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cavehags · 3 years

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chell! any thoughts on kevin can fuck himself? i was surprised with how much i liked the pilot, but that's all i've seen so far. curious to know if you're enjoying it

i am enjoying it! i'm caught up up to episode five now and i think the fifth episode was the best and most focused so far. there are a lot of flaws that i wish i could swoop in to fix, but i like the show so much for what it's trying to be that the downsides don't hurt my experience all that much.

the positives: i love how it looks. the multicam-to-single-cam shifts are quite jarring at first but become very natural as you get used to it. i love that the variation in lighting allows you to pick up on little details that you can only see in one of the two worlds. in the multicam, you can see that kevin is wearing shoes that are brand-new. but in the single cam, you can see that allison's sweater is stained or in tatters.

i also love how gingerly they're developing allison and patti's relationship. it's not too fast in that instant-best-friends way that you get on comedies; there's a real hesitation to trust there and it's not all in allison's control. allison's attitude toward patti is very interesting; patti's ignored her or treated her outright cruelly for so long, but she's so desperate for an ally that she doesn't seem bothered by those old wounds. the fact that allison is the one chasing patti's friendship and patti is the one rebuffing her, in spite of patti's treatment of her, paints such a heartbreaking picture of allison.

i like how the show is balancing kevin's hijinks with allison's mission. i read quite a few interviews about how challenging it was to find plotlines and jokes for kevin that the audience would enjoy watching even though they hate him and i think they're succeeding there. i really appreciate that the writers have found episodic storylines that are perfectly par for the course in a sitcom but quite chilling in light of what we know about allison's inner life. the fifth episode did the best job of this. when kevin stations his buddies on the couch and then puts patti and allison in the hot seat, asking questions in a booming voice that showcases his power over them, that was really masterful. it was so sitcom-esque that no one would think twice about it in a show like kevin can wait, but in context, it was really really disturbing and scary.

my main concern going into this show was that there might just not be enough plot to justify eight full hours of allison trying different methods to kill her husband. i had envisioned that her attempts to kill him would be episodic trial-and-error, attempting one method in one episode and trying another one the next week when the last one didn't work out. in the end they wound up leaning more serialized with allison sticking to one main approach and just going about it all very slowly. i'm glad that's what they decided on. but while i appreciate the gravity the series is bringing to her storyline by giving it the slow pace it deserves and allowing each installment to properly build on the last, not to mention the very deliberate contrast it draws between that and kevin's more episodic antics, i have to admit that i find it hard to feel compelled by this drug dealer stuff. i think my problem with it is that the obstacles that allison and patti keep running into are pretty external and disconnected from the kevin of it all. and although there was a bit of this in episode two, i still think the series could do a better job of highlighting why opioids are a particularly elegant murder weapon for the housewife who nobody listens to. but (spoilers) they've moved past the murder-by-pills angle now so i doubt we'll be circling back.

i also like the character of sam, the guy who owns the diner, and what allison's crush on him brings to the story. however, i do worry that he's not being afforded the type of inner life that allison has fought for. allison seems to care for him, but her apparent lack of interest in his pre-existing relationship and his newfound sobriety worry me a little. we're getting breadcrumbs about him though and i wonder if the writers are attentive to the fact that it's not uncommon for a love interest who is a person of color to just be a tool to prop up a white lead. i wonder if it's deliberate. maybe sam's need for interiority could be a setup for season two?

my last gripe is that i still want to learn so much more about allison than what we're getting. patti comes through very clearly to me--her acerbic wit, her hesitation to trust people and burden them with inner life, her big heart that causes her to put herself in bad situations. what we know about allison outside of kevin's orbit is that she's quick to temper, she has unfulfilled dreams, she's impulsive, and she has a dorky sense of humor. (annie murphy is really doing fantastic work with her expressions whenever allison makes a joke and sort of half-smiles as she hopes it will land.) i really badly want a flashback episode to see who allison was before she met kevin, and what her family was like. just want to see how she landed in this multicam world where so much of her is erased. i think we have a shot at seeing something like that in the back half of the season so fingers crossed. 🤞

overall i think the show is managing a lot of moving parts very well. it's very entertaining and it's really scratching an itch for me! i would like to see some more of kevin looming large even in the single cam storylines that he has no involvement in, just to better show the suffocating grip he has on allison's life. like when he reported the car stolen, interrupting allison and patti's day just when they felt they were free of him, that was really gripping. and i would like to know more about allison and how she got to this point. i'm hoping we get more of both in the back half of the season.

#kevin can fuck himself #kevin can f**k himself

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whencallstheheart · 4 years

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Mid-Season 7 Survey Results

You’ll find the responses to the 2 short answer questions under the cut. Apparently you guys aren’t into the love triangle. What a surprise!

What would you like to see more of this season? -

Lucas and Elizabeth

More friendships ans less if that stupid love triangle. I'm done with it.

Jack return

More serious plot lines, less filler plot lines that are just boring

The triangle to be over. Decide who stole your heart.

More Lucas and less of boring Nathan. I would love it if both Nathan & Allie left the show. Both have ruined the show for me. I am about to start recording the show, so I can fast forward their scenes. That is something I rarely do for any show.

Jesse and Clara. Lucas and his past. Lucas and Elizabeth.

I’d like to see more Henry, and less love triangle! I’d also love more about Lee and Rosemary starting a family, and Jesse and Clara settling into married life.

More townspeople stories other than the triangle. There are so many stories to tell. I’d also like to see a pastor again. I miss the services, etc

More Elizabeth story lines independent of Nathan and Lucas

More of Lucas and Elizabeth of course ? They are just so perfect. I love them because...he shakes things up for her, but he isn't to wild or not caring and solid enough for her. It's just perfection lol

The other kids

Lucas

Lucas and Elizabeth romantic scenes!

Lucas and Elizabeth getting together by the end of the season.

yes

More girls fun, like the bachelorette party, I was hoping to see more of that in the last episode. But the mixing of the two parties in the end was kind of a fitting ending. And more teacher/classroom moments

Rosemary! Florence and Fiona’s friendship. Meaningful plot lines for the whole town and characters who are not paired off.

Lee and rosemary

Baby Jack! Those twins and how they interact with the cast are priceless and adorable and sweet!

Lucas and Nathan friendship

Better story lines for Bill and Henry

Elizabeth in the classroom.

I'd like to see more good writing ;)

Opal

Lucas

something interesting apart form the triangle like, idk really just something interresting.

Nathan and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Lucas together courting and starting a life together

Not sure

The triangle over sooner rather than later :)

Romance, more Mountie investigations, Elizabeth’s choice

Nathan actually being a mountie, the library kinda has disappeared, so maybe more of that, some storylines that aren't striclty connected to romance. And also more bonding amongst the boys, the bachelor party was super awkward and not because of Lee, because we've never seen them interact with each other before, Nathan only talked with Bill, Lucas only talked with Henry and barely Lee. The girls have lot more scenes together about other stuff then them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems like they are using the guys just as romance ploys XD

Henry fall in love

A little more drama. This series has had a lot of fun and the triangle have taken a lot of screen time. I would like to see more balance.

Carson & Faith

Deeper character exploration

more fiona/henry interaction. More interesting plot that would overshadowed the love triangle. Also Nathan/lucas....what Girl can dream...

Lucas and his past in more details. Gowen finding a woman

Henry Gowen!

I want more meaningful drama. To me the plots are resolved to fast. It feels like they rushing every moments.

I would love to see a plotline pick up speed. I DO NOT want this love triangle drawn out for 2 o more seasons

Nathan's mountie work

More of Lucas and Baby Jack!

I want Bill-centered stories that have nothing to do with any of his jobs...also I want to know more about Fiona

More Lucas and Elizabeth scenes and more students besides Allie. Seems like we’ve had a lot about her and haven’t really seen the other students much.

More of Elizabeth with her students, teaching and like the opal scene we had where she read to her!

henry/abigail but if not then henry

Lucas in casual clothing

More Nathan and Elizabeth moments with little Jack and Allie!

Henry and Elizabeth scenes

Better writing

Rosemary and Lee

More Elizabeth and Rosemary friendship

community problems

The coulters

BETTER and more INTERESTING writing!!! Please

Lee and Rosemary dealing with infertility.

More of Florence and Molly! Theyre useless right now, tbh.

More of Rosie and Lee! And Henry!

Elizabeth with the children

clear communication instead of romantic hints PLZ haha

Elizabeth and Lucas together

I would like to see Nathan do more Mounty stuff. More scenes with Henry.

More of Lucas and Elizabeth romantic moments together. Rosemary is pregnant . Maybe a scene of Elizabeth telling baby jack about his father and that he is always with them. Elizabeth and Lucas kiss.

More of Henry storyline . Maybe a love interest for him. More Elizabeth and Lucas moments. I think they have great chemistry and really hope they end up together. The Mountie storyline is dry and already been done. I don’t think it will happen this season but fingers crossed for Lucas and Elizabeth kiss. Even a kiss on the check would be really nice. Also more of baby jack.

Lee and Rosemary

Lee and Rosemary in a serious argument, Rosemary meeting a friend Lee doesn't like, the women of Hope Valley doing more together, Henry finally not being looked down on/frowned upon.

Rosemary and Lee

More of the Hope Valley kids! There’s been very few scenes with any kids besides Allie.

The growth of Elizabeth and Lucas's relationship. I'd like for them to explore their feelings and eventually fall in love (maybe next season?)

The kids, even with chicken pox they managed to be overshadowed by the adults. they used to be more present and be part of the plot. now it's just Allie, kind of feel like Elisabeth is not a teacher anymore...

More scenes with Lucas and Elizabeth. I'd also like to see more storylines with the Hope Valley kids.

Nathan and Ally

Scenario with Lucas and Baby Jack

Any other thoughts about the season so far?

It would ne nice to see other characters developement such as Molly, Florence, Ned who bring the sparkle of fun and lightness to the show.

Without Jack and Abigail, stop the season. WCTH no longer makes sense.

Too much make up - cut it out!

Hate how Brian Bird has turned the Hearties against each other with this triangle. Then the fact he gloats about it is so unchristian. Apparently Mr. Bird is not the Christian he claims to be with his behavior on social media. He loves the fact the Hearties are divided and the community has become hateful towards each other.

I just hope the triangle ends this season and finally be on the path to develop the second love chosen for Elizabeth

I’m unclear on who is in charge of Hope Valley right now. There was a mention of the town council in this week’s episode, did the head of town council become mayor? Did they get rid of the mayor’s office, and now the whole town council is in charge? I’m not sure why, but I think about this a lot whenever I’m watching.

I’m not a huge fan of this supposed love triangle. Not at all.

Not enough drama for this time period. We need more cliffhanger type moments. Stakes aren't high enough like they used to be.

They have done a FANTASTIC job. Honestly, this season, along with season 6, are my favs.

It’s been great

I absolutely detest the "love" triangle. It is out of character for Elizabeth to be attracted to two men. She's a one-man woman. Also I HATE the way this unnecessary triangle has divided the Hearties and caused so much ugliness.

Lucas and Elizabeth are constantly getting interrupted by Nathan. Less of Allie and more of the other kids. Little Jack walk and not be carried all the time. Lucas and Elizabeth dance at the wedding and/or on the trip they take. Nathan sees he is not winning over Elizabeth and Lucas

Excellent

I really want Elizabeth to end up with Lucas and show their love story

I'm leaning more towards Lucas mostly because I don't want the teacher/mountie storyline recycled but for both options, I would like more in depth characterisation.

I actually really like love triangles, so I don’t mind it at all if they manage it well. The season is certainly not good so far, but I’m mostly enjoying it and looking forward to new episodes more than in previous seasons. My expectations are very low, but I’m still worried they’ll manage to disappoint me in so many ways. On a completely positive note, I’m loving the importance of Rosemary’s friendship with Elizabeth!

I like it

Kevin is only there when he's needed for the Fione storyline, the guy that works for Gowen is in the back more than Kevin. Kevin actually doesn't make much sense since he doens't interact with many characters other than Fiona and the occassional storyline with the livery

Get storylines for Henry and Bill

It’s ok - some plot lines are strong and some are very weak and waste a lot of viewing time.

Not happy w/the triangle. #Hearties are too divided.

Better writing not so predictable

I prefer Elizabeth to be with Lucas because he isn't a Mountie, we already had that story-line with Jack and i just want something fresh for Elizabeth.

We need a love interest for Henry!

I hate the triangle! It is causing division among the #Hearties. I think if the writers are going to put Elizabeth with another mountie which i hope and pray they dont! They should have replaced Jack. I think this triangle is making Elizabeth look silly and the men look like teenage boys. It has took the Elizabeth we have known away. Lucas is so perfect for Elizabeth he reminds me so much of Jack and to put them together would bring back the excitement to the show it has lost.

It's really ok. I don't really get why some have these like, HUGE expectations. It's a Hallmark show, I only have 1 real expectation: Be good, and realaxing.

Please renew for more seasons. I love this show. This is a great season

Honeslty it's quite okay. I would like to have more active plots, but this is Hallmark, so it's fine

More Lee and Rosemary and a quick end to the love triangle would be perfect.

They really need to work in the Spanish Influenza of 1918

I like the evolution of Elizabeth and Bill’s relationship - he is becoming a father like supposrt foe her and surrogate grandfather to Jack Jr developing

It's like the writers are running out of ideas. They did better with S6 even with kicking out Lori

Triangle needs to end by season

I feel like Henry would have had a bigger role with Abigail, so I'm sad that his character has to suffer the consequences of the Loughlin scandal. He's still a very good character but he deserves more plot than he gets.

Don't want the love triangle go to the next season.

This season is an improvment because there is no behind the scnes drama to accomodate for, however, it still feels stiff or something. I am looking forwrd to seeing Jesse and Clara's wedding! It will be the best since Rosemry and Lee's

No, it's all good

Would like to learn more about Lucas' family!

It's been kinda meh, with parts i've adored and parts i've loathed. trying to stay open-minded

Nathan’s character boring and needy. They way the writers have written him is very off-putting. Allie is grating on nerves too. Where are all the other students? I realize the writers must have a plan in place, but I honestly do not understand why they are dividing the fanbase over Elizabeth’s love life. It’s heartbreaking.

Please have Elizabeth choose already!! I feel like the love triangle is being dragged out!! Lol! But I love all the Elizabeth Lucas scenes!

Love it!

This season is so amazing so far! I cannot wait to see what is in store for Elizabeth and the rest of Hope Valley!

The ensemble cast really shines through. And also Erin is doing really good work with what´s been given her.

I miss the previous seasons and how much more interesting they were

Drop the love triangle

I don't think Elizabeth has chemistry with either man

If things don’t improve - end the show. Sorry - but my honest opinion.

I would like see a less competitiveness between Nathan and Lucus, the way they are acting is just silly and it belittles both of them. I think it would be more interesting if they were friends 1st before they both became interested in Elizabeth. Other than that I like the season so far, it feels fresh!

Nope, everything is pretty solid. But i really hope they don't go the Nathan route.

It’s great to be invested in this show again!

I’d like them to stop trying to make Henry into a bad guy

I would like the triangle over

I dont want this love triangle to continue for too long because it is becoming confusing and annoying to watch. I prefer Nathan because i feel like Elizabeth has more chemistry with him than Lucas. I think she also prefers Nathan but is afraid to allow herself to make her feelings known because shes afraid of lossing him too. I don't see her with Lucas because he is everything she left behind when she chose to stay in Hope Valley.

I’m really enjoying it! The flowers episode was my favorite! Very sweet and romantic.

I like Molly having a job now, too.

It’s pretty good. I wish the love triangle would be solved soon.

I love Jesse & Clara!!!

Really enjoying it! Excited to see where the storylines are Going!

I could use a little less Nathan and Allie.

Less love triangle.... wishful thinking

#TeamLucas. That's all ?

Need to end the triangle

With Elizabeth being the teacher she should interact with all the students. Sorry, not sorry but enough of Ally

#When Calls the Heart #WCTH survey

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wondertrevcentral · 6 years

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I see a lot of well-intentioned fans of Wonder Woman worrying that Steve Trevor’s return somehow negates what he did for Diana. I would like to change this conversation, for Wonder Woman, and for many movies where the impossible is part of the appeal.

At the end of Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor flies a plane full of poison into the sky and detonates it, sacrificing himself, after telling Diana that he loves her and he wishes they had more time to be together. The anguish of watching Steve’s plane explode, and the inspiration of his love, helps to propel Diana into wielding her awesome powers in full. She handily beats the bad guy, her uncle Ares.

Steve’s goodbye to Diana and death are well-staged and effectively wrought. It’s emotional and wrenching, and losing the first man that she loved a hundred years ago has followed Diana into the present day. “Thank you for bringing him back to me,” she writes in a candid e-mail to Bruce Wayne, who had sent her the WWI picture of Diana, Steve, and their trusty companions that kicked off Wonder Woman‘s flashback. The watch that Steve gave her, and that Diana has clearly kept as a treasured memento, rests nearby.

Ever since Wonder Woman‘s sequel was confirmed last year and Chris Pine rumored to be involved in some capacity, we’ve talked here about how they’ll bring the beloved character back: is he but a dream within a dream? A clone? A hallucination? Did Steve’s plane somehow get frozen, preserving him as a young man, as superheroic Steves are wont to do? Godly resurrection? Illusions? Aliens?

Whatever it is that brings back some version of Steve Trevor, it’s likely going to be one of the bigger reveals of Wonder Woman 1984, and I’m guessing our guesses will be off. What it does not do is somehow devalue or change what Steve did out of love for Diana and to help save the world in 1917.

Here’s the thing about death as fictional a plot device: it’s the oldest trope in the book. It’s far older than books—death, and heroes trying to defy it and return a loved one from that state, are among the first stories that humans told each other. Onscreen, in big action movies, death is often used cheaply. We’re so used to it happening we don’t blink when a trenchful of people take heavy fire in a movie like Wonder Woman. A narratively well-earned death like Steve Trevor’s makes more of an emotional impact, sure, and it can make for a more resonant movie-going experience. But the idea that Steve should have to stay statically dead in a fantastical film where anything is possible in order to somehow elevate his actions and what they did to Diana is mind-boggling to me.

Here’s the thing about death: in real life, it is one of the worst things that the people left behind will ever experience. Death is cruel, merciless, and it can leave you feeling like there’s an expanding black hole lodged in your chest for many years. For the rest of your life.

Here’s the thing about death if we could reverse it here like we can in fiction: not a goddamn person on planet Earth would lament lost heroism or sacrifice or any other grandiose romantic bullshit we lay on death to try to make sense of it. Your loved one died to save you but now they’re back again? Sorry, Steve, I’m just not feeling it anymore because of all of that squandered heroism, no one would say ever.

The fact of the matter where Wonder Woman is concerned is that Steve Trevor did what he did in 1917 and it was surely one of the worst things that Diana went through. Having Steve return in some capacity 67 years later does not alter that past. Steve’s death also did not make Wonder Woman a hero. Diana was already a hero, and the loss of him served as a catalyst at a dire moment. That’s what losing someone does: it changes you like a chemical reaction. But it does not create or define you.

We go to see movies like Wonder Woman, Avengers, and Star Wars in order to escape into fictional realities where people get to do the impossible and have abilities that we can only dream about. So often, our heroes rise to the occasion because of a poignant loss, because this is an instinct that we can all understand. Iron Man with Yinsen. Batman and his parents. Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Captain America with Dr. Erskine and later Bucky Barnes. Spider-Man and his Uncle Ben.

But giving death the slip and coming back from it is also a huge appeal of comic books and their film incarnations. Incredible powers like the use of the Force and the capacity to appear as a Force ghost are part and parcel of what makes Star Wars tick. We want to witness worlds where death can’t quite hold us.

It used to be a longstanding fan and creator expectation in Marvel Comics that nobody had to “stay” dead except for Uncle Ben and Bucky Barnes. Those deaths were seen as being so essential to the narratives of Peter Parker and Steve Rogers that they could not be retconned or revived.

Then in 2005, comics writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting brought Bucky back onto the scene as the brainwashed assassin The Winter Soldier. It turned out that Bucky had not died in World War II after all, but was taken by the Russians, given a bionic arm, and reprogrammed to do their bidding for decades.

Bucky’s return from “the dead” is a perfect example of how such an important character’s revival does not negate the impact that his life and loss created in the first place. In fact, if anything, Brubaker created in The Winter Soldier arc the most tragic and brilliant foil possible for Captain America.

What is more difficult than having to face your best friend turned into your enemy? The film version of Winter Soldier is particularly excellent for the same reason. Cap’s agony at having to fight his old friend, and his unrelenting conflict about it and steadfast belief that Bucky was still Bucky beneath the brainwashing, helped make Winter Soldier into one of the most exciting and moving of the Marvel movies. Their continued melodrama and connection have carried through Civil War and Infinity War, and Bucky is a huge fan favorite. It’s hard to imagine where the MCU would have gone without the Winter Soldier storyline as a part of it.

Yet Marvel has also begun to overplay its hand where these tropes are concerned. They’ve been placing all of their chips on grief as the one failsafe to motivate a hero for too long. It worked so effectively for them before as a critical plot device that Infinity War can be read as a culminating series of attempts at impactful permadeaths in order to galvanize our heroes.

As the Russo brothers and Marvel Studios co-president Kevin Feige gleefully tease that some of the characters lost in Infinity War will really stay dead, they’re missing the point of why we love these films. We don’t need characters that we adore to remain dead for their lives to matter, but we’d like it if their deaths meant something when they happen instead of merely serving as a momentary plot beat.

It’s this kind of cheapened take on death-as-heroic-motivation that makes the Russos open Avengers: Infinity War with the horrific genocide of the Asgardians and the brutal deaths of Loki and Heimdall, just so that Thor is feeling sad and mad enough to go on a reckless quest. Do they know Thor at all? He would have done that anyway.

Will Loki or Heimdall ever return? I’d love that. Loki has also come back from death, not once, but twice, because he still had great things to contribute to the MCU narrative. Good characters in fantastical films don’t need to stay dead, but they do need good plotlines. The problem here doesn’t hinge on whether these characters should come back, but whether they should have died so wastefully in the first place. I don’t go into Avengers for gritty genocidal realism. I want to see them do the impossible.

Does Bucky Barnes’ return to the world cancel out who he was before or the value of how he seemingly died fighting alongside Steve Rogers, Steve’s shield in his hand? Hardly. It heightened the emotional impact of both characters in the modern day because of what they shared in the past. Thus it would likely be with a reunited Diana Prince and Steve Trevor.

We cannot know the circumstances of how they will come together again, but their history, and Diana having felt Steve’s loss, makes the relationship all the richer and all the more compelling. Their experiences are something that we will never experience, but we can have the chance to cheat death and live vicariously through them.

Source.

#wonder woman #wonder woman 1984 #ww1984 #steve trevor #diana prince #wondertrev

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popculturespiritwow · 6 years

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THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #23: PROFILES IN PLUMAGE

LIFE AFTER MOMMY

While Issue 23 is in a sense a prelude to the arc proper, magazine-style profiles of our Pantheon post-Blood Blister-Ananke-Pop!, one of the great elements of the issue is how it lays out the new status quo within interviews that are the fruit entirely of online role play between Kieron and the interviewers. In other words, the interviewers didn’t have a sense of the story goals, they were just approaching their subjects the way they would in real life, and it was up to Kieron to improvise in a couple key notes – Baal as now Responsible Father Figure/Super Hero who is Going to Stop the Great Darkness and Wear Suits**; Laura as Maybe Actually the Destroyer After All Tho; Morrigan receding into the Undeworld with Baphomet; Ammy’s continued insistence that everything is going to turn out super great for everybody; Woden making a machine to “mimic” people’s powers (see: things that will also work out super great for everybody); oh, and everybody’s still going to die, tick tock.

It’s all a pretty big gamble and it works really really well.

**Just realizing, the guy who makes it his mission in Imperial Phase to protect Minerva is simultaneously quietly killing children. Wow I don’t know how to feel about any of that.

TOMATO, TOMATO

What is this thing we’re reading, issue #23? Is it a comic book recreating itself for an issue as a magazine in order to do something fun and different and also expand the whole “gods viewed as celebrities” concept, show us how the Pantheon are viewed by the wider world?

Certainly that’s how it presents itself. And I dare you to find an issue of another book that does that as well, from layout to shot selection to the kinds of narratives it weaves. And other than the Chris Eliopolis-style three panel strip that ends the issue, and maybe Jamie’s four panels depicting Ananke’s death, there’s not a lot about what goes on within the issue that seems to resemble the storytelling methods of a comic.

But its cover is 100% comic book. We’re given an issue number, the title of the comic, the creative team, the production company. The page dimension are also those of every other issue of the series. And the cover design, Baal against the white background, as though having escaped the comic book frame which now hangs over his shoulder, is the design for the Imperial Phase run of issues.

The back cover fronts (backs?) the magazine vibe, replacing the series’ normal quote from within the book with an advertisement for a Persephone-branded phone. (I have to believe in a world where the ring tone is “Persephone is in Hell.”) But even there, if you want to be picky, you’ve got the bar code and comic book rating in the bottom right.

So it’s a comic book, right, doing celebrity rag really well and why am I wasting your time debating about this. But then there’s this... even if it’s not in a way like pretty much any comic book the art of the issue does generate story, in the way that magazines of its variety do, costume plus setting plus pose revealing character and plotline.

And not only that but the fullness of the story being told in each article and the issue as a whole is a result precisely as a result of the interactions between art and text. Indeed, the very choice of photos first to take and then to use emerges out of both the text of the story and the pre-interview idea for the story that the writer or editor brought.

Clearly issue 23 is the band we love at the top of their game innovating even further and making us think that much more. But maybe it’s also a way of highlighting not that a comic can be a magazine, but that in the way they deliver story, magazines are actually a kind of comic books themselves.

WHO TO GET TO WRITE YOUR PROFILE IF YOU’RE NOT A TOOL

Kevin Wada’s art is just fantastic, both spot on for the kind of magazine the issue is trying to present and also with just the perfect shot selection for the characters.

That two page spread of Baal or the crazy shot of Woden. Wow.

But for me the gold of the issue is the fresh insights the article authors bring to the characters.

“It’s why fans love her,” Leigh Alexander writes of the Morrigan. “She creates spaces where it all feels inevitable, and therefore okay. Or definitely, assuredly not okay, so you can stop pretending, You can stop struggling. Or you can only struggle. Either way it’s a relief.” The blessing of the Morrigan, yes it’s a nightmare, you’re right, and with that truth, an easing of the pain. (I love all the articles, but Alexander’s is particularly wonderful. The feeling she has for the Morrigan gives the piece such pathos.)

Or here’s Dorian Lynskey, writing about Baal. “This, then, is Baal’s spin for the day: there will be a plan. We mortals might not know what it is, it may not even be decided yet, but there will be one. DO I believe it? I’m not sure. But I believe that Baal believes it. After so much blood and chaos, he needs to believe it.”

(Did Lynskey have any idea of the secrets Baal was hiding? I don’t think so. And yet knowing what we know not, could his piece be any more dead on?)

In her profile of Woden, author Laurie Penny says “He takes women and turns them into videogame cheesecake. He takes women and turns them into something less than human, something comprehensible and controllable, with clear win conditions.”

She also kids that his workshop is like the Batcave, and follows with another incredibly prescient remark: “’Where’s Alfred? Or...no, hang on. You’re Alfred.”

Mary HK Choi’s insistence on often calling Lucifer by her birth name, which at first works as a refusal to take the claims of godhood as anything more than as millennial celebrity publicity stunt; but then becomes part of insisting on Luci’s innocence and vulnerability: “Lucifer if perfect right now – vibrant and happy. And while there is a humane aspect to the fatalistic branding, the finite relevance that is the reality of the celebrity industrial complex in the age of social media, it’s still super sad.

“When she’s skipping to the mall, shudder at how her parents (unrepentant Beatles fans) conceived her on the night of a Blur gig...she is very much a kid. A kid swaggering to impress you and thousands of people for whom everything is performance.”

(Also, we get that great quote from Kieron, “Being the devil is knowing you’re lost.” Rather than Purveyor of Lies, Lucifer once again as the one who understands the lie within it all.)

Lastly, here’s Ezekiel Kweku, after hearing Ammy explain away Ananke’s death: “She looks preternaturally serene, godlike once more. For some reason, this makes me even sadder.”

(“She doesn’t want you to see in her a deconstructed divinity, she wants to appear as whole and uncomplicated as an undivided beam of light,” is so perfect as sentences go I would be filled with a jealous rage if I could stop enjoying it.)

NO BUT SURE ANOTHER WOODY ALLEN MOVIE IS FINE THO

I do this newsletter on pop culture and spirituality called Pop Culture Spirit Wow. (Join us and we can rule the galaxy forever.) And the week Avengers: Infinity War came out I did a whole thing on the history of the Avengers, including some of their most iconic storylines.

And in doing research, I stumbled upon this post from former Avengers writer Jim Shooter, who insists that Hank Pym “was not a wife-beater”. The famous moment where Pym hits Janet van Dyne, he said was actually the mistake of the artist. “In that story (issue 213, I think),” Shooter writes, “there is a scene in which Hank is supposed to have accidentally struck Jan while throwing his hands up in despair and frustration—making a sort of ‘get away from me’ gesture while not looking at her. Bob Hall, who had been taught by John Buscema to always go for the most extreme action, turned that into a right cross!” And it was too late to fix it, so they had to go with it.

Years later, Bob Hall responded, saying Shooter “had never said he didn’t like the slap panel”, but that he could believe he’d made a mistake, because he was young and didn’t know what he was doing.

But I don’t know, this is a pretty different from an “accidental slap”:

Also, what precipitates this terrible moment is Pym on trial for having seemingly shot a woman in the back (turns out she was a robot) and feeling a lot of pressure. The issue features Tigra worrying about Jan and wondering why she stays with him. “Don’t you see you’re worth ten of him?” she asks.

And after his “accidental slap” he flips out in court, ultimately sending in a robot to save him.

So I don’t know, actually an accidental slap feels a lot less likely than what was drawn. (Actually it feels exactly like what someone who just hit a woman says to try and get away with it.)

Once it “happened”, Shooter and Marvel were “stuck” with it (#TheRealVictims), and Shooter had to rethink where he was headed with the characters. Jan files for divorce next issue, in fact.

If you look at the history of comics, you won’t find many moments like this, at least not at the Big Two. Men do not hit women.

Unless they have powers, that is. Then it’s kind of all fair, or at least occasionally permissible. And it never comes up in later conversation. It��s just the way things are. She was super strong, she hit me first, of course it’s okay.

In both the Morrigan and Baal pieces the characters talk about Baal having hit her. That attack happened twelve issues ago (when you include the 1831 special), and it’s still considered a significant ongoing story point for both characters.

Once again, WicDiv making us consider things that the world kind of ignores. (Or even enjoys.)

DENIAL, THE NEW FRAGRANCE

The very last beat of this issue, the wacky cartoon, is maybe the hardest hitting punch of all.

They’ve been through all this craziness, they’ve found out they were being manipulated all this time, and they just straight murdered someone. So what do they do now?

What else? They party.

It’s like the Danger Laura Wilson warning of the first two arcs, but now applied to the whole group, and just as firmly ignored. The only one who really seems to understand at all it is Luci, and she’s dead, er, a living head stuck in a cave we won’t know about for another year of issues.

#wicdiv #kieron gillen #jamie mckelvie #life after mommy

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akfyellowfeverspn · 6 years

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Where Do We Go From Here? Season 13, Episode 12

Let’s talk about witches.

Witches are quite possibly one of my favorite villains on the show because they’re human, or at least mostly human, and that makes them more complex and compelling than your run-of-the-mill beastie.

Except this week, we got two of the most uninteresting, cliche, and awful witches possible. Could those girls have been more unsympathetic? Was I supposed to feel bad for them because of their dead mother? I didn’t. The Plum sisters showed up, made our boys look stupid, and vanished with the Black Grimoire, that super dark magic book of Rowena’s the boys had been storing in the bunker.

But you know what? That’s okay...because Rowena is back. And Rowena makes everything better.

I must admit: as hilarious as Dean’s love spell was (and we need some laughs on this show, especially after the past few weeks, am I right?), I was glad we didn’t have an entire episode of love-spell Dean and irritated, babysitter Sam. Instead, we got a pretty good balance of what felt like a monster of the week episode, but still carried the plot forward.

The heart of this episode’s main plot (the Sam and Dean and Rowena go after the Black Grimoire plot) was the conversation between Sam and Rowena while they waited for Dean, who was off investigating the location of the Plum sisters. Sitting in the Impala, Rowena admits to Sam that the root of all her suffering isn’t that Lucifer bashed her skull in and burned her alive...but because she saw his true face. Sam shares that he has seen it too...and of course he has; he spent time in the Cage with Lucifer, had the Devil walking around in his head back in seasons 6 and 7. THIS is a delicious detail and I am delighted the writers included it: in season 13, it’s easy to forget what Sam’s gone through--this reminder of Sam’s suffering with Lucifer, the fear he still must have, brings the show a little closer to home, grounds it back to those earlier seasons.

But, the moment is brief: Rowena tricks Sam and runs off after the book. She intercepts the girls who set their zombie mother on her. The Winchesters catch up, there’s an all-out fight, the bad witches are defeated, and the boys and Rowena are intact. Rowena leaves, and the WInchesters remain in possession of the Grimoire. Well, mostly.

We realize, in the end, that Sam let Rowena take the book page she needed. Why? He claims he understood what she’s dealing with. Sam--poor Sam--is struggling this season; Dean’s trying to help him but, as they always do, the boys aren’t the best at communication and feelings.

But what about the other plot of this episode?

We FINALLY got to see what’s happening with Castiel and Lucifer.

Here’s the thing: Not much. A lot of fantastic banter. They’re in adjacent cells. Lucifer is trying to get his mojo back and failing, but he’s talking smart, threatening the guards...being the Devil we know and love….until Castiel pisses him off with some choice words about Jack being nothing like Lucifer, and his powers return.

Lucifer kills the guard and he and Castiel escape. After a scuffle with the remaining demons, they emerge from their prison, Lucifer asks for Castiel’s grace, and in a sheer heroic move, Castiel turns and stabs Lucifer with an angel blade. The last shot we see before the episode ends is Lucifer’s eyes flickering from red to blue.

But...we know he isn’t dead. Don’t we?

Overall: Solid episode, but I’m itching for all of these plotlines to tie back together. Lucifer mentioned Mary’s torture by Michael….we haven’t seen her or Jack since before the break. What’s going on? What about Kevin and Bobby? What about that portal left open at the end of “Wayward Sisters”? So many questions remain unanswered...where do we go from here?

By @eldobbs

#supernatural #supernatural hellatus over #wayward sisters #dean winchester #sam winchester #mary winchester #lucifer #castiel #spn 13x12 #supernatural fandom #rowena #rowena is back #witches

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emptymanuscript · 7 years

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Summary Cheat

So who’s up for a cheat?

I know, cheat brings up negative connotations. But the truth is that cheating can help lay down a foundation that you can fix into something better. Sometimes, when you really can’t get past a tricky part and you need to, cheating is the best option at first.

This cheat comes from Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Strikes Back. Snyder was full of excellent cheats by the way. So his three books are worth checking out for that, even if they feel too formulaic. It’s the true advantage of film writing books, film writers have no room for preciousness. So when you’re stuck, they’re great for a fill in answer.

One of the things you’re going to NEED to do at some point is the back cover, synopsis, pitch, what have you. All of these are variations of the same idea: a short summary to entice readers / buyers.

Have you ever noticed how often summaries sound the same? Well, this is pretty much the formula for that:

On the verge of a Stasis = Death moment, a Flawed Protagonist has a Catalyst and Breaks Into Two with the B Story; but when the Midpoint happens, they must learn the Theme Stated, before All is Lost.

Alright, lots of terms in there. Let’s go through them.

Stasis = Death moment is the proposition that life as usual will ruin you. Life hasn’t worked, it has gone wrong and it can’t go on. It might be boring. Another dull Thanksgiving. It might be stifling the soul. Living as a moisture farmer on a desert world. It might be an inability to hold it all together. Divorce. The essence of this statement is that you are cuing the reader into the normal life of the character and suggesting why the character might need to escape it, even if they may not realize it at the surface.

Flawed Protagonist is telling the reader why this character is going to be interesting. Flaws don’t have to be blatant. (They can even not be flaws, shhh). And you can go all over the place with your protagonist. It’s just one word (or a very few) to tell us who they are.

Catalyst is the set up for the story. This is what’s going to set everything in motion. Kids running away from home. Kids left home alone (Sorry Macaulay Culkin). Miners trapped in their spaceship with an alien. This is the same thing as the inciting incident if you know that term, it’s that moment of sweeping the character away on their adventure.

Breaks Into Two is the character’s reaction to the Catalyst, it’s what they do, rather than what happens to them. So for our Kevin McCallister / Macauly Culkin example, he decides to take care of himself now that he has been left home alone by himself.

B Story is a really big complex subject but at its simplest it is the major secondary plotline in a story. Going back to Home Alone, Kevin’s relationship with other people is his B Story. This is mostly illustrated by his relationship with Old Man Marley who he starts off terrified of but ends up in alliance with. In far too many stories it is the love story aspect. John Truby put it forward as the subplot that best exposes the protagonist’s moral flaw. It is very frequently played out between the protagonist and a second individual they spend a lot of story time with, so you can often implicate it with a brief description of that other character. Scary Old man Marley. Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: His mischievous invalid grandfather. Sergeant Powell in Die Hard: a desk cop.

The Midpoint is the apogee of a story’s motion, it’s the choice or event that really separates the first half of the story from the second half. If it is an event, it’s bad. If it is a choice it’s devastating. The monster in a monster story proves it is lethal. The lover in a love story leaves. You’ll sometimes see this turned on its head and there will be something that looks like a triumphant success but it will leave the character feeling hollow because they have gotten what they wanted at the expense of what they needed. In Home Alone, Kevin chooses to stand his ground. In Juno, she bonds with the adoptive father of her baby (false victory). In Aliens, their ride home crashes, stranding them on the planet.

Theme Stated, there are a lot of ways to look at this but I’ve always liked the “You see Timmy…” which comes from the move Speechless, a generally forgettable film, but one of the characters said you always need a “You see Timmy…” in your writing, a moment where you draw out the moral lesson. He compared to Lassie, where at the end of the show the older wiser character explains the lesson to Timmy. This is that. What does the character need? In Home Alone, in spite of starting off as helpless and learning to take care of himself, what Kevin really NEEDS is to get along with others. In Ms. Congeniality what Inspector Hart really NEEDS is to balance her aggression and femininity.

All Is Lost, this is actually a moment where everything appears to be (but isn’t actually) lost. But you can also fill this in with what will happen if your character actually does fail in their task. The point is to present in blunt terms the price of failure. Tell the reader the stakes. If you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. If Kevin McCallister doesn’t succeed, the wet bandits will bite his fingers off.

Alright, that’s a lot. Let’s do an example.

On the verge of living the rest of his life a lonely failure, a misanthropic alchemist gets a job investigating a con-man and discovers the con-man can do everything he says he can the same as the naive medium he’s partnered with; but when the con man proves he has the power to literally command death, he must learn to get along with his new partner, before the con man kills them all.

It’s a bit short and formulaic but you can expand and change and rearrange. And you can see a bit of the picking and choosing I did, because I did start with this, to make my own back cover.

(One sentence pitch - what genre are you getting) A wizard’s failed apprentice and a self doubting medium embark on a race against time (blah blah blah selling) in Eben Mishkin’s fantastical debut, The Hidden and the Maiden.

The (Flawed Protagonist) unsociable James Rathbone, once student to the last wizard, is forced into action when (Catalyst) his dead master's secret elixir is stolen.

(All Is Lost - these are the stakes) Con artist Kenton Dean uses the elixir to release the fallen god of death. He needs just one more thing for his plans to work: Helena Lawson, an heiress who holds unfathomable magical potential.

James sets off on a dangerous mission to rescue Helena and stop Kenton, but he cannot do it alone. Much to his chagrin, James must (B Story) team up with Zephyr Wayne, a neurotic medium who’s convinced his powers are nothing more than the manifestation of his own psychosis.

As the only humans capable of seeing the threat, (Theme Stated) James and Zephyr must band together to save the world as they know it. But can James finally get his magic to work? And will Zephyr’s self-doubt ever allow him to unleash his full potential?

(blah blah blah selling stuff) An absorbing blend of horror, fantasy, and real-world drama, The Hidden and the Maiden will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

You’ll note in the final product that I left out the midpoint because I didn’t feel it added much to what was already there. I also added some repetition. And the blah blah blahs of course.

And you can keep rearranging ad-nauseam. But these kind of elements really are what people are looking for in a quick sell. Tell me who. Tell me what. Tell me what I’m going to get out of it.

Do I recommend everyone do things this way? No. But if you’re stuck, cheating and rewriting is better than being stuck.

#creative writing #offered advice

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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How Wizards: Tales of Arcadia Finishes What Trollhunters Started

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In the nearly four years since Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia debuted on Netflix, the animated series created by Guillermo del Toro, and produced by Dreamworks, has introduced viewers to Arcadia Oaks, reluctant heroes, and a society of trolls over the course of three seasons. Then, the adventures continued with two seasons of 3Below, featuring humanoid aliens who crash land on earth whilst escaping a civil war. Now, the final chapter of the Tales of Arcadia franchise, Wizards, debuts on August 7 with a time-traveling fantasy epic that spans Camelot and the suburbs.

In addition to introducing new characters, and re-introducing previous ones, Wizards also seeks to pull the threads together of the entire trilogy, and fill in the blanks on events only previously referenced.

Set immediately following the events of 3Below’s second season, Wizards picks up with Merlin’s apprentice Douxie (voiced by Colin O’Donoghue), and a magical war across time which involves Arthurian characters Merlin and Morgana (David Bradley, and Lena Headey); Trollhunters characters Jim (Emile Hirsch), Claire (Lexi Medrano), Toby (Charlie Saxton), and Steve (Steven Yeun); trolls Blinky (Kelsey Grammer), Aaarrrgghh!!! (Fred Tatasciore), Dictatious (Mark Hamill), and Gunmar (Clancy Brown); as well as Akiridion-5 alien Krel (Diego Luna).

With the 10-episode season of Wizards, Tales of Arcadia, completes its marathon with 88 installments of a family entertainment series featuring a cast of celebrity voice talent, surprisingly sophisticated humor, and arcs that mature alongside younger viewers as the stories progress.

It likewise marks another achievement for Marc Guggenheim, who serves as an executive producer, as well as showrunner, of Tales of Arcadia. Similarly known for his work on The CW’s Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl, he is not new to complex world-building, and potentially confusing interconnected plotlines. In the following interview, Guggenheim discusses how the final chapter of the franchise fits together while also standing alone as a piece of storytelling, as well as the show’s approach to time travel, and if the conclusion is really “The End.”

Den of Geek: What is the challenge of setting up this spinoff that also serves as a conclusion to a trilogy spanning different genres?

Marc Guggenheim: It’s an interesting challenge because, on the one hand, you’ve got a spinoff of Trollhunters, and my philosophy with spinoffs is they should always sort of function as their own show. They should have their own identity, and they should stand on their own feet. On the other hand, though, this is not just a spinoff. This is the third and final chapter of a trilogy. The show kind of needs to function as two things simultaneously.

But a big component of Wizards also involves Jim from Trollhunters…

The biggest story thread we sort owed was a payoff to Jim’s journey because he essentially ended Trollhunters having become a troll himself, and basically walking off into the sunset as the trolls go off to search for a new Heartstone. Seeing what has become of Jim, even just revealing what happened after those final moments of Trollhunters, was very important to us to help bring the whole trilogy full circle. Similarly, Guillermo had the great idea to actually not do a prequel, but return our characters to the period of time before Trollhunters that tells the stories we’d only alluded to, and referenced in — namely the invention of the Trollhunter amulet, the rise of Deya the Deliverer, the Battle of Killahead Bridge. These are things we’ve only glimpsed. There was something very elegant about that idea because we had to go to the beginning in order to get to the ending. And I kind of liked the symmetry.

You’re no stranger to time travel with your work, but how do the rules of Legends of Tomorrow compare to Wizards?

It’s funny you mention Legends. We did have an episode in the second season where we went back to Arthurian times, and played around with that. There are a million different TV shows, and movies, and novels, and short stories about time travel, and one of the fun things about writing about that subject is the rules operate very differently. The rules in Back to the Future operate very differently from the rules in, say, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. With Legends, we made the decision very early on if you were watching the show for the rules of time travel, you were going to be sorely disappointed. We kind of threw the rule book out.

With Wizards, we kind of take the opposite approach. We are making part of the drama the difficulties of time travel; namely it’s very easy to screw up the future if you don’t know what you’re doing. And we have some characters in Wizards who could safely be described as not quite knowing what they’re doing. So, we definitely wanted to show the consequences, and also live with the stakes of what happens if you make a change to the past you did not intend.

The show has subverted expectations by allowing characters to grow, or evolve. Steve begins as a bully, and now he’s a good guy. And within the Arthurian legend, the king is not necessarily the king you might expect him to be. Has that subversion been cooked in since the beginning of Trollhunters?

From the beginning with Trollhunters, me and Guillermo, and Kevin and Dan Hageman, we always felt like we were telling a very classic Campbellian hero’s journey. When you are doing that, the only way to make it feel fresh and original is to, as you say, subvert expectations. I think it’s Gertrude Stein who said tell the truth, but tell it slant. That’s been our governing philosophy, which is we’re going to tell you this familiar story, but we’re going to do it in a way a little off center, a little off kilter from what you’re used to.

This final chapter also feels more intense, more mature, and at times a little scary. Was this decision based on the notion that your audience has grown up a little with this franchise?

You’re right on the money. From Guillermo’s very first pitch to Jeffrey Katzenberg, when Jeffrey asked for an additional two shows and basically asked for trilogy, Guillermo said he wanted the humor of 3Below to be a little bit more sophisticated, make it a little bit more adolescent because the kids, our audience from Trollhunters, is growing older. And then he wanted the tone and the vibe of Wizards to be darker and a little scarier, again, because our audience is growing older. So there was a real intentional evolution in terms of tone. 3Below isn’t scarier than Trollhunters, but its humor is definitely more sophisticated. Wizards is much darker than 3Below.

We meet these new villains, The Arcane Order, which are visually compelling sorcerers. Can you talk about their design?

Thank you for calling that out, specifically, because those are among my favorite designs of the entire trilogy. I think it’s the result of a really fantastic mind meld between the designers and Guillermo. Guillermo was very specific about what he wanted to see with these three characters, and it’s always a privilege to watch his design notes sessions with the designers. They would print out the designs on these big sheets of paper, and Guillermo would actually draw on them. Guillermo’s a very good artist as a lot of people know, down to these really minute, small details that make big changes. And the designers were, I think, particularly inspiring. I can’t draw a stick figure, so I’m very impressed by the work they’ve done.

Is this really the last we’ll see from these characters?

If I were to comment on the end of Tales of Arcadia, it would mean the end of me. Dreamworks and Netflix have paid assassins on retainer, and I hear they’re very good shots.

Tales of Arcadia: Wizards premieres on August 7 on Netflix.

The post How Wizards: Tales of Arcadia Finishes What Trollhunters Started appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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petelanemoviereviews-blog1 · 6 years

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Mute (2018) Review

Review Date: 3/20/18

“…………”

While there are some great aspects of the film including an ensemble cast, Duncan Jones’ dream project turns out to be a major downer.

Premise: Set in the future, an Amish boy named Leo is rendered unable to speak due to a boating accident. Years later Leo works as a bartender in Neo-Berlin. When his girlfriend goes missing, the technologically-illiterate man must journey into the bowels of the strange city to search for her.

From Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft) comes something that clearly started out as a great idea that became complicated due to the untimely death of his father, David Bowie. You can clearly see director’s pain over his dad’s passing as he continuously tries to pay homage to his dad. It’s sad to the point where now actually thinking about it brings me to the point of tears. I’m going to discuss many of the film’s faults, but I feel I should let many slide.

First off, I absolutely loved Jones’ directorial debut ‘Moon’, which this film happens to be set in the same universe as. The film blew me away with Sam Rockwell’s pretty much solo performance (it was just him and a robot voiced by Kevin Spacey. Still probably not the right time to mention that guy’s name) and a solid script with a fantastic twist. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll be expecting the twist now. Sorry. In Mute, there are a few quick references to the film. If you have a keen eye, you’ll spot them. I counted two or three, but there are probably more. The problem here is that there’s really no reason for the two films to be connected. They do nothing to strengthen each other, other than to show how strange a world Rockwell’s character comes from. It’s reminiscent of when Paul W.S. Anderson decided to put his 1998 film ‘Soldier’ starring Kurt Russell into the Blade Runner universe. In both cases, it’s kind of like a ‘So what?”. But, getting back to Moon. It showed me that Jones could stand on his own and not be known only as David Bowie’s son. He followed up this film with ‘Source Code’, which also received critical acclaim. At the time of this review, I’d only watched half of it and that was three or four years ago, but from what I saw, I really was impressed. Around that time, it was announced that Jones would be directing the movie adaptation of the hit video game series ‘Warcraft’. The film got huge buzz but was ultimately deemed a failure in critics’ eyes when it was released. I saw it when it hit the home market and somewhat enjoyed it for what it was despite knowing little of the lore behind the games. But it wasn’t the Duncan Jones I knew. And now, nearly two years later, here we are. I honestly thought this movie would hit theaters when I first heard about it. It sounded great…then I heard it was coming to Netflix. As much as I love Netflix, I will agree with what people are saying that it is a dumping ground for movies their studio think won’t do well in theaters. Take this year’s ‘Cloverfield Paradox’ for example; it would have bombed at the theaters and I would have been disappointed walking out of the theater after seeing it. I enjoyed it for a Netflix movie and am one of the few people who understand it and will defend it, yet I totally see why the studio sold it to the streaming media company. The same thing was done with David Ayer’s ‘Bright’ starring Will Smith a month earlier. I wasn’t too impressed with ‘Bright’ even for a Netflix movie. Mute falls right in the middle of that film and Cloverfield Paradox to me personally.

The film started to go downhill for when I realized Neo-Berlin looked eerily reminiscent of Blade Runner. A lot of futuristic movies coming out nowadays use this look to where it’s becoming more of a gimmick than a homage. I don’t necessarily call that a bad thing as I love futurism and the whole Cyberpunk genre. Netflix’s Altered Carbon did the exact same thing and to be honest that show and this film looks VERY similar. In both, you’re gonna see some pretty strange stuff. More so in this and that leads me to my first issue. This is where it seems like Jones’ is paying homage to his father but then it goes way too far and over-the-top. Robot Strippers? You got them. Wacky Japanese-inspired video games. Fine. A whole lot of Androgyny. OK… Seeing Robert Sheehan with breasts was a little jarring. Dominic Monaghan dressed as a geisha strongly implied to be having a threesome with robots. What the actual f**k?! These aren’t your robots that resemble humans like in Alien and Blade Runner. These are your robots that look like they’re straight out of ‘I, Robot’ (without the facial expressions) and Terminator. And we do get a lengthy shot of them really going at it. That’s an image I won’t be getting out of my head for quite some time. That was definitely something I never thought I’d see. The Androgyny thing I get. David Bowie was known for doing that of stuff. Like I’ve said before, Jones is clearly paying homage to him even if at times, it goes overboard. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m judging. The problem is, they don’t do anything to strengthen the story. It’s the ‘oooh hey look how bizarre the future is gonna be’ schtick. Another thing that seems out of place in this movie and before I say this, I love this actor. Prepare for your mind to be blown, because it blew mine when he first appeared on screen. Paul Rudd is in this movie sporting a porn-stache and he’s not a very nice guy nor is he that funny. It’s a serious role for him and he’s actually good, to be honest. Still, I wasn’t prepared to see him in that kind of role and it did throw me off a few times.

Another big issue is that there’s a very disturbing subplot. I honestly didn’t Jones would go that far, and I was surprised and even a little disgusted when it first came up. Jones makes it make some sense in the end, but the movie would have been just the same if not better without it. There were other ways to make this movie more dramatic. Worse, is the story kinda delves into that plotline in the third act, shifting to an almost horror-type tone. You’ll see what I’m talking about and I’m sure you’ll agree with me.

Another issue is the script. I’m serious when I say this is some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever heard come out of these (in my opinion) good actors’ mouths. I refuse to believe Jones wrote any of this dialogue. You’re left to wonder why most of these actors even signed onto this. I’d like to believe there were many pointless rewrites.

My final issue is this: How the heck has this Amish guy been living in the middle of a city so technologically advanced for so long? It’s stated that he ignores all the basic survival utilities but that really doesn’t make sense, because even today, it’s virtually impossible to escape modern technology. Even today’s Amish use some modern technology to a small extent. Maybe if he lived out in the country (if the world isn’t completely covered by vast cityscapes) that might work. A better idea would be to have him live outside the city with his girlfriend coming to visit him. But no, he lives in a soaring high-rise apartment. He’s a bartender at a robot/human strip club. I get that maybe he doesn’t use computers in that field taking money instead of credit cards or whatever they use in that time. Still, kind of a plot hole.

Now to get into the good things. The story and mystery at its core are actually pretty solid. Yeah, the mystery aspect is a bit confusing and feels a bit messy at times, but it comes together OK in the end. Not great but I was sort of satisfied…and kind of happy for this thing to end. I will say one more negative thing. The third act drags on for way too long. I kept checking how many minutes were left. This movie didn’t need to be as long as it is. The only reason for the long run time is that there’s so much unnecessary stuff forcefully crammed into it. But yes, in the end, I was surprised at how everything turned out. I feel kind of dumb for not catching on earlier as I’m usually very good at figuring out that kind of stuff. Another thing I enjoyed was the performances. Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Rudd, and even Justin Theroux are too good for this movie. I also loved and felt sympathy for the main character. For a guy who doesn’t say anything, he’s well written and Skarsgård does fine emoting through his face. A few of the action scenes are pretty cool and well done for the most part.

In final, this movie is a mess, but I feel this is one of the few cases where it’s justified. Jones had just lost his father and it’s clear he was going through a lot of grief, so I’m not gonna rag on him. I think this guy has talent and I believe one day we’ll see this guy on top with other films as great as Moon and Source Code. Score: 4.3/10

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