I am excited after the first episode how secret invasion will turn out.
#secretinvasion @entertainment

#1 song for June 22, 1989

#80smusic

Song: Satisfied

Artist: Richard Marx

Music Video: https://youtu.be/7sOjdusDUzE

With Tuesday’s global business factored in, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has swung past the half-billion mark worldwide, grossing $506.3M through yesterday.

The revelation is prompting some backlash from audiences on social media, given that using AI presumably eliminated the need for graphic designers and animators to craft the opening credits.

The argument is especially timely, since the WGA is currently on strike after failed negotiations with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which included language about protecting writers against the use of AI in the writing process. Over the past eight weeks, the use of AI to replace laborers has come to the forefront of many discussions about the strike.

Some social media users have specifically mentioned the writers’ struggle, while others say they have simply decided not to continue watching the series.

The actress stars alongside Andrew Barth Feldman in Gene Stupnitsky's movie about a woman hired by an awkward teen's parents to boost his confidence by dating him.

It is alleged that a safety wire designed to stop Watts’s fall malfunctioned and he missed the safety mat because the stunt was performed differently to the initial rehearsal. Watts, who suffered a fractured skull, traumatic brain injury, psychiatric injury and damage to his shoulder, was in a coma for five days following the accident. According to his lawyers he has been left with “a series of cognitive and physical issues” requiring specialist support and therapies. They describe his injuries as “life changing.”

#1 movie for June 21, 1986

Average Ticket Price: $3.71

#80sMovies

Movie: The Karate Kid, Part II

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091326/

Moving some of my higher quality posts over from Reddit. Originally wrote this for /r/Arcane

⚠️⚠️ FULL SERIES SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️⚠️

Original Post

One of Arcane's achievements is it's ability to not reach for cheap drama, which I find especially refreshing in a fantasy context. There were a lot of moments where Arcane geared itself up to do The Dramatic Thing™ and then subverted it, not by doing The Dark Thing™, or the Out of Left Field Thing™, but by doing the human thing instead.

Examples:

• Mel not being a Femme Fatale. She genuinely wanted what was best for the people and respected Jayce. I thought for sure she was just using him, and I'm sure it started that way, but they really developed their relationship in a beautifully natural way so there's no Moment™ where she either sees him for the first time and totally changes or betrays him.
• Powder overhearing Mylo vent to Vi about her and leaving before Vi takes her side. They talk it out later that night and reach an understanding.
• Powder and Vi's reunion. They just hug and share a genuine moment before their differences begin to manifest.
• Vander's tough but supportive reaction to the failed job. He uses it as a teachable moment for Vi, and Vi takes the feedback rather than it being a well you're not my real dad moment. We get to learn a lot about the trust and care these characters have for each other.
• Vi and Caitlyn cooperating with each other right out of the gate, resolving differences as they come up in good faith (even when heated) rather than constantly being at each other's throats the way most shows would do.
  Storytelling, as a craft, has an obsession with conflict. Almost all works on how to tell stories focus on how to craft good conflict. And yes, every story needs good a central tension (which Arcane has in spades), but Arcane shows that moments of cooperation can be just as dramatic as conflict, and isn't afraid to let it's characters find ways to come together as a way to mine drama.

I can't think of a single contrived dramatic beat. There's no forced misunderstandings or characters overreacting. It lets the drama flow from the characters and their choices, rather than a contrived situation they are being put into. It forces the show to dig deep and find the things the characters truly care about so it can push those buttons.

Silco's genuine care for Jinx and his people underneath how abusive and shitty he is for both is another great example. Most villains -- even when given a good motivation and philosophy -- feel Evil™, like the philosophy they are espousing is more an excuse to be cruel, or is a purposefully twisted misreading of a moral precept to justify and deflect their actions; the fiction needs to prove to you that they deserve their demise. Arcane manages to give it's villain an actually noble goal of freedom for his people and lets him genuinely believe in it while he paves his way to hell.

No moment of tragic redemption, either, where he repents his choices and accepts the moral of the story into his heart. Arcane mines it's characters for additional depth instead of changing who they are. Character arcs, while strongly present, are just as often a study in revelation as change. Silco's moment of crisis when he is asked to give up Jinx is used to reveal another layer, rather than change what we've already seen. The show isn't afraid of making us feel for it's villain without changing him. His evil is able to be the best he is capable of for who and what he cares about.

Silco is such a great villain: A man forged by the cycle of violence who can only love and care in toxic ways. He's both awful and tragic. A choice that genuinely surprised me: In act 2 I thought for sure he was going to betray Jinx and reveal she was just a tool to him, only to be changed in some moment of connection. Instead -- again -- there is no Moment™ where he either gives into his evil completely or repents to the light. He is a consistent, contradictory human to the end: genuinely ruthless, genuinely caring, genuinely idealistic, and genuinely cynical to his last breath. The scene of him agonizing over his situation at Vander's statue isn't one of a crisis of choice, but a crisis of acceptance. He is lamenting what's important to him. We get to see a beautiful moment of self reflection and sorrow because Arcane echews the normal cheap conflict many shows would grasp for: drawing out the suspense of what Silco will do to mine for drama. Instead, Arcane mines the acceptance of his inability to choose anything else.

Even between adversaries there is often a deep respect and/or complex history that isn't just boiled down to a single feeling. Silco vs Vander. Ekko vs. Jynx, Jayce vs Victor, Mel vs her mother, Marcus vs Grayson. All these relationships have a rich interpersonal interaction that never makes it feel like they are completely at odds, even when they are in each other's way.

Sevika, who is set up to be super jealous of and frustrated with Powder has that "She'll come to you when she's ready" moment with Silco; we learn SO MUCH about her character in such a small interaction. We get to see her in a redeeming moment of reassurance, where many shows might twist the knife a bit with a catty line because well, she doesn't like Jynx.

Instead, Arcane chooses to let us see over and over that while there might be an overriding top layer to a character or relationship, moments of deeper layers peeking through are where the real story lies.

A wikipedia article for anyone not in the know

Personally, I've been patiently waiting for Good Omens 2. I also am lazily going through livechart's anime catalog and seeing what might be interesting to watch while I clean up. Knowing me though, I'm probably just going to end up rewatching kids anime like Sailor Moon.

John Wick: Chapter 4

Year: 2023 // Runtime: 169 min // URL: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10366206/

Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller // Producer: Chad Stahelski // The Internet Has Rated It: 7.9

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, George Georgiou

I Give It: 12/13 Tumbles Down Ridiculous Long Flights of Stairs

Sad I missed it in the theater here but just got around to watching this at home.

Thought this would be a good opportunity to test out how compatible my personal movie note / reviews I do in ObsidianMD are when copied and pasted into beehaw (or whatever other fediverse platforms)

Like all the other John Wick movies, let’s just get this out of the way: The plot is… present. You don’t have to think about it any more than that and if you do, you’re ruining it for yourself. It is almost completely unimportant, nobody is watching this for the plot.

Here’s John Wick, he’s a badass that likes dogs. The ultimate assassin who doesn’t want to assassinate anymore, just wants to be at peace with a dog somewhere and he misses his wife. Rules for the assassin way of life (“the old ways”) are introduced at convenience for plot progression. There are super-assassins and there are henchmen, John has to battle all of them with few exceptions. In the realm of villains there are pure-villain pieces of shit like nightclub owning Killa, or the sympathetic but duty-bound (or financially motivated) badasses that you like while still pulling for John to emerge victorious.

The John Wick movies are all about fight scenes which are amazingly choreographed and never get boring. Even when they the laws of physics are clearly broken or one combatant is flailing in the background while John deals with another guy only to come back to fighting stance just in time for John to beat him up again, they manage to maintain a sense of high stakes and excitement and it always feels fun first. The rest of the universe moves to amplify the coolness of battle sequences. Cars on the street, dancers in clubs, lighting features in museums, water whenever the movie decides it would be cool to have some water falling, they all move to serve the greater purpose which is meticulously detailed, over-the-top, perfectly executed combat choreography. The world is dense with people, and they're all NPCs until they're ready to fight. Bystanders don't act like people would with people engaging in mortal kombat all around them, they act like nothing's happening until the fight is over and they leave the club at a medium-brisk pace.

Every environment in what resembles our world is dramatically lit in an extreme version of whatever that place's earth counterpart would be… every main character looks like a comic book character, pause the movie at any point and it looks like you trained Midjourney on a graphic novel and requested a photorealistic render of a panel. Osaka looks like infinite-neon cyberpunk Osaka, and of course it’s full of assassins. The Ruska Roma syndicate operates out of a Catholic Church in Berlin has way more candles and dramatic paraphernalia than already would adorn a normal Catholic Church. Paris is full of fog machines and incandescent lighting

Regardless of location, it’s all assassins. Homeless guys are assassins. Auto-mechanics? Assassins. Pedestrians? About 60% assassin. Frenchman with a baguette? Probably assassin. Dog? Very good boy and assassin. Everyone listens to old fashioned looking radios where DJs broadcast to the world about murder assignments. There is a fleet of Assassins Guild Worldwide call-center girls dressed like it’s the 1950s but they're covered in tattoos and using green text CRTs to put out ever-increasing bounties via command-line. People switch languages mid-conversation to show off how smart and cultured they are and subtitles appear on screen in an extremely corny action-movie font.

It’s all very dumb, but if you watched the first few movies you know that and don’t care. And nobody should, because it’s all part of the kinda dorky action aesthetic.

The overall impact of this style is mixed, in other parts of the series I've had to roll my eyes a bit and wondered "Wait, I'm loving this, but is this movie actually good?" It can take me out of my temporary suspension of disbelieve to see just how ridiculous what's on the screen is at times. When you first see a new character sometimes my first reaction is "What the fuck is this guy?" Once I reframe it to comic-book or videogame sensibilities in my mind I am able to get back to enjoying the flick.

Stylistically goofy decisions aside, John Wick accomplishes exactly what it's supposed to: it's action packed and entertaining, funny at times, violent while only occasionally entering gross-out territory, and it manages to keep the viewer engaged throughout the entirety of the film

I loved it, all 169 minutes of it, and I'll probably watch it again soon.

New to this and definitely addicted :) Going to treat myself to a subscription or two to help fill the dark hours next winter but for now mostly Chinese dramas as there are so many free to view. Just finished Queen In Hyun’s Man (Korean) and really loved it. Goal is to get at least one from every country on the MyDramaList website.

After years of watching tight, compact UK and European series which tell their stories in a handful of episodes, I’m enjoying how much more time Asian dramas give to detail and emotion. Plus it’s a whole new set of conventions and cliches I haven’t gotten tired of :)

Would love to find more fans.

#CDrama #KDrama #JDrama #ThaiDrama #AsianDrama

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BLACK MIRROR SEASON SIX BELOW!

I'm a big fan of Black Mirror but I think I'm the odd one our when it comes to my favourites. My all time favourite out of all the seasons was Metalhead. I loved its Hitchcockesqueness.

I've decided on Mazey Day as my favourite episode of season 6. I love the theme of how being exploited (whether that's being paid a pittance in Starbucks, or being hounded by paparazzi) can turn people into monsters.

What were your thoughts on the latest season? What are your favourite episodes?

Great first season, but a really stressful watch. Do yourself a favour and check it out if you haven't already.

I'm shooting a movie currently and after a conversation with my director we realized that we couldn't think of a single prequel that we liked. However, we both agreed that there has to be at least one.

What do you think? Are there any good prequels?

The first thing that came to mind, after the fact, was The House of the Dragon the Game of Thrones prequel.

Oh dear.

A little experimental film with a big message.

Timeless.

Netflix making an adaptation of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, which is one of the best sci-fi books I've read so far. It'll be released in 2024 and I'm kinda hyped after that teaser.