So I work at an e-commerce website and for the holiday season I was asked to help out with customer service. Y’all, my brain was mush every time I had to speak to more than five people in less than thirty minutes. There was no way I could keep track of all my tasks happening at once, and several things slipped through the cracks on my end.
The thing that is guaranteed to brighten up my day? Brooklyn Nine-Nine cold opens.
Welcome to my MCU Rewatch, where I write an analysis of the MCU movies in the order of theatrical release. In this installment, I talk about the way Jane feels after a night with her beau: Thor.
Release Date: 6 May 2011
Distributor: Paramount
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Looking back, Thor was probably the most difficult movie to make in Phase 1. Not only did the audience have to relate to and love the character Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but it had to be done in a setting that was not Earth. Sure, we’ve previously had hyper-advanced suits and transforming rage monsters, but those things have existed within the realm of Earth (er, Midgard). In Thor, we leave Earth to follow two alien entities for their coming-of-age stories.
The loneliest day of my life was January 23, 2016. It was my third day in New Zealand, out of a total of 365, and I decided to visit Waiheke Island off the coast of Auckland. All the tourist brochures said it was worth a visit, and it was accessible to my vehicle-less traveling self. So off I went. I took a tour bus, I ate a burger at a cafe/grill place. And then I went to the furthest beach on the island and looked out at the ocean.
Welcome to my MCU Rewatch, where I write a review and analysis of the MCU movies in the order of theatrical release. In this installment, I realize that Iron Man 2 is an entertaining movie while you’re watching it but fails to show any character growth for the ubiquitous Tony Stark.
Release Date: 7 May 2010
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Director: Jon Favreau
For two movies, there have only been the barest hints of a larger universe within the MCU films, easter eggs if you will, mostly in the special scenes after the credits that Marvel made standard after The Incredible Hulk, where there is no end credit scene. (Or if there is, it was moved to the front of the credits for the DVD version I saw). That comes to an end in Iron Man 2.
Welcome to my MCU Rewatch, where I write a review and analysis of the MCU movies in the order of theatrical release. In this installment, I speculate that The Incredible Hulk’s exclusions from the MCU may not be because it is a bad movie.
Release Date: 13 June 2008
Distributor: Universal
Director: Louis Letterier
Before watching The Incredible Hulk, I had low expectations. It pretty much bombed at the box office, the reviews were generally not good, and you might as well have written most of the events out of MCU canon. My impressions after watching it was that it was an enjoyable movie despite a couple hiccups.
I mentioned in my post about Iron Man that MCU Phase 1 and a little bit of Phase 2 played around with genres. Going off that, The Incredible Hulk is a mix between a monster movie and a superhero movie, but it wasn’t blended thoroughly enough. As a monster movie, it could have further explored the dichotomy between anger and monsterhood. I would have especially liked it if character Emil Blonsky (played by Tim Roth) had a more obvious “to hunt a monster I must become a monster” mentality. As a superhero movie, there’s not much there unless you already know the Hulk is a member of a superhero team. Overall, it should have asked the question, “Who is the real monster here?”
Welcome to my MCU Rewatch, where I write a review and analysis of the MCU movies in the order of theatrical release. In this first installment, I talk about the importance of Iron Man in establishing the formula for superhero movies.
Release Date: 2 May 2008
Distributor: Paramount
Director: Jon Favreau
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is perhaps the most ambitious cinematic project in the history if Hollywood. Sure, there have been multi-movie franchises set in the same universe, but no one else has attempted to make multiple movies, each following a different character, that also contributes to a single overall plot. If Marvel wanted to pull this off, they had to be cautious. Viewers couldn’t be flung into the middle of a universe where the superheroes already existed. No, we had to see how these heroes came to be heroes.
And it all starts with Iron Man.
Before I share the cool things from last month, I must apologize for getting this out a couple days after July has gone and past. For most of July, I was prepping myself for a complete life reset, which basically means I both moved and started a brand new job. I’ve been at the new flat for a couple days now, and I absolutely love it. The new job I start on Monday, but I am super stoked to start. I’ll tell you more about that next month (maybe).
Note: Identifying information has been changed and this is published several weeks after my initial application.
I first heard of Fullmetal Alchemist in high school chemistry, when a boy who liked me told me about it. I remember concluding, based on the boy’s description, that it wasn’t for me; he argued in its favor which annoyed me so I moved on. (I later went to prom with this boy — not in that same year — and totally broke his heart.)
I came across Fullmetal Alchemist on my own sometime later. This time, I was more open to it, but that was probably because a friend of mine recommended it and watched the first couple episodes with me.
The franchise was simple back then. It was the mid-aughts, when it took two to three years for anime to reach North America (legally at least). Back then, there was one anime and the manga.
Turns out, Fullmetal Alchemist is a pretty popular property, so much so that it’s starting to get annoying. In North America, the manga was re-released twice — once with 3-in-1 omnibus editions, and most recently in fancy hardcover versions. Netflix released a live-action movie earlier in 2018, around the same time they finally released the final 12 episodes of the second anime.
One manga, two anime (originally released 2003 and remade in 2009), three movies, at least two video games, and another who-knows-what that may never reach North America. While there are so many properties it’s tiring, it’s probably the only big-name anime franchise I would recommend. But if you didn’t grow up with it like me, or otherwise don’t know where to start, there is a simple question with a complicated answer:
Where do you even start?
I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think I would have anything to share this month, but then I opened the document that keeps all the articles I collect for this feature and voila! I had apparently read and filed away some interesting things, I just completely forgot it happened during the month of June (what is time?).
That said, I do not have a closing video for you this month. My YouTubing has been exclusive to Lindsey Ellis who, while a wonderful video essayist, has too many good ideas to share just a single video. (If you’re going to fall into a rabbit hole with Lindsey Ellis, I recommend starting with her video about Hercules.)
That being said, these are the interesting things that crossed my plate last month.
How has your May been? As I write this, I am sticky and damp because it’s so hot in my bedroom. When I finish writing this, I will take a cold shower and hopefully get to a point where I start to shiver. (I won’t be shivering for long. It’s unusually hot this time of year).
But enough about me. What sorts of interesting stuff crossed my path this month? Well. . . .
I feel a lot has happened this week in television. Or maybe there’s just a lot going on with the television I keep up with. Whatever, let’s talk about it:
You know how Hollywood sometimes releases two films of very similar premises in the same year? There were those romantic comedies Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached in 2011. Then there was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Kingsman The Secret Service in 2015. I think there was a year between those where two studios released a version of Cinderella somewhere in there. In any case, this happens sometimes.
Out of pure coincidence, I picked up the two 2015 spy films from the library. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. follows two spies, one American and one Russian, as they team up to hunt down a nuclear bomb built by Italian Nazis. Kingsman The Secret Service follows a young man during his initiation into the superspy organization called Kingsman, which is disguised as a tailor shop in London.
While both movies share a genre, they each have completely different stories to tell. Here’s how they stack up against each other.
**Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War below the cut**
Welcome to Shareable Curiosities, April 2018 edition. Some pretty cool things passed through my radar this month. Click below the cut to read all about them.
I’ve always enjoyed when bloggers make posts of links they found interesting on the internet. After all, isn’t the distribution of information the point of the internet? These links brought me to places I wouldn’t have otherwise found on my own.
How metropolitan these bloggers are, I thought, that they check out all these different publications and share the best of the best!
The links displayed here, at least for the time being, are all found by me by way of my internet habits: Tumblr, email newsletters, crazy memes shared on The Squad’s groupchat, you name it. My theme is “The world is a curious place, might as well share it.”
If I could describe this movie in four words, it would be deliberate, curious, quiet, and cancerous.
Cyberpunk and noir go together like science fiction and western — one genre can exist without the other, but they are stronger when they team up. Sadly, the list of cyberpunk visual entertainment is minimal: Ghost in the Shell (that entire franchise), Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049 and The Matrix trilogy are the only ones that come to mind. Altered Carbon is the latest addition to the list.
I’ve discussed my top five books and television shows, which means it’s time to dive into my top five movies from 2017. Here are the ones I saw in theaters in alphabetical order.
My 2017 Year in Review listed the top books, movies and television programs watched in 2017 with longer write ups of those lists being published … well, now. Here are the top television programs I watched last year, complete with a couple honorable mentions.