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scottymcgeesterwrites · 4 years

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10 Underrated Movies of the 2010s

1. John Carter (2012)

Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was even produced in 1937, Disney was considering producing an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars as Disney’s first animated film. During its pre-production stage, producers weren’t quite receptive to the concept. The story was about a man being transported to Mars, where its gravity gave him super powers, and he fought with four-armed green-skinned aliens. Back then, space ideas were the last things on people’s minds in the ‘30’s. They wanted something uplifting from The Great Depression. Disney didn’t quite scrap the story; they shelved it for later and decided to go with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as Disney’s (and the world’s) first feature-length animated movie. John Carter holds the award for the movie with the longest time spent in “development hell”. For the next 75 years, different directors and producers would try to bring back the classic tale of daring-do on the planet Mars. Growing up reading Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels, I was enthralled to hear that they finally produced a live-action film to be released on 2012 – and it was even near my birthday! March of 2012 marked 100 years since Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars. It was like all the stars were truly aligned for something great. The movie finally came out and it . . . didn’t do well at all. It’s also notable for being one of the most expensive movies ever made – and it was all for nothing. What happened? Most of you reading this may even be unaware of the hero John Carter or A Princess of Mars. I find that the main issue was the problem of John Carter being largely unknown because it has been long overshadowed by Flash Gordon, Superman, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and literally everything else that owes its inspiration to John Carter. Superman got its concept of gravity-granting superpowers from John Carter. Flash Gordon got its human-on-another-planet heroics from John Carter. Star Wars derived nearly everything from Flash Gordon. The domino effect goes on. The further you go, the more people forget the original inspiration, and we live in a world now where people don’t really care about who did it first, but who did it best.

There’s a particular scene in the movie John Carter where the titular hero has to fight monsters in an arena. Many critics were bored of the scene, claiming they saw it already in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones; which is ironic being that the arena scene was written almost a full century before Attack of the Clones. Scantily clad Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi? That’s a Deja Thoris reference from A Princess of Mars.

It can be difficult to judge a movie or story by itself aside from other derivative works. When that source material is some obscure adventure tale that is literally older than World War I, you should realize that probably not a lot of people have heard about it nowadays.

The film suffers from two other major points: the runtime and the combination of books one and two of Burrough’s original trilogy. A Princess of Mars is a rather simple tale of a man saving a princess on Mars. Its sequel, The Gods of Mars, goes into more complex matters as the evil Therns are revealed as a group of mysterious aliens controlling all culture and life on Mars for their benefit. The movie John Carter tries to combine the two, and I see why. Modern audiences are uninterested in seeing another adventure tale about a guy saving a princess. Ironically, that would have worked much better in the 1930’s, but the Disney board at the time was like, “Space? What’s that? Mars? What’s this newfangled spaceship business?” John Carter ultimately had the unfortunate and unique experiences of being both too ahead and too dated for its time.

I still highly recommend it because the production value is amazing and it’s still highly entertaining. The score is fantastic (Michael Giacchino), and the performances are great, albeit with some cheesy dialogue. The screenwriters added more depth to the character of John Carter that really pulls some heartstrings, especially during one particular scene where he’s bashing hundreds of aliens to a pulp.Unfortunately, the poor performance of John Carter prevented its sequel and the planned trilogy from ever being produced. At the end of the day, I’m still content with seeing the world’s very first space adventure that ultimately inspired Star Wars finally put on screen. 2. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

I was frankly surprised when nobody else cared about a Solo movie coming out. Having read A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo Trilogy when I was a kid and having overall grown up loving the character, I thought ANY Star Wars fan would be pumped. That was the issue right away before the movie even hit theaters – Nobody. Fucking. Cared. The previous year’s Last Jedi left a sour, divisive taste in the Star Wars fandom. Toxic fans threw their hands in uproar and an entire debacle unseen since the prequel trilogy exploded. Like with Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, fans had continually harassed and bullied Kelly Marie Tran for playing Rose to the point where she quit Instagram. YouTube videos nearly 30 minutes long were dedicated to bashing the film and “SJW culture” and “virtue signaling”. The entire debacle was a nightmare that makes me shudder to even think about. It was like everyone was tired of Star Wars by the next year. Some people like to say that “Star Wars fatigue” wasn’t the thing because nobody was tired of Marvel movies. I disagree. First of all, I witnessed immediate responses to people’s reactions at the trailer. They said “I don’t care” and “Why do we need that?”. Second, Star Wars and Marvel are two completely different universes. Marvel has a nearly infinite range of various stories with various atmospheres and moods and characters. One Marvel fan can “specialize” in Doctor Strange while another mostly loves Thor. Star Wars follows the same group of characters over the same damn story that we’ve already known for the past 42 years. Like John Carter, Solo had the same problem by being too confident and throwing too much money into its production. Solo also happens to be on the list of the most expensive movies ever made. Its poor performance and inability to make a return on the total costs scrapped the possibility of any more future standalone Star Wars films. Further dissections of why it didn’t work out vary. Some people hate the droid L3-37 and claim unnecessary SJW content. I disagree with that too. In my rulebook, something in a story is not unnecessary unless it proves crucial to the plot; L3-37 is the reason why the Kessel Run worked. Were it not for her fanatic desire of starting a droid revolution, Han wouldn’t have survived. The idea of revolution is also crucial and foreshadows the coming Rebel Alliance. I wonder if people would have had the same reaction to L3-37 if the movie had been released years before the current political situation; if we would have just seen her as a cool, kooky and rebellious droid instead. Solo: A Star Wars Story reveals that Han has always been around instances of rebellion, which he has tried to ignore. It isn’t until A New Hope that he finally gives in for good. I honestly don’t see why some people say it doesn’t fit with A New Hope when it clearly does. One of my favorite parts is when Q’ira tells Han, “I know who you really are.” From the trailer, you would expect her to say “A scoundrel.” But in the film, she says, “The good guy.” The film cements the idea that Han has always tried to look and act cool but deep down he gives in to doing the right thing, which separates him from the other scoundrels at the cantina. It’s because of this adventure that he ends up helping to blow up the Death Star later on. Also, like John Carter, the score is absolutely fantastic. I could go on about it but that would derail the topic for another time. 3. The Gift (2015)

I ended up seeing this movie on a whim by myself after someone bailed on me at the last minute to hang out. I had nothing to do but wanted to do something and checked what was playing in theaters at the time at my local theater. The synopsis hadn’t told me enough about what was really going on while at the same time enticing me. Jason Bateman though really surprised me in this role.I really don’t want to give anything away other than what you can find on the basic synopsis. Jason Bateman is married to Rebecca Hall and the two share a completely content life, until an old school friend of Jason’s starts visiting them. Joel Edgerton plays the school friend, and it’s quite amazing that he both wrote and directed this film too. 4. Prisoners (2013)

This movie was great – and absolutely nobody talks about it. I recall wanting to see a movie with my mom around fall of that year. We realized there was really nothing interesting in theaters. It was a lull where there was nothing really interesting playing. No blockbusters and no Oscar buzz. We chose Prisoners solely based on the fact that we like Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, and I guess we also gathered the general sense that it was a mystery.I became glued to the screen during the entire movie. The story revolves around Hugh Jackman’s daughter supposedly abducted by Paul Dano, who plays a mentally ill suspect. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the detective tasked with finding the daughter. With Paul Dano being unable to articulate his thoughts, everyone is left distraught on how to solve this case. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal take drastically different routes in trying to find the girl.Out of everything on my list of underrated films here, this was the most nail-biting. Highly recommend. That ending. Whoo. 5. Source Code (2011)

This movie is a real mindbender. It might be so much of a mindbender that it’s the reason why people didn’t talk about it more. They probably just thought, “Huh?” and wanted to rewatch the previous year’s Inception again instead.Jake Gyllenhaal is on a mission to find a bomber on a train in a computer simulation. That’s how it starts at least. . . Another movie I probably shouldn’t explain too much, but it explored themes about a post 9/11 world and the nature of self. 6. The Big Short (2015)

This movie was a hit and then everybody forgot about it. Heck, I know a bunch of you didn’t even see it. I find this really concerning. Brought to you by the director of none other than Anchorman, Adam McKay directed a very entertaining but distressing take on the Great Recession. It has an ensemble cast of Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale. The movie manages to translate complicated, bullshit concepts in Wall Street into layman’s terms. Every performance delivers, yes, but it was also staggeringly prophetic in what would come a year later in the 2016 election – “I have a feeling, in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people.” This movie should have seriously started a riot. But it didn’t. Watch it. 7. Spectre (2015)

Many Bond fans hated Spectre, and it’s often compared to the supposed high-and-mighty Skyfall. I beg to differ. Spectre brought back the fun in Bond without also resorting to the really obnoxious misogyny. The Daniel Craig era of Bond films went back to Ian Fleming’s original intention of Bond being more of a “blunt instrument” than the tongue-in-cheek action hero he came to be known in the film series. And that’s okay. But you can’t help but be bored once and a while by the recent trend of “making things gritty in the new millennium”. Spectre brought back the evil Blofeld, Bond’s nemesis. Fans hated it because this movie implies that every other Daniel Craig movie has been tied to Spectre, ruining the standalone nature of Skyfall and feeling like Spectre was a shoe-in.

This situation requires a lot of explaining, but I’ll be brief.

The creative entities of Spectre and Blofeld were tied up in a copyright battle for almost half a century. Back when Ian Fleming was still alive, he was working on a script for Thunderball with a screenwriter named Kevin McClory. Long story short, there was a dispute on who created Spectre and Blofeld – Fleming or McClory. McClory won the dispute and MGM (the producers of the Bond films) were prohibited from using the names and characters of Spectre and Blofeld.

The last time we officially saw the character in name was in 1971’s Diamonds are Forever. Blofeld made a cameo in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only but was never mentioned by name, but you knew it was Blofeld because he was always the man with the white cat. McClory did eventually make his own version of Thunderball in 1983’s Never Say Never Again, which was an unofficial Bond movie yet it still starred Sean Connery (crazy, I know).

Fast-forward to when the Daniel Craig era started in 2006 with Casino Royale. Spectre and Blofeld were still under copyright protection of McClory. Instead of using the name Spectre, the writers had to come up with another Specter-inspired evil corporation. So they came up with “Quantum”, the evil company behind the plots of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

BUT THEN, the McClory estate officially settled the matter with MGM in 2013, and Spectre and Blofeld could now be used. The writers jumped on it and that’s why to some Spectre feels like it was a shoehorned at the last minute.In my opinion, Skyfall had more issues being a standalone film. The villain Silva was supposed to be working alone and yet somehow create all these elaborate, time-sensitive plots that was just too much for one man with maybe a few henchmen to pull off. In Spectre, it’s implied that Silva used Spectre’s resources to help him plan his revenge. This would realistically make more sense. After all, it’s in the name: SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. One would go to Spectre in order to enact revenge on someone if one didn’t have the means or resources.

And the whole Quantum being a part of Spectre thing – so what? Quantum was meant to be the same thing anyway. Lastly, there is some dispute on to the nature of Blofeld’s relationship with Bond. Bond suddenly has an evil foster brother now? Some complained about it. I thought it was fine. It gives a reason for Blofeld to go out of his way to torture Bond rather than just shoot him, which is a point always parodied in Bond spoofs. So again, it actually makes sense. I thoroughly enjoyed Spectre. It was virtually not misogynist out of the new Bond films. It treated the main girl, Madeline, very well, as well as the “other” girl Lucia. Yeah, some of the action is dumb and more out of spectacle than realism. It’s still done with the same wit and style of the old Bond films. 8. Shazam! (2019)

Yeah. I get it. Everyone’s tired of the god-awful, insipid DC Cinematic Universe (except for Wonder Woman), which pales in comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Shazam! was finally a very fresh, funny, and lively DC movie. What makes it stand out to me was how it ended up revolving around the main character’s friends standing together with him, rather than just simply being an origin story of one superhero. Nothing felt like it fell flat. The humor was spot on. The action was good. You had a really pained, terrible villain. Some of the plot may be simple but it had a satisfying ending. Shazam! has the same kind of energy as Spider-man: Homecoming, but by doing its own thing and having its own theme of what a family really means. It revels in the genre by literally putting you in the shoes of a child’s wish fulfillment. 9. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

I saw this movie on a whim on Netflix. Nobody has made any fuss about it. I think it was fantastic. It’s a quirky sci-fi comedy with Aubrey Plaza playing a newspaper reporter investigating an ad someone put in the classifieds asking for a time travel companion. She goes along with two other co-workers, played by Jake Johnson and Karan Soni (who later becomes the taxi guy in Deadpool). I have to be honest – I don’t find Jake Johnson that funny. In most things I’ve seen him in, I feel like his reactions are forced. But his deadpan deliveries in this movie are on the spot. Mark Duplass was still relatively unknown at this time, and played the oddball guy who placed the ad and firmly believes he made a time machine. The entire movie only costed $750,000! Movies today need to spend over $10 million in order to try and make something as compelling as this. This movie alone influenced the modern indie film industry by combining forces with Netflix. Maybe Netflix and chill wouldn’t have been a thing if it weren’t for this movie. 10. The Nice Guys (2016)

I saved my personal favorite for last. The Nice Guys is my favorite underrated movie that I have seen this past decade. It has everything I love in a buddy film; wit and style. Written and directed by Shane Black, this movie has some real zingers and hilarious deliveries. Ryan Gosling plays a jittery private detective, who unwillingly teams up with Russel Crowe, who beats up people for a living. The story revolves around a missing girl who is a key witness to a grander conspiracy involving the automobile industry. This is one of those movies that never fails to make me laugh. I can rewatch the same scenes over and over and still crack up with laughter. My only gripe is that the final confrontation can be a bit unrealistic at times, which can be close to breaking that border of “Okay, is this witty satire like Coen Brothers or just outright comedy sketch like The Naked Gun?” So to me it felt a little imbalanced in the last quarter. Still, the rest of the movie really hits the right marks.

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 5 years

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Top 5 Underrated Characters

Requested by @pink-wants-to-die

Zoophobia has a lot of characters, doesn't it? Because of that, it's easy for a few to slip between the cracks. Either that, or the only way they get popularity is by Vivz going "hey, they might end up in a relationship with a popular character *wink wink, nudge nudge *" (looking at you Elijah ) I say we discuss 5 of them today.

For this list, I'm looking at characters that personally surprise me as to how few people show interest in them. I'm not just talking about fan art. I rarely see them discussed or anything. However, if a character hasn't gotten a lot of attention from Vivz, then to me it makes sense why no one talks about them, so you won't see anybody like. ...I dunno, Penelope. Anybody here know Penelope? How about Koko, or Calvin? No? Didn't think so.

Usual disclaimer. Zoophobia is owned by Vivziepop. This list is entirely my opinion, and feel free to disagree. All I ask is that everyone remains civil to one another in the notes, otherwise I will steal your spoons.

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I'm going to break habit and announce my 2 dishonorables together since I put them on here for the same reason.

DM 1 and 2: Camilla and Elijah

Ok, so it's not so much I feel as though they have no fans, I feel as though they have fans.....that don't actually give a shit about the characters themselves and like them for reasons not relating to their personalities or anything.

Starting with Eli, let's be honest here guys, how many people actually gave a shit about him before we got the implication that he could potentially be Damian's boyfriend? I mean, once in a blue moon, I'll see someone who says they like his character traits or his design, but that doesn't happen very often. Hell, this happened even back when Eli was green and was called Eiglet. Nobody cared about this character that much. We just got the idea that he could end up with Dame, and then the fandom started to take an interest. I find that incredibly disappointing.

With Camilla, I think we can all agree on one thing. Camilla is hot. I see a lot of people going crazy over her design, and the fact that she's a stripper. Sad part is, there's a lot more to Camilla, and Vivz has done several pieces of artwork depicting this side of her, and yet everyone just goes crazy over tits. Again, it's disappointing.

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5. Justina

Ok, so this bitch didn't appear in the comic. Well, she did at one point. Zoophobia originally had this prologue where we meet Justina. However, Vivz deleted this prologue so we can assume that prologue is retconned. You can still probably find re blogs of it somewhere. Still, it makes sense why not a lot of people would know about her, thus why she's at the bottom of the list. However, she still showed up at one point, and fuck it, I see plenty of shit for Mirage who hasn't appeared yet. Also, this is my list.

Justina is interesting to me. She has apparently been exiled in Hell and is forced to watch over dreams, a job she finds tedious. She's also the embodiment of Pride, and mistreats her daughter, Ink. Ok, so reread the second sentence. She got exiled. ...in Hell. A place where there's a bunch of crazies and crime, and that's super loose on rules. This bitch somehow got exiled. Also, the sins run over entire sections of Hell. Justina was a politically powerful figure. So what crime could she have possibly committed to get exiled? Why no one talks about this is surprising to me. Like, can we get some headcannons at least? The other reason I like her, and I know this is petty, but she hates being colourful. Am I the only one who finds the concept of a Vivziepop character despising how colourful they are kind of unintentionally funny? Yes? Ok then.....

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4. Kaycee

Kaycee's lack of popularity or recognition also came as a surprise. She's basically this story's version of the Cheshire cat. She's the puppet master pulling the strings of characters, kick starting the story. And yet she's neither an evil nor good character. She's morally grey, seemingly seeing the whole story as entertainment for herself. She also seems to be somewhat omnipresent, hiding in plain sight, watching shit go down. The first chapter gave her plenty of panels to shine in, and I'm not sure about the rest of you, but her scenes seemed pretty effective. So why did the fandom collectively forget that this character existed? With a character like Kaycee, you would've thought that the fandom would be abuzz with speculation and theories. Not to mention her connection with Cameron. What does Kaycee see in her? What's her end game? Does she want something, or is all of Safe Haven Kaycee's personal doll house? Come on fandom, what's the hold up?

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3. Narissa

Ok, ok, odd choice, I know, and that's partially why she's so low. So why do I think she needs more attention? Because she's high key a major contender for the most badass mom of the comic award. First off, she's the queen of Hell, despite being a mortal and not a demon. She has Lucifer, FUCKING LUCIFER, wrapped around her finger so tight that Vivz has described them as the most lovey dovey couple in the series. On concept alone, I'm already intrigued. And in the comic? Everybody, I want you to look at the panels she appears in, and just notice the body language, posture, facial expression. It could be just me, but Narissa seems to scream "get on your knees before the queen bitch". Also, notice how when Lucifer is full out raging and is about to stab a bitch, while everyone else is fucking terrified, Narissa's just puts her hand up like "Shattup bitch, I'm taking over." Finally, I find her reaction to Damian's actions interesting. I theorized in the past that she may be alright with Dame going to Safe Haven since she kind of gets it, since she experienced something similar in her life, except instead of Earth, she wanted to litteraly go to hell. I think it would actually be really interesting if there were some sort of parallel between Dame and his mum, and that being the reason she lets him do his thing. I see a lot of people give attention to Lucifer and especially Dame, but Narissa is almost always left out. I dunno about you guys, but I vote that we need more Narissa love.

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2. Tentadora

Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, insert Jessica Rabbit joke here.

In Tentadora's case, I think people tend not entirely get Tenta's character. A lot of people criticize Tenta for not being a good parental figure for Damian despite being so doting to him. And I'm about to blow some people's minds here, but Tenta being a bad parent?

That's the point

Yeah, Tenta is actually a really shitty parent, and this is actually intentional. While she does care for Dame, she spoils him rotten and she's even surprisingly neglectful. She just lets Dame hang on Earth where she knows he'll be in danger. Oh but it's alright. He's happy. That's all that matters right? Even when searching for him, she doesn't take it seriously and would rather goof off than make sure he's ok. This is much more evident in a comic you can find on Vivz's art portfolio. It's done in a way that mimics the Invader Zim art style and stars Dame and Tenta. I'll probably reblog it later, but in the comic, Dame is (as confirmed by Vivz in the description ) not entirely mentally healthy. The kid is litteraly under the impression his dolls are talking to him. And Tenta's reaction? She just tells him he's too old to play with dolls.

I feel that Tenta gets a little too much criticism. Yeah, I agree with the design thing, but a lot of criticism I see towards her personality is criticism I have trouble buying. The whole thing with people asking why she's such a shitty parent is one thing, but there's also the accusation that she not only looks like Jessica Rabbit, she acts like and has the same role as her, when really she doesn't. Look, I don't deny the similarities. But Tenta isn't a clone. She's clearly inspired by and shares traits with Jessica, but she's hardly a carbon copy. Personality wise at least. She's silly, not ashamed of being sexy or inconvenienced by it, and she's far less mature. Can we just. ...I dunno, give the pink robot a break?

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1. Zechariah

Ok, so hear me out. I know I put him on my worst character list. However, remember how I restricted that list to just characters that appeared in the comic? If it weren't for that restriction, Zech wouldn't have made the list. The main problem I had was his stupid decisions. That's it. Also, this character has appeared in 3 out of the five chapters we got. He has a lot of panels to show up in. However, despite this, nobody pays this guy any attention. Except, oddly enough, the NSFW part of the zp community...... Yeah, I don't know either. Still, you rarely see this guy get spoken about or fan works made for him, while characters like Tom who show up once get more attention than he does. I think that this list has shown me how confusing the zp community can be.

Anyway, I'm about to pass out. Hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think.

I apologize for wasting your time.

-ATOUN

#zoophobia #zoophobia tentadora #zoophobia cameron #zoophobia kaycee #zoophobia elijah #zoophobia camilla #zoophobia narissa #zoophobia justina #zoophobia zechariah

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