Modern superheroes are selfish and terrible

I was never really a big superhero movie fan. I enjoyed some of them, but definitely didn't wait to watch them all eagerly like a real fan would. I still haven't watched the early stuff of Ironman, Captain America or Hulk etc. I did enjoy the avenger series, mainly because it was an action movie. I do like fantasy and I guess I was drawn to that fantasy-like or Sci-fi like atmosphere. I mean, with Starwars series on a terrible decline (of similar Mary Sue heroine sort), as a viewer, we're not given much of a choice.

One of the aspects I don't like about superheroes is the 'chosen one' trope. They're innately born or given these magical powers and I've always disliked how people who sought out those powers were evil people. Maybe it's the middle child syndrome in me, or the fact that I've always wanted to just be normal. Like a wall flower almost. In any case, what I like is when characters actually train or work towards their powers. Even though I didn't fully invest in Captain America, that's one thing I liked about the character. He wanted strength for good and trained to get it (well... with the help of evil science as well). My current favorite superhero is probably Rorschach from Watchmen since he's the first one to come to mind when I think about my favorite superhero. Watchmen is one of my favorite superhero movies and Superhero movie is probably my second favorite since it has Leslie Neilson in it and Kick-ass is also good as well. But most of these movies have characters that basically want to be superheroes for some sort of justice in their mind and train to become one. I know it feels I've went on a bit of a tangent from the title, but it's important, since the 'chosen one' trope becomes more and more abundant with recent films such as She-hulk, Eternals or Dr. Strange. I know some of those had a bit of training montage, but in most cases, it spans off into an explanation that they were chosen to be in that role.

Now another point I want to make before listing a few 'selfish' superhero, is just... what makes heroes a hero? For me, I feel like it'd selflessness. The definition of a hero is just simply 'a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.' which isn't really selfless, but personally, heroes are people who would sacrifice themselves to help others. It's why for a lot of children, their fathers or mothers are their heroes. They work hard to provide for their family. We need heroes in our lives because as social creatures, most of us are not equip for self-sustaining lifestyle. We live in a society and crave to be a part of it by socializing. When we fall, we want the mental security that someone out there will look after them and help them out. When 11 Thailand boys were stuck in a cave, it was so heartwarming to know people cared and wanted to save them. It was an international sensation. Even Elon Musk chimed in (even though he was hated for it). A diver died during the extraction process and to me... it really did feel like all those people there were the real heroes. So without this bravery that comes from caring about other human beings, it's hard for me to say someone is a 'hero'. A man can go and fight a bunch of monsters, but if he doesn't care about the people he's saving, then a part of me feels like he's doing it mostly for himself. Let's face it, most of us have played video games and fighting monster is 'fun' and in video games at least, we don't do it to save the NPCs, we do it for the thrill of the fight. 

Oh and I just wanted to point out, it's also one of the reasons why I 'used to' like DC superheroes more than Marvel. Original big players in the DC superhero league were Batman, Superman, Wonder woman, Aquaman and the Flash etc. I don't know much about Aquaman and Flash, but Batman, Superman and wonder woman really seemed like characters that thought about humanity. Batman focused more on his own city, Gotham and what was needed within it. Movies like, 'The Dark Knight' trilogy really explored into the whole role Batman played in the city and how he built his character. Wonder woman and Superman as well, being almost indestructible and not being 'human' they had defining moments where they wanted to save humanity even with their flaws, because they loved them. I can see why... Most of them came post war era. 

You know what, after writing all that stuff, I can't even be bothered to write about modern superheroes hahaha I just... can't be bothered.

So I'll just list a few I was gonna write about and just bugger off.

Iron man (obviously haha)

Thor

She-hulk

Antman

Captain marvel

Moon knight (although it was fun watching how he over comes his struggles)

Then I wanted to go into why they're written like that, it's because the new generation has been living without severe poverty and hardship, so they were always told they were special and that they need to love themselves etc... ah, you get what I mean. 

Anyway, I just can't be bothered. Gonna go back to work

I... don't like Ariel being black

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/15/little-mermaid-disney-trailer-culture-war-ariel-black-white

Disney making The Little Mermaid black

Just wanted to link that article and that video before I write because it sums up my feelings quite well.

I'm... annoyed at this great divide that is happening. It's like watching communist vs capitalist in early 19th century unfold all over again, but it feels a bit more comical now. This divide, just like the communist vs capitalist, is fueled heavily by the media and some leaders that have emerged.

 Instead of creating pieces that unites people or leaves people content as is, big media companies like Fox news, CNN, Netflix etc, have decided that bad publicity and provocative content that fuels a 'debate' which isn't really a debate, is the way to grab attention rather than having just good, heart-warming content which is boring. 

Casting a black person as The little Mermaid Ariel was not a move to be more inclusive. It was a calculated move to rile people up. Make it so that people who don't like it can be called racist, and the people who support it to fight with those who don't like it. If you like it, you're immediately put into a group as being 'woke', using tokenism to feel better about themselves. 

This was all avoided. Disney could've made a new original princess. We are due for a proper black princess after all. I don't even feel Princess and the Frog, Tiana was featured like a proper princess. They opened a restaurant together rather than living in a castle. Which is alright... but you know... Definitely feels less grand than most other princesses with their castles.

If they really wanted to be 'woke' they could've made a movie with a real African princess from an African folktale like from Ghana, Zimbabwe etc. They do exist!!

https://anikefoundation.org/african-folktales/afiong-the-proud-princess

What happened to the innovation that fueled Moana? She's a loved princess that actually embraces her Pacific islander origin... 

Ariel being black just divided people. You cannot ignore the feelings of people who liked Ariel as a white character. It's like telling gays to stop being sexist and love women as well. It just doesn't work that way. To just replace the iconic features of a character pre-established by Disney is just... annoying I guess. I don't like it. 

 

Shehulk trailer review

 I'm not a huge superhero fan, but I do like watching their movies every now and again, just for the cool fight scenes and effects. When the trailer for Shehulk came out, I guess I was mildly curious so I watched it... and uh... I just couldn't forget all these lingering thoughts about the whole trailer so I'm gonna lash out here.

By the way, the version of the trailer I watched is this one

https://youtu.be/gim2kprjL50

First off, I just want to leave this statement here that I'm a bit of a bigot when it comes to all these woke movement and 'feminist' movement. I hate how they constantly replace old characters with people of other gender, race or whatever, just to please the woke crowd. It's annoying. I want original cool female characters. I want original cool black characters. Not this whole second hand bs that goes on. I can see that it's divided some people and some end up even hating the women who are involved in these productions for ruining their favorite character. I understand them to a certain extent. For an extreme example, let's say some woke movie director changed a historic Korean character like king Sejong into a black character. As a korean, I'd be pretty gosh darn pissed at everyone involved in it, including the small group of black people that allowed this to happen and all the woke people who think the move is 'progressive'. By the way, I know some people are thinking, "oh they won't change real historical figures into a different race..." it's already happened with Ann Boylen. Back to the Shehulk movie, even whilst knowing all these female versions of these superheroes are not adaptations, but other characters that just happen to be in the same universe with the same power/ability, it's just a bit annoying. That niggly feeling in the back of my mind saying things like, "but... Thor is a mythological character that's a male..." or, "I... like Bruce Banner as 'the' hulk" is all just stuck in my brain and I can't really seem to pry it out. Like... can't they have a female character with her own moves, powers and setting?? Isn't characters like Scarlett witch, Jean Gray and Black widow an inspiration?? In any case, Shehulk has been around for a long time, so making a movie/show (I don't know which one it is) is just. I'm just saying as a broad term that I don't like it when they make 'female version' of existing characters. 

With that down, I guess I went in to watching the trailer with not much grand expectations what-so-ever. I just hoped it wasn't going to be like 'Captain Marvel' where there's a Mary Sue character that only has men holding her back being her worst enemy. And to my liking, it wasn't. The trailer for me, had a different set of non-issue issue, but I'll get to that soon. Shehulk genuinely looked like it could be fun (just not for me). It seemed to have conflict that's not all 'men are evil'.  

Anyway, so I wanted to share why the movie wasn't for me and no, it's not the CGI and I accept that Shehulk is her own unique character etc (apparently her origin story is completely different from Bruce as well). The movie seems entertaining and I would have definitely watched it... if I was a chick flick fan... 

Before I go on about this, I just want to say there's nothing wrong with chick flick movies and movies directed towards the female audience and I actually think it's rather nice that Marvel universe really does cater towards all groups of population rather than just the action loving superhero fans. People are annoyed at the trailer and some are downright saying it looks like it'll be a bad movie, but I don't think they realize that they're not the target audience. The movie just screamed a chick flick movie and if you're not into that, of course you won't like it. Doesn't mean it'll be a bad movie though. 

If you look at the trailer, I watched it a few times and some with my partner just to point this out, most of the trailer shows NO superhero action... Most... Trailers should give you a general view of what the movie will be about right? Including the conflicts and relationship interests etc. Well if you look at trailers for Iron man, Hulk, Thor, you see things like, who the villain is, some fight scenes, some friends you meet on their journey who will fight together, who they want to protect... well Shehulk... had very little of all those. It basically wasn't the trailer for an action superhero movie. What kind of aspects are featured in chick flick movies? Well I've looked at the movie trailer for, Legally blonde (a bit old, I know, but I haven't seen a chick flick movie in a long time), Pitch perfect, I feel pretty and Isn't it romantic... a few common scenes show up. Here are some; girls night out (or hanging out with girls, usually in bars), some dating scene (if it's comedy, the dating scene going badly in a funny way), being made fun of for her looks or being praised for her looks, a total hottie (male love interest), the main female wearing something nice and doing a slow motion walk (that fails in a funny way in comedy)... Do... do you see where I'm getting at?? These were all the things that were in the Shehulk movie...(except slowmo walk) After watching the trailer like 3 times, I still don't know who her main villain is and whether there'll be any epic group fight scenes. I know there will be fight scenes, obviously, since they showed like less than 5 second snippets of it here and there, but it was mostly just her jumping, running and pushing?? The only 'superhero' like scene they really focused on were her training. But training... isn't really beating up the bad guy, it's personal development. Plus the trailer didn't show at all what was at stake. Does she have friends and family she wants to protect from the bad guy? Maybe they're her friends they keep showing, but they don't seem like they're in any danger throughout the trailer at all. The only thing at stake seemed like her pride maybe ??? and even that I'm not too sure since she seemingly doesn't want to be a superhero. 

In any case, I just wanted to let that out. Once again, I'm not trying to say chick flick is bad or the Shehulk movie is going to be bad based on the trailer. Chick flick movies aren't my thing, so I'm not that keen on it. I do hope people who are negative about the whole aspect of Shehulk movie realizes that Shehulk is not a marvel superhero movie, it's a chick flick fun movie with superhero mixed into it.

Enough ranting... Peace out

Eternals Movie review

 

Can you guess whether I liked Eternals or not?

No

No I didn't like it haha

Well that's a bit of a stretch, since I did like most of the movie, I just didn't really feel great about the story's fit in the marvel universe, the character development (?? or lack thereof??) the vague enemy, continuity and consistency in the narrative and the writing choices etc. I enjoyed the CGI, the effects, the cool fight scenes and I can see myself just sitting back to enjoy the show if I completely shut my logical part of the brain off and ignore the story and characters completely.

First off, I just want to point out that Marvel universe has just gotten too big, too messy. Like out of all the superheroes out there, including the genius ones with super technology, the avengers previously existing and x-men with dr. xavier existing somewhere... No one... picked up on Deviants... the magical giant breeding under earth... Eternals and their inconsistencies of existence or some magically flying god that seems like he can be there, but also isn't... It just seems too bizarre to just brush off. 

They seem to have a hugely inconsistent influence towards human society. And I just wanted to complain, what a mockery of all the historical figures that have made amazing discoveries or invented devices. They mentioned Da Vinci and how they influenced him to design what he did. Also implied the same with Einstein. Like seriously? They were inspired by you lot... how degrading is that? It felt like someone shat on their faces and claimed their discoveries were nothing. It felt insulting.

Anyway, back to the part about inconsistencies. They seem to be influencing them however they want, except when certain character traits need to be developed, like Druig feeling helpless, or Domo feeling crap about inspiring them with nuclear power. 😒... They can apparently 'protect' the humans from deviants and give them inspirations to make their society grow faster, but there were no good explanations given as to why they couldn't develop the human race faster so either they were incompetent at their job, or they were as dumb as human beings?? I don't know which one it is. Then it seems like they don't seem to have many connections to each other since they had to physically look for each other to communicate with them, it seemed weird that Eternals like Druig, with all his frustrations, didn't just do whatever the hell he want whilst hiding under the radar. I mean, he kind of did that, but with a tiny pointless village... what? 

Just so you are aware, average human 7000 years ago, look very different from the average person now... Broad nose, short stature, darker skin and slightly bent postures are mostly the norm in findings. So if the Eternals came to earth and they don't evolve (after Celestials made a mistake with Deviants, they took that ability out apparently according to memory)... so either they came to earth looking like aliens with human features that do not fit in, or they should currently have some cavemen like features. I know for the sake of the movie, it's all fine, and it's something I should ignore, but you know... just wanted to complain.

Anyway, I walked away from more complaints and now i can't be bothered writing.

6/10

The dark crystal: age of resistance review

 When I saw the trailer of this, I had mixed feelings. After seeing the show I still have mixed feelings haha

I just want to note that I loved the original movie. I rewatched it a few times and last time I saw it again was about a year ago. I loved the concepts, the characters, the world building and its magical feeling. 

When I saw the trailer, I felt mixed because I felt like the show will take away that magical feeling and it sort of has. Knowing more takes away the mystical nature I guess and the theories the fans have put in. 

Doing a prequel in itself is hard and I can see that this story came after the movie. Some ideas might have been there before the production of the movie, but probably not all the fine details as the comics this is based on was written well after the movie. It is made by the same guy,  jim henson though and he has some fantastic direction for the storytelling and imagery. But going back to the point, prequel is hard, even starwars, a movie that planned for its prequel, had a lot of hate. A prequel has a lot of expectations that are different from a sequel. The first problem, particularly for this show, is that the audience already knows what's going to happen. When you know the rebellion fails and genocide is imminent, it becomes a little hard to be fully invested in their cause. Same with characters, for the first about 4 episodes (they're long episodes of about 40min? 45? Btw) Instead of emotionally trying to connect with characters who I know will just die possibly knowing they pretty much failed, I only looked out for who might be Jen and Kiras parents. On top of that there were quite a few main characters or groups introduced anyway, which also made it hard to emotionally invest in. 

The original movie had an atmosphere of a children's book to it. It was the right choice for it to be done with puppets. It fit right in. The story itself was rather simple. A boy journeys this magical land to fulfill his destiny which is to heal the crystal. He meets enemies and friends on his journey and even love, which isn't fully displayed but definitely implied. If you look at a lot of children's stories out there, it usually only follows one character or group. The kids put themself in the main characters shoe and go on a journey or grow with them. Following multiple groups and seeing the interaction and dynamics requires a bit more brain power and mental investment. With lots of new names and faces to memories, you have to pick out who's important and who's not and then memories what journey each group is doing and why. This type of storyline without one main character fits more for adult's stories. To compare, there's Lord of the rings and game of thrones and to a certain extent the dark crystal has a lot of similar aspects of those to it. That's not necessarily a bad thing since the story is well written, but it does take away the children's story-like magic and wonder that the original movie had. The other problem is that with a complex story like this, the puppet was just out of place at times. The ridged movement of puppets were at times even annoying. Because the puppets can't freely move their face muscles, they couldn't express their emotions fully. Without the tear drops they deliberately put in whenever there was a sad moment, the puppets would've definitely looked very awkward just gaping their mouth screaming no like the soul-less puppets they are. As a basic monké humans connect emotionally much more when we actually see facial expressions. Once again, the old movie had just one main character which made it was easy to emotionally invest in. With so many characters as somewhat significant, you become a bit blase about their hardship (especially when you're already coming in with the preconceived notion that they'll all die with a failed rebellion anyway) a full expression and acting would've filled in the gaps of those disconnect a bit, but they couldn't with puppets. By the way, I'm not saying they shouldn't have used puppets. They need to use puppets to stay true with the original and the puppets were fantastic in all other aspects. I'm just listing all points I couldn't fully enjoy. 

By the way, just to point out the adult themes once more, the story also had a fair bit of politics to it. Like the governing of the land and how each race interacts with each other. These are all great, but again, think of talking about a serious story with serious themes with puppets and toys. It just felt out of place at times. 

Anyway, I'll stop the review here for now. It's all I could think of.

Turning red review (I hated it)

 

I'm kind of glad no one reads my blogger. I have some strong opinions it seems.

So I did watch Turning red when I was tired. I kind of wanted to go to sleep, but my partner wanted to watch it. Probably skewered my view a bit. I looked forward to the show a lot as well. It seemed colorful, funny, casual sort of cartoon with a bit of life experience theme that I don't mind in it.

It also revolved close to my teenage years, being set in 2002 and although I was never a fan of boy bands, I understood it and I went through my own fair amount of 'cringe' stuff myself. 

For the most part I liked the movie. I only really hated the end. Everything else was great. It depicted the conflicts, teenage troubles, meeting expectations or teenage obsession and friendship that were presented very well with a good amount of humor mixed to it.

After the movie, I understood that even though I'm Asian and this was a teenage movie depicting a similar time period, the movie was not for me. I'm an adult, went through a fair bit of counselling myself, had my own problems and over came them the traditional (?) way, following stock standard advice like talking about it, meditation, and writing things down etc. I'm basically just closed minded and old fashioned probably in that sense, and I was looking forward to some resolution where the mom and Mei come to understand each other. But this... The ending was just "Hey look a big event happened, and for some reason, the mom let's Mei do whatever now and she's alright with it."

There were behaviors Mei had that were completely inappropriate. (I'm not saying the mom did anything right herself, she was also a control freak that needed some consequences) Mei just completely got off the hook for everything and the mom just gave in to everything now. She literally sold herself off as entertainment, for some kids to 'ride' on. I can't even imagine what if more stronger issues arises later in Mei's life like teen sex or pregnancy, depression and self harm, drugs comes out. Mei almost killed a kid once when she was a panda, so who says she can't again? The kid's just gonna go, "My panda, my choice, Mom." and the mom just laughs it off and lets her be? 

Anyway, I can't be bothered writing anymore about this movie.

Katanagatari review (I hated it)

 I only watched 3 episodes. I was annoyed. I'm just wanted somewhere to rant since I have anger issues.

Ok so I saw some Youtube clip of it, so I thought I might give it ago. MAN IT WAS BORING O_O!!!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I felt like I wasted 3 hours of my life, even if I was crocheting whilst watching, so I actually did get something out of it.

First thing I hated were the unlikeable characters. Jesus Christ al' mighty. I think the little sister was likeable the most but she god biffed early on, didn't she?

The main guy, shichika is a dumbass, and the main female, togame is a ditz. They're both idiots for comedy but they're not even funny, they're just annoying. Can the girl just shut up?? Fuuuuu 

They're supposed to be some sort of a lover, but with no actual love involved. Just very blank words from shichika "that's why I fell for you." or something stupid like that. So their relationship doesn't perk your interest in romantic stories, just your dislike for both characters for their annoying traits. I might have even liked it more if the sister was there to keep their stupidity in check, but I don't know. Even with that, both characters are so annoying that I probably wouldn't have.

Terrible... terrible story telling... I understand that this is a light-novel adaptation and the novels may have been quite long, and couldn't fit well into a 12 episode series. But the first and the second episode? Was just talking... and talking... and explaining... and explaining... sigh... There's nothing wrong with talking and explaining per se, but when your reader/viewer is not invested in the characters or the stories yet, to drown them out with lore and background information that we're not even remotely interesting in, is just terrible story telling. It's not even animated for god sakes. If it's an animation right?? Use the resources to make it engaging for god sakes. "Oh and this happened. Then this happened. Then this happened..." Flashback or something!!! Am I watching an anime or listening to an audiobook?? Oh, why don't we break up the boring explanation, with an equally terrible interaction/joke between the 2 main characters huh??? WELL VIEWERS WOULD LOVE THAT RIGHT???? Fck sakes... It was always the same as well. Just shichika saying something stupid and togame getting angry at him. Like 90% of their jokes were along those lines. Subsequently, this also ruined some of the good battle scenes in the second episode. After all that travelling they fought for like less than 10 minutes, but even the fighting was broken up with meaningless conversations. The enemy had an interesting introduction that were never concluded because the theme was that shichika just wins.

I also hate that this show has such a rave review online.  

Blech