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.

I definitely don't blame Disney for pulling the plug on GC, but between the awful fandom-mandated plot points of The Rise of Skywalker and now this, I wish to God that everyone in the entertainment industry would just get the hell off social media already. It's legitimately destroying decent story telling at this point.

And the annoying thing (for me anyway) is that it didn't have to be like this. Why couldn't Bo have gone with Woody and become part of Bonnie's toy set? They didn't go this direction because they knew that a Woody/Buzz parting was what was gonna get the tears flowing (that's Pixar's entire MO), though nothing was ever going to reach the emotional crescendo/cartharsis of the incinerator scene in TS3. It would have been okay for TS4 to just be a coda to the perfect trilogy, the one that finds Bo and brings her home. If she's so bent on her newfound freedom (which they didn't really drive home) what difference would it have made in the long run? Bonnie isn't going to be a kid forever: just wait out her childhood, sneak out when she turns twelve, and find the nearest carnival then. It's a fine movie in and of itself, but it just doesn't gel with the perfect full-circle quality of the original trilogy.

Just saw it yesterday, sorry if I repeat anything that's been mentioned already. Interesting ideas, but oddly little Wonder Woman. The first movie was special because Diana was front-and-centre, and she was truly wondrous to watch. Not just her beauty or athleticism, but the fact that she made goodness INTERESTING. That's such a rare thing in fiction (to quote Simone Weil: "“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” The first movie managed to make the goodness of Diana romantic and exciting: her joy at seeing a baby, her steadiness of character, the way she said: "who will sing for us?" to Charlie, the way she always chose to do the right thing and had the power to see it through... Here she was just not really there at all. She felt like a supporting character in her own movie. Maxwell, Cheetah and Steve. You could have had TWO of these characters. TWO. Not three. There just wasn't time to do any of them justice, and oddly it seemed to be Maxwell, the character who had the least relevance to Diana's personal story, that got the most screen-time. Ironically the best parts were the very beginning and the very end: little Diana in the Amazon Olympics, and Lynda Carter's cameo at the end. I really hope the third movie goes back to Themyscira. When Maxwell's kid wished: "to be great like you, dad" I thought that this meant all the power of the wishing rock would pass into him, and that Diana would be faced with the moral crisis of potentially having to kill a kid in order to save the world (foreshadowed by all the kid-saving she did in this movie). And then that... didn't happen.

Though Kathryn Winnick clocked in the most episodes at seventy-one. Gustaf Skarsgård came second with sixty-eight.

Well, that was an ending. Perhaps a little underwhelming, but what saved it from being outright bad was that Hirst was respectful to the characters (unlike Game of Thrones) and had coherent arcs plotted out from the get-go (unlike Rise of Skywalker). I wasn't blown away, but everything felt right, if that makes sense. My only real complaint was that Ivar got taken out by some terrified-looking kid. He and Alfred have long-since been set up as rivals, and it would have worked better with the "Christianity takes over" theme if Athelstan's son was the one to deal the killing blow to the world's most famous Viking. I get subverting expectations and "biggest bad gets taken out by a random nobody" is popular these days, but it really hasn't worked since Lorne killed Lindsay in "Angel". The guy who killed someone for the sake of gold in America was profoundly stupid (dude, where do you plan to SPEND this gold?) but it was part of the theme that there's always going to be greed and violence in the world; a new land won't change that. Also, that in order to survive, the Vikings now have to change and adapt to new cultures. Hvitserk... yeah, he was always a follower, so I'm not surprised he converted. I kind of wish we finished with Rus way sooner in order to give more room to Wessex and more cat-and-mousing between Ivar and Alfred. But I'm glad the latter maintained his integrity and has clearly become the good ruler he's so renowned for. So Ingrid becomes Queen of Kattegat. If you had told me that at the beginning of the season, I wouldn't have believed you, but good for her! Still bewildered that this fairly minor side character rose to such a height (along with a slave woman we were literally introduced to in the previous episode) but I'll take it. I bet Gunnhild is kicking herself in Valhalla. Girl, all you had to do was wait for Harald to go get himself killed in Wessex, and the throne was yours! I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get some cameos from the original cast members: Ragnar, Lagertha, Athelstan, Rollo, Bjorn (I mean, we saw HALFDAN again for goodness sakes, but not the others?) but I supposed the actors have long since moved on. Honestly though: imagine a scene in which we see them all rocking out in Valhalla. Glad Torvi made it, but did they really have to kill off her daughter? And of course, extremely fitting that it all ended with Ubbe (Ragnar's best son) and Floki (his oldest friend, and last remaining original cast member). Laughed my head off at the two of them sitting there in those ponchos. It's been fun guys. I don't think anything matched the excellence of the early seasons, culminating in Ragnar's long-con in defeating King Horik, and from season three onwards Hirst had a frustrating tendency to introduce new characters and almost immediately kill them off (Yidu, Heahmund, Magnus, Astrid...) but obviously something kept drawing me back. I guess we'll meet again in the spin-off.

Penultimate episode!! So I really love the conceit of Ubbe and company making it to America, becoming aware of the people already living there, and then doing what the Good Side of Ragnar would have done: leave presents and peacefully integrate themselves. After all the violence and bloodshed of this show in its entirety, I almost shed a tear at the fact that, actually, sometimes human beings can do the right thing. It wasn't until the first glimpse of the carvings on the trees that I realized Floki was the "crazy man", though I obviously should have twigged the moment that phrase came up. That sequence was beautifully done, with the carvings of Ragnar and Kattegat on the tree trunks, and the beautifully constructed house in the trees. I wasn't even that big a fan of Floki, but I'm glad he's clearly found a sense of peace. As for Harald's death, it was somehow both overwhelming and undeserved. He gets taken out by some random Wessex bishop? I'll never understand why Gunnhild didn't get that honour, or why such a loathsome murderer/rapist (albeit one played by a very charismatic actor) gets to see the brother that he killed in his final moments. Ah well, I guess they just had a different system of morality than I do. Another odd choice was that a random slave woman took out Erik the Red - not that he didn't deserve it by that stage. Again, I know Ingrid isn't popular - but what exactly is her crime here? She blinded and killed a man that strong-armed himself into her bed, who at one point captured and sold her into slavery (loved that Erik felt the other woman's brand on her neck before he died) and there's been no indication that she's a bad queen. The way she handled the jarls and captains in getting higher taxes to build a defense wall was pretty masterful. Also, this was awesome: One more episode to go, I hope they make it. Alfred is on the backfoot, right on cue for his big comeback in the finale.

I feel like such a doofus; it's taken me this long to realize Ubbe and company were going to end up in America. Love that Alfred still has his chess piece, and that we saw those old shots of him playing with Ivar. Hirst has clearly been planning this particular story arc for a long time: Ragnar's son versus Athelstan's son, each with their own disabilities and nay-sayers. I don't know why but I hope Ingrid makes it out alive. She probably won't though.

Nice lead-up to the Alfred reveal. He's a good physical match for the child of Judith and Athelstan. I hate that Elsewith is being depicted as a nagging wife, not least because she actually makes a good point: the Vikings attack, Alfred makes terms with them, and it's only a matter of time before the Vikings attack again. At some point you have to stop giving people second chances. But of course, Alfred has to be the voice of reason, and Elsewith must be hushed. Ingrid: not entirely sure what you're up to, but go for it. Extremely thankful that the boat trip from hell is over. The chess match between Ivar and Alfred resumes,,,

Well, Ivar certainly won the crowd over pretty easily. It's not like he terrorized everyone and killed all their family members and announced himself as a god to be worshipped or anything. As soon as the Oracle said that the answer was in Ivar's pocket, I yelled: "the chess piece!" at the television. And it was the chess piece!! I love being right. So glad we're heading back to Wessex. The sex goddess was a bit random though.

Seriously, Gunnhild? You're just gonna give up? Sigh. This show has never been great with female characters that weren't Lagertha, so I don't know why I expected that to change this close to the finish line. I guess there's something vaguely amusing in a woman deciding to drown herself rather than marry Harald, but I was looking forward to the women finishing him off and agreeing to a joint-queenship. And seriously Hirst, you have Gunnhild make a promise that she'll slit Harald's throat if given the chance, then show her hiding a small dagger in her clothing and then... not follow through on that? Oh Kjetill, you're not King of Greenland, just King of a Dead Whale. Thank God that plot is over with. I'm also not sorry to see the end of Rus. Glad that Igor finally took Oleg out: like most self-pitying fools he compares himself to Jesus and then expects everyone to play nice with him as soon as they've got the upper hand. Since I'm sick of redemption arcs I'm glad they just dealt with him quickly. So I guess Katia's resemblance to Freydis really was just in Ivar's head? I half expected them to switch her out with another actress as they said goodbye, just to drive the point home.