Movies - June 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Moreover, it is beginning to bleed into the media too.

Look at the movies, to be more precise. They are just going down. The Jurassic franchise? Surviving on games, which is separate, (in a manner of speaking, ok), from the films or the streaming series. The Planet of the Apes franchise? Also down to the ground. The upcoming Supergirl movie? It is the usual ‘cynical anti-hero find their wings and inner goodness to become the hero they were meant to be’. Given that ‘My Adventures with Superman’ cartoon has done this to Kara in S2 much more powerfully, there is no surprise that people are not too enthusiastic about the upcoming Supergirl movie. Not that DC had many options left – the CW Arrowverse Supergirl really rode the perky good-hearted superheroine aspect of this character to the hilt, making Supergirl look good too, so now the DC movies are trying to do something else with the character.

The Flashpoint Paradox live-action movie had a dark-haired Supergirl instead of Superman, which was not a bad idea, overall, but someone in the creative team behind the DC live-action movies decided that that idea was contaminated by Ezra Miller’s toxicity, so back to the blonde hair it is. Now Supergirl curses, swears, drinks, and the like, but never fear! Once push comes to shove, Supergirl will do what is right. …Whether the audience will appreciate it is another question. Next?

Well, this brings us to my main point of my rant: ‘Steps’. Pause. Here I mean not the stairs, (that is for Po Ping the Panda), but rather the upcoming Netflix movie. In this version of the Cinderella’s story, one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, (her name is Lilith), gets the fairy godmother’s wand, makes a hash of things, and has a tyrant named Priscilla take over the kingdom, so now she and Cinderella have to team-up to save it all. Pause.

Does this sound familiar? It kind of does. No, not the Lilith bit – thanks to the team Vivziepop the name of Adam’s first wife (in some religious traditions) is well known now. I am talking about the movie’s plot – it is heavily influenced by Disney’s movie ‘Cinderella 3: the Twist in Time’. There, Cinderella’s stepfamily stole fairy godmother’s wand and almost took over the kingdom, but never fear – one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, (Anastasia), reconsidered and helped Cinderella save the day. The delivery of ‘Cinderella 3’ and ‘Steps’ is different, but the latter was clearly influenced by the former. That said, while Disney’s movies often have plot twists, the plot of ‘Steps’ does not – not apparently. Rather, from the little we have, we will have Lilith help Cinderella defeat Priscilla and become a better person. The plot of ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ did this sort of thing already. Still better than Disney. Pause.

Let me try again. Where is Disney in all of this? Making ‘The Stepsisters’, something new and edgy about Cinderella’s stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. It is supposed to be done a la ‘Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers’ reboot too. That particular reboot with Disney’s attempt to do something a la ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ film. The original movie itself… is based on a book that has little to do with the film, and has its own fans and audience, not much more. The ‘Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers’ film – ditto; it made money, so Disney is keeping the crew busy with ‘The Stepsisters’ while it decides what to do next, and it can take a while.

Listen. Disney loves to make money. It hates losing money, and being involved in controversies and the like – even more. It wants to appeal to the sexual minorities, which is does by featuring them in various MCU properties, done in such a manner that they can be ‘cut out’ of the main MCU narrative and the latter doesn’t suffer; sexual minorities are the outlier, and the main heterosexual narrative is the main narrative.

Is Disney’s own universe, sometimes that cannot be done, as it was with ‘Raya and the last dragon’: there the same-sex relationship was plain to see. Therefore, Disney just ended that universe, the movie is a one-time, and it will remain a one-time, though Raya herself will appear in various other properties as a Disney princess. No girlfriend or anyone, though.

Conversely, there is the ‘Frozen’ franchise. The first film was quite traditional by Disney princess standards, with Hans being a traditional villain, albeit one with an open ending – he did not die, for one thing. However, ‘Frozen 2’ completely discard that story, having Elsa and her family go north, where they met Honeymaren Elsa’s not-girlfriend – right now Elsa is officially single, and as some person told us, she’ll remain single until she decides how she swings. I.e., Disney realized that they hit on something good with a blue-eyed blonde queen/princess/whoever and they do not want to ruin it by controversy. So they did not, Elsa remained conveniently single in ‘Frozen 2’, and now that the third and fourth movies of the ‘Frozen’ franchise are coming in the next few years, we will get to see what Disney does to poor Elsa next. Anything else?

Eh, ‘Cinderella 3’ made a bit of a mess itself, as it cancelled out the events in ‘Cinderella 2’. Maybe ‘The Stepsisters’ will fix it, or they may not. Netflix’s ‘Steps’ might be a fun fresh (relatively) take on the ‘Cinderella’ story, or it might just be an insipid and pointless generic piece of junk about a redemption of not quite a villain. We will just have to wait and see. Real life sucks, remember?

This is it for now. See you all soon!

Endlings 'akikiki bird - June 10

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s ‘Endlings’ episode – the ‘akikiki bird? Pause.

By now it is evident even to the BB cast and crew that ‘Endlings’ came to a dead end – there’re only so many variations of the story that you can have when it comes to endlings – to extinctions. In the story of ‘akikiki, the extinction occurred in the wild – in captivity, this bird is still managed and raised and controlled by the people; how will those birds act when they are released in the wild isn’t talked about.

Right, the eventual return of the ‘akikiki. The reason why it is extinct in the wild is the introduction of the avian malaria, made worse by the climate change. Right now, the mosquitoes are being managed – people are trying to swamp the Hawaii mosquito population with genetically incompatible males so that the mosquitos would lay infertile eggs and die out. Pause.

Let me try again. The ‘akikiki birds are being raised in captivity – it costs money and the people who are raising the ‘akikiki birds are getting paid. To breed incompatible mosquitoes, you need money, and so the breeders are being paid. Somehow, the ‘akikiki birds became cash cows, and even the people at BB/’Endlings’ sense this, and are uncomfortable by this, and so they spent talking, (for only 10 minutes), how hard it was to acquire the ‘akikiki eggs, and how hard it is to raise them in captivity, and so on. They are right, but it does not deny the fact that the ‘akikiki birds and all that’s related to them became a money-making process, and people are good at keeping money-making processes going, you know?

The BB/’Endlings’ people know this too, and so they wrapped-up the ‘akikiki bird story quite fast – maybe one day it’ll return to the wild, and maybe it won’t – the climate change situation is still unresolved. Real life sucks, you know?

This is it for now. See you all soon.

New story - June 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, hence why I've been so quiet lately. Ah well, for a change, here's a new story of mine.

It was morning, the sky was clearing up, but the wind was blowing hard and strong and cold, even for early summer. John watched the mourning doves at his birdfeeder with a familiar, simmering irritation – why did he invest into this contraption anyhow? He did not want to remember right now, as the doves cooed and pecked at the scattered birdseed with an almost offensive leisure, their plump bodies almost an affront to his own taut nerves as they stored birdseed in their crops.

As a particularly corpulent bird hopped closer to the window, John turned away. Bloated, self-satisfied creatures, he thought, projecting all his irrational irritation onto their feathery forms. Where’s a hawk when you needed one? He got onto his feet and walked outside. Maybe elsewhere something better was going on?

 

 “Honestly, Rebecca, those tattoos are just… a lot,” Donna said, her voice dripping with an elegant disapproval that always grated. Rebecca, her arm a canvas of vibrant, swirling blues and greens, merely arched an eyebrow. Donna, emboldened, continued, “I mean, there’s subtle art, and then there’s… that.” She gestured vaguely at Rebecca’s forearm. Rebecca just smiled a slow, knowing curve of her lips. Then, with a theatrical flourish, Rebecca pushed up the sleeve of Donna’s own silk blouse. Beneath, a magnificent, intricate serpent-dragon, its scales shimmering with metallic thread, snaked from her shoulder to her wrist, each detail a testament to hours of meticulous, painful artistry, was connected to other tattoos, still hidden beneath Donna’s blouse. Rebecca’s earlier ink looked like a child’s crayon drawing next to Donna’s masterpiece. Donna’s face, usually so composed, went slack with panic. “Where, where did they come from?” she twitched as she turned to Rebecca, because the latter was the closest. “Rebecca, this isn’t me, this isn’t me, and you know it!” Rebecca, who carefully covered her own arm with her own sleeve, said nothing. To be honest, she felt rather jealous of the older woman’s tattoos, now that she saw them.

Across the room, Anna, a friend of Donna’ began her own verbal assault, thinly disguised as a concerned speech. The bohemian lifestyle of Jenna, (Donna’s daughter), her endless backpacking trips, her "spiritual journeys" – it was all just so pointless, according to Anna. Jenna was not a child or even a teen anymore; she had to settle down; whether here, in her hometown, or elsewhere was another story. Clearly, Jenna seemed happier abroad, so perhaps it was time to move on and stop giving her mother more grey hairs?

However, as she began to speak, Jenna carefully inserted herself into the rant, recounting a story of how Anna helped people in the past, and what a shame that people started to ignore Anna now that the latter has aged a bit and no longer looked as flamboyant as before. Looking into Jenna’s eyes shining with a genuine compassion, Anna’s planned words crumbled. Jenna’s empathy was a force, a warmth that Anna, with her cold judgments, was missing lately. Anna found herself not criticizing, but asking questions, truly listening for the first time, as the two women sat down and talked. They had their differences, mental and physical, yes, but there were similarities too – both women shared a lean body plan of those who exercise a lot and do plenty of physical activities, and their faces showed the same tan – of those who spent a lot of time outdoors; honestly, Anna looked quite good for her age, as Jenna pointed out…

Anna ended up hiring Jenna as her receptionist, and never regretted it. Donna never really realized it – her own friendship with Anna rather faded, but her own hairdo now sparkled to match her tattoos.

It helped, in a small way, with her identity crisis.

 

The heat was a living thing in the Balkan Mountains, baking the dry earth to a cracking crisp. An extra-large and powerful Vipera ammodytes, its horn-like snout twitching, slithered across a sun-baked rock, its patterns a perfect camouflage against the speckled stone. Down, down, towards the shade of a fig tree, it moved its intentions purely predatory, and its existence utterly indifferent to human concerns. There, a couple of little owls made their nest in a tree hollow – it was dark and comfortable, but also too close to the ground. The owlets and their parents did not realize this, but the world did not care.

A trio of owlets were in the hollow, warming each other, waiting for their parents to come with their regularly scheduled meal. The noise outside could have told them that that would never happen, but the owlets were too little, and too sleepy to realize this.

…Few hours later, when their calls for food became truly desperate – they were that young anyhow – a couple of park rangers found them and got them out of the hollow into an appropriate holding container. They were given a small mouse each, and immediately relaxed and huddled together, as they did not know much about the world.

The snake was long gone, digesting its own meal in peace.

 

Miles away, off the coast of Turkey, a sleek, grey shadow cut through the turquoise water. A shortfin mako shark, a ghost of the deep, patrolled the ancient currents, its primeval instincts honed over millions of years. A tourist boat, oblivious, chugged towards a picturesque cove, its passengers laughing, their world a million miles from the silent, powerful hunter beneath the waves.

The mako’s nose twitched as some of the tourists made all the right, or wrong, splashes and other noises to attract it. Slowly, circling, it began to surface. Another mako, a younger one, zoomed by, almost hitting the first shark, who began to chase it. Things could have gone in any direction, when a bait ball of sardines or similar fish appeared from the blue. The sharks stopped their confrontation and began to hunt instead, keeping a distance between themselves, but getting along well enough, even though one of them was visibly bigger and older than the other one…

 

John found himself sitting on his couch in the living room, an unfinished bottle of beer in his hand and a bunch of forgotten and faded memories and dreams in his head. He vaguely remembered Jenna, now handling a mid-life crisis by shedding her metaphorical skin, as well as Anna and Donna, who found their home in each other; he remembered the Balkans and the Turkish coast, but could not make heads or tails of those memories.

He looked outside. The doves were gone, the birdfeeder was mostly empty. He will try different birdfeed next time.

 End - and what do you think? Please let me know, because real life sucks.