1922 releases directed by Rex Ingram. Although her film career flourished, she embraced the fast-paced Hollywood nightlife, remarking in an interview that she slept no more than two hours a night.

In 1923, La Marr appeared in the comedy The Brass Bottle, portraying the role of the Queen, and Poor Men's Wives. She had a supporting part in the Fred Niblo-directed comedy Strangers of the Night, and was noted in a New York Times review for her "capable" performance. She starred in the lead role, with Bert Lytell and Lionel Barrymore, in The Eternal City (1923), which featured a cameo appearance by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

In 1924, during the filming of Thy Name Is Woman, production supervisor Irving Thalberg made regular visits to the set to ensure that La Marr's alcoholism was not interfering with the shoot. The same year, La Marr's first starring, above-the-title role came in the drama Sandra, from First National Pictures, which she filmed in New York City in August 1924. La Marr had served as a co-writer on the film, which focused on a woman suffering from a split-personality disorder Upon release, the film received dismally negative reviews.

La Marr's final screenplay, titled My Husband's Wives, was produced by Fox in 1924, arriving in theaters shortly after the release of Sandra, and before the production of what proved to be her final three films: The Heart of a Siren (a mixed reception), The White Monkey (a critical failure), and The Girl from Montmartre (a critical success, albeit posthumously released). While shooting The Girl from Montmartre in early October 1925, La Marr collapsed on set and went into a coma as the studio wrapped production without her with use of a double in long shots.

Although the tally is usually given as five, La Marr officially was married only four times. No documentation exists to prove the existence of her alleged first husband, Jack Lytelle, whom she claimed to have met while visiting friends in Yuma, Arizona in 1914. According to La Marr, Lytelle became enamored with her as he saw her one day riding in an automobile while he was on horseback. The couple allegedly married the day after they met, but Lytelle, it was claimed, died of pneumonia only three weeks into the marriage, leaving only a surname for Mrs. Lytelle to inherit.

La Marr's first official documented marriage on June 2, 1914, was to a Max Lawrence, who later turned out to be a former soldier of fortune named Lawrence Converse. He already was married with children when he married La Marr under a false name, and was arrested for bigamy the following day. Converse died of a blood clot in his brain three days later on June 5.

On October 13, 1916, La Marr married Philip Ainsworth, a noted dancer. Although the son of well-off parents, Ainsworth eventually was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison for passing bad checks, and the couple divorced in 1917. She married for a fourth time to Ben Deely, also a dancer, in 1918. Deely, who was over twice her age, was an alcoholic and a gambling addict, which led to the couple's separation in April 1921. Before the divorce from Deely was finalized, La Marr married actor Jack Dougherty in May 1923. Despite separating a year later, they remained legally married until her death.

Some years after La Marr's death, she was revealed to have given birth to a son, Marvin Carville La Marr, on July 29, 1922. The name of the boy's father has never been released. During her final illness, La Marr entrusted the care of her son to her close friend, actress ZaSu Pitts, and Pitts' husband, film executive Tom Gallery. After La Marr's death, the child was legally adopted by Pitts and Gallery, and was renamed Don Gallery. Don Gallery died in 2014.

La Marr partied long hours and got very little sleep during the latter part of her career, often pairing this behavior with drinking during especially low points; she once told an interviewer: "I cheat nature. I never sleep more than two hours a day. I have better things to do."[8] In addition to her drinking and lack of sleep, during the last two years of her life La Marr went on several extreme crash diets to lose weight.[8] La Marr was rumored to have at one time ingested a tapeworm head in a pill to help her lose weight.

By late 1925, La Marr's health had deteriorated significantly due to pulmonary tuberculosis. While filming her final feature, The Girl from Montmartre, La Marr collapsed on the set and lapsed into a coma. In mid-December, she was diagnosed with nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys, as a complication of her already tubercular state. La Marr was bedridden through Christmas, and by late December, she reportedly weighed less than 80 pounds (36 kg).

Some historians and writers have claimed that La Marr was addicted to morphine and heroin, which she had been prescribed after injuring her ankle and which may have contributed to her health problems. In Sherri Snyder's 2017 biography of La Marr, the writer states that these claims were untrue and erroneously reported. A frequently recirculated rumor was that La Marr was arrested for morphine possession in Los Angeles; however, Snyder states that this claim was mistakenly attributed to La Marr, when it had in fact been actress Alma Rubens who had been arrested in January 1931, five years after La Marr's death. Ben Finney, a close friend of La Marr, contested the claims of drug use, stating: "It is inconceivable that during our close friendship I would not have known if she were a junkie," adding, "She did well enough with booze."

On January 30, 1926, La Marr died of complications associated with tuberculosis and nephritis at her parents' home in Altadena, California, at the age of 29. Her friend, film director Paul Bern, was with her when she died. La Marr's son later speculated that Bern may have been his biological father, though this eventually was disproved; Bern died in a mysterious shooting six years later.

La Marr's funeral at the Walter C. Blue Undertaking Chapel in Los Angeles attracted over 3,000 fans, and five women reportedly fainted in the crowd and had to be removed by police to safety. After her removal from the church during the funeral procession, hundreds of fans flooded the chapel hoping to obtain flowers from the decorative arrangements. She was interred in a crypt at Hollywood Cathedral Mausoleum, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, La Marr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1621 Vine Street.

Producer Louis B. Mayer, a longtime admirer of La Marr, named actress Hedy Lamarr after her. She is also referred to in the popular 1932 Flanagan and Allen song "Underneath the Arches" during a break in which Ches Allen reads the headlines from a 1926 newspaper. Children's author Edward Eager set an episode of his 1954 book Half Magic at a showing of La Marr's Sandra and includes ironic descriptions of the movie.

#barbara la marr #silent era #silent hollywood #silent movie stars #1920s hollywood

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m39 · 3 years

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History of the Creed - Part 4.5: The Tyranny of King Washington

The Tyranny of King Washington is an interesting case of an expansion (yes, I call all three episodes combined an expansion). While there were mission packs in two previous games, this one might be the first one on such a scale. I might be over-exaggerating what I’ve said but still, there are over 20 main memories in all of the episodes combined.

Okay, I think that’s enough of rambling. Let’s get to the review.

THE TYRANNY OF KING WASHINGTON (The original PC release in Europe: February 20th (Infamy), March 20th (Betrayal), and April 23rd (Redemption), 2013)

The version I played was, again, the remastered version released on March 29th, 2019.

STORY

Sometime after the events of the main game, Connor suddenly wakes up in the alternative timeline, where George Washington found the Apple of Eden, which made him go mad with power and take the title of King Washington. So now it’s up to Connor, now having the powers of spirit animals, to stop the Mad King himself.

So the story is more bonkers than the main game, and that says a lot since we are talking about Assassin’s Creed. Overall I enjoyed it. It’s probably slightly better than the base game’s plot. I like how the expansion is a Mohawk powerhouse experience in the nutshell.

CHARACTERS

I think Connor is also slightly better here than in the base game. Not only does he have to experience the trauma of losing everything he loves again but it’s also implied that with each sky journey he takes, he becomes more hungry for power, showing that he’s closer to the grey area than what we saw in the base game.

As for the secondary characters, it’s mostly positive. Giving Ben Franklin a bigger role than in the base was definitely a good idea. Thomas Jefferson finally shows up – sure, he only appears in the last episode and he doesn’t exactly show much of a character but still, it’s good that he finally appears. The cameos of some of the Homestead community was cute. On the other hand, some of the characters are here just to die like these two native guys in episode 1.

Since George Washington is now our main bad guy, the question is: Does he do a good job at it? Well… it looks like he is. He nicely changes his moods from ravaging dog, to calm, even though he mostly stays in the former mood type. Also, having Israel Putman on the side of the bad guys was a very good choice due to his voice actor.

GAMEPLAY

I said earlier about how Connor has new powers based on the spirit animals. Throughout all of the episodes, you earn 4 new powers to tremendously help you. In episode 1, you get the Wolf Cloak and Wolf Pack. The former one makes you invisible, while the latter one summons three wolves that one-hit-kill their targets. The second episode has the Eagle Flight, allowing you to quickly move through the terrain. The last episode gives you the Bear Might, a powerful shockwave that can kill everyone close to Connor.

All of these abilities are very good but I was mostly using three first of them (especially Eagle Flight). The Bear Might has a chance to also kill civilians and that’s the reason why it’s not as much used by me like the rest.

ACTIVITIES

In this expansion, there are three side activities to do. The first one is helping the civilians – giving them food, freeing them from convoys, etc. This can be kinda’ annoying since you will eventually have to run around like a madman if you want to complete them all.

Chests are back and there are two types of them: Small ones that have ammo in them, and the big, locked ones, that while they function the same as the small ones, they can have an upgrade to your arsenal or a new weapon. If you want to, big chests are only worth your time. Open the small ones only if you lack ammunition, and even then, I think it would be faster to just loot the guards’ bodies.

The last type of side activities is finding the Lucid Memory Fragments. There are three of these per episode and the best way to find them is to go after the bigger chests. Once you collected them, there is an award for you somewhere on the map. I’m not going to tell you what it is, but let me tell you – it’s really worth it.

STABILITY

In the case of bugs, I was lucky to not bump into the game-breaking ones. There were although two that were noticeable for me. The first one was when I was trying to open the cages from the convoy but I couldn’t because the place where you are supposed to open them moved away dozens of meters from it. It happened twice to me. The second bug was when a bunch of wild hares came in unison to the Bostonian fort while I was trying to steal the captain’s horse.

There was however one really nasty bug that I’ve heard about. In episode 1, if you do any side activity, or even activate it, you will make the last mission of this episode unbeatable, and the only way to fix it is to start the entire episode again or, in a worse case, reinstall the entire game. Because of this reason, I didn’t go after anything in episode 1 and I want you to do the main missions only run if it’s the first time you are playing it.

SUMMARY

The Tyranny of King Washington is a very good expansion to Assassin’s Creed 3. It extends the character of Connor while giving him animal powers and fighting Washington himself. Honestly, I won’t be surprised if you will find this more enjoyable than the base game.

I could have said more about this but the rest of the stuff is basically the same as it was in the base game. Same combat, same parkour mechanics, same graphics, same sound effects, etc.

However, before we will move on to Black Flag, there is one game in the series that I haven’t played, that was only on PS Vita before.

See you next time.

Bye!

#review #Assassin's Creed #assassin's creed 3 #the tyranny of king washington #history of the creed

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2 Episode 22 Review: Evox Unleashed

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This POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS review contains spoilers.

In the end this is how it was always going to be. For as excited as I was after last weeks triumphant Power Rangers Beast Morphers episode, there was no way this episode could live up to it. ‘Evox Unleashed’ is good but it’s not great and much of that can be put down to the mandate that has held back Beast Morphers from living up to its true potential.

As I’ve mentioned many times before but bares repeating now, when Senior Vice President of Power Rangers Franchise Development and Production Brian Casentini left the franchise he left us with this revealing quote.

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“I am a big fan of serialized storytelling, but most broadcasters across the globe want more episodic storytelling for scheduling ease.”

Knowing this was a limitation helped me understand the series more and review it under the proper context. It improved many episodes knowing the plot line wouldn’t continue and I could appreciate what they did in such a short time. It hurt others when they didn’t use the standalone story to give us more insight into the characters or even tell a proper one and done lesson. Standalone doesn’t mean it has to be completely disposable.

Casentini went on to say in that same interview that, “I think we found a really great balance (between serialized and episodic) with Power Rangers Beast Morphers.” To give the show credit, many of the serialized episodes did work. The problem was that they more often felt like glimpses into a fully serialized show than proper serialized stories in of themselves. Something felt off about them even when they were good.

That’s not to say only the serialized stories had merit. Some episodic plots were fairly fun and a few were great. Most of them though weren’t used to develop the characters in a meaningful way. Without that the serialized moments the show was able to have couldn’t land. Without character arcs even the biggest of plot moves feel empty.

So it’s no wonder that when we get to the finale we get a lot of great moments that are kneecapped by a lack of development from earlier in the series. The start of the finale is great. It’s tense, we get a tearful moment between Zoey and her mom, and there’s an incredible sequence of the Rangers busting out old weapons. I still wish they had put more time into explaining how the Ranger Vault came to be but it was genuinely clever to have them use old weapons to get around Evox’s ability to absorb their own. Great way to have fan service but still impact the story.

We also get some good callbacks to last episode when Nate says, “I made you, Evox, but today we’re gonna destroy you. As a team!” Perfect way to cement the lesson he learned. Evox later saying, “it’s been a long time since I’ve taken out a civilization” was an excellent RPM callback.

Steel’s sacrifice was also powerful and devastating. More than anyone else we’ve gotten to know and love Steel over these two seasons and he’s always been a delight. Seeing him sacrifice everything was a huge shock but very effective. It gave the rest of the episode more weight. The problem is that while the solution the team comes up with is a good one (combining their human DNA with Morph-X) it’s rooted in the message that the team is strong because they’re human. That’s… true, I guess? But the finale acts like this is something that’s been building up the entire show. It hasn’t. Outside of Steel’s desires to be human this was never built up as a central theme. This wasn’t a constant problem the characters had to deal with in their episodic adventures. I guess you could stretch and say Ravi felt like a bit of a robot when he had to ignore his feelings for Roxy and his love of art but that’s being generous.

Far more effective would have been the very simply message of you don’t have to solve your problems alone. That would have tied into pretty much everyone’s stories in the series. Devon needed to take advice from his dad but refused to listen. Zoey was determined to solve big problems but often tried to do it all on her own. Ravi hid away his feelings and suffered alone. Nate felt isolated from the world and had to build a brother to find friendship. Hell, that would have been a great way to bring in Ben and Betty who while bumbling have always worked together.

And making the ultimate theme of the show, “you’re strong because you’re human” is even more head scratching when you remember the Beast Bots. Are they not strong because they’re robots? Are they only strong because they have human best friends? Is Steel only strong because he’s half human? It’s an odd message with some alarming undertones if you sit there and analyze it. Just looking at on the surface it boils down to ALL MACHINES ARE BAD… when the show did a lot of work to make the Beast Bots sympathetic.

Much of the weight of the start of the episode was able to establish is lost in this confusion and in Steel coming back to life as a human. It’s cute that he finally gets what he always wanted but it robs the show of a more powerful ending. I can understand not wanting to kill a Ranger even if he is a robot but if there were anytime they could get away with killing a Ranger, it’d be here. The human ending is also strange because they add Steel’s voice to his human version. I get why they did it and it was okay in the body swap episode but here it felt too silly. Just give him a regular voice. It would help sell the scene instead of distracting the audience with unintentional comedy.

We then cut to one year later and the montage of scenes is mixed. It’s incredible that Mason Effin’ Truman comes back for a small cameo that also ties off Scrozzle. It subtly does some world building (Corinth and Grid Battleforce are in more contact) and it allows Ben and Betty to finally get some development. Anytime Power Rangers uses James Gaylyn it gets an extra point.

Devon suddenly being a commander doesn’t really work. He moved up in the ranks that quickly? After one year? That’s a little far fetched. Was he even officially enlisted in Grid Battleforce? No one can go from being a recruit to a commander in one year. If he was a commander-in-training I could believe that. This, not so much. Did he even express a desire to be a commander? If this was rooted in an episodic outing earlier in the series it might have been a little easier to buy.

Zoey and Nate working on clean energy was nice though and a good reminder of the franchise’s progressive history. I’m glad they took the time to explain how the city moved away from Morph-X to something that’s attainable in the real world. Power Rangers loves a good message and this was a small but needed one.

General Shaw (love this promotion!) painting with Ravi was cute although it just reminded me how human Roxy was barely in this show. Same with the very bizarre bit with Steel becoming an actor and Blaze being his stunt man. Uh, that came out of nowhere? Steel being an actor, okay, he’s a wacky guy and I can buy that. But Blaze being a stunt man? Yeah he did karate a few times but nothing in the previous episodes set that up. That would have made a nice episodic story that could have reminded us Blaze existed!

The series closes out with the team throwing Steel a birthday and they sing ‘It’s Great to be Human” cementing it as the very odd theme of the show.

Parts of the finale do work, especially the first half, but without any buildup of the shows central themes or the character arcs it all feels flimsy by the end. Its competent but the episodic mandates on the show as a whole crippled its chances. This could have worked with more planning on how the episodic stories could have supported a larger theme but that wasn’t allowed or simply wasn’t done. It makes the finale feel like a slapdash ending that wants to be big and grand but can only manage the trappings of it. The human DNA mixed with Morph-X was a great solution to destroying Evox but rooting it in “it’s great to be human” just made it fall flat. It’s a decent finale but one that will sadly be more known for finally wrapping up the Venjix cliffhanger from RPM than wrapping up Beast Morphers’ story.

This leaves Beast Morphers in a middle ground in the history of Power Rangers. It was a decent series with a lot of potential but ultimately couldn’t deliver on most of it and felt aimless for much of its run. There were genuine moments of quality throughout and you could see a great show in it. Sadly the episodic stories were not up to a high enough quality to sustain the series between the serialized ones, where the show seemed to spend much of its energy. This was Beast Morphers‘ biggest mistake.

Those standalone stories could have been structured in a way to still be episodic while forming a backbone to the show that let those serialized stories thrive. Without that backbone the attempts at serialization just felt like reminders of wasted potential instead of solid stories in their own right.

I’m very interested to see where Power Rangers goes from here. Simon Bennett is one of the more experienced show runners to join the franchise so his influence on the show could be a positive one. Hasbro has also gotten out of the training wheel phase with Power Rangers and could have a better idea of what they want out of the franchise. I hope they take the lessons learned from Beast Morphers and use them to find the best way to work within their mandates to make Power Rangers the best show it can be. It has the potential, Beast Morphers showed that. Let’s hope they can live up to it.

The post Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2 Episode 22 Review: Evox Unleashed appeared first on Den of Geek.

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judyhopps934-mt-zd · 5 years

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Thoughts on Startrain

Do I need another blog specifically for this???

Warning: Spoilers as usual of course. Other than that, have fun!

Marinette willing to sacrifice fun to be the guardian of Paris as Ladybug made me feel a bit sad as she would have to sacrifice being a teenager to be a superhero. Thank you Master Fu for giving her the Horse Miraculous to teleport!

Adrien snuck out of the house to go on the field trip to London??? Our Sunshine boy is rebelling! I couldn't be any prouder! (Am I okay???)

Sabrina's father in the middle of an internal turmoil between making her daughter happy and enforcing the law on others was mood of any parent. But, I get that they are a family that serve, but why does he support her to be Chloé's servant? I get that they are friends regardless, but still.

Max's mom wanting to be an astronaut is inspiring and you can't change my mind.

"London is always cold!" -Chloé Bourgeois. I mean, she's not entirely wrong...(I've never been to London, but it seems to rain a lot).

Everyone sitting with their friends! I love that so much! (PS: Julerose!)

Marinette's yawn is so adorable, but gained a lot of attention. You know, relatable (well, the attention part).

But the best part: Adrien's face, like he's in love with her! I had to rewind because I had a hard time believing it after all that happened. (This is an earlier episode by the way, but they threw so much at us before this).

And once Mari falls asleep, Alya decides to swap seats with Adrien to implement the "go with the flow" plan to have Mari sit next to Adrien.

And the best moment of the episode happened: Marinette sleeps on Adrien's shoulder and Adrien admires her before falling asleep! (The class, as well as the majority of the fandom "aww"s) Alya snaps a photo and the world is at peace for once. But...

...guess who tries to ruin that moment: Jealous Lila! Why am I surprised? Can someone punch her in the face for me or do I have to do it myself? How dare you attempt to ruin Adrienette, Lila?!

You may be asking "What do you mean by 'attempt' 934?" Well, guess who saved that moment: Alya. Of course, this is like her favorite ship and would do anything to see it happen (remember Reflekdoll?). As Lila crept up to Mari, Alya stopped her and ask what's her deal. Lila's lie led to Sabrina helping her out with her motion sickness (the lie was to ask Mari for help). Of course, Alya beingvthe good friend she is reminded Lila that she is asleep and let Sabrina help her. Thank you Alya for: 1) saving Adrienette, and 2) letting your friend sleep after a long night.

Sabrina wakes up Chloe in the process of getting Lila what she needs and gets what Chloe needs as well, unknowingly releasing the akuma in her luggage.

Let me backtrack: while Hawkmoth was trying to get her dad akumatized, his anger went away and the akuma ended up in her suitcase. Hawkmoth lost contact with the akuma so it is now independent.

Now, The passengers see the akuma and start to panic. What Chloé does is introduce herself to the passengers as Queen Bee (I believe this is before "Miraculer") and tells them to not panic and it's just an akuma. All hell broke loose and her urges to not have anyone panic were counterintuitive.

They head out of the cart and lock the car, but then the funniest thing happened: Kim comes out with his swim trunks because the train was going underwater and thought that they could swim in the English Channel. I couldn't help but laugh, especially when Chloé expressed how "utterly ridiculous" that was. (Where are the memes???)

The panic spreads to the other car and we see some cameos: Simon the hypnotist from "Simon Says"! Cameos! Yay! This is amazing! Cameos! From previous episodes!

Mari awakens at hearing "Ladybug" and noticed her position and went back to sleep! Moment still preserved and she was aware of it! Yay!

I feel for Max's mom. An important test not showing up on her emails and made her feel like she failed. That was like a blow to the head for me, waiting the results of my regents and not getting them for a whole 2 months.

This is when his mom is akumatized into Startrain on her own accord. Remember, the akuma is now independent without Hawkmoth giving an introduction and Startrain gained her powers based on her own desire.

This startled everyone, including Marinette and Adrien, who woke up from their sleep.

And everyone on the train goes to space. So yeah, not your typical Miraculous episode.

Speaking of which, that appeared on the news since a satellite showed images of this. And this is how Gabriel found out where did his akuma go and that Adrien went on the trip without permission.

Ladybug: I got here because of the Horse Miraculous

Chat: I happened to be on the train and no one noticed. Oh wow. 😂

The cars would eventually get to Absolute Zero (lowest possible temperature recorded) and that is very scary for obvious reasons

Max's debut as Pegasus went like this: he and Markov helped Ladybug and Chat Noir by unscrewing the doors. Now, the cabin will reach absolute zero (which is deadly for humans) and he is given the Horse Miraculous for protection and to help teleport the train to Earth.

The kwami was like "are you famous?" to Max. And Ladybug reminds the kwami (I forgot his name) that Max is capable of the job. I had to rewatch this because I simply cannot believe this happened.

Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Pegasus make a great team and you can't tell me otherwise.

When they teleport back to Earth, the ended up HANGING FROM BIG BEN! And Chat was like "Well, I heard your class was going there anyways" (or something like that). I can't. 😂

Everything goes back to normal, except Adrien could not go on the trip anymore since Nathalie and Gorilla go to pick him up. Seriously, what's the harm of letting your son go on a field trip Gabriel.

And Alya shows Marinette the picture of her and Adrien and going like "THANK YOU!" was a whole mood.

Overall, this was a light hearted episode compared to the ones thrown to us within this month. I give it a 10/10 for all the funny moments and giving Max a suitable introduction (not like Luka's in "Desperada"). Also, Adrienette anyone? This episode had the best Adrienette moment in, well, ever!

(PS: I wrote this all at 7 in the morning on my way to school, so yeah.)

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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years

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SORROWFUL JONES

JULY 4, 1949

Sorrowful Jones is a remake of the 1934 Shirley Temple film, Little Miss Marker. In the film, a young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones (Bob Hope) as a marker for a bet. When her father does not return, he learns that taking care of a child interferes with his free-wheeling lifestyle. Lucille Ball plays a nightclub singer who is dating Sorrowful's boss.

Although the official opening night in Hollywood took place on Independence Day 1949, it was premiered in New York City a month earlier, and seen in Australia on June 24, 1949.

Directed by Sidney Lanfield Produced by Robert L. Welch Written by Edmund Hartmann and Melville Shavelson based on a story by Damon Runyon

CREDITED CAST

Lucille Ball (Gladys) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes. She died on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77.

Ball's singing voice is provided by Annette Warren, who also sang for her in Fancy Pants and later provided the singing voice for Ava Gardner in Show Boat. Her first screen dubbing was for Lured featuring Lucille Ball, although Warren did not dub Lucy’s voice. She provided the singing voice for Pepper (Iris Adrian) in the Bob Hope film The Paleface (1947).

Bob Hope (Sorrowful Jones) was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903. During his extensive career in virtually all forms of media he received five honorary Academy Awards. In 1945, Desi Arnaz was the orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s radio show. Ball and Hope did three other films together. He appeared as himself on the season 6 opener of “I Love Lucy.” He did a brief cameo in a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show.” He died in 2003 at age 100.

Mary Jane Saunders (Martha Jane) makes her film debut. She went on to do a season of TV’s “Tales of the Welles Fargo” (1960-61) and made two appearances on “My Three Sons”: one with William Frawley and one with William Demarest.

William Demarest (Regret) is best remembered as Uncle Charlie on “My Three Sons,” a role created after the death of William Frawley. Demarest and Frawley appeared together on screen in The Farmer’s Daughter (1940). He was nominated for an Academy Award in the biography, The Jolson Story (1946). Demarest did two other films with Lucille Ball: Fugitive Lady (1934) and Don’t Tell The Wife (1937). He died in 1983 at age 91.

Bruce Cabot (Big Steve) appeared with Lucille Ball in 1934′s Men of the Night. In 1950, he joined Hope and Ball once again in Fancy Pants. His main claim to fame is rescuing Fay Wray from King Kong (1933).

Tom Pedi (Once Over Sam) did one season of the short-lived sitcom “Arnie” (1970-71). He was in the 1980 remake of Little Miss Marker, upon which Sorrowful Jones is based.

Paul Lees (Orville Smith) was blinded by enemy artillery during his service in World War II. He received 32 military decorations and ribbons, including the Legion of Merit. Despite his lack of vision, Lees learned to act and signed a contract with Paramount. He would memorize script dialog by having someone read it to him twice.

Houseley Stevenson (Doc Chesley) was a British-born character actor who had just finished doing The Paleface with Bob Hope.

Ben Weldon (Big Steve’s Bodyguard) appeared on “I Love Lucy” as the thief who breaks in to the Ricardo apartment to steal “The Fur Coat” (ILL S1;E9). He was seen in a season one episode of “The Lucy Show.”

Emmett Vogan (Psychiatrist) did four movies with Lucille Ball previous to this one. In 1954 he played Mr. Bolton in The Long, Long Trailer.

Thomas Gomez (Reardon) was an Oscar nominee for Ride the Pink Horse the previous year. In 1953 he was seen as Pasquale #2 on CBS’s “Life With Luigi”. He did a 1964 episode of “My Three Sons” with William Demarest.

UNCREDITED CAST (with connections to Lucille Ball)

Ethel Bryant (Nurse) was also seen with Lucille Ball in Broadway Bill (1934), another film involving a racehorse. John Butler (Jack - Bettor on Green Diamond) was also seen with Lucille Ball in The Affairs of Annabel (1938).

Bill Cartledge (First Jockey) was also seen with Lucille Ball in The Joy of Living (1938).

Maurice Cass (Psychiatrist) was also seen with Lucille Ball (and John Butler) in The Affairs of Annabel (1938).

Michael Cirillo (Horse Player) joined Bob Hope in Paleface and Son of Paleface as well as Critic’s Choice with Hope and Ball in 1963.

Charles Cooley (Shorty) was seen with Hope and Ball in Fancy Pants (1950) as well as a dozen other Bob Hope films. He also was a regular on “The Bob Hope Show” on television.

James Dearing (Spectator) was in eight other Lucille Ball films between 1936 and 1954.

Jay Eaton (Horse Player) was in eight other Lucille Ball films between 1937 and 1946.

Chuck Hamilton (Police Officer) was seen in the background of eight other Lucille Ball films from 1937 to 1950.

Selmer Jackson (Doctor) was in six other Lucille Ball films between 1933 and 1949.

Kenner G. Kemp (Bookmaker) was in seven other Lucille Ball films between 1936 and 1960 as well as doing background work on a 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show.”

Bob Kortman (Horse Player) was in four other Lucille Ball films between 1934 and 1950.

George Magrill (Horse Player) makes the last of his nine film appearances with Lucille Ball. He started in 1933 with Broadway Thru A Keyhole.

John Mallon (Horse Player) was also seen with Hope and Ball in Fancy Pants (1950).

John ‘Skins’ Miller (Jockey) was also seen with Hope and Ball in Fancy Pants (1950) and previously with Ball in The Big Street (1942).

Frank Mills (Horse Player) makes the last of his ten film appearances with Lucille Ball. He started in 1933 with The Bowery.

Ralph Montgomery (Horse Player) was one of the policeman on the scene in “Lucy Goes To The Hospital” (ILL S2;E16) in 1953.

Ralph Peters (Taxi Driver) was also seen with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942).

Suzanne Ridgeway (Nightclub Patron) was also seen with Lucille Ball in That’s Right - You’re Wrong (1939) and The Magic Carpet (1951).

Arthur Space (Plainclothes Policeman) was in four other films with Lucille Ball between 1945 and 1950.

Bert Stevens (Nightclub Patron) was a background player in four Lucille Ball films as well as one episode of “I Love Lucy,” and many of “The Lucy Show.”

Sid Tomack (Waiter at Steve’s Place) was also seen in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) with Lucille Ball.

Harry Tyler (Blinky) did three other films with Lucille Ball between 1937 and 1950.

Walter Winchell (Himself, Voice Over) was a journalist and radio host who was the narrator of Desilu’s “The Untouchables.” He also joined the cast in their satire of the series on “Lucy The Gun Moll” (TLS S4;E25).

The film was made at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, with location shooting in New York City. This was Lucille Ball’s 70th film!

The New York Times, August 16, 1947. Note that Lucille Ball is not mentioned. (Thanks to @ericthelibrarian for the scan)

THE STORY

Sorrowful Jones (Bob Hope) is a New York bookie who keeps his operation hidden behind a trap door in a Broadway barber shop. He suffers a financial setback when a horse named Dreamy Joe, owned by gangster Big Steve Holloway (Bruce Cabot), unexpectedly wins a race and Jones has to pay all the bettors.

Jones learns that the race was fixed by Big Steve, who tells him about giving the horse a "speedball." It turns out Big Steve has informed all the bookies in his circle of friends about the fixed race, and demands a sum of $1,000 from each one of them in exchange for this information.

Before the next race, Jones learns Dreamy Joe will lose, but still takes bets on the horse from his customers. He even takes a bet from gambler Orville Smith (Paul Lees), who leaves his four-year-old daughter Martha Jane (Mary Jane Saunders) as collateral. Orville overhears a phone call where Big Steve reveals that the race is fixed, so he is killed by one of Big Steve's goons, Once Over Sam (Tom Pedi). Jones is forced to take care of Martha Jane and brings her home with him.

The next day Jones gets help from his ex-girlfriend, burlesque performer Gladys O'Neill (Lucille Ball).

Big Steve tells Jones he is being investigated by the racing commission so he is quitting the race-fixing business. Big Steve plans to make one final race before he gets out of the game, where he is fixing it so that Dreamy Joe will win. He also transfers the ownership of the horse to Martha Jane, unaware that she is Orville's daughter. After the race, Big Steve will kill the horse by giving it a high dose of "speedball."

Jones tries to find Martha Jane's mother, but discovers she is dead. Gladys suggests that Jones give all of Dreamy Joe's winnings to Martha Jane to help her survive, or she will contact the police and tell them about Jones' operation. She has no knowledge of Big Steve's plan to fix the race.

Big Steve finds out that Martha Jane is Orville's daughter, so Jones must hide her to protect her from being killed. When hiding on a fire escape's landing, Martha Jane falls down and is seriously injured. In a coma, the little girl calls out for Dreamy Joe.

In order to save Martha Jane and wake her up, Jones and his partner Regret (William Demarest) steal the horse from Big Steve at the race track. They take it into the hospital room where Martha Jane lies. Martha Jane wakes up and the police find out that Big Steve is responsible for Orville's murder.

After Big Steve is arrested, Jones proposes to Gladys. The police want Martha Jane to be placed in an orphanage, but Jones and Gladys, who have married, decide to adopt the girl. They go away on their honeymoon together with their newly adopted daughter.

TRIVIA & BACKGROUND

“Little Miss Marker” (1932), a short story by Damon Runyon, inspired the film Sorrowful Jones.

Damon Runyon’s 1940 short story “Little Pinks” served as the basis for the Lucille Ball / Henry Fonda film The Big Street (1942).

Little Miss Marker (1934) starring Adolphe Menjou as Sorrowful Jones and Dorothy Dell as Bangles Carson. Shirley Temple as Marthy Jane. The film was directed by Alexander Hall, Lucille Ball’s one-time fiance.

Sorrowful Jones (1947) starring Bob Hope as Sorrowful Jones and Lucille Ball as Gladys O’Neill. Mary Jane Saunders as Martha Jane.

40 Pounds of Trouble (1962) starring Tony Curtis as Steve McCluskey and Suzanne Pleshette as Chris Lockwood. Claire Wilcox as Penelope Piper.

Little Miss Marker (1980) starring Walter Matthau as Sorrowful Jones and Julie Andrews as Amanda Worthington. Sarah Stimson as the Kid.

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on November 21, 1949 with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball reprising their film roles.

“Havin' a Wonderful Wish (Time You Were Here)” by Jay Livingston with lyrics by Ray Evans is sung by Lucille Ball (dubbed by Annette Warren).

“Miss Beverley Hills of Hollywood” comic book issue #6, January / February 1947 promoted the film. Lucille Ball still is purporting to have been born in Butte, Montana. Here her birth date is also incorrect: August 6, not August 8. Note how much the Drama Teacher resembles Lucy’s mother, Dede Ball.

Lucille Ball advertising both Armstrong Tires and Sorrowful Jones.

Lucille Ball advertising Sealright Sanitary Containers using Sorrowful Jones.

In “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” (1973) Lucy opens a small wooden box and removes a lock of Hope’s hair she says she snipped from his head when they were making Sorrowful Jones together.

The film was mentioned when Lucille Ball and Bob Hope guested on “Dinah!” in 1977.

In 1989, after Ball’s passing, a clip from the film was incorporated into “Bob Hope’s Love Affair With Lucy.”

#Lucille Ball #Sorrowful Jones #Little Miss Marker #Bob Hope #Mary Jane Saunders #William Demarest #Damon Runyon #Walter Winchell #Bruce Cabot #Thomas Gomez #1949 #Paramount Pictures #Annette Warren #Sidney Landfield #movies #Hollywood #Lucy

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matt0044 · 4 years

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“I’m a good little puppet...”

Yes... yes, you are Nate...

Steel decides to take after a stern father in the park and lay down the law at Grid Battleforce. He comes down particularly hard on the security guard, Cole, for not scanning a lunch box and punishes him by making him clean the plaza. Not sure if Rangers just... have that authority at GB but Cole takes it in stride.

All the while, the Robotars bring Scrozzle to make Controltron out of a toy puppet that they bought. Seriously, they had the store bag as if they had actually gone out to purchase it legally rather than having Roxy hold up the place ala the old west bandit way. I mean, I guess they changed clothes to pass them off as the real ones but Roxy’s blasters would’ve been payment enough. :/

Controltron sneaks a puppet of Nate in through GB security by controlling Cole first and gets into the Gold Ranger’s head just as Evox instructed, apparently needing him for a secret project of sorts. We even get a cool cameo of the King Bow as Nate seems to test it out briefly. Seems like Blaze and Roxy could put on a generic uniform in case of cameras. Hell, Ben and Betty were OVER there.

Actually, that wouldn’t help much...

Steel goes all Full Metal Jacket on Grid Battleforce from enforcing speed limits like a beat cop filling a quota to punishing one of the own by scrubbing his Jet Zord with a sponge. He’d probably swear if this wasn’t TV-Y7. The high-tech himbo even comes down on his waiter for chewing gum. I like how perturbed the guy is a robot’s getting on his case on company policy. Takes all kind, I guess...

The team finds Nate morphed and on Controltron’s side, calling on Tronics to seal the deal. Steel and Ravi try to hold back but find themselves overpowered, helpless to keep Nate from being taken to the Crystal Dimension. Evox puts him to work, programming something for his secret project before returning to finish his friends. It’s a nice loose thread that’ll serves as a lead in to a big endgame.

Cole is harshly reprimanded for letting in an unscanned item into the base as Steel even fires him on the spot, something Commander Shaw backs up. I’d say he was overstepping his boundaries by giving out a pink slip but Steel likely was upset over what had happened to Nate. He is only half-human after all. :P

Nate is spotted outside Grid Battleforce just as Scrozzle doubles his fun with double the Gigadrones, using Digitron’s data from the previous episode. Controldrone even gets the Wheeler Zord wailing on the Striker Megazord. I do love how this series and Go-Busters tweak the usual formula by having things from previous self-contained episodes bleed into the next. It’s the little thing. :P

Devon is nearly ambushed by Nate from behind in a cool shot of his using his Striker Saber unmorphed. Cole give the Red Ranger the heads up so he can morph and face off with his friend. There’s this weird thing where Nate and Steel insert their Morph-X Key’s into their Wrist Coms rather than their, you know, Striker Morphers. What is up with that? It’s not just a one-off error so... :/

Devon frees Nate and uses Beast-X Mode to take out Controldrone with what I can only assume is Cruise digitized before hand, using his Cheetah Charge attack. They even have time to swing back into the Zord battle and take out the Gigadrones. Again, giant and ground battles being split up is never not cool. :D

Steel realizes that he made a mistake with Cole and sees to it that he’s rehired into Grid Battleforce, personally apologizing for his overzealous attempt at discipline. It’s a good message for even adults in checking yourself when you might be stepping over the line in your position of authority. Hell, it’s something that’s been sorely needed for the last four years to say the least. Wink, wink...

Meanwhile, the Bumbling Burkes discover the downsides of a green thumb...

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mrflibbleisverycrossme · 4 years

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My Story for the MCU Fantastic Four

My Poster for MCU Fantastic 4

Here is How the Fantastic Four Shuld be introduced in the MCU

**THe First Debut apearence of the Fantastic Four in the MCU**

T’Challa/ Black Panther under the advise of Shuri (Who as watching the Fantastic Four), recruits the Fantastic Four to fight Namor in Wakanda. Black Panher then rewards them with Wakandan Technology, Vibranium and a flying car which Reed Richards would call the Fantasticar.

**Who should be the main Villain of the First MCU Fantastic Four Movie?**

I Personally would like to see Bentley Wittman/ the Wizard and Frightful Four as the main villain of the first Fantastic Four Movie, Part of the reason is that I personally want to reboot the Inhumans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to cast Kara Tointon as Medusa who made her first comic book appearence as a member of the Frightful Four.

**Rise of The Fantastic Four Mini Series on Disney Plus**

Set before their first MCU Appearance in Black Panther 2, The First episode focus’s on the origins of the MCU Fantastic Four and in each episode you get to learn about Each member of the Fantastic Four

**Episode 1**

In London, Aspergers Scientist,Reed Richards (Matt Smith) and Ben Grimm (Robert Kazinsky), is giving a speech to their boss Bentley Wittman (Jemaine Clement) of Wizard Enterprises. about mysterious rays coming from the Blue Area of the Moon, proving the theory, populariised by celebrity scientist and Reed Richards former lecturer at University Nicholas Sweeney (Matt Berry) that there is life in the Blue Area of the Moon. Sitting next to Bentley Wittman is girlfriend and famous Model, Susan Storm (Lily James) When Reed Richards was working on his own in his office watching various documentaries by Nicholas Sweeney, Susan Storm goes to meet Reed and takes interest in what he is watching. She tells Reed Richards that she is a fan of his Cult Web series on Youtube, that he works on with Ben Grimm. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm started this web series ever since the Battle of New York in 2012. In Fantastic 2 web series, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm discuss about Science and History of Alien Contacts.

When Reed Richards gets funding from Bentley Wittman for his voyage, Sue Storm decides to join him along with her Older Brother, Johnny Storm (Joe Thomas), Reeds Best friend Ben Grimm along with other employees from Wizard enterprises. Due to Reed Richard's Arrogance, he goes to close to the cosmic rays which kills most of the crew to, leaving only Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm Surviving, they Later crash back to earth where they discovered that the Cosmic Rays gave them super human powers and abilities.

Reed gained the ability to stretch his body and limbs, Johnny was able to fly and become engulfed in flames he could control, and Sue was able to bend light around her body and become invisible. Ben gained incredible strength and durability, but his body was tragically transformed. He now had a muscular orange, rock-like hide

All four decided to use their powers to better humanity, and founded the Fantastic Four.

**Episode 2**

After the Fantastic four move back to East London, Wizard Industries is Bankrupt and Bentley Wittman has vanished. They rent a flat in the Baxter Building in Whitechapel from a Landlady called Lavinia Forbes (Tracy Ann Oberman) This Episode focus’s on Ben Grimm dealing with his monstorous transformation. He struggles with things like getting into cars due to his size. When he decides to move back to His Girlfriend in Stamford Hill splits up due to his appearence with him. He meets with his Mother Petunia Grimm (Maureen Lipmann) wo also lives in Stamford Hill, the his Rabbi, Rabbi Saul (David Schneider). Before Ben Grimms transformation, he impersonated Thor for Barmitzvah parties, but he was replaced with a Norweigan man Called Thor Erikson (Marius Jensens, Kara Tointons fiancé), who has an uncanny resemblance to the real Thor. Thor tries to befriend Ben Grimm. But Grimm leaves and goes back to the flat in Bethnal Green where he meets a blind girl called Alicia Masters (Hannah Spearitt) who fall in love with the Thing due to his gentle personality. Her father is Philip Masters (Geoffrey McGivern) who has recently gained the power to take control of bodies when he sculpts people out of Clay. He gained the power when he encouunterd a meteorite which came from the Blue Area of the Moon. The meteorite contained some clay with mysterious Crystals (Later revealed to be Terrigen). He takes the secret identity of the Puppet Master and secretly uses his powers to take control of Criminals to do his bidding. Seeing the Fantastic Four as a threat, he takes control of the the Thing, forces Alica Masters to impersonate Sue Storm using one of Sue Storms Blonde Wigs that he stole using a resident in the flat, eventually, Alicia Masters turns against him, get help from the Fantastic Four and they apprehend Philip Masters

**Episode 3**

The next episode focus’s on Johnny Storm, He was the only member of the Fantastic Four who survived Thanos’s Snap (He often wears a shirt saying "I Survived The Blip). This episode features flaskbacks of what Johnny Storm Did During the 5 year blip, in which he moved to London to stayed with his former friend at School, Jack Hammer now a Black Market Deaker, who would become Deadpools sidekick, Weasel (Simon Bird). During that time, he befriended a fellow British based Nigerian Black Market Dealer and Taxi Driver Kwaku Adjobah (Trevor Laird). In the present day, he meets Kwaku Adjobah, who would become the Fantastic Fours taxi driver, and his other friend Wyatt Wingfoot (Hammed Animashaun). They also have to face Peter Petruski/ Trapster (Marek Larwood). Even though they successfully stop his schemes and arrest Trapster, Trapster is saved from the police van by a mysterious man in an Iron Man Suit, who is revealed to be Bentley Wittman. Shuri makes a quick cameo in this episode.

**Episode 4**

This episode is centered on Susan Storm/ Invisible Woman, Unlike the previous 2 episodes, this episode does not have any villains. When Susan Storm goes in her room in the flat, She removes her Blonde Wig revealing her Natural Brunette hair. We also see flash backs of her Childhood. From a very Young age she was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, not unlike Reed Richards. Unlike Reed Richards, she hides her Aspergers Syndrome. From a young age, he had an interest Science History and Ancient Civilisations. At the Age of 20, She would later adopt a career of Modeling, Acting and Singing, Donning a Blonde Wig, which she would wear at all times. She would later date the British Business Tycoon and CEO of Wizard enterprises, Bentley Wittman who would expliot her. In the present day, she would meet befriend a British Bangladeshi Muslim neighbour Hasina Chowdhury (Nadiya Hussain).

**Episode 5**

This episode focus’s on Reed Richards/ Mr Fantastic, like the Susan Storm Episode, there are no villains. In this episode we get to know about Reed Richards and Ben Grimms past. The episode features a lot of flashbacks of Reed Richards and Ben Grimms Childhood with Reeds Father Nathaniel (Matthew Holness) and their time in University where they were lectured by Nicholas Sweeney (Matt Berry) in 2003, who is now a famous documentary presenter. From a Young age, Reed Richards was diagnosed with Aspergers. Despite being intelligent has difficulty with social skills. Reed Richards also idolises Nicholas Sweeney. Back in 2003 In his lectures, Reed Richards would occasionally interrupt him by telling facts. At one occasion, even though Reed Richards is Nicholas’s favourite student, warns him about arrogance and even though he is smart, he is not the smartest man in the Universe. During the conversation Nicholas Sweeney would inject himself with a mysterious substance which he claims is insulin. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm would later be employed by Wizard Enterprises, Later on in 2012 after the Battle of New York Reed Richards and Ben Grimm would make a Youtube Series called the Fantastic 2 in which Reed and Ben discuss about Science and History of Alien Contacts.

**Episode 6**

The final episode would feature the Fantastic Four’s unsuccessful fight with Mole Man/ Harvey Elder (Robert Llewelyn)

**Fantastic Four Movie**

Takes Place after the Events of Black Panther 2. The movie starts of with a flash back in 2003 when Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were lectured by Nicholas Sweeney about life outside Earth, Then we go to a shortened version of Episode 1 of Rise of the Fantastic Four (See Above) after that we see the Marvel Studios Fanfare.

In the present Day a Bentley Wittman, who has now taken the identity of the Wizard, using an Iron Man Suit that was given to him as a gift by Tony Stark and a mind Control Helmet, with the help of the Mysterious Medusa (Kara Tointon) who has prehensile thick Red Hair, Bram Velsing/ Dreadknight (Alfie Allen) who was a scientist who for treason had his face burned and locked with an Iron Mask exiled from the Eastern European Country of Latveria,, and Peter Petruski/ Trapster, together as the Frightful Four attack a military facility which contain huge amounts of Vibranium and Chitauri Technology. Graham Lineham and Taika Waititi cameos as security guards.

Meanwhile using the new Wakandan Technology, the Fantastic Four infiltrate Mole Mans Layer and finally apprehend him. They are congratulated by The Mayor of London Edwin Gladstone (David Mitchell). They are later interviewed on tv about their heroics and a tv deal about producing their own TV documentary series. As they leave the Studios and are about to enter Kwaku Adjobahs Minibus, they bump into Ben Grimms Cousin, former Popstar and reality star Allison Blaire/ Dazzler (Rachel Stevens). In the early Noughties Dazzler dated Tony Stark, before he became Iron Man. Affter they get into the Taxi Sue Storm uses her powers to tease Reed Richards to go invisible to cuddle him, Kwaku also teases him and makes a rude Joke.

Meanwhile at an isolated Warehouse near the Dartford Crossing. Wizard along with Dreadknight Medusa, Trapster, and the Tinkerer plot to take down the Fantastic Four. We discover that after Bentley Wittman went bankrupt due to the disastrous Voyage, he Met with Dreadknight after he was exiled from Latveria and teamed up along with Medusa, who he discovered in a escape pod crash and Trapster who Wizard freed after Human Torch apprehended him.

(Taika Waititi and Graham Lileham Cameo as Security Guards in this scene)

Meanwhile Back in the flat in East London Reed Richards is watching Finding Wakanda which is presented by his old lecturer Nicholas Sweeney. Sue Storm then sneak into Reed Richards Room and appears wearing a costume similar to that of the 90s comics Sue storm, to tempt Reed Richards.

Sue Storm noticed how Reed Richards is arrogant and and tries to explain to him that it was his arrogance that lead the voyage to a disaster and the importance of Family and team work. We then bump into The Thing meeting his blind girlfriend Alicia Masters (Hannah Spearitt). Later on they were invited to a party in the Shard in London, During the party there is a sequence where Sue Storm forces Reed Richards to Dance The party is then crashed by the Wizard and the Frightful Four. Reed Richards due to his arrogance breaks the Fantasticar supposedly killing Sue Storm in the process due to her cockpit falling down. Because of this Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm leave Reed Richards due to his arrogance.

Dazzler then approaches Ben Grimm as he looks at the Cable Street Mural, in which we learn that their Grandfather took part in the battle of Cable Street against Oswald Mosleys Fascists. Dazzler then takes Ben Grimm to a Nearby café own by a Turban wearing Jamaican Woman called Ororo Munroe (Freema Agyeman), Ben Grimm is then invited to Dazzlers house in Hampstead where she reveals to him that she has powers as well and that she is a Mutant. After this Alicia Masters is kidnapped by the Wizard and Dreadknight then lead the thing into a trap. Meanwhile Reed Richards throws away a signed book by Nicholas Sweeney in the street, as he leaves, a mysterious man then pick it up, As Reed Richards is sitting in a bench in the street looking at a poster of Susan Storm, He i sent a video from an anonymous person in hi phone with Reeds Father Nathaniel Richards, he is then approached by the Mysterious man who drops the book at his lap. As he looks behind him we discover that the man is in fact Nicholas Sweeney, It is revealed that It was Sweeney sent the video he take Reed Richards to a nearby pub where he talks about Reed Richards arrogance. He also reveals that like The Fantastic Four is a Mutant (Like Dazzler) and his real name is Henry MCCoy how during the 1990’s he was once part of a team and helped saved the world. He also reveals that the sirum that he injects himself with hides his true form. Henry McCoy then leaves and Reed Richards goes back to his flat. As Reed Richards opens Henry McCoys books, he sses a photograph of Medusa with an arrow pointing to hr neck which what appears to be a chip.

Meanwhile Johnny Storm goes back to the flat where he is attacked By Medusa and Trapster. Johnny Storm then calls Reed Richards to help him, Reed Richards then come fight Medusa. Meanwhile In a Taxi (Paul Putner plays the Taxi Driver) Henry McCoy accidently drops his serum as he is about to inject himself. He then leaves the taxi and jumps into a canal. Meanwhile back in The Baxter as Medusa trap Johnny Storm in a bubble filed with water made by Trapster and glue Reed Richards to a Wall, as they are about to apprehend Human Torch A Hulk like Blue Beast attacks Medusa and Trapster, The Beast rescues Johnny Storm from his bubble and Unglues Reed Richards from the Wall. We learn that the Blue Beast is Henry McCoys true form Reed Richards and Henry McCoy removes the unconscious Medusas microchip from her Neck. As Johnny Storm foolishly tries to kiss her, Medusa wakes up and attacks Johnny with hr prehensile hair. As Reed Richards and Henry McCoy try to fight Medusa, She lets go of Johnny Storm and orders them to stop. She reveals that she is a Queen of an enhanced race called the Inhumans who are based in the Blue Area of the Moon. She then tells the history of the Inhumans and reveal that the cosmic ray that gave the Fantastic 4 their powers is in fact Terrigan and they have Inhuman genes. Allison Blaire along with Kwaku Adjobah and Wyatt Wingfoot pop up to help them. Reed Richards then pick up Trapster’s radio Transmitter and the Wizard calls and tells him that he has Ben Grimm and Susan Storm, who has survived. She was kidnapped by the Wizard before her cockpit of the fanatsticar blew up. Wizard tells them to meet him in his hideout with his Vibraniun. Kwaku Adjobah and Wyatt Wingfoot takes Mr Fantastic, Beast, Human Torch and Medusa to Wizards Hideout near Dartford Crossing, while Allison Blaire takes Trapster to the Police.

When they arrive, They face the Wizard and Dreadknight along with with the brainwashed Ben Grimm and Sue Storm/Malice. They are overpowered and as Wizard, Malice and The Brainwashed Ben Grimm were about to kill Reed Richards, Allison Blaire as Dazzler then appears using the Warehouse Sonus,with the help of Kwaku Adjobah, she then sings “More More More” and uses her powers to defeat the Wizard and free Sue Storm and Ben Grimm, Dreadknight reveals that he has secretly created a weapon to use to take over Britain and eventually take revenge on the Ruler of Latveria which e blames his creation on the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Henry McCoy and Medusa stop him, destroying the weapon which critically injures Dreadknight. As Dreadknight is about to die, he warns Reed Richards that “The Ruler of Latveria” is planning revenge on him and when he is ready, there will be Doom”. Ben Grimm rescues Alicia Masters from her cage, Reed Richards reunites with Sue Storm who cuddles him. When Dazzler gives Sue Storm her Wig, Sue order reed to put the wig on her. As Medusa approaches Bentley Wittman, he asks her for another date, Medusa than smashes Wittman to the floor with her hair in a similar manor to when Hulk Smashed Loki in Avengers. She then says “I am Queen and a married woman”. Henry McCoy, then calls a mysterious person to erase the memory of Trapster and Wizard about his identity

The next day Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Allison Blaire, Henry McCoy (Back in his Human form in his Nicholas Sweeney Persona), Medusa, Wyatt Wingfoot, and Kwaku Adjobah all have dinner in A Bangladeshi Restaurant in Brick Lane that is owned by Hasina Chowdhury's Husband. Later on Medusa then leaves the Restaurant where she met Thor Erikson in the Back Street with a Giant teleporting Dog called Lockjaw. It is also revealed that Thor Erikson is infact Gorgon. They then both disappear with Lockjaw.

A Few days Later The Fantastic Fours first show airs Guest staring Henry McCoy, Still posing as Nicholas Sweeney and it is a success, Henry McCoy then gets a Taxi to go to a plane to New York, where he will cross paths Spiderman.

Later on at the roof on the Baxter Building, as Reed Richard look at the view, Susan Storm approaches him and speak to him how much she loves him and like Reed Richards also has Aspergers Syndrome. Reed later recieves a Holographic Message from T’Challa that for his deeds of defeating the Wizard, he sent a new Fantasticar, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm And Johnny Storm all decide to go on a vacation together.

We then go to the End Credits sequence with the Lead single of Family by S Club 7 in the Background

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Fg4fkMJ6A](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DK5Fg4fkMJ6A%26fbclid%3DIwAR0QrJ5WmJ6k9rpI9YzcTwghB1vFqNbnUJhBB4AwdHEmzUPNV0U_WEGCpsU&h=AT0BQmtsPyv5yL8OfS6YHvTyBvYwn26lgpKfWBDGYyTYtanDiMb4JxmO3VceEN0_zMWpDTLm3ZXOM79HBf1Zlq66Iu8NQ40VAtGGUiGNManAsuROaZ5F837KC2LZOAccmlZ-rPyaN6vAxfVXVbY)

The First Mid Credits Scence features Medusa reuniting with the rest of the inhuman royal Family in their hideout which include her husband Black Bolt (Jon Hamm) her sister Crystal (Hannah Tointon),Karnak (Kayvan Novak) and Triton (Shazad Latif)

In final end credit Scene Dazzler returns to her home in Hampstead where she meets Charles Xavier (Simon Callow) (A similar manor to how Tony Star meets Nick Fury at the end Credit Scene of Iron Mans first outing) who was told by Henry McCoy about her heroics and reveals that he is reopening the Xavier school of Mutants and reforming the X-Men.

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dweemeister · 4 years

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NOTE: This review contains full spoilers.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The ninth installment of the Skywalker saga is not only the conclusion to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, but to a decade where the Walt Disney Company has asserted itself as the most powerful entertainment company that has ever existed. The company, led by Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, is unrecognizable from where it was a decade ago, with Walt Disney Motion Pictures dominating, if not outright monopolizing, theater screens internationally. Unlike the movie moguls of yore such as Darryl F. Zanuck (20th Century Fox), Mack Sennett (Keystone Studios), David O. Selznick (Selznick International), or Jack Warner (Warner Bros.), Iger has a business background, not an artistic one. His respective $4 billion purchases of Lucasfilm and Marvel were decisions not made from cinematic considerations, but financial ones. The conservative artistry seen in Disney’s films in 2019 – including that other enormous blockbuster of the year, Avengers: Endgame – has evidenced where the company’s soul is. This is not the House of Mouse of Walt Disney, which ceased to be in 1968 after the final films Walt produced before his death were released to theaters.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams (the other co-writer is Chris Terrio), who directed The Force Awakens (2015). The film goes out of its way to repudiate Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi (2017), which – though valued more than its predecessor by yours truly – unleashed a torrent of intra-fandom acrimony rooted in racism; sexism; and an unhealthy, uncritical merger of personal identity and pop culture franchise. This is not to absolve The Last Jedi of its plentiful shortcomings, but to comment on where the Star Wars fandom is upon the release of The Rise of Skywalker. The Rise of Skywalker is more of a continuation of The Force Awakens, and this includes Abrams’ propensity to craft variations on existing material. Yet even the most creative decisions in this ninth Star Wars episode are hampered by poor filmmaking, two-and-a-half films worth of plot stuffed into one, dreadful writing resulting in thematic inconsistencies and canonical contradictions that will be explained away in some novel or video game, and an obvious lack of planning. The most concerning thing is that Star Wars’ reputation – despite my description of the series four years ago as, “a pastiche and always has been” – as an innovative force in cinema (even the prequels) has been lost. This is not the Star Wars of George Lucas, which ceased to be after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm.

Without warning or foreshadowing, the opening crawl immediately states that Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) – who appeared to have died in Return of the Jedi (1983) – has broadcasted an ominous message to the galaxy. This message, which you can hear exclusively on Fortnite (this is not a joke), has caused widespread anxiety but, most importantly, has led Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to Palpatine’s whereabouts. Palpatine has been orchestrating everything to seduce Kylo to the dark side, also revealing to the erstwhile Ben Solo that he has commissioned a fleet that will bolster the First Order’s by ten thousand-fold – a fleet that will send shivers down the spines of accountants anywhere. Elsewhere, Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher posthumously) is finalizing Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) Jedi training as Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac; whose character is now Leia’s successor apparent) learn of the name of the planet where Palpatine is hiding, thanks to a well-placed spy. What follows is a series of fetch quests with the three central sequel trilogy heroes, accompanied by Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), BB-8 (operated by David Chapman and Brian Herring), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels).

The film features many others, most notably Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Resistance ally Jannah (Naomi Ackie), First Order General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), Allegiant General Pride (Richard E. Grant doing his best Peter Cushing impression), Poe’s friend/acquaintance/Abrams and Terrio’s written excuse to make him straight Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell), and R2-D2 (Hassan Taj and Lee Towersey). Lupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata returns in a glorified cameo; a handful of deceased characters make postmortem appearances.

Rose Tico made Kelly Marie Tran the first (and only) non-white actress to play a lead role in a Star Wars film. The character, along with John Boyega’s Finn, was given a poorly-written C-plot in The Last Jedi – Tran (who was subjected to online abuse prior to and after The Last Jedi’s release) and Boyega did their damndest in some of the worst sequences Star Wars has. The filmmakers (it is not exactly clear who is responsible, whether it is the screenwriters or the producers) have capitulated to the online trolls who attacked Tran (and her character) for her appearance, gender, and race. Her exclusion and other decisions in this film dispose entirely The Last Jedi’s antithesis that one need not be from a hallowed bloodline or an exclusive order to exemplify the bravery, compassion, and service to others that is celebrated within and beyond Star Wars. Rose Tico, described as, “the heart of [The Last Jedi]”, is an embodiment of the idea that the consequences of the multigenerational violence initiated or inspired by the Skywalkers – and, by extension, the centuries-old conflict between the Jedi and the Sith – are felt most by those without Force capabilities, military or political power. The Rise of Skywalker, through its treatment of Rose Tico among other storytelling choices, openly rejects this commentary and opportunity to present an untold perspective in favor of dynastic interests and expositional excess.

For Finn and Poe, The Rise of Skywalker represents another missed opportunity for character development. Finn, from the moment he appears onscreen, is too busy speaking expository points. Poe is given a lady friend so that homophobic censors around the world do not give Disney’s distribution managers a difficult time. The interest surrounding Rey (whose arc, as a mythic hero finally realizing her horrible family history as a Palpatine, comes to a merely satisfactory conclusion in The Rise of Skywalker) and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo – and yes, that includes their bewildering relationship that Abrams himself cannot coherently explain – will be endlessly debated in greater detail by others with a greater emotional affinity for Star Wars.

As the embodiment for the First Order for almost all the sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren’s/Ben Solo’s about face to the light after being stabbed in the stomach by Rey is unconvincing. This is a character who has been presented with numerous opportunities to renounce the ways of the dark side of the Force and has spurned each opportunity – even after becoming Supreme Leader of the First Order in The Last Jedi, with no authority figure influencing his conduct, and fully understanding the difference between right and wrong. He has acted predatory towards Rey in the form of physical threats and has demonstrated no willingness to change. Abrams and Terrio’s solution is to have Kylo Ren hallucinate a forgiving Han Solo (Harrison Ford, uncredited) to inspire this change – they might as well have had an angel and devil on Kylo Ren’s opposing shoulders because it would have been just as believable.

Too many aspects of The Rise of Skywalker depend on fanservice. The appearances of individuals like Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker’s Force ghost (Mark Hamill) are welcome, but do not add enough to the film from what the filmmakers are intending. The introduction of new characters in the final film of a sequel trilogy is additional bloat that will be better developed in a future Star Wars book, television series, or video game. This is an irritating development, as ancillary Star Wars media is not guaranteed (okay, with Disney’s money it is probably a certainty) and probably will not be consumed by the masses (especially in several decades’ time) – these characters and other subplots should stand independently within the film they appear. Abrams and Terrio’s attempts to provide a morsel of character development to these secondary and tertiary characters should have occurred in earlier films or scaled back for The Rise of Skywalker. Death is apparently a reversible thing, robbing scenes of emotional power and exemplifying how gutless the screenplay is – certain developments in how the Force works have opened dangerous precedents for future Star Wars media, making it resemble more like superhero media (where only Bruce Wayne’s parents and Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben remain deceased). It is further evidence that, as has been widely speculated, that Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy approved this sequel trilogy without a comprehensible three-part story or, at the very least, a general idea of how to develop a logical story arc for this project.

Other questions raised but not developed across The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi linger. The sequel trilogy dispenses with the tried-and-tested theory of the three-act narrative structure if analyzed from the entirety of the Skywalker saga – a trilogy of trilogies. Films and cinematic trilogies do not always adhere to this paradigm, but given how the previous eight episodes are told and how rigidly J.J. Abrams has kept to this structure in his career, it is stunning how the ninth episode completes the sequel trilogy’s incongruence with all that has come before. Episodes I, II, and III (“Act 1″) are the catalyst: with his fear unchecked and exploited by Palpatine, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and the Republic is overthrown by an authoritarian Galactic Empire. The Jedi Order is almost destroyed. Episodes IV, V, and VI (“Act 2″) sees the light confront the dark: Luke Skywalker becomes a Jedi and the Rebel Alliance lands a fatal, but not final, blow to the Galactic Empire. Anakin, “the Chosen One”, fulfills the prophecy of bringing balance to the Force.

Episodes VII, VIII, and IX (“Act 3″) – if we are assuming the traditional three-act structure that Star Wars has adopted in each of its films and the two preceding trilogies – should see how the protagonists create and maintain order leading up to and/or after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Thus, the sequel trilogy should see the reconstruction of the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order. More politics may not be what Star Wars fans want to see, but post-revolutionary/post-war states tend to be unstable politically and militarily. A post-Galactic Civil War period could easily see the violent death throes of Imperial and Sith-y remnants amid the restoration of the Republic. To quote from The Battle of Algiers (1966): “It’s hard to start a revolution. Even harder to continue it. And hardest of all to win it. But, it’s only afterwards... that the true difficulties begin.” Instead, this sequel trilogy is nothing more than a contemporary rehash of the second act. It is another dramatic second act confrontation, an escalation of the second act because we learn little about the post-Galactic Civil War period within the films. Palpatine’s zombified resurrection (Abrams’ responsibility) and defeat at the hands of Rey does not flow naturally from The Last Jedi and makes the final minutes of Return of the Jedi (which it partially copies in its climax) a lot less consequential than it should be. What should be the Skywalker saga’s third act is shoveled into the final ten or twenty minutes of The Rise of Skywalker.

The maximalism of The Rise of Skywalker requires it to juggle too many plotlines for an overlong fetch quest. It is not aided by the editing of Maryann Brandon (2009′s Star Trek, The Force Awakens) and Stefan Grube (The Force Awakens, 2016′s 10 Cloverfield Lane). In a series that has contained remarkable examples of film editing, The Rise of Skywalker is a franchise-worst – even the prequels had the decency to stay on certain shots for a few seconds to allow the audience to bask in the landscape, a certain character or creature, or a lightsaber duel. The film switches cameras too quickly, positioned too close to the characters. It occurs in the film’s quieter moments and during the climactic battles (the gold standard of editing in Star Wars battles is Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi v. Darth Maul in 1999′s The Phantom Menace; note how few cuts there are compared to most of today’s action movies and how Lucas is not afraid to pull his camera to a wide shot to let the scene feel larger than life as well as making spatial sense).

The Rise of Skywalker still feels like a space opera epic, with exciting action sequences abound here and there. The “secret sauce of Star Wars”, George Lucas will tell you, is not in the new worlds and aliens and those who use the Force. It is composer John Williams; The Rise of Skywalker is his final Star Wars score. This is not Williams’ best Star Wars score, but it is a masterful capstone to forty-two years of work. The newest and most fascinating musical ideas are both contained in the cue “The Rise of Skywalker”. Williams, whose motivic-heavy scoring relates ideas and grows alongside characters, provides a general main theme (0:00-0:54) and a friendship motif (beginning at 0:54) appearing in scenes where the bonds between Rey, Finn, and Poe are depicted. These few minutes exemplify how wondrous Williams’ ability to add complex harmonies underneath his soaring melodies is. Few other film composers living, if any at all, can have these two new musical ideas (these motifs are abnormally, but welcomingly, longer than usual for Williams) intermingling and in contrapuntal conversation to such mesmeric heights.

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The Emperor’s theme, as first heard in Return of the Jedi, makes its predictable and always-unsettling return here. But the other major motif introduced for The Rise of Skywalker is “Anthem of Evil”. This, introduced by choir, is expanded upon in “Approaching the Throne” and is befitting a being neither fully alive nor dead. The unsettling bass notes and low choir seem more appropriate for a horror film, but is entirely deserved for this film. One can also find excellent cues online (a favorite is “Falcon Flight”, which demonstrates the best of Williams’ action scoring) as of the writing of this review that do not appear on the initial commercial release album, but an album provided to Hollywood insiders for awards consideration (that album contains the best statement of Kylo Ren’s motif). This is a valedictory score, yet contains some of the best film music work of the year. We will give John Williams a pass if he is in a celebratory mood.

Williams has completed something that, in film history, only one other composer has accomplished. He stands alone with Akira Ifukube. Where Ifukube composed for Toho Company’s kaiju films/Godzilla franchise (from 1952′s Godzilla to 1995′s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah), Williams has composed for a multipart cycle of films released over several decades (nine films, like the nine symphonies of many classical music composers). Williams’ Star Wars cycle is the most popular example of what grand orchestral film music can do – how it lends greater emotional heft to images onscreen, its dramatic versatility, why it deserves a place in the concert hall and classical music history – among today’s audiences. The nine scores will be his defining work, but hopefully posterity will remember and see the genius of his compositions like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Schindler’s List (1993), and even his strict classical music and jazz pieces.*

Kathleen Kennedy’s mismanagement of this sequel trilogy has been laid bare by The Rise of Skywalker. In four short years, Disney has somehow run one of its most prized IPs into the creative cinematic dirt by attempting to please as broad a base as possible in this ninth installment. The creative choices of the last several years and The Rise of Skywalker alone has made being a casual Star Wars fan exhausting. As someone who did not watch a Star Wars film all the way through until I was thirteen, has it always been this exhausting? One day that exhaustion will make way for relief, but that will be long after Bob Iger is hailed for his supposed moviemaking acumen with Star Wars and Marvel leading the way. Iger, as mentioned previously, has not been visionary but mercenary for the Walt Disney Company, with Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige his enforcers. He will remain in charge of the Walt Disney Company until the end of 2021.

This Star Wars sequel trilogy, popular as it has been, has been an artistic misfire. J.J. Abrams, more of a hype man‡ than the B-director whose has never shaken off his television background, has somehow regressed from the ideologically bankrupt Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) – hey, Trekkies and Star Wars fans have something in common! The filmmakers chosen to bring The Rise of Skywalker and this sequel trilogy were baptized in waters created when George Lucas, Gary Kurtz, and others redirected the flow of film history with Star Wars. Star Wars may no longer be guided by Lucas’ vision, but the artistry that arrived in theaters in 1977 can never be washed away.

My rating: 5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

Also in this series: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017)

* These references to classical music history should not be construed as a claim that John Williams is an equal to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, or Mahler - they are composing music in different artistic contexts (classical music for music’s sake is different from classical opera and both are contextually different compared to orchestral music written for a film). Instead, it is an acknowledgment that orchestral film music is gaining widespread acceptance as part of the classical music canon. Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1938′s The Adventures of Robin Hood), Alfred Newman (1962′s How the West Was Won), and Max Steiner (1939′s Gone with the Wind) created the vocabulary of film music in the early sound era and have - to varying degrees - been accepted into the classical music canon. The jury is out for the younger composers working in Hollywood in the twenty-first century.

‡ Abrams’ (and others as well) incessant teasing of LGBTQ+ representation resulted in a scene where two women we have no information about kiss in the background for a few moments after the Final Order’s defeat, surrounded by a bunch of Resistance soldiers also celebrating. Given the context, this kiss can be explained away as a moment of platonic affection that went further than it should (hypothetical: it’s nearing midnight at New Years’ Eve and folks are drunk everywhere... what do you think is going to happen?). Let’s not pat ourselves on the back now, filmmakers.

#Star Wars #The Rise of Skywalker #J.J. Abrams #Daisy Ridley #John Boyega #Oscar Isaac #Adam Driver #Carrie Fisher #Mark Hamill #Ian McDiarmid #Billy Dee Williams #Kelly Marie Tran #Chris Terrio #John Williams #Kathleen Kennedy #Bob Iger #My Movie Odyssey

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