Spider-Man, 'No Way Home' - Dec 17

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the latest Spider-Man movie instead.

…I mean, sure, it isn’t as straightforward, for example, the discovery of a brand new millipede specie in RL is really exciting, while the new JWD posters are something else: on the first, we have Claire stuck in a swamp, driven there by a therezinosaurus; again, I’ve no idea what a therezinosaurus would do in a swamp, plus the entire poster is too reminiscent of the ones done for the first film in the Jumanji reboot; and now we have the second poster, where Owen has lassoed a Parasaurolophus instead. A Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaur (duck-billed) dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous around the inland sea of the prehistoric North America, in a time, and a place, that was pretty much opposite to the boreal forest in which Chris had lassoed it on the poster, so clearly, the world of the JWD movie has a lot of issues to work out – by people, by dinosaurs, by both, and by anyone else. And the latest (Tom Holland) Spider-Man movie?

…And the latest (Tom Holland) Spider-Man movie is something else. When we talked about the ‘Ronin’ episode of ‘Hawkeye’, I said that ‘Hawkeye’ has becoming nothing more than by the numbers Marvel TV series, whereas ‘No Way Home’ has become a by the numbers… Sony Spider-Man movie.

No, seriously, the advantage of MCU over its’ competitors was that it had a greater picture, so to speak: every film was a step on the path to… the ‘Endgame’. No, seriously the ‘Endgame’ film was the endgame to the first three phases of MCU; just consider them the bigger and more derived cousins to the three seasons of a typical Disney property, and you’ll be set. Now, however, MCU is moving – has moved – onto Phase 4, and out of Disney’s comfort zone, so no wonder that it is meandering all over the place – and then it came back to Sony. Their previous collaboration with each other – the ‘Far From Home’ film – resulted in Sony and Disney/MCU fighting, and the latter was forced to retreat, and now…

…And now, we got another Sony & Disney/MCU collaboration on Spider-Man, and it is something else from what I have predicted. I predicted that it is going to launch the concept of the multiverse in the Disney/MCU universe for real, now that the previous Disney+ Marvel TV series have teased it – ‘Loki’ began to explore it – and so it had. By the final scene, where we see Dr. Strange encounter Wanda Maximoff after the events of WV, dismiss the events in Westview easily enough, and talk to her about exploring the multiverse for real: ‘No Way Home’ was a glorified pre-run instead.

It was also a reboot of the Sony Spider-Man universe, as we got to see Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin stab ‘his’ Spider-Man rather than be impaled by his glider before everyone was able to go home; Electro from the ‘second’ Spider-Man universe also got redesigned; and so on. Given that Sony is continuing its’ own Spider-Verse, (the upcoming Morbius film, etc.) this does bring possibilities – but not to MCU. Instead, in case of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, he lost everyone and almost everything, and is clear to start from a clean slate. MCU is done with the Web-Head, so the odds of him having to deal with threats from only ‘his’ universe are fairly good.

In addition, there are signs that MCU has moved onto from Spider-Man: I am talking about ‘Hawkeye’, who has no mention of Wall-Crawler at all: seriously, you have adventures in a Marvel-verse NYC and no mention of the Spider-Man? That is just wrong. But that is also real life business politics: Sony, (including Spider-Man), and Disney/MCU are done with each on this level, and so Spider-Man got send out of MCU with a big fanfare, Sony got to demonstrate its’ past and present Spider-Man properties in a more tasteful way of HBO’s ‘Space Jam 2’ film, which has little in common with the original movie, and is worse than the original ‘Space Jam’ had been, which is just sad. Where were we?

Oh yeah, with the realization that ‘No Way Home’ was just a side-quest, an ejection from the otherwise slim and streamlined MCU phase 4, (no sarcasm intended). ‘What if?’ might be ‘What if?’, but it is apocrypha for a reason; there we saw situations that could have happened in MCU, but did not… just because. And even so, the end result of ‘What if?’ S1 was a variant of ‘Endgame’, a mix of the first and the last ‘Avengers’ films – nothing more. Disney/MCU always returns to its’ comfort zone… Pause.

Ah yes, the Daredevil (Charlie Cox) cameo. Now that the agreement between Disney/MCU & Netflix has ended, MCU is cautiously (re)-introducing the ‘Defenders’ characters, starting with the Kingpin and his archenemy Daredevil…apparently. What will come out of that we will have to see…

Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Hawkeye, 'Ronin' - Dec 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let’s talk about’Hawkeye’ instead. We’ve reached the penultimate episode, and where we are?

On one hand, Clint has confessed to Maya, admitting that he had killed her father, but also claiming that he was set-up by her father’s boss, (probably the Kingpin), so that makes it all ok… or not, ‘cause Maya’s father is still dead, and Clint isn’t off the hook entirely yet.

Speaking of the Kingpin? Kate’s family seems to be in cahoots with him, and so Luke and Leia (Skywalker) tell Kate “hi”. Fisk also appears to be the power behind contessa Val, so no Hydra either, most likely. Of course, this brings us not just to ‘Black Widow’, but also to Sam&Bucky, whose former enemy John Walker was also recruited by the good contessa; is Fisk trying to fill the void left by Hydra? That’s atypical for him in the comics, (and also Netflix’s ‘Defenders’), but MCU has played fast and loose with Marvel canon before, so no surprises here.

Coming back to the Bishops, their turnaround isn’t surprising either- in the comics, Kate’s mother was a villain, so ‘Hawkeye’ is just building on that. I.e., ‘Ronin’s’ action sequences were superb, and the dialogue/plot progression were better than in ‘Partners’, but it is still a by the numbers live action adaptation of the comics with its’ mostly black and white morality; plus…

…Plus we know that Echo/Maya Lopez will join the roster of Marvel heroes that have their own live action TV series and/or films, so we know that she will turn white hat eventually- Disney/MCU has shot itself in the foot there as well, and without unpredictable twists and turns ‘Hawkeye’ is - see above. Anything else?

No, not really. I, for one, have enjoyed watching ‘Ronin’; it was a good episode to watch, but nothing more- ‘Hawkeye’ is delivering, but its’ delivery is still rather predictable, if not outright lacklustre.

Therefore, this is it for now - see you all soon!

Hawkeye, 'Partners' - Dec 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but I was able to squeeze out some time to write down this, so let us go straight into escapism.

First – ‘Hawkeye’ episode 1x04, ‘Partners’. So far, there is no sign of the Kingpin, though since Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is returning to MCU, hope is kindling. Whether or not this reboot will be connected to ‘Hawkeye’ is another story.

Let me elaborate. MCU tries to be a complex, combined universe; it is trying to gain an advantage over team DC, when the latter had created its own world out of ‘Arrow’, ‘Flash’, ‘LoT’ and ‘Supergirl’. However, whereas DC tried to restrict itself to just those four TV series, (‘Black Lightning’, ‘Batwoman’, and so on were more distant), MCU is trying to make a much more tangled web, given how all of those Marvel TV shows are coming to Disney+ in the future.

…However, as Netflix’s take on the ‘Defenders’ franchise showed, to make a shared universe is harder than how it looks; the TV shows that made this franchise up were quite different from each other, and not necessarily in the good way, so there’s no sign that Disney/MCU will have it better: so far, the various Marvel TV shows were treated separately from each other – but yes, Yelena Belova, I’m looking at you.

Yes, Natasha Romanoff’s baby sister has appeared in ‘Hawkeye’ at last, as she took the titular character – I mean, Barton – on for size, but Barton was able to stand his ground and even send her packing, but given that she’s Natasha’s replacement, (even before ScarJo had her feud with Disney/MCU, cough), this certainly isn’t the last time that we’ve seen her. What next?

Well, the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, was also able to stand up to Maya Lopez/Echo and even get the best of her. Given that in ‘Echoes’ Barton was unable to defeat Maya, this is certainly important. But-?

But here is the thing. The action aspect of ‘Hawkeye’ is great and so far, it is the motor of the series; whenever there is a lull in the action, the show has problems: the discussion that the titular characters had with Ms. Bishop and William was painful to watch, for example. It did serve a purpose, as Ms. Bishop then made some sort of a mysterious phone call… and what do we know about her, and her deceased first husband, anyhow? Nothing in MCU, but in the comics Kate’s mother did work with that version of Madame Masque; MCU had its’ Madame Masque in the character of Agnes Cully, but that was in the past, a different villain can assume that name easily. (Not to mention that Agent Carter and her cohorts defeated Agnes). Where were we?

Ah yes, the mysterious phone call. So far, the fans have enjoyed wondering just how Kingpin was going to fit – to re-fit, pardon me – into MCU. Much was talked about how Echo was his stepdaughter in the comics, and in MCU, she had a mysterious, unseen, ‘Uncle’. Sadly, it is never confirmed that that man was Fisk, not to mention that ‘Hawkeye’ already had an uncle – William’s uncle Armand, who died off camera in unknown circumstances, while William himself owns a company that launders money from the Tracksuit Mafia, which is led by Maya and Kazi. Oh dear, I fear that we are going to have another red herring on our hands…unless Ms. Bishop is calling Fisk for real. Now what?

Well, aside from the fact that Clint Barton tried to dissolve his relationship with Kate Bishop – ha-ha, he thinks that it is up to him – we got a new look at a new dinosaur from the upcoming JWD movie, and it is the therezinosaurus. In RL, it was the biggest of plant-eating theropods, (i.e. the dinosaurs that were usually carnivores instead), and it looked…well, people know how it looked/looks – just look in the deviant-art website, for example; it looked either like a cross between a giant ground sloth and a goose, or like a prosauropod dinosaur instead.

Here is the thing: as far as the dinosaurs go, there is the ornithischians, the bird-hipped dinosaurs, such as the Stegosaurus and the Triceratops, and the saurischians, or the lizard-hipped dinosaurs. The dinosaur carnivores – Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Archaeopteryx and so on – belonged to that group, but so did such herbivores as the Apatosaurus: the sauropods, and their prosauropod cousins.

 For a good long while scientists assumed that the sauropods such as the Apatosaurus have evolved from the prosauropods, but now the two dino types are considered to be sister groups instead. What does that entail for paleontology I do not know, but what I do know that some of the prosauropods moved on two legs rather than four, and their forelimbs had rather impressive claws – such as the Plateosaurus, one of the last, and the biggest, of prosauropods. It was still an herbivore, just as the other prosauropod and sauropod dinosaurs were, but so was Therezinosaurus and its’ relatives, which physically were similar to Plateosaurus and the like. I.e., yes, Therezinosaurus and co. were the dinosaur analogues of the giant panda, carnivores, which switched to a purely plant-eating way of life, but the thing is that the lizard-hipped dinosaurs have evolved something similar way back in the Triassic, (Therezinosaurus and the rest lived during the late Cretaceous instead), so it isn’t too unexpected, actually. Nature tends to recycle its’ ideas, and while Therezinosaurus was unusual, there was precedent for this type of dinosaur and dinosaur body plan as well.

As for the Therezinosaurus’ role in the upcoming JWD movie… I really cannot tell. So far, we only know that it might have chased Claire into a swamp… or it may be just a promo poster instead. It is hard to tell, and since this is a cloned Therezinosaurus, and not a member of the prologue, it may not really matter.

…Yes, this may be crude, but at the end of the day? The prologue of JWD was yet another attempt at authenticity in fiction, just as the fact that the actress who plays Maya Lopez in ‘Hawkeye’ is disabled in RL. No offence, but RL and silver screen are not directly connected, and though I have enjoyed Maya’s interactions, cough, with the titular characters, that is because her actress is naturally talented, not because of disabilities, RL or otherwise. The silver screen and RL are not equal to each other, and neither are they in direct symbiosis to each other, as the elections of 2016 showed everybody. Not that the elections-2020 were much better, but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it. See all of you – eventually!

What if, S1 finale - October 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I cannot wait for today to be over for all sorts of reasons; as such, given that I have neither the time nor the inclination to wax poetic about the S1 conclusion of ‘What if?’ let me try to be brief instead.

The S1 finale is rather rushed; I do not know what ‘What if?’ was going for here; maybe it was some sort of a 4^th wall breakthrough, but in this case, they should have gone for a better medium than what is essentially a cartoon series, whose finale had been spoiled since the teaser trailer if not before. Marvel multiverse has plenty of stories, no doubt, but the audience of ‘team Marvel’ had been quite aware of them for a while; unlike the ‘Star Wars: Visions’ anthology, which authentically brought something new to the table due to a variety of factors, Marvel’s ‘What if?’ brought essentially some tried and true ideas to the table, nothing that hadn’t been encountered by Marvel fans before, albeit in different mediums, but still. The S1 finale assembled merely a different set of Avengers – pardon me, Guardians – but somehow they have reminded me of yet another Marvel team-up: Netflix’s ‘Defenders’. Whereas AoS was honestly bad, and ‘InHumans’ insipid, Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ were simply lackluster; a condition made worse by their heterogeneous nature: all 4 series, (plus ‘Punisher’ made the fifth), were different from each other, and when the ‘Defenders’ tried to combine all of them, (minus the Punisher) into a single show, it failed. What next?

‘What if?’ S1 finale was not a variant of the ‘Defenders’, no, but it was also lackluster: it was evident, (just as in case of the ‘Defenders’), just how everything and everyone would go so there were no twists and turns. Individual episodes were predictable enough, but in this case… Uatu threw a variant Gamora into the mix as an extra, and – period. That is it, and even the ‘Gamora killing Thanos’ case isn’t too unique – Marvel comics already did it… in one of the last pre-COVID-19 plot arcs. Yay.

…Well, the fact that ‘What if?’ had not killed the variant Zola and Killmonger off is different, though it is reminiscent of how the 1990’s Spider-Man cartoon had had its’ Captain Rogers and the Red Skull trapped in some timeless void in an eternal struggle. Here we have something similar; and has the variant Dr. Strange become Uatu’s jailer? Seriously, what are the ramifications of Uatu breaking his oath, and are there any ramifications for Uatu? That is not answered; instead, we get ‘What if?’ transformed from an anthology of independent stories – think SW: Visions for comparison – into another ‘Avengers’ variant, which is something that we’ve seen before… unlike the second ‘Venom’ film that we have also recently discussed, and which has actually brought something new to its’ audiences, (however limited or flawed it might be, yes, but still), hence its’ success and ‘What if?’-s not so much. Disney/MCU stopped taking risks after the fall of the SW Sequel Trilogy – but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it instead. See you all soon!

Kings of Pain 2 - Dec 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks and your family does its’ best to make you feel worse. You cannot escape them, not really, and certainly not legally, and if you aren’t ready to cross the legal lines, you are in trouble, and if you are-? Then you are ready to spread your trouble to your immediate vicinity and beyond because you are that badass, (but in a bad way, so do not get too cocky). …And so I tried to escape into the realm of TV for some sweet release, and what do I find there? ‘Kings of Pain’.

Now, I have been talking about them in passing in our last few entries, but I tried to avoid talking about them directly, because there were, and are, better topics to talk about; this time though there aren’t any. Oh, sure, there are also the news that the Marvel TV as such is being assimilated into the greater MCU, but this was in the cards all along: FOX mutant TV shows and FOX itself – cancelled/concluded/assimilated. Netflix TV series – cancelled or finished. AoS – finished in summer 2020. C&D – cancelled. Runaways – finished this winter, (2019/2020). And then there were none, and Disney+ is coming out soon, so any outsiders shall be dealt with accordingly. Yes, Sony showed that Disney/Marvel juggernaut is not so tough. Yes, until Netflix’s rights expire properly and for real, (we’re talking about the Defenders here), Disney/Marvel isn’t about to use any of them in its’ movies, TV shows, and so on, lest there be a copyright conflict issue. Quite a while back, Lionsgate made an animated ‘Planet Hulk’ film, and so we got ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ film the way we got. Disney/Marvel isn’t quite as badass as it appears to be, but it’s close enough, the end.

…Not that DC is much better – remember the Maxwell Lord situation that we have mentioned earlier? That is typical for DC, however – the ‘Arrow-verse’ is tight, and nothing else in DC-verse is. What does it have to do with ‘Kings of Pain’?

Here’s what: just as Disney has clamped down tight on its’ YouTube aspects – ‘Mulan’ barely got any discussion, and what did occur was carefully controlled and positive – so has ‘Kings of Pain’ stopped appearing on YouTube at all, even on the official YouTube channel of History TV. Why?

…Before we get into it, let us give a dishonorable mention to NatGeo, and not just because its’ website is now a paysite. Aside from the online paysite, NatGeo has two other main sources of sharing its’ info: the magazine, (which is always available on the site, of course), which is available as a corporeal, paper magazine, (duh!), and also on the YouTube channel – as videos. Actually, there are several connected YouTube channels that are property of the NatGeo brand, but…

…But now that the mothersite of NatGeo is a paysite, NatGeo releases its’ videos on its’ YouTube channel very rarely and very sparingly and they are only clips from its’ various shows now – no news. You get only what you pay – how commercial. They are not about to share much freely, but neither are they about to abandon this venture either.

Why is NatGeo’s YouTube info free? Hard to say. Various movies, TV series, etc., are for cash only on YouTube, but not short episode clips – just look at BBC Earth YouTube channel, for example. Video clips that are under 5-10 minutes are free, and apparently, NatGeo has to follow this rule slash guideline as well. Therefore, it does, and it does so by releasing only a couple of clips per week at most – yay. No.

How does the History channel compare to this sort of thing? Just like the BBC TV family on YouTube, it reveals plenty of episode clips from its’ shows on its channel – the full episodes are available on the History website where you need to sign-in, join-in, etc. Fair enough, but lately there are no episode clips of ‘Kings of Pain’ on YouTube, only full episodes on the History website proper. Why? Does the team of the History channel consider this show so good? Let me give you a hint: they are not.

…On this week’s episode, ‘Kings of Pain’ dealt, first, with the toe biter, aka a giant water bug. Note the ‘bug’ in its’ name – this is important, because the leads of ‘Kings’ called it a ‘beetle’ repeatedly on the show instead. ‘Bugs’ aren’t ‘beetles’: the two groups of insects are separate and distinct as much as – cats and squirrels, for example.

How you differentiate beetles from bugs? Beetles have two pairs of wings. The hind pair of wings is membranous and transparent and is used by beetles for flight. There are flightless beetles, of course, but they still have front pair of wings that are more properly called the elytra and aren’t wings at all, but hard covers that protect the vulnerable hind pair of wings and the soft abdomen of the beetles.

Bugs also have the membranous hind pair of wings and they too can fly, and they also have the elytra, but their elytra is only partial, it only covers part of the hind wings and of the abdomen, giving bugs a very different appearance from the beetles.

The second main difference of true bugs from true beetles is that all of bugs have a proboscis – a sharp syringe with which they stab their food, liquefy from the inside and sap it up. Beetles, conversely, usually have jaws called mandibles and they chew their food up – but they are a very varied group, and some beetles have adapted to eat liquid food also – we are talking about the stag beetles and their kin, so this method of separating true beetles from true bugs is not as reliable as the first one.

…And then we have the Wikipedia that already has done the hard stuff and you can always look it up to see just what you are dealing with, broadly speaking. Team ‘Kings of Pain’ did it – in this episode, they also list a number of lay names for the giant water bugs aside from the primary toe biter moniker that they clearly got from the Wiki – so why did they insist on calling this insect a ‘beetle’? Giant water bugs are no more beetles than cats are squirrels, you know!

…My money is on the show itself – it has its’ good aspects still, but so did AoS, and on ‘Kings of Pain’ we may be dealing with an AoS level of bad. The main leads seem to be decisively unenthusiastic when working with each other, they have no chemistry, and sometimes they appear to honestly hate each other sometimes, or at least – not like each other very much. Sometimes their banter does seem natural, but this isn’t enough to save the show entirely, so why the apparent VIP treatment by team History? Because they consider the new show to be that good, (it isn’t), or that bad, (it just may be)? Everyone can draw his or her own conclusion.

…The other animal featured on this week’s episode was the scorpionfish and that came with its’ own problem. You see, the term ‘scorpionfish’ applies to a very large family of fishes, scientifically known as Scorpaenidae. The lionfish, which appeared in an earlier episode and was referenced here, is actually a lay name for a fish genus named Pterois: it includes several fish species and is a part of the Scorpaenidae family, aka the scorpionfish. This particular ‘scorpionfish’ featured on ‘Kings of Pain’ didn’t look anything like a lionfish, but there are several genera of ‘scorpionfish’ that resemble each other very closely, (which is why the scientific names of their genera sound similarly), so it’s hard to figure out just what species of ‘scorpionfish’ ‘Kings of Pain’ used in their show. Of course, in the wild the scorpionfish live mostly in Indo-Pacific, which is nowhere near Baja California where this episode supposedly took place at, but not exclusively so, as the wild lionfish do, so let’s give ‘Kings’ the benefit of doubt on this one and call it a day.

Anything else? Well, Boris Johnson, who is the U.K.’s PM (for now, but still), had hid in his fridge to avoid an interview on live TV – nice. It is because of actions such as this one Ms. Greta Thunberg became TIME magazine’s person of the year… but we have already mentioned that real life sucks, so let us call this an end for this rant.

…Ergo, this is it for now, so see you all soon!

The Gifted: Monsters - Feb 19

Let us start with the obvious: real life… well, sucks. However, it is also confusing, and messy, and then there is the financial angle…but the less is said about money and taxes and the like is better. Let us talk about ‘the Gifted’ instead.

This week we learned… well, actually, we learned that Netflix is done with Marvel – even JJ and ‘Punisher’ are cancelled, done, finished. Why that is happened is another story, Disney is likely to be involved, but after the SW fiasco, Disney isn’t likely to be openly involved in another mess, especially one that involves money, (yes, money, again), so odds are that we won’t hear about ‘the Defenders’ or any of their associates for a while now, at least until all the copyright and ownership kinks are smoothed out.

Secondly C&D is returning this spring, (AoS is returning this summer instead). The S2 trailer showed us…not just Ty and Dy, but also detective Mayhem, who returns a full-on vigilante with her own powers, and odds are? She is going a) to rock, and b) cause more friction between Ty and Dy. (That said? The chemistry between them is great, and was part of the reason as to why C&D S1 was a success to begin with).

Finally, on this week’s episode, ‘Monsters’, we learn…that the strength of ‘the Gifted’ lies in the actors and acting and the drama that they manifest in their characters, as the plot itself can be holey. The most obvious hole in ‘Monsters’ is the time skip: one moment Lauren and Caitlin are hiding in an abandoned building during the day, with no one in sight, the next moment it’s night and there are cops outside of it already. The cops, of course, are right there with SW’s storm canonic troopers – lousy shots and are scared off by some feeble return gunfire too. Reed and Marcos were able to free Caitlin and Lauren by burning a hole in the building’s back wall without any interference. Score one for the mutants.

The second point is for Ted. He is dead. Reed killed him. With his powers. Considering that Ted had been the closest thing that Jace had had in the Purifiers for a friend you would think that he would be genuinely affected by Ted’s death, but instead? No one in the Purifiers seem to realize that Ted is dead, and Jace is having his doubts regarding the Morlocks’ massacre. Of course, he is right to do that, as the Purifiers are being manipulated, or even managed by Reeva, who is THE mutant villain of the S2, but still…Ted is dead and no one cares about him, not even the other Purifiers. Poor Ted.

Of course, Clarice is also dead, and the Morlocks are gone, their leader has schooled John in the ways of leadership again. Mind you, John is not a villain, he is a genuine good guy, but he is a terrible leader and had spent almost the entirety of ‘Monsters’ doing nothing but mourning Clarice. This makes him sympathetic and a figure of pity on some level, but also? Something of an annoyance…and a failure as a leader. There is a good reason as to why this corner of Mutant Underground fell apart when Lorna left them for the Hellfire Club/Inner Circle, and John is a part of it.

Speaking of Secret Agent Lorna? Sigh. Her and Andy’s escape from the Inner Circle was something else. Basically, the two of them just up and left – Lorna because she was planning to do with Marcos a while by now, and Andy because he had a pep talk with his father. The actors do their best to liven the lackluster departure and the CGI nighttime storm setting helps, but somehow? It still feels ridiculous. Reeva even had the nerve to be surprised when she, Esme, and Esme’s sisters discovered Lorna and Andy’s escape. Seriously, just who did she think she is? Other than a fantastic manager and manipulator? Mesmero the mind-bending telepath?

Of course, the Mutant Underground itself isn’t much better, plot-wise: the way that Lauren, (well, her character) mourns Clarice? It is impressive, but it does not negate the fact that ever since S2 of ‘the Gifted’ began, Lauren and Clarice spent less than two or three full episodes and did not even properly interact with each other at all. ‘the Gifted’ is an amazing show, but it still has limitations, sadly…

Anything else? Andy is back with the Mutant Underground, ditto for Lorna, and John…either heard Clarice say his name or he’s began to hallucinate. Either way, he owns the most impressive tomahawk (Native American battle-axe) that I have seen ever since DW S2 episode ‘Comanche vs. Mongol’ – but that is another story. For now let’s just accept that the Mutant Underground gang is together again, (almost), Jace is having his issues, and Reeva is almost ready to initiate the final stage of her plan to take over America.

This is it for now; see you all next week!

The Gifted: gaMe changer - Dec 4

The obligatory disclaimer: sometimes real life sucks, and sometimes it does not. Yay, really. Now onto ‘the Gifted’.

…This week’s episode was called the ‘gaMe changer’, and it certainly lived up to its’ name. The Inner Circle has destroyed the control center for the mutants’ control collars, and now many mutants are free. With the ‘regular’ society already inflamed and divided on the mutant issue, Reeva’s plan for taking over USA is beginning to take shape and it is a workable one, too. Whether she will be able to keep the United States once she captures them, is another story, and, moreover, one that we will get to see later, after the winter break, (technically speaking). For now, more new mutant characters will be appearing on the show; whether they will stay, or go, as Rebecca did, is another story.

…Rebecca got killed off in this week’s episode, incidentally. Judging by S1, no return from the dead for her; ‘the Gifted’ are not like AoS in that fashion. (With AC, there is not enough material to make a statement). This brings us to Daredevil, or rather – to ‘Daredevil’, who got cancelled at the end of last month.

Is this noteworthy? Well, yes – ‘Reverie’ might have also gotten cancelled during November 2018, (albeit in the beginning, rather than the end), but ‘Daredevil’ lasted longer – for 3 seasons rather than 1, and it was much more exciting, proportionally speaking, than ‘Reverie’ had been. ‘Reverie’ was not a bad show, but it was very heavily influenced by AoS on one hand, and kind of… not exactly insipid, but certainly lackluster on the other. ‘Reverie’ got cancelled with a whimper; the exit of ‘Daredevil’ was more noticeable.

Yes, in part this is because ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ were cancelled earlier in November 2018 too; with only JJ still up for grabs on one hand, and with ‘The Defenders’ proper being the weakest of Marvel/Netflix shows, things aren’t looking up for the Defenders team. However, that is acceptable: right now, the most popular theory is that with Disney establishing its’ own version of Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc., and as such, it is no longer too interested in cooperating with Netflix proper. (And maybe its’ counterparts as well).

Of course, until Netflix’s copyright for the Defenders’ team run out, Disney will have to tread carefully here, to prevent any conflicts back in the real world. It is already in a bad place regarding its’ other takeover, of SW, so it does not really need to add any of its’ Marvel properties into the mix. With Sony, (regarding its’ universe of Marvel characters or Earth-TRN688), making its’ boundaries clear and established, it might be Netflix’s turn next – or it and Disney might do something completely different, who knows?..

Back to ‘the Gifted’? So far, it is still going strong, with the ‘gaMe changer’ trying to go for something epic, as the Inner Circle releases captured and subdued mutants, the rest of the Strucker family destroying anti-mutant research, and John, from the Mutant Underground, getting captured by Jace and his Purifiers.

Well, technically, the Purifiers’ are not Jace’s, but are more of a free-ranging secret society, like the Freemasons or the Illuminati, but Jace is shown to be taking charge of them lately. Again, it is a question of just how big the Purifiers are, as a movement, but we’ll probably see more of them in the future episodes; right now, John got captured by probably no more than three or four of them, including Jace. Of course, John’s strategy had been to run at their jeep and hold it in place, until he got exhausted, but John has been in a bad place lately, as he and Clarice constantly fought lately, and Marcos was more of a comic relief than anything else.

Pause. This brings us to the fact that by now episodes of ‘the Gifted’ got somewhat, well, disassembled into separate plotlines; Jace capturing John at the end of ‘gaMe changer’ is really the first sign that they are coming together again, and maybe we’ll get something more along the lines of ‘the Gifted’ S1 in the next episode…

And this is it, for now. See you all soon!

Venom - Oct 4

Now then, ‘Venom’.

Straight away, the movie has problems, because it is not MCU per se, but in ‘Sony something-something Marvel something-something’. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue even if you aren’t sarcastic, now does it? And the same thing goes with the movie, literally – it doesn’t quite have the same roll as the MCU movies do…but then again, it isn’t supposed to: it was made by Sony, not by Disney, so to judge it by the MCU standard is just flat-out wrong. To continue.

By now, most people have come to the conclusion that Tom Hardy, who plays the titular role, has largely altered and shaped the movie; ‘Venom’ is all about him…and he deserves it, since he plays both Venom and Brock, who’s Venom’s host. Go Tom! However, it also raises, (sort of), the issue as to why he wasn’t ‘in sync’ with the rest of the cast, and why no one called him out on it, because while he does save the movie, (in a manner of speaking), he’s also the reason as to why it is ‘out of sync’ – because he is clearly moving to a different drum than the rest of the cast.

Big deal? Well, it sort of is, because this ‘dissonance’ is one of the reasons why ‘Venom’ isn’t considered great unanimously, and considering that Sony had had problems with films in the past, (remember the dictator mess?), it’s anyone’s guess as to where it will go now…and yes, the mention of Kasady, (who’s the host of Carnage in the comics), is a great big honking clue.

This is the next point: so far, Venom’s world is extremely limited, especially by Marvel standards – it only has symbionts and that is it; they did not really make a mention or make a tie-in with the greater MCU. By contrast, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ TV series pointedly did at their S1 finale, tying their universe with both Disney’s and Netflix’s corners of Marvel. ‘Venom’ didn’t do anything like that; so far, this Sony-Marvel universe appears to be self-contained, and while it can be self-sustaining, the audience doesn’t like that. People got used to Marvel movies and shows, how they are all interconnected – ‘Runaways’ S2 is coming in December 2018, so it’ll be interesting to see how it fits in with MCU now – so something different, and not necessarily in a good way, is instinctively raising their hackles, so to speak. So far, there is no indication that Sony-Marvel will embrace the greater MCU – the relationship of Sony with Disney was never very easygoing, and people are instinctively upset about that as well.

Now, there’s no overwhelming reason as to why Sony should throw in with Disney/Marvel, and not do their own thing, for the Spider-Man universe is quite big, Venom is only a part of it, so who knows as to who will appear next – Michael Morbius is the best candidate so far, but still – yet this brings us to ‘Titans’.

‘Titans’ are a DC TV show, not a Marvel, (a fact that probably won’t stop the fans from crossing the ‘Titans’ over with the ‘Avengers’ and who knows who else from MCU, as opposed to DCEU, which is another story), but so far it is shaping to be very interesting – yet already people are unhappy, because ‘Titans’ are splintering DCEU even further – there’re the movies, the ‘Arrow-verse’, (with ‘Black Lightning’ being adjunct to it, sort of), there was ‘Powerless’, (which got cancelled mid-S1, the only DC TV series to become cancelled at all, but that is another story), and now – ‘Titans’. They are coming and not everyone is accepting that they are going to be a separate universe – and the same goes for Sony. Not everyone is happy about them trying to do something separate here; in fact, most people are upset about it; plus…

…when I was younger and did not realize just how much life could suck on occasion, (and on other occasions it actually works – go figure), we had a CD game, Maximum Carnage, in which Spidey and Venom raced forwards and beat down bad guys. Not the most complex of games, but it worked. As a game, that is – in real life, it proved to be not quite compatible to our computers, so we had to give it away to our friends… never mind. The point is that ‘Venom 2018’ here feels like a version of this game, just without Spider-Man – Eddie and Venom raced around, beat down bad guys, the end. The villain, (actually, both of them) look and act generic, Eddie’s love interest – ditto, so at least some people are underwhelmed by the movie, especially after you look past the special effects and Hardy’s acting, and people did. By now, they agree that it is not necessarily a bad movie, but not necessarily a good one either, especially if you look at all of the abovementioned points. But to those who still want to go to the movie theaters and look at it all the same – go for it, Tom Hardy makes a generic, though atypical, superhero, (or rather – antihero) going to save the world look good.

Speaking of anti-heroes? ‘Daredevil’ S3 is also coming to Netflix this October. In it, Wilson Fisk the Kingpin is out of the big house and is poised to take over NYC in a plot… that is already similar to him becoming the city’s mayor in the Marvel comics. That was ‘the Defenders’ comics miniseries, (about a dozen issues or so), where the Defenders fought…Copperhead, or Diamondback, as well as the Hood, as the two villains fought each other, (supposedly), for the title of NYC’s Kingpin, (with Fisk backing Copperhead/Diamondback/etc.). Black Cat had also thrown her hat into that fray, but eventually backed out, after she got killed – and the Hood resurrected her. Apparently, he has mystical powers, and so the Defenders summoned practically every other Marvel superhero that is associated with NYC and – the series ended. Sometimes Marvel is like that – but we got sidetracked, the point is that if Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ will be influenced by this story arc, then maybe the rest of Netflix’s Defenders will appear in it as well? Yes, Danny Rand is in Asia right now, but he can always come back – TV can be weird like that. We will just have to wait and see instead.

This is it for now – see you all soon!

Iron Fist S2 - Aug 17

…Back to the topic of Marvel, the 2^nd season of ‘Iron Fist’ is appearing early in September 2018. Yay!

…The problem that ‘Iron Fist’ featured was that it was generic – it was about a single Caucasian male superhero. If he was, you know, Oriental, that would be okay, as ‘Luke Cage’ demonstrates: its’ titular character a single Afro-American male superhero, and that makes it different from ‘Daredevil’. ‘Iron Fist’ doesn’t have that, which gives it an extra need to differentiate it from the older, more established and successful, ‘Daredevil’.

Why is the titular character of ‘Iron Fist’ not Asian-American but instead is Westeros’ Flower Knight? There was never much of a satisfactory answer, but that is okay – there was never much of a pressure to change the actors either, so let us admit that the racial issue is there, but it is not as important as people like to pretend, and move on.

The actual problem that ‘Iron Fist’ may be facing is the lack of originality – according to the rumors, he is facing a bloke named ‘Steel Serpent’ in his second season. So far so good, but this Davos person appears to be mostly an ‘Iron Fist’/’Danny Rand’ turned evil – kind of how Jessica Jones’ mom in her S2 was just like the titular heroine herself – only evil. Come to think of it, weren’t the villains in ‘Luke Cage’ S2 also both sympathetic and evil? Yes, and there was something of a parallel ‘team-up’ – Luke and Misty on one hand, Mariah and Bushmaster on the other? Yes, and we’re probably reading in it too much, but if ‘The Defenders’ are trying to keep themselves original, (with ‘Daredevil’ aside, his situation is different), there’s nothing odd about it either.

As for ‘Daredevil’… look. Not only is his comic base much more solid than the rest of ‘the Defenders’, there were also a couple of ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Electra’ movies in not so recent past. They weren’t very good, especially the ‘Electra’ one, but they did occur, so the crew of ‘Daredevil’ does have more material on which to work with, and it is tested, so they some ideas at least as to where to go with it, and what to do, and what not to do, etc. Thus, they do have an advantage over the rest of the team Defenders, and it shows.

But again, this does not matter to ‘Iron Fist’, not entirely. The current trailer shows that Misty Knight from ‘Luke Cage’ will appear in the series, (just as Colleen and Rand themselves did in ‘Luke Cage’ S2), so the semi-crossovers and the improvement of ‘the Defenders’-verse is still strong, but it is not a wonder-cure either. ‘Iron Fist’ was probably the weakest of ‘the Defenders’ show and it has to work especially hard to catch up to them…and so far there’s no indication that it is doing so. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce to the gander”… maybe, but with TV shows, and online shows, and so forth it may be different, but we will have to wait until September 2018 to see.

…This is it for now, see you all soon later!

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Gravity' - May 12

…Real life sucks. It just does. The end of that bon mot. And AoS?

AoS is not doing that well either: its’ numbers continue to fall, although the viewers’ fatigue may have something to do with it: ever since the S4 finale nothing really seems to impress them anymore, and AoS knows it: it campaigns considerably less aggressively than it did before S4, and it shows.

…Actually, some elaboration regarding AoS ads can be put here. Marvel™ comics, especially the paper ones, often show one or another promo image for the AoS episode of the week, at least the S4. These promos are accompanied by a message, left deliberately vague. But! One of them promised an epic fight between Daisy and Ruby. On TV, the actual fight was a disappointment, and Ruby eventually died because she went crazy from gravitonium, and then Yo-Yo slit her throat with Ruby’s own chakram – but we’ve discussed this earlier already. This week, it was the turn for Melinda and the captain of the alien ship…and the actual fight was nothing special either. Last week’s episode had a mention of Thanos, the big…purple cranberry of MCU, but so what? S3 had a mention of Stark – probably Tony Stark, since Ned Stark and his family do not really have any holdings in the US…still, since the second half of S2, AoS seems to be doing its’ own thing, separate from the rest of MCU…of course, so does everything else – ‘The Defenders’ on Netflix, for example, and the ‘InHumans’ are gone.

No, really, they have been cancelled. Considering that their first and only season had various features, but most importantly, they were insipid – neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, with some amazing suits, but nothing else. Again, the script was not bad, and the actors did the best they could to come across even better, but it seems that it was not enough. The ‘InHumans’ got cancelled. Now what?

…AoS continues to soldier on, with just one episode – the finale – left for S5. This makes S5…the shortest season of AoS yet, with two less episodes than the others had, I think. Maybe these are signs that there are some troubled times ahead? So far, there is no talk about AoS getting cancelled, but the cancellation of AC came unexpected too, so there is that. There’s no rumors of the ‘Runaways’ getting cancelled, in fact the show got renewed for an S2 in January 2018, and of course ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are coming this summer, so MCU isn’t down for the count yet.

Back to AoS? Not really. AoS does its’ best to deliver…but it fails, and the viewers are not interested in helping it keep going – the fans ignore most of the new characters, (surprisingly, Kasius and Sinera are the most popular ones out of them), and as for the reintroduced ones…Talbot killed his former friend and sidekick Carl ‘Absorbing Man’ Creel in this week’s episode, and how does S.H.I.E.L.D. react? They ignore it and move on. Considering that Creel saved Coulson’s life literally in one of the earlier episodes, this makes Coulson, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., look like uncaring jerks. Go AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D.

…And sadly, this is it for this week’s discussion: AoS S5 is ending, so we will discuss it in greater detail in the future weeks. Until then – see you soon!

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Option Two' - April 28

This week’s episode of AoS was aired yesterday. In more exciting news, the ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ part 1 movie was aired yesterday too. What shall we talk about first?

One thing that connects the two – aside from the Marvel logo – is, or rather are, Hill and Fury. These former leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared in A: IW1 post-credit scenes. What we need to focus on here, passing the potential spoiler situation, is the fact that they are still out and about in MCU at large, so…why haven’t they visited their friend Phil Coulson and the remainder of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the Lighthouse? Fury appeared only in AoS S1, Hill – in S1 and 2, but still, if their actors still star in MCU features, why not on AoS? AoS seems to be bleeding actors still, but-

But the same may be said about MCU too? A: IW1 had Thanos kill Loki, Heimdall and Valkyrie, apparently, since they do not appear in the movie. Why? And how? And how come?

…Yes, Loki has practice at pretending to die, and so he may have had Thanos fooled, and rescued Valkyrie and/or Heimdall and some other Asgardian refugees, but again, couldn’t this be featured in the movie? And as we know, Loki did work for Thanos, so why would Thanos kill him now? Because of the initial failure? Maybe, but again, it could have happened on-screen, especially if this just the first half of a duology.

Dead aliens bring us back to AoS. General-brigadier Talbot, of all people, fused with gravitonium in this episode and killed the alien invaders. Pause. The aliens of ‘Option Two’ – this week’s episode – weren’t even Kree; just some crazy alien ninjas that could generate their own clouds of darkness, were resilient to ordinary bullets and armed with kunai, rather than katanas; the latter were used by Mack and May instead. Since when does S.H.I.E.L.D. use katanas? Since they have tried to rip-off ‘The Defenders’, it seems.

‘The Defenders’ deserve a mention of their own, since S2 of ‘Luke Cage’ is coming to Netflix and beyond in summer 2018. S2 of ‘Jessica Jones’ was marked by some interesting twists and turns, including a semi-weak villain storyline, and her resemblance of BtVS’ Faith the Vampire Slayer – but that’s ‘Jessica Jones’. ‘Luke Cage’ is a different story…and another issue that the fans and viewers had with ‘Jessica Jones’ was the lack of reference to ‘The Defenders’ (S1) plotline. Will ‘Luke Cage’ be different? But we must get more information on his S2 first…

Instead, we learn that ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are also coming to TV (Freeform), this summer. By now, we know that the show will take a more spiritual/religious take on the duo than the comics usually do, so S1 of this show will be interesting to watch as well…

None of this is helping AoS though; last week’s episode’s numbers were lower even they were for the ‘Life Earned’ episode. That is just sad, but that is bad luck for you: some time in the last third of S4, AoS reached a point where viewers just were not excited about it anymore, and it shows. Sucks to be it.

…That is it for this week; see you soon!

Jessica Jones, S2 - March 12

…While AoS is going the same way that it always went, let us mention ‘Jessica Jones’ (JJ) for a change. This show released its’ second season last week. And?

And some things have become obvious about JJ, so let us talk about them. Firstly, as far as superheroes go, (especially Marvel™ ones), the titular heroine is… a Vampire Slayer, more precisely – Faith the Vampire Slayer, who appeared in the 3^rd season of BtVS onwards. (She appears on AtS too). Both Faith and Jessica tend to be crude, abrupt, have issues with booze and drugs, and are morally shady – Faith moreso than Jessica, because Jessica was forced into darkness by Killgrave, (who’s a different villain from Black Panther’s Killmonger, BTW), but both Faith and Jessica have to struggle with their inner darkness, while trying to be heroes (heroines), however reluctantly… why?

Because being villains (villainesses) is worse for them. Neither Faith nor Jessica asked to be heroine, but they became…someone special all the same; Faith because Kendra (the previous Vampire Slayer) died (at the BtVS S2 finale), Jessica because of an accident in her childhood, but get them they did, and the powers…are basically the same – super-human strength, speed, dexterity, etc. Jessica is a Vampire Slayer in a world without any vampires (or other supernatural monsters)-

Yes, fine, MCU does have vampires, starting with Count Dracula; back in February, when the discussion about Black Panther and his movie was at its’ peak, it was mentioned that some of the first Marvel movies were about Blade, a vampire hunter (and half-vampire himself), a movie series that concluded with Blade killing Dracula himself – and what is worth noting is both the titular character played by an Afro-American actor, Wesley Snipes and that the movies’ format was similar to the modern MCU movies, which included the feature of all the villains dying in every movie, so that new ones would appear in the next – and this brings us back to JJ. And MCU’s villains.

For a while, a lot of noise was made about Black Panther’s Killmonger, how he was different from the earlier MCU villains. That is debatable, but what matters to us now is that regardless of these differences, Killmonger still died at the end of the movie, just as the other MCU villains tend to, (except for Loki), so the movie formula is still the same, regardless of Killmonger’s own differences from the rest of MCU’s villains, (whatever they are) – and then we got JJ the series.

In JJ S1 Killgrave was a different sort of evildoer from Killmonger, or Wilson Fisk, or Madame Gao, etc., but just like the rest of them, he was defeated (and killed) all the same, following a formula that is not very different from MCU movies, or AoS, or even BtVS. In S2 JJ did something different – there was no concrete villain, what we had instead was something that some people call a dark mirror – an evil (well, eviller) counterpart to the titular heroine, and it was her mother.  

Folks on IGN and similar sites/YouTube channels have already discussed about how the ‘villains’ of JJ S2 weren’t really evil, more like morally shady, just as Jessica was. AoS too has played with this concept, especially in the first seasons, but they handled it very badly, and the show has never regained its’ initial highs. JJ did it better, both in regards to the villains themselves and how the titular character – the heroine of the show – dealt with them. Spoiler alert: when it came to her mother, JJ needed help from her girl Friday at the end, she just needed help period. What is next for her?

She is going to try to live a more normal life…and we know that it is not going to work simply because she is one-fourth of the Defenders™, without her, there is no team. (Plus on ‘Defenders’ S1 she had some chemistry with Daredevil, so yeah). Since Disney & Netflix showed no sign of changing the Defenders™ formula, JJ’s foray into a more normal life will not succeed, and she’ll be back to being a hero or a villain, (the dead Killgrave isn’t helping things any, and remember the First Evil from BtVS S7? This is so its’ M.O. that it is not funny), or she will succeed…and lose her super-powers instead, because this is how this sort of narrative works.

So, this is it for JJ for now; see you all soon!

JW rumblings - Sep 17

And so, our ‘Giantslayer’ adventure path is slowly moving towards the final confrontation with the evil giant tyrant/final boss. That is good, and as a sign of my relief – fighting all of these evil giants took proportionally much more time than we expected when we began this entire slog – I feel like ranting about something, again. The issue is – what subject?

Well, there is always Marvel’s current ‘secret empire’ ‘adventure path’, which has ran its’ own length, and is now transforming into ‘Marvel Legacy’ or something like that. Basically, the evil Steve Rogers/Captain America/Hydra Supreme/etc. might’ve escaped, leaving the good Steve Rogers/Captain America/etc. pick up the pieces – or not, in which case, in either case, there are some poor SWAT-type folk who are about to get smashed by a Steve Rogers, which just isn’t fun.

In another plot line, Frank ‘Punisher’ Castle is being ‘groomed’ by Fury in taking down Hydra. This sounds very grand, but again, in another comic series, Punisher just got beat down by Diamondback, making MCU a true multiverse (in a manner of speaking), while in the long run, Hydra is just a too good & conventional plot villain to be completely exterminated, so I’m not being impressed by FC being an asshole to outright villains for a change, let us see what ‘Marvel Legacy’ story arc will deliver. Plus, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow is dead now, apparently, and the Punisher is angsting because of that as well. Seriously, were these two ever a couple, (potentially or otherwise), or is a new thing?

Meanwhile, the preparations for the making (and subsequent release) of JW2 are proceeding. Am I excited about this? No. The original JP movie was good because it was based on the original novel, which was, yes, sci-fi, but with an emphasis on science and realism. Yes, there was suspension of disbelief, especially in the end, when the novel’s velociraptors organized themselves into a proper group and escaped/invaded to the mainland, (Costa Rica), where they vanished into the jungle. They were Lysol-dependant, (in the novel), so they learned to eat chicken (domestic fowl) and beans and similar food sources in the wild instead. What was that cartoon? The raptor was going to acquire a fake ID and live & work in NYC? Yeah, Crichton certainly set the stage for that!

But his movieverse heirs have certainly went beyond him. The first two JP movies were quite good, even if because they followed, (to various extents) the plot of the actual Crichton novels. JP3 film, however, was something else, including the entire T-Rex vs. Spinosaurus controversy. Seriously, it has been established/figured out/understood/etc. by now that both of these JP3 dinosaurs, especially Spinosaurus, are fictional, and are no more RL than MCU’s Iron Man and Captain America are. Does it really matter who would win? In RL, the two dinosaurs lived millions of years apart, on two different continents and never met each other during any point in their evolutionary histories. Talking as to which of the two would win and why, it is less of a ‘lion vs. tiger’ debate and more of a ‘Steve vs. Tony’ one.

Where were we? Well, on the topic of ‘Steve vs. Tony’, JP3’s Spinosaurus showed about as much realism as the crocodile from ‘Peter Pan’ did, (not counting OUAT, where his role was played by Mr. Gold, apparently), while the raptors of that movie did an admirable job of passing as the nastier versions of Neverland’s Lost Boys, so to speak – their intelligence in that movie certainly approached human levels, and when Dr. Grant communicated with them… no, just no. Forget realism. The dinosaurs of JP3 could as well be some aliens – original aliens – in a sci-fi movie and they would work just as well in that capacity…

In JW1, the intelligence of the dinosaurs was toned back down to realistic levels – only not. Enter the I-Rex, the hybrid that looks, and functions like a RL carnosaur for all practical purposes. Just think RL Giganotosaurus or Mapusaurus. Okay, and?

And the I-Rex was able to survive slash endure a direct hit from an Ankylosaurus’ tail. In RL, Ankylosaurus was one of the plant-eating dinosaurs that had evolved to survive and live alongside Tyrannosaurus, a carnivore that evolved one of the most powerful bites on the planet, specifically designed to smash through bone. In response, Ankylosaurus had evolved its’ infamous tail that was also designed to smash through bones, (especially if Ankylosaurus was in proper health). I don’t know what I-Rex was a hybrid of exactly, but just as with Rexy’s bite, there’s no way it could’ve endured Ankylosaurus’ tail strikes to its’ legs or the rest of the body, not unless it had the healing power of Wolverine (the MCU mutant, not the RL animal) as well. (In addition, the way it telepathically communicates and dominates all the other reptiles in the movie? Apparently, there is some Professor X in it as well).

Flash forward, and—

And we got Indoraptors, which is the same old I-Rex, just with different sizes, proportions, and velociraptor, rather than Tyrannosaurus, DNA. Odds are that we are going to see a new depiction of the JP3 super-intelligent raptors are quite high. And?

And where is the JP-franchise going with all of this, in the long run? Yes, the first novel & movie depicted them somewhat like sci-fi monsters, but dinosaurs do not really make good monsters, (especially for grown-ups) – they aren’t particularly monstrous or evil, certainly not kaiju/Godzilla/King Kong/Monarch universe evil. ‘The Land before Time’ franchise had a different take on them – there the dinosaurs were slightly anthropomorphic, and some were ‘good’, and some were ‘evil’, in the same manner that the ‘modern animals’ of Brian Jacques’ novels were – it’s all a fairy tale for children, but the JP-franchise isn’t going for that.

Where is it going? Possibly, to try to become a fully-fledged monster-verse, which is a bad idea, because dinosaurs aren’t really monsters, not even fictional, sci-fi ones. They are just too real and too abstract for us, (unlike giant monsters – the fictional Megalodon has only distant connections to the RL one), to be properly monstrous. Yes, Tyrannosaurus is bizarre – all head and no arms – but is it monstrous by being itself at the end of the day? No. It is scary because it would eat people if it existed in modern times, making it no different from a shark or a lion. Yes, ‘Jaws’ is a movie classic, but not just because it stars a man-eating shark, but some human star actors as well. The same goes for ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’, which is built on a similar premise, except that instead of a single Great White Shark there are two African lions. A good movie about some man-eating animal monsters can be honestly good…just not precisely, because it stars man-eating animal monsters – and the same goes for the dinosaurs.

And yes, we got the news that there’s going to be at least one other dino-hybrid – a stegoceratops, a Stegosaurus & Triceratops hybrid. I have no idea what was the logic behind this one. As BBC’s WWD mini-series (1999) have shown, the RL plant-eating dinosaurs, (i.e. Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops & Torosaurus, etc.), could be quite formidable themselves, without being augmented by human script writers…

Oh, and another thing. Yes, both Stegosaurus and Triceratops belonged to the bird-hipped branch of the dinosaur family, (let us leave the latest RL revision of the dinosaur family tree out of the equation this time), but they weren’t particularly close relatives; in RL modern terms the JW2 heroes could get confronted by a deer/antelope hybrid – it works the same way… Where is common sense?

In the bizarre appearance of the second hybrid.  Aye, RL herbivorous dinosaurs could be quite bizarre by themselves – just think Nothronychus and kin, the plant-eating cousins of raptors and tyrannosaurs – a typical theropod body, extra-long neck, extra-small head, (as in the sauropods), plus – extra powerful and clawed front legs…you couldn’t get more away from the traditional depiction of a theropod if you’d purposefully tried… but no, we get a bizarre-looking unrealistic hybrid, designed to shock and awe. Yay team (new) JP franchise.

And now, it is time to wind down the rambling. Basically, unbelievingly, but the first two JP movies were actually somewhat educational for purely fictional movies. (I am speaking very loosely here). They were also fairly realistic, (by sci-fi movie standards). Sadly, from JP3 onwards these qualities vanished, which is a pity, because they were what made JP-franchise’s movies’ unique. What will JW2 look like, I do not know yet. However, neither am I enthusiastic about it.

Well, this is it for this time. See you in the future!

Defenders - August 20

Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ got released on the Netflix earlier this week. And-?

And so far reviews are somewhere between ‘fair praise’, ‘damning’, and a cross between the two limits. Basically, ‘Defenders’ was a good show, but kind of rushed, since the first season was only 8 episodes long, and you cannot go too far or too complex with this sort of thing.

Yes, the ‘Gilmore Girls’ revival was only 4 episodes long…but, honestly, most people agree, that this revival wasn’t all that good in itself, and if ASP & husband have another go at it, they have a hard road ahead of them, too.

Longer seasons are not a solution, of course, and ‘Fuller House’ has its own problems, but its’ reviews are more mixed, FYI.

Back to ‘Defenders’. The show does work – as a part of a greater whole, in tandem with the rest of the mini-series, including, yes, ‘Punisher’, whose first season is coming some time in the future, and all the others, including ‘Iron Fist’. People still did not warm-up to the Flower Knight in this incarnation, but you know, give them time – Ser Tyrell is not going anywhere, you know? So let us just enjoy the show – and the audience/viewers, in general, did.

What else? Well, the plot was not that complex, and the villains did not appear to be up to speed with the heroes, not even Alexandra, (played by Sigourney Weaver, BTW). Electra/Black Sky appeared to be the ‘Big Bad’ at the end, and there were dragon bones, so yes, there were some issues in integrating NYC with the Orient – something that caused problems with ‘Iron Fist’, but now there was an added challenge of much more characters appearing in fewer episodes – just 8, to be more precise. Yes, everyone got a piece of screen time, Misty Knight even got set up to be potentially a superhero known as the ‘Bionic Woman’ – just kidding, but she does end up with a bionic/cybernetic arm in the comics, and she gets to be both a hero and a villain there too… where were we?

‘Defenders’ tried to do too much in too little time, that’s what. Hence why the story feels incomplete, (in a bad way), rushed and not quite satisfactory. Yes, the future seasons of the other shows, (including ‘Punisher’) will fill the gaps and move the plot forwards, and this is actually impressive: this little corner of Marvel (MCU?) has, at last, created an interconnected… ‘mini-verse’ (for the lack of a better term), one that works – the rest of Marvel is not as good, although FOX and X-men and the associated mutants seem to be heading in this direction too, (especially the X-men movies and co).

No, seriously, they do – and very smoothly too, from one ‘universe’ to another, but ‘Defenders’ aren’t a part of it, they belong to a different corner of Marvel and are here to stay. You may like them, you may dislike them, but ‘Defenders’ got staying power, and unless you replace Rand with Jake Paul (or someone like that), stop complaining about him! ‘Iron Fist’ is here to stay as well.