Loki, 1893 - Oct 20

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, let us talk about the ‘Loki’ S2 instead. In this week’s episode, ’1893’, it seems that the S2 has found its’ wings at last. This episode worked.

No, really, it did. It kept alongside the main plotline of S2, and this time it even introduced the season’s main (?) antagonist – Victor Timely, yet another Kang variant that has fallen by the wayside of the council of Kangs. No, indeed – Victor, HWR, and the Kang from ‘Quantumania’ were three very different characters, but they were all Kangs, and outsider Kangs at that, it seems. Given how the show does not appear to be entirely done with HWR either, this can get interesting!

…The fact that Renslayer/Rebecca has teamed-up with Miss Minutes is also unexpected, since at the end of S1 the former has left – just left, and the latter did not appear to be too interested in working with anyone, so when exactly did they team-up? Of course, it might be an entirely different Renslayer/Rebecca from S1, as Victor is an entirely different Kang from HWR, but, still, Miss Minutes doesn’t appear to have too many variants, and-

-and ‘1893’ shows a break in the narrative from the first two episodes, as unlike them, Loki and Mobius actually get to go out of TVA, and not deal with its’ internal arcana, (I don’t care if it’s an appropriate term here, I’m using it), but rather with an external issue, (Victor Timely and everyone else who’s chasing him), and it is a variant timeline altogether, so score one for ‘Loki’ S2 here!

No, seriously, this is what ‘Loki’ is supposed to be all about – the Marvel multiverse! The titular character and his cohorts are gone out there and fix problems all over it! In addition, indeed, they did do something similar in S1…except that a Kang, the HWR one, had hijacked the agency and (in a different way) the show, making it all about him vs. Loki. Here, in S2, we have more variety, as general Dox, (who was the main antagonist in ‘Breaking Brad’), hasn’t gone away, but is rather biding time to continue destroying the multiverse, and right now Loki, Mobius, and the rest of their allies need to handle both her and VT, so another score for ‘Loki’ S2 – a more complex plot than the S1 one again!

…I’m also aware that since the real life sucks, some of the elements of the ‘Loki’ S2 plot will not go down well, given the new conflict in Middle East. But this isn’t Disney/MCU’s fault, for a change, (I hope not), so let’s cut them a break and hope that they won’t leave us hanging in the air just as ‘Loki’ S2 is beginning to get good with action and excitement balancing out all the lore and the knowledge (and the time loom). Given that it is Disney/MCU – who knows?

…In other news, the ‘PJ Masks’ franchise has released a new big bad – a reptiloid alien named Gloop and his minions. Sigh. So what? Yes, the showrunners are trying to make him a big deal, but these days the ‘PJ Masks’ franchise isn’t a big deal, so that’s the end of that… though it should be noted that Gloop seems to be falling in the previously-established ‘official new character’ category, one where he won’t just fade away, but rather continue on, meeting the rest of the established cast until the end of the season, after which either the next new character will come around, or the show itself might end, you know? So much for the ‘PJ Masks’ ‘upgrade’, it looks like! Anything else?

In fact – no. Rather, this is it for now, see you all soon!

 

Paw Patrol Movie 2 - October 4

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, while on the imaginary side of the equation, we got… what?

First, there is Ahsoka, or rather – ‘Ahsoka’ the TV series. As some people have suspected all along, at the S1 (?) finale, the titular character and her cohorts got stranded in another galaxy, away from the main scene, leaving the canon plotline free to develop however, it wants, if the setting of the SW films 7 through 9 is the endgame. Yes, Ezra, Hera and Chopper are still free to confront Thrawn, but given that this series is, or was, about Ahsoka, the fact that the Jedi knight Tano is off the main board at the moment doesn’t inspire optimism that this series will continue, (even if Ahsoka herself will). What is next?

In the SW-universe – anything can go, of course, as for us… well, ‘Loki’ S2 is almost upon us, joy, but we will discuss it when it actually starts, airing, (maybe). For now, though, there is also the ‘Paw Patrol Mighty Movie’, and I can only ask: what?

Here is the thing: while ‘PJ Masks’ went all over the place lately, as the show lost its initial successful identity and tries to acquire something new, (rather than keep the old format – that of superhero fables), ‘Paw Patrol’ hasn’t. It is the same as always: Rider and his six pups, (the core characters), go all over their world, exploring new places, solving new puzzles and obstacles, making new friends, and… that is it, really. Aside from the Humdinger people there are few real opponents for the titular characters; everyone tries to get along, (more or less), and there was little superhero-like shenanigans in the franchise.

Then came the mighty meteor story arc, where the pups acquired a meteor – or rather a meteorite from space that gave them superpowers; them, and various another people as well, and so, for a while, the pups did have other ‘real’ foes aside from the Humdinger people: a human woman named Lady Bird, and a housecat named Copycat. For a while, the paw patrol franchise did feel like a good-natured spoof of the superhero genre… and then the arc was over, and the pups moved on with their lives.

And then, in September 2023, the franchise tried to reboot itself with the mighty meteor – what gives? That arc is officially over, and frankly, the new movie feels the worse take out of the two on the bloody space rock; (we have discussed the difference between meteors, meteorites and asteroids elsewhere, remember?). Moreover, what about continuity? The first PP movie – one that introduced Liberty, (a dachshund), had fit into the main narrative quite neatly, as Liberty was installed into the main PP TV series with nary an issue; now she’s been sidelined and the franchise tried to introduce a new villain – Victoria Vance – who feels like a rebooted (and somewhat upgraded) Lady Bird variant. What gives?

…By that I mean with the PP franchise in question: previously, it worked, and better so than the PJ Masks’ one; now… maybe not so much. Ah well, that is real life for you. Did I mention that it sucks?

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

RGTK movie - June 29

 Obligatory disclaimer: the carrion is back. Wait, what?

Let me try again. Since real life sucks, the original dead rat is gone, but there is a brand new one, either killed by some other animal, (or a human), or just drowned in the recent rains. Again, it is located on private property, where both people and their pets, (i.e., we are talking primarily dogs here), are walking by, so it is authentically curious to see how long this dead animal will last. And, moreover, the dead skunk – remember, we talked about it last time – may be gone, but not entirely: there are some pieces of it, especially the tail, remaining on the road. Fun! Looks like the public maintenance is going for a full year with it or something. Jolly good! Turkey vultures, where are you?

On a more whimsical note, let us talk about ‘Ruby Gillman, The Teenage Kraken’ film. Warning: spoilers will be done best to be avoided, but that is no guarantee!.. This movie is a partial spoof of Disney’s™ TLM, but unlike the latter, there is more subtext, and less confusion. More precisely, there are no animal sidekicks, which only distract from the main plot, and the movie does not play ‘musical chairs’ with where exactly it is located: it is located in a fictional U.S. city of Oceanside, period.

The characters… the characters are also all-American, even if they do come in all shapes and colors: the titular character, for example, is blue-skinned, (as is the rest of her family, at least on land), and no one cares about it to call them out.

Second, yes, there is a strong ‘pretty on the inside vs. pretty on the outside’ element in the film. However, since RGTK is able to keep that element subtle and in the depths, it works. On the surface, again, this is a spoof of TLM, but keep in mind that the titular character had to team up with her mother and grandmother to defeat the main villain (redacted). This is different from the TLM reboot, where Ariel does everything herself instead – in the original 1989 film the animal sidekicks helped Ariel to get to stop Eric’s wedding to ‘Vanessa’ in time, while it was Eric’s actions rather than Ariel’s that ended Ursula for good. Cthulhu ftagn!

…And as a response to Ursula going big in both Disney’s versions, practically everyone went big in RGTK – there is a feeling that the movie’s scriptwriters had fun with this one. In addition, again, we got teamwork vs. a single evil individual, something that Disney seems to have forgotten. It tried over in MCU with AoS, but that collapsed sometime after S4, really – and now MCU pretends that AoS never happens, given how SI flat-out ignores S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything else associated with it. Yes, there may be different reasons for that, but the result is the same – AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D. are gone for good from MCU.

Elsewhere, we got, yes, the PJ Masks, and in their previous incarnation they were all about teamwork – the three titular characters always worked together to defeat their opponents, who almost never worked together, and even when they did, it was never for long. Thus, the show’s audience learned about the values of teamwork… as well as any other values, and virtues of acting properly and nicely.

And then the show got ‘upgraded’ to ‘PJ Masks and Power Heroes’ that did… the same old thing albeit in a diluted version: previously it was all 3 PJ Masks helping a single new hero to become, well, more experienced and etc., and now it’s more of a one on one, with at least one of them Ivan/Ice Cub being something of a Marty-Stu instead… Where were we?

Unlike the previous two examples, RGTK manages to keep itself together and remain enjoyable. It is more substantial than the TLM-2023 film is, and is quite complex as well, for a children’s film. Quite enjoyable too, and – no one dies. This is also different from Disney films, where villain dying is almost a permanent feature. This trait has passed onto MCU, (SW – not so much), though lately they seem to be trying to buck it – as WV and the rest of MCU’s Phase 4 onwards elements showed – but at the same time, MCU has become more of a mixed bag success-wise… Anything else?

Well, until a turkey vulture arrives and eats that dead rat, nothing much. RGTK is a fun film to watch, and I recommend it, for one. Anything else is up to you.

For now, this is it. See you all soon.

PJ Masks & FH - June 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us briefly talk about the new FH development instead.

Ok, no, first I need to address the issue of why I am not talking about the current PJ Masks’ development. To this, I reply: real life sucks already, so why should I talk more of the same? In greater detail, listen: here, Disney Junior is trying to softly and slyly reboot the PJ franchise, just as Disney/Marvel is rebooting AoS via the upcoming ‘Secret Invasion’ series, and Disney itself is rebooting its’ animated movies as well – just look at the TLM-2023 version and compare it with the original 1989 one. However, in the case of PJ Masks, the soft reboot ran into a specific problem – the lack of continuation. Seriously, look at the previous seasons, as I’ve written before – there’s no consistent character development either among heroes or villains; neither side seems to learn anything from their repeated clashes, or they do, but never utilize it – and thus, all of them are caught in an endless loop of fights, night after night. You could really write a dark story here, about several children who are caught into some sort of a crazy Groundhog Day – pardon, night-like – scenario and cannot escape it unless they do something drastic…

Ok, this will not happen because the titular characters – the PJ Masks – have daytime/civilian identities and their nightly emergencies have something to do with their daytime issues. That is fair, but sadly, the series reboot seems to have gotten rid of this, now there is even more nighttime action and even less daytime, making the cartoon series even less realistic than it was before… Yes, I do understand that ‘PJ Masks’ was never about realism, but still, this is depressing, so I’m ignoring the series for the moment, and am not commenting on it either.

As for Ubisoft’s FH property… yes, they seem to be going Mesoamerica now, and are introducing a new named character Vela the conquistador. Yes, the conquistadors were the initial conquerors of Mesoamerica for the Spanish empire. For me, though, they strike closer to home: one of their most famous members, Hernan Cortez, appeared in the third and final season of DW, where he faced-off against Ivan the Terrible.

I have written before that the match-up didn’t make historical sense: like many eastern despots, Ivan IV the Terrible stayed safely behind the front lines… of course, so did the king of Spain during Cortes’ times… so the point here is that in this episode, DW had a Russian/Eastern villain defeated by a Western/European anti-hero! How novel… not. Still, DW is done and gone now, and what is left is… FH, for as we talked before, the creative team behind FH has plundered DW for ideas a lot, and the new conquistador character is yet the latest example – with one difference.

For the melee weapons, Hernan Cortes used a halberd, (which became a trademark weapon of one of the original team knight characters – the Lawbringer), as well as the ‘espada rapera’ – the Spanish rapier. However, since FH’s new character is based on their previous Warmonger character, their weapon is the Warmonger’s old weapon – the flamberge sword. Essentially, this is a rapier/sword combo, with a wavy, stylized blade, a la a tongue of flame. Put otherwise, the FH team also seems to be running dry, Mesoamerican styles or not.

…So, what we got here is the ‘PJ Masks’ show, which has transformed from a relatively decent pre-teen superhero fable show into its’ flawed imitation, where style is more important than substance, and conversely, we got the latest FH update, which has delivered – so far, but still – another update, also on style, nothing more. That is flat-out depressing. Have I mentioned that real life sucks? It does, and one can always count on oneself and one’s family to make it worse.

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

Skunks and Asteroids part II - April 14

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; the initial dead striped skunk was removed from the spot where it’d died on the road, but now there’s a second one, maybe a cub of the first deceased one – I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care, but what affects me is the fact that no one cares to do anything about the dead animals; the remains of the first skunk are still lying close to the curb, and the second skunk is lying not far away from the first – but since it is a public road, they’ll probably lie there until they break down completely – and can you imagine the smell? No, you probably cannot. Where are we?

Well, I’ll be absent from my blog for the next two or three weeks, maybe even more; the skunks will probably be still lying there when – and if – me and mine will get back home; and the PJ Masks?

Again, yes, obviously that the genre of the PJ Masks’ show is such that who cares about realism there – ‘the asteroid of badness’, or whatever it is called, is a plot device almost completely… to do what?

Again. The cartoon aspect of the ‘PJ Masks’ franchise was almost purely fable, with little personal development on the characters’ side, and almost equally little amount of interconnected continuity. The bad guys appeared to be incapable of learning anything from their misadventures and the good guys… would learn from their episode of the week/day/whatever… and that was it, they never implemented that knowledge in the future episodes… especially in the earlier seasons; later on, there would be some references to previous episodes in the more up-to-date ones, but not too much. And now?

And now, again, ‘PJ Masks’ seem to be stuck between genres; aware or not, but they’re moving away from their fable origins into a more generic superhero show; there are already clips showing all of the show’s villains getting new looks, and the heroes probably won’t be too far behind. Ergo?

Ergo, it is a soft reboot, not unlike the ones AoS went through in the latter seasons, (around their S4 and S5). On one hand, the old cast is present, on the other, this does not mean anything, as there is no character development, again. We have talked about how Luna Girl (and Mothsuki) had been all over the place, alignment-wise, but the same now can be said about other characters, such as the Ninjalinos, Pirate Robot and his mate Sally, and the Speedy twins. They used to be allies of the PJ Masks, but now they are back to being villains with nary a regret – but it is not their fault, it is the asteroid’s fault. Right. I did not do it, the robber sock did it. That sort of thing. The ‘PJ Masks’ is aimed – supposedly – at educating children (and their parents?), how to be good and proper, but…

…But the show itself is caught on a cultural crossroads that is affecting the entire USA, (and maybe the rest of the Western world) – whether they will stay monotheistic, (officially – Christian), or polytheistic, (aka pagan, by the modern terminology). The ‘PJ Masks’ cartoon is trying to teach its’ audience ‘the good old-fashioned Christian values’ (or whatever they’re called), but-

…But any ideology is costly, and the current American culture hates paying, as simple as that. Earlier in spring 2023, the team behind the Budweiser beer got an LGBTQ+ spokesperson to represent them. Immediately, some straight celebrities went hostile and proclaimed that they will never have to do anything with Budweiser again. Now what?

Now everything comes down to money, whether or not it is better financially to associate with the sexual minorities or not. I am certainly not saying that faith and religion are good, they are not – they are as flawed as the rest of humanity’s inventions, money included, but without them, there is no ideology, no actual reason to decide anything, and nothing that you do matters. In RF, the local cultural elite – some of them – tried to defy Putin’s government in relation to ‘the special military operation’ on the Ukrainian soil. Because the West did not support them, this defiance came to nothing. Go West!

Getting back to mass media, does anyone here remember ‘The 10 Commandments’ film, since Easter-2023 has been only recently as of this moment. No, not the sanitized Disney-tired ‘Prince of Egypt’ film, which wisely stopped just after the Hebrews finally came from of the Egyptian yoke – the much older version, with live actors? There, the final act went down as follows: Moses goes up the mountain and receives the titular commandments from the Lord. Meanwhile, some of the film’s last villains stage a coup and create ‘a Golden Calf’ complete with a good old-fashioned pagan cult, complete with free booze and free sex. When Moses comes back, he goes berserk, smashing the tablets with the commandments on the ground and sending the last of the movie’s villains into – a fiery pit. Impressive, but in the actual Bible Moses rather summoned the Levite tribe, the tribe of which he was a member, (the Bible presumes so), and they slaughter the opposition, several hundred people – and then Moses keeps the Hebrew people isolated in a desert for several decades, for the rest of his life, to keep them isolated from the temptations of the decadent pagans. It… works, sort of, for even now, centuries, (if not more), after those events the Jewish faith has kept its’ identity and allowed the Jewish people to endure centuries of prosecution, including the atrocities of WWII. That said, that faith and those people turned out quite different from how Moses intended them to be, so Moses’ way is not a panacea either, no matter how much Putin seems to be trying to imitate him those days. Back to the West?

Now, ‘PJ Masks’ do have a pharaoh-style villain among their number, true, but the monotheistic world isn’t Jewish, rather it is Protestant Christian, meaning that the ‘Moses incident’ doesn’t apply. See, whereas in Judaism it is admitted that ‘you can’t serve both God and Mammon’, (aka greed and money and the Golden Calf from the previous paragraph), Protestantism increasingly tried to do both; especially once the Europeans arrived in North America and began to colonize it. Unlike other versions of Monotheism, Protestantism is much more individualistic and de-centralized… not unlike the country of the U.S. itself. The result?

Well, take a look at ‘PJ Masks’, for example – their morals/lessons are rather Christian in outlook, (rather than of any other faith), but because a good deal of their franchise comes down to them all being sellable, the impact of those morals/lessons is diminished and what the audience gets is a series of toy commercials, where the (pre-teen) heroes and villains battle it out episode after episode, going nowhere… at all. Just as the dead skunks on the road are here to stay, until they decompose completely, that is. But then again, all things, including TV shows, have to end some time or another.

…This is it for now. See you all soon.

Skunks and asteroids - April 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – just ask the poor striped skunk that ended up as roadkill not too far from our home building. …Mind you, the skunk in question was a wild animal, not an escaped pet, so the rest of us are not much better off – we may be alive, but we now get to smell the smell of both decomposing carrion and the smell of the remnants of a skunk’s trademark stench, you know? This is one bouquet of aromas that we all can live without – but because the dead skunk is lying in the middle of the city’s roads, aka public property, no one is doing anything about it, just because… Where were we?

Well, better off than the actual road devil that had ran over the skunk in question – they’d received the most of the skunk’s final blast and now have to clean it off their car one way or another, and that just isn’t fun; not to mention it might not be legal. See, the government of the GTA may not want its’ citizens to become too friendly and familiar with the urban wildlife – raccoons, coyotes, red foxes, etc. – but it doesn’t mean that they want to run them over with cars either. Especially the proverbial skunk, whose means of self-defence are well known, especially in North America.

…Incidentally, did you know that there are species of skunk in South America as well? Genetics aside, they look largely like the northern striped skunk, and probably smell just as bad. In Africa, there are local weasels that look like variant skunks, and they self-defend like variant skunks, but the honey badger is in a league of its’ own and doesn’t like to make a literal smell.

All mustelids, up to the wolverine, the biggest member of this group on land can make a bad smell, but the skunks are mustelid cousins instead, a closely related, but separate group; their only relatives are the so-called stink-badgers of the Asian tropics, but this is neither here nor there – let’s go into space instead.

Why go there? Because of PJ Masks, as a matter of fact. In their upcoming season premiere, the titular characters, and their arch-enemies, are going into space, each group with their respective allies, because of an asteroid that can turn heroes into villains, (and maybe vice versa? Who knows? Who cares)? Fair enough, but I would rather talk about celestial bodies instead.

What is an asteroid? It is a space rock, or, if you want to get professional, a minor planet. That said, they vary in size from a 1-m rock to a dwarf planet almost 1000 m in diameter, so space rocks they are.

Within the Solar System, most of asteroids are found within the so-called asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter; there are various origin theories about it and the asteroids, but they’re not important here – the point is that most of asteroids stay within it and don’t crash into Earth.

Then what does crash into Earth? This is where terminology gets tricky, especially if we do not get all scientific. First, we get the shooting/falling stars that do not fall onto Earth, but get burned-up in the atmosphere – they are called meteors. If they do not get burned-up and do crash into Earth, they are called meteorites instead. Both are space rocks, (also called meteoroids), again, just as the asteroids are, but asteroids do not smash into Earth. Conversely, though, we also have comets, that are more like giant ice balls that contain pieces of other substances/materials within their icy bulks, and when they fly close to the Sun, (or any other stars, actually), the ice begins to melt and the other substances burst out, forming the comet’s tail. Meteorites, meteors and most other meteoroids don’t do that… consequently, what is the point?

I honestly have no idea, I confess. The ‘PJ Masks’ are a mess – they started as successful fables, tried to mutate into a variant superhero cartoon and now they seem to be trying to have it all at once – there are villains in the show, true, but apparently most of the episodes will have the heroes solve their own problems rather battling their foes. From what I have heard about the promos for the episodes this is not going to happen, this is standard heroes vs. villains’ scenario instead. Well, more power to them. Maybe the ‘PJ Masks’ will succeed. I am not holding my breath though. Oh, wait; there is still the dead skunk. I guess that I am. We are still better off than it is, though.

For the moment though, this is it. See you all soon!

DW: SS vs. Viet Cong - March 27

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so I felt nostalgic and pulled out the good old ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) out of the storage. For today, I chose the ‘Waffen Nazi SS vs. Viet Cong’ episode, and did not regret it.

…Well, no, I did not regret it in a manner of speaking. This is a controversial episode on a matter of layers. First, the DW team chose to stack the odds in the SS’s favor, as strange as that may sound: rather than some version of AKM, the Viet Cong team here used a MAT-49 submachine gun; I may or may not have written about this earlier, (way earlier), but this was the only time this weapon – or any version of it – was used on this show; whenever else the Viet Cong would appear – as NPCs – they would wield AKM firearms instead.

Second, this was not an episode suggested by any member of the DW main crew – rather there were suggestions that one of the background members of the staff had suggested it, which opens either a realm of possibilities or an assortment of problems or maybe both.

Finally, the DW team was able to depict the final confrontation thusly, that it appeared to be a team of American G.I. is facing off against the Viet Cong, not the SS. That also makes sense, since the American government and society have views regarding the SS and the Nazi regime, so the team SS winning this face-off was unexpected, and may have been one of the secondary factors/reasons as to why the DW show went under, for as I may have written before, (much earlier), DW show had plenty of good points – pity that they haven’t helped the show survive… Anything else?

People showed me an official episode of the new ‘Kiya’ cartoon series. On some level, it is a ‘PJ Masks’ variant with one important difference – and no, it isn’t the musical elements; ‘PJ Masks’ can be overwhelming themselves without it – it is the presence of adults/grown-ups/parents in the show – somehow, their presence keeps ‘Kiya’ grounded and relatively more realistic than the ‘PJ Masks’ are – but ‘PJ Masks’ don’t care about realism, remember?

…In other PJ-related news, the show… still has not gotten its’ act together, it seems. On one hand, there are promo images that show the characters, and especially the main villains, are getting an upgrade and are going against the heroes, in the style of the 1990s’ X-Men cartoon, (remember it? A classic!), while on the other the show tended to have its’ characters pull its’ punches, especially when it comes to physical violence, because It Is A Show for Children! As such, rumors have it that the characters new and old will spend more time getting over their internal issues than fighting ‘external’ bad guys. As I have mentioned before, so far there is no concrete evidence that the ‘night-time bad guys’ are actually real and not figments of the PJ Masks’ imagination. This would make the PJ Masks just a trio of really lonely kids who actually have to imagine people who would interact with them…but I’ve written about this before, and don’t want to get back to it again. Instead, what next?

Nothing, except that the ‘PJ Masks’ show seems to have gotten itself into a corner and is aware of it – the show stalled its’ new release since the beginning of 2023; the first episodes are supposed to be aired starting April 19, 2023, but so far there’s no information as to what they will be about and etc. Clearly, the franchise has ran into problems. Anything else?

Regrettably, no. ‘Kiya’ in itself is not that great; the music content has gone past saturation point and sometimes it makes it hard to make out what its’ characters are saying, but, hey, the children love it. They also appear to like ‘PJ Masks’ as well, of course, but that is children – their tastes are very different from the grown-ups’, but that is another story.

See you all soon!

Ant-Man 3 - Feb 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us move onto the ‘Quantumania’ movie instead.

…Then again, things do not appear to be improving, as the reviews of it are mixed, almost as bad as the ‘Eternals’ movie had been. However…

…However, whereas the latter was an experiment of Disney/MCU in movie genres, ‘Ant-Man 3’ is a standard slash typical Marvel film; actually, it is a standard superhero film.

Work with me, here how ‘Ant-Man 3’ goes. The hero is a hero. They become complacent and too comfortable in their heroism. A villain comes along and gets the best of the hero via their complacency. The hero has to work twice as hard now to succeed, (because they have no other choice, duh). They succeed and the villain dies. The end. Pause.

Now, if that sort of scenario sounds familiar, that is because it is. For examples, both the second ‘Puss’ film and one of the final episodes of ‘PJ Masks’ S7 (I think, how many seasons does the effing series have?), have similar scripts, with the main difference from ‘Ant-Man 3’ being that the villains, (not all the villains), don’t die there.

Now, Tom Holland’s 3^rd ‘Spider-Man’ film, (‘No Way Home’), has the same thing – the Spider-Trio actually manage to redeem/cure, (in a manner of speaking, but still), their villains, while ‘Ant-Man 3’ doesn’t.

…Oh, wait, there is the new M.O.D.O.K., aka the old Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, who got revived and remade by Kang – and who turned on him; wait, evil always turns upon itself. Never mind. At least the now-cancelled M.O.D.O.K. of team Hulu had been authentically original and entertaining – that is probably why it got cancelled.

On a more serious note, though is MCU’s multiverse. So far, the only real successful Marvel movie/other creation that had involved the multiverse was the aforementioned ‘No Way Home’, as it actually showed it in action – and it worked. Everything else, though – not so much. ‘What if?’ S1 was really a variant Avengers series without anything truly new, (but with plenty window dressing), while the ‘DS2’ film was a live-action version of one of the ‘What if?’ plotlines, and this brings us to ‘Ant-Man 3’.

‘Ant-Man 3’, again, does not bring anything new to MCU: the plotline is typical of the other MCU movies, except for the fact that if previously team MCU killed-off its’ villains in every film and so forth, quickly running out of them… now it can do the same, just with the confirmation that it can also – when it wants to, or needs to – pull out a new Kang/Scarlet Witch/Thanos/Ultron/etc. out of the multiverse, since it has done this to Kang two times in a row now, and neither Kang was the actual Kang, apparently. Fancy that!

As for MCU Phase 5, in general… listen. MCU’s Phase 4 was about transitions, and we have talked about that at length. Contrastingly, ‘Ant-Man 3’ didn’t have too many transitions; what it had were resolutions, something that the first phases of MCU were, and are, well known for; whatever MCU was doing, and was going for, in its’ Phase 4, appears to be over, and what we are left with?

Same old that we had before Phase 4, it seems. Phase 4 of MCU actually experimented with different genres, sometimes successfully – i.e. ‘Spider Man: No Way Home’, and sometimes not – i.e. ‘The Eternals’ – but experiment it did. Now, it seems time for cinematographic experiments is over, and MCU returned to where it had started, with tried and tested true, old-school, done by the book, works. The details might be different, but the underlined idea is the same… save that now MCU can access the multiverse, bringing the same villain in different incarnations over and over again, diminishing itself, and the success of its’ heroes, even further than compared to the level that the ‘Kamala Khan’ and ‘She-Hulk’ series have brought MCU to – and that might be part of the reason as to why Mr. Feige seems to be cutting down on the number of MCU TV series since MCU’s Phase 4 – but that is another story.

As for ‘Ant-Man 3’… it is an entertaining movie, but little more; once you look past all the sound, the color and the furious noise, this film doesn’t appear to be living up to the hype that it’d generated, and the critics have realised it, hence why they appear to hate it… at least some of them have. Guess we will just have to wait and see as to what MCU will do next.

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

PJ Masks 2 - Feb 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. ‘Ant-Man 3’ is due only in nine more days, so let us find a more mundane topic. Since this is my first entry for Feb 2023, let us talk about PJ Masks once more.

Now, you may be asking yourself: why? Because, I answer, after my initial discussion of them, people have been calling me out and explaining that PJ Masks are a fable; each – or almost each – episode has a punchline or a moral that explains everything that happens, more or less. And to this, I answer: you are correct… but mostly for the first two or so seasons, and then it all goes wrong. Why?

Let us start from a distance: what is a fable? The answer to this question may vary, but in the West, it is usually a short story with a moral at the end. ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ is a typical fable, as is ‘The Lion and the Mouse’. They, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’, ‘The City Mouse and the Country Mouse’, are all built along similar lines: a short story, only a few paragraphs long, (on paper, in other media this may be different), with a moral at the end.

From the characters’ point of view, the characters are barely there: their depiction is minimalist and follows from fable to fable: the fox is cunning, the lion – noble, the wolf – greedy and gluttonous, the hare – cowardly, the cat – sly, the mouse – tricky but weak, the donkey – stubborn, and so on. Conversely, they may not even have characteristics, or appear only once or twice in all of the fables, (we are talking mostly Aesop’s fables, for simplicity): i.e. the titular characters of ‘The Oak and the Reed’ fable appear only in ‘their’ fable, and nowhere else.

However, in case of ‘PJ Masks’, the situation isn’t like that of the oak and the reed – rather, the titular characters are the main characters, as are their archenemies – Romeo, the Night Ninja, and Luna Girl. Those half-a-dozen characters are the primary characters, and most of the ‘PJ Masks’ episodes are about their interactions… so where do the fable elements come in?

In the first seasons, they were obvious. For example, if the moral was Slow and Steady Wins the Race, or rather You Must make a systematic plan to succeed, then the PJ Masks had to do exactly that – make a systematic plan in order to defeat Romeo. Yes, part of that plan was to befriend Luna Girl, however temporarily, but because the latter barely had any personality to speak of, that was no problem, especially since at the end of the episode she just leaves, without any hard feelings – no one cared hard enough about her, especially the followers of canon… so, where did it go wrong?

When the show owners began to make the episodes more complex. On one hand, they introduced new characters into the mix, such as the wolfies. On the other, they tried to make the episodes more complex and less fable-like, pardon the pun. Armadylan is a good example of that.

Armadylan was a hero/anti-hero, and the first of PJ Masks’ allies, (Luna Girl is a special case). He was big, he was strong, and he was easily angered. Throughout S2 (and 3, I think), PJ Masks did their best to teach him the ‘right way’ of being a hero, until they succeeded… and Armadylan became a much less recurring character… who seemed to have learned nothing… and the PJ Masks don’t appear to be caring… Armadylan is stuck somewhere between being a character and a prop… as characters in fables are.

No, seriously – on screen, the titular characters of a fable, (say, ‘The Lion and the Mouse’), can come across in any way, but on paper, the lion is noble but arrogant, (hubris), while the mouse is weak, but helpful; they are stereotypes, clichés, little else. And ironically, for the first seasons, for as long as the PJ Masks and their foes were stereotypes themselves, the fable elements of their show worked. Both the PJ Masks and their foes were little more than stereotypes, they were practically interchangeable within their teams, and the main way as to how they differentiated from each other were their depictions – physical depictions. Each of the PJ Masks has their own unique abilities as do their enemies; the main difference here being that the PJ Masks need to solve problems, and their enemies ARE problems, or rather – part of them. The PJ Masks need to heroically solve them, and so they do…

…And then the creative team began to move away from the fable format into the regular show one: the PJ Masks, their enemies and allies began to stop being just clichés and began to be more full-rounded characters…while sticking to their initial depictions. Just like any attempt of trying to sit on two chairs at once, the result is a failure rather than a success.

Look at Luna Girl: as a villain stereotype, (the bad girl one), she worked without any questions or doubts. As a character she is all over the place – she goes from being a foe to the PJ Masks, to an unnecessary drag-along to an ally from an episode to an episode, from one season to another, and-?

And it does not exactly work. The Western culture, especially their mass media, have the concepts of ‘frenemy’ and ‘wild card’, among others, and this may be who Luna Girl now is, but still, you would think that sooner or later the PJ Masks’ temper would fray and they would ask Luna Girl if she is with them or not – regardless of how long a rope is, it will still end. However, this does not happen, as neither the PJ Masks nor Luna Girl apparently care if Luna Girl is good or bad, if she is a friend or foe… and if that is the case, then the PJ Masks themselves are less heroic and more mercenary in their approach to other people… the Speed twins, (a couple of gearheads), have helped them to defeat Luna Girl, Romeo and the Night Ninja, and the heroic trio doesn’t even acknowledge them… Hell, they disappear from the show after this… ‘PJ Masks’ the show treats its’ characters worse than PJ Masks the characters treat their erstwhile allies and friends… They are no longer fables, but neither are they proper characters – not yet. This is why I do not like ‘PJ Masks’ and me don’t think that they are a good show – at least not anymore, not at the moment. This may change in the future, but I do not hedge my bets either…

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

PJ Masks 1 - Jan 5

 So about them PJ Masks?

I admit that this is not my usual topic, but – real life sucks more than it regularly does, (obligatory disclaimer), so let us talk about something else. PJ Masks will do.

What to say about it? PJ Masks is one weird cartoon; it talks about three children – Amaya/Owlette, Connor/Cat Boy and Greg/Gecko – who are kindergarteners by day and superheroes by night, ‘fighting fiendish villains’ without any regard to sleep or other body functions, (such as eating or – the other end). Fair enough, you do not expect a children’s show to be realistic, but still…

What is the crunch of the show? Either both the PJ Masks and their archrivals – Romeo, Night Ninja and Luna Girl among others - are all real and all of their mutual brouhaha is just a typical playground roughhousing, disguised as superhero/villain face-off and nothing more, or the only ones real are the PJ Masks, who have invented everything and everyone, because no one else wants to play with them, and so they invented some frenemies to play with. Namely, the bookish Amaya has invented Romeo, who is smart like her, but ruthless and mean unlike her, the shy Greg has invented the over confident Luna Girl, while Connor has invented the Night Ninja, who is a dark reflection of Cat Boy, a bad leader, period. What is left?

The fact that while the titular heroes are on the first-name basis with their enemies/frenemies, their classmates have no names; the only one who interacts with them, is a boy named Cameron, and his interactions with the trio are more ambiguous than friendly, so there’s that. For a while, it was even a possibility that he is one of the nighttime villains, but as a Halloween special episode showed, he is not – he is just a civilian.

Even the authority figures do not make much impact in the PJ Masks’ world – their classroom teacher is ‘just a teacher’ and the rest are not even episodic characters – they just walk on and off screen with minimal impact, not even a proper exposition dump. That may not be necessarily bad, but it is empty… and the PJ Masks’ parents are flat-out absent. You would think that they had at least some presence on screen, but no, not even shadows on the floors/walls.

A typical PJ Masks’ episode goes as follows: the PJ Masks are playing during the daytime; they find something unusual, (for them), and there’s immediately a montage of them being in their bedrooms, changing into their superhero personas, going to their HQ – a totem pole in the middle of a park – in three flashes of color, and then they get up to speed in their HQ, and off they go. Ok.

The thing is that a typical PJ Masks episode is slightly over 10 minutes long, and this montage takes a good amount of time of the episode. Put otherwise, a typical PJ Masks’ episode does not know itself how long it will take and how to make itself last; often, the scriptwriters just take a single scenario and re-design it time after time, trying to make it more complex and sophisticated than the last time.

Take the scenario where Romeo teamed-up with Luna Girl and Night Ninja, and the PJ Masks’ had to team-up with the twins Carly and Cartyka to save the day/night. It actually takes them 20+ minutes to do that, and this sounds impressive…until you realize that something like this has happened in an earlier episode, where a character named Armadylan had to save the PJ Masks in question, and it took him a single episode – 11+ minutes total. So why haven’t the PJ Masks asked Armadylan to rescue them this time? Because they already got 5 seasons under their belts, and got to look good to justify their upcoming 6th season by now. Next?

Ah yes, consistency. One episode, Luna Girl is a diehard enemy of the PJ Masks; the next, she cooperates with them easily enough; either the show has sneaked-in a multiverse, where two different Luna Girls have two different interactions with two different PJ Mask teams, or else the consistency is all over the floor. Often, the show introduces new characters, and does not exactly know what to do with them, as it had with Newton Star.

The latter is something of an exception, as he seems to exist during the daytime, alongside the main characters. Only… he is a loner – his mother is an astronaut far out in space, his father is never mentioned, and his friends aside from the Masks’ are some asteroids, aka space rocks. That is… somewhat sad, really. Newton Star is an outsider slash outcast in the ‘regular’ world, and so are the PJ Masks, it looks like: they have no social life outside of their heroics!..

And their villains have no families, it appears. Luna Girl, for example, spends her days… where? Sleeping in someone else’s attic or something? Yes, eventually she gets a moon fortress of her own…and is kicked out of it by Mothsuki, who treats her something like a yo-yo, which is seriously creepy. That said, Luna Girl is always ‘dressed to the nines’, so someone is obviously taking care of her, and she isn’t a hobo. It would be interesting to learn just who, though, exactly. Anything else?

No, not really. PJ Masks is the reverse side of a show such as ‘Agent Carer’, (AC). AC was a small-cast show that ran a tight ship and was very cohesive and fun to watch. PJ Masks are also fun to watch… once or twice, and then you start falling into the plotholes and begin to get bored seeing them defeat Romeo yet again via some same stunt just dressed in a different clothing. The show might be for preteens, but still, such disrespect? Oh well, that’s Disney for you – as MCU and co. showed, they and their franchises treat their older audiences hardly any better!

….Well, for now, this is it. I didn’t expect my first 2023 blog entry to be about such a subject, but still, what is – is, what will be – will be. See you all soon, I hope!