New York Abstains (original) (raw)

SPOILER WARNING for everything contained herein.

Thor: Love and Thunder – I was looking forward to seeing this one, and while it was enjoyable enough, I felt like there just wasn’t that much there. It combines two stories, that of Gorr the God Butcher murdering deities, and of Jane Foster gaining the power of Thor. I will say that, even though I know it comes from the comics, something about Jane having cancer seems a little off in a universe of superheroes and gods. But I liked seeing her again. We also get a bit of Thor fighting alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy and Valkyrie being an administrator, and a little of Darcy Lewis at the beginning.

Thor being drawn in a chariot pulled by goats is part of his mythology, but since he didn’t have them in earlier films, this movie presents them as a reward for helping out the Indigarrians.

Gorr’s villain origin story starts with him seeking out and petitioning his own god, who laughs him off. Despite being a solar deity, he apparently isn’t too bright, as he leaves the Necrosword, a weapon that can kill gods, lying right in front of him. He goes on to kill as many other gods as he can find, but we really don’t see a whole lot of it. Thor and company do pay a visit to Omnipotence City, home to gods from many pantheons, including alien ones; and battle Zeus, played by Russell Crowe with a weird Greek accent.

Still, I think the movie could have given us a little more in that respect, both for spectacle and to really bring home the threat Gorr was posing. I also noticed they didn’t bother pointing out some of the gods in this universe are actually organic robots. I thought it was kind of funny how this movie with an enormous budget made Zeus’s thunderbolt look like something you could buy at the Halloween store. It’s always kind of strange that Marvel movies have so many heroic sacrifices when there are multiple ways to bring people back to life. Jane sacrifices herself right next to an omnipotent being who brings back Gorr’s daughter. I guess the rule is that Eternity will only grant a wish to the first one to make it there, but no one even bothered to find out. I did like the take on Kronan mortality, how their faces are the only real living part of them. Also, the repeated idea that Asgardians go to Valhalla when they die doesn’t fit with how it’s usually portrayed as Odin‘s home IN Asgard. I know there’s no one official version of any corpus of classical mythology, but it seems a little overly complicated, since the general idea seems to be that noble warriors would go to live with the gods after death, and here the gods are INCLUDED in that. But I suppose the story of Ragnarok complicates these things anyway, as it has most of the gods AND the already-once-dead warriors falling in battle, while Baldur comes back from his own afterlife in Hel. Maybe the implication is that dead gods go to Super-Heaven or something.

Ms. Marvel – I haven’t watched any of the other Marvel television shows, but I thought I should go ahead and see this one, since I read the early run of Kamala Khan’s comic, and she’s going to be in a movie later this year. It’s six episodes so far, although I’ve heard talk of a second season. A lot of the same characters from the comic are in the show, but the character’s powers and origin story are different. Instead of shapeshifting and altering her body, she’s able to manipulate hard light, although she does still use it to make giant fists sometimes. And while she was originally presented as having Inhuman genes and being affected by Terrigen Mist, here she’s a descendant of jinn, and apparently also a mutant. From what I understand, there have been some rights issues with Disney and the idea of X-Men style mutants, since Fox had the rights to that property, which is why Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s relation to Magneto was written out. The Inhumans are people who were submitted to alien genetic experiments that gave them powers, and the result is basically the same, but apparently the Cinematic Universe didn’t want to proceed with Kamala being Inhuman. I’ve seen some mention online that she might even be retconned into a mutant in the comics, which seems unnecessary. As a mythology buff, I really do like the jinn thing, though. I also found it amusing that Kamala’s mom complains about Captain Marvel’s skimpy outfit when the film version never wore one, but Carol Danvers did in the comics.

In addition to having to fight the Clandestines, a group of jinn trapped on Earth, she’s also constantly harassed by the Department of Damage Control, formerly part of SHIELD, the organization revealed to have been infiltrated by Nazis many movies ago. And it shows, as the members are total racists who harass people at Kamala’s mosque.

1776 – I saw a mention of this a few days ago, and I remembered that I’d seen a little bit of it and had been meaning to watch it all the way through. The film is from 1972, adapted from an earlier stage show. A musical centered around the exciting topic of Congressional procedure, it shows the Second Continental Congress debating the idea of declaring independence from Britain. The focus is on John Adams, played by William Daniels, who had played the role on Broadway. He was also the car in Knight Rider, Dustin Hoffman’s father in The Graduate, and the principal on Boy Meets World. He’s presented as the most devoted to the cause of independence, but is found annoying by most of his colleagues. As a movie, it started out strong, but I’d say it went on a little too long, with things fizzling out a bit toward the end. The songs, by Sherman Edwards, included some engaging numbers, and I appreciated the wordplay. It was entertaining that so many of Richard Henry Lee’s lines contained puns on his own name. There was also much more sexual innuendo than I expected, including a subplot of sorts about Thomas Jefferson needing to have sex with his wife before he could write the Declaration of Independence (although he might have settled for her sister, whom he legally owned). Musicals are generally absurd by nature, but here it was particularly crazy that people would just get up to sing and dance in the middle of a Congressional session. And the song about how the North profits from slavery was so strange that even the characters didn’t seem to know what was going on during that scene. It makes sense that they streamlined the size of the Congress, but it’s bizarre that they kept in three different delegates from Delaware, of all places. I’ll admit I’m quite skeptical about patriotism, but I’ll wish all Americans (and anyone else who’s interested) a happy Independence Day anyway.

This entry was posted in american revolution, Animals, Arabian, Comics, Greek Mythology, History, Holidays, Humor, Music, Mythology, Norse, Politics, Prejudice, Television, VoVat Goes to the Movies and tagged 1776, afterlife, asgard, baldur, captain marvel, carol danvers, clandestines, death, declaration of independence, eternals, goats, gorr the god butcher, guardians of the galaxy, indepdence day, indigarrians, inhumans, jane foster, jinn, kamala khan, korg, kronans, Marvel Cinematic Universe, marvel comics, ms. marvel, necrosword, odin, omnipotence, omnipotence city, president john adams, president thomas jefferson, ragnarok, richard henry lee, russell crowe, second continental congress, sherman edwards, slavery, the god butcher, thor, thor love and thunder, valhalla, valkyrie, weapons, william daniels, x-men, zeus. Bookmark the permalink.