Elemental - June 15

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. This is all I want to say about it right now, so let us move onto the ‘Elemental’ movie instead. Regrettably, ‘Elemental’ is much of an improvement, topic-wise – it also sucks, not unlike how ‘Doolittle’-2020 sucked, only moreso.

Let us elaborate. Superficially, ‘Elemental’ isn’t too different from Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ film (2016), save that in place of anthropomorphic mammals we got anthropomorphic elements instead – air, earth, fire and water. No, the ‘Avatar/Korra’ franchise had people who could control such elements instead, (and they had people who had no such powers too). The world of ‘Elemental’ is more restrictive than the world of Aang and Korra is, as well as the world of ‘Zootopia’ – there are only four main elements, (any ‘crossbreads’ such as mud or steam embodiments don’t appear in this film), and nothing else. In fact, at least some critics are asking why are there sentient/self-aware elementals, of water, for example, and then there is just plain water, which is neither sentient nor self-aware.

Next, we got the actual plot. In ‘Zootopia’, we got a love story between a red fox and a bunny rabbit, an unintentional and flattering parody of Harry and Megan. They have to solve a mystery of the night howlers, figure out who is trying to set carnivores and herbivores, (well, ‘predators’ and ‘prey’) against each other, as well as deal with prejudices, biases, preconceptions and superstitions against each other. In ‘Elemental’, we got a female fire elemental named Ember and a male water elemental named Wade who… pause.

The main conflict in ‘Elemental’ is that Ember had blown stuff up, and Wade has to report her to the city hall. Since that would put the kibosh on Ember’s entire family and their dream, done in the ‘Straight-off-the-boat’ style, Ember has to persuade Wade that she isn’t so bad and he shouldn’t report her – and when she does achieve it, in a manner of speaking, (among other things), she loses her temper shortly afterwards once more, and creates another explosion that she and Wade have to solve together. Fair enough, but the plot of ‘Zootopia’ is simply better and more complex out of the two.

Then we come to romance. As it was said above, in ‘Zootopia’, romance is only a part of the movie; the mystery of the night howlers is just as big a part. In ‘Elemental’, there is only romance… wait, what do I hear? It is an interracial romance and therefore it is more important? Right, once again, from the topic.

As TLM-2023 showed, racial issues are still big and thorny in the U.S. society: after TLM-2023 aired, I saw many videos and read fan reviews that – while claiming that they were not racist, certainly made a lot of noise about H.B. and her race. The fact that TLM-2023 is a bad movie on its’ own merit does not help the situation either. However, what matters is that TLM-2023 is one side of a coin – a film that brings out a lot of race-based critique in a manner that helps no one.

…Meanwhile, ‘Elemental’ is the other side of the same coin: it is supposed to be a responsa to the interracial relationships’ critique, but it does so smoothly and glibly that it helps no one.

Again, the U.S. society, or at least its’ elite, don’t deal with interracial relationships very well. Look at Disney/Marvel, for example: in AoS, there were no WASP/POC relationships; in ‘Avengers’ – ditto, and SW did not do any better. TLM-2023 handled this sort of thing very, well, heavy-handedly, pardon the pun, but at least they tried – and ‘Elemental’ doesn’t do the interracial relationship any better, certainly worse than how ‘Zootopia’ did it.

Put otherwise, ‘Elemental’ is ‘Zootopia’, not only simplified to just four races/species, but with all the rough edges sanded and smoothed out, which only hurt the film. In ‘Zootopia’, characters had to deal with real prejudices and outright segregation – tall, small and short characters were often treated differently from each other and without any political correctness either. ‘Elemental’ does not really have that; yes, Ember and Wade come from different social classes, but ‘Elemental’ does not explore that either; the main conflict here is that Ember and Wade are fire and ice…I mean, fire and water, ha-ha. Couldn’t they make them earth and air instead? Are earth and fire, for example, all that compatible?.. Never mind, where were we?

Flat-out, by smoothing out any controversies and conflicts, the creative team behind ‘Elemental’ has decreased its’ value, has decreased the value of Wade and Ember’s relationship… period. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and MJ have value as a couple; Sony’s Miles Morales and Gwen, (as well as Peter B. and MJ Watson) – ditto. Ember and Wade – not so much. You want to see a fictional interracial couple that works as a team, defeating enemies and overpower obstacles? Go and re-watch ‘Zootopia’ once again. ‘Elemental’ is just a faded copy of it.

Anything else? Yes, Ubisoft’s FH franchise seems ready to go Mesoamerica soon – already there is a conquistador-like character in the works. There was a conquistador – Hernan Cortez himself – in the third and final season of DW, but that is another story…

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

Miles Morales Spider-Verse movie - June 2

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Across the Spider-verse’ movie instead. To put it concisely: it works. Why?

Firstly, it deals with the multiverse correctly – it is a huge, jumbled complex that can accommodate, well, everything, from myriad of spider-people to a world without shrimp, or something along those lines. (Also, Gwen Stacy as a Spider-Woman? That does not sound quite right). As a result, whereas MCU is struggling to fit the multiverse into itself, Sony’s Spider-Verse does not – the spiders do not control the multiverse and let it flow as it is… or not.

Enter Miguel O’Hara, who is one of the movie’s main protagonists, (especially for Miles): he is not so much evil as orderly – he is a champion for inevitability of fate, (cough, Thanos, cough), and he and his cohorts are doing their best to enforce this P.O.V. across the Spider-verse multiverse. By contrast, Miles, Gwen, and their cohorts are more about freedom of choice – hence their conflict with Miguel and his team.

…The more traditional struggle between good and evil here is embodied in the character of Spot, who, (he is a canon Spider-Man villain, BTW), is trying to demolish the Spider-verse multiverse just because; this version of Spot is chaotic evil, and unapologetically so. …Of course, since this is a good movie, Spot has his own journey to travel before he arrives at this alignment, and so he does. What is next?

The delivery of the movie – there is humor in it, drama, and everything else beyond. The style of the Sony Miles Morales’ films is something else – I found it unnecessarily distracting and overwhelming in the first film, and I consider this the case now. However, given the popularity of these films, I am guessing that the overwhelming art style of theirs’ also works. Anything else?

The film doesn’t have a mid-credits’ scene because it has ended on an open-ended ending, pardon the tautology – the conflict between inevitability of fate and the freedom of choice, (mostly human, though there are sentient pigs, cats and non-avian dinosaurs as well), is still going strong, while the Miles Morales that the audience got to know and love, (cough), is still at large in the Spider-verse multiverse because he can. There are consequences for one’s choices, always, but following/believing in inevitability is one of them, not an exception or an alternative. Also…

Also, the relationship between Miles and Gwen, (throughout this movie at least), is an interracial one, cough. Mind you, it is nothing new – Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Zendaya’s MJ relationship is an interracial one too, not to mention the actual relationship between the two actors in question – but Hollywood follows its’ own rules when it comes to interracial relationships, it seems.

Yes, I am talking about the upcoming ‘Elemental’ movie, which is a weak rip-off of ‘Zootopia’. The racial history of the U.S. is a messy and a complicated one; these days, (the early 2020-s), there are still people who have issues with race and interracial relationships, but the sort of a vapid response that ‘Elemental’ is offering is no solution but the other side of the problem; not to mention – I suspect – that it is the reason that we didn’t get any sort of a ‘Zootopia’ sequel after the ‘Zootopia+’ mini-series had been released, for otherwise ‘Elemental’ would’ve been blown clear out of the water, (pun intended). What next?

MCU’s ‘Secret Wars’ mini-series, apparently. This is MCU’s latest attempt to fix the whatever hole/damage AoS had inflicted on its’ narrative – but that is another discussion, for another time. (Sony’s Spider-Verse had wisely avoided any but the most basic mentions of MCU. Good for them!)

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

Zootopia+ - Nov 16

Obligatory disclaimer – real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Zootopia+’ mini-series: is it any improvement? I confess that I have no idea, so let us proceed.

On the literal level, ‘Zootopia+’ is a straightforward idea: it is a November-2022 released mini-series, (6 episodes), dealing with friends, family and acquaintances of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. Herein lies the issue: why and what for?

‘Zootopia’ itself was a successful 2016 Disney film, featuring a world of anthropomorphic animals, (primarily mammals too), with the focus on the aforementioned Nick and Judy, who have to solve a mystery of the night howlers and co. (Spoilers: the sheep did it). As such, it was a fast paced, exciting and dramatic mystery and adventure animated movie. The aforementioned ‘Zootopia+’, conversely, is a 6 episode mini-series, focused on the various animals (mammals) that Nick and Judy have encountered in their mystery quest, and who’ve helped them, (rather than hindered, cough, sheep). The issue remains unchanged, however: what for, and why?

Disney is already implementing this ‘fill-in-the-gaps’ strategy – in its’ SW franchise. After their initial (overly) bold take on the SW-universe, which resulted in a fractured SW-fanbase and an increasingly certain possibility of the remaining SW-fans turning against Disney/SW and turning SW from a profit for Disney into a clear-cut loss – and so Disney/SW went in another direction: they stopped talking about the future after the SW9 film and instead began to increasingly hover around the world of the ‘first six’ films, going into the increasingly smaller holes and gaps to flesh-out the SW-world. The SW-world did this already to itself, if you ever read any of the SW: Legends material, but because it was not Disney-certified or approved, Disney/SW tends to ignore it instead – at least officially. Unofficially, it is more of a relationship that Disney has with Mr. Riordan: while not acknowledging this aloud, Disney is using Mr. Riordan’s material in MCU – first in the ‘Moon Knight’ franchise, and now in BP – and the same goes for the SW: Legends, as Disney/SW uses them to flesh itself out now – but how does that relate to ‘Zootopia’?

It does not and herein lies the issue: ‘Zootopia’ is a ‘Disney original’ film, and any information delivered in it is ‘Disney original’, one that has nothing in common with any other Disney material. However, while the original ‘Zootopia’ quickly enough became admired… that is pretty much the extent of its’ influence: these days it is more obscure than popular, hence the issue: why did Disney think that ‘Zootopia+’ would work? Given how it has hardly made a ripple even in the actual ‘Zootopia’ fan base… I would say that it had not – but Disney tried, money was issued (and/or assigned), product was released…and no one cared. Obviously, success is measured by other means other than online popularity, and the Internet is full of critiques that fall flat, (but gods keep me away from the ‘Lyle-Crocodile’ film), yet I find myself honestly confused: just what Disney intended to achieve with the release of ‘Zootopia+’? The closest I can come-up with is that Disney is gaging-up, or stirring-up, the interest in the franchise, before going out with the next movie installment of this ‘verse’, because otherwise there is no reason to this rhyme, to butcher a popular statement. Still, it is what it is, and I just had to share my opinions on ‘Zootopia+’, because why not?.. The PAW Patrol franchise has done/is doing/etc., etc. a much better job of world building, to the point when they have become a victim of their own success – but that is another story.

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