7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Zunu]

I loved Misfits. Way more entertaining than it had any more right to be. One of the things that made Stan Lee's take on superheroism so transgressive and revolutionary back in the day was the way, in contrast to DC's larger than life supermen, he portrayed them as ordinary petty people with banal concerns and imperfect senses of morality. And Misfits captures that aspect better than any of the actual X-men movies. On a less serious note, Lauren Socha's character, Kelly, killed me every time with that chav accent/attitude -- for a while I was driving myself crazy trying to imitate her way of speaking. Iwan Rheon's role on GoT was so successfully repulsive that it took a while to accept him as a (somewhat) good guy here. It also didn't hurt that Antonia Thomas in the role of Alisha was just devastatingly gorgeous, to the point that until I looked it up I had totally forgotten that Ruth Negga had a recurring role on the show. Speaking of recurring roles, Catelyn Stark also made a brief appearance or two.

[Celedam]

Hey now, you're not the only team of misfit superheroes in a time-traveling ship trying to fix the past…



It's back for its final season, and I'm watching it on Hulu as I always do.

I'm caught up now.

Since it's the final season, they made it a showcase of storylines and supporting characters from previous seasons. Thus the time travel. And that's fine if you wanna be meta but it didn't make for much of a story, at least not for the first four episodes of the season. The fifth and sixth episodes were great, however. I didn't realize how much I missed Coulson until he got his moment in the sixth episode…

Spoiler: show

[Moh]

Actor Miura Haruma was found dead in his home; right now they're calling it an apparent suicide. He was 30 years old.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/202007 ... 61000.html

[Celedam]

[M]ore than two years ago…

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.

viewtopic.php?p=227543#p227543

This is finally being released as well, since they finalized the Disney/Fox merger and therefore the Avengers/X-Men merger. And with an actual release date comes a new trailer that shows more use of mutant abilities…



Yellow-on-black for the title is a nod to the classic yellow-on-black uniforms at Xavier's School, and the "scratchy" lettering could be nod to the art style of Bill Sienkiewicz, who drew the Demon Bear story. Little touches like that make it feel like they're really trying to do justice to the source material.

viewtopic.php?p=249755#p249755

It's stilllllll coming, lockdowns be damned…



I like the captions starting at 0:33. Shows they have a sense of humor about this situation, which is a good sign.

Actually, this whole thing looks great. They changed the depiction of Roberto's powers, because how it is on the page wouldn't work on film, but everything else is perfect. It was rumored that they reshot and re-edited some of it in order to adjust the superhero-to-horror ratio. Goodness knows they had enough time to do that.

I'm genuinely excited for this. I haven't been excited like this for a movie release in a long time. As much as I enjoyed Infinity War and Endgame, they were surrounded by a bittersweet feeling of inevitably and fatigue. This is different. If at ComicCon they say "To hell with it all" and make it immediately available on Disney+, I will gladly subscribe for a month just to see it. It's only seven bucks, which is about the same as a matinee showing at my local theater, and it's just a matter of flipping a switch on my existing Hulu account. No separate sign-up.

(wow, traditional movie theaters are doomed. i really don't see how they can survive the one-two punch of online streaming and social distancing. streaming is cheap and convenient, but some people still prefer the communal experience, and now that is subverted by distancing.)

[Celedam]

The latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the ninth… it's fantastic.

Spoiler: show

A smart "time loop" story with real stakes and emotion, brilliantly paced and edited, ending with one of the best death scenes I've ever seen on television.

And it was directed by the actress who plays Simmons. Absolutely stunning work for her first time.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4464857/#director

[Zunu]

Imma have to watch the ep before I look at your spoiler but I'm definitely looking forward to it! The show is thus far going out with a bang, and the recent reappearance of Dichen Lachman is just like a little extra RDX mixed in the C4.

[Zunu]

OK I saw it.

Spoiler: show

That was a clever touch, making the Groundhog Day memory a kind of tag team effort. I vaguely seem to recall that was the case in Life Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow as well, but the additional beats of Enoch and Simmons's repressed memories coming into play were well done. It also reminded me a bit of the self-destructing time bubble of ST:TNG's Remember Me. There was really something for everyone. In addition to the heroic death scene, there was a mini whodunit/mystery puzzle. And a mini romance -- doesn't Souza, with his slim-fit shirts and man's man jawline, look from the corner of your eye just like David Boreanaz? One annoying thing -- I understand De Caestecker had inescapable prior commitments, but it sucks that it's taking so long for Fitz to rejoin the team. Also, after this moving bottle episode with our beloved characters, turns out I'm not really that eager to return to Afterlife after all. Kora and Nathaniel Malick just seem like unappealingly generic villains of the "let's be evil and do bad stuff" variety. Neither they nor Johnny-5-Sybil seem deserving of final boss stature in this long great adventure.

[Celedam]

I agree on all points. There’s not much else to say.

[Celedam]

But seriously, is it canon?

[Celedam]

Previously, regarding Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.…

One annoying thing -- I understand De Caestecker had inescapable prior commitments, but it sucks that it's taking so long for Fitz to rejoin the team. Also, after this moving bottle episode with our beloved characters, turns out I'm not really that eager to return to Afterlife after all. Kora and Nathaniel Malick just seem like unappealingly generic villains of the "let's be evil and do bad stuff" variety. Neither they nor Johnny-5-Sybil seem deserving of final boss stature in this long great adventure.

Well, the tenth episode has enough twists that I think we don't need to worry about most of that anymore…

Spoiler: show

Kora? Jiaying? Afterlife? Pfft.

And it makes sense in hindsight, which is weirdly on brand. Why would a villain with access to almost perfect knowledge of the future start ranting about anarchy? Because that's what the heroes expect a villain to do!