Donomark

Korg is a million percent the most irritating supporting character in all of the MCU. Like, even in the first Thor movie, Darcy was amusing, before she degraded in the second one. Korg is a single joke told with the same tone excessively for hours on end.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/a-james-bond-icon-has-died/ar-AAZsOh0?li=BBorjTa

She's in that?

Honestly, this makes me like Ragnarok more, because Thor wasn't an idiot in that. There was humor to be sure, but I never got the sense that he lacked any of the competence he'd displayed up to that point. Here, there's this bizarre undertaking of Thor not knowing how to present himself in situations and struggling to communicate to people. It simply rings untrue and I really don't care for the save of "Oh, well, still Thanos and also he's seeing Jane again" because it's too over the top for that to be it, unless it's bad storytelling.

Love Jones (1997): This movie is preceded by the legendary soundtrack that my Mom loved to play back in the late 90s. It's awesome, and matches the mood of the film. The movie is a smokey, low baritoned love ballad spoken in poetry over rainy days and bright nights. It's a very 90s kind of romance film, but it's drama more than comedy. Starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long, it's a simple story of two smart young post-college people meeting, falling in love, then out, then back in and out and in again. It's not an ideal love. Larenz Tate is obnoxious AF, but he's realistic in how he is. This isn't a film that roots for him, or even the couple's love to survive. It simply depicts how two flawed people come to recognize how they act when they're in love with each other. That approach, plus Nia Long owning this movie with her goddess-like beauty and perfect shots of her profile in view, plus the soundtrack and jazzy atmosphere make this a strong recommendation. It won't make your heart swoon, but it'll leave you feeling different. Thor: Love and Thunder: Alright, so I have a theory about this movie, and Taika Waititi at large. Consider Zack Snyder. Like him or Hate him, it's pretty accepted by now that Snyder is actively in love with the image and depiction of power on screen. 300, the way he told the story of Watchmen and all of his cut of Justice League, he slows down the image to maximize the "This is awesome" factor he's objectively going for. That's his buy-in with the superhero genre, the reverence towards power. Taika Waititi is the opposite. Consider not only the irreverent humor but the intent of Thor Ragnarok. He smashes the Thor mythos. He kills off half of his supporting cast, gets rid of Odin, destroys Asgard and shows blatant disregard for everything that came before with a flippant, dismissive attitude towards the supposed gravity of it. He also smashes the reputation of Odin, revealing that he built up Asgard through the piracy of colonialism. The same thing applies here, tenfold. Thor is completely stupid (until the needs of the plot makes him not). He doesn't know how to hold, or even start a conversation, he's unintelligent with his own weaponry and he's guided and blinded by his emotions. This holds true of the god characters in this film. The various supporting characters are largely invested by attractions of glory and preeminence, almost to the point of preoccupation. Zeus (accurately I gladly grant it) is a hedonistic buffoon, as is a Hedonism Bot-esque God in an early first scene. Gorr the God-Butcher explains in precise detail that Deity Worship is a fucking fool's errand and the film agrees with him in its depiction of all the super-powered beings, without that being a point of realization from the characters within it. Everything else of presumed weight - be it mythological weapons like Mjolnir, Zeus's lightning bolt or Storm-Breaker, are treated with as much seriousness as radio player in the film. My point is that, unlike Zack Snyder, Taika Waititi has a complete disregard for the deity pantheon in the Thor films, and uses them to undermine and ridicule the franchise for the sake of a socialistic, anti-theistic agenda. I don't think this is 1,000% intentional, the humor he incorporates works to be irreverent, but that irreverence moves a lot of weight to...make irreverent what the characters - and ostensibly the audience - are meant to see as reverent. The Thor franchise began...and presumably was meant to be the part of the MCU where the important, powerful, godlike stuff went down. The Guardians corner depicted the lower-blue collar worker cosmic citizens making their way through the galaxy, just as the Iron Man era showed off Marvel's corporate side and Spider-Man showed off the lower floor of that perspective from a high-school POV. But Waititi is saying "No, this is all silly bullshit, and the pants are gonna fall off these characters repeatedly to present how silly the bullshit is." And that's not...out of pocket for him to do, he's well within his rights as a filmmaker. But with Love and Thunder, it's pretty apparent that the disrespect and outright disdain of the Thor world of the MCU prevents him from granting these previously dignified characters with at many times even a modicum of dignity left. But that leaves the finished product a bad product. Tonal whiplash just shreds this movie. Children are kidnapped, gods are being slaughtered, but we've gotta have these constant barrage of jokes I STG feel like they're straight from Robot Chicken. There's such distance from the weight of the moment, that it makes this movie easily Marvel's most insincere effort to date. It's not wall-to-wall godawful, Christian Bale crushes the Gorr role and leaves with his dignity intact, but Hemsworth's Thor watches as though he got his script mixed with Tom Holland's Spider-Man from 2019, and it gets seriously cringey at times.

I think those are great choices, and not 0% because I want/need to see those movies.

To be honest the recent stories with Tim discovering his sexuality haven't been perfect. Right off the bat, the off-panel break-up with Stephanie comes out of nowhere because the last two times he majorly appeared were in Tynion's Detective Comics run and Brian Michael Bendis' Young Justice, and both were heavy with Tim/Steph shipping. I think the issues where he's dealing with a lot in his head are solid, and the follow-up with Batman is good. But Tim is a very thoroughly written character, who has a lot of deep characterization to take from. I think Fitzmartin is putting her best foot forward, but there's dramatic potential still untapped. For instance Stephanie never had to be any kind of phobic to feel mad at how Tim treated her. Her "No big deal" behavior when meeting Bernard rang untrue.

I was actually guessing the end song would be Stylo from Gorillaz, since Willis himself is in the music video. It took me a second to figure out why the Lonely Isle classic was picked.

Meowth FTW!

Maybe...I'm by no means throwing in my hat for the X-Films, I'm perfectly happy to hear Ian and Will have at it, but personally my favorites are the first two, parts of The Wolverine, parts of Days of Future Past, and Logan on a technical level. Logan alone is one of the most proficiently made CBMs of all time, but still there's a ton of cack in the mix. Also First Class is overrated IMO, but again that's for the actual potential episode.

You didn't think Elizabeth Olsen was good? I don't like what they did to Wanda, but I thought the actress killed the villain role. Just, crushed it, especially with Raimi's direction. The scene of her taking over the 838 universe's Wanda was pretty creepy, and she got to be sinister a lot of the time. There's definitely OTT aspects to her acting, but I'm surprised to hear that she was bad. I couldn't defend Cumberbatch exactly. I don't think he was bad exactly either, but the MCU doesn't quite know who their Stephen Strange is, even by the end of this film. I think it comes the closest to figuring it out, but the whole "Are you happy" motif felt like a half-measure.

That'd be a very interesting one because the X-Franchise is, I would argue, the most up and down franchise of a comic book property out there. Like, I know the MCU is a meme these days, but like I said to Ian and Chris, I'd argue that none of those movies fall down to actually being bad persay. X-Men on the other hand has plenty of bad movies, at least half of them.

I haven't watched episode 3 as of this writing yet, but I am loving Ms. Marvel. Easily my favorite Disney+ Marvel show since Flacon and the Winter Solider. And this first end credits theme by rapper Eva B slaps.

Agree with Christian. I don't necessarily oppose to repeating films for different Flickchart reviews (I've been meaning to re-listen to the Nolan episode), but I think it comes down to Spider-Man stories, and he's really just a bit player in them. Kinda like looking at Endgame as an Ant Man movie. Although Civil War is his introduction. It's tricky though.

This year IS Spidey's 60th anniversary...

That's three comic legends gone in the span of a month

Caught up with this year's season of Demon Slayer, after skipping the episodic recapped Mugen Train movie arc since I already saw it in theaters. I like Demon Slayer okay, it's definitely the flavor of the moment but not terribly spectacular in story or characters. They're fun, but nothing stand-outish. The animation is gorgeous however. This season was an improvement, because the violence and action scenes really ramped up. Things just kept growing more and more intense, it felt like classic Dragon Ball Z, to the point where characters are getting stabbed in the jaw and eyes slashed out and poisoned and there's blood everywhere. I loved it.

Netflix!

Netflix!

Top Gun: Maverick: Saw this is a theater far below the quality of the movie. As someone who wasn't impressed with the 80s original when he first saw it, I enjoyed this. It's definitely more earnest and serious, but I did get caught in the teeth of it being a Tom Cruise vehicle blending too closely with the needs of the story. Still, I'd like to see it again in IMAX. I didn't think Jennifer Connelly's character added much though, despite her talents. RRR: Everyone on Earth-2.net should watch this movie right now. Mike, Des, DEFINITELY Chris, the Brothers Wilson, Christian, Dan, Hannah, Will...

Halfway thru the ep and enjoying it. Speaking for myself, I actually find the crows ironically funny. Partly because they're so over the top, and partly because there's a real flummoxed "AW HELL NAW WTF" sort of response black people I know have with them. Like, laughing because they are so cartoonishly offensive, like obviously meant to be black guys in such a way that it's funny, but not in the same vibe as a Ralph Bashki kind of thing. Honestly, the whole "I ain't NEVA seen an Elephant fly!" series of riffs and the fact that the movie ends with that song just makes me laugh. It's not fuckin' cool, but it's also funny in a that's-so-wrong kind of way. YMMV. That roustabout song tho is really hurtful and offensive, in a backhand-fools-in-the-mouth reaction kind of way. Race will be an interesting challenge going throughout the series, because one might argue that it still doesn't get better until the 21st century. Your mileage may vary on this, but I know for a fact that there are people who found/find Aladdin offensive (rewritten song lyrics notwithstanding), Mulan dicey (the Huns having yellow eyes of evil), and even some lore mythology stuff like in Brother Bear. It'll be tricky waters to wade through, which should add to the fun!

I thought Des' comments on Lolita being "It's a comedy, right?" and laughing most of it off by his lonesome was darkly hilarious. I read Lolita for a bookclub and despised it, so I have some reference for that convo, potentially. I echo Ian's sentiments on Eyes Wide Shut and said as much in my feedback for Hey! An Actor, but I'd be interested in pursuing Chris' line of thinking should I re-watch it.

Hahaha that looks exactly like a "live-action" Pinoccho remake would look like. Understandably, they're more of that promotional Hunchback of Notre Dame style whimsy being frontloaded, obscuring the innate horror story beneath the surface. Looks like it'll be both boys and girls taken to pleasure island this time. Tom Hanks looks perfect, although the house looks huge in comparison to the humble original. Jiminy looks...I wish his face were rounder. I might go out and see this because I went out and saw Aladdin, having loved the original.