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lookninjas · 1 month

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So I went ahead and watched the new Crow trailer

Yeah, it's exactly what I thought. Simultaneously too clean and yet extravagantly gory. The villains lack any kind of the weirdness we got from Michael Wincott and Bai Ling, who were both so spectacularly deranged. Going to be a lot of CGI (which -- absolutely, yeah, use it for the shooting sequences, please, but if the original production could afford some ravens, you can afford some fucking ravens). Not a fan of them making it so the attack on Eric and Shelly appears to be targeted, as opposed to the random violence of both the original comic book and the original movie. And using a line from the original trailer that was voiced by Brandon Lee is probably just an unwise move in general. (Edit: actually, I'm pretty sure it was the girl who played Sarah who said that line in the trailers. Still not a great way to set yourself apart from the original.)

As far as it being "inspired by the comic book, not the film" -- I mean, okay, it looks like they have the Skull Cowboy? Which did get cut from the 1994 version due to Brandon Lee's death. But again, the whole Shelly backstory thing is very different. The villains look very different. What the fuck they're doing in the whole scene when it looks like there's a prison and everyone's in pink -- I don't know what that is. It wasn't in the comics. This wasn't a girl who saw some stuff that a billionaire crime lord was doing and then they came after her and her fiance. This was a random, senseless killing out of the blue.

And that actually matters, right? Because James O'Barr lost his fiancee out of the blue, to a drunk driver. The Crow was his response to that loss. Changing how they died really does change everything that comes next. It can't be helped.

And it just looks like extruded comic book product. It's like... again, everything's too clean and everyone seems kind of vaguely rich for no real reason but there's also this really cartoonish violence with armies of NPC characters, and it's just extruded comic book product.

Which is unfortunate, because I do get the sense that Bill Skarsgård is legitimately acting his heart out. But it just isn't enough to make this feel like anything but a cash grab on the part of the producers with at least one good performance.

He deserves better. This whole story deserves better.

I just don't think it's going to get that.

#the crow #the crow 2024 #even if they'd just changed the names and done it as a sequel it wouldn't be this bad #there's so many crow sequels and crow stories #we could've let eric and shelly alone #and honestly in this context this would've been pretty good compared to the other sequels!#but as an adaptation of the first story i just don't think this works #(i also question the wisdom of thinking you can separate that original from the first film given how the theme of senseless loss continued #(into the production of that film and the loss of brandon lee #(i think they're just too intertwined to be separated like that)#(and then of course in that you cannot stop the comparisons and the original film was so fucking specific #(and the modern style is so fucking hyper-generic #(it's just the wrong lessons learned here i think)

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trashlie · 1 year

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FP203/End of Arc Thoughts

I was trying to figure out the best way to handle my end-of-fllashback-arc/203 thoughts and rather than trying to rewrite everything I’ve already written, I’m going to just copy my reddit commentary over into this post, and then try to follow up on things that I want to discuss in more detail or that I think deserves to be focused on lol. So if you read the comments in the episode discussion posts on reddit, there’s nothing new here!

But for those who don’t go on the reddit, then it’s business as usual below this cut!

Oh my god, the end of this episode. I wonder how much she actually told Nol - did she name Alyssa? Was everything we saw something she was telling him? The thought of her telling him about falling from the window and embracing that feeling, of laying there on the ground and wishing she could just take flight like a bird, too. I had assumed that this was more like... her reminiscing on her own, but the dialogue at the very end is definitely for Nol - talking about how everything moved on, time continued, and she had to continue to deal with the effects of it. There’s something vaguely optimistic about it, and I know it’s because present Shinae is talking and because this reflection is combined with all the things she has experienced since then, what she’s come to learn. Watching time pass - her father fall into the habits that got her into her current mess, the selective color on the beanie and sweater from Alyssa, the progression of her hair growing out, their middle school graduation. There’s so many things I want to pick out of here and I hope I’ll remember to do that as I gush over this.

I didn’t expect those teachers to be fired at all.* We already know that Shinae has a wariness towards adults, and for the ones who actually helped and respected her, to be fired because of what happened to her is really devastating. The math club teacher was the one who found her and probably saved her life, and she was punished. I mean, on the one hand, I understand? The idea is that as teachers who hear the rumor mill, who know when students are being bullied, they should intervene. But we know and we’ve seen that intervention never does anything, and all it did was create a guilt complex in a girl too young to bear that weight of responsibility and one that continued to grow.

(* a teacher friend of mine says rather than fired, she thinks those teachers were probably traumatized, as well, and quit of their own accord)

There’s something about these little snapshots of Shinae with Maya, Rika, and Minhyuk - even if Shinae had never learned to be truly open friends with Maya and Rika until they were older, it’s clear that the after effects of that fall DID affect their friendship. Had she never fallen, maybe they would have been able to grow into close friends sooner. Shinae put her guarded walls up not only because she didn’t trust others after Alyssa hurt her, but also because of the ramifications of association with her. Teachers were fired, her father’s life became harder, Minhyuk lost all of his friends; she didn’t get close to people so as to not bring them down as much as because she didn’t trust them. She told herself she doesn’t like people to comfort herself both because people can hurt you and to try to stave off how much she, too, wished to win peoples’ favors. But because she closed herself out, because she cut off others and kept her distance, we saw the fall out that occurred with Maya, who was already jealous and felt othered. Something I’ve always thought is that it was never that Maya disliked Shinae - it was that her feelings were at odds with their relationship. When Maya first met Kousuke in the hospital she took his ass down defending Shinae. So many of Maya’s issues with Shinae were because of how Shinae closed her out, how she felt like Shinae didn’t want to be her friend. It’s just. idk it’s something that really gets to me, seeing these little snapshots of the four of them having fun together, despite how the rest of their school was alienating them and pulling away. Despite everything, they had each other. And I’m a mess!!!!!

“We all kept moving forward... because life doesn’t stop for anyone. Keep riding along and see where the road you’re walking takes you... Even if the road needs some maintenance or is being blocked... It’s just a temporary delay... We all eventually reach our destination.”

Who are the words for at the end? The dead end - is it both of them, hers? Hers but applies to them both? Shiane thought this favor from Kousuke would help, at least patch things over and take care of her father’s debt, but now it’s left her stuck in a new situation she cannot get out of. Nol thought he would be able to make his escape, but his detour is leading him to jail time.

There’s something SO optimistic about the concept that we all eventually reach out destination but this... this is just yet another dead end. But maybe there’s room for them to find their ways out of this dead end together, the way Shinae was able to carry on with Maya, Minhyuk, and Rika at her side?

(Sidebar: that moment with that narration and the four walking around together looking like they’re having fun, while Alyssa goes to? from? dance practice? GOD there’s something about that moment that just GETS to me, the juxtaposition of Shinae with her friends against the one who could have been but failed at it in every way.)

I have a LOT of thoughts about the ramifications of Shinae's fall. The way she tried to leave everyone out hurts, but also what else do we expect from her? The thing about that fall is that prior, Shinae still believed she could change things in her life. She believed that she could leave her past (at her first school) in the past and start over, make friends, find somewhere to fit in, but life was far from kind to her. She made so much effort to try to defy everything, to set things right, to do the right thing and defend herself, but it only made things worse. And if she'd told the truth, the teachers would probably have had a fair investigation on their hands. But in that moment, when Shinae sat in the hospital and realized how much harder life was going to become for her father, that's when she concluded she doesn't deserve to fight it, that she can't change anything. Why would she name those girls when the last time she called anyone out, everything blew up in her face? If she'd never gotten the girl who bought their project in trouble, maybe the bullying would have been quieter. Less this than it was. Why would she dare name them again? The fact that they completely declared innocence though, ugh. I mean, do I expect them to fess up? Absolutely not. They are the type of bullies who believed they're allowed to bully a bully - in their minds everything they did was righteous and Shinae got what she deserves.

As for Alyssa, I hope we get to see things from her side one day. What kind of anguish or horror, what she felt, and if she holds any regret for it. I think she does. I think you have to be a truly rotten person to feel no regret, especially since we know she didn't actually mean to push Shinae and even in those last moments she still slipped up and showed concern for her, even if she could never reconcile it.

"I thought it was going to help me get there... but it turned out to be yet another dead end." Ugh, the impact of those words, combined with Nol and Shinae sitting and looking over at each other like that. ;~; It's something so... idk. vulnerable, something they share even though they didn't know it until this moment. I have to hope that Shinae opening up to him will help. Nol needs to understand that he is not the only one who has been dealt an unfair hand by life, that he's not the only one who has been tormented by his own existence, and to see that despite it all, even if it's faint, you eventually come out on the right side. Even now, Shinae may be facing a dead end, but look where she has ended up compared to the Shinae of 3 months earlier. My girl ;~; my heart ;~;

What a very satisfying way to wrap up this arc. Idk there's just. There's something about that passing of time that GETS to me. The selective color and the hair growth and Shinae going through the motions of friendship, the way this was one of the hurdles that hindered her friendship with Maya and Rika who, to their credit, did stay by her side even if it was at the request of Minhyuk. I believe in my heart that though Minhyuk asked that favor of them, Maya still said yes because she wanted to, because she hoped that one day she and Shinae could become the friends she'd become with Minhyuk, that she could open up and trust them. I think that's still one of the most beautiful things about Maya and Shinae fighting and making up - there was so much caught up between them, and it was on both ends. Shinae not trusting Maya and expecting the worst of her, Maya holding things against Shinae she didn't deserve, Shinae keeping everyone at a distance, Maya wanting to be a friend Shinae could rely on and trust. Just... all the ramifications on a whole! Shinae becoming this very independent person so that she could never bring anyone down, because her father was absent, because she HAD to be independent to get by and survive and to protect herself and others ;~; I have SO. MANY. FEELINGS.

Rereading the ending and I think it's very possible this narration is still Shinae to herself, but just based on the way they're sitting hugging their knees, looking over at each other, she has to have told him something significant, and after everything we just went through, even though I previously thought she wouldn't name Alyssa, I'm now of the mind that why would we be shown all of this if she didn't at least say she had a friend who wasn't good to her, and how the fall ultimately happened. In fact, it makes me wonder if this might well be the first time Shinae told ANYONE how the fall happened, that others were involved, the kind of bullying incident that lead to it. Ugh. ;~; I can't imagine that she skimmed over it if he's looking over at her like that. Like, you'd think if she was vague, he'd be like everyone else and want to ask questions, or have an expression that clearly reads he knows she's not telling her the truth, but the use of showing only their partial expressions, something so... idk VULNERABLE, I think she's shared something she's probably never shared before? Aaaahhhhhhhh ;______; Big steps, maybe.

ALSO THE WAY MINHYUK BRAGGED THAT HE COULD HAVE HIS PICK OF ANY SCHOOL. ANY OF THEM and in the end he still chose to stay where he could be near Shinae. Left in the dark about what happened, aware that he's the only person who cares about her, the weight of his guilt for not being there to stop it to help her and how it shaped him into who he is. We all talked about how Minhyuk is so overprotective to the point that it blinded him to important things - like how Maya felt - but in the same way this transformed Shimhan, Shinae, Maya, and yes, probably Alyssa - Minhyuk was inherently altered. I said it on my tumblr, but there's something about how Dieter thinks Minhyuk is overprotective of Shinae because he doesn't trust her to handle her own problems, but really it's that Minhyuk, too, was traumatized by what happened and his inability to be a person who could help her. Knowing that he was the only person who cared about her, the only person who was willing to know her truth, made him grow ever more protective of the small, scrappy girl who just wanted to be peoples' friends and never deserved anything that happened to her. When you think about it, it must have been such a hard decision for him to make, to go to university in Chicago. And when he did, IT HAPPENED AGAIN! Shinae's stalker sister, being stuck at the Hirahara Corporation, knowing she's at work with people who have manipulated and hurt her. You literally cannot blame him for the intense overprotective way he treats her - it's not that he doesn't trust her or doesn't think she has it in her. It's that HE has never gotten over what happened to her and how easily it can (AND DID!!!!) happen again. It's that Minhyuk treasures Shinae and wants to show her the value she has and, in the same way as Shimhan, wants to protect her from things she never deserved to deal with ;~; don't touch me I AM EMOTIONS.

I have been lol thinking a LOT lately about Minhyuk and his entire character, how without the background context, it's so easy to blow his protectiveness out of proportion, but once you have the actual details, it's like... wow how could Minhyuk turn out any other way? It feels like the kind of nightmare that hovers at the edge of your mind - maybe it doesn't pop up anymore but you can't help but worry that maybe it will show up again. Frankly, the love that Minhyuk has for Shinae is so.... ;_______; I still haven't recovered from when he burst in yelling that he's the only damn person who cares about her like ;____; EVERYONE WAS SO HEAVILY AFFECTED BY THAT INCIDENT :( Minhyuk and Shinae talking about how he needs to let her take care of her problems seems even bigger now that we know what we do - how that kind of fear must still cling to him.

#I Love Yoo #ILY FP #ILY Spoilers #ILY Brainrot #Shinae Yoo #Alyssa Cho #Minhyuk Park #Maya Park #Rika #..........what is Rika's last name oh my god #there's so much in this episode that I will be yelling about for days to come and i'm eagerly anticipating this week's episode aaahhhhhhhh #to me this was a really satisfying rather beautiful wrap up of this entire arc and it really brought a lot of important things to light #there's a lot of things that we've known in general via the story that are not given enough credit - like why Minhyuk treats Shinae the way #the complicated relationship between Maya and Shinae and how this incident both tethered Maya to Shinae and inhibited their friendship #the way Shinae has internalized the feeling of being a burden of being someone who ruins things someone who requires punishment #and also much like nol who thought the had Shinae figured out and knew all there was to know about her and what makes her tick #as readers WE thought the same - we thought we knew enough about her life to understand what she's been through but it was nothing compared #to watching it all play out AND the aftermath - the way life went on and a small handful of people affected by this trauma had to try to #move on too except they never got to process it they never got to deal with it and even now it's something that affects them #idk something about that writing is stunning and beautiful to me? thinking moving on is putting something behind you except it just haunts #you. it follows you until you learn to deal with it.#and just how much of this is the same for nol how much of himself he'll see in her after this and what will it mean for him and how he sees #himself. will he have the same fortitude as shinae to look at himself not as what he thinks he is but for what he REALLY is? to see in #himself what she has learned for herself about who does or doesn't deserve what life throws at them - that he does not need to absolve #himself to earn the freedom from himself that Shinae has also earned #GOD i have feelings #SO. MANY. FEELINGS.#there is a whole part i left out of this post that i'm saving for another post so i can go into it a little more lol YELLS #JUST SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS god i love this #I Love Yoo is SUCH catnip for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! checking all my boxes!!!!!!!

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