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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • Sure, but again, he’s the mayor. He can’t set financial policy for the banks of the world. NYC has a huge administrative budget, but it ends at the five boroughs. He can’t be like “All UN delegates have to end all wars.” He has authority over city administrative issues, and it looks like Trump is going to go after him personally.

    Important things happen in his city, and that makes him the most powerful mayor in the country. But that’s like being the tallest elementary school student. And the job is a career killer. The last NYC mayor to be elected to higher office was in 1869.











  • I mean, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but you’re wrong. Love and Thunder was, at minimum, a completed movie. The self-parody went way too far, and it wasted what was potentially the best villain since Loki. More Gor and less of an Australian actor trying to do a Greek accent that ended up sounding French. Also, it had screaming goats, so it was not a good movie. But it was a fully-rendered, complete film with some cool visuals and at least a semblance of an engaging story.

    Jane is dying of cancer, and becoming Mighty Thor protects her but also accelerates her demise.

    What about the nature of power, and who is ultimately responsible when bad things happen?

    Is faith justified by the (in)actions of higher beings?

    What does it mean to be “worthy”?

    Love and Thunder was the third act of Thor’s character arc, where he discovers what is important, and what his purpose is. Is he a hero? A king? A protector? A petulant braggart? A leader? A killer? A God? What does he really want to be? What would he wish for?

    He finds the ulitmate boon, the thing he’s been looking for since the first Thor movie, his life’s purpose. He returns “home” fully changed and seeking new adventures not for glory, but to break the cycle of oppression sought by the powerful.

    Love and Thunder is not well done, and the message is muddled, but Quantumania is just bad. There are a few funny bits, Paul Rudd is always charming, and Kang was portrayed by a good actor who may or may not be a bad person (not the point of this discussion). But it suffered from the same self-parody problem as Thor, and it didn’t look good. The quantum realm wasn’t interesting, the story was internally inconsistent, ants developed weapons and saved the day because time shenanigans(!?), MODOK happened and was a huge disappointment (I did laugh out loud at him becoming an Avenger), and it all looked like they were rehearsing scenes while they waited for the sets to be done being built. Quantumania was an aggressively bad movie with almost no redeeming qualities or character development. Cassie grows a bit (pun intended), and Scott learns to see her as a young adult (and, dare I say, a Young Avenger), Janet slays some of the demons from her past, Hank learns his wife was fucking tiny Bill Murray, Hope is also in the film, and Kang is set up to be the next big threat to the Avengers Multiverse (except forget that bit because reasons). The stakes could literally not be smaller.

    Isn’t it likely that in the microsecond after they all return to human size, the ants developed a whole new oppressive civilization using the remnants of Kang’s technology and their own, subjugated all the subatomic residents, and are a potential threat to the larger universe? Kang was going to escape, why not the techno-ants?

    All the post-Endgame movies and shows have been about introducing the Young Avengers lineup. Wiccan and Speed, Patriot, Hawkeye II, America Chavez, Kid Loki, plus Ms Marvel, Phyla Vell, Skaar, and Riri. Obviously Stature will be there, but I would argue that Love is set up to bring more to the table both in power set and pathos.

    That’s not to say Love and Thunder was a good movie. But it had good within, and isn’t that what really makes us all worthy?



  • I just love seeing all the books from my childhood coming to life on the big screen, and being able to talk to friends about comic book nerd stuff. Marvel, at the very least, has been respectful of the source material and given the filmmakers resources to create an interconnected universe. I don’t care if they make a few stinkers as long as they keep trying to make better movies.

    Sony and DC both have transparently disrespected the source material and the fans. They have made bad decisions about how to bring those comics to life, and created films that were inexcusably bad.

    DC at least makes me hopeful with the new Superman trailers, but I’ll reserve judgement until I actually see it.