3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Ash

2025, Flying Lotus (Kuso) -- Amazon

It might be time for a break. Between the click click click clicking as I hunt for my next movie, while ignoring a couple of dozen on my To Be Watched List, and my "meh" reaction to pretty much everything of late, I am bored. And bored of being bored by what I am watching. 

Contradicting that statement, Ash came along square in the Toasty Realm as "of course you will be watching it", the realm of scifi, of horror, of a movie with style. And it starred Eiza González, whom I am never adverse to watching. But not long into the movie I felt as if the whole red-alarm-bells tinted movie was devised with only the "male gaze" in mind. Sure, she is the star and therefore the camera should focus on her, have lots of close-ups on her anxiety and fear filled face, and sure, the movie didn't go down the path of a "token nude scene" (though, it did setup one via the "wash the blood off shower scene") but so very little of consequence actually happens in the movie, I felt as if the only reason we were here was to gaze upon her.

Riya (Eiza González, 3 Body Problem) wakes up on the floor of her room, the lights flickering, alarms going off, covered in blood. She has no idea what is going on, no recent memory, no understanding why people are dead throughout the station, and why she is having flashes of violence. She steps outside the facility she is in, an unfamiliar sky above, more flashes but of a psychedelic nature, the sky folding in upon itself, and then she starts having issues breathing. This is an atmosphere not meant for humans.

Back inside she investigates, but soon after the airlock cycles and while she almost attacks him, it is Brion (Aaron Paul, Westworld), from their orbiter, who was monitoring things in this station. He fills her in on a bit of who she is, why they are there and what they have to do next. They are one of a number of interstellar expeditions seeking habitable planets for Earth to escape to. The other missions have failed; it is now all on them. They have 12 hours before the orbital aligns with their launch vehicle, so there is time to better understand what is going on.

Except this is a scifi horror movie with muddy intentions.

I have no idea who Flying Lotus is, but from what Kent said, they are known in the music industry, from music videos to producing. And it is clear they had a visual intent for this movie, from the dominating colours (just Google the movie and you will see the Red vs Blue) to the chosen camera angles (let's all stare at González's face in terror and confusion) and the weird blobby CGI alien stuff. But despite having some budget to work with, none of it actually works. Its all cobbled together from better, and TBF worse, movies with competing ideas. Why does she keep on seeing imagery of faces melting? Nobody had their face melted off, so its just for effect. What was up with that sky? What was up with the brief scene of an idyllic planet and a field of flowers? Once the "real story" is explained to us, we can fill in some blanks on our own, but none are satisfying and much felt like "look at this! this is neat!" imagery best left for music videos. I think back to movies made by music video producers, and The Cell comes to mind, with its insane imagery and intent and style and I recall being moved along by their heavy choices and loving it, just being swept up in what came out Tarsem's head. This is not that.

It leaves me frustrated and just a bit angry. Is it me? Am I expecting too much? Am I allowing all the other aspects of my frustrating and anger inducing life influence how I watch movies? Would Toasty in a better mood have liked this movie more, maybe during 31 Days of Halloween ? Am I doomed to being bored by or disliking just about everything I watch? Or is it the industry right now...

3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Three Thousand Years of Longing

2022, George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) -- Amazon

What a beautiful fairy tale of a movie that ... well, to be honest, left me pretty empty. Not feeling empty, just that it didn't affect me much. It should have. Miller was able to take an older, popular action franchise and have it become transcendent while still retaining the world contained within. The visuals, the music, the world building !! And lest us not forget, he took a story about a pig and astounded the world. But not everything can be those, some just have to be an exercise in movie making.

When opening genie containers, I assume the world would be more interested in finding Idris Elba than Melissa McCarthy. I know I was. So was Tilda Swinton. Elba (The Suicide Squad) is The Djinn, discovered in a bottle that scholar Alithea Binnie (Swinton, The Dead Don't Die) finds in a shop in Istanbul on one of her trips for work. As is the way, he offers her three wishes, which have conditions, but she is suspicious. She is a woman of tales, and all the tales tell one to be wary of djinn. So, instead, he tells her tales of him, of his past, of his wishes.

Each tale is cautionary, full of wonder and love. They expand on who he is, what he can do, and how people have treated him, and he in turn, treated them. The tales turn the sceptical Alithea and in the end, she wants nothing more from him but to have him love her. So he does. So he returns to London with her, to become part of her life, but a secret one, that she returns to each day. But it comes with consequences for djinns  were never meant to be part of our modern world with all its signals and wavelengths. So, she finally releases him, but the love is retained and he returns to her on occasion, when his strength returns.

Each tale was so intricately built, so beautiful dressed and shot. The Djinn is truly a marvel to behold, a being of smoke and fire and shimmering, reflected light, both massive to behold and airy. But there was no weight to the stories, they didn't draw me in. They were just nice things to look at, to hear, but didn't move me once, there was not even one moment of, "That'll do pig, that'll do." Its a shame. If it wasn't for the marvellous visuals and colours, I might have been bored entirely. There was so much to work with, but perhaps I can just blame it on the source material? 

Kent's take.

We Agree: Shang-Chi

2021, Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy) -- Disney+

I have always appreciated Asian Americans (as a label, including Canadians) who skip right past the choosing of an Anglicized name. Sure, there are going to be some that our English tongues will trip over, but your name is your name, so stick with it. And people will always give shortisms or nicknames they can be comfortable with. I am David, not Dave, when asked.

My favourite bit in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (just Shang-Chi from now on) is Shang revealing to Katy his San Francisco best-bud, what his real name is. Her Mandarin sucks so she keeps hearing "Shaun" when he is saying "Shang". And once she catches on, she is affronted that he hid his real name by removing one letter. That is so Awkwafina.

But it says something to the place of Asian American identities in this movie. As Kent mentioned, very few of us know much about the actual Marvel character, a Kung-Fu master who was probably just the comic book's desire to have Bruce Lee as a superhero. But the movie blows past all the challenging bits of comic book legacy and connects a new character to the existing MCU, by having Shang-Chi the son of the magically immortal warlord in charge of the Ten Rings, the actual evil crime organization that Trevor Slattery coopted in Iron Man 3. As a teen Shang-Chi runs from his legacy, to hide in America. But it finds him, or we wouldn't have a movie. So, the movie not only deals with an Asian American hiding from his heritage (to a degree), but also with the challenges of them in the world of comic book superheroes.

The challenge Marvel has in creating the second wave of Marvel movies, the ones that liberally disconnect from the flashy, familiar characters of the prime comic books, is keeping our attention. Marvel movies are well crafted, but that doesn't make them Good Movies. So much of the fun comes from combining the craftmanship, as in a well implemented use of formula, with the nostalgic familiarity of our favourite (or at least recognizable) characters on the screen. But take away the latter bit, and I wondered whether the craft would have sufficient weight.

At least, for me, it did. I really liked this movie, but I admit that it probably won't warrant as many rewatches as others. Then again, I said that about Ant Man and we often returned to it when in the mood for Marvel-lite. But what I liked about this movie was, as Kent said, how it was Disney in Live Action, but also because it drew upon familiar Asian cinematic elements, and connected them to a world I am comfortable in.

I have never really deep-dived into Asian cinema, but being a Once Movie Buff, I have dabbled rather heavily. I loved the Wuxia elements of this movie, especially that romantic, melodramatic, ballet of combat between warlord Xu Wenwu and Ting Li. He is seeking more magic to add to his already powerful "ten rings", and she is protecting the way to the magical land of Ta Lo. She effortlessly rebuffs his brash and aggressive attacks, moving like water away from him. And not long after, in true Disney fashion, he is not attacking, so much as he is dancing with her. This scene was utterly lovely, the wire work and CGI incredibly seamless.

And then the two more traditional Marvel combat scenes. One was so familiar, we could have been rewatching one of the Spider-man movies, even bringing back vlogger Klev, last seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Marvel cinematic combat has always drawn upon the feel of Hong Kong action flicks, so the fight in Macau, between Shang-Chi, his sister Xialing and the forces of the Ten Rings... well, it was spectacular. BTW, who builds scaffolding up around an ENTIRE building, and OUT OF BAMBOO !?! 

And then we eventually end up in Ta Lo with its magical CGI Chinese mythos monsters - was that a Foo Dog or a Pixiu? Ooo a Qilin !! And the Hundun, and of course, Trevor Slattery -- they made him seem so life like. I said out loud, "This is when the movie feels more like a Marvel movie" as this was a very traditional setup for the third act combat scene, with bright lights and big baddies, some losses and some humour. 

All the while, the movie is bringing Katy along for the ride. But not in an extraneous, only for comic relief sort of way. Katy plays an integral part to Shang-Chi's journey, often as much advisor and voice of wisdom, as she is quippy. Is there a romantic connection? Not likely. But there is a deep rooted loyalty, as she was the centre of his new family in America. But she is not just background, not that Awkwafina could ever just be in the background, as she steps up at every moment, despite having no powers, no super-duper combat training, just perseverance and strength of character.

I need to watch the movie again, so it is not just a jumble of memorable disparate parts. But the good sign is that all these parts felt good to me, and very little, if none, of the movie felt wrong. The only issue will come in the watching for that whole; if it is not there, then maybe the Marvel formula DOES need more to make it win through.