KWIF: Wonka (+3)

 KWIF = "Kent's Week In Film", so...stuff he watched in a week, or so. Just not this week.

This Some Week:
Wonka (2023, d. Paul King - Crave/Max)
Extraction 2 (2023, d. Sam Hargrave - Netflix)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1996, d. John McTiernan - DVD)
The Hunt for Red October (1990, d. John McTiernan - DVD)

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I have yet to find the person who wanted Wonka to happen.

Seriously, who asked for Wonka to happen?

We, Toast and Kent, know this answer: The Purple Suits.

Wonka is a result of Hollywood's IP-driven landscape, where origin stories for popular characters are seen as a necessary vehicle to both perpetuate a property and potentially reboot it while providing the opportunity to recast a role or three or ten.  

It's happening all the time (a trailer for Transfomers One, which tells the origin of Optimus Prime and Megatron has just dropped the day that I write this) and I don't know if audiences are as cynical about it as the more cinephilic are (as I am) but they just seem so tired.

But, lazy film idea doesn't have to mean lazy film. And Paul King, poached from a plum Paddington gig proves the point with Wonka. I had a surprisingly good time. All it takes is putting the right people in place.

My review for Paul King's Paddington 2 lives over in Letterboxd, as it was a film from The Dark Year of the blog (what, you didn't read all 7600 words Toasty and I just spilled about our 2000th post?) but I, like many, had my pants utterly charmed by that movie. I have not revisited Paddington 2, despite the pants-charming, and my stab at watching the first Paddington was interrupted and I never returned to it, but King's thumbprint is clearly very prominent on the two films. I only just learned that King's TV work includes some directing of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh, two very arch and weird series that I wished I had spent more time with in my younger years, because I don't have the time now. Both Darkplace and Boosh are the product of their creators, and not necessarily a result of King's guiding force, but that's not to say that King didn't bring anything to the table, and also not to say that things didn't rub off on King.

Much of the same magic of Paddington is found here. There's a timelessness to the storytelling, not that it's set in a specific time period, but that there's a lack of era-specificity that unmoors it from our specific reality. Thought there's a wide-eyed naivete to the characters of the world, it also contains a message about class structures and capitalism-gone-wrong, and even about police and how they really only protect property and the wealthy. Well, it's in the subtext, anyway.

I don't love the Gene Wilder Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I've seen it enough in my life, and I like it okay (the Johnny Depp one I haven't seen, but from what I recall of the trailers he was playing Wonka by way of Michael Jackson), so I'm not necessarily hung up on any specific interpretation of the character or needing anything specific out of this film.

Timothee Chalamet, I have to say, I was wary about. I hadn't hopped aboard the Chalatrain up until this year, but between Dune Pt. 2 and Wonka, I am sold on his star power. Can he believably be a cult leader/warrior/politician as a wistful, fanciful chocolateer? Yes, indeed he can. He brings an unending hopefulness to Willy here that echoes Paddington without the bumbling. Willy is hyper-competent and utterly creative, but he's not without his flaws which see him set back more than a time or two.  Especially when three rival chocolateers, in secret collusion with one another, seek to drive Willy out of their very locked-down marketplace.

It's not a full-on musical, but there are musical numbers. It's Mary Poppins-esque.  It's a film meant for everyone, frowning only on the selfish and greedy.  That bite of darkness that Wilder had in his performance is not at all present here, and while some bemoan its absence, it's a more uplifting film without it. 

I don't know why Paddington, just as much an IP-driven movie as this one, was given such leniency but Wonka so severely scrutinized (I could guess at length but I have other films to write about), but under King's guidance the flavours are not as far apart as one would suspect.  It was a surprising smash success, given the scrutiny, and I suspect a sequel, but not likely another direct Dahl adaptation. 

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Tyler Rake, Rakestraction himself, is back!!

He got shot a whole heap back at the end of Extraction 1: In Which Tyler Rake Does A Rakestraction, but he's not dead, just severely wounded. He fell into a very gross looking river, and likely got sepsis. Good thing he's got gobs of money and Chris Hemsworth's good looks otherwise he wouldn't have made it. But he did make it, but he's become a sad, wounded puppy, retires to his Austrian(?) cabin and sulks about his dead son some more. 

I shouldn't be pithy about the dead son bit... Hemsworth brings a genuine emotional center to Tyler Rake as a traumatized man but it's got nothing to do with his physical wounds.

Rakestraction is approached by fellow handsome man, and Hemsworth's good pal from the Thor movies, Idris Elba to do him a job. Rake's handler and business partner in Rakestractions Inc., Nik (Golshifteh Farahani), is not happy that Rake has accepted the job, but she will be by his side wherever he goes. Rake does his Rocky 4 training montage and gets back into fighting shape. No long-term side-effects for him!

Farahani does an awesome job at playing a badass mercenary as well as Rake's best friend. She straddles the line very well of never telling the audience exactly how she feels about rake, whether it's a deep platonic love or something more that she knows he's unable to reciprocate.  A romantic side-plot is not part of this action-heavy (action-only?) series, but Rake's personal life is really drawn out when his ex-wife, Olga Kurylenko, makes herself known.  It's her sister and her kids that need extracting from a very, very bad situation.

Rakestractions Inc. gets everyone out in loud, violent, pulse pounding, anxiety-inducing long-take sequences, first through a prison riot, then a car chase, then on a train. But then, when seemingly resting comfortably in Vienna, only for the very bad people to come hunt them down. It gets really messy.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say I liked Rakestraction 2 more than Rakestraction 1, but, if I'm being honest, both of these films kinda left my brain the moment they were done. They are thoroughly engaging in the moment, but they're so light on character and plot that they don't have a stickiness to them. Hemsworth is a very likeable and attractive presence to follow around and his physicality (and physique) are very impressive to see in action... and these are action-centric showcases, spinning out of the John Wick mold. Unlike Wick, which was a series that built a world around its killing-machine-of-a-central-character-who they-barely-explored-over-four-films, Rakestraction drops its character into a setting, has him fight his way out, and gives a bit of space for the character to breathe in the middle, drop some character nuggets, then continue fighting.  It works, but it's not enough to really sell us on Tyler Rake as our next John McClane or whatnot.

But boy, those action sequences are amazingly well orchestrated and look intense. I wish they would just do a G.I. Joe movie in this vein, a tactical force of specialized individuals dropped into a situation fighting their way out, showing off their stuff.  But I digress.

The only thing I don't like about the Rakestraction films is the unacknowledged collateral damage. Because you know there are people everyone just taking bullets or having their cars flipped unexpectedly (does anyone ever have their car flipped expectedly?).  I just can't help but think about what might be going on just out of frame and in the world outside that the extraction is just plowing through.

[we agree, toasty's take)

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Speaking of John McClane, it's been at least 20 years since I last watched Die Hard with a Vengeance. I watch Die Hard every so often, because it's a stone cold classic (and a Christmas movie) so it gets play, but DHw/aV doesn't get the same treatment because it's juuust *that* much a derivative product that it doesn't beg for revisiting as much.

But it remains and incredible action movie and the only worthy sequel to Die Hard (I rewatched Die Hard 2 recently, and while it's enjoyable enough as an action movie, Willis' performance could have been any character...this feels like John McClane).  What works so well is, well, everything. The premise, the casting, the directing, the action, the twists... they all collude so perfectly...right up until the end.

The final moments of DHw/aV are kind of unmemorable. There's a Canada/US border town and a helicopter, and you would be excused for mistaking it for the much better sequence in The Long Kiss Goodnight. There's a quick action beat, some gunfire, then it's over. It's so abrupt. It's not unsatisfying, but it's not totally fulfilling either.

Samuel L. Jackson is the perfect pairing with Willis, in that golden age of the 90's when, well, Sam Jackson was the perfect pairing for anyone (see also The Long Kiss Goodnight). That man knows how to deliver every time, all of the time.  The racial tension is far from ignored, which is surprising for the 90's era of supposed "post-racial harmony" that was sold so hard to sweep uncomfortable conversations under the rug, never to be seen from again...until someone moves the rug.  I like the addressing of it head on and the two men finding that they're both just men.  Jeremy Irons is not Alan Rickman, and he doesn't get to be as tricksy and weasely, but I like the facade he puts on. Is it strange that he delivers a better performance over the phone than in person?

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A second John McTiernan film, because, well, podcast coverage of the direct had me intrigued.  I had intended to do a "Series Minded" on all the Jack Ryan movies, but I don't think I have easy access to the Chris Pine or Ben Affleck ones. And I'm not watching the TV show.

I honestly can't recall if I've ever seen The Hunt For Red October before. I think I have, but I may be mistaking my recollections for Crimson Tide. All submarine movies look the same to me.

Based off the Tom Clancy novel, this is a very 1990 movie but set as a period piece in 1984, really only because Russia got decommunismed (for a time anyway) in the time between the book and the movie.  The film posits that an experimental Russian sub, with the ability to move unseen by radar/sonar in the water, and armed to the gills and able to decimate the Atlantic coastline with nuclear warheads has been stolen by a celebrated Russian naval captain, played by Sean Connery.

Jack Ryan, played here by Alec Baldwin, is not the action hero he will be known as, but instead an competent analyst for the CIA. He suspects that Connery's captain is trying to defect. Elsewhere there's another American sub led by Scott Glen, where their sonar operator Courtney B. Vance is obsessed with an errant signal they picked up then lost. Meanwhile, on the Red October, Connery has a small subset of the crew loyal to him and his plan to defect, but the rest of the crew aren't entirely aware.

The genius of the film is in planting the seed that Connery's captain, having suffered a devastating personal loss, may be suicidal and intent on taking the world down with him.

For a film that largely takes place around consoles or tables, it's absolutely gripping. Set as a period piece, it still holds up as a period piece, and McTiernan's direction, with some ace editing, has the feel of an action movie even though there's very little actual action. It's pacing, and timing, a similar magic trick pulled off by Oppenheimer. 

There's a genius trick on McTiernan and co.'s part, where it starts off with the Russian crew speaking Russian, but after a little time with them, McT does a pull in-pull out of the camera in between a beat of Connery talking and it switches from subtitles and phonetic Russian to English. Even Connery's accent can be explained away as being different from the crew as he's said to be Lithuanian. That facade only comes apart in the final moments of the film when Connery has to speak with the Americans and still just speaks like Connery, but at that point in the film, who really cares. 

I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching: 2020 Edition: Pt B

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(!) or Toasty(¡) attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But every time I try not to write, bad things happen, very bad things. Somewhere. To someone.

What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV. And despite what I said above, I have been avoiding telling you about what I have been watching. Not that you care. But at least I am not telling you about my character

Pt A is here. 

The First Season; Binged

The Witcher, 2019, Netflix

Every so often, I enter a search into Reddit / Google for "generic fantasy novel". Usually that generates a debate between what is generic or not, and how most people are searching for things that go against the tropes. Not me; give me more heroic adventurer types, sword wielding grim warriors, elves & dwarves and monsters to be slain. One of those times, it led me to a Polish series about a professional monster killer, a man from of an ancient order, corrupted by magic potions and wandering the countryside, taking bounties on things that prey on the people. The stories were faery tale adjacent, as if someone was reinterpreting Grimm for their D&D game, and Mary Sue-ing the Hell out of the stories. I loved the books. Not long after reading, the games appeared, or I discovered the games -- not sure exactly of my timelines. The games never took hold of me. I am currently on my second attempt to get through The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, which should have all the hallmarks for a game I would love, but for some reason I cannot get into.

And then Netflix came along to adapt it for the English audiences. This is not the first time the books have been tackled for the small screen. In the early 2000s, there was The Hexer, a poorly received TV series based on the books. I watched a few episodes; it was terrible. Netflix chose to represent for fans of the books and/or the games. Hell, even Henry Cavill himself is a big fan of the games, which lends at least a familiarity with the source, if not a genuine love. Netflix even did the bathtub scene from the game.

Big surprise, but I was a fan. This is definitely another series intending to ride the coat tails of Game of Thrones and while it doesn't (not as cinematic; Netflix does not yet seem completely capable of epic), it still does a solid Generic Fantasy story for me.

It takes a while to get into, and to be honest, their playing with timeline presentation doesn't help. Sure, Westworld did it, but remember, Netflix doesn't do epic very well, so it ends up coming across as confusing and disjointed. By the time (pun intended) we catch on, its time to draw the story lines together. So, Geralt of Rivia, a grimdark monster killer for hire. Yennefer of Vengerberg, a not-young sorceress, bought from her family (as a twisted, deformed young woman) recreates herself in power and manipulation. Princess Ciri of Cintra, granddaughter of the Queen, and the last surviving member of the royal family after the country is invaded by Nilfgaard. These are the three storylines and timelines we chase. This is a world of elves, and dwarves (but I don't think we see any) and fantastical creatures, some monstrous, some benign. This is a world of great magic. And the first season is about introducing characters, and setting and world building. Unfortunately, its a little light on story, as the next season, when all is gathered together, is where the real story begins.

But it still works, for the most part. We get all the elements we want from The Witcher: swordplay, and nasty monsters, spell play and beautiful sorceresses (the milieu is very *cough* classic), we even get Dandelion the bard, but under the not-translated name of Jaskier. And while I am not sure we fans needed it, we got a really catch tune. So, go ahead, toss a coin to your witcher.

The Watchmen, 2019, HBO

Now, if you want epic, HBO does epic and it does it well. This was easily the best thing I saw on TV this year, in that it gave me what I wanted from a franchise related story, but also gave me something challenging and exciting and just so... fucking... well... done.

This is not a sequel to the movie, though you can see some inspiration taken from Zack Snyder's visuals. This is a straight up sequel to the comics, but thirty years later. This is the world that came after Adrian Veidt dropped a psychic alien squid on top of NYC, killing millions in the psionic blast. This is a world of costumed vigilantes, but not exactly superheroes. This is also the world that suffered and benefited from the fallout of Veidt's act. The cold war was ended, and there seems to have been a lasting peace between nations, as Ozymandias continued to worry people of alien incursions via regular "squid fall", basically rains of pollywog sized squid babies.

But of course, all is never quite right with the world. In a Thor's hammer sized hit-on-the-head reminder, we always believe things are great while marginalized folks still get the shaft. This show was so woke some people could not get past it's political agenda, but to be honest, it was that which kept me attached. This is often an uncomfortable watching, as it starts with a view into a part of history I didn't even know existed -- the Tulsa Race Riots (which in itself, is a white washing of a name for an event) where white Tulsans attacked a prosperous black neighbourhood, killing indiscriminately and burning down the neighbourhood. In the series, Tulsa is providing reparations to the descendents of the terror, while its police force deals with the reemergence of a white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry, and yes, the K is intentional.

This is pure Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers, Lost) with lots of plots and subplots and weirdness and amazing characters and incredible performances. Time and stories twist around, not quite Westworld style but confusing enough to cause big grins when you start cluing in. In a world where Dr. Manhattan no longer perceives time as a linear stream, but as all, at once, this kind of makes sense.

This is not a superhero TV show, despite some imagery of masked vigilantes, but it is a show about the legacy of allowing people to dress up and fight for justice, and the ramifications and fictions that would be built around them. Remember Hooded Justice from the comic? Turns out his hangman motif is not quite what it seemed, and was accepted as. Nor who and what he was.

As usual, I am trying to remember what stood out. I am such an in-the-moment kind of guy. But Jeremy Irons as the older Adrian Veidt, Regina King as a masked crusader working for the Tulsa police department, Jean Smart as the ex-superhero now FBI agent, and Tim Blake Nelson as "Mirror Guy". And of course, the Excalibur cannot be unseen.

Dracula, 2020, Netflix

In a world where the Universal Monsters Reboots have failed in numerous attempts, we are not going to get a proper Dracula in Modern Day movie. And then comes along an unexpected British produced, Netflix delivered version in the vein (pun intended) of Sherlock, in that it is done by Gatiss and Moffat. It both succeeds and utterly fails in an attempt to gives us something new in the recently post-vampire world.

So, British-style, in that we get only three longish episodes. The first episode is just, in my humble opinions, brilliant. They give us the familiar story of Jonathan Harker visiting Count Dracula to solidify a real estate deal. But we are getting the story via a requested narration, by a forthright nun to a very Renfieldish Harker. We get the familiar visitation story, with so many nods to previous versions, I got dizzy. We have the classic Hammer stories, we have Francis Ford Coppola's, we even have a little bit of the 1979 Frank Langella Drac. It was compelling and humorous, chilling and inventive.

The second episode places us on the Demeter, the ship that transports Dracula's coffin & soil. The retelling is almost a Murder on the Orient Express meets The Thing in that Dracula is picking off the other passengers one by one, while making the rest believe each is the murderer. All along Dracula is portraying more and more of the vampiric powers we are familiar with, while manipulating and altering them. For example, how does an ancient shut-in vampire expect to know about the world and age outside of Transylvania, late 1800s? By imbibing the knowledge he needs from the blood of his victims. With the knowledge taken, he slaughters everyone left on board.

And then he arrives on the coast of England and the helicopter is flying overhead.

*record scratch*

Yeah, the third episode was just ... weak. Modern day Dracula, played by 50ish Clays Bang (what a name!) is supposed to be seducing young, beautiful, irreverent Lucy while being foiled by the Harker Foundation led by Zoe Van Helsing, the descendant of the nun from the first two episodes. Yawn. They take a nice reworking attempt, and want to smoosh it into the sexy, seductive trope we have been dispensing with for a decade. Wasted.

Well, at least he didn't sparkle.

Raising Dion, 2019, Netflix

This was a thoroughly unexpected, enjoyable superhero origin story where the hero of the story is an eight year old boy coming into his powers. I have previously mentioned enjoying genre and crime TV from other countries, because it gives me a familiar experience but in a new light. In the age of Marvel, we are used to seeing how a youngish, usually male, usually white main character discovers he has powers, and how to handle them. But take an average, very grounded eight year old kid being raised by his mother, after his father, cameo-ed by Michael B Jordan, was killed saving a woman from drowning.

I imagine dad's insurance keeps them afloat, as he was a successful tech engineer, but it doesn't mean things aren't still tough. Mom is young, too young to be widowed, and while she gets support from dad's best friend (played by Jason Ritter) and her own sister, things are not helped when Dion discovers he can move things with his mind, go incorporeal and even more. Best Friend gets introduced soon enough; Dion and him bond over superhero names and how to train. But then a conspiracy involving aurora borealis over Iceland emerges and things get really interesting.

The core story is fun enough, with twists and turns, but the meat of this show was Dion and his mother. Dion is just a rambunctious little hellion, constantly pushing himself to the boundaries of what his mother can handle. She gets some help from Best Friend and from Dion's own best friend, Esperanza, a mouthy little girl confined ot a motorized wheelchair. But Dion is eight; lack of control is inherent. Mom dances the line from barely keeping it together with the drama these powers bring, while showing immense strength in front of all this.

I am very very glad Netflix is giving this one a second season. Please give all the monies intended for Dracula to this one please, and while you are at it, fund a TV show for Fast Color, which I briefly thought THIS was the TV adaptation of, as the use of colour and lights to depict their superpowers fooled me. Also, how many black centric superhero shows are out there, a sad comment on our supposed progression.

I Saw This!! What I Watched Pt. i

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Graig or David attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad.  Miss a Next Big Thing bad.

The last series of TV posts was mega. It started in August, and ended in December. It referenced a similar (series of) post(s) that started in January and ended in February. I watch a lot of TV, and since I don't have enough I download even more. And since I don't have enough, I go looking for more. At the very least, I can say that 2016 was very very good for TV.

As previously mentioned, we had Stranger Things, one of the best things on TV at the time. We also had West World, also the best thing on TV at the (later) time, and arguably the best of the year. While not Best Thing, Outcast and Daredevil S2 were also very good. So, what else did the season give us?

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency S1, 2016, BBC America -- Netflix

I said this to David (another David, no not Legion David, and not another of his/my personalities) that while I thought Stranger Things was the best thing on TV at the time, I did think that Dirk Gently was the bestly done thing, or something to that effect, probably with better grammar. Or not; we were at Thirsty & Miserable. The remake/relaunch/entirely new thing based on the Douglas Adams book(s) was so skillfully written, so wonderfully shot, so lovingly paced and plotted, it sometimes took my breath away. Even the music had me Googling (did you know that Willow [from Buffy] was the first popular user of Google as a verb?) who-does-that.

First thing up, is that I have to admit, I am not Douglas Adams biggest fan. I liked Hitchikers alright enough, but not in the way Marmy (J or Jacq is Marmy, but not for a long time, but since this blog connects me to that headspace, she retains the moniker here only) does. I did not like the Dirk Gently books. So, she watched the first episode or two without me. Then I wandered into the room, got enthralled, like instantly totally entirely enthralled with silly weird annoying Dirk and charming ever young damaged Todd (Elijah Wood), and the weird time bending otherworldly adventure they get wrapped up in.

I would say he was dragged into it because of Dirk, but that is not how the world works for Dirk, as things happen holistically for him. They happen because they are supposed to happen that way, because that was the way they were going to happen all along. He's a detective who detects by letting events just drag him along. For Todd the events are strange, bizarre and incredibly (like, mega) coincidental and he already has enough shit going on in his messed up life without Dirk and his colourful leather jackets and sports cars. And time travel and mind swapped thugs and murder and (so!!! much!!!) mayhem.

What makes this series so wonderful is that there are so many bits. So many interconnected, wonderful bit all cross connected by seemingly unconnected plot devices, but really they are. Some of the bits are very integral to the plot, some are just small sticky bits. Like life. FBI agents and missing persons cops and a growling van full of rowdies and a corgi and a time traveller and a rock star and a sister with a mysterious disease and a holistic assassin and a sensitive body guard and a girl who barks like a dog and ... and ...  and.

While establishing the basis for a full series, the show also did a wonderful job of just being an entire entity unto itself. If they never got renewed, then this could be just as satisfactory on its own, like Stranger Things was.

Luke Cage, 2016, Netflix -- Netflix

First there was Daredevil, the wonderful Netflix series that set the tone for another iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was followed by Jessica Jones which led almost directly into this one. They all take place in New York City after the alien invasion from The Avengers, in a world where powered beings are emerging, in all walks of life, in all neighbourhoods. We travel from Hell's Kitchen to The Bronx to reconnect with Luke Cage, after his bar was blown up in Jessica Jones, as part of the antagonist's mind fuckery. And in a few days, we will have the final series Iron Fist.

Already the Netflix shows have their own tone and intent, and I will not say gritty, but they are more down on the ground, more about real, approachable people. But Luke Cage decided to do something I in my inestimable knowledge as a Generic White Guy am completely qualified to comment on -- it chose to focus on a superhero from the Black American perspective; entirely. But seriously, you cannot deny that our privilege provides us with the majority of the superheroes on the screen. But Luke is not supporting cast; this is his story, him front and centre, in Harlem, that boogeyman of a neighbourhood from pop culture. The show does not just make the political statement, it gives us a fascinating world of current events (gentrification of Harlem), musical history (the show focuses on a revived nightclub, an analog for famous Smalls Paradise) and exactly how much the disenfranchised (the people of Harlem not benefiting from the gentrification) need a hero to call their own.

The show starts with Luke holed up in a neighbourhood barber shop, wisely using his super strength to sweep up hair. He is still recovering from the loss of the bar, and the knowledge that Jessica was used to kill his wife, and almost getting his brains blown out, but not really. He is hiding and suppressing all that super strength and invulnerability.

Enter Mahershala Ali, as "Cottonmouth", a gangster from the streets made good, who is doing the admirable thing of resurrecting the famed Harlem club Paradise. Luke washes dishes at the club when he is not sweeping hair. Misty Knight, an undercover cop wants to take Cottonmouth down. A kid who also works at the barbershop gets mixed up in Cottonmouth's business and brings it back to the shop. Thus the escalation begins, which draws Luke out of his hidey hole. Stand back and let bad things happen, or step up and choose to be a hero. That is Luke's dilemma.

His choice is obvious, to us.

If Daredevil was all about a relatively normal strength man (albeit with super powered "vision") fighting and getting the shit beat out of him, Luke Cage is the nigh invulnerable superhero action we want. Draped only in a hoodie, he wanders directly into the path of harm, to have bullets bounce off him in every direction. If Daredevil wanted to recreate the hallway scene from the original Old Boy, then this one takes it and twists it, bends it and throws it through the wall. There is so much good, old fashioned superpowered beat em up in this show.

The problem with writing from memory, from last Fall, from a show that we basically binge watched over a week, is that episode to episode it has faded. I remember the tone and intent, but I don't remember the particulars. So, let's not recap.

Luke Cage does an admirable job of combining social commentary, reworked superhero canon, origin story and an entirely new story telling tone (of any of the MCU pieces) all into one superhero package.

3+1 Short Paragraphs: Doctor Strange

2016, Scott Derrickson (Sinister) -- download

OK, Marvel, stop. Just stop now. No more "just OK" movies. No more resting on your laurels. No more accepting "good enough" as good enough. We need more Winter Soldier, we need more Guardians of the Galaxy. In a world where guys my age still remember that genre flicks were few and far between, especially superhero movies, these movies will always make a certain amount of money, enough money to justify the next one. But no, let's stop right now.

This is another origin story. It is another mostly standalone movie, mostly independent of all that came before but has enough threads to connect it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have meaning in the overall. Magic gets officially introduced to the MCU, while it has already been hinted at in season 2 of Daredevil and the current season of Agents of SHIELD. We get the threads that will connect the super-science of Thor's homeland with their cosmic science of Guardians. Magic? Super pseudo-science? In a superhero world, it all blends together. And we also get another big bad guy, one that will probably connect to the coming stories.

Dr. Stephen Strange is Tony Stark 2.0, even from visual design. Egotistical, arrogant, incredibly endowed with intelligence and brought down low by an injury of his own making. And he has to dive deep within himself, with the help of an ancient mystical leader (The Ancient One, who I actually loved coming from Tilda Swinton) to not return to his previous state, but find a new much more important one. And he will definitely need the help of others like him if he is to protect the world.

And while he might not be a likeable guy, he sure is in a pretty pretty movie. Set design, colour scheme and settings are just incredible! The translation of the 70s woo-woo mystical arts into the pretty lights and glowy bits is spectacular. While the different realms may lift from previous other worlds we have seen before (I am talking about Inception of course) it is well handled, and fits into this movie's milieux very well. The problem is that all the good bits, the characters and the effects and the cast, just all come together in only an OK movie, a slight bit above "meh".