Not gonna lie, folks. We talked a lot about movies this week. But also about aliens. And this is the start of six episodes done back to back over three weeks, so get ready for a long haul. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Dear Hatlings, Do you think recent evidence has made the idea that UFOs are alien visitors more credible? –Jas
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I haven’t seen Joker and probably won’t, at least in theaters. I had decided this based on the trailers. I thought that I would find it personally too disturbing. And then I have found the recent interviews with the director off-putting
I thought this critic did a decent job of talking about the controversy. She also does clarify where some of the stepped up security is coming from: “The US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported more than a week ahead of the film’s release that Army commanders at Fort Sill in Oklahoma had been put on notice about a credible threat. “Disturbing and very specific chatter on the dark web,” the article said, had tipped off a Texas law enforcement agency and the FBI to the possible targeting of a theater during Joker’s October 4 release. ”
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/3/20884104/joker-threats-cancel-phillips-art
My son is a manager at a Landmark Theatre and has seen the film. I think he agrees with Will’s assessment that the first half of the movie was better. Otherwise, I think he was somewhat underwhelmed, though this may have something to do with having high expectations. He also does see some of what people are talking about in their concerns about the film. That is, that the film does seem to valorize the actions of a white male character who is the victim of bullying and turns to violence in response. That does seem to be the response elicited from a fairly large percentage of the audience as well (in his experience)–cheering for the violence in the second half.
In other news about DC fandom, Batwoman has received the lowest ever rating on Rotten Tomatoes of any Arrowverse series, second only to Black Lightening.
Cheering for the violence in the second half?? Holy cow…
The Batwoman pilot was weak, I’m afraid, and it didn’t have to be, because the Greg Rucka source material is quite strong.
Black Lightning is, in my opinion, Berlanti’s best DC CW show overall. I thought their premier this year was fine, but not their best work.
(Rotten Tomatoes shows the overall critic scores for the DC CW shows: Black Lightning 93%, The Flash 90%, Supergirl 89%, Arrow 85%, Legends of Tomorrow 84%, Batwoman 72%.)
Sorry, should have been more specific. Batwoman’s pilot episode, like Black Lightening’s, was review bombed (a term I just learned)–so the audience scores for the pilot were the lowest of any CW show, with Black Lightening the second lowest.
Yeah, I’m not sure why Batwoman is weak, but I agree. It does seem to be following the source material. The second episode got kind of gorily violent which didn’t help matters.
I was also very disappointed with what they did with the Supergirl opening and probably won’t continue to watch if they continue with that direction.