By Hera! Come anticipate WONDER WOMAN 1984 with me!

Ok but again, Netflix does acquire special-interest documentary shorts (dolphin sex may be a little too “special-interest,” lol)

kinda feel like the strategy with their plan regarding acquisition of shorts is to then groom the creators for long form stuff, basically grist for the recommendation engine. i dunno, i'm sure there's lots of creative people at netflix who really love film but the bottom line is absolutely unit shifting

I could have sworn Netflix already has a man falls in love with a dolphin doc, but then I realized I was thinking of the man falls in love with an octopus doc.

every comic book movie without exception should be 30 minutes shorter than it is

rewatched Ghost World two days ago, maybe it could stand a trim or two but the post-credits scene is killer

KInd of enjoyed it, watched it this afternoon.
Was there a reason they picked 1984.
I thought WWII was a big era for the character so are there any plans to go backwards again or are they just going to get closer to current day.

I see some factions have started to insinuate people who don't like the movie are sexist.

I didn't particularly think the movie portrayed WW very positively though. She's obsessed over the same man from 30 years ago to the point where she's ok putting the world at risk by dating a version of him who has taken over the autonomy of someone else's body?

Doesn't seem like WW to me

every comic book movie without exception should be 30 minutes shorter than it is

rewatched Ghost World two days ago, maybe it could stand a trim or two but the post-credits scene is killer

― shivers me timber (sic), Sunday, January 3, 2021 2:23 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

At the theater I was at, the whole crowd went nuts when Harvey Pekar showed up at the end of the post credits sequence

She's obsessed over the same man from 30 years ago

66 years ago!


(there really is a post-credits fight sequence in Ghost World btw)

oh wow I never knew that

So what are we supposed to understand that his kid lost when he wished for dad's greatness?

And for that matter, where was the kid's other parent? It seemed like the kid just .... repeatedly made his way alone to Lord's office?

I believe the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme addresses that

This movie is just such a random jumble of mess. It's hard to take it apart since it's barely held together in the first place. It's like talking about a pile of bricks.

Do we really need to see the kid's mom to understand that she dropped him off at the office when it was Lord's parenting time?

And... the kid lost his father when he wished for his father's greatness. Rather obviously, I thought.

We don't need to see the kid at all. Or Chris Pine. Or Kristin Wiig. Cut them all out, changes nothing but, perhaps, the stupid resolution.

xp but that had clearly already happened! although i guess as i think it through, i can see it -- of course his father was metaphorically/emotionally absent already, but if his father's actual being was replaced by the spirit inhabiting the stone, then Max-Lord-the-person was REALLY gone, not just emotionally checked out.

I do think the conceit is not thought through -- like, the question of who GETS the thing that is lost, and how, is very underspecified.

If we're talking about more stupid bullshit, the biggest consideration would be why mom, in the midst of an escalating global meltdown and the accelerating collapse of civilization, of which her ex and the father of her child is the mysteriously ubiquitous epicenter, would be all, oh well, I guess it's dad's weekend again.

Lord's son was about to wish that they could be together and Lord cut him off, saying not to wish for things they already had. After the kid wished for his dad's greatness, Lord buggered off and didn't give two shits about his kid until WW reminded him of the power of love, at which point he renounced his wish.

Also, the initial interaction they have before Lord gets the stone does not show a father-son relationship where the father is emotionally or metaphorically absent. Things are tenuous after Lord turns himself into the stone but they don't completely fall apart until his son makes that wish.

I think the conceit is that, as the embodiment of the wishing stone, Lord gets to take what he wants if he decides to do so; otherwise, the wisher just loses something to balance the scales and Lord doesn't gain anything specifically. Even Barbara's transformation is covered by that because all Lord needs to do is say "In return for granting wish x, I want to make this woman look like an extra from the Cats movie" and poof, CGI nonsense.

The global meltdown doesn't happen until after the kid wishes for Lord's greatness and Lord's connection to it is not mainstream knowledge at any point of the movie until he beams himself into every television in the world, so what basis would the mother have to invite legal repercussions upon herself by violating the custody agreement?

lol i didn't realize Maxwell Lord was in this. is he a presence in the JLA movie too?

Another thing I don't get is, does Superman not exist in 1984? Wouldn't he be flying around trying to do something about the impending nuclear apocalypse?

I did yell "WHERE IS SUPERMAN" several times at the television

Even assuming he's a kid still hiding his powers, you'd at least expect Batman to pop up somewhere

The global meltdown doesn't happen until after the kid wishes for Lord's greatness and Lord's connection to it is not mainstream knowledge at any point of the movie until he beams himself into every television in the world, so what basis would the mother have to invite legal repercussions upon herself by violating the custody agreement?

I just looked, and the final time the kid is dropped off with his dad (who is bleeding from the ears) people are literally rioting in the streets outside the office. It's around 90 minutes in. If he was dropped off, then his mom literally had to push through looters and lunatics and burning piles of stuff to get there. And then the very next scene is Max getting into his car, and the crowds being so thick with crazies (there for him, because he and his company is totally mainstream knowledge) that he has to have the driver wish they would part out of the way to get to the White House faster.

This movie is so stupid and bad.

I liked the final Cheetah look, but all the action/plot quibbles mentioned already, plus the escalator gag in the mall robbery and the preface of young Diana learning The Power of Truth had me grimacing. Thankfully, free with HBO/Comcast, so no buyer's remorse.

I did yell "WHERE IS SUPERMAN" several times at the television

xp to alpaca:

Thankfully, free with HBO/Comcast, so no buyer's remorse.

Julia Alexander expounded on this point recently:

Consumers are far less forgiving in a theatrical setting. On streaming services, however, that form of experimentation and possible lesser quality isn’t an automatic dealbreaker. Even if a movie is bad, the library should make up for the monthly price tag. Consistency and new titles are exciting, but the library retains subscribers.

The Mandalorian on Disney+ is part of the offering, but it’s not the whole product. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the entire product people are paying for in theaters. When Rey learns she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter in The Rise of Skywalker and people audibly groan, that’s a feeling of an $80 loss. When Luke Skywalker appears for one minute in The Mandalorian’s second season finale, it’s an eye-roll for some, but people are unlikely to stop subscribing to Disney+ — especially since The Mandalorian is almost universally praised for just about everything else. But The Rise of Skywalker and Solo may make some audiences more wary to go see the next Star Wars movie in theaters instead of waiting to watch it at home. (I use “may” because this is still Star Wars and, even though The Rise of Skywalker didn’t hit analyst expectations, it still passed $1 billion.)

https://musingsonmouse.substack.com/p/star-wars-nostalgia-fatigue-and-marvels

Solo is basically the only good Star Wars movie made post-1983

FP

lol well there goes a lot of diligent avoidance of Rise of the Skywalkers spoilers so I could go into the movie with a semi-open mind

forks did you a favor there tbh

Washington DC geography nitpicking: After Diana and Steve leave the White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW), why do they go to the Navy Memorial (700-900 Pennsylvania Ave.) to witness the riot and for Diana to renounce her wish? If they're on their way to Diana's apartment, they've gone in the wrong direction. Pennsylvania Ave. at that time was open to traffic and was a regular destination for protesters.

(Presumably the contemporary powers that be wouldn't allow the production to film in front of the White House.)

Otherwise I'm quite amused at the production's attention to the details of a bygone DC. Pity the reconstructed Commander Salamander (across the street from the historic storefront!) couldn't have reopened for a promo popup.

Another thing I don't get is, does Superman not exist in 1984? Wouldn't he be flying around trying to do something about the impending nuclear apocalypse?

Assuming WW84 is canonically continuous with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, how old would Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne have been in 1984?

Do those movies even have years attached to them?

I thought Affleck was playing older than his actual age, given the artificially-greyed hair, so he would have been near the beginning of his bat career

forgot which thing mentioned it but he probably wished for his parents to be alive and then lost 'em all over again

lmao I would have liked to have seen that

It would have been like that sequence in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

ha, yes!

Best superhero movie, that

there goes a lot of diligent avoidance of Rise of the Skywalkers spoilers

“people audibly groan” / “an eye-roll for some” doing a lot of work in that... amusing analysis. Guess she’s not a Star Wars fan!

she's been an entertainment reporter for The Verge and Polygon for the past five years with a specialty focus on Disney; i daresay she's watched and knows more about star wars than you or i do!

I’ve only read the paragraphs you quoted but they don’t seem to make sense (the jibes at SW aside). Disney is investing hugely in new content for D+ specifically because “the library” alone doesn’t retain members. The library is thin... if you’ve had D+ for a year and have kids, you’ve seen it all already!

you know who really has that D+? Steve Trevor, amirite

Steve Trevor's hapless 80s avatar, you mean

so like if he took over someone else's body, were they just along for the ride, with no body autonomy?

if so, I guess the only enjoyable parts were sexxin' with Wonder Woman, the rest abject terror.

lmao I would also watch that movie

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH oh hey sexy time AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH