Alex Cranz has a piece in The Verge about where Marvel movies went wrong and why audiences can no longer trust the quality of those productions.
I don’t want to put on rose-colored glasses and say every early Marvel film was better than what’s coming out today. I sat through all of Iron Man 2 in the theaters. I remember Avengers: Age of Ultron, too. But as the MCU has become more and more successful, it’s become a victim of its own hubris. It started to imitate the comic industry that inspired it: shoddily putting together solo projects that always feed into some big crossover event and that usually require you to catch up with a bunch of other solo projects regardless of whether you want to, all while being pretty devoid of well-thought-out or consistent characterizations.
What I find most fascinating is the assertion that the movies are now following the path of the comics from which the properties came. It makes sense, though, that success is affecting movies in the same way it affected comic books. I haven’t seen a Marvel movie in a while, and have been at least partially deterred by hearing that you now have to be familiar with the rest of the franchise to enjoy any given entry in it.
It was interesting to read that Airplane! originated as a chance that Michael Eisner took on an unknown team to compete against the films from more established comedians. Chris Nashawaty recalls the genesis of one of the greatest comedy films of all time for Esquire. The piece focuses on the decision to hire serious actors for the film. Peter Graves was one of the actors that took some convincing to get on board.
A few years have gone by since the release of Rogue One, and it seems like it has had enough time to marinate and be evaluated for its place in the Star Wars universe. I’m comfortable saying it may be my favorite Star Wars film, or even property (including TV shows). Now that its director, Gareth Edwards, has a new film out, his body of work is being examined. A.A. Dowd writes for Digital Trends about the apocalyptic visions common in Edwards' work.
I haven’t been to the movies in a long time. If statistics are to be believed, neither have many people. My wife broke her streak by taking my son to see Oppenheimer. As part of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, many others marked their return to the movies after long-time absences by seeing Barbie. Not long after the movie’s release, I started hearing that the movie was too “woke,” ironically via those who were challenging the notion by pointing out that the phrase “if you go woke, you go broke” could hardly be applied to such a lucrative film.
John Paul Brammer wades into the candy culture wars (which are adjacent to the chicken sandwich culture wars and seem to provoke no less depth of feeling, if not many true casualties) on his Substack.
No one really asked for the M&Ms to be more relatable or for Velma to call out toxic masculinity. These are decisions massive corporations made because we are living in an era where personal morality is almost entirely defined by consumption habits, because consumption habits make up a good chunk of our daily lives.
A comment on a Stereogum piece about the new wave of American shoegaze: I know I keep riding this schtick, but we really are out of band names, folks. “Ganx Crap take inspiration from the post-slo-blorpgaze of Body Wash and LilMissPiggy.geccs, without completely cresting the wave set in motion by fellow Milwaukee veterans Total Garf Nuggets and T(w)asty Past(e).” Although hilarious, it almost sounds too exaggerated to be a decent parody.
I used to have a well-worn VHS cassette of Sonic Youth’s tour video, 1991: The Year Punk Broke. It featured a just-experiencing-stardom phase of Nirvana, but that wasn’t the reason I watched it over and over. I was more interested in the Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. performances that were recorded at these giant European music festivals. Until Lollapalooza sprang forth from the mind of Perry Farrell, we didn’t have bands like Sonic Youth playing huge outdoor venues in North America.1
I enjoyed Amazon’s Rings of Power series to such an extent that it actually delayed the watching of my most anticipated Star Wars series to come to episodic television. Some fans, though, had problems with the way the series handled canon. Adrienne Westenfeld writes about how the series was actually very clever in its intersections with canonical material.
To be clear, the Star Trek and Lord of the Rings fandoms are not without their own share of bad behavior—and for some fans, even simply enlarging the canon is still a bridge too far. “But Gandalf wasn’t in Middle-earth during the Second Age,” these persnickety purists argue, taking aim at the all-too likely theory that Rings of Power’s mysterious Stranger is, in fact, the notorious wizard Gandalf. Sure, Gandalf the Grey had yet to arrive in Middle-earth during the Second Age setting encompassed by Rings of Power, but during this timeline, he was knocking around the continent by other names in other forms. Where canon-obsessed fans might see a limitation, any good storyteller would see a tantalizing mystery. Tolkien himself often amended and expanded his own work, so why shouldn’t Rings of Power take some creative liberties, especially with the author’s gray areas? Isn’t it more fun to think about what could be true, rather than what must be true?
Westenfeld’s point that it can be interesting to color in the gray areas is well taken. I think that the creators have to be judicious enough not to feel chained to the idea of filling in every piece of history, though. Some things are better left to the imagination.1
→ The Problem With Canon | Esquire
See the Star Wars prequels. ↩︎
Jack Mitchell brings to us The Odyssey of Star Wars, an epic poem in blank verse.
Disney+ is releasing the uncut version of The Muppet Christmas Carol. The song “When Love Is Gone” (AKA, the breakup song) was originally on the VHS version of the movie that I remember from when I was younger. I always miss hearing it in the later versions from which it was cut. The song was written by Paul Williams, who also wrote “Rainbow Connection,” which may explain why I like it so much.
⚠️ Warning: Spoiler alert for Amazon’s Rings of Power series.
I just finished watching the first season of the Amazon series Rings of Power, and I can honestly say that I didn’t realize it was going to turn into a mystery. “Who is Sauron,” was the question that seemed to drive most discussions about the show, like “who shot J.R.” did back in the early days of Dallas. James Hibberd interviews Charlie Vickers, who plays Halbrand, the self-proclaimed king of the Southlands. Vickers didn’t know going in that he was playing Sauron, but he had some hints.
Alan Moore wrote some noteworthy comics and graphic novels. Those titles include Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke — which was huge when I was growing up. However, he has now given up writing comic books, and now looks with disdain (and maybe a certain amount of fear) at what they’ve done to society.
I’ll start by showing my cards here and admitting that I can’t wait to see Andor, the latest of the Star Wars shows to premiere on Disney+. The only reason I haven’t already dipped back into the Star Wars universe is that my imagination is currently in Middle Earth, where the harfoots are undertaking a perilous journey and Sauron and his juicy, sunscreen-hoarding orcs are on the move. If I weren’t so deep into the story that Rings of Power is weaving, I would have settled down in front of the big screen with the lights off and watched for that familiar Star Wars logo that has brought joy to me since I was a kid. I’ve been waiting for a while for Andor to come out and I have greater expectations for this show than any of the previous Star Wars episodic TV shows (although I ended up enjoying them all).
In Your Favorite Pop Culture Has Just Gone “Woke.” Now What? by Jason Morehead, the author examines some perceived changes brought to Middle Earth mythology by the new Amazon Prime series Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. If you’ve come across any of the common objections to the show, this is a really helpful piece to read. I mention this in large part because Morehead has a good grasp of the material being examined and brings an informed view to the debate. In discussions over nerdery and pop culture, familiarity with the source material and thus, understanding of authorial intent, generally wins the day.
📺 Finished watching Moon Knight. What a strange trip it has been.
I really enjoy the roundups that Matt Poppe does of new Disney+ series for Christ and Pop Culture. From his writing about Moon Knight, it sounds like his background and the churches he’s attended give him a particular insight into some of the religious aspects of the new series. Specifically, he addresses how the intentions of followers of a “cult of personality” type of faith can be misled.
Like many of us who live and breathe inside circles of faith, Marc (and now Steven) are beginning to realize that leaders who capture our commitment often twist their followers’ zeal and idealism toward their own selfish ends. There you were, happily shedding your time, money, and talents to planting churches throughout India and Ethiopia. It comes as some shock, then, to learn you actually propped up the domestic expansions of Mark Driscoll’s vanity projects instead.
I’ve had mixed feelings about the series, so far. I like Oscar Isaac, and I think he’s done a fantastic job, but I also feel sometimes like they are trying to stretch his acting skills too far with jamming multiple characters inside his body and it comes out as a bit schizophrenic.
→ Moon Knight: Playing God In The Process | Christ And Pop Culture
🍿 Got around to watching the Oscar for best picture winning CODA and I’m very glad that I did.
🍿 Just watched Free Guy and it was delightful. It borrowed concepts from Groundhog Day as well as the other films mentioned. There were a lot of laughs to go along with the action.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Apple TV+ series Foundation, as well as some graphic depictions of violence, both real and fictional.
My wife and I started watching the new Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation last weekend. The trailer for the show promised exciting visuals and an intriguing plot. The review from the site Common Sense Media was mostly very positive. The write-up on the show focused quite a bit on the show's diverse cast and little on the violence. The quick summary on the site encapsulates their review well:
"Cerebral sci-fi drama has diversity, some violence." Representation is important, but I'm ashamed that we've become so saturated in violence that we consider the level this show contains barely worth mentioning.