Wonder Woman: A Salvific Triumph

Even with the Rotten Tomatoes score, I wasn’t ready for this.  Wonder Woman is a revelation.  We now have a new standard bearer for what a superhero movie can do.  There are no spoilers here, obviously.  The movie just came out last night!  Everyone needs to see this and experience for themselves just how inspiring a comic book movie can be.  Marvel, and the world, need take notice too.  DC’s cinematic comic book universe has arrived and Wonder Woman is their flagship hero, carrying both the DCEU forward and the possible potential for all comic book movies.  Finding what I did in watching Wonder Woman was the most incredible surprise.  And you deserve that surprise too!  So I’m not talking spoilers but I will speak of the film thematically and speak to how it managed to move me so profoundly.

Wonder Woman…YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!

Okay, I shouldn’t be writing right now.  I should be going to bed.  Tomorrow night’s Baccalaureate and Thursday night’s graduation.  And my homeroom kids are graduating!!  Aaaahhh!!  I’ve had these kids for four years and I’m an emotional and nostalgic mess.  I should be in bed.  BUT I just read that Wonder Woman is currently sitting at a superhero-movie-record-setting 97% on Rotten Tomatoes!!!  To give context, the best the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done on Rotten Tomatoes is Iron Man at 94%, The Avengers at 92%, Guardians Of The Galaxy at 91%, and Captain America: Civil War at 90%.  (And nothing the DCEU’s offered has rated “Fresh” so far.)  Now, I make no attempt to hide that I’m a Marvel guy through and through.  I also can’t say I’ve been a huge fan of what the DCEU’s offered so far.  But I want Wonder Woman to hold this place and take this title.  DC deserves this.

Guardians Of The Galaxy and the Importance of an Awesome Mix Tape

It’s a looong weekend ladies and gentlemen so let’s pop in a good mix, consider what our music says about us, and appreciate some tunes!  Yes, the music in James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy films create an unbelievably fun, catchy soundtrack we all want to play on repeat forever BUT it’s ALSO as unique and important to the plot as the crew of the Milano.  More than most films, the Awesome Mixes give Guardians Of The Galaxy its soul.  It makes sense!  Our music is an intimate part of who we are and, as a result, an honest, heartfelt mix tape is a gift where we share something deeply personal with another.  In the films, Awesome Mix Vol. 1 and 2 are gifts to Peter from his mother, Meredith Quill.  In sharing the music she loved with him she also gave him a beautiful part of herself.  So, in the Awesome Mixes, we aren’t treated simply to a fun soundtrack.  Rather, we see a picture of who Meredith Quill was and we find an important part of what shaped Peter Quill into the man he became.

Fandom’s Gone Too Far: Our Destructive Sense of Ownership

We, as fans, can be passionate about what we love.  We, as fans, should be passionate about what we love.  What’s love without passion?!  However, there’s a fine line between passionate love and destructive possession.  If romantic love turns possessive we recognize it as an abusive relationship.  This same sort of destructive possession exists in fandoms.  The Ghostbusters are girls!  Princess Leia isn’t being recast for Episode IX!  Harry should have been with Hermione!  Steve Rogers is Hydra!  George Lucas made Prequels!  Riri Williams is Iron Man!  SOMETHING IS NOT HOW I WANT IT TO BE!!!  We’re all welcome to our own opinions.  We all have the right to not read/watch something we don’t like.  But we have no right to spew toxicity all over the internet/real life when something upsets us.  This morning I read an article illustrating this problem of the ownership we presume to have, as fans, over what we love in a saddening new light.  As such, I felt compelled to write this post.

How Much Guardians Of The Galaxy Can I Get?!?

So I have a big problem.  Admittedly, it is 100% a trivial First World Problem, but it vexes me all the same.  I just finished watching (and, of course, loving) Guardians of the Galaxy for the umpteenth time.  The re-watch before the sequel is part of my process you know.  I have my tickets for the 7:00pm showing of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this Thursday too.  It’s the first showing in town baby!  Woo!  But, as a comic lover who also loves comic book movies, I just can’t get into a comic version of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the same way I love the film.  This is obviously a big problem because I want more Guardians of the Galaxy people!!!!  So I’m at an impasse.

The Joker Examined – Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight (2008)

In my odd little salute to Halloween, I’ve been examining how the Joker scares me personally as well as how the character depicts the many facets of evil.  Now we’ve reached my favorite Joker, Heath Ledger’s turn in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 masterpiece The Dark Knight.  In October of 2014, Kalie and I had been dating for about a month.  She (obviously) wanted to do something scary for Halloween.  Having maxed out our haunted house options, we settled on a scary movie double feature.  She chose the original Ouija, then fresh in theatres.  I chose The Dark Knight.  My choice was scariest!  No matter how many times I watch it, Heath Ledger’s Joker – a perfect vision of evil incarnate – always haunts me.