Spider-man Homecoming Review

Spider-man Homecoming Review

Spider-man Homecoming was better than I could have hoped. When it was first announced that Disney and Sony were teaming up and rebooting spider-man I was a little frustrated that this was happening again and I thought that moving Black Panther to make way for spider-man was just a cash grab. I have never been happier to be wrong. The Movie mixed the school and hero aspects of Peter's life wonderfully. He was the awkward nerd that everyone loves and remembers. Tom Holland was excellent and brought the character to life. His rendition of Spider-man was a fresh take on a character that has been brought to the big screen on numerous occasions. He made me feel for Peter and his struggle to prove himself to others and stay true to his ideals. This movie also addressed important questions every spider-man fan has asked himself time and time again like how does spider-man get places if he has no buildings around to websling on? and what does spider-man do when there isn’t a world or city threatening enemy to fight? He runs the places he wants to go and gives little old lady’s directions to where they want to go.

             As a lifelong spider-man fan I was impressed by the cast and how they portrayed their characters. Jacob Batalon was loveably humorous and geeky as Ned Leeds. Tony Revolori portrayed the classic high school bully to the T and was fun to watch. Zendaya was quirky and strange yet endearing. Tom Holland blew it out of the water and convinced me time and time again that he is Peter Parker and Spider-man. Marvel has yet to miscast its heroes. Michael Keaton fixed the villain problem and brought a 3-dimensional character to the vulture.

             I did have a few problems with the film and almost all of them came from the completely forced love subplot between Peter and Liz Allen. I found Peter’s one-sided attraction to Liz endearing, but it made no sense that she would return his feelings. He constantly let her down and every interaction they had I could barely believe they were friends. They were closer to acquaintances that didn’t really talk that much and that Peter was really awkward around. She doesn’t know he is spider-man so throughout the movie she sees Peter being unreliable. At the beginning she doesn’t even think to invite him to her party until Ned says Peter knows spider-man. This was however a rather small blemish considering it didn’t take up that much of the runtime.

Overall this movie was a blast to watch and I enjoyed the ride from start to finish. This movie was worth the money I spent to see it and I will be seeing it many more times to come

The Incredibles 2 Review

Very minor spoilers ahead

I just saw the Incredibles 2 and loved it. It doesn’t cover as many mature themes as the initial movie, but it still brings the heart and Parr family that we know and love. Bob and Helen continue to be one of the most realistic animated couples and the family is still relatable despite all the new developments within the film. The characters are the reason for watching both this film and the original. The family still fights, but at the end of the day they care about each other and wouldn’t give it up for the world

The family is taken in a new direction from the original; Helen gets a job trying to legalize supers again, Bob is staying at home taking care of the kids, Violet goes through boy troubles, Dash doesn’t understand his homework, and Jack-Jack develops a whole slew of powers. Their problems are things everyday people struggle with and Violet, Dash, and Jack-jack’s problems helped move Bob’s storyline forward. He is now the hands-on parent who isn’t gone all day for work. He’s trying his best to be there for the kids and gets frustrated when he has trouble. He works to understand Dash’s homework so he can teach Dash, He tries to help Violet’s boy problems, and he brings Jack-Jack to Edna for help with all of his burgeoning powers. Unlike most cartoon fathers he is competent at being a stay at home parent. Helen’s new job is a fun part of the film that shows just how good she was at being a superhero before having to retire. The villain she has to face is interesting and brings up a different viewpoint on superheroes as a whole. The screenslaver believes that superheroes made the people complacent and neglect protecting themselves which leads to tragedy.

All in all this was a great addition to the Incredibles franchise and I’m glad we got it even if it is fourteen years later. This is the type of movie I would go to see in the theaters twice. I appreciate all the hard work Brad Bird, the animators, and voice actors put into this film and encourage everyone to go see it with their own eyes.

Walter Strickler-the Man of Two Masks

From the very beginning of the show Walter Strickler seems to be a man of two radically different faces, the kind understanding teacher and the ruthless power hungry changeling. But I think both are facades Strickler puts on to protects himself and try to carry out what has been expected of him from his creation. There are cornels of himself within each mask he puts on. The true Walter Strickler is someone in the middle. The façade doesn’t start slipping until late season 1 and seems to be abandoned almost entirely in season 3. Both facades play a key role in the central conflict of his character in the first season, his struggle between the troll and human sides of himself. The troll side, which is associated with his ruthlessness, lust for power, and self interest, comes into conflict with his growing humanity from his interactions with both Jim and Barbara. At the beginning of the season he has no problem with letting Bular snack on a human and actively fights for control with Bular. Once Bular is gone and Strickler is out for the changeling agenda we start to see cracks in his resolve to continue down his path. This is a mission he has trained for and taught that he needs to complete, but he starts to have doubts about the means he has to use to go about his mission. He is trying to do the best he can in the situation he is forced into and he is struggling to hold onto any semblance of control. His mission also changes from Bular and Gunmar’s vision of world domination to world domination with the changelings on top to creating a place where changelings don’t have to live in fear or slavery to wanting to do what he believes he needs to do. His mission gradually becomes more personal, it grows from working to carry out someone else’s plan to doing what he wants and what he wants becomes less selfish as time progresses.

Stickler’s actions and outlook can be traced back to the social workings of the troll world. In the second half of the first season it is shown that Strickler is doing the best he can in the circumstances he was forced into. He had to grapple with Bular for control and forgoes any outward signs of weakness around him because weakness would mean he outlive his usefulness. Changelings are considered disposable by gumm-gumm’s and trolls alike. They are raised to be pawns and there isn’t much community or comradery within the troll culture as a whole. The trollhunters of past insist on working alone, trolls turn their back on Draal right after he loses to Jim, Blinky and Argh are treated relatively poorly because they are different all of this was at the beginning of season 1. The lack of comradery and insistence on strength and power can lead to loneliness and overcompensation of the respected parts of life within certain individuals as well as working for one’s own self interest. Strickler was partially a victim of the toxic community and upbringing he was subject to. Because of the solitude an environment like that can create when he is shown genuine care by Jim and Barbara he can’t help but soften towards them and for probably the first time in his life start acting less in his own interest. He tries to cover this up to his superiors and when he is given the task of killing Jim by Bular and Gunmar he doesn’t. He instead alerts Jim that Bular is now actively trying to kill him and that Jim doesn’t have an upper hand with his knowledge all while keeping up his guise of the enemy to Jim. He goes for the amulet instead of Jim himself and gives himself less of an advantage through the reveals. If he truly wanted Jim dead he could have waited until Jim tried to make a move with the knowledge Bular gave him and surprised him. In the episode unbecoming he is the only one who believes Jim’s story and fights both Bular and Gunmar to give Jim a chance to get away and change their fate. When Bular is killed he is forced into another tough situation with the Janus order. He tries to convince himself that this is still what he wants, but his goal has already started to slowly shift. It goes from obtaining world domination for the changelings to making it so changelings can hide in plain sight among humans. His goal for changeling domination stemmed from changelings being put upon by troll kind and being disposable pawns. If the changelings controlled the world they wouldn’t have to live under the thumb of other species and be considered less and fear for their lives.  Eventually world domination became more of a background goal that the Janus order wanted to accomplish, but he didn’t. The later in the season it got the less he talked about wanting power. It only came up when he was around members of the Janus order and he questioned the means he had to take to achieve the goals the longer he stayed with Barbara. Once he was abandoned by the Janus order he turned to Jim for help and Jim ended up helping him. Because of Jim’s inherent kindness Strickler’s first real acts of selflessness come about. He willingly breaks the binding spell even with how much pain it puts him through without complaining, helps Jim cut Angor Rot’s eye, gives Jim the last triumbric stone, and chooses to leave Barbara because, although she doesn’t remember, it was her last wish. His humanity finally won over his troll side. The masks are gone and the Walter Strickler that has been struggling to break free has finally surfaced.

This. I understand that people want a redemption arc, but they can't erase what Lotor has done. Erasing what he has done takes away from the complexity of the character. I want a redemption arc as well. A redemption arc isn’t about being innocent all along. It’s about someone learning from their mistake, acknowledging they were wrong, and moving in the right direction. I'm also fine with Lotor ending up a villain because he seems like someone who took his goal too far and those characters make some of the most complex villains. He was also a character bound for tragedy in one way or another. Many people, including myself, feel like they didn't take enough time to explore those complexities that could make him either a hero or a villain before making him into a zarkon 2.0 and that was disappointing. I liked the idea behind what the voltron writing team was going for, but found the execution somewhat lacking.

I'm certain they aren't done with Lotor because of all the plot points and reveals surrounding his character and past in seasons 5 and 6. Hagar had just found a cure for quintessence poisoning right before Lotor himself fell victim to it. It wouldn't make sense to completely discard of him after all the set up they created. I hope they explore more of the complexity of his past and character in the future.

My problem with the whole #justiceforlotor tag going around on tumblr and twitter is that I wish it focused more on his wasted potential as a character rather than advocating for his innocence. I agree that he is a victim of his parents and his terrible upbringing, but his crimes are still pretty heinous, so he’s far from innocent at this point. If anything I just wish the wording on the photo was less “Lotor is innocent give him a redemption arc!” and more “Lotor is a very nuanced, morally ambigous character who deserves more screen time to show that, and shouldn’t have been turned into Zarkon 2.0 for shock value.”

Kuvira - Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Kuvira’s story is that of a descent into villainy through the corruption of power. Her original intentions are noble. She plans on reuniting the Earth Kingdom and create a kingdom where the people under her rule will not have to be afraid or alone. The Kingdom wasn’t united even before the earth queen fell and it didn’t have a strong central government to rule for the people. This is why her regime was important. It united the people under one government and delivered on it’s promises to the regions that joined her, but the more she brought the kingdom together the less she wanted to step aside for Prince Wu. Prince Wu is someone who has never struggled a day in his life, doesn’t understand the needs of the people, and has everyone do the work for him. He is unqualified in every way for his job. Kuvira has seen the struggle the people of the earth kingdom have undergone and does, at least initially, truly want to create a better environment for them. The previous government didn’t work and there needed to be a new form of power for anything to change. Like Zaheer said “new growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old.” The more Kuvira saw of the kingdom and its circumstances the more she realized the old form of government needed to be done away with. She came to the conclusion that to do that she couldn’t give up her power.

The main turning point in her intentions turning from noble to twisted was with Varrick’s invention of the spirit bomb. Her intentions up until then still had the people in the kingdom’s best interest at heart and she hadn’t up until this point resorted to violence to get a region to sign over power.  Once this weapon of mass destruction was discovered no one could oppose her military might and the power of the weapon started to go to her head.  She displayed her military might to zaofu as a means of intimidation and later forces the people within the city to accept her as their leader. This descent goes even further to her assault of republic city. There is a slow progression throughout the season. The more her power grows the more radical her thinking becomes. When she is faced with eliminating her enemies as well as Bataar Jr she thinks on it for only a moment before making her decision. If this was at the start of the season I have no doubt Kuvira would not have sacrificed Bataar for her cause. This perfectly illustrated how she feels. Her goal has become bigger than any one person. It is the ultimate dissolution of her initial goal. The people were her main reason for taking the position and she let the power she amassed warp that goal until it didn’t even take the people into consideration. It is only though Korra saving her that she realizes the steep decline into the abyss she had taken. Korra saving her signified what she initially stood for, the people. No one goal should be above the lives of the people and she had lost sight of that through her crusade. Once she realized that she stepped down and let herself be taken away for judgement.  

Lotor (season 5)

Season 5 really focused on developing Lotor as a person. At first I thought his character was inconsistent from what we had seen in previous seasons, but the more we saw of him the more I realized that this was the real Lotor. Lotor in the previous seasons felt meticulous and cold and this season established why he always acted like that. He was always told he was less for being part altean and he was raised to believe in victory or death. It was survival of the fittest within the Galran empire and he was at a disadvantage because of his altean heritage and that he was outcast by his own father for his empathy which lead the rest of the Galra to treat him as lower and unworthy. They probably didn’t even try to hide their distaste, so Lotor had to put up a wall to hide his empathy and curiosity from his people. He still continued to “rebel” against his father by allowing the planets he “conquered” to rule themselves and find more peaceful ways to show his strength than his father and people. He is more inherently peaceful and introspective than his father, but due to continuously being taught victory or death he couldn’t throw the teachings away completely which was shown in both his battle with the white lion and Zarkon. No matter how stacked the odds were against him in his battle with Zarkon he kept fighting and finding ways to make the playing field more level. This was, in my opinion, due to his inability to give up because of those teachings as well as his desire to stop his father. I think Lotor truly did want to stop his father, but he didn’t want to kill him to do it. This is why he didn’t look proud or victorious when he felled his father. He was starting to see the cracks in the teachings of the galra. 

His relationship with Allura was one of the most interesting and entertaining parts of the season. I believe that he initially was just fascinated with her power, but has come to genuinely enjoy being around her. I think this relationship will end up being a key player in Lotor’s development and future. I believe Lotor isn’t inherently evil and does truly want what is right, but he is somewhat similar to Zuko in that he doesn’t know exactly what path to take yet. His relationship with Allura could help him make the right decision when the time comes. 

I was worried throughout the season that Lotor would betray Allura and the palladins, but the further along the season went the less sense it seemed to make that he would. I couldn’t find anything he could gain by betraying voltron. I do think he initially planned to betray the palladins, but the longer he stayed with them and got to know Allura the less he wanted to. At the end of the season when he fails the test and Allura passes and gains the knowledge we are shown that he has changed as the season progressed. At the start of the season he wouldn’t have tried to act happy for Allura especially after failing to achieve what he had worked tirelessly for, but he seems to be slowly realizing that his thought process of “victory or death” is flawed and closes him off to other possibilities. This season has managed to convince me they are going through with Lotor’s redemption. I’m still uneasy about him, but I also don’t believe he is evil just mislead in is thinking. 

I think Lotor does believe quintessence can bring peace to the galaxy and it is meant to mirror Honerva’s path. While Honerva slowly becomes corrupted by the quintessence the same may too happen to Lotor, but I believe that his path will end up diverging from his mother’s in that he will learn from her mistakes and if he doesn’t directly learn from them I think Allura can help him see a different path from descent into corruption. This could be an interesting path to see come about.