https://store.steampowered.com/app/3347690/Among_the_Waves/
How is this a thing now? Where did this idea of having pregnant women fighting come from?
Link is to a video game that was advertising on twitter.
"She carries a unique, divine Child that grants her superhuman abilities and protection." Is the excuse for it.
I don't get it. Its weird. Who is asking for this?
Since the new Odyssey movie is coming up soon and there is much discussion about its casting, I put together the genealogy of Helen and Clytemnestra to show the importance of African figures in the dynasties of Argos and Mycenae... at least according to myth.
The two foundational moments in this dynasty are unmistakably defined by African figures and heroines:
Both moments provide key mythological motifs for understanding Clytemnestra:
This post is not meant to defend Nolan’s The Odyssey casting choices. It is meant to establish a better foundation for the inevitable discussion (and much grifting) that is taking place.
Interested to hear your thoughts. (Also, let me know if I made any mistake in the tree.)
Edit: Of course, Helen's father is Zeus according to myth. Nolan seems to use the version of the myth where the two sisters are twins, so Tyndareus is somewhat involved in Helen's conception.
A bright shinning example of the box office numbers reflecting the movie's quality. Marty's tiny head would probably blow up at the mere sight of all this cinema
So during the course of EFAP Supergirl, Fringy shits on Supergirl for being written by an amateur who uses screenwriting 101 tips. He even says each EFAP member would be able to write a good Spiderman film.
Doesn't anyone else think this bit arrogant? I'm sure the movie is shit, but saying you would be able to do a better job is pushing it. Mauler and Drinker have themselves written questionable short films; arguably, even RLM made a bad movie. It's almost like the ability to understand flaws of films doesn't give you the ability to make something better.
I feel Fringy should read a book called Fade In, which was written by the writer of Star Trek Insurrection. It's about a writer who wrote many great Star Trek episodes, but was cornered by the studio into writing a rather terrible movie. Point being is that even a competent writer can be forced to write something awful.
So, I'm not defending that awful movie, but I feel EFAP should stop pretending they could do better.
And for nitpickers who will inevitably try to argue in the comments down below that "well Snow White has more dislikes", this tweet is talking about The Odyssey being the most disliked modern movie trailer since the live action Snow White movie that nobody similarly asked for.
Not that it has more dislikes per se than Snow White, though I'm sure that's subject to change as we inch closer to the release of Christopher Nolan's take on the Greek epic based on a modern feminist's "translation" of said epic, because of course it is.
Hard to imagine the same guy who was known for taking risks as a filmmaker has stooped to making a blatantly woke version of The Odyssey, namely by making Helen of Troy a black woman, which she most certainly would not have been had The Odyssey existed in real life.
(And to likewise counter anybody who will try to erroneously claim that I'm using the word "woke" wrong, no, I'm not using it in the sense of black people telling their communities to be alert about bad faith actors doing messed up shit to others as per the original definition of the word, I'm using it in the modern online culture war definition of the word as in the sense of Hollywood's senseless corporate-funded attempts at appearing "diverse" to appease Blackrock shareholders who have as much creative sense as Peter Griffin did in that episode of Family Guy where he took over production on a theater adaptation of "The King and I" play until it resembled a blatant sci-fi in name only adaptation much to Lois's disgust.)
This would be like making George Washington Hispanic or gender-swapping Albert Einstein in a movie about either man's life.
(And why is it predominantly white culture that gets treated like this in modern Hollywood?)
Either Christopher Nolan has grown soft in his old age at 55 going on 56...
Or, dare I say, perhaps the woke virus finally came for his once brilliant mind?
Dude could have consulted and worked with the people of Greece themselves down to the last detail and made another smash hit film to add to his mostly impressive resume, but I guess it was easier to blackwash Helen of Troy, to cast Zen-fucking-Daya in the film as Athena because of course that charisma vaccum of an actress is in everything after hitting it big as "MJ" in the Tom Holland Spider-Man films, and to cast Elliot Page as Sinon rather than give an unknown Greek actor their big break, or really, to give any Greek actors/actresses their big break.
Bravo, Nolan, you marvelous, ethnically and sexually tolerant film director.
I'm sure all women, blacks, and queers here in North America (and maybe Canada and parts of Europe too) feel empowered right about now with your American-centric casting choices for your take on The Odyssey, as do the aforementioned actual Greek people you conveniently snubbed in the name of DEI, because who gives a damn about anybody besides who our corporate overlords tell us to give a damn about amiright? :)
And for the record, you peaked with Inception as a filmmaker, though Oppenheimer is admittedly your best film since that one in recent years.
TL;DR: I loved the goofy space aesthetic and thought Alcock and Momoa were good, but the movie needed clearer power rules, fewer competing emotional arcs, and more consistency. There are the bones of a good movie here, but it needed another pass on the script and stronger direction. 3.5/10.
Like Fantastic Four: First Steps, this had the bones of some good ideas. I enjoyed seeing the characters, but I felt like the script needed a tune-up and the better direction needed to bring the underlying ideas to life. I thought it was worth seeing, but mostly because (a) I'm a huge Super-family fan, and (b) it was really hot outside and I needed something to do in air conditioning.
This is a problem in almost every Super-family movie, but they needed a better solution than constantly depowering Kara to create stakes. Depending on the scene, I found myself asking either, "Why isn't Kara dead?" or "Why are the Brigands still standing?"
My suggestion would be to return to the old idea that Kryptonians store yellow-sun energy. They can still use that reserve under a red sun, but once the tank is empty, it's empty. If done consistently, every time Kara used her powers, the audience would know she's burning through a limited resource, creating tension.
Why isn't Kara dead after the first fight over the sword? Does she still have some powers under the red sun? If so, which ones?
Krem throws a tank. Does that mean all the Brigands have super strength? How much?
How does Krem know so much about Kryptonians if only two have ever left their planet and both live on Earth?
The movie could probably explain all of these things - it just doesn't.
The movie should have picked two or three of these:
Maybe a genius could weave together more than two or three of those, but I didn't think this movie took the time to earn any of them. I would have much preferred a slower, deeper development of just a few of the themes.
Two of these underdeveloped themes are particularly difficult.
First, the storyline where Kara protects Ruthye from revenge, then apparently decides she's morally compromised enough to carry out that revenge herself, is lifted straight out of True Grit and other Westerns like The Searchers and Shane. The difference is that those protagonists are adults with long histories of violence. Kara is a traumatized party girl with survivor’s guilt after the fall of Krypton and Argo City. Those aren't the same thing. If you want her to fill that Western antihero role, then earn it. Give me a flashback where she kills people and has to live with the consequences that explains where she apparently is emotionally at the time of the movie.
Second, I would not have made the Brigands an interplanetary society of r-pists and s-x slavers. But if you're going to go there, then live with the implications.
First, it makes Kara's decision not to get involved seem astonishingly selfish. Them killing Ruthiye’s parents is the LEAST of the reasons she should power up and deal with them! She speaks space languages, knows all about tech pirates and space bus schedules, but she's never heard of these guys? Or she has heard of them and simply doesn't care?
Second, once you've established that this group are space r-pists, they would never kill Kara or abandon her in the half-green-sun desert hoping she dies. To them, she would be the single most valuable woman in the galaxy. Lock her up on a red-sun world, and every child she has would be half-Kryptonian.
So, like I said, I think there's a good movie buried in here. Give the script to a great script doctor and the movie to a director more suited to it, and I think it could have been something pretty good. It probably still would have lost a lot of money, but it could have been good.
Maybe it was the passing of Anthony Stewart Head (rest well, Ripper); or the way that MauLer and Nerdrotic are reviewing it; but I felt the sudden need to own (for at least the second time) and rewatch (for the umpteenth time in the case BTVS), more content than you can shake a Mr Pointy at. Now I will walk through the fire... and happily return :) .
I dropped the series in the middle of Season 2, it was apparent that the showrunners and writers have no intention of adapting Fire & Blood. Instead they used the unreliable narrator structure of the book as an excuse to pervert the narrative as much as they want, so they can write their own vastly inferior story. Seemingly, the point of their story is just 21st century Hollywood misandry.
At the time of Season 2 release Mauler and the crew were clearly hesitant to criticize it too much, despite the shortcomings of the writing. They had their reasons and one of them was that Mauler deliberately stayed away from the book to analyze the series on its own merits.
I can imagine that from that perspective, with series on its own, Season 2 may be considered something like 6/10: story is clearly deteriorating, but it is hard to say how bad or good it may get. If you read the book, however, it is much worse. I consider it closer to 3/10 just because so much potential was wasted, so many good things from the book were cut and replaced with fanfiction garbage.
It seems like the crucial change happened during the interval between Season 1 and Season 2. Writers went rogue and started to do what they like. It is not like adaptation and changes are bad, Season 1 had fair share of the changes to the story, but from the start of Season 2 the series went into its own direction. Fundamental problem with that is the fact that they are getting stuck between two worlds.
They don't respect the book or its author, they don't want to follow what is written. At the same time they can't really write their own story with freedom they need because it is still an adaptation and central plot points still have to happen. As a result the series' story is a huge contrived mess. The writers insert their fanfiction even if it is not fitting Fire & Blood story, while the book plot points happen even if those don't fit the fanfiction. It is like two minds trying to move one body. That sort of writing is a fertilizer for plot holes, ruined characters and thematic dissonance.
It seems like at the time of early Season 3 Mauler and Fringy caught up on what is going on, despite not reading the book. They are right in tearing Season 3 apart, it is only going to be worse because the rift between two visions of the story is going to grow more and more, by inertia or intent.
If Bonnie used a french fry instead of a fork, would it come to life? Would it want to be eaten instead of thrown away?
That's some superpowe! Let's see where else it can be used in the DCU....
Really sucks that they are pushing this shit so badly man. I remember a time when you bought a game, and it came with a bunch of stuff, and of course a physical copy of the damn game. Now it’s all going to be digital, and I hate it.