Pop culture stuff...to stave off ...
Mar. 24th, 2021 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Ben Affleck Returns as Batman in the Flash Film.
It will also have Michael Keaton in it.
Affleck will return to the dual role of Batman and Bruce Wayne for the upcoming The Flash movie, directed by Andy Muschietti. That film has long been expected to be loosely based on the Flashpoint story by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, which tells of how Barry Allen inadvertently enters an alternate reality after trying to change the past to prevent the murder of his mother. In the comics, he meets a different version of Batman, but for the film, that will be versions plural, with Affleck sharing screentime with Michael Keaton as a different, older Dark Knight from yet another corner of the DC multiverse.
“[Affleck’s] Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong, which is his masculinity—because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline —but he’s also very vulnerable,” Muschietti told Vanity Fair. “He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”
[They apparently couldn't get Christian Bale - actually that's why Affleck took over the role, Bale turned it down.]
There's speculation that DC may use the Flashpoint film to ret-con the DC film verse or reset it. Undoing the Snyderverse and Nolan's stuff. Kind of a reboot. Similar in a way to what they did in Days of Future Past with the X-men. But seriously? Anything could happen at this point.
The Flash movie's history is insane, apparently. And would take volumes to explain or so I've been told. Apparently it's been in development for years and had countless directors attached. It's so complicated it has a Wiki page devoted to it. LOL! So we'll see if it ever gets made or released.
2. Ten Things Whedon and Geoff Johns/Jon Berg added to Justice League that weren't necessary and kind of baffling
[Also offensive in a few places. So offensive that I'm kind of leery of Whedon now. I can barely look at interviews or photos of the man without cringing.]
Joss Whedon took a hatchet to the original Justice League, chopping away at Zack Snyder's vision and refilming more of the movie than necessary.
I'm tempted to do a meta about dialogue and humor, and how certain types of low-brow frat boy style humor doesn't work. But ...meh. I think I made the point already elsewhere.
Anyhow... a few excerpts:
In the 2017 film, Martha Kent goes to the Daily Planet to visit Lois Lane and tell her she lost the farmhouse. They have a conversation about Clark in a conference room. There is an awkward moment where Martha tells Lois Clark told her she was the thirstiest woman he knew. This scene was not originally in the film. There was actually supposed to be a conversation between Martha and Lois at Lois' apartment, which is included in the Snyder Cut.
I've watched both now - and the 2017 scene is cringe inducing and jarring. It doesn't fit, and the jokes border on crass. The 2020 sequence by Snyder is so much better. And holds true to the characters.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner accidently faceplants into Natasha Romanoff's chest. In Justice League, the same "joke" is used with The Flash and Wonder Woman. It goes without saying that the scene is not present in the Snyder Cut.
This is baffling. Whedon got into trouble for doing it on AoU, which I'd hand-waved because of Natasha and Hulk's relationship in the Avengers films (grating but ...), but why does he do it again with the Flash and Wonder Woman? It offended Gail Gadot - to the extent that she had her body double do it - and refused to do the scene. Also it's inappropriate and falls under frat boy humor. (The type of humor that makes women want to kick frat boys in the balls.) The fact that he thought it was funny enough to do it twice, makes me want to kick Whedon in the balls really hard and giggle at him, while he squirms.
(It hurts when a man falls on a woman's breasts. Breasts are tender. And it is offensive. How would you feel if I kneed you in the balls or accidentally whoomped you with a plastic bat and giggled??)
It's funny back in 2017 - I thought Whedon's Justice League was okay, with some jarring and cringe inducing moments, but overall not that bad. Then forgot it. Completely. I also thought he probably would make a better film than Snyder. In 2021, I find Whedon's film bordering on unwatchable, and my opinion of Whedon has tumulted, while I enjoyed Snyder's film and find aspects of it not only memorable but haunting.
Have I changed? Or has my perception/perspective merely changed? Or a little of both? Because the films for the most part are the same.
3. Coming to a television screen near you...
* HBO MAX - Kate Winslet plays a small-town detective in Mare of Easttown. It takes place in Pennsylvania and features a character who is a small town PI, with wrinkled clothes, and a bit of a grump. Premier's April 18.
* PBS - Hemingway Documentary by Ken Burns. Three parts. Airs - April 5
* ABC - Rebel - Katy Sagal plays an Erin Brockovinch type - legal advocate (it's produced and created by Erin Brockovnich).
* Netflix - Shadow and Bone - the fantasy series that adapts the Shadow & Bone and Six of Crows books. Focuses on orphan Alina Starkov - who may have the ability to upturn her world. Airs - 4-23
*THEM - on 4/8 Amazon Prime - it's an Horror anthology drama, that delves into America's cultural divides. The 50's set first season titled Covenant - is about a Black family from North Carolina who moves into then-all-white Compton, California. They battle the racism outside their hours and the evil of the supernatural sort inside it.
I plan to start Streaming "The Falcon and the Winter Solider" on Disney Plus this weekend.
4. Ames wants me to try these three books:
This Is Happiness: a lovely novel with sort of a sleepy start that rambles about life in a small Irish village in the 1950s about to get electricity. Male narrated/lead. It would likely remind you of your summer in Whales.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/books/review/this-is-happiness-niall-williams.html
A Gentleman in Moscow (has become one of my very favorite books): Is a 30-year saga of the Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who is placed under house arrest inside the Metropol Hotel in Moscow in 1922. It is an "elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin." Male narrated/lead.
Rules of Civility is by the same author as "Gentleman.." and I think you'd like this a lot, female narrator/lead. Bonus: it works well as an audio book (although now that I've had a listen, I want a hard copy to re-"read" at some future time). Shorter than the other 2, I think. It's set in NYC in the late 1930s through a couple of decades, but mostly 1930s-early 1940s: "On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table."
All 3 books are about the same length, 300-400 pages. Depends what you might want in a read (or a listen). I think you would enjoy all 3. All of them have very excellent quips peppered throughout and are very well written, good stories.
__
It should be noted that Ames and I share the same sense of humor. Kind of dry sardonic.
I don't know. I'm moody at the moment. And kind of hit the wall with the pandemic. I'm making myself wait until April to get a hair cut. But I want one now.
5. The Nevers Cast Previews the Series and Discusses the Vibe on the Set
They will be positive - it's a promotional article. Also Whedon only directed six episodes of a project he cast himself, and picked the crew and writers for. During a pandemic. He left it (allegedly) due to personal exhaustion. (I don't know, his announcement came on the heels of the Justice League investigation, and I honestly think he was ass hole on the Justice League shoot. But it was also a toxic situation long before he arrived, he just made it worse. And he had help - lots of help. Basically white boys being assholes. Typical Hollywood. On the Nevers, he surrounds himself with folks who keep him in check, and it's not a superhero film.)
The Nevers begins with a (supernatural) bang.
The upcoming HBO series takes place in 1896 in the aftermath of an otherworldly event that gives certain people — mainly women — abilities. In the series, these abilities are called "turns," and it quickly becomes apparent that anyone with a turn is in danger. So two of "the touched," Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), set out to save everyone they can and bring other members of the touched into their orphanage. (It's not unlike X-Men, but with almost all women and a lot more Victorian garb.)
The series comes from creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who, after working on the first six episodes, announced in November that he was leaving the series, noting that he was "genuinely exhausted" and wanted to "martial my energy towards my own life." Whedon later came under fire when Buffy star Charisma Carpenter (and supporting costars) were the latest to accuse Whedon of creating "hostile and toxic work environments."
But as HBO stated at the time of his exit, The Nevers will continue on without Whedon, with Philippa Goslett taking the reins as the new showrunner. EW sat down with stars Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly via Zoom for the exclusive first interview about their new series.
And The NEVERS trailer.
Whedon did direct all six episodes, and wrote two. They were supposed to have ten but Whedon left.
I'll probably check it out. I was considering skipping, but what the heck. It's free. I'm already paying for HBO Max.
In case you haven't figured it out by now? I've debated the whole Whedon thing with myself (and other people but mainly myself) in this journal for about two months now - and have come to the conclusion, that...he was guilty of everything they alleged. He was an asshole. He probably deserved whatever happened. They'd be a fool to hire him to show-run a television show, or direct a large scale film ever again.
But it's not my job to judge. Or my business for that matter. And it probably doesn't matter.
But I did learn stuff - so that's good.
People claim things are a waste of time? I don't think anything is - we learn from the silliest and craziest things.
It will also have Michael Keaton in it.
Affleck will return to the dual role of Batman and Bruce Wayne for the upcoming The Flash movie, directed by Andy Muschietti. That film has long been expected to be loosely based on the Flashpoint story by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, which tells of how Barry Allen inadvertently enters an alternate reality after trying to change the past to prevent the murder of his mother. In the comics, he meets a different version of Batman, but for the film, that will be versions plural, with Affleck sharing screentime with Michael Keaton as a different, older Dark Knight from yet another corner of the DC multiverse.
“[Affleck’s] Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong, which is his masculinity—because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline —but he’s also very vulnerable,” Muschietti told Vanity Fair. “He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”
[They apparently couldn't get Christian Bale - actually that's why Affleck took over the role, Bale turned it down.]
There's speculation that DC may use the Flashpoint film to ret-con the DC film verse or reset it. Undoing the Snyderverse and Nolan's stuff. Kind of a reboot. Similar in a way to what they did in Days of Future Past with the X-men. But seriously? Anything could happen at this point.
The Flash movie's history is insane, apparently. And would take volumes to explain or so I've been told. Apparently it's been in development for years and had countless directors attached. It's so complicated it has a Wiki page devoted to it. LOL! So we'll see if it ever gets made or released.
2. Ten Things Whedon and Geoff Johns/Jon Berg added to Justice League that weren't necessary and kind of baffling
[Also offensive in a few places. So offensive that I'm kind of leery of Whedon now. I can barely look at interviews or photos of the man without cringing.]
Joss Whedon took a hatchet to the original Justice League, chopping away at Zack Snyder's vision and refilming more of the movie than necessary.
I'm tempted to do a meta about dialogue and humor, and how certain types of low-brow frat boy style humor doesn't work. But ...meh. I think I made the point already elsewhere.
Anyhow... a few excerpts:
In the 2017 film, Martha Kent goes to the Daily Planet to visit Lois Lane and tell her she lost the farmhouse. They have a conversation about Clark in a conference room. There is an awkward moment where Martha tells Lois Clark told her she was the thirstiest woman he knew. This scene was not originally in the film. There was actually supposed to be a conversation between Martha and Lois at Lois' apartment, which is included in the Snyder Cut.
I've watched both now - and the 2017 scene is cringe inducing and jarring. It doesn't fit, and the jokes border on crass. The 2020 sequence by Snyder is so much better. And holds true to the characters.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner accidently faceplants into Natasha Romanoff's chest. In Justice League, the same "joke" is used with The Flash and Wonder Woman. It goes without saying that the scene is not present in the Snyder Cut.
This is baffling. Whedon got into trouble for doing it on AoU, which I'd hand-waved because of Natasha and Hulk's relationship in the Avengers films (grating but ...), but why does he do it again with the Flash and Wonder Woman? It offended Gail Gadot - to the extent that she had her body double do it - and refused to do the scene. Also it's inappropriate and falls under frat boy humor. (The type of humor that makes women want to kick frat boys in the balls.) The fact that he thought it was funny enough to do it twice, makes me want to kick Whedon in the balls really hard and giggle at him, while he squirms.
(It hurts when a man falls on a woman's breasts. Breasts are tender. And it is offensive. How would you feel if I kneed you in the balls or accidentally whoomped you with a plastic bat and giggled??)
It's funny back in 2017 - I thought Whedon's Justice League was okay, with some jarring and cringe inducing moments, but overall not that bad. Then forgot it. Completely. I also thought he probably would make a better film than Snyder. In 2021, I find Whedon's film bordering on unwatchable, and my opinion of Whedon has tumulted, while I enjoyed Snyder's film and find aspects of it not only memorable but haunting.
Have I changed? Or has my perception/perspective merely changed? Or a little of both? Because the films for the most part are the same.
3. Coming to a television screen near you...
* HBO MAX - Kate Winslet plays a small-town detective in Mare of Easttown. It takes place in Pennsylvania and features a character who is a small town PI, with wrinkled clothes, and a bit of a grump. Premier's April 18.
* PBS - Hemingway Documentary by Ken Burns. Three parts. Airs - April 5
* ABC - Rebel - Katy Sagal plays an Erin Brockovinch type - legal advocate (it's produced and created by Erin Brockovnich).
* Netflix - Shadow and Bone - the fantasy series that adapts the Shadow & Bone and Six of Crows books. Focuses on orphan Alina Starkov - who may have the ability to upturn her world. Airs - 4-23
*THEM - on 4/8 Amazon Prime - it's an Horror anthology drama, that delves into America's cultural divides. The 50's set first season titled Covenant - is about a Black family from North Carolina who moves into then-all-white Compton, California. They battle the racism outside their hours and the evil of the supernatural sort inside it.
I plan to start Streaming "The Falcon and the Winter Solider" on Disney Plus this weekend.
4. Ames wants me to try these three books:
This Is Happiness: a lovely novel with sort of a sleepy start that rambles about life in a small Irish village in the 1950s about to get electricity. Male narrated/lead. It would likely remind you of your summer in Whales.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/books/review/this-is-happiness-niall-williams.html
A Gentleman in Moscow (has become one of my very favorite books): Is a 30-year saga of the Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who is placed under house arrest inside the Metropol Hotel in Moscow in 1922. It is an "elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin." Male narrated/lead.
Rules of Civility is by the same author as "Gentleman.." and I think you'd like this a lot, female narrator/lead. Bonus: it works well as an audio book (although now that I've had a listen, I want a hard copy to re-"read" at some future time). Shorter than the other 2, I think. It's set in NYC in the late 1930s through a couple of decades, but mostly 1930s-early 1940s: "On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table."
All 3 books are about the same length, 300-400 pages. Depends what you might want in a read (or a listen). I think you would enjoy all 3. All of them have very excellent quips peppered throughout and are very well written, good stories.
__
It should be noted that Ames and I share the same sense of humor. Kind of dry sardonic.
I don't know. I'm moody at the moment. And kind of hit the wall with the pandemic. I'm making myself wait until April to get a hair cut. But I want one now.
5. The Nevers Cast Previews the Series and Discusses the Vibe on the Set
They will be positive - it's a promotional article. Also Whedon only directed six episodes of a project he cast himself, and picked the crew and writers for. During a pandemic. He left it (allegedly) due to personal exhaustion. (I don't know, his announcement came on the heels of the Justice League investigation, and I honestly think he was ass hole on the Justice League shoot. But it was also a toxic situation long before he arrived, he just made it worse. And he had help - lots of help. Basically white boys being assholes. Typical Hollywood. On the Nevers, he surrounds himself with folks who keep him in check, and it's not a superhero film.)
The Nevers begins with a (supernatural) bang.
The upcoming HBO series takes place in 1896 in the aftermath of an otherworldly event that gives certain people — mainly women — abilities. In the series, these abilities are called "turns," and it quickly becomes apparent that anyone with a turn is in danger. So two of "the touched," Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), set out to save everyone they can and bring other members of the touched into their orphanage. (It's not unlike X-Men, but with almost all women and a lot more Victorian garb.)
The series comes from creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who, after working on the first six episodes, announced in November that he was leaving the series, noting that he was "genuinely exhausted" and wanted to "martial my energy towards my own life." Whedon later came under fire when Buffy star Charisma Carpenter (and supporting costars) were the latest to accuse Whedon of creating "hostile and toxic work environments."
But as HBO stated at the time of his exit, The Nevers will continue on without Whedon, with Philippa Goslett taking the reins as the new showrunner. EW sat down with stars Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly via Zoom for the exclusive first interview about their new series.
And The NEVERS trailer.
Whedon did direct all six episodes, and wrote two. They were supposed to have ten but Whedon left.
I'll probably check it out. I was considering skipping, but what the heck. It's free. I'm already paying for HBO Max.
In case you haven't figured it out by now? I've debated the whole Whedon thing with myself (and other people but mainly myself) in this journal for about two months now - and have come to the conclusion, that...he was guilty of everything they alleged. He was an asshole. He probably deserved whatever happened. They'd be a fool to hire him to show-run a television show, or direct a large scale film ever again.
But it's not my job to judge. Or my business for that matter. And it probably doesn't matter.
But I did learn stuff - so that's good.
People claim things are a waste of time? I don't think anything is - we learn from the silliest and craziest things.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-25 05:51 am (UTC)That sort of joke seems common on that sort of media too. I've never thought people getting whacked in the balls was funny, but you see it over and over and over again.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-25 12:08 pm (UTC)Actually that's why I used it as a comparison. Both are used for humor. A lot of humor is about laughing at someone else's pain or embarrassment. It's kind of cruel.
Whedon has a rather mean sense of humor - which he cultivated during his days on Roseanne, which also had a mean sense of humor.