Comicsness
Gotham 5.1 Year Zero
I kept half an eye on the names in the credits (no Baccarin, no Monaghan. BOO.) I thought the opening sequence was all a bit posey, until we saw The Riddler and Penguin join Gordon and Harvey !!! and shoot and shoot an opposing horde down below. Subtle as ever, Gotham, for your final season.
And then we went back in time, with Jim expositioning/pleading with the government and me thinking if things are so bad he shouldn’t have all those lights on. The Sirens quarter certainly seems more fun than Scarecrow’s!
No idea what Hugo Strange did to bring back Riddler and Lee, but it’s definitely Riddler stumbling about in his suit in daytime, paranoid about what Ed is up to when he’s unconscious. I care so much less than I would if Lee were around.
A moment of appreciation for Lucius Fox.
Depressed, paralysed Selina broke me, needing treatment in a hospital in this besieged, abandoned city or her spine would collapse. I refused to feel Bruce’s boypain as he never apologised, just said he wouldn’t leave her…before leaving for a pow-wow with Jim. Oh dear, we’re back to me not sharing the show’s POV quite quickly.
A very stylish Babs’s view of their turf as a refuge vied against Tabby’s desire for revenge for Butch against Penguin - again, too much exposition and not enough trusting of the previouslies.
Scarecrow attacked Jim, who had some good lines, and just as I was rehearsing ‘you’re not going to kill the hero’, I realised that the characters we saw at the top of the episode are safe. Plus, it’s Gotham, so I wouldn’t necessarily assume Ra’s is dead dead.
Bruce left Selina again, this time with Chekov’s night-goggles to do very important proto Batman stuff. I snarked that she’s meant to be the amoral one, but he’s the liar.
And seeing Selina so hopeless, and so much the girl to Bruce’s story was dispiriting. Is Lee the Witch??? Or is she someone else from the comics? That nurse looked a bit like a young Carol Kane.
The chopper getting shot down was eminently predictable, (possibly the leak was from the GCPD, although yeah, who still has an RPG about?) as was Bruce sneaking along with them, although Tigress did much better in bringing down Penguin’s overly confident henchmen. I was amused by the misfire of Penguin’s armaments working for him, although there was zero tension about Tabby killing him.
And then he killed Tabby. In front of Babs - just to prove we shouldn’t get too comfortable with this idea of no-one dying this time around. Cue operatic gunfire. Bruce did something smart and useful.
It’s so camp that I laughed when Oswald struck Babs silent, which is awful out of context, but she was threatening him bigtime, and her screams of rage versus his screams of pain (after the Riddler raged at himself for picking a dumpster - though it could be as a result of Strange’s procedure) was also funny. Also that he’d got shot in the leg he’d just ‘fixed’.
Ugh. Suicidal!Selina is a whole world of no. HEAL SELINA ASAP, show.
More pleasing that Echo has resurfaced. The nameless allies from over the river need to do more to pique my interest.
Also, the clothes are fabulous, if - Scarecrow and extras aside - not befitting a city in the state Gotham is meant to be.
So many episodes to catch up on, but I went to the cinema to see Avengers: Endgame again yesterday. I picked up more of the dialogue and more of the climactic fight this time - I hadn’t tracked Pepper at all previously. A few things that hadn’t hit me so much the first time around, like Steve picking up Mjiolnir and accessing its lightning powers, hit me harder. Also, Nat’s last words on Earth hurt so much. I basically glared a lot at Clint ‘Ronin’ Barton (so, Daddy, what did you do over the last five years???) I did not need to find out that Nat could and would win a fight against him.
The time stuff makes my head hurt if I try thinking about it beyond going with the flow. Hemsworth is magnificent, while I found Hulked!Bruce meh until he went to fetch Thor (and it was the sneak weapon of win that is Rocket that got him onboard). Revisiting the past is a graceful way of nodding to all that brought us to this point, although all the characters that had been taken show up that they'd come up with the story before appreciating how quickly we'd imprint on thesm.
The film isn’t as good on women as it thinks it is - yes, the moment where the ladies offer Captain Marvel an honour guard is cool, but balance it against The Rest of The Film. With past Nebula infiltrating the time heist and no Natasha returning, all our heroes are male. Let's wait until we see an everyone-comes-together film where the main characters are gender flipped, eh?
Still, I enjoyed every second of Thanos (the abusive father compared to all the other more positive parents we saw) seeing his hordes turn into dust and then finally disintegrate himself. Though I thought they turned him into a rote villain for convenience by the end.
Before the film we were addressed by Tom Holland because they were playing a Spider-man: Far from Home trailer after the credits. I think it’s a good idea, because probably people were staying, and the trailer was way spoilery for Endgame. I am bemused at Spidey being asked to step up in Iron Man's place. He’s a more symbolic figure for Marvel, sure, but I’ve always thought of him as being New York’s superhero (which should mean crossing paths with Stephen Strange more). In-universe, he's still a kid, and there’s still War Machine and Pepper even if neither of them have Tony’s elan, and Pepper’s probably prioritising Morgan. But I did like that Happy, Fury and Maria (MARIA. I just want Maria-MJ interaction, okay?) will be appearing.
I think there was more than the first twenty minutes of the film in this trailer. They trailled Peter/MJ, a ship I'm all for - and she seems to have also been snapped out of existence for five years, which I assumed was the case - and Gyllenhaal and THE MULTIVERSE. I was excited by that because although Endgame reveals Natasha’s father’s name to her, and they could give us her backstory or the five years she was in charge (and presumably she and Bruce had an adult conversation about what had happened between them), they could also go to an alternate universe where she didn’t sacrifice herself.
I wouldn’t mind reading a fic about Steve returning the Soul Stone to Voromir, actually, because what would it be like to see the Red Skull? And for him to have more time to mourn her, as we had some solid Steve-Nat as comrades time in Endgame.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/383961.html.
I kept half an eye on the names in the credits (no Baccarin, no Monaghan. BOO.) I thought the opening sequence was all a bit posey, until we saw The Riddler and Penguin join Gordon and Harvey !!! and shoot and shoot an opposing horde down below. Subtle as ever, Gotham, for your final season.
And then we went back in time, with Jim expositioning/pleading with the government and me thinking if things are so bad he shouldn’t have all those lights on. The Sirens quarter certainly seems more fun than Scarecrow’s!
No idea what Hugo Strange did to bring back Riddler and Lee, but it’s definitely Riddler stumbling about in his suit in daytime, paranoid about what Ed is up to when he’s unconscious. I care so much less than I would if Lee were around.
A moment of appreciation for Lucius Fox.
Depressed, paralysed Selina broke me, needing treatment in a hospital in this besieged, abandoned city or her spine would collapse. I refused to feel Bruce’s boypain as he never apologised, just said he wouldn’t leave her…before leaving for a pow-wow with Jim. Oh dear, we’re back to me not sharing the show’s POV quite quickly.
A very stylish Babs’s view of their turf as a refuge vied against Tabby’s desire for revenge for Butch against Penguin - again, too much exposition and not enough trusting of the previouslies.
Scarecrow attacked Jim, who had some good lines, and just as I was rehearsing ‘you’re not going to kill the hero’, I realised that the characters we saw at the top of the episode are safe. Plus, it’s Gotham, so I wouldn’t necessarily assume Ra’s is dead dead.
Bruce left Selina again, this time with Chekov’s night-goggles to do very important proto Batman stuff. I snarked that she’s meant to be the amoral one, but he’s the liar.
And seeing Selina so hopeless, and so much the girl to Bruce’s story was dispiriting. Is Lee the Witch??? Or is she someone else from the comics? That nurse looked a bit like a young Carol Kane.
The chopper getting shot down was eminently predictable, (possibly the leak was from the GCPD, although yeah, who still has an RPG about?) as was Bruce sneaking along with them, although Tigress did much better in bringing down Penguin’s overly confident henchmen. I was amused by the misfire of Penguin’s armaments working for him, although there was zero tension about Tabby killing him.
And then he killed Tabby. In front of Babs - just to prove we shouldn’t get too comfortable with this idea of no-one dying this time around. Cue operatic gunfire. Bruce did something smart and useful.
It’s so camp that I laughed when Oswald struck Babs silent, which is awful out of context, but she was threatening him bigtime, and her screams of rage versus his screams of pain (after the Riddler raged at himself for picking a dumpster - though it could be as a result of Strange’s procedure) was also funny. Also that he’d got shot in the leg he’d just ‘fixed’.
Ugh. Suicidal!Selina is a whole world of no. HEAL SELINA ASAP, show.
More pleasing that Echo has resurfaced. The nameless allies from over the river need to do more to pique my interest.
Also, the clothes are fabulous, if - Scarecrow and extras aside - not befitting a city in the state Gotham is meant to be.
So many episodes to catch up on, but I went to the cinema to see Avengers: Endgame again yesterday. I picked up more of the dialogue and more of the climactic fight this time - I hadn’t tracked Pepper at all previously. A few things that hadn’t hit me so much the first time around, like Steve picking up Mjiolnir and accessing its lightning powers, hit me harder. Also, Nat’s last words on Earth hurt so much. I basically glared a lot at Clint ‘Ronin’ Barton (so, Daddy, what did you do over the last five years???) I did not need to find out that Nat could and would win a fight against him.
The time stuff makes my head hurt if I try thinking about it beyond going with the flow. Hemsworth is magnificent, while I found Hulked!Bruce meh until he went to fetch Thor (and it was the sneak weapon of win that is Rocket that got him onboard). Revisiting the past is a graceful way of nodding to all that brought us to this point, although all the characters that had been taken show up that they'd come up with the story before appreciating how quickly we'd imprint on thesm.
The film isn’t as good on women as it thinks it is - yes, the moment where the ladies offer Captain Marvel an honour guard is cool, but balance it against The Rest of The Film. With past Nebula infiltrating the time heist and no Natasha returning, all our heroes are male. Let's wait until we see an everyone-comes-together film where the main characters are gender flipped, eh?
Still, I enjoyed every second of Thanos (the abusive father compared to all the other more positive parents we saw) seeing his hordes turn into dust and then finally disintegrate himself. Though I thought they turned him into a rote villain for convenience by the end.
Before the film we were addressed by Tom Holland because they were playing a Spider-man: Far from Home trailer after the credits. I think it’s a good idea, because probably people were staying, and the trailer was way spoilery for Endgame. I am bemused at Spidey being asked to step up in Iron Man's place. He’s a more symbolic figure for Marvel, sure, but I’ve always thought of him as being New York’s superhero (which should mean crossing paths with Stephen Strange more). In-universe, he's still a kid, and there’s still War Machine and Pepper even if neither of them have Tony’s elan, and Pepper’s probably prioritising Morgan. But I did like that Happy, Fury and Maria (MARIA. I just want Maria-MJ interaction, okay?) will be appearing.
I think there was more than the first twenty minutes of the film in this trailer. They trailled Peter/MJ, a ship I'm all for - and she seems to have also been snapped out of existence for five years, which I assumed was the case - and Gyllenhaal and THE MULTIVERSE. I was excited by that because although Endgame reveals Natasha’s father’s name to her, and they could give us her backstory or the five years she was in charge (and presumably she and Bruce had an adult conversation about what had happened between them), they could also go to an alternate universe where she didn’t sacrifice herself.
I wouldn’t mind reading a fic about Steve returning the Soul Stone to Voromir, actually, because what would it be like to see the Red Skull? And for him to have more time to mourn her, as we had some solid Steve-Nat as comrades time in Endgame.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/383961.html.