Moon Knight, 'Gods and Monsters' - May 4

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the MK season one finale instead – and it is a jumble.

Ok, no, let’s try again: for a show that aimed at talking about the mysteries of the mind on one hand, and that was flipping between the various settings – a mental institution, U.K., Egypt, and so on – MK was remarkably straightforward and controlled: it was yet another hero’s journey, one that MCU kept under tight control…until the twist at the end… which could be seen a mile away.

…When AoS’ S1 had Ward turned traitor, it worked because it was so unexpected… and nothing gave it away. In MK S1, the appearance of a third personality – Jake Lockley (or whoever) – was choreographed several episodes before the S1 finale. Therefore, when the man – or the personality, whatever – did appear in MK and finished ‘the Harrow job’, no one was surprised. Except maybe for Harrow.

Let us elaborate. In the S1 finale, the Spector and Grant personalities of the titular character have reunited with each other and with Khonshu, and defeated Harrow and Ammit. We have discussed Ammit/Ammut before, and the same goes for Tawaret, who bonded with Layla as well. Again, Tawaret is not a warrior goddess; Ammit/Ammut is not much of a deity period, and I, for one, just could not help but to visualize Mr. Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’, especially the second book, where the Kane siblings, Carter and Sadie, have their confrontation with Khonshu.

Again, I proclaim: MK has not ripped-off ‘Kane Chronicles’ directly; the two media are quite different, not to mention that Layla’s character is quite original… in that that she’s a strong, independent woman who lives in MCU, (the viewers of the 2021 ‘Black Widow’ film) will be so impressed… and who is an avatar of an ancient Egyptian goddess, just as Marc/Steven/Jake is an avatar of an Egyptian god. Pause.

…Khonshu appeared to be quite ready and willing to work with the Jake personality of MK, implying that he himself is just as morally shady and ambiguous as Jake himself is? Not surprising, given Khonshu’s re-appearance in the Marvel comics, when he appeared as an enemy of the Avengers, and while he was not as evil as Mephisto was, (the comic version, as we have not seen a live-action one yet), he certainly was a bad piece of work – and MCU’s Khonshu lives-up to that rep, no problem.

…The problem here is that Layla is still legally married to MK, regardless of which personality is in the driver’s seat, and Jake is quite nasty, by all standards; plus, there is Khonshu playing extra interference, and the god’s moral ambiguity and other personality flaws can easily make an already tense situation worse. What is left?

‘Dr. Strange 2’ is coming out in a couple of days, and people are already divided about it – fair enough. In RL – and did I fail to tell you that it sucks, ‘cause it does – the RF has pissed-off the West by trying to use the Holocaust as its’ justification regarding its’ conflict with Ukraine, and it didn’t work, while overseas, the U.S. will try to use the RF to ty to discredit the Donald again. Can’t say that I blame the latter; if the Donald runs in the elections-2024 and wins – and given the current POTUS’ less than stellar performance here, it could happen – if the Donald wins, then the rest of the Western world can freely tell America to shove-off and sort itself, because this sort of political unpredictability gets very tiring very fast – but we digressed.

…The final face-off between Ammit/Ammut and Khonshu is reminiscent of the showdown between Set, (possessed secretly by Apop), and Horus, in the first book of the ‘Kane Chronicles’, and here I have to talk about Ammit again – not only her/their deification by MCU is absolute fiction, their depiction of the ‘new’ deity is highly reminiscent of Sobek instead.

More precisely, Ammit/Ammut was a Chimera: hippo in the back, lion in the front, and a crocodile head to cap it all. Sobek, on the other hand, was depicted as a crocodile-headed human, (or a crocodile), nothing more, and yes, he was a proper god, a warrior and a protector, (among other things). To conflate him and Ammit (Ammut) was, and is, just wrong, it is cultural appropriation at its’ stupidest worst.

…Whereas Layla’s current evolution into Tawaret’s representative smacks of copyright infringement instead: her new duds are just excessively similar to what WW wore in the WW84 film. Tawaret is a hippo goddess of fertility, (among other things), so why the slimming get-up? …Oh, wait; it is Disney/MCU, never mind. When money is not involved, Disney is certain to play it safe; and when it is… well; we will just have to see what, and how, the fight between Disney and the Republicans in the state of Florida will go. Did I not mention that the real life sucks?

…Getting back to the Egyptian myths and mythos… there were several falcon-associated deities in there, but they tended to be male, because they were associated with the pharaoh, (who were overwhelmingly male themselves, cough); the most famous are Ra, Horus, and their fusion, Horus-Ra – the Egyptian myths could be quite confusing on their own right, (which may be why WW84’s creative team tried to go with the Mesoamerican imagery instead), but we digress.

…No, we are not, not really. The final official judgement on the MK S1 is out, but mine is that it is one part reworked Mr. Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’, one part MCU attempt to tackle serious issues, (mental issues in this case), one part MCU sticking to what they know best – i.e. entertaining people, and all of this is wrapped-up into an ‘independent’ MCU series, which takes place separate from the rest of the MCU. The end result is something that you can see for yourself, and I will take my leave of you now.

See you all soon!

Peloton and Co. - May 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Just ask the Peloton™ team: they have only just recovered from their previous ad snafu, one that smelled of either sexism or of the Dark Mirror™ TV series, and now they got another scandal: apparently, children are getting into accidents over their treadmill equipment, and are getting hurt, maybe even seriously.

Listen, I don’t like Peloton™ as much as the next lazy guy, but even I have to admit that an indoor gym equipment isn’t necessarily child friendly, and as such, children – especially young ones – should be kept away from it, or at least – kept under supervision. This time, Peloton™ isn’t exactly at fault here, you know?

…On the other hand, we live in a world where endangered condors are trashing people’s homes, so all bets are off, actually. Let us try to talk about a less bizarre topic, i.e. the bad batch, the titular characters.

…No, I have no intention to talk about the series’ premiere in detail, let us just point out that the group’s villain, Crosshairs is…

No, let us try again. The Bad Batch themselves are a variant clone of the AoS’ team Bus from the get-go, just as the core characters of the ‘Blindspot’ TV series had been. Omega, of course, is the new Skye, while Crosshairs is Grant Ward, save that he is actually mind-controlled by some chip here, and thus has an out, (sort of): he was really made to do it and his mind isn’t entirely his own. It’s a thin excuse, but Ward didn’t have even this; actually, he never had anything, he hadn’t been fully damned nor fully redeemed, but we’re not talking about him; we’re talking about Crosshairs, who is also modelled after a Marvel comics’ character, a minor villain named William Cross, who is a master sniper and planner, who has slightly cybernetic modifications, but who wasn’t in S.H.I.E.L.D., but rather in CIA, before he went bad. He is also bad at hand-to-hand combat, and everything, (except for S.H.I.E.L.D. and CIA, primarily), applies to Crosshairs: the clone might be a Grant Ward variant mentally, but physically, he is more of a variant William Cross instead. The cross-pollination between Disney’s various franchises is proceeding apiece quite nicely.

This brings us to DC, and its’ ‘Justice Society: WWII’ film. Listen. The DC franchise is in the middle of a latest reboot, which began with the ‘Superman: Man of Tomorrow’ animated movie. This specific person plays an important role in this film too, even though in the promo videos it was more about the Flash and Wonder Woman instead, but so what? DC is trying to reinvent itself…cosmetically, while remaining same old same old on the inside: JS: WWII is a variant of the first Gal Gadot Wonder Woman movie, though there’s a nice homage to ‘Flash’ the 2014-onwards TV series too. You are free to watch it, but it is forgettable. Anything else?

Ah yes, the first season of ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ is available to watch now. I have tried to follow the original comic series, and found them to be confused – just what exactly did they want to be? They tried to be original, but they did no better than Hasbro’s ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise, which struggles to be something more than another S.H.I.E.L.D. vs Hydra variant in an increasingly Marvel vs. DC comic world, and in this world, Marvel is increasingly driven and motivated by Disney, (cough), while DC is trying to figure out what it wants other than bigger sales of its’ own merchandise. Nice.

…Into this fray entered the ‘Jupiter’ comics, which tried to leave a mark, tried to be original, but somehow have largely vanished without a trace, until now, when they’ve resurfaced with a complete reboot from the original plotline, and-?

And nothing. Not unlike the abovementioned DC film, people will either enjoy the ‘Jupiter’ series, or not. There is nothing memorable or outstanding that gives them an advantage over the rest of their respective crowds, and so it is time to move on and to talk about something else.

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

Batman: Soul of the Dragon - Jan 13

 

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Yes, it is a direct responsa to the mess that the U.S. is currently in, but it is also a response to my family’s latest visit to our house – we all have barely survived the two weeks of holidays staying in the same house, (ok, apartment building), cooped-up together – it was that bad. I do not want to dwell on it, however, so let me just reassure my followers by proclaiming that I am not dead yet, and move on.

…The entire U.S. situation is not something that I want to discuss – not yet. By opening his big mouth, the Donald revealed himself to be an idiot of the highest caliber and quality, one that apparently hates the U.S. with a passion that not even Putin come close to, and one who should’ve been removed from the Capitol, the White House, etc., etc., a long time ago. Instead, we got a hot mess between the Republicans and the Democrats once again, and the Donald keeps on wheeling and flying over the U.S. unhindered. Seriously, do the American politicians consider other American people to be worthy of mattering? Alternatively, do they ignore them completely? Yes, some corporations have cut-off their funding either to the Donald or to the both of the abovementioned political parties – and this does not brighten the picture in the D.C. either, but still…

…At any rate, I have tried to distract myself by watching the new DC movie, ‘Batman: Soul of the Dragon’, and… I have regretted it. One of the worst wastes of my life and time ever!

Here is the thing. WW84 is a wonderful movie, (pun intended), just dealing with the modern political issues in atypical ways, as I have written last year about it. Hence all the rage from the independent movie critics and connoisseurs, (or whatever they are supposed to be). Those that are more dependent, like the IGN, of course, sing accolades to WW84 instead – but IGN have sang accolades to the ‘Dragon-Bat’ film as well. What is the problem here?

It is banal. WW84 has plenty of content, something that none of its’ critics deny. Not everyone is liking WW84’s political content, and not everyone is recognizing it for what it is, but it is present; WW84 has put itself onto a higher rung of the ladder of the movies’ worth, and right now, WB and HBO believe that it is a winning horse, (and rightly so) – WW84 is trying to do something else than just to entertain – it is trying to educate about the social and gender norms, (aside from anything else). ‘Dragon-Bat’ does not do anything like that. Instead, it is a straightforward fic, er, flick, about Batman teaming up with several other DC characters to bring down the Kobra cult. Pause.

Here is the thing. It is not a bad concept on its’ own, and ‘Dragon-Bat’ isn’t entirely a bad movie, it is only forgettable: none of the characters really have much of defining characteristics outside of martial arts – and everyone in the ‘Dragon-Bat’ has martial arts. The ‘dragon’ part seems to be coming from Richard Dragon, one of the movie’s main characters, and who got the worst part of the deal – lady Shiva has appeared in all sort of DC franchises and so has the Bronze Tiger/Ben Turner; I, in particular, remember his incarnation in the ‘Batman: The Brave and The Bold’ cartoons, and I got to say – I liked this version better. There he had backstory and traits that made him different from the rest of the BB characters – yes, it is obvious, but it needs to be said. Here, in ‘Dragon-Bat’, he is not, and neither is Richard Dragon, who seems to be little more than Batman’s/Bruce Wayne’s pale shadow instead, (somewhat how Homer’s Menelaus was a shadow of Odysseus in both ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’). After all, unlike lady Shiva and Ben Turner, he doesn’t have much of a presence outside of the DC comics… anything else?

Sadly, no. ‘Dragon-Bat’ doesn’t focus much on its characters; they appear to be almost interchangeable, and none of them appear to be too interested in each other beyond what the game – I mean, the movie – demands of them. ‘Dragon-Bat’ feels like a badly filmed RPG, in other terms. Lady Shiva, for example, is one of the more interesting female characters in DC – and here she is just a crime lord in the local Chinatown. Pardon me, a top crime lord or something. Fancy that. Do the other characters care? Not really. Is it all that important within the greater movie? Also not really. Ouch.

And the same can be addressed towards the Dark Knight himself, though he is a special case, actually. Yes, he is the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader and so on, but he is more of a masked detective than a dragon slayer instead – somehow, here he feels redundant – even IGN admitted that in this movie his role could’ve been taken over by Richard Dragon or by anyone else, with the plot of the movie being none the worse. Only… the ‘names’ of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and so on have selling power that the ‘names’ of Richard Dragon or Ben Turner or even lady Shiva lack. Batman is here to make ‘soul of the Dragon’ sell, first and foremost, and everything else is redundant. Ouch!

But then again, everything about ‘Dragon-Bat’ is redundant and forgettable: yes, it is fun to watch once, but nothing else: you watch it once and probably will not watch it again. WW84, on the other hand? Has staying power and will be staying in discussions for the next little while, even as the ‘Dragon-Bat’ will not be. However, that is real life for you. It sucks.

This is it for now – see you all soon.

WW84 - Dec 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: I still am not dead. To elaborate further: the ‘WW84’ film is good.

Let us start from the beginning: what is this film about? It is about the further adventures of the titular heroine, this time – in the middle 1980s. So far so good, though did Ms. Patty Jenkins had to tack on the Donald as well?.. however, we digress.

Let us try again. The main difference between this year’s film and the 2017’s one is that the first WW movie was a part of the ‘greater DCEU’, let us call it that, it tied on directly into the effects of the JL movie, and on the flip side it was strongly reminiscent of Marvel’s first ‘Captain America’ film, though with a less pulp fiction film. I don’t know as to who thought that pulp fiction Nazis on screen was a good idea; they and their association with Hydra backfired on MCU in a big, unpredictable way, but that isn’t the point right now – the point is in that WW84, there are no WWI or WWII associations, there are some signs of an escalating, cough, Cold War, but none of the main characters of this film are associated too deeply with that RL aspect. Now what?

First, a shout-out to Pedro Pascal for his depiction of Maxwell Lord; the man has nothing in common with ‘the Mandalorian’, even though one and the same person is playing them both. Pedro Pasqual is clearly a man of many skills, whereas Ming-Na Wen, who has also reappeared in ‘the Mandalorian’ S2 finale as Boba Fett’s new sidekick, is more of a hot sauce – as the ad says, Grandma Disney puts Wen into everything. MCU? – AoS; Disney? – ‘Mulan-2020’ (and ‘Mulan-1990s, cough); SW – now ‘the Mandalorian’; yet so far Wen either plays a tough, powerful woman warrior, or she is just a cameo, a spectre of her normally powerful image.

…Yet even such a spectre is more powerful than Chloe Bennett is; the younger woman seems to be a one-hit wonder, now that AoS’ and its’ Quake are gone, and Quake/Daisy Johnson herself seems to be largely not in demand by Disney/Marvel now that AoS is finished; but how did Chloe wax poetic after the series’ finale!.. Where were we?

…Well, the Whedon family heavily invested & involved with AoS, and had published their own article once AoS was finished, but nothing was mentioned of the Mr. Whedon-father, who is under a MeToo cloud currently – and now Ms. Gadot, aka Diana Prince of the latest WW-movies, mentions Mr. Whedon-father in a less than flattering light. Fair enough and – girl power! Go, Diana! Go, Wonder Woman! Or not.

Oh no, the girl power in Diana is there, and if you need a sexist pig to base your villain upon, then the RL Donald is your man. The trick here is how Ms. Jenkins had handled her Maxwell Lord; ‘her’, because there are at least two other versions of Maxwell Lord who were played by RL actors rather than being cartoon animations, and one of them appeared back in ‘Supergirl-2015’ – a rather different person from the Maxwell Lord of WW84, so why hadn’t Ms. Jenkins used this actor?

Because she needed a Donald look-a-like, with one major twist – her Maxwell Lord actually redeemed himself at the end, because of his son, but regardless. In RL, of course, Barron Trump was off the metaphorical menu, though this was probably due to the actions of Melania, who was usually ‘ignored’ by the anti-Trump media because of reasons, but nevertheless, this version of Maxwell Lord proved to be a different version from the Donald, making their resemblance to each other imperfect, and Lord’s misogyny, (relatively speaking, but still) – ditto.

…And on the other hand we have the Cheetah, who was not redeemed, however likable she used to be in most of the movie. If Maxwell was a misogynist of WW84, then Dr. Minerva/Cheetah was an equally toxic TERF, (not unlike J.K. Rowling in real life), a stereotype that is much less popular in the mainstream culture, political and otherwise, than someone as the Donald is. By depicting the Cheetah this way, may be one of the reasons as to why WW84 reviews were mixed, as some of the reviewers do not like this portrayal of hers, and the others – of the Donald… I mean, Maxwell Lord. Fair enough.

That said, for most of the movie, Barbara-Ann Minerva isn’t the Cheetah, but more of a dark mirror to Wonder Woman, a selfish version of Diana rather than an outright evil one. Of course, by wishing for Steve, Diana herself proved to be selfish…at least by the movie’s standards…or maybe the crystal’s…since it was created by a ‘god of mischief and lies’…cough. Gee, I wonder who can that be; you know that Marvel hadn’t created him, but rather taken the actual RL Norse mythology and adapted it to its’ own purpose…but because their association with Loki is that tight these days, that DC decided to hide behind anonymity, because of course that works!..

Back to the Cheetah proper, as it was said before, for most of the movie, she is not an evil person, more of a selfish one, an anti-Wonder Woman…sort of. Then she decided to change her wish – just as Diana gave up her own wish, that of Steve being with her, (and in exchange, she was growing weaker, more ordinary – the movie could’ve had fun, by having Minerva turn into Wonder Woman, just as Diana was turning into an ordinary woman, and someone who resembled the original Minerva, maybe?.. but that would be fetish fuel or something, so no.

Instead we got Minerva turning from a dark Wonder Woman into an extra from CATS-2019, (and that was a toxic trash fire even before COVID-19 struck), because, supposedly, Minerva wanted to be an ‘apex predator’, or an ‘alpha predator’, or whatever.

…The problem here is that a cheetah is a predator, but is much closer to the bottom of the metaphorical pyramid; there are videos on YouTube that show RL cheetahs being chased away from their kills by…flocks of vultures. We’re talking RL vultures here, professional scavengers, not hunters themselves, not at all – and when professional scavengers can get the best of you, because you’re tired and exhausted to the bone, and they aren’t, and there’s many of them, and only one of you – then you know that you’re neither alpha nor apex anything. In RL, cheetahs are pwned by practically every other carnivore of the African savannahs where they live, and they know it. They are speeding specialists and as such, they are really fragile and physically weak, (though I still would not advise any human to tangle with them for all sort of reasons), so the Barbara Ann Minerva version of the Cheetah is more like the Leopard or the Jaguar instead.

…There is also the Priscilla Rich version of the Cheetah; unlike Barbara-Ann, this one is no metahuman, but more like an evil version of the Catwoman instead, what with a suit…and a load of cash, ‘cause her family name is Rich, got it? Still, she has not appeared in DCEU so far, so no more shall be said about that. Anything else?

Well, Steve-O and his amazing body snatching/look-around switcheroo story line feels rather influenced by the 90s’ X: WP/H: TLJ TV series’, cough, ancient Greece, cough. In them, some of the villains – especially a blonde named Callisto – had escaped from the Underworld on one point and took over Xena’s body, so Xena had to take over Callisto’s…or something. In RL, Lucy Lawless, who played Xena, had a broken leg or some similar injury, so Hudson Leick, (who normally played Calypso) had to step in and take over…so an elaborate body swap had to be involved, somehow.

…Yes, Lucy Lawless had appeared in MCU’s AoS, but that role – an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Isabelle Heartly – was not one of LL’s best, not even in the top ten. A chakram-wielding character did reappear in S5 – one that had been played by Dove Cameron instead – but that character, Ruby Hale, had been underwhelming as well…but we have talked about this before. What about WW84 instead?

This movie works. It has its’ flaws, of course, but it works. It fun and entertaining, and while it tried to be woke, it also tried to be fair – something that’ll backfire on it; already has begun to, as the reviews have started to tickle in. Ah well, Gal Gadot is still herself, and Patty Jenkins will be directing the new SW movie, whatever it will be – but that is another story.

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

Quarantine entry #118 - July 17

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, I looked at the ‘Wonder woman 77 meets Bionic woman’ comic, and-?

Well, here is the thing. For a while, I followed the ‘Batman 66’ comics, which were based on the sixties’ TV version of Batman. They are not bad comics, and I have enjoyed following them, (they have ended for now, from what I understand), and this brings us to WW77. This is a comic series based on the seventies’ version of Wonder Woman. Fair enough, but somehow they never got to be as popular as their Batman counterparts did. As to why is that, I have no idea – WW is as good a DC superhero as Batman is – and this brings us to the abovementioned comic. Ergo-?

Ergo it just does not work. Somehow, they made the meeting of the two female superheroes look kind of boring and mundane – almost like ‘Charlie’s Angels’, (the initial original movie), but with superpowers. And robots.

The robots. Throughout the series, they’re called ‘fembots’ – apparently, in the original TV/comic series, they were only women, but now they’re men, so even the crossover comic itself asks – shouldn’t they be ‘man-bots’ instead? And…the name never changes for some paper-weak excuse: obviously, the name cannot be changed because of copyright issues, but…

…But this is actually the problem with the WWBW comic here – it is trying to be ‘woke’ too hard, while also trying to be authentic to the spirit of both of its components – WW & BW – also too hard. The result is weak sauce – maybe not ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ weak, but close enough.

Let us try to elaborate. Let us look at the villains – there are 3 to 4 various WW & BW villains, all associated with robotics, cybernetics, bionics, etc. That sounds like a good combo, but somehow this evil team never amounts to much; sure, a motley crew of the abovementioned robots and mercenaries let by a Nazi/ex-Nazi captain from WW’s past invades the Amazons’ island, but both of those groups are featureless as far as characters go, and serve nothing more than cannon fodder. If this were ST, they would all be wearing red shirts.

…Oh, wait, the robots do wear red shirts; actually, their closing is red (or some other monochrome coloration), done in the worst 70s throwback ever: their getup serves no purpose just to provide some authentic 70s’ vibe. Set in a world of Amazons and humanoid robots. Right. Authenticity, what are you doing here? Are you on a trip? Cough.

…The clothing issues aside, why are the villains invading the Amazon Island? Why, to steal some special metal that will make their robots extra strong!.. Doesn’t sound like the worst idea, true, but somehow the team WWBW makes it sound mundane and tripe, and have ever the info that WW’s homeland has some special metal ever surfaced in the DC verse? I can’t remember, but this is no reason to declare this development to be a one-time wonder, right? Where were we?

Ah yes, the wokeness. Somehow, the Batman 66 comics were never so ‘woke’ as this one, which might be the reason why the WWBW comic never acquired any sequels; the WW77 comic line itself went for a volume or two, but now it is also gone, (just as the Batman 66 comics are). Maybe team DC decided to overhaul its’ extended universe again, and any future collaborations between WW and BW got lost in the shuffle. Who knows?

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

WW1984 trailer 1 - Dec 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In addition, no, I am not talking about the Donald and his impeachment, which goes nowhere fast – Ms. Pelosi was able to use the hoopla surrounding it to prevent the Democratic party from breaking apart into several new parties, (all of which just as hostile to each other as they are towards the Republican party), so that’s it. She did the best of a bad job, but it was still bad. North Korea is still mocking USA, whereas Russia…

Well, the Russian bear had been insulted badly by WADA’s decision, and if it did want to abide by the Western rules, now would be the perfect time for it to start to come to its’ senses – but the problem that the RF’s president Putin doesn’t care about this at all – he just wants to bring the West down, and so he’ll continue to drive his country in this direction until he dies of his own causes, i.e. old age or he is offed. There had been variations of this chiaroscuro conclusion of the Russian rulers’ life, but not many and very rarely, so it is safe to say Putin will rule until he dies himself, or he is killed by someone else who’ll succeed after him… or not, because there’s always the Revolution. Contemporary Russian government is deathly afraid of the Revolution of 1905 and 1917, which is why they lost their shit over Ukraine when it experienced its’ own… hybrid of Revolution and Perestroika… but what does the West do?

Begin to dismantle NATO, that is what. Somehow, in all the excitement of the Russian bear getting punched in the face – hard, and the Donald being insulted by Korea’s great steersman of the state – comrade Kim – also hard, it was overseen as to what happened in Denmark. Something is rotten there, it looks like…but it is the U.S., again. An American critic of the Donald and his regime was supposed to participate in the NATO summit there, so the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark told him (it was a man), that no, you are no longer invited, period. Harsh! Moreover, the government of Denmark told Mr. Ambassador this, on top of ‘if this is how you’re behaving, then we’re done with NATO for now’ – and now there is not a peep about this piece of news on news’ channels and websites. What gives?

…EU has achieved the next stage of its’ being self-sufficient and independence from the U.S., that is what. NATO, just like UN, is still largely an American organization; EU is not. While WADA was punching the Russian bear in the muzzle, the leaders of France and Germany talked to Putin of RF and Zelensky of Ukraine with nary an interest in WADA. WADA is not impotent, but it is limited, it looks like. Now what?

Well, firstly, Putin fears EU the way that he does not the U.S. He has no interest in instigating WWIII – yet and so he is willing cooperate with EU at least to a point in a way that he is not willing to with the U.S. The problem that on the other side of the coin EU is not a big fan of the U.S. anymore – just read the news. While they have little to no in common with the regimes of North Korea or Iran, (China is different, let’s be fair here), again, they are also fed up with the way that the American government was doing things… since the infamous 9/11, while the U.S. sent its’ troops into Afghanistan and beyond. Surprisingly, cough, the only other major Western power that supported them properly was Great Britain. (Again, let us keep Israel out of the equation – but yes, it makes the situation more complex). These days, not surprisingly, Great Britain actually wants to leave the EU, (and remind me as to why did they want to do that in the first place, since obviously that isn’t Russia’s fault, even the Brits themselves admit it), and they got problems, again. I.e. Epstein was very much an American, not a Russian double agent or anything, and also? Prince Andrew of the U.K. was a good friend of his, apparently. The Royal family and co are denying everything, of course, but his highness was kicked out of the family regardless, his children – princess Beatrice and princess Eugenie – aren’t keeping the stiff proverbial upper lip either and the clouds are gathering over the fair isle of England and co. all the same. What is next?

As above as below, as in big things, so in the small – the actor who played the husband in the Peloton ad, (we have talked about it earlier this month) has received death threats, and his female counterpart, who played the wife, (aka Grace from Boston), did not fair too well either. The Hell? Yes, the ad was insensitive, stupid and vapid, but nothing more, and – death threats? People have time for this sort of thing. On with the show?

Yes, since the ad brings us back onto the other side of the silver screen, and to the upcoming ‘WW84’ movie trailer. What can be said about it?

It is funky, it is DC’s response to MCU’s ‘Captain Marvel’ film (set in the 1990s, remember?), and it got content. Most important, it got two new villains for WW to defeat – one is her archnemesis, Cheetah, aka Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva. The second is not as clear-cut: he’s Maxwell Lord, sort of a rip-off Lex Luthor in the original DC comics.

…Yes, there was a Maxwell Lord character in the first seasons of ‘Supergirl’, maybe there still is one, but by now it’s obvious that whereas Marvel is bringing all of its’ depictions to one source, DC doesn’t. There is a Maxwell Lord from ‘Supergirl’, there was a Maxwell Lord in the ‘Smallville’ TV series, there’s going to be a Maxwell Lord in DCEU, and so on… but he may not be the final big bad of the movie. Why?

Because this is how it went down in the first WW movie, where the final villain was Ares, the god of war, aka a male deity. Yeah, deities have a different relationship with gender than us mortals do, but in the first WW movie, Ares was very much male. And, since in this movie’s trailer we already see WW riding lightning, maybe we will get a visit from the old Zeus himself? First WW film – Dr. Poison, her German handler, Ares. Second film – Cheetah, Maxwell Lord, Zeus? And keep in mind, that as far as villains go, Maxwell Lord is usually a telepath/mental controller of some sort. Bring on Orwell’s 1984 dystopia!

No, seriously, one of George Orwell’s best novels is ‘1984’, and it was a Stalinist dystopia. These days’ people do not differentiate between communism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and socialism on top of it…plus they are beginning to thaw towards Russians again, so we probably will not get any Cold War vibes from the second WW movie. That said, we do see her destroy a camera as she is fighting, cough, a couple of robbers in a 1980s’ shopping mall, and later on she’s fighting more people in the White House, so – ‘big brother is watching you’, maybe? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and this brings us back to real life. It sucks, unless you are Bianca Andreescu, who had won another tennis trophy. You go, girl! Show the world what Canadians and Canada have!

…Apparently, it is just the right scenery for the upcoming ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ film, which was shot, in part, in southern Alberta. Already it is shaping up to be a different film from the previous ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot, which it ignores, at least in this trailer. It will be interesting to see as to how this particular film will unveil itself… especially since Warner Brothers’ ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’ movie has hit yet another snafu – some photos were leaked, (mostly of Kong fighting Godzilla on a ship), so now team WB is doing its’ best to bring them all doing, citing copyright and what else have you. How great for them. Did I mention that real life sucks?

…This is it for now – see you all soon.