Doctor Who:


Atrament: this is something for Big Finish listeners, as it features the audio team of Hex (Thomas Hector Schofield), Ace and the Seventh Doctor. Incredibly creepy, and yet in its solution also deeply humane.

The contents of Theseus‘ toolbox: lovely multi Doctor, multi Companion ensemble story, covering all of them from the First to the Thirteenth Doctor.

MCU:
Someone who knows your name: in which post Spider-man: No Way Home, Matt Murdoch encounters both Spider-man and Peter Parker and quickly concludes who needs his help more.

Lord of the Rings:
The Farewell Feast: affectionate snarking between Galadriel and Gandalf at the Aragorn/Arwen wedding festivities, just lovely to read.

This one I saw last Saturday with dear friends, and we had a great time, masks and being parted on the seats not withstanding.

( Very spoilery musings ensue )

Ifinally got around to watching Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse, and lo, it turned out to be as great as advertised. All the Spiderpeople were characters in their own right, even the pig, and yet Miles, whose origin story this was, managed not to be overshadowed. The animation was wildly inventive, embracing its comicbook-ness, and used the medium it was instead of pretending to be something else. By which I mean: gags like Spider-Man Noir only showing up in black and white would not have worked, or not worked the same way, in a live action version.

( only slightly spoilery ramblings )
Basically: deserved all the accolades it got, and was impossible to resist.

On a more serious and sadder note: as today is Shakespeare's death-day and traditional birthday, it's an eerie coincidence to me that I just learned John McEnery has died, who played Mercutio in the 1968 Romeo and Juliet. In honor of both him and Shakespeare, here's Mercutio's Queen Mab scene from said movie:

Am currently abroad with the APs who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with yours truly on Teneriffe, will post a pic spam once I find the time, but for now, have a few links collected in the recent week:

X-Men meta (mainly movieverse):

Why Magneto isn‘t right (about everything)

I‘m so with Andraste on this one. I.e. Erik is a compelling character and I like him a lot, but... yeah. What she said.

Avengers fanfiction:

The Leftovers: more accurately perhaps, Spider-man fanfiction. A terrific take on MJ in the wake of what fandom has dubbed the Snappening in Infinity War. The usual suspects guest star, but this is a terrific, intense take on what must it have been like to experience the spoilery event as someone without superpowers, warning or preparation all around you.

Standing in the dusk: This, otoh, is Natasha in the wake of the same event, in Wakanda. (Guest-starring Steve and Bruce.)

Because getting the Spider-Man: Homecoming dvd has put me in the mood. Incidentally, one of the extended scenes is an "Extended Cut" of Peter's home movie that sums up his part of Civil War, and in which we find out that, since as opposed to everyone else involved this wasn't an angsty occasion for him and he was still on an adrenaline high post-fight, he used his night in Berlin to swing through the city. (Btw, I'm impressed, because the view through Peter's hotel room window which he opens to start his exploration, on the Berliner Dom in front of the Museuminsel, was actually one you have from a Berlin hotel , which I know because I stayed there.) Which included passing through a rave club and saving Angela Merkel. (The next day, headlines say "Sticky Boy Saves Chancellor".) This almost makes up for the Avengers trashing Leipzig-Halle airport when they should have trashed the still unfinished one from Berlin.

Thus I start of with a Spidey tale:

Occupational Hazard: lovely ensemble tale about Peter post-Homecoming, working through it all, with well-written voices for Ned, Michelle, May and Tony.

On to the X-Men:

Adventures in Telepathic Miscommunication, or: how Jean Grey learned something about her Professor: postApocalypse tale which is as much about the Jean-Charles relationship as it is about Jean's view on the Charles 'n Erik one.

The Building of the House: also post-Apocalypse, a Peter-Maximoff-pov on finally breaking the news to you-know-who which manages both to be hilarious and touching.

And lastly, Avengers:

Silence: How Pepper finally accepted Tony's proposal...and then Infinity War happens. Both the banter and the Pepper pov are just right.

...and I don't mean the latest attempt to repeal the ACA, because that particular sparing came through hard work by people who made phonecalls, Senators Murkowski and Collins putting people before party and McCain proving he has a sense for cliffhangers and drama.

No, I just discovered that back in ye early 90s when the first three Bernie Gunther novels were published, successful and thus considered for movie versions, the two actors in consideration for the leading role were Klaus Maria Brandauer (wrong accent and wrong size, but could see him having pulled it off, acting-wise)... and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thank the universe for small favours the world was spared that one. Nowadays, HBO has aquired the rights to the novels and Tom Hanks wants to executive produce (though again, thank you, universe, for favours, he's too old to play Bernie Gunther now except for the late 50s settings. Also, he's wrong for the part. Nothing against Tom Hanks in principle, but not in this role, at any age.

Since I believe in constructive criticism: I can see Max Riemelt (Wolfgang on Sense8) as Bernie Gunther, and since after the wrap-up movie (yay!), there will be no more Sense8, he's available. Advantages: actually German, actually from Berlin, actually the right age for Bernie Gunther in the 1930s when the series starts (and it's easier to age someone up than to age him down, especially if that actor has to play action scenes), and fluent in English which I assume (since HBO is producing) the series will be shot in. Also, he can do sardonic and increasingly self loathing.

(if it has to be an international movie star, Michael Fassbender would also do.)

(Going to actors who don't speak German and aren't at least half-German: Kenneth Branagh would be good for older Bernie, but just would not be believable anymore for a man in his 30s.)

Meanwhile, have two fanfic links in two different fandoms:

Spider-man: Homecoming:

Just a kid: Both a prequel and a fleshing out to and of canon - covers Peter from Ben's death to the movie. Great voices for all the other suspects, too.


Babylon 5:

The Book of the Dead: in which the Centauri afterlife turns out to be far different than what Londo had expected. Also features a great G'Kar, Timov and Vir!

So, the trailer for Spiderman: Homecoming debuted, and I find myself looking forward to a new Spiderman movie for the first time in eons. (I did end up liking the first Garfield movie, but I also felt it deeply unnecessary, and then the second Garfield took away what I had liked about the first one, so.) Which means Tom Holland's debut in Civil War has done its intended job for me, I suppose. And I freely admit one aspect I'm looking forward to is Tony Stark getting the morally ambiguous mentor role this time around. (Plus it won't be an origin story, THANK GOD. We really don't need to see Uncle Ben dying for the third time in a row.)

Incidentally, Tony saying "don't do anything I would do" suddenly made me wonder whether someone has done the glaringly obvious and made a vid about him and Howard to the tune of Harry Chapin's Cat's in the Cradle, preferably using the Johnny Cash version. So I checked YouTube, and sure enough, someone did, but the vid is four years old, which means they can't have used any of the Howard footage from Agent Carter (and probably none of the Tony footage from Age of Ultron), and of course not the virtual memory from Civil War, or the Tony and Peter interaction there. And the vid of my dreams would really be focused on the Tony-Howard parallels rather than just being about Howard's lack of time (though that of course would also be there, it's in the lyrics, after all). Using Ultron (Tony's creation) and his devastation possibly intercut with Doctor Faustus and the movie massacre (Howard's creation), the Howard-Peggy argument scene from "The Blitzkrieg Button" intercut with Tony and Steve early on in "Civil War", Howard and Tony both making presentations and speeches in their flamoboyant ways, Howard in the plane over Manhattan with Tony as Iron Man near the end of "Avengers", and so forth.

In a word: disappointing. Alas.

( Read more... )

Poor Peter Parker. It seems to be his fate to be retconned in any universe. I actually have no passionate feelings about the Spider-man movies, though I'm mildly fond of them, and yes, the reboot approach did the Batman movies a world of good, but all this talk about "dark" and "gritty" is off-putting in this particular context. Because if there's anyone less like Bruce Wayne than Peter Parker, I can't imagine. Ditto Batman and Spider-man.

In other news, I'm continuing to enjoy The Good Wife and love Alicia, Kalinda (can't wait to see what her endgame with most recent developments is), Cary et al more than ever... except for Will. My not getting the appeal until it was explained to me the actor was popular in another role has now turned into solid dislike every time he shows up on screen. Which he thankfully isn't often enough to impact on my viewing pleasure.

Links:

Arthur and Oscar: very amusing poem about Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.

Lord of the Rings:

Five things Sam believes about Frodo that (Rosie knows) aren't true: lovely portrayal of all three hobbits in this short story, set post Ring Quest and pre Last Haven.

Twin Peaks:

Damaged Goods: which is a great Albert Rosenfield pov, on strengths, weaknesses and Dale Cooper.

These last few days have been great if you're into the movies based on various Marvel comics, and open for crossovers between them. Check these out:


Black Tie: my favourite of the bunch, an ensemble story which pulls of a - deep breath -
Spider-Man/Daredevil/Iron Man/X-Men/Fantastic Four/Incredible Hulk movieverse crossover, without short-changing any of the characters, or confusing readers who might not be familiar with two or three but not all of these films. It's the charity dinner from hell, with Peter Parker jobbing as a waiter, Tony Stark as a guest, Mystique and Pyro being present undercover (and promptly running into Charles Xavier), Bruce Banner trying really hard not to get excited... you get the idea. Trust me, you'll love it.

Growin' Up: a Fantastic Four/Iron Man crossover, in which Reed Richards is very much not impressed with Tony Stark but can't get away from the man nonetheless.

Tony Stark, not surprisingly, gets around in these crossovers. He's the little black dress of Marvel movieversedom; the only character who shows up in ALL crossovers I've read so far. Two of them have the same premise - Tony meeting Scott Summers - but execute it very differently, both in plausible ways. So, in terms of X-Men/Iron Man crossovers, we get:

Playing Hard To Get: Tony Stark is trying to break into superhero society. Scott Summers can't get away fast enough.

System Restore: the post-traumatic stress disorder version.