Spontaneous Musings

Better mood today - I got sleep, and my digestive system cleared out the toxins. (Note to self - I really need to stay away from processed food, specifically french fries. I had some last week - and I think it played havoc with my digestive system. Also, no pie for me, or no Meredith's gluten-free pies, although I think it had built up over time. I had to take anti-biotics earlier in the year, and that always screws with my gut.)

Pop Culture news that is cheering me up and making me happy. It's the little things. The sky was blue today. It was cool but sunny. And there's cool pop culture news about upcoming films either newly released to streaming, or in the works to look forward to. (I'm taking a break from the national/international news for a moment for well my mental, emotional and physical well-being?)

1. Marvel Live Stream Reveal

"Earlier this month, co-directors the Russo brothers said they see Avengers 5 and 6 as a “new beginning” that will lay the foundation for whatever comes next in Phase 7 of the MCU.

“The only thing I’ll say about the movie is this: we love villains who think they’re the heroes of their own stories,” Joe Russo said. “That’s when they become three-dimensional and they become more interesting. When you have an actor like Robert Downey, you have to create a three-dimensional, well shaped character for the audience. That’s where a lot of our focus is going.”

Avengers: Doomsday is currently set to arrive in theaters on May 1, 2026, and Secret Wars arrives about a year later in May 2027. Before then, Thunderbolts* comes out in May 2025, TV show Ironheart is out in June, and Phase 6 kicks off with The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.

In October, Marvel Studios added three untitled movie projects to its 2028 release schedule: February 18, 2028; May 5, 2028; and November 10, 2028. It seems increasingly likely one of these movies is X-Men."

Go Here

I also love Robert Downy Jr, although I managed to miss his one-man show at Lincoln Center - I couldn't afford it. I'm considering joining Lincoln Center, and getting discounted tickets that way.

There are ways?
( ways to get discounted Broadway tickets )

Other good entertainment news?

2. A Complete Unknown is now streaming on Hulu!!! Yay!

Sing Sing is currently streaming on MAX (this is the film about the inmate who starts a theater troupe within the prison).

More and more Oscar nominated films are popping up for free (with a subscription) on streaming platforms.

3. Doctor Strange 3 has been confirmed and has exciting casting news. Sam Rami is returning as director.

And..."Benedict Cumberbatch will return, and it’s likely that Charlize Theron will also reprise her role based on the cliffhanger from the previous film. Wong is expected to return as well. However, the report also confirms an exciting addition: Dormammu!

Yes, the villain from the first film is making a comeback, and we’re thrilled to share that he will be portrayed by Denzel Washington. This suggests we may see more than just his head in the third installment."

[The Marvel movies continue to have the best casting and directors. They cast folks I'd go watch read the phone book.]

4. Upcoming Superhero Films for 2025 and 2026

Ah, I'm right, Fantastic Four: First Steps is going retro - it's in an AU, and takes place in the 1960s. Fantastic Four Trailer - this could actually work? Fantastic 4 works better as retro - because a lot of the things that happened in the comic don't really work now, but did in the 1960s, it solves the problem.

And the Superman Trailer (Superman has a large cast)

Henry Cavill departs the Witcher in S4 - handing the character over to Liam Helmsworth

I'm not sure how that will work - the two actors look nothing alike. And Cavill is bigger.

Also...

Cavill is apparently returning to the role of Superman. So I'm guessing WB gave up on the Black Superman Movie they were flirting with?

Hmmm...turns out that I'm wrong. They are still pursuing it.

Black Superman Reboot Development

J.J. Abrams and Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Superman reboot is reportedly still in active development at Warner Bros. Discovery. The DC brand has had a big shake-up in 2022 as Warner Bros. Discovery completed its massive merger earlier this year. On the small screen, The CW lost multiple DC TV shows as the network is getting a new majority stake owner. Over on the cinematic side for DC, Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the Batgirl movie despite the film having already finished principal photography in late March.

It's not clear, but the two people helming it do have some clout, and I don't see WB backing off a project they helm quickly. Also DC likes to do AU verses and has for some time, plus comics lend themselves to it.

1. ( And once again people are bashing Woody Allen films because of Allen's own nasty actions... )

As an aside?

Ricky Gervais recently nailed twitter -

Gervais on Twitter

2. This article is an interesting read - The True Story Behind the Zack Snyder Cut - its interesting from a pure film-making perspective. Depicting how something can go blatantly wrong - when the distributors and financiers lose faith in the artist's vision at the last possible minute.
( excerpts )

( toxic fandom - excerpt from the article )

[As an aside? The comics and daytime soap opera fandoms are notoriously crazy. Actually all fandoms have crazy people. But the superhero comic fandom and sci-fantasy fandom are notorious. There's a reason I've stayed away from them.]

( the artist now has carte blanche to do whatever he likes without answering to anyone )

Interesting take on how art was gutted, then the original artist gets to fix it and show his vision without any studio edits or input.

Although, I am suspicious of how much of Fisher's allegations against Whedon were true - due to the fact that Fisher was heavily invested in Snyder's version. As was Gail Gadot and others. They loved Snyder apparently.

Also the article feels a bit like a love letter to Synder, and I'm always skeptical of that. (I've seen a lot Synder's films...almost all of them, so can personally attest to the violence. And I've seen Whedon's Justice League - which I found jarring but not quite as horrible as the article indicates. I'm skeptical of the article here and there. I see marketing hands behind it.)

That's actually my difficulty with a lot of celebrity gossip and back-stage gossip - it's hard to know what is true. So much of the entertainment industry is carefully packaged. With marketing hands in every pot. Spin-doctoring things.

3. [I'm annoyed with the neighbor who lives across the hall from me. He never wears a mask, no one visiting him does. And he slams his door, shaking the entire building. I think he's divorced with a kid - since I only see him and occasionally his kid. It's a tiny apartment, I can't imagine more than two in it, if that. I can't wait for him to move - no one stays in that apartment for very long.]

4. Boredom Economy.

And some groups of people are more likely to experience boredom than others. People who live alone, for instance, are more likely to be bored, said Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at Barnard College who has studied loneliness during the pandemic lockdowns.

“The real burden’s going to be on people who are single, who are by themselves,” he said. “The boredom-loneliness nexus has got to be pretty close, I would think.”

I danced to Fiona Apple's Relay again today, which I find insanely comforting.

Read recently that a lot of the celebrity gossip and interest in the gossip is falling by the wayside. It'd mostly due to the pandemic. People don't want to watch wealthy folks be bored on the internet. Or do podcasts from their luxurious homes. I can't find the article though - but it detailed how the sing-a-long lead by Gail Gadot completely backfired (I never saw it) but it was apparently a bunch of celebrities who can't sing - singing Imagine.
And how the divorce/separation of Kim Kardashian and Kayne West sparked no interest whatsoever. (My twitter page was more interested in Woody Allen and Texas.)

5. Per the Governor's email tonight on the Corona Virus..

Thanks to the hard work of all New Yorkers, our infection rate is now the lowest we've seen in three months, and accordingly, we are now in a position to reopen more recreational activities across the state. Movie theaters in New York City, along with any other areas of the state where they have been closed, are permitted to reopen March 5 at 25 percent capacity, with no more than 50 people per screen at a time. Other safety protocols, including assigned seating and social distancing, will be in place. We must continue to collectively work hard to ensure our numbers keep going in the right direction, which will allow us to safely reopen as much as possible as safely as possible.

Well that is interesting, considering the last time I saw a movie in a movie theater was Emma on March 7. It's also the weekend before my birthday. I don't know if I could sit through a movie in a movie theater right now without fidgeting. I'm having issues re-entering my workplace.

*. ( By the numbers - we're still at 4.3%, with 6,146 cases, but hey the deaths got down to 89...so progress. )

* ( the numbers on the vaccine...we've vaccinated roughly 2.2 million with first dose, and 1.1 million second dose - which is..less than 1% of the NY population, but hey progress! )

* ( my zip code is not listed, but hey they are trying to vaccinate everyone in Brooklyn...I'm not sure what it means exactly that my zip code isn't listed. I live in diverse neighborhood. )

* ( that's what you get for going after the Governor on the nursing homes, more rules and regulations on when you can visit them )

*( all the people holding off for their big weddings can now have up to 150 people present...why you'd want that many or more than that is beyond me..but than I don't understand wanting more than 20 or 30 people )

How humanity has decided to handle this pandemic is fascinating and at times mind-boggling.

6.Not to be outdone by New York, England has chosen to lift its lock down restrictions slowly..

( Read more... )

7. ( Meanwhile a grocery store chain is saving Texans, even while authorities continue to answer for their stupidity )

8. ( And Nasa released new videos from Mars, whil Hayley Arceneaux, 29, cancer survivor, Physician Assistant at St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital will be one of the four people on a SpaceX rocket to circle earth later this year )

We're definitely stuck in a Philip K Dick novel. Albeit possibly not as grim?

9. ( An animated flying cat with a Pop-Tart body sold for almost $600,000. )

10. ( okay, this pairing I'd never have guessed...Former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are co-hosting podcasts...entitled Renegades Born in the USA )

Remember when everyone hated Springsteen in the late 80s/90s for alleged domestic violence against his then-wife, and for appearing to support Regan?
Just me then. See? Some people can revitalize their image.

[Edited multiple times - because I suck at coding and my eyes are starting to blur - had to switch reading glasses.]

Just finished watching Zack Snyder's Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice courtesy of On-Demand, was about $4.45, so cheaper than the movie theaters by about ten bucks. It's about $15 dollars in Brooklyn.

Anywho...it surprised me. Not at all what I'd expected. Probably helped that I went in with very low expectations. For one thing, I didn't feel like I was watching a video game, well maybe for about two minutes, but even then? Not so much. Felt more like watching a painting. Say what you will about Zack Snyder, but he is a great cinematographer. His visuals are quite striking, and not quite as busy as other directors. Also, it didn't give me a headache like the action sequences in Man of Steel, The Avengers Part II - Age of Ultron, and Deadpool, so kudos.

A bit lacking in the dialogue department, though. I'm not even sure there was more than maybe a half hour's worth of dialogue in what amounted to a three hour movie. Snyder is not into dialogue, much more into visuals and cinematography. Not that superhero movies strike me as dialogue heavy movies to begin with. Let's face it, people do not go to these films for the dialogue. That said, the Nolan Batman films had good dialogue, as did the Iron man films, Deadpool, and Days of Future Past. So it is possible. But I've yet to see a Zack Snyder flick with good dialogue. (The 300, The Watchman, and Man of Steel had crappy dialogue too.)

It also, felt more "archetypal" in characterization. Not really providing anything new -- although let's face it, is there really anything new that can be said about Superman and Batman? Or for that matter the super-hero genre? I mean all three have been DONE by now. Possibly overdone. I think they may be slightly crispy.

As far as the visuals went, it reminded me a great deal of Frank Miller's Dark Knight comics in the 1980s, and Alan Moore's Sin City, V for Vendetta, and The Killing Joke. Both men took over the Batman comics, along Tim Sale, back in the 1980s and 1990s, and their decisively noirish take on the comics sort of bled into the verse as a whole. I remember writing my senior thesis in the bowels of a computer room next to a guy who was writing his on the death of superhero in comics, or rather the reimaging of the hero as vigilante and what that means. It was a controversial thesis - because academics, especially in the 80s, tended to frown on graphic novels, in particular action and pulpy noir graphic novels. Which I never really understood, a story is a story is a story...after all. And who's to say my thesis on Joyce's Molly Bloom and Faulkner's Caddy Thompson (aka their Mommy issues), was any more or less valid than this guy's thesis on the post-modern hero? In some respects I think his thesis was more interesting, because it commented, if indirectly, on our need for a hero, but romanticization of the vigilante. Or America's pop culture love affair with the powerful bad-boy, much to our own detriment (see Trump, Christian Grey, Walter White, Soprano, Hannibal Lector, Spike/Angel, Iron Man, various characters on Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, etc.). Oh, should mention, the guy writing his thesis on the death of the superhero in comics - had bleach blond hair, a leather jacket, rings, black boots, and steel rimmed glasses. We had some great conversations at 1 am in that computer room. (I half wish I saw the film with that guy. And I can't help but wonder what would have happened if we had merged our theses, mother goddess/mommy issues vs. death of superman/rise of the vigilante?)

( spoilers )
All in all not a bad film. Not sure it's worth $15 bucks. But I enjoyed it for $5.

I'd give it a B or a solid three stars.

Comic books have been a guilty pleasure of mine for more than a decade. I first discovered them in the 1980s, when my brother sat for long hours with the boy across the street drawing tiny superheros. Mostly though they read TinTin which I found again in France along with Asterix. TinTin reminded me a great deal of the old Johnny Quest cartoons, but did not appeal to me all that much for some reason. I was too young to get into the literary references and there were no women to speak of for me to identify with. Also, to be honest, obscure literary references never had that much appeal for me. I can't abide footnotes or anything that gets in the way of my enjoyment of the main story, while for others they are like frosting on the proverbial cake - the best part. I guess that's an apt analogy - some people prefer the cake, some the frosting, some eat both at the same time, some like both, but eat one and savor the other.

At any rate, it was not until college that I *really* discovered and fell in love with the comic art form. Sat for hours in one of my dorm-mates rooms with her box of old X-men, Spiderman, Superman, and Batman comic books. Later, on my own, I discovered Sandman, Alan Moore's Watchmen, Frank Miller's Dark Knight, and others of that ilk. But my first love was those superhero comics. It was a love that I hid from the world at large. Stealing off to the comic book store on Cache La Poudre, the main drag from my small college in Colorado Springs, just at the foot of mighty Pikes Peak. The comic store was towards the end of the two lane street that also housed an eatry/used book store/ and independent movie house entitled Poor Richards. Few people from the college patrolled the comic store - so I was often on my own. I had a few friends at school who adored them like I did, we kept our love to ourselves, hidden in boxes beneath beds and in closets only to be shown to people who understood and shared our passion.

Paul Theroux famously or rather infamously wrote in one of his many travel books that comics were pedesterian past-times for the uneducated or illiterate. The man clearly never sat on the floor of his dorm room, back hurting, pouring over illustrations and dialogue bubbles.
He and others like him are the reason most comic fans keep their love to themselves. A private guilty pleasure to only be shared with like minds and hearts.

Superman:Doomsday or more commonly known as The Death of Superman is one of the few comic arcs that hit mainstream. It lead up to the gut-wrenching "Death of Superman" and crossed the front page of numerous papers when it first hit the shelves of comics stores across the country (this was before book stores started selling comics or graphic novels). Selling out and bringing comic sales to an unprecedented height. The final issue containing Superman's Death was wrapped inside a black bag with the Superman signal on the front, the cover of the book hidden from view. It had two variant covers - a black one and one with Superman's cape swinging like a flag on a bunch of rubble. The second cover was the most popular. This was back in the early 1990s or thereabouts, before I moved to NYC, when I was still living in KC making guilty trips to the comic book store. So it was with a bit of nostaglic glee that I watched the history unfold on one of the features of the Doomsday DVD. It is detailed in a little documentary feature. Takes about 30 minutes to watch, maybe a bit longer - and includes interviews with the writing team, which included Louise Simonson, one of the few female comic book writers in the biz at that time, who wrote superhero comics. She also worked for a brief period of time on X-Factor (an X-men book) back in the late 1980s. The art is realistic, with lots of lines, well defined anatomy, and every emotion explicitly expressed. It is as close to a photograph as one can get in some ways without the smooth photo image.

I remember that arc - because it was the first time I collected or got interested in Superman comics. I collected them from the beginning of the Doomsday arc up to Superman's return and eventual marriage to Lois Lane. They'd originally wanted to marry Superman and Lois that year, but got derailed because of the tv series Lois & Clark - which did not want the comic to marry Lois and Clark until they did it or better yet, have do it at the same time. Lois & Clark was in its first season at this point. As a result, the writers sat in a room with a scraped story board, exhausted, and wracking their brains for an idea, any idea to fill the pages of four different books - which included at that time: Man of Steel. Action Comics. Adventures of Superman and I think Superman. One of the writers, suggested as he always did at this point in the proceedings - "I know, let's just kill him." And instead of telling him to go take a nap or shrugging it off, they leaped on the idea. "Why not?" It's not like it hadn't been done before. No. The real challenge would be how to make it convincing and heart-wrenching to a cynical and somewhat sap-proof contemporary readership. They'd have to find a way to convince their readers they really meant it. And at the same time, tell a new story about both the universe and characters. Not as easy as it sounds.
( Plot Spoilers on the comic arc )

The story took a few years to unfold. The marriage occuring around the time the tv show's did. And like all good stories - was told in a series of chapters, some better than others.

Having read the original, albeit many years ago, I was eager to see what they would do in the film. I love animation. So the film - animated - was a must-see for me. It also was by one of my favorite animation directors Bruce Timm, who had directed and wrote JLA, Batman Beyond, Batman, and Superman cartoons. And...it featured the vocal talents of Adam Baldwin (Superman), James Marsters (Lex Luther), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), Swoozie Kurtz (Mrs. Kent), and Ray Wise (The Editor and Chief of the Daily Planet).

The film surprised me. It was much better than expected. Not your average Superman cartoon. The main characters are - oddly enough Superman and Lex Luthor. Doomsday is wisely only used as a device. The real story takes place, much as they did in the books, after Superman's death. It starts with Lex Luthor - who tells the tale in flashback - he is our narrator, with Marsters husky and somewhat wry vocalization, an excellent contrast to the stalwart baratone of Adam Baldwin, which sounds clear as a bell. You can hear the years of smoking in Marsters raspy delivery, which is a bit like the purr of jaguar or panther. Lex himself moves a bit like one. Or maybe the hiss of a snake. We, like Lois Lane, are repulsed and intriqued by Luthor. All lean lines, and jagged edges.

( spoilers on the Superman:Doomsday Film )

The fact that both stories work, the graphic novel original and the animated film - demonstrates how you can tell a story more than one way. That is one of the benefits of comics - the story can be retold from multiple angles. There is no one way or one story. Or one universe. It is unlimited or as unlimited as our imaginations. Canon in comics is what we decide to make it. It is also one of the benefits of adaptations - as John Le Carre once stated in regards to a film version of one of his books, in this instance The Constant Gardners, "the best films adaptations are not close or replicas of my novels, but rather a new take on the work from a completely different angle, an interpretation as it were. I don't expect to see them do my novel exactly as I wrote it. They aren't me. Nor do I want that, for that is uninteresting to me. What I want to see is a new take on it." (not exact, paraphrased). Timm succeeds in doing just that with Superman:Doomsday. Providing a new and innovative take on an old tale.

Highly recommend to anyone who loves Superman comics, animation, and a good yarn.