AAA, Season Finale - Oct 31

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the AAA season finale… and what did we just watch?

On the baseline, AAA did what an MCU show (or any other instalment for that matter) does – it moved the MCU universe forwards: now, both Billy and Tommy are alive (in a manner of speaking), and Billy is going forth in order to rejoin/reconnect with his twin. Fair enough, (though I never figured out as to why Wanda v. 2.0 had to be a homosexual male – since the comics. MCU likes to twist things, so it could have made ‘Billy’ into ‘Billie’ – instead it made him Jewish. How clever, really – but we talked about this before, so let us not do it now). Where does it leave the titular character?

Ah yes, Agatha. AAA made her its’ titular character, and it made Agatha even less likeable than before. Again, it all comes down to religious values: in monotheistic faiths, (especially the Abrahamic ones), redemption of a villain is a big deal; in polytheistic faiths – not so much. Witches and witchcraft root in the latter religions, and so AAA was a polytheistic TV show, where redemption isn’t required – and so Agatha remained unapologetically evil, killing Lillia, and Sharon, and Alice – and not caring about these acts at all. Bully for her, but Disney/MCU operates in RL; it sucks, true, but it is also dominantly monotheistic still, and so leaving Agatha a main character and a villain might’ve been too much, so…

…So Disney/MCU downplayed AAA a lot – because of the above, (and the homosexuality theme too, let’s be honest), in favor of the ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ film, (and rightly so), in favor of the ‘Venom 3’ film now too – even Disney/MCU itself didn’t like AAA whatsoever all this time, and so the only reason they seemed to make it at all is to introduce several same-sex characters – Agatha and Rio, (though as Death, does Rio even have a set gender?), as well as Billy/Willy. Since this is Disney/MCU, this same-sex angle was also downplayed and did not really feature in the AAA S1 either. Disney/MCU managed to annoy both sides of the equation, put otherwise. The last time Disney achieved this was a while ago, with an attempt to reboot the Buzz Lightyear franchise – but this is another story.

For now though, this is it. Of all the Disney/MCU pieces that I have seen so far, AAA was the worst one, (for me, at any rate). See you all soon – and hopefully with a different, (preferably better), subject of discussion as well!

Deadpool/Wolverine - July 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Deadpool 3’ film instead – spoilers alert ahead!

…As it was written before, this is a redemption story, and hence a monotheistic, rather than a polytheistic one. Both of the titular characters of the film are down on their luck and are not handling it too well, so enter the TVA to shake the situation for them up even more. The TVA is also supposed to tie them into the MCU multiverse, but as the events of ‘Loki’ S2 showed, MCU has largely shoved the TVA itself to the sidelines, so this aspect of the movie is kin of doubtful – even for the movie.

No, seriously, the main element of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ are the titular characters, as they get their bearings in gear, (or whatever the phrase is), and have to defeat both Dr. Cassandra Nova, and deal with the TVA, which still has its’ own problems, reminiscent of ‘Loki’ S2 once more. The TVA, however, quickly becomes sidelined (until the end of the film, and even then it is not too important any longer), and we are left with an X-Rated MCU mutant movie instead.

The plot is straightforward: Wade needs to save his world by fixing the whatever problems his world’s Wolverine has made. Logan – from this universe – also needs to save his problems, and save their world in the process of doing so. Logan, however, has lost his mojo, and Wade is trying – in several meanings of the word – to help Logan recover it. Pause.

The fact that both of those characters have very tangled timelines from the RL perspective does not help. Therefore, D&W has relocated itself largely to the Void from ‘Loki’, (introduced in S1), where they encounter various mutants and several other characters, both from MCU and otherwise. Mind, that the movie’s plot is a straight-out redemption story, seen through an equally straight-out RPG plotline, where the titular characters have to defeat tougher and tougher opponents until the final boss – Dr. Cassandra Nova in this case. Moreover, since the end of Phase 3, MCU did not really go for in-depth, rounded villains, (the situation with Kang and his actor had not helped things either), and so, Dr. Nova is rather forgettable, as is Paradox, (who gets arrested in the film’s end too, as part of TVA’s cleaning up its’ house at the end of ‘Loki’ S2. Isn’t interconnectivity clever, cough?). What next?

The movie is carried by emotions rather than logic, and by visuals rather than anything too in-depth – R-rated or not, D&W is still a Marvel comic film, and as such the next ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’ movie it is not. Thank goodness for that, too. What else?

Ah yes, the extra mutant variants of the films. Guess MCU has not yet given up on the Multiverse concept, and RR is doing a better job in fixing it than the Rock did with DCEU… before it ended. In addition, Wade broke up with Vanessa (at the beginning of the film)? Seriously? After the emotional wrangler, that was their second film? Well, weirder things have happened…  The point is that D&W film has delivered a good story, and it is good, even if it isn’t seminal, semiotic, or anything else high-brow. It has not recharged me per se, but it did bring something of a smile to my face after all.

This is it for now. See you all soon!

X-Men/Deadpool 3 - April 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the X-Men ’97 instead. Um. This is akin to using capitalism to distract from feudalism, or reverse, or something along those lines anyhow. Shall we try again?

As we have been talking increasingly in those previous weeks, X-Men ’97 are fan service; the scriptwriters and co. behind them are outright adapting the older comic storylines for the episode plots. For the entire season’s plot too, for that matter. AoS had its’ own share of flaws, but at least it tried to be original, for the first 2-3 seasons of its’ run anyhow. X-Men ’97 does not. Rather, it has plenty of fan appeal; in this week’s episode, ‘Bright Eyes’, we saw a Steve Rogers/Captain America; last week, it was Ronan the Accuser. Therefore, where is Uatu? Shouldn’t he be watching – never mind. He is probably watching the live-action adventures of Wolverine and Deadpool instead.

Now that trailer is something else. Not unlike the X-Men ’97, it is a classic – it is shaping up to be a tale of redemption and resurrection; Deadpool flat-out proclaims himself Jesus, aka the Savior, and he’s saving Wolverine. Well, a Wolverine, but the fact that HJ is playing the character also clears up some things, doesn’t it?

Let us roll back a bit. To date, humanity has invented only two versions of religion: polytheism and monotheism. The two models are simply different, and it does not matter which is better or worse, but what matters is that salvation and damnation, temptation and redemption, and all the other ‘tion’ words matter only in monotheism; in polytheism, not so much. By talking about salvation, Deadpool, and ‘Deadpool 3’ flat-out tries at least to tap into monotheism, which in US means Christianity, at least the Protestant version of it. Pause.

The problem is that these days the U.S. does not acknowledge itself as a Christian country, not how it did before, before the 1990’s, at least. The entire wink-wink nudge-nudge approach does not work too good either – for example, Ms. Meg Cabot’s novels have plenty of Christian/Protestant moral values, (and they are not half-bad from the technical point of view), but because she never openly admits this, her novels fall flat, and instead of being mouthpieces for those values they… do not. They may be making Ms. Cabot plenty of money as people are buying and selling them, but not much else, and the same will go down for the ‘Deadpool 3’ film as well – it will make Disney/MCU/anyone else a lot of money, it will help establish the mutants in MCU somehow most likely, but the Christian imagery, motifs, and what else have you will just dissipate, and that is it. Still better than X-Men ’97, who don’t even have that. The ‘Deadpool 3’ film is clearly having a lot of effort behind it, effort and money, and so it will deliver, much more so than the ‘Madame Web’ movie had, for example. (The latter had potential, in fact, but it was squandered).

Therefore, to sum up, whereas X-Men ’97 is purely entertainment and fan service, ‘Deadpool 3’ is setting itself up as something more – much more than that. Will it be able to achieve this is another question, we just have to wait and see.

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