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sanstropfremir · 3 years

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it’s the episode 8 review!!! how many episodes is this show supposed to even be?

the stages from the episode feel like such a grab bag.... i still don’t understand why they didn’t put all the skill stages together, and then did the normal two episodes of the third round. i guess it makes sense that they didn’t want to have six stages in one episode and then three in the other two, but eh.

feeling kinda average on these as a whole, there’s a lot of good elements going on here but probably because of my own preferences (i don’t listen to ballads or blackpink) none of them really hit all the buttons. hopefully this will be a shorter review because i'm only going to do a quick rundown of the vocal stages; i dont really have that much to say about them because they are (intentionally) not very stage picture focused. i'll do the normal stage breakdowns for the other two though, even though i won’t rank them because we still need to see the other four!

vocal stages

sf9 + tbz + ikon

not much to say here other than wow, that’s RED. glad to see some more specific use of spotlighting and i always love when they light things on fire. i do wish they had fill lit with a brighter amber so we could actually get a bit more detail on their faces, especially because there’s six of them. i appreciated the simple blocking and only using one of the ‘stages,’ this stage didn’t need to be anything complicated and it wasn’t. i don’t love spinning camera shots because they make me a bit ill, and i'll forgive the constant cutting because it's a vocal stage and there isn’t any other real movement that we should be paying attention to. not my favourite of the two, i found it visually a bit too repetitive and complex at the same time. always love a crushed velvet suit though, so bonus points for that.

atz + skz + btob

i was braced for the worst and i dont know what kind of miracle happened but it was listenable! like i said, not a ballad fan but i could listen to eunkwang all day. i love a good plinth for a ballad stage, they’re one of my favourite devices in kpop design and i especially love it with a good groundlevel fog. glad they kept it black and white for the first half of the stage, it was in line with the blooming flower projections, and it made a very clear colour arc. they kept the visuals clean and simple with very little blocking at all, a very smart choice for this stage. not sure why they decided it would be the chanel time stage, which i disapprove of because i don’t like chanel, but i do love eunkwang’s shirt with the cameo buttons and the massive turnback cuffs, very 17th and also 19th century. i know they never do it because they dont read on stage normally but yes absolutely more thin chain pendant chokers on men, thank you! i also liked that there was emphasis on a more traditional lighting scheme, there weren't any crazy concert effects, just some good directional beam spotlights and the rear stacks in the climax.

third round stages

ikon

costume

the first look for them is definitely my fabourite of theirs so far. there’s enough variation in the jackets that the base layer of tshirt and jeans don’t look too repetitive. and i do love a good statement jacket. my favourite is probably donghyuk’s because i'm a sucker for fringe always.

i don’t like the backup dancers costumes, but given the way i’ve reacted to every other all black outfit for this entire show i don’t think anyone was surprised about that. these ones particularly irk me because they’re very matte; there's pretty much no texture or pattern differentials to define the shape of the limb, which makes them disappear when theyre all grouped together (mostly on the women). i think they probably were intending to make a statement/emphasis on the hands because of the sleeve cutoff point, but there were so many arm movements that were just totally missed because the costumes were just black voids. most egregious parts are here, with the female dancers up center. i can barely tell what the movements are unless i’m paying specific attention to them because there's so many black shapes. maybe it was the point for it to be an indiscernable writhing mass, but it wasn’t my vibe.

don’t love this styling on lisa. i hate peeptoe shoes in general but peeptoe boots are the worst offenders. they make you look like you have duck feet, no matter who you are. especially with a flat cutout like that. a universally unflattering shoe, and i would know, i worked in a shoe store for two years. this whole look is just pg-13 rihanna cfda awards 2014 and really nobody should try to run up against rihanna.

also i have to mention this because it’s actually really bothering me, but lisa’s backup dancers are serving very allgemeine ss looks and i do not like it. generally when we see ‘military’ uniforms in kpop theyre usually modelled off older styles (pre wwii) of western uniforms that usually aren’t in circulation, and they’re usually non-matching and embellished in ways that are deliberately not military. i know logically that it's a budget constraint+they’re backup dancers+current trend thing but the clean lines with only button detailing and the all black and that specific harness shape? it hit my brain the wrong way. i mean, technically those uniforms are designer because hugo boss did them, but the uh..... girlboss move didn’t land for me.

this is my PERSONAL OPINION please for the love of all that is holy do not come yelling at me about this. it’s all under a cut, you chose to read the post.

set

very glad to see some busy kitschy sets! this is a massive build, since there’s essentially three full sets here: the temple, the jungle, and the first tiny room. and all of them are very heavily decorated.

the starting room is just five walls on casters (wheels), that have been set into place with the cameraman and ikon inside at the start, and then once they exit the walls can be easily struck and rolled off set. simple, smart, and convenient!

i missed it the first couple times around but glitching out the projections in the temple for a split second was a neat little trick.

the silver and polygonal nature of the tiger/panther/cat(?) head is a bit disconnected from the gold and the aesthetic of the rest of the stage for me. the difference between the original room set and the jungle tracks, but the cat head isnt able to make the same leap for me. i'm also not a fan of mixing metals so maybe that’s why.

the tiger/panther/cat(?) head is a fun physical transitional device; i'm a big fan of tunnels and small transitory spaces like that and if they’re well dressed like this one they do so much for establishing place and mood.

i'm very sure i’ve seen this style of polygonal animal head with laser eyes before....i cannot for the life of me remember where or for what. i know wang yibo did a panther stage for sdc3 that had a human formation panther with green laser eyes, i wonder if i'm just crossing wires.

OH nevermind it’s because it looks like the witcher medallion. wires were definitely crossed.

lighting

using purple/teal lighting for the jungle was a smart choice because purple is the direct compliment to the gold and also is much more flattering on humans than green. green is one of the colours that humans can see the most variations in, so when something is green when it's not supposed to be (like human skin), we register that very quickly and associate it with unease and sickness. you know how old fluorescent lights have that greenish tinge that kinda makes you feel ill? it's your cone cells and your brain recognizing that you’re looking at things that are not supposed to be green.

very clean colour arc, i love to see it.

sound

it’s.....fine? i don’t listen to blackpink and have no opinions on their music other than it's not my type. i dont really know what the thematic connection to the visuals is, which is not strictly necessary in a lot of cases, but i don’t particularly care for the conflation of ‘savage’ and a (presumably) precolonial religion that’s assembled from stereotypes of real colonized cultures. you can come at me about how ‘it's not that deep’ all you want but i am here specifically doing an in depth analysis, and i gotta point it out. i'm not here to pass judgement on you if you didn’t realize or don’t care or whatever, i'm just saying that it's important to consume content with a critical eye. what you do with that information is your own personal choice, but you should be aware of it at least.

staging

they took a big risk eating popcorn right before singing, and we definitely got some residual mouth noises of them trying to clean out their teeth. eating on stage is difficult in general because you have to make sure it's not going to dry out the performers mouths, because they dont have access to water and it takes WAY longer to chew and swallow something than you would expect. there’s a LOT of testing that goes into making stage food and guaranteed it’s not made out of what it looks like or what its supposed to be; i worked on a production of amadeus were we did literal weeks of testing amalgams of different desserts to make sure that salieri could actually eat the ones onstage without totally drying him out, because fun fact about that show, salieri doesnt leave stage like, at all, so there was no way to get him water. poor bloke.

i thought the blocking of this was really smart. the long take from the ‘normal’ room and transition into the jungle was super slick, even if that weird circle the camera did while pointed up at the ceiling was unnecessary and pointless.

bobby’s ‘acting’ was extremely funny and that’s the only way people are allowed to act surprised now. edvard munsch scream style only.

the pacing is a bit off and this time it wasn’t mnet’s editing that fucked it up. as fun as it is to have a feature, clearly she wasn’t allowed within proximity of the rest of them for covid or other yg related reasons, but it made for some extremely long transitions, especially the one out of her verse. it kills the momentum of the stage in that beat, even though they manage to pick it up after.

this is a very simple little narrative arc that’s easy to follow and doesn’t require any extra explaining. which is exactly the kind of arc that groups should be doing at this stage in the game. this is a good formic step up for ikon!

i thought the turning off of the monitor at the end was fun and a good callback to them watching the videos at the beginning of the stage. a nice clean way to make it circular.

skz

costume

FINALLY something different on the skz boys! these were mostly fun eboy looks for them, and i like it on the basis that it's not the same as the last set of costumes.

bang chan out there with his thigh OUT and a (fake) bridge piercing? LOVE to see it. great work.

(copy-paste every thing i’ve said about backup dancers wearing all black)

the backup dancers that were dressed as bystanders/extras were great! they should have kept that with all of them because it would have given a little more shape to the choreography and establishing what function the backup dancers were supposed to have.

set

that is meant to be a giant rice cooker on stage, right? i think so because it's a god’s menu mashup? if that's not a rice cooker i have NO idea what its supposed to be

there’s only two large setpieces here, which was a smart way to go. i LOVE the subway car doubling as the truck, even if the truck itself makes no narrative sense. what a fun way to double the use of a single big piece. you’ll be able to see the way it moves in the full cam but it splits down the centre and there entrance doors at the back with attached stairs that bang chan and the dancers use to climb up.

lighting

not a whole lot happening here. i like the cool white leds in the subway car and the contrast with the more warm tones of the outside, which is good atmospheric establishment, but i can't discern a visible arc.

not a fan of these projections; they’re in line with what we’ve seen from skz so far, which is: extremely literal. i dont think they’re that distracting, but they’re not to my personal taste. they really should have kept the comic panel theme that they did for changbin’s first verse, because that was inventive and fun to watch! and a great atmospheric indicator! i would love to see a bit more experimental projection use but it's hard when they don’t have a lot of time to build these stages and the lighting team is definitely working remotely.

sound

i love that they made the choice to do some actual talking, it’s a good gimmick and it works for the deadpool/comic book/fourth wall break theme, but australian accents take me the fuck out i am so sorry i cannot listen to either felix or bang chan speak english without laughing uncontrollably.

i don’t like this arrangement but i'm not surprised about that, given my predilections. i'm also tired of skz shouting STRAY KIDS in every performance they do. i know on music shows it's probably more relevant and yea producers tags are a thing but we’ve been watching this show for nearly two months at this point. we know who you are, you can stop yelling. be more creative with it!

staging

my biggest issue with this stage is that it doesn’t have a payoff. there is an arc here: they’re stealing the truck, but why are they stealing the truck? who are they stealing it from? who are they fighting against? it's kind of important in a stage where the theme is stealing and fighting someone that you tell us who that is. in both of ateez’s previous stages were they were both stealing (rhythm ta) and fighting (wonderland), they made sure to show us who the villain was. there needs to be tension for a big blowup climax to actually pay off. whether it be against a a balloon arm kraken or a fascist government. this stage could have reached that next step if they’d just done a little bit more exposition.

there were a lot of fun choreo moments here, and this is probably my favourite choreo of theirs so far. i thought the whole first bit in the subway car was excellent and a very fun play on those viral videos that we used to see roll around every so often of dancers doing routines in subway cars.

did it need the guns? not in the slightest. more on this point later. i could talk more about weapons and weight here, but i’ve done that several times already.

like with the tbz game of thrones stages, theyre relying a little too much on the audience's preconceptions of the source material in order to carry the theme. the guns are there because deadpool likes guns, but they don’t actually use the guns for anything? the most we get of the stealing segment is felix and the safe, which admittedly is a great bit with him leaping over and under the ‘laser’ lines (theyre likely led strips). because comic books are by nature procedural and deeply tied to narrative, it's unsatisfying when there’s no tension and no payoff.

HOW did we manage to get two stages that are blackpink covers with remote/tv static gimmick and durags? i know the slot machine of kpop tropes is not very big but surely the probability of hitting triple sevens on this one was pretty low. i’m pretty meh on both of these stages overall. skz was unsatisfying but i loved the choreo in the subway bit so that bumped it up a little ahead of ikon’s in my personal preferences, but i'm reserving my actual rankings for next week. assuming we get the other four stages next week and they dont do something stupid and only show two. which they very well might. i’ve stopped trying to understand why mnet does things the way that they do.

as always the ask box is open, drop your comments/questions/personal opinions, i love to hear ‘em! but don’t be rude just because some of this is touchier subject material.

#kingdom #ateez #btob #ikon #sf9 #the boyz #stray kids #military uniforms are a weird one and i always find it a bit....(squiggly face emoji) when they get used in kpop stages #everybody is one of the exceptions because its used as a direct critique #but this is a very personal opinion as someone who has done a lot of historical research on military uniforms in particular #so im hyperaware of that kind of thing #be cool about this one people please and thank you!#im so glad this came in under 3k #kingdom review #kpop analysis #text #ive had to write a lot of deeply critical art practice analysis in the last week and i would like to sleep

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seychermanium · 7 years

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Further thoughts on Fuujin Ranbu

I think Fuujin Ranbu was terrible, not because of what it tried to portray or anything, but because of how they managed it. Shaghad could be an interesting character, indeed; he already had a very good physical design (not faithful to how the books describes him, but this design has more sense honestly), and this pirate guy, can’t remember his name, had more relevance in the opening sequence than in the season itself.

After finishing Fuujin Ranbu a few months ago (I was waiting for the english dub to end, because back then I wasn’t pleased with the japanese voices and pronunciations), I just raged. The things happening in Ecbatana, such as Irina trying to kill Innocentis, Irina and Étoile almost getting executed and Hilmes’ “bright” side were quite interesting and could be explored more in depth, we did had progression with Hilmes’ character and we learnt a part of his story, as well as having a blind princess is an interesting concept, she was also thirsty for revenge but kept her head cold with how she planned everything. I find Irina to be sensitive, submissive; that’s why she doesn’t complain about having to trouble all the time (and let’s be honest, what else she can do without putting herself in a major risk? She did took the risk anyways, tho) and has a, no pun intented, blind devotion to Hilmes. That and my compromise with the series allowed me to finish this “season”.

But then there’s Gilan. The first 4 episodes where cool, we could have had more explanation on how the hell did Narsus made a whole army kill themselves (that was really badass if you ask me) like in the manga (they explained more in depth how they captured Rajendra, for example), but everything happened so fast. Still it was enjoyable and interesting to see a situation where the main character has to begin again, but without edgy stuff. Arslan has his camp and they took a huge risk by going with him to Gilan; the scene where they all show their devotion to him as he cries in happiness is precious, in my opinion. And his reaction when he saw the sea for the first time was priceless, too. Fortunately, Arslan’s character wasn’t damaged in this arc, and actually that experience helped him more.

But then there’s the main conflict. I mean, yes; it was interesting to see Narsus and Elam in a completely different situation and see how they would react and how they would solve this specific problem. I enjoyed watching Narsus argue with Shaghad, be mad at him but sad because he’s losing/he lost an old friend; I enjoyed it mostly because he’s my favorite character and I really like to explore more and more into his personality and goals; and also because I can relate to being betrayed as that happened to me my whole childhood and part of my puberty and adolescence. It was good to see Elam trying to cheer him up, give him his support and be beside Narsus as much as he could, and I don’t deny that. But in the end we didn’t had clear what this betrayal left for them; or at least I couldn’t catch it. I understand episode 7 is a huge reference to “There can’t be rainbows without rain” but... That’s it.

Shaghad its just a case. I can understand he’s greedy and stubborn, but also was nice towards Narsus and the rest of the gang the first days. But that’s everything we saw about him in the whole season. Yes, he’s a character only for this arc (I guess, like I said, I haven’t read the books), but that doesn’t mean they have to make him unidimensional and dumb as hell. Rajendra, for example, was a character for the Sindhura arc, and he had tons of personality, a hypocritical prince who was friendly with the whole kingdom but in reality was greedy and just cared for the throne (yet Gadhevi was the evil one xD). He was even comedic. And Shaghad? I honestly just remember him for betraying Narsus and being jealous of him (according to the books), yet he decided to buy a mansion in Gilan... And because there’s yaoi fanart of those two. And because he literally scared Narsus when he told him that Alfarid claimed herself as Narsus’ wife. But nothing else.

I consider the fight disappointing. It started as cool as any other fight in the series, the animation magically became amazing and tolerable. But Azrael had to come in. Azrael had to come and give Narsus advantage. If this wasn’t planned by Narsus from the very beginning (and I believe it indeed was but we were never told because still life sparkles), then it was a mere coincidence and Narsus used it to win... Yes yes yes that’s what anyone with a brain would do. But it broke the tension. It broke the intimacy of the fight. Two friends trying to literally hurt each other, to kill each other. A betrayal.

The ending was really cheap. A bad cliffhanger. It indeed felt way too quick. They are obligated to make a third season just because of that cliffhanger.

Do I have something else to add?

The animation was... Eh. Here’s a little story: I was watching Fuujin Ranbu in late august, and my scholar cycle just began. I just watched the first half (1-4) and I really was enjoying it! In september I found some time and finished the season (5-8), and I just noticed how the animation drastically changed to a choppier, uglier one. I mean, the first season did had those moments, but it was way more tolerable.

I honestly dislike Elam’s costume, it is a sin to give him short-sleeved shirts or tunics without a long-sleeved shirt underneath. It doesn’t fit him!

The opening animation was very lazy until the chorus and the zoom in Farangies’ “female” intimate area was completely unnecessary. That’s why many people believe Farangies is a fanservice character. But its a shame that the animation was bad for this because the song is pretty good and catchy.

The ending animation was ok until the chorus, where we see a running cicle of Arslan with BAD concept art in the other side of the screen, and then it shows the sky with more concept art. I mean, showing concept art in an ending is really, really cool. But the concept art used here is boring, and for some reason they use ugly desaturated, gray-ish colors in the animation and concept art sometimes. But I really like the shots of Alfarid and Merlane (oh yes, the guy who came to both, scare Narsus (even tho in the manga she did told him she had a half-brother who could become the chief of the Zot clan) and tell Alfarid to return home and never saw his reaction when she said outloud she just wanted to be Narsus’ wife and nothing else. Not trying to be feminazi, but that’s really degrading. Marry Narsus if you want, Alfarid, you both look kinda cute together, but be something else, stand out for your own, MAKE NARSUS PROUD OF YOU), Hilmes and Irina and Narsus and Shaghad. And also the ones with Arslan and Étoile. The song is pretty mediocre for Kalafina’s standards, the rhythm is kinda monotone and it can get boring after listening to it more than 3 times. I prefer One Light, that one did had Kalafina’s seal all over it and was epic enough for Arslan.

The music wasn’t that great, compared to themes like Aishuuiro no Chiheisen, Shounen wa Soushite Ou to Naru (I was upset because Taro-donno changed the tune, because Shounen wa Soushite Ou to Naru’s tune was very iconic for Arslan, it was Arslan’s tune, but Fuujin Ranbu and its variation are pretty good, they remind me to Soulcalibur V’s GOOD songs), Kyouchi Gekitousen and the ones that never got released (a shame). The Symphonic Poems are beautiful, tho. But we lacked a more unique tune.

I hate Fuujin Ranbu because it had the amazing opportunity to give us more backstory for Narsus (we know he knows Daryun since they were 16 and 17 respectively, but we don’t know HOW they met), a different perspective of him aside from the wise man who loves art, lkes to tease Daryun and is very tolerant towards religion, freedom and complicated themes. And because the SIDESTORY managed to give a MORE INTERESTING STORY THAN THE MAIN ONE. The main focus, was bad compared to the sidestory, HOW COOL.

#arslan senki #arslan senki fuujin ranbu

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trainsinanime · 7 years

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Logan

About a day has passed, I’m mostly awake again now, and I know more people on my timeline have seen the movie, so I think it’s time to dive in and talk about it in detail. Which requires spoilers for absolutely everything, so don’t read this yet if you’re planning on watching the movie soon.

I’ve already said that this movie is great in every way; the best X-Men movie yet (even including Deadpool), and quite possibly my favorite Marvel movie. I mean, Avengers 1 was nice and all, but now that the novelty value has worn off, it’s really just very nice; and Guardians of the Galaxy’s soundtrack was making promises that the movie sometimes struggled to keep.

Hugh Jackman is amazing in this. Patrick Stewart is even better, doing perhaps his best acting since „there are four lights!“. Both portray characters that are broken, full of history, portraying most of the things that need to be said without words. All their emotions are genuine, beautiful and heartbreaking. But we already knew these guys were great. What’s really amazing is that Dafne Keen as Laura cannot only keep up, she often ends up stealing the scene. Careful and guarded, then suddenly full of wonder, weary beyond her young age and incredibly badass, she does it all and it’s perfect. And most of that without ever speaking.

The movie is beautifully shot and directed, which you already knew if you saw the trailers. Most people talk about how it’s a western, and it is. But the really important thing is how human this movie is; how close it gets to its characters and their emotions. It all works.

Now for some things I wanted to discuss in more detail:

Why no post-credit scene tho?

After so many years of patiently sitting through the credits and wondering why movies always need someone to grip keys, it’s certainly unexpected to have it missing here. It’s nice that Marjorie Liu and Kyle Host got special thanks.

While I did sympathise with the disappointment that could be heard throughout my theatre, I think it was the right choice. The movie didn’t need a post-credit scene, and any post-credit scene would have made it weaker. Post-credit scenes are hints for what comes next, but this movie is all about providing closure, and it does so beautifully.

Whatever happens next, if something happens next, is a new story. Not a new part of this one.

What is the locomotive on the mexican freight train?

No idea; I think it’s entirely fictional. The lack of windows implies automatic operation. The closest thing visually would be the GE U50 (which has been out of service since 1977) and maybe the E60C, but both of these are a big stretch honestly. So my guess is entirely fictional, just like the automated trucks.

Gabriela: A reference to All-New Wolverine?

Maybe, but I’m guessing it’s just a coincidence and that both projects were developed more or less in parallel, without either one influencing the other to any meaningful degree. If they had wanted to reference Tom Taylor’s work, they could have put him on the „Special thanks“ list after all.

Could automated trucks really be built without a cab, just the pure container ending there?

Yes! The idea of a truck without a cab in front of the trailer is not actually new; the Steinwinter 2040 was a prototype built int he 1980s. That one still had a cab, of course, and the concept ultimately never went anywhere - while there was a lot of interest, nobody wanted to fund a series production. This approach would make a lot of sense for a fully autonomous vehicle, as well, where the issues of visiblity and crash safety are less pronounced.

I don’t know whether it makes enough sense to actually happen; even for automated road trains, some sort of shield before the trailer would make sense aerodynamically (if the aerodynamics of container haulage interest you, then don’t forget to google „UP Arrowedge“). I’m also not sure that we’ll be in a place for fully automated trucks by 2029. I guess it works if we have a head canon where these trucks are limited to motorways and a few well-defined roads between loading areas and motorways. We can almost already do that today. „Platooning“, i.e. automated control of multiple trucks together as if they were one very long truck, is already being trialled as well.

Generally speaking, one of the big problems of trucks is that they have to carry a person around. The cab is dead weight and takes up lots of space. Getting rid of it makes trucks much more attractive compared to trains. They still have the disadvantage that they have lots of small (by railway standards) diesel engines instead of one big one, and that rubber wheels on roads have much higher friction than steel wheels on steel rails, but every little bit helps. If such technology is available, you can be sure that there will be much more freight hauled on overloaded road networks, increasing traffic jams, and much less on energy-efficient, economically and ecologically superior railroads. Progress!

Is there anything wrong with the movie?

Nothing major, I guess. X-24 is ultimately a waste. He could have worked as a contrast to Logan, but the movie never goes there, so he’s just a CGI-heavy obstacle. In general, the movie suffers heavily from forgettable Marvel movie villain syndrome; nobody will remember who Pierce was two months from now. Finally, compared to Laura, the other kids that show up in the third act are just not that interesting.

Mind you, what this boils down to is „at times, the movie almost drops down to the level of Iron Man“.

Will Laura become the new Wolverine now?

God, I hope not. That would be incredibly stupid. Laura is her own character, always has been, and putting her into someone else’s shoes does disservice both to the original character and to her own history.

Yes, it works well in All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor. But the reason why it works there is because Laura didn’t. actually become Wolverine. She’s just using the name and costume. It’s still clearly a Laura book just as much as the ones with X-23 in the title. There’s no overlap with Logan’s history, with Logan’s usual modes of operation and so on. It works, but giving her the name is entirely unnecessary for that.

In general, what does this movie set up?

No idea. There are certainly some hints dropped that can be picked up elsewhere, but it seems just as likely that future X-Men movies will ignore it and leave it in some sort of canonical timey-wimey limbo, presumably the same one that Deadpool is in.

I’d be okay with that. Ultimately, no amount of setup can ever change whether this was a good movie, and it was.

Isn’t this movie taking a woman’s story and turning it into an accessory to a man’s?

This is a point I heard on Twitter shortly after the first trailer dropped. Having seen the movie, I can confidently say: Yes, kind of.

Obviously, the movie is called Logan, and it’s ultimately him that is the star. But it’s also notable how little women there are besides Laura. Sarah Kinney, her mother in the comics (it’s complicated because comics) is absent. Her closest equivalent, Gabriela (reference to the current comic or just coincidence? I’m leaning coincidence), gets killed fairly soon, but she also has far less impact on the story. Sarah was in many ways one of the masterminds of Laura’s torture; she had agency, culpability, guilt and internal conflict. Gabriela doesn’t get any of that depth.

There’s also the part where the three surviving mutants are all men, despite X-Men being pretty balanced ever since Claremont. The movie’s plot is carefully constructed so that it seems inevitable that these are the folks involved, but it’s not like that was the only choice.

(If you’ll allow an aside: They could, for example, have chosen Kitty Pryde instead of Caliban. Just make her a former mutant hunter. After all, there’s precedence for randomly giving Kitty powers that actually belong to Rachel.)

I think the movie can get away with this simply because it is so damn great, and because Laura in particular is so great here. I know some people will weigh things differently and come to a different conclusion here (though I don’t expect there to be very many).

If the stretch limousine is a 2024 Chrysler, and FCA plans to use the Giorgio platform for basically all their RWD stuff going forward, then doesn’t that mean someone did a stretch limo of a car with a transaxle platform and a carbon-fibre drive shaft?

That’s where my mind is going to anyway. My head canon is that they swapped the carbon fibre driveshaft for a cheap one made of steel, though I have no idea whether that is more or less realistic than any alternative. Either way I would assume this car isn’t that great for high-performance driving.

By the way, this is once more a movie that is full of FCA cars but doesn’t have any Alfa Romeos. I hated that about Batman v Superman. Here, I think it fits. This movie works if the heroes are driving an American truck; it would never work with a Stelvio. In Batman v Superman, though, they even brought in an IVECO truck (from the truck division of CNH which is the industrial arm/sister of FCA) to an ostensibly American city, even though that company’s products where never sold in the US, so the odd Giulietta wouldn’t have hurt, would it? Basically, fuck Batman v Superman.

With people praising Logan, will they now give the DCEU the second look it deserves?

I actually found a person on Tumblr who said that, then forgot to save a link so I guess I’ll have to sub-tumble them. Sorry. Dear person, if you read this: No. While you are correct that there are high-level similarities between the two, if you look in detail you’ll find that everything that actually matters is done well in Logan and badly in the DCEU. For one example, see the paragraph about the cars and product placement right above.

If that’s not sufficient, then let me put it like this: In its efforts to be dark, gritty and mature, the DCEU has thrown out plot, relatable characters, and all forms of fun except pee jokes. That is a major misunderstanding of mature. Logan is mature, gritty, violent, not the slightest bit flashy and so on. But at its core, it’s about humans relating to each other. It’s about them coming together, not finding ways to divide them. It’s violent, but it’s also all about the cost of that violence and about finding a way out of that cycle.

Perhaps most importantly: This movie takes comics, the old brightly coloured ones that are silly and full of flashy costumes, the very thing that both the DCEU (and the original Old Man Logan comic…) tried to abolish to show us how mature they are… and tells us how important it is to believe in them. That by believing in the „childish immature crap“ from the comics, we find together, and we get the strength to get us to where we’re going. Because it’s not actually childish to dream of a better world at all, as our hero has to learn; it’s what makes us human.

So pack in all your pitchforks, dear DCEU fans, when you hear that Logan is getting much better reviews than any DC movie ever, and that it’s making much more money. It’s not because people like Marvel more. It’s because DC keeps making shitty movies whenever they’re not made out of Lego.

(I do hope Wonder Woman won’t be shitty, but based on the trailers, the most I’m hoping for is „a little less shitty“. Sorry.)

What about that MovieBob Video? Will attempts at copying Logan lead to a new comics crash?

I’m talking about this video here. And let me just say that while I respect Bob a lot, he’s also wrong a lot. That guy thought Cars 2 was a better movie than Cars 1, after all. This video, to me, feels like a guy with too much time on his hands thinking too much about stuff that happened decades ago.

The fundamental problem with his argument is that comic book movies are in the mainstream, and they’re being made because they get mainstream levels of money. There was a good (short-term) business case for going fans-only for the comics industry in the 1990s. That’s just not the case today.

It’s certainly possible that Logan will inspire studios to try dark and gritty deconstructions of superheroes… but DC’s been doing that for years with questionable success and no influence whatsoever on the company that makes the good ones, i.e. Marvel.

What I do find fascinating is that between this, Deadpool and Legion, we’re now in a place where Fox’s X-Men movies may just be the inventive, innovative and weird superhero franchise, and the bits and pieces and preview animations that have come out for the New Mutants movie hint that it may be going in that general direction as well. That would be an awesome way for things to develop, and the X-Men certainly have their share of characters that fit that description. Of course, it seems like Fox landed in this place almost by accident, so any attempts to prolong it or end it or pretty much do anything with it seem incredibly dangerous. We’ll see how it turns out.

#logan #laura kinney #movie #it's really good go see it

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konstantinwrites · 7 years

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Treasures from the Roof of the Insurmountable, Part 4

unknown title (Antonietta Raphaël)

27: Flashlight by Kasia Moś (Poland)

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Fun bulbous whirrs in the pre-choruses, even if they were added to mask the rhyming choices of fire/desire/higher/wire/non-qualifier. (One of those may be made up.) “Flashlight” feels more coherent with more listens and flows by relatively skillfully, as if it didn’t just rhyme a feeling of strong craving with rapid oxidation.

Clearly, a decaf-violin version would have been better than this, and the violinist should avoid even looking at coffee, but the melody of Kasia’s vocals carries the song well. The intensity here is: Russian provincial crime dramas, all of which are going to license “Flashlight” and use it in every third episode.

Big fan of the stationary ethereal shark on the LED screen from 2:30-2:34, rotating around like a newly obtained Tomb Raider souvenir.

The music video, also (link in the title), is an absurdly apocalyptic edit of fantastically ordinary footage of the local city orchestra. On the film shoot, a Volgogradian gangster has just pulled a gun on his refined St. Peterburgian business partner, and all these musicians and birds hopefully earned some royalties.

When I first heard this song, it was my least favorite of the three that I reviewed, but after re-listening I think it just edges out Hovig for second place. The problem is that while she clearly has a great voice, it's hidden behind a bunch of junk.

At one moment in the song, she holds a note for some time, but you can hardly hear it behind all that unnecessary electronic noise. At the same time, the song is just sort of boring and desperately needs something to put it over the top; something to change the song up a bit, since it didn't go the route of stripping it down to a simpler number where her voice could shine.

Ryan Haskell

26: Rain of Revolution by Fusedmarc (Lithuania)

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When Spotify introduces the Completely Random Song From Our Library feature, "Rain of Revolution” will come up first. This crazed funk pop is the median in all things – musical category, level of stock continental goofiness and the length of time that a child would cry when hearing this at high volume (let’s say 40 seconds of crying, somewhere from 1:27 and on), to pick three things that don’t define all things.

There are lots of layers here, all perilously undercooked. Fiery V signs into the camera plus sneering baby boomer guitarist plus four(!) backing vocalists: a track like this needs hours in a name-brand bath of boiling water, except in two situations, in which it may be left as is: Lithuania in Eurovision and Lithuania in general as a nation. Fusedmarc is very much playing within their parameters.

But even taking this exception aside, "Rain of Revolution” is easier to like than to not like. I think I feel better when I let it be it. Thunder noises crack the song into existence. The horns just beep the same five notes, like an easter egg setting of a tired Roomba. Viktorija, the lead vocalist, crouches and stabilitates like a perennial neighborhood heelflip title-holder. Fitting heaving, whispered verses onto a cheery horn accompaniment is the median of “mostly doesn’t work” and “doesn’t work” and that is irrelevant. Everyone on stage and some faithful fans in the floor pit are so into this crimson pell-mell. Spritz me with your regime change rain, Lithuanian band. Let’s pick up a park bench and throw it at a tree, then pick up a tree and throw it at a kid. Speak with my V sign if you have a comment.

“Rain of Revolution” is Fusedmarc’s reenactment of an acid trip. An 80′s workout video sound mix accompanies the singer as she staggers around a stage highlighted by a trippy light show. The costume choice of a red turtleneck maxi dress and topknot further add to the cacophony of stylistic decisions for this song. The rainy revolution is one of the mind, and one with “no time for your illusion”.

The song opens with the proclamation, “life like roller coaster / spinning me around / rhythm getting faster / when I’m upside down”, which sets the tone for what is to come. Her vocals are all over the place, never seeming to find a correct pitch until the end. The backup singers and their chant of, “dance to the rhythm of the soul!” are the best part, and mellow out the end of the song after its rocky start. This psychedelic rant is all over the place, so sit back and prepare for a bumpy ride. 2/10.

Liv Mothershead

25: Yodel It! by Ilinca ft. Alex Florea (Romania)

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Did you know that there are two FIFA video games released every year? On September 29, 2017 EA Sports released “FIFA 18″, priced at $59.99. The older consoles and PC, meanwhile, added to their anthology the title “BALL”, for $7. Running on the same modern engine, but with players represented by word clouds of the most commonly said things about them on Twitter, and sometimes the penalty spot is a trap from which Uruk-hai (MUTILATED RUINED THICC EARTH PERFECTION WOMB) tear off time-wasting goalies’ legs to eat for brunch, “BALL” contains a licensed Europa League group stage, the World Cup third-place match, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, a Career Mode starring Rolando during his loan to Anderlecht, and for the soundtrack of the menu screens, “Yodel It!”

But this song does not have an upmarket, monotonous, premium Thibaut Courtois card wholesaling equivalent. If you’re intrigued by the concept of “Yodel It!”, but aren’t fully on board while three to 300 sonic and visual issues with this performance remain unresolved, there is no societally palatable version to turn to yet. This is white-boy rap-rock on top of Romanian volksmusik; definitionally, it’s a trailblazer. It’s released by a label called “Cat Music”. No one is qualified to judge this properly. Maybe "Yodel It!” should be in first place. Maybe in -84.33rd.

I like how detailed the Wikipedia page for this song is, with screenshot commentary like it’s a hugely awaited action-adventure game. You know how these games work – you climb towers and dive off of them into piles of previous Romanian Eurovision entries.

Yodeler Ilinca certainly looks like she realizes what a warped thing this is – whereas 2013 Romanian entry Cezar, for example, didn’t seem to with his stage show, even after it was fine-tuned to a pulsing heap of bloody nude men – and she executes moves somewhere between halfheartedly and 70%-heartedly, functioning through it like a detached crowd of new Fusedmarc fans just waiting until “Rain of Revolution”.

Her primary function, on the other hand, she completes perfectly professionally, in full verve. If I pass any further comment on yodeling I will end up getting a certificate in the mail notifying me of becoming a sanctioned regional yodeling judge, or something, but: what kind of happens is that “Yodel It!” gets you to feel well. I like Ilinca’s voice, which does what it intends to and transports me to early modern Europe. What she does with her voice soothes more micrometres of my soul than it abrades. It’s pleasant, even after a year’s worth of “teaching to the test”, which is creating anything for Eurovision. Also, I am now literally a sheep that marched too far from the farm and is being sung at to scamper back.

(Probably yodeling hasn’t featured in Eurovision in decades, but also probably fewer than a thousand people in the world have watched every Eurovision show, so who can really say for sure.)

The non-yodeler, the never-yodeler Alex Florea, a human semi-professional Neapolitan football team operating on a budget of protection money from the two pet supply stores down the street, hypes up the crowd and mostly himself with [what sound like reworded football chants from a particularly vehement set of ultras.]

Florea’s fulgent vigor for “Yodel It!” does bulldoze through a lot of criticism you could have for this song when introduced to it. Analysis simply does not matter when Alex buries you with imperatives – “DON’T HIDE THE LIGHT INSIDE OF YOU!” – or straight-up announces that he is to now “gonna act really crazy”. I mean, shit. That’s a man with nothing to lose and every televoter point to gain.

If Ilinca got super sick and couldn’t perform in the Grand Final, Alex would, beyond question, volunteer himself to do the whole thing, every part, and be so intensely alert at rehearsals that any Romanian delegation-chosen replacement wouldn’t nearly match his carnality to restore the song and bring the Eurovision trophy home.

(But, in the real ending here, he gives Ilinca a weird, forceful, kiss on the cheek, fingernails clawed into her face, so I don’t know about this guy at all.)

The first few times I listened to “Yodel It!”, it did nothing for me. I thought it was dumb and annoying and just plain bad. The more I’ve listened to it, however, I’ve come to appreciate this song’s originality and ambition. Don’t get me wrong — this is totally camp, super weird and really disjointed, but for some reason, I don’t hate it. Maybe it’s the inherent charm of a good yodel, or Ilinca’s natural charisma, but “Yodel It!” just keeps growing on me, which is super annoying because I really want to hate this song.

My main frustration with this song is that it feels very unpolished and disjointed. The live national final performance, especially, is full of awkward hesitations, rough transitions, and really bad staging and choreography. I like that this is a duet, and when they aren’t stumbling around each other on the stage, Ilinca and Alex have decent chemistry. I also think the weird genre mixing works to a certain degree — I’ve come to like the idea of interrupting a rap lyric with a sharp, clear yodel. The problem is when Ilinca switches from yodeling to her regular voice. If her only job was to whip out complicated, interesting yodels with limited singing, I think the song would be much better; it’s when she randomly switches to singing a ballad that I lose interest. “Yodel It!” isn’t terrible, but in the interest of maintaining some sense of dignity, I’ll end with this: Alex’s falsetto is horrible, and Ilinca’s leprechaun dress makes no sense. Leprechauns don’t yodel.

Hannah Fulmer

24: Apollo by Timebelle (Switzerland)

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^⨀ᴥ⨀^ ooh there is other music in the world

This is a good song and I can’t find many more words, other than that competitively Switzerland has been pretty baaad at Eurovision for a dozen years now and I wouldn’t be surprised if they quit at some point? Here are three guest reviews in mixed media about “Apollo”:

VIDEO REVIEW! Embedded video not available because we’re in safe hands with Tumblr’s five-inline-videos limit.

Erin Pipes

It is impossible to distinguish from all the others. It cannot win. If it wins I will execute the hostages. 3/10.

Philip Piatt

Billy Moran

I asked Billy to play “Apollo” and draw a picture for the three-minute length of the song, about whatever sparked in his mind. He finished the house a little after the bell and says that it would have looked weird if only a quarter of a house was completed. “They built their house there because of how beautiful the view of the volcano is. But they were foolish to build their house next to a volcano, and now their child is getting away on the Bike Dinosaur.” Yeah. As I said, it’s a good song.

Crazily, Billy’s drawn family looks a lot like Maraaya, the Slovenian entry+couple who opened the Grand Final in 2014. He swears he has not seen them before...

Anyway.

23: Beautiful Mess by Kristian Kostov (Bulgaria)

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If Salvador and Luísa Sobral did not win it for Portugal, "Beautiful Mess” would’ve been the Eurovision winner. (I guess all meaning I had there is that this song finished second.) It would’ve been a pretty “good” winner, I think, which is a hot new word that has begun to mean, “how placated will Eurovision fanatics and journalists feel if this song won and became the representative of Eurovision to the public”. (I tell you, this contest gets harder and harder to unspool...)

Kristian punches well on his high notes, over this cool, moody string-percussion melody. Glum emo pop isn’t my thing, but the song aims big and delivers. I’m sure that “Beautiful Mess” will be one of the last songs that I hear before I die, hospice staff playing it over the PA to soothe and prepare families for sad, but kind of sexy, deaths.

I’m not going to pick a battle with “Beautiful Mess”, not least because Kristian seems real sweet and also the live production of this is kinda cyberpunk. Next year Kristian should enter something like, “Beautiful Apple Face ID”, and walk around the stage unlocking devices until he finds one that he can’t unlock and wails in anguish about it. It would take him over the line.

Life is a mess! But love, while not solving all the problems, soothes the troubled heart. Maybe you’ll luck out and get to have a sturdy, true and enduring love, and who doesn’t dream of an invincible love? Who wouldn’t want one that can’t be touched? And this guy has it! The quiet early bars lay out the difficult feelings and propose the hope that mutual, presumably romantic love will hold things together while trudging through the beautiful mess.

Why it’s beautiful we’re left to imagine for ourselves, but apparently there are no hard feelings. Let’s just survive and hang on — especially to each other. The drop comes just in time; it’s hard to slog through the swamp while gentle strains lull us to sleep. Maybe things will one day fall apart just as the untouchable love’s armour reveals its chink, but for now we’ll get through this day together and face worse days later, when we have more than overwhelming affection to arm us against the battle. A lot of us were helped through a lot of adolescence that way, and anyone listening to this song will know that feeling. 7/10.

Christy Wareham

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yougotcrit · 7 years

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A long, long time ago... 40 years ago, to be exact. 40 years to the day when Star Wars (1977) first hit theaters, and what a journey it has been during that time. To truly appreciate this landmark of a film, I’d like to step back and evaluate one simple question.

What is Star Wars?

It’s so much more than a movie. Its roots are simple enough; a story of good versus evil, a journey of discovery, an adventure to places unknown. The Greeks were playing that old song and dance long before Star Wars came along. So what set it apart from these other stories?

It’s the brain child of George Lucas.

Love him or hate him, none of it would be possible if not for him. Through his imagination he brought life to his creations, showing us creatures and places we never dreamed of. And oddly, he was near the only one who believed in the project. Hardly anyone expected it to be the success it became. But thanks to George’s passion and persistence, in conjunction with a talented cast and crew, we have the most iconic film in history.

It’s iconic.

The soundtrack; the title crawl; the locations; the costumes, props and special effects; the characters; the movie quotes. The list goes on. Even the film’s blunders are iconic (The Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. The Stormtrooper banging his head in the doorway.)

So many films wish they could be half as universally recognized as Star Wars. Even if you’ve never seen Star Wars, chances are good that if you saw an image of Darth Vader, you’d know his name. That’s the power of the franchise, it’s something that, as a society, we all share and love together.

It’s controversy.

And perhaps that’s why many fans have such a love-hate relationship with George Lucas. The creator, in an effort to actualize his original vision which was hindered due to the constraints of the technology at the time, decided to revisit his beloved films and alter them. On paper this sounded all well and good. The movies would be digitally restored and remastered to counter the gradual deterioration of film, a necessity if you want to preserve the films. And the space battles, which had been filmed with models originally, would receive a fancy, polished CGI upgrade. So what caused millions of voices to cry out in protest when the Special Edition of Star Wars was complete? Two things. Lucas took it upon himself to fill every scene he fancied with superfluous amounts of CGI, to the point where it’s so crowded with nonsense you can’t see what’s happening. It marks one of the first instances where CGI was abused in cinema. But even more controversial was Lucas’s alteration of history. Replacing the actor who played the dying and older Darth Vader with Hayden Christensen was a slap in the face. Adding the Jabba the Hut scene in A New Hope was clumsy and unnecessary (don’t even mention how the movie’s name was changed to Star Wars: A New Hope). And let’s not forget who shot first. It was Han. Han shot first.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the prequels. Nothing causes more rage among fans than the three films that nearly ruined Star Wars forever. Poorly written, boring, poorly acted, and occasionally racist, the prequels were not the films we were looking for, and they complicated the continuity of the original trilogy. No one was happy. You’d cause less uproar trying to rewrite the Bible than what Lucas did with the prequels. To make matters worse, despite such a public outburst against the prequels, George Lucas remained unapologetic and uncaring towards the fans’ disappointment. After all, it’s his baby. He could do with it as he pleases. Until he sold it, of course.

It’s money in the bank.

Even before George Lucas sold the rights to Star Wars to the Disney Company for $4 billion, he was raking in the cash. The films alone were very successful, the very first blockbusters, but thanks to some poor foresight on the part of the movie executives, Lucas kept the licensing and merchandising rights everything Star Wars to himself. And that’s where the real money from the movie is made. More well than you can imagine. Action figures, tee shirts, Build-A-Bears, tote bags, Legos, collectibles of all shapes and sizes; Even a mini fridge shaped like R2-D2. There’s no limit to what Star Wars fans will pay if it’s got the logo slapped on it. And nobody knows exploitation like the Disney Company. Promptly after their purchase they began churning out more films to further the saga, not excluding spin-offs or solo films. And boy, have they gotten a return on their investment. With plans to open up a Star Wars themed park at Disney World, the Disney Company’s going to see profits that George never considered.

It’s a whole universe.

How big is Star Wars? It’s big. There’s series upon series of novelizations about the Star Wars universe, much of it obsolete since Disney’s takeover. Not to mention the story lines from each and every video game, at least two television animated series, and every character, regardless of how brief their appearance in the films, has at least half a webpage dedicated to its biography on Wikipedia. Each of these contributes to a much greater world that even the movies never explain in detail. Few franchises and properties come close to the level of detail and universe building that Star Wars has created, which is why it ranks in the top of all circles of nerdery, geekdom, and fanisms.

It’s a community.

If you’ve never heard of the 501st Legion, I suggest you look them up. They are Star Wars enthusiasts, whose love and passion for Star Wars is so great that they’ve come together as “an all-volunteer organization formed for the express purpose of bringing together costume enthusiasts under a collective identity within which to operate.” These guys get together to build and wear authentic and customized stormtrooper costumes, among other characters, and then they attend events to promote an interest in Star Wars. They do this on their own time, using their own funds, and they do a lot of charitable work. And it’s because they all love Star Wars. But it goes beyond cosplaying. There’s groups dedicated to collecting memorabilia. Musicians come together to play John Williams’s amazing scores, incorporating lightsabers into the act. Star Wars even helped a family through a rough time, when a husband, diagnosed with terminal cancer, was allowed to see The Force Awakens (2015) weeks before its release and days before he became one with the Force. Star Wars brings people together, and brings out the best in them as well.

It’s a technological achievement.

This one can’t be overstated enough. Until May 25th, 1977, there was every other movie, and then there was Star Wars. Audiences had never seen anything like it. The film pushed the boundaries of the available technology, inventing several new technologies along the way. Advancements in sound, costumes, green-screen technology, puppetry, model building and so much more all stemming from Star Wars. It’s hard to imagine in this age of CGI that all the ships in the original trilogy were mere models hanging on wire in front of a blue screen. Pixar’s computer animation was originally a branch of LucasArts, so we have George to thank for that as well. But Star Wars continues to push the limits of technology, even in the real world. It’s influenced modern day prosthetics, robotics, and for Pete’s sake, even hologram technology is available these days. In time, maybe we’ll have our own lightsabers, because there isn’t a person out there who wouldn’t like their own lightsaber.

It’s inspiration.

There’s no end to imagination, so I don’t see why there should ever be an end to Star Wars. What began as the musings of one man has become a myriad of ideas and tangents and spin-offs and parodies and all manner of art. Fans cosplay as original characters of their own design. Spaceballs (1987) would not exist if not for Star Wars. It has inspired conventions, fan fictions, food, and the names of children. Yes, I’ve met a real life Anakin once. Some people have Star Wars weddings and funerals. Star Wars is so expansive, with so much source material, it can be incorporated into nearly anything. It seems to me that we’ll go to any length to bring that galaxy far, far away a little closer to home. That’s Star Wars.

Happy birthday, Star Wars,

You Got Crit

(Feel free to read my past reviews for the more recent Star Wars movies: Here and here.)

(Like what you read? Then Share! Or Like! Or Follow! Or leave a Comment! Didn’t like it? That’s cool too! I’d love to hear feedback! Thanks for reading!)

#star wars #star wars 40th #40thanniversary #george lucas #a new hope #happy birthday

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