Adding a mid-weekend piece, I decided to get out to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever mid-morning Saturday. This was the first time I'd gotten out to see a movie during its opening weekend since late 2019. Noting that my most local theater had a very aggressive use of theater space for this latest Marvel movie, with showings running half an hour, perhaps even less at times, apart, I decided to try it out. Even pre-pandemic I'd found that early Saturday viewings of new releases tended to be strongly under-attended. A 10:20 showing at the local Regal plex ultimately found just me and a three-person adult family group (I think they were getting dad out to the movies, and dad was older than I) were the whole of the audience.
While avoiding spoilers, I'd still noted on social media quite a few cranky comics fans holding sessions of the "Not My Namor" grievance committee, sometimes with subtle hand-tips of likely being put off by how non-White it all was. As a comics fan since '66, and well-steeped in especially the bedrock Silver Age of Marvel comics, and as a white male in his early 60s, I'm well, well aware of how so much of the MCU is not strictly directly representative of the Marvel characters, much less the continuity, of the comics. I made most of my peace with that a while back, and have been rolling with the MCU as its own thing, still enjoying it more than not.
I am avoiding the specifics of potential spoilers here -- I may yet write a more involved piece on the movie, but I'll make that something separate and linked, so people will only deliberately cross that threshold. I will say that there's a strong case to be made for the MCU Namor being a more solid and interesting character than a straight adaptation of the comics version would have been.
Such problems as I have had with some aspects of some MCU items in recent years have been when they threw things away to no real advantage. Worse, when they did so for the sake of jokes, and then attempted to shame people for being openly offended by it. With that in mind, I'll note that there's none of that in this latest film, which is often very serious in tone, sombre even.
Usually my Old Fan perspective finds these MCU items subject to a process of acceptance -- one that's been in play since Marvel Studios started moving these out in 2008 with the first Iron Man. The usual track for them has been I'd go to see it, and while on the whole I'd be happy I saw it, I'd have many points of mild discomfort, even distaste, at various choices made to accommodate a more general audience. When I eventually got around to seeing one of them a second time, the rule became that they then struck me as much better than I'd remembered -- generally because unlike the first time, I was now familiar with the changes made and so wasn't being so abraded by them. With respect to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, perhaps because the changes for Namor and his aquatic race were well-telegraphed during filming and early, advance promotions, it was a case where that "process" wasn't in effect. That is to say, I pretty much enjoyed it for what it was as of the first viewing. While it's likely that I won't see it again until it hits Disney+, there are some people I'd pretty happily go out to see it with a second time, if we could line up the right timing.
I'll keep all other specifics to myself, and will revise this post to include a link to a more detailed, spoiler-rich one, should I follow through on writing it. For now, here's the movie's trailer again:
This Sunday Paramount+ launches a new series starring Sylvester Stallone as a mafia capo, Dwight "The General" Manfredi, who is released after serving a 25 year sentence. Deciding he's not needed in the New York area, his boss in the organization sends him to Tulsa Oklahoma to build something there. It'll be a 10-episode first season, and Stallone's first scripted tv series role. It's Tulsa King
New episodes each Sunday, people watching it on the Paramount Network (cable broadcast feed) will see it as the lead-out to the latest season episodes of Yellowstone, as Paramount hopes to retain that audience as part of the seed for this new show. Those of us who are streaming junkies will mostly just be aware that we'll have access to new episodes anytime after 3am on those Sundays.
As a life-long East Coaster, I have little to no appreciation for what was involved in the script retooling, but see it noted that it was initially developed to be set in Kansas City, Missouri, but was rewritten to be set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I wouldn't know the difference without signage.
An entertaining comedy mystery was part of last week's viewing block for me, though I didn't spot it until well after last week's post went up. It's a Searchlight film, it was out in theaters in September, and just recently arrived on HBO and HBO Max. A period piece, set in early 1950s London, it involves a murder connected to and set against the then highly-successful stage run of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. Peppered with characters, the leads are Sam Rockwell as the life-weary Inspector Stoppard, Saoirse Ronan as capable, borderline manic, but ultimately very capable, neophyte Constable Stalker, and Adrien Brody as sleazy American director Leo Köpernick, who also narrates portions of the film for reasons that soon become obvious. (Well, hell, the trailer does more than tip that hand. I'm glad I just rolled across the film and watched it without having seen the trailer.) It's See How They Run (2022 PG-13 1h 38m) A fast-paced film, it covers a lot of ground while having faux fourth wall-busting sport as various characters take shots at the conventions of these drawing room detective mysteries, and even of their film adaptations. Intentionally riddled with cliches, that's part of its intended charm. It's neither a Wes Anderson nor Coen Brothers style film, but there some underlying kinship there with some quirky leads and the patter and flow.
Today on Netflix, is the arrival of a (very -- perhaps wildly) speculative documentary series in which British journalist Graham Hancock travels around the world in search of signs of advanced civilizations that predate official human history. Probably the best bit one should take from the brief trailer is Hancock's own assertion that he's neither an archeologist nor a scientist, and treat the series as someone spinning up entertaining speculations based on fragments and perhaps bits of folklore. Otherwise, it'll be much like the drek that seemed to sweep the world again as we rolled into the 1970s, and which is part of the mess that long ago overtook things like The History Channel, turning it into a channel I haven't bothered with for years. Some people love this stuff a bit more than they really should. Oh, in the day-to-day it's generally harmless, but it potentially damages general scientific literacy as viewers make the mistake of coming away from it believing themselves more educated.
Suitably enough, it's given the juicy title of Ancient Apocalypse. I would advise approaching it in the spirit of entertainment, and then to be careful how you decide to follow up any additional historical research based on what's presented, as you're most likely to find yourself tumbling down into Hancock's own works because he's pretending to have a detailed scoop on them.
Next Thursday, the 17th, a new series arrives on Netflix. Set just before the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, a hodgepodge of European migrants cross the Atlantic to the New York City and a new century. Traveling in a steamship, they're posed with a deepening mystery as they come across another ship adrift mid-Atlantic. It's 1899 Inspired as a counter to the idea of Brexit, the series strives to embrace a multi-nation cast, including their languages. Much of the intent is to focus on a diverse group of people, each with its own language and associated culture, ultimately rising to cooperate in the face of a daunting challenge.
This German series is co-created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, who were behind Netflix's first original, German series, Dark, which ran for three seasons from 2017-2020.
As of this moment it's unclear if this will be released in weekly installments, or the entire season dropping at once, as is more the custom for Netflix; the early material is playing it cagey, likely to try to preserve as much of the mystery as they can.
Only about 15 minutes into it - I impulsively chose a bad time to start a movie - I was still trying to find my footing in the latest work by David Cronenberg: Crimes of the Future (2022 R 107m). Starring Viggo Mortenson, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart, this science fiction body horror genre film is set in an indeterminate future, where substantial advances in biotechnology has not only created living tech, but finds people almost casually altering their own bodies, some people deciding to take charge of selective human evolution. Two of the main characters are essentially performance artists, using surgery to produce their latest works.
So far it's an often unsettling, grim affair, with everything from the architecture and environment to the people themselves seeming... derelict. It's a world where physical pain has become optional.
Available to rent or buy all over the net, it's free to stream on Hulu.
While this film shares a title with Cronenberg's 1970 film, which he also wrote and directed, it is in no way a remake of that film, having nothing else in common with it.
To close with a fun, free to all, recommendation: One item I'm looking forward to checking out is Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022 1h 48m). A heavily, liberally, frantically fictionalized biopic that I've heard and read nothing but good things about. This will also be my first experience with Roku, which I've just signed up for with a free account. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, and peppered with various celebrities hiding in other guises, it premiered on Roku back on November 4th. I didn't have the time for it until now.
Hopefully this week's net was varied enough that something in there looked interesting. Next week we'll have not only that weekend's items, but will likely be loaded with various things landing on or just before Thanksgiving here in the U.S. the following week. For now, though, that's all. There's so much to get done in November -- so much even just between now and the 24th! Take care, and I'll see you next Friday. - Mike
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