Even great shows have trade offs. Andor attains its intrigue, depth, and emotional resonance by having a cast that’s all humans. Even the funeral crowds and prison inmates and Aldhani natives are just sea after sea of humans. Granted the prevalence of humans, especially within the Empire, is part of the Star Wars…

I really didn’t notice VFX problems in Quantumania on the big screen. Maybe there weren’t any. Or maybe Marvel films are still character driven. I was mostly enjoying the actors playing off each other and there just weren’t that many purely FX scenes or storylines.

Given that Jafaar Jackson looks like young Michael in his prime, with his original face, it’s hard not to go straight to what will happen to his nose. Honestly if Jafaar was up for it an honest attempt to portray Michael’s neuroses and dysmorphia could be an amazing if harrowing film.

Collect your 200 rubles vatnik. You aren’t American or a single mother. Our help to Ukraine against Russia’s barbaric and criminal invasion is justified and not hurting anyone’s finances in the US.

Even in 2000 a superhero could have normal workout muscles instead of a wiry skin stretching mass of pulsing veins.

He managed not to kill anyone but I’m glad to see the memory of Juicero Guy upheld as poster boy for a certain mediocre white guy over confidence. The road from “I like juice, it makes me feel good, I must share this with the world!” to millions in VC funding and a small countertop space ship for squeezing cut up…

Thanks for bringing up Lost In America. Easy Rider stirs a longing to drop out and discover America in those too pampered and privileged to realize they couldn’t possibly survive it.

Largest country by land mass only. Russia’s GDP is smaller than Italy or Texas. Its economy is an anemic and inflexible. Its giant population is poor, unhealthy, and declining. 140 million citizens doesn’t mean they can raise and unleash a massive army. Even after 700,000 able bodied men fled the country, they can’t…

WandaVision borrowed some beats from Tom King’s Visions but the story is mostly still up for grabs. Rebuilt Vision might try creating his own synthezoid family without Wanda (as in the comic) and we could end up adding Viv to the Young Avengers line up. The only downside I see is that “bereft hero tries to manufacture…

Maybe this will provoke Warner Brothers to listen to Daniel Kibblesmith.

Thanks to this review I’ll probably watch and thoroughly enjoy Rosaline. It might have been off my radar. The trailer is pretty delightful, but the balance of Shakespeare parody and modern language is derailed by setting it to “I Love It” which now feels lazy like an “I Feel Good” of our era.

I suspect a very clear set of conditions were laid down, signed, and adhered to. Similarly as far as I know Evangeline Lilly stopped running her mouth since the antivax convoys in January.

Fair point, but a difference is while the King’s Men resented actual human style death our High Elves in Rings Of Power will only diminish if they stay in Middle Earth. They can still go into the West and retain their immortality. But those who have human and dwarf friends will never see them again, hence Durin’s dilem…

I’ve been re-reading Silmarillion and Lost Tales and struck by how overtly the High Elves are in Middle Earth against the designs of the Valar. Feanor rallied his tribe not just for revenge on Morgoth but to build and rule kingdoms on their own terms free from Valinor’s restrictions. After the War Of Wrath (ie. the…

The changing text was so jarring that I have a theory. They did a more sensible thing of pulling out to the map (as they’ve done before) and having that “Southlands” make a fiery transition to “Mordor.” But then found it didn’t work as a final scene. After all that visceral devastation and character moments with Adar,…

Aneka’s sexuality is a key part of her story. She and her lover Ayo (Florence Ksumba from Falcon & Winter Soldier) are elite soldiers who go rogue to defend disparate communities Wakanda fails to protect. They’re called Midnight Angels for their flying armor suits, which we’ve seen Aneka will have in the movie.

Córdova is so committed to his role that Arondir is the Elf hero we didn’t know we needed. Casting him was a creative swing for the fences against type and expectations and he paid off so much more than just another Legolas clone.

I love it. Everyone I know loves it. Especially the Tolkien diehards including me. Beautifully created, written, and acted, and amazingly reverent toward Tolkien within the license limits. I’m shocked at how good it is.

Also, European or other real history simply doesn’t apply. Middle Earth is a created world. Life didn’t evolve over millions of years. Elves and humans “awoke” fully formed in the First Age. Even after thousands of years that’s not enough time for our world’s ethnic differentiation.