Back to Basics: Atlantis

There will be spoilers for the new Superman movie. Trying to keep them overview-ish, but be warned.

I liked it! It was very enjoyable, lots of action, Superman seemed in actual peril on occasion, good casting, etc. Adorable dog. The really overt messaging of the good immigrant trying to help people versus an evil billionaire trying to destroy out of his own fear and entitlement was *chef's kiss*.

But I didn't adore it, and I've been thinking about this, as it takes me a while to work through my analysis/feelings. I was cautiously optimistic when I read James Gunn would direct. I really like Guardians 1 and 2, but not Guardians 3 or Suicide Squad. I thought he might do interesting things with Superman.

And indeed he does, but primarily with the universe, which is unique in that metahumans have been on Earth and known longer for 300 years. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr Terrific are all main characters. There's no origin story, the movie begins with Superman already known to the public for several years and in the midst of a fight, Clark established at the Daily Planet, etc. That's all announced at the beginning.

I really loved the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and the first few seasons of Smallville, and mainly for the development and exploration of the relationships between Lois and Clark/Superman, or between Clark and Lex.

All the relationships are all established in the new movie, and not really much touched on. There's a big crisis and everyone is running around responding to it. Clark and Lois' big scene is them having a grumpy fight. Perry White and Jimmy Olson are there, Perry being boss-like and Jimmy excitable, like they do. There are two other people at the Daily Planet, I'm guessing one is Cat Grant and I don't know the other guy except he had some comic relief bits at an exciting moment so I assume I should know him.

I know Green Lantern only from the Ryan Reynolds movie, though this guy is mostly grumpy. Hawkgirl was in one of the superhero TV series, though very different IIRC. I don't know Mr. Terrific at all, except he has obviously computer related powers and is a helpful guy.

I couldn't help thinking it would be a great movie if one wanted to write in this universe, because there's so much that could be developed. All the back stories! All the first meetings! All the 'what happens after the movie' impacts!

But in terms of relationships within the movie.... I think about it, and I can't think of a single "You've got me? Who's got you?" line. Like... no moment that really shone for me, that I loved these characters interacting with each other, not like I loved them in Lois and Clark:TNAofS, or Smallville. It's all very fast and very exciting and there's so much that has gone on before the movie started and the audience just has to roll with it. You know these characters or you don't but here's all the people about to be killed! OMG!

The dog. I'd like to see more with the dog, who is adorable.

I will watch more. It was exciting! Just...I would have liked more emphasis on the relationships and really getting to know the characters. I didn't read the review in the local paper, but I saw the word 'cluttered' and yeah, I agree.

One last note: I was surprised what happened with the Hammer, I really expected that to be set up for a redemption arc in the next movie. Anyone else share my surprise?

Long time passing... I started online on the Master_Apprentice email list. All meta related to Star Wars or the operation of the list and archive.

Then I joined LiveJournal and saw more general meta about fandom culture, fannish analysis of popular culture, etc. Though I found it often frustrating, as someone who was a friend of mine (and so I wished to know what interested them) would forward a meta from someone else, who would start that meta with 'this is in response to this meta from this person, which was in response to this meta from this other person, and these two other people have excellent analyses on these aspects which you should read, all of which should be read first' and dude. I do not want to spread two hours reading the thoughts of strangers in order to read the one that I actually know my friend found interesting.

(Also, to be perhaps a little snobbish, there have often been times when reading other people's meta analyses, that I think... you should have had a high school English teacher who made you write an essay every week, you could use more practice in presenting thoughts in a logical and persuasive order. Meow!)

So I've always been hit and miss about reading meta, but also it's always been interesting to see what's being discussed, what interests people, especially about big social issues. My little cattiness aside, I do think fannish discussions have been very useful for my own personal/political growth. It's made me look more at issues that I have always accepted.

And lately I just don't see much. Hardly any on DreamWidth. Some on Tumblr, though often it seems to be someone being indignant about a youngster's opinion on How Things Ought To Be. Is there a lot on Tumblr, it just doesn't happen to be posts that my friends reblog? I can't believe it's moved to Discord, that forum doesn't even allow for longer posts, does it? Is it all on AO3? I guess I could have just searched the meta tag on AO3 and last updated to get a feel for what's there, lol. But then I wouldn't have another Fannish Fifty post done, so yay!