"Accomplishments"
In theaters: Standing as the best Thor movie, I felt Love and Thunder smoothed out the tonal problems I found in Ragnarok without sacrificing its comedy. Either I was better expecting it or it did a better job of keeping the funny and serious bits apart so that they could work in and of themselves. And while I'm a big fan of the Hulk, L&T is a pure Thor movie, with only Thor characters. Among the great visuals and INSANE comic book story-telling, Taika Waititi also manages to bring out a theme. The gods are out of touch. That's Gorr the God-Butcher's motivation, of course, but the comedy of Thor's pomposity and recklessness tells the same story, as does the idea of meeting one's heroes/gods and finding them lacking. Hemsworth is both funny and poignant, and Natalie Portman has a lot of fun being a superhero, but I'm always drawn back to Tessa Thompson who is just too cool for Asgard as Valkyrie. Korg is here given the task of narrating, and though he kind of steals Michael Peña's shtick from the Ant-Man movies, it comes off well. Because jokes or not, this is true myth. Bizarre, rock-fueled, MYTH. An then beyond that, we get fun cameos, an amusing use of sentient weapons, goats that never failed to get a laugh in EVERY scene, a moment that had a little kid in the theater start bawling, and important introductions for the Young Avengers/Dark Avengers scheme that's sure to be part of a future phase.
At home: The irrepressibly cute Iman Vellani makes for a great Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel, but a lot of the series' charm also comes from its directorial flair, using tricks inspired by the Tik-Tok generation to bring the story to life, somehow making this the most colorful MCU enterprise, beating out even the Guardians and Thor films in that respect. Though there are many differences with the comic - in particular the more culturally-consistent origin for Ms. Marvel's powers - the essence of what made the comic such a stand-out is there, i.e. Kamala's family and Jersey City's Muslim community. I especially love Zenobia Shroff as the judgmental yet supportive mom. They've also managed to make her very different powers visually feel like the original's, as goofy as that can be. Often leaning toward the coming of age story more than superheroics isn't a problem given the strength of the cast, and the intermixing of unregistered metahuman and Muslim/immigrant realities provides tension when government agents show up. Can't wait to see Kamala on the big screen (and I think I know what they're doing there).
The eponymous character of Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is one of the few surviving members of an immortal race of weavers after humanity encroaches on their territory. This fantasy, both beautiful and sad, tracks the waning days of magic as Man starts to co-op nature for war and technology, a transition time that supports the concept of how fleeting and transitory that human world is. Maquia, having bonded with an orphaned baby, learns something of the motherhood normally denied her people, but then must suffer her child's mortality while she never ages. What does that mean for the immortal? For the mortals who love her? The war and pain around them is but a blip to her, but defining eras for them. I hardly need to say that the art is gorgeous, but whatever spectacle is on show, it's the often subtle emotional content that draws you in and is so well done. Stick around during the credits for a final, epilogue freeze frame.
Ignoring the cool Universal Guardian films, 2006's Gamera the Brave posits that the original Gamera died saving humanity in 1973, and now a new monster turtle is required to save us from a giant iguana monster that could, if you like, be a Godzilla riff. And folks, it's a real charmer. Gamera as a baby turtle is incredibly cute, moving towards "cutesy" (there's a difference) as it gets bigger, and the bond it has with children feels much more organic as a result. Director Ryuta Tazaki uses Gamera's title as Protector of Children to poignant effect in the climax, as perhaps children are Protectors of Gamera too. In many ways, this is an old-fashioned kaiju film (guys in rubber suits - and given the quality of the few CG effects, that's a mercy), Tazaki shows a lot of flair in his camera angles, use of music and editing. We DO thankfully get to see the original, battle-hardened Gamera in the opening sequence (against arguably its greatest foe, Gyaos), but Young Gamera isn't half-bad. Goofy, yes, but then have you ever SEEN a Gamera movie? It's a feature rather than a bug. I could have seen this entry in the franchise spawn well-deserved sequels, alas...
Sometimes an experiment is more interesting than its result. In My Son, director Christian Carion game star James McAvoy no script and let him hear and react to the dialog on camera for the first time. As the tag line goes, he is uncovering the mystery of his young son's disappearance at the same time the audience is. You would do this to get fresh, raw emotion out of an actor, and enhance the sense of confusion, shock and overall tension. And in that sense, it works. His performance is strong, as is Claire Foy's as the boy's mother. But I also think there's a difference between not giving an actor a script and not giving them direction. There's no way McAvoy is getting into unpracticed fights, for example, so I imagine he's been told what happens in a scene, just not the full context. It doesn't diminish the improvisational achievement, but let's not kid ourselves. The result is Taken on the Moors without the set of skills, and if I were offered this WITHOUT the gimmick, I'd call it a 3 out of 5. But as the gimmick did engage intellectually, trying to divine HOW it was made, it gets a ½ star more. It has also made me eager to see Carion's original French version from a few years earlier to see just what the differences are and get even more insight into the techniques used, but it's as yet eluded me.
As with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins shows how good she is at presenting difficult situations in Private Life, tackling fertility problems with a middle age couple desperate to have a child. Though dosed with a measure of humor, often through awkward and unglamorous moments that smack of truth, the film is essentially a heart-wrencher. Kathryn Hahn is especially good as the wannabe mother, though Paul Giamatti (wannabe dad) and Kayli Carter (possible egg donor) are powerful presences as well. Jenkins sets the drama in the world of the New York writing scene and that feels authentic too. I think the statistics bear out that such intellectuals are far more likely to wait before trying, and that adds a layer of self-doubt and self-loathing to an already fraught situation. There's story-telling and then there's truth-telling, and Private Life feels like both. Its ending is damn near perfect. Jenkins only directs a feature every 10 years or so, and that's a crying shame.
Gaming: As a fan of Rockstar's sandbox games (warts and all), I recently took up Bully, their attempt to pitch a 15-year-old protagonist and make fun of prep/reform school/coming of age narratives. Obviously, it was the company's own media machine that made a big hoopla about how "controversial" it was, but in reality, though the protagonist Jimmy is a school yard scrapper and habitual truant, he's really FIGHTING the bullies until he becomes the "king" of the campus and the small town environs. For the most part, it's a hoot making Jimmy juggle his classes (my worst subject is easily Biology - it took me a long time to get the hang of dissection animals with an xBox controller - my best was Geography) and missions, and the activities are thematically consistent with being a kid - carnivals, bike races, moving lawns for cash, egging cars, taking pictures for the yearbook, etc. It's easier than the Grand Theft Auto suite, but the school prefects and town police are much more vigilant and able to "bust" you than in similar games (there's only so much you can do with a slingshot, and you can be caught for truancy, so the clock is an important element). My one real complaint is that you're always going in and out of buildings and short missions, so you're too often looking at load screens. They never last long, but they accumulate. If I report in at this time, it's because I finished the Main Story, but I'm still just at 75% completion, and anyone who knows me, knows I'm always trying for 100 + all Achievements. I guess Jimmy is in summer school now, but I see there are a few epilogue missions, and I do still have to pass Biology, Chemistry and Math. Plus, whatever other hoops I need to jump through to complete the game to its satisfaction.
RPGs: Played our first game of Torg Eternity this week, and I've chosen to keep everything a mystery by using Day One, a collection of adventures that all take place the day the Cosms invade. For each, the players are handed out pre-fab characters from before their "Moment of Crisis", then an updated sheet once the possibilities flood through them, and as I've admonished my players about researching Torg, they really are experiencing each reality as it spreads to their location. There are so many moving parts to this, that I'd rather we plug away on a series of one-shots, get briefed on the situation, learn the rules through well-calculated encounters (which the book does, also providing primers and advice for the GM - or for the GM to impart to the players) as the scenario unfolds. The first adventure has to do a lot of heavy-lifting in terms of teaching rules, so it's a three-parter, the first part front-loaded with danger and combat. My players Bébert and Pout took on the roles of a single father and son caught by the reality storm in New York while on a tour boat. The greater New York area is where the Living Land makes its landing, a world of prehistoric savagery ruled by lizard men and stalked by dinosaur-like creatures. Part of the trick is that when the PCs' heroic selves are triggers, young Wade remains a Core Earth human (akin to an action star), while his dad Collin was transformed to fit the new reality, from meek linguist to brawny caveman! Normally, helping the injured or hapless passengers and crew and fighting dinosaurs (especially the big one) might be achieved with a party of more than 2, but the difficulty is exactly what helped the players figure out how to "hack" the system of Possibility points, Destiny cards, and the all-important maneuvering of the enemy to make it vulnerable. Once we got our heads wrapped around the abstraction of the system, it worked surprisingly well, though it is slower than a garden-variety system. But perhaps more strategic. And when I analyzed the gameplay, I found that even a long fight didn't take that many rounds because each round was so eventful. I didn't feel like it was a case of grinding down an opponent's "hit points" (not that Torg uses that for damage exactly). All in all, while the breakneck pace didn't leave a LOT of room for interactions once the invasion got going, Day One Chapter One Act One at least did what it was supposed to, i.e. create opportunities for players to learn as they go and overcome its surface complexity. It was close there for a second, but Caveman Daddy Kol almost didn't make it, so he spent his XP on the Hard to Kill Perk (he was worthy of it), while Hockey Goon Wade spent his on skills he used over the course of the story. Finally on the shores of Manhattan after several drowning scares, our heroes are in for another exciting chapter... in two weeks!
Best bits: Wade drops his gloves to taunt a mosasaur into leaving his dad alone. Dad doesn't need that much help, jumping on the beast with a fire axe and chopping deep into its head as it rams a flaming oil slick in the middle of the East River!
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