Docteur Qui

I got really tired of Giacchino's Spidey theme in this one. It really is such a paint-by-number hero theme, and its limitations are even more glaring heard next to Elfman's in the same film (as brief as that was).
 
For all his strengths I feel like Giacchino still hasn't mastered the art of variation. Almost every statement is exactly the same, every phrase as predictable as the last. Pretty apt for the whole MCU though I guess.

If you haven't seen any Spider-Man films from the last 20 years, don't bother. It won't make a lick of sense, and none of the emotional beats will land for you.
 
But if you have to watch one, I'd go with Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Or Into the Spiderverse.

I got really tired of Giacchino's Spidey theme in this one. It really is such a paint-by-number hero theme, and its limitations are even more glaring heard next to Elfman's in the same film (as brief as that was).
 
For all his strengths I feel like Giacchino still hasn't mastered the art of variation. Almost every statement is exactly the same, every phrase as predictable as the last. Pretty apt for the whole MCU though I guess.

If you haven't seen any Spider-Man films from the last 20 years, don't bother. It won't make a lick of sense, and none of the emotional beats will land for you.
 
But if you have to watch one, I'd go with Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Or Into the Spiderverse.

I wouldn't bother.

Honestly I struggled a bit with this one. I really wanted to like it, but like many others I'm becoming increasingly fatigued with the Marvel Factory Production Line and this did nothing to jolt me out of it, unlike WandaVision (Loki didn't do much for me, it had a lot of promise but just never reached its potential).
 
It was just quip after quip after quip, sandwiched between near-operatic moments of melodrama. When Maguire came through the portal I just felt nothing. Maybe it was the knowledge that he would definitely be in it, as it was the worst kept secret in Hollywood. But he was my Spider-Man, and Raimi's second film of the franchise remains the best of the whole genre, and I barely blinked when it happened. On one hand I might be getting too old for these movies, but on the other hand the thrilling Into the Spider-verse did everything that this film did but with some real style and panache, and I felt a bit of that childlike awe and wonder watching that one. The plastic and dull MCU aesthetic really pales in comparison.
 
Willem Dafoe stole the show, he was really great hamming it up as both sides of Osborne, and Alfred Molina was pretty fun as well. But the rest of the villains may has well have not been there. Cumberbatch snoozed through every line, and while I know Doctor Strange has always been a bit of a prick he was downright unpleasant in this film. For a movie that puts so much into the idea of responsibility it was baffling to see how much blame and guilt he put on Peter for a spell that he himself royally botched. The whole "look what you made me do" vibe was pretty tone-deaf in my opinion.
 
Garfield was surprisingly good in this. I didn't love the Judd Apatow-esque bantering scene between the three Peters, but the most affecting moments in the film were surprisingly Garfield's.

I got really tired of Giacchino's Spidey theme in this one. It really is such a paint-by-number hero theme, and its limitations are even more glaring heard next to Elfman's in the same film (as brief as that was).
 
For all his strengths I feel like Giacchino still hasn't mastered the art of variation. Almost every statement is exactly the same, every phrase as predictable as the last. Pretty apt for the whole MCU though I guess.

Lol, "most-hated" it was not. One of the most divisive, absolutely. But they are not the same thing.

Yes, it's quite creepy. A sinister variation on the Tissue Compression Eliminator.

I guess that's one of the main issues/paradoxes with the concept of the show - things should essentially never be new as they're always there. As it were.
 
Just watched Timecrash, what a lovely but hilarious 8 minutes. Just the right mix of whimsy, meta references, sentiment and funny. Say what you like about Stephen Moffat's tenure, but he can really write some great stuff even if it's meant to be a silly 8 minutes to pad out Children in Need (political rant about paying taxes deleted).
 
 
My re-watch of Peter Capaldi's tenure has reached Empress of Mars. I quite enjoyed the few episodes dealing with the monks, having totally forgotten about them (which is kinda ironic). It's funny how they are disconnected episodes that tie quite well together into a bigger story arc. If only a recent 6 episodes had been done so well... maybe Flux would have been better had it worked up to the Flux rather than starting with it and going off at tangents that sort of returned to it by the end.
 
 
I'm not sure Empress of Mars is going to go down as one of my favourite episodes, but it has a classic "film music reference in the most unlikely places" where Bill mentions the film The Vikings and how much she loves the theme. True, Mario Nascimbene doesn't get name checked but a cutely random moment. Maybe writer Mark Gatiss is a fan...
 
 

leaks in 8K!
 
 
Yes but, it's this or picking on the bad greenscreen scenes or the Tobey introduction without being on the set or MJ being "supportive girlfriend" or May dying after abandoning her character for a while without working to earn the tears or the gags that don't land or the extremely boring new thematic work by Gia; so picking on the wizard plot is kinder..
 
People are being carried away by nostalgia and because the basic outline of the film kind of actually works but the execution is sometimes shoddy. Like I can see how this could be a cape movie I could actually love, with the downer ending and some of the gags and the Dafoe and such, but I'm not actually that much into it the way it is.
 
I didn't think about it this way yesterday, but perhaps Doc Ock disappears after unsmaking Spidey, then the arms take control again (also some of the villains seem kinds confused, like they forgot what actually happened, maybe that helps the arms take control), and then stole a turtleneck because it's chilly or something. Like Osborn and his hoodie maybe. Sometimes you do something very simple and the nerds like me over think it. (the real explanation might involve vfx stuff)

The golden rule when questioning the plot of this movie:
 
 

Small but loud sect of people hated The Last Jedi, behaving like they speak for everybody. And a small sect of that small sect is to this day reminding us of it.

I wouldn't have complained if adding a ton of characters had actually done anything other than just reduce them to pieces of cardboard because there was no time left for character development.

…Lesbian overtones? Were there ‘straight overtones’ when the 10th Doctor had romantic tension with Rose?
 
I couldn’t give less of a shit about the genders, there’s so little chemistry and development between 13 and Yaz that if they do go that direction I can’t imagine it being very convincing.

You haven't played the best one ever made (Chrono Trigger)

The Flux event cheapens the universe that our Doctor knows and loves and fights to protect, while trying to cash in on the multiverse concept that every other major franchise has adopted. 
 
Tecteun operates from a Division control room in a space between universes, showing how the Doctor's universe is ending and a new one is beginning. But then the purple Swarm guy kills Tecteun and says his master plan is to destroy the prime universe, only to rewind the video tape so he can watch all of time go forward and backward on endless loop, over and over. 
 
Okay, cool. Where's the second universe come into play? Wasn't that the destination of all the souls captured by the X-men Sentinels Passengers? A new playground for existence? Nope just another dangling plot point left unresolved, or at least unfulfilled. 

You might be referring to Heaven Sent which is.... widely regarded as one of the all-time best episodes of the show. It's phenomenal, and not really overly complex at all. It's quite a simple story about a grieving man stuck in an endless time loop.

The First Doctor (if we can still call him that, given the 'spanner in the works' that is the Timeless Child stuff) is, of course, travelling with his granddaughter when we meet him. Which would indicate that Time Lords certainly reproduce biologically ... whether this is driven by desire or necessity, we don't quite know. And I would guess that back in '63, it probably wasn't intended as something for in-depth analysis  .     

My viewing of the show does not at all gel with this. The Doctor has had feelings and relationships with many characters in the show, at least in the revival. Ten was head over heels for Rose and had an implied intimate relationship with Madame de Pompadour and Queen Elizabeth I. Eleven’s relationship with River Song is deeply sexual, again through implication but it’s right there in the dialogue. And in The Time of the Doctor it’s implied that he’s been intimate with Tasha Lem at some point in the past. Sordid indeed.
 
Based on all this, I can’t understand how introducing a romantic undertone to Thirteen and Yaz’s relationship is any different. And especially considering Chibnall’s comparatively sexless depiction of the Doctor, how is it not family-friendly? You don’t have to actually imply sex (as Davies and Moffat often did) to imply attraction or deep feelings.
 
Also what it’s worth, the Doctor himself states that he feels attraction (and sexual fluidity) as early as The Doctor Dances in series 1 of the revival - the word “dance” in the script and title is very much a euphemism for sex. 

My viewing of the show does not at all gel with this. The Doctor has had feelings and relationships with many characters in the show, at least in the revival. Ten was head over heels for Rose and had an implied intimate relationship with Madame de Pompadour and Queen Elizabeth I. Eleven’s relationship with River Song is deeply sexual, again through implication but it’s right there in the dialogue. And in The Time of the Doctor it’s implied that he’s been intimate with Tasha Lem at some point in the past. Sordid indeed.
 
Based on all this, I can’t understand how introducing a romantic undertone to Thirteen and Yaz’s relationship is any different. And especially considering Chibnall’s comparatively sexless depiction of the Doctor, how is it not family-friendly? You don’t have to actually imply sex (as Davies and Moffat often did) to imply attraction or deep feelings.
 
Also what it’s worth, the Doctor himself states that he feels attraction (and sexual fluidity) as early as The Doctor Dances in series 1 of the revival - the word “dance” in the script and title is very much a euphemism for sex. 

Well yeah, the age difference between the Doctor and any human is pretty huge! But for the record, I'm of the opinion that a 30-year gap between consenting adults is theoretically fine as long as the relationship is inherently equal in terms of power dynamics. The creepiness we tend to feel about age gaps is ultimately a concern about that power. In real life there's almost always some kind imbalance of power implied with a gap that large, but seeing as we're talking about fictional characters I think there's a more generous and nuanced take to be had. I'll also be upfront in saying that I don't necessarily think their relationship was sexual, but that doesn't mean it wasn't romantic. Twelve is presented as asexual, and asexual people can still have intimate and romantic relationships. 
 
Clara develops a lot of agency - and therefore power - in her relationship with the Doctor, and that was very much the point of her character arc. She eventually became the Doctor in a way, running from Gallifrey with a stolen TARDIS and her own companion. Having said all that, my reading of the show is that their relationship was ultimately unhealthy and destructive for both of them, demonstrated by Clara's increasing recklessness and the Doctor's willingness to literally die billions of times in the Confession Dial so he could get to Gallifrey and break the laws of time to bring her back from the dead. In the end, the dangers presented by their obsession with each other were enough for them to feel that permanent separation was the only option. The Hybrid, prophecised as the most dangerous being in the universe, was the Doctor and Clara together. 
 
 
The best thing about all of this, of course, is because all of this is subtextual, you can completely reject my reading and that's perfectly fine. Moffat was especially clever at presenting multi-layered and ambiguous concepts to the show so the viewer is readily able to take what they like and discard what they don't, whether it was character relationships or the show's mythology and continuity. A crucial point is that he has explicitly said that's a perfectly okay thing for a viewer to do, and in fact we should do that when we talk about art that we like and especially when it comes to Doctor Who.
 
The whole point of the Hybrid arc in Series 9 was to demonstrate how prophecies are inherently ambiguous and could be applied to any number of individuals or situations, and that ultimately it's only the choices people make while interpreting them that really hold weight. It's a metatextual comment on how we perceive and criticise art, as well as a critique of the role of prophecy in organised religion (but let's not go there). One of the pervading criticisms of Series 9 was that the Hybrid was never explicitly identified, but that was very much by design. George RR Martin is doing a very similar thing with the "Prince that was Promised" throughline in A Song of Ice and Fire, and arguably Rowling did the same with the prophecy narrative in Harry Potter (i.e. Voldemort chose Harry over Neville as his nemesis, but it could've been either of them).
 
Anyway I clearly think too much about this stuff, but by golly I miss thinking this much about Doctor Who. It's my favourite show, and I can't wait for it to stimulate me like this again.

Well yeah, the age difference between the Doctor and any human is pretty huge! But for the record, I'm of the opinion that a 30-year gap between consenting adults is theoretically fine as long as the relationship is inherently equal in terms of power dynamics. The creepiness we tend to feel about age gaps is ultimately a concern about that power. In real life there's almost always some kind imbalance of power implied with a gap that large, but seeing as we're talking about fictional characters I think there's a more generous and nuanced take to be had. I'll also be upfront in saying that I don't necessarily think their relationship was sexual, but that doesn't mean it wasn't romantic. Twelve is presented as asexual, and asexual people can still have intimate and romantic relationships. 
 
Clara develops a lot of agency - and therefore power - in her relationship with the Doctor, and that was very much the point of her character arc. She eventually became the Doctor in a way, running from Gallifrey with a stolen TARDIS and her own companion. Having said all that, my reading of the show is that their relationship was ultimately unhealthy and destructive for both of them, demonstrated by Clara's increasing recklessness and the Doctor's willingness to literally die billions of times in the Confession Dial so he could get to Gallifrey and break the laws of time to bring her back from the dead. In the end, the dangers presented by their obsession with each other were enough for them to feel that permanent separation was the only option. The Hybrid, prophecised as the most dangerous being in the universe, was the Doctor and Clara together. 
 
 
The best thing about all of this, of course, is because all of this is subtextual, you can completely reject my reading and that's perfectly fine. Moffat was especially clever at presenting multi-layered and ambiguous concepts to the show so the viewer is readily able to take what they like and discard what they don't, whether it was character relationships or the show's mythology and continuity. A crucial point is that he has explicitly said that's a perfectly okay thing for a viewer to do, and in fact we should do that when we talk about art that we like and especially when it comes to Doctor Who.
 
The whole point of the Hybrid arc in Series 9 was to demonstrate how prophecies are inherently ambiguous and could be applied to any number of individuals or situations, and that ultimately it's only the choices people make while interpreting them that really hold weight. It's a metatextual comment on how we perceive and criticise art, as well as a critique of the role of prophecy in organised religion (but let's not go there). One of the pervading criticisms of Series 9 was that the Hybrid was never explicitly identified, but that was very much by design. George RR Martin is doing a very similar thing with the "Prince that was Promised" throughline in A Song of Ice and Fire, and arguably Rowling did the same with the prophecy narrative in Harry Potter (i.e. Voldemort chose Harry over Neville as his nemesis, but it could've been either of them).
 
Anyway I clearly think too much about this stuff, but by golly I miss thinking this much about Doctor Who. It's my favourite show, and I can't wait for it to stimulate me like this again.

Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows 2 are among the best films of the saga, in my opinion. 
But Yate's directing is always horrible when it comes to blocking (as others have said, everyone just stands around looking bored) and editing (lifeless and slow).

It's a play on the actual Jewish surname of Abelman/Ableman.  I'm guessing because it's about a boy who wants to be a storyteller through film, to tell fables sort of.
 
It always makes me think of the great Coen brothers film A Serious Man, which had a prominent character named Sy Ableman