Ravenya003

Calling it now: in the twenty years since the first Matrix movie, Lana Wachowski inevitably became aware of the term "Trinity syndrome" and is now setting up Neo as a Decoy Protagonist. The "swerve" that we're all anticipating will be Trinity stepping up as the real main character. Also, there's no way they won't take the opportunity to be more overt with the transgender metaphor. Apparently they wanted a character to change genders as he/she moved in and out of the Matrix back in the nineties, but didn't have the clout to get the greenlight. Either way, there are going to be a lot of exploding heads from the Red Pill crowd. (The irony of them adopting that name should not be lost on anyone).

See, this is what I was talking about when I said there should have been something already wrong with the serial killers; it kind of went against the trilogy's established rules that they weren't. Solomon told Sarah that you have to invite the devil in for him to have any power... unless you're one of the Goodes' chosen possession victims, in which case you can just be minding your own business one day and then boom, you're on a mass murder rampage. It's not a dealbreaker, I still liked the trilogy very much, but that part just felt a bit off to me.

As cheesy as it sounds, I would not have disliked a scene in which we saw the spirits of the serial killers freed from their possession and allowed to transcend as their true selves (or whatever). RL Stine was not above that sort of thing in the books. That, or they should have been bad people to start with and therefore more susceptible to demonic possession, making it easier for the Goodes to offer them up for bad ends. But as we saw with Tommy (and Ruby to a lesser extent)... that wasn't the case. In fact, the sequence between Tommy getting attacked by Nurse Lane, being told he was going to die, and then slowly succumbing to evil as he and the others headed out to the underground cave network was probably the most upsetting part of the whole trilogy. You could SEE the possession overtake him and there was nothing he could do about it.

I just finished binge-watching these at a friend's house, and thought they were a lot of fun. Between the gay leads (who not only live but get a happy ending) and the class issues that made up the crux of the plot, it strikes me not for the first time that slashers/horrors can be surprisingly subversive at times. That's not to say the trilogy wasn't incredibly predictable - as a book reader I knew that Nick was the key villain the moment he dropped his last name (I gasped out loud, which gave the game away to my newbie friend), it was obvious that Ziggy was going to be the surviving sister from the very first movie when the newspaper identified her as "C. Berman" (that was clumsy, as why on earth wouldn't a newspaper use a person's full name? It was clearly a blind, even though they could have just given BOTH sisters a nickname if they wanted audiences to be in doubt as to which one survived) and the second I saw the difference between the Shadyside/Sunnyvale residencies it was obvious that someone had made a deal with the devil and was sacrificing Shadysiders to keep their town affluent (this was also a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode) - and yet, it was a solid plot with engaging characters. That's all it needs to be sometimes. There were some fun callbacks, from the security gate at the bookshop that didn't go all the way down, to Ziggy's "Carrie" plan, to the recycling of the actors across all three films, and some genuine pathos at times, even from Solomon/Nick Goode. He had such soulful eyes, it made me kinda sad that he WAS the villain (not that he didn't deserve that comeuppance). As a book reader, I think it was a wise choice for the writers to take the VIBE of the books (no parents, nonchalant reactions to gruesome murders, a period flashback from the sagas) and create their own story (the history between the Fiers and the Goodes in the books is WAY different), though like others I'm pretty surprised that there was no Simon or Angelica Fear, the ultimate dark power couple. Newbies would walk away from this thinking that the Fier family were complete innocents. (Which does create something of a plot-hole - if Sarah Fier went down in history as a witch responsible for murdering innocent children, why on earth would they name a street after her?)

I actually totally forgot about the publicity surrounding Valkyrie's bisexuality; regarding Thor I was referencing the moment when they both jump on the Grandmaster's ship from opposite sides, nearly bump into each other, and have a little "held gaze" moment. I read that as a subtle but largely irrelevant shippy moment; a thread they could or could not pick up on in later movies if they so chose. But yeah, what with an openly gay character in The Eternals, hopefully Marvel will be okay with Valkyrie having a same-sex on-screen love interest. Which begs the question, who will it be? A preexisting character or someone new?

As long as we avoid a love triangle (square?) since Thor has been mildly ship teased with Valkryrie AND Sif in-canon, we'll be fine. It's Taika Waititi, I trust him. Fingers crossed he has the ladies interact extensively with each other. I'm especially excited about getting Sif back since incredibly, she's the only original Asgardian supporting character still standing. (Not counting Loki).

No, it'll be something stupid like Daddy was distant and Mummy was mean and her only friend was a puppy that got taken away from her and as an adult she's trying to process her childhood by swathing herself in dog fur. No way they won't bring class issues and psychological trauma into this SOMEHOW. I knew it was going to be stupid, but surpasses even my expectations for just how stupid it was gonna get.

As a book reader, I really hope they bring in Cecily Alistair, AND make her more central a character than the books did.

Glad to see Bonnie Piesse. Didn't she get caught up in that weird cult? Considering she's featured here, I'm assuming she got out okay.

Apparently Hallelujah was his daughter Autumn's favourite song, so... I'm giving him a quiet pass for that one.

Totally agree with upthread. Look, it was a beautiful movie, and Raya was a fantastic character. And to a certain point, I can take the message in the spirit with which it was intended: that there is no life or happiness if people don't trust each other. But MAN they botched the delivery of this, which is part of a greater pattern that's so prevalent throughout entertainment these days: that good people are morally obliged to give endless second chances to the people who hurt them. It's just fiction, but the constant reiteration of this theme across media is getting kinda creepy. This movie would have worked so much better if Namaari had spent her adulthood feeling guilty for what she did as a child with the dragon stone, desperately trying to make amends with Raya, and Raya steadfastly refusing to forgive her. As it is, Namaari pretty much gets off scot-free. At least Kylo Ren had the decency to die and not come back again. This review said it nicely: "Here is the Raya’s most intractable problem: It’s a story about the importance of trust that spends nearly all its running time establishing that trust is for chumps and you’ll get suckered every time. Then it asks its characters to turn around and trust everything to someone who betrayed their trust again and again. It’s about redemption without work and reconciliation without reckoning." Also this YouTube review: Raya's Moral Isn't a Good Lesson. Please, can we make bad guys WORK for their redemption, instead of having it constantly handed to them on a silver platter? I promise, the story will improve!

Captain Marvel is definitely one of those movies that's better on repeat. The first time around it felt a little ho-hum (and I was a bit distracted by other stuff going on in the world) and I DO think it suffered a little from the "Marvel formula" at that stage (so did BP if I'm being honest) but I find it's become one of those films I love having on in the background when I'm just pottering around the house. And not to move the direction of the conversation away from the women, but Ben Mendelsohn was incredible in that movie. That he could ACT through those prosthetics, and the way he handled the big twist regarding his character's motivations... amazing. I hope he's in CM2, because his dynamic with Carol was fascinating. I'm still bemused at that massive freak-out they had at the scene (which I think was deleted, so it wasn't even IN the movie) in which Carol steals the bike from the creep trying to get her to smile. Which, putting aside the fact that it's just fiction, is SUCH a prevalent trope that there's a TV Trope page that's LITERALLY called Hero Stole My Bike. Other characters that have stolen modes of transportation in an emergency: the second Terminator, James Bond, Batman, Shrek, Wreck-It Ralph, Marty from Back to the Future, Captain America, Jason Bourne, John McClane, Spiderman, Indiana Jones, Miss Piggy, Mulder & Scully, Kim Possible, Rey & Finn and Alex Rider. Bucky stole a motorbike out from under a man while he was still riding it (and there's no way that didn't break a few bones). Brand from The Goonies stole a tricycle from a screaming toddler. But when Carol Danvers does it, apparently civilization is about to collapse.

Of the three massive franchises that ended in 2019 (MCU, Game of Thrones, Star Wars) it can't be denied that the MCU was most successful in sticking the landing. As those other IPs proved, it could have been SO much worse. Ironically, it was also the story that I was LEAST invested in, so while I can intellectually understand the objections to Black Widow getting chucked off a cliff or Steve going back in time to hijack Peggy's life, none of it sticks in my craw the way Daenerys going genocidal over the sound of bells, or Kylo Ren's incoherent and undeserved "redemption" did. So... I can live with it.

Cute movie, and a nice way to end the trilogy. Lana Condor is a gift, I hope she gets plenty of roles after this. I've noticed in plenty of romantic comedies that a lot of actresses perform (or are TOLD to perform) the role as blandly/sweetly as possible since they're essentially a blank slate for female audiences to project themselves upon. They're not that important, it's the love interest that one everyone's turned up to see. But that's obviously not the case here; I'd watch a movie about Lara Jean without Peter, as she's interesting enough on her own. I loved that they ended up going to different colleges to follow their own dreams, especially since I've known too many women (okay, two) who dropped everything in their lives (jobs, houses, families) in order to follow a man in pursuit of HIS dreams - and one of them certainly lived to regret it. So I'm glad this prioritized Lara's future over her relationship with Peter. Really appreciated that she mended fences with Gen, and though the whole hot tub fiasco really deserves an apology, it was nice to see that Gen grew out of her bitchy phase (I've known plenty of women who did that too). Loved the sisters and the accepting rapport with the new stepmother. Didn't care much about Peter's issues with his father; that was time that could have been spent on the sisters maybe being a LITTLE more hesitate about another woman living in their mother's house. And as ever, completely bemused at the American education system and the crazy hoops everyone has to jump through in order to get to their college of choice. In NZ you just graduate high school and go wherever you want.

No, it'll be something stupid like Daddy was distant and Mummy was mean and her only friend was a puppy that got taken away from her and as an adult she's trying to process her childhood by swathing herself in dog fur. No way they won't bring class issues and psychological trauma into this SOMEHOW. Like how Maleficent, Mistress of All Evil, She Who Commanded the Forces of Hell, simultaneously the most petty AND most badass bitch in all of Disney's rogue's gallery, was actually symbolically date-raped by King Stefan? Oof. Still haven't forgiven Disney for that one. I'm so sick to death of villain sob-stories. Sometimes people are just assholes, and that's okay.