Episode 92: WandaVision Tutorial

 

Topic: Wandavision Tutorial

 

With the much anticipated return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the next major collection of material for the universe is scheduled to be TV shows, primarily featuring the other Avengers, and not the main set.  And having missed out on Black Widow, which has been very patiently waiting since the summer of 2020, the first new installment in the Phase 4 is a TV series about Wanda and Vision.  So lets get mom up to speed.

 

Where did we leave off?

Last major production was Spiderman Far From Home, set a few weeks in theory after the end of Avengers: Endgame. At the end of Endgame, everyone originally blinked out of existence by Thanos, known as the ‘Blip’ or the ‘Snap’, returns and the world is going through the process of healing and getting back to normal as nearly half the population returns from a five year absence. 

 

In the case of Wanda, she had only recently returned from being blinked out of existence, fighting with Thanos and memorializing Tony Stark after his death.  Her exact whereabouts after the events of End Game are a mystery.

 

In the case of Vision, Vision is considered dead at the end of Avengers: Infinity Wars, having first been up in the devastation left behind when Wanda Destroyed the Mind Stone, only for Thanos to reverse time, bring vision back, and kill him a second time in front of Wanda when he ripping the Mind Stone out of his head.  Its presumed that his pieces were picked up in Wakanda and transported to the Avenger’s facilities for safe keeping.

 

 

Mutants in MCU

To really walk about Wanda is also to talk about Mutants and the X-men in the MCU.  During the late 90s, Marvel was actually in a fairly bad position, having filed for Bankruptcy protection in 1997.  It was during this time, that marvel began selling the rights for their character to other movie studios, in an effort to infuse cash in to their holdings.  This led to movies such as Blade (1998), X-men (2000), Spiderman (2002), and The Hulk (2003).  As a part of the deal, X-men franchise’s TV and Film rights were sold to FOX, but not just the X-men, but the concept of Mutants as well.  This meant that any character that was a Mutant was considered fair game for FOX to make movies out of.

 

Enter 2006, and Marvel Studios begins preproduction on Ironman (2008), their first solo Superhero flim, and the kick off what we know today as the MCU.  During the this time, X-men movies were still coming out, but the juggernaut of what Ironman started in 2008 couldn’t be fully realized.  Numerous film rights began returning to Marvel, however, mutants were not among them.  By 2015, Avengers Age of Ultron (2015), there was an agreement that both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were shared characters with Fox and could be in the MCU, denoting that they weren’t mutants, but were instead, individuals whose powers were given by the Mind Stone.

 

By 2009, Disney had purchased Marvel outright, the Film/Television side was put under different management from the Comic Book/Print side. For the next few years, the Comic Book side began to deemphasize the X-men and Mutants, focusing more on characters they owned out right.  There was a push for ‘Inhumans’, a variation on mutants, for a while, along with most major stories only including a few major Mutant characters that were main stream.  This culminated it a number of major storylines, including House of M, and even with the death of several major X-men, including Wolverine, Cyclops, and Professor X. 

 

By 2015, the leadership of the Comic Book/Print side of the business was ousted and all major developments from all of Marvel were in the hands of Kevin Feige, who has been leading the Film/Television side of the business.  And now as of 2019, with Disney now owning FOX media, the rights to the X-men and Mutants are owned once again by Marvel.  Fan expectation is that either Marvel will make their own outright X-men movies, or potentially add them in to the MCU in some way. 

 

 

Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch)

Born of Max Eisenhardt, better known as Magneto, alongside her twin brother Petro(Peter) Maximoff, the two are mutants who have been seen throughout the Marvel Universe.  She and her brother were raised as Ophans and Gypsies, famously by a Cow-woman named Bolva.  A young age, her magical powers began to blossom, and she was trained by one of the most powerful magic users in the world, Agatha Harkness. 

 

Wanda and her brother joined their Father, Magneto, for a period of time with the brotherhood of mutants, before eventually joining the Avengers, and being long standing members of it.  At some point, she met and fell in love with Vision, with the two being married for a period of time.  Though initially unable to have children, through the use of Magic, Wanda gave birth to two sons, Tommy and Billy, but due to shenanigans from the Marvel Devil, Mephisto, the two taken away and their existence nullified. 

 

Wanda’s big story primarily revolves around ‘House of M’.  At one point, Wanda’s powers became too powerful for her to control, which caused her to lash out uncontrollably in a fit of rage over the mention of her former children.  This uncontrolled power eventually warped Vision, who later attacked the Avengers, before being killed by She-Hulk.  In the aftermath, Wanda was taken by her Father Magneto to Professor X to get help.  The concern however was whether to Kill Wanda or not, as her powers were out of control, which eventually led to the reality bending ‘House of M’, where mutants replaced humans as the dominate species on earth.

 

‘House of M’ saw many mutants and humans leading happy and ideal lives for themselves, with Magneto ruling over the world, but some individuals still remembered.  Eventually, it was discovered that Quicksilver had convinced Wanda to warp reality, and upon Magneto and other heroes regaining their memory, they confronted Quicksilver over what happened, culminated in Quicksilver’s death.  Wanda would bring him back to life, but shocked that her Father and Professor X would be willing to kill her, she changed reality back, but said three words, “No More Mutants.”

 

As a result of ‘House of M’, reality was changed back to normal, but 90% of the mutants were depowered and the mutant gene was now dormant and was not suppose to exist in any new children being born.  This made mutants more an endangered species on the planet, and moved hundreds of mutant heroes from activity.  Eventually, the mutant x gene began reappearing in children, and with some mutants getting their powers back.

 

In later rewrites to the character, Wanda is revealed to just be an Orphan, not a mutant and not the daughter of Magneto, but having lived near a mountain that radiates energy and improved her already dormant magical abilities.  This is the version of Wanda we know from the MCU.

 

Powers

Wanda’s powers were originally thought to be telekinesis as a mutant, but have since been reconned as being magic.  Her original stem from her ability to warp reality, originally it was at the disfavor of those she attacked, causing them to have bad results for actions they took.  Later this was evolved in to full reality manipulation, allowing her to warp the very nature and reality around her, not unlike the Reality Stone.  She is capable of various other magical schools associates with Magical Crafts performed by Dr Strange and the like.  Her main claim to fame relates her ‘Chaos Magic’, which allows her to shape reality as a whole.

 

In the MCU, her powers stem from the Mind Stone, imbuing her with telekinesis and telepathy abilities.  For all extensive purposes, they have not been fully explored in the MCU.

 

 

Vision

A ‘Synthezoid’, a special type of Android that contains all living tissues and body parts of a human, plus the ‘Horton Cells’, which provides strength, durability, and resistance.  He was built by Ultron, using parts from another state of the art android call the ‘Human Torch’(Not the same character), and with a special gem called the ‘Solar Gem’, which operates much like a human, but hundreds of times faster.  This gem is similar placed as the Mind Stone for the MCU version of Vision.

 

Originally, Vision was created by Ultron with the intent of being a double agent.  But realizing that he didn’t want to fight human, he changed sides and has been a leading member of the Avengers since.  Vision would take part in multiple stories, even having a relationship with Wanda for a while.  At one point, Vision was kidnapped and dismantled by a bad guy.  He was eventually rebuilt by Tony Stark, but minus the synthetic red skin he previously had, revealing a white, neutral exterior, and also minus his emotions. This second Vision continued his relationship with Wanda, but after due the events prior to ‘House of M’ he was ripped apart by the She-Hulk after Vision spawned a bunch of mini-Ultrons from him.  A third Vision was built some time later, using the parts from the last, and it was this version that eventually built his own family of Visions, attempting to learn more about the human condition and emotions, he started his own family as a result.

 

Powers:

As a Synthezoid made from the android Human Torch and using the Solar Gem, Vision’s body allows him to project solar rays as beams of energy at his targets.  As well, due to the ‘Horton Cells’ in his body, he can modulate his density, allowing him to pass through walls and people, but also to strength himself and make him super strong and super durable. 

 

 

What to Expect?

Speculation about the series presumes that the series will likely have something to do with reality manipulation.  The series may also launch new super heroes and provide knowledge on what happened to vision. 

There is a concern that the events will be a mixture of House of M and Visions, the former as far an ideal life for Wanda and the later in the sense that Vision started a family in the suburbs. 

Homework:

WandaVision (Available only on Disney+ Streaming Service) Episodes 1-9

Episode 91: Godzilla Movies Review

 

Topic: Godzilla Movies Review

This week, we watched a giant Lizard smash a building… lots of buildings in fact.  And lots of Lizards too.  I think a few had wings even… so many monsters, so little time.  But a fun time at that, lots of it!  And both mom and me would agree that they’re a lot of fun.  So we’re back with two American Godzilla, and the most recent live action Godzilla from Japan.

 

Godzilla (2014)

·       Directed by: Gareth Edwards

·       Starring:

o   Aaron Taylor-Johnson as U.S. Navy EOD LT Ford Brody

o   Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa

o   Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody

o   Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody

o   Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham

o   David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz

o   Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody

·       Monsters:

o   Godzilla

o   Muto (Male)

o   Muto (Female)

·       This movie felt like a proper disaster movie, but at times, it doesn’t feel like a movie, more like we were following a narrative and series of unfortunate events.  Almost like a found footage piece.

·       Depictions of Japan, of the fictional city Janjira, were very comical.  Rather than looking like a suburb of Japan, it looks like an American suburb with Japanese aesthetics. They even driver cars on the left side of the car, which is typical of America. 

·       While Aaron Taylor-Johnson may be a decent actor, he felt very disposable in the film.

·       At the time of Casting, Elizabeth Olsen hadn’t been cast as the Scarlet Witch in the MCU yet, but her role felt fairly disposable as well.  Looking at the role now, she’s only memorable because this was what she was in prior to the Marvel movies.

·       Ken Watanabe always adds gravitas to a film he’s in, especially in this case of Godzilla.

·       Godzilla is talked about and seen sporadically in the film, but major brunt of destruction is from the Muto monsters.  Godzilla has a proper fight at the end of the movie.

·       While critics praised the tone and direction, many criticized the under developed characters, lack of thematic depth, turning Godzilla into a secondary character, and insufficient screen time for the title character.

·       Japanese critics liked the film, but felt the same way.  Toho  liked the film so much, they decided to reboot the series with Shin Godzilla.

 

 

Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019)

·       Directed by: Michael Dougherty

·       Starring:

o   Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell

o   Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell

o   Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell

o   Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton

o   Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham

o   Charles Dance as Alan Jonah

o   Thomas Middleditch as Sam Coleman

o   Aisha Hinds as Colonel Diane Foster

o   O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Jackson Barnes

o   David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz

o   Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa

o   Zhang Ziyi as Dr. Ilene Chen

·       Monsters:

o   Godzilla

o   Mothra

o   Rodan

o   King Ghidorah

o   And many more, including King Kong

·      

Unlike the 2014 Film, this one felt more like a Movie than the last.  Perhaps it’s the bigger sets and more sightings of Godzilla.

·       It was nice to see some of the cast from the 2014 Godzilla return.

·       It’s a shame Ken Watanabe’s character was killed as the film leave the possibility of a third Godzilla movie in the near future.

·       Nice to see Bradley Whitford in work. 

·       American Critics were not impressed by the film, remarking that the script was ‘laughable’, the monster battles were either too numerous or boring, and that the film was paper thin with no real drama.

 

 

Shin Godzilla

·       Directed by: Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi

·       Starring:

o   Hiroki Hasegawa as Rando Yaguchi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary.

o   Yutaka Takenouchi as Hideki Akasaka, Aide to Prime Minister.

o   Satomi Ishihara as Kayoco Anne Patterson, Special Envoy for the President of the United States.

·       Film used the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami & Fukushima Daiichi nuclear Disaster as inspiration.

·       Film is considered political, mostly in the sense that it’s a scathing depiction of Japanese bureaucracy and its politicians.  Often seen as trying to manage the in pending fall out, rather than trying to manage the actual situation, and tied up in various meetings.

·      

Did very well in Japan, winning 7 Japanese Academy Prize, including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year.

·       Laughed at multiple points from hearing the ‘Decisive Battle’ illusions being made during the planning phases.  The song is from Evangelion (1995) anime, directed and created by Hideki Anno, is used at multiple points throughout the film.

·       Can see lots of allusions to Evangelion, though as a Evangelion fan, I might be more hyper aware than most.

 

Opening Credit to Blue Öyster Cult - Godzilla

 

Episode 90: Godzilla Tutorial

 Topic: Godzilla Tutorial

 

A giant sea creature, that walks on its back legs, shoot radioactive breath/laser from its mouth, and vaguely looks like a dinosaur, and no I’m not talking about mom.  We begin our talk on Godzilla, and learning about the nearly 50 year old King of the Monsters.  Another series mom may have a greater affinity for than even me.

 

Kaiju – Literally meaning “Strange Beast”, the term originated for just about any mythological creature or monster from Japanese legends, but after opening up its boarders to the west, the term has also meant any legendary creatures that exist outside of Japan as well. 

 

In Modern terms, we use the term Kaiju to reflect creatures of science fiction or fantasy that are relatively the size of Godzilla, multiple stories tall creatures.  Western example can include King Kong, Monsters from Power Ranges, namely and inspirationally, from Pacific Rim.  Even Steven Spielberg got inspiration for Jurassic Park from Godzilla and other Kaiju movies.

 

Godzilla is considered the first Kaiju movie.

 

 

History

 

Debuting in 1954, and created by Toho, in his own self title film, Godzilla has been a fixture of Japanese and American media for nearly 70s years.  Though no official individual is the one that birthed the creation of the creature, he was initially intended to be an allegory for Nuclear Weapons as seen by the Japanese.  Others have likened Godzilla to the United States, as a terrible beast awakes from its slumber to take vengeance on Japan.

 

Despite his first film of being the villain, later films would actually see him being an Anti-hero and possibly a protector of humanity, along with being a less serious and more campy.  As time has gone on, Godzilla has faces other kaiju and had a rotation collection of villains and enemies in which were trying to destroy humanity. 

 

Toho Co, the company that created Godzilla, is previously well known for Kaiju and Tokusatsu(Japanese special effect films) films, but also release many directed by Akira Kurosawa, along with the anime films of Studio Ghibli.  They also work with other anime companies to get their movies released in to theaters.

 

Eiji Tsuburaya, the individual in charge of special effects for the first Godzilla film, developed the technique that would be called ‘Suitmation’.  This was the act of creating latex/rubber suits for actors to wear and become the monsters.  This was further developed by shrinking the sets down to miniatures, to give the scale to the actors in the suits.  The camera was then placed low to the ground and filmed at double speed, to get the aspect of the Monsters as being huge, but also create smooth movement as the actors moved slowly in their costumes.  Special Effects were then substituted with Puppetry or other models to give the effect of swinging tails or mouth movements.  Even as CGI has become more prevalent in the Japan, Suitmation is continuing to be used on certain levels, with the suit actors doing motion capture to film the actions and translate them to CGI.

 

 

Characteristics

Original Japanese name was Gojira, from combining the two words Gorira (Gorilla) and Kujira (Whale) in Japanese. It later Romanized into Godzilla upon appearing in the west. 

 

Inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s film ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, Godzilla was conceived as a reptilian, sea creature, loosely based on the concept of dinosaur.  He has various spiked plates along his back, which is the source of his power in some films. His body’s texture is said to be based off Keloid scars that were often seen on survivors form Hiroshima.  While initial seen as green in comics, cartoons, and on movie posters, Godzilla is actually charcoal grey.

 

Godzilla’s signature weapon is his Atomic Breath, a beam of nuclear energy shot out like a laser from Godzilla’s mouth.  Godzilla is also known for his physical strength and muscularity, along with being amphibious.  He is shown to shrug off conventional weaponry thanks to his rugged hide and his regenerative abilities that allow him to heal from injuries quickly.  As a result of his strength, the only things that can otherwise hurt Godzilla are creatures of similar stats/quality to Godzilla.

 

Originally, Godzilla was portrayed as being 165ft tall in the original Japanese version, which would have made it so it could peer over the tallest building in Japan.  It was later rescaled higher in American dub of the film, up to 400ft tall, to give it proper size according to the American Producers.  It was later scaled up to 330ft in Japan, which was to continue the intention of making it so he wouldn’t be dwarfed by Japanese high rise buildings of the time.  His size would continue to grow as later movies in the 2010 started to come out, with the creature eventually becoming 985ft tall in ‘Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters’(2017).

 

 

Films

Godzilla has appeared in 32 Japanese films, dating back to 1954. 

 

Showa Era (1954 – 1975)

His initial 1954 appearance portrayed Godzilla as an invading force of nature.  However, later films in the era would portray him in a more comical and slapstick light, as the films were largely aimed at families and children.  Still, this period ended up spawning additional movies for some of Godzilla’s featured rivals and allies, leading to more movies that weren’t necessarily staring Godzilla.  This is where we see Godzilla fight:

·       Rodan

·       Varan

·       Mothra

·       King Ghidorah

·       Mecha-Godzilla

 

Heisei Era (1984 – 1995)

The series took a break from 1975 until 1984, but returned with ‘The Return of Godzilla’.  The reboot tended away from the Showa Era, and instead made Godzilla a force of destructive nature once again. The new series kept a singular timeline of events between its movies, acting as a direct sequel to each other.  Many of the earlier villains were brought back once again.  In 1995, the character was killed, seemingly ending the Godzilla Franchise.

 

American Godzilla (1998)

In 1992, TriStar Pictures acquired the rights to Godzilla, with the intent on creating a trilogy of films based off the Japanese creature.  The original script would have stayed true to the Japanese origin of the creature, as a monster mutated by atomic bombs.  However, disagreements over the budget of the film caused the original director to leave, with Roland Emmerich coming in to direct.  Fresh off of Independence Day (1994), Emmerich wanted total creative freedom, as he wanted to ditch a lot of the origins of the Japanese Godzilla.  Oddly, the budget for the film would be about the same as the original pitch’s budget.  Emmerich moved away from a Dinosaur being bombard with nuclear energy and instead turned it into an iguana instead.  The film was widely panned by critics and fans, who has come to see the original version and not the Emmerich version of the character.  The following two planed films were canceled, and instead developed in to an animated series, which held up much better with fans than the film.

 

Millennium Era (1999 – 2004)

Largely seen as the backlash against the American Godzilla(1998), the Millennium Era of Godzilla sought to bring back the character to glory and show the Americans how it’s done.  Unlike the Heisei series, each film is considered stand alone film, with no direct relation to one another, outside of the original 1954 film.  Sadly, outside of the first film in the Era, most of the films were not well received, as the Godzilla formula was becoming stale and old to Japanese and American markets.  After the 2004 film, Godzilla: Final Wars, which saw the return of various monsters from the Showa Era, which capped off 50 years of Godzilla, the character was quietly put on hibernation.

 

Godzilla (2014)

Initially set to be a short 40 minute film, Legendary Pictures decided to create a full film instead, barrowing much more of original Godzilla canon, and differentiating it from the 1998 film.  Much of the original 2014 American film deals with two other Kaiju, and purposefully leaves Godzilla out of much of film until the very end, in order to build up hype.  The film was very well received, which prompted a sequel ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ (2019) and Godzilla vs. Kong set to come out in March 2021.

 

Reiwa Era (2016 to present)

After an early screening of Godzilla(2014) to its Japanese creators, Toho praised the American Godzilla, and sited it as the reason to bring Godzilla back to Japanese media.  To bring back Godzilla, they brought in Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuichi, the creators and mastermind of Neon Genesis Evangelion(1995) anime, to create the film.  With Anno creating the screen play and script, and Higuichi coming on as special effects director. 

 

The new series entitled Shin Godzilla, would focus more on the recent natural disasters of Japan, rather than the atomic bombing of its earlier films, and also focused on the failure of the Japanese government, which was a concern amongst Japanese after the 2011 Tsunami.    The film was a success and later films are slated for release, but due to the shared nature of the series with Legendary Pictures, plans have been put on hold for any new film.  Three additional CGI films were later produced between 2017 and 2018 feature Godzilla, and were exclusive to Netflix.

 

 

Major Antagonists

King Ghidorah – Considered Godzilla’s archrival.

Rodan – not too dissimilar from a pterodactyls, he serves as one of Godzilla enemies, and in comes cases, ally.

Mothra – Basically a giant Butterfly

King Kong – the third movie was based off their fight.

Mecha-Godzilla – A mechanical version of Godzilla, in one case, made from the Skeleton of Godzilla.

 

Homework:

Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Shin Godzilla (2016)