Just for kicks, I recently decided to write my first fan fiction. Star Wars seems like the best property to take a crack at, as I feel like it’s the most in-flux, so I could pretend that I was crafting the next story that would occur after the infamous Rise Of Skywalker.
Star Wars: Converging Paths is my version of of what I’d like to see the Star Wars continuity look like in a post Sequel Trilogy timeline. There is, admittedly, some existing continuity cherry-picking that I used along the way. But I believe it will broadly fit in-line with what we’ve seen to this point.
I posted it on Archive Of Our Own, so give it a shot if you’re so inclined. I think you’ll enjoy it, if you do.
Two types of movies that I have always loved are horror films and superhero films, and 2025 has been a really good year for both so far.
My favorite horror movies this year are sort of more hybrids than straight-up horror. Sinners is a really well-mixes action-horror with inspirational ties to a couple of my favorite horror flicks from the ’90’s: From Dusk Til Dawn and Tales From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight. Another old movie that seemed to be reflected here was the mid-80’s Italian horror cult classic: Demons. Ryan Coogler is one of the most accomplished directors working today, so him delivering the good here was less of a surprise than the several full-blown and catchy musical numbers in the film.
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland coming back for – what I suppose would be considered a legacy sequel (legasequel) at this point – 28 Year Later was probably less of a sure thing than Sinners, but they made a movie worthy of following up one of the tightest and most influential horror movies of all-time: 28 Days Later. In some ways it’s very different than the original but, considering it’s set nearly thirty years into England being quarantined from the rest of the world, it had to be in order to make any sense. The fact that all the folk horror and zombie action are window dressing for a young man’s coming-of-age story is an intriguing Trojan Horse job that is much better than it really had to be in order to be considered a success.
Weapons goes even younger with its mysteriously missing kids plot, though only one of the children actually plays a part in the story – at least until its very cathartic ending. It also takes a stronger mystery and humor angle than Sinners or 28 Years Later. The filmmaker – Zach Cregger – doesn’t have nearly the same resume as Coogler, Boyle, or Garland, but between Weapons and Barbarian he’s well on his way to finding a similar niche as someone like Jordan Peele as someone who can consistently be counted on to putting out horror flicks with widespread appeal
Thunderbolts* (aka New Avengers) and Fantastic Four were the two most enjoyable MCU films since Spider-Man: No Way Home. That Spidey flick was more of a stunt to pull in an avalanche of nostaglia cred – and worked wonderfully as such. But Thunderbolts* is probably a better as a start-to-finish movie, and was a solid effort to make a smaller (by MCU standards) film. It also handles very real mental health struggles with a far more deft hand than one might expect from the MCU. I was very happy when they handed its director – Jake Schreier – the keys to X-Men.
Fantastic Four works for similar reasons – making us actually care about the characters – but also because it is able to truly stand alone as a movie, without needing to have any prior knowledge of the 15+ years of MCU history. In fact, that’s why I was able to bring my kids (9 years-old and 6 years-old) to the movie, and they were able to completely enjoy it on its own merits.
We also took the kids to see Superman – which they loved nearly as much as I did – and they were able to get in on the ground floor for the new DC Universe, which will be shepherded in by James Gunn. I’ve always liked Gunn’s films, and his TV shows, dating all the way back to movies like Slither and Super. As someone who grew up on the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I am not afraid to say that I felt like the new Superman was the best Superman movie. It had all the heart of those first two Reeves films, but it was able to deliver action sequences that simply were not possible 40+ years ago. Superman, the character, has always been he platonic ideal of non-toxic masculinity. This is a man with incredible powers who cares deeply for people, respects people, fights for all the people who face enemies and dangers that they could not hope to stand against alone. But he’s also flawed, and he makes mistakes – but he recognizes and accepts those flaws and mistakes, and does what he can to become the best version of himself. That’s something that the world really needs to see now more than it has in a long time, and I was so happy to take my boys to experience that on the big screen.
My last post was in 2022? Boy, has a lot happened since then. I’m going to get back on here and post some longer form stuff about things I enjoy and want to blab about to no one in-particular.
Rather than even try to catch up, I’m just going to go for more “from this point on” thing. Though I will do a quick 2025 catchup post soon, just to sort of get back into the swing of things.
Even so, I imagine I’ll be a lot more active on my other social media poisons of choice. Speaking of which:
Sometimes you just want to watch something with spaceships. That’s how I felt a few weeks ago when I decided to start watching the Apple TV+ series ‘For All Mankind’. I’d seen the trailers for the third season, where there is a new Space Race to Mars, and figured it was worth a shot. Alternate History stories can be hit or miss with me, but a show about Russia winning the original Space Race to the Moon kicking off a much more progressive and daring age of space travel sounded like a winner to me.
The first season starts in the late 1960’s and, honestly, for about five or six episodes it feels sort of like ‘Mad Men At NASA’. I don’t mean that to sound derogatory, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Luckily, about halfway through the first season, we get full-blown lunar colonies, and I get right on-board. Season One ends in the early-1970’s, and season two picks up about a decade later in the mid-1980’s. At that point, there are rather larger lunar colonies for both Russia and the United States. Considering this was at the heart of the Cold War, you can imagine that tensions rise, guns arrive riding the wave of that tension, and a nuclear meltdown of a lunar base looms over the last few episodes of the season.
Season Three then jumps ahead another decade, to the mid-1990’s. Now we have a space hotel orbiting the Earth, and the race to Mars picks up steam in a much quicker fashion that anything in the first two seasons. Covering about thirty years in the span of three year means we do get some questionable old age make-up, but nothing too distracting. It helps that the actors in the make-up all do a bang up job with their performances. It also helps that ‘For All Mankind’ is laid out as a generational show right from the start. Sure, we have the adult characters at the beginning. But other characters who start out as children are allowed to grow up (thankfully being re-cast to avoid some super awkward make-up effects) and grow into interesting, well-rounded characters of their own.
As I mentioned, the performances are very good, the production design is fantastic, and the storytelling is not afraid to go to some dark places. It’s a minor spoiler to say each of the three seasons features a handful major character deaths. Each one of those deaths hangs over everything that follows in their own way, and some more than others. But even with that, and the perpetually looming Armageddon, the underlying theme of the show is one of hope. This is a version of history where America and Russia both dedicate themselves to exploring the cosmos in a way that much more inspiring than anything we’ve seen in the real world. And many of the show’s best moments come when people put their differences aside (patriotically and personally) and work together for the good of all mankind.
That last bit has been a basis of Star Trek shows and movies for over sixty years now. These unlikely alliances seem akin to the United Federation Of Planets at the center of Star Trek canon. In many ways, ‘For All Mankind’ plays like a prequel the Star Trek, which is why I started watching ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ (Referred to as ‘SNW’ going forward for brevity’s sake) shortly after ‘For All Mankind; hooked me in. I’ve never been a Trekkie, though I’ve see a handful of the movies and episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ but luckily none of that really matters when it comes to the new Paramount+ show.
I understand it’s sort of a spin-off of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything when I spun up the first episode of ‘SNW’ and that was a relief. I get the general idea of Star Trek has always been about finding peaceful resolutions or compromises – which is why it’s called ‘Star Trek’ and not ‘Star Wars’ – and that is certainly a recurring motif in many of the episodes. But ‘SNW’ is also unafraid to go to some truly dark places such as a planet whose inhabitants accidentally turn themselves into electric ghosts, or a planet where children are sacrificed regularly, or a future where intergalactic war cost billions of lives. Still, the U.S.S Enterprise feels like a giant flying luxury hotel, and its crew generally have the best interest of the galaxy in-mind when making their choices. Both of which offer a bit of comfort food when dealing with the unrelenting assault on morality and ethics in the daily newsfeed.
I’ll admit that ‘SW’ has more spectacle than ‘For All Mankind’ although the latter has a bit more in the character development department. But they really do make for nice companion pieces to one another. Of course there are thirty episodes of ‘For All Mankind’ up now, and only ten of ‘SNW’ so you can’t go full double-feature all the way. But I absolutely do recommend both shows to anyone who, like me, feels a bit like spending time off planet Earth for a while.
For a few seasons NBC’s Thursday night Must See TV sitcom line-up consisted of my favorite sitcoms of all time. This was during the time when 30 Rock, Community, The Office, and Parks And Recreations ran in a single two-hour block. It was fantastic and, even when some the shows were re-shuffled or ended, there were usually still two or three of them airing together. Outside of the rare gem like The Good Place, I’ve not found any network sitcoms that I find truly worth watching. Luckily, Peacock made it their business to populate their catalogue with some fine descendants of those shows. There are currently three sitcoms available on Peacock that brought over the 30 Rock/Office/Parks And Rec pedigree with them – mainly by employing a number of creative team members from those shows.
Rutherford Falls came along first, and plays on the optimistic premise that “people are basically good, even if they don’t seem that way at first” that was one of the primary themes of The Office and Parks And Rec. It also has the same sort of small-town setting as those shows, but it does a great job diversifying its cast wider than those earlier shows had. About half of the primary cast are of Native American descent, as are a number of the behind-the-scenes crew, which makes for more genuine representation of the characters. That being said, most of Rutherford Falls’ beats and character archetypes will be familiar to fans of the previous generation of shows. The entire second season just dropped a few days ago, and I’ll be binging my way through it shortly.
Girls 5Eva comes from some of the minds behind 30 Rock and Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and the mile-a-minute rapid fire jokes make that genealogy very clear. It follows the members of a one-hit-wonder girl group from the early 2000’s as they find themselves thrust back into the spotlight when their song is sampled in a chart-topping new hit. Most of the comedy is mined from the women’s continual adjustment to what it means be relevant, and stay relevant, as celebrities in the 2020’s. But all that showbiz comedy is balanced out by the family lives of several bandmembers, and their ever-evolving relationship to one another outside of the spotlight. Also, every episode has at least one really clever original song featured, and that alone worth tuning in for. The second season of Girls 5Eva dropped on a weekly basis, and the finale just aired about a week ago. It was every bit as delightful as the first season, and I hope it’s renewed for a third season soon.
Killing It was the most recent of these shows to debut, as its first season made its way onto Peacock just this past March. This one also comes from some Office and Parks And Rec alums, but actually has a sharper edge than either of those shows, or the other new shows that I’ve discussed. Big picture has some down-on-their-luck Floridians looking to win a $20,000 prize for a snake hunt in the infamous year 2016. But Killing It manages to Trojan Horse a barbed, poignant commentary on social inequity right through its core. Some of the ways this is accomplished by delivering both gut-laughs and gut-punches at the same time. But there is a lot of heart, even if some of it flies under-the-radar until toward the end of the season, that encourages those lower on the societal food chain to hold onto their dreams and look out for each other, since no one else will. It was just recently renewed for a second season, as well.
Up until now, none of these shows premiered at the same time, so I haven’t really been able to assemble a full nightly slate on-par with The Office – 30 Rock – Community – Parks And Recreations, though each of the shows are very enjoyable on their own. But, if you have not yet checked out Rutherford Falls, Girls 5Eva, or Killing It, then I highly recommend building that line-up for yourself, and basking back in a new era of Must See TV.
Two of my favorite shows on TV recently wrapped their latest seasons. Well, technically Stranger Things has not yet wrapped season four, but the seven episodes that Netflix dropped in-advance of two more in July is close enough to constitute a season to help me make my point. Barry, meanwhile, actually did air its season three finale this past Sunday. While you may not think those two shows have very much in-common, there is one thing that links them: Their willingness to evolve when the situation demands it.
Spoiler Warning for Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 and Barry Season 3
I’ll start with Stranger Things. The first three season of the show was, at its core, a show about kids. Unless you want to get super dark, shows (and stories in-general) about kids has a limit to how much true danger the kids find themselves in. Sure, some adults and ancillary teenagers have gotten killed on Stranger Things, but that’s different than having your primary characters – who happen to be children – suffering such a fate.
Now, the season three finale featured the death of a more central character than any of the previous episodes. Billy Hargrove, wicked stepbrother to Max Mayfield, had been possessed by the Mind Flayer and essentially fed it a bunch of people to turn it into a giant fleshy semi-kaiju. But, in the end, he managed to break his mind free, and died saving the life of Eleven. In some way, this signaled a turning point with the showrunners saying “No one is truly safe anymore.”
With a nearly two-year break between seasons three and four, the kids have grown into full-blown teens. Suffice to say, Teen Horror plays by different rules than Kids Horror. The Duffer Brother realized this, and drove season four straight into The Horror Zone. The new villain, Vecna, has a horrifying origin, and even more horrifying manner of claiming his victims – something between Freddy Krueger and Sadako/Samar from Ringu/The Ring. Max, who I mentioned earlier, landed right in Vecna’s crosshairs and needed the power of Kate Bush to escape. But my point is that, due to the need to escalate threats and endanger its now-teenage primary characters, the show evolved into something that can better utilize all the tools at its disposal.
For its first two seasons, Barry was a dark comedy about a hitman trying to leave the killing business behind while building a life for himself as a Hollywood actor. Or, at the very least, a guy taking an acting class and not killing people. It managed to sustain this even after the titular character murdered his old army buddy, and Detective Janice Moss who also happened to be the love of his acting teacher/idol’s Gene Cousineau’s life in order to keep the sins of his past a secret. But, again, the prior season hit a turning point that there was no turning back from.
By the end of season two, Barry Berkman had become obsessed with finding and murdering his former handler (and twisted father figure) Monroe Fuchs. This led Barry to a monastery where three separate gangs have met and called a truce, including the Chechens – who Barry helped train at the behest of his friend(?) NoHo Hank. But, with his bloodlust at a boil, Barry charged into the monastery and single-handedly wiped out almost every single person inside. Fuchs (who’s probably really more of a twisted uncle figure than twisted father figure now that I think about it) managed to escape, but the damage from unleashing his inner killing machine had nonetheless doomed Barry.
To their credit, Bill Hader and the creative team realized that it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for Barry to go back to his acting class. Especially since Fuchs had told Cousineau that Barry was the one who murdered Janice. So, the show had to evolve, and it did so by having Barry re-commit to his unfortunate true calling as a killer-for-hire. This broke Barry in ways that he wasn’t already broken in (and he was already very broken) and the tone of the show shifted to reflect that. Season Three was probably the least funny (thought there were certainly still some laugh out loud scenes), and yet it may have been the best top-to-bottom season yet. In fact, I have a hard time remembering any single season of a show besides Breaking Bad that maintained such an intensity and persistent sense of dread throughout. On top of that, the events of the season three finale set the stage to evolve once again in season four, and I, personally, cannot wait to see what it becomes next.
Many shows that start out strong allow themselves to stagnate in the mire of status quo. Considering how much content is demanding our attention from networks and streamers in this modern Darwinist landscape of television, Stranger Things and Barry have wisely evolved to survive.
Sam Raimi was my first favorite filmmaker. Army Of Darkness came out in 1992 when I was thirteen-years-old. I saw it in the theater, and thought it was just the absolute coolest thing ever. Funny, and scary, and action packed, it had everything I could possibly want in a movie. This was also the time in my life where I started paying attention to such things as “Who directed this movie?” and “Who wrote this movie?” So, as much as I had enjoyed movies like Batman or Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, I hadn’t immediately sought out every other movie that Tim Burton or Steven Spielberg had previously made.
But I did seek out everything Raimi had made prior to Army Of Darkness, and was not disappointed….at least not for the most part (coming to that in my rankings). I got my hands on Evil Dead and Evil Dead II first and, while they weren’t necessarily essential to my enjoyment of Army Of Darkness, they certainly added another layer to it. I then checked out Darkman and, considering my taste in comic books at the time, was shocked that I hadn’t discovered it sooner. I also got my butt in a theater opening weekend a few years later to see The Quick And The Dead, and that both reaffirmed my connection to Raimi’s films, and also led to my discovery of the grand cinematic history of the Western.
By 1998, my taste in movies had expanded, and so did Raimi’s genre-reach. A Simple Plan was very different from anything Raimi had done before, it had that neo-noir vibe that had been cropping up around that time, and executed it about as well as any other movie. I saw For Love Of The Game, and The Gift when they came out the next two years and, honestly, neither really did much for me. I had stopped reading comics, at least the monthly issues, by 2002 but that didn’t mean my excitement level was anything but nuclear when Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man exploded into theaters. 2004’s Spider-Man 2 improved on the already-great formula provided by the first film in almost every way. Spider-Man 3 came out in the dead zone of comic book movies between 2005’s Batman Begins and 2008’s The Dark Knight & Iron Man, and that’s about where the movie belongs.
But Raimi, probably jaded by Studio Suits insisting on Spider-Man 3’s cram job, got back to his horror roots in a big way in 2009’s Drag Me To Hell. The follow-up to that came four years later with Oz, The Great And Powerful, a movie that turned out so bad – likely due in large part to that same sort of studio interference – that Raimi left the director’s chair for almost a decade. He finally returned to theaters this past weekend with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. I’m not sure he would have ever wanted to jump back into the studio machine, even an absurdly successful machine such as The Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige learned a great deal about filmmaking from Sam Raimi while working under him for Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, and that probably gave Raimi a comfort level and confidence in the project that he wouldn’t otherwise have had. And I’m very glad he did, and Multiverse Of Madness was a lot of fun, and (perhaps surprisingly) a lot of Raimi.
With that, I’m ranking my favorite Same Raimi movies. I’m only picking from his feature films, so shorts and TV episodes will be left out. And, again, I’m ranking my favorite Raimi movies. So, while my higher choices may (or may not) be the most polished works, they are the ones I enjoyed the most.
15 – Crimewave (1985) – A swing and a miss. This was Raimi’s first studio film, as Evil Dead was a fully independent production. Maybe he had a hard time adjusting to a system where he didn’t have total creative control? Maybe he had too many ideas, and wasn’t quite sure how to make them work together, or which ones to cut? Either way, he swiftly put this one behind him and moved onto better things.
14 – Oz, The Great And Powerful (2013) – Not even remembered fondly or poorly enough to be a cautionary tale, which could be a cautionary tale unto itself. End of the day, though, it was a prime example of what happens when the worst impulses of a studio and (presumably) a filmmaker collide while churning some well-trod IP through the CGI paint-spill machine.
13 – For Love Of The Game (1999) – Raimi’s flare for inventive camerawork comes through during the scenes that take place during the baseball game itself. But, if this movie was really going to work, it needed the scenes interspersed throughout between romantic leads Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston to hit home, and those scenes simply did not.
12 – Spider-Man 3 (2007) – Raimi wanted the Lizard as the villain in this movie, but Sony/Columbia insisted that Venom get wedged in there. Would the movie have been better if they’d let Raimi make it his way? Probably. How much better? I’m not sure. The only thing leftover from Spider-Man 2 was finishing up Harry Osborn’s arc as he transformed into the new Green Goblin, and even that thread got lost in this tossed salad of a movie.
11 – The Gift (2000) – Cate Blanchett was just starting her run here that’s been going strong for 20+ years now. And the movie is an okay, southern gothic, murder mystery. But it’s not much more than just okay.
10 – The Evil Dead (1981) – This, along with 1978’s Halloween, proved that small-scale indie horror could sometimes be the best horror. Perhaps remembered as funnier than it actually was, likely because it gets a bit tangled up with Evil Dead II which was essentially just a bigger budget remake with more humor. The Evil Dead is the true definition of a cult film, and set the standard for a sub-genre defined by splattery, cabin-in-the-woods frightshows.
9 – A Simple Plan (1998) – Along with The Gift, this is much more of an “actors’ picture” than any of Raimi’s other films. I mentioned earlier that a slew of neo-noir movies rolled out in the late-90’s til the early-2000’s. Even in that mix, A Simple Plan sticks out as a shockingly subdued (for Raimi) morality play.
8 – Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022) – I’m as surprised as you are that this movie is ranked this high. I wouldn’t have thought it would be until the second half of the movie kicked in, and Raimi got to really dig into his bag of tricks. Multiverse Of Madness isn’t really top level MCU stuff, though maybe if Raimi had been at the helm from the start rather than brought in after the original director stepped away it could have gotten there. Either way, it’s a lot of crazy, and a lot of fun, and I was very happy to see Raimi making a big studio film that genuinely felt like one of his films after the Spider-Man 3 and Oz debacles.
7 – Spider-Man (2002) – The earliest two Producer credits on Kevin Feige’s IMBD page are X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man. He has a producer credit on virtually every Marvel film adaptation of the 21st century (for better and worse), and is the true Godfather of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At any rate, X-Men went all nighttime battle scenes, and black leather costumes. While Spider-Man embraced red-and-blue spandex swinging in the sunshine. It’s pretty clear which of these films Feige referenced back to when shepherding the MCU into existence. What Sam Raimi did with Spider-Man laid the blueprint for the modern superhero movie.
6 – Drag Me To Hell (2009) – Mean, gross, scary, and funny. It’s so much like Evil Dead II that I’m frankly a bit surprised that it doesn’t get more shout-outs since its release. In fairness, Alison Lohman’s “Christine Brown” is not allowed to be as likeable as Bruce Campbell’s “Ash Williams” which may be why it’s not as beloved. But that’s also kind of the point of the movie. Raimi’s palate-cleanser from Spider-Man 3 is gag-inducing at times, but it’s all in good fun.
5 – Darkman (1990) – One of the many movies seemingly inspired by 1989’s Batman (Dick Tracy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are among the other immediate examples). But, while those three movies are actual comic book adaptations, Darkman is an original property. It very much feels like the love child of a superhero movie and a classic Universal Studios horror movie, and that makes sense when you consider the breadth of Raimi’s work.
4 – Army Of Darkness (1992) – I went into my love or this movie at the top of this article, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. Still a damn entertaining flick, even if the silliness doesn’t hit my funny bone quite as hard now as it did when I was thirteen. But I think it’s fair to call this “The Most Sam Raimi Movie Ever“ even if it may not be “The Best Sam Raimi Movie Ever”
3 – The Quick And The Dead (1995) – coming off the heels of the 1992 deconstructed Western: Unforgiven and 1993’s modernized Western: Tombstone, The Quick And The Dead is a Western crafted purely for popcorn piles and soda-chuggings. It’s so much fun, and plays like another of my favorite types of movie “the tournament movie” (see half of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s filmography). Raimi brings along his frenetic camerawork, and his bag of horror movie tricks to create something wholly unique. Doesn’t hurt that he cast Gene Hackman as his Unforgiven archetype, only with an itchier trigger finger, Sharon Stone in the brief period of time after Basis Instinct when she was the biggest actress in the world, Russell Crowe before his L.A. Confidential breakout, and Leonardo DiCaprio before Romeo + Juliet earned his poster a spot in every teenage girl’s locker. This, honestly, might be Raimi’s most purely re-watchable movie.
2 – Evil Dead II (1987) – While The Evil Dead is a cult classic, Evil Dead II is a true Horror classic. Funnier than Evil Dead, and scarier than Army Of Darkness, it hit the balance perfectly. The first movie created a template, and Evil Dead II perfected that template. Filmmakers have been chasing the dragon to recapture this lighting in the thirty-five years since its release, but they rarely manager to approach this level.
1 – Spider-Man 2 (2004) – A nearly-perfect superhero movie. We’ve had many since this, and some have reached greater heights. But, with several good-to-great comic book movies dropping every single year, Spider-Man 2 still holds a spot near the top of just about any list. So, as a guy who never misses a comic adaptation, I guess it comes as no surprise that it tops my list of favorite Sam Raimi movies.
I’ll put the spoiler warning for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness right up here (as if the title of this article wasn’t enough of a giveaway).
First, my succinct review of the film: It was exactly what I expected an MCU movie directed by Sam Raimi would be, and I very much enjoyed it. I hope it inspires Kevin Feige, and the powers-that-be, to let other filmmakers imprint their style on future MCU films. The movies that James Gunn and Taika Waititi directed showed a little of this, and Chloe Zhao got some of her stuff in. But, if the MCU is to truly evolve and last into the future, letting the directors make their individual movies stand out is the way to go.
Now, onto the hot topic that has grown from many people who have seen the film over the course of its opening weekend. A number of takes state that Wanda Maximoff AKA The Scarlet Witch fell into one of two problematic story tropes: The “hysterical woman” or “women can’t be trusted with power” tropes. I do not believe that Wanda falls into either of these tropes, rather, she’s more in-line with two different, much less reductive tropes: “The desperate parent” and “The overpowered character.”
Some Context: When last we saw Wanda in the finale of WandaVision, she had taken down her “Hex” that had unintentionally (more or less) imprisoned the citizens of Westview, New Jersey. The spell she had cast was really just her way of resolving the existing trauma stemming from the deaths of her parents, her brother, and Vision. However, taking down her Hex created an even more devastating new trauma. She had created children while in the Hex – twin boys Billy and Tommy. Tragically, this meant that they could only exist within the Hex and were erased (for lack of a better term) when Wanda undid the spell.
In almost every way, Billy and Tommy were living beings. They had their own thoughts, their own personalities, and perhaps even their own souls. But being created by Wanda’s magic, and her love, tied them to the Hex. In the actual last scene we saw Wanda in prior to the new film, she had fully embraced her title of Scarlet Witch in an isolated cabin, where she was studying an ancient book of dark magic called the Darkhold. The last thing we heard in that scene were Billy’s and Tommy’s voicing calling out for help. Anyone who thought Wanda was studying the Darkhold for reasons other than to get her children back was sorely mistaken.
In Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, Wanda is hunting America Chavez, a teenage girl with the power to travel through the multiverse (the multiverse itself, having been created during the events of the Loki season finale). But, since Chavez cannot willingly control this power, Wanda’s plan involved stripping it from her – likely killing her in the process. Wanda does kill a lot of people in the film, but it’s not exactly like she’s punching below her weight class (besides the fact that everyone is below her weight class, which we’ll get to in a bit).
She attacks Kamar Taj, resulting in the deaths of numerous sorcerers. Later, she dreamwalks (controls the mind of a different universe’s Wanda) to kill the Illuminati. That universe’s Illuminati is not the primary MCU’s (finally officially labeled 616) and consists of Mr. Fantastic, Captain Marvel, Black Bolt, Captain Peggy (super soldier) Carter, and Professor X – some true heavyweights of superherodom. Wanda makes fairly quick (and grisly) work of them while barefoot, and wearing pajamas in someone else’s body. It’s honestly about the most bad ass thing anyone has ever done in the MCU to date.
Since we’re already here, I’ll get into the first of the tropes I mentioned earlier “the overpowered character.” This one simply states that the most powerful character at the beginning of the story cannot be the true hero of the story. The reason is simply that there is very little drama to be had if it’s already established that the hero can defeat the villain. Wanda unlocked the powers of The Scarlet Witch at the end of WandaVision, so if she was on fighting alongside the heroes this likely would have been a much shorter movie. As such, she either had to be sidelined somehow early on, or she had to be the villain of the story. Since the filmmakers wanted her to play a major role in the film (and justifiably so, because Elizabeth Olsen is great, and some of Wanda’s flexes are truly awesome) they chose the latter.
Now, onto Wanda’s motivations. I have two kids of my own (aged 6 and 3) and there is absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do to protect them, or to save them if (god forbid) the need ever arose. So, I totally get where Wanda is coming from. The trope of a mother or father doing whatever is possible to save their children – the “desperate parent – is as old as any. If Vision and Wanda had swapped places, the story would be the same. The right choice was made here, as Wanda has always been a more interesting character that Vision. But, my point is that it’s not exclusive to moms (Happy Mothers’ Day to all the mom’s out there, btw, if you’re reading this on it publishing date).
It’s established in the movie that the Darkhold exacts a heavy toll on its user. It’s also said in clear terms that the (again, ancient book of dark magic) is exerting an influence on Wanda. So, that needs to be coupled with her personal motives to understand the whole picture. But I also want to bring the end of Wanda’s arc into the light here. She is ultimately stopped when America Chavez, finally able to control her power, opens a portal to the universe that Wanda had invaded earlier. There, 616 Wanda interacts directly with that universe’s Billy and Tommy. The boys are terrified of her, as they watch her attack their mother. This is what finally begins 616 Wanda’s breakthrough.
The resolution comes when the other Wanda makes use of her (and everyone’s) true superpower: Forgiveness. Despite being possessed, and made to murder people, this Wanda empathizes with 616 Wanda. She understands her pain, and assures her that Billy and Tommy will be loved. It’s only then that 616 Wanda finally accepts that what she was trying to do is wrong. She finally accepts that it’s time to let go. She destroys the Darkhold, and seemingly herself (but, c’mon, we all know better) knowing that she must be stopped. Knowing that she’s the only one who can stop herself.
Dr. Strange almost gets her to this place very early in the movie, asking her to consider how the boys would react to being stolen from their real mother. But, as she’s momentarily distracted, he attacks her with magic hand snakes, and everything goes south for a while. Dr. Stephen Strange’s poor bedside manner strikes again! Anyway, if he had had been able to talk her down, we never would have gotten all the insane multiversal madness that we came for.
Wanda Maximoff had the best part, and was the driving force, in the film. This combination is somewhat rarer than you might think. And Elizabeth Olsen knocks it out of the park. She is the heart of the story, as dark and twisted as that heart might have become before seeing the light. I do hope that performance ends up outlasting the characterization criticisms as the legacy of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.
I can’t say for sure that I created the term “Uht-Head” but I haven’t heard it before, so I’ll stake a claim to it until proven otherwise. It’s what I call fans of Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, which just wrapped up its five season run a few weeks ago.
Spoiler Warning For The Last Kingdom
Trying to summarize the events that occur through five seasons, and nearly fifty episodes, of The Last Kingdom would be a fool’s errand. The show ran at an accelerated pace that would put the final two seasons of Game Of Thrones to shame for its entire run. There were advantages to this – as every scene mattered just as much as every other scene. But there were also disadvantages to this – it repeated some plots points more than it needed to as it plowed through storylines, and thorough character development was awful hard to come by.
To be honest, Game Of Thrones is not the best comparison for The Last Kingdom. Despite its ancient realm setting, political gamesmanship, and large scale battles, the truth is that The Last Kingdom has more in common with Netflix’s other series Narcos. Both are based on true stories, though are not dogmatic to the actual events as they essentially take the Wikipedia version of history and use it as their setting. Another good comp would be something like Justified or Reacher, where one single character is the center of all things. This character is smarter than all the others, a better fighter than all the others, and well-liked by everyone other than the villains.
One might find that to be eye-rolling, but The Last Kingdom takes place in a time and place where horrific events regularly occur and – when they do – you’ll be happy to have Uhtred Son Of Uhtred as your guide through these troubling times. What you need to know about Uhtred is that he was born a nobleman in what will someday be known as Northern England. His ancestral home, and fortress, of Bebbanburg is raided by Danes (proto-vikings) when he is a child. Uhtred is taken by the Danes, who take a liking to him, and decide to raise him as one of their own.
When he reaches adulthood, he goes on a raid, but ends up getting sidetracked for about thirty years or so due to some promises he makes to King Alfred who offers him an eventual shot at re-taking Bebbanburg in-return. Despite a bit of an love / hate thing with Alfred, Uhtred becomes an essential member of the king’s conquest to unite all the kingdoms of the land under the banner of Wessex. Knowing how Danes think, and fight, allow Uhtred to provide advantages on the battle field. It also provides the gateway to Uhtred simply being more badass than everyone else residing on the planet at the time.
Of course, Uhtred is also a super-likable dude and all-around great hang. Which is how he ends up working to unite the kingdoms with Alfred, Alfred’s eventual son and heir Edward, and Edward’s eventual bastard son (therefore not his heir) Aethelstan. In fact, King Edward so trusts Uhtred that when he has a second son born from a more desirable marriage (at least according to Edward’s mother) putting Aethelstan’s life in-danger, he sends the boy to be raised by Uhtred away from Wessex.
By the end of the final season, we see Aethelstan as a teenager who is nearly as good in a fight, smart in a strategy session, and beloved by his peers as his adopted father figure himself. In the series finale, Uhtred and his squad retake Bebbanburg, and Aethelstan chooses to stick with him rather than returning to Wessex with his biological father. Chalk up two another win for Uhtred.
To touch on the aforementioned Uhtred’s Squad briefly – They are men and women that Uhtred encounters in a variety of ways. Some had engaged him in a battle of wits. Some had fought against him on the battlefield. His best friend, Finan, met him when they were both sold into slavery for an episode or two. In the end, they all realized how awesome Uhtred was, and decided to dedicate their lives to living – and fighting – alongside him. It’s a fun group, too. If you’re a fan of found family narratives, this whole aspect should hit your sweet spot.
It’s not all fun and games, mind you. As I mentioned earlier, there are some truly horrific acts of violence against men, women, and children. Uhtred, himself, loses more than one wife and more than one child through the run of the series. If he, as a character and actor (shout out to Alexander Dreymon), were not as capable and charismatic as he is, The Last Kingdom would be a truly bleak viewing experience.
One thing that began as pet peeve for me, before I said “hell with it” and just committed to the ride, is the passage of time. By extension, the aging (or lack thereof) of the characters would be a bit disconcerting. This is mainly because, while the story takes place over the course of three-ish decades, characters do not visibly age once they reach adulthood. Uhtred and his squad are good examples of this, as is Alfred’s wife Aelswith. But, once you accept that characters like Edward and his sister Aethelflaed starting as children and aging into adulthood over the course of the series, while Uhtred and Aelswith appear to remain the same age, you’ll be able to settle in for an entertaining experience.
I have left so much out of this post because, frankly, there’s just no way I could even remember all the events and fit them into anything smaller than an encyclopedia. Bottom Line is that there is a lot more to The Last Kingdom, and a great many more characters who are important to the storylines. But all of that will come in good time as long as you sit back and accept that the most important thing of all is that everybody loves Uhtred, and damned if he’s not out there earning that love.
Despite season five being the last season of the show, there is a movie coming to Netflix in the near-future called Seven Kings Must Die that is intended to truly wrap everything up. You’d better believe I’ll be there streaming that sucker the day it drops. After all, an Uht-Head’s gonna Uht-Head.
I’m of the opinion that The Batman is the best live action Batman movie ever made.
To be clear, anytime anyone says something is “the best” it is a purely subjective statement. I’m going to make my case but, if you happen to read this post and disagree, I’ll thank you to not lambaste me about how very wrong I am, and I shall extend you the same courtesy.
One more point to clear is that my take is stating that The Batman is the best, top-to-bottom, live action Batman movie. That does not mean that every part of it is better than every part of previous Batman movies. For example, I still believe that Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight is the best performance in a Batman film, and that Danny Elfman’s score used in Batman – Batman Returns – Batman Forever – Batman & Robin is still the best score.
I’m also, at this point, going to stop referring to them as “live action” Batman movies. While I enjoyed many of the animated films, I like to consider animated films in-general on a different scale than live action films. Neither is better or worse, they’re just different. In this case, I just want to focus on live action. And THAT was the last time I’ll use the adjective in this post.
My relationship to Batman as an intellectual property starts where a lot of people’s does: I was ten-years-old when Batman ’89 came out. My mom waited in line with me on opening night for several hours, so long in fact, that we ended up getting tickets to an 11pm showing. God bless mom for letting me stay up that late in a theater at that age. I memorized every word, and every beat of action. Needless to say, it was my favorite movie for the ensuing five-to-ten-years. That emotional connection that I had during my formative years has made it very difficult for me to view Batman ’89 through anything other than rose-colored nostalgia glasses.
I started reading Batman comics at that point, which led to me reading a great many more comics (DC and Marvel and Image and Valiant). So, I have Batman to thank for preparing me for the Geek Renaissance of the 21st century. But that’s a whole other topic. I also sought out Batman: The Movie from 1966, and the whole run of that TV show. Even as a kid, it seemed “too kiddie” for me and had nothing to do with the Batman I had seen in the theater and was reading about in my monthly comic pulls.
I loved Batman Returns when it came out, it’s still one of my favorite Christmas movies. I didn’t hate Batman Forever at first, but I was sixteen at the time, so it certainly made me wary. Batman & Robin was an absolute disaster, and nineteen-year-old me knew it almost immediately. Then there was a break in Batman movies. A seven-year break. In that time there were a handful of good comic book movies, and a bunch of bad ones. Then, Warner Brothers decided it was time to get back in the Big Screen Bat Business.
Batman Begins presented a much better origin story than Batman ’89 and, while it was much better than the Joel Schumacher films, 26-year-old me still had it neck-and-neck with the Tim Burton films. The Dark Knight came out three years later and – nostalgia glasses or not – I immediately knew this was the best Batman movie. The Dark Knight Rises came out the same year as Marvel’s The Avengers, and couldn’t measure up to the first two movies in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy or what Marvel Studios had been cooking up in their lead up to – and everything since – 2012.
In 2016 we got Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Even at 37 years-old I was super-psyched to finally see those two characters, not to mentioned Wonder Woman, share the big screen. When I heard it would feature Ben Affleck playing an older Batman, I got my hopes up that we would be playing the same Bruce Wayne/Batman from the Nolan trilogy. I was more-than-ready for a true unified DC Movie Universe. This ended up being the most disappointed I had ever been in a superhero movie due, in large part, to my sky high expectations. In hindsight, BvS was better than the Schumacher films, but not nearly as good as any of the Burton or Nolan films. And I say that as someone who also found The Dark Knight Rises to be something of a disappointment.
Justice League came the year after, in 2017, and was bad. The Justice League Snyder Cut premiered on HBO Max in 2021 was was slightly less bad than the theatrically released Whedon Cut. But this was around the time when we started getting real details on the new film: The Batman.
I’m 43 years-old this year, and I still get pumped when a new MCU Movie comes out as Marvel Studios has proven that they know how to deliver the goods (almost) every time. But, with The Batman, my first instinct was a bit more skeptical. After the Snyder films, I lost faith in DC/WB’s ability to make a good Batman movie. If I’m being honest, some of that doubt started creeping in back in 2012.
I also started feeling those Amazing Spider-Man vibes (2012 was sure a mixed bag when it came to comic book movies), as it seemed a little too soon to reboot the entire franchise. In 2007, Spider-Man 3 ended the Sam Raimi series on a very ambiguous note. But I was ready to see Peter Parker/Spider-Man finally be an adult superhero. At the time, I thought Andrew Garfield would be playing the same version of Spidey as Tobey Maguire had played. Much like with Batman V Superman, I was mistaken. Ever since Spider-Man No Way Home came out in December Andrew Garfield has finally gotten proper credit for playing a good Peter Parker/Spider-Man in a pair of otherwise not good movies. However, this precedent was not an encouraging one when applied to The Batman.
That being said, the details of the movie started to give me some hope. I don’t really have a history with Robert Pattinson. I watched Twilight once on TV about fifteen years ago and only saw him in a few other films (none Twilight-related) since then. So, he was an unknown to me. The rest of the cast looked solid with Zoe Kravitz, Jefferey Wright, Paul Dano, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, and Andy Serkis rounding it out.
The last actor on that list led me to the biggest nugget of hope. Serkis had previously worked with Matt Reeves on two of the new Planet of the Apes movies. Those movies are awesome, and Serkis is awesome in them (even behind all that mo-cap). In addition to Dawn of the the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes Reeves had directed two other movies that I really liked: Cloverfield and Let Me In. When it was revealed that The Batman would take place in year two of the titular character’s caped crusade, I was relieves that at least we wouldn’t get a warmed over Batman Begins re-hash.
Still, I went into the theater with very level expectations. Not necessarily low, but also certainly not high. I found myself shocked by just how much I enjoyed The Batman. As with many others, I came out of the theater considering just how it stacked up against the previous iterations. Imagine my surprise when I found myself thinking that it was, pound-for-pound, the best Batman movie I had ever seen.
Spoiler Warning For The Batman
Here’s how I measured The Batman up against the previous movies.
Batman/Bruce Wayne – There’s not much of a difference between the two in The Batman, but that seems like it was purposefully done to show that he was still learning how to be “Bruce Wayne” in public. But Pattison’s Batman makes a strong case for my personal favorite.
I was a long time Michael Keaton guy, for reasons noted above. And I found Christian Bale’s portrayal riveting in its own way. But Pattinson’s Batman gets to be a character, even when wearing the mask. He actually talks to people, rather than just grunts and growls about how he is vengeance (though he does say that) or he is the night. Unlike in any previous films, this Batman is actually a detective. That being the case, he’s required to actually have conversations with James Gordon, Selina Kyle, and Alfred Pennyworth. This is really much more true to the comic book than any previous movie characterizations.
He also seems like the most human Batman. As much as he’s figuring out how to be “Bruce Wayne”, he’s also not yet perfected being “Batman” and we get to take that journey with him. He has some great moments with James Gordon, Selina Kyle, and Alfred. But he also comes across as an empathetic person, most notably with the wordless exchanges he has with the young son of The Riddler’s first murder victim. This brings us to the next two categories.
Allies – I’m talking about Gordon, Selina, and Alfred primarily here. Gary Oldman was a great James Gordon, but I felt that Jeffrey Wright tackled the role in a way that worked better for me. The spin he put on Gordon as a homicide detective so fed up with corruption and ineptitude that he embraces a masked vigilante whose name he doesn’t even know like his best friend and only reliable partner. Wright and Pattinson have a great interpersonal dynamic that has a sort of old fashioned buddy cop vibe.
I was introduced to Michelle Pfeiffer’s seductive, dangerous, and vaccuum-sealed-in-black-vinyl Catwoman when I was 13-years-old. Needless to say, she left an impression. The Jekyll-And-Hyde act was fun in Batman Returns, but Zoe Kravitz got to play a more fully-formed character. She steals to help her friend, but also to get back at her absentee mafiosa father (who killed her mother). Her chemistry with Pattinson, playing two wounded souls not really looking for a connection but finding one out of necessity, was a home run as well.
Andy Serkis’ Alfred had more in-common with Michael Caine’s exasperated version than Michael Gough’s grandfatherly figure. We never got to spend enough time with Jeremy Iron’s more sardonic interpretation for him to make much of a dent on the public consciousness. But Serkis got to have a better arc than any of those other Alfreds. This was helped by him being the caretaker of a big secret that Thomas and Martha Wayne had, and he felt obligated to protect Bruce from. But Serkis and Pattison have a scene where the revelation of this truth allows them to finally open up to one another, and admit the strong familial bond that was always there under the surface.
Enemies – Here we can talk about The Riddler, Carmine Falcone, The Penguin, and the slew of nameless thugs that get thrown at Batman.
The Riddler takes Bane’s crown (The Dark Knight Rises Bane, not the bloated oaf from Batman & Robin) as the scariest Batman movie villain. Heath Ledger’s Joker could have been in the running, but he had a sort of charismatic magnetism that made it hard to look away. Paul Dano’s Riddler is harder to watch, as he spastically attacks his victims while making Leatherface-style grunt and squeals. He’s not a guy you’d ever want to spend even two minutes with. Ledger’s Joker could probably talk you into hanging out just long enough for him to kill you, while you’d do everything in your power to avoid eye contact with this Riddler – in or out of his mask. He also has a connection to extremist QA’non types on his Dark Web channel, which means his henchmen the scariest to date as well. Riddler is presented in most scenes like a true horror movie villain, which is also a first for Batman movies.
John Turturro plays Falcone like the creepily charming friend-of-your-parents who only lets on what he wants you to know about him while hiding almost everything else behind a dark pair of sunglasses. He’s the lynchpin of the organized crime angle in The Batman, which is similar to The Dark Knight’s take. But it feels little more legitimate here, both in the way the characters are presented and the places they hang out – most notably The Iceberg Lounge feels like a place you’d stumble across in a back alley and be promptly beaten and chased off the premises by the doormen.
Penguin has only a few scenes, but Colin Farrell makes the most of them. He doesn’t steal the show, but he does justify his place in it. He’s got more flair than Falcone, and less psychosis than Riddler. In the end, he’s set-up as the natural next evolution of a Gotham City gangster.
The best place to discuss the slew of nameless thugs is actually in the next section.
Action Sequences – It took less than ten minutes for The Batman to prove that it would have better hand-to-hand combat fight scenes than any of its predecessors. By the end of the movie, it wasn’t even close. Not many fight scenes spring to mind when thinking about Batman movies. Maybe the Batman vs Catwoman flirt fight from Batman Returns? Or the first Batman vs Bane fight from The Dark Knight Rises? One of the only good scenes from Batman V Superman was the brief battle when Batman took out a warehouse full of bad guys to save Martha Kent, but even that was just one scene.
There are several scenes in The Batman where the caped crusader throws down with henchmen and thugs. Every one of them is better choreographed, and better shot than anything from the earlier films. It helps that this Bat-Costume is actually functional, so Batman can actually move the way someone would in a real fight.
Now, granted, there’s not really any spectacular action set piece. But, let’s be honest, a lot of the time those sorts of scenes end up hurting superhero movies more than helping them. The car chase is pretty bad ass, as is the Batmobile. At one point, Batman escapes from police custody by (reluctantly) leaping off the top of the tallest police station you’ll ever see after converting his suit into a glider. The great thing about this scene is that Batman can barely control his flight, and ends up wiping out in a very painful manner when he tried to stick the landing. His embarrassed, post-crash hobble off into a dark alley was the most relatable Batman has ever been.
Even the big finish works, because it feels like the sort of terrorist attack that could happen tomorrow. It involves using explosives to flood the street of Gotham City, forcing people to take shelter in Gotham Square Garden where Riddler’s cult has gathered in the rafters with high-powered assault rifles. Living in a country were mass shooting happen all too frequently made this hit a little too close to home. But I’d be lying if I said watching Batman beat the sh*t out of those guys didn’t feel damn good.
Bat-Tech – The Batman’s world is a grounded one, even by the standard set by Nolan’s trilogy. So, the tech that Batman uses is pretty basic (by Batman’s standards). His suit does seem like the most functional one, and he seems to have a full range of motion. Hell, he can even turn his head. Which explains the high collar, as it hides the flexible neck piece. The suit is armored, but more aesthetically pleasing than Christian Bale’s mishmash of plates.
The bat symbol itself isn’t quite as prevalent as Michael Keaton’s iconic yellow-and-black, but its more pronounced than most other versions. Also, despite rumors that Pattinson’s symbol was made by deconstructing the gun used to kill his parents, it’s actually a double-edged utility knife than comes in very handy a few times in the movie’s third act.
Pattinson’s suit does come with some other very cool amenities. There is a taser build into one of the gloves, and a Bat-Grapnel that pops out from his gauntlets whenever needed. There’s also the aforementioned ability of his cape to transform into a glider.
The Batmobile is a nasty, bat-out-of-hell muscle car. It’s got flashing lights, and growls like a monster in a dark cave before the attack. Not as sleek as Keaton’s, nor as tank-like as Bale’s or Affleck’s, but still a really sweet ride that is put to good use when chasing down The Penguin.
The last, and most high-tech, gadget is a pair of contact lenses that record everything Batman sees while wearing them. It’s a very clever device that explains how Batman can work on a case without having access to police files. I’m kind of surprised that no one thought to use something like them before, but they are the tool of a detective, and make all the sense in the world for the first real Batman-As-Detective movie.
Gotham City – More of a non-descript cityscape in the Nolan mold than Burton’s operatic, Expressionist wonderland, The Batman’s Gotham City was not especially memorable. The advantage it had over most previous versions, though, is that it feels more genuinely lived-in. We see the interiors of different buildings, and each is distinct in its own way. Being able to see the characters move and interact inside these locations does make one feel more immersed in the world.
This is more of a compliment for the cinematography than the setting itself, but the beginning of the movie sets a real shadow world vibe. In Batman’s voiceover, another new touch that made the movie feel more true to the comics, he admits that the city is too big for him to be everywhere. But a short montage of criminals staring with fear at dark corners, dark alleys, and dark stairwells emphasizes Batman’s other point that his the fear he instills comes from the fact that – even though he can’t be everywhere – no one knows where exactly he is either. In some ways, that’s almost as good as being everywhere at once.
End Spoilers For The Batman
I‘m going to wrap things up with my new personal ranking of Batman films. Take it or leave it, as I said in the beginning, these things are always subjective. But here we go:
The Batman The Dark Knight Batman Returns Batman Begins Batman ’89 The Dark Knight Rises Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice Justice League: The Snyder Cut Batman Forever Batman: The Movie (1966) Justice League: The Whedon Cut Batman & Robin
