Movies
Avengers: Endgame Trailer
Just a few days after dropping the Captain Marvel trailer, we get the new Avengers movie trailer. It’s suitably bleak, dark and sad. Except for the end. Do I sense… hope?
Captain Marvel Trailer
Hey, there’s a new Captain Marvel trailer. It looks like great fun with a bit of mystery and intergalactic war.
The best part? Nick Fury being all affectionate with Goose the cat (although I’m betting Goose isn’t really a cat…)
The Spectrum of Possibilities
Rob Bricken, in his weekly Medium column Nerd Processor, talks about the upcoming final season of Game of Thrones, how it’s likely to disappoint, and why.
But the problem isn’t really with Daenerys, Tyrion, or all the other characters that may end up ruling Westeros or whether anyone rules Westeros or if it splits back into seven kingdoms or suddenly becomes a democracy or whatever. (Okay, that last one would be very crappy.) It’s that Game of Thrones is so popular and so epic and its ending so anticipated that every possible outcome, regardless of how good or bad it is, is inherently not as exciting as the spectrum of possibilities that precede it.That bit about the “spectrum of possibilities” is deliciously accurate. And it doesn’t just apply to how the Game of Thrones creators plan on ending the series. This problem is inherent in almost all of the upcoming genre television and movies.
How will Star Wars Episode IX wrap up the sequel trilogy? How can it be done without disappointing millions of fans?
How will the next Avengers movie wrap up the Infinity War story? How can they do it without millions of fans crying out in vain?
How will Westworld end? The Expanse? The Magicians? Mr. Robot? The list goes on.
How will the creators of The Big Bang Theory close out the series and will we ever learn Penny’s last name?
I’m not sure there are people wondering how Modern Family, Law and Order: SVU or Criminal Minds will end. Maybe I’m wrong. There’s definitely a fandom for This is Us that’s invested in the characters and timelines. The creators have done a fabulous job of teasing ideas and directions to keep viewers hooked and wondering where and how it will end. The “spectrum of possibilities” is the bread and butter of the show, along with the strong writing and character moments.
Of course, most of the time where characters go after the movie’s credits or show is off the air is in the realm of fan fiction or actual tie-in novels and comics. Want more seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? They exist in comic book form and written by the guy who created Buffy. What happened after the end of the last Star Trek: The Next Generation movie? Read the novels.
Still, a fandom’s expectation for a satisfying conclusion has got to be a huge headache for the creators. I assume some just don’t care about the reaction and just want to tell their story and damn the torpedoes regarding fans (see Rian Johnson and The Last Jedi). I think other creators may try and walk the line of fan service and servicing the story.
I’d bet JJ Abrams will walk that line with Episode IX. Maybe David Benioff and D. B. Weiss will do the same for Game of Thrones. We will know soon enough. Meanwhile, I’ll write my own versions in my head and try not to scream when the creators do their own thing.
Star Wars MegaMix
Darren Tibbles‘ entry in the Star Wars Fan Awards is a tour de force of animation. His “showreel” is fast-paced and fun with all sorts of Star Wars bits thrown in.
With apologies to Marie Kondo, it is a rare piece of fan art that truly sparked joy in this jaded Star Wars fan.
Deceptive Practices
Ricky Jay passed away.
I’m not sure when I first started to recognize him. It might have been Deadwood or Mystery Men. I had forgotten he was in Boogie Nights and that’s probably where a lot of people would know him from.
As a magician, he was one of the best up-close card trick guys I’d ever seen. Just watch him do his thing with the four queens.
Everyone is linking to The New Yorker profile, especially for the opening. It begins like this…
The playwright David Mamet and the theatre director Gregory Mosher affirm that some years ago, late one night in the bar of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago, this happened:The 2012 documentary film about Jay, Deceptive Practices, is streaming for free on Amazon Prime Video. I’ve never seen it. Perhaps I should.Ricky Jay, who is perhaps the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive, was performing magic with a deck of cards. Also present was a friend of Mamet and Mosher’s named Christ Nogulich, the director of food and beverage at the hotel. After twenty minutes of disbelief-suspending manipulations, Jay spread the deck face up on the bar counter and asked Nogulich to concentrate on a specific card but not to reveal it. Jay then assembled the deck face down, shuffled, cut it into two piles, and asked Nogulich to point to one of the piles and name his card.
“Three of clubs,” Nogulich said, and he was then instructed to turn over the top card.
He turned over the three of clubs.
Mosher, in what could be interpreted as a passive-aggressive act, quietly announced, “Ricky, you know, I also concentrated on a card.”
After an interval of silence, Jay said, “That’s interesting, Gregory, but I only do this for one person at a time.”
Mosher persisted: “Well, Ricky, I really was thinking of a card.”
Jay paused, frowned, stared at Mosher, and said, “This is a distinct change of procedure.” A longer pause. “All right-what was the card?”
“Two of spades.”
Jay nodded, and gestured toward the other pile, and Mosher turned over its top card.
The deuce of spades.
A small riot ensued.
The Never-Ending Story
Amanda Hess in The New York Times has a piece that examines how nothing ever ends anymore in regards to intellectual property. Movies go on forever in sequels, prequels, and other adaptions. Cancelled television shows come back. The dead never stay dead.
We needed stories to end so we could make sense of them. We needed characters to die so we could make sense of ourselves.
It’s an amazing essay.
Cary Fukunaga to Direct Bond 25
Alex Ritman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, on the future of James Bond.
Cary Fukunaga has been named director for the 25th installment of the 007 franchise, with Daniel Craig reprising his role — reportedly for the last time — as the iconic spy with the license to kill.
This works.
Loved his earlier stuff like True Detective.
The Only Good Online Fandom Left is Dune
Sean T. Collins at The Outline explains the difference between Dune and the Extended Cinematic Universes of both television and film. There are no warring camps or whiney man babies upset that there’s a girl and a person of color leading many of these franchises. With Dune you just have nods and winks to lines and characters.
Dune references signal shared knowledge to those in the know, and that’s about it. Dune fandom is an un-fandom.
As soon as it becomes some sort of cash cow I think all bets are off.
Is it Time to Kill James Bond?
Joshua Rivera writing for GQ makes an interesting argument.
Kill Bond. It’s never been done before, and it would be the perfect way to end the Craig era, which also bears the unique distinction of being a stretch of Bond films with actual continuity. Cross the line the Craig films have flirted with, the one that suggests Bond is an archaic destabilizing force that needs to be put down. It’s remarkable, the clarity that Casino Royale had on this from the very start of Craig’s tenure. It’s a story where Bond’s superior, M, regards him with utter disdain, and makes it plain that he’s an archaic brute she’d rather do without—the implication being that the two are forever intertwined, and that if Bond becomes inessential, so does the respectable facade she represents.
This… works. What comes after is wide open and could seriously move the franchise into the 21st century.
Not Your Father’s Avengers
This story speculating on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe offers us an idea that I’ve had ever since the Black Panther movie was so well received and the Captain Marvel movie is on the horizon.
That idea is The Ultimates. The team that debuted in 2015 and boasts a diverse cast of interesting characters ready to take their place among the Captain Americas, Thors, and Spider-men of the MCU.
The article gives an excellent outline of who is who in this version of the Ultimates. Additionally, as the article points out, it is important to present this as something new and not Avengers 2.0. The fact that there isn’t a white male on the team is also groundbreaking and something new and different in today’s super-hero movie landscape.
Plus with the imminent acquisition of the Fantastic Four properties, a two-hour movie where this team stops Galactus would be epic and worthy.
The only thing you’d have to do is change Blue Marvel’s name to something like Ultramarine and you’d be good to go. Although, to be honest they kept Rocket Raccoon for Guardians of the Galaxy so maybe all bets are off on that front.
This is Why You Should Hold Fast to Childish Things
John P. Weiss writes and illustrates his thoughts on leaving things undone and reacquaint ourselves with wonder. What do you call people who love good music, books, movies, stage products, company, and conversation?
Happy?