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Showing posts from February, 2018

Wakanda Forever: Why the fictional setting of "Black Panther" is the best in the MCU

You know, I almost made this a regular review of "Black Panther." The reason I didn't do that is because I want to do what the creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Black Panther" did...I want to do something different. I want to explain why I believe that the fictional setting of "Black Panther" is the best fictional setting the MCU has ever created...even better than their other fictional setting based off of a rich source of human culture, Asgard. "Black Panther", by now I'm sure you've heard, is one of the most important contributions to modern film. It's a mainstream, big-budget, Hollywood production by Disney that was written by, directed by, and stars mostly black people. To take it one further, "Black Panther" spends a great deal of effort, especially in the first two acts, celebrating both contemporary and traditional African culture. Scores of shots throughout the movie include prominent, yet

Why "The Punisher" is one of the most important shows on Netflix right now

All rights to Marvel and Netflix The Punisher has typically been a romanticized anti-hero, admired and beloved for his lateral approach to justice and brazen disregard for conventional morality - the quintessential "Chaotic Good" protagonist. He is also associated with the fetishization of guns and vigilante justice. The incarnation of the character portrayed by John Bernthal in Netflix's "Punisher" series ensures that this classic grit is not glamorized. Frank Castle, alias the "Punisher", is less morally black-and-white than say, Captain America. Ironically, his black-and-white view of justice makes him a more complex, morally gray character, as this attitude isn't shaped by traditional ethics or any kind of logical argument. Rather, it's a combination of lateral thinking and pragmatism. However, this kind of judgement is a thought process that does not allow room for empathy. Instead of embracing this as a stoic trait, Marvel's &

The Sobriety Experiment: Closing Thoughts

"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." -Homer Simpson Wouldn't it be great if "The Simpsons" ended with Homer dying of liver cancer? Not that I hate Homer Simpson. From a narrative perspective, it's simply the only logical conclusion for a character whose story has been told for literally decades, and whose identity has prominently involved heavy drinking and overeating. It's be like the ending of "Dinosaurs" on ABC. Have you seen that shit? All the dinosaurs freeze to death because of the Ice Age, there's a lot of really heavy rhetoric about global warming and industrialism, and then it just cuts to a dinosaur news anchor talking about how it's only a matter of time before everybody dies. And then it just ENDS . Anyway. I know I already did a "final week" post, but I wanted to include a sort of "epilogue" for this experiment. I want to share how I've