Incompetence, Not Fatigue

Though I have yet to see the movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story is underperforming.  A Variety story describes it as a "rare misstep."  There is talk of Star Wars fatigue.  Here we have the 4th Star Wars film in the latest run and we've already hit fatigue but Marvel will - with Ant-Man and The Wasp - pump out its 20th film in the last 10 years and suffers no fatigue?  That does not include X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four movies.  Then you have all the Netflix and TV series.  There have been hits and misses - mostly hits - but no fatigue.  The problem with Star Wars isn't oversaturation but bad storytelling.

 

The Last Jedi flushed Luke Skywalker down the toilet.  The man who surrendered himself to the Empire and the Emperor in a likely futile attempt to save his dark side father is also the man who decided it might be a good idea to murder Han Solo and Princess Leia's son - his nephew! - because he sensed that he was leaning toward the dark side.  Yeah, sounds like the same guy.  He is a completely different character and whatever journey that took him from selfless hero to pathetic hermit is completely absent.  There is no arc.  He just sucks now.  Deal with it.  Love, Rian Johnson.

 

By contrast, Rey is a goddess for no apparent reason.  Let's consider Luke in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.   Luke got his butt kicked by Sand People (saved by Obi-Wan), nearly thrashed at the Mos Eisley Cantina (saved again by Obi-Wan), nearly killed by Darth Vader (saved by Han Solo and Chewie), stomped by a Wampa (saved himself for a change), nearly frozen to death (saved by Han Solo), crashed on Dagobah, lost his hand in his first lightsaber duel, and nearly fell to his death from Bespin (saved by Leia).  At the end, his powers in the Force are still very basic.  In The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Rey stomps two goons who try to steal BB-8, pilots the Millenium Falcon like an old pro, fixes the Falcon in a way that surprises Han, senses Luke's lightsaber in Maz Kanata's bar, resists Kylo Ren's efforts to interrogate her with the Force and even turns the tables on him, uses the Jedi mind trick to have a storm trooper release her (Luke's first use of the mind trick was in his 3rd movie), seriously wounds Kylo Ren in her first lightsaber duel (Luke did not fight this well until the 3rd movie), knocks Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to the ground when they have a disagreement, kills half the Imperial Guards in her second lightsaber duel, defeats Kylo Ren again, and lifts TONS of rocks to allow the remnants of the Rebel Fleet to escape.  Truly, Luke should have been the Padawan and Rey the Master.

 

Toss in some unsubtle political preaching with a dash of illogical and/or stupid decisions and a large dollop of bad writing and who needs fatigue?  The Force Awakens was so-so but not bad.  Rogue One was a fun blast to the past, a nice prequel to A New Hope.  The Last Jedi was bad from start to finish.  Disney, who owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm, needs to shake up Lucasfilm and put someone as competent as Kevin Feige in charge.  It might also be a good idea to hire George Lucas to rescue a galaxy far, far away.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The crew of the Milano have been hired by the Sovereign race to protect some powerful batteries from a transdimensional squid monster.  Their battle with the beast happens during the opening credits where Baby Groot's antics are the center of attention while the action is background.  No sooner have they defeated the monster and secured payment - a very unhappy Nebula (Karen Gillan) - than Rocket (Bradley Cooper) steals some of the batteries and provokes a space battle from the irate Sovereign.  They are rescued from their peril by Ego (Kurt Russell), who proves to be Peter's (Chris Pratt) father and pretty much a god.  The Sovereign hire Yondu (Michael Rooker) to capture the Starlord and his crew.  In the aftermath of the space battle, the Milano is a crippled wreck.  Rocket and Groot work on repairing it and keep an eye on the captive Nebula while Peter, Gamora, and Drax go with Ego for a family reunion on Ego's planet.  This splits the narrative between the two groups.

 

All the characters get further development along the lines one expects and new ones are added to the mix.  The sibling rivalry between Gamora and Nebula explodes, the sexual tension between Peter and Gamora advances, Rocket's self-pity parade continues, Drax's mourning for his family is further explored but he also develops into a somewhat more comical figure than last movie.  Of course, Baby Groot is just hilarious and adorable.  All that aside, the big character arc is that of Yondu.  His banishment from the larger Ravager community, his association with the original Guardians - led by Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone), and his contentious father-son relationship with Peter are all explained.  He also gets the best line of the movie: "I'm Mary Poppins, Y'all!"

 

The movie is very enjoyable but the pacing is not as good as the last one.  The movie gets slow and clunky when Peter and Ego have their father-son bonding.  I did not particularly like Yondu's magic whistle arrow in the last movie (why didn't one of those idiots shoot him rather than just stand baffled as he whistled left-right-up-down-zig-zag?) and it is even worse this time around.  Perhaps that was for comedic effect but raining bodies was over the top.  There are 5 mid and post-credit scenes that setup future installments and provide laughs.  Go see it and stay all the way to the end.

Ant-Man

Just saw this movie again and, since I didn't review it on my first viewing, I shall do so now.  The movie opens in 1989 with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) storming into the under-construction HQ of SHIELD (the one that got destroyed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and resigning because Howard Stark (John Slattery) has been attempting to replicate Pym's shrinking technology.

In the present, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is released from San Quentin for burglary and computer hacking.  His former cellmate (Michael Pena) picks him up and let's him crash at his place until he gets on his feet.  Despite having a Masters in Electrical Engineering, his felony record finds him at Baskin Robbins, scooping ice cream.  Though desperate to stay on the right side of the law, he needs to pay child support in order to see his daughter.  He turns to crime, which brings him to the home of Hank Pym and possession of the Ant-Man suit.  Scott becomes the new Ant-Man under the mentorship of Hank Pym and his daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly).  Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), Hank's one-time protégé, has gone bad.  He had staged a hostile take-over of Pym's company and has now perfected the Ant-Man technology himself.  However, he plans to sell it to the highest bidder.

 

This is a comedy heist movie.  It is one of the funniest entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Michael Pena steals every scene he is in.  His narratives are the funniest parts of the movies.  Particularly great was when Stan Lee delivered the line 'crazy stupid fine!'  There is this Mission Impossible feel except with superpowers.

 

The big failing is the physics.  The movie fails to follow the rules that it has outlined.  Pym explained that his technology narrowed the space between atoms, thus allowing an object to shrink while retaining its mass.  Ergo, a two hundred pound man who shrank down to the size of an ant is still two hundred pounds.  If that is the case, there is no way he can uses a carpenter ant as a mount; he'd crush it to pulp.  He repeatedly stands on people and they don't notice, until he hits them.  When he fell on the floor, he broke a tile.  When he fell on a car, he put a dent in it.  His weight varies depending on what works best for the movie.

 

Unsurprisingly, Scott adopts Hank's dislike for the Starks and becomes a natural ally to Captain America in the Civil War.  This was further setup with his humorous fight with Falcon (Anthony Mackie), who is proving to be Cap's right hand man in the MCU.  The movie also setup Hope van Dyne to be the Wasp in the next Ant-Man movie.  Sadly, it's still a couple years away.

 

All in all, a terrific movie.  Again, Marvel took what I thought of as a marginal character and created an awesome movie.  Highly recommended.

Elektra

Having gone to the trouble of rewatching Ben Affleck's Daredevil, it becomes a requirement to comment on the companion film, Elektra.  Though she clearly died in Daredevil, a spinoff film allowed Jennifer Garner to play the role again.

The movie opens with DeMarco (Jason Isaacs) explaining to the chief of his security detail that Elektra was going to get him.  He wasn't even sure why he bothered to hire bodyguards.  While he is narrating his several escapes from previous attempts on his life, Elektra is busy dispatching the security detail.  The security chief only stops scoffing at his boss's story when he realizes the cameras are down and his men aren't answering.  He too is dispatched and only Elektra and DeMarco remain.  Before DeMarco can even lift his gun, a sai impales him through his chair.  Clearly, Elektra is a top assassin.

 

McCabe, Elektra's agent, has another job for her but she declines.  She is burnt out and needs a rest.  However, curiousity makes her ask and she accepts the job thanks to the huge payment.  Oddly, she is required to 'hang out' for a couple of days before the target will be revealed.  During this time, she has visions of the distant past, visions of the recent past, visions of the near future.  Yes, all these visions get rather confusing and annoying.  However, this does explain why she isn't dead.

It turns out that efforts to revive her in the ambulance after Bullseye killed her... didn't succeed.  Still dead.  No, it wasn't until Stick (Terrance Stamp) used his mystic healing that she came back to life.  She stayed with Stick and his band of martial artists.  She proved a tremendous fighter but not the kind of material that Stick sought.  So, he sent her away and, as we saw in the opening, she became a hired assassin.

Between intense workouts and hallucination-filled swims in the lake, Elektra meets Mark and Abby Miller, a father and daughter who live in a neighboring cottage.  It comes as no surprise when it is revealed that they are the target.  Unable to do the job, she becomes their defender against later efforts.

The fights are mostly silly and involve inhuman leaps, spins, and otherwise unbelievable action.  I'm not clear on why that bad guys burst in the brimstone clouds when killed.  Are they demons?  In the penultimate battle against Kirigi, Elektra is completely at his mercy a couple of times and he declines to kill her.  Why?  Basically, the villain chose to lose when victory was at hand.  Also, Kirigi could move at superspeed, almost like the Flash (maybe I should say Quicksilver since this is Marvel, not DC), but he would slowdown when making his strike.  Why?  Again, it just didn't seem like he was interested in winning.

The pacing is bad, providing long tedious lulls in the action.  The see-the-future power was generally useless, only providing an opportunity to have characters get seemingly killed before rewinding to try again.  Elektra is entirely too emotional and soft for an assassin.  If there is one thing that defines Jennifer Garner, it is her ability to emote, which really doesn't fit the character.  Steely-eyed killers don't get emotionally attached after one dinner with the target.  Though she was staring in the popular Alias at the time she got the Elektra gig, she just wasn't suited to the character.

Best avoided.

Marvel Madness

First, Thor became a woman.  Next, Captain America was a member of Hydra all along.  Now, Iron Man is a teenaged black girl.  I haven't read a comic book in years  and, as far as I know, this may be absolutely brilliant story-telling in each case.  However, with the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), why do this to clearly popular characters?  If I am entranced by Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man to the point that I want to start reading the comic, won't I be upset to discover Iron Man is now a teenaged girl?  I am reminded of some sci-fi series I had loved but were canceled when they tried to fix what wasn't broken.  Space: 1999 was absolutely awesome when I was kid.  But the second season 'fixed' the show by writing out characters and changing the format.  It was promptly canceled.  Buck Rogers, a campy sci-fi show, turned into a bad copy of Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek in its second season.  It was canceled.  Since I mention Battlestar Galactica (the 70s version, not the reboot crap), it too suffered a complete format change when it was revived as Galactica 1980.  Why doesn't anyone get the message to not mess with success?  The MCU is having hit after hit in films but the comic universe is undermining or replacing these popular characters.  I don't get it.  Do the comic books not want to attract the movie fans?  I don't know why I bother to rant on this as I don't read the comics and have no intention of doing so.

 

End of rant.