This great and wondrous digital age, where all voices can be heard without any jet-lag, is really an amazing thing. It allows us to be an instant part of the world and be given access to so many events in real time.
But it also allows us to see those we might look up to in an unfiltered light that might not reflect to well on them.
J.K. Rowling recently made a simple comment in a tweet.
'But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?'
It was a short sentence, as is needed for any tweets. A quick read out of context and it looks rather innocent, if a little confusing. However, in full context, it was an undeniable attack against transgender people.
Needless to say, in our present charged society, Rowling has come under attack from many who once praised her for her for her progressive views. There are comments out there from trans people who found Rowling's writings inspirational and helped them to come out and be themselves, who now feel betrayed.
How do you separate a person from the artist's works?
There was a lot of the same issues when Orson Scott Card, writer of the award winning Ender's Game books, which I have enjoyed, came out as anti-homosexual. Suddenly it became hard to enjoy his writings, knowing his views, which I very much regard as being ignorant and harmful.
There are several local writers, whom I shall not name here, who have shown certain views that have bothered me.
One had posted a comic on Facebook that was truly insulting towards homosexuals regarding their rights to marriage and being given equal service and access as everyone else. When I tried to have a mature discussion about it he started with 'I have many gay friends who I love, but...'. He basically said that homosexuals are fine, but should not be allowed the same rights and privileges of us straight people and it is wrong to 'force' anyone to treat them as human. He then went into being politely insulting towards me by saying I needed to deal with my anger issues. This was a man many told me I should befriend because he would good contact to have.
I am no longer in contact with him in any manner and avoid him as much as possible.
The other I shall not name, has a blog where she insults anything and everything liberal in a condescending manner. According to her words I am stupid and ignorant and a sheep and so much else, just because I share differing political views than she does. Her posts are not that well thought out, often just stating how wrong liberal ideas are without presenting anything of substance to back up her claims, much like what I have seen from the one time I tried to read an Ann Coulter book. The idea is you just insult the other side over and over again, making some really outrageous generalizations about them that, with nothing to defend those claims and then pretend you won your 'argument' because of course you're right.
So she is now another local writer I go out of my way to avoid now, even though we have been on panels together in the past.
As for their works, the first one I have yet to read anything he has written, but I have no desire to check any of it out. Some of it might interest me, but because I am unable to get past his beliefs, I am not willing to spend my money to support him.
The second one, I have read a few of her short stories and I was not impressed. She is known for her long fiction, but I have no interest in checking it out. I also know one person who has picked up a good deal of her work and will no longer support her because of her views.
As a writer myself, I have faced some of this. Although I am not at the level of anyone I have talked about so far in this post, I did get one interesting response to a mildly political post I once put up on Facebook, oddly enough it was far from being one of my heavily political posts. This man that I really did not know at all messaged me 'As a writer you should know better than to be political. You have lost a potential reader.' and then blocked me. I found it more amusing than anything else, but I can say I have had at least one person 'boycott' me over political views. I'm not going to go into how just about all artists put their political ideas into their work, but they do.
So here we have the dilemma. When an artist puts out there a view you dislike, where does the line between enjoying their work and not being able to support them get drawn? It is really hard to separate the artist as a person from their creative works. I no longer pick up any of Card's books, but I have a lot of them in my house and I did enjoy the Ender's Game movie. We have so many Harry Potter items in this house it is crazy and I very much want to see where the fantastic beasts movies go, yet all of that is supporting Rowling. I find it easier to ignore this one slip of hers those and keep on with supporting the Wizarding World she created, in part by hoping she will see the errors of her ways and apologize, as she does seem like the kind of person that might do that. The other three I have talked about here, I don't believe will do that.
I know that Walt Disney was racist and held strong sexist ideas, but I still am able to enjoy what he created. If we start to dissect all the artists whose work we have enjoyed, many of them will not be able to live up to our standards.
In the end, the whole ability to separate the artist from the art is a tricky thing and a lot of it comes in to just how much the art means to us. I am willing to forgive Rowling this time around, even if I really feel she holds some dangerous views on this subject. But it does bother me that I can do that so easily and I have to wonder how fair it is that I do.
In the end people are imperfect.
Friday, December 27, 2019
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
It Was Always a No Win Situation
Here we are, one day away from the opening weekend for what is, at this time, being called the final part of the Skywalker Saga. Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters tomorrow.
So right now on Rotten Tomatoes it is at 58%. That counts as 'rotten' by their standards. I do not hold full faith in reviews on their own, as I have seen horrible movies rated 'fresh' there and truly enjoyable films get the 'rotten' label. When you see such a low score you do have to wonder what turned people off on it.
Of course with this film, that is actually easy to figure out.
In the end there was no way this movie was ever going to be highly rated. It has too much baggage attached and was never going to be able to live up to expectations. By the end of the weekend we will see a divide in not only the die-hard Star Wars fans, but the general movie going population as well, over this film. That was going to happen no matter what. Even if 'Rise of Skywalker' were the most perfect movie ever made, it would still have its distractors. It had too much it had to live up to.
However, I do not believe it is a perfect movie. Yet I have faith it will be enjoyable and not fail as bad as Episodes 1 and 2 did. It would be hard for it to be as bad as those two were.
Now the reviews I've seen make sense with their complaints. Episode 9 was always going to be filled with too much filler to tie it all up. Due to there having been too much freedom given for The Last Jedi, there was just a lot of dangling plots that needed to be worked out. While I am one who will defend The Last Jedi, I very much can see how it messed up the over-all story and left a lot that needed to be repaired. I wish Rian Johnson would have worked with the idea that there was another movie to come, making sure the story fit with the over-all arc better. We already know from 'Lost' that Abrams is not the best at keeping a story arc on track as it is.
So the basic problem was going to be there no matter what. That is one that most likely will not take away form my enjoyment of the film. I've suffered through Batman Vs. Superman after all, and I have full faith the story telling will not fall to that level, or even close to it. I do expect it to drag some and get a little filled with exposition at times. My faith is that there will be enough good stuff there and that in the end the story will wrap up well and feel satisfying.
There is a good chance I will have issues with some of the choices made and feel that I could have come up with a better idea for that part of it (Seriously, Lucas Films, I could write you a brilliant movie if you just take the chance on me), but there are times you just over look such things if the rest of the film can pull off what it needs to do. Abrams did this with his two Star Trek films. Both of them had a whole lot of mistakes in them, a lot, a there were parts that were just poorly written and thought out, yet somehow I enjoyed the films despite these great flaws. And while personally I am far more invested in the superior franchise that is Star Wars, I am willing to accept mistakes (After all I am still a fan of the films even after the prequels) as long as there is something of value to be found in the end.
Right now, despite the bad reviews, I am still looking forwards to seeing The Rise of Skywalker and learning how the saga ends, for now. Then when the new Skywalker Trilogy is announced, fifteen years from now (Most likely without me attached as a writer), the whole argument can resurface and a new generation of trolls will go and claim the new movies are ruining their childhood and destroying the franchise forever.
So right now on Rotten Tomatoes it is at 58%. That counts as 'rotten' by their standards. I do not hold full faith in reviews on their own, as I have seen horrible movies rated 'fresh' there and truly enjoyable films get the 'rotten' label. When you see such a low score you do have to wonder what turned people off on it.
Of course with this film, that is actually easy to figure out.
In the end there was no way this movie was ever going to be highly rated. It has too much baggage attached and was never going to be able to live up to expectations. By the end of the weekend we will see a divide in not only the die-hard Star Wars fans, but the general movie going population as well, over this film. That was going to happen no matter what. Even if 'Rise of Skywalker' were the most perfect movie ever made, it would still have its distractors. It had too much it had to live up to.
However, I do not believe it is a perfect movie. Yet I have faith it will be enjoyable and not fail as bad as Episodes 1 and 2 did. It would be hard for it to be as bad as those two were.
Now the reviews I've seen make sense with their complaints. Episode 9 was always going to be filled with too much filler to tie it all up. Due to there having been too much freedom given for The Last Jedi, there was just a lot of dangling plots that needed to be worked out. While I am one who will defend The Last Jedi, I very much can see how it messed up the over-all story and left a lot that needed to be repaired. I wish Rian Johnson would have worked with the idea that there was another movie to come, making sure the story fit with the over-all arc better. We already know from 'Lost' that Abrams is not the best at keeping a story arc on track as it is.
So the basic problem was going to be there no matter what. That is one that most likely will not take away form my enjoyment of the film. I've suffered through Batman Vs. Superman after all, and I have full faith the story telling will not fall to that level, or even close to it. I do expect it to drag some and get a little filled with exposition at times. My faith is that there will be enough good stuff there and that in the end the story will wrap up well and feel satisfying.
There is a good chance I will have issues with some of the choices made and feel that I could have come up with a better idea for that part of it (Seriously, Lucas Films, I could write you a brilliant movie if you just take the chance on me), but there are times you just over look such things if the rest of the film can pull off what it needs to do. Abrams did this with his two Star Trek films. Both of them had a whole lot of mistakes in them, a lot, a there were parts that were just poorly written and thought out, yet somehow I enjoyed the films despite these great flaws. And while personally I am far more invested in the superior franchise that is Star Wars, I am willing to accept mistakes (After all I am still a fan of the films even after the prequels) as long as there is something of value to be found in the end.
Right now, despite the bad reviews, I am still looking forwards to seeing The Rise of Skywalker and learning how the saga ends, for now. Then when the new Skywalker Trilogy is announced, fifteen years from now (Most likely without me attached as a writer), the whole argument can resurface and a new generation of trolls will go and claim the new movies are ruining their childhood and destroying the franchise forever.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Hey Scorsese, We've Been Down This Road Before, And Your Side Was Proven Wrong
For those of you living in caves, Academy Award-Winning Director Martin Scorsese has recently started a odd war on super-hero movies that feels more about him being an outdated elitist who is upset that his work is being upstaged by films he calls 'theme park' movies.
I am all for people having their opinions and they don't all have to align with mine. But his words are reflective of outdated attitudes.
Here are his actual claims: "It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
“It’s not cinema,” he said. “It’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”
Has he actual seen these films? A huge part of why the present Marvel movies are so popular, is because they do such a great job of conveying emotional, psychological experiences to another human being. Go and watch Captain America: The First Avenger and tell me the story of Steve Rodgers is not emotional. Just because there are super powers and fantasy/sci-fi elements added in does not mean the movie lacks the human elements that help tell a good story.
This attitude is one we have seen before. Back in the '80s there are those in the literary circles who held similar outdated elitist ideas about comic books not being 'real literature'. The Watchmen series was being heralded as a literary masterpiece and Neil Gaiman's Sandman stories were winning prestigious literary awards, and these old men clung to their notions that is was all garbage, without actually reading any of them. After all just because something is being called brilliant, doesn't mean you actually have to give it a chance in order to say otherwise.
I am not at all saying Scorsese is not a brilliant film maker. But his ideas are outdated and very much give off the feeling of someone who is jealous that he is not as popular as he wants to be. While his films have been successful, he has not really made any 'mega-blockbusters'. Theaters are going to show what makes money for them, and his films are not the money makers.
In a truly interesting show of support for Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola has come out calling the super hero films “despicable.” To understand the irony of that statement, it is Coppola's own prodigy, George Lucas, who you can say more or less created and fanned the flames that led to the modern blockbuster trend that has allowed super hero movies to become what they are. When Star Wars was breaking records and becoming the new face of motion pictures, Coppola was congratulating Lucas on his achievements. In essence, Star Wars is the same style of movie as the Marvel movies are.
Their remarks reflect a fear that they are outdated and irrelevant, and instead of working with the changes, they want things back they way they used to be. Scorsese even admits this if you read his attempt to backtrack and defend his remarks. He praises films and film makers from his childhood and earlier on career, but says nothing about the bigger films of the modern era. He outright says that if the films are not the style he thinks they should be, then they are not worth watching.
Makes me wonder about how he felt about those who criticized his movies for being too violent, because that kind of thing was not what real movies focused on. There is not doubt that as he left his mark on motion pictures, there were those who disliked the direction he and other directors of that time, were ruining the whole experience and taking attention away from the 'real cinema'.
'The times they are a changing', as they always are. Scorsese makes it clear he dislikes the current business climate in Hollywood, where his style of movies are not in high demand and so he has to find different ways to get his visions made and distributed. Yet even without the popularity of the super hero films, the business side of things would still have gone that direction. Netflix and the whole video on demand market really has had a much bigger influence on how movies get distributed than any one genre of films could.
Scorsese is coming off like a bitter old man who dislikes change and is confused and angry that the world is not how it was when he was younger. He is pointing his finger at super hero movies, but in truth the problems he is facing would have happened no matter what as technology and attitudes change. He needs to sit down with an open mind and watch the Marvel Movies and see that they are legitimate cinema, containing all the elements he claims are missing.
I am all for people having their opinions and they don't all have to align with mine. But his words are reflective of outdated attitudes.
Here are his actual claims: "It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
“It’s not cinema,” he said. “It’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films.”
Has he actual seen these films? A huge part of why the present Marvel movies are so popular, is because they do such a great job of conveying emotional, psychological experiences to another human being. Go and watch Captain America: The First Avenger and tell me the story of Steve Rodgers is not emotional. Just because there are super powers and fantasy/sci-fi elements added in does not mean the movie lacks the human elements that help tell a good story.
This attitude is one we have seen before. Back in the '80s there are those in the literary circles who held similar outdated elitist ideas about comic books not being 'real literature'. The Watchmen series was being heralded as a literary masterpiece and Neil Gaiman's Sandman stories were winning prestigious literary awards, and these old men clung to their notions that is was all garbage, without actually reading any of them. After all just because something is being called brilliant, doesn't mean you actually have to give it a chance in order to say otherwise.
I am not at all saying Scorsese is not a brilliant film maker. But his ideas are outdated and very much give off the feeling of someone who is jealous that he is not as popular as he wants to be. While his films have been successful, he has not really made any 'mega-blockbusters'. Theaters are going to show what makes money for them, and his films are not the money makers.
In a truly interesting show of support for Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola has come out calling the super hero films “despicable.” To understand the irony of that statement, it is Coppola's own prodigy, George Lucas, who you can say more or less created and fanned the flames that led to the modern blockbuster trend that has allowed super hero movies to become what they are. When Star Wars was breaking records and becoming the new face of motion pictures, Coppola was congratulating Lucas on his achievements. In essence, Star Wars is the same style of movie as the Marvel movies are.
Their remarks reflect a fear that they are outdated and irrelevant, and instead of working with the changes, they want things back they way they used to be. Scorsese even admits this if you read his attempt to backtrack and defend his remarks. He praises films and film makers from his childhood and earlier on career, but says nothing about the bigger films of the modern era. He outright says that if the films are not the style he thinks they should be, then they are not worth watching.
Makes me wonder about how he felt about those who criticized his movies for being too violent, because that kind of thing was not what real movies focused on. There is not doubt that as he left his mark on motion pictures, there were those who disliked the direction he and other directors of that time, were ruining the whole experience and taking attention away from the 'real cinema'.
'The times they are a changing', as they always are. Scorsese makes it clear he dislikes the current business climate in Hollywood, where his style of movies are not in high demand and so he has to find different ways to get his visions made and distributed. Yet even without the popularity of the super hero films, the business side of things would still have gone that direction. Netflix and the whole video on demand market really has had a much bigger influence on how movies get distributed than any one genre of films could.
Scorsese is coming off like a bitter old man who dislikes change and is confused and angry that the world is not how it was when he was younger. He is pointing his finger at super hero movies, but in truth the problems he is facing would have happened no matter what as technology and attitudes change. He needs to sit down with an open mind and watch the Marvel Movies and see that they are legitimate cinema, containing all the elements he claims are missing.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Happy Halloween, A Few Opinions and Then Time for Some Self Promotion
I hope everyone is having a enjoyable Halloween today.
I could blog about a lot today, there is just so much going on.
I loved the Star Wars Episode 9 trailer. Really looking forward to the film and I believe it will be good.
I don't really like where they have gone with the X-Men in the comics. Not sure what they were thinking. Seems like the X-Men have now become Magneto's dream not Prof. X's.
Watched the first two episode's of HBO's Watchmen. Not a fan. Something about it feels off. I don't think it is lined up with the Graphic Novel myself. I think the story itself might work better for me if it was in its own universe and was its own thing, but I don't find it feels like the Watchmen universe. And so far I saw every 'twist' coming a mile away. What I have seen is way too predictable and I get the feeling the writing is not going to improve.
Instead of going into detail on any of that, I am going to promote myself and what I have been working on. One of the reasons I have not been blogging much lately is because I have been working hard of my actual writing projects.
I published A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place.
https://www.amazon.com/Day-Georgie-Armands-Place-ebook/dp/B07YK6C8N5
This is my first full completed novel.
![A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place by [Brazee-Cannon, Ian]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61CgW7G92EL.jpg)
The hotel is run by Georgie and Armand, dragons,
Meet the guests and staff members from countless worlds, each with their own stories to tell.
Come experience a true cross-genre adventure.
I could blog about a lot today, there is just so much going on.
I loved the Star Wars Episode 9 trailer. Really looking forward to the film and I believe it will be good.
I don't really like where they have gone with the X-Men in the comics. Not sure what they were thinking. Seems like the X-Men have now become Magneto's dream not Prof. X's.
Watched the first two episode's of HBO's Watchmen. Not a fan. Something about it feels off. I don't think it is lined up with the Graphic Novel myself. I think the story itself might work better for me if it was in its own universe and was its own thing, but I don't find it feels like the Watchmen universe. And so far I saw every 'twist' coming a mile away. What I have seen is way too predictable and I get the feeling the writing is not going to improve.
Instead of going into detail on any of that, I am going to promote myself and what I have been working on. One of the reasons I have not been blogging much lately is because I have been working hard of my actual writing projects.
I published A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place.
https://www.amazon.com/Day-Georgie-Armands-Place-ebook/dp/B07YK6C8N5
This is my first full completed novel.
Welcome to the famous Georgie and Armand’s place,
an inter-dimensional hotel unlike any place you have ever seen before.
Inside you will find doorways to a thousand-thousand worlds,
with all manner of beingsinteracting and going about their lives.
The hotel is run by Georgie and Armand, dragons,
life partners and Master Mages of the highest order.
Meet the guests and staff members from countless worlds, each with their own stories to tell.
Follow their stories as a memorable day at the Hotel plays out around them,
leading to their stories colliding as a mysterious adversary
threatens the stability of the Hotel, putting at risk all those who call it home.
Come experience a true cross-genre adventure.
At Georgie and Armand’s Place you get science fiction, fantasy,
steampunk all overlapping with one another,
with some mystery and romance sprinkled in the mix.
Then I put a short story in the same universe out,
Georgie and Armand on Vacation: A Visit to Cripple Creek.
Right now it is at #60 for sci-fi/fantasy 45-minute short reads. Not a highly competitive category, but still cool that I have broken the top 100 in any category for Amazon.
After seeing that I decided to see how my other pieces are doing in the ratings and found that one of my Divided States of America stories, Where Do You Go From Here has been doing well.
It is right now at #55 in 30-Minute Sci-Fic/Fantasy Short Reads.
So I have two stories right now in the top 100 of different categories on Amazon.
I'd say that was cool.
Visit my Amazon Author's page to see the full selection of my projects there.
So Happy Halloween everyone.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Was it the Worst Super-Hero Movie Ever? No, But it Was Close.
I remember back before the MCU, back when super-hero movies were a rarity. Even rarer were really good ones. Superman has his item in the early 80s, with movies that only work if you accept just how badly campy they are. There had been the Batman movies, which had a good start, but didn't last long as the quality dropped withe very movies. Blade had come and surprised everyone, but few realized it was a super-hero movie.
Then came X-Men. This was a real super-hero movie with interesting, complex characters, a decent plot, with good special effects and well done fight scenes and one of the greatest openings to a movie ever. In just those few moments we understood the character of Magneto. The first X-Men movies showed us just what the genre could be. Ignore some bad dialogue and the over use of comic book science, and you have an enjoyable film.
And X2 was... Well it showed that a squeal could be something amazing and unique. It was so much better than the first. the had clearly learned from the first one.
X3, well it had some good movements to it. It was troubled film with a lot of issues filming, with the director and one of the leads switching over to do a different super-hero film that fell flat, part way through production.
Wolverine Origins... Great opening and there were good scenes in it. It just didn't work. The less said about its version of Deadpool the better.
If the super-hero movie genre had not suddenly taken off, the X-Man franchise might have ended there. But with Spider-Man being a huge hit and the MCU starting to become a thing, Fox wasn't about to let things die.
They went and pumped the franchise up again with mostly hits and a few misses, but nothing truly horrible. Apocalypse is weak, but has some good elements to it. It didn't kill the franchise, just showed they were not at their best.
Then we got Dark Phoenix.
My son and I rented it and watched it this last weekend. There is a real good reason this was a full on box office bomb. Still not as horrible or painful to watch as Super vs Batmen, because Dark Phoenix actually has the heroes at least trying to be heroic and relatable. But much like SvsB, so much of the plot is forced and rushed, with character motivation being questionable.
I hate to say this because I have for the most part enjoyed the X-Man franchise, but there is nothing in Dark Phoenix that was enjoyable. It took a cast that has puled it off before and dumped all over everything that had worked in the past. They clearly had lost it and weren't trying to do anything but get a product out there, screw quality.
The scary part is that this might not be the last we see of the franchise. Even with the Disney buy out, there is still the questionable New Mutants movie out there in production limbo. My understanding is it is all filmed and ready to go, but with Dark Phoenix flopping, it most likely won't get a theatrical release. My money is on it going straight to video or maybe Disney Plus.
I have little faith in New Mutants. I loved the comics, but from what I have seen, the movie is not going to work.
In the end it is sad that the Fox time with the X-Man franchise is ending in such a weak manner when we know they are capable of making really good movies.
I am very interested in seeing what happens when the X-Men get rebooted as part of the MCU. Spider-Man had just done a truly awful movie before the character got rebooted into the MCU and that has given us two incredible films. So there is hope for the X-Men.
Then came X-Men. This was a real super-hero movie with interesting, complex characters, a decent plot, with good special effects and well done fight scenes and one of the greatest openings to a movie ever. In just those few moments we understood the character of Magneto. The first X-Men movies showed us just what the genre could be. Ignore some bad dialogue and the over use of comic book science, and you have an enjoyable film.
And X2 was... Well it showed that a squeal could be something amazing and unique. It was so much better than the first. the had clearly learned from the first one.
X3, well it had some good movements to it. It was troubled film with a lot of issues filming, with the director and one of the leads switching over to do a different super-hero film that fell flat, part way through production.
Wolverine Origins... Great opening and there were good scenes in it. It just didn't work. The less said about its version of Deadpool the better.
If the super-hero movie genre had not suddenly taken off, the X-Man franchise might have ended there. But with Spider-Man being a huge hit and the MCU starting to become a thing, Fox wasn't about to let things die.
They went and pumped the franchise up again with mostly hits and a few misses, but nothing truly horrible. Apocalypse is weak, but has some good elements to it. It didn't kill the franchise, just showed they were not at their best.
Then we got Dark Phoenix.
My son and I rented it and watched it this last weekend. There is a real good reason this was a full on box office bomb. Still not as horrible or painful to watch as Super vs Batmen, because Dark Phoenix actually has the heroes at least trying to be heroic and relatable. But much like SvsB, so much of the plot is forced and rushed, with character motivation being questionable.
I hate to say this because I have for the most part enjoyed the X-Man franchise, but there is nothing in Dark Phoenix that was enjoyable. It took a cast that has puled it off before and dumped all over everything that had worked in the past. They clearly had lost it and weren't trying to do anything but get a product out there, screw quality.
The scary part is that this might not be the last we see of the franchise. Even with the Disney buy out, there is still the questionable New Mutants movie out there in production limbo. My understanding is it is all filmed and ready to go, but with Dark Phoenix flopping, it most likely won't get a theatrical release. My money is on it going straight to video or maybe Disney Plus.
I have little faith in New Mutants. I loved the comics, but from what I have seen, the movie is not going to work.
In the end it is sad that the Fox time with the X-Man franchise is ending in such a weak manner when we know they are capable of making really good movies.
I am very interested in seeing what happens when the X-Men get rebooted as part of the MCU. Spider-Man had just done a truly awful movie before the character got rebooted into the MCU and that has given us two incredible films. So there is hope for the X-Men.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
No...Just No... Seriously, WTF Are You Thinking?
In the aftermath of Sony Pictures pulling Spider-Man from the MCU, their CEO seems to be determined to make it clear they are not to be trusted with making good decisions.
It was announced that they are looking at doing a remake of The Princess Bride.
Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra said, “Very famous people whose names I won’t use, but they want to redo The Princess Bride."
I don't care how famous the people are, this is a truly bad idea. Already a lot of famous people have come out saying that.
This is one of those idea that is not needed and has no rational justification to it.
Chances are it will not be as good as the original, which is a practically perfect movie, and if you look at such remakes, they rarely make much money.
The announcement itself has already upset fans, which shows that no one wants this. I've yet to find one person who is excited over this idea.
Just putting the idea out there weakens my faith in Sony, which has not been high for some time now.
We can only hope that some level of common sense wins out and they look elsewhere for franchises to exploit due to them lacking the ability to come up with original ideas.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
There is no Way I Was Not Going to Weigh in of This One.
I'm not sure if there is nay geek new out there getting more attention than the big Sony/Disney split right now.
The basic story is that Disney tried to renegotiate the deal they had with Sony over the Spider-Man films. Disney wanted a bigger piece of the pie from the stand along films, openly offering to take on a bigger piece of the expense with it. Sony said they were happy with the deal they had.
Now if Sony does full walk away from the deal with Disney/Marvel, what does that mean?
Well, since the present reboot of Spider-Man has been solidly connected to the MCU, with a strong hint that Spidey was going to continue Tony Stark's legacy, it would almost be a full reboot to make the stories work. The last two Spider-man stand along films have been firmly planted in the MCU with those stories connected to the greater story line. There would suddenly be a lot of history that would just have to be forgotten and over looked, creating some awkward retconning in order to make any sense.
Basically if Sony does do two more movies with that Spider-Man, they will feel like a whole different universe and there really is no way around that. And after the complete and total failure that was Amazing Spider-Man 2, I don't think Sony knows what to do on their own. ASM 2 was a movie that should a full lack of understanding about why Spider-Man is the greatest super hero out there. Working with Disney, they created a Spider-Man that felt like what the character should be.
It is somewhat obvious as to why Sony is riding high with their ego right now.
Into the Spider-Verse, which was a truly brilliant film, was a full on success. It has earned a lot of high acclaim and won many prestigious awards. On top of that Spider-Man: Far From Home top a billion on the international market, becoming the biggest hit Sony Pictures has ever had and I think they want to ride with that into their own little Spider-Man universe, free from Disney/Marvel.
I don't have any faith that would work though. We've seen them butcher the franchise when left on their own. I've also seen their Venom movie, which I know some people liked, but I couldn't get into it. Sony left on their own is not a good thing for Spider-Man.
Yes, Into the Spider-Verse was well done, but now you know the big wigs at Sony are going to step in where they are not needed and try to make a sequel their way, and ruin it. They already have shown they will make the same mistakes the DC movies have made because they do not seem to understand how to make super hero movies work.
I really don't think Sony understand what it was that made Far From Home such a hit.
Now I don't think Disney is fully innocent here. While I can see why they would want a bigger piece of the pie, they really don't need it. And for good or ill, the MCU will most likely go on just fine without Spidey in it, as it did before they got to use Spidey.
My understanding is that negotiations are not fully done, so that might be a chance Sony and Disney will come to an agreement.
I'm just have little faith Sony will do Spider-Man justice on their own.
The basic story is that Disney tried to renegotiate the deal they had with Sony over the Spider-Man films. Disney wanted a bigger piece of the pie from the stand along films, openly offering to take on a bigger piece of the expense with it. Sony said they were happy with the deal they had.
Now if Sony does full walk away from the deal with Disney/Marvel, what does that mean?
Well, since the present reboot of Spider-Man has been solidly connected to the MCU, with a strong hint that Spidey was going to continue Tony Stark's legacy, it would almost be a full reboot to make the stories work. The last two Spider-man stand along films have been firmly planted in the MCU with those stories connected to the greater story line. There would suddenly be a lot of history that would just have to be forgotten and over looked, creating some awkward retconning in order to make any sense.
Basically if Sony does do two more movies with that Spider-Man, they will feel like a whole different universe and there really is no way around that. And after the complete and total failure that was Amazing Spider-Man 2, I don't think Sony knows what to do on their own. ASM 2 was a movie that should a full lack of understanding about why Spider-Man is the greatest super hero out there. Working with Disney, they created a Spider-Man that felt like what the character should be.
It is somewhat obvious as to why Sony is riding high with their ego right now.
Into the Spider-Verse, which was a truly brilliant film, was a full on success. It has earned a lot of high acclaim and won many prestigious awards. On top of that Spider-Man: Far From Home top a billion on the international market, becoming the biggest hit Sony Pictures has ever had and I think they want to ride with that into their own little Spider-Man universe, free from Disney/Marvel.
I don't have any faith that would work though. We've seen them butcher the franchise when left on their own. I've also seen their Venom movie, which I know some people liked, but I couldn't get into it. Sony left on their own is not a good thing for Spider-Man.
Yes, Into the Spider-Verse was well done, but now you know the big wigs at Sony are going to step in where they are not needed and try to make a sequel their way, and ruin it. They already have shown they will make the same mistakes the DC movies have made because they do not seem to understand how to make super hero movies work.
I really don't think Sony understand what it was that made Far From Home such a hit.
Now I don't think Disney is fully innocent here. While I can see why they would want a bigger piece of the pie, they really don't need it. And for good or ill, the MCU will most likely go on just fine without Spidey in it, as it did before they got to use Spidey.
My understanding is that negotiations are not fully done, so that might be a chance Sony and Disney will come to an agreement.
I'm just have little faith Sony will do Spider-Man justice on their own.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
I am Alive and Have Been Real Busy
So, it's been over two months since I last wrote a blog post here. Been real busy, as life can get a little crazy at times.
While I would love to write about some geeky stuff (Like how great Spider-Man: Far From Home was, go see it. Spidey is still the greatest superhero ever.) this post is going to be outright selling myself, as I have been working on a few projects.
I have self published The Cost of Leveling up.
Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VMCDV5L/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Print:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1082287083/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p2_i10
Then I am working on finishing up a much bigger project called 'A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place'.
While I would love to write about some geeky stuff (Like how great Spider-Man: Far From Home was, go see it. Spidey is still the greatest superhero ever.) this post is going to be outright selling myself, as I have been working on a few projects.
I have self published The Cost of Leveling up.
Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VMCDV5L/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Print:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1082287083/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p2_i10
Then I am working on finishing up a much bigger project called 'A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place'.
Here are sketches of the title characters. There will be a lot more concerning this book coming soon.
Hopefully next post will be back to talking geeky stuff as normal.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
How Can So Many Keep Messing It Up?
I am already getting tired of the TV show Flash and how overpowered the main character is. The character moments and just more and more inadequate to offset the bad logic and science they keep using. As far as I can figure, according to the show, running really really fast can give you just about any powers you can imagine. And it would help if they could be consistent, but I already figure that was asking too much. Rarely are such shows able to keep the powers working the same throughout, as they get altered as needed for the story. But this season ended with them really messing with their own rules big time, although they were already rewriting the rules throughout the season as a whole.
The rules I am talking about are their rules concerning time travel.
Now understand, time travel is a real easy thing that takes next to no effort for a 'speedster' in the show. It is something they do real casually all the time. But early on they hinted at the cost of messing with time and accidentally rewriting history. And when they put that out there originally, it seemed like they had some idea of how the rules should work and I was able to accept that as it wasn't too crazy, just missing the fine details as they almost always do. I understand you can't go and trace every little plot point to how a change in time would affect it.
So here they are ending the season with a time changing event, that somehow only changes one point in time, one that would not even be possible to have gotten to with what was changed. Once you remove the item that is keeping the character from being able to use his powers, that changes everything as to how you keep him imprisoned. The scenes we saw and everything we've been witnessing from the future would never happen. The item would not just vanish at the one point when it is most convenient for the character to have it vanish. That makes no sense at all on any level. It is just poor writing.
Then another character is erased from the timeline somehow (I did not get the logic of it there, as with the time line being messed up already earlier on in the season, my thought is she already changed her birth back then), and they do the time catching up with everything fade away, which I have never really liked. Once she no longer existed, everything she did still was done, meaning that somehow her not existing did not change anything. So all season, where most of the story line is motivated by her being there, still happened even though she never existed and just faded away... That does not make any sense with the logic of cause and effect. Weak writing.
Regretfully the writers of the Flash are not the only ones guilty of not giving a damn about common sense rules for time travel.
All in all I loved Avengers: Endgame. That main thing that bugged me was their treatment of time travel. They tried to imply rules, but really they just went all chaotic, without giving a damn about the idea of having rules. They did what they pleased with time travel with no sense of how it works and nothing in the way of repercussions. While it gave us some enjoyable scenes, all they needed to do was spend some time on creating real rules and then follow them. What we saw in Endgame is the time stream being totally screwed up to the point where a bunch of the MCU movies should never have taken place. The story line was left in a full on wreck with the ideas of cause and effect, but in the end that was all ignored and they pretended that there was rules that would fix it all.
Luckily the rest of the movie was enjoyable.
And these issues are not new. I love Back to the Future, but its views of time travel are flawed. A big difference is that they did set up their rules of time travel (even if I don't agree with them) and mostly followed them. The rules that get bent, you can come up with reasons for them. I am of the group that believes Marty died several times during the events of Part 2 and that Doc Brown had to play with time to be right where he was needed to save Marty's life. Although there is no logical reason to how Biff knew how to use the time circuits, but that has nothing to do with the rules of time travel.
Even Doctor Who rewrites its rules of time travel as needed. I still enjoy the show for the most part, but it does bother me when they decided to go against rules they have previously set up. Now a big part of that does come from being a long lived show that changes creative teams every so often.
In the end the whole concept of time travel is a hard thing to work with. Too many writers play with it without thinking it through. There needs to be rational results that fit with the ideas of cause and effect. Stories using time travel can be far better if a little thought it put into them first.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
The Saga Comes to an End, Again
The first Star Wars Episode 9 trailer was just released.
I've watched it twice now.
Will most likely watch it again a few more times today when I get the chance.
The title is interesting: 'Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.'
Uh, what?
Yeah, that is a little confusing. It also doesn't work to complete the sentence the last two films seemed to be building up to (The Force awakens the last Jedi).
Is the title a hint that we were misled in episode 8 about Rey's parents?
Is that the Emperor's laugh at the end there as they look at the wreckage of what I am assuming is the 2nd Death Star?
How is that all connected?
Are the rumors that the Emperor knew something about the truth of Anakin's birth going to be proven correct?
Yeah, lots and lots of questions.
All in all not much was really shown.
We knew Lando was going to return and that there would be scenes with Leia using unused footage.
I am wondering if the Leia scenes dictate Rey's outfit for the film.
Looks like BB-8 gets a new friend.
Some good visuals and action scenes.
But nothing too revealing there.
I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes as we once again come to the end of the Star Wars Saga.
According to Disney, they are going to step back from the idea of one new Star Wars movie a year after this and give it some time before doing anything on the big screen.
I'm sure I'll be blogging about it all as new trailers are released and new information gets out there.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Something to Be Truly Excited About
There are times when the news for upcoming projects restores all faith in the creative community and right now we have had one of those announcements:
Neil Gaiman will bring back Jim Henson's The Storyteller
That has to be one of the most perfect headlines I have ever seen.
Jim Henson's The Storyteller was such a brilliantly done series. Regretfully John Hurt will not be able to return as the role of the Storyteller. He was so perfect in that role.
With Gaiman as the head writer and producer, working with the Jim Henson company, it sounds like the perfect set up for one incredible show. Neil Gaiman, re-imagining old folk tales... He has already shown us how gifted he is at that, but now he gets to work with Muppets to do this. These are the Dark Crystal/Labyrinth level of Muppets we're talking about.
If you have not seen any of Jim Henson's Story Teller, then it is hard to explain how incredible those stories are. I checked and right now the full series is free on Amazon Prime. The DVDs are a little harder to come by and are right now fetching a high collectors price in some markets. But I recommend you find a way to experience them and be ready to see what Gaiman can do with the concept.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)