Films and TV (Untagged spoilers)

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7L9SS3jc0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1YdSy3CFkc

[Dragaros]

Almost forgot Boba Fett's series started today.

► Show Spoiler

Finally showed how Fett escaped from the belly of the beast, lost his armor to the Jawas, being captured and enslaved by the Tusken Raiders before gaining their respect, leading to the events of the Mandalorian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpcY0yDVzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbER3CWfqM

He still needs dips in a bacta tank to heal; Fett's still not at 100%. The Sarlacc's stomach acid really did a number on him.

[Alienmorph]

Looks like the new Matrix movie is underperforming pretty badly, so much so the producer is already in damage control mode and going "nah, we didn't plan out a whole other trilogy or anything".

Kind of unfortunate. Yes, it's a flawed film, but I didn't think it was that bad...

[Dragaros]

The King's Man was pretty enjoyable. It's a war movie, a spy movie, and an action movie, and it balances itself pretty well. It is slow in places, doesn't utilize its best characters as much as it could have, and the movie kinda blows its load early by having its best action beats well before the climax, but its a fun ride, especially if you like alt-history stories set in WWI with over-the-top intricately choreographed fight sequences and cheeky humor throughout. Also, you can tell the actors are having a lot of fun in their roles and the best one by far was Rhys Ifans playing Rasputin. Sadly he isn't in the film that much, but every time he's on screen it's a treat; chewing the scenery with glee. Worth seeing the movie just for his performance. In addition, I gotta give this movie props for employing a "subvert your expectations" twist that actually works with the story instead of harming it or doing it just for the sake of it.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DmNEVycvm8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16jTAS9Phoc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYbPYqd7Hfo

[Dragaros]

"First look at concept art for Zack Snyder’s ‘REBEL MOON’."

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[magnuskn]

I really liked that they took their good time with Boba Fett to explain the set-up, also explain how he is still alive after getting swallowed by the Sarlacc and did the foreshadowing how things are going to proceed from here. Also, a big fan of Temuera Wilson's work in the franchise (and Aquaman), so I was very happy to see him. Although the one scene where he swings down with that stun rod (you know the one) really looked goofy. And we know that they can make him look like a fucking maniac, given how awesome the scenes of him taking out stormtroopers with his gaffi stick were in The Mandalorian.

Looking upthread a bit, I can't comprehend why people seem to anticipate Black Panther 2 so much. The first one was a thoroughly mediocre movie, boosted by identity politics and containing really off-putting nationalism.

[Alienmorph]

Looking upthread a bit, I can't comprehend why people seem to anticipate Black Panther 2 so much. The first one was a thoroughly mediocre movie, boosted by identity politics and containing really off-putting nationalism.

Not to mention Chadwick Boseman is no longer with us, so it's gonna be a sequel without its original lead, and that'll probably double down with everything else you just listed. Especially since a lot of people in the usual places seem to like Killmonger more than they did Black Panther.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, can't wait for people being called CoLoNiZeR again. ^^

[Alienmorph]

And for Wakandans to be treated like the most enlightened, perfect civilization ever. Even tho all they did was sit inside their literal bubble for generations, patting themselves on the back for being better than everyone else, instead of using their fabulous amounts of whealth and knowledge to help the world.

Gee... no wonder Hollywood likes Black Panther so much.

Meanwhile, say, Luke Cage instead gets only a meh 2-seasons show on Netlix and Falcon is "promoted" into becoming another dude's replacement.

[magnuskn]

So, finally saw Matrix Ressurections. I'll put my opinions under a spoiler tag, just in case anybody want to go into the movie unbiased, like I did.

► Show Spoiler

All in all, I found it a solid movie, with some flaws. The technobabble was pretty intense and despite a lot of talking, the worldbuilding was left a bit vague. There's a scene at the end with a second helicopter which left me somewhat baffled. But I liked the characters and the overall story (with all its meta implications) and, like Tak, I'm a sucker for a happy end. The new actor for Morpheus was very good and the new guy for Agend Smith okay, although far from Hugo Weavings talent. So, I can recommend it.

[Dragaros]

With 2021 over, some of my thoughts on the past year's worth of entertainment:

Movies I enjoyed the most: Godzilla vs Kong, Spider-Man No Way Home, Dune, No Time To Die, Nobody, Free Guy, Wrath of Man, The King’s Man, Malignant, Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters Afterlife, My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission
Movies I hadn't gotten a chance to watch yet but plan to: Nightmare Alley, The Green Knight, The Last Duel, Pig, Antlers, Prisoners Of Ghostland, The Many Saints of Newark, Copshop, Boss Level, 8-Bit Christmas
TV series I enjoyed the most: Squid Game, Arcane, Invincible, Witcher Nightmare Of The Wolf, Midnight Mass, My Hero Academia season 5, Attack on Titan season 4
TV series I hadn't gotten a chance to watch yet but plan to: Witcher season 2, Foundation, The Silent Sea, Hellbound, Cobra Kai season 4, Super Crooks, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean
Biggest disappointments I saw: F9, Black Widow, Eternals, Venom Let There Be Carnage, Halloween Kills, Mortal Kombat, Jungle Cruise, Space Jam New Legacy, Young Justice season 4
Things I thought weren't half-bad: Matrix Resurrections, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Tomorrow War, A Quiet Place Part II, Red Notice, Castlevania season 4
Things I'm having fun watching that haven't finished yet because they're still ongoing: The Expanse season 6, The Book of Boba Fett, Demon Slayer season 2
Best hero: While there's a lot of 2021 protagonists that could easily earn this title, in the end, I think I have to give to James Bond; I loved his personal story and growth in No Time To Die and it hit me right where I live.
Best villain: There was a surprisingly great amount of fun baddies this past year, ranging across the whole spectrum from tragic and sympathetic to hilariously amusing to utterly monstrous, but there is only one worthy of the antagonist crown this year in my eyes, and its Green Goblin, magnificently performed once again by Willem Dafoe who effortlessly slips back into the role as if he were born to play it and delivers such delicious, devilish malevolence for the character.
Best secondary/tertiary character: Christopher Lloyd as David Mansell
Best character arcs: Spider-Man, James Bond, Phoebe Spengler
Best fuck yeah moment: A rematch almost 60 years in the making
Best team up: While not the only fantastic alliance this year, I champion this first and foremost before all others
Best deaths:

► Show Spoiler

Aunt May dying saving Peter, Bond sacrificing himself to save those he loves and the world, Egon's ghost gets to say goodbye to his family and friends before departing, Mechagodzilla getting chopped to pieces and finally decapitated by Kong when Godzilla charges up his axe, all the darkly humorous ways the Russian Mobsters get fatally dispatched in the third act in Nobody.

[magnuskn]

Gotta say, Silco from Arcane ran away with the villain crown, even outshining Willem Dafoe for me.

[Dragaros]

Gotta say, Silco from Arcane ran away with the villain crown, even outshining Willem Dafoe for me.

He was great. I'd rank him somewhere in my top 3 for sure, if I listed them all out from my favorite to least favorite.

Arcane was a surprising treat that came out of nowhere for me considering it had no right to be a good as it was and I have zero knowledge of League of Legends, but the writers/showrunners gave it 110% and pulled me in and I salute them for their vision, hard work, and commitment. And I really appreciated the art style, as well. Kudos to the artist and animator teams who pulled that off.

[Dragaros]

Book of Boba Fett concept art:

► Show Spoiler

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfKO9rYDmE8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIdbMgGHlsQ

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXb8b6spv3Q

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWOMe168BAY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCq47sbIbvA

[magnuskn]

Arcane was a surprising treat that came out of nowhere for me considering it had no right to be a good as it was and I have zero knowledge of League of Legends, but the writers/showrunners gave it 110% and pulled me in and I salute them for their vision, hard work, and commitment. And I really appreciated the art style, as well. Kudos to the artist and animator teams who pulled that off.

Yeah, pretty much the same from me, only even more effusive, especially about the art style, plus the great music.

[Ragabul]

Finished my Marvel catch-up-thon. I'd rate new TV Shows in order as 1) WandaVision 2/3) tie between Hawkeye and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and 4) Loki. But all 4 were quite good. Hawkeye starts really generically but gets better as it goes along. Loki starts really strong but weakens as it goes.

It managed to reinstill confidence in the MCU. It's logically got to run off the rails at some point. It just can't stay good forever. But then again, there's no particular reason to jump ship until that actually happens. I think this wait 1-2 years and then binge catch-up is more what I'll continue to do in future though.

[Alienmorph]

Everything I've seen of the Disney+ show has left me rather meh, which is a shame, because characters like Wanda and Sam Wilson were begging to be flashed out more, but... ehhh, there was nothing offensively bad either.

The movies on the other hand... ooohhh boy, Black Widow was such a missed opportunity...

[Ragabul]

I know 0 about Black Widow in the comics so for all I know there is some golden content to tap from there but from a purely MCU perspective

► Show Spoiler

I felt like they missed their window for a Black Widow movie which should have been 5 plus years ago. What with her being dead, a movie feels kind of pointless and also makes for awkwardly forcing something into place chronologically speaking. I ended up liking her sister more than her so there's that at least I guess.

[Alienmorph]

Well, I have two main problems with the BW movie... only one of which marginally relates to the comics...

► Show Spoiler

First of all it kinda bastardize a lot of what made her character interesting and tragic. Which is more like a whole bundle of problems than a single one, I guess... Like, there's literally jokes about the Widow's forced sterilization and all the skeletons she must have in her closet the Avengers don't know of. And in the past the better MCU movies made such a big deal about Natasha not having friends and family, or nowhere where she really belonged... and now we find out that she achtually had a secret family all along. A pretty weird, disfunctional one yes, but a family nonetheless. And she conveniently never looked for them or even mentioned them before, and it has no bearing on her life other than the retcon at the end of the film that she was wearing her sister's jacket during the events of Infinity War... oooh so meaningful... not to mention that it does the same thing they have been doing in the comics with most other superheroes and heroines and make Nat just A Black Widow, not THE Black Widow... because the plan now seems to be to make every supehero just someone who picked up a disposeable mantle and can be replaced again and again. Like supeheroe identities are more like flavors or brands at this point, and it makes harder and harder to give a damn about them.

The other thing is the idiot she-Taskmaster thing. And yes, this is the one that relates to the comics... like, the original Taskmaster is basically Marvel's Deathstroke. He's badass, smart, competent and can go toe to toe with even the best superheroes and antiheroes around. They could have introduced him in the B.W. movie and have him be more of an recurring character going forward... maybe have him join the Thunderbolts (Marvel's Suicide Squad equivalent) later down the line. Instead we got "She-Winter Soldier" minus all the backstory and characters connections that make Winter Soldier interesting. And the excuse that was given to completely change the character was that "it made no sense for this dude named Tony Masters to be in the story". Yeah, totes makes no sense that an evil secret organization would hire a mercenary assassin to do their dirtywork without risking to be found out... also, if you wanted to show how awesome and able to fight on her own Nathasha is, wouldn't have made more sense to put her up against someone who would be an even match to her instaed of a glorified zombie? Soooo dumb...

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acDpeIWYEMk&ab

not going to lie, I laughed when I heard this.

[Ragabul]

Accidentally stumbled into going to a movie today even though I've pretty much officially sworn off movie theaters forever. Got invited by somebody who already had tickets and one of the people bailed at the last minute and I also got to ride with them there. Hard to beat completely free movie and not even having to drive. That's enough to get even me to go. We went and saw Spider-man: No Way Home. It was pretty fun. It of course starts unraveling at the seams if you spend even two seconds thinking about how this actually all works plotwise, but it was fun, so who cares?

[Mazder]

Considering on of the big plot elements is "shit's fucked" I think a plot that unravels is kinda apt meta-wise, lol

[magnuskn]

So, the Kingsmen prequel, The King's Man was much more solid than I had thought it would be. Pretty good acting, the story was decent and Rasputin was extremely well played Rhys Ifans. After the execrable Kingsmen II, I was very pleasantly surprised.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p74bzf-beGc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_P9DPMuy8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2JTWop0hdU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw6PAsvAeB4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZTyUbv2Bw

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Vi0Dq9U0w

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1uVRTuj5VQ

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

"The first Jurassic World Dominion trailer will be released on February 13, 2022 during the SuperBowl."

► Show Spoiler

[Dragaros]

2021 Worldwide Box Office:

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home -- $1,535,856,116

2. The Battle at Lake Changjin -- $902,540,914

3. Hi, Mom -- $822,009,764

4. No Time to Die -- $774,034,007

5. F9: The Fast Saga -- $726,229,501

6. Detective Chinatown 3 -- $686,257,563

7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage -- $501,138,437

8. Godzilla vs. Kong -- $467,863,133

9. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings -- $432,233,010

10. Eternals -- $401,830,531

11. Dune -- $397,017,291

12. Black Widow -- $379,631,351

13. Free Guy -- $331,503,757

14. A Quiet Place Part II -- $297,372,261

15. Cruella -- $233,274,812

[Alienmorph]

Daaaamn, Spidey really proving himself once more. Or I guess proving themselves in this case lol

Kinda sad Dune and GvK aren't a bit higher, but considering the mixed release and teh pandemic they still did real good.

[Dragaros]

Daaaamn, Spidey really proving himself once more. Or I guess proving themselves in this case lol

Kinda sad Dune and GvK aren't a bit higher, but considering the mixed release and teh pandemic they still did real good.

Sony: The power of the sun box office, in the palm of my hand!

I'm just happy that GvK made the top ten at all, considering all the conditions and competitions of 2021; they can't take that away from it. Not to mention it was WB's biggest money draw in theaters out of their entire lineup and one of its most watched exclusives on their streaming platform, when a lot of their other projects struggled. GvK walked so other films could run in a time when the theater industry was in dire straights, confidence and assurance was low, and audiences were starving for a big movie experience again after so many delays and cancellations, so the they owe the Eighth Wonder of the World and the King of the Monsters some gratitude for prepping the stage. And Dune isn't too shabby either by being just under the top ten. Given the current film landscape and mainstream tastes, and with so many Disney owned properties out there that dominate the pop culture zeitgeist, that giant monsters from 1933 and 1954 and a sci-fi property from a 1965 novel could compete with current crop of "big boys" is a victory no matter how you slice it; the unique circumstances of this year don't detract from that at all.