Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 7 and 8

I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics.  However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series.  Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me.  I will be spoiling episodes as I go along, naturally, so consider yourself warned.

Episode 7 - The Aftermath
Episode 8 - When Extremes Meet

So I didn't expect how hard this would be.  See, I'm really enjoying the show, but I don't want to publish one of these three times a day, so I'm forced to throttle my consumption of the episodes.  I'm a binger by nature, but doing it this way forces me to be considerate about the show.  I could write something about episodic television, and probably will, but that's not for here.  Onward!

One thing about this show that I really like is how much happens while still maintaining world building.  While some of the plot points are a little heavy handed and juvenile, I feel like the show really changes every episode.  Relationships rise and fall over a single episode.  Burned bridges stay burned, the status quo is constantly changing.  I think that's why I liked the first wave of Marvel movies better than the second and it's definitely something I loved about earlier season of Arrow.  I hope this show can maintain that momentum, because it can't be easy to constantly be flipping things.

Case in point, in the first episode of this week, we learn it was Asami's father that was the Equalist, because, yet again, a Fire Bender crook murdered his wife (that's 3 incidents involving 4 major characters of Fire Bender murder).  Asami's response to this is great, and we finally see her true character.  She sucker punches his dad, says something to the effect of "Sorry Dad, I'm not down with murder" and takes him down along with Lance Henricksen in like 3 seconds.  I knew she was too cool to be the traitor.  And with that, we've established a lot about her in just a few episodes..  We knew that she was smart and rich.  Now we know she's got backbone and a code.  It was her mother that got murdered by a Bender, but she's still going to be a good person.

And despite being just 7 episodes in, we're already seeing a major shift in power dynamics.  Asami is no longer super rich.  Now Korra is the one helping out and Asami is the one who is jealous.  Though let's be real, Korra was petulant and snide when Asami was being nice.  Asami is a pretty gracious guest despite being completely out of her element.  She even manages to pull off the "I'll just pack a few things" and ends up with a mound of suitcases gag while still being less entitled than Korra.

Lin continues to be my favorite.  She resigns from the police force, officially because she got a bunch of officers captured and Asami's father get away.  But she then vows to seek her own justice "Outside the law".   Just the best.  But with her out of the way, Councilman Tarrlok steps up and puts somebody in charge of the police that seems to be basically his lacky.  Korra tries to call him out on it, but turns it all into being about her. She's the Avatar, so she's a big deal.  Tarrlok rightfully puts her in her place, pointing out that she's just the Avatar in training.  So naturally Korra throws a fit because, gosh darn it, air bending is hard.  Oh no, Korra might actually have to do something difficult once in her life.

I will say this about Korra, while she is a rage monster who as far as I can remember has only made one good decision on the entire show, her bad decisions are often pretty awesome.  I always knew that wizards in the 1930s has untapped potential, but watching a chase between motorcycle riding ninjas and a 1930s style roadster with element slinging people in the back was just about the coolest thing I've seen all week.  There's awesome use of powers, but it's still Asami, the non-bender, who cleans up.  And this wasn't even the best fight of the episode, which comes when Korra just attacks Tarrlok in the capitol building.  Because Korra never met a problem that couldn't be solved through intimidation and punching.  Again, Tarrlok calls her out on this and he's not wrong.  But he's also not a misguided councilman trying to gain power, he is evil.  And a Bloodbender, which goes really poorly for Korra.  Seriously, of all the things on Avatar, Bloodbending is the most horrifying.  She literally becomes a puppet.  Korra has some sort of vision (I think it was a courtroom with an old Aang in it and people being upset) and is put in the back of a truck and sent somewhere.

While I give Korra a lot of crap for being young, impulsive, and really egotistical, I want to make it clear that this isn't a criticism of the show.  She acts in a relatable and consistent way and the show is constantly showing us how she's mishandling the situation.

On top of that, the whole non-Bender curfew/indefinite detention plotline (man a lot happens in an episode in this show) really surprises me.  Legend of Korra hits on political topics strongly for a kids show, and frankly, I think it's handling the whole freedom versus security debate better than Winter Soldier did.   And now to force myself to wait for the next two.

Stray Observations:

1. Apparently Metal Bending doesn't work on pure platinum.  So there is a non-bendable substance.
2. Look, I like Pabu, but stop calling him a Fire Ferret.  He is a Red Panda.  Not just in look, but there was literally a short description of his species and I swear they were just reading the wikipedia entry on Red Pandas.  
3.  "You're pretty, can I have some of your hair?"  I'm calling it now, Tenzin's 5-year old (ish?) son is a serial killer.
4. Although Asami's hair is amazing, I have to admit.  It's always perfect, even during a car chase in a convertable.  Is she a Hair Bender?
5. Korra calls people "knuckleheads."  So she does have some redeeming qualities.
6. This is a show that appreciates a well timed fart joke and I respect that.

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 5 and 6

I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics.  However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series.  Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me.  I will be spoiling episodes as I go along, naturally, so consider yourself warned.

Episode 5 - The Spirit of Competition
Episode 6 - And the Winner is...

I feel like last week I got way too recappy.  If you want to know what happened in the episode, watch the episode!  The show is really great and this week cemented that for me.  I'm also seeing that this episodes pair off really well.  The first two were both needed to set up the show, the second set of two were basically a two parter, and these two are a complete story as well.  I wonder if the show is written in hour chunks and then split up a bit for broadcast.

I like Pro-Bending now, because I get it. It really is a sport, not a martial art.  Seeing a bunch of matches with penalties called got me behind it. I realize my complaints before were akin to saying "Why doesn't the first baseman just hold the runner down until the ball is caught."  I don't get how the scoring works yet, but I do like that there is blatant corruption in the sport.  I was surprised that our heroes lose because the referees just straight up refuse to be fair.  For a kids show, that's not exactly the kind of life lesson I expected. It makes it feel real, but it's also a perfect metaphor for how Benders behave in society, a metaphor that is not missed when Amon shows up and ruins everyone's day. I'll cut the show a lot of slack for how much things that would work as subtext are just plainly spoken, seeing as the target audience is probably 12-year-olds.  

The love quadrilateral heats up.  I just feel sorry for everyone involved, it's not going to end well.  I feel bad for Bolin, because the whole time he's out with Korra, he's too oblivious to see that she's just hanging out, not going out, with him.  I feel bad for Mako, because he seems legit torn between Korra and Asami, which isn't a nice place to be.  I mean, he's kind of a jerk, but while he has some feelings for Korra, he's being really clear that he's made a choice and he is not stringing her along (though I worry that will change).  I feel really bad for Asami, because she has no idea any of this is going on and is inevitably going to be heartbroken (unless she's a spy playing them all).  I feel the least bad for Korra, because Mako was pretty upfront with her and she totally was trying to manipulate him by going out with Bolin. Come on Korra, I'm trying so hard to like you and you're just not giving me anything.  Though being bad at romance is a lot more relatable than being a spoiled Chosen One.   It's just a nasty nest of teenage hormones and drama.   The highlight for me was when the rival pro-bending team interrupts Bolin and Korra's non-date and Korra doesn't rise to the bait.  Like she totally doesn't explode, I really thought she was going to beat that guy up and instead she just lets her riding Polar Bear Dog growl at him.  Is this character growth already?   Well done, Korra, there's hope for you yet.  Also, while it's played as kind of "Look at this buffon, he's all bluster," the fact that the rival team backs down when confronted with an angry Polar Bear Dog seems pretty much the senisble reaction.  The thing is as big as a car!

We also got more political maneuvering and more Lin, who is rapidly becoming my favorite character.  She's just a straight up, no nonsense badass with a job to do.   Also, I am further confused by Tenzin's age, because Linn (his ex) seems to be about the age I originally thought Tenzin was (late 40ish, probably 50s) while his wife, Pema, looks much younger.  Maybe Lin dyes her hair white, I don't know.  Anyway, while the council, which seems to consist of Tenzin, the ever sensible, Tarrlok, the powerhungry northern Water guy, and the three other dudes who do whatever Tarrlok tells them to do, are all talking about how best to negotiate with terrorists, Lin steps up and says "we don't negotiate with terrorists"  Then Tarrlok maneuvers her into saying "I will personally guaranty everyone's safety at the stadium."   I smell a rat.

Now, look, I have a lot of sympathy for the Equalist cause.  Non-benders don't have political representation, they seem to get murdered by benders a lot, and the statement that every war has been about bending seems to have a lot of truth to it.   But all that said, Amon is straight up a bad guy.  He shows up at the end of the championship game, lobotomizes the winning team, blows up the field and leaves like half of his men to die.  He's cold.

And you know what, Korra really steps up.  I mean, she gets her ass handed to her, but she doesn't even hesitate to jump into the frey and go after Amon in a pretty great kung fu battle.  I mean, it's everything I want in an Avatar fight plus zeppelins.  If you've met me, then you probably know that zeppelins are my favorite thing ever.   And this is kung fu with people swinging from zeppelins.  Not only that, but I'm fairly certain she straight up killed some henchmen.  I won't call it murder because they a did just blow up a stadium, but for a kid's show, they really aren't pulling their punches.
Alas, the combined might of Korra just doing something instead of whining and Lin swinging around kicking ass doesn't win the day.  They end up beaten, with a ton of police zeppelins destroyed. Like 10 zeppelins, and those things can't be cheap. Things are not looking good.

Favorite quote, from a member of the reigning Pro-Bending Champions:
"If you'd like to learn how a real pro bends, I'll give you private lessons."  Dude, are you hitting on the Avatar or trying to taunt her?

Stray observations:

1. "She couldn't be with her true love.  So she rode a dragon into battle, burned down the whole country, and then jumped into a volcano.  Sooo romantic" This may be an American show, but they really have a handle of how Asian fairy tales work.  
2. Amon has a ton of people working with him. Like seriously, there must have been literally hundreds of agents for his plan to work
3. Not enough Asami in these episodes, she's just there to make Korra angry and I wish she had more to do than that
4. Lin is what would happen if Batman Beyond's Barbara Gordon got bitten by a radioactive spider... somebody call Bruce Timm RIGHT NOW, this has to happen
5. Also, anybody going to tell me how Lin got those scars?
6. Pabu, the Fire Ferret, is a badass who saves everyone else through the power of chewing

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 3 and 4

I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics.  However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series.  Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me.  I will be spoiling episodes as I go along, naturally, so consider yourself warned.

Episode 3 - The Revelation
Episode 4 - The Voice in the Night

While the first two episodes were solid, these too really pulled me in.  And while I'll admit to having misjudged Tenzin in my last review, I am further in my conviction that Korra has some serious entitlement issues.  However, I am also convinced that the show wants me to feel this way.  The show opens with Korra complaining about having to get up for practice with the pro-Bending team (called the Fire Ferrets, after the team mascot Pabu, who is a Fire Ferret, which is Avatarland for Red Panda).  It's just like Korra, she bullies her way onto the team and then complains about practice.

Anyway, the rest of the team are brothers Mako (the dreamboat) and Bolin (the idiot).  The three of them need to come up with 30,000 money units (I forgot the currency) to enter the championship tournament, which leads to my favorite exchange of these two episodes:

Bolin: Do you have a secret Avatar bank account?

Korra: I got nothing. I've never really needed money, I've always had people taking care of me

Mako: Then I wouldn't say you have nothing

Aww snap!  Mako and Bolin's parents were murdered in front of them by a Fire Bending mugger when they were children and they've spent the time since then scrapping together enough money to do things like get enough dirt to eat or buy diptheria medicine.  Korra is at least self aware enough not to argue back that sometimes she had to have chocolate sauce on her ice cream when she wanted hot fudge.

To make the money, Bolin takes a job from Shady Shin, which is totally not sketchy.  Bolin and Pabu go off and work some "security," and mobsters in this world seem really chill with their hired muscle bringing pets with them.  I'm trying not to get too recappy in these, instead I want them to be mostly reactions, but that's hard to do.  Anyway, things go bad and they get kidnapped by steampunk motorcycle riding ninjas who look like they're from the Court of Owls.

What follows is an awesome fight, the kind of fight I wanted Pro-Bending to be. Mako and Korra show up on the Polar Dog and fight the ninjas.  It seems weird to me, but totally in character, that Korra, despite being a Water Bender by birth/upbringing, immediately goes to Fire Bending as a default reaction.  She's a bit of a hot head and boy does she channel that.

Anyway, the Ninjas wipe the floor with them, despite not being Benders, and hit them with some pressure point stuff that temporarily blocks their ability to Bend.  This is my jam guys.  Like straight up, chi blocking kung fu.

I have to say, I really like the Equalist plotline, because these guys are not wrong.  They're non-Benders who talk about how they're second class citizens and they want equality.   There also seems to be a completely legitimate wing that's just a political movement.  The fact that Amon (voiced by Steve Blum, of Cowboy Bebop fame) and his two chief lieutenants (voiced by Lance Henriksen, of Aliens, and Clancy Brown, of everything really) are basically the terrorist wing of this movement doesn't negate the legitmate grevances aired against Benders.  Also Amon's family was killed by a Fire Bender who also burned Amon's face off.  Turns out, Amon has developed a technique where he basically lobotimizes you with his chi and you're not a Bender anymore.  This stuff gets dark.

The next episode picks up right after this and things just get worse.  We finally meet the city council, which has five members, who I initially thought were one of each Bender and a non-Bender, but turns out that since Water Benders live at the poles, they get two votes.  Equalists are not wrong, guys, non-Benders do not count.   Anyway, there's some political manuevering and because Korra is basically Marty McFly, she can't back down when somebody said she's scared of Amon.  Despite her being obviously terrified of Amon.  So she ends up on a task force to capture Amon.  And it's awesome.  These swat guys have great body armor, the police chief Linn is the baddest of the bad, and they do a really great bending sequence.  Korra calls out Amon publically for a duel, but of course Amon shows up with like 50 of his ninjas, because he's the bad guy.  Come on Korra, you should have seen this coming.  There's the usual "I don't want to kill you/take your Bending" bad guy stuff while Korra is helpless, and the ninjas all vanish.  Tenzin shows up and is actually a really great dad.  I mean, I know he's not her dad, but man, I like Tenzin now.  Korra has a total breakdown, which is fair.

But all of this pales to Mako's adventure.  Because Mako really is just, like, the MAN.  The only way he'd be any better is if he were voiced by Nathan Fillion.  He has the best day.  He gets hit by a moped driven by an incredibly hot woman who feels bad, so she takes him on the perfect date.  First, go to a tailor to get a new, custom suit, then a fancy restaurant, then a personal tour of her fathers state of the art automobile factory.  I thought Mako was the best, but Asami steals the title.  She knows how to treat a hot guy she accidentally ran over with her moped.  And Asami handles Korra really well, trying very hard to be nice and friendly when Korra is obviously super jealous. Also, her father, a wealthy industrialist, agrees to sponsor the team into the championships.  I mean, is Mako the just the luckiest guy who witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child or what?   Seriously, though, it smells of a setup to me and I worry that Asami is going to turn out to be an Equalist spy.

Stray Observations -

1. I love the 1930s serial bit they use for recaps.
2. Mako gets a job generating electricity at a power plant, so Lightning Bending turns out to be a subset of Fire Bending.  
3. Korra bends steam, and since she's still not able to Air Bend, steam must be part of Water.
4. Shady Shin.  I love that name.
5. Korra has some serious PTSD, but Bolin, who was literally on a stage about to be used as an example of Amon's lobotomy technique, seems pretty ok?
6. Trying to decide if Bolin or Korra are worse at having a crush on a person. Whatever, I really have no ground to criticize here. 
7. Shady Shin gets a second call out.
8. I didn't talk too much about the council here, but I can tell I'm going to like these parts
9. Also, the mystery pregnant lady is definitely Tenzin's wife, not daughter.  I think Tenzin is younger than I thought.

Reader Response!

By request, I've been asked to put up a question or a puzzle in each entry and I love that idea.  This week: make a case for which kind of Bender can bend Paper.  Or is Paper like anti-bending armor?  Tell me what you think!

The Legend of Korra With Jacob! Episode 1 and 2

So to finally actually get this blog off the ground, I’ve decided to do a running review of a tv show.  I came to that idea awhile ago, but reviews of other shows I watch regularly never really seemed to work for me.  Probably because new shows are on their schedule, but older shows on streaming services are on mine.  So we’re doing Legend of Korra, two episodes at a time. Am I putting way too much thought into a kids show?  Yes, certainly.  I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics.  However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series.  Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me.  

Episode 1 - Welcome to Republic City 

Episode 2 - Leaf in the Wind

First of all, Korra writers, “Leaf in the wind”?  Really?  Too soon people.  Too soon.  

I feel I need to be upfront and open with a bombshell.  I don’t like Korra very much.  I’m definitely intrigued by the show, but the character Korra is entitled and unlikeable.  She seems to throw tantrums a lot and literally told the police they can’t arrest her because “do you know who I am?” And when she gets frustrated and destroys the training panel thing in the Air Temple, I just thought to myself how much of an entitled, uncaring brat she is.  

Now, I get it, a lot of this is because of how she’s been brought up.  Raising the Avatar in a secluded compound where the masters of the various Benders come to her seems like a really bad way to do it.  First off, you run into the problem that you hit right away with Tenzin, that the masters are busy people and need to do things that master Benders do.  Secondly, you’re really robbing the Avatar of an opportunity for growth and education.  This doesn’t seem like the world of Aang, where there was a genocide to try to kill him.  Korra is safe in this world, the Avatar is a celebrity, not the target of assassination (although I’m sure that will change with the Equalist plotline).  She should have visited all the great cities, every nation, been in every grand library and travel to study with the masters.  And instead she’s been basically cooped up and forced to process all this information without any application of it.  

One of the things I remember liking so much about the Avatar  was how your bending influenced how you thought and approached problems.  And while they still have that here, it seems that exposing to Korra to all of these different environments would go a long way towards providing her with the tools to process these different points of view and philosophies.  

I do appreciate that Korra is older in this show. I mean, she’s probably 16-18, almost certainly under 20, but she’s not Aang’s 10 or 11.  It means she’s an adult(ish) and so at least that makes her deciding to participate in pro-Bending a choice made by an adult and not just a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.  I could look past those part if she wasn’t constantly destroying this in fits of petulance.  Also, it means that when the show invariably turns to romance, it won’t be as uncomfortable as some of the stuff in the first series was.   So that’s cool.  So is the Polar Bear Dog, but Avatar always had cool animals (if I see a wolf-spider though, I’m out).  

Tenzin, meanwhile, doesn’t seem like an Air Bender.  He seems way too stubborn and stuck up.  But at the end of the first episode, it clicked for me.  At some point, he was talking about how he needed to see his father’s dream through for Republic City, and I realized how screwed up he must be.  I mean, think of the pressures on him.  He is the son of the Avatar, which means it probably didn’t take much for him to always feel a huge burden and overshadowed.  Also, since Aang technically really isn’t an Air Bender anymore, Tenzin is the last Air Bender as well, and the responsibility of repopulating the Air Nation is on him.  I’m also confused if the pregnant lady is his wife or his daughter, she seems really young.  I really thought she was Tenzin’s daughter and the three children were Tenzin’s grandchildren until one of them called him dad. 

This brings me to my next question, which is how does this bending work, genetically.  Katara’s older brother in the first show was not a Bender, but she was, so it’s obviously not guaranteed that all siblings will be Benders.  I don’t know if Katara’s parents were Benders.  But Katara and Aang had at least one Bender child (they mentioned he has a sister, I think, so they have more children) who was an Air Bender who appears to have three children, all of whom are also Air Benders.  I haven’t seen any other Air Benders, so that could be it?   But then we meet the two brothers on the pro-bending team, Mako and other guy, who are brothers but one is a Fire Bender and the other is an Earth Bender.  Are their parents one of each?  Please, animated children show, I want more genetics.  Presented in Punnett squares, if possible.

That brings me to Pro-Bending.  I love so much about the idea, but the execution falls flat.  The idea behind it is great.  Of course you’d have a sport based around bending.  The fact that they dress up like American Gladiators only makes it cooler.  But it’s ends up just being dodgeball.  They stand and throw balls of their element at each other until somebody falls over.  This could be so cool.  Giant tentacles of water rising out of the water trying to grab them, the ground rippling as the Earth Benders send waves down the playing field, a giant tiger made of fire pouncing on opponents, that sort of thing.  Instead they just toss balls at each other.  Hopefully it picks up.  At least it’s not a sport centered around a single character who just has to do one thing to win the whole game.  

Some stray observations - 

1. Katara and Korra’s parents send her off with their blessing, but don’t think to give her money or supplies?  I mean, Korra looked like she didn’t even know what money was
2. The Metal Bending cops are basically the dudes from Attack on Titan
3. The love triangle setup is so obvious, but it’s a kids show, so I’ll let it slide.
4. Seriously though, why does everybody, including the radio announcer, fan over the one guy (I forgot his name), when Mako is obviously cooler, better, and more aloof, thereby making him the obvious favorite?
5. If I were Korra, I’d just make an Earth boat and then Water Bend a wave to surf around at like 60 miles per hour, but I guess she just likes swimming?
6. Metal Benders, are they a new thing, or are they just a subset of Earth Benders like Blood Benders are a subset of Water Benders?  
7. Do Air Benders only bend air, or any gas?  Can Water Benders bend vegetable oil?  Water Benders can make ice, can they make steam?  If they do, can Air Benders take control of it?  Could an Air Bender just do the Haber Process at will, thereby solving all food problems for the various nations?  How about making liquid hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel? 
8. Are there other Benders?  Like Plant Benders?  Light Benders?  Cat Benders?  

Why the reviews for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are so bad

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice is a movie that exists in a weird place between nerd culture and popular culture.  It is a reaction to the modern absorption of nerd culture, and it is in this weird in between space that the movie succeeds the most, but that's also why the movie has been critically such a failure (currently a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Nerd culture's, and especially comic books', rise to prominence over the last few decades has been pretty clear.  From the biggest box office hits being Superhero movies (and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter) to television being jam packed with Superhero shows to Netflix and Pay per View making huge series based on superheroes (or Game of Thrones), everything right now is filled with comic book characters.  Even more so, the big success stories here aren't the big names in comics, but more obscure ones.  Once Marvel decided to take matters into their own hands, the heroes they picked were not huge, pop culture icons (excepting Captain America, though we'll get to him in a bit).  It may be hard to believe now that Marvel immediately makes everyone think of Robert Downey Jr., but Iron-man, Thor, Black Widow, and the rest of the movie Avengers were not big names in Marvel.   They were for comic book readers, but not for the general populace.
Pop culture latched on to a few characters.  Ignoring Batman and Superman for a minute, the next biggest is probably Spiderman.  His story really resonated when he first was introduced.  But, just like Batman and Superman, there's a big divide between his nerd and pop personas.  Since his 1962 debut, Spiderman has spent the majority of his time as an adult married to Mary Jane Watson, who is fully aware of his alternate identity.  Yet in pop culture, he is an eternal student, trying to juggle his superheroics with his love life.
Other superheroes have made the crossover without much change.  Wonder Woman and the X-Men are all part of American culture in a major way.  The X-men are relatively the same, seeing as they were reinvented in the 80s by Claremont, which is the version everybody knows, and they didn't have much time before the Fox movies started adapting them.  Singer's X-Men stick pretty close to their source, so there isn't a lot of divide there.   Wonder Woman had the Lynda Carter tv show, but for the most part, I think beyond the fact that everybody knows she's a comic book character, her pop culture persona is feminist icon.  
The big two of comics are Batman and Superman, since the late 30s.  So much about them has entered the public consciousness in a way that few other Superheroes have.  Their design, both as a character and as a illustration, have become so iconic and basic that they color everything about the genre.  Even within comics, superheroes are often referred to as "capes" when there are very few superheroes with a cap that do not have "Bat" or "Super" prefixes in front of their names.  I'd be hard pressed to name a superhero created in the last 50 years who wears one.  But the Platonic ideal of a superhero definitely does.
The divide between Batman's personas is deep and outlined far better than I ever could in Glen Wheldon's excellent book, the Caped Crusade.  The "true" Batman is a source of much contention, and even such basic rules as "he doesn't kill" seem to be up for debate with very serious fans.  Is there more to the character than the name?  That's probably a question for another post, but I sometimes wonder how people can reconcile such different takes on the character.
But where Batman's different personas are well known, to the point where I think most people are aware of it, Superman is just as split, but less publicized.   So many people "don't like the character" for all kinds of reasons that break down under examination.  He's no more powerful than any other comic book character, given the number of times everybody dies and returns.   He's not infallible, a characteristic that gets attributed to him often, yet of the Justice League, I think his only rival for number of times screwing up is the Flash.  And he really isn't a jingoistic, American governmental stooge (at least excepting Frank Miller, but why I really dislike Dark Knight Returns is another post).  In fact, Superman and Captain America share many of the same misconceptions and character traits. And Marvel did a great job turning Cap's reputation away from propaganda and into one of the more popular heroes in pop culture right now.  Chris Evan's certainly helped.  DC obviously was aware of the issue, but was so ham-handed in handling the issue that it blew up in their faces.  They wanted Superman to be so divorced from the "government stooge" role that they turned him into the Punisher, destroying everything between him and the bad guy.
Superman really can't go gritty, because that's so contrary to the character.  That's not to say he can't explore dark themes or true horrors, but he can't be the character of a grimdark 90s comic with Deathblade, War Child, Bloodgasm or whoever (note, I don't know if those are all real characters from the 90s, but it wouldn't surprise me).  Just like his profession, Superman needs to be a character that brings light to evil.  It's why Luthor is such an effective foil to him, a man who's power comes not from inner strength, but social connections and manipulations.  Superman stands up for the little guy against the corporations, organizations, or other networks that promote oppression.  But the movies miss this because the modern superhero formula is a broken hero who is plagued with self-doubt and remorse.
And that's where we come to BvS.  A movie with two title characters, one that nobody can agree on what he represents and another that represents something the producers thinks is boring and doesn't exist anymore.  This movie is brought into a world flush with Marvel movies.  Marvel movies are made to formula, true, but it's the Marvel formula.  The stories are so similar on a point by point level because it is the universe that all of these characters are designed to exist in.  The Marvel universe isn't gritty, its just full of coincidence and angst.  On top of that, the movies do a great job of capturing things about the characters and presenting them.  Cap is a dreamer plagued by realism, Thor is hotheaded, Ironman is the world's smartest idiot. Not only do we have a baseline for quality (I'd say they consistently sit in the B range, some even hitting A-), but we also have characters that, due to their relative obscurity, aren't fighting their own public image and aren't something we've seen a lot before (I'm curious about Spiderman in the new movie, as he does go against this).
Let's compare before pictures of Antman and BvS.  Antman also has a troubled history with comics fan, being most famous for abusing his wife, but also for being a persona that a lot of people have used.  Before that movie came out, the general opinions being voiced were:
1. Antman, the character, sucks
2. How can the handle him faithfully when he's a wife beater
3. Nobody cares about any of the other Antmen
Marvel handled all of these really well. First, they acknowledged that he sucks and made his ineptitude a source of humor and growth in the movie.  Next, they just sidestepped the wife beating issue.  Finally, they made you care about the other Antman by writing a script that made you care about him. Notice that the last two are both solved by going more obscure, taking a character with even less of a reputation in the popular consciousness.
Meanwhile, BvS was dealing with all sorts of complaints brought about by using popular characters.  First off, the instant you cast Batman, everybody hates your decision.  That's just how it works, so the movie was fighting that group from the beginning.  Secondly, as discussed, everybody has a different opinion about Batman and Superman, with a wide range of how informed they are, and yet are very protective of this opinion.  Third, Zach Snyder makes a particular kind of movie and many people don't think he's best suited for DC and especially Superman, seeing as Superman shouldn't be gritty.  Fourth, Batman fighting Superman is the classic superhero fight and we've seen it many, many times before.  All of these problems caused by taking well known characters and not really doing anything with them.  So many people had already decided the movie would be terrible by the time it came out.  Critics of popular movies, especially comic book movies, are sort of forced to consider the zeitgeist when reviewing them.  Film critics are more educated in the nature of film (hopefully), see more movies than the average person (presumably) and can't just review a film based on personal, gut instinct.  Nobody will keep reading a reviewer who slams every popular movie. Instead, they need to consider a range of factors, from target audience to factoring in their own pretensions.  And when a movie as big, but with a built in hate base, as BvS comes along, they often give voice to those negative opinions.
And why not?  It is a messy movie that needed to have the script tightened up, scenes cut, plotlines removed, a stronger sense of what it actually was about.  It's less boring than last years terrible Fan4stic but frankly, it doesn't feel all the different otherwise.  But then, they all feel the same unless you know the characters, that's what Marvel has done.  And BvS tries to stray from that cookie cutter (and doesn't really succeed too well), but you know the characters, so it ends up feeling like a failed Marvel movie
On the other hand, it gets a lot right.  The casting is good, the actual plot, while poorly presented, is a solid comic book movie plot that could have had a really solid reveal and surprise.  I don't particularly care for what they had Batman do or become, but those are specifics.  In general, it was decent.  To some nerds, it was even really good.  But to a lay person, it probably really is a mess.

Like this review, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an unfocused, poorly editted mess that can't quite seem to figure out what the point is, but is really steeped in knowledge of the characters, their history, and their interactions.  Also like this review, there will certainly be tie in and sequel installments.  Look for a How I'd Fix It and an actual review of the movie coming soon.

Film grade: C-

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

Star Wars: The Force Awakens surpassed my hopes but was still a disappointment. It was great but also kind of mediocre.  Simply put, it defies my ability to review it.  

Roger Ebert famously hated the 4-star system, or the thumbs up/thumbs down system, or any of the other quick review methods, because it does a disservice to the film.  Liking or disliking a movie is about more than just craft, whether that be the skill of the director, actors, writers, special effects people, or whomever.  A movie can fail to capture you, even though every one of those people were perfect and a movie can enchant even though every one of those people screwed up.  The Force Awakens is even in a stranger position, because it’s not just being compared to movies, or other Star Wars movies, but to a movie world that no longer exists. In order to understand how I reacted to The Force Awakens, you have to know my Star Wars.

Star Wars as a franchise existed and was well established before I was introduced to it.  The first trilogy was released before I was born.  Both the West End Games Star Wars setting and Marvel comics lines that is very popular with slightly older fans, were well established before I was old enough to watch the first movies.  When I did see the trilogy for the first time, I was a little too young.  I remember hiding behind the couch when Vader first walks in, terrified.  But the magic worked.  Perhaps because the films are perfectly targeted at young boys, or maybe I just have a mind that goes for that sort of thing, I was completely hooked.   

I don’t know how many times I watch them before I discovered the books.  I think I started reading the Young Jedi Knight books first, but soon branched into the rest of the Expanded Universe.  LucasArts was learning as they went, as nobody had managed a media empire of this breadth before.  Even just within the books, there were contradictions and retractions.  The X-wing novels were describing a post Return of the Jedi galaxy that was similar, but incompatible with the Jedi Prince series.  None of it worked with the comic series Dark Empire, which had Palpatine’s Force ghost inhabiting clones of himself and rebuilding the Empire.  There was no “canon”, to my knowledge.  But every one of these new books was special, because this was still new.  Tie-in novels were not common place, these books were actually the sequels to the films.  And without the ubiquitousness of the internet, the arguments about what really could have happened given the inconsistencies were limited.  

So, you developed your own cannon.  Your favorite books became the “true” story and the books that did things you didn’t like or featured characters you wish never existed, became side stories that weren’t “true.”  Eventually, somebody would come along and tie things together and you’d have to acknowledge that a book you didn’t like actually counted, because it set up something you did.  It grew.

At some point it outgrew all but the most devoted of fans.  It outgrew me, anyway.  I started only reading the Star Wars books by favorite authors, only playing the video games.  With the release of Vector Prime, the book where they killed Chewbacca, Star Wars lost me.  They introduced a plotline of invading aliens from outside the galaxy who were immune to the Force and I didn’t care anymore.  It wasn’t my Star Wars.  Since then, I’ve read the occasional tie in, but all it fell apart.

The more astute Star Wars nerds among you may already point out that Vector Prime was probably not the biggest blow to my fandom at that time.  It was released the same year as Phantom Menace.  But honestly, Star Wars had become so personal to me, it took both to really kill it.  The Prequels completely abandoned the already established facts (“When I met your father, he was already an accomplished pilot” Ben tells Luke, but the movie shows him a young child who drives racers?  Surely that isn’t what Ben meant.  Also, the character is totally named Ben, Obiwan being his “Jedi” name, yet the prequels make it out to be the other way around.  Things like that.).   They told a story that was already told in the original trilogy.  Ben’s lies about Luke’s father were a sign of his deep regret in how the situation went down.  We didn’t need it spelled out for us.   I also later learned that Lucas himself approved the plot of Vector Prime to make sure it would match his vision of the future of Star Wars.   He was so concerned with continuity still, despite changing it constantly.   And his vision was not consistent.  I was hardly surprised when the last 20 years of non-film Star Wars was thrown out to pave the way for the new movie.

The original Star Wars were unabashedly fantasy.  Wizards and dragons, knights and princesses, heroes and villains, it was all there.  The first comics ran with that too.  But the books moved it into something else.  Timothy Zahn was the first to really apply science fiction to Star Wars, and it worked beautifully. His antagonist, Admiral Thrawn, was a blue skinned alien that can probably best be described as evil Sherlock Holmes.  He didn’t build Death Stars, he didn’t arbitrarily kill commanders who failed.  Instead, he out thought opponents, he made sensible decisions, and you hated him for it because he was the bad guy.  It anchored Star Wars not as some crazy fantasy world, but as a world where people learn from mistakes, grow, and you can’t sit still after a major victory. Stackpole’s X-Wing novels helped to sell that.  So when Lucas made the prequels, he worked harder to make them more science-y.  Midichlorians as a microorganism that allows people to manipulate the Force.  All the callouts to class of ship, the explanations of every phenomena, the politics, all of it felt so different from the first movies because it was absorbed from the Expanded Universe.  But it was mishandled and flopped.  All three were a huge disappointment. People say Episode III wasn’t bad, but I think that’s because expectations were so low, the fact that it was passable made it look good.

There’s a meme that the original trilogy is just as bad, people just have so much nostalgia around it that they like it.  I disagree.  I rewatched the original trilogy leading up The Force Awakens.  No special edition, no edits, I found an old copy of the theatrical releases and watched those.  They were fantastic.  Sure, there are flaws.  They aren’t perfect.  But they have a great flow, wonderful dialogue, they are fun, and they do things that are impressive.  Luke’s introduction.  The close ups and sound effect works as the door to Echo Base slams shut, followed by the long shot of Leia and Chewie.  The sense of majesty around Cloud City.  The lightning in Palpatine’s throne room.  It holds up as well as any action movie today.  

All of this brings me around to The Force Awakens.  In what world do I watch this movie?  If I watch it as a human, on Earth, who has followed Star Wars for sometime, it’s a solid movie.  It’s leaps and bounds better than the prequels.  It is a fun romp, it hits the right notes.  It’s a solid return to the fantasy element of it all, with more weird powers, less science, and more fun.  Rey is a new, better hero than Luke ever was.  Finn serves the role of 3P0 and Han at the same time, the coward and the reformed hero.  Poe will hopefully be more than just “the guy who saves the day all the time” in the next movie.  I’m thrilled at how inclusive the new movie is, with a strong female lead, a diverse cast, people who feel natural and lived in.  Every story I read about how young girls love Rey fills me with joy.  I wish there were more girls my age who had somebody like that, I think nerddom would be a lot more gender diverse if there had been.     

But, if I watch it as an extension of MY Star Wars, the one I tracked down books and games for, the one I built my own adventures in, the one I loved and adored as a child, The Force Awakens is mediocre.  Parts of it are amazing and what I want.  The X-wings flying over the lake, the lightsaber battles, the personal story around Rey, Finn, Kylo, Han and Chewie.  That’s what I wanted, that’s what I hungered for.  Rey is very close to the Jaina Solo from the novels, from her knack with machines to her attitude.  Kylo is almost a straight up adaptation of Jacen.  But it’s set in this confused mess that I don’t recognize.   Where’s the politics, the organizations, the maps?  I don’t understand who got blown up, or why, exactly?   What happened to lead to the political situation we are in now?  Who is Snoake?  Why the hell would you build another Death Star?  That got played out by every Kevin J. Anderson novel featuring a new one, why not go with Zahn’s more brilliant, more cunning Empire?  The number of Star Destroyers you could build for one Death Star enables you to project far more power than a single, planetary laser.  I don’t need to see this again.  Can you imagine the thrill that would go through the theater if Snoake walked out and was blue skinned with red eyes, like Thrawn? If Leia, Ackbar, and all the rest of these guys left the New Republic to form the Resistance, who is in the Republic and why would anybody care about it?  Considering it seems like the entire command structure just rebranded.  I don’t get it.  I want to, I want to understand it, I want to feel it in my bones like I did with the rest of Star Wars.   I want to know how things work, who is betraying whom and why nobody knows about Starkiller Base.  Or they do know, but nobody cares until after it is used and then have plans right away.  I want, I want, I want.

I want to have written the next chapter of Star Wars.  I want my stories to be the one that is out there, the stories I read and rewrote in my head into my own version of what happened after the Emperor was killed.  The Jaina Solo I had a crush on, the Borsk Fey’la I loved to hate, the Lando that wasn’t in The Force Awakens.  I want that story, the cobbled together from different parts, partially self-written, likely terrible, essentially even worse than Fan Fiction because it was never even written down, story, to appear on the screen.  Anything less, anything that doesn’t match the vision I grew up with, the vision I fed, cultivated, and lived in, is a let-down.  

But, if I can't have that, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is probably about the best I could hope for.  

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Reviewed