The MCU will be coming to a close with "Avengers: Endgame" but before that, we have to be introduced to the newest member of the team Carol Danvers or Captain Marvel as she's called, played by Brie Larson and here's where the issues come in. This woman has been doing everything she can to cripple this movie. I didn't want to talk about her, I've discussed enough bleak stuff on this blog but at a certain point in time enough is enough. The blatant racism and sexism coming from this woman is unbearable and it's not even the fact that she's a feminism that's sticking in my craw (Hell, these days Hollywood women being feminist is kind of a foregone conclusion) it's how she goes out of her way to pretend that her movie is somehow special DESPITE COMING OUT AFTER "WONDER WOMAN" a well-received NON-WOKE female lead superhero movie.
Brie Larson has made it clear she doesn't care about the opinions of white men and while she qualified that with saying that she doesn't hate white men (and I believe this is true) that doesn't help the fact that reality says that comic book readers (and therefore the core demographic of people who would see this movie) are overwhelmingly male and white. If this had been said by a White dude about Black people best believe Hollywood would be up in arms, but because it was Hollywood's acceptable target, White men only a handful of people will comment, care and most will applaud. The fact that she's allowed to say such things and act like she's such a beacon of female empowerment even though (and everyone say it with me now) FEMALE LEAD MOVIES HAVE EXISTED BEFORE AND ARE NOTHING NEW, SHE IS NOT SPECIAL just rubs me wrong.
I had full intentions of skipping "Captain Marvel" but not because I wasn't interested but because there's only so much time and so much money I have to spend and I can't see EVERY superhero movie (sorry "Enter The Spider-Verse" I heard you were great) so I conserve my money for the big ones. But after watching Brie Larson basically torpedo her own movie and hamstring "Avengers: Endgame" I'm less inclined to throw money her way. I can sympathize with everyone who fears that Carol Danvers will be the ultimate savior of The MCU, what with her constant proclamations about how powerful she is (she's also worthy of lifting Thor's hammer and can move planets) but I doubt she'll be as powerful as she claims...because if she is then she's literally broken. Because Thanos wasn't broken in the films, Stormbreaker could have killed him (had Thor gone for the head) and Thor is the strongest Avenger (because The Hulk has a limit).
I'm certain Captain Marvel will be part of a collective effort, but my question is just exactly how they'll balance her abilities and her sudden inclusion in the story. While she has no doubt witnessed half of every population vanishing she doesn't share the same grief as they do and doesn't share the same relationships, so in many ways she's gonna have to get caught up with who everyone is and that's going to put a drag on the film...unless they make it so that Nick Fury has been keeping her abreast of the goings on on Earth since she's been away. But who knows, I just know having a character like her playing catch up with everyone doesn't make excited.
Since we're on the topic of "wokeness" let's talk about another thing I've been neglecting to talk about and that is "Us". Let me start off my saying I like Jordan Peele's comedy, and "Us" looks amazing and creepy and actually good (a horror movie hasn't looked good to me in a LONG time). My problem with Jordan Peele stems from his debut film "Get Out" and my need to roll my eyes because (surprise, surprise) a Black man is making a film about (gasp!) Racism! I'm getting tired of racism being the Go-To-Topic for Black filmmakers (looking directly at you Spike Lee) because it's obvious and done and frankly a horse that's been beaten to death so much it's actually be defibrillated. To make matters worse "Get Out" was actually a genuinely good movie and frankly what a horror movie needed to be, no blood, no guts, no gore, a smart and undeserving protagonist who made intelligent choices.
The reason I say "make matters" worse is that the film was good alone without racial element added to it, but the racial element just thrown more fuel on the racial tensions already present in this time and age. Not only that but it basically protected its self from criticism by going the racial angle, because if this featured any other race this would just be another run of the mill horror film that'll come and go...then again what do I know people are still talking about "Hereditary" and that movie was legit ass. All this to say I'll see "Us" but I'm skeptical about Jordan Peele now because to me he's not just another Black director who used Racism to get ahead, I know this because Jordan himself even implied as much during the development of the film saying:
"Here's one (a movie) you'll never want to make."
Why wouldn't he want to make it...unless Jordan was implying that the movie was so racially charged no one would want to touch it. And that's what chaps my hide. Spike Lee has been making movies about racism since time in memoriam and if he can get away with making his nonsense anyone can. And that's the problem, it seems like to get ahead Black directors have to write or direct something uniquely "Black" to get ahead in the business. We can't just write crime thrillers, we gotta write "New Jack City" or "Boyz n The Hood", we can't just write a movie it has to be a movie with some underlining racial message and I'm sick of it. It's these issues that make me wary of Jordan Peele's "Twilight Zone" and while he is primarily hosting, he is an executive producer, and seeing as how The Forrest Whitaker reboot featured an episode titled "Shades Of Guilt", which was decent enough...I see this being taken to a whole 'nother level. This warrants a whole other article in and of its self but for now, I'll leave it there.
Since we're on the topic of Jordan Peele and "Twilight Zone" finally a trailer has dropped and we see somethings, mostly a trailer for "Rewind", a reboot of an episode from the Forrest Whitaker reboot starring Eddie Kaye Thomas. The "Twilight Zone" during its hay day was ground-breaking and covered all the ground "The Outer Limits" didn't. "The Outer Limits" was strictly sci-fi, but "The Twilight Zone" could do horror, sci-fi, drama and so on and ALWAYS carried with it a supernatural bent. During its time...these days we have "Black Mirror" and anthologies really haven't been a thing for a LONG time and "The Twilight Zone" hasn't been relevant in a LONG time. This series needs to be groundbreaking and remind people WHY "The Twilight Zone" was so amazing, and with the current line up of episodes, a remake of "Nightmare At 30,000 Feet" and "Rewind", I can't say I'm completely impressed. Hopefully, some new concept gets introduced and some new stories pop up. One thing I think "The Twilight Zone" needs is a shared universe, where each episode isn't its own thing but rather apart of a much larger story. Turning "The Twilight Zone" into a serial rather an episodic series whilst keeping it episodic would be new ground for "The Twilight Zone" but I doubt it'll be explored. Anyways, let's move on.
Let's talk about movies and aside from "Brightburn" catching my attention let's talk about "Ma", a psychological horror movie starring Octavia Spencer. This movie looks interesting and I will say seeing an unhinged Black woman is a new place for a horror movie to go. Not too many Black actors play psychologically deranged characters and this movie looks pretty interesting. I might check this one out.
Moving on, let's talk about battle rap. So I've been watching battles here and there most recently I watched Math Hoffa vs Thesaurus and I suddenly realized why I hadn't watched battle rap in so long and what my overall problem with battle rap has been. I stopped watching battle rap when Pat Stay lost the chain, I was already waning when Pat Stay won the chain and was only watching so that I could see Pat Stay lose the chain, but ultimately Pat Stay has been the start of my problem with battle rap and I realized it wasn't Pat Stay but rather his opponents and the overall attitude going into battle rap these days anyway. What do I mean? (I'm saying that a lot) the attitude is everyone is too friendly. They're all laughing and joking and the overall atmosphere is friendly so friendly that I feel like no one's giving it 100%. And the majority of Pat Stay's opponents (except for Arsonal) never battled Pat Stay they just joked with him or shouted at him (in the case of Danny Myers) and Pat Stay made them look goofy. Pat Stay is not the best battler, he's not, not even close but everyone thinks he is because his opponents don't know how to battle him. The only person to battle Pat Stay competently was Miracle and this was AGES AGO.
So that's what put me off, seeing someone like Pat Stay who's a good battler but not the best and realizing how many angle that could be used against him and watching battlers just joke with him or scream about how they're gonna kill him...and no, just no. I started off with battle rap watching squash matches, complete 3-0s, one of my favorites being Murda Mook vs. Serius Jones (even though that was a 2-0, only because Mook went overtime his 2nd round, but let's be honest Mook 3-0'ed Jones, come at me) and those were the times when battle rap felt legit. These days it just feels like roasting sessions between friends and I'm not interested in that. Charlie Clips vs T-Rex was the last battle I felt had any real substance to it where both sides really wanted to win. And that's another thing since they removed the judges it seems like no one wants to try or put forth a solid effort.
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| Why is this a battle? |
Without solid wins and loses, no one wants to try because there is no level to reach. I mean look at the state of contenders for The KOTD Chain, can anyone definitively say how a contender is determined? Because I can't and I don't think anyone else can either. Think about it for a second, if you wanted a contender to a championship wouldn't it have to be someone with a win/loss record similar or close to the current champion? But if no one has a win/loss record then it's all basically a matter of opinion, and heavily subjective opinion at that because in every battler's mind they're the winner...just ask Serius Jones about his battle Mook...but I digress. The point is without real and genuine stakes battle rap is just people shouting at each other and the chain carries no real weight because the factors which earn you a title shot is undetermined and seems to be completely random. This isn't even like professional wrestling in which the champion is some dastardly heel that a shining babyface has to come and right the wrongs of the situation and this isn't even MMA where someone who's been on a massive streak gets a shot at the title, this is just random pickings and I'm not really interested anymore.
SPOILER WARNING FOR "GLASS"
Moving along still to "Glass", M. Night Shyamalan's final part of the "Unbreakable" Trilogy and while I enjoyed the movie I can honestly say that this wasn't a good movie. For starters, since we met David Dunn in "Unbreakable", he has been a down in the dumps man who finally realized the purpose of his life as a superhero. "Unbreakable" really grounded the superhero mythos in reality and made the film believable (that was M. Night's ability) and while "Split" pushed the boundaries a little bit with The Beast being seemingly unstoppable (taking a point-blank shotgun blast not once but twice) it still maintained that believability. And now here we are with "Glass", the final chapter and the conclusion for all these characters really don't do the trilogy justice. "Unbreakable" and "Split" were not comic book movies and didn't yield themselves to any comic book tropes BUT "Glass" unfortunately did.
For starters let's talk about "The Court Of Clovers" as they're called by the internet at large (that's a lie I've only heard one person say that) their organization is UNIQUELY comic book as secret societies have been a mainstay in comic books for some time now. Moreover, the fact that their role in things is basically to either convince the heroes to stop being heroes or to kill them means they've been doing this for years...this ultimately turns them into a low-grade version of "The Company" from "Heroes". But in this day and age people are ALWAYS doing something amazing or seemingly superhuman. And what's worse is characters like Elijah Price who are exceptionally intelligent, whose to say this is superhuman? The Court Of Clovers would have to examine EVERY genius out there and Elijah was only noticed as a genius because he killed so many people, but if you're just 1 of 50 people working in a Government think tank, I doubt you'll draw attention to yourself.
"Glass" could have expanded on the narrative of "Unbreakable", which was about a person discovering they were super-human. I'd have liked to have seen the other ways superhuman abilities can be exhibited naturally, as David Dunn's abilities are explained through bone density and an extremely keen insight into a person's actions that's basically ESP. If The Court Of Clovers had been recruiters, testing the limits of David's abilities and then seeing how he handles The Beast that'd have been interesting but instead David Dunn doesn't get a hero's death, he gets drowned in a puddle in a pothole...I'll probably be snagging this on DVD but this doesn't do the character justice and before we wrap this up I'd like to see more from this universe that does the characters justice.
SPOILERS OVER
Now I'd like to switch gears for a bit and talk about something maybe a little personal. You see I've been writing this blog for awhile now and I'm a product of the internet age and in this day and age nothing is hidden, nothing is private and I do my best to keep my private things private and my public things public, that said I think professionally I may have already shot myself in the foot with this blog. Its no secret that I want to be a screenwriter/director in the future and while that dream has been waning, its still my passion, BUT given the current state of things in Hollywood I doubt I have a chance and that's due to my belief as a Christian and as a pretty solid conservative and as a film critic myself. I realized this on Youtube back when I did movie reviews and that is any producer can go online find my videos and see what I said about their product and say "Yeah, no not gonna hire you." and while that would suck, I'd understand. Hence why I converted over to the blog and mostly just decided to talk about movies rather than review them outright.
I try and keep this blog as apolitical as I can and not let my political views into my commentary too much but politics is, unfortunately, getting inserted into EVERYTHING, sports, film, TV, music, video games you name it, and with everything being so politically charged I have to recognize that the philosophy I ascribe to is seen as "the dark side" by many with power and as such if I ever was 100% open about my political views I'd lose 90% of my already small readership and any potential job opportunity in entertainment media. I'm already at risk because of the people I've re-tweeted and follow on Twitter and Instagram. I comfort myself by telling myself that the vast majority of people don't care about such things and that's true, they don't, but the people in entertainment do and those are the people I have to yield to in order to get a job in film. It makes me sad because I won't be getting by on my merits, guess it'll have to be my skin color and that makes me sad. Hate to end on such a downer but that's how it is; here's a GIF of KOS-MOS's top popping open to unleash her most powerful attack, why? Because KOS-MOS is hot! Catch you guys later!
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