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Author Archives: Phil
Do you reckon Marvel/Paramount regret giving Musk a cameo in Iron Man 2?
Waking up to videos of Elon Musk doing Nazi salutes on the podium at a US presidential inauguration; what a way to start the day!
I saw the stills, I thought “Nah, that’s been taken out of context.” Then I saw the video and an actual feeling of dread settled in my stomach.
It doesn’t even matter if it was really just a deliberately provocative prank.
A band of soldiers is dispatched to war games deep in the woods. When they stumble across a rival team slaughtered in camp, they realize they're not alone.
Fun but I can’t help thinking that a few minor edits could knock 10 mins off the running time and it’d be better for it.
Still, fantastic practical effects go a long way to make up for it!
★★★
Scientist Bruce Banner scours the planet for an antidote to the unbridled force of rage within him: the Hulk. But when the military masterminds who dream of exploiting his powers force him back to civilization, he finds himself coming face to face with a new, deadly foe.
I’ve been doing Brave New World homework with the kids, so we’ve done Falcon and Winter Soldier, and had to go back to this, which we’d previously skipped.
My 10 y/o daughter was dead against it (“I don’t like Hulk films”) but as the credits rolled she said: “That was good.” And had the grace to look a bit ashamed 😂
I’ve seen it plenty of times and, honestly, I just alternated marvelling at the adorable Liv Tyler and the size of Tim Roth’s nose.
★★★
Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe.
I know a lot of people hate this on principle, and others genuinely think it’s bad. And, I wouldn’t say it was good, but I have seen a lot worse.
My biggest problem is purely story-based. We could call this the Ant-Man problem, where it just doesn’t follow its own rules. Put simply, getting punched by Capt Marvel should be fatal to almost anyone in the MCU. You have a hero that powerful and you’re going to have narrative problems, this is why she was benched for most of the Infinity Saga.
To counter this, Danvers could easily have a Daredevil-esque moral crisis here; setting her own limitations in how she must atone for her past actions. But there is nothing even close to that interesting going on here.
Instead, though, somebody decided to slap all the fun buttons. For me, this approach was more hit than miss and I happily leaned into the levity. I can easily see, though, that this is really not for everyone.
★★★
Bruce Hornsby and the Range · The Way It Is · Song · 1986
The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Drummer and Ashford find themselves trapped with few options for survival; Anna tends to the wounded masses as Melba continues to hunt down her prey; the Rocinante crew struggles to survive as Naomi reunites with her true family.
I’m on the S3 finale of The Expanse and Anna Volovodov might be shading Chrisjen Avasarala as my favourite character… so many to choose from, though!
I “love” lists of “before they were famous” movie roles, which either:
- include the actor’s breakout feature (e.g. Steve Martin in The Jerk)
- completely overlook their notable childhood roles (e.g. Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun)
- just ignore half their career (e.g. Keanu Reeves in The Lake House 2006… 15 years after Point Break)
These are lists curated by actual people. If LLMs are trained on this rubbish, no wonder they spout such junk.
Shades of Grey – Remastered by Biohazard
This is my jam 🤘