Ready Player One 2018 Film

As with my last movie review I stated that I'd do only one more review for 2018 and here it is. Ready Player One, adapted from the novel that unites MRA and SJW in mutual hate. No I will not review Infinity War, fuck that.

I went to the theater I usually don't go to because it's more expensive and boy do they put their upcharge where their mouth is. I got to sit in a leather recliner with buttons to adjust it and it was lovely.

This movie smoothed over a lot of problems I talked about here. It changes and pair downs the challenges. That's a problem with adapting novels though, they always hat to cut an consolidate and that is why I think movies should stick to adapting short stories and adding to them and leave the novels to mini-series that can flesh out what is dropped in movies. I'd have vastly preferred the Harry Potter series as a BBC or Grenada series, that lasted seven seasons instead of the Hollywood eight films (most inconsistent in stage design, direction and acting choices) that cut so much out and butchered the fourth book badly.

The challenges here are a race, a Shining reenactment and Adventure. The racing challenge was stupid and comes off as 90's/00's nostalgia, cannot remember any 80's racing games, though I could be mistaken. I hate the movie Shining, so I didn't enjoy that, or the elevator of blood because I'm having blood problems as we speak, but I like that we got some development with AECH. I liked that Art3mis solved it when she found the ballroom of zombies dancing to Midnight, The Stars and You (which is in The Shining) which is the closest I had to a nostalgic cry because I was introduced to it outside of Shining's context and was thus not ruined for me like it was for everybody else. I feel that it's the same as people being introduced to Singing In The Rain in Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick sure knows how to ruin good things. As for Adventure it was in the novel as a gate, but used here as the last challenge worked. Unlike the novel, there's no completing gates. Just the challenges to win the keys.

Other nitpicks I have about the movie are The Rebellion (yawn...), everybody being in the same town (movie coincidences) and drones that look like they haven't changed much in thirty years.

I didn't mind the changes in what the character's avatars looked, because more people ought to do crazy stuff with their online personas instead of, me: but skinny, me: but without birthmark, etc. They gave Art3mis the birthmark, but like Wade they didn't make her fat, so win/lose. AECH gets to be a black lesbian played by a black lesbian. They de-aged Sho to eleven years old which is such a Spielberg move, but neither are played by actor's of Japanese descent. Their avatars Wade: Cartoon-like with exaggerated features, white and blue hair, Art3mis: A pink bird humanoid, AECH: A cyborg orc, Daito's a Samurai and Sho's a Ninja. They expanded I-Roc's role to bounty hunter working for IOI. He says some of the funniest lines. At one point he says: "There's three things in the world I hate, Steampunk, Pirates and Tabbouli, like why do they even..." As my brother likes steampunk, my sister likes pirates and my pop likes Tabbouli, I felt like he was calling out my family there and laughed.

They have the club scene in the novel in the movie with changes. Of course they play Blue Monday and Stayin' Alive because you can license those songs easily unlike Cyndi Lauper, or Billy Idol apparently. At one point Wade gets a selfie with a cat-furry who's so cute, but sexed up in wrong way, but she turns out to be a turncoat for IOI. I know it was in the novel, but I fucking hate Travolta mode. I swear if I ever got the power to make a Hollywood film, no Saturday Night Fever references.

One other thing I'd like to mention is the lack of licensed Rush songs.

A Wrinkle In Time 2018

I think this will be the second to the last movie review I'll do this year as summer blockbuster fatigue season moves in.

I read A Wrinkle In Time back in seventh grade for school and it blew my mind, the way it presented a science fantasy setting with Meg and family, Calvin and the Witches fighting against the forces of darkness while trying to find her missing father. A lot of the typical heroes journey, light vs. dark themes show up in this 1964 novel before it became required in all fantasy before Tolkienism set in completely. I have seen the 2003 movie version and I hardly remember it outside of the bad cgi affects. With that in mind here's my observations on how this new adaptation by Ava DuVernay movie holds up:

Meg Murray is a clever child of two genius parents who starts to lose her way when her father leaves for four years. Charles Wallace is her adopted younger brother (not adopted in the novel) and he's a cutie who stands up for his sister when teachers talk shit. Meanwhile their stuck up neighbor who heads a popular clique gives Meg shit for her missing, or dead father, taunts her and basically says they wish she had disappeared too. I didn't have that kind of gossip when I was growing up, but I was always told the line when picking on others is to not give them shit for having dead, jailed, or absent family members. That was a no no in my school district. Otherwise everything else was fair game (everything else), so these kids as portrayed in this movie whether accurate to current real life, or not, just goes to show that they're mean about anything just to be mean, which sounds about right. So Meg's Principal in the movie and her mother pull the whole bullshit that since Meg threw the first hit (smacking a ball in the neighbor's face) she has to apologize even though they started the taunts. This is why I hate parents and school staff. This shit. Whatever I'm over it. Also the Principal lecture's Meg over her grief as if it was some moral defect, which is bullshit.

The movie mostly follows the plot of the book with minor changes and a lot of cuts. Meg and Charles Wallace don't have twin siblings to join them in their journey. Calvin does show up, but most of his development and use of "diplomacy" hardly comes up so he's sort of just their as the platonic, but potential love interest. I dig that he and Charles Wallace have classic male haircuts, none of this crew cut crap, or shaved sides shit men do now that's disgusting. It gives them that sixties vibe that this movie has due to it's source material, though it's updated for today.

There are lines of dialogue in the movie that I swear are lifted from the book, but I can't be sure because I haven't read it in years, but it feels familiar, but their are some updated changes I don't mind. For example different people Mrs, Who quotes, such as Chris Tucker himself. Also at the end when they talk about the heroes that fight on the side of light against the dark, the list is slightly changed to include later people than the book's publication. I don't mind that honestly. It would have been too dry if they stuck exclusively with what L'Engle references.

A lot of this movie's appeal in marketing was the casting of the three witches because the children are unknown. Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon. Most people complained that Oprah plays Mrs. Which who in the book can't keep her form and is often a bright light, but they reference that in the movie with Which's legs being transparent. I didn't mind the change, you don't cast Oprah to be a disembodied voice in a live action movie. Kaling was disappointing as Mrs. Who, only because no matter who played Who they would have been resigned mostly with quotes than original dialogue. Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit could be both annoying and amusing. I didn't mind her change in the movie being this visually stunning leafy serpent/flying carpet thing instead of a centaur pagasi type being. I have an irrational hatred of horses, so other people will be pissed at this change, but I still have nightmares of the earlier movies horrible cgi transformation.

As I've said before I was happy they mostly stayed accurate with ages. They cast fourteen year old’s, or close to, Storm Reid and Levi Miller to play Meg and Calvin instead of aging them up and giving them sexual tension like every other young adult movie ever in the last twenty years. Charles Wallace as played by Deric McCabe was bumped up from five to six years, which isn't a big deal.

Other cast-members are Chris Pine as the dad, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the mom, Andre Holland as the Principal and Michael Pena as Red. I'm sort of glad the marketing didn't emphasize Pine over the Witches.

One of the casting choices I'm a bit annoyed with is that they cast bearded Zach Galifianakis as The Happy Medium. Now I swear my memory was that this character was genderqueer, or agender, but that might have been only in the older movie adaptation as according to wikipedia she's a woman, so what the fuck happened here? Was one more woman with a speaking role too much to ask for in a movie about female empowerment? If I hadn't known this, it wouldn't bother me. It's one thing to change character's race, whatever background it then informs on the character because white people have almost all the roles so losing some doesn't matter. Changing a character's gender on the other hand is kind of annoying. Disney is guilty of this when is comes to source material female characters turning into guys all the sudden, like Bagheera in every Disney Jungle Book movie adaptation and no changing Kha to a girl in the new adaptation was not a consolation.

Anyway this movie is a visual treat and has a mythology and similar themes that would fit in with Kingdom Hearts which is a shame it won't make it in there when we're stuck with crap like Tron Legacy making it in the last title. I feel like a lot of the journey is cut and, or rushed and no there aren't big blockbuster battles, or cheap, stilted young adult romances. The battle is strictly personal and between family, the light and dark. I didn't expect more. Other people disappointed: Sorry, new movies spoiled you. This movie would have fit in with a lot of 90's family movies, but the visual effects at that time would not have made this possible and they probably wouldn't have done diverse casting like making the main character, her mother, and not one, but two of her mentors as poc. Another good thing about this movie is that it doesn't bait you for a sequel that might not be made. If it does get a sequel, I'd like to see more of the family, the three witches and the It fleshed out more.

I've read rumors that Ava DuVernay is now going to helm the Fourth World/New Gods for Warner Brothers. Here's hoping it's a hit like Wonder Woman and that DuVernay doesn't have too much studio meddling fucking it down.

Black Panther 2018

Saw Black Panther yesterday bringing an end to the last Marvel movie I have anticipated seeing. After seeing this I can safely say that other than a Black Panther sequel with expansive potential it all goes down hill for Marvel's cinematic universe. No hyperbole.

Warning: My review has spoilers and jumps around incoherently.

I honestly would look elsewhere for in depth reviews than here because I am a comic book fan first and comic fans are annoying when judging the  quality of an adaptation. I will say ahead of time that I'm pleased with how this adaptation's changes because they work for the tight narrative. Films are different mediums than long serialized comics. As this is a sound and moving vision medium, you get cool scenes like T'Challa suplexing a rhino and Shuri using driving tech from her lab in Wakanda that pilots a car remotely in Busan, South Korea with her brother riding on top trying to pursue Claue. Other highlights are the ceremonial dancing, the ancestral plane, the waterfall fights, both of them, the one with Killonger was adapted from the comics, the fight between T'Challa and Killmonger on the magnetic trains tracks under the city. This movie unlike every other Marvel movie besides maybe Guardians, Vol 2 actually has eye-popping color. Strange that movies adapted from the four color page have muted, ugly grey and brown tones and washed out reds and blues. What is wrong with Marvel? Also the soundtrack and score was good too, which again most Marvel movies are background noises, or they're Guardians and have a Jukebox song list.

The cast of characters have complex motivations that feel real instead of merely being informed. That sounds like a generic statement, but I mean it. I always get the feeling in a lot of films that many characters have no depth outside of "they killed my dog, I want justice!" Killmonger has complex feelings about Wakanda and how it should conduct itself in international affairs. This movie doesn't shy away from racial problems, which makes stock tropes like Killmonger's dad murdered as a traitor more complex. If this was a white story the traitor betrays because he's greedy filth and that's it. His father did something shitty helping a shifty white guy steal Vibranium from Wakanda. However, he had problems with Wakanda hoarding their metal and tech advancements from the world. So here the traitor's got a point whether he went about it wrong, or not. His being killed for it was one thing, leaving his son behind in America created a bigger problem T'Chaka couldn't forsee. The film questions Wakanda's isolationist policies and rather than acknowledge and move on actually addresses it with T'Challa making decisions to rectify that which opens up for a sequel that explores Wakanda's place in the world.

I'm pleased that they changed Nakia from being a former Dora Milaje turned spurned, traitor femme fatale henchwoman to an Wakandan undercover agent and proper love interest to T'Challa. I mean the options would have been shoehorning Storm who's off limits, or bringing in American Monica Lynne, who they could have reinvented and given Agent Ross's role, I guess. Dating a CIA agent would be weird though and bring a lot of questions. This will probably piss off comic purists as well as Killmonger's origins being changed, W'Kabi being more adversarial, giving T'Chaka a brother and giving T'Challa and Shuri the same mother. Usually that stuff would piss me off, but here it works. It's a film and it has to condense things, draw tighter relationships and dispense with some of the tired sexist tropes that do no favors for black women. A lot of women love interests come out blander, pointless, or replaceable, Nakia wins in adaptation compared to the source material.

I think the only minor flaws are Agent Ross, he could be cut. Was he there to have one heroic white guy? Does that really matter to have the squeeing Sherlock fans money? Also the ending fight with all the tribes as they disagree on siding with Killmonger, or T'Challa. That's formulaic, but expected. Okoye asking W'Kabi to stand down was an interesting way to end it though, and I feel like there's a bigger story there that was cut. Do not sit on this movie if you have any intention of seeing it because it's not the same by the numbers formula other than the big fight at the end that still looks visually impressive. At least T'Challa and Killmonger get a one on one final fight, mercy and refusal scene that works.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, A Film Review

I saw Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets yesterday and I liked it in spite of not liking the two leads. When the production credits segued into the beginning prologue to Bowie's Space Oddity, I got chills and sang.

My brother and I were the only people in the theater which means it's probably a box office bomb and no sequels will be made, but I enjoyed being able to talk and point out details. I've honestly not read the source material, but I've had the translated graphic novel collections (all probably incomplete and edited unfortunately) sitting on my Amazon account for years now, but I've honestly not bought anything on Amazon in over a year because I don't have a steady income so I can't compare it, but I will say that they should have cast leads that didn't feel like twentysomethings playing young adult teenage protagonists. It was jarring.

These are shallow complaints honestly, but Dane DeHaan ladies man status seemed informed than shown. Cara Delevingne came off better than in Suicide Squad, but I still don't like her as an actress and honestly would have preferred Rihanna with an age appropriate male lead. Scarlet Johansson with her Avengers look would have looked accurate to Laureline in the comics, but that's nitpicky and none of us really want to see her keep getting roles anyway after that Ghost In The Shell debacle.

What I liked about the film is that it proves you can do a space opera with tons of nonhuman aliens that isn't Star Wars. A lot of comparisons will be drawn to Star Wars and Fifth Element, which the director lifted a lot of design elements from the original comics. To get it out of the way yes the original Valerian and Laureline comics predate Star Wars so their ship resembling the Millennium Falcon is the source material and changing it to modernize it, or kill comparisons is sort of inauthentic. I like that they kept a lot of the retro feeling that probably is in the source material instead of foregoing it for bland apple sleek futurism, or whatever is in for portraying the future now. The sprawling cities made up in the satellite not only remind me of Fifth element, they remind me of paintings of Trantor from Isaac Asimov's Foundation books. That's a good thing because I fear that if Foundation ever got adapted we're stuck with modern sleek with no definitions. Everything looks lived in Valerian, most set designs for the future, or the past don't. They looked pasted on and sparse.

The plot isn't anything amazing, or world bending, but it's the adventure that I liked and it teaches a moral lesson of foregoing protocol when an injustice is made. When the bad guy of the film says he's a soldier and will take genocide over humiliation, (paraphrasing, I know i have some words off) you wanted him to get it.

Another thing I liked that will bother people is the nineties style writing and dialogue. It was refreshing. I watch a lot of films from my childhood that would now be called out for bad writing because people have earnest emotions and say what they mean and then ridiculous stuff happens that escalates, or fixes a sticky situation and they don't break the fourth wall and turn snarky over it. If Cara Delevingne rolled her eyes less like a poor man's Emma Stone, or Dane DeHaan did more than ape Keanu Reeves's speech patterns it would have felt more classic.

Of course there's probably a lot of things people especially on tumblr would have a discourse over, like Valerian housing a woman's soul. I as a transmale didn't find it offensive, but it's not for me to say how a transwoman would feel about that. Things relating to the body and mind become a tricky (hate that fucking word) or, problematic in sci-fi fantasy when you factor that in. It's why I see Ready Player One failing with it's avatar controversies in an age of social media dictating that you answer for your identity on a constant basis. Rihanna's character will definitely bother people. Herbie Hancock doesn't get enough to do. The relationship between Valerian and Laureline will bother people too among other things I can think of.

Anyway, I don't regret seeing this movie and will probably own it if I see it discounted. I would like for some sequels to happen, but it's not going to happen because we can't have cool things. I wish we could have more space opera's that aren't Star Wars, Star Trek, or Marvel. I think this movie does way better than what a lot of people complained about Jupiter Ascending lacked. It's just a shame it isn't perfect enough to garner another chance and we probably won't see another space opera property outside of the big three for another decade, or more because of diminishing returns and then we're back to lazy post-apocalypse, tired teenage dystopias, boring cyberpunk and isolation, stuck in a spaceship survivor genres.

By the way I saw the preview for A Wrinkle In Time and and I know people are going to hide their racism behind unnecessary creative liberties arguments. Unnecessary creative liberties would be aging up Jonas four years in The Giver so he can have hormonal teenage angst and making it in color because people can't sit through the art direction of Schindler's List and Sin City, so his seeing color loses meaning, or how it had to be scored because people need to be bombarded with sounds constantly instead of daring to see a cinematic experience that could challenge you, or make you feel unsettled.

Meg was cast to look thirteen as the books. That's promising. So all the complaints about how Oprah shouldn't materialize and be a shining light with a disembodied voice is a nitpick. That's a necessary change because I've long learned that masking named actors backfires. That's why all superheroes barely wear their masks if they have them at all. It was wasteful of Star Wars to waste Lupita Nyong'o as a voice under motion capture, at that point anyone can do the role. Valerian at least showed us Bubble's two forms, Rihanna and blue squishy alien. I think about the fact that Julia Roberts in Hook had to have a lot of closeups to justify her being Tinker Bell because she'd otherwise be a glowing silent light.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 yesterday and all though it's more popcorn fair and changes a lot of the source material, I'd call it a solid flick and one of the few properites I still look forward to at Marvel besides Black Panther.

The choice of music isn't as good as the first movie, but I dug the Come A Little Bit Closer scene, Father And Son and The Chain. Even My Sweet Lord was used well even if it's not a favorite. I liked the score too and wouldn't mind a soundtrack of that for writing music.

I know I'm going to get heat for this, but I liked the father/son theme more than I thought I would because even if I saw it coming, I still liked that it subverted the common Star Wars redemption arc that never challenges viewers anymore. It's always a forgone conclusion in Star Wars that love of shared blood equals redemption (hopefully it's subverted with Kylo Ren), which is why they'll never have the balls to just make Palpatine Anakin's blood father. That would have made the saga better. Luke redeeming his father from the abuse of his grandfather.

Anyway, this movie does what comics do well, but movies don't touch on often, bring home the point of your family is your bond and not just because of heredity. I liked that they fleshed out the complex relationships between Peter and Yondu as father and son and Gamorra and Nebula as sisters, both adopted forms of family. Both Peter and Nebula have awful biological fathers compared and contrasted with Peter's tenuous relationship with his adopted father and Gamorra's complex issues with her own adopted family, her adopted father a tyrant and her sibling relationship damaged by that as a result. Love it.

I'm Not Dead Yet, Perhaps Undead

Though I sure feel like it with this unbearable heat and working on the house repairs.

I watched The Flash season finale. Honestly as much as it pisses people off I'm glad Flash saved his mom. I expect torches and pitchforks now. With how low the last episodes were, it felt like my birthday all over again getting the ending I wanted in the first season all along. I'll get to my Season 3 theories and observations in another post.

After all was said and done, I finally bought my months worth of comics on my pull list and I finally read DC Universe Rebirth #1 beyond all the spoilers and I busted out my neglected Legend Of Wonder Woman run and marathoned it before bed. Tonight I'll read the last three issues of Justice League 3001. I'll admit I've not kept on top of of these two series because of their finite nature and I haven't read any of Waid and Samnee's Black Widow because I never found a first issue in any of my local comic shops so next time I do Amazon (because Ebay failed me hear too) I'll buy it with shipping because nothing else on my wishlist free shipping fulfilled through Amazon matches the lowest price with shipping through individual seller. The perils of liking vintage and out of print books, cd's, records, dvd's and vhs's records like the loser I am.

Quick Reviews

DC Universe Rebirth #1

I'll just say now, that Rebirth exceeded my expectations and it made both of my brother and I cry, especially Wally's arc and the lost love between Ollie and Dinah. Sorry Babs/Dinah shippers. I like where they're going with younger Wally's turn to Kidflash especially in light of him being an actual new character instead of being a repeat of old Wally with a personality change. That bothered me. I loved the Atom and Blue Beetle subplots and yay for Dr. Fate and Johnny Thunder showing up. Even Jay Garrick gets a small blink and you'll miss it cameo where Wally talks about first taking The Flash mantle after Crisis. Even Saturn Girl is showing up in the present. I know Geoff Johns won't be writing a comic for awhile, but I feel optimistic that when he does it will be Society or Legion since no other writer employed by DC apparently cares about them or is trusted to do anything with them.

The three things I don't like, Baby Darkseid and Grail (an unoriginal repeat of Zeus/Zeke raised by Athena/Zola), WWINO's twin and the reinforcement of Azzarello's canon and Little Shit Who Must Not Be Named's decision to form the new Teen Titans.

I don't have problem with either Watchmen or the Three Joker's. I know it's perverse, but come on, a Night Owl/Blue Beetle or Silk Spectre/Black Canary team up are the dreams fanfanfiction are made of. Also if this means we can have one Joker that's classic and didn't either shoot Barbara or skin his face off, I'm happy. Those other Joker's suck and they seem to still exist too, but oh well, you win some you lose some.

Legend Of Wonder Woman # 3-6

Finally we get to have nice things. I've heard the criticisms that Diana doesn't smile. Perhaps that would bother me if I was reading this serialized weekly and I kept it in mind while reading the collected floppies. Honestly it makes sense for a someone who left her island while a political upheaval's going on, is traveling to an unknown land on journey wrought with peril and comes to America thinking her passenger died and is culture shocked, thinks her mom is in danger because a guy with illusion powers has her mom's stuff and then finally enlists into the nurses ward to see the horrors of war to not smile. It makes the first smile earned because of Steve no less.

I love this series. All the little retcons and bigger deviations from Marston are simple and not overly complicated or unnecessary like the Perex reboot, all the expansions included work towards her journey. I love Etta, a loyal true friend with personality and her own dreams and problems modern Wonder Woman is doomed to never have. I love Steve and his comment that he loves to fly, but admits he's not as good on ground when it comes to fighting is adorable. He really is cut from the same cloth as Steve Rogers (without the Hydra shit though, grr...) with a dash of Hal Jordan (not the sexist pig version, writers like to default to). I'm also glad to see Duke Of Deception again even if he looks like a Final Fantasy character (Reno, Axel, any Nobody really, take your pic) combined with Constantine. It's growing on me. Knowing I get to see Priscilla Rich Cheetah in the future has me excited.

Etta mentioning that her little brother's in the Justice Society Fanclub. I doubt that little mention will payoff with how little time's left in the mini-series, but maybe it will play a part in the second series. Just knowing they exist at all in the same universe makes me happy. I want Diana to meet, Jay, Alan and Carter again soon. Those were her real buddies before she was forced to play Robin for Superman and Batman Post-Crisis.

Why can't we have this Wonder Woman as canon and in the shared Universe?

Finally Watched Trumbo

If this is the role Bryan Cranston got instead of Lex Luthor in Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice than that's okay with me. I love period piece movies based in old time Hollywood, but as with all biopics and most blacklisting subjects I have to watch it with a grain of salt.

The moment I saw Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) I let out a groan, because someone always has to be the traitor to the cause in dramatizations. What makes it worse is how they frame it in a deceptive way. Of the four times Edward G. Robinson was called to testify in front of HUAC, it was his fourth time by 1952 that he gave in and named the ten who were already blacklisted so he could clear the air of being a Communist himself. Trumbo had already done his eleven month sentence in 1950. He was only confirming what was already known, not giving new information to light. He wasn't a Communist just because he fundraised with people who were against Fascism. Just as with Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield, Robinson had to clear the air and prove he wasn't in league with anti-American organizations. It's up to you to decide how dirty was Robinson here.

As for the movie itself, forget the complexities. Shit they'll show you how feeble it is if you refuse to martyr and snitch instead. This leads me to the point of how much was Eddy G. a snitch? The transcripts that were reenacted verbatim in the movie are sure framed in a way to set him up as one to the audiences eyes and any made up personal conversation written between him and Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) there after has to be framed to make you root for Trumbo and pity or have contempt for Robinson. A shameful, missed opportunity there. All so Trumbo can be the bigger man in the end when he makes his last speech in front of The Writer's Guild, while Robinson is oddly enough in the audience. Does that imply the two made up in the end. Why else would Eddy be there than for dramatic license?

It does look bad on Edward G. that he just confirmed names already known and then denounced his former ties to organizations that supposedly supported a totalitarian regime. The true definition of a snitch is someone whose implicit in crimes and dealings with whoever they rat out vs. what John Wayne does and that's target employers and colleagues he wouldn't have hung out with or do fundraising with anyway. When you're Eddy G. and you see the reality of all your colleagues going to jail, jobs drying up, dying, families disintegrating, other friends turning on them, demonized, hounded, and some that comes your way, you might just decide you don't have it in you to be Trumbo and martyr or take the high horse. Not to save your ass or your collections of paintings, but perhaps to protect your family and ability to work, which is more important than your job or public persona in the end. Nope that can't be it can it? Be sure you got a loyal family to risk it all like Trumbo.

I suppose it could be worse, you could be director Buddy Ross (Roger Bart) who disavows Trumbo then comes crawling back to him to fix his screenplay anonymously because his last pictures were crap.

In contrast, John Wayne (David James Elliott) doesn't seem so bad for wanting lenience with denouncers of Communism, while the villainous Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) is hellbent on destroying lives with her power of the press whether the the target's remorseful or not. Then of course you got your Otto Preminger's (Christian Berkel) and Kirk Douglas's (Dean O'Gorman) who risk there career for the greater good of giving Trumbo his due.

There's of course some dissent among the family, but they stick it out and from Trumbo's friend and fellow blacklisted screenwriter Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.) a composite character who wants to sue the House of American Activities and dies for his bad habits, while Trumbo would rather win through perseverance and prove to them that they need his services when they vilify them.

Ultimately Frank King (John Goodman) proves to be the neutral party in all this as the foul mouth boss of King Brothers Productions who hires Trumbo and Hird for doctoring and writing screenplays for gaudy B movies. It's pretty cool that he sticks to his convictions of being in it for the money and pussy and refuses to be pushed around by investigators. Louis B. Mayer (Richard Portnow) surprisingly isn't thrown under the bus as much as I thought he would be, casting couch assertions or no, they're said from a power hungry gossip columnist who calls him an antisemitic slur. Here is the closest we get to complexity even though you end up hating Hopper for her blatant racism than you do Mayer for his alleged sleaziness against women.

All in all a decent film, but I'm not happy with how they handled Edward G. Robinson. I guess he had to be the much needed traitor to liberals because Elia Kazan doesn't work thematically and has been played out. Eddy's story is much more complex than Trumbo's assertions that he just wanted to continue to be Beverly Hills bourgeois collecting painting from dead guys or Robinson's point about him being a public face while Trumbo can hide under screen writing. Disappointing and simplistic when you consider the actors who got hounded to death like John Garfield or were never allowed to work again like Lee Grant. The film does try to address that point at the end, but it really doesn't get into the meat of the whole controversy than vague allusions and speeches.

As much as I'm on Trumbo's side for free speech and freedom of affiliation and I hate snitches, as I've said, I don't care for how they frame Robinson as a turncoat who lost his way doing things he wouldn't normally do. It's not really snitching if the crime is on public record and had been dealt with. Political ideals only get you so far until your personal and working life is fucked beyond repair than to play the friendly witness. How many readers out there have to eat shit everyday from a boss who abuses power, but talks a big game of worker's rights? I'm not saying that Robinson is theoretically in the right, nor do I condemn him.*

Notes:

* Maybe I'm biased because I own more Robinson films than any other actor besides James Cagney and Fred Astaire, but John Garfield's my number three favorite actor after James Cagney and George Raft so you know I take the HUAC blacklisting personally as an great injustice. On another note: I also have to point out that while I can't stand John Wayne and Ronald Reagan anyway, that doesn't stop me from enjoying a Walt Disney production or a Robert Taylor movie who are also in league with HUAC or named names because they believed in what they thought was the patriotic thing to do.

This movie was a must for my dad who loved (maybe that's the wrong word, impressed?) by Bryan Cranston's turn on Breaking Bad.

Dalton Trumbo writes in the bath as do I. He had a better system, a board propped on both sides of the tub to place his typewriter on. I used to prop my mini laptop on a food tray on my dry belly, didn't want to press my luck so I've taken to typing on my notes feature on my 1st gen. Kindle. Much like a typewriter, it's not good for going back and fixing mistakes. I'd say they need to make a handheld word processor, but that's what stupid touch screen smart phones and tablets are for and I say bah.

The movie Dalton Trumbo gets his first credit on since the blacklist is Otto Preminger's Exodus. My mother saw it when she was young and talked about a lot and she finally begged my brother to buy it for her for Christmas last year and he did. It's one of the last films she got to see before passing away this year.

Thoughts On Justice League 3001 #8 And Other Comics

I had been late in picking up my pull list for last month, JL3001, the final issue of This Damned Band, Invader Zim for my brother and now The Legend Of Wonder Woman. My mother died last Saturday after a sudden month long deterioration from her cancer. It having come back with a vengeance spreading to her liver. Before that I had attended a memorial service to a departed friend that Thursday and a Record Collector's show the Sunday before that where I bought 15 dollars worth of records and a DVD. That's about as much as I spent on this week's comics. I got to watch my money more carefully. With all that's been going on there wasn't a much room for me to care about my weeklies until I was ready for a distraction other than Star Wars: OT fanfic.

To the review:

Justice League 3001 #8

I'm still of mixed opinions on the direction, but as always just the sheer ride alleviates my worries. Scott Kolins has given the book a different look that I much prefer even if it isn't as packed of details as Howard Porter. His art is sketchy, but bright and cartoony. I like.

I'm glad to see Supergirl rally the troops after almost a whole issue of moping. I love her messy short hair, it suits her. Remember when she had short curly hair for all the fifties and sixties until long straight hair was in and suddenly Power Girl looked revolutionary with a bob? Yeah I wasn't alive at the time, but I'm used to seeing Plastino Supergirl with the short cut in various reprints. It's not a doppelganger tribute if she had it first. Just saying.

Flash has PTSD and Wonder Woman's is frustrated by the retreat. So is Tina who takes her armor out to battle scullions, robots that regenerate. Not a wise move on her part if they're to keep undercover. I'm relieved Tina's obnoxious behavior is called out by Supergirl and Wondy who make time to call each other out as well. That Tina gets as much criticism as the others makes her slightly bearable, she may learn yet.

Fire and Ice address the issue of being outsiders amongst the group while looking around the ruins of Paradise Island, the League's hideout. Guy reminds them they share a past and assures them he has their back. Awww. I don't want his mind to be erased by Shiryalla Tome, but I don't see the story going any other way. Perhaps the dysfunctional team does need a traditional motherly type with sound advice and a level head, but is not afraid to slap a hysterical woman once in awhile.

The last part of the issue sets up Lady Stryx a pre-52 character introduced in 52 or at least a version of her as she doesn't resemble her quite. She's working with a version of the Legion of the Superheroes if Imra Ardeen didn't tip us off. I'm a bit uncomfortable with this plot. I'm by far not a fanatic of that side of the DC Universe, but heroes are heroes whether they're living in a crappy dystopia or not, and I don't trust Giffen's reinventions of these characters. Maybe Dematteis will reign him in, but as Stryx's lackeys or allies I don't have hope. Unless they're part of some cabal to overthrow her, or Stryx is meant to be a benevolent despot in which we're back into deconstruction territory and I won't be too happy. If a deconstruction is on the horizon where the protagonists are in the wrong and the antagonist is ruling the citizens for their own good then I'll probably hold out and then quit in frustration because I want to give the writer's a chance to wow me with a twist I tend to get bored of in Fantasy fiction. I get it vigilante rebellion is bad. The establishment and secret police is good. How many times do modern cape comics have to stress this? And under a guise of flipped traditional white hats vs. black hats skewed and subverted. I get it already.

Terrence Magnus's fate is revealed where he was cruelly lobotomized (just give him a mercy kill, sheesh) before he is zapped by Stryx and is reborn. Whatever that entails, Stryx wants to use him against his sister and the League bringing one backburner plot back to the forefront.

This Damned Band #6

This is a mini-series I probably want to reread in order in one sitting because after a month I can't remember everybody's name each time. Satan makes his appearance and reveals his plan and punishment. The rest of the band getting screwed over manage to make a counter deal and sacrifice the member who sold them out, or at least I think that's what happened. It's sort of hard to keep track of what's going on. When I get around to reading it all as a whole I may do a proper review of the series. There's many interesting observations I'd like to talk about throughout the issues, but I'll leave that for later.

The Legend of Wonder Woman

The book has a lot going for it because it's not connected to the crap in the main universe. We see the history of the Amazons. Why the Gods turned away from man's world, which probably correlates with the gradual disbelief of them by modern man. We see Diana's childhood on Paradise Island and her frustrations with her lot in life as a do nothing Princess while she senses something off about the Island. It turns out she isn't the only one, but her mother's in denial.

I have a few quibbles about this one. Why grant the top official Amazons immortality to rule over the mortals of the tribe? Seems misguided. In theory a long lived ruler would collect all the experience, but in reality experience corrupts and corrodes idealism and justice, or maybe I'm bitter about politics. My other quibble is that Hyppolyta doesn't fashion Diana out clay herself, Diana just forms from the clay beach of the Island or something and Hyppolyta's hope. I guess this is to make the old tale less about playing god or whatever offends people about classic Wonder Woman these days. It's certainly a step up to the many offenses done to Wonder Woman since the reboot and knowing that it could be a lot worse.

That's it as I've not caught up with Invader Zim and we still haven't found an issue of number 3 though we have the rest from day one.

Some Thoughts On Justice League 3001 #7

I wonder if this cover was drawn in advance before they decided to kill all the males off? I swore I saw this with a different solicitation many months ago before they announced it was going all female. Was Wonder Woman initially set to die?

Batman is predictably killed off to make way for another arrogant descendent with prodigal tech skills. Yawn...

Hal and Barry are killed off as well. That probably means Hal's sinister ties to Takron-Galtos's justice system and Barry's mental state as alluded to some issues ago are a no go.

Beetle and Booster are missing, which means they have time to come back as the occasional male allies non-teammates if Giffen/Dematteis can ever stop to find a plot for them.

Cadmus confirmed destroyed along with all its DNA banks. Does that mean Firestorm and Terry Magnus are dead once and for all like the rest of the DNA files or was it destroyed before the Scullion battle back before Guy was created on the cheap?

Speaking of Guy, good thing they acknowledged the slap to Ice's face is out of character. That moment does scream of an outraged, emotional mother type that Guy was overwritten on to. I predict that character will completely over write Guy by the end of the arch. It doesn't make sense to keep his conscious around as the token male voice in an all girl team as much as Giffen and Dematteis like to write him.

Something tells me that the Injustice League plot will either die or fester into something rushed and anticlimatic much as Zeus and his New Gods was aborted before it was even written in, which means Darkseid will also be dropped. Good.

Diana and Teri are becoming closer friends, which will give Fire and Ice competition or contrast.

Art by Chris Batista was too stretchy for my tastes. Colleen Doran last issue was better. Scott Kolins in the next issues will do. I like his sparse, bright, cartoony approach though it will contrast with the crowded, dirty future created by Howard Porter. I'm not that big of fan of Porter, but he was superior on this title than he ever was on JLA in the 90's. For all his ugly characters, they had expressive quality and his layouts were creative. I hope someday Kevin Maguire's first issue art sees the light of day above all, but that's all in the past.

Justice League 3001 #6 Preview & Interview

A preview for Justice League 3001, the only DC title I read in floppy any more with a following interview from co-writer Keith Giffen.

Preview & Interview Here

Some thoughts from the interview:

I love this title, even when I don't always agree with the choices they make, which I'll get to later. It is one of the few books out there where I can compare it to old comics I've read in my younger days (and reprints) without it being an out of context comparison of a dead continuity. Here's a universe where The Silver Age-Bronze Age and Post-Crisis can exist at the whim of the writers. Fingers crossed that The Golden Age makes its way in even if it can only be done through the Big Five, Superman, Batman, Aquaman (missing), Green Arrow (missing) and Wonder Woman. I'd love for some indication that this Universe had their own JSA, Freedom Fighters, Fawcett City and anything else from that publication era if the writers should choose instead of giving into to the nonsense of embargoing those vast characters onto separate Earths exclusively.

I'm glad to finally read a Supergirl that seems like Supergirl. The determined, do what it takes type who has an honor code but is still has her patience tested amongst thick people. I feel like those traits got passed onto Power Girl who had her own traits and issues that didn't always mesh with those. Off topic they then had to make every subsequent Supergirl a whiny, angst-ridden, jerk with identity issues to make her the anti-Power Girl which is dumb because Peej absorbed a lot of original Supergirl's traits. This of course wouldn't be the first time a legacy stole the traits of their inspiration with the various Robins and Batgirls borrowing each others personalities, costumes and backstory. The Wonder Woman cast of course got the worst of it with Donna siphoning all of Diana's compassion and romance among a lot of other things while the new 52 abomination calling itself Donna steals Diana's origin and craps on it while DINO (Diana In Name Only) stole Cassie's already derivative and boring origin.

I'm glad the Guy thing is getting addressed and that he is only default female (to go with the all-themed team) because of his host taking over gradually and not because of him. I say this as a trans-male, if a body switch cliche had to happen at least they're going down this route to explain Guy's out of character traits rather than blaming hormones which I thought was a commentary on Guy's stupidity more than the writer's assumed lack of research.

As a disclaimer I was reading this book back when it was Justice League 3000 before the Guy debacle. It both annoyed and amused me that the one book I read became a hotbed for trans issues being one myself. I was reading a book for characters I liked not scrutinize the impossible setting. Of course the idea of overwriting your DNA down to gender sounds fascinating to me as someone put off by the long term expense of hormones and getting the surgery to fix something that can't be truly be fixed so long as I have this body. I can't say I care to have any trans-representation if the writer's thoughts weren't in it to be honest. I'm also not going to count out explorations of gender just because it doesn't line up with the scientific reality of transitioning. The book's setting is in an alternate 3001 where fantastical science such as mind to body swapping (as what happened to Lois and Ariel) or ghost genetics (which has no basis in reality) happen regularly. To then introduce a trans-character who has to go through the real life process would seem jarring or hand waved as a class issue which brings a whole other issue. It begs the question which is the more convenient route for the trans person? Which is legal? Which is more expensive in the long run? In the short run? Which puts you more at a health risk? A person more close the subject at hand could write a psychological story around this premise. Maybe that will be me someday even if the hard science snobs were to dismiss the pulpy premise. Fantastical super-science is just a window dressing and a means to explore things we'll never figure out in 986 years hence.

Also what a shame they can't make a Wonder Woman romance happen because she's just too badass and one of the guys for it to work. Seriously she's one of the better written Wondie's in comics currently. They not only give her moments to shine and be inspirational, they also steer into the skid when it comes to her sexuality and violent antics without making it gratuitous or disgusting or do it half-assed to make her demure and virginal at the same time to make her safe. In regards to possible romances, I'd have liked to see her with Hal Jordan or Barry Allen and be the Big Barda to their Mr. Miracle, but alas nobody can really make badass women romances unless said badass woman is an established wife or mother like Mera. Why else has Black Canary failed to click romantically with anyone not Oracle post-crisis? Back in the Silver Age her and Ollie worked, but enough retcons and modern times work against that now.

I hate to be that guy but:

Oh great new Batgirl, the bratty teenager is also another superhero bloodline legacy, two character types I can't stand. I knew they had to introduce blood legacies eventually but of course it had to be Bruce Wayne's who sires some of the worst superheroes. This means of course everyone else will eat Tina up like they did two other heroes I won't dishonorably mention who've worn out their welcome. Hopefully Tina's just a nuisance (though her teenage status prevents her from getting punched in the face Guy Gardner style sigh...) and not a pet character that will make me drop this book fast.

If this Harley Quinn is another bloodline legacy, I call shenanigans. Why does it have to be a blood dynasty thing? Why is it hard to think an unrelated person would idol worship someone else to the extent of roleplaying that person or to reinterpret the motif into your own? If it sounds crazy then that would be another reason to take a villain identity. However, if she's supposed to be sane then it worked for Ted Kord too and Hal and Barry depending on the continuity.