Lighting a Match After Thrones’ Long Night

Daylight at last! Dawn breaks across the parapets of the north, and Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell is over!
If for some reason you haven’t yet watched last night’s epic clash, be advised that...

...massive S  P  O  I  L  E  R  S  follow.

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Mid-point in this final season, this episode carried the weight and anticipation akin to a series finale.Thrones has served up some doozies in previous seasons, so the bar was insanely high here. I know, I know, “The Night is dark and full of terrors.” – but is it supposed to be that dark?! This episode (The Long Night) was big and bold at an hour and 22 minutes, but as many viewers were quick to point out, it was woefully murky and underlit at times. Fealty to environmental realism is great, but huge chunks of the first half of this episode made it nearly impossible to clearly see what was going on, with all the darkness, smoke, snow and fog. Compared to Hardhome (5.8), Battle of the Bastards (6.9) and The Spoils of War (7.4), this may have been a more elaborate shoot to orchestrate, but it’s just not as compelling or visceral to experience.

 

This battle didn’t quite unfold as I expected. The army of the dead is enormous, and when they collide with Winterfell’s defenders, it’s like a massive tidal surge, completely overpowering. When thousands of Dothraki riders charge into the fray, they’re overwhelmed and absorbed in seconds. This is an insanely populous and devastating enemy. So then how come so many of our principal characters emerged intact?! Stunningly, nearly all the characters who were in front line vanguard positions against the dead escaped with their lives. Brienne, Jamie Lannister, Podrick, Grey Worm, Gendry, Tormund, Ser Davos, Sam – there were surprisingly few casualties among the core characters, unrealistically so, given the nature of their foe.

 

Season 8 continues to be all about Arya, who had some of the most extreme character and action beats in this episode. She’s awesome, and a fantastic fighter. So it seems abruptly out of character, given her long evolution into one of the assassins of the Faceless Men, that she’d seem so panicked and afraid during the siege of the castle. She eventually regroups – and how – but for a good part of the episode, she seemed to have forgotten that training.

 

It was a rough night for the Mormonts, with young Lyanna meeting her end by a giant wight, who she killed with her last breath. Also valiant Ser Jorah Mormont, who had a perfect demise for his character, protecting his Queen right up to the very end. Theon Greyjoy also got a fantastic, redemptive sendoff, heroically defending Three-eyed-Bran even as the Night King fell upon him. Melisandre also met her maker, removing her protective necklace and surrendering her antiquity to her Lord of Light with the coming of the dawn. 

 

Which brings us to what for me was the biggest surprise of the evening, the sudden obliteration of the Night King – and with him, his entire begotten army – by a tenacious Arya. Yes, she was wielding Valyrian steel, but it was unexpected to have the story-defining, overarching threat of the entire series suddenly vanquished, and having just survived a massive blast of dragon fire unscathed, it felt like a sudden and anticlimactic victory. Having the dead defeated at the halfway point of this final season is not what I was expecting. 

 

Don’t get me wrong – this was an impressive, massively entertaining episode, but it deserved to look much better, and at times, the staging of events just simply couldn’t keep disbelief aloft. I have to admit, when they rolled the scenes from next week’s episode, I was thrilled to see daylight exteriors again! “Ah, crisp shot compositions! Focused depth of field! King’s Landing!” So it would seem that the threat beyond the wall is past, and now we’re all heading south – to a final confrontation with the real heart of darkness, Cersei Lannister. 

The Mother of All Weekends

Savor it well, Kindred! The weekend of April 26th-28th. For some, it may seem notable for legions of lawnmowers being started for the first time this year, but if you count yourself one of the nerd faithful, you're probably overwhelmed with awe and wonder at the astonishing double-whammy of entertainment bombarding us this weekend. It's practically generational in its harmonic convergence likelihood to be fondly remembered for many years to come.

Many of us have already had our infinity stones shaken by Avengers: Endgame, which as of this writing looks to have been the first movie in history to earn over a billion dollars in its opening weekend - with a 3-hour running time, no less! That's monumental, exceeded only be the fact that audiences and critics universally (and deservedly) are praising it to the rafters. Repeat business is a given, but after 11 years and 21 films paving the way, we've been given a truly wonderful shared experience that overflows with gasps, spoilers and tremulous heartbeats. 

Then we have tonight! 3 episodes into the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones, we have what promises to be an epic battle that redefines epic battles, the fantasy equivalent of Agincourt - "The Battle of Winterfell," where reveals - and demises - are certain to transpire that will leave us unable to think of anything else for days. It's not the series finale, but this promises to be the Omaha Beach of the greatest fantasy filmmaking achievement since The Return of the King. 

What do these two epic events have in common? They’re both examples of long-form storytelling, and they both contain tantalizing secrets and revelations that audiences eagerly yearn for. So expect to see plenty more opus-level entertainments along these same lines.

We live in some truly insane times, friends. But after all the dust of routine and headlines settle, it's often these milestones of escapism that truly stay with us and sustain us. To have two events of this magnitude - well, it's like having the moon landing and Chernobyl on the same day. It's gonna be a lot to process! I hope everyone's enjoying the heck out of all this, and just for a moment, pausing to savor the rarity of this much Wow, coming all at once. So drink deep! I'll see you on the other side.

Endgame’s Astonishing Swan Song!

Keep your shirt on, there's no spoilers here - this isn't even my review - but I just need to safely swoon a little about the massive Marvel milestone that is Avengers: Endgame. I'm not getting into any details, no in-depth analysis here. My only purpose is to urge you to race out the door and see this movie now. Get out there and enjoy this brief parenthesis before the entire universe starts spewing reactions, and every overheard conversation is fraught with peril.

I'll have a proper, full-length review in the days to come, after the opening weekend excitement dies down. But Endgame is a Sentinel Event - a colossus of storytelling eleven years in the making. MCU, stick the landing thou hast - and how.

At three+ hours, there's a lot to take in, and the movie is overflowing with surprises. It was such a treat to have virtually no idea where we were going or what might happen. Most of the trailer footage is from the first few minutes of the film, so they've really kept their cards close to the vest. Some characters I expected to play a larger part barely appeared. Some I never expected to see had significant roles. Some characters are markedly changed from when we saw them last. Half of life in the universe has been snapped out of existence. That's gonna leave a mark.

After 21 films, to pull this off is nothing sort of astonishing. The spectrum of emotions the audience goes through here is a little overwhelming. Your heart will be in your throat, and you'll be laughing maniacally. That's really all I'm comfortable saying for now, as we need to be cool and keep the lid on long enough for folks to get out and experience this for themselves.

If you've loved the Marvel Universe of films we've been treated to over the last few years, just know that disappointment is not on the table. The mother of all love-letter-feasts is out there waiting for you. So suit up, get your ass into a theater, and be a part of history. 

Visionary Spider-Verse Swings for the Fences

You hear that sound? It’s me – kicking myself, at having missed seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theaters.

Released amidst the mayhem of the December holiday season, this phenomenally transcendent comic saga eluded me, though its reputation sure didn’t.

Comicbook fans have been raving about this film – deservedly so –  which went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, with a worldwide gross of nearly $375 million.

 

It’s a testament to those behind Spider-Verse that after no less than three different Peter Parkers since Sam Raimi’s 2002 film, that the Spider-Man character can seem as fresh – and as dazzlingly depicted as he does here. Inspired by the 2011 Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Comics run, young Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is a half-Latino, half-African American teenager growing up in Brooklyn – and in this universe, there already is a Spider-Man (voiced by Chris Pine). Miles feels like an outcast at his tony new boarding school, when he’d rather be naplaming graffiti art across derelict subway tunnels. He’s got his share of secrets, but so does the city. Nefarious criminal Kingpin has been fiddling around with a massive underground supercollider, and the fabric between alternate dimensional realities is starting to wear thin, and suddenly there are numerous different Spider-types to contend with, from anime-inspired futures to hard-boiled black and white noirs. A stellar voice cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Liev Schreiber, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage and Lily Tomlin make the characters pop and come alive.

 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is perhaps the greatest, most transporting and visionary comicbook movie since 2005’s Sin City. Written by Phil Lord (with Rodney Rothman) and directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, Spider-Verse is a psychedelic visual triumph – no hyperbole. It feels like reading a comic book feels. The animation style is completely unique – a revelation. With what feels like a mad hybrid of 3D, 2D and dot printing – both digital and traditional hand-drawn line panels – dialogue often punctuating in thought balloons – “Why is the voice in my head – SO LOUD?!” They’ve also tinkered with the frame rate, which gives the images a surreal tangibility that’s downright immersive. I was particularly impressed by how New York was rendered. It’s realistic in so many small details, yet vast and operatic in others – just like Brooklyn itself. Miles Morales is such a great character, you immediately root for him as he stumbles his way into his new identity. Like all the peck of Peter Parkers who’ve swung before, Miles has heart, and the ability to keep swingin’.

 

Into the Spider-Verse recently hit home video, but if it’s still in theaters anywhere near you, don’t be a schmuck like me. This is a visual feast of pure animation cinema that’s going to cast a really long shadow - no matter what your universe. Very highly recommended.

Us - The Mirror Crack’d

We have met the enemy and he is us. Jordan Peele is back, and he’s as intent as ever on peeling back the veneer of our social identities to reveal what’s lurking beneath the surface. Since Get Out, Peele has been hailed as the successor to Hitchcock – he’s even hosting and producing a reboot of The Twilight Zone for CBS All Access. And in a box office climate where thrillers are hotter than ever, the world is Peele’s twitchy little oyster.

Where Get Out nimbly used allegory to turn the mirror of racism in America on itself, Us continues to put African American characters front and center, with the mirror this time turned upon the characters themselves. The Wilson family is black – refreshingly, unremarkably black – just an American family on their annual beach vacation. Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o), Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two kids Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) live comfortably. Gabe wears a Howard University sweatshirt and drives a Range Rover. He’s the goofy, funny dad. Duke (so memorable as M'Baku in Black Panther) is wonderful in this role, an instantly relatable American Dad. Adelaide is apprehensive about returning to the Santa Cruz vacation house, where echoes of a trauma from her childhood still resonate. Lupita Nyong'o is remarkable here, pulling double-duty, as does most of the cast. Horror films are delivering increasingly high-caliber performances these days, and you can put Nyong'o’s work right up there with Toni Collette’s in Hereditary. Elisabeth Moss is intoxicating as a neighbor friend and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Black Manta in Aquaman) makes a real impression as young Adelaide’s father.

It’s giving nothing away to reveal that the Wilson’s getaway quickly escalates into home invasion territory – with invaders who are eerie doppelgängers of each of them, including the children. Us is more of a straight-up horror thriller than Get Out, but it’s no less thematically potent, with motifs of class and duality woven throughout the film. For there to be an Us, there has to be a Them. Peele is an avid horror cinephile who knows his tropes, peppering the film with call-backs and references, while staying wholly original in tone. An America where privileged classes live on top while the marginalized live in poverty below is clearly something that’s been weighing on Peele’s mind. His stories are about who we are, and I suspect Us will benefit greatly from repeat viewings.

Just as Jaws made it impossible to go on a trip to the beach without worrying about what’s beneath the water’s surface, Us will likely make it impossible to go on a family vacation without looking in the mirror and worrying about what’s beneath your surface. 

Captain Marvel doesn’t need your approval

You think our nation is divided politically? Spend some time in the fan community! The arguments (and firmly clenched opinions) that erupt can create fissures across fandom that boggle the mind, and often seem to fly in the face of reason or analysis - but they're not hurting for emotion or vitriol. Curiously, many of the superhero films that endure the most wrath and ire are the ones that position women or people of color in prominent roles. Take what happened with The Last Jedi. The mobilization of thin-skinned bot-wielding reviewers out to undermine pictures they feel threatened by has been sad and embarrassing to behold. It's the same tactic that used James Gunn's past against him, actually getting him fired from one of the most successful corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - a debacle that only this week saw the light of sanity, when Disney reversed course and reinstated Gunn (THANK YOU!), perhaps finally realizing they had been manipulated by arch-conservative and intolerant enemies that stand in direct opposition of the company's own values - but I digress. Suffice to say a small mountain of exponentially negative Captain Marvel user reviews began multiplying, to the degree that Rotten Tomatoes decided to suspend user reviews entirely. This is the world we live in - and Captain Marvel doesn't give a crap. If you try and get in her way, she's just going to shut you down.

Written and directed by the collaborative team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar), Captain Marvel is an unusual and highly entertaining chapter of the Marvel Universe. The film's one of the more non-linear origin stories within the MCU, with things kicking off in the middle of the action, as a cadre of interstellar combatants are waging war against a deep space enemy known as The Skrull. Newcomers would do well to revisit Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy for a refresher, as these soldiers are the Kree, warrior-heroes who've gotten maybe a bit too used to war for their own good.

Captain Marvel is full of potential spoilers, all of which I'm going to try to avoid here. Elite Starforce warrior Vers (Brie Larson) is a fighter still under the wing of her Commander (Jude Law), who frequently mansplains that her emotions are holding her back, keeping her from achieving her potential. Vers has echoes of a forgotten backstory she's not entirely sure are real. Are they memories, or something else? Audiences may be a little confused at first, but Boden and Fleck don't linger, and Vers soon finds herself marooned on a far-flung planet called Earth, that feels like it might be somehow familiar.

It's 1995, and the filmmakers have a blast peppering the film with hilarious mid-nineties tech and pop culture references, none better than the one used for Stan Lee's always reliable cameo, in a shout-out to one of the more positive inhabitants of fandom - and of Hollywood.

Marvel Studios, you sure got me with your reimagined opening theme, where every hero we're used to seeing in those familiar graphics has been lovingly replaced with Stan the Man. Hat doffed and tears wiped.

Vers quickly meets a young SHIELD agent name Nick Fury (a phenomenally CG'd Samuel L. Jackson), and the film takes off like a rocket thanks to the phenomenal charisma these two share. Jackson is just amazing, absolutely convincing as a looser, less-hardened version of the Fury we know so well. Who knew Nick Fury was such a cat lover?

Plot-wise, I'll stop there, but Vers has both the shape-shifting Skrulls to contend with, as well as the proximity of her own past. Annette Bening and Ben Mendelsohn are both superb, cleverly cast in their respective roles. It's giving nothing away to note that just as Black Panther served as prelude to Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel opens the door to next month's Avengers: Endgame. Suffice to say if you don't see Captain Marvel first, you're likely to feel hopelessly lost when Endgame unfurls. It's also important to point out that like DC's Wonder Woman, Vers/Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is a force to be reckoned with - and tough as hell. If she's been fighting with one hand tied behind her back, she positively soars when she breaks free. She's not here to smile for you, or make you happy. She's not looking for your approval or permission. I guess that just threatens the hell out of some people. But she is here to do what she can to put a stop to war, and to set things right, and if you've got a problem with that, you'd best get out of her way. 

Iron Maiden - Alita: Battle Angel

It’s been a long time coming, but without hesitation I'm thrilled to exclaim that I loved Alita: Battle Angel. James Cameron has been simmering his Alita screenplay for decades. Based on Yukito Kishiro’s 9-volume manga series (which debuted in 1990), it was followed by a 2-episode video animation series and became powerfully influential. After directing Titanic, Cameron was intent on directing Alita, but then Avatar took development pole position and eclipsed everything else.

So with Godfatherly generosity, Cameron asked Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror) to take a crack at bringing Alita to life, working off Cameron's script, co-written by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Terminator Genisys, Altered Carbon).

It's the apocalyptic 25th Century, and the denizens of industrialized Iron City toil in a society where cyborgs and robotic replacement limbs are ubiquitous. Above them hovers the mysterious utopia of Zalem, which everyone dreams of reaching, but few actually do. Cyberneticist Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz) hunts for spare parts in massive derelict junkyards, when he discovers the intact remnants of an impossibly advanced cyborg. He takes her back to his lab, and painstakingly crafts a body for her.

When "Alita" (Rosa Salazar) awakes, she has no memory of who she was, what she did, or where she came from. She's a wide-eyed newcomer who marvels at everything, yet her reflexes and instincts are intensely attuned, and seem to naturally gravitate towards violence. Shades of The Long Kiss Goodnight. 

Alita: Battle Angel has a strong late-eighties, early-nineties Paul Verhoeven vibe, like it could have come out right after Robocop or Total Recall - except the digital effects are (for the most part) state of the art. An insane amount of Alita is computer-generated, including Alita herself, who Cameron and Rodriguez chose to give unnaturally large manga eyes to. It's initially a little jarring, but the effects are so great, and you quickly accept it (Alita's hair isn't always quite as successfully animated).

As Alita learns more about the world she now inhabits, she quickly learns there are crime lords and cyborg henchmen everywhere, none more menacing than Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley), a delirious behemoth who reminded me of the Cain cyborg from Robocop 2. In fact Alita is full of visual touchstones to those 80s/90s sci-fi thrillers, with callbacks that evoke everything from Demolition Man to Star Trek: First Contact. Cinematographer Bill Pope (The Matrix, Baby Driver) gives the picture a subtle nostalgic hue that feels like a grindhouse B-picture, only stuffed with Baroque robotic effects of incredible detail. As the plot moves forward, the more Alita remembers. It's a fun cyberpunk mythos, peppered with "Hunter-Warriors," Panzer-Kunst martial arts and Berserkers.

Newly minted Oscar winner Mahershala Ali seems to be doing an evil Wesley Snipes impression, as the predatory mogul behind the sport of Motorball, a cyborg carnage bread and circuses that captivates everyone in Iron City. It's a wild, pulpy universe - much of which we've seen previously in countless other films, but Alita is the story that helped sire them all, plus the energy on display is fast and captivating. Rodriguez does a masterful job with the action. A scene that begins with an awkward Inspirational Speech quickly descends into an off the rails bar brawl with cyborg bounty hunters including Zapan (Ed Skrein) and an awesome dog-loving old fella (Jeff Fahey) I'd love to see a whole movie about.

Supporting characters fare less well. As Alita's love interest Hugo, Keean Johnson is from the buff Taylor Lautner school of acting, and comes off a little bland. Jennifer Connelly is icy cool, in an awkward role that never quite takes off. Big props to Salazar, as you're always waiting for Alita to come back and lock horns with Zapan and Grewishka. It's crazy and derivative, weak on dialogue, and let's be frank - is guilty of unabashed whitewashing - but Rodriguez knows how to find the fifth-gear in action sequences, and Alita herself is an appealing and ferociously fun character to root for. 

So if you're fond of that pre-digital heyday when kinetic mayhem ruled the movies, you definitely want to see Alita on the big screen. It's apocalyptic action and cyborg steel in a collision of crazy I suspect you'll really enjoy the hell out of.