[IMDB]
thor: ragnarok lets you know in the first minute what kind of movie it is going to be: lighthearted romp with epic CG fights and banter. it basically delivers on this promise, and the result is just fine. but, you know, *just* fine. i made the mistake of watching this movie back-to-back with black panther, and as a result, i found myself feeling like this one could have tried harder to mean something. burning asgard to the ground while remarking that asgard is the people, not the place...it really just smells like an excuse to punt a bunch of asgardians and misc gladiator aliens towards earth.
but i dunno, i guess what i am doing here is complaining that thor was thor. of course he was thor. that is, like, his job. i might as well complain about an 80s action movie that featured bad one-liners.
so ok, that was some negative stuff. on the positive side, i was really impressed with the level of fun that they crammed into this movie. comparing the atmosphere to the first two thor movies, i find that ragnarok came across much truer to the idea that thor is an ale-swigging viking god, but i cannot decide whether to be impressed that it is so or to be annoyed that this version of thor is so very different from the thor that has appeared in all the other MCU films. maybe both.
thor: ragnarok gets three exploding hammers. and here is another complaint: the impact of that moment was completely ruined by its inclusion in every single trailer they put out.
2018-12-20
i am number four
[IMDB]
you know what this picture needs? more anguished teenagers with superpowers.
why do teenagers always get the superpowers? i think this world needs more middle aged people getting superpowers. do you have any idea the kind of damage i could do with, say, spiderman's repertoire? or even just super strength (plus the amount of invulnerability it would take to not crush yourself with your super strength?) i assure you, i would neither rob banks nor throw rocks in the air. or just give me teleportation. oh man. i would trade some really significant things for teleportation. and again, i promise not to rob any banks, so far as you know.
having superpowers would be pretty awkward in real life, though. at least, if you stick to the simplistic black and white morality of your typical hollywood superpowered shitshow. consider, for a moment, that you have been given superpowers somehow. what do you do? according to movie logic, the only thing you *can* do, if you want to be labeled as Good, is to spend every waking moment using your superpower to save people from whatever. anything else is labeled as Bad in some way, whether it be villainous (using your superpower to rob banks) or merely a character flaw (refusing to use your superpower to do an objectively good thing.) if you are an ordinary person, then, getting superpowers is ruinous.
let me give you an example. say you are an average person, with friends and family, a job (volunteer work counts!) of some kind, hobbies and interests, all that jazz. then suddenly one day you are standing outside a burning building when you discover you can teleport, and you use your new superpower to save all the people from the burning building. good job.
but now what? do you use your newfound teleportation to get to work? go grocery shopping? that is convenient, sure, but only benefits you, which technically makes you selfish. also, what are you doing going to work or shopping for groceries? surely there a disaster somewhere you could be averting? or if no disasters, perhaps you could be giving "rides" to other people who need to get from point A to point B, but lack the resources to do so? that makes you selfish *and* lazy. or say you hear there is a terrorist with a nuke at city hall. now, you could choose to teleport in there, grab the terrorist and the nuke, then teleport somewhere else, but what if you are scared? you are not immune to nukes, right? selfish, lazy, and cowardly. or say you realize after teleporting in that the nuke will detonate in 1 second. do you choose to teleport away to save yourself, or take the nuke with you so you save city hall? selfish, lazy, cowardly, *and* chooses not to Do The Right Thing.
that is bad enough, but also consider that none of those decisions are clear-cut. it does not take much cleverness to rationalize it either way...and you can be assured that reasonable-sounding people will rationalize it *both* ways. which means that no matter how hard you try to be Good, somebody will find fault. so earlier, when you went grocery shopping because how can you do anything if you never eat, and somebody died in an avalanche while you were in the produce aisle, there are a bunch of people who will write angry letters, protest, throw rotten fruit at you, and file lawsuits.
this is the real reason superheroes usually wear masks. so nobody knows who to sue. and this also gets at why so many superheroes still have jobs and go grocery shopping. they do not get paid for superheroing because everybody expects you to Do The Right Thing for free. virtue is its own reward, right? but virtue does not buy groceries or put a roof over your head. also note that if you choose to work longer hours to afford a nicer place to live or better quality food, or even, god forbid, some spending money for your hobbies, the fraction of people who say you are selfish is going to go way up.
so there is really no winning. you can either choose to make yourself miserable while maximizing the amount of Good you do while being criticized for inadequacy despite your best efforts, or you can choose to be selfish, greedy, cowardly, etc. they solve this conundrum in most movies by only showing you the parts where the superheros are saving people, training to save people, or recovering from damages received while saving people.
i am number four gets one fake dog. the only reason you might want to wade through this sea of shit is because you cannot get enough of superpowers. some people might find a media experience about a continually-expanding set of superpowers to be cathartic, but if you are smart, it is just depressing.
you know what this picture needs? more anguished teenagers with superpowers.
why do teenagers always get the superpowers? i think this world needs more middle aged people getting superpowers. do you have any idea the kind of damage i could do with, say, spiderman's repertoire? or even just super strength (plus the amount of invulnerability it would take to not crush yourself with your super strength?) i assure you, i would neither rob banks nor throw rocks in the air. or just give me teleportation. oh man. i would trade some really significant things for teleportation. and again, i promise not to rob any banks, so far as you know.
having superpowers would be pretty awkward in real life, though. at least, if you stick to the simplistic black and white morality of your typical hollywood superpowered shitshow. consider, for a moment, that you have been given superpowers somehow. what do you do? according to movie logic, the only thing you *can* do, if you want to be labeled as Good, is to spend every waking moment using your superpower to save people from whatever. anything else is labeled as Bad in some way, whether it be villainous (using your superpower to rob banks) or merely a character flaw (refusing to use your superpower to do an objectively good thing.) if you are an ordinary person, then, getting superpowers is ruinous.
let me give you an example. say you are an average person, with friends and family, a job (volunteer work counts!) of some kind, hobbies and interests, all that jazz. then suddenly one day you are standing outside a burning building when you discover you can teleport, and you use your new superpower to save all the people from the burning building. good job.
but now what? do you use your newfound teleportation to get to work? go grocery shopping? that is convenient, sure, but only benefits you, which technically makes you selfish. also, what are you doing going to work or shopping for groceries? surely there a disaster somewhere you could be averting? or if no disasters, perhaps you could be giving "rides" to other people who need to get from point A to point B, but lack the resources to do so? that makes you selfish *and* lazy. or say you hear there is a terrorist with a nuke at city hall. now, you could choose to teleport in there, grab the terrorist and the nuke, then teleport somewhere else, but what if you are scared? you are not immune to nukes, right? selfish, lazy, and cowardly. or say you realize after teleporting in that the nuke will detonate in 1 second. do you choose to teleport away to save yourself, or take the nuke with you so you save city hall? selfish, lazy, cowardly, *and* chooses not to Do The Right Thing.
that is bad enough, but also consider that none of those decisions are clear-cut. it does not take much cleverness to rationalize it either way...and you can be assured that reasonable-sounding people will rationalize it *both* ways. which means that no matter how hard you try to be Good, somebody will find fault. so earlier, when you went grocery shopping because how can you do anything if you never eat, and somebody died in an avalanche while you were in the produce aisle, there are a bunch of people who will write angry letters, protest, throw rotten fruit at you, and file lawsuits.
this is the real reason superheroes usually wear masks. so nobody knows who to sue. and this also gets at why so many superheroes still have jobs and go grocery shopping. they do not get paid for superheroing because everybody expects you to Do The Right Thing for free. virtue is its own reward, right? but virtue does not buy groceries or put a roof over your head. also note that if you choose to work longer hours to afford a nicer place to live or better quality food, or even, god forbid, some spending money for your hobbies, the fraction of people who say you are selfish is going to go way up.
so there is really no winning. you can either choose to make yourself miserable while maximizing the amount of Good you do while being criticized for inadequacy despite your best efforts, or you can choose to be selfish, greedy, cowardly, etc. they solve this conundrum in most movies by only showing you the parts where the superheros are saving people, training to save people, or recovering from damages received while saving people.
i am number four gets one fake dog. the only reason you might want to wade through this sea of shit is because you cannot get enough of superpowers. some people might find a media experience about a continually-expanding set of superpowers to be cathartic, but if you are smart, it is just depressing.
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