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soundofseventeen · 5 years

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Civil War (Lee Jihoon)

Happy Saturday! Enjoy! -Erin

***mild spoiler alerts but the spoilers are also like... 3-4 years old so idk what to tell ya***

Gif Credit here

“Okay, so this one has a lot of the characters you’ve already seen, but it also introduces a lot of new characters.” Jihoon said, holding up the DVD box to show you and opening it up.

“Then why isn’t it an Avengers movie? Why is it Captain America?”

“Because Captain America is one of the main parts of the story, it’s essentially contribution to his own story.” He said, finishing putting the movie in and setting the box down.

“So like, how does the Civil War come into play?” You asked, pulling your blanket up and wrapping yourself up.

“It doesn’t.”

“So why is it called Civil War?”

“Because it essentially puts the team against each other. You’ll see when we watch it.” He said, plopping on the couch next to you.

“If you say so.” You said, preparing to watch the movie.

You and Jihoon hadn’t been together that long. In fact, some days you weren’t still 100% sure if you both were in a relationship. You hadn’t really had that talk yet, but you had been on a couple dates here and there. You think. And of course, your ever-continuing Marvel marathon.

When you started to become friends, he had mentioned how excited he was for the upcoming Avengers movie, and mentioned that you two could possibly see it together. You then had to admit that you hadn’t seen any of the other Avengers movies. In fact, you hadn’t seen any Marvel movies. You did see one of the Spider-Man movies, but according to Jihoon the one you saw wasn’t part of the same universe. What that meant, you were still trying to figure out.

Therefore, he suggested you two watch through the movies in order, starting with Captain America. You didn’t really have an interest in watching them, but given that you had a small crush on Jihoon at the time, you agreed. Besides, it made your heart swell to see how excited he got to show you them.

Turns out, he was a lot calmer at being a movie coach than he was with most other things in his life. Any time you had a question, he would pause the movie and explain what was going on. He even gave minor backstories to characters he knew were only in that movie, and would tell you to note a name in the movie if the character was going to be mentioned later in the series.

You had to admit, you had gotten a little hooked. Or, at least, you had to know how it ended.

The movie days, which happened once a week, sometimes every other week, felt like dates to you. You two always sat right next to each other on the couch, sometimes sharing a blanket. He was a lot softer towards you during those times than any other time. You two were always alone when you watched them, even when you were at his place. Somehow, the other members were never really around. Little did you know he made them leave when you would do this so they wouldn’t see how soft he got around you. But you were never really sure.

You definitely knew that you liked him, and you were pretty sure that he liked you. But since the conversation had yet to happen, you were not totally sure. You wanted to bring it up for clarification, but you also didn’t want to ruin it if he wasn’t thinking the same way you were thinking.

Therefore, you just tried to enjoy the movie dates for what they were. A boy trying to educate you on superheroes.

“Okay, so who’s that?” You asked, pointing at the screen.

“That’s Crossbones. We don’t really care about him, he’s only in this movie.”

“So why does everyone want to fight him?” You looked at him. Jihoon just shrugged.

“Because he did bad stuff prior to this movie. We don’t see him again after this, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“Why is this fight happening then if it’s not important to the story?”

“It’s important to the story, just watch.” He said, eyes on the screen. You huffed and went back to watch the fight occuring.

“Oh! She was in the last Avengers one we watched!” You pointed, and Jihoon smiled.

“Yeah, that’s Wanda. She was one of the twins, remember?” He said, and you nodded, suddenly pouting.

“I liked them. Why did the one twin have to die?”

“Dramatic effect.” Jihoon shrugged, and you pouted at him.

“Well that’s dumb.”

“Or it’s motive.”

“It’s dumb motive.”

“Still motive.” He said, turning back to the screen. “Okay, here, this is why it’s important.” He said, pointing at the screen, causing you to turn your attention back.

About half way through the movie, after several more questions and explanations of characters, you both jumped at the front door opening.

“Look, I’ll be two minutes, they won’t even notice I’m here. I just need to grab my…” Mingyu walked into the room, stopping at the sight of both of you staring at him, taking in the fact that you are both sitting a lot closer than you usually do, and sharing a blanket. “Hey… guys.”

“What’s up Gyu?” You asked, and he took a couple steps.

“I just… forgot my charger. Don’t mind me, I’ll be gone in two seconds.” He said, suddenly running to his room. There were a couple seconds of silence, until you both heard a voice from the hall.

“Hi guys.” Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“Hi Wonwoo.” You both said, and from where you were sitting you saw a hand wave into the dorm.

“Okay, I got it. Back to your date.” Mingyu said, leaving the dorm, leaving with muffled voices in the hallway. You both looked back to the screen, both with rather pink faces.

“So uh… What’s happening?” You said, trying to make it less awkward. So it really wasn’t a date. It was just a movie night. It wouldn’t be this awkward if it was meant to be a date.

“Oh, um…” He watched the screen for a second. “Oh, okay, the teams are getting assembled now. Basically Iron Man’s team is going to try and stop Captain America’s team, and it’s just showing who’s on Cap’s team.” He said, pretty quickly. You nodded, and went back to watching the movie.

You were both pretty silent for most of the remainder of the movie, and you knew the Jihoon noticed your sudden silence. He didn’t vocally question it, but you knew he picked up on your lack of questions.

By the end of the movie, you managed to get into the movie enough to start yelling at the end credit scene.

“WAIT. SO BUCKY IS IN WAKANDA NOW? THAT’S WAKANDA?” You said, leaning forward and pointing at the screen.

“Yep.”

“So Wakanda is really important?”

“There’s a whole movie located there. About Black Panther.”

“No way. Can we watch it? I think I love him.”

“Soon, we have a couple more to watch first.” He laughed, and you sighed, leaning back, slightly into Jihoon’s side. “So… Can I ask you something?” He said, as the main menu started playing on the screen.

“Sure…”

“Did… You think this… and the other nights… were dates?” He asked, very slowly. You felt your heart beat increase, but kept your breathing normal.

“Oh… Well… I mean, I don’t really… It’s not that… I just…”

“Because, I kind of did.” He said, and you looked up at him.

“You did?”

“Yeah. If um… If you don’t, we don’t have to keep doing them, but I… really enjoy doing this with you and it, uhm… yeah.”

“What’s the next movie to watch?” You asked, and he gave you a side eye.

“What?”

“What’s the next movie we have to watch?”

“Uh… Well, Doctor Strange.” He said, sounding confused.

“...Can we watch it?”

“Right now?” You nodded your head. “Are… Are you sure?” You nodded your head again. “Uhm… Sure.” He said, getting up to switch the movies. Once he sat back down, he sat a little more away from you.

“Do we know this guy?” You asked, and he shook his head.

“Nope. This is new.” He said, slightly looking at you. You smirked a little bit, tossing his half of the blanket over him, and reaching over to grab his hand, linking your fingers together.

“What are you…” He said, looking down at your hands.

“Just watch the movie, hold my hand, and sh.” You said, turning back to the movie. Jihoon looked at your hands for a couple more seconds, but eventually looked back to the screen, leaving his hand in yours.

“...Okay.” He said, causing you to grin.

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langxue · 5 years

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Avengers Endgame Initial Thoughts

Okay. I have some Thoughts about Endgame, most of them fairly critical. Also highly subjective. So here goes. Spoilers abound, for Endgame and other MCU content.

1. OMFG they completely wasted Captain Marvel.* In her own movie, Carol is a fairly laid back, adaptable, competent, and Silly person. She has a wonderfully casual charm and sarcasm that’s really fun to watch. She’s also a powerhouse, and by the end she definitely knows it. (Like seriously, she destroyed multiple of Ronan’s ships in under a minute. In GotG, it took a whole fleet just to slow one of them down, plus a team on the inside to blow it up. And then Carol’s just like “nah, you’re done now.”) And then you hit Endgame. And we have a stoic, closed off Captain Marvel, who shows up, talks a lot about how awesome she is, and then spends fucking 80% of the movie on a shelf on the justification that she’s helping other worlds that are also in trouble. Which is a fine justification to keep her away for some of the setup. But the heroes’ main plan is time travel. Which means it’s not time sensitive, and they keep making a big deal about only having one shot. Why, in that case, wouldn’t you wait until you could get Carol on your team?? Thor is a psychological mess. Keep him on the bench and bring in Carol. OR have her on hand to use the gauntlet after all the stones are collected. But no, they just went with “eh, we’re not sure how to contact her, so we’ll just skip over that option entirely.” So they wasted her character as a character with minimal interactions with the others, and zero of those interactions actually being in character (except maaaybe with Peter at the end, but that very much felt like two actors trying very hard with very little to work with), and then also wasted her as far as plot impact, opting for a heroic re-entrance most of the way through the movie.

2. The time travel felt extremely poorly explained, which is really bad when your plot completely hinges on it, and is especially bad if you’re gonna rag on other movies with time travel. Back to the Future is paradoxical nonsense, but it’s self-consistent paradoxical nonsense. Endgame was some kind of multiverse with zero clear understanding of how different timelines/realities could and could not interact with each other. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of the possibilities and whether there actually is an internal logic, but at the very least, while watching the movie, it entirely felt like they were doing whatever they wanted to suit the plot. Which is a bad sign when dealing with time travel. (My general approach to time travel is that you either have to completely handwave it or completely explain it. And that explanation doesn’t have to be an info dump! It can just be apparent in the story itself, such as with Time-Turners. Though I personally don’t mind time travel info dump tbh.)

3. Relatedly, the secret to time travel is to model an inverted Möbius strip and get the eigenvector of that one particle there. I don’t think I’ve been that annoyed but technobabble in a long time. That’s math word salad, as far as I can tell (though I’m admittedly not a mathematician. If any mathematicians can clarify how this makes any sense, I’d appreciate it, but in the mean time, I’m going to assume it’s garbled nonsense.)

4. Still on time travel but I’m having one hell of a time figuring out Steve’s ending. Like, how can he do that within the confines of the time travel mechanics? Why wouldn’t he come back and spend that time with Bucky?? Since, you know, they’ve like barely spoken being reunited?? For Pete’s sake, don’t set up their bond like that, spend two full movies on the turmoil cause by Bucky’s return, and then just fucking drop the plot line on the floor because you wanted to stick Steve back with Peggy. What in the fuck.

5. IM. SO. MAD. ABOUT. GAMORA. (And also Natasha, though that’s a slightly different anger.) GAMORA’S DEATH WAS THE MOST BS THING IN INFINITY WAR AND WAS ALSO THE DEATH I WAS MOST CONCERNED THEY WOULDN’T CORRECT. AND GUESS WHAT. THEY DIDN’T. SHE’S STILL DEAD.** The soulstone mechanic can get Fucked, because Thanos should never have been able to get it like that (and relatedly, should Hawkeye have gotten it, since Natasha threw herself, rather than being sacrificed? I’m undecided, but mad either way).

6. Is Loki still dead? Was he ever dead? We just don’t know. If he is dead, that was an amazingly dumb end and I object. If he’s not dead, that is a dumb cliffhanger and I object.

7. I don’t love Thor + Guardians’ dynamic? It feels very off, and I can’t tell if that’s just because it’s Avengers and therefore all the characters have gotten slightly flattened or if it’s just an unappealing dynamic to me. But we already had Quill vs Rocket leadership tension. I don’t was more of that but with Thor. That’s dumb. I’m hoping that it gets more nuance/resolution going forward, but I’m not holding my breath.

8. Relatedly, why would you put Valkyrie in charge of Anything but a battle plan? Nothing I’ve seen of her makes me think she’s well suited to general leadership, and I think she’d chafe under it just as much as Thor does. She’s not the Responsible One to take things over so Thor can go have another finding himself adventure. Ffs.

9. Probably no one’s fault because actor contracts are complicated, but I’m still salty about Lady Sif being 100% absent and unacknowledged for this whole thing. Largely because I haven’t gotten to see her interact with Valkyrie OR Carol and I feel cheated.

10. Some quick minor things before I go on a big rant. It bothered me that Thor’s depression and poor coping was just a joke, basically just “Oh look he’s fat and scared now, isn’t that funny?” I’m so tired of Tony vs. Steve, and I hate that they waited until the last fucking movie to sort of kind of resolve it. You don’t get to pull on found family heartstrings and tropes when you’ve done such a bullshit job of actually showing us a family. You’ve had 20-odd movies to do so. Do better.

11. Okay. I like battle scenes. They’re fun! They’re dramatic! If done correctly, they can give a very tangible sense of odds and stakes. But. Not every movie with high stakes needs a big final battle.

Okay, to clarify a bit, I’m specifically referring to army vs. army battle scenes here. Big punch outs between titans, or scrambling to minimize damage from a disaster are different, and have their own applications and pitfalls. All clear? Great.

Battles, with two armies facing off against each other in fronts, look cool, but fundamentally make no sense in the context of Endgame. Battle lines exist so that you have not very many people actively fighting at once, and so that you can protect the people next to them. When the frontline gets tired, they rotate back and others take over. Battles are not the same thing as skirmishes and they are not mass melees. If a battle turns into a mass melee, something has gone very wrong and you should in all likelihood pull back immediately to regroup.

All of this breaks down when you have an opponent who can break up or ignore your battle lines. Historically, this was artillery and guns—things that forced battles into a cover-based issue. In superhero movies, it’s... pretty much every character of note.

Thor’s lightning —> broken battle line

Black Panther’s suit discharge —> broken battle line

Falcon attacking from above —> pointless battle line

Wanda or Carol doing... anything —> pointless battle line

All of Thanos’ many flying troops —> pointless battle line

Thanos’ warship overhead —> what are you doing pls stop this

All of which is to say that traditional battle tactics don’t apply to this conflict. But the battle we’re shown doesn’t reflect that, and it feels very... weird as a result. Where who’s winning is entirely arbitrary, rather than any kind of steady build.

This tends to lead to a very episodic battle, where you show off individual characters or small groups of characters fighting. Which is fine, though contributes to battle progress being unclear. But there’s a temptation then to give everyone equal levels of badassery in their vignettes, and I think that’s a mistake. The avengers et all are a complementary group. They have members suited to a battle field and members that aren’t. That isn’t to say that Hawkeye and Black Widow can’t hold their own, but their skill sets aren’t specialized for something like this, and so any attempt to make them seem equal in this way is going to either fall flat or cheapen the battle suited heroes’ specialty.

And this tendency to level the field of badassery can also lead to situations where Okoye is backing up Carol for a charge, and I just.... gah. I love Okoye. So much. Carol does not need her help to rush a group of enemies. Carol doesn’t need help from any of the women who showed up behind her except for maybe Scarlet Witch. I get what they were going for. I get that it was supposed to be a Girl PowerTM moment. It wasn’t. It was dumb. It was so very much the wrong time for that moment, because this was not a context where Carol needed help. She just flew through a spaceship. She can fly through some enemies no problem. And it’s probably easier if she’s not worried about her allies getting caught in the blast. And then they had to make the backup team useful, so they made Carol struggle in a moment where she just shouldn’t have. You don’t get points for Girl PowerTM if you have to de-power one of your women just to make it make sense. Give me more scenes with Gamora and Nebula helping each other through Thanos’ abuse. Give me scenes with Carol and Okoye bonding over putting up with impractical people. Don’t give me this battle scene bullshit, I don’t want it.

11. I remain pissed off that there are no actually articulated arguments against Thanos’ fucking stupid plan. What the actual fuck, this is not that hard.

Okay. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, some things I actually really liked.

1. Steve wielding Mjolnir was fucking amazing and I’m so pleased.

2. Any time Scott was on screen.

3. Peter Parker is a precious child and he needs to be protected.

4. I actually really like the set up for the time travel nonsense, and I liked that they seemed to be doing something other than a mass melee battle. That the group was divided into manageable teams, and sent on different kinds of missions that required them to be clever and play to their different strengths and help each other through. And then they shoved in a giant battle anyway, because fuck you that’s why.

5. I can appreciate what they were trying to do in giving all of the non-returning Avengers decent send-offs, even if I didn’t like some of those conclusions.

6. There were some genuinely funny moments, but I’m struggling to recall them right now.

7. Oh wait! “It’s an earthquake in the middle of the ocean. We handle it by not handling it.” That one was great.

Okay, that’s all for now. I might have more later, once I’ve picked apart the time travel a bit more and dined some processing.

I think it’s also worth noting that like... ensemble movies with a cast this big are *hard.* character are going to end up feeling confined, and there’s less time to grow because there’s just less time per character. But I think we could’ve had better, and I think if they focused more on group growth in the group movies instead of just drama, then they would’ve been in a better place and had a better story.

It’s probably also worth noting that I really liked Thor: Ragnarok, really like Captain Marvel and really didn’t like Infinity War. So I sort of went into Endgame feeling like it had to make up for Infinity War and live up to the higher at from the recent solo movies. And I really wanted to like it. I really wanted them to pull it off. But those are high and fairly specific standards, and so they fell quite short.

*This should be taken with a grain of salt, because I’d been dreading Endgame as an obligation to watch, and the Captain Marvel movie was the only thing that sparked my interest again. And then Endgame massively dropped the ball as far as I’m concerned.

** there was some stuff at the very end that makes me wonder if there’re plans to still bring her back in a later movie. But it doesn’t change me call bullshit on everything that Infinity War/Endgame has done to her.

#spoilers #Endgame Spoilers #Captain Marvel spoilers #just #general MCU spoilers #ye have been warned

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troublewithcomics · 6 years

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ADD Reviews Avengers: Infinity War

[Note: Contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.] "We live inside a dream," Special Agent Dale Cooper once said on Twin Peaks. And so it has been for millions of people during the decade of Marvel Studios films that launched in 2008 with Jon Favreau's Iron Man.

I felt we had dodged a bullet back then, in the casting of talented but troubled actor Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, after talk of Tom Cruise taking the role, and Marvel even publishing comic books with Stark drawn to resemble Cruise (a tactic which would actually work with Samuel L. Jackson, to the delight of just about everyone). Cruise was not right for the role. At that point I had been living with Tony Stark in my life for over thirty years, and I knew Downey would embody that part like no one else could. Thankfully Favreau knew it as well and convinced the studio to bet on Downey along with him.

But despite the unlimited potential in the characters owned by Marvel Comics, mostly borne out of the imagination and visual power of the late Jack Kirby, I wasn't expecting much from Iron Man and I doubt anyone in the movie industry was, either. Marvel's characters had been licensed time and time again to film and TV and even radio shows, and the one that gained the most traction was the TV series The Incredible Hulk, which took a few elements from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's creation and then used them to retell The Fugitive. Similarly the less-well-regarded Spider-Man TV series used almost none of the essential aspects of that comic book's mythology, instead using the character's name and costume as a small part of a generic, episodic crime drama, not even bothering to steal the plot of a successful show, like The Incredible Hulk did.

The relative success of those shows hinged on a number of factors, among them the lack of alternatives -- you had three commercial TV networks plus PBS back then. (Which reminds me that Spider-Man also regularly appeared on The Electric Company, a show aimed at 8-10 year olds and which managed to present a more faithful wall-crawler than a primetime network series could, even allowing for the fact that on The Electric Company, Spider-Man never spoke a word.)

The 1980s and 1990s brought even more mediocre-to-terrible attempts to cash in on Marvel's characters. Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher. Reb Brown as Captain America. And a truly awful Fantastic Four movie made quickly and cheaply by cult film director Roger Corman in order to allow the rights holders to maintain their license. It resulted in a film so bad that it was never widely released and was only seen by most people through the wonders of bootleg VHS tapes sold at sketchy comicons. It should be noted that this Fantastic Four film is only marginally worse than the three later released by major studios, but with four films to their names, The Fantastic Four at this moment has more movies to its name than even The Avengers franchise, even if not a single one of them is worth watching.

Speaking of The Avengers, I went to see Avengers: Infinity War yesterday in the company of my wife Lora. I think we have seen most of the Marvel Studios films at the theater, although I have my doubts about the second Thor film. It's hard to keep track now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as it's called) is closing in on two-dozen full-length feature films, almost all of which are at least entertaining, and some of which have proven magical in both their mass appeal and their ability to generate revenue. Narratively, financially, and especially from the perspective of pre-2008, the continuing success of the Marvel movies is a dream that millions have been living within. It has changed the lives of many, from turning around the literal and metaphorical fortunes of actors like Downey, who no one thought would even live to see 2018 never mind be one of the most popular movie stars on the planet, and Chris Evans, whose depiction of Steve Rogers/Captain America has left far behind any memories of his participation in two of those lousy Fantastic Four movies. More interestingly this dream movie franchise has inspired and brought happiness to untold numbers of people, like that time Downey gave an Iron Man-like bionic arm to a seven-year-old boy. Or the millions of African-Americans and others who found in the recent Black Panther film an inspirational culture in which they could see themselves and their own history. These films haven't solved all the world's problems, but it's undeniable that they have brought joy and comfort and more in far greater proportion than one might have thought possible before this all began.

Which isn't to say they are perfect. I am not writing a love letter to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, or anyone else, really. Maybe Jack Kirby, because without him there would be none of this, but also Stan Lee, who wrote the words of so many of the comics these movies are based on. And Steve Ditko, whose imagination spawned the characters and worlds of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. And so many other comics creators I never thought would get their due, and yet who are credited in the long crawls at the end of these films and who, I hope, are being fairly compensated for the translation of their work into motion picture form.

Like Jim Starlin, a writer/artist whose work blew me away in 1977. That summer I was 11 years old, and Starlin wrote and illustrated a two-part crossover featuring The Avengers, Spider-Man and The Thing (from the Fantastic Four) in a galaxy-spanning battle royale against Starlin's most noted creation, the supervillain Thanos. The sprawling epic was made possible by the earlier work of Lee, Kirby, Ditko and others, but it felt like something entirely new. Recently going back and reading that story, I realized how direct an adaptation of that story Avengers: Infinity War is, and that realization made me even more eager to see how the film would play out.

It turns out that Infinity War is every bit as mind-blowing as those 1977 funnybooks that inspired it were to my 11-year-old self, and for much the same reason. It's not just the epic scale of the story, or the stunning visuals, or the huge cast of very different characters being remixed in new and interesting ways. Both the comics and the movie share all those elements. No, it's the combination of all those things, plus the charm, skill, talent and determination of the actors, writers and directors, the grand vision for these films from the producers, and other factors too numerous and mysterious to be easily tallied.

So yes, I loved it. My wife loved it. It wasn't perfect in the way Citizen Kane or Synecdoche, New York are perfect, timeless films, but that's not what the MCU movies are for. They are a commercially-produced dream, made for profit inside an increasingly dysfunctional capitalist system, and perhaps another essay could be written on the dangers of allowing such dreams to make one forget the injustices and dangers of the real world, but that's not the essay I am writing today. Today I want to just reflect on the wonder of seeing this film finally come to fruition, the bringing together of franchises-within-the-franchise, and I want to state with wonder and delight that it works.

Not just for me, lover of Spider-Man and the others since 1972. It works for my wife, who didn't know who most of these characters were before she met me, and who now loves Groot unconditionally and with profound delight. It works for millions of other people, some of whom have only the faintest idea who Jack Kirby is, although almost everyone knows who Stan Lee is. Not to diminish Lee's contribution to this mythology -- without him it almost certainly would not have existed nor endured this long -- but it cannot be said enough that Kirby gets the majority of the credit. Others took the baton and ran with it once Kirby left Marvel, but Captain America, Black Panther, Thor and many other of the most endearing and exciting characters in these movies are as popular and effective as they are precisely because of the elements Kirby baked into them: Black Panther's dignity, Thor's arrogance and innate decency, and perhaps most importantly, Captain America's dedication to people over politics, to good over greed. Let there be no doubt, these are exactly the heroes we need at this moment in history, and it is perhaps not a coincidence that many of the actors who inhabit these characters have used their popularity to give voice to those less fortunate than themselves, and to use their voices to critique the current wave of fascism and authoritarianism that threaten to destroy our culture. These movies are entertainment, yes, and they have made fortunes for many of the people involved, but some of those people see the responsibility their new prominence and success has given them, and they seem to take it seriously. I'm grateful for that.

And I'm grateful for the joy in so many of these films, which reaches an almost unreal level at various moments in Infinity War. Not just seeing Tony Stark bicker with Stephen Strange, or Groot heroically assist Thor in a way only he could at exactly the right moment. Not just seeing Mark Ruffalo's sublime Bruce Banner argue with The Hulk, and therefore himself, to hilarious effect at exactly the wrong moment, only to later see him delight in having all of the power but none of the horror such power usually brings him. It's all of these things and at least a thousand more.

Like I said, it's not perfect. How could it be? In a story this wide-ranging, I was never going to get enough of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to make me happy. But there'll be a movie for that soon enough. I was never going to get everything I came to this for, but then no one is, when you get really granular and start picking it apart. But that's missing the big picture, and in the larger sense, it's important to note I wasn't bored or unhappy for one nanosecond of this film, as I was for every never-ending moment of the grotesque, doomed-to-fail Justice League movie. I was uneasy and scared at the beginning of Infinity War, as intended. I was amused and laughing when Peter Parker asked for a distraction on a schoolbus to hilarious effect. I was chilled when Banner announced "Thanos is coming." As I said on Facebook, "So many moments."

I have seen some concern about plot holes, but I see none. The most specific concern centers on why Dr. Strange makes the choice he does near the end, with seemingly catastrophic results for the entire universe. Did the people voicing these criticisms forget that there's another movie coming? Did they not hear Strange tell his fellow heroes that he had seen millions of possible outcomes in which they all lose, but one, and one alone, in which they succeed in defeating Thanos? To be fair, that moment is couched in dread, no doubt to conceal the fact that it is foreshadowing the ultimate outcome of the as-yet unnamed sequel, said to be the end of the book all the MCU movies to date represent in the minds of those overseeing the franchise, before the start of the next book. But I have no doubt that Dr. Strange's decision, as agonizing as it was to see the consequences of, was the one that will somehow allow all those we lost to be returned to us in some form. Well, maybe not all.

I doubt it's a coincidence that Tony Stark was the one to see the ultimate defeat of their efforts to stop Thanos, and to watch in helpless horror as Peter Parker and others died before his eyes. Since the first Avengers movie, Tony Stark's bravado has masked his increasing trauma as one cosmic threat after another homicidal robot of his own design has taken chunks out of his soul. My guess is that by the end of 2019's Avengers movie, we'll have many if not most of the toys back in the toybox and ready to be played with another day. I watched the Falcon die, but I'm sure he'll be back. And Spider-Man, and The Vision, and Nick Fury, and everyone we watch blow away in the breeze, to our horror and despair. I'm guessing the price of their return will be Tony Stark's sacrifice in the next film, likely Downey's exit from the franchise. And that would be suitable. Downey was perfect for the role of Tony Stark because in so many ways he really already was Tony Stark. Arrogant, talented, addicted. He was, and is, our gateway into this world, the reason we have been able to feel the emotions these films create in us so viscerally and so immediately. Reversing the damage Thanos does at the end of Infinity War will require a huge payment to balance the books. I will be surprised if that isn't represented by the final end of Tony Stark's journey in these movies.

After all, the great throughline of these movies has been revelation and change, as the universe these characters live in has, in a decade, come to be as expansive and intriguing as it was after many decades of hard work and imagination from Stan and Jack and all the other writers and artists who are responsible for the comic books that launched this dream we are all now living inside. Who has had more revealed to him, and who has changed more than Tony Stark? How fitting would it be for the next film to end with him making the sacrifice, finally, that he narrowly escaped making at the end of the first Avengers film?

I could be wrong, though. And I don't care if I am. I’m just theorizing. How can you not? It's fun to speculate where this gigantic story will go next. And who could have guessed, before this all began in 2008, that so many millions of filmgoers would be so thrilled by one movie after another, a series of increasingly entertaining and even diverse films that give us worlds of wonder and delight, with shocks, horrors, laughs and even love?

No, no one could have seen this coming in 2008. No one except Jack Kirby, who, if he were still with us today, might be heard to say, "I knew it all along." -- Alan David Doane

#Posts by Alan David Doane #Movie Reviews #Avengers: Infinity War #Comics #Comic Books #Marvel #Marvel Comics #Jack Kirby #Jim Starlin #Stan Lee #Iron Man #captain america #Thor #Groot #Reviews

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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 7 years

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The Marvel of Trelsi (Part II)

In this instalment I want to unpack Kelsi Nielsen as a character with some notable comparisons to Troy Bolton. But we need to know her first, and what her motivations are. I like characters based on their flaws/struggles and redeeming traits, characters who have a journey and ambitions. Kelsi Nielsen epitomizes all of this, which is why I find her character development so rewarding, and couldn’t understand why anyone (*cough* post I saw yesterday *cough*) could possibly dislike her.

Overview: Who IS Kelsi Nielsen?

Kelsi Nielsen in a nutshell: she is more than she appears to be. And therefore, she is NOT a minor character, and certainly not the stereotype that her screenwriters might have intended her to be. Although this section is dedicated to revealing Kelsi Nielsen as a character, there is a rough division in her character development: Pre-Troy and Post-Troy. So for her, the both of them are essential to discovering more about herself. In the first instance, when considering Kelsi’s painful shyness, it might appear strange that she could possibly be any more layered and complex underneath the hats, glasses and bulky layers, but that is precisely what we receive, even when taking Troy out of the equation. Even before she is introduced to Troy Bolton, the very careful viewer can sense two things about Kelsi that appear to be contradictory. If she is so shy, then why does she so clearly desire to prove herself as a composer, knowing full well that this would place her directly under the spotlight? This is contradictory, but it does follow the pattern of a classic introvert. They aren’t necessarily asking to shutter themselves away from society, but their best creating comes when they are alone.

Kelsi so clearly longs for those creations to be heard and appreciated by other people. All of her songs represent a desire to connect with the outside world; yes, the songs are channelled through romance, but they are a reflection of Kelsi’s voice. The best example of this is “Breaking Free”, where Kelsi’s excitement and animation are made manifest throughout the callback performance, and also when rehearsing with Troy. This is her dream. So it is impossible to see Kelsi as merely shy, without also inferring that she is quietly and resolutely ambitious. We have no choice but to assume that she has been submitting her ideas for musicals to the Drama Department repeatedly despite being rejected time and time again. The rejections no doubt damage her self-confidence, yet she keeps doing it. In other words, she picks herself back up and tries again. This journey cannot be easy in the slightest; Kelsi is deeply self-conscious, probably takes rejection personally. Yet she persists. Why? There is something she wants to attain, which I believe is a part of herself that is locked behind the shy exterior.

Hence, I object to descriptions and portrayals of Kelsi that focus only upon the shyness and don’t even attempt to see beyond that.

This is continued much later when Kelsi takes a huge leap and applies for Juilliard in HSM III, one of the best Performing Arts establishments in the country. Her fright and astonishment when they are willing to consider her are endearing and understandable, but they apparently didn’t stop her from making the decision in the first place. Throughout her scenes in the movie franchise, she is seen quietly working away on her compositions and again, the obvious answer revolves around her introverted nature. But think about it: she wants her work to be the very best it can be, and appears willing to sacrifice social interaction and the whole world around her to get every note just right. That takes a great deal of determination, focus, grit and resilience. The careful viewer must never ignore or miss that altogether. You just cannot help but admire her for this. Remember, in HSM I, she tells Troy and Gabriella that she is often in the practice rooms during her free periods (when she could and probably should be studying for other subjects), AFTER school (when most other students would be going home) and “even sometimes during Biology Class!”. This is a shy nerd, who appears to be well-behaved, admitting that she sometimes skips Biology to come practice music! The significance of this is enormous; music is her entire life, her entire identity and probably the only thing which she aspires to in life. Her commitment to it is complete. This demonstrates that Kelsi is a very passionate character underneath the shyness, and also explains her grudge against Sharpay for not respecting her musical visions, as well as her upset when Ms Darbus gives up on Troy and Gabriella showing up for the callbacks.

Now, one might ask whether it is beneficial to be so committed to one avenue in life. I certainly have dreamed about one thing, only to switch and change to another when something in life came up. We grow and change all the time, and nothing is to say that our dreams will hold forever. In fact, I even assert that instances where someone clung to the same dream for their entire life are far less common, even despite how much they are touted in celebrity and popular culture. So here, we can see a marked difference between Troy Bolton, who is suffocating under the weight of being a pre-destined figure, and Kelsi, who sees only one avenue for her in future. Why does Kelsi do this? After all, she must have other interests outside of music. I believe the answer is that Kelsi is using music to fill a massive void in her life. This is someone who struggles with basic social interaction; she is too stunned to say a word when Troy attempts some harmless, friendly conversation, as we will discuss later. She is barely noticed, let alone respected by anyone else. She seems absent-minded, probably the kind of person who gets lost easily, bumps into people and trips over things. Given the social hierarchies in East High, particularly with the devotion and high honour given to sporting skill, I think Kelsi’s lack of coordination would probably make her a source of mockery. I can see her as the kid who is always picked last for sports teams and who dreads such lessons. Kelsi isn’t stereotypically attractive, isn’t confident, can’t assert herself, is too soft-spoken to be truly heard, can tune out of life itself when lost in her beloved manuscript paper and doesn’t go anywhere near the popular groups because she would stick out like a sore thumb. Given the level of shyness that Kelsi displays in the early scenes of HSM I (watch her clutch her bag whilst standing on stage next to the flamboyant Ms Darbus, nod shyly and then scurry over to the piano), I assume that she has been like this for years and years, possibly throughout her whole time at school. After all, she is far more intimidated by Sharpay than some of the other participants, stumbling back to her seat and accidentally saying “Yes, Ma’am!” as though speaking to her teacher, or a military commander. Sadly, she thinks so little of herself, rather than Troy, who thinks little of social hierarchies and doesn’t see such boundaries. The only thing Kelsi has in her favour is her strong musical talent, which she uses as a mode of expression.

So if you want to know more about Kelsi, then listen to her song lyrics. The first striking thing is the incredible idealism within them, and of course, Kelsi is an incredibly idealistic person. Why? Because she is intimidated by people she perceives as being more attractive, more popular, more clever, more confident, more assertive and so on, than her, and believes that if only she were like these people, she would be better off. I think that so many people, including myself when at school, can relate to that kind of thinking. It explains why Kelsi holds Gabriella in such high esteem: Gabriella, who is flawless, beautiful, extremely intelligent and is beloved by almost everyone in school. Who, within a couple of days of attending East High, is already the object of Troy Bolton’s affections without putting in any effort whatsoever. Who is a great singer. (Allegedly). We have to wonder how long it took for anyone to notice Kelsi when she started in high school, and how many days she spends just walking from A to B in school, and no one noticing her at all. She craves what everyone else appears to have, and makes herself feel inadequate for not being like the rest. So what is her solution? Invent a new personality and use it to channel her own true voice, to say everything that she cannot say herself. I have always been of the opinion that Kelsi wrote the entire musicals, Twinkle Towne and Senior Year by herself as well as composing. No other information is given to the viewer about who else might have contributed the storyline. Her ability to write a play would not be out of character. Notice that there is always a heavy or central romantic component to the heart of her work; either in the central couple (Arnold and Minnie), or in the song lyrics (“Kelsi always writes her best songs for Troy and Gabriella”) or, presumably in the storylines of her musical. We are not given this information, so please note that I am making assumptions as to those storylines. But romance is key. Kelsi is deeply self-conscious and under the impression that she isn’t attractive enough. That is an assumption again, but appears entirely reasonable. Look at her choice of clothing throughout the early half of HSM I; she is always wearing a hat that covers half her face. It seems to me a defense mechanism against being noticed, or considered unfavourable to other girls. So in a way, Kelsi is also the reason that people don’t notice her. Can she actually decide between wanting to be noticed, or wanting to be invisible prior to meeting Troy? There is a definite conflict here.

Despite that, she is an enduring romantic. This is why she is so dismayed by Sharpay and Ryan’s rendition of “What I’ve Been Looking For”. That song is not about Arnold and Minnie, it is not just something Kelsi wrote on a whim. This is HER speaking about the potential situation she would like were she lucky enough to fall in love. It is entirely reasonable to assume that Kelsi would never tolerate a one-time crush/fling, which is precisely why I consider the possibility of her having had a crush on Troy to be of little interest. All of her romantic instincts are expressed in song, and “What I’ve Been Looking For” wouldn’t have retained half of its enduring appeal if the subject matter had been fleeting. Crushes are fleeting. What Kelsi wants is far deeper than that. In this song, she makes a self-deprecating remark as to her absent-mindedness: “It’s hard to believe that I COULDN’T SEE that you were always right beside me.” To me, Kelsi fits that like a glove-- somewhat ironic, given that Kelsi wears glasses and yet manages to trip on things. Likewise, I don’t think she would be aware of someone having feelings for her. That’s my headcanon.

Furthermore, she fears the consequence of her current existence: “Thought I was alone, with NO ONE to hold…”, and wants to be reassured that there will be someone besides her: “But you were always right beside me”. She wants someone who understands her, and with whom she will gel effortlessly: “I’ve never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do/And I’ve never had someone as good for me as you, no one like you/SO LONELY before, I’ve finally found/What I’ve been looking for”. (Capital emphasis my own). I don’t think Arnold and Minnie are lonely. But Kelsi IS lonely. The dedication that she shows to her music surely comes at the expense of forming meaningful friendships and taking part in the many normal elements of high school life like everyone else. During the reprise, as I will discuss later, she quietly mouths the words, and seems so involved in the music-- far more so than when she was playing for every other participant. What else can we infer from this other than the fact that Kelsi IS the song, and the song IS Kelsi? This holds true for other songs like “Breaking Free”, “You Are The Music In Me” and “I Just Wanna Be With You”, which is an ode to real friendship as well as to romance. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Kelsi appears to believe that real friendship and true love are interlinked: “A friend like you, always makes it easy/I know that you get me every time/Through every up, through every down/You know I’ll always be around/Through anything you can count on me…”.

These are, in Sharpay’s words, said to be her best songs, and thus the strongest method she has of communicating with the outside world. Like I said earlier, Kelsi is so eager, so keen to be heard and understood. And let’s be clear: her songs are incredibly idealistic and UNrealistic. “No matter where life takes us, NOTHING can break us apart” is not in any way a reflection of real life, and one might fear that if Kelsi holds such beliefs, she is bound to be disappointed in love. We will discuss this later.

What about the Kelsi behind the piano? All of this is post-Troy character, but her development does not come from her changing who she was beforehand, but revealing who she has always been. In particular, she has the same self-deprecating, sarcastic sense of humour as Troy Bolton, and she uses it for similar reasons. To stay sane, to make light of difficult situations (“Hoops Man! Over here! You look like you’re having the time of your life!” after a terrible rehearsal in HSM III) and to prove to herself that everything isn’t grim and difficult all the time. She tells Martha in HSM II that she plans to “grow, write music, grow”, thus poking fun at her size, which would ostensibly be a disadvantage in the heavily hierarchised world of East High. But she can poke fun of people that annoy her, once she has found the confidence to do so. Sharpay is an obvious and easy target; Kelsi often pulls faces, rolls her eyes or mocks Sharpay’s mannerisms. (I have discussed the hypocrisy of this here).

But even before meeting Troy, she displays this when playing during the Winter Musical auditions, when she pulls faces at the piss-poor performers and can’t understand Ms Darbus’ tactical politeness after each disastrous audition. Such mockery is rarely every malicious, but she does use sarcasm when angry. In HSM I, she calls Sharpay and Ryan “two rats, neither of them named Darbus.” This is hilarious, angry and sarcastic, but there is an edge of bitterness in her voice, which then melts into frustration as she tells (mainly Troy) that: “Ryan and Sharpay are pretty much only concerned with protecting themselves!”. The bitterness explains Kelsi’s tendency to hold long-lasting grudges against Sharpay in particular, even during times when Sharpay’s behaviour towards Kelsi is NOT objectionable! I have criticized Kelsi for this, given how she systematically ignores far more objectionable behaviour from Gabriella, but to be fair, her flaws here may be understandable. Kelsi has spent her whole life overshadowed by the cool kids, who have treated her as dispensable, during the few times they even noticed her. Such treatment DOES breed bitterness and frustration, whether rightly or wrongly. Unlike Troy, her anger is more controlled, but unmistakeable: “Unless Fulton suddenly has blonde hair, and wears designer flip flops!”. Interestingly, Kelsi is more frustrated/animated in HSM I than she is in HSM II, where her anger melts into sad resignation at Sharpay’s antics. So it is not in Kelsi’s nature to be volatile, although it certainly is within her nature to be passionate/frustrated/animated.

There is a LOT more I could say, folks. For one, she is one of the kindest, most loyal, thoughtful, mature and generous characters in the movie series. She is EVERYTHING that Gabriella Montez was supposed to be, and more. I will discuss this when exploring the potential of Trelsi romance. But there are only so many hours in the day. Suffice to say, Kelsi Nielsen is a true hero who, much like Troy Bolton, represents the everyday struggles of us, the audience. She is persistent, resilient, complex, flawed and undeniably brilliant. She can entertain and surprise you, as demonstrated when she FINALLY stands up to Sharpay at the end of HSM I, much to Troy’s surprise, pride and delight. She can frustrate you, with her inability to see Gabriella’s flaws and her idolatry of the Troyella trainwreck. But this is good. No character should be made perfect, and I don’t like portrayals of Kelsi where she is shown to be above reproach and endlessly shy. She is MORE than that, which I hope I have demonstrated here.

Now that you will hopefully have some idea of these characters, you may see some strong similarities between Troy and Kelsi as people. Later on, I will discuss why these similarities are far stronger and more poignant than those allegedly between Troy and Gabriella. I make no apology for insinuating and declaring that Kelsi is a far better fit for Troy Bolton, but I do so based on CHARACTER, not based on superficial things like looks, unrealistic romance and favoritism.

In the next instalment, we will look at my FAVOURITE scene in HSM I; the introduction between Troy Bolton and Kelsi Nielsen and we will see how these characters gel together in ways that Troyella never can.

#Trelsi #OTP #Deb'sAnalysis #KelsiNielsen #Playmaker #Composer #TroyBolton #LiterallyTroyandKelsiForever #ILOVEKelsi #SeriouslyHowCanAnyoneDISLIKEKelsi #ToBeContinued

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thefilmslist-blog · 7 years

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On completing ‘The Marvel-ous Movie Marvel-thon… Or Whatever’: Life’s realities and moving on to new things…

Check out The Marvel-ous Movie Marvel-thon… Or Whatever full blog on

https://marvelousmoviemarvelthon.tumblr.com/...

Ok so, you may have noticed that after watching Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World on the seventh day, this blog went very quiet. This didn’t happen because of being struck down by the almighty (after all he quit working after 7 days, where I dared to continue!), and no, the Marvel Suicide-o-meter™ didn’t smash the remaining DVDs into little pieces for the sake of our sanity.

No, what really happened was real life stepped in and I found out that I would be effectively without employment by the end of Feb 2017. After being in this job for the last 4 ½ years, I (like many others) thought I was invincible and would be able to continue wasting my time watching movies and writing about them forever. Obviously, these are the kind of life events that would make a normal, rational human being decide to buck up and stop wasting time on endeavours that would get them nowhere in life…

Well not me!

I’m going to take this as an opportunity to expand the scope of this blog to cover, not only more movies that strike my interest, but also to go into more of my general thoughts on movies and how they affect the world and culture we live in.

One week I may do a write-up (I’m not sure that they deserve to be called ‘reviews’ just yet with the shallow level of detail I go on to, but I promise to improve!) of a great new/old movie. The next I may dive into my opinions on film theory or a diatribe on the current state of the Star Wars Franchise (be expecting that one soon…). Anything is possible!

This new blog will be called… The Film List!

Nice right? Though simple it is very effective. The name comes from a moment where Jen and I realised that, while a right old pair of cine-philes we are, because of the fleeting nature of cinema release schedule and the decades of movie history that we had missed out on due to being born in the late 80’s, that there are a slew of movies that we had missed out on. And, with new corkers coming out every year this list was growing all of the time.

Therefore, we created The Film List to track what we have seen so far, their rankings, and what we had yet to see. This list would continually be added too every year with the most recommended movies released (we have our sources…). Obviously, we won’t be able to watch every great movie ever, we probably won’t even be able to the list as it stands currently, with about 200+ unwatched movies between the 1950’s to 2017…

Anyway, what we would like to achieve with this new blog is to simply impart our opinion on movies… simple as that. We may/probably won’t write up every movie we watch and the idea’s on films at large will probably dry up after a few articles. But, dammit, this is something I have wanted to do for a long time and it would be great to have just a couple of people along for the ride! So consider this the mission statement…

- We will try to write up only the good/great/enjoyable movies we have seen on the list.

- However, we will not refrain from giving criticism where we think it is due, and may even write-up movies we have not enjoyed from time-to-time.

- All posts will be filled with spoilers, so please watch the movies before reading if you don’t want to be spoiled…

- The Film List can and will be added to and updated at any time, also recommendations and contributions are very welcome…

- Most importantly, Write-ups and Opinion pieces are exactly that; opinion. Everyone is welcome to disagree, and we encourage a healthy debate. However, the blog is designed to represent our opinions…

And that’s pretty much it…

There is still some house-keeping to be done before the blog can be fully launched. The Marvel-thon needs to be completed (we still watched all of the movies in time after all), I need to create a new separate blog, I also need to figure out a way to publish the actual Film List that can be updated on a regular basis, and I would like to figure out how to add a recorded version for those who would rather not read through my shocking prose…

Be expecting the Write-ups for Captain America – The Winter Soldier and the Guardians of the Galaxy soon, with the rest to come after, along with the new Film List blog.

Thanks for reading and I hope some of you will join me in this new venture…

Oh yea, and of course I am looking for a new job, unless anyone wants to pay me 30k a year for this thing?

Scott

#movies #film #the film list

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marvelousmoviemarvelthon-blog · 7 years

Text

On completing ‘The Marvel-ous Movie Marvel-thon… Or Whatever’: Life’s realities and moving on to new things…

Well not me!

This new blog will be called… The Film List!

- We will try to write up only the good/great/enjoyable movies we have seen on the list.

- However, we will not refrain from giving criticism where we think it is due, and may even write-up movies we have not enjoyed from time-to-time.

- All posts will be filled with spoilers, so please watch the movies before reading if you don’t want to be spoiled…

- The Film List can and will be added to and updated at any time, also recommendations and contributions are very welcome…

And that’s pretty much it…

Be expecting the Write-ups for Captain America – The Winter Soldier and the Guardians of the Galaxy soon, with the rest to come after, along with the new Film List blog.

Thanks for reading and I hope some of you will join me in this new venture…

Oh yea, and of course I am looking for a new job, unless anyone wants to pay me 30k a year for this thing?

Scott

#movies #film #The Film List #marvel #MCU

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