Inocoherent Ramblings on the Comic-Con Trailers (Video)

So I did this livestream on (a few of) the Comic-Con trailers as a sort of celebration of 1k subscribers on my YouTube channel. It's pretty cringy to be honest but I've never done this before so...

Batman #50 and other comic reviews (Saturday Evening Cartoons) (Video)

I did a bunch of video reviews for recent comics this week...

Batman #50 by Tom King

Superman #1 by Brian Michael Bendis

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #21 by Jody Houser

Daredevil #605 by Charles Soule

Wonder Woman #50 by James Robinson

Hopefully I'll get back to Tomasi's Superman next week.

Western Wednesdays: The Hangman (1959)

     The Hangman was released on June 17th, 1959. Directed by Micheal Curtiz and written by Dudley Nichols from a short story by Luke Short, this films tells the story of Marshal Mac Bovard (Robert Taylor), a cynical lawman tasked with bringing a the last of four men suspected of taking part in a bank robbery to justice.

      There's a lot of familiar faces in this late 50's western. Robert Taylor, who I complained about in my review of Quo Vadis, is actually quite good here. Mac Bovard is a really stiff, jaded character, so Taylor's sardonic personality works in a way that it didn't in Quo Vadis. Playing opposite Taylor is Tina Louise as Selah Jennison, the military widow who he hires to identify the criminal he's looking for. Louise, who I know mainly from growing up with Gilligan's island, also does a good job in this film. Jennison feels really guilty about betraying Bovard's man Butterfield, who was a friend to her after her husband died, but she is conflicted because she wants the reward money in order to escape her hellish life doing laundry at the fort where her husband was formally stationed. This leads to conflict between her and Mac.

     Contrasting with Mac is Fess Parker's Sheriff Buck Weston. I grew up watching Parker play Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone and, as with those roles, he is good natured, charismatic, and optimistic in this movie. He refuses to believe that John Bishop (the pseudonym Butterfield has taken on to escape the law) is the man Mac is looking for. As the film goes on Buck begins to pursue Selah, hoping to court her. She feels unsure about this and, in the end after he decides to let Butterfield go, she decides to leave with Mac instead. This doesn't really work for me as their relationship is played more like that of a father and his daughter then two lovers. This made sense to me as the two actors have a 23 year age difference but, I suppose, the studio wanted the typical happy ending, with the two leads getting together romantically, so here we are.

     Rounding out the main cast is Jack Lord as John Butterfield/John Bishop. Known mainly for his starring role as Steve Garret in Hawaii Five-O (a show I'm not familiar with) Lord does a decent enough job as the wanted man who everybody likes, but he makes less of an impact as his costars and feels a little out-of-place, especially with his bleached hair. Also appearing in the film, in smaller roles are Lorne Greene, who any self-respecting Western aficionado knows as Ben Cartwright from Bonanza, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (Carlos from Rio Bravo) and Betty Lynn (Thelma Lou from The Andy Griffith Show).

     Dudley Nichols script, outside of the overly sappy ending, is pretty solid. We understand why Mac has become so jaded (his brother was murdered a long time ago, which lead him to become a Marshall and seek vengeance) but we like him enough that we want him to regain some optimism and, interestingly, he wants the same thing himself. While waiting for Selah to arrive in town, he confesses to Buck that he secretly hopes she won't show up, that she has too much integrity to betray a friend. By allowing Butterfield to escape in the end, Bovard regains a sense of trust in humanity. Maybe, like everyone in town seems to believe, Butterfield is actually a good person and got caught up in the bank robbery out of ignorance and desperation. It's good stuff. There's also a scene where Selah walks through the town in a new dress while all the men gawk at her. The less said about that the better.

     Micheal Curtiz's direction is really confident and assured. The way he, and so many other directors from this period, effortlessly blocks his shots is all but a lost art nowadays. There are a few jarring edits and Harry Sukman's score is a little over dramatic at times but, overall, the film making is pretty consistent.

     With a solid script, assured direction and a first-rate cast The Hangman is something of an underrated gem. It's not a great western but it's definitely worth checking out.

Score: 8/10

Subjectivity and Objectivity in Film Criticism (Video)

This is a video response to a recent debate between some YouTube critics.

     The original debate, featuring Mauler and The Dishonoured Wolf against Just Write, was provoked by Just Writes two video's on Star Wars: The Last Jedi (see below). Though obstebly about The Last Jedi, the three YouTubers spend most of the video arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. This really got me thinking about my own approach to reviewing movies.

The debate (Just Write enters the conversation around the 2:10:00 mark):

Just Writes video's on TLJ (the second one provoked the debate):

Musical Mondays: Mulan (1998)

     Mulan was released on June 5, 1998. The 36th Disney animated feature it is directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft and written by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. Based on the Chinese Poem "The Song of Fa Mu Lan" it takes places in China during the Han dynasty where Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) impersonates a man to take her aging father's place during and join the army when a Hun invasion leads the emperor to call for a general conscription.

     By 1998 the Disney Renaissance was winding down. Beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989 the company returned to producing more animated musical films, something which they had moved away from since Walt Disney's death in 1966. The first four films in this cycle, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King (The Rescuers Down Under is a bit of an outlier), were all received well both by critics and at the box office. 1995's Pocahontas broke this trend, receiving mixed reviews from critics and making less then the previous three films despite having the biggest budget of them up to that point. The following films, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules made successively less money despite costing even more. There are multiple reasons for this. The rise of CG animation with Pixar's Toy Story meant that Disney had to compete in a more diverse market. I also think that the Disney formula was wearing a little thin and the studio began selecting subject matter that didn't lend itself well to said formula.  

     Mulan represents a slight reversal of this trend. Not only did it do better then Hercules, both critically and commercially, it has also held up better over time. The premise of Mulan is, I think, much more appropriate for the Disney brand then Hunchback or Pocahontas, with their darker, politically charged undertones, or Hercules with its epic, mythological character. The filmmakers were able to craft a movie that, while fitting more comfortably in the Disney formula, also plays with that formula and even subverts it to some extent. The "Disney Princess" movies made since then, particularly Tangled and Frozen, owe a lot to Mulan.

     Mulan, of course, has a somewhat feminist narrative. It is, after all, about a woman joining the military at a time and place when this was considered completely unacceptable. But, while many similar films make the mistake of creating an all-too-perfect heroine and/or making all the men around her incompetent, Mulan features a really grounded, human protagonist. She's not a great soldier at first, she has to train and work hard to get their. She also has a solid, nuanced motivation. On the one hand she is trying to save her father from having to fight and probably getting himself killed. At the same time she wants to prove to herself that she is capable of succeeding at something.

     Early in the film, before she runs away to join the army, we see her going to a meeting with the local matchmaker, one which goes terribly wrong thanks to her clumsiness. The song "Reflection" reveals her inner crisis:
"I will never pass for a perfect bride or a perfect daughter,
can it be,
I'm not meant to play this part,
Now I see,
that if I were truly to be myself,
I would break my families heart."

     Mulan struggles to find her place in the patriarchal society of Han China. She doesn't believe that she will ever make a good bride and fears the shame this will bring on her and her family. Part of the problem is that her heart simply isn't in it. But when her father is put in danger she steps up. It's her love for him that really motivates her to be better. This is reflected in her commanding officer, Captain Li Shang (B. D. Wong), the son of General Li, who struggles to get out of his father's shadow. It's their mutual love for their respective fathers that draws the two characters together and makes their relationship work. I do think it would have been better for Li Shang to fight Shan Yu (Miguel Ferrer), the Hun warlord who kills General Li, together with Mulan in the film's climax, as it would have strengthened their bond and given him the opportunity to avenge his father's death, but oh well.

     Mulan takes a certain amount of inspiration from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which also features a woman disguising herself as a man and falling in love with her master. This leads to all kinds of awkward sexual tension and, as a result, I found this film surprisingly mature at times, though in never strays in to crude or tasteless territory and remains child appropriate. Most of the films funniest scenes are the one's that play around with gender roles.

     The main source of comic relief in the film, Eddie Murphy's dragon Mushu, doesn't fare as well. Yet another attempt to recapture the lighting in a bottle that was Robin William's Genie from Aladdin, Murphy fares better then most (the actor certainly knows how to do improvisational comedy), but ultimately feels like more of a distraction then anything. The cast is strong otherwise, particularly Ming-Na Wen as titular heroine. Wen is able to conveys Mulan's early awkwardness and her later sense of confidence and strength with equal aplomb.  B. D. Wong is also quite good as Li Shang, conveying the characters masculine exterior but also his inner sense of vulnerability and affection for his father. Also worth mentioning is Soon-Tek Oh as Mulan's father Fa Zhou. Though stern and a little overly honor obsessed, Fa Zhou also shows a real tenderness and love for his daughter which really sells her own love and devotion to him.

     The soundtrack honestly feels like it was kind of an afterthought. There's only four songs: "Honor to Us All", "Reflection", "I'll Make a Man Out of You" and "A Girl Worth Fighting For", the last of which is basically just filler. These songs aren't bad, and they work in the film, but with the exception of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" they're all pretty basic and forgettable. At this point, it seems, Disney had pretty much given up on casting actual singers for their musicals, so the sings are dubbed by other actor's. Sometimes this works (Lea Salonga is a pretty good stand in for Ming-Na Wen) but others times it sticks out like a sore thumb (Marni Nixon sounds nothing like June Foray's Grandmother Fa). Jerry Goldmith's score on the other hand, is just brilliant. Blending a traditional orchestral arrangement with more Asiatic instrumentation, the score is driven by leitmotif, something which is beginning to seem more and more like a lost art nowadays. The music that plays when Mulan decides to take her father's armor and run off to join the army is particularly memorable, as the synth, 80's action movie style tune, gives way as Mulan's theme, boldly and heroically, takes over.

     The animation is quite good, as one would expect from a Disney film in this era. I do think it's a little bland at times but the characters are all really expressive, the sweeping panoramic backgrounds are a sight to behold, and the film makes really good use of CG for the bigger action scenes, blending it seamlessly with the hand-drawn elements. It's just a shame that the animators didn't do more with the Chinese setting, which presented a real opportunity to pursue a more unique art style. This is one area where Hercules definitely did it better.

     In the end, while songs are a little lacking and the animation is a bit bland, solid storytelling, fun humor and a magnificent score from Jerry Goldsmith make Mulan one of the better post-Lion King Disney films.

Score: 8/10

Saturday Evening Cartoons: Superman Reborn

     The first big crossover of Tomasi and Gleason's run, Superman Reborn, sees their Superman title crossover with Dan Jurgen's Action Comics. Like most comic book crossovers it's a mixed bag. It does push forward certain story threads that have been building since DC Rebirth. We see more of Mr. Oz for one thing but, more importantly, this Superman's intrusion into this timeline is finally reconciled and the real identity of the Clark Kent doppelganger that had been stalking Superman's family in Action Comics, is revealed.

     Long story short: It's Mr. Mxyzptlk. Having been captured by Mr. Oz during his most recent attempt to mess with the Man of Steel, Mxyzptlk is imprisoned for an undisclosed amount of time, only to escape using Superman's old trick of saying his own name backwards (Kltpzyxm). Continually pursued by Oz Mxy disguises himself as Clark Kent and cast a spell on himself so that he would believe he really was the mild mannered reporter. Seeing Superman and his family makes him remember who he is however and he plots to exact revenge on Superman for seemingly forgetting about him for all the years he was imprisoned by Mr. Oz.

     The story opens with him arriving at the Kent's house and leaving a "present" for Jon: a photo album which causes the house and its inhabitants to begin fading from existence. When Jon disappears Superman and Lois go to the apartment of the Clark Kent Doppelganger to get answers. They eventually discover that he is Mxyzptlk, who challenges Superman to a game in order to get Jon back. He brings them to some kind of inter-dimensional plane, where they begin to lose their memories of Jon, and of being married.

     Meanwhile, Jon has come in contact with the life-forces of New 52 versions of his parents, trapped, it seems in the dimensional rift where Mxyzptlk has brought Jon. After he is freed by Clark, who then completely looses his memory of Jonathan, Jon is able to free the New 52 versions of Lois and Clark, but he doesn't know that they are not his parents and doesn't understand why they don't recognize him. He pleads with them to remember him and they decide to try. This leads (somehow) to their merging with their pre-Flashpoint selves.

     The implications of all this is that there are no longer two versions of Superman and Lois Lane existing simultaneous in the current DC continuity. There just the Pre-Flashpoint versions which now also lived through most of the events of the New 52 continuity, though I'm unclear which ones or how this all fits together. Rebirth revealed that some mysterious entity (many think it's Doctor Manhattan) stole 10 years from the lives of every DC character. Superman has now gotten that time back.

     If your confused by all of this don't worry, I think everyone was. It's unfortunately the nature of continuity driven stories. My real problem with this crossover is that too little story gets stretched out over 4 issues. I mean essentially what happens here is that Mxyzptlk kidnaps Jon, reveals himself to Superman and is then summarily defeated by Jon through some kind of magic/sci-fi mumbo jumbo. There's threads of a really interesting story here. Superman and Lois both struggle to maintain there grip on reality and its possible that their life, as they know it, will come to an end. But the emotional impact of this never really takes affect because the story is more concerned with "fixing" the continuity.

     The art is pretty solid, though once again two different teams worked on it. Patrick Gleason (pencils) and Mick Gray (inks) worked on the Superman issues while Doug Mahnke (pencils) and Jaime Mendoza (inks) did the art for Action Comics. Both artists really go all out with the trippy Mxyzptlk stuff. Its excessively bright and vibrant but also has a surreal, reality bending quality to it. Steve Ditko (R.I.P.) would be proud. With that said,the two artist's styles don't really blend perfectly, with Mahnke's being more realistic and Gleason's much more cartoony. some of Mahnke's facial work from Action Comics #975 is honestly pretty bad. The proportions are off and the shape of characters' heads appears really inconsistent. There's also a back up story in this issue written by Paul Dini with art by Brian Churchill. Churchill's art is generally much more consistent then Mahnke's and he does a lot of cool stuff with Mxyzptlk. 

     Overall, while I'm glad the overarching plot finally moves forward, Superman Reborn is lacking in a solid, human story and feels overly long and overblown for what it is: a 60's style superhero romp that (more or less) solidifies the current continuity.

Score: 6/10

Western Wednesdays: Yellow Sky (1948)

     Yellow Sky was released in December of 1948. It is directed by William A. Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident) and written by Lamar Trotti from an unpublished novel by W.R. Burnett. In it a group of six outlaws, on the run from the law, take shelter in a nearly abandoned ghost town, occupied only by a young woman and her aging grandfather. When the outlaws discover that the man and his granddaughter are hoarding a large sum of gold, conflict becomes inevitable.

     Yellow Sky is a rather dark western. The main protagonist "Stretch" (Gregory Peck) is not only an outlaw but a rather ruthless character in general. He is not averse to leaving his companions to die of thirst in the desert or to wooing "Mike" (Anne Baxter), the young woman who the outlaws meet in the ghost town, in a, shall we say, rather forceful manner. It is only a certain underlying of honor (he refuses to break his word) that keeps him from being completely despicable.

     There's a lot of sexual tension running through this film. The outlaws, with the exception of Richard Widmark's "Dude" who is too overcome with greed to care, all lust after Mike. Stretch, as the groups de-facto leader, protects her from them while pursuing her himself. At one point he tackles her to the ground and kisses her against her will. Refreshingly, she is not complacent toward him initially, and actually shoots at him, grazing him in the head, to teach him a lesson. Less refreshingly, she does end up falling for him over the course of the film.

     There are reasons for this. Stretch shows himself to be at least somewhat honorable when he goes against his gang and insists on leaving Mike and her grandfather the agreed to share of their gold. He also relates some of his background. Growing up in Kansas before the war, his family were constantly in danger of attacks from Quantrill's Raiders. As a result he grew up with violence all around him. He signed up to fight for the Union during the war during which both of his parents died from an epidemic. He also swears on the bible that he will make sure they get the share of the gold he promised them. I can accept Mike becoming more sympathetic toward Stretch after this. But, considering his behavior toward her earlier in the film, having them become romantically involved is, well, quite a stretch (no pun intended).

     The idea of the war shaping the lives of the outlaws in a negative way, leading to their lives of crime, is subtlety hinted at throughout the film. After hearing Stretch's story Granpa tells Mike, "I guess the war has upset a lot of those boys and set them off on the wrong foot." The film is somewhat subversive in this way, asking the audience to sympathize with these lawless, violent men.

     William Wellman's direction is really great. He and cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (My Darling Clementine) fill the movie with stark yet beautiful images. The is a contrast between the cold, harsh environment and the characters passion and lust is accentuated through the film's imagery. One shot, looking through the barrel of Mike's gun toward Stretch, anticipates the James Bond films. The climax, where Stretch and Dude face off in an abandoned saloon, is one of the more unique climaxes I've seen in a western film, at least in the way it's filmed. Looking through the window from outside of the building, we hear the shots but cannot see who was hit, leaving us in suspense.

     It's definitely a well cast film. Peck perfectly balances Stretch's duplicity and sense of honor. Anne Baxter brings a real sense of strength and fiery intensity to Mike. James Barton bring a certain unhinged quirkiness to Granpa. He's a tough old coot but one who can roll with the punches, and he knows when he's beat. John Russell is appropriately slimey and arrogant as the lustful, violent Lengthy.  Charles Kemper, Harry Morgan, and Robert Arthur all bring just enough charisma to keep you from hating Walrus, Half Pint, and Bull Run (respectively). Finally Richard Widmark steals all of his scenes as the conniving dandy Dude. Even before hearing his surprisingly sympathetic backstory, you know there's more going on behind those beady eyes then it appears on the surface.

     It's definitely a flawed film. The romance between Stretch and Mike is problematic both from a writing perspective and ethically. Border line abuse and manipulation is not a healthy foundation for a relationship. There's a scene involving Apache's that's a little pointless and intrusive. The ending of the film, where Stretch and the other two surviving outlaws return the money they stole at the beginning and Stretch buys a bonnet for Mike before they all ride off into the sunset, feels pretty tacked on and way too upbeat compared to the rest of the film.

     Featuring solid performances,  Magnificent direction, and some subversive writing, Yellow Sky is certainly worth a watch despite some of its more obtuse flaws.

Score: 8/10

Christian Humanism and True Terror in A Quiet Place

"It is in the face of death that the riddle a human existence grows most acute. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person."
-Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World

     The film A Quiet Place contains one of the most positive, life affirming portrayals of a family I've seen in a mainstream Hollywood film in the last decade. This might seem ironic on its face, after all this is a horror film. On further reflection however, it makes a lot of sense.

Cheap thrills in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

     Many horror writers have talked about the distinction between horror and terror. Terror, they say, is the feeling of dread and anticipation before a scare, while horror is the feeling of revulsion that follows after. Ann Radcliffe, the pioneer of Gothic literature, wrote that, "Terror and Horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them." Many films in the genre evoke horror, attempting to shock the audience with grotesque imagery or startle them with a loud noise (a "jump scare" as many would call it). Truly great horror films are those which evoke terror, which produce a sense of dread.

Overcoming fear in It (2017)

     What does this all have to do with the family and humanism? Well in his book Danse Macabre Stephen King writes that, "Horror, terror, fear, panic: these are the emotions which drive wedges between us, split us off from the crowd, and make us alone ... The melodies of the horror tale are simple and repetitive, and they are melodies of disestablishment and disintegration ... but another paradox is that the ritual outletting of these emotions seems to bring things back to a more stable and constructive state again." In other words horror stories can be a source of catharsis, the dread they invoke can, "expand the soul", can lead to a greater sense of hope. And hope is something that many modern families desperately need.

     So often, in this day and age, it feels as if the very institution of the family is under attack from societal forces. Indeed, Popes from Pius XII all the way up to Francis have spoken on this subject again and again. In the Vatican II document Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, we read, "As for the family, discord results from population, economic and social pressures, or from difficulties which arise between succeeding generations, or from new social relationships between men and women." Similarly the Abott family in A Quiet Place struggles to cope with the harsh world around them and also with internal discord. The alien monsters that devoured their youngest child are a constant source of fear and dread but its the guilt that each of the family members carry for this event that really threatens to undo them.

     The father, Lee (John Krasinski), wishes he would have prevented Cade from taking the electric spaceship toy, the noise of which leads to his death. The mother, Evelyn (Emily Blunt, Krasinki's real life spouse), wishes she had carried him home so she could have kept an eye on him. The daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who encouraged Cade to take the spaceship despite their father's disapproval, not knowing that he also snuck along the batteries for it, feels responsible and thinks that her father blames her for Cade's death.

     There's a really important scene about halfway through the film when Mr. Abbot and his son Marcus are returning from a trip though the woods and come across an elderly man whose wife has died. Emotionally crushed by this event the man yells out in despair and is killed by one of the creatures, who are sightless but have a keen sense of hearing. Isolation and loneliness lead to despair and annihilation. Similarly, the tension between Mr. Abott and his deaf daughter Regan which arises because of her guilt about what happened to her brother, causes both him and her to feel isolated and alone. This is of course exacerbated by the extreme circumstances they find themselves in. Gaudium et spes says, "as current events often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of grief go unsolved with the frequent result that men succumb to despair."

     But the family ultimately overcome their sense of fear and loss. While the father and Marcus are away from the farm the mother goes into labor and they return just in time to ward off the monsters before they are attracted by her screams. Marcus and Regan end up being separated from their parents in the confusion and its up to their father to save them. This leads to a brilliant moment, where Lee sacrifices himself for his daughter, screaming to lead it away from the truck where she and Marcus are hiding. Witnessing this, Regan finally sees that her father never stopped loving her and doesn't blame her for her brother's death. While the old man's scream was one of despair, Lee's is an act of unconditional love for his children.

     Lee, in this climatic scene becomes something of a Christ figure. As Christ conquered death by embracing his own death, Lee overcomes despair and renews hope by giving up his own life. The scream that was an act of despair and nihilism from the old man becomes redeemed, sanctified even. Once again, Gaudium et spes says, "Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful." This is also an echo of that famous passage in St. John's Gospel, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

     This theme of hope in the face of nihilism and despair is also found in the Abbot's soon-to-be born child. Mr and Mrs. Abbot are willing to risk having another child despite the fact that they lost one so recently. This, I think, is their way of not giving in to despair. Despite all of the dangers of raising an infant in this film's dangerous world, they are willing to do whatever is necessary to try to make it work. This seems especially relevant in a time where many parents feel ambivalent about bringing new life into this crazy, often times unforgiving world.

     This is why A Quiet Place is still my favorite film of 2018 so far. It's not a perfect film by any means, some of the world building raises more questions then it answers, it often relies to much on musical score to create tension, and there are some fairly noticeable contrivances, but it is a film that really resonated with me as a Christian and a Catholic.

How rightly Sir Maurice Powicke says, "there have been civilized people in all ages." And let us add, "In all ages they have been surrounded by barbarism."
-C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy