STRANGE LOG: Where's The Tacos!?

So I've been super busy lately, not really, I've just been lazy and working a lot and being a dad and such but a lot has happened in the world of entertainment that I needed to comment on. So here we go a scattershot article (not really) about my thoughts on various things going on in the world of entertainment, let's dive in.

The Strange Review: The Many Saints Of Newark

Prequels are a strange animal...for starters prequels are very rarely necessary and are often pointless and at worst story breaking. Prequels have to walk a fine of being their own story while not piggybacking on the story that came before. For these reasons, alone prequels are for me a no-go because something somewhere gets contradicted and essentially ruins it for me. The most infamous prequel is of course The Star Wars Prequels (which are now enjoying life as memes), but since then the term "prequel" has been a dirty word. For something as massive as "Star Wars" and to watch their prequels tank and tank hard, I could only imagine what would happen with one of the greatest TV shows ever written (yes it is, fight me). David Chase originally conceived "The Sopranos" as a movie as film was his main medium of choice, he had no interest in doing a TV show, and now we have a Soprano film: "The Many Saints Of Newark".

"The Many Saints Of Newark," tells the story of "Gentlemen Dickie" Richard Moltisanti, the father of Tony's cousin and dog-sitter-oner Christopher Moltisanti. However, before we talk about the movie proper (and this is not a spoiler since he's in the trailer) let's talk about the hairpiece in the room and what's basically keeping me from enjoying this movie entirely and that my paisans is Silvio Dante. By all accounts, Silvio Dante should not be in this movie, or rather he shouldn't in the mafia. If memory serves correctly (and it does) in the infamous Card Game story, Ralphie stated that THEY (Himself, Jackie, Silvio and Tony) were a small crew, selling pot and making small scores UNTIL Jackie decided that they'd rob Michelle "Feech" LaManna's card game. After the robbery, Richie Aprile stood up for the group and brokered a sit-down in which some of the right people got their money back. After that Tony and the others were rising stars and had to be respected and were on the fast track to being made with the exception of Ralphie who unfortunately caught the clap from some hippie.

Citation: Season 03 Episode 12: Amour Fou

Now, one could accuse Ralphie of lying BUT Feech confirms this story later on with Silvio stating that Feech isn't interested in telling that story. This story is VERY important and basically breaks "The Many Saints Of Newark" because Tony is a child and Silvio is somewhere in his early 20s (he wouldn't be a teenager) and he's already a member of the mafia. According to Ralphie's story, however, he and the others were "non-existent" according to the mafia, they were nobodies. How exactly is Silvio already in the mafia if it was the card game robbery he did with Tony that put him on the map? Did he do the robbery with Tony when he was a baby? I'm being silly, but seriously, Silvio being in this movie MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL! Furthermore, the actor playing Silvio was the worst thing in this movie, guy was trying way too hard. Billy Magnussen does a great job as Young Paulie, showing a more dapper side to Paulie before he's older and set in his ways. Young Pussy was great, had the swagger, and even sounded like him too. But Young Silvio, he sounded like Joe Pesci inhaled some helium.

Citation Season 05 Episode 04: All Happy Families

Anyway, getting back on point, if Silvio is already in the mafia when Tony is a child then that means that Silvio fell out of favor with the mafia and then got in league with Tony, Jackie, and Ralph, however, why would a grown man (Silvio's in at least his 20s at the start of the movie) fall in with a group of people who would barely be 20? I always operated under the assumption that Silvio and Tony grew up together and were roughly the same age (give or take a year or two) but if Tony is 8 years old (how old he was at the start of the film) and Silvio is at least in his 20s, that means at the start of the series Silvio would be 52, but he's not! According to Sopranos history, Silvio is 42 at the start of the series thus making him 2 years older than Tony. So as a writer and a "Sopranos" aficionado I cannot accept Silvio's presence in the film simply because this would make "The Sopranos" a time travel show and well...while there are minute mystical moments in "The Sopranos", it never goes that far. Far easier to simply reject something added years after the fact, EVEN IF this is canon (written by the creator himself) it openly contradicts established canon, and therefore on these grounds I reject this movie. That being said, let's talk about the movie proper. Was the movie good? Well, aside from the MASSIVE continuity error that is Silvio Dante (The Human Paradox), the film did what I believe all good prequels should do, and that's basically add flavor text to established material, something that can be viewed but ignored that doesn't disrupt the established order. In those terms, it's fine, it captures "The Sopranos" flavor while still being its own thing, it doesn't lean on nostalgia (although there are some disappointments which we'll get into in the spoiler section). 

All in all the movie is fine but it will raise some eyebrows and in classic "Sopranos" fashion the ending "subverts expectations" and we all know that's code for some people will love it, some will hate it. I personally don't like the ending for reasons that I'll get into via the spoiler section. Without Silvio and the ending, the film is simply fine, it feels like an extended episode of "The Sopranos" but with so much ignoring of Sopranos continuity, I can't help but feel "Eh." about the film. I say it's fine because Dickie carries the film and you feel like he is a separated character from Christopher but you can see how and why he's so revered by Tony and if that's what the film set out to accomplish, then yes, it's fine. Final verdict, would I recommend "The Many Saints Of Newark"? Not really. If you're a "Sopranos" fan you wouldn't be able to ignore Silvio's presence and that'll torpedo the whole film for you. I will say the acting is great, everyone (except for Silvio) hits their marks as being who they're supposed to be while adding their own flavor to the character. Let's get into spoilers.

X-Whatever

So let's laugh and cry for a bit. Laugh because what we're about to discuss is hilarious and cry because it's true. Yahoo News posted a story on my newsfeed that stated that someone at Marvel was recently promoted (article here). The reason behind the promotion wasn't revealed but the person in question was quoted as making an interesting...scratch that stupid statement. The statement in question? This person is quoted as suggesting dropping "Men" from the title of "X-Men" because it's outdated...Yeah. I'll explain (as if I need to) why this is stupid. So in the words of Trick Daddy, LET'S GO!

Reboots, Revivals, Remakes and Adaptations

So let's have a chat. It's been a minute since we shared a chinwag and now theres lots to talk about.  First of all, where have I been? At work...being a dad...playing "Majora's Mask" on my N64, working on a super-secret project *coughs* who said that?! *coughs*, long story short I've been around, I've just been lazy and though I've been wanting to write an article the will do so continues to elude me. But thankfully today I decided to sit down and actually write an article (obviously) and BOY HOWDY do we have a topic considering so much has happened in this particular sphere and by that I mean entertainment. I've been saying for a LONG time now that the current producers within Hollywood have NO creativity and I've been proven right time and time again. Now I'm not here to write about how I'm always right about these topics (and I am and I'd love to but that'd be self-serving and I don't do that on this blog...shut up!) and I'm not exactly going bemoan the lack (or non-existent) creativity of the Hollywood system, I am however going to discuss the topic and posit a few questions that hopefully I can answer.

However, before we get into the article proper I think it's wise to define some terms because people use certain terms interchangeably and that's not how those terms work so allow me to define my terms before we dive in;

Reboot: This is usually reserved for TV shows. Reboots are NOT Revivals! For example "Rosanne" returned to the airways now under the title of "The Conners". This is NOT a Reboot, this is a Revival. They're continuing the same story with the same cast. A Reboot would be the current "Charmed" series on The CW, different cast, new storyline. Essentially starting the series over from square one. With little to no connection to the previous series except in name only.

Revival: A Revival is also reserved for TV shows. When a show finally reaches its series finale and bows gracefully off the small screen that's usually the last time we'll see any of those characters UNLESS of course, the show gets a revival. For a revival, the main cast (or lead actor) usually returns to squeeze one more adventure out of their character. Note also the same actor and same characters. This is NOT a spin-off the features the lead character, rather the lead character is BACK and the show is back. Perfect examples of this would be: "Dexter", "24", "Prison Break" and the previously mentioned "Rosanne/ The Conners" revivals. All of the shows have had their respective series finales years ago only to return years later.

Remake: Now this is a tricky one because while remakes and reboots are often the same things there is a subtle difference between the two, a remake CAN retain the same actors, a remake is often a re-tooling of what's come before it. Since movies can be redone to death, more often than not a remake will either breathe new life into the material or update it for a modern audience. For example "The Shining" came out in 1980, Stanley Kubrick's version anyway, Stephen King hated that version and decided to have his own version in 1997 via TV mini-series. There's also "Carrie" which came out in 1976 and "Carrie" which came out in 2013. Remakes are usually about updating old material, think of it as giving an old car a new engine and a fresh coat of paint. Some are better than their originals, others are not (looking directly at you "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory"...you know what you did.) but ultimately remakes are something that is here to stay and are not in and of themselves a bad thing.

Finally, we have;

Adaptation: Adaptations and remakes are very often the same things except for a one caveat, adaptations are often a transferring of medium or language. For example, all of the Marvel movies are adaptations, the source material is the character's respective comic books and while what's in the books don't entirely reflect what's on-screen, all of the primary trappings that make that character that character are present (or at least they should be...) The same goes for "Romeo and Juliet", it was a Play before it was a movie. Basically, all movies whose origins are not movies count as Adaptations. Likewise, foreign films remade for American audiences are adaptations as well, and while Yes, you can call them remakes and be perfectly accurate, the point is that considering the film in question began life in a different culture and different language, certain things might not come across as poignant to audiences unfamiliar with said culture. Case in point the original film "Oldboy" featured a hypnotist at the end of the film with Oh-Dae-su (the main character) asking to make him forget a certain event in the film (I'm not gonna spoil "Oldboy" if you haven't seen that movie you NEED to watch it...seriously, that movie rules), the American adaptation featured no hypnotist as American culture doesn't have much mysticism to it with regards to hypnotism and things of the like. Therefore this aspect was "adapted out" of the remake, therefore disqualifying it from being a proper remake, you understand?

We shall not speak of this ever...

And YES, before you start I do understand that "The Shining", "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" and "Carrie" are all adaptations as well but as I've said they were made once and made again so while YES the original films are all adaptations the remakes are remakes, hope that makes sense. Anyway. Now that we've defined our terms, let's dive in!

"Loki" and The MCU Moving On

In the previous Strange Log I said I was more than likely done with The MCU (after "Spider-Man: No Way Home", "Doctor Strange and The Multiverse Of Madness" and maybe "Shang-Chi") this decision was largely inspired by Marvel now planning to trend more woke and appeal to people who aren't fans of these characters but would rather use these characters to push a social/political agenda. While my position hasn't changed the finale of "Loki" does give me hope for what Marvel has planned next. There has been much speculation on the man behind the curtain and many were correct in their assumptions. I'll be addressing my opinion on "Loki" the series and what I think will be The MCU moving on. SPOILERS AHEAD, you've been warned.

STRANGE LOG: Heavy Bacon Machine

Hey everyone and welcome back to The Strange verse, I'm your host, Ugo Strange and we're gonna have a chat about some random topics, some serious, some silly but always insightful and always on point I'll be bringing you my opinion on things not worth the full length of an article. So let's dive into another Strange Log!

Superheroes & Cynicism

So since I have all these streaming services I've acquired the time (kinda) to watch "The Boys" and I realized something about the current state of American superhero comics and Japanese superheroes, let's dive in.

The Strange World Of "DeadTube"

So let's talk about a very strange manga and that is "DeadTube". " DeadTube" tells the story of Tomohiro Machiya, a timid, nerdy high school boy who has a hobby of carrying a video camera is one day asked by the most popular, beautiful girl in high school Mai Mashiro to film her for 2 days straight (filming her sleeping and even going to the bathroom). During the filming session, Mai is about to get down with her boyfriend (with Machiya filming) she proceeds to bash her boyfriend's skull in thus revealing her true nature as well as Machiya's true nature as a voyeuristic sadist. And from this event, we dive into the psychopathic world of "DeadTube". 

STRANGE LOG: A Dark Ensemble

Believe it or not, I've been wanting to write more, just been busy and behind on a lot of stuff. There's a lot but very little to get to. Ya know, the Strange Logs are really supposed to be brief snapshots of my personal life and snippets of thoughts about things going on in media that aren't worth the length of an article, but lately, I've been using them as an opportunity to just write since I have very few opportunities as of late. Truth is gang, I've been a lot more level-headed lately, kicked an old habit and now I'm trying to readjust, focus on things, attempt to get back into old hobbies (whatever those are), just basically try to reclaim who I am. It's not easy, between being a dad and work, life has a way of gobbling you up. Anyways, let's get to a few things and see what's what;

"Mortal Kombat" Review

Very few things I can speak authoritatively on, among them is "Mortal Kombat". I'm a 90s kid and as such, I was born into "Mortal Kombat", molded by it (to quote Bane). I've always been a huge fan of "Mortal Kombat", I've consumed a lot of the media, from the cartoon, to "Mortal Kombat: Conquest", all of the games (with the exception of The Subzero Mythologies and Special Forces) so needless to say I know my Mortal Kombat lore, from retcons to original lore, I know my lore. Back when the "Mortal Kombat" movie came out, I remember renting it quite a bit back in the day, and then shortly after my uncle took my brother and me to see "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" (also where I first heard the word "merger") and I remember enjoying both. As an adult, while the 1st "Mortal Kombat" movie is still a decent watch, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" has not withstood the test of time, proving itself to be laughably bad and considered one of the worst movies ever made. To be completely honest, I still enjoy "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" as a movie so bad it's good.

After "Annihilation", "Mortal Kombat" was all but dead in any other format aside from video games. Then "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth" came out, a short film that took a far more realistic approach to the Mortal Kombat mythos, I didn't care for this, because some Rasta lookin' former plastic surgeon named Allen Zane decides to insert blades into his forearms is suddenly codenamed "Baraka"...yeah, no, thanks. "Rebirth" was dumb and while casting Michael Jai White as Jax and Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion was inspired the concept was not. Then "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" came out a several-part mini-series that for the most part did justice to some of the "Mortal Kombat" lore (except Raiden being in a mental institution, Liu Kang fighting FOR Shang Tsung, and that bitch ass looking Shoa Kahn, the f*ck was that all about...) again this series was a NO, for me, despite giving us an incredibly hot Mileena. So after 2 aborted attempts at reviving "Mortal Kombat", we finally come some years later, and NOW a NEW "Mortal Kombat" movie is out and about.

I'm gonna be honest, I was never excited for this movie...not really. I looked at the cast and saw who they had for Mileena and simply from that alone, I knew the movie wasn't going to be good. As more details came out, I got less and less excited about the film. After having watched it, I can honestly say...I like "Annihilation" better than this movie. I know a lot of people will jump on me about that, but I'm being completely honest, I had a better time watching "Annihilation" because I completely forgot that this "Mortal Kombat" movie was a "Mortal Kombat" movie. This movie reeks of studio mandates, weird choices in story-telling, and just an overall disregard of what makes "Mortal Kombat" work as a series and story. If you wanna watch a GOOD "Mortal Kombat" movie, I suggest you watch "Mortal Kombat 9's" story mode, for my money that is basically the best "Mortal Kombat" movie you'll ever get. With that outta the way, let's dive into the break where you can get spoilers and I can really give this film the Fatality it deserves.

Anime RE-Claimed: I Wanna Be The Strongest In The World

Ya know, the great thing about anime is that you can find an anime about almost anything; that's why when I was with my wife at quite possibly the only F.Y.E in existence and spotted an anime that featured hot anime chicks about professional wrestling I was (as the kids say) SOLD. "Wanna Be The Strongest In The World" is a 12 episode anime about pop idol Sakura Hagiwara who decides to become a professional wrestler after being insulted. I'll knock a few things outta the way, is there fan service in this anime, ummm, yeah...I mean look at the cover for crying out loud, but this anime does have a very good plot, some nice action, and a neat story. I would recommend this anime if you're looking for an anime about fighting, all in all it was a good experience and I had fun watching it. Now on to some spoilers.

Hate Watching: And Why I Don't Do it

So The CW has begun production on a live-action "Powerpuff Girls" TV show, after promptly checking to make sure it wasn't April 1st and Ashton Kutcher or Gaten Mazaratto weren't lurking about, I decided to accept this as the reality I live in and figured that I'd get a blog post out of it. However, not the kind of blogpost you'd expect but a different one, which one? I'll tell ya, after the break;

Race Problems

So I have a problem, a problem that I addressed in a Strange Log but now I'm dedicating a full-on article to it because I've had time to gather my thoughts on the topic and come up with a coherent argument about my problem and the full scope of the issue. The writing industry has a Race problem, but not the problem you might think, so what is the problem? I'll address that after the break;

...and What The DCEU ALMOST Did Right Part Two

So in my previous article, I discussed what Marvel did wrong and what they did right, and if you haven't read that article you can read it HERE or just below this article. Anyway as mentioned hitherto writing this article has caused me to have to do a bit of homework myself and that homework was completing my DCEU, which you can read HERE. I suggest you read all the articles before reading this one as it'll solidify my position here. But here is what The DCEU ALMOST did right.

What Marvel Did Wrong and Then Right... Part One

This is going to be a 2 part article but it's something I've been thinking about ever since I watched "The Snyder Cut", Marvel's Netflix shows and their latest offering of TV shows on Disney+ now this is topic is coming to the forefront of my mind, but I have to do a lot of legwork because like I said this is a 2 part article but for you dear reader, you're gonna have to do some homework (and we all know how much you all LOVE homework). The 2nd Part of this series will be titled "...And What The DCEU ALMOST Did Right", but for now we're focusing on Marvel, but I will have to address DC (or more specifically "Man Of Steel"). Anyway I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're a geek like me and have seen all of The Marvel stuff on Netflix and Disney+ or at the very least you're knowledgeable about it, so let's dive into "What Marvel Did Wrong and The Right..."

What If...?: Justice League II

So here we are, Justice League II, as stated before the main villain for this one is Brainiac. Let's dive in. This is going to be a tricky one and this will set the stage for Darkseid but we can't draw attention away from the main villain Brainiac. So here we go!

What If...?: DC Extended Universe Pt. 2

We're back at it! Now that we've gone through Part One of The DC Extended Universe and The Justice League, we're gonna jump into Part Two! So if you haven't read those, you can, or if not, Hey, welcome! Anyways, so by now, you should know that we're building towards Darkseid. You should know by now (if you read Part One & The Justice League) that The Justice League decided to go their separate ways after Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord. As I mentioned previously, one of the things that confused me about the Marvel movies is how come none of the Avengers aided each other in their solo movies? Well with this, I at least give an answer, they're not a team anymore, and because they're not a team all of the conflict for these characters will essentially take place primarily in their corner of the world and these stories will be much more personal and backstory driven. So let's dive in and see if I can do this better than Warner Bros./DC. So here's the line up for The DC Extended Universe

STRANGE LOG: Play The Greek Music!

Here we are, yet another Strange Log, how about that eh? No real articles and no one reading them anyway, right? Right. Yeesh. This year and a half has been...well, it's been...For me anyway, it's been the year of restless potential and a lot of confusion. But nonetheless, I have a few topics to dive into so let's get this over with.

The Snyder Cut Trailer Is Upon Us!

So after that weird-ass "Hallejuah" trailer, we finally have an official trailer to the much mythologized now actualized Snyder Cut of "Justice League", a little superhero film that dropped in 2017 and didn't do what it should have done in the box office. Now Warner Bros. powered by HBOMax are doing it again and this time with feeling by allowing director Zack Snyder to release his version of the movie. Now I've said it once and I'll say it again, I am NOT excited about this movie whatsoever, I am not exactly looking forward to it. I've been so burned out on The DCEU that I'm not even interested in seeing the films that people are saying are the good ones, namely "Wonder Woman", "Aquaman" and "Shazam" who I'm still refusing to call Shazam (his name will ALWAYS BE Captain Marvel, damnit!), because this film ("Justice League", both versions) will always be rushed products, Marvel took 12 years to build up to Thanos and "The Infinity Gauntlet", laid the groundwork for characters to grow and took their time, The DCEU crammed Wonder Woman in a movie she didn't belong in (Batman vs. Superman) and then stuffed "Justice League" with a bunch of characters we've only seen in BARELY cameos and made them fight a villain with no personality.

That was "Justice League", now we have "The Snyder Cut" and all the news about this thing still comes off as rushed and bloated. By bloated I mean they're going to have to do worldbuilding while at the same time keeping the narrative moving, films become bloated when you have to introduce a new thing and explain that thing because it's important to the story. The issues that are bloating this film are the Martian Manhunter, what would be the point of introducing the Martian Manhunter if he's not going to be important to the plot? Furthermore the character wasn't even hinted at in "Batman vs. Superman" or the original "Justice League" so having the character in this film makes NO sense. Jared Leto is returning as The Joker, no clue why, he was the worst part in "Suicide Squad" and I have no issues with Jared Leto but remove The Joker from "Suicide Squad" and the movie doesn't change AT ALL. Anyway, I'm rambling, in this article I'm gonna watch the official trailer and give you my 2 cents. Let's dive in;

STRANGE LOG: Make Mine A Double

And so my friends, here we are, yet another Strange Log...yay...and there was much rejoicing. But seriously a Strange Log for who knows to read and find out just what is going on in my Strange little world, so let's dive in.

The Curious Case Of Feedback

 So here we are, once again, I wrote about this in a Strange Log but I felt like this needed to be a much longer article since this is an increasing issue, at least for me and that is feedback. Feedback on what? Well, everything pretty much. Here's the thing, I've hand-drawn and written over 60 graphic novels, all of which are 60 to 100 pages long, and I made them strictly for the consumption of myself and my family, those were not meant for the public because I wrote them for me, for my pleasure, therefore I don't require feedback on those, I know they're good because they're for me. However, when I do put something out there, something that I am making for the public to enjoy, a little feedback would be nice, since the blight has plagued our land and lands abroad I've been contemplating several projects I could take on, and each one I've replied back to myself "But it won't get attention.". I'll elaborate more. Here we go.

The Uncomfortable Truth About "The Mandalorian"

So since my last blog my wife and I acquired Disney Plus and I've been watching and enjoying "The Mandalorian", and while I'm only in the middle of Season One I'm realizing that "The Mandalorian" despite having amazing production values is a series that is merely getting by on name recognition, I'll explain in a bit.

The Difference Between Western and Eastern Animation

So this article was going to be a lament about how I am currently unable to watch "Infinity Train", an animated series I noticed in passing at my local Wal-Mart, and while I misread the title to read "Infinity Rain" (let's face it the font makes it very difficult to find the "T") it nonetheless caught my interest. But this article isn't going to be about that, this article rather is going to be about exactly what the title states. What brought this on is during my research of "Infinity Train" which now looks (pun intended) infinitely more interesting than I initially assumed, I came across an interesting quote from the series creator in regards to whether or not this series will receive a 4th season, and I quote;

“I strongly believe that we can push animation into a more mature direction outside of the purely comedy space. If adults were able to finally understand that comic books aren’t just for children, then they’ll also be able to learn that animation isn’t either. Whichever studio produces the show or movie that finally breaks through and teaches that lesson, then that studio just got their own Marvel,”

This gem coming from series creator Owen Dennis and thus begins this article. Let's dive in;