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Feeling Fantastic Friday

I often get asked “how are you feeling?”, which is only natural considering the past 3 years.

For the majority of this year coming off Covid last November, then getting it again this past June (unbeknownst to me), I’d say I was feeling “okay”. It’s really a sliding scale when most of the past year was just hoping to feel better than horrible. “Okay” seemed…okay.

Putting numbers to it, the scale would be from 1 (feeling as if I’m about to die) to 10 (I’m 25 again, YEAH!)

Last November in the hospital, we were at a 1 to 2, much like the previous year for the stem cell transplant–living hell– after they hit me with the solid week of hard chemo. So having experienced a good chunk of the scale, it does give one a good overview.

This year, most of it was spent in the 5 to 7 range, 7 on the good days. Fatigue, easily winded, nasty cough. But an appointment was finally arranged in September with my infectious disease doctor, the latest addition to my ever expanding medical team. She, like my pulmonologist, was fascinated by my case.

You see, thanks to the ongoing bi-monthly maintenance therapy via my oncology team, I have been totally without antibodies since early 2019. This of course explained the severity of my Covid hit last November, why I got it again, and why, for most of this year, I was in that 6 range. No antibodies to clean house with this crap.

My infectious disease doctor compared the uniqueness of my case to that of Typhoid Mary, only without all the nasty connotations that tend to come along with her situation. So she recommended that I get some antibodies shoved into my system artificially with an infusion of REGENERON!

REGENERON! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Able to change the course of mighty rivers! And when administered to an ailing fella like myself, holy crap, it works!

Just a few days after the infusion, I felt unbelievably good. A couple weeks down the line, I still do. Honestly, I haven’t felt “good” for a very long time. You know how most people feel normal? I got to join the club again. The fatigue? Gone. The nasty cough? gone. The getting winded too easily? Gone. When I get winded now, yes, it’s because I’m old, but it’s leagues better than it was before.

The goal of the infusion was A) give me antibodies for protection, B) eliminate the viral remnants of Covid I’d had that, although not contagious, hung on me and kept showing up on tests for positives, and C) hopefully make me feel better.

Well, I’m certain “A” was accomplished as they literally pumped antibodies into me. Haven’t had the latest Covid test yet to resolve “B” yet but “C” has been a resounding success and a lot more so that I could have imagined.

Now, I’m hoping that the antibodies have been cleaning house, so these after-effects of the previous Covids are simply eradicated, as opposed to just staving off the above mentioned symptoms. I’m due for another infusion in two weeks, so we’ll see down the road.

But right now, in this moment, I feel great. 9 of 10! How YOU doin’?

Walter White, Tony Soprano and Al Swearengen walk into a bar

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I consider Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and Deadwood to be the three finest tv series ever. In that order! Running technically 5, 6, and 3 seasons respectively (depending on how you breakdown the split seasons), these shows did what few shows managed to do– maintained a high level of excellent writing, direction and acting from beginning to end. That is incredibly rare.

Maybe it’s the particular creative juices of the creators, or just the over the top love fans have for these shows that dictated that each had to add an epilogue of sorts, or prologue in the Sopranos’ case. Usually, revisiting a show down the road is a so so reunion at best, providing diminishing returns. But Vince Gilligan, David Chase and David Milch all went for it anyway.

Each show had it’s own particular set of circumstances surrounding the ends of their runs. Breaking Bad told the story of meek chemistry teacher Walter White who, over the course of 62 episodes, became ruler of a drug empire. It’s the very definition of “compelling drama”. It also pretty much stuck the finale landing perfectly. Of the three shows, it really had the most to lose. When a show is that powerfully and wonderfully produced, you’re almost asking for a follow up failure, because nothing is going to equal what you did in the main show.

And yes, “El Camino” was not as good as Breaking Bad. But it was damn good, picking up seconds after the Breaking Bad finale. No spoilers here, but it was a very successful epilogue to a wonderful series. It’s a balancing act to appease the fans yet come up with something new, while also dealing with any physical changes any actors may have gone through in the intervening years. But on all fronts, El Camino does its job. While Breaking Bad gets a rare 10 of 10, I’d give El Camino an 8 of 10.

Deadwood had no proper ending for the series, as creator David Milch had some disagreements with HBO as to how they’d proceed past season three, resulting in the show ending. We knew the original plan all along was for there to be five seasons to tell the whole story. Fans were absolutely gutted when the show ended prematurely. Admittedly, that’s why Deadwood ranks third in this triumvirate. It was incomplete– yet still FAR better than 99.9999999% of the rest of tv. There was much talk as the years passed about a couple of Deadwood movies that would possibly wrap things up. Then the whole thing was pronounced dead. Then alive.

Finally, over a decade after the end of the series, Milch did indeed get it done, crafting a two hour HBO movie that checked in on Deadwood and its characters ten years later in their own timeline, which was just about right. Miraculously, they managed to assemble all the surviving actors from the series to continue on, and Mitch delivered a well done epilogue for the denizens of Deadwood. Was it as good as the series? Close enough, but the nagging feeling was that had HBO played ball with Milch’s wants and needs, we would have gotten those last two proper seasons, which would have been marvelous. Deadwood ranked 9 of 10 and the epilogue film I’d give 7.5 of 10.

Then we’ve got the Sopranos, the longest running of the three. It ran its proper length and was fantastic throughout. The only possible quibble was the abrupt cut to black ending that read less like a statement from the auteur, and more like your cable just went out. We found out years later that Chase confirmed that the cut to black was Tony getting whacked.

After the longest of build ups, The Many Saints of Newark finally premiered. This prologue to The Sopranos takes place in the late ’60’s and mid ’70’s. It shows us the previous generation to the gang we saw in the main series, which aired from 1999 through 2006. The film centered on Dickie Moltisante, father of Christopher in the series.

Thing is, I was never engaged with this new character, or the somewhat uncharacteristic fringe world that seemed out of character for this particular world. Some bits were just odd and a bit confusing. They touch on big and small events/moments talked about on the series, which, while interesting, also had a ticking off the boxes feel at times.

There were good performances by the cast bringing us the much younger versions of those we were familiar with in the series. The only failure in this regard unfortunately was Michael Gandolfini portraying his late father James as a young Tony Soprano. I heard he had to audition three times. Should have done four. Sopranos rated a 9.5 out of 10. The Many Saints of Newark gets a 5 of 10.

David Chase has talked about possibly doing another movie chapter prologue that takes place in the 1980’s, although a lot will ride on how this one does. Frankly, if I were Chase, I’d stop now.

Vince Gilligan has also brought forth his own sort of tangential prologue to Breaking Bad with Better Call Saul, which as of this writing is filming its sixth and final season. The nice thing is that it’s its own entity, and it won’t effect the legacy of the parent show anyway. It is a good show though– nowhere as good as BB, but the wrapping up of the show will be inextricably tied to Breaking Bad regardless, as it’s on an intercept path with its future meeting of Saul and Walt. That’s about all I’m waiting for at this point.

David Milch had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago and I believe the Deadwood movie might have been his final project. It’s horribly sad when anyone gets that news, but there’s an extra later of sadness knowing such an amazing, gifted writer would soon lose that gift.

Although this has been a piece touching on the supplemental stories surrounding the main series, I can only recommend watching each of them if you haven’t (or rewatching them if it’s been a while). You won’t be sorry.

Breaking Bad

Sopranos

Deadwood

Enjoy!

Russell T. Davies is returning to Doctor Who as showrunner in 2023

…..and my mind is blown. Never in a million years would I have thought that he would come back to the interminably exhausting position, but Davies is coming back to Doctor Who just in time for the show’s 60th anniversary, succeeding Chris Chibnall.

The good news is Chibnall is finally leaving in 2022 after 3 seasons. Two disastrous, fan dividing seasons, and the third hasn’t even been broadcast yet. Maybe the shortened, six ep season will be a vast departure, and brimming with quality scripts? Who can say? I’m just happy that Chibs is leaving. His reign has divided fandom like never before with his lack of skill as a writer. Even moving the show to a day and time slot with no competition, it’s ratings have sunk to new lows under his stewardship.

Anyone would have been a step up, and Russell clearly has shown he knows what he’s doing, seeing as how he brought the show back and captured lightning in a bottle a second time, bringing new success to the old show.

The bad news…expectations. Starry-eyed David Tennant fans might think he’s coming back too, and that it’ll be a greatest hits from the last RTD era, buuuuut that’s not how it works usually. Russell isn’t really known as a guy that plays it safe. So, even though I’m sure there are plenty of suits at the BBC who think it’ll be a ratings bonanza circa 2008, they should also manage their expectations.

I think it more likely that RTD will try and reinvent the show to a degree to keep it fresh, while paying just the right amount of homage to his old era, as he did the classic series when he brought the show back in 2005, but it’ll be walking a tight-wire. Fans often have unrealistic expectations. So do suits.

Another element is how much Russell *really* wanted to come back. Oh, he loves the show, has been a fan since the 1960’s and even watched it during these intervening years and is still as big a fan as ever. Maybe, because he’s created other, different, successful shows during his 11 year absence that it’s easier for him to come jump back in the pool. Maybe the Beeb dumped two truckloads of money on his doorstep instead of one as an incentive. Maybe he finally missed the never-ending grind. Maybe all of the above.

There was some fluff article that came out the other day about how Matt Smith would return as the Doctor “if the conditions were right” but it’s really not up to him and the whole point of the show is that the Doctor regenerates into new actors, not rehashing the old ones as the new version. Matt’s had other goofy ideas in the past. I loved Matt as the Doctor but he had his time.

I was discussing it on a Facebook page and I stated that you must move forward, not backward, no matter how much the know it all fans think otherwise. Fans will run anything into the ground, then complain about how it’s not as good as it used to be. So no, bringing back Tennant or Smith as the 14th Doctor would be incredibly stupid and it would all blow up in Russell’s face.

As it is, that’s why I say RTD will have to reinvent the show again and possibly reinvent himself so he–and the show— are not going backward. So…. good luck, Russell — you have your work cut out for you, sir. But I’m excited to see where you take the show next.

Norm Macdonald

By now, most of you have probably heard about Norm Macdonald’s passing.

This shocked and saddened me, as he was one of my favorite comedians. His sense of humor was often way out there, in that he’d often take you on a journey with a hilarious left turn at the end.

On stage, he played it as if he was a bit dim, but he was usually the smartest guy in the room. Well read, incredibly knowledgable about a wide variety of subjects. A sharp mind that would constantly surprise you.

He was fearless. No topic was off-limit when there was an opportunity to show how hypocritical we are about some topics, a more intrusive style of observational humor that was always very clever and laugh out loud funny.

He was extremely religious, which always surprised me, as it seemed at odds with his usual way of thinking and attitude in general. If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d have assumed he was an athiest, if anything. But there again, he surprised. I really do get the feeling that we only scratched the surface on this guy, and we’ll likely never know any more.

Because he was an extremely private man. He had cancer for nine years, and never told a soul. Not his closest friends, not even his family. Everyone’s different, and I get not wanting to broadcast something like that to the world for a variety of reasons, but to not tell his family, especially his son? Best thing I could say here is that he was a complicated dude.

I wouldn’t dare try and tell any of his material because I don’t have his delivery, timing or talent, and would be doing him a disservice. But do yourself a favor and go down a YouTube rabbit hole and look up some of his stuff. The “moth story” when he was on Conan, or his last stand-up set he did as Letterman’s final guest before his show went off the air. Plenty more out there, so go explore. Rest in peace, Norm.

The Doom Patrol

A couple years ago, the pilot episode of Doom Patrol was streamed for free. I watched it, and frankly, I wasn’t impressed for a number of reasons. I *might* have continued watching it, but only the first one was free, man, then you had to buy another streaming service to watch the rest of the season. I HATE that tactic and on general principle, I don’t give in on it. Same for the Paramount + service. CBS actually showed the first ep of Star Trek Discovery and then nu uh, ya gots to buy another streaming service to watch it, suckah! Didn’t give in then either.

The Doom Patrol was streaming on the now defunct DC streaming service, but has since migrated over to HBOMAX. Which my daughter subscribes to, and thus, so do I. So, in the name of boredom viewing, I finally tried episode 2. I wasn’t sold, but it was enough to make me watch ep 3, and within a short amount of time, I was hooked and binging.

The DP is a group of screwed ups who obtain abilities and try to do the right thing. The powers, or curses, of these individuals are not what made them screw ups. They started out that way. The powers just exacerbated their issues. It’s a hell of a character study. And it’s weird. Very possibly the weirdest, most screwed up show in the history of television. Me trying to describe some of goings on would fall short and do the series a disservice. Instead, I’ll just mention some of the key players.

Niles Caulder is the Chief, a reforming manipulative mad scientist. He provides a home for the Patrol.

Rita Farr was a ’50’s Hollywood actress before being exposed to marsh gas in the Congo, which causes her to have elastic flesh when she can control it. When she can’t, it’s much like the Blob.

Larry Trainer was a test pilot in the ’60’s who flew into a space anomaly which irradiated him and created a negative spirit that lives within him. Larry has to wear special bandages which contain the radiation, while trying to live in peaceful coexistence with negative spirit within him, allowing it to burst forth from his body in times of danger.

Kay was a girl with 64 separate personalities, each with a different power, when Caulder rescued her from an institution in the late ’70’s.

Cliff Steele was a race car driver who was driving home one night with his wife when they were in an accident that killed her. Cliff’s brain survived and was placed in a robot body.

Victor Stone, Cyborg, who had about 40% of his body replaced by tech after an horrific lab accident.

There are other highlights such as Flex Mentallo, he of the powerful mystery muscle manipulation. Danny, the gender queer sentient street that can teleport anywhere in the world. The Beard-Hunter, who’s fairly self explanatory. Then there’s Mr. Nobody…. I won’t even try.

There’s some heart to the show if you can get past the characters that keep getting in their own way. The Doom Patrol is loaded with interesting characters, but then the parent DC comic always had plenty of interesting characters as well. Premiering on the comic stands in the early ’60’s right around the same time as the premiere of Marvel’s X-men, this was an unusual book for DC that broke the mold as far as DC heroes went.

The show borrows from the early days of the comic by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, as well as from the later Grant Morrison issues from the ’90’s. Thankfully, the show does a much better job scripting a coherent story than Morrison ever did, so bonus there.

I suppose if you’re looking for a little bit of super, a decent amount of fun, and a whole metric ton of WEIRD, then this is the show for you. Unless you’re a kid. This show is not for kids.

So far, there’ve been two seasons, with the third premiering on September 23rd. Considering that I just binged the first two, my timing couldn’t have been better. I’m ready for series three.

SLIDERS

I can not believe I didn’t devote one of last year’s 366 blog posts to the mid 1990’s sci fi series, SLIDERS. Of all the tv shows, binging, you name it, why did I not slide this in?

Created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Torme, SLIDERS follows four travelers as they travel from one parallel to another trying to get home.

While trying to invent an anti-gravity device, Quinn Mallory (Jerry O’Connell) accidentally creates a portal to other dimensions, controlled by a hand held timer. After a test run where he actually experiences a parallel world where red lights mean go, green means stop, and a bill board promoting Elvis “LIVE” in Vegas, Quinn realizes he succeeded in reaching a parallel earth.

Returning to his earth when the 15 minute timer was up on the device, he invites best friend Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and his physics professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys Davies) to observe the portal in his basement at home.

**John Rhys Davies as Professor Maximillian Arturo**

They decide to take a journey. But fearing the device might not have enough power for all three, Quinn goes full power, which promotes the portal to suck in them, move outside, and mistakenly absorbs a Cadillac driven by singer Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks).

**Cleavant Derricks and Rembrandt Brown**

All four are plunged into an earth during an ice age. With death imminent, they have to make an emergency jump, disrupting any control over where they go. And so they become unwilling SLIDERS.

This is a workshop on how to build a good, solid, sci fi series. You start with a concept where there really are no limits, and explore as many as you can.

Then you put together a team of four actors, different sexes, ages, ethnicities, but they have great chemistry together, as they are forced together in a very special bond. The mix and match overlap is wonderful.

Quinn and Wade are each maybe 20, 21 years old. Yet Quinn and Arturo are the brilliant scientists. Arturo and Rembrandt are in their 40’s. While Remy and Wade are the regular, fun loving people who the audience can also relate to easier than the brainiacs. Basically this quartet has something for everyone, and some excellent characterization.

Quinn’s the stand up guy, while Arturo is a kind soul, but has an ego and a short temper. Remy is sometimes the comic relief, but is as brave as they come. Wade’s the heart of the group. Watching these four come together and grow as a close knit group is great. It’s very rare that you can make a group of four leads work so well together.

It’s a very special show and I can’t recommend it enough. Now, the caveats —

Required viewing is Season one, consisting of ten episodes and season two, which is 13 eps.

Season 3 is where things got dicey. The Fox network started trying to exert more influence on the scripts, and basically, the quality started to plummet. Torme and Weiss departed, and Rhys Davies had absolutely enough of the new scripts in S3, and departed mid season. Most of the original cast had left by the time the show ended with the 5th season, where it had been airing for the past two years on the Syfy channel, shifting there after cancellation from Fox after season 3.

You can watch episodes streaming on Peacock now, and like I say, dive into the first two seasons. Maybe stick around long enough in S3 to watch Arturo’s departure.

AND, while doing a but of research, I found that Torme is currently pitching a reboot of SLIDERS. He’s looking to get the original cast involved as much as possible, which is great. I don’t know if there’s a deal in place, or what the odds are but if Torme is involved, I’m hopeful.

Actually, if it *doesn’t* work out, you know, Doctor Who IS looking for a showrunner….

Just sayin’…..

Interesting casting leak (?) for the MCU Fantastic Four movie…

YouTube has gobs and gobs of channels that try to bait you in with phony claims, announcements, etc., and over the years, I’ve taken note to bypass the biggest offenders, as 99% of the time, it’s a waste of time. They say they have BIG news, when in fact they have nothing.

Such is the way with the endless speculation on the casting of the MCU Fantastic Four movie. For months and months, fan theories, predictions, speculations, usually settling on a certain few choices so often, some people start to believe the rumor is fact.

Minor rumblings in Marvel were also rumored to be looking at race swapping the entire team for the sake of diversity, but at least keeping the Storm siblings same race. These same rumblings were talking about going with a comedy actor for Ben Grimm like Seth Rogan or Jonah Hill. Honestly, none of that interests me.

I came across one channel that had what it said was a halfway credible leak from a good source that’s been right before, giving out accurate Endgame spoilers well in advance. I’m not going to bother mentioning the channel, as the well meaning, but clueless narrator obviously doesn’t know much about the FF, and I’m giving all the pertinent info here, anyway. To be clear, this wouldn’t be anything official but this particular “leak” has the virtue of naming a very interesting set of actors that, for the most part, I think would be ideal, if true.

So, let’s look at these possibilities…

James Wolk as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic

This took me by surprise and delighted me at the same time. I’ve seen Wolk perform in Madmen and the HBO Watchmen series. I think he does a very good job. His look, his age (36), seems a pretty good fit for the leader of the FF.

Lucy Boynton as Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman

No idea who she is but she evidently appeared in Bohemian Rhapsody, is in her late 20’s, which would jibe with age range between Reed and Sue, is blonde, attractive, and I have no qualms about this choice.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch

This one really shocked me, but again, a good, interesting choice. Sangster has been in a ton of stuff, Game of Thrones, Love actually, Phineas and Ferb, etc. Johnny Storm is supposed to be younger than Sue by a few years, and although Sangster is actually 31 (!), he still looks like he’s 16. I actually saw him in Doctor Who 14 years ago when he was 17 and looked 12. He’s got the same baby face thing working as Holland does for Peter Parker. My only caveat would be he hits the gym and beefs up a tad.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Ben Grimm/The Thing

Another mind blower. Morgan’s been featured in the Watchmen movie and The Walking dead amongst other projects. Terrific actor. He is 55, which I was surprised to learn. He usually sports a grey beard but shave that off and he looks 40. I *suspect* that if any of this cast leak is true, that we might only see him as Ben Grimm in the beginning or in flashback, depending on how the team enters the MCU. He might just be doing the voice and wearing the mo-cap suit for the CGI Thing the rest of the time, like Ruffalo now with the Hulk. Either way, another interesting choice.

Will this be the way Kevin Fiege goes? I don’t know, but of all the choices talked about so far, this crew would be the one and only that gets a thumbs up from me so far. When WILL there be an official announcement about an FF cast?

Well, this year IS the 60th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, so what better way to celebrate than with an upcoming announcement at some convention? Is that Disney “D23” thing happening this summer or did it already happen? Between Disney events and Marvel events, there must be SOME big stage on which to break the news.

And really, come on, the movie’s actually due in theaters two years from NOW. Let’s get a move on, Kev. Listen, to me, the entire MCU so far has just been the lead in to the most important gem in the crown. Don’t **** it up.

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad — a review

Long being a fan of his work on Guardians of the Galaxy, I very much looked forward to James Gunn’s take on the Suicide Squad.

I figured we’d get the same type of fun, with a distinct musical bent that we’d grown accustomed to with his work. Add in the wide variety of third and fourth rate villains who were most certainly going to die at some point, I figured we’d have a winner.

Bottom line, I didn’t think this through to its logical conclusion.

See, I’m not fan of gore, and the voluminous gut’s worth of gore in this flick kept taking me out of the movie. I quickly realized the reason for the R rating. Honestly, I miss the days when an R rating meant tons of gratuitous nudity– but this would never be that type of film. It is a bunch of assassins killing people after all. Chopping, shooting, slicing, chewing, etc.

AND, I’m reminded that Gun started off his career doing splatter flicks for Troma films, so there should have been no surprises here. I guess I just expected more laughs and music than gore, but that’s on me and my preconceived notions after GOTG. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people went in with a similar mindset though.

It did have good stuff in it though.

It’s a better film than the first movie, although that is an incredibly low bar.

Idris Elba was good as Bloodsport–but he’s good in everything. Peter Capaldi was excellent as the Thinker –I didn’t realize he’d have such a big part. Polka Dot man was a pleasant, quirky surprise. Ratcatcher 2 was okay. Harley was Harley–take that as you’d like it.

Really, the only character I felt some compassion for was King Shark. He was about the most cuddly and adorable man-eating shark ever.

Amanda Waller was still the Queen Asshole, but spot on, as that’s her to a T.

Special kudos to the usage of Starro the Conqueror– inventive use of a silver age DC villain, well done! Great special effects.

Weasel was great! Could have used more of him.

As to the bad….

I kind of need someone to root for in a film, and this movie doesn’t quite provide much in the way of that. Bloodsport is an assassin who’s a bit sympathetic, but I find I didn’t care too much about him, or the rest of the core squad. I guess I felt sorry for Polka Dot Man and King Shark, as there’s really no way they’re not all just in a horrible, ongoing situation, working under threat of death from Waller, who’s really a piece of work.

Peacemaker was awful. An over the top cartoon of a douchebag, which is a shame, as I thought he’d be one of the highlights. I guess to some, he will be. I shudder to think how huge a fan base this guy is going to get but stupid sociopath who delights in gratuitously violent, bloody kills? Oh, he’s going to be KING.

This film wasn’t great, wasn’t horrible, but it was a bit of a let down that left a bad taste in my mouth. I expected better –maybe unfairly–from Gunn based solely on his later works, and was –again, maybe unfairly–disappointed when he lived up to his credentials from his earlier stuff.

I’ll be curious to see how the film does with box office — I watched it on HBOMAX, which probably doesn’t help it, but I’ll sleep at night.

Rewatchability factor: I don’t know if I’ll bother to watch it again.

James Gunn’s Suicide Squad: 5 of 10.

Visiting the Marvel Exhibit

Since we bought tickets ages ago, we decided to laugh in the face of the Delta variant of Covid and wade into the partially masked crowds at the Museum of Science and Industry. Actually, they had reservation times spread out probably every ten minutes, so the crowds were fairly spread out and there was plenty of room to breathe. I’d say half the crowd was masked.

I tend to keep track of these things. Especially since the edict had already come down from on high that everyone entering buildings in Chicago has to mask up. but crowd wise, it wasn’t bad.

We did see some cool stuff, a mix between comic books, with write ups on the past, framed original artwork, and tributes to creators…

…plus several life size statues of characters to pose with…

…and of course several characters displayed as their Marvel Cinematic Universe versions.

I think the main representative thrust of the exhibit does focus more on the MCU/movie versions of the characters. This probably explains why there’s very little X-men to be had. In fact, if you’re mostly an X-men fan, and don’t care about much else, you probably wouldn’t get a lot out of the exhibit.

I think the only reason the Fantastic Four are featured as much as they are is because of their being right there as the first comic in the Marvel age of comics in the 1960’s.

Sadly, this is probably as close as we’ll ever get to my long standing wish for a superhero museum, but it’s a fun diversion on a Saturday afternoon.

The Time has Come for the Black Widow (a spoiler free review)

You’ve got Ike Perlmutter to blame for the delay, far more than the pandemic.

See, Kevin Fiege –the commander in creativity that’s shepherded the MCU into legendary status — wanted the Widow to have her own film years ago, but Perlmutter –chief penny pinching creep for years before being declawed– vetoed a BW movie saying female lead superhero movies don’t sell.

Mmm.

I just wanted to address the inequities in the system, and god knows there are still plenty. There *is* a certain section of the fan base who indeed do NOT like female lead superhero films in general. That seems to be faulty thinking, considering there are different productions, directors, actors, etc. in each, yet this group automatically dislikes them all, perhaps thinking that any such production is too “woke” or “progressive”. Yeah, I don’t know, I just want a good movie.

And frankly, if any of these stubborn idiots *don’t* think the character of Natasha Romanov has earned her own movie by now, well, they’re hopeless.

This IS a good movie. In fact, I’ve already watched it twice.

This film has been such a long time coming, yet I worried that a flashback film might undercut her fate in Endgame. Here, I think, oddly enough, that the pandemic delay may have helped. Instead of the fresh, raw sadness we might have felt revisiting Nat’s past, I was now eager to just see a familiar face after all this time. After a disquieting MCU absence in 2020, being able to settle in for a major film again was nice. I’ll be honest, I expected a solid entry just on the performance of ScarJo, but I didn’t know what else to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, and then some.

First, Scarlett Johansson is a welcome, familiar, commanding presence in this, her *eighth* MCU film. Her supporting cast is impressive–far more entertaining than one could hope. Florence Pugh as Yelena steals most of the scenes she’s in, when David Harbour’s Alexi/Red Guardian isn’t busy stealing his. This “family” dynamic plays to the heart of the characters and their relationship, while set square in the midst of bone crunching action, and spectacular fight choreography.

As for villains, I shouldn’t say too much except Ray Winston delivers nicely, and Taskmaster takes the comic character in unexpected directions, while maintaining the established abilities.

Now, I was totally unfamiliar with director Cate Shortland, but she’s easily the most impressive of the new crop of MCU directors in recent years. She knows how to handle heart, drama, comedy, and *proper* superhero action, all mixed together. This is not easy to do.

The director’s of Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spider-man: Far from home and Dr. Strange sometimes fell short in certain areas, couldn’t quite get that perfect mix, but Cate Shortland does. This reminded me more of some of the Captain America movies, and any comparison to the Russo bros. is as good as gold in my opinion.

Rewatchability is a big quality factor for me with these films. All the above films I mention that fall short? It took me ages and ages before I rewatched them. I just didn’t care. My friend Eric had to do a special edit of Ragnarok to take some of the stupid out. But Black Widow, twice in six days.

Now the next bit is how to watch the film. Some controversy here.

Kevin Fiege is all about people going to see the films in the theater and is almost dismissive about viewing it on Disney +. I don’t know if Kevin is just a theater elitist, or maybe has his head up his ass, but someone should remind Kev that not *everyone* is salivating to get back to packed movie houses yet.

Many people have good home theaters that serve perfectly well. Oh, of course not in the opinion of those who live and die by IMAX but just the same, I appreciate the writing, direction, action and score, more than having perfect surround sound tickling the back of my head.

Full disclosure: some of you already knew that I have a low opinion of going to the theater anyway, and have for years. Idiots with cell phones, chattering crowds, wrappers crackling, popcorn munching, etc. many people put up with humanity in these scenarios and even revel in it. I do not.

Disney + was made for me. Really, one $30 payment, the four of us watching it last Friday, … good lord, a family of four pays at least triple that going to a theater, then they have to sit through an hour of commercials and previews. No thanks.

You might wonder, how much money did Black Widow make on her opening weekend in this still partially pandemic influenced climate?

Well, the domestic box office was $80 mil, the added international was another 75 mil, and Disney + added another 60 mil! Usually, Disney never puts up their streaming numbers but did so this time. I must conclude that this was way more than they’d ever gotten before in an instance like this. Good!

Mind you, I have no idea what this means going forward — if people prefer + to theaters more and more, or if folks are just not ready to return to theaters yet. Hard to even say if + actually *stole* any butts from the movie seats, but I kind if doubt it. I think anyone who was going to see it in theaters anyway, SAW it in theaters. I think adding + just allowed more people to see it, along with those who were not inclined to head back to theaters yet.

We have no idea how bad the Delta wave of Covid’s going to get this fall, but the numbers are already growing. I think having Disney + as an option for the MCU films is probably very very smart, and obviously a money maker too. DC comics movies are relying on HBOMAX for the same reason, and I’m very much looking forward to James Gunn’s Suicide Squad next month.

I think guys like Fiege are going to have remember the common folk may have to seek more alternatives in the current situation.

But do I recommend Black Widow? Definitely. See it however you can!

8.5 out of 10.