7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Celedam]

Marvel mutants… in a horror movie?

Spoiler: show

This is Fox's cinematic universe, for the X-Men franchise and all of their associated characters. As opposed to Disney's cinematic universe, for the Avengers franchise and all of their associated characters. Just FYI.

In the comics, the New Mutants were the first "junior" class/team at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, back in the '80s and early '90s, after the original X-Men from the '60s and '70s grew up and became full-time adventurers. To put it in context that H!P fans will understand, the New Mutants were to the X-Men as the H!P Kids were to Morning Musume.

The five members of the New Mutants depicted in this movie are, from 1:02 to 1:09: Illyana Rasputin (Magik), Roberto da Costa (Sunspot), Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), Danielle Moonstar (Mirage), and Sam Guthrie (Cannonball). You can also probably guess who's who just by matching the character names to the appropriately ethnic cast members. The X-Men and the New Mutants were doing the "diversity" thing decades ago; Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the whole concept of mutants in the Marvel Universe as a parable for racism in America, and then Chris Claremont expanded it to cover immigration, multiculturalism, homosexuality, and the AIDS epidemic. And yes, that's actress Maisie Williams as Rahne.

Anyhow, this movie supposedly is based on the Demon Bear storyline from The New Mutants #18–20, circa 1984. (Note Dani's necklace at 0:56 and 1:07.) I can see how they'd make a horror movie out of that source material. Of course, many of Fox's adaptations of the X-Men franchise have been rather loose, sometimes verging on unrecognizable to long-time fans of the comics, so I can only guess at the details of this movie. But if it turns out to be as good as Deadpool, Logan, and Legion, then I don't mind them taking some liberties.

Sorry for expounding like this, I'm sure most of you couldn't care less, but this is the stuff I grew up with. The X-Men and New Mutants were my jam in the '80s, and it makes me a little giddy to see them finally adapted like this.

[Celedam]

I still don't like how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shoehorned the Inhumans into the MCU

Marvel proper has maneuvered the Inhumans to replace the X-Men in both the comics and the MCU

And here we are…



It looks like it could be really bad, maybe because it's a little too faithful to the comics and therefore too cheesy for live action. About the only thing it doesn't have is Black Bolt's mask and wings…



But Iwan Rheon gives me hope. They're certainly featuring the hell out of him in the promotion. 'Cuz everyone loves to hate Ramsay Bolton.

Second trailer, better editing, better music — better prospects?



This is still the same production team that brought us Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, so… <shrug>

I've watched the first four episodes. It's not good.

Spoiler: show

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced Inhumans as an MCU substitute for mutants, since everything "mutant" is licensed to Fox. Ever since that introduction, however, readers of the comics have wondered what the MCU would do with the original, proper Inhumans: Black Bolt, Medusa, and the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family who rule over the secret Inhuman city-state of Attilan, on the Moon. Well, this series answers that question. Badly.

Inhumans are a result of genetic experimentation by the Kree (i.e., the blue-skinned humanoid aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy) on prehistoric humans. When the Kree abandoned Earth for various reasons, the remaining Inhumans formed their own society separate from the more primitive humans. Then, as humans continued to become civilized and populate the earth, the Inhumans decided to remove themselves to the Moon. The genetic potential to become Inhuman still existed in the human population, which is how Inhumans were introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but those Inhumans don't know anything about the Moon-based Inhumans.

NOTE: Yes, the Inhumans and Attilan are the basis for the legend of Atlantis in the Marvel Universe. Except that Namor the Sub-Mariner also rules a city called Atlantis on Earth… Yeah, it's complicated, as comic book continuity often is.

Fast forward thousands of years to today. The Inhumans live in a tiny city-state hidden in a crater on the Moon. They call it a "kingdom" but it's really no more than a small town, and it's not allowed to grow for fear of being discovered by Earth. (What do they have to fear? Well, they may be superpowered but they're outnumbered and outgunned.) Space and resources are severely limited, so over time they've been forced into a rigid caste system that is ruled over by the Inhuman Royal Family. As you can imagine, there's plenty of social unrest, and it's being stirred up even more by the king's "evil" younger brother Maximus (Iwan Rheon).

The premise of this series, as layed out in the first two episodes, is that Maximus just can't take it anymore and he finally launches his long-planned coup against the rest of the royal family. They are forced to flee to Hawai'i by way of a giant teleporting bulldog named Lockjaw, but since Lockjaw extracts each family member one at a time during the coup, and since his teleport is less accurate over long distances, they all end up scattered and lost around the island of Oahu. (Guess who inherited the production tax credits from Lost!) From there, all of the family members start their own, separate storylines, meeting and getting involved with assorted residents of the island.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kinda-sorta works because it has three things: a known and likable main character in the form of Agent Coulson; a somewhat more familiar premise for a television series (yay, super-spies!); and enough of that Whedon-esque sense of humor to not take itself too seriously. These things allow it to overcome its low budget and mediocre writing.

Inhumans has the same low (possibly lower) budget and mediocre writing but none of the other things. It's just laughably bad. It's all about superhumans that most viewers don't know, and it takes itself way too seriously. Its biggest mistake, I think, is that it makes it very difficult to empathize with the Inhuman Royal Family. They're all portrayed as entitled assholes who take the Attilan caste system for granted because they sit at the top of it. It's obvious that the long-term story arc of the series is to have them broken and humiliated by the coup, so that they can subsequently learn and grow during their adventures among the lowly humans on Earth, but I don't care enough about any of them at the beginning in order to follow that arc.

In contrast, Maximus's coup seems downright justified: he promises a free and open society without caste, and he wants to at least consider repatriating the Attilan population to Earth since more Inhumans are appearing there (due to events in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Furthermore, he doesn't do anything conspicuously evil except murder the head of the Inhuman Genetic Council that enforces the caste system. It was an interesting choice to cast Iwan Rheon as Maximus: the producers obviously wanted to get some of that Game of Thrones cachet, and at first glance it might appear to be type-casting, but Maximus is actually more calculating and less sadistic than Ramsay Bolton was. Rheon could do a lot with the role if the writing were better. It's not, however, and tyrants gotta tyrant, so… <shrug>

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to waste any more time on this series. I watched as much as I did only because I think the episodes will start expiring off of Hulu.

[erilaz]

Thor: Ragnarok in 4D!!!

[Celedam]

The more Marvel shows they make, as nice as they are (mostly), the more I realize I just want an X-Men show.

They're supposedly working on one, but "they" is Fox so it won't be set in the MCU.

And here we are…



It's a Bryan Singer production; it's set in Fox's X-Men universe (note the name-drops at 1:52), as opposed to Disney's MCU; it features a younger version of the character Blink from X-Men: Days of Future Past; and it also features a couple other classic X-Men characters, albeit with backstories that are completely different from their counterparts in the comics. (That's standard operating procedure for Singer at this point.)

Okay, this is one is pretty decent. It's very much a Fox primetime series, and it's very much family-oriented, but within those parameters it's… pretty decent.

I knew it featured Stephen Moyer (True Blood) as the father. I was surprised to see Amy Acker (Angel, Alias, Dollhouse, Person of Interest) as the mother. I simply didn't recognize her in the trailer.

Anyhow, the X-Men are mentioned a few times as having "disappeared" after a major battle with Magneto's Brotherhood, and their absence leads to the formation of both the Mutant Underground (good guys) and the federal Sentinel Services (bad guys) in this series. 'Cuz the whole point of this series is what happens to young, untrained mutants in a world without Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters to take them in.

It's not clear what "disappeared" means, however. More generally, it's not clear if this series is set after the Battle of Alcatraz in X-Men: The Last Stand, or after the timeline reset at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, or after Xavier's accidental killing of the X-Men some time before Logan, or in yet another timeline created specifically for this series. I think I might stick with it just to find out. The family-oriented stuff doesn't appeal to me, but continuity questions like that certainly do.

I also wonder if/how the New Mutants movie fits into this timeline…

viewtopic.php?p=227543#p227543

[Celedam]

"Alright, I'm gonna whack off again…"

[Nayoko-Kihara]

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed that.

[erilaz]

If you're interested in classic cinema, indie films, and documentaries, and have a library card for a college, university, or public library, you may be able to get free access to a streaming service called Kanopy. I just signed up using my Berkeley Public Library card, which allows me to see seven movies per calendar month at no charge.

To find out whether it's available through your library, click here.

[Chatin]

Anyone playing the new Animal Crossing mobile game? I need some friends to help make my trips to the quarry happen!

Friend ID: 05767948561

Thanks!

[esm]

Wait, it's now available!?

I obviously haven't been paying attention.

[boinsie]

Just came out this morning! I'm 4429 1905 264